Bolivia, Love and Paperwork

[M and K 0]

We’ve been on the site for a little while, but I thought that maybe someone could gain insight from our experience.

Our Journey is between Bolivia and USA. The process we used is likely similar for many countries.

Here is our journey.

We met on the internet in April 2006. Since we had both had bad relationship experience, we were cautious about starting anything quickly. After about 10 months of almost daily emails and weekly phone calls, but never speaking about a relationship between us. Only friend, although we did talk about our bad experiences and what we looked for in a mate. Finally, I told her I wanted to come and meet her in person. I’ve usually been very observant of things. I could usually determine right away if a relationship would not work for the long run. She was just too perfect and there had to be something wrong… I had to meet her. How could we seem to think so much alike? So I planned it, and went. It was perfect, from start to finish. It was at this time we discussed the possibility of marriage, but neither of us committed to anything. We were simply adults, very comfortable together and discussing the pros and cons of a relationship between us. She was everything I ever dreamed of in a woman, plus more. She was the woman that I thought never existed, so, I asked her, she said yes and we were engaged.

Her family did not want her to leave the country without being married first. Even though we knew it would take longer, we wanted to maintain family peace, so we planned everything around that.

THE PAPERWORK

Now for the part that will hopefully help other.

1. Birth Certificate: has to be certified by the state that issued it.

2. Divorce Declaration: Proof of termination from any previous marriage(s). This had to be certified by county clerks office.

3. Declaration of Eligibility to Marry: This is a sworn statement to being free to marry. This was not really easy to find, but I was able to write my own:

(Sample Oath: http://www.visajourney.com/gallery/display...=1631&pos=0 )

I'm no lawyer, but it did work. It needed to be witnessed by two other people and notarized.

Now that doesn’t seem so hard… oh, but first, any notarized document has to sent to the state, to certify the notary signature and stamp are authentic.

Ok, now take the originals and have them translated into Spanish by a certified translator, who then notarizes them.

Are we done? Nope! Now send them back to the state for certifying the notary of the translations. Does it ever end? Eventually. After receiving the certified papers back, now take all the original English and original translated copies and send them to the Bolivian Consulate. The Consulate will confirm and stamp each document. This makes them legal.

To top it all off, every certification costs money. Not a lot, but it adds up. The translation was not cheap in my home town.

I should write a book about this.

Now I have all my original certified documents in English and my certified translations, certified by the state and certified by Bolivia Consulate.

Now, off to Bolivia to get married.

Married? …not yet. After arriving in Bolivia, we submitted all the documents to an attorney, who prepared the necessary paperwork for civil marriage, which cost a couple hundred. I then had to go and obtain a special purpose visa, which was another $100+. We can get married now? Nope, have to wait about a week for the visa to be approved.

Finally, we can get married.

AFTER MARRIAGE

There are a couple ways to go about it, but this is the process we took.

Now it was my wife’s turn. She had to have all of her documents translated (certified and notarized) into English. These documents had to be taken to U.S. Consulate for certification. These certified translations, along with mine, were then used to petition for immigration.

Petition I-130 for immigration of spouse…after receiving NOA1, we petitioned I-129F for K-3 visa.

And now we are enduring the time apart, while we wait for approval. Time apart is very difficult, but I’ve been looking for her all my life. I will wait for her, no matter the time.

RECOMMEND

I would recommend K-1 to anyone that is planning to marry and immigrate if it is at all possible. You might even be able to have a religious ceremony in your fiancé’s country prior to legal ceremony in the USA. You will save yourself a lot of money, difficulty and time apart. This was not an option for us.

I wish you a speedy journey with happiness as your goal.

[Steve Y Jessica 1]

Your process for getting married sounds alot like ours for getting married in Buenos Aires. We were in the same boat, her family wanted us to get married in Buenos Aires.

But all of the paperwork, and all of the trnaslations. We were running all over the Buenos Aires to get all of the translations done. And the translation for my Divorse Decree was very expensive, $500, because it had alot of pages. And it was not easy to find the certified translator. You go to the Colege of translators and they give you a book that is 3 inches thick which lists translators. Well we would call and everyone either did not do it anymore or were on vacation or had an incorrect phone number. We finally found one after about an hour and a half of calling.

And in Argentina, you have to put in all of the paperwork 30 days before you get married, then you have to have the medical 10 days before you get married. That was not easy to pull off but at least I was able to spend all of that time with my beautiful Jessica. But because of the time I had to be in Buenos Aires for taking care of everything, I had to return to the US 2 days after we got married.

There were a few more little difficulties because I am from the United States and her nationality is from Peru. But everything finally worked out and we got married.

I also feel the same way as you. I can't believe how perfect she is, and how similar we think. We both want the same things in life. I never imagined that I would marry someone from another country, I was not looking, I met her when I was working in Buenos Aires. Now is the most difficult part, the waiting.

[alejandra2 0]

M & K

Well I am from Bolivia too and we also know how hard is this process , it was nice to see that you share your recomendations and experiencies about this process since there is not a lot of people from Bolivia in this website, anyways we just want to tell you once you are together with your wife evetyhing is worth it, we wish you luck.!!!!

[Arequipa4us 0]

Yes, yes, yes!!! My wife is from Peru and we went through a very similiar process. Fortunately, I was able to walk my documents into the Peruvian consulate in San Francisco to "legalize" them. If anyone is on this path I would add the following suggestions:

Do your research on what you actually need

(Don't want to make a 2nd trip)

Plan your consulate trip in advance

(The line gets long, early)

Make sure you have enough cash

(Checks and credit cards are usually not accepted)

Know if the consulate has jurisdiction over the issuing authority for your documents

(I was born in San Diego, and had submitt my birth cert, to the consulate in Los Angeles)

[simple_male 1]

Welcome to VJ!

[o0pink0o 3]

Welcome to VJ and Good Luck to the visa journey

[przy 0]

welcome to VJ and good luck with your journey!

[bora bora 1]

Welcome to VJ!!

I Bolivia!!!

[Elphie 0]

I know exactly how you feel about your wife. My husband is also the man I never thought existed and I took to calling him Mr. 2 good 2 be true for awhile, but now I know he's real. Good luck to you on your journey!!