affadavit of support/preventing problems at the interview!

[kristinmadu 0]

we finally got our NOA2, yay! but our circumstances have changed, and we want to prevent any problems at the embassy in colombo when we go to interview.

when we first applied we were planning on moving back to the US, but with the economic situation there, we decided to stay here in a third country, cambodia (we've lived here together for one year and have a baby daughter.)

we are still going for the K-1 visa in order to visit my family and get married while we're in the US. we don't plan on applying for AOS, but rather we'll just come back here to cambodia. as i mentioned in a previous post, as a poor single guy from a poor country he would never get a tourist visa.

now for the questions...

1.) affadavit of support-- i have a good job here, does that count or do i need a co-sponsor in the US?

2.) i understand this is a rare situation, in the event we get an interview with a person at the consulate who wants to reject us based on the fact that we're not moving to the US, what can we say in our defense? i've had a quick look at some of the foreign service manuals and haven't found a thing.

should i contact a lawyer to get some concrete regulations to print out that states that we can still enter the US even though we don't plan on living there? i do have a contact at the embassy who knows us but he's not in the consular section-- would it be wise to consult him?

3.) my baby and i plan on going to the interview with my fiance. how much can i speak? will they address me with questions as well as him? can i help him out or will they tell me to shut up?

i don't want to leave anything up to chance, my mom and dad are dying to their granddaughter! thanks in advance for your help.

[YuAndDan 153]

1) the Affidavit of support assumes that the job will continue after MOVING from foreign country to USA, this means a US based employer. In your case a CO-Sponsor living and working in the USA will be needed.

2) Not much the consulate tends to have the last say, "Not moving to USA" tends to not be an issue, they are more concerned with if the relationship is a bona fide relationship.

3) Depends, some consulates don't allow US Citizen to attend the interview at all.

Moving this to consulate/embassy forum.

Edited March 11, 2009 by YuAndDan

[Marina-Del 10]

we finally got our NOA2, yay! but our circumstances have changed, and we want to prevent any problems at the embassy in colombo when we go to interview.

when we first applied we were planning on moving back to the US, but with the economic situation there, we decided to stay here in a third country, cambodia (we've lived here together for one year and have a baby daughter.)

we are still going for the K-1 visa in order to visit my family and get married while we're in the US. we don't plan on applying for AOS, but rather we'll just come back here to cambodia. as i mentioned in a previous post, as a poor single guy from a poor country he would never get a tourist visa.

now for the questions...

1.) affadavit of support-- i have a good job here, does that count or do i need a co-sponsor in the US?

2.) i understand this is a rare situation, in the event we get an interview with a person at the consulate who wants to reject us based on the fact that we're not moving to the US, what can we say in our defense? i've had a quick look at some of the foreign service manuals and haven't found a thing.

should i contact a lawyer to get some concrete regulations to print out that states that we can still enter the US even though we don't plan on living there? i do have a contact at the embassy who knows us but he's not in the consular section-- would it be wise to consult him?

3.) my baby and i plan on going to the interview with my fiance. how much can i speak? will they address me with questions as well as him? can i help him out or will they tell me to shut up?

i don't want to leave anything up to chance, my mom and dad are dying to their granddaughter! thanks in advance for your help.

This is a pretty sticky situation in my opinion. In regard to your question 2...the K-1 visa is for couples who plan on getting married in the US and staying in the US. I understand that you two have changed your minds and when you originally applied, this was your intention, but, I'm not sure if it is technically okay for you to go ahead with the visa if you don't plan on living there! Personally, I totally understand as my fiancee is unable to get a tourist visa based on his lack of money as well (and because of this has not met my family). BUT, I'm not sure that the US consulate will understand. I think that if you tell them that you do not intend of living in the US then they will deny your visa petition. Maybe I'm wrong on this and if so hopefully someone will correct me. I don't think that a lawyer could help you out there, or your friend really (except for maybe some advice and more concrete information). In my opinion, if you tell them that you aren't going to live in the US, they wont give you the K-1 visa. Because if they did, they would really be granting her a tourist visa, which you have already stated it would be basically impossible for her to get!

As for as the affidant of support, I'm not sure. When I applied we used my fiancee's job in London (he was Australian) as the primary money maker as I was a waitress. We had support papers from my parents JUST in case they wanted them, but they never asked for them. However, if you go to the London consulate website it specifically says that they will let the non USC support themselves (I think this is because people in London tend to make about the same amount of money as those in the US) where I'm going to guess that people in Cambodia don't...but you'd have to check with your particular consulate about that!

About what you say at the interview, it also depends on the consulate. I was there at my fiancee's interview (this was a previous K-1 application that after we were approved at interview stage, cancelled because we broke up! ). They told me not to answer the questions, like what is my full name and birthday and stuff like that. But, he didn't tell me to be quiet the whole time. I was there standing next to him and smiling and all of that, but I think the extent of my talking was "hi, thank you, have a good day". Just do what the person interviewing you says....he'll tell you not to answer the questions if you shouldn't!

Good luck!! And hopefully others with more knowledge than me can help too!

[YuAndDan 153]

Another issue, is the affidavit of support REQUIRES US-Domicile, since you indicate that you do not intend on living in the USA, it sound like you gave up US Domicile.

In order for you to sponsor the K-1, you need to provide an I-134, and the I-134 requires US Domicile.

More on Domicile can be found here: http://travel.state.gov/pdf/I-864GenInfo-FAQ-Final.pdf (This applies to I-134 TOO)

[MrsRowe 2]

The immigration petition is base on the person migrating to the US . Telling them that you are not moving to the US will not help. Furthermore, you have six months to travel once the visa is issued. Once you have not traveled, i believe that they cancel the visa. If i am not mistaken. Good luck.

[kristinmadu 0]

thanks for all the info, especially the i-864 documents, YuDan.

since the interview usually based on proving a bona fide relationship (no problem there) and we have an excellent co-sponsor (my rich brother), we will just do the interview as planned and hope they also just assume we're moving.

oh, and of course we are travelling to the US to visit my family, get married, and be gone before the visa expires. it's just the AOS part we'll skip since we live abroad.

Edited March 12, 2009 by kristinmadu