Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
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
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Passport Pages	When in doubt, interpret all instructions as literally as possible. Believe me, the extra buck or two for photocopying and mailing the extra sheets is a teeny tiny drop in the bucket of your overall expenses, so don't worry about it too much.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-23 15:37:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	In what order are applications processed???	It's an interesting response from HeatDeath (1/20 at 1:47 pm) that appears to explain the timeline statistics. HeatDeath - are you able to share your source for this information? GaryAndAlla is friends, or at least acquaintances [or at least was] with one of the former higher-ups of the VSC, and put together a QnA which I think is still stickied somewhere in here. I did try to take the Haitian situation into account in my explanation. If the service centres have allocated a significant fraction of their adjudicators to other types of petitions, then there are fewer adjudicators pulling boxes of I-129Fs off the shelves, and thus it takes longer for them to be processed, by a constant multiplicative factor proportional to the reduction of I-129F adjudicators.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-20 20:40:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	In what order are applications processed???	When they receive your application, it gets packed into a file folder. The file folders are put in boxes. The boxes are put on shelves in roughly chronological order. The boxes sit on the shelves. When an adjudicator finishes a box of files, he goes to the shelves and takes the next box. So the cases are processed in roughly the order they are received, plus or minus a random factor of a several weeks or so depending on how fast the box got filled and put on the shelf, whether or not other boxes of the same arrival time ended up ahead of it, how fast adjudicator gets through his boxes and where in the box your case ended up. Complicating this is the additional factor that the service center management will move adjudicators from one case type to another if a backlog has built up between the different types of boxes. So yeah, figure they're handled chronologically plus or minus a random factor of a few weeks, plus or minus a random factor of a month or so depending on the current processing priority at the service center. Chronologically +/- a few days +/- a few weeks +/- another few weeks. So individual timelines are pretty unpredictable, but cases filed at the same time end up being processed within a few weeks of each other, overall.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-01-20 13:47:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Passport Pages	all the pages means ALL the pages. Why would you even consider risking an RFE to save a few pieces of paper and 2 minutes at the copy machine? This is a "non-question", a no-brainer. Do what it says, do not ask questions. Thsi is fine because the birth certificate proves citizenship. If you are using a passport to prove citizenship, copy ALL pages. I would suggest copying all pages, also, if you are using the passport to prove your meeting. Do not make any attempts to save a few pieces of paper in this process. +1 above. We're involved in a process that costs literally thousands of dollars, by the time all is said and done. It amazes me when people worry about saving pennies on photocopying. The money you save by not photocopying and sending maybe 10 blank passport pages won't even buy you a coffee at Starbucks. If there's even a 5% possibility you'll earn an RFE for your troubles, it's not worth it. Maybe it's a deeply ingrained leftover indoctrination from our elementary school teachers to "save the rainforests". [Similar to the indoctrination we descendants of Ukranian grandmothers get to eat every atom of food that is ever placed on a plate in front of us. Or was that just my family? ] We just need to get used to it: USCIS hates trees. Follow their instructions literally, buy an indulgence carbon credit if you feel really guilty about it, and just move on. Edited by HeatDeath, 11 February 2011 - 11:59 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-02-11 11:58:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Really confused????	One difference between the Cr-1 and K-1 that matters to a lot of people, but isn't really emphasized in that compare link that has been posted [but probably should be], is this: With a K-1, you are forced to be separated (except for occasional visits) for 8-9 months prior to the wedding, but once you get married, you can stay together. With a CR-1, OTOH, you get married at the beginning of the process, and then have to be separated for 10-12 months. Occasional visits are still possible, but more difficult, because the CBP officers are more likely to assume someone with a USC spouse [as opposed to merely a fiance] has intent to immigrate. Many people find being separated from their spouse to be a much more distasteful prospect than merely being forced to wait to marry. I know we [my wife and I] did. Of course all of this is moot if you two don't feel you're ready for marriage yet. In which case the best bet would be a TN visa [assuming you have appropriate education and can find an American employer], an H employment visa [significantly more difficult] or a student visa. Edited by HeatDeath, 08 March 2011 - 11:52 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-08 11:51:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Refiling K-1	Duh. Brainf*rt. Silly me. She will be asked at the interview, in some detail, and possibly rather pointedly, why she canceled the last one and what changed her mind again. But if she's prepared for that and has good answers everything should be OK. The other possible issue is that, in your cover letter for your new I-129F petition, you may have to request a waiver from the filing limits, if the new petition is too close in time to the previous one. You can normally only file one every 2 years [and only 2 in a lifetime], or something like that - the I-129F instructions say specifically. If you're hitting those limits just put a sentence in your cover letter formally requesting a waiver of the filing limits. You don't have to fill out an extra form or anything. Good luck!	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-17 11:33:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Refiling K-1	You will need to find out, specifically, why the consulate denied you, and you will need to front-load your new petition with large [but not too large] amounts of evidence tailored to specifically address and rebut the reason for the previous denial.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-17 11:27:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	List all the children of your alien fiance question....oops?	This is probably much more of an issue in some places other than Western Europe, but I just wonder if the children are parameters in, or have to get checked as part of the background checks, particularly the extended ones that often cause "Administrative Processing." If so, omission of a child, particularly an older one, could, in the absolute worst case scenario, be construed as material misrepresentation unless the beneficiary is seen as being very proactive to provide that information and correct the omission. That said, in England at least, Krikit and NichNick are probably right - it probably isn't that big a deal and just bringing the information to the interview is almost certainly sufficient. Edited by HeatDeath, 18 March 2011 - 05:27 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-18 17:26:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	List all the children of your alien fiance question....oops?	Hmmm. They can't RFE you for it if they don't know that it's wrong. Are these children listed anywhere else, like on his G-325a? If so, you'll probably get an RFE for it. If it gets approved before the RFE, then A ) He'll need to make sure he reminds the consulate of their existence during the interview, and B ) well before his interview, you should schedule an InfoPass appointment with USCIS to make sure they're aware of the situation. It won't hurt to call the USCIS info line, as to speak to an Immigration Service Officer [that's their second level. The first level phone droids aren't all that helpful.] and ask them what to do, as well.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-17 10:57:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	pls!...help!! with the K1 visa!	Here's some information that's not in that guide - at least not in so many words: The I-129F form instructions list a bunch of supporting documentation you need to send in with the I-129F. If you don't include that stuff, the petition will be denied, if they even accept it in the first place. What you have probably seen is a reference to the practice of front-loading This is where people in include significant amounts of evidence documenting the history and authenticity of their relationship, over and above the requirements listed in the I-129F instructions. I will explain the reason why, depending on what country you are applying though, you might want to do this. Depending on what country you are in, and other details about your relationship, the local US consulate can sometimes be very skeptical that a relationship is legitimate. They can refuse to issue a visa if they think the relationship is not valid, even if USCIS approved the petition. Which leads us to an interesting wrinkle. The consulate is allowed to deny a visa based on information they uncover during the interview, that they feel USCIS did not have when they approved the petition. They are also technically allowed to ignore any evidence that is brought to the interview. But, and this is the important point, they are not allowed to disregard evidence that has passed through USCIS's hands - that was included with your initial application and ignored by USCIS [because it's not requested by the I-129F instructions or, strictly speaking, relevant to the approval of the petition] but forwarded by them to the consulate along with your approved petition. So by front-loading - by including lots of extra relationship evidence with the initial petition, you can force a skeptical or openly hostile consulate to consider relationship evidence they would much rather ignore, and it makes it much harder for them to issue a denial based on the invalidity of the relationship. Edited by HeatDeath, 19 March 2011 - 08:48 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-19 20:47:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Visiting US while K1 in process	As part of your ties to Italy, bring a copy of your I-129F packet. That can be helpful when/if you need to prove to the CBP officers that you are financially committed to going through the immigration process properly. Also lease/rental/mortgage agreements are good evidence of ties to Italy.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-21 13:18:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Marriage before K1 visa approval!	When you eventually show up at the US PoE with your K-1 to enter the US, you will be asked if you are legally free to marry. If you answer no, because you are already married, your K-1 visa will be canceled and you will have to start all over with a spousal visa. If you lie, and say you are not married, then when you file your AOS forms, there will be a conflict between the date on your marriage certificate, which you have to include, and the date you entered the US, which they will have from the copies of the passport stamps and I-94, which you have to include. Your AOS will be denied, and you will get slapped with a significant and possibly permanent ban on entering the US. They call lying to them about something important "material misrepresentation" and take it VERY seriously. Do NOT, in the name of all that is Holy, get married before entering the US on a K-1!	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-19 20:55:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	RFE	RFE's are irritating because they delay your approval by a few weeks, and that's no fun. But the nice thing about them is that they are a simple, straightforward process that doesn't confuse anybody, least of all the adjudicators. That's what you really have to fear. When adjudicators, consular officers, CBP officers, immigration officers, or even SSA clerks get confused, bad things happen. As long as no one is confused, everything is fine, even if it's slightly delayed.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-26 15:55:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Hard Copy NOA2 received (please help)	USCIS sends approved I-129F petitions to the NVC, who send them on to the consulates. So, to your first question, it sounds like NVC have already received it and sent it on. As for your second: NVC seem to be having some weirdness lately. They sent two Canadian K-1 petitions to the wrong Canadian consulate as well. I'll tell you what worked for them. Call or email the Sao Paulo consulate, with the consulate case number you should have received in the NVC letter, to see if they've received your petition. Since they don't have an appropriate visa section, they may already have sent your petition to Rio. If not, ask them to. They'll probably have no problem with that. They won't want to deal with any case they don't have to.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-26 17:36:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	HELP! I was approved but....	The above comments, particularly Kathryn's, covered everything you asked. One other thing to keep in mind: You need to keep that approval notice you just got in a very safe place. Your fiancee will need it 6-8 months from now, when she files for AOS after you are married. Scan it into your computer, make a couple of backups, and put the original somewhere safe. This isn't obvious just from looking at it - it just looks like an informational notice. But a copy of it is a required piece of documentation for AOS, and they may well want to see the original if you guys pull an AOS interview. When we were at your stage we had no clue about AOS yet, and it took some digging for us to find that form again when we needed it later. Just a heads up. Other than this, you are pretty much done. Your only remaining role in all of this, until she enters the US, is the provision of signed relationship evidence and the necessary documentation for the I-134 and I-864. All of the correspondence is now between her and the local consulate until they issue her the visa and she enters the US. Edited by HeatDeath, 02 April 2011 - 12:01 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-04-02 11:57:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	conflicts?? (wait for divorce/annulment to be finalized? or ?)	If the PI beneficiary has a CENOMAR, and the USC petitioner is legally free to marry in the US, and the marriage will take place in the US, you guys should be fine. With a K-1, you couldn't have your marriage in PI anyways.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-04-12 10:31:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Can I marry her while waiting for K1 visa?	Be careful of "doing a religious ceremony." It can be very risky. Even if you do that and get through the consulate interview and still get your visa, the beneficiary will be asked by CBP at the PoE "Are you legally free to marry." If the beneficiary cannot honestly, confidently, and sincerely answer that they are free to marry, CBP can and will cancel the K-1 visa right there. It's never a good idea to enter into a course of action that will require you to say "well, technically ... " to a government official, particularly as regards something so important, like your future married life together in the US.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-04-14 14:11:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	I-129f while unemployed	My USC now-wife was unemployed when she filed our I-129F. We had her mother sponsor me with an I-134 at the interview and an I-864 at the AOS phase. Of course, we were going through the consulate in Vancouver, Canada, which may be significantly more laid back than the consulate in China. I should point out though that even in Vancouver, a consulate renowned for being "easy", the combination of my [mild] diabetes and the lack of immediate access to health insurance (my spouse being unemployed and therefore unable to add me to hers] was the consular officer's biggest concern. If your fiancee has any kind of chronic medical condition, you two should have a good plan for how you two will deal with that, and your spouse should know how to explain that plan in a very convincing way - she might get asked about it at the interview.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-10-04 01:52:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Getting Married Before Entering US on a K-1	To answer the original question: The foreign beneficiary will be asked, at the Point of Entry, by the CBP officer, if they are legally free to marry. If the answer is anything but yes (and especially if the CBP officer is given reason, by body language, voice, or other clues, to believe the "yes" answer is fraudulent) the K-1 visa will be canceled right then and there and the beneficiary will be denied entry. If misrepresentation is found, additional mult-year or permanent bans can be imposed, and there is very little appeal or recourse. Do NOT get married after receiving the K-1 visa but before entering the US. You will need to include the marriage certificate with the AOS papers, and it will be obvious if there is a discrepancy between the marriage date and the PoE date. [It goes without saying that lying to any government official on any subject even tangentially related to immigration or your marriage is very very bad!] I would also strongly recommend against doing a "religious-only" marriage ceremony prior to entry. You never ever want to put yourself in a situation where your answer to a CBP or immigration officer's question starts with the words "well, technically...".	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-05-06 11:12:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	K1 visa	Many US consulates do extra background checks (often referred to as AP - Administrative Processing) after the interview. They're long, they're a pain in the rear, there's no knowing how long they can take, but they're quite common and the vast majority of applicants clear them with no problems. You just have to be patient, trust in Him, and you'll have your visa before you know it. Hang in there.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-05-06 14:22:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	I want to add stuff to my k1 package at Vermont	When USCIS receives your case, they pack it into a file folder with a bar code on it and put it in a box with similar cases that arrived at about the same time. That box sits on a shelf for several months, until an adjudicator picks it up, brings it to their desk, takes a case out of it, swipes the bar code into the computer, and starts working the case. If everything is present and well organized, a single case takes 20-40 minutes. Then they mark it as approved in the computer, and move on to the next case in the box, and so on, until they finish the box, and go and get another one. That's their whole job. OTOH, If something is missing, the adjudicator issues an RFE using the computer. The case then stays at the adjudicator's desk until the RFE stuff you send in arrives. The new material is routed to the desk of the last adjudicator who swiped the bar code on the file, where the adjudicator manually adds it into the file, and then continues to adjudicate the case. So you see, there is simply no process for any supplemental material you send to be added to your file until your file is receiving the individual attention of a particular adjudicator. They could probably find your case, if they had to, by manually searching the boxes of K-1s that arrived the same week yours did, but they would only do that in an emergency, like if a congressional immigration liaison office has asked them to expedite something. They won't pull the manpower from other cases to do that just to match supplemental material up to a file when no RFE has been issued yet. Edited by HeatDeath, 09 March 2011 - 01:17 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-03-09 13:16:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Canadian to apply for a K-1 with a concern about the Affadavit of Support	It's worth pointing out that Canada is on the cusp of a postal strike right now, and that nobody should be mailing any important, time-sensitive documents if they have any other choice. You'll want to think Fedex, UPS, or DHL. I think Purolator is part of Canada Post - I don't know if they'd strike with CP or not.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-05-25 17:13:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Canadian to apply for a K-1 with a concern about the Affadavit of Support	If your USC petitioner's income is below the poverty line, you will definitely need a cosponsor. Your profession and education will be taken into consideration when the consular officer evaluates your "likelihood of becoming a public charge" [one of the legally defined factors they must evaluate when deciding to grant a visa], but they cannot, by themselves, overcome your petitioner's having income below the poverty line. Your fiancee will not be sent anything, other than a letter that the I-129F petition has been approved and another letter from the NVC stating that the petition has been sent to the [in your case] Montreal consulate. Once those letters are received, the petitioner is basically out of the loop, and all correspondence goes to the beneficiary. Both your fiancee and your cosponsor will need to fill out one I-134 each. The I-134 lists a bunch of evidence and documentation that needs to be included with it. Both your fiancee and your cosponsor will need to provide you with their respective documentation. Later on, during the AOS process, there will be another, more legally binding affidavit of support form called the I-864, that both your fiancee and cosponsor will need to fill out. Like the I-134, it has a list of required documentation. It basically requires most of the documents the I-134 requires, plus some extra. What you need to bring to the visa interview, to maximize your chance of success and minimize any hassles, is: an I-134 from your fiancee, all of the supporting documentation the I-134 requires, for your fiancee, any additional required documentation from the I-864, for your fiancee, an I-134 from your cosponsor, all of the supporting documentation the I-134 requires, for your cosponsor, and any additional required documentation from the I-864, for your cosponsor. [Note that you do not need to bring the I-864 forms themselves to the consulate interview, merely the required evidence and documentation.] Bringing the I-864 documentation to the visa interview, even though it is not strictly required, is a good idea for two reasons: the I-134 is for nonimmigrant visas, which are normally temporary, but K-1 visa recipients intend to remain in the US permanently, making them more like immigrant visa applicants in the eyes of the consular officer. The consulates use the I-864 for immigrant visas, and the consular officer will feel better about granting the K-1 visa (which is sort of a mix of non-immigrant and immigrant visa, you see) if you have evidence handy that you meet the higher standard. the process of gathering the financial documentation for the I-134 and I-864 is very invasive, and therefore very stressful for many people. It is better and easier (logistically and emotionally) for your fiancee and cosponsor if they can get all of the financial information digging and gathering done at once. In my specific case, I visited my USC then-fiancee a few months before the interview, and made a point of picking up all of this stuff then (along with some more up-to-date evidence of our ongoing relationship, which is also asked for at the interview]. Depending on when or if you can visit during this timeframe, your fiancee may need to mail or courier these documents to you. But you will need to take the initiative to tell your fiancee and cosponsor what you need and when you need it - as I said above, your fiancee should not expect any further correspondence from USCIS once the petition is approved and arrives at the Montreal consulate. Edited by HeatDeath, 25 May 2011 - 03:38 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-05-25 15:35:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	some US airports not listed as POE?	I suspect the rule is most likely that members of the military and their dependants can't say which flights they will take in public forums because that could cause that flight to be a terrorist target. Stands to reason, really.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-05-27 23:44:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	some US airports not listed as POE?	If the airport has the word "International" in it's name (check it's website if you're not sure), it's a PoE. "International" airports in the US, by definition, have a US Customs and Immigration section to receive and process travelers from other countries.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-05-27 12:14:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Living in Canda--not a citizen	He may find, calling around to various RCMP detachments, that rural or semi-rural ones are a lot less busy and have much quicker turnaround times. I had mine done in Steinbach, Manitoba [About 30 miles outside Winnipeg. I was working there as a teacher, commuting in from Winnipeg] and there were able to do mine on the spot, with no turnaround time at all. Biggest inconvenience was that they wouldn't take cash or plastic - only a cheque or a money order, which seemed weird.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-11-27 12:12:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Who is right? Me or my fiancee	In general, US government processes work best when you wait for them to ask for stuff before you send it. When they ask for something, they are waiting for it, they are expecting it to arrive, and they have a nice warm cosy file folder ready for it when it does arrive. When you send stuff unsolicited, on the other hand, they may or may not be expecting it at all, they may or may not have a place to put it, and pretty much anything can happen. They'll probably be able to match it up to your existing file, but the odds of a mistake happening jumps from 1-in-a-thousand up to 1-in-a-hundred. Call me cautious, bu that's too rich for my blood, particularly when it's unnecessary. I would tend to only send them A ) stuff that initiates a process - they know how to deal with that, or B ) stuff they have requested and are expecting. Trying to jump the process ahead or hurry it up only confuses them, and confused government officials and offices are not good things to have to deal with. It would probably be fine, but why take unnecessary risks? Edited by HeatDeath, 27 June 2011 - 05:28 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-06-27 17:25:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Couple of questions relating to I-129F	The medical is still 350+, and the interview is still 350. But yeah, not having to fly or hotel anywhere will help immensely. She will have to get to the medical, in line outside the building, ready to in, at 5:45 am on a Wednesday morning. There is a budget hotel, called the Burrard Inn [www.burrardinn.com], right next door to the medical clinic. So she may want to spend at least one night in Vancouver.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-06-29 23:06:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Couple of questions relating to I-129F	Oh right... when I went the interview fee was 131. Now it's 350. So add a couple hundred to my estimate. On the plus side, the I-129F petition is a fair bit cheaper than it was, so you've gotten some of that money back already.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-06-29 21:32:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Couple of questions relating to I-129F	@HeatDeath: When you say "Start saving"... what kind of money are we talking here? /DD's girlfriend She will have to travel from wherever she lives to Vancouver or Montreal to interview at the US consulate and have an immigration medical exam. Figure airfare both ways, plus 2 or 3 nights in a downtown hotel. Mine ran about $1100 all in, including the fee for the medical.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-06-29 21:25:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Couple of questions relating to I-129F	One thing to add: I said the AP travel document and EAD card usually arrive around the same time. USCIS has started combining the two into a single, wallet sized card, so they will probably arrive at exactly the same time, 6-10 weeks after you file the post-marriage Adjustment of Status (AOS) forms.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-06-29 20:32:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Couple of questions relating to I-129F	Hello, I looked through your guys' FAQ but didn't get much help. I filed for my I-129F (for my fiancee) to come in from Canada. She has two questions: 1) When the application is granted, does the fiancee have to move right away or can she wait until her affairs are in order (how much time is granted?) 2) Will the fiancée visa will allow her to work or does she need to apply for a separate visa? If so where can she apply for it? Thanks for any help! After the I-129F is approved, the US consulate in Canada that serves her area (Vancouver or Montreal, depending on which side of the Manitoba/Ontario border she lives on) will send her a visa application package. Following all of the instructions in that package, faxing in the appropriate forms and information, and ultimately going to an interview at the consulate (start saving now) will take at least 2-3 months. The visa itself will be given or couriered to her after the interview. Once the visa is actually in her hands, she will have 6 months to enter the US with it. Lots of time to sort everything out in Canada. Once she enters the US, she will have 90 days to marry you. As soon as possible after you marry, she will send a big package of forms in to USCIS. One of these will be an application for a work permit. It will take 6-10 weeks after she sends in those forms for the work permit (called an EAD) to arrive. She cannot work for a US employer until she has her EAD card in her possession. The other thing to keep in mind is that a fiance visa is single use. That means that once she enters the US with it, she cannot leave the US FOR ANY REASON without having first received a temporary travel document, that arrives at about the same time as the EAD (6-10 weeks after you file the forms, which is as soon as humanly possible after you get married). If she leaves the US without either the temporary travel document (called an AP document around here) or her green card, she will be effectively locked out of the US, you two will have to start all over with a spousal visa. She should keep this in mind as she wraps up her affairs in Canada - she will absolutely positively not be able to return to Canada for a period of 3-4 months after entering on her K-1 visa. Edited by HeatDeath, 29 June 2011 - 08:30 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-06-29 20:28:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	would it be ok to wed right after fiance receives his visa?	In a word, NO. Here's why: Your fiance will be asked, at PoE, if he is legally free to marry. If he can not answer that question with an honest, sincere, and convincing "I am not married, and am therefore legally free to marry", the CBP officer at the PoE will cancel his fiance visa right there and then and you will have to start all over with a spousal visa. Furthermore, once in the US, your fiance will have to send in a bunch of Adjustment of Status forms to USCIS. He will have to include a copy of his I-94 entry document, and your official marriage certificate. If the marriage certificate is from outside the US, and/or the date on the marriage certificate is not subsequent to his PoE date, the AOS will be denied, and you will have to file an I-130, and pay another thousand dollars plus in fees, and that's assuming the CBP officers at PoE didn't find the foreign marriage certificate and cancel his visa and deny him entry in the first place. While it might be possible to have a purely religious non-binding ceremony of some kind in Honduras, you must look at the local laws and be very very careful - if it is a legally binding wedding under Honduran law it will be legally binding in the US. And even if you find you can get away with that little, it's still a really bad idea. You never ever want to put yourselves in a position where your answer to a government official's question has to begin with "Well, technically...". In your shoes, I would not have anything in Honduras other than a completely-non-wedding-like engagement/departure celebration/party. You need to avoid even the slightest appearance of being legally married before he enters the US on a K-1. Edited by HeatDeath, 04 July 2011 - 07:06 PM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-07-04 19:04:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	what to take to the airport?	The I-94 is issued at the airport when they clear Immigration in the US upon arrival. Edited by HeatDeath, 05 July 2011 - 09:34 AM.	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2011-07-05 09:32:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	How did you decide on a K1?	We are currently in a similar debate. This is what I've come up with: K-1: It would get us together quicker and we could actually plan a wedding (with actual guests). Also, we are still waiting for his divorce to be final (after several long years of waiting!) so doing the K-1 means that we wouldn’t be getting married so soon after his divorce (which his (adult) kids might appreciate). CR-1: Actually appears to be a better option for nearly every other reason. If you can wait a few more months apart it seems to have slightly less hassle (i.e. less paperwork) and immediate work/travel benefits (which again, is good for us if he wants/needs to see his kids sooner). There are also some financial benefits to being married before he gives up work over there, for things like pension rights (which are sad and horrible to think about, but he is significantly older than me so he is concerned). Another good benefit is that I can put him on my health insurance immediately after we get married so that when he visits me before the visa is approved he is covered. And also with the CR-1 we really like the idea of me being able to be his ‘agent’ and get his correspondence as well because mail is very questionable where he lives and we’d hate to rely on it. So for us, it's a debate between emotional and practical issues...	goonergirl	Female	United Kingdom	2010-08-30 18:01:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Unemployement and affidavit of support	Thx, then that should work for us !!	sysyphus	Male	France	2011-05-18 08:56:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Unemployement and affidavit of support	Hi, We just received our NO2 and now we are preparing each other for the next steps. My girlfriend, who is American, will fill the affidavit of support. She's been unemployed over the last 6 years, raising her child. Would large savings of 150k be sufficient to sponsor me, even without any income ? I went through the forum and tried to get information, I just need a confirmation that it should be ok. Thx in advance.	sysyphus	Male	France	2011-05-17 18:57:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Can we slow the process down? >.<	Regarding getting you medical prior to faxing in your Packet 3 checklist, I had emailed both the Vancouver consulate and the Vancouver medical clinic about this. Their approved method is to confirm your interview date first, then contact the medical clinic, so on my checklist, I wrote that "Per our email, medical appointment will be arranged once interview date is assigned." The issue is that the Woking medical clinic in downtown Vancouver is the only medical clinic doing immigration medicals in Western Canada (!), so the vast vast majority of people getting visas at Vancouver also have to get their medicals done on the same trip. (The consulate is reasonably understanding about this - they do not seriously expect people to fly to Vancouver twice just to get a visa. Once is bad enough. ) The medical clinic only does immigration medicals once a week - on Wednesdays at 6:30 am. So what you need to do is this: request a Thursday interview if you can get it, or Wednesday afternoon if necessary, and then the medical clinic will slot you into the nearest Wednesday morning before your interview. Now unfortunately, Vancouver couldn't give me a Thursday interview. (At least, not with only 2 weeks notice! ) They were all booked up. So I got a Wednesday afternoon interview, and a Wednesday morning medical. This makes for a very busy Wednesday, but is quite doable. I went to my medical on Wednesday morning, followed by my interview that afternoon at 1:30, then hiking back to the clinic to pick up the results, then delivering them back to the consulate (which closes at 4). Busy Wednesday! I was approved, and told I could pick up my passport+visa after 2:15 the next day. So you can do the whole thing in two days. I would rather have had a Thursday interview, and done the whole thing over three days, but the consulate was booked up on the Thursday and anyways I didn't want to miss more work than necessary. Useful piece of advice, BTW: There is a hotel called the Burrard Inn literally next door to the medical clinic. Budget rooms: very very basic, but INCREDIBLY convenient for the early morning medical exam appointment lineup. (You really want to be there at about ten to six. That way you can get through quickly and be out of there by 9:30ish.)	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-03-18 13:39:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Can we slow the process down? >.<	We were in a very similar situation. I was teaching at a high school, so we had no intention of me moving down to the US until early-to-mid July, with the wedding scheduled for September 12. Our NOA2 showed up on January 7, and the Packet 3 on January 28th. When the NOA2 showed up, I got an excited, slightly panicked email from my now-wife asking if this was too early I couldn't even have sent the Packet 3 stuff back promptly even if I had wanted to, because my now-wife had not yet done the I-134, as our intent had been for me to pick that stuff up hen I went to visit her at the end of March, to save on what was already a mounting postal bill I worked our schedule backwards, knowing that I had to marry within 90 days of entry. Well, September 12 was well within 90 days of early-to-mid July, so that part was still good. Six months before early-to-mid July was early-to-mid January, so we knew that as long as the visa wasn't approved in January, we were still good. Our plan had been to fax back Packet 3 in the first week of April, after I returned from visiting her during Spring break. Four months (the length of the NOA2 validity) from January 7th would be May 7th, so that part still seemed good. So I sat on Packet 3 for 69 days, from January 28th until the second week of April, and then faxed it in. As it happens they initially issued me an interview date for 6 weeks later: May 29th. Which would have been after the end of the NOA2 validity period. I emailed them to ask if this was a problem, and they replied with the terse but comforting "Petition validity – Can be extended on the date of your visa interview.", indicating that it was not a problem. When I later emailed them to ask if it were maybe possible to move it up to earlier in May (as my work was already quite curious as to whether or not I would be returning in September, and I obviously couldn't answer them without a visa in hand) they were able to reschedule me for April 29th, still within the NOA2's four-month validity period. I was approved at the interview, collected my visa the next day, and entered the US on July 12. So everything worked out fine. There are two direct methods of lengthening out the visa application process. The first is sitting on your Packet 3. The downside of this is it can result in not getting an interview until after your I-129F NOA2 has expired, although in my experience with Vancouver, as long as you send in your PAcket 3 during that period, they will extend the NOA2 at the interview. [I think the primary purpose of the NOA2 validity period is to give them an official justification to close long-outstanding visa applications, in the cases where they send out a Packet 3 and never hear from the beneficiary again. If you are in semi-regular communication with them, and they know that your application is sill pending, I don't [i]think[/i] they're too sticky about it. That's Vancouver anyways. Other consulates (especially the ones where they're just looking for an excuse to deny!) may be another issue altogether!] The other method would be, of course, requesting a late interview when you fax in your Packet 3 checklist. Note that surprisingly, Vancouver seem reasonably amenable to negotiating interview dates by email after the PAcket 4 is received by you. So between those two methods, you should be able to end up with an interview in the timeframe you want. Hope this helps!	HeatDeath	Male	Canada	2010-03-18 13:22:00