costs involved

[rkk1 34]

Hi guys. I was just trying to get an idea of how much money remains to be spent on the visa and expenses to get from India to the US. Thus far, I've paid the $420 fee for the I-130 for the CR1 visa. But that's where we are at right now. My husband is going through a tough time financially, as his mom's been really ill and her medical costs are very high, plus his brother will probably get married in December and thus they want to save up for that (as they are going dowry-free). So we were trying to figure out how much it would cost for the rest of this process. I wanted to know if anyone has the specifics.

I'm assuming the remainder of the visa process at NVC would be about $500. Then he has to pay to get his police clearance at the passport office/police office? (which may involve bribery as the people there are unethical and won't do your work otherwise). I have no idea how much that would cost on average, plus the cost of his medical exams in Delhi and immunizations. I don't know if if there are any costs associated with the interview, besides the nominal small fee of getting to Delhi. I hope not. Then he has to get his one way flight ticket to the US, which I'm guessing he could get for around 50,000 rupees. With 50,000 rupees for the plane ticket, plus a guesstimate of 30,000 rupees for medical/immunizations/passport office fees and bribe.

Since my husband is struggling financially, I told him I'd pay the $500 from my side for the remaining visa fee. I told him I assume the rest of the process (including airfare) from his side would cost about 80,000 rupees. He wants to know how much things would cost so he can try to budget and save up. Can anyone tell me if this 80,000 rupee estimate is about right, or if I'm grossly over/under estimating anything, or have left any major expense out?

Thanks so much!!!

Edited May 5, 2012 by rkk1

[Divs 35]

Once the case gets to NVC, you've gotta pay the AOS fee of $88 and the new visa fee of $230. You dont have to bribe anyone for the police clearance certificate. They only require a PCC from the regional passport office, the fee for which is Rs 500. As for the medicals, unless your husband has any major issues, medicals plus vaccinations would cost around/under Rs 4000. Apart from that, there's a courier fee for VFS which is under Rs 400. That's as far as the expenses are concerned. You can add this to his airfare.

[rkk1 34]

Wow, thanks so much Divs! I can't believe the new visa fee is cheaper. That is great.

I truly hope the passport office won't ask for a bribe. When we got our marriage certificate from the registrar in my husband's city, the people there asked for a 25,000 rupee bribe (even though it should have been only 50 rupees or so). Now a few months later, those a-holes are asking for a second bribe for sending the marriage certificate copy (or some official documentation?) to the Ministry of External Affairs. I think my husband's uncle paid the 2nd bribe and my husband brought that register a box of sweets and some elegant ballpoint pens the register wanted, even though I told my husband that I don't think the US government checks the MEA to see if the certificate is there, and that there was no need to pay those jerks any more than they've already gotten from us.

I just hope they don't mess with my husband for the passport clearance. So I take it there is no need to get a passport from the local police? That would probably take a huge bribe to get that done, so if we don't have to go that route as well, it would save money. Thanks!

Edited May 5, 2012 by rkk1

[TimeTravel 78]

I truly hope the passport office won't ask for a bribe. When we got our marriage certificate from the registrar in my husband's city, the people there asked for a 25,000 rupee bribe (even though it should have been only 50 rupees or so). Now a few months later, those a-holes are asking for a second bribe for sending the marriage certificate copy (or some official documentation?) to the Ministry of External Affairs. I think my husband's uncle paid the 2nd bribe and my husband brought that register a box of sweets and some elegant ballpoint pens the register wanted, even though I told my husband that I don't think the US government checks the MEA to see if the certificate is there, and that there was no need to pay those jerks any more than they've already gotten from us.

I just hope they don't mess with my husband for the passport clearance. So I take it there is no need to get a passport from the local police? That would probably take a huge bribe to get that done, so if we don't have to go that route as well, it would save money. Thanks!

I dont know why you have to pay that much bribe when you have not done anything wrong? I wouldn't be agreed to pay unnecessary money. I know, in India, to expedite the request, one may have to pay some bribe, but it should be reasonable amount. I would decline the deal if they are being too unreasonable. There is always alternate available in India, but it is matter whether you want to put effort and find the best deal.

If PSK is available in your husband's city, then he just has to pay Rs 500 INR for PCC. No bribe. If PSK is not there, then I dont know how the process would be, but in case, if it requires to pay some bribe, then pay as reasonable amount bribe like Rs 1000 INR. That is it! No more than that. Be frank, if you are clean chit, they can't deny your request even without bribe. Be confident, and dont act rich guy with these bribe officials.

[rkk1 34]

Thanks iwaiting. The situation is that they ask for the bribe, because we don't have any other alternative (that we know of). We had to get the marriage certificate in my husband's city as there wasn't any other city we could go to, as we understood it. And we NEEDED the marriage certificate for the visa application. Other Indians living in India don't get scammed as they aren't required to register their marriages, but we needed to for this process. So declining them was not an option. If the option to go somewhere else was there, even if it meant my husband and I taking a 4 hour train to Delhi, we certainly would have gone elsewhere. If we didn't pay the bribe, then the only other alternative would have been for him to come on a K1 visa and us get married here in the US, but because this was at the time of the wedding, the K1 was no longer an option. Plus we wanted all his family members to be there, as my family members were able to fly to India, but his family couldn't get a visa to the US. Those scammers exploit us because they can. On top of that, my husband even took the registrar a box of sweets to keep the registrar in a good mood, so that he didn't ask for MORE money. It's pretty awful having to kiss butt and bring sweets for someone with a fake smile when you'd rather kick him.

If this passport office asks for bribe, is there any other one we could go to (that is nearby)? That's the issue. If not, then they could easily ask for a bribe knowing we have no other choice but to pay it. I don't know how other Indian people manage all this, as all government employees in my husband's city seem to be a bunch of scammers.

Edited May 6, 2012 by rkk1

[Divs 35]

Thanks iwaiting. The situation is that they ask for the bribe, because we don't have any other alternative (that we know of). We had to get the marriage certificate in my husband's city as there wasn't any other city we could go to, as we understood it. And we NEEDED the marriage certificate for the visa application. Other Indians living in India don't get scammed as they aren't required to register their marriages, but we needed to for this process. So declining them was not an option. If the option to go somewhere else was there, even if it meant my husband and I taking a 4 hour train to Delhi, we certainly would have gone elsewhere. If we didn't pay the bribe, then the only other alternative would have been for him to come on a K1 visa and us get married here in the US, but because this was at the time of the wedding, the K1 was no longer an option. Plus we wanted all his family members to be there, as my family members were able to fly to India, but his family couldn't get a visa to the US. Those scammers exploit us because they can. On top of that, my husband even took the registrar a box of sweets to keep the registrar in a good mood, so that he didn't ask for MORE money. It's pretty awful having to kiss butt and bring sweets for someone with a fake smile when you'd rather kick him.

If this passport office asks for bribe, is there any other one we could go to (that is nearby)? That's the issue. If not, then they could easily ask for a bribe knowing we have no other choice but to pay it. I don't know how other Indian people manage all this, as all government employees in my husband's city seem to be a bunch of scammers.

Don't agree with you on this one. It is mandatory for every Indian to get their marriage registered, and it's imperative that you get your marriage registered in your city. You can't just go to any city to get it registered. And to offer a Rs 25,000/- bribe or even to ask for it is absolutely outrageous. Like iwaiting said, a bribe of 1k or 2k is understandable, but not more than that. Which city is your husband from? I'll check if there's a passport seva kendra in his city and let you know.

[MrsNotBonJovi 18]

Don't agree with you on this one. It is mandatory for every Indian to get their marriage registered, and it's imperative that you get your marriage registered in your city. You can't just go to any city to get it registered. And to offer a Rs 25,000/- bribe or even to ask for it is absolutely outrageous. Like iwaiting said, a bribe of 1k or 2k is understandable, but not more than that. Which city is your husband from? I'll check if there's a passport seva kendra in his city and let you know.

I share your outrage since I had to go through something similar to get my marriage certificate too. But the reason they ask you for that hefty bribe is because 1) they think you can afford it (US dollars and all that) and 2) you basically have to absolutely have that document in the quickest possible time and those guys know you have absolutely no choice but to give in. The whackiest thing for me was that I had already been married for six years at the time I was asked to pay up or else. Luckily, I had enough time to play the waiting game and told them I would rather wait for the few weeks of normal processing time (the bribe is not for issuing the certificate which they can anyway not deny you) but to have it expedited. It took me a few weeks longer than the usually long processing time, but I did manage to get the certificate amd not give in to the bribery scam.

[RnS 0]

Thanks iwaiting. The situation is that they ask for the bribe, because we don't have any other alternative (that we know of). We had to get the marriage certificate in my husband's city as there wasn't any other city we could go to, as we understood it. And we NEEDED the marriage certificate for the visa application. Other Indians living in India don't get scammed as they aren't required to register their marriages, but we needed to for this process. So declining them was not an option. If the option to go somewhere else was there, even if it meant my husband and I taking a 4 hour train to Delhi, we certainly would have gone elsewhere. If we didn't pay the bribe, then the only other alternative would have been for him to come on a K1 visa and us get married here in the US, but because this was at the time of the wedding, the K1 was no longer an option. Plus we wanted all his family members to be there, as my family members were able to fly to India, but his family couldn't get a visa to the US. Those scammers exploit us because they can. On top of that, my husband even took the registrar a box of sweets to keep the registrar in a good mood, so that he didn't ask for MORE money. It's pretty awful having to kiss butt and bring sweets for someone with a fake smile when you'd rather kick him.

If this passport office asks for bribe, is there any other one we could go to (that is nearby)? That's the issue. If not, then they could easily ask for a bribe knowing we have no other choice but to pay it. I don't know how other Indian people manage all this, as all government employees in my husband's city seem to be a bunch of scammers.

In your earlier posts you have mentioned that your husband was a lawyer/advocate. I do not understand how he paid Rupees 25000 to register your marriage and get a certificate in his OWN city. NO ONE would dare to ask for that much amount from a lawyer neither he would pay that.

Marriage certificate is issued within two or three weeks of application, it is law and it does not need any bribe! In which state does your husband live?

Did you give this amount to your husband which he gave to obtain marriage certificate?

You both have to present at the registrar office with two other witnesses to sign the applications, did you go there?

[MrsNotBonJovi 18]

In your earlier posts you have mentioned that your husband was a lawyer/advocate. I do not understand how he paid Rupees 25000 to register your marriage and get a certificate in his OWN city. NO ONE would dare to ask for that much amount from a lawyer neither he would pay that.

Marriage certificate is issued within two or three weeks of application, it is law and it does not need any bribe! In which state does your husband live?

Did you give this amount to your husband which he gave to obtain marriage certificate?

You both have to present at the registrar office with two other witnesses to sign the applications, did you go there?

This is so NOT true, my father was a lawyer too and he was asked countless times to pay bribes to get things expedited in government offices. He gave in a couple of times, but later put his foot down. Unfortunately, most lawyers play the corruption fiddle too, so if they refused to pay up, it would be like people in glass houses throwing stones at others!

[rkk1 34]

I share your outrage since I had to go through something similar to get my marriage certificate too. But the reason they ask you for that hefty bribe is because 1) they think you can afford it (US dollars and all that) and 2) you basically have to absolutely have that document in the quickest possible time and those guys know you have absolutely no choice but to give in. The whackiest thing for me was that I had already been married for six years at the time I was asked to pay up or else. Luckily, I had enough time to play the waiting game and told them I would rather wait for the few weeks of normal processing time (the bribe is not for issuing the certificate which they can anyway not deny you) but to have it expedited. It took me a few weeks longer than the usually long processing time, but I did manage to get the certificate amd not give in to the bribery scam.

In our case, it wasn't a matter of getting the marriage certificate expedited. They flat out refused, saying that it was not possible for a foreigner to marry an Indian in their city (Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh). I emailed my husband a link of the US embassy talking about foreigners being allowed to marry in India, and my husband showed it to the people there. They wouldn't listen, saying it was an Amercan, not Indian site. Then we found some documentation from a Delhi government site about foreigners being allowed to marry Indians in India. My husband also showed that to them, but they wouldn't accept it, as it was not an Uttar Pradesh government site. We went to the Uttar Pradesh government site, but could find no info about foreigners getting married in India, yet nothing that says it wasn't possible either. It was the registar's assistant who told my husband to bring in the 25,000 rupees for the registrar to get the work done, as he knew that that's what it would take. Unfortunately even that wasn't enough, as they asked for a 2nd bribe this week only to mail documentation to the MEA in Delhi. So yes, this did happen.

I did not pay the bribe, my husband did. My family paid for the wedding, and thus I flat out refused to pay for the bribe, as my family and I paid enough (as I paid for a lot of travel to/from India as well). So I left that to my husband, as it was his responsibility to shoulder some of the financial burden, not just me. Even though I wouldn't have been able to wait (as I'm a medical student and had to get back home in time for my classes), they never even brought up the issue of not paying a bribe if we were willing to wait. If that was the case, my husband could have mailed the certificate to me after I came back here. But it was a matter of them flat out not willing to do it. All the people here on this thread saying they wouldn't pay more than 1k rupees in bribe... I'd like to know what YOU would do in this predicament. You would have caved in too, if you didn't have a 2nd option. So it wasn't a matter of us wanting to take the easy way out by paying a bribe, we genuinely felt like we had no choice at all in the matter. And we were ineligible for K1 at that time as well. I hate bribes as well, but we were not at fault as there was NO other way for us.

Edited May 7, 2012 by rkk1

[rkk1 34]

it's imperative that you get your marriage registered in your city. You can't just go to any city to get it registered. And to offer a Rs 25,000/- bribe or even to ask for it is absolutely outrageous. Like iwaiting said, a bribe of 1k or 2k is understandable, but not more than that. Which city is your husband from? I'll check if there's a passport seva kendra in his city and let you know.

Actually this was my point. We could NOT go to another city (as I understood it). Hence this was the reason why I said we had no other options. If we could go somewhere else then we wouldn't have paid a bribe, but would have tried to find an honest person to do our work.

[RnS 0]

This is so NOT true, my father was a lawyer too and he was asked countless times to pay bribes to get things expedited in government offices. He gave in a couple of times, but later put his foot down. Unfortunately, most lawyers play the corruption fiddle too, so if they refused to pay up, it would be like people in glass houses throwing stones at others!

Yes, I understand that anyone could be victim of this. My direct concern is for bribing to get a marriage certificate of a legitimate marriage??????

This is out of my mind.

Edited May 7, 2012 by RnS

[TimeTravel 78]

In our case, it wasn't a matter of getting the marriage certificate expedited. They flat out refused, saying that it was not possible for a foreigner to marry an Indian in their city (Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh). I emailed my husband a link of the US embassy talking about foreigners being allowed to marry in India, and my husband showed it to the people there. They wouldn't listen, saying it was an Amercan, not Indian site. Then we found some documentation from a Delhi government site about foreigners being allowed to marry Indians in India. My husband also showed that to them, but they wouldn't accept it, as it was not an Uttar Pradesh government site. We went to the Uttar Pradesh government site, but could find no info about foreigners getting married in India, yet nothing that says it wasn't possible either. It was the registar's assistant who told my husband to bring in the 25,000 rupees for the registrar to get the work done, as he knew that that's what it would take. Unfortunately even that wasn't enough, as they asked for a 2nd bribe this week only to mail documentation to the MEA in Delhi. So yes, this did happen.

I did not pay the bribe, my husband did. My family paid for the wedding, and thus I flat out refused to pay for the bribe, as my family and I paid enough (as I paid for a lot of travel to/from India as well). So I left that to my husband, as it was his responsibility to shoulder some of the financial burden, not just me. Even though I wouldn't have been able to wait (as I'm a medical student and had to get back home in time for my classes), they never even brought up the issue of not paying a bribe if we were willing to wait. If that was the case, my husband could have mailed the certificate to me after I came back here. But it was a matter of them flat out not willing to do it. All the people here on this thread saying they wouldn't pay more than 1k rupees in bribe... I'd like to know what YOU would do in this predicament. You would have caved in too, if you didn't have a 2nd option. So it wasn't a matter of us wanting to take the easy way out by paying a bribe, we genuinely felt like we had no choice at all in the matter. And we were ineligible for K1 at that time as well. I hate bribes as well, but we were not at fault as there was NO other way for us.

Did you register your marriage under Special Act or Hindu Marriage Act?

[MrsNotBonJovi 18]

I share your outrage since I had to go through something similar to get my marriage certificate too. But the reason they ask you for that hefty bribe is because 1) they think you can afford it (US dollars and all that) and 2) you basically have to absolutely have that document in the quickest possible time and those guys know you have absolutely no choice but to give in. The whackiest thing for me was that I had already been married for six years at the time I was asked to pay up or else. Luckily, I had enough time to play the waiting game and told them I would rather wait for the few weeks of normal processing time (the bribe is not for issuing the certificate which they can anyway not deny you) but to have it expedited. It took me a few weeks longer than the usually long processing time, but I did manage to get the certificate amd not give in to the bribery scam.

EDIT: My apologies, I believe I highlighted the wrong quote, I actually meant to say I share rkk1's sentiments as expressed in her previous posts.

[rkk1 34]

By the way, I think I forgot to mention also that I was talking to my husband about this bribe issue yesterday when I was telling him that he would need to get his police clearance certificate from the passport office. I told him the cost was only 500 rupees. He told me that they asked him to pay a bribe at the time he got his passport issued, so to get a police clearance they would surely ask for another bribe again.

Hey Divs, if you (or anyone else here) knows which passport offices we could go to, to have the police clearance work done, I'd appreciate it. My husband says he thinks Ghaziabad is the office he needs to go to, as he had been there before for obtaining his passport. He lives in the state of Uttar Pradesh, as I mentioned above. I don't know if there are any alternative offices we could go to or not, if one office is asking for a bribe.