Question by hazeltine4: When is the best time to get citizenship?
My fiance is a Chinese citizen, but has had her permanent Green Card (permanent resident) in the U.S for nearly 15 years. We are planning our wedding and honeymoon. She currently only keeps her Chinese citizenship to make it much easier to visit her parents in China, without needing a visa every year.

For our honeymoon, we are planning a Mediterranean Cruise, where she would need multiple visas for the countries we wil visit — at least four visas.

When should she get her US citizenship — before, or after the wedding and honeymoon? As Chinese women do not change their names after marriage, it would not affect her name – other than maybe to go to her “American” first name.

And no — she does NOT need to get married to an American to stay in the U.S.! She has a great job and career with a U.S. corporation.

Lastly — what is the best way to get all the visas needed for the honeymoon??? It seems like most require Embassy visits in Chicago now.

Thanks!!!
Also, we are planning a September of October wedding this year, if that makes a difference.
Also, China does NOT allow dual citizenship. After the citizenship in US, she will lose Chinese citizenship, but she is OK with that.

Best answer:

Answer by Terry
I don’t see that it makes much difference. But the wait from application to citizenship could be 18 months – so that will impact your planning. Once she’s filed her application, it’s much harder to travel outside the US, until the citizenship is granted.

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