Important Advice for NEW K1 Filers

[thepizzadude 26]

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.

From what I am reading your main problem with understanding what is written is YOU THINK MEETING means SEX so stop denying what you are trying to postulate and admit you were just hoping to not have to go and meet her...LOL

The statement is not vague and does not need to be more specific, you needed to take the statement at its face value and not search for some reason to DO IT YOUR WAY....LOL

[Danu 19]

Thats basically all I got from his post too. Nothing about why they couldnt meet, just that they cant have sex, which is fine.

Edited June 21, 2009 by Danu

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

If your engagement was arranged or introduced and "you have never met your fiance" it is very important that you DO NOT FILE FOR k1 Visa for your fiance. I am us citizen, but i have a southeast asian culture, and when we get married, we don't date, touch, spend time together physically until the wedding night. It is infact a religious, cultural tradition thing, countries like india, pakistan, indonesia, turkey etc..

basically in order to so called "qualify" for a k1 visa, you had to have met your fiance phsycially,

there is a clause that k1 visa filers have as a foot note, uscis says they can waive it if we can prove that it is against social customs and long established traditions or prove that it provides extreme hardship, ( THIS HAS CAUSED ME TO LOSE 8 MONTHS!!! from the love of my life).

I've tried so much to get this waiver, and it was denied because they simply "didn't buy it", i sent them so much evidence, information, papers, articles, bills, telephone conversations, typed letters, it doesn't work.

bottom line, if you never met your fiance.. FORGET FILING FOR K1 VISA! it's not worth it to wait 200 plus days and nights for a REJECTION!

What exactly is your problem? You joined on March 29 and until this post you referred to your "wife" in every post and a K-3 visa and variously state your process as taking 8 months or 555 days, Which is it? Are you married or engaged? Did you file for a K-3/Cr-1 or K-1? A quick check of your profile and previous posts shows this is the first mention of a fiancee. Very strange.

While your post reminding us to meet in person is, um..admirable, I think you were pretty much the Lone Ranger thinking you could avoid meeting in person, if that is the true story. Who really knows?

[cdneh 3,112]

yea, i will try and call the nvc see what they say.

Well i'll post a little of my story here so tell me what you guys think...

it was December 2007 when I fell in love with a girl introduced to me by her relative. We chatted online, day and night not knowing what we are about to face. Her feelings got involved and mine also. I am US citizen and I live here in the states. She lives in pakistan. So I inquire with the US govt to see what I can do

I end up filing for k1 fiance visa in January 2008. On the k1 visa there is a clause that states that if meeting with your fiance violates social culture and long established tradition of your country than we may waive the requirement that you must meet in person. So, with this clause I go ahead and apply the k1 stating that my culture does not allow us to physically have a relationship until after marriage. So I waited and waited for a reply.

Not no sooner than a few weeks after applying and doing some research i've learned that this is a lengthy and painstaking process. But I still continued and proceeded to wait. As I continued to have rhetorical relationship with my already declared fiance and soon to be wife, days turned into night, and night turned into day. Time slowed down. What was once that I enjoyed most; going out with friends, going to work, watching a movie, going out to dinner with co-workers, or just doing the casual every day stuff.. wasn't the same. I was missing my fiance because I was waiting to get married, waiting to live my life.. waiting for those people at the uscis center to send me a visa or approval notice.

January passed and so winter was ending, February, then March, April (spring never seemed gloomy), Longing for her even more May, then a glimps of hope comes in June, Finally a letter from the uscis. I take the letter to my room and open it up only to find out that they want more evidence. Running on that glimps of hope, I send a reply to the uscis with evidence stating that in my religion and culture we do arrange marriages and cannot meet physically or touch and so on..

Waiting game continues, from July, August, then in September they send a letter out. Denied.

Reason did not meet in person. I went through 3 seasons for a denial.

What was I to tell my fiance? So I call her up and tell her the story. It was like a breakup message. She and I were silent. We couldn't say anything.

9 months of waiting for a response to live my life with my love. Its very sad and disspointing this happened.

Not giving up hope, I went to Pakistan consulate and received a visa that same day. I set out to Pakistan in October. I arrived there, and we shared our vows and got married in what was the most memorable and happiest month of my entire 31 years of my life. I came back home and reapplied to the uscis in December '08. Finally it got approved on February 27, 2009. 400 days and still waiting to start living my life with the love of my life.

This process is very sad & hard because I believe life is short, and we are newly weds and we have our youth is so valuable and those 400 days we could've been spending time together as young newly weds sadly will never come back, so we are being tested, and I recommend whoever is setting out to marry someone overseas.. better be prepared to wait or live with them overseas until you get approved.

So...you posted the above not all that long ago. Which story exactly is it.

[Danu 19]

well from reading that post it looks like it was both, that upon denial he got married.

For the denial though I'm still going to stand by that him writing a letter saying that they cannot be together physically, cannot touch etc, does not mean that they cannot meet and the ONLY people I have seen get around this have letters from their religious leaders stating that they cannot meet in person for any reason until the wedding day without breaking customs and traditions, and USCIS still digs to find out if that is truth or if it is just recommended that they dont meet or spend time alone or whatever. They are 2 distinctly seperate things and providing enough proof to have the approval would require more than just a letter from the petitioner trying to say this is what it is, it would also need the fathers on both sides to write saying they have arranged this marriage and that under no circumstances are the 2 to meet at all until the wedding day.

[SuperDuper! 230]

Your traditions aint gonna get you a petition. Follow the rules and wait in line like the rest of us! :dance:

[ghosttridder 0]

Your traditions aint gonna get you a petition. Follow the rules and wait in line like the rest of us! :dance:

i did follow the rules.

[ghosttridder 0]

yea, i will try and call the nvc see what they say.

Well i'll post a little of my story here so tell me what you guys think...

it was December 2007 when I fell in love with a girl introduced to me by her relative. We chatted online, day and night not knowing what we are about to face. Her feelings got involved and mine also. I am US citizen and I live here in the states. She lives in pakistan. So I inquire with the US govt to see what I can do

I end up filing for k1 fiance visa in January 2008. On the k1 visa there is a clause that states that if meeting with your fiance violates social culture and long established tradition of your country than we may waive the requirement that you must meet in person. So, with this clause I go ahead and apply the k1 stating that my culture does not allow us to physically have a relationship until after marriage. So I waited and waited for a reply.

Not no sooner than a few weeks after applying and doing some research i've learned that this is a lengthy and painstaking process. But I still continued and proceeded to wait. As I continued to have rhetorical relationship with my already declared fiance and soon to be wife, days turned into night, and night turned into day. Time slowed down. What was once that I enjoyed most; going out with friends, going to work, watching a movie, going out to dinner with co-workers, or just doing the casual every day stuff.. wasn't the same. I was missing my fiance because I was waiting to get married, waiting to live my life.. waiting for those people at the uscis center to send me a visa or approval notice.

January passed and so winter was ending, February, then March, April (spring never seemed gloomy), Longing for her even more May, then a glimps of hope comes in June, Finally a letter from the uscis. I take the letter to my room and open it up only to find out that they want more evidence. Running on that glimps of hope, I send a reply to the uscis with evidence stating that in my religion and culture we do arrange marriages and cannot meet physically or touch and so on..

Waiting game continues, from July, August, then in September they send a letter out. Denied.

Reason did not meet in person. I went through 3 seasons for a denial.

What was I to tell my fiance? So I call her up and tell her the story. It was like a breakup message. She and I were silent. We couldn't say anything.

9 months of waiting for a response to live my life with my love. Its very sad and disspointing this happened.

Not giving up hope, I went to Pakistan consulate and received a visa that same day. I set out to Pakistan in October. I arrived there, and we shared our vows and got married in what was the most memorable and happiest month of my entire 31 years of my life. I came back home and reapplied to the uscis in December '08. Finally it got approved on February 27, 2009. 400 days and still waiting to start living my life with the love of my life.

This process is very sad & hard because I believe life is short, and we are newly weds and we have our youth is so valuable and those 400 days we could've been spending time together as young newly weds sadly will never come back, so we are being tested, and I recommend whoever is setting out to marry someone overseas.. better be prepared to wait or live with them overseas until you get approved.

So...you posted the above not all that long ago. Which story exactly is it.

where is the contradiction? both are true. look, the main purpose of my posting is not to create arguments, but a perspective and clear advice. Simple, just dont file k1 if you never met. I just dont like what they added as a clause for a waiver, but thats it. I am just posting to help other people. I am a us citizen, but that don't mean i have to like the uscis and their processes. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

yea, i will try and call the nvc see what they say.

Well i'll post a little of my story here so tell me what you guys think...

it was December 2007 when I fell in love with a girl introduced to me by her relative. We chatted online, day and night not knowing what we are about to face. Her feelings got involved and mine also. I am US citizen and I live here in the states. She lives in pakistan. So I inquire with the US govt to see what I can do

I end up filing for k1 fiance visa in January 2008. On the k1 visa there is a clause that states that if meeting with your fiance violates social culture and long established tradition of your country than we may waive the requirement that you must meet in person. So, with this clause I go ahead and apply the k1 stating that my culture does not allow us to physically have a relationship until after marriage. So I waited and waited for a reply.

Not no sooner than a few weeks after applying and doing some research i've learned that this is a lengthy and painstaking process. But I still continued and proceeded to wait. As I continued to have rhetorical relationship with my already declared fiance and soon to be wife, days turned into night, and night turned into day. Time slowed down. What was once that I enjoyed most; going out with friends, going to work, watching a movie, going out to dinner with co-workers, or just doing the casual every day stuff.. wasn't the same. I was missing my fiance because I was waiting to get married, waiting to live my life.. waiting for those people at the uscis center to send me a visa or approval notice.

January passed and so winter was ending, February, then March, April (spring never seemed gloomy), Longing for her even more May, then a glimps of hope comes in June, Finally a letter from the uscis. I take the letter to my room and open it up only to find out that they want more evidence. Running on that glimps of hope, I send a reply to the uscis with evidence stating that in my religion and culture we do arrange marriages and cannot meet physically or touch and so on..

Waiting game continues, from July, August, then in September they send a letter out. Denied.

Reason did not meet in person. I went through 3 seasons for a denial.

What was I to tell my fiance? So I call her up and tell her the story. It was like a breakup message. She and I were silent. We couldn't say anything.

9 months of waiting for a response to live my life with my love. Its very sad and disspointing this happened.

Not giving up hope, I went to Pakistan consulate and received a visa that same day. I set out to Pakistan in October. I arrived there, and we shared our vows and got married in what was the most memorable and happiest month of my entire 31 years of my life. I came back home and reapplied to the uscis in December '08. Finally it got approved on February 27, 2009. 400 days and still waiting to start living my life with the love of my life.

This process is very sad & hard because I believe life is short, and we are newly weds and we have our youth is so valuable and those 400 days we could've been spending time together as young newly weds sadly will never come back, so we are being tested, and I recommend whoever is setting out to marry someone overseas.. better be prepared to wait or live with them overseas until you get approved.

So...you posted the above not all that long ago. Which story exactly is it.

where is the contradiction? both are true. look, the main purpose of my posting is not to create arguments, but a perspective and clear advice. Simple, just dont file k1 if you never met. I just dont like what they added as a clause for a waiver, but thats it. I am just posting to help other people. I am a us citizen, but that don't mean i have to like the uscis and their processes. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

After all that, my wife would have judged me WAY too big a dumb@ss to go through with the marriage. So this goes into the "plus" column for arranged marriages.

[cdneh 3,112]

wheres the contradiction? both are true. look, the main purpose of my posting is not to create arguments, but a perspective and clear advice. Simple, just dont file k1 if you never met. I just dont like what they added as a clause for a waiver, but thats it. I am just posting to help other people. I am a us citizen, but that don't mean i have to like the uscis and their processes. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

You havent' identified yourself as a K1, CR-1 or K3 filer. In fact you have yet to fill in a time line. If you'd like to be as philanthropic as to offer " a perspective and clear advice" start there.

And give over blaming USCIS for your misunderstanding. This one's all yours. Own it.

[msu17 0]

So, with this clause I go ahead and apply the k1 stating that my culture does not allow us to physically have a relationship until after marriage. So I waited and waited for a reply.

To most that is different from not being allowed to physically be in each others presence until the marriage. Not being able to hold hands, or kiss or hug does not mean you can't sit on couch A across the room where she sits on couch B and you talk for 5 minutes and document that. There are cultures where the 2 parties are not permitted to even sit on couch A and B, which is why the clause is in the petition. They do VERY RARELY approve on this clause, so removing it because you feel wronged is just silly.

We do appreciate you adding this post, since we get questions regarding this waiver fairly often and now we have a personal experience to refer the poster to. However what most people here are reacting to is your attitude that you were wronged and the USCIS is at fault. They are just following their standard procedure and you did not submit adequate evidence to meet the requirement for the waiver. And the point you made that the gov. is out of line by asking individuals to petition for their loved ones is def. going to ruffle a few feathers. The US has these rules in place because individuals brought "spouses" to the US for immigration purposes only for too long and the US put a stop to it. The US does not have the obligation to let anyone in the country just because you claim they are your spouse. You actually have to prove it. So prove it and move on with your day. From now on, make sure you investigate before decide waivers are for you and you often save yourself a lot more time.

[ghosttridder 0]

So, with this clause I go ahead and apply the k1 stating that my culture does not allow us to physically have a relationship until after marriage. So I waited and waited for a reply.

To most that is different from not being allowed to physically be in each others presence until the marriage. Not being able to hold hands, or kiss or hug does not mean you can't sit on couch A across the room where she sits on couch B and you talk for 5 minutes and document that. There are cultures where the 2 parties are not permitted to even sit on couch A and B, which is why the clause is in the petition. They do VERY RARELY approve on this clause, so removing it because you feel wronged is just silly.

We do appreciate you adding this post, since we get questions regarding this waiver fairly often and now we have a personal experience to refer the poster to. However what most people here are reacting to is your attitude that you were wronged and the USCIS is at fault. They are just following their standard procedure and you did not submit adequate evidence to meet the requirement for the waiver. And the point you made that the gov. is out of line by asking individuals to petition for their loved ones is def. going to ruffle a few feathers. The US has these rules in place because individuals brought "spouses" to the US for immigration purposes only for too long and the US put a stop to it. The US does not have the obligation to let anyone in the country just because you claim they are your spouse. You actually have to prove it. So prove it and move on with your day. From now on, make sure you investigate before decide waivers are for you and you often save yourself a lot more time.

It's pretty interesting to read many posts on this forum other than this thread (it seemed to have invited all the uscis lovers) From what I read on this website, I have read many stories of people who are downright frustrated, clouded with despair, angry with the system, even people who sue the uscis, people who constantly complain indirectly on how terrible this process is. I dont need to go on, it is obvious, from what i read. uscis does a sloppy job, is pretty insensitive to human relationships, it's just paperwork to them. they dont realize that there are real people with lives "on hold" behind those paperwork that sits on their desk form many many months. Bottom line, people do not like this process, this cannot be denied and here i say it is the uscis fault yet again. I put blame on the uscis, for taking peoples money and prolonging paperwork at their discretion. I put blame on the uscis for making misleading statements. I put blame on the uscis for keeping families apart for so damn long. And we sit here and wonder why do all the mexicans cross the border illegally. I'll never change my stance on this because it's obvious, not one of you can convince me otherwise. I believe that there should be an immigration overall overhaul procedural reform.

Edited June 21, 2009 by ghosttridder

[ghosttridder 0]

But my peeps, in no way do i hate the uscis. I also understand that they have overwhelming applications, and I believe that the people in there are trying their best, and this process does take time, and at the end, the people who qualify do get united with their loved ones. We need to be the ones telling the uscis about stuff like what i went through, so maybe next time the next guy won't have to make that mistake. But at the same time I do believe that there is a way to ease the pain of so many, and I do believe that the uscis should look into this. cheers everyone.

[thepizzadude 26]

So, with this clause I go ahead and apply the k1 stating that my culture does not allow us to physically have a relationship until after marriage. So I waited and waited for a reply.

To most that is different from not being allowed to physically be in each others presence until the marriage. Not being able to hold hands, or kiss or hug does not mean you can't sit on couch A across the room where she sits on couch B and you talk for 5 minutes and document that. There are cultures where the 2 parties are not permitted to even sit on couch A and B, which is why the clause is in the petition. They do VERY RARELY approve on this clause, so removing it because you feel wronged is just silly.

We do appreciate you adding this post, since we get questions regarding this waiver fairly often and now we have a personal experience to refer the poster to. However what most people here are reacting to is your attitude that you were wronged and the USCIS is at fault. They are just following their standard procedure and you did not submit adequate evidence to meet the requirement for the waiver. And the point you made that the gov. is out of line by asking individuals to petition for their loved ones is def. going to ruffle a few feathers. The US has these rules in place because individuals brought "spouses" to the US for immigration purposes only for too long and the US put a stop to it. The US does not have the obligation to let anyone in the country just because you claim they are your spouse. You actually have to prove it. So prove it and move on with your day. From now on, make sure you investigate before decide waivers are for you and you often save yourself a lot more time.

It's pretty interesting to read many posts on this forum other than this thread (it seemed to have invited all the uscis lovers) From what I read on this website, I have read many stories of people who are downright frustrated, clouded with despair, angry with the system, even people who sue the uscis, people who constantly complain indirectly on how terrible this process is. I dont need to go on, it is obvious, from what i read. uscis does a sloppy job, is pretty insensitive to human relationships, it's just paperwork to them. they dont realize that there are real people with lives "on hold" behind those paperwork that sits on their desk form many many months. Bottom line, people do not like this process, this cannot be denied and here i say it is the uscis fault yet again. I put blame on the uscis, for taking peoples money and prolonging paperwork at their discretion. I put blame on the uscis for making misleading statements. I put blame on the uscis for keeping families apart for so damn long. And we sit here and wonder why do all the mexicans cross the border illegally. I'll never change my stance on this because it's obvious, not one of you can convince me otherwise. I believe that there should be an immigration overall overhaul procedural reform.

While I agree with most of what you say above it still does not change my opinion of your original post. But heck i'm only one guy in a sea of "uscis lovers"...LOL

Of course I did a lot of research, tried hard to understand everything I needed to know and left NOTHING to CHANCE, I documented everything and sent a little more than required at every stage just to make sure.

End Result: I filed mid Jan '09 and my fiance has been in US since June 1, 2009. Noa1 to Noa2 was very short either by luck or so easy to glance at package and approve, flew from USCIS to NVC to Manila Embassy in 7 days, fiance did the meds and seminars in a 4 day period, interview took 3 hours waiting and 5 minutes talking, 7 days later waiting in front of Air21 branch in Cebu for them to dig our package out of their delivery pile and the following Monday on a 24 hour flight home.

Maybe it was a combo of many things but my case was not the easiest by far many different things could have held us up but they didn't because I paid attention and triple/quadriple checked everything and ask many ??'s here.

I could have fallen into the trap of "well, that can't apply to me" or "i'm sure this will be ok" but that's just not me, and now I have only myself to blame for getting my fiance here in record time. I guess I could blame USCIS for working so fast on my case but why? They probably spent a total of 20 minutes looking at my stuff and I spent months making sure it was RIGHT...so who should I BLAME?

You should forget about telling USCIS anything cause they really don't care about your opinions and will not change anything, hopefully the next guy will be a little more diligent and maybe get lucky enough to find a good site like this one and get the info himself.

And for the record this is not an argumentative thread it is just opinions and everyone has one, it only feels that way because of your unwillingness to accept the responsibility that you didn't check enough into something that is very deep to start with.

[chizkeyk 0]

Hey Hey Hey, it will be denied for the very main reason.... K1 is a fiancee visa. You mentioned that you were "MARRIED" right? Therefore, you should be filing K3 or Spusal, not K1....

If your engagement was arranged or introduced and "you have never met your fiance" it is very important that you DO NOT FILE FOR k1 Visa for your fiance. I am us citizen, but i have a southeast asian culture, and when we get married, we don't date, touch, spend time together physically until the wedding night. It is infact a religious, cultural tradition thing, countries like india, pakistan, indonesia, turkey etc..

basically in order to so called "qualify" for a k1 visa, you had to have met your fiance phsycially,

there is a clause that k1 visa filers have as a foot note, uscis says they can waive it if we can prove that it is against social customs and long established traditions or prove that it provides extreme hardship, ( THIS HAS CAUSED ME TO LOSE 8 MONTHS!!! from the love of my life).

I've tried so much to get this waiver, and it was denied because they simply "didn't buy it", i sent them so much evidence, information, papers, articles, bills, telephone conversations, typed letters, it doesn't work.

bottom line, if you never met your fiance.. FORGET FILING FOR K1 VISA! it's not worth it to wait 200 plus days and nights for a REJECTION!