K-1 petition information

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hello All

I gave a list of questions to the USCIS director tonight and he promises me to answer all he can. Thanks for all the input as I would never have thought of all these myself. We didn't tie up to much time on questions tonight but I did ask two that have been burning a hole in my brain.

G325a TWO copies is plenty. The reason the form was changed is that USCIS has been throwing away all but two copies for some years. The OMB had printed, in his words "A gazillion" of the old form and they just dealt with it. He said there is no harm in sending four copies if it makes you feel better.

Religious Divorces Religious divorces are not generally acceptable to the USCIS or the US consulates. If you obtained a foreign "religious divorce" it should be registered or filed with civil authorities in that country to be recognized here.

I hope to hear soon from him on the other questions and I will post them as soon as he responds. He seems as interested in making this go smoothly for all concerned as we are.

Moderators...I did not know whether to post this separately or add it to the pinned topic above, I trust your judgement.

[LOLAs 1]

Here are my questions:

Is it really necessary to write a letter to accompany one's petition when re-applying (fresh application) for an initially approved but canceled case (cancellation requested by petitioner upon detecting document error or any other reason)?

Is pre-loading documents necessary, beneficial or not?

Hello All

I gave a list of questions to the USCIS director tonight and he promises me to answer all he can. Thanks for all the input as I would never have thought of all these myself. We didn't tie up to much time on questions tonight but I did ask two that have been burning a hole in my brain.

G325a TWO copies is plenty. The reason the form was changed is that USCIS has been throwing away all but two copies for some years. The OMB had printed, in his words "A gazillion" of the old form and they just dealt with it. He said there is no harm in sending four copies if it makes you feel better.

Religious Divorces Religious divorces are not generally acceptable to the USCIS or the US consulates. If you obtained a foreign "religious divorce" it should be registered or filed with civil authorities in that country to be recognized here.

I hope to hear soon from him on the other questions and I will post them as soon as he responds. He seems as interested in making this go smoothly for all concerned as we are.

Moderators...I did not know whether to post this separately or add it to the pinned topic above, I trust your judgement.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Additional related information merged with the earlier, pinned thread of same

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Here are my questions:

Is it really necessary to write a letter to accompany one's petition when re-applying (fresh application) for an initially approved but canceled case (cancellation requested by petitioner upon detecting document error or any other reason)?

Is pre-loading documents necessary, beneficial or not?

Hello All

I gave a list of questions to the USCIS director tonight and he promises me to answer all he can. Thanks for all the input as I would never have thought of all these myself. We didn't tie up to much time on questions tonight but I did ask two that have been burning a hole in my brain.

G325a TWO copies is plenty. The reason the form was changed is that USCIS has been throwing away all but two copies for some years. The OMB had printed, in his words "A gazillion" of the old form and they just dealt with it. He said there is no harm in sending four copies if it makes you feel better.

Religious Divorces Religious divorces are not generally acceptable to the USCIS or the US consulates. If you obtained a foreign "religious divorce" it should be registered or filed with civil authorities in that country to be recognized here.

I hope to hear soon from him on the other questions and I will post them as soon as he responds. He seems as interested in making this go smoothly for all concerned as we are.

Moderators...I did not know whether to post this separately or add it to the pinned topic above, I trust your judgement.

Frontloading or preloadig was discussed in the top of this thread. It is not necessary for the USCIS. It can be adviseable for some consulates. Check the regional sub-forums for advice on the consulate you will use or the consulate reviews.

If it is the second petition within 2 years you have applied for, then YES you need to write a letter describing the circumstances and request a waiver of IMBRA limitations.

[TBoneTX 45,663]

That's really interesting about the TWO copies of the G-325A. Never would have guessed. Perhaps the VSC employees are wallpapering their bathrooms with the spare ones. Save a tree, si man.

Dude, this is all fascinating stuff that will go far in quenching the thirst for knowledge, si man. Muchas gracias. It's imaginable that the VSC Director may even learn things from our questions that can improve service, or, more likely, lead to clarifications on the USCIS website.

For everyone's sake, I sure hope that he comes up with a list of "#######" consulates for us, grrr man.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

That's really interesting about the TWO copies of the G-325A. Never would have guessed. Perhaps the VSC employees are wallpapering their bathrooms with the spare ones. Save a tree, si man.

Dude, this is all fascinating stuff that will go far in quenching the thirst for knowledge, si man. Muchas gracias. It's imaginable that the VSC Director may even learn things from our questions that can improve service, or, more likely, lead to clarifications on the USCIS website.

For everyone's sake, I sure hope that he comes up with a list of "#######" consulates for us, grrr man.

I have been relating to him our frustrations also, FWIW. I did report that the VSC seems to be going wild approving K-1s and he said that is their current "project" to get caught up. Maybe it will help. Doesn't sound like much help in the future for the customer service line and he seems as frustrate dwith that as we are.

And they have recently been asked what they would need in the way of resources (costs) to handle an amnesty program. Seems like the felers are out there but he doesn't expect any changes for a while, he says not before the next election. LOL But that is just an opinion. I asked how that will affect K-1s. he isn't sure. If they allocate more people or dedicate people to amnesty it may not affect it at all.

I also asked if he could establish some equilibrium. It seems like they rush from one type of visa to another and that right now "almost all" the adjudicators are doing k-1s. People were aiting 5 months and now they are approving in 30 days, can we get a steady 90 days or something? 60 days? He said it is their goal to do that but things happen out of their control and ...oh well.

Anyway, I await his other answers, lots of good stuff to come, I am sure. Hopefully I will just be able to scan in or cut and paste his whole response here and save me lots of typing.

[Musho 0]

Hello All

I had a great opportunity Saturday evening to have dinner with and spend several hours with a director at the VSC. He is currently in charge of the department that handles I-751s among other things. His wife is an adjusicator that handles YOUR petition (if it went through VSC). His wife is Russian, arrived on a K-1 and is now a citizen. This man has worked for USCIS for many years and was at several local offices before being assigned to the VSC. His wife is a friend of Alla's and we were all at a dinner party for several American/Russian/Ukrainian couples Saturday. We had a long chat, he was very open and helpful. We talked about a lot of the things we see here on VJ and I was trying to remember all the "usual questions" I read about and pin him down for some answers. I also have asked him if he will give an "official interview" for VJ. He said he will check out the site and I will call him later this week. So, anyway I will try to cover what we discussed, he was quite frank and direct in his answers, not rude, not at all, but he knows his stuff and answers without hesitation. It turned into an impromtu and fun "interview" with me trying to remember all the hot button issues I see on VJ

I told him that the number ONE and number TWO "complaints" I see are Why is the VSC taking so long and why can't we get through to you guys?

Why is VSC taking so long, what happened? I was approved in 58 days!: We had problem with labor last year and lost many workers, we hired more last November and it took some time to get them trained. Some of the petitions were sent to California and we also assign people to different tyopes of visas. They will concentrate on one tyoe, get behind on another and then shift many people back to the other type. Lately we have shifted many, almost all, adjudicators to I-129fs, so that should make people happy. They will do that until they get caught up. Summer is a busy time for I-129fs, usually about June we get slammed with them. The winter or early spring is the slowest time for I-129fs, but then it depends what they have everyone working on also.

OK, why can't we get through to you? The 1-800 line is useless. Those are contract employees and they are trained to select answers from a menu of 14 answers. They pick which one is best for your question. There are thousands of visas being processed at any time and everyone is special and everyone has special circumstances and if we had direct lines we weould do nothing but field requests by petitioners to give them priority, we just can't do it. How would you feel if your petition got bumped because some woman called and cried on the phone and then her petition got moved up ahead of yours. We simply have to operate in a way that avoids any chance of fraud, corruption or unfairness.

So what about some people get approved ahead of others? Sme petitions have problems or delays, we do not hold back others for this. If an adjudicator has problems, he puts that one aside or sends an RFE and goes on to the next. The next one may be clean and gets approved right away, in just a few minutes, they adjudicate 15-20 petitions a day per person, and the ones with problems may wait weeks for the petitioner to respond to the RFE, or maybe it is a name check they are waiting for. Petitions are assigned as they arrive, when we are working on those petitions, but they do not go out the door in the same order they came in.

G-325a, Signed or Unsigned? Unsigned.

WHAT? Ok I have seen the memo but lots of VJ members got RFEs for unsigned G-325s, what gives? They do not have to be signed,they can be signed at the consualte interview. Some adjusicators haven't read all the memos, we get hundreds of the things, and maybe they make a mistake. If you want to be sure there is no mistake, sign it. Or send a letter expalining why it is not signed and request it be signed at the interview. Do you have that memo?

It is on the VJ website somewhere You can print a copy of that and send it with the I-129f and G-325a.

Fiancee intent letter? Signed or unsigned? Signed.

What about a faxed or emailed signature? When I was adjudicating, if I could see a signature, I accepted it, but many adjusicators will not. Signed is better.

Lawyer or no lawyer? For what?

Enough said. Now a hot issue, a very controversial one. There seems to be a trend in some countries of foreign men marrying American women and the women are considerably older. There is always a question if this is a problem. It never seems to be a problem for older men/younger women (My wife is 13 years younger, his wife is also considerable younger than him) Is it a problem? For us, USCIS, no. "Free to marry".

What about the consulates or for AOS or I-751? Consulates do what they do, it is not USCIS, some of them are bastards. Kiev is easy, they approve everyone (laughs), they used to be bastards but they got easier since they first started doing those in 2005, before then you would have had to go to Warsaw, you know. For AOS if they can prove they are legitimate we do not care about age but anything that is "not normal" for the culture will draw suspicion. They probably will not get a no questions asked interview (I had told him our AOS was "no questions asked")

What about birth certificates, some people have trouble getting them? This is a problem for us also. Some people, especially our younger staff, think all the world is like the USA. I remember one, when I was in the Kansas City office, the beneficiary was from Viet Nam, she was born in 1954 there was no birth certificate. The CO asked me about this and I looked at the file. I said "Do you know what was going on in Viet Nam in 1954?" She looked at me, straight faced and said "What, their computers were down?" If a birth certificate cannot be obtained they can usually get something from a church, a village official, something, and send that with a letter of explanation. Or just their passport and a letter explaining the situation (this applies to AOS more than I-129f as beneficiary birth certificate is not required for the petition, but I wanted to ask anyway, it seems a common question here)

What about extra documents? Proof of relationship? We don't need it, only that they have met for the fiancee visa.

What about the consulates? Consulates do what they do, as I said, some are bastards. They get whatever we get when it is sent on. I can't tell you what NVC and consulates do, I know some are terrible and some are really easy, but I do not know all the details of each. Kiev is easy, western Europe is easy, Nigeria is horrible, but you would not believe the scams from Nigeria, I get jaded. I am surprised a lot of them get visas and then we have to deal with them.

I have to ask for a collegue, Ecuador? Bastards.

What about changes? Are there any in the works? Is Obama ouching you guys to work faster? I am not sure Obama knows we exist. There have been no changes and no pressure other than the usual workload and shifting things around. I do not expect any immigration changes in the next year or two, at kleat not in rules or amnesty or anything like that. I do expect FEE INCREASES within the next year...across the board.

How much more? I cannot say, that is not my area, I just hear talk.

He added, "We try not to deny petitions, people really get angry and make lots of trouble. Denials usually come at the consulate or maybe AOS or sometimes even with the I-751. If we deny someone we need good reason, if they meet the criteria, we will approve it, they just have to give us what we need to approve them."

So how can I speed up my petition? You can't really. If it gets to be too long and if you can get a congressman or senator to call, that will get some action, but half the time those guys dont'' call or they do and the petition has only been there 3 months. Sometimes one falls through the cracks, gets overlooked, we are human. A congressman can get through and get them to dig it out if it has been too long, but I wouldn't call that "speeding it up". That's a fix for whn it is too slow.

we talked for some time more, about 5 hours altogether, briefly interrupted by Alla every now and again who had her own questions about the I-751 procedure which I posted in that forum, about VJ and other topics (his Navy days) He said he will check the site and gave me his home number. He said "call anytime but not 3 in the morning" I asked about an interview or answering prepared questions, he said possibly, he will check the site. He said many internet sites are advertisement for immigration attorneys or instructing people on how to pull scams, I assured him he would be very pleased with VJ and he thinks it is great that there is a good site for information and advice. (he never heard of VJ before this)

I can also say, that speaking to him, I heard so many of the same buzzwords or advice that I have seen right here, this is really a great site with some great folks giving some really great info.

WOW.. THIS IS AWSOME" THANKS FOR THIS POST!

[TBoneTX 45,663]

Folks, again: Please avoid copying the entire original post in your own reply!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Folks, again: Please avoid copying the entire original post in your own reply!

Yes, I agree. I can get annoying in some threads, really.

[Stephen + Elisha 92]

Hello All

I gave a list of questions to the USCIS director tonight and he promises me to answer all he can. Thanks for all the input as I would never have thought of all these myself. We didn't tie up to much time on questions tonight but I did ask two that have been burning a hole in my brain.

G325a TWO copies is plenty. The reason the form was changed is that USCIS has been throwing away all but two copies for some years. The OMB had printed, in his words "A gazillion" of the old form and they just dealt with it. He said there is no harm in sending four copies if it makes you feel better.

Religious Divorces Religious divorces are not generally acceptable to the USCIS or the US consulates. If you obtained a foreign "religious divorce" it should be registered or filed with civil authorities in that country to be recognized here.

I hope to hear soon from him on the other questions and I will post them as soon as he responds. He seems as interested in making this go smoothly for all concerned as we are.

Moderators...I did not know whether to post this separately or add it to the pinned topic above, I trust your judgement.

Thanks for the update, Gary. Just a follow-up: by two copies of the G-325A do you mean one each for petitioner and beneficiary?

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hello All

I gave a list of questions to the USCIS director tonight and he promises me to answer all he can. Thanks for all the input as I would never have thought of all these myself. We didn't tie up to much time on questions tonight but I did ask two that have been burning a hole in my brain.

G325a TWO copies is plenty. The reason the form was changed is that USCIS has been throwing away all but two copies for some years. The OMB had printed, in his words "A gazillion" of the old form and they just dealt with it. He said there is no harm in sending four copies if it makes you feel better.

Religious Divorces Religious divorces are not generally acceptable to the USCIS or the US consulates. If you obtained a foreign "religious divorce" it should be registered or filed with civil authorities in that country to be recognized here.

I hope to hear soon from him on the other questions and I will post them as soon as he responds. He seems as interested in making this go smoothly for all concerned as we are.

Moderators...I did not know whether to post this separately or add it to the pinned topic above, I trust your judgement.

Thanks for the update, Gary. Just a follow-up: by two copies of the G-325A do you mean one each for petitioner and beneficiary?

My bad. Yes. Two copies for EACH person. Consider it a two part form.

[maestra_katy 0]

Wow... thanks for all that great info.! One question for now: The G-325 has a blank that says File Number A...? What the hell is this?? And then at the end it asks for the Alien Registration #... Anyone know how to fill this out or IF I have to fill that part out? I don't know how I'd have a file number when I haven't even filed yet...???

Thanks,

Katy

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Here are some partial answers to my list of questions. I also posted these in the K-1 forum but will add them here for posterity. As he indicates, there is more to come. He speaks refreshingly frank. Yes, he knows I will post this.

Q. Some people have adopted a practice called "front loading" of petitions for certain difficult consulates or consulates in countries with elaborate traditions of engagement ceremonies, Viet Nam and Thailand for example. It is well known this is not needed for USCIS for the petition and it is also well known that all this gets forwarded to the consulate where they cannot "refuse" to consider it as evidence of relationship. Some consulates have a habit of refusing to look at evidence and then denying the visa for "lack of evidence".

Does adding additional documents to a petition slow the petition approval process?

No, it does not slow anything at USCIS. We are now getting into the realm of DOS. CIS tends to treat the engagement ceremonies with a grain of salt. Give us some decorations and you and I can be engaged. They are sort of like Chinese notorial birth certificates. They go into an office and give some bongo bucks and say, yeah I was born in this town or province on such and such day and those people over there are my parents. If the money is good, the certificate is written and notarized. The best thing to do is provide the evidence as stipulated in the I-129F instructions. A good way of proving the 2 year meeting rule is to have a picture taken that is easily identifiable as to date taken. Holding today's newspaper with the date and headline visible is good. Vietnam, China and India (Indian sub-continent) is rife with fraud so those consulates are a bit more difficult to work with.

Q. What percentage, would you say, of USCIS work is reviewing returned petitions (returned from consulates with no visa issued)?

We really don't get a lot of returned 129Fs. There is a time limitation placed on them so it really isn't conducive to having a second look taken. Best thing to do with a denied 129F is to either re-file taking into account the outcome of the last interview. The consular officer will normally explain the deficiencies and what needs to be done to overcome them. The other options are go back and marry or (not to sound cruel) find a new fiance. Once again, the main area of denial is the countries and areas mentioned above. There are other things the consulate looks at - marriage customs in the country and social strata.

Q. The Department of State seems to have a similar call center to USCIS (maybe it is the same one!) Where no one can seem to get a relevent answer, particularly regarding the NVC. I know this is not your area of responsibility but...

Is there a number people can call and get a knowledgeable human to speak to? Would this regard actions at consulates as well as NVC? A particular person or department?

Hate to say it but the public is at the whim of some idiot contractor. I don't think some of them walk upright. Best thing is to read the instructions and follow them to the letter. If they give some attorney lots of blank checks he is going to do just that, read the instructions. The web group you are with is another great source of knowledge and sturdy shoulders.

I am reviewing an application for a supervisory position at work so I will get back to that and will try to finish this tomorrow or Friday.

if any of this babble leaves you scratching your head and saying "what the hell is he trying to tell me" just pick up the phone and we can try the fallback plan

Edited October 14, 2009 by Gary and Alla

[Robert and Sun 0]

I'd love to know if they, (VSC) still have a ton of adjudicators working the K-1s trying to get caught up or if they've shifted back to other projects. Getting an NOA2 in 30 days would absolutely make my day. Actually, it's coming up on 30 days in another week, so we'll see.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I'd love to know if they, (VSC) still have a ton of adjudicators working the K-1s trying to get caught up or if they've shifted back to other projects. Getting an NOA2 in 30 days would absolutely make my day. Actually, it's coming up on 30 days in another week, so we'll see.

As of Monday evening, yes. I do not know how long that will last. "Until they get caught up" I was told.