Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Congressional Inquiry	I think Andy in his other thread said that his Senator told them they wouldn't inquire if a Congressman was already inquiring, as there's no need to double the workload for the exact same information; I was surprised to see him advocating Dean to contact another Senator. Dean, I'm glad your Congressman is on the ball and knows what a form response looks like! I hope you have some good news soon.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-06 14:51:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Fiance visa to expire	What, they should get married though having doubts just to shut up other visa petitioners? That sounds like a stunning recipe for success!	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-01 17:38:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Fiance visa to expire	Lots of good advice, and yeah, can we please stop assuming because the guy says 'hey, we're uncertain' he mean 'omg visa-grubbing #######/woman-purchasing f00b!!/took my spot in line and it's sooo unfair.' Just because it's the way of life on the Internet doesn't mean its right. Lots of American-American couples get cold feet at the thought of marriage! One thing I wanted to point out, though. So people have outlined a few options: 1) Marry within 90 days. Upside: no legal problems. Downside: if you're having problems, might be best not to rush into it. 2) Go home within the 90 days. Upside: legal, gives you time to think it over. Downside: dealing with applying for a K-1 later if necessay. And the third option. 3) Stay in the U.S. past the 90 days, get married, and adjust status. Upside: gives you time to figure out that you want to get married. Downside: have to start the whole AoS process from scratch, can face some questions, can't leave until the AoS is complete. But one caveat about the third option: suppose you two decide to wait a while, and on day [90 + x] you two decide it's not working and she goes home. Now she's been out-of-status with an overstay, and that can incur a ban (depending). That could be a problem if she overstayed, then left, and then you two reconciled and wanted to be together.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-01 13:37:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Visiting During I-129F Process	Now I'm thoroughly confused. If you need a SSN to get married and you can't get a SSN until after you're married, then how is this supposed to work?	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-08 11:41:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	How do you qualify to Expedite Case?	I'm interested...how can you have a church wedding and it not be legal? Indulge me... You have the ceremony but don't sign the legal paperwork. Doable, but tricky. Huh??? You enter as a K1. You wanna go back to to the home country for a legal wedding.....tell me how again?? You would travel on an Advance Parole doc. You cant apply for one until you submit the AOS I-485 package. Included in that package is a certified copy of your marriage certificate from the County Recorders office. If you do not have a certified copy, you will receive an RFE, etc. Misreading me a bit I think here, but good to know that I'll receive an RFE for someone else's certified copy of a marriage certificate. I think the OP is planning a wedding ceremony that she won't have the visa in time for, and the idea is that the fiancé will come here for the ceremony (since the party is already planned), then return and enter later on the K-1 when they'll have a legal ceremony. Or, she's planning a wedding ceremony in the UK that won't count as a legal marriage, and then they'll get legally married in the U.S. once he enters on the K-1. I'm a little confused because I'm not sure quite what the OP's plan is w/r/t the wedding party.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-07 10:55:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	How do you qualify to Expedite Case?	I'm interested...how can you have a church wedding and it not be legal? Indulge me... You have the ceremony but don't sign the legal paperwork. Doable, but tricky.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-07 09:43:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	First Things First; Let's Kill all the Postmen.	That's what the nice VSC lady said. (She had the softest, most soothing voice, lulling me into believing that DHS is my friend....) My name is on the apartment door, in the box, and I've called the post office twice. I think I'm going to post a big pink sign on the box saying 'DUDE MY OLD ROOMMATE MOVED, NOT ME, YOU CAN TOTALLY TELL BECAUSE WE HAVE DIFFERENT NAMES!!!'	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-10 14:09:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	First Things First; Let's Kill all the Postmen.	Three weeks since I've sent the petition. 19 days since the check cleared. NOA1? Eaten by postmen. And according to the very nice immigration officer I spoke with at Vermont this morning, the receipt notice was printed and mailed and sent to the correct address on 9/20/06. Ooh, may itchy powder be placed in the shorts of the mail service. So far in September: returned bills, returned job offer, returned friggin' mail from Homeland Security. Oh, but the junk mail gets through! Spare me not the influx of cataloguey goodness. Not that anyone cares terribly about my mail saga -- hell, I don't even care that much -- but I did manage to call USCIS and speak to an officer in about 5 minutes. Which was very cool and should make anyone happy. The menu system isn't too bad to navigate. 1 for main menu, 2 for current applications, 6 for pending applications. Somewhere in there I had to put in my case number (obtained from the reverse of the check by calling the bank.) Listened to the automatic status update (blar, blar), and then after the mechanical voice admonishes you that the live person won't know any more, there's another menu where one of the options was 'If it's been 30 days since a receipt blar blar.) Anyhow. It's only been 21 days (figured they could hang up on me later), but I pushed that one, it connected me, and the very nice VSC lady checked my address and then said she'd send me a manual letter since she didn't have the clearance to generate a duplicate receipt. Not quite sure what that means, but she was very polite, and with any luck I will have something besides an envelope on which I scribbled down the information from the banker.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-10 08:15:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	I feel over whelmed and worried...	Good point about the self-sponsoring. (Don't think it's allowed universally, though.)	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-09 22:07:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	I feel over whelmed and worried...	Your income, as the beneficiary, isn't taken into account for the K-1 fiancé visa; they'll look at hers and whomever she convinces to co-sponsor. So don't worry about being a newly minted uni grad. You can check the timelines to see how long it will take a K-1 to process through the UK. Once you're here and get the paperwork in, you'll be authorized to work (roughly 4-6 months after the wedding.)	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-09 20:02:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	I don't get it!	I've also heard that the USCIS doesn't process the applications of attention-seeking trolls, but unfortunately, that's just a rumor.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-10 21:28:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	My RFE - Wants more evidence	I solemnly swear, for my own sanity, that I will not record every touch received. I've always wondered when I see this, how does not recording every touch received help you maintain sanity since I bet you check for them 5 times a day anyway? Bill I check once a day, in the evenings.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-12 08:21:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	My RFE - Wants more evidence	My totally proof-by-proctological-extraction guess would be that a name hit or a name change needed to be verified, and that's what the BC request is for, because if they could approve you without it, there's no reason for it to sit around waiting for an RFE.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-10 12:05:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	would it help to explain the age difference in the initial application??	There's a difference between extra relationship proof (perhaps advisable in this case) and trying to explain an age gap. ('Well, you see, her mommy and daddy loved each other very much 20 years before my parents did, and when mommies and daddies love each other very much.....')	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-11 10:09:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	would it help to explain the age difference in the initial application??	What might be advisable is to run this by some of the ME/NA gals. I can't imagine explaining the age difference outright, again, because I can't think of an explanation that would help, but ask them: it might be worth it to include more than the usual amount of 'relationship proof' in the initial petition (if it's the case the ME/NA petitions are returned or decisions are made by the interview) to ensure the consulate sees it.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-11 10:03:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	would it help to explain the age difference in the initial application??	I'm not sure what sort of evidence could explain an age difference, to be honest. (It's not like explaining a meeting location or a relationship timeline. ) They're looking for proof of having met in two years + some evidence of a bonafide relationship, something which applies regardless of the age difference. It would be a red flag even if you put in a line saying 'I know it's normally a red flag that she's older than I am, but trust me, we love each other.'	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-11 09:17:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	New Here I-129F Question	I wrote something very much like: [The fiancé] and I ([my name]) met online in the chat room attached to an Internet-based computer game (at [games site]) in January of 2003. After chatting online and via telephone for over a year, [fiancé] came to visit me in [Caladan's swinging cribtown], [Calastate] in March of 2004. Two years and many visits followed, and on August 20, 2006, we became engaged. I followed this with a more detailed timeline that corresponded to the evidence I presented.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-12 15:02:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Fiancee visa or not	Because they say they will go back after they are done with what brought them here. Instead, they come here and just marry gullible Americans and then adjust to stay here. I think they need to get sureties who will gurantee that they will go back home, if they cannot get the single ones to marry first before they can get a J-1. Whats wrong with that proposal? Am just tired of the US population growing so fast everyday.. matako, not everyone has your courtship experience. Don't be bitter, I'm sure there's a nice strapping young man who will take care of you and love you for the troll that you are! To the OP: if your J-1 doesn't have conditions on it that require you to leave, you should be able to marry and adjust status, but it might be worth a consultation with a lawyer. If your J visa is attached to a university (wasn't clear from your post), the international students' center probably will have someone there who can advise you more precisely on what you need to do. (Quite a lot of people meet their spouses in college, both American-American relationships and otherwise, so most universities are used to visa questions of this sort and some of them have counselors there for that purpose.)	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-13 17:19:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	what are they doing??	Because businesses in the private sector never ever ever screw up, just the government! In other news, I gots me some nice bridges to sell ya. I'm beginning to wonder if it's time for an election-season concerted push from the CSC people. Local media, maybe?	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-14 23:08:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!	EEE! Thanks! God, I hope you're next, Steven.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-12 20:59:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!	Thanks! I hope everyone else has speedy approvals. We should make the CSC go to my dance class so they can shake some of the lead out.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-12 16:44:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!	Holy schneikees! Receipt Number: [redacted.] Application Type: I129F, PETITION FOR FIANCE(E) Current Status: This case has been approved. On October 12, 2006, an approval notice was mailed. If 30 days have passed and you have not received this notice, you may wish to verify or update your address. To update your address, please speak to an Immigration Information Officer during business hours. Off to go dance around in circles now! (No, seriously, going to my dance class.)	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-12 15:18:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	OH MY GOD I WAS APPROVED!!!!!!!	I see no reason to believe someone whose main contribution to this forum has been false advice to those seeking help and reassurance.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-14 15:26:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	NOA2 Vermont	Huzzah! Way to go!	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-16 19:51:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	I-129F petition for K-1	Nope. Nope. Nope. Might be good to include a service center option on the poll, as anecdotally, this seems to be a CSC practice.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-13 17:49:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	APPROVED after 6 month wait!!!!	w00t!!	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-16 19:51:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Approved we are so happy	Oh, wow! Congrats!	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-16 19:55:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	When submitting copies of plane/bus tickets	My photocopies were black and white, for what it's worth.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-17 08:53:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	When submitting copies of plane/bus tickets	I grouped mine by trip, so I'd have four (or three, one always gets eaten by the Airline Receipt Monster) per page. I drew little red arrows to the dates. I don't expect it matters terribly much, though, as long as the date is clear. Ensure, when you photocopy it, that you adjust the contrast adequately, especially if you have one of those thin pale Northwest Airlines tickets.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-16 19:54:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	New York Times Story	Good luck! Just be aware of how you might be portrayed. Most people don't understand the K-1 process -- it's either like the movie Green Card, or everyone is a loser who can't deal with dating in the U.S., or everyone wants a submissive foreign lotus flower to abuse. All of which are inaccurate, but who knows what the reporter thinks. So beware of playing into stereotypes that don't reflect on the whole community or process. Might be good to mention that women petition on behalf of men, for example. Public opinion moves this, not the newspapers, and public opinion won't care much if the spin is 'look at the freaks who date online.' Contrary to popular belief, the NYT does not always report a liberal line on things. (And a liberal line might not be all that favorable. Easy to spin as 'American men seek foreign women they can control because American women go to college and think.') But I think publicity is probably a good thing for the case and it's not going to hurt (what, the CSC will get slower?). So good luck!	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-09-12 19:40:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	OMG!	yayyyyyyY!	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-17 20:29:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	legally married?	In my opinion, a CPB agent is NOT doing his or her job proficiently if he or she denied entry to a person coming on a K-1 visa who had NOT been legally married in his or her country of origin. Does it happen in reality? Sure it does, but that doesn't mean the CPB agent did his job properly. I think it's more a practical worry. The burden of proof is on the entrant, not the CBP. If your fiancé slips up and says 'wife' or 'husband', the CBP doesn't have to prove that you are married, just that there's to deny. That is doing their job; you'd be in the position of having to prove that you weren't married after a slip-up. They wouldn't have to prove that they had shown you weren't married, just that you hadn't given them reason to doubt. The problem isn't best stated as that 'they would deny based on a religious ceremony though they have no right to'. The problem is that they might not be able to tell from the evidence your panicking fiancée manages to present after the slip-up whether the religious ceremony counted as a legal ceremony. And if they can't tell, they might not take her word for it.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-19 15:02:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	legally married?	SirL, the officer in the border case isn't doing anything illegal, unlike the harassment by the hypothetical police officers. And the person trying to enter the country isn't doing anything illegal, most likely, by not volunteering information. Thing is, though, all the legality in the world won't help you if the CBP officer decides to deny you entry, because they have that authority to make that decision. It may not come up, and in many cases it hasn't. But if it does come up, it's not as though the CBP officer has to first go to a court where you can calmly argue that your religious ceremony without a civil ceremony means that you're not married. They're fully authorized to deny entry if there is evidence that the visa holder isn't free to marry -- even if it turns out they were wrong.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-19 14:32:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	legally married?	Tell me, how do you slip up at the POE and AOS interview and mention that you had a non-binding celebration in your home country? Most people in this process have already been duly warned about what to say and what not to say. That includes visiting your fiance or spouse in America while the visa is processing! What exactly happens at the POE? In my experience, nothing happened. No questions were asked. I just don't understand how anything about a non-legal ceremony could come up unless you are directly asked. In that case, you can provide the evidence attesting to the fact that the ceremony was not legal. Other than that, I don't see what the big problem is. There's always a possibility of denial in this process. Arguably having a non-binding ceremony does not greatly increase a chance of denial given the particulars of each individual case. As long as people are aware of their options, then I don't see what the big fuss is about. There's been a couple cases cited on this thread where people had problems at the PoE or AoS because slips happen. If no slips happen, no slips happen. But it's not the sort of thing to blithely recommend as no big deal.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-19 09:29:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	legally married?	I find the proposition that people are advising against non-legal wedding ceremonies before the K-1 because they're jealous to be pretty ridiculous. Because, you know, this place is just full of chock-full people telling people bad advice so their NOA2 takes longer, 'cause they're jealous. Having a non-binding wedding ceremony could increase the chances that a) someone slips up at the PoE or adjustment of status interviews or B) the couple gets accidentally married because they didn't check the laws for their area. Yes, it could probably all be sorted out in the end if something happens, after thousands of dollars of legal fees, and more likely than not, there will be no problem at all. But it's not just as easy as 'do whatever you want because everyone else is jealous of your wedding party'; make sure you check up on your locale's laws.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-19 06:43:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	legally married?	Nothing to add to the info here except a suggestion: why not have in Brazil an elaborate engagement party? Definitely no legal confusion, her family would still be able to celebrate close to the wedding, and you could always do a ring exchange/reception/rededication sometime later, as I imagine the two of you will want to visit her family at some point.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-15 19:23:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	This is really strange... a second approval notice letter?	No, no, you must marry Jinky twice now. And buy her double the wedding presents.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-22 12:00:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Visitor visa and fiance visa	He doesn't need a visa just to visit. But he will need a passport soon, both for the K-1 process and because the air/sea border between the U.S. and Canada will require a passport for crossing by the end of this year. Edited by Caladan, 23 October 2006 - 10:21 PM.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2006-10-23 22:19:00
Middle East and North Africa	someone tried to abduct my 10 year old daughter today	I'm glad your daughter is safe, and I hope they catch the bad guys!	Caladan	Male	Canada	2007-12-08 09:57:00
Middle East and North Africa	help	Moved this to the MENA forum as you ladies probably have the expertise to help her.	Caladan	Male	Canada	2007-12-18 17:16:00