Important Advice for NEW K1 Filers

[ghosttridder 0]

Although you may not like it, it is your own fault that you were denied. You had NO circumstances that would have fell under the scope of the exemption. While religion and customs may keep you from intimate contact, as stated before, they do NOT keep you from meeting. Therefore you did not qualify for the exemption as defined. As others have stated, this has in the past been an abused exemption and the USCIS gives it a lot more scrutiny. The best way to help prevent any denial, is to arm yourself with knowledge on whatever Visa you decide to try for. You can keep trying to lay the blame on USCIS or anyone else you want. But, it's all smoke and mirrors trying to draw the blame away from yourself.

I strongly disagree here. Under no area was I at fault. I was under false impression, mislead by a statement that the uscis has stated in the application petition. Yes, requirement states that we should have met in person.

and again, i am going to reiterate what the second misleading clause here is.

USCIS states and i quote: "If this VIOLATES long establish customs and traditions" then this may be waived.

well it is a long established custom and tradition that the groom and the bride do not get it on until after the wedding night. We dont have babies then get married, we honor marriages, then start families. Most bride & groom will not have met in this traditional type of union until after the wedding. Some bride and groom, will have just a verbal relationship to get to know their personalities. Some will just see the pictures and go off of what their relatives say about the groom or bride and trust their word on how the marriage candidate is.. and it goes on..

this statement is to vague and needs to be more specific

let me tell you about something here, this here is extremely misleading ESPECIALLY for people who do arrange marriages, or regular cultural marriages, because what it is implying here is that, uscis may waive the requirment that you need to have met in person. ( i know this does not have to be intimate)

uscis does not need to be telling people they may waive this when it is extremely hard to get a waiver, because then people will start to think automatically, to do a finace visa, then get married here in the states as what it was in my case.

[rsn 135]

Although you may not like it, it is your own fault that you were denied. You had NO circumstances that would have fell under the scope of the exemption. While religion and customs may keep you from intimate contact, as stated before, they do NOT keep you from meeting. Therefore you did not qualify for the exemption as defined. As others have stated, this has in the past been an abused exemption and the USCIS gives it a lot more scrutiny. The best way to help prevent any denial, is to arm yourself with knowledge on whatever Visa you decide to try for. You can keep trying to lay the blame on USCIS or anyone else you want. But, it's all smoke and mirrors trying to draw the blame away from yourself.

I strongly disagree here. Under no area was I at fault. I was under false impression, mislead by a statement that the uscis has stated in the application petition. Yes, requirement states that we should have met in person.

and again, i am going to reiterate what the second misleading clause here is.

USCIS states and i quote: "If this VIOLATES long establish customs and traditions" then this may be waived.

well it is a long established custom and tradition that the groom and the bride do not get it on until after the wedding night. We dont have babies then get married, we honor marriages, then start families. Most bride & groom will not have met in this traditional type of union until after the wedding. Some bride and groom, will have just a verbal relationship to get to know their personalities. Some will just see the pictures and go off of what their relatives say about the groom or bride and trust their word on how the marriage candidate is.. and it goes on..

this statement is to vague and needs to be more specific

let me tell you about something here, this here is extremely misleading ESPECIALLY for people who do arrange marriages, or regular cultural marriages, because what it is implying here is that, uscis may waive the requirment that you need to have met in person. ( i know this does not have to be intimate)

uscis does not need to be telling people they may waive this when it is extremely hard to get a waiver, because then people will start to think automatically, to do a finace visa, then get married here in the states as what it was in my case.

If you took the words "may waive" to mean "will definitely be waived" then it is your own fault. You can't seriously expect USCIS to remove this from their documentation just because it is not guaranteed that it will be waived. Don't assume anything, ever. On the plus side, you learned a valuable life lesson here!

[BokGao 0]

laides and gents..geez you need to understand the point here. i understand about meeting, and it doesn't have to be intimate, we can just meet without doing anything else.

where the uscis states that this requirment might be waived is a complete hoax, and it threw me off, way off.. like 8 months off of my love life.

this waiver statement shouldn't be there, because it will start misleading people into thinking that they don't have to meet

So it took you 8 months to figure out you need to get yourself on an airplane and go to meet your fiancee in person? It would have been a lot cheaper and easier just to go 8 months ago, she may have been here by now.

Right and advance research before attempting this maneuver would've save 8 months of unnecessary delay. There's plenty of post regarding this issue and 10 minutes of research would've told you what it took you 8 months to learn. Some people learn things the easy way and some learn the hard way. I understand the OP was just trying to educate others into not following in his footsteps. I'm sure someone will gain something from this post. Mission accomplished.

Do your research OR ELSE... lol

Thank you for making my point

Lol is right. Yes do your research or else you'll face a delay. Here's a quick 5 minutes search on Google did for me on this subject...

Are there any meeting requirement exceptions?

There is a provision in the law that may exempt the petitioner from the meeting requirement "if it is established that compliance would result in extreme hardship to the petitioner or that compliance would violate strict and long-established customs of the K-1beneficiary's foreign culture or social practice, as where marriages are traditionally arranged by the parents of the contracting parties and the prospective bride and groom are prohibited from meeting subsequent to the arrangement and prior to the wedding day.

" INA § 214.2(k)(2).Unfortunately, such waivers are very rarely granted by the USCIS. The"extreme hardship" exception has been interpreted by the USCIS to mean something very close to "impossible".

It generally is available only to people who are so disabled that they can't fly at all. As for the second grounds for a waiver, very few people qualify for this exception, and those that do often have a difficult time proving it to the government's satisfaction.

http://www.k1-fiance-visa.com/philippine-visa-faq.htm

Thanks for prooving them right.

[rsn 135]

If you took the words "may waive" to mean "will definitely be waived" then it is your own fault. You can't seriously expect USCIS to remove this from their documentation just because it is not guaranteed that it will be waived. Don't assume anything, ever. On the plus side, you learned a valuable life lesson here!

And another thing, a visa for your significant other is not a guaranteed right, it's a privilege. Even though I've complained myself countless times about how the process and the government is not fair, it's good to remember that none of this is guaranteed. It might not be fair that you have to jump through extra hoops to get the visa for your SO while others may have an easier time due to cultural/traditional differences, but what can you do? Is it fair that my fiancee got approved at her interview only 5 months after we filed the I-129F and others who filed long before us haven't even made it to NVC? Absolutely not. We all know the process is flawed, but you aren't going to change it, and neither is anyone else most likely.

[ghosttridder 0]

Although you may not like it, it is your own fault that you were denied. You had NO circumstances that would have fell under the scope of the exemption. While religion and customs may keep you from intimate contact, as stated before, they do NOT keep you from meeting. Therefore you did not qualify for the exemption as defined. As others have stated, this has in the past been an abused exemption and the USCIS gives it a lot more scrutiny. The best way to help prevent any denial, is to arm yourself with knowledge on whatever Visa you decide to try for. You can keep trying to lay the blame on USCIS or anyone else you want. But, it's all smoke and mirrors trying to draw the blame away from yourself.

I strongly disagree here. Under no area was I at fault. I was under false impression, mislead by a statement that the uscis has stated in the application petition. Yes, requirement states that we should have met in person.

and again, i am going to reiterate what the second misleading clause here is.

USCIS states and i quote: "If this VIOLATES long establish customs and traditions" then this may be waived.

well it is a long established custom and tradition that the groom and the bride do not get it on until after the wedding night. We dont have babies then get married, we honor marriages, then start families. Most bride & groom will not have met in this traditional type of union until after the wedding. Some bride and groom, will have just a verbal relationship to get to know their personalities. Some will just see the pictures and go off of what their relatives say about the groom or bride and trust their word on how the marriage candidate is.. and it goes on..

this statement is to vague and needs to be more specific

let me tell you about something here, this here is extremely misleading ESPECIALLY for people who do arrange marriages, or regular cultural marriages, because what it is implying here is that, uscis may waive the requirment that you need to have met in person. ( i know this does not have to be intimate)

uscis does not need to be telling people they may waive this when it is extremely hard to get a waiver, because then people will start to think automatically, to do a finace visa, then get married here in the states as what it was in my case.

If you took the words "may waive" to mean "will definitely be waived" then it is your own fault. You can't seriously expect USCIS to remove this from their documentation just because it is not guaranteed that it will be waived. Don't assume anything, ever. On the plus side, you learned a valuable life lesson here!

so it is my fault that i applied and got denied under terms that they laid out? i dont believe so.

thats just it, it is like the us citizens have to "get permission" to get married. It is like that when you say there is no guarantee that the uscis petitions will be approved.. and fact is there isn't a guarantee so, us citizens who get married overseas are SOL when it comes to this process, because all this process produces, is.. waste of time, despair, uncertainty, some destroys relationships during this process and more.

we might as well install electronic chip implants in all of us, so the govt can track our every move

Edited June 21, 2009 by ghosttridder

[SCFsnoopy 0]

USCIS states and i quote: "If this VIOLATES long establish customs and traditions" then this may be waived.

well it is a long established custom and tradition that the groom and the bride do not get it on until after the wedding night. We dont have babies then get married, we honor marriages, then start families. Most bride & groom will not have met in this traditional type of union until after the wedding. Some bride and groom, will have just a verbal relationship to get to know their personalities. Some will just see the pictures and go off of what their relatives say about the groom or bride and trust their word on how the marriage candidate is.. and it goes on..

this statement is to vague and needs to be more specific

Why are you bringing this up? You KNOW you don't need to "get it on" with your fiancee for your meeting to count with the USCIS. You admit it yourself, here:

laides and gents..geez you need to understand the point here. i understand about meeting, and it doesn't have to be intimate, we can just meet without doing anything else.

If you understand that, why didn't you do it?

I suggest you go and meet your fiancee, then either refile the I-129F or get married and apply for a CR-1.

[rsn 135]

so it is my fault that i applied and got denied under terms that they laid out? i dont believe so.

thats just it, it is like the us citizens have to "get permission" to get married. It is like that when you say there is no guarantee that the uscis petitions will be approved.. and fact is there isn't a guarantee so, us citizens who get married overseas are SOL when it comes to this process, because all this process produces, is.. waste of time, despair, uncertainty, some destroys relationships during this process and more

No, you don't have to get permission to get married. You can marry whoever you want. You do have to get permission to bring your foreign SO to the U.S. though! The other option is to get married and move to your SO's country. While the process is flawed, there has to be SOME process in place for this. I understand your frustration, but it is what it is.

[ghosttridder 0]

laides and gents..geez you need to understand the point here. i understand about meeting, and it doesn't have to be intimate, we can just meet without doing anything else.

where the uscis states that this requirment might be waived is a complete hoax, and it threw me off, way off.. like 8 months off of my love life.

this waiver statement shouldn't be there, because it will start misleading people into thinking that they don't have to meet

So it took you 8 months to figure out you need to get yourself on an airplane and go to meet your fiancee in person? It would have been a lot cheaper and easier just to go 8 months ago, she may have been here by now.

Right and advance research before attempting this maneuver would've save 8 months of unnecessary delay. There's plenty of post regarding this issue and 10 minutes of research would've told you what it took you 8 months to learn. Some people learn things the easy way and some learn the hard way. I understand the OP was just trying to educate others into not following in his footsteps. I'm sure someone will gain something from this post. Mission accomplished.

Do your research OR ELSE... lol

Thank you for making my point

Lol is right. Yes do your research or else you'll face a delay. Here's a quick 5 minutes search on Google did for me on this subject...

Are there any meeting requirement exceptions?

There is a provision in the law that may exempt the petitioner from the meeting requirement "if it is established that compliance would result in extreme hardship to the petitioner or that compliance would violate strict and long-established customs of the K-1beneficiary's foreign culture or social practice, as where marriages are traditionally arranged by the parents of the contracting parties and the prospective bride and groom are prohibited from meeting subsequent to the arrangement and prior to the wedding day.

" INA § 214.2(k)(2).Unfortunately, such waivers are very rarely granted by the USCIS. The"extreme hardship" exception has been interpreted by the USCIS to mean something very close to "impossible".

It generally is available only to people who are so disabled that they can't fly at all. As for the second grounds for a waiver, very few people qualify for this exception, and those that do often have a difficult time proving it to the government's satisfaction.

http://www.k1-fiance-visa.com/philippine-visa-faq.htm

Thanks for prooving them right.

this is the research, if this info was available when I applied at that time, truth is, it was not. then i would've just went there and got married instead of waiting. There's no reason i would apply had I know that it would be "rarely granted"

[ghosttridder 0]

so it is my fault that i applied and got denied under terms that they laid out? i dont believe so.

thats just it, it is like the us citizens have to "get permission" to get married. It is like that when you say there is no guarantee that the uscis petitions will be approved.. and fact is there isn't a guarantee so, us citizens who get married overseas are SOL when it comes to this process, because all this process produces, is.. waste of time, despair, uncertainty, some destroys relationships during this process and more

No, you don't have to get permission to get married. You can marry whoever you want. You do have to get permission to bring your foreign SO to the U.S. though! The other option is to get married and move to your SO's country. While the process is flawed, there has to be SOME process in place for this. I understand your frustration, but it is what it is.

it is the same thing. saying you can marry whoever you want but then saying, well dont come here, itsn't practical. same thing as needing to get permission.

[rsn 135]

so it is my fault that i applied and got denied under terms that they laid out? i dont believe so.

thats just it, it is like the us citizens have to "get permission" to get married. It is like that when you say there is no guarantee that the uscis petitions will be approved.. and fact is there isn't a guarantee so, us citizens who get married overseas are SOL when it comes to this process, because all this process produces, is.. waste of time, despair, uncertainty, some destroys relationships during this process and more

No, you don't have to get permission to get married. You can marry whoever you want. You do have to get permission to bring your foreign SO to the U.S. though! The other option is to get married and move to your SO's country. While the process is flawed, there has to be SOME process in place for this. I understand your frustration, but it is what it is.

it is the same thing. saying you can marry whoever you want but then saying, well dont come here, itsn't practical. same thing as needing to get permission.

This thread is going in circles now. Clearly no one will be able to change your mind on this one. I sincerely wish you and your SO the best of luck on fixing this so you can be together ASAP. I know it can be a trying process. Hopefully you will find this website and the people on it to be as useful as I have during me and my fiancee's journey so far. Take care.

Edited June 21, 2009 by rsn

[cdneh 3,112]

laides and gents..geez you need to understand the point here. i understand about meeting, and it doesn't have to be intimate, we can just meet without doing anything else.

where the uscis states that this requirment might be waived is a complete hoax, and it threw me off, way off.. like 8 months off of my love life.

this waiver statement shouldn't be there, because it will start misleading people into thinking that they don't have to meet

So it took you 8 months to figure out you need to get yourself on an airplane and go to meet your fiancee in person? It would have been a lot cheaper and easier just to go 8 months ago, she may have been here by now.

Right and advance research before attempting this maneuver would've save 8 months of unnecessary delay. There's plenty of post regarding this issue and 10 minutes of research would've told you what it took you 8 months to learn. Some people learn things the easy way and some learn the hard way. I understand the OP was just trying to educate others into not following in his footsteps. I'm sure someone will gain something from this post. Mission accomplished.

Do your research OR ELSE... lol

Thank you for making my point

Lol is right. Yes do your research or else you'll face a delay. Here's a quick 5 minutes search on Google did for me on this subject...

Are there any meeting requirement exceptions?

There is a provision in the law that may exempt the petitioner from the meeting requirement "if it is established that compliance would result in extreme hardship to the petitioner or that compliance would violate strict and long-established customs of the K-1beneficiary's foreign culture or social practice, as where marriages are traditionally arranged by the parents of the contracting parties and the prospective bride and groom are prohibited from meeting subsequent to the arrangement and prior to the wedding day.

" INA § 214.2(k)(2).Unfortunately, such waivers are very rarely granted by the USCIS. The"extreme hardship" exception has been interpreted by the USCIS to mean something very close to "impossible".

It generally is available only to people who are so disabled that they can't fly at all. As for the second grounds for a waiver, very few people qualify for this exception, and those that do often have a difficult time proving it to the government's satisfaction.

http://www.k1-fiance-visa.com/philippine-visa-faq.htm

Thanks for prooving them right.

this is the research, if this info was available when I applied at that time, truth is, it was not. then i would've just went there and got married instead of waiting. There's no reason i would apply had I know that it would be "rarely granted"

Of course it was available. It was there when I first looked at filing in 2007. Quite a while before your 8 month wait.

[Danu 19]

Although you may not like it, it is your own fault that you were denied. You had NO circumstances that would have fell under the scope of the exemption. While religion and customs may keep you from intimate contact, as stated before, they do NOT keep you from meeting. Therefore you did not qualify for the exemption as defined. As others have stated, this has in the past been an abused exemption and the USCIS gives it a lot more scrutiny. The best way to help prevent any denial, is to arm yourself with knowledge on whatever Visa you decide to try for. You can keep trying to lay the blame on USCIS or anyone else you want. But, it's all smoke and mirrors trying to draw the blame away from yourself.

I strongly disagree here. Under no area was I at fault. I was under false impression, mislead by a statement that the uscis has stated in the application petition. Yes, requirement states that we should have met in person.

and again, i am going to reiterate what the second misleading clause here is.

USCIS states and i quote: "If this VIOLATES long establish customs and traditions" then this may be waived.

well it is a long established custom and tradition that the groom and the bride do not get it on until after the wedding night. We dont have babies then get married, we honor marriages, then start families. Most bride & groom will not have met in this traditional type of union until after the wedding. Some bride and groom, will have just a verbal relationship to get to know their personalities. Some will just see the pictures and go off of what their relatives say about the groom or bride and trust their word on how the marriage candidate is.. and it goes on..

this statement is to vague and needs to be more specific

let me tell you about something here, this here is extremely misleading ESPECIALLY for people who do arrange marriages, or regular cultural marriages, because what it is implying here is that, uscis may waive the requirment that you need to have met in person. ( i know this does not have to be intimate)

uscis does not need to be telling people they may waive this when it is extremely hard to get a waiver, because then people will start to think automatically, to do a finace visa, then get married here in the states as what it was in my case.

I definately understand it is frusterating and I'm sure this post will help others. The key for everyone to remember is what you wrote in this sentance:

"well it is a long established custom and tradition that the groom and the bride do not get it on until after the wedding night"

That is the only part that is established. There are very very few places where meeting is completely forbidden, and in those places you need letters from both sets of parents as well as that sects religious leader stating that meeting in person is strictly prohibited. Those are the only ones that make it through on this really, and USCIS knows what areas those religious sects are from. Unfortunately most or a lot does not equal all, and in USCIS's eyes unless it is the same for everyone in that region and not just for some people who choose not to meet instead of it being forbidden, it doesn't count. I think thats why some people are being a little short with you. It is and isn't your fault at the same time. You were under the wrong assumption, but thats not USCIS's fault either. You can meet without having sex, USCIS is not asking you "have you slept together in the last 2 years?" I'm sure there are others who have not and still have met, with family chaperones and such to establish contact without doing anything else. Unfortunately your posts just come off as sounding like if you went to visit you would have ended up having sex, which is just dumb, and even though you keep mentioning that you know the meeting didnt have to be intimate you gave no other reasoning for not being able to visit your fiance even once, or taking the way USCIS said "if MEETING will violate long standing customs and traditions" to mean anything else.

Getting upset with people who are trying to explain what USCIS ment by it doesn't really help you, the only way you are going to be able to file for a K1 is to meet or be physically unable to get anywhere (including Canada or Mexico) to meet, or to have your religious leader state that under no circumstances do people from your famiies area and relgion ever meet before getting married as that would be against your beliefs.

[ghosttridder 0]

Although you may not like it, it is your own fault that you were denied. You had NO circumstances that would have fell under the scope of the exemption. While religion and customs may keep you from intimate contact, as stated before, they do NOT keep you from meeting. Therefore you did not qualify for the exemption as defined. As others have stated, this has in the past been an abused exemption and the USCIS gives it a lot more scrutiny. The best way to help prevent any denial, is to arm yourself with knowledge on whatever Visa you decide to try for. You can keep trying to lay the blame on USCIS or anyone else you want. But, it's all smoke and mirrors trying to draw the blame away from yourself.

I strongly disagree here. Under no area was I at fault. I was under false impression, mislead by a statement that the uscis has stated in the application petition. Yes, requirement states that we should have met in person.

and again, i am going to reiterate what the second misleading clause here is.

USCIS states and i quote: "If this VIOLATES long establish customs and traditions" then this may be waived.

well it is a long established custom and tradition that the groom and the bride do not get it on until after the wedding night. We dont have babies then get married, we honor marriages, then start families. Most bride & groom will not have met in this traditional type of union until after the wedding. Some bride and groom, will have just a verbal relationship to get to know their personalities. Some will just see the pictures and go off of what their relatives say about the groom or bride and trust their word on how the marriage candidate is.. and it goes on..

this statement is to vague and needs to be more specific

let me tell you about something here, this here is extremely misleading ESPECIALLY for people who do arrange marriages, or regular cultural marriages, because what it is implying here is that, uscis may waive the requirment that you need to have met in person. ( i know this does not have to be intimate)

uscis does not need to be telling people they may waive this when it is extremely hard to get a waiver, because then people will start to think automatically, to do a finace visa, then get married here in the states as what it was in my case.

I definately understand it is frusterating and I'm sure this post will help others. The key for everyone to remember is what you wrote in this sentance:

"well it is a long established custom and tradition that the groom and the bride do not get it on until after the wedding night"

That is the only part that is established. There are very very few places where meeting is completely forbidden, and in those places you need letters from both sets of parents as well as that sects religious leader stating that meeting in person is strictly prohibited. Those are the only ones that make it through on this really, and USCIS knows what areas those religious sects are from. Unfortunately most or a lot does not equal all, and in USCIS's eyes unless it is the same for everyone in that region and not just for some people who choose not to meet instead of it being forbidden, it doesn't count. I think thats why some people are being a little short with you. It is and isn't your fault at the same time. You were under the wrong assumption, but thats not USCIS's fault either. You can meet without having sex, USCIS is not asking you "have you slept together in the last 2 years?" I'm sure there are others who have not and still have met, with family chaperones and such to establish contact without doing anything else. Unfortunately your posts just come off as sounding like if you went to visit you would have ended up having sex, which is just dumb, and even though you keep mentioning that you know the meeting didnt have to be intimate you gave no other reasoning for not being able to visit your fiance even once, or taking the way USCIS said "if MEETING will violate long standing customs and traditions" to mean anything else.

Getting upset with people who are trying to explain what USCIS ment by it doesn't really help you, the only way you are going to be able to file for a K1 is to meet or be physically unable to get anywhere (including Canada or Mexico) to meet, or to have your religious leader state that under no circumstances do people from your famiies area and relgion ever meet before getting married as that would be against your beliefs.

I am not getting upset.

I just want people know honestly my experience. I know what I know, I am not making this up. I know what I went through, and at the time of my application I really had thought that this waiver was going to apply to me, and it turned out to be an entirely different story. I would hope that my postings would help other people rather than people come on here and say, it's my fault. I dont see it that way, because i applied with a straight consciounce. Now i would do otherwise because now i know how terrible this process is

[Otto 83]

Uhm... for the record.

The use of the word MET (followed by 'in person') does not mean 'get it on' (or have babies or indicate any form of the 'biblical' sense of being with another person).

Two remedies to your situation:

1) One of you get on a plane and meet in person (either in one or the other's home country or even in a third country). (For all intents and purposes, you could both meet up at some intersection and simply wave at each other from across the street if you like.)or,

2) One of you get on get on a plane and get married.

#1 Reguires - File/Re-File an I-129f fiancé petition

#2 Reguires - File a spousal visa (K-3 or CR-1)

Problem solved.

[BokGao 0]

I'm sorry for you. What's done is done. Hindsight is 20/20. As I've stated, I understand the purpose of this post. I'm sure you're not the first or the last and there will be people who will benefit from your experience. But only to those who do their research. I'm not saying this to be a wiseguy either so don't take it that way. You posted this to warn other and only the people who are looking for this information will benefit from it. Good luck to you okay?