Embarking on My K-1 Visa Journey

[sooner56 0]

My girlfriend and I have just recently decided to get married and are at the VERY BEGINNING of the whole K-1 visa fiasco. She currently resides in Brazil and of course I am here in Dallas. I am looking for any and all help with dealing with all of this for I feel a little overwhelmed. I would appreciate any and al help with ANY of this process, i.e. where do I start? Should I hire legal service or any other service of this type to help me navigate and expedite the proceedings? Would it be behoove us just to do it ourselves? I want to thank anyone who helps me out with my questions in advance and look forward to the help. I have been reading the forum trying to ascertain the best "road to travel" to obtain my ultimate and eventual goal of bringing my girlfriend here to get married. Again thank you all.

[Aubrey 10]

They are the best place to start learning about the K1 process, and it should answer the majority of your questions. (see the top of the page)

As for legal help, most people on VJ will tell you that you can do this process yourself unless you have unusual circumstances (such as an overstay, previous K1 filed, etc). I've seen many posts about lawyers just making the process worse.

Edited October 12, 2008 by Aubrey

[sooner56 0]

They are the best place to start learning about the K1 process, and it should answer the majority of your questions. (see the top of the page)

As for legal help, most people on VJ will tell you that you can do this process yourself unless you have unusual circumstances (such as an overstay, previous K1 filed, etc). I've seen many posts about lawyers just making the process worse.

[sooner56 0]

thank you so much for your help. DUH...I didn't even see the Guides title. I agree with you as far as the lawyer, don't they always complicate life?? Anyway I will read the guides and get started ASAP. Again, thank you very much and here's hoping you have a long and happy life with your fiancee.

They are the best place to start learning about the K1 process, and it should answer the majority of your questions. (see the top of the page)

As for legal help, most people on VJ will tell you that you can do this process yourself unless you have unusual circumstances (such as an overstay, previous K1 filed, etc). I've seen many posts about lawyers just making the process worse.

[Cassie 8]

My biggest pieces of advice are:

read the guides, read the USCIS website, read the forms, and get informed about the process

expect this process to go slow, and be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't

keep yourself busy doing other things instead of constantly obsessing about the visa process, or you will drive yourself crazy

Best wishes to you!

[TBoneTX 45,297]

I concur with the other posters. Because you'll be dealing with a Latin American consulate (albeit one of the purportedly better-run ones), include indisputable "proof of relationship" in your I-129F package to USCIS. Such is not required, but it can be worth its weight in gold once you face the consular process. Ideas of what to include are: boarding passes and/or luggage receipts from each of your trips to see her (or, if you haven't saved them, copies of EVERY page of your passport); several representative e-mails that span the duration of your relationship and which ideally discuss serious "couple" stuff; and -- most valuably -- several letters from your people and hers that attest to having seen you together.

The reason for this (see my signature) is that the interviewing consul can refuse any evidence that your fiancee brings to the interview, and can claim that there isn't enough. Including such evidence in the initial package means that USCIS (DHS) has seen it, and the consulate can't deny its existence -- after all, USCIS is sending it to the consulate.

Your people may not have met your fiancee if she hasn't visited you in the U.S., but they have perhaps seen pictures of the two of you, and certainly have heard about the relationship from you over a period of months. When you ask your people for (one-page) letters, remind them of when you met your fiancee and the correct spelling of her name, but other than that, just ask them to validate the relationship in their own words. An absolute MUST is to put their contact information -- phone, e-mail, address -- in their letter, along with their relationship to you (family, friend, boss).

Minimize the number of letters from HER people. This is because the consul could get the impression that these people are jockeying to come to the U.S. later, after the beneficiary (your fiancee) makes it here herself. No more than two or three from her most important people are necessary, and they should be comparatively formal, such as "I certify that ___ and ___ were together in my presence on [dates] for [occasions, if applicable], and that their relationship and intent to marry are true and genuine." Again, their contact information is a must.

Hard-copy, signed letters are optimal, but get them in any way that you can. You may be very pleasantly surprised at how responsive your people will be to your request. Collecting these may take a couple of weeks, but doing so can save that much time and far more on the other end of your "journey."

Finally, save your money and your vacation time so that you CAN and DO attend her interview at the consulate. The U.S. citizen's presence is just about required at any Latin American consular interview, even if the website or anyone says that it isn't. You must be at that interview even if you are on your deathbed or you're dead. And (file this for that time), you have every right to enter the consulate (it's U.S. soil and you're a USC), and you have every obligation to stand beside your fiancee while she is being interviewed, for these reasons: to ensure that evidence brought is evidence accepted and looked at, and to ensure that no illegal questions are asked.

The above paragraph is early and may overwhelm you, yet please accept that this can (and has) happened. It behooves you to prepare now. Finally, good luck, si man!