When to file I-29F

[saj102965 1]

My boyfriend, soon to be fiancee, is here on a work visa and will be returning to south africa in November. How soon before he leaves should we file the I-29F in order to allow him enough time to get things compiled on his end for his interview.

[Tom and Novie 1]

My boyfriend, soon to be fiancee, is here on a work visa and will be returning to south africa in November. How soon before he leaves should we file the I-29F in order to allow him enough time to get things compiled on his end for his interview.

No need to wait.. You need to do the compiling, not your fiance. All your fiance should need is a passport. All the other documentation is generated by you. Get everything done and signed before he leaves.

He will be given an appointment to show up. He will need his passport and copies of everything you sent ahead with the petition. Which will include photos of the two of you together and copies of his travel documents to fix the date of your having met in person. It also would not hurt if he were to maitain a file of emails exchanged between the two of you after he returns home.. also phone records.. whatever you can come up with that shows an ongoing relationship.

[Susita 175]

I agree with the above poster. Start the process ASAP. Yes, your fiancee will need to get things from his country (birth certificates, police records, etc). but that's later on when they mail him the packet for the interview.

We filed our petition in April, and my husband's interview was in October. So, it took about 6 months and that's average.

Good luck!

[Tom and Novie 1]

I had forgotten about the Police records.. thanks for correcting that. These documents were so easy to get that they slipped my mind.

[saj102965 1]

Thank you for your responses.

So would you suggest we start the paperwork now or should we wait until August and we would probably be safe that he wouldn't get an interview prior to his scheduled leave date of November 2, 2010. I intend on flying over to visit him at Christmas to have additional documentation to show our ongoing relationship, so do you think that will allow us enough time prior to an interview being scheduled to prove we are still involved and intend to get married.

Edited June 30, 2010 by saj102965

[newlyweds 0]

do the paperwork ASAP , the sooner you get all that done, the sooner you guys could be married, and him living in the US legally as long as he wants lol

K-1 visas take about 3-6 months to get approved. It would only be in the later days, after you receive the notice of approval for the I-129f(k-1 visa petition) that he'll do medical and then the interview.

WHen you send in all the documents at the start, it takes time for the service centers to approve the I-129f, you will receive a NOA1 -saying they received the application, during that time, if they need more documents, they send an RFE(request for evidence), if not, the only paper you'll receiver after the NOA1 is the NOA2, after that they will let you know thru mail they sent it to the NVC, then the NVC will send the documents to his country, at the US embassy there. After that, the embassy sends him a letter letting him know they have the paperwork and that he will have to do a medical exam, usually 2 weeks before the interview at the US embassy. The interview date will be set by him or the embassy, depends on the embassy but that will be mentioned in the letter from the embassy. So the only time he needs to be present at the US embassy in his home country, is when he does the medical and his interview

hope that helps

[saj102965 1]

Yes that information makes it much clearer. Thank you all for you help and encouragement to get the paperwork rolling now. I will keep you posted.

[saj102965 1]

When you say "K-1 visas take about 3-6 months to get approved" does that me from start to finish or does that mean in addition to approval of the I-29F?

[saj102965 1]

I forgot to also asked if August would be too soon to file the I-29F considering we just meant in March, 2010, but we know we are met to be together and truly intend on getting married.

Edited June 30, 2010 by saj102965