How many times did you meet with your fiancé before submitting I-129F?

[johnnybgood265 3]

Once, and then I knew she was going to be my wife.

[nyhazmat 2]

Hmmm, once for five months in Canada where we met, she was working there and I was in Buffalo, and then once for a month in Ukraine...So the answer for us is twice.

[dxg68 0]

I met with my fiancé once for about 2 weeks and sent I-129F petition. I am going to visit her again in April so we will meet at least two times before the interview. I am happy to see that it is usual. Thank you for the responses!

[Turboguy 6]

Personally I think there is risk in one short meeting and nothing more on a K-1. Not so much a risk that your visa may not be approved but I think a relationship is like a flower and needs to be nurished. I think it is a time to build the bond between you and to let your relationship develop. It also lets you find out more about each other which might help prevent mistakes. Then again during that period I really wanted to spend time with her and emails, phone calls or skype are just not the same.

[FortLaudy 10]

Personally I think there is risk in one short meeting and nothing more on a K-1. Not so much a risk that your visa may not be approved but I think a relationship is like a flower and needs to be nurished. I think it is a time to build the bond between you and to let your relationship develop. It also lets you find out more about each other which might help prevent mistakes. Then again during that period I really wanted to spend time with her and emails, phone calls or skype are just not the same.

some major leap of faith there with just meeting one time, bit of a gamble isn't it? Can go really bad:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2000/09/20/...ain;contentBody or really good, a friend of ours married a Russian girl and they stayed together for 7 years.

I've personally had the bad experience of meeting someone online and over time on long chats started having feelings for him and in real life he turned out far from what I had in mind of who he was and it could never have worked out between us.

[F & J 21]

We met twice - first time for 8 days, 2nd time for a little over 2 weeks.

It shouldn't be a problem if you've only met once as long as it's within the last 2 years from the date of filing your I-129F ^__^

[AKguy 1]

You could say we met 3 times. Met when she was working here and spent around 3 weeks together. I flew to Russia and lived with her for 3 weeks. She flew here and lived with me for 7 weeks. And then we filed.

[SMR 368]

You could say we met 3 times. Met when she was working here and spent around 3 weeks together. I flew to Russia and lived with her for 3 weeks. She flew here and lived with me for 7 weeks. And then we filed.

I don't know how to count how many times in our case. I guess you could say we met 4 times. But we spent a total of almost a year in almost daily contact between those 4 times.

[Nasturtium 500]

I did Cr-1, but we met 3 times before filing and 2 times afterwards. Two of my visits were actually work and on work visas and modified resident visas.

I wouldn't worry. The rule is once in the last 2 years... I have seen many a MENA couple go through with one visit for a short period of time and none since-- especially when religious things are involved.

[baron555 934]

Personally I think there is risk in one short meeting and nothing more on a K-1. Not so much a risk that your visa may not be approved but I think a relationship is like a flower and needs to be nurished. I think it is a time to build the bond between you and to let your relationship develop. It also lets you find out more about each other which might help prevent mistakes. Then again during that period I really wanted to spend time with her and emails, phone calls or skype are just not the same.

One really can not and should not rationalize this. It all depends on the nature and quality of the relationship, nothing else.

How many times a couple has met prior to filing is irrevelant to the quality of their relationship.

Plus no one can make any general comment on the quality of a relationship based soley on how many times the couple met prior to filing.

The two facts are exclusive from each other.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Personally I think there is risk in one short meeting and nothing more on a K-1. Not so much a risk that your visa may not be approved but I think a relationship is like a flower and needs to be nurished. I think it is a time to build the bond between you and to let your relationship develop. It also lets you find out more about each other which might help prevent mistakes. Then again during that period I really wanted to spend time with her and emails, phone calls or skype are just not the same.

This may or may not be true (may not more often) for the VISA application and interview. It makes absolutely NO difference for the petition.

How much time you need on a personal level to assure you are doing the right thing is a personal matter. Satisfying the needs for the petition are one thing, satisfying the needs for the visa are another thing and satisfying your personal needs are a third thing. For the petition, meeting one time, shaking hands, having a picture taken and being able to prove it is sufficent.

[jimnlena 8]

Met Lena only 1 trip for 10 days, approved with no problems

[mox 298]

Visa approval almost never comes down to one single thing, unless it's huge, like the fiance(e)'s name shows up as a drug runner or something. Otherwise, USCIS takes multiple data points. More than one trip might lend some weight to your overall case, but then so might having additional evidence of an ongoing relationship. And USCIS aren't looking at all the aspects of your case, assigning a point value for each item ("ooooh, receipts from the Moscow Space museum, that's +3 points"), they are instead looking for a cohesive picture of your relationship. It's all about the big picture. From that perspective, one visit is as good as 3 visits if you've done a good job of showing that you have a bona fide relationship and that there are no red flags surrounding either one of you.

[baron555 934]

one visit is as good as 3 visits if you've done a good job of showing that you have a bona fide relationship and that there are no red flags surrounding either one of you.

Nicely said; it's the total picture that is important. Everyone's evidence needs to "tell your story".

[Tanya and Barry 59]

Three times over the course of 4 months.

Edited January 25, 2010 by bjstults