Duplication of Paperwork Seems Needless

[Jax Sailboat 0]

My I-130 application/petition was just approved and for the past few days I have been reading over the daunting reality, if I understand it correctly, that many of the same documents are now required all over again.

I am an American citizen who met my wife in Colombia; we married in a religious (non-legal) wedding there before we both moved to Burundi - East Africa (my work taking me there); in Burundi, we got "legally" married and lived for over a year. When we filed the I-130 in Nairobi, we had supporting documents in Spanish, French, and Kirundi, translated, of course. In recent weeks, I have returned to the U.S. (with work) and she has returned to Colombia while we await her visa.

In addition to the legal documents, we had affidavits from friends and after I received a request for additional proofs to prove the bonafides of the marriage and financial co-mingling, I sent about 75 photos, dozens of receipts, and a few more affidavits from friends. All in all, it was a four month process to get the I-130 approval. I could fill a book with all of the back and forth communications we had, the complications, etc. I finally had to get a congressman involved. We faced everything from them losing the file and sending me notification of that to massive confusion as to how they would accept payment. We finally got the approval this last Friday.

NOW, it seems that we have to provide more of the same in the IR-1/CR-1 process? It seems like a lot of needless duplication; or am I reading more into the process than is there? I'm beginning to wonder if we should not have gone the K3 or some other route.

Any thoughts?

[imaisha 1]

To begin with, the entire process is for the IR/CR-1. Do not think of the I-130 as something separate. The petition is the first step in the process to get a CR-1 visa.

Have you read about the next steps? Begin with these: http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/...he_NVC_ShortCut and http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/..._live_in_the_US

I'm not sure what you think is duplicated- seems like you are worried about having to provide proof of the relationship. Everything that you sent to USCIS with your petition will be forwarded to NVC and then on to the embassy, so don't bother with duplicating those photos and affidavits. You should be able to provide more proof at the interview though- people usually provide more photos/chat logs/emails/phone bills then. You're not duplicating anything. You're just providing them with all the proof you can so they'll have little reason to doubt your relationship. You'd have to do that for any visa you apply for so you haven't made the wrong choice.

[Jax Sailboat 0]

Thanks for the encouragement and the links. Perhaps I was made more afraid by some comments I was reading. The I-130 Nairobi process was said to be only 3 weeks but took 20 weeks. I'm just hoping things will be better from this point forward.

Many thanks,

~ Jack

To begin with, the entire process is for the IR/CR-1. Do not think of the I-130 as something separate. The petition is the first step in the process to get a CR-1 visa.

Have you read about the next steps? Begin with these: http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/...he_NVC_ShortCut and http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/..._live_in_the_US

I'm not sure what you think is duplicated- seems like you are worried about having to provide proof of the relationship. Everything that you sent to USCIS with your petition will be forwarded to NVC and then on to the embassy, so don't bother with duplicating those photos and affidavits. You should be able to provide more proof at the interview though- people usually provide more photos/chat logs/emails/phone bills then. You're not duplicating anything. You're just providing them with all the proof you can so they'll have little reason to doubt your relationship. You'd have to do that for any visa you apply for so you haven't made the wrong choice.