Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Interview Experience in Rio de Janeiro	Simonne, Carol is right. All you need are one copy of each tax return. I used the client copies which were given to me by my accountant. Since they were client copies, I had not even signed them. They were NOT notarized. When we submitted them to the consulate, we included an additional copy of each, but they handed the copies back to Marlene saying they did not need a copy. Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-01 13:55:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Interview Experience in Rio de Janeiro	Yep, thanks Carol! Largely because of what you had posted, Marlene was able to think ahead of time about the "story" of our relationship. I think that was very helpful for us in our process. I had told her to be prepared for the question. Thanks again! Hope you guys are doing well and happy. We sure are!!! (PS - It is so wonderful knowing she is in bed sleeping only a few feet from me as I write this. Sure as heck beats having her 4,000 miles away!!!!!) Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-01 00:59:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Interview Experience in Rio de Janeiro	Hi All! Marlene and I returned together from Brazil last Friday and we have both been very busy settling in together. This is the first time I have had to spend some time to tell about our interview experience on the 23rd of February at the Rio Consulate. We arrived at the Consulate quite early - 7AM for our 8AM appointment. We got there early since we were quite excited and couldn't sleep anyway. Also since there were 17 other people scheduled for K-1 interviews that day we thought we should get there early. Frankly it really doesn't make much difference as long as you are there at 8 AM. By the way, everyone else is scheduled at 8AM too! Shortly after 8AM the group of people waiting for K-1's were allowed in the building and we were ushered up to a room on the second floor. Once everyone was in the room, a lady handed out a sheet which listed the documents needed and the order in which they were to be presented. This list has been listed in posts by several other posters and is exactly the same as their posts. Since we had the list of documents from other posts, we were able to quickly get our papers in order and we were second out of the 18 other interviewees to get in line to submit them. (There was one lady who beat us to the first position!!! - Must have read VJ too!!!) It took about an hour for all the people in the room to submit their documents and occasionally a person was asked to come forward to fill out different sections or provide clarification - we did note several people leaving and coming back - we guessed they had forgotten a copy or perhaps a document) Finally, everyone had submitted their documents. We were not sure the order in which people would be called for their interviews and given the large number of people there that day, we were all set to spend a VERY long time waiting! However, much to our relief the order of interviews was based on the order in which you submitted your paperwork that morning. A GOOD REASON TO HAVE THE DOCUMENTS IN ORDER - SO READ THE LIST OTHERS HAVE PROVIDED! Anyhow, we were second and both Marlene and I both went to the window for the interview. Even though I knew I might not be able to participate, I just went up to the window with her and sat down. Apparently it is acceptable and normal for the fiance to participate in the interview if they are there. No problem at all. The first question the CO had was whether Marlene spoke English and whether I spoke Portuguese. Marlene responded that she spoke English a little but would prefer the interview be conducted in Portuguese. She also said I spoke little or no Portuguese. This was no problem for the CO, he just said "OK, I will do it in both" He then administered an oath to Marlene in Portuguese and one in English to me in which we both swore we would tell the truth. Once the oath was administered he then asked Marlene to tell the "story" of our relationship from the beginning. Marlene then told him at length of our relationship from our first contact, through its development by e-mail, then webcam and then very frequent phone calls. She went through each of the three visits I had made to see her including meeting her parents, her brothers, sisters including asking her father and oldest brother for permission to marry. She was very nervous, but handled herself exceptionally well with confidence and poise, giving quite a bit of detail, but in a very polished fashion. During the course of her telling the story, the CO was listening as well as going through all the paperwork in front of him. As he would reach various papers requiring her signature, he would pass them through the window for her to sign as she continued her story without interupting her. At one point her turned to me and asked if I had a 16 year old daughter. Marlene had said 26, but he misheard her and asked me. I said my oldest daughter was 26 and he then confirmed it with Marlene. She said, "I didn't say 16, I said 26." No problem although he did ask me if I had any dependents other than Marlene who I was financially responsible. I answered: "No." He spent a fair amount of time looking at my tax returns - they are lengthy and complicated. He then asked: "You have your own business?" I answered I used to have, but now was a regular fulltime employee. Since I only had been an employee for a couple of weeks, I thought there would be more questions on the subject, but there were not. He then had her sign a few more documents and asked how she wanted to receive her visa - either by courier or by picking it up at the consulate in 48 hours. We opted to pick it up of course since we had a flight to the US already booked. He asked for no additional proof of anything e.g. income, relationship, etc. He asked for nothing else. It was very comforting though knowing that had he requested something more, we could have provided it. No matter what he might have wanted. One thing is ABSOLUTELY CLEAR THOUGH - YOU MUST HAVE THE DOCUMENTS REQUESTED AND THEY MUST BE FULLY AND CORRECTLY COMPLETED. If you do that, I think you are home free. It is also important to have thought through ahead of time, the narration of your "relationship and visits" The Consular Officer was neither friendly or unfriendly, the best way to describe him was as completely professional. He seems to know exacly what he was doing and if you had what was expected you would be approved. I am sure he would have just as professionally denied us if we did not have everything he wanted. OK, Folks, that is our story! It worked out well for us and now we are together, happy as clams and planning our wedding. Good luck to all of you who are still waiting. If there is any way we can assist any of you, please do not hesitate to ask! Bruce and Marlene	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-01-31 17:00:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Can you accompany your spouse at his/her interview at the Embassy?	I think it does vary from country to country. In the case of Brazil, I was not only allowed in the building and to be present at the interview but also was sworn in at the same time and participated. However, my presence was not required. I think I read that some places (Peru, I think) will not issue a visa unless you go and some countries try to keep the US citizen out of the interview (I read that in some cases the US citizen must wait outside - seems that would be a violation of a citizens right to enter the embassy though)....just depends on the country and perhaps even the CO doing the interview. Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-13 16:48:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Rio interview - wednesday	As I write this it is 4:30 PM in Rio.....just as everyone else, we are waiting to hear good news!!! Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-15 13:25:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Rio interview - wednesday	GOOD LUCK!!! It will go great for you Simonne!! Bruce and Marlene	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-13 16:43:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Carlos and Simonne's Interview?	Just curious about Simonne's interview yesterday. Has anyone heard anything about our fellow VJ'er? Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-16 16:20:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Approved!!!	Congratulations! We're so glad to hear everything went so well for you!!! Bruce and Marlene	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-18 17:36:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	What are people doing about medical insurance?	I am in the medical insurance industry as an executive and also have just brought my fiancee here from Brazil. There are many products available on a short term basis which cover you for a period of time from just a few days to a few years. These can be effective programs and can be cost efficient. The product which is referred to in one of the posts above is just one of such programs. I am neither endorsing that program or disparaging it. It is just typical of the many available. To search for others to compare use the search terms "short term medical insurance" and you should find many. These programs are usually issued without regard to prior health conditions. HOWEVER, IT IS IMPERATIVE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THEY DO NOT COVER ANY ILLNESS OR OTHER MEDICAL PROBLEM WHICH PRE-EXISTED THE APPLICATION DATE!!!! So if you have any problem which predated your application IT WILL NOT BE COVERED!!!! You may or may not know that the health insurance laws and provisions vary greatly from state to state in this country so what may be true in one state may NOT be true in another. As a general rule, THE BEST THING FOR YOU TO DO IS TO OBTAIN COVERAGE UNDER THE GROUP INSURANCE PLAN OF YOUR FIANCEE ONCE YOU ARE MARRIED IF THEY HAVE ONE. Policies vary from plan to plan regarding the effective date of a new dependent - YOU, but GENERALLY you will be covered as of the effective date of your marriage as long as your covered spouse adds you to their group insurance plan within 30 days of your marriage. IT IS ALMOST ALWAYS BEST TO GET YOUR MEDICAL COVERAGE THIS WAY! For example, even though my fiancee and I plan to marry in the church as soon as we can arrange it, we will have a simple civil ceremony in which we will be legally married next week. THE SOLE REASON TO MARRY QUICKLY (besides the fact that we love each other and also to begin the AOS process) is to make her IMMEDIATELY covered under my group insurance plan. As many of you know and for those of you who do not, the United States is NOT a place to be without health insurance! For those of you who do not have it, GET IT!!!! I I don't care how young you are or how healthy you think you are....Getting health insurance AFTER you have a problem is VIRTUALLY impossible!!! Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-01-31 21:02:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Change of Name	My wife had her citizenship interview last week. We have to go back on June 2nd however, since the interview officer requested a few items. One since her application was based on her marriage to me, we made sure to take the federal tax returns for the past 3 years. (There was no request to see state returns either before the interview or during it). However, one of the set of items we did not have were w-2's and copies of Schedule C's of the return. We did not take them since the information only stated the return, not w-2's and schedules. Anyway, they are easy enough to bring to them, we just need to dig them out. The most vexing problem which we need some advice is the following regarding my wife's name. Here is the issue: Before we were married my wife's name was [First Name] [Middle Name] [Last Name - Her father's last name] Once we were married, we listed on EVERY document including her application for conditional green card, permanent green card, state driver's license, bank accounts, health insurance, lease, etc. the following name [First Name] [Middle Name - her father's last name] [My Last name]. All the identification she has including her permanent resident card show this name. We naturally assumed everything was fine since all documents have been issued this way with no further questions. In the citizenship interview, she was asked why her name was [First Name] [Middle Name - her father's last name] [My Last name]. My wife was surprised at the question and said she had changed her name when she married me. The interviewer said he understood the change from [First Name] [Middle Name] [Last Name - Her father's last name] to [First Name][My Last name], but wanted to know how she had gotten her middle name. She said "Well, it was my father's last name" and that is what people do when they get married. He said she couldn't have been married in the United States since that is not what we do here. By the way, at the time he was saying that he had a certified copy of our US marriage certificate in his hand. In any event, in addition to the w-2's and schedules we must bring back, we either have to bring back written proof that her name is [First Name] [Middle Name - her father's last name] [My Last name] or she would have to change her name. My question how can she show additional proof of her name when her permanent resident card and every other identification document she has ALREADY has that name? If that is insufficient, then how does she change her name to be that which is already listed on all documents she has and what everyone already thinks it is? By the way, apparently it is the Middle name which is a problem to the interviewer. Any thoughts or ideas of what we should do? Thanks, Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2010-04-26 12:31:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	A new citizen!	We have participated in this forum from the beginning of our process from filing for a fiancee visa through permanent residency and now FINALLY Citizenship. We appreciate all the valuable help we have gotten through this forum and its members! Thanks to all of you!!! Marlene and Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2010-06-06 08:36:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Change of Name	My wife had her citizenship interview last week. We have to go back on June 2nd however, since the interview officer requested a few items. One since her application was based on her marriage to me, we made sure to take the federal tax returns for the past 3 years. (There was no request to see state returns either before the interview or during it). However, one of the set of items we did not have were w-2's and copies of Schedule C's of the return. We did not take them since the information only stated the return, not w-2's and schedules. Anyway, they are easy enough to bring to them, we just need to dig them out. The most vexing problem which we need some advice is the following regarding my wife's name. Here is the issue: Before we were married my wife's name was [First Name] [Middle Name] [Last Name - Her father's last name] Once we were married, we listed on EVERY document including her application for conditional green card, permanent green card, state driver's license, bank accounts, health insurance, lease, etc. the following name [First Name] [Middle Name - her father's last name] [My Last name]. All the identification she has including her permanent resident card show this name. We naturally assumed everything was fine since all documents have been issued this way with no further questions. In the citizenship interview, she was asked why her name was [First Name] [Middle Name - her father's last name] [My Last name]. My wife was surprised at the question and said she had changed her name when she married me. The interviewer said he understood the change from [First Name] [Middle Name] [Last Name - Her father's last name] to [First Name][My Last name], but wanted to know how she had gotten her middle name. She said "Well, it was my father's last name" and that is what people do when they get married. He said she couldn't have been married in the United States since that is not what we do here. By the way, at the time he was saying that he had a certified copy of our US marriage certificate in his hand. In any event, in addition to the w-2's and schedules we must bring back, we either have to bring back written proof that her name is [First Name] [Middle Name - her father's last name] [My Last name] or she would have to change her name. My question how can she show additional proof of her name when her permanent resident card and every other identification document she has ALREADY has that name? If that is insufficient, then how does she change her name to be that which is already listed on all documents she has and what everyone already thinks it is? By the way, apparently it is the Middle name which is a problem to the interviewer. Any thoughts or ideas of what we should do? Thanks, Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2010-04-26 12:32:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	We sent in our I-751	Hi, Don't know if any of our old VJ buddies are still around since we haven't posted here in a VERY long time, but we just sent our I-751 application in. We've been married a little over two years now and it's going great. We mailed our application in to the Vermont Service Center and it would appear that reviewing the processing time frame the VSC published in April '08 that it might take 13 months for them to act on it. They mention a huge increase in applications last year as the cause. Having been away from this forum for a long time, how come there was such a surge? Anyhow things have worked out well for us and we wish everyone else the same luck we have had!! Bruce and Marlene Attached Files  DSC01371edited.jpg   149.15KB   43 downloads	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2008-05-13 19:13:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	Santa brought my present early!!!	QUOTE (Carol&Marc @ Dec 25 2008, 11:59 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Could not believe when I opened the mail box!!! So coooool! Good luck for everyone waiting and thanks for all the help from this great community! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!! HO HO HO HO!!! Carol Congratulations!!! We applied to remove conditions in May, 2008. Unfortunately we must go through the VSC which apparently is a lot slower. Good to see you and Happy New Year. Marlene and Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2008-12-27 08:57:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	Approved!	QUOTE (LastSurvivor @ Apr 4 2009, 02:27 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> QUOTE (BruceH @ Apr 4 2009, 01:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It seemed like forever, but Marlene received approval for lifting of conditions on April 2nd! Our application was received at VSC on May 9th, 2009. Wow. You were approved before you even mailed the application. Now that is impressive! Congrats! Ooops, Of Course you are right. I meant May 9th, 2008 Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2009-04-05 11:12:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	Approved!	It seemed like forever, but Marlene received approval for lifting of conditions on April 2nd! Our application was received at VSC on May 9th, 2009. Things have turned out well for us since we first began this entire immigration process back in the Fall of 2005. We are very happy together and wish everyone the same good fortune that we have had. Bruce & Marlene	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2009-04-04 12:34:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Length of Relationship???	You just have to have met in person within the past two years. The only other thing is that the consular officer will undoubtedly ask about your relationship to be sure it is for "real" and on-going....so make sure you develop "proofs" of relationship such as correspondence, phone records, engagement ring receipts (if you have one), etc. Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-03 12:49:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Illegal alien flying within the US?	They don't check your passport for anything unless you break the law except perhaps for proof of identity. The airline certainly does not check visas for domestic flights. I don't exactly know what happens if you win a jackpot (like a slot machine) since they need to issue a 1099 so taxes get paid, but I would think they would just take estimated taxes out. Go ahead - have a great time! Bruce Edited by BruceH, 10 February 2006 - 06:57 AM.	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-10 06:56:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Getting Married today	Thanks everybody! It is now Mr AND Mrs Hill! To SMC - We both have children about the same age and we are BOTH Grandparents! (Truth is stranger than fiction) - AND Bruce doesn't need any of those "little blue pills"!!!! (Yet, anyway) Bruce and Marlene Hill	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-11 04:34:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Getting Married today	HI Folks! Marlene and I are getting married today. We probably will have a church wedding in a month or two, but we are getting married in a civil ceremony this evening. Wow ---- What a GREAT FEELING! After months and months of being apart and maintaining a long distance relationship, we are together, happy as "clams" and getting married TONIGHT! Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-10 06:46:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	hotel in rio	Hi! We had a Monday interview so we met in Rio on the Saturday before. Since the visa takes 2 days to receive we could not pick it up until the Wednesday following the interview and I booked a flight home on the Thursday - with all that we needed to spend 5 nights in Rio so I rented an apartment. If you stay that long apartments are cheaper and more reasonble than hotels. Plus you can cook your own food so you save some on eating out. There are a wide range of apartments available and we rented through www.riorentals4less.com. They were very helpful, legitimate and professional. I went more upscale than would be necessary and we had a GREAT, modern apartment 1 block from the beach - total cost $350 for 5 nights. You can do it for less and still have a very nice place. Good luck and have a great time!!! Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-02-13 16:41:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	WE GOT IT!!!!	Congrats!!! We're both really happy for you both! Marlene now has her social security number and we will be filing for her AOS in the next few days. She's at her first English as a second language (actually her THIRD language) class tonight. We're as happy as clams and wish the best for you!! Bruce and Marlene	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2006-03-06 19:11:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Yes it can work out	It has been more than 3 years since I started visiting this board as I tried to understand the immigration process to bring my (then) fiance (now wife) here to marry on a K-1 visa. I thought I would post on the K-1 board my experience briefly since this is the place most of us begin. I just want to offer some words of encouragement. I met my wife in Brazil almost 4 years ago (through the internet originally). We dated internationally as most of the people here do as they build their relationships. During that time we decided to marry, we started the process and within a few months (we were fortunate it did not take too long at that time) She came over, we got married, did all the nonsense necessary to get her Green Card and in May of this year filed to have conditions removed so that she could receive her 10 year visa. She intends to apply for citizenship as soon as she can next year. She and I are very happy, she's going to school to become a nurse and we have a great marriage. It is not that there are never problems, but there are in any marriage. You just get through them and work together. So....for whatever it is worth, things can and will work out, at least for many people. Just wanted to give all of you encouragement since it is a lot of effort - but worth it! Bruce	BruceH	Male	Brazil	2008-11-20 20:31:00