How many times have you visited your fiance?

[LDora 7]

My husband and I visited twice; he came to see me for a week, I went to stay with him for a few weeks. Believe me, we would have LOVED to have visited more, but he was in the process of selling his house and moved to Florida and finding a new job there, and the owner of the bakery I worked at was severely injured (seriously, it was gross) in an accident at work that required multiple surgeries and over a year of leave, so I was suddenly working 40+ hours a week managing the place in her stead. By this point, we'd already been in a long distance relationship for, mmmm, five years? So it helped that I had a massive amount of correspondence in all forms to take to the interview. They did ask if we were "concerned" we'd only met twice, but I guess the fellow interviewing me liked my response about how we had everything else in the relationship except being close enough to put my cold feet on his back at night, because he just smiled and moved on.

[Enigma11561 336]

No insult to anyone was intended. I had been at this for some time and have met many, many people/couples from many nationalities. It's just been my experience that most ( but not all) who have a short term pre-martial relationship find out later on that cultural differences can be very hard, understanding American lifestyles/way of life can be challenging, and without truly knowing the other person well enough to help get them through these hardships can result in a negative outcome. Many people get caught up in the romance and excitement of the moment and having the person of their dreams finally with them it can be great. But you are talking marriage here. A lifetime. A successful marriage is a heck of a lot more work than anything the USCIS can throw at you.Sorry if you feel that truly getting to know someone is a bad thing.

[Tyeger87 10]

we lived together for over a year in Cairo, Egypt

[Becky<3Jorim 1]

two times still need tho do the interview @ 30 august

[LDora 7]

No insult to anyone was intended. I had been at this for some time and have met many, many people/couples from many nationalities. It's just been my experience that most ( but not all) who have a short term pre-martial relationship find out later on that cultural differences can be very hard, understanding American lifestyles/way of life can be challenging, and without truly knowing the other person well enough to help get them through these hardships can result in a negative outcome. Many people get caught up in the romance and excitement of the moment and having the person of their dreams finally with them it can be great. But you are talking marriage here. A lifetime. A successful marriage is a heck of a lot more work than anything the USCIS can throw at you.Sorry if you feel that truly getting to know someone is a bad thing.

Sorry if you feel that the only way to "truly" get to know someone is to be in the same room with them. Obviously meetings are important, but to be perfectly frank, you're sure making an enormous amount of assumptions on the very intimate and personal lives of complete strangers, and while I'm sure it would be a great comfort to everyone to be able to put people in a little box and say "as long as you stay in this, you'll be okay" that's not the world works. People meet, fall in love, grow close over great distances in a variety of ways, and for you to imply that someone might know their significant other any less (or love them any less) just because they didn't have the time, means, whatever to get together more frequently than they were able is pretty darned presumptuous.

[crazykuya73 16]

Three times in the last three years.

[southcalhog 43]

Just once for me, but we're talking and typing for at least an hour almost every day (video chat). I hope once is okay for Philippines.

It is..... I have been talking to a lady and her Fiance and she Posted in the PI forum the same Question. Her Fiance had only visited her once. Her Interview was August 2nd.....She Passed!

[southcalhog 43]

Ok, now I am starting to worry and actually get a little torqued off here. Everybody can't afford to just take off on a trip overseas whenever they fancy one. I make enough money to make a living for me and my future wife but multiple trips overseas are NOT a reality for me. I am just able to cover the fee's and the plane ticket to get my fiancee here, but no way can I afford to take unpaid leave (I burned all my paid vaca days my last trip to Manila)and buy the ticket plus fianance the trip while I'm there AND take care of the rest of the K-1 process (post NOA2) Is this thread telling me that if you aren't well off enough to make multiple trips overseas whenever you want that you are not fit to be approved for a K-1 VISA? I've been on a high the past cpl of days cause of my I-129F being approved, but after reading this thread I'm feeling disillusioned and worried. Never anywhere in any document that I have read have I seen anything stating that you have to make multiple visits to your fiance to get approved for a K-1 visa.

Dont Stress Over it! Most People in the Philippines meet only once! As long as you got proof of ONGOING Relationship, you guys will be fine. Look at "Amelies" Embassy review!

[southcalhog 43]

it's ok! We met Feb 2009 online, visit me in cebu for 8 days on May 2009, propose on my birthday (sept 2009), file the petition November 2009, got approve april 8th 2010! I remember during my interview and I only have 3 photos to show to the embassy while the other K1 visa applicants have 3 albums. Their documents were as thick as a medical book and mine was just as thick as half of the yellow pad paper. honestly, that made me hopeless that I'd be approved. Not sure if it's luck because 2 of the K1 applicants that was there for their interview got some problems with their documents and they were made to submit more. I don't have that much proof of relationship because he only visited me once and briefly; plus it was our first meeting ever and we never even thought of filing the petition so we didn't save our tickets and receipts from our meeting and just took few pictures. so, i don't think that is a problem in the philippines.

You Right!!!

[Amy_and_Victor 159]

If we would think how many couples who never were in LDR end up in divorce then probably we would think that it's better never to be married. Even couples who live in one city and lived together for a long time before marriage not such rare end up in divorce in a 3-5-10-15 years. I know enough examples from my acquaintances from my city. Some of them end up in divorce even after getting a child. I sure that if it's True Love, you don't need to delay everything for 10 years and meet each other 10 times to understand that you want to be together no matter what. And if you doubt that you're in True Love, then probably it's better to decide that it doesn't worth to leave your fatherland and go across the ocean to live with somebody about whom you have doubts if it's right person for you. I have no doubts in my fiancee Amy, and these 6 weeks we spent together in Russia was the best time in my entire life. We're communicating few hours every single day (Skype, phone...) for already almost 9 months and we never get tired from each other and we never have enough time to spend together, we're ending our chats just because I need to go to sleep to be ready for work in the morning (we have 7 hours time difference). I believe that we will spend all our life together and we will be happy to be together. If not - I completely will lose any belief in Love and in relationships, because if it's not True Love, then True Love just doesn't exist in the world. [it's Victor (Russian fiance) writing]

It's now Amy, the American fiancee, writing!

First, I want to say to my Victor, I love you so much! <3 You're so amazing, Sweetie, and I know we'll be happy for all of our lives together! :-* We'll be together through all the joys and all the challenges in our life! I love you with all of my heart and soul, and our love is True Love! (L)

I of course must also agree with my wonderful fiance, Victor, about the fact that you can't judge a relationship based on length of time spent together or amount of visits before filing the I-129F. For one thing, not everyone can afford to travel so much. Also, getting to know each other is not just time being in person, it's communication. We communicate enough to know each other well and know we're in True Love. Furthermore, each relationship is individual, and sometimes people can spend years together and not know if they're right for each other or want to be married, and some people can know it very shortly after meeting someone. Before our 6 weeks in person, we had 6 months to get to know each other very well! One amazing thing I found about being in an LDR is the fact that communication, and very frequent and long communication, is a must! At least it is for us. We talk every day, no matter what. Neither one of us would feel right with skipping a day of communication. We spend a few hours every work day talking, and then on weekends we spend at least 8 hours on both weekend days talking, and at the end of these chats neither one of us wants to stop talking, but as Victor said we only stop chatting because he's 7 hours ahead and me and needs to sleep eventually.

People love to tell others how they should live and conduct their business, but not everyone fits into a little box, and not everyone is the same. Some people might feel they need more time to be sure, but some people don't require this time. Please don't judge the "mindset" of others, because it's not up to you to judge.

Me and Victor knew it was True Love very shortly after we began getting to know each other in the very early phases of meeting online. It's still True Love now, and will be True Love when we're in old age. And all of our friends and family can see how happy we are together, and how mutually crazy about each other we are....and as the old saying goes, you shouldn't marry someone you can live with, but rather you should marry the person you can't live without! And I can't live without my Victor! (L) (L)

[Hiker 9]

I would love to visit my fiancee in the Philippines more than once (and I just may if there's enough time before the visa is approved), but the trip there is quite a huge deal. Not just the money, but the required time off (2 weeks per trip) limits me to one trip per year, maybe a second trip if I don't use a single vacation day for anything else. And the airline trip is horrendous, especially on the way back. I have been to Philippines and Asia many times before meeting her, and I usually catch the flu on the return flight and am then sick for weeks after that. This year, I was sick for 2 months after the trip... the coughing was so bad that I injured myself and still have odd chest pains to this day from all the pulled muscles. And, I just changed jobs (internally) and need to solidify my place on the team before I go flying away for 2 more weeks only to get sick again. If her move to America isn't imminent by the end of this year, I'll probably visit again late this year. But, there are reasons why people can't always visit more than once.

[Amy_and_Victor 159]

Sorry if you feel that truly getting to know someone is a bad thing.

It's Amy again, the American fiancee.

I don't think anyone is saying that they feel that truly getting to know someone is a bad thing, but you assume that people can't know each other without meeting in person multiple times over many years. What you say is required to truly get to know someone isn't necessarily required for everyone. I think that's why people found your post a little insulting.

In my initial response to Victor's response I was trying to illustrate that time and amount of visits can't possibly be the same for everyone because of different life circumstances, so it's not fair for you to say that a relationship isn't stable or valid based on the amount of courtship or face-time spent before submitting the I-129F. I feel it's somewhat condescending to assume that everyone who hasn't had the resources to travel as much as you could to see your significant other is flakey and flighty about this decision.

[Peace.... 281]

A total of 7 visits 3 weeks at a time in 1.5 years.

[KayMar 4]

I went to Nigeria once in December of the year that my fiance was denied a tourist visa. I spent 3 weeks in Nigeria and that was the only visit before he came to the US on a K1 visa.

[Austramerican 83]

It's Amy again, the American fiancee.

I don't think anyone is saying that they feel that truly getting to know someone is a bad thing, but you assume that people can't know each other without meeting in person multiple times over many years. What you say is required to truly get to know someone isn't necessarily required for everyone. I think that's why people found your post a little insulting.

In my initial response to Victor's response I was trying to illustrate that time and amount of visits can't possibly be the same for everyone because of different life circumstances, so it's not fair for you to say that a relationship isn't stable or valid based on the amount of courtship or face-time spent before submitting the I-129F. I feel it's somewhat condescending to assume that everyone who hasn't had the resources to travel as much as you could to see your significant other is flakey and flighty about this decision.

I agree, with Ben and I, we had spent so much time talking about many things, and he had helped me through personal family problems that I had had, that as soon as I saw him waiting for me at the bottom of the escalator in Australia I knew in my heart that this was the man I'd marry. My brain, which had been emotionally hurt by my ex boyfriend of 6 years, was warning me to be careful though, so we took it slow and arranged to live together for a year before we rushed into marriage even though it was on both our minds and we had talked about the possibility. Now that we've been living together for this past year, our brains finally caught up to our hearts and realised that they were right.

I used to think that if you didn't live with each other for a while before marriage then you were rushing into it and setting yourself up for failure, but I have seen so many couples who don't fit into that mold and are perfectly happy and united. So I know now that everyone has their own path, their own timeline, their own speed and their own way that works for them. And no one should ever try to impose their rules on someone elses relationship. Some things that other people do don't work for me and Ben at all but they work for others, and vice versa. The only sort of judgement anyone should have to worry about is what the government says, because thats the only sort of judgement that matters