K-1 Finance Visa: Clarifications Needed!

[saturnus 0]

Greetings all,

After reading much of the material on this website and forums I have some questions that I am unsure of:

1. In the last 5 years, my finance has lived (with the exception of a few months in the begining) in the UK. The last three of these at least was in the same city in England. She is a polish citizen. Will she be able to do everything through offices in England or will they force her to back to Poland for anything? (she already has passport and is working on birth certificate)

2. My finance works for a contracting agency. With a contracting agency, should you be using the address of the agency or the address of the location you were contracted to work at? I am worried about it being rejected because its not the physical address she works, or vise versa. She has never actually been to the contracting agencies office, all her paperwork was handled at the location she works at.

3. Parents: My fiance is not on good terms with her parents and does not know their whereabouts. How should that section of the G-325A be filled out?

3. Past addresses: My fiance lived at more than 5 addresses over the last 5 years, and did not legally change her address for many of them except for that of employment purposes. (ie paycheck). How should these be filled out? Will filling in the actual address bring a red flag because she might not have been on record with the city?

4. Birth Certificates:

Hers: Is her certificate required? Do they only need the certified translated copy? and does that have to be the real certificate or a copy?

Mine: Minnesota uses the short form. I have a passport. Will I be safe copying the birth certificate and full passport? Do they need copies of the birth certificate or the real thing? (ie: will I get the real thing back?)

6. Evidence of the relationship:

I have copies of my tickets (or at least some of them, there were 4 stubs. 2 planes each way) and itineraries, bus tickets to her city, etc... but I stayed at her residence and not at a hotel. Will my passport stamps work a well?

I have 3 or 4 digital photos of us that came out alright: Can I print them out and sign the back or do i need to do more to 'prove' they were during that time period? Maybe I need to print them using a photo kiosk that dates them?

I have a VOIP phone, I could print records of calls to her phone (digitally, I do not receive paper copies) but her phones are pre-pay anonymous phones so I imagine that wont be worth anything?

Her brother witnessed my presence at her residence, would any kind of signed voucher from him improve things?

Thanks in advance for your advice on this.

-E

[K and L 27]

1) Doing it in England should be fine, that's where she lives right now. (Or, at least, when my husband's uncle, who lives in Spain, decided to get a US tourist visa, he was allowed to interview for it in Spain instead of Brazil.)

2) Works at would be better.

3) Actual address. She'll still need to get police clearance anyplace she lived more than (if memory serves) 6mo.

4) Since she'd be interviewing in England, she would need a certified translated copy (original + translation, plus copies of both). A full copy of your passport is sufficient (and all I used).

5) Eh that all sounds good. You'll definitely want to include your passport stamps, travel tickets, etc, and a photo or two with the K1 packet. The first half of the process (the I129F) cares more than you met than the bonafides of your relationship, and the second half is consulate dependent and from what I've heard, the UK cares more about the finances than the bonafides - less visa fraud than in developing nations. You can include either with the I129F packet or bring to the consulate, but it's unlikely to make a difference unless there's red flags.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

She will need a Polish police certificate(with translation) and UK police certificate to take to the interview in London. The UK one is good for 1 year.

I would put the physical address of where she goes to work each day.

Parents--put where she knows they last lived.

Addresses: List them all unless it was something like staying at a friends flat for two weeks in between places. List all that were an actual permanent type place she lived. I don't think they check with each city for records. This process would take years if it was that thorough.

Polish birth certificate: Her actual certified copy will be taken to the interview with a certified translation. She will also take photocopies of same, which they will put in her file so they can give back her certified "real" ones.

Documents in general: Don't mail off originals because they don't send them back. Provide photocopies with the understanding that at any point they could ask to see the real ones in person, but for the I-129F petition part probably not. Originals are always taken to any interview situation. Opportunities for interview: Visa in London, Adjustment of Status (greencard) at your closest local USCIS office, Removal of Conditions (10 yr greencard) at your closest local USCIS office.

Relationship: Remember the USCIS wants to know you have met in person and not how in love you are. So think of things that reasonably show you were in the same country or town. Boarding passes and passport stamps to the UK are good. Bus tickets to her town...excellent. Hotel stay not necessary. Do you have credit card bills showing you made purchases in her town or nearby to show your presence there that matches when you passport says you were there? I personally didn't send digitally-dated photos or affidavits from "witnesses." I did mark up the photocopies of my evidence to point out what I was showing them. Example for you: Photocopy the bus ticket to her town. Use a highlighter to mark the date and town. Write in red ink " John's bus ticket to Oxford to visit Mary- July 5, 2010." A credit card statement with any UK purchases marked with a highlighter and red note saying "John's Mastercard bill showing five transactions in/near Mary's town."

The photos and phone logs are secondary evidence so you don't have to go overboard with an excess of those so they can't find your concrete evidence of meeting in person. USCIS wants to know you are a US citizen, both free to marry and intend to marry, and you have met in person. How many times you call her aren't proving those basics if you follow my logic. At her visa interview London will be looking at-- if you make enough money to support her, if she is free of contagious disease/mental illness/drug abuse, if she has a criminal record. That's the short version, but the basics for you to keep in mind.

[pushbrk 12,975]

You've got other good answers but let me clarify a couple things. You don't indicate the type of work she does. If she goes to work at a business address every day, I would use that. If the contracts to work in somebody's house, I would use the address of the nearest office of the contracting company.

For information that is known about parents, provide it. If it is unknown, indicate unknown. Interpret all questions literally and answer the question asked. There is no "Where did they last live?", question. If she doesn't know, she doesn't know.

[saturnus 0]

Thank you all for your answers. I apologize for the long time before reply, but we had to acquire some official documents before we could begin to prepare the paperwork again

I have some follow-up questions:

1) If I am indicating that the current address of parents is unknown, do I literally put "unknown" ? should it be "not available", are they picky about what word you use?

2) There are periods where her employment was very short and/or under the table at times. She was considering putting those periods as "Unemployed" rather than listing them, as they would be very hard to verify. What are your thoughts on this?

3) The police clearance -- is that needed with the initial submission, or at the interview? How does she go about requesting that? Can it be done remotely? I imagine She would have more than one place to request it from.

4) Divorce papers. Her decree absolute has an ink stamp on it that says "oxford city council". There is no judge's signature (or even a place for one) as I've seen other people indicate might be necessary. Do I have a problem or is that stamp sufficient?

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

3) The police clearance -- is that needed with the initial submission, or at the interview? How does she go about requesting that? Can it be done remotely? I imagine She would have more than one place to request it from.

4) Divorce papers. Her decree absolute has an ink stamp on it that says "oxford city council". There is no judge's signature (or even a place for one) as I've seen other people indicate might be necessary. Do I have a problem or is that stamp sufficient?

3. Police certificate is needed for the interview.

4. My husband has the exact same decree absolute-- from Oxford even. I did the following and got no RFE.

• A color copy so the red seal shows up.
  
• Yellow highlighter over the sentence from "it is hereby certified that said decree...." and continuing to "...marriage was thereby dissolved."
  
• Highlight DATED:xxxxxxxx
  
• Yellow highlighter on the teeny, tiny print in the footer that says "Decree of Absolute (divorce)"
  

I think it helps point out that it is the official and final divorce decree.

[Andy and Pui 16]

Mine: Minnesota uses the short form. I have a passport. Will I be safe copying the birth certificate and full passport? Do they need copies of the birth certificate or the real thing? (ie: will I get the real thing back?)

I sent in color copy of my Minnesota short form birth certificate and had no problem. I called the county where I was born and they said they only give out short forms now a days for identity theft reasons and that the short form works for getting your passport in MN.

I made color copies of the info page of my passport and the pages from when I entered and left Thailand when I saw Pui. I did not copy the full passport but if I did it all over again I would copy every page and send that.

I got my NOA2 with that info but I suggest coping every page of your passport. I hope that helps you and good luck.