Any other newbies here?

[Christi and Ian 24]

Is there anyone else here just learning the process? I have to admit that I am completely in the dark about most of the forms & procedures that I have to go through in order to bring my husband here from England. Like a lot of people I've spoken to, I thought you could just get married, file a couple of forms & my husband could stay in the U.S.

Even though he's been in the U.S. twice a year for the last five years, and we've been dating and seeing each other 3 months at a time for the past two years, he had to go back to England because we were married "too soon after he landed" this last time. If we had waited a month or so, we were told he could have stayed and changed his status. Instead, we have to go through the K-3 process in order to bring him back to the U.S.

We have hired an attorney and given her everything short of DNA & a urine sample and I believe the I-130 & I-129F are about to be filed - I've signed the original forms in blue ink and sent them back to her office. She has said that she will let us know when it is and will give us a tracking number so we can find it on the Immigration website.

Does anyone else know why both forms would be filed at the same time and does this mean we will get receipts for both notices at approximately the same time? She also had me give all of the information for and sign the Affidavit of Support. Is it normal for all of these forms to be filed at once, or is she just trying to be prepared for the future?

Also, how important are pictures? We have a lot of pictures of our wedding, but honestly, we only have 2 pictures of ourselves together in the previous two years, although we have plenty of his plane tickets / boarding passes / emails back and forth and even some periodic mail that arrives at my house.

And will they want to interview my 9 year-old daughter?

When and what can we expect from his interview at the U.S. Consulate in London?

Sorry to bombard with questions, but I'm very anxious to have him back as soon as possible and I've convinced myself that there will be unexpected delays, I just can't imagine what they could be as this entire process is all new to me. I wish I had found this website prior to getting married!

Any advice would be very helpful!

-CW

[Anh map 2,098]

Read the Guides and UK regioinal forum here on VJ and ditch the attorney unless there is something unusual about your circumstances. The members here are a tremendour DIY resource.

You will want to move forward with the CR1 rather than the K3. K3 has more steps and costs more in fees.

Your daughter is a USC and won't matter except when calculating household size.

Welcome to VJ

Edited September 19, 2009 by Anh map

[Christi and Ian 24]

Read the Guides and UK regioinal forum here on VJ and ditch the attorney unless there is something unusual about your circumstances. The members here are a tremendour DIY resource.

You will want to move forward with the CR1 rather than the K3. K3 has more steps and costs more in fees.

Your daughter is a USC and won't matter except when calculating household size.

Welcome to VJ

I'm not sure I can do the CR1 rather than the K3 at this point, I'm expecting everything to be filed on Monday. Also, I signed a contract with the immigration firm. I work for the Public Defenders office and our attorney is a former Public Defender who left to become an immigration attorney. I have a lot of trust in her as she is extremely thorough. Even the Superior Court Judge who married us recommended her to be our immigration attorney.

Again, I wish I had found this site a few months ago, we probably would have done things a lot differently. I am, however, encouraged by the fact that if anything does go wrong, we have legal representation, and the law firm will take responsibility since they are the ones that are preparing the forms.

Is the CR1 really so much faster than the K3? That's an honest question, I really just don't know.

[Allie and Nigel 2]

Ok, they did the k3, which they file the PETITION, then it gets processed usually California is running about 3-4 months processing, so if they approve you, they send ur petition to the NVC then the NVC sends it to the London consulate, then you find out WHEN the consulate gets it,you can find that out here if you did....or i can give you the instructions, whatever...:-) and you #1 get a letter from the NVC that they sent your stuff, and will give you a case number and then you use THAT to book the medical in London....then you download packet 3 forms- we can get it for you, its all over this site as well...then you send THAT in to London and wait for the interview, which is not that long of a process right about now, wait times for interviews run about a month or so...but it depends on #1 how long the USCIS processes ur petition, and #2 if the NVC just sends your petition within a few days, some go into additional processing which run about a month extra or so,which is ####### but u know....this is the gov't. Good luck, keep reading, keep posting!

[Christi and Ian 24]

Wow - that was very informative and helped a lot - thank you so much! Does he need to have some sort of Police report thing done too?

[marriedtomrg 141]

Yes, he needs to secure a police clearance from every country he has lived in at least 6 months or longer.

Wow - that was very informative and helped a lot - thank you so much! Does he need to have some sort of Police report thing done too?

[Allie and Nigel 2]

Yes, the police thing is called ACPO, i will get you the url...http://www.acpo.police.uk/

There ya go, may as well get it now....good luck, pm me if you need any more help...here is the url for packet 3:

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/iv/iv_15.html