Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	3 K-1 Visa Questions	She will have to be in her home country to have her medical exam and interview before she is issued a Visa. I am not sure they would send the Visa to a United States address. Someone else with more knowledge may be able to shed some light on that. I do not think they will send the visa package (passport containing visa imprint, and do-not-open packet) to a US address. That wouldn't make any sense to them. Visas are used to travel from outside the US, through a PoE, to inside the US. A US visa is completely useless inside the US. You would have to arrange additional shipping/travel to get the visa to a place (anywhere outside the US) where it could even be used, and anyways, from their point of view, the beneficiary is supposed to be outside the US at the time of visa issuance, else what's the point? [From DoS's POV, if the beneficiary is inside the US already, they don't need to enter the US, and therefore don't need a visa [since visas are used to enter the US], and therefore why are we wasting their time? ] Thanks for all the info. Is there a way to choose which office we go through? You don't. The USCIS office where your I-129F packet is processed is chosen by what state the petitioner lives in, and the consulate/embassy the visa application is processed in is chosen by the beneficiary's country, and where they live within their country. Do any countries other than Canada have two separate DoS visa sections?	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-08-27 08:57:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Duration of wait in US during K-1 process?	I was working as a teacher in Canada. That meant I could visit my USC now-wife for a week every March and 6-7 weeks every July-August. Having sent the petition, there is very little else you, the petitioner actually do, and almost none of it needs you to be in the US. You will NEED someone reliable picking up your mail though. USCIS will send you an NOA1 receipt in the next few weeks. This needs to be kept reasonably safe, like all immigration correspondence, but you don't have to do anything in particular with it. Sometime in the next few months you may receive an RFE. You need a mechanism in place to find out about that very promptly, and to be able to respond to it immediately if it occurs. That's the big kicker. You can respond to an RFE from outside the US as long as you A ) find out about it in a timely manner, and B ) have all the necessary documentation available to you wherever you happen to be. A few months from now, assuming everything goes well, you will be approved and receive an NOA2 approval notice. The NOA2, in particular, is very important - far more so than the NOA1. Your fiancee will NEED it for her Adjustment of Status process after she arrives, so you absolutely need a trustworthy mechanism in place to receive that and keep it safe. A few weeks after that you will receive a letter from the NVC stating which consulate her visa application will be processed through, and giving you her consulate case number. Again, like the NOA1, this contains useful personal information and should be read and filed safely, but requires no particular response from you. After that, you are pretty much out of the picture. You fill out the I-134 for her to take to the interview, sign and date any relationship evidence she is going to use, update and sign the letter of intent to marry, and go with her to the interview if it is generally warranted for that consulate, but all future immigration correspondence will be addressed to her at either her current foreign address or her future (with you) US address.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-08-27 09:13:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	How did you decide on a K1?	We chose the K1, like others here, for the two main reasons: A ) Being separated while engaged is bad enough, but being separated after being married would really suck. We weren't comfortable with that. and B ) I was working as a teacher in Canada so I wouldn't be able to come down for 10 months no matter how fast the visa got approved.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-08-30 14:58:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Traveling within the US	You want to avoid flying anywhere that will require you to go through US Customs and Immigration on either the outbound or return trip. Apparently people coming from Puerto Rico and the USVI, despite those places being US territory, are generally routed through Customs upon return to Florida, due to the relative ease of foreign nationals entering those territories. I've read very credible people here recommending against travel to the US Caribbean holdings without a GC or AP documents, just in case. [Hawaii is apparently WAY WAY WAY nicer than the USVI anyways, or so I've heard.] No idea about Guam and Samoa, but it wouldn't surprise me if things could get awkward coming from there as well. Hawaii is apparently very safe, though, if you really need a tropical beach experience in the next few months. Edited by HeatDeath, 01 September 2010 - 10:22 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-09-01 10:21:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	PANIC	Is there no way to deal with the airline? A lot of them can be, if not good, at least not completely unreasonable about having to shift flight times around in response to unforseeable and uncontrollable delays. Have you tried talking to them? The first-line phone droids probably won't be much help, but the second-tier supervisors and managers have a certain amount of discretion about fixing and moving flight times if you have a good excuse (and you do) and make a big enough pain of yourself (which you should).	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-08-20 12:59:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	PANIC	No, it would have to be the same embassy who printed the visa in the first place. What they'll do is recheck her file (in particular the I-129F form you filled out initially), see the error, and print a new visa label and glue it back in her passport, in all likelihood over the bad one. If she goes there in person they might even be able to do it while she waits. Worst-case scenario: it'll take about as long as it took to put the visa in her passport in the first place. But yeah, she should call them as soon as possible to make either an appointment or arrangements to send her passport back to them, whichever they prefer.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-08-19 17:19:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	PANIC	My fiancée just got her passport with her visa today. On the bottom annotation my father's name is listed as the petitioner. What's up with that? Has anybody seen such a thing? I am pretty sure I am the petitioner. My brother is the co-sponsor for the I-134. The only place my father's name would have appeared in any paperwork is the name of the contact or place where we will be living in the US. Will this cause us problems at the POE??? At PoE? Almost certainly not. At AOS? BIG TIME! She needs to go back to the consulate and get that fixed, pronto! The annotations put at the bottom of the K-1 visa are not particulary standardized. They're entered by hand by the consular officers and are therefore subject to human error. Mine said: "To marry USC <fiancee's [now-wife's] name>" "Med: Class B" "<A-number>" Mine were fine but they obviously misread a form when they entered hers. Do you and your father have similar names? Either way, you need to include photocopies of the visa with your AOS packet and the discrepancy will definitely complicate things. Have her get this fixed before she PoE's! Edited by HeatDeath, 19 August 2010 - 05:08 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-08-19 17:06:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	How do you undo the K-1?	I wouldn't have thought illegal status would be a problem. As I understand it, you stop accumulating out-of-status days when your I-485 NOA1 is issued. From that point on you're fine, I thought.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-09-20 14:47:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	How do you undo the K-1?	Hey guys, If someone came here on a K1 visa, got married and then decided to permanently leave the country (returning to their own country), what would happen? I read about the i-751 (Petition to Remove the Conditions of Residence) form that one fills out. The filling fee is $545. What if you didn't send this in? Why is there a charge of $545 so that someone else can update their paperwork? Essentially, what do you do when your marriage didn't work and you have to leave and you have no money? It depends on where you are in the process: If you have entered on the K-1 but not yet married, then you simply leave. If you have married but not yet filed for Adjustment of Status, you get a divorce, and then simply leave. If you have filed for Adjustment of Status, but it has not yet been approved, you get a divorce, write USCIS a letter stating that you are withdrawing your application to adjust status, and then you just leave. If you have your green card, there is a form you fill out to formally surrender it. You get a divorce, fill that out and leave. If you don't fill out an I-751, your permanent residence status will expire when your card does. After that and the divorce, you just leave. If you have no intention of staying here after the gc expires, you have no need whatsoever to file the I-751, though you should probably still formally surrender the card. It will make any future visa applications smoother. The charge for the I-751 is just to pay for it to be adjudicated. USCIS has to pay it's own way with fees - they don't get money from taxes. The reason the I-751 even exists isn'y just "to update their paperwork" - it's to make it so that would-be scammers have to keep their USC mark happy, married and fooled for 2 whole years, before they get a GC that no longer depends on the marriage. A lot of scammers who would stay in a fake marriage for 4-6 months balk at having to stay in for 2 years. It's a protection mechanism for the USC, mostly.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-09-19 23:06:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Dual Citizenship	This is a question you won't have to even ask for several years at a minimum. You can get a fiance or spousal visa, move to the US, and get your US permanent residence without affecting either your Canadian or German citizenship in the slightest. 3 years later, you become eligible to apply for US citizenship. Acquiring US citizenship will not affect your Canadian citizenship at all. Canada does not consider your renunciation of foreign allegiances made at a US citizenship oath binding unless you fill out separate, additional paperwork with the Canadian government, formally renouncing your Canadian citizenship. The US government does not force you to do this, and very few Canadians who acquire US naturalization do this. Germany, on the other hand, does consider your renunciation binding and will revoke your German citizenship unless you first do a paperwork process with them to receive official permission from the German government to apply for a foreign naturalization. It is my understanding that this process is a world-class pain in the rear. Ultimately, it's all optional. No one is ever forced to become a US citizen, and many many people live the entire rest of their lives in the US as permanent residents. You will never have to surrender either citizenship. Edited by HeatDeath, 04 October 2010 - 01:11 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-04 01:10:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Asking AGAIN because no one answered. Please help me!	If you're really worried about it, the place to contact is the consulate you will be interviewing at. They will almost certainly extend your petition automatically, but you can ask for an extension yourself, if you wish. Just contact the consulate (I know this is easier said than done for some consulates), give them your consulate case number (from your Packet 3/4), state the expiration date of your I-129F petition approval, and formally request that the petition be extended to encompass your interview date and any possible extra processing. They will virtually certainly grant that, and the worst case scenario is they think you're a bit of a worrywart.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-09 13:12:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Port Of Entry...Dublin, Ireland?!!!!	The whole point of preclearance facilities, at least for Canada, is to remove a lot of the strain from the international arrivals sections of US airports. They're too busy, by and large, as it is, without also adding everyone flying from Canada into those lines. By clearing Canadians in Canada, they dramatically reduce the number of international arrivals who have to be processed upon arrival in the US. When a flight that has been precleared in Canada or Dublin lands in the US, it lands at the domestic arrival terminal, and it's passengers are treated just like any US domestic passengers upon arrival. You just walk straight off the plane and on to the next place you're going - either your next flight's gate or on to baggage claim and the street - no post processing of any kind. Every single Canadian international airport with commercial flights to the US is like this, and Dublin is as well. I think those are the only non-US preclearance facilities.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-06 11:03:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Marriage possible?	After your K-1 visa is issued, and you show up at a CBP PoE, hand them your "Do Not Open" envelope and your visa imprint in your passport, they will ask you if you are still single. If your answer is that you are now married, they will stamp your visa void and NOT let you into the US. And if you lie, and say you are single, and manage to enter anyways, then when you mail in your I-94 and marriage certificate for your AOS application [both absolutely required], USCIS will spot the discrepancy, deny your AOS, order removal proceedings, and in all likelihood slap you with an unwaiverable, unappealable, unrecoverable several-year-to-life ban on entry for misrepresentation. So yeah, marrying before you enter the US on a K-1 visa renders the K-1 process an enormous waste of time and money.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-14 09:44:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	mysterious packet 3	Under ordinairy circumstances, the consulate sends Packet 3 - the visa application forms and instructions - directly to the beneficiary, after they [the consulate] receive the approved petition from the NVC. I have no idea how things would work if mail was basically nonfunctional in the beneficiary's country. The beneficiary might have to go to the Consulate to pick up the forms and instructions personally. Many consulates also put the contents of their Packet 3 on their website. I don't know what workarounds the consulate in Mexico prefers. Your fiancee should definitely be contacting the consulate directly, via phone or email. The NVC will have sent you, the petitioner, a letter that contains the beneficiary's consulate case number. Your fiancee should be using that when they contact the consulate. Good luck! Edited by HeatDeath, 19 October 2010 - 11:24 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-19 11:23:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Do you have to use it right away?	Sometimes a CBP officer will let you do it, but it's totally up to their discretion, I don't think they're actually supposed to, and it could [remote possibility] confuse things leading into your AOS. It might be doable, but there's every chance it won't work. I honestly wouldn't recommend trying.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-08-27 11:02:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	What was the hardest part of the process??	I'll be an outlier here, but the waiting wasn't actually that hard for us. I was teaching in a school in Canada at the time, so we made preparations while I was visiting in August, then I went back to Canada for the beginning of the school year in September. She filed the I-129F in October. It was approved in January. We knew I wasn't moving down until at least early July [though I did visit in December and March while it was processing], so the waiting was just what we were used to dealing with anyways. [An interesting tradeoff in being a teacher - you get gobs of vacation time (sorely needed, BTW!), but NO flexibility whatsoever on when to use it.] Edited by HeatDeath, 25 October 2010 - 12:47 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-25 12:47:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	What was the hardest part of the process??	I think the hardest part for me was talking to my USC wife and in-law cosponsor about the documentation requirements for the I-134 and I-864. That level of personal financial information is an awkward thing to ask for, even if they love you and are totally on board with doing whatever it takes to bring you to the US. That had to be done as preparation for the interview, and was heavily reused when doing up the AOS packet. In terms of paperwork, the AOS packet is the single largest bundle of papers you need to prepare. This piece is just a part of the whole AOS preparation phase.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-25 09:32:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Is it true that you can speed up your k1 process??	Speeding up "the process of your K1" by "submit[ing] all of the requirements asked by USCIS", is kind of like speeding up your car by remembering to put gas in it! And you can get even more speed by remembering to bring the key when you leave the house! Tthat's got to be one of the weaseliest things I've ever heard!	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-25 11:41:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	What do you think: Is it more 'risky' to travel to the US now that we have the NOA2?	I traveled to the US after my NOA2. Just bring a big stack of evidence of ties to Germany, and copies of your NOA1, NOA2, and Packet3 if you have it by then, and you should be fine. Just be honest with the customs and immigration people - saying that you're visiting your fiance, and it'll be fine. If it makes you feel better and is reasonably priced, try to route your flight through Dublin so you clear US Immigration on your side of the Atlantic, in case there are any snags. But I'm sure, if you bring proof of ties and your immigration paperwork, that it'll be fine. Lots of people visit during the process, even from VWP countries.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-26 17:19:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Immigration lawyers	If a person has psychiatric issues documented during their immigration medical examination, such as tendencies towards suicide or self harm or harm to others, they may find themselves denied a visa. If they contract with an immigration lawyer to appeal the denial, the lawyer may very well recommend they get another psychiatric evaluation, and recommend a particular psychiatrist for this purpose. I can see how it might be very useful for an immigration lawyer to cultivate a professional relationship with a psychiatrist for cases like this. Edited by HeatDeath, 29 October 2010 - 09:20 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-29 21:18:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Ireland	I would think so. Pretty much any Western European country would be. Fraud rates roughly correlate, with a few exceptions, with GDP. If you can't live like a king on 100 US dollars per day, it's probably not a high-fraud country.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-11-02 10:28:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Petition rejection	Basically the only reason I-129F fiance petitions get rejected is that the couple have not physically met within the last 2 years, or one or both of them is not legally free to marry [i.e. a pending divorce hasn't yet been finalized, or soemthing like that.], or that the evidence you include does not prove these conditions. If you can proove both of those facts, the petition will be approved. It's actually fairly rare for petitions to be denied. Visas, on the other hand, can be denied for a large number of reasons. But that's a whole separate issue. Best thing you can do to minimize the chance of that happening, when you put your I-129F application together, is to include a good quantity of evidence showing the evolution and current status of your relationship: how you communicate, etc, in addition to the evidence that shows that you have met. This won't make any difference as to whether or not your petition is approved, but can, with some consulates, make a significant difference as to whether or not they approve your fiance's visa application, several months from now. Search on this forum for the term "front loading" for more information about how and why you might need to do this.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-11-03 17:33:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	having two marriage licenses	Seems to me the first thing the marriage office in Ukraine will ask is "Are either of you currently married?" Since the answer to that is going to be yes, then unless their laws are quite odd, I can't see them giving you a marriage license, though you might be able to talk them into registering your existing marriage.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-11-07 14:09:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Commitment Ceremony	At every single point in this process, up to and including the PoE, your fiance will be asked "Are you legally free to marry?" Yes, the CBP officer will ask him this at the actual border crossing. If at any point he fails to answer "Yes, I am single, and therefore legally free to marry" [or words equivalent] with a straight face and totally sincere body language, your K-1 visa application (and the visa itself) will cease to exist, and this whole process will have been an enormous waste of time and money. "Considering yourself to be married", when you have to get past a both a Consular Officer AND a CBP officer [both trained to spot lies and evasive body language] by saying you are not married, is probably not a good plan. Just sayin'. Absolutely I would NOT update facebook. Advising visiting relatives to be evasive could possibly get them in trouble, but having them be open is a mediocre-to-bad idea too. Edited by HeatDeath, 17 November 2010 - 12:50 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-11-17 12:46:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	k-1 visa petitioner question	You are a citizen of the USA. You can travel as you wish. However, you or you and somebody must qualify as your fiance's financial sponsor when the time comes. I advise you not to let your fiance find out about your boyfriend though. Bad idea. Edited by HeatDeath, 01 December 2010 - 11:26 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-12-01 11:26:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	k-1 visa petitioner question	Your only obligations in the US related to having filed an I-129F are to make sure someone responsible is collecting your mail. Within a week or so of sending in the packet you will receive a receipt notice. Some time over the next 3-5 months you might receive a Request For Evidence from USCIS. If you get one of these, you will need to know about it as soon as humanly possible, as you will have a limited time to respond to it. If you do not respond to it, your petition will be denied. Responding to this will involve sending additional documentation to USCIS, so in the worst case scenario, you might have to return to the US to arrange that. Eventually you will receive a notice of approval. It is VERY important that you have someone responsible collect this - your fiance will need it for their adjustment of status application after they get their visa. If all that can be taken care of, then you can certainly travel overseas while the I-129F is processing, at least as far as the US government is concerned. I have no idea how long, or under what circumstances, Israel ill allow you to take an extended visit though. But as far as the US is concerned, if you have the mail being collected and are prepared for the possibility of an RFE, you should be good to go.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-11-30 03:13:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Is an immigration lawyer a good idea?	The general advice is that "normal" cases [relatively simple cases with no obvious red flags] do not normally need a lawyer the vast majority of the time. Red flags include previous criminal records, [in some parts of the world, but probably not Mexico] significant age differences [particularly where the petitioner is female and older], and previous encounters with USCIS/CBP/ICE that were in some way complicated or ended badly. If your case is nice and simple, a lawyer is almost certainly not necessary.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-08-26 12:43:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	TO FOIA OR NOT TO FOIA	I have question - how did they stop her BEFORE she boarded the plane? I've flown internationally many times, and I've never had a customs agent go through my bags before I boarded a plane. I'm just curious how they found these documents.... +2 above. Canadians clear US Customs & Immigration, talking to a CBP officer, in the Canadian airport, before they board any plane to the US. CBP runs pre-clearance Customs and Immigration sections in all Canadian international airports, because there are a huge number of Canadians flying to the US every day, and processing them in Canada takes a substantial load off the international arrivals sections in the international airports in the US, which are crowded enough as it is. Chances are the OP's fiancee said something to the preclearance CBP agent in the booth that made him/her think "This person is an immigration risk." The booth agent would have then sent the OP's fiancee to a secondary inspection area, and they would have gone through the luggage there. Remember, the booth agents have maybe 30 seconds per person. If they smell anything to make them think that you might be inadmissible, for any reason, they'll shoot you straight off to secondary. There are a lot of people coming up behind you. From what's been described, OP's fiancee should not have any difficulties, as a result of this, entering when her K-1 visa is approved, nor will this have any impact on the visa being approved. It sounds like she was allowed to "withdraw her petition to enter", rather than be turned away, and it's a different category of entrance than her K-1 entrance will be, anyways, so it won't make any difference going forward. If she's game to try again, she should bring a folder full of documentation, including mortgage/lease agreements, a letter from her employer, a complete copy of the I-129F packet [including a copy of the cheque], etc, showing that she has significant financial ties to Canada, and investment in going through the proper immigration procedures, and is not prepared to abandon them and move to the US at this time. I personally wouldn't bother with the FOIA request. This sort of thing is fairly normal, and, while traumatic when you're going through it, really isn't anything to worry about, long term. Edited by HeatDeath, 14 December 2010 - 03:40 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-12-14 15:35:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	k-1, married after filing, before VISA interview	At every stage in the process, including the interview and the actual PoE, they will ask "Are you legally free to marry?" If the answer at any point is no, your K-1 visa disappears and you have to start all over with a spousal visa. And it goes without saying that if you lie at any point in the process, and it is later found out [even after eventual citizenship], all of your progress up to that point can be erased (including revocation of the beneficiary's US citizenship, if they have it by then). In other words, marrying your fiance(e) while you are waiting for a fiance(e) visa is a HORRIBLE idea, and don't do it. Edited by HeatDeath, 10 December 2010 - 01:47 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-12-10 13:45:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Need some advice/help	In the odd event when a case gets sent by NVC to a wrong or non-standard consulate, that consulate will virtually always realize the error and forward it on to the right place. This has happened in Canada in a couple of recent cases, one where a case that was supposed to go to Vancouver [because the beneficiary lived in Western Canada] went to Montreal, and one where an I-129F was marked by the petitioner to go to Toronto [who don't even process family visas]. I'm sure El Bajio Guanajuato will transfer it to Juarez within a few weeks. If a month or two go by with no Packet 3 [assuming Juarez normally mail out Packet 3's], you should probably call the NVC or Juarez to follow up on it.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-12-27 15:21:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	attending interview with fiance...	At a lot of consulates, it doesn't matter. At some consulates, it can be very helpful. And at a few consulates, it's absolutely required. I'm pretty sure, for folks from Algeria, it falls between the second and third category. If there's any reasonable way you can afford it, I would go.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-12-31 13:05:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Will it be red flag?	Not particularly, that I can think of. Muslim men see more difficulties than Muslim women, and even that is primary just impersonal additional background checks and security checks rather than any particular ill will. The overseas work shouldn't be much of a factor at all. In the worst case scenario it may trigger additional security checks, which could delay the processing a little, but it's certainly not a prima facie cause for denial. I wouldn't worry about it too much.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-05 02:45:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	K1 and Wedding Plans	We began planning in August 2008 for a wedding in September 2009. We sent out our I-129F in in October 2008, and got our NOA2 in January 2009. I had my K-1 interview and received my visa at the end of April, 2009, and I moved to the US, PoEing with my K-1 visa in early July 2009. I was teaching at a school in Canada so we weren't in a hurry - we knew that no matter how quickly we were approved, I couldn't PoE until the after the school year ended at the end of June 2009 anyways. That's why we took our time replying to the Packet 3. See my timeline for more details. Ironically, we were actually more concerned about the visa being approved too early than too late. The January approval for the I-129F was way faster than we had been led to expect. My USC now-wife was a little concerned and I had to go back through the calculations on the timeline to make sure our September wedding date would still work. Working backwards from September 12, 2009 [the wedding date], I had to enter the US no more than 90 days before that - so I could enter the US any time after mid June. Working backwards from then, I had to get the visa no more than 6 months before mid-June 2009, so a visa issuance date of anytime after mid January 2009 and before the beginning of September 2009 would have suited us fine. With plans that flexible, we felt reasonably confident putting money down on a September 12 date for the facility, DJ, and photographer/videographer. It was a risk, but a reasonably small one, that far ahead of time. It helped that I was coming from Canada - a low fraud country, and that Vancouver was a consulate with no significant backlog or delay, and that our case was very straightforward with no significant wrinkles or red flags. I wouldn't try this from places like Ecuador or the MENA countries - the process is far more uncertain there. If you are going through Montreal, your planning needs to take into account a likely 3-5 month delay between their reception of your Packet 3 forms, and your interview date. The safest way to do things is to wait until the visa is in hand. Remember, you have 6 months to enter once the visa is issued, and 90 days to marry once you PoE. So, particularly if you have the non-date sensitive stuff selected prior to the visa interview, you have approximately 9 months to plan the wedding after the visa has been issued, which should be a doable timeframe. This is the safest way to go. The only complication you can run in to here is that some photographers and facilities have waiting lists more than 9 months long. You can take the risk (small in our case) and put some money down [we got a significant discount on our facility for booking a 2009 wedding in calendar 2008] or you can shop around and/or go slightly out of town to find smaller/nicer [and usually cheaper] facilities with shorter waiting lists. Our facility was an hour north of Salt Lake City, and half the price and twice as nice customer service as a similar facility closer to the city would have been.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-07-23 12:59:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	my noa2 number is different from visa number.	I think you probably have time, if you start right away. That said, it is quite likely you can get away without having the visa reprinted. The main other case I'm aware of where the annotations field on the visa imprint was incorrect had completely the wrong name for the USC petitioner. That definitely required reprinting, as that would have seriously confused the adjudicating USCIS officer during AOS, as well as the CBP officer at PoE. There's a very reasonable chance that a one-digit typo in the annotations field shouldn't cause any major problems. You have to balance the pain-in-the-rear factor of having to push the flight back against the admittedly small-to-tiny risk of complications with your paperwork, and that's a choice only you can make. Edited by HeatDeath, 14 January 2011 - 11:18 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-14 11:17:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	my noa2 number is different from visa number.	A) Your A# is sensitive personal information. You shouldn't post it in full on the internet. It's better to hide most of the number, or describe the problem in general terms. An admin will be along to redact it for you. B) Don't panic. This has happened before to people here before. It''s just a one digit typo on the visa, and can be reasonably easily corrected. If the A# on your visa is in the annotations field at the bottom, than this is a typo by the consular officer. They type in that bottom part by hand, and mistakes sometimes occur. But you should definitely get the visa reprinted. It probably won't cause problems at PoE, but could complicate or delay the processing of your AOS. You should contact the consulate and explain the error. They'll tell you to send it back to them. They'll print up a corrected visa and send it back to you. If you start today they should probably [hopefully] be able to have a corrected visa back to you by the 24th. Depending on what the consulate say, you will probably want to contact the airline to move your flight back a week or so, just to be safe. The airline should be fairly reasonable about this, since the cause is outside your control, especially if you speak to a supervisor. Edited by HeatDeath, 14 January 2011 - 10:14 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-14 10:11:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	i got this letter from uscis	The best way to respond to any possible-fraud marker in your now dead I-129f petition would be to make sure that your CR-1 petition has a crazy amount of relationship evidence. You can't respond directly to anything relating to the fiance petition, since it is closed now. what you need to do is include substantial amounts of relationship evidence in the spousal visa petition. That is your response. It will also help a lot if the USC petitioner is present at the interview.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-14 15:50:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	i got this letter from uscis	Your I-129F petition is dead. This is far better than receiving an NOID or NOIR you can't respond to. Failing to respond to a NOID or NOIR would badly damage your case. But now, as they say, there is no more action to do with it. You literally can't screw up your case, because at the moment, you have no case, petition, appeal, or anything else pending with them. They say specifically that the petition is closed "without prejudice to any future applications." That means that you have a clean slate with them. You can file a petition for a spousal visa with them and they will not hold this application against you in any way. As And_Sam said above, this is a good thing. Even though you will be apart for more time, you are now free and clear to move on to the next step, which is the spousal visa. You can start making forward progress again. And no, being married will not hurt your case for a CR-1. Not only do you have to be married to get a CR-1, but getting married and preparing to file for a CR-1 was exactly the right thing to do once you got "canceled without prejudice". You are on the right track, and this letter lets you start moving forward again. Edited by HeatDeath, 14 January 2011 - 03:42 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-14 15:39:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	K-1 Visa is Overwhelming	I don't think i saw this answered but when you file for a sponsor if you dont earn enough, would you need to file that sponsor with the i129f petition or the i130? or do you wait till they ask for it or in the case of an i129f, do you need to wait until you're going to apply for the residence to send the sponsor form in? You will need a cosponsor at the times you send an I-134 or I-864. Basically both the sponsor and cosponsor fill out one of those forms and supply all of the required documentation. You would then include both forms and sets of documentation. Also, for questions like this that are only slightly related to the thread, you'll get more, better answers much more quickly if you start your own thread. No big deal, just sayin'. Edited by HeatDeath, 23 January 2011 - 03:25 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-23 15:24:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	K-1 Visa is Overwhelming	Hi Rebecca, Welcome to VJ! Best way to start is to click on the "guides" at the top of this page. Since you will be in Japan, like other folks have said, the DCF is the quickest, fastest, and cheapest way to go. Once he is approved, they will grant him a green card that will allow him to work in the US and travel outside the US without restriction (except working at most federal jobs ) The K1 fiance visa is more expensive and you have to adjust status to get a green card, which means he will be waiting 3-6 months while in the US to be able to work and travel. If you want to be more efficient, you could get married now and apply two years later--this will save you about $600 in later immigration fees because if you move to the US before your 2nd wedding anniversary, your future husband will only be granted a conditional visa good for 2 years. After two years, you have to file again to prove that you have a bonafide marriage, more paperwork, etc etc. Best of luck! There is a DCF specific forum here on VJ to look through as well. Lawyers are generally useless unless you have a complicated case (past crimes, hard consulate, etc etc), by the way. Use the resources here and save the $$ I've +1'd every recommendation for DCF, and I wish I could +1 this a couple more times! Marrying now, if you two feel you're ready, and DCF'ing 2 years from now will definitely be the quickest, cheapest, most efficient way to get him into the US 2+ years from now.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-16 14:04:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Passport Pages	Only if you're using your passport as proof of citizenship. If you can send a photocopy of a certified copy of your US birth certificate, there's no need to send ANY of your passport. +1 The instructions that ask for passport photocopies actually say this, in not quite as many words. The instructions that allow the use of the passport as proof of US citizenship specifically ask for all pages of the passport. Instructions in other places that allow the use of the passport merely as an identity document specify that only the bio page is necessary. When in doubt, read the instructions very carefully, and interpret them literally.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-23 23:37:00