Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	Welcome to VJ, Michelle! Congrats to you and Tim on deciding to go on this journey. I'm fairly new here, too. My fiancée and I sent our package in late September. I was hooked on this site the first few weeks after we submitted but I realized that I've been channeling so much energy into waiting. I decided that it is better to just keep living my life as if there is no application in process. So what iammrsregi said below is definitely a great advice.     My name is Donna and I am in Vancouver, too. If you want to meet up for coffee and compare notes and be each other's support through this crazy and sometimes overwhelming adventure, send me a message.   Cheers and good luck!   Thanks! I was in Vancouver for school but I moved back to Alberta after I graduated, kinda wish I would have stayed since I'll have to fly out for my interview anyways! I would totally have taken you up on the coffee offer if I was there tho! I too was looking into the processes of after K1 approval, last night actually! I got super overwhelmed and then joined VJ to regain my sanity and get guidance from others. I think I'll take baby steps until we're a little closer otherwise I might lose it! Hahah	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-21 00:07:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	Congratulations on your engagement and welcome to the waiting game. Recently some times have been shortening but mentally I would prepare for the process to take up to a year. Waiting for your approval is the hardest part but as long as you make it through that, the rest seems to zoom along.   You could have filed the whole time. The immigration process was unaffected. If you are truly overwhelmed and can afford it try a lawyer. I know a lot of people here say its a waste of money but I have one and in my experience it's been invaluable. There is just as much mis-information as information on this forum. Really? That would have been good to know! We kind of puttered along these past few weeks since we figured they would just be piling up anyways. In retrospect, that makes no sense and it would have been better to atleast have it mailed off and been closer to the top and not the bottom lol Good luck on your jouney! I just moved to a smaller city between Madison and Milwaukee. I love it here. I wish you all the best! Ohhhh we'll be kinda-neighbours soon! Lol Hi Michele, welcome to the group. Number one step to take with this process is patience! Lots of it. The best thing i came across through all this was finding VJ they were a great support. I never imagined i would be approved so fast i was looking at 5 months for approval but it took only 58 days. I am beyond excited for my next step. I just got approved last wednesday. If you have any questions feel free to message me. I have done alit of foot work on all the process. Good luck and enjoy the ride. Like another member wrote we are so anxious that we forget to enjoy the moment. Congrats! And good luck with your move!	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-21 00:02:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	Thanks everyone for your support and tips!	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-20 23:56:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	I agree with iammrsregi. You are both look nice together. And those smiles are so beautiful. Happy you joined this website and share each other stories,    . Thank you both! I look forward to getting to hear your stories but for now I must go, my shifts about over and I work another 12hr night tonight. Sleepy time! Talk to you later, thanks for all the support already!	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-20 07:32:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	Oh, its just because the background of your photo looks exactly like how my fiance's barracks are set up lol. You are a beautiful couple. Its ok girl from celebes, we can give each other neck massages XD Thanks! Lol no just his bare-walled bachelor pad. Nothing on the walls but you can bet there's a 60 inch tv and game consoles... Typical lol	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-20 07:17:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	Nice picture both of you're together but I think will need some massage on my neck afterwards,  Yeah lol it wouldn't let me rotate it!!	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-20 06:59:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	hey Michelle, is your fiance in the military, specifically us marines? Nope, y? He look familiar? The approval times from the USCIS has been crazy fast for some people recently but I think it's better to expect an approval within 5 months then it will take 2-3 more months to eventually get an interview. But doesn't hurt to look at what happens after approval and what you need for the interview, especially if you are lucky and get a fast approval. I filed in February and my approval was 5 months and visa 3 months after that. You never know when USCIS will speed up or slow down! People who filled only a few months before me had to wait a while, 6-8 months, and not long after my approval I started seeing people posting approvals in a month! Wow, so fast. I think it'll slow down with the govt having been shutdown the last few weeks. Oh well, either way we're one step closer than yesterday!	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-20 06:43:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	To the OP, you sound like a wonderful, mature couple who is genuinely ready to take the relationship to the next level. I like this a lot.   You want to know the "trick" I learned from all this?   The only trick to make the approval come faster is NOT TO WAIT FOR IT. Keep living your life. Keep yourself busy. I was so focused on this process that now (that I'm so close to finishing it) I felt sad that I didn't spend more time with my family and friends. All I did was check for an approval every so often. Trust me, 6 months will go by too fast.   Use your wait time to talk to your fiance about plans AFTER the wedding. Things a normal (couples who live in the same zip code) couple considers. Like kids, how living arrangements should be, your plans after the wedding and if the budget makes it feasible, etc. This tends to get overlooked by people. The journey doesn't stop from getting the visa and being together. The journey starts when the marriage starts   Welcome to the visa journey, keep us updated We're here for ya.   Oh my goodness, im such a sap i about cried reading that. I know all to well that my time with my current family will be short-lived and soon enough my definition of family will be greatly expanded! My family, as is stands is my mom, my sister and i, we arent exceptionally close with any of our relatives since my parents divorce a number of years ago. My fiances family on the other hand is large and full of step-parents/siblings and the like. I'm going to have my hands full when i get there! lol   I just joined this site and already im thankful for members like all of you who have taken the time to post for us!   And as for your advice, its greatly appreciated! we've spent many hours talking such things over already both of us definitely dont want a fancy wedding, we're planning on going to the courthouse for a simple ceremony. Eventually we would like a small beach wedding with our close family members but we would like to have ourselves grounded first as well as be able to save up a nest egg for ourselves. As for starting a family and building a life together, we've learned to talk things through and listen to each other, both of us can be hard-headded and stubborn at times but in the end we've always found a way to make things work. I'm a firm believer that if you can work out a disagreement over a text/email/long distance phone call you've already won part of the battle because it forces you to take a step back and actually listen to the other person. Most people tend to scoff at a long distance relationship, and obviously if i could be close to him 24 hours day i would but it makes you appreciate the other person all the more being apart from them! what little time you do get to spend together is precious and hopefully once our K1 journey is over and we're married, we continue to appreciate each other and value the lessons we've learned having had developed a relationship with 2500kms between my hand and his.	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-20 05:51:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	Read the guide here   As long as you follow the guide, you'll be fine. Also, you can ask tips and trick from Canadian fellows here to give you some insight. My fiance and I followed the guide and got approved in 38 days. Good luck.   Wow, 38 days! thats great!   I know, i'm glad i found this site. I'm a serial worrier even if the path is set in stone and right in front of my face lol   looking forward to the support from all the visajourney members and hopefully being able to lend a hand to future members	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-20 04:59:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	Thanks!   Hopefully its a smooth ride	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-20 04:55:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Starting our K1 journey	Hello all!   My fiance and i are about to begin our K1 visa journey and i had stumbled upon this website, and thank god i did!   So thankful for all you lovely people that have been through/are going through this process for posting tips and tricks as well as your journey's. i had been checking out the gov't website and was beyond confused. Reading some of these posts, guides and example forms has really helped us out. So far, he's filling out his I-129F/G-325A and im gathering my stuff to send to him so we can package it all together and send it off.   From what i've been reading the process takes roughly 8-9 months, am i correct? assuming all paperwork is in order and no RFE's are sent back...   i'd love any tips and tricks or "just so you knows" if anyone would like to share, anything to put my mind at ease! can you tell i'm a worrier?! lol       Let me tell you a little about us, I'm michelle and my fiance is tim. We've been together almost 4 years now and we've been talking about doing this for probably about 2 of those years! I wanted to have a stable career in place before i moved/we got married. I'm an LPN and have been for almost 1 1/2 years, i plan on taking my RN sometime in the near future, after we're married of course! my fiance is a CNC machinist and is currently taking courses to further his career in the field. I'm Canadian and will be filing through the Vancouver consulate and he is from just outside Madison, WI. I'm a big city girl, so ill have some adjusting to do and im sure small town life will have its ups and downs for me!	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-20 04:48:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	October 2013 Fillers	Welcome!   We also just petitioned!   Heres to a (hopefully) short paperwork battle!   Michelle	Michelle+Tim	Female	Canada	2013-10-27 02:43:00