I am a green card holder hoping to get citizenship by Feb 2006. I am
in complete dillemma at the moment. My fiancee is living in india. And
we are planning to get married next year. My dillemma is whether to
wait till I get citizenship and then apply for fiancee visa and get
married here. Or to get married in India, apply I-130 as a permanaent
resident , get citizenship, upgrade my I-130 status. I am not sure
which way to go. My primary and big concern is to get my fiancee here
quickly. I know fiancee visa is the quickest way but I am not sure how
much risk
is involved with fiancee visa as one has to convince the counceler
about the relationship. Also will court marriage(in india) help me in
fiancee visa process. Can anyone clear me up on this issue? Thanks a
lot.

If you get married first it will be much harder to get your visa
approved. The best thing for you to do is call your local
congressional office. Go to www.house.gov  and at the top of the page
is a zip code box "Find your representative"

Congressional offices almost (99% of the time) always have a person on
staff who specializes in Immigration law. They can talk you through
the whole process and get in touch with the insiders at INS to clear
up any questions they don't know the answers to.

And here is where those people get their information:  US Citizenship
and Immigration Service (which seems to have updated its websites):
http://uscis.gov/graphics/fieldoffices/index.htm

USe the search function and FAQs

I am in the similar situation -- I'll get a citizenship in 2006, and
apply for my fiancee's F1 afterwards.

You should wait for your citizenship, then apply for your fiancee's F1
visa. It will probably take 6 months or so for you to get citizenship,
and further 4-6 months from the time you petition for F1 to the day
your fiancee gets the visa (it's depends on the country -- I know it's
currently 4 months for Thailand).

My mother applied for a green card based on being married to my dad
(for 25 years!). My dad is a U.S. citizen. She had to wait for 14
months to get a temporary K3 visa (2 year, multiple entry, not valid
for employment). She will probably wait for 2 more years for a green
card. Marriage does NOT help you in the process, it puts you in a
slower category. Yes, this sounds paradoxical, but it is a fact.

If you have any choice at all, don't apply for anything as a Permanent
Resident -- you will get nowhere, and may end up slowing down the
whole thing. Having to update a petition will likely be slower than
filing a new one -- the USCIS goblins don't appreciate disruptions as
they sit on our papers. As far as I know, current priority dates for
Permanent-Resident filed marriage/fiancee visas are in 2001. This
means that PRs that petitioned in 2001 are getting approved end of
2005.

I think the risk with fiances visa is minimal -- you file a petition,
and it gets approved. The embassy interview is generally not too
critical, but I hear it is in your favor to attend it with your
fiancee, and bring photographs / phone bills / plane tickets / other
proof of long standing relationship.

Disclamer: this is all from personal experience, and internet
research. I am not an immigration lawyer, and USCIS is changing all
the time, your mileage may vary.

The San Jose Mercury News just did a piece on this situation in
regards to marraige.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/13162732.htm Hope it
helps.