id like to see k1 process made harder

[sara..... 371]

Hmm...so what about culturally based marriages? Like mine for example...it was arranged. What do you say about that?

also add in what about those of us that can not meet alone with our fiance or travel alone because of religious reasons so we have to take family member with us when we go .......

[together4evr 360]

i think the income requirements should be higher to marry because this is not a cheap process. Supporting family is expensive in USA. Some people make a little money and save a lot. Some people make a lot of money and save none. Both these people could qualify. I think people need to love themselves and value themselves before they can love another person. I think any people choosing to get married need to be able to depend on each other to be provided for. I think 18000 is not enough money to live in most of USA. In Egypt I would be rich!! I think if you love someone then you try and make sure you can provide for them.

I am against co-sponsers. If you cannot afford a spouse then do not get one right now. Love will not pay your bills. Love will not fee the children. I think co-sponsors place responsibility onto a kind hearted person and in the usa at least 40% of marriage fail. This is very dangerous for the kind co-sponsor who just wanted to help a couple in love be together.

I think everyone needs to meet in person many times. Not just once within 2 years. I think it should be 3 times in 2 years.

But, I think this process needs to be quicker once all those rules are in place. I feel the 6 month wait for uscis is a waste of my time and money...and I value both. I pay for a service today and I want that service delivered soon. I do not want it to sit in a pile waiting for someone to decide to pick it up. It takes an hour to go thru a completed packet and approved it. USCIS needs to have higher productivity levels or get new employees. Many people need jobs right now and I bet if they advertised work from home positions many of our foreigner spouses would excel in this area. Since we have all been thru this nad know how important it is then I believe we would work hard and quick to approve or deny cases. I believe uscis should have a salary tier. If you complete 7 applications in one day you will get 140 dollars. if you complete 10 in one day then you will get 200 dollars. if you are only able to complete 1 in a day then you do not get paid till you have a day over 7. I think people would work much harder if they know they will get 20 bucks for each completed application (and that is denied or approved).

I love quotas. and I love a reward of a nice paycheck So I would excel and I would be a good hard worker. I would work and make sure i made 300 dollars a day if possible. But if the government pays me 15 dollars an hour no matter how hard I work... then i will just work good.

[Dave and Kinnari 31]

also add in what about those of us that can not meet alone with our fiance or travel alone because of religious reasons so we have to take family member with us when we go .......

I was writing another post similar to this sara and you beat me to it...

[together4evr 360]

also add in what about those of us that can not meet alone with our fiance or travel alone because of religious reasons so we have to take family member with us when we go .......

It is still meeting in person. And it can be a relative of the foreign person. I had to always be with someone when I was with my fiance before we married in Egypt. It was not difficult. He just made sure it was not a person that fully understand English and we would speak English cause I do not speak Arabic too well. lol I went to his parents home everyday. I went out with his family members alone. All this is stuff we would do in USA. We try to get to know the inlaws and friends of our love. It can be done and it can be done easily. I visited twice before marriage. He never came to my flat. He waited downstairs like a gentleman. And then when we did marry he was happy to share our home alone. But I did miss all the food and family so we still visited everyday at dinner!

[sara..... 371]

It is still meeting in person. And it can be a relative of the foreign person. I had to always be with someone when I was with my fiance before we married in Egypt. It was not difficult. He just made sure it was not a person that fully understand English and we would speak English cause I do not speak Arabic too well. lol I went to his parents home everyday. I went out with his family members alone. All this is stuff we would do in USA. We try to get to know the inlaws and friends of our love. It can be done and it can be done easily. I visited twice before marriage. He never came to my flat. He waited downstairs like a gentleman. And then when we did marry he was happy to share our home alone. But I did miss all the food and family so we still visited everyday at dinner!

you dont understand i am muslim i have never been married so no it could not be one of his relatives. it would have to be one of mine and i can not travel alone either.

sara

Edited September 10, 2011 by sara.....

[sara..... 371]

I was writing another post similar to this sara and you beat me to it...

great minds and all that

sara

[AKSinghSingh79 143]

we have allready done the k1 etc etc.we are now removing conditions.i for one would like to see this whole process more stringent than it already is.we have our circle of friends whom are all k1 holders and ive closely watched all of them and there marriages.first,i would like to see more up front than just meeting 1 time within 2 years.second,this 90 day to marry must be extended to at least double (180 days)third,i believe that the income levels of pationers should be much higher than 125% of poverty level.we all have to admit the process is already long.uscis can only do so much when it comes to paperwork and background checks.but in all reality it is up to the petioner and the k1 visa holder to make a marriage that will last a lifetime.im gonna stick my neck out here and say i personally believe that only 40% of these marriages last any length of time.dont get me wrong i am happily married to a wonderful women and weve been together now a full 2 years.but looking back it sure was very tough.any comments welcome?

I don't know how the consulate is in the Phillipines but the consulates in India are especially tough, often unfairly so. In fact the process is so strict that many legitimate couples have had their lives put on hold due to AP or ruined from a visa denial. This is very true of interracial couples in India who face an additional unfair level of scrutiny than compared with an Indian/Indian couple.

While I definitely agree with your point on increasing the 90 day restriction to 180 days (as it is exceedingly difficult to plan a proper wedding in 3 months or less), I think that you are making a broad generalization when you say the K-1 process should be made more difficult. Maybe you should re-phrase the question to be directed towards the process in the Phillipines. Because I highly doubt individuals petitioning for their loved ones in Nigeria, Morocco, India, and other MENA countries would agree with your statement.

I haven't even started the K-1 process yet but every day I worry that some minor pitfall, as so often happens in the course of life, will be used against my fiance and I and be a reason for AP or a denial.

[Rufus2012 175]

Do you have some data which suggests people who met 3 times in the past two years are more likely to stay together than K1's who met only once? What if that one meeting lasted several weeks? The rule is a reasonable one, it allows for a lot of flexibility, it takes into account the very real costs of long distance travel (cost in dollars and limited vacation time) and it does account for many religious or cultural customs which would preclude shacking up for a year beforehand.

I could agree with raising the income requirement and dropping co-sponsors (unless they put up cash in a bond, not just making a promise), but there is nothing I would make more difficult about this process. It's dehumanizing, depressing and an affront to anyone's dignity - imagine having some paper pusher in an embassy asking you about your sex life? The only change I'd really support is speeding it up.

[lyndsaycribbs 17]

I'm not a K1, I'm a CR1 who is still waiting for approval.

I think the process is already hard enough for the majority of folk on here. I like many others can,t afford to travel back and forth to the USA on a regular basis to see my husband, he can't take weeks and weeks off work to visit us, we will not see each other again until POE.

It's hard. We were apart for our first wedding anniversary and we are going to miss spending thanksgiving, Christmas, new year, my birthday and maybe even valentines day together again. My son misses his step dad, it's hard for a 6 year old to go though this.

As for the statistics on failed marriages, well any relationship can break down under normal circumstances. This process has killed off a good few VJ members relationships because this process took them past breaking point.

I hope that when I'm all done and dusted and back in the arms of my husband, and know I don't have to leave him thousands of miles away ever again, I can look back and think it wasn't so bad.

I will never forget how hard this process has been and will never tell anyone that is going through it that it should be harder for them than it was for me.

[together4evr 360]

you dont understand i am muslim i have never been married so no it could not be one of his relatives. it would have to be one of mine and i can not travel alone either.

sara

I have read the Quran. My husband is Muslim. Muslims do travel alone. Maybe you just have stricter family. But, it is still possible to do. Many will not like doing it. I also would like to add that 1 week is not long enough so I think it can be 3 meetings in 2 years or like 2 months straight in a year.

I know many will not agree with me. But I think the process is long and I do not believe people should not meet a lot before marriage and bring a stranger into my country. I think we all should be responsible citizens. And if we get to know someone longer I believe less applications will get to USCIS and then less divorce will occur.

But I will always say this process is like a HUGE parking lot and no reason for it. Do not ignore my file that I paid you to do. I paid for service. And when they approve someone in 19 days and someone in 11 months....who feels like someone in this scenario got ripped off?? They did not get the same service for the same cost.

USCIS needs to do better and have higher productivity/efficiency goals for their employees. Maybe everyone gets paid as normal but at the end of the year they get a 2 dollar bonus for each application they exceeded the employers goals? USCIS needs incentive and motivation.

Edited September 10, 2011 by togetherforever13

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

I think they should do away with co sponsors for marriage based petitions. If you can't meet the income levels you are not going to live well here. If you have spent the last year living abroad and have no job then you would just have to wait until you could show 3 years of decent income

[morocco_usa 4ever 0]

the only thing i agree with is the changing the 90 days to 180. unfortunately my fiance is in morocco and YES we have seen each other MORE than once and we are still waiting to be together. we jumped thru all the hoops and have watched people get their visa in a couple days but yet we still wait. there is a post "its not a crime to fall in love with someone from another country" and ITS NOT. its sad that people everyday in the usa can meet someone and marry them and maybe divorce and nobody cares but because our love is from another country its all in someone elses hands if we can be together let alone marry. you have your love in america with you some of us would love to be in your shoes rite now!!!!!!!

[Miss smarty pants 84]

Even if the k1 divorce rate is 40% as you say... That is still about right on target with the rest of the national average of couples who met here, married here and dated for months...whatever. I dont know how hard this was for you....but because it was made so hard for my husband and myself, we have now waited 2 years and 3 months and still arent even at nvc yet! So....im so glad for you that your spouse is with you, but I wouldnt be so quick to wish it harder as a generalization on anyone in this forum. We already have it hard emotionally and financially and this is not an easy process. Not at all from where im sitting. And I sure would hate to think it couldnt happen at all if I hadnt gone to college. My grandparents have never been over the poverty line their whole lives. They had the happiest 55 years of anyone I ever met.

[sara..... 371]

I have read the Quran. My husband is Muslim. Muslims do travel alone. Maybe you just have stricter family. But, it is still possible to do. Many will not like doing it. I also would like to add that 1 week is not long enough so I think it can be 3 meetings in 2 years or like 2 months straight in a year.

I know many will not agree with me. But I think the process is long and I do not believe people should not meet a lot before marriage and bring a stranger into my country. I think we all should be responsible citizens. And if we get to know someone longer I believe less applications will get to USCIS and then less divorce will occur.

But I will always say this process is like a HUGE parking lot and no reason for it. Do not ignore my file that I paid you to do. I paid for service. And when they approve someone in 19 days and someone in 11 months....who feels like someone in this scenario got ripped off?? They did not get the same service for the same cost.

USCIS needs to do better and have higher productivity/efficiency goals for their employees. Maybe everyone gets paid as normal but at the end of the year they get a 2 dollar bonus for each application they exceeded the employers goals? USCIS needs incentive and motivation.

I am very happy that you have read the Quran and that your husband is Muslim....now ask him if his sister that has never been married would be allowed to travel alone to a different country with out one of his family......

maybe Egyptians are not as strict about their unmarried daughters i don't know as im not Egyptian

but the process is hard enough as it is the only thing i think should be changed is the length of time to marry after the fiance comes to the USA

sara

[Austramerican 83]

No. Just no. Yes to giving us more time to plan a wedding but thats about it. Not everyone has an awesome job that makes lots of $$$ but we still deserve to get married to the one we love and have them live with us. Especially since he will be saving up money in Australia while its processing, and getting a job as soon as his AOS is done. Did the people saying raise the income requirement ever think that the beneficiary is a man sometimes? When we have kids I'm going to be the housewife and he will be working, so how much I'm making by myself doesn't matter in the long run (except to the US govt. for me sponsoring him and for helping him support us before we have children). This is what we want for our relationship and we both agree to it.

My man has a college degree and can get a better job than me. I couldn't afford to go to college after high school (though I haven't given up on going). Should I have to be punished for this, when there are ways of living a decent comfortable life on 125% of the poverty line? We have roommates, we'll have savings, and between his savings and my job we will be able to pay our bills and live decently until he gets the ability to work in this country. And its all doable on just ~$18000/yr.

Its not like I'm his welfare check, if someone really loves someone enough to marry them they won't want to be a burden on them. There is no doubt in my mind that the govt's requirement for me to sponsor him is unfounded. I know that they don't know everyone who comes here and want to make sure they don't bleed the system, and I accept that and am willing to comply. But its a bit offensive for people to say there is no way to live a decent life on $18000 a year, when AMERICAN couples do it all the time, and especially since I myself have never taken welfare or unemployment and my life is just fine.

Anyway...rant over Basically don't judge unless you've walked it, because nothing is impossible if you want it bad enough