’90 Day Fiance’ Star Jon Walters Says First Lawyer He And Rachel Spoke To Was ‘Really Slimy’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Here we go again! 90 Day Fiancé fans felt like they were being tricked on Sept. 25, when a new report claimed that Jon Walters and Rachel Bear‘s original lawyer was replaced for telling them Jon’s immigration would be easy. On Sept. 27, Jon set the record straight exclusively to In Touch, revealing that they really did have another lawyer before the one we saw on the show, but he was “slimy.”
The drama started when gossip site Soap Dirt talked to a source that mentioned Jon and Rachel first had a different lawyer. They made it sound like the first lawyer was the honest one, and the show got rid of him because an easy path to a visa didn’t make for good TV. Then they claimed he was replaced by a lawyer that would play ball. Jon insists this is untrue.
While Jon made it clear that he cannot comment on TLC’s editing, production, or choice of what gets aired and what doesn’t, he did clarify that he and Rachel spoke to another lawyer before the one we saw on the show. “We spoke to the first lawyer in December, and he was slimy as f–k. I can tell a car salesman when I see one.”
Jon said that the lawyer told him and Rachel that “it was fine,” and he would take care of everything if they just sent him a large sum of money. Rachel wanted to do it, but Jon didn’t trust the guy. “We had a lot of discussions, do we apply with this guy or get married? Because we only had money for one.”
Jon became even more concerned when the lawyer’s secretary emailed them saying that Jon’s “incarceration” would be a problem after promising it wouldn’t, because Jon never actually went to jail. “I said, this guy has his secretary emailing us and he hasn’t even read our email properly. This guy live on tv said ‘no problem’, and it was just unrealistic. I don’t want to gamble our wedding for a K-1 visa.”
Jon said he “just wanted to be Rachel’s husband,” and didn’t want anything else to get in the way of that. “I can’t comment on how they edit or cut our conversations, but we were always going to get a second opinion. I didn’t like the guy anyway,” Jon explained, insisting the lawyer wasn’t swapped out by TLC just to create drama.
On top of that, he doesn’t understand why people think he’s faking the struggle to get to America, or pretending not to be Lucy’s dad. “I can’t just get in [to the country.] I do have a criminal conviction, and I do need a visa. If Lucy was mine, why wouldn’t I use that? I’d be like, ‘the baby is mine I need to come to America.'”
On a recent episode of 90 Day Fiancé: Before The 90 Days, Jon and Rachel talked to their lawyer about the possibility of getting a K-1 visa, which would give the fiancé of an American citizen 90 days in the U.S.. If they get married in that time, the spouse can stay in the country. The lawyer on the show did make it sound very difficult, because of Jon’s criminal record.
She instead suggested that it’s a “legally stronger path” to get married in England (which Rachel didn’t want to do) and then apply for a K-3 visa or “immigrant visa processing,” which she says could still take up to three years or be denied altogether.
Fellow star Anfisa Arkhipchenko has also defended the show in the past, claiming that it’s not fake, and explaining the process. “The show doesn’t help with anything related to immigration,” she said on Instagram. “They just start filming on the day foreign fiancé arrives to the USA and continue until the couple gets married. This ’90 days’ are definitely not to get to know your partner because you already know the person you’ve had long enough relationship with and decided you want to marry them. That’s why all of the couples end up married every season.”
She says that the show finds couples already in the midst of the process, and doesn’t do anything to influence it. Regardless, we wish Jon and Rachel the very best in their journey, and can’t wait to see how the rest of the season goes! Tune in to 90 Day Fiancé: Before the 90 Days every Sunday at 8 p.m. on TLC.
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