does length of time in relationship matter

[Wade&Carito 0]

We met almost 8 months ago and we are wondering when would be a good time to start the K1 visa process. Someone said we needed to be in a relationship for 2 years but that seems way too long to wait!

Can someone tell me if it matters. Carolina(Carito) lives in Ecuador and Wade lives in the US. I (Wade) am in Ecuador now, have been here for over 2 months visiting my fincee. I plan on coming back here to live every chance I get until we get through the immigration process. I have to leave soon because I will have exhausted my 6 months for the year soon.

Anyway, we would love to hear what others have to say.

thank you,

Wade & Carito

[Que Saudade 284]

You can start the process now. Make sure you keep your boarding pass on the way home for part of your evidence.

The requirement for the K1 is that you have met face to face within last 2 years, not have a relationship for 2 years. There are others who have much less time together who gets approved.

Good luck... You are good to go.

P.S. I would suggest you both read through the K1 process while you are together to be on the same page with the process. Read through this K1 guide

Edited September 13, 2012 by Que Saudade

[fantonledzepp 159]

Hey wade, length of relationship does not matter. What matters is that you have met within two years of filing the petition.

My wife and I met in March of 2011 and we sent the petition in early December of 2011. We were approved 4 months later in April of 2012.

Just make sure to have a thorough package with plenty of proof of your relationship. Guayaquil can be a tough consulate and if you provide them with lots of proof like Skype call logs, emails, texts and also pictures, you should be ok. I provided 4 pictures, entry stamps on passport, hotel bills, and about 4 email threads with 4-5 emails in each.

Read the guide http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1guide

Good luck!

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Length of relationship does matter as a part of the overall picture of your relationship, but there is no requirement to be dating for 2 years (that person misunderstands the requirement explained above). I think 8 months of knowing each other is a great time to start.

[Moomin 292]

Wade, welcome to VJ!

You're starting a multi-stage process. For the petition then no, it only matters you have met(which you have). For the embassy/interview, it's your continuing/ongoing relationship that matters.

To be honest, with your 2 months of visiting, you've already spent more time in person with each other than half the people on VJ anyways before filing the petition. (edit: while there's no exact data on this one, I mostly only see people having visited a week here, a week there).

Just make sure that your income stays over what the poverty guidelines says. That, and follow the advise of what to submit in your petition - it's in a guide on VJ. And pay attention to the ones who have already gone through the process Ecuador-style because some of the process is country specific.

Edited September 13, 2012 by moomin

[Wade&Carito 0]

thank you everyone for the replies, that makes both of us feel much better.

We are going to start filling out some of the forms tomorrow.

[TBoneTX 46,287]

Amigo, caution -- 8 months plus considerable time spent together is very good, but the ####### Guayaquil consulate cannot be underestimated.

Read this thread in its entirety: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/110313-us-consulate-in-guayaquil-ecuador/

You should front-load your I-129F petition with all of the meaningful "evidence of bona fide relationship" that you can.

USCIS will not care about this extra material, but the consulate will... and USCIS will forward it to the ####### Guayaquil consulate.

Don't give the hellhole any opportunity to question your relationship, or to reject evidence that C. tries to bring to her interview. Include the extra material in your I-129F filing, and don't let any VJ member from elsewhere tell you differently.

Also, although the consular interview is a long way away, plan ahead: budget time & funds so that you are present for the FIRST interview, and be sure that you're in Guayaquil a full day ahead of whenever your interview is ultimately scheduled.

[baron555 934]

We met almost 8 months ago and we are wondering when would be a good time to start the K1 visa process. Someone said we needed to be in a relationship for 2 years but that seems way too long to wait!

Can someone tell me if it matters. Carolina(Carito) lives in Ecuador and Wade lives in the US. I (Wade) am in Ecuador now, have been here for over 2 months visiting my fincee. I plan on coming back here to live every chance I get until we get through the immigration process. I have to leave soon because I will have exhausted my 6 months for the year soon.

Anyway, we would love to hear what others have to say.

thank you,

Wade & Carito

Doesn't matter...but the relationship has to be real and you have to prove it.

[C-ma'am 684]

Amigo, caution -- 8 months plus considerable time spent together is very good, but the ####### Guayaquil consulate cannot be underestimated.

Read this thread in its entirety: http://www.visajourn...yaquil-ecuador/

You should front-load your I-129F petition with all of the meaningful "evidence of bona fide relationship" that you can.

USCIS will not care about this extra material, but the consulate will... and USCIS will forward it to the ####### Guayaquil consulate.

Don't give the hellhole any opportunity to question your relationship, or to reject evidence that C. tries to bring to her interview. Include the extra material in your I-129F filing, and don't let any VJ member from elsewhere tell you differently.

Also, although the consular interview is a long way away, plan ahead: budget time & funds so that you are present for the FIRST interview, and be sure that you're in Guayaquil a full day ahead of whenever your interview is ultimately scheduled.

Follow TBone's advise He knows best when it comes to Guayaquil.

[fantonledzepp 159]

Follow TBone's advise He knows best when it comes to Guayaquil.

Indeed. He helped me and our process was probably one of the smoothest in Guayaquil.

[Wade&Carito 0]

Thank you, I read that once when I was still in the US several months ago. I am now in Guayaquil for a total of 3 months this time. We created an account on here for both of us and are now starting to learn this process together. I waited 2 months so we can have fun exploring many places around Ecuador and making trips to the amazon etc.. before starting to look at this. I wanted to have fun and enjoy our time together for awhile before we start going through this long dreaded process.

I am lucky that I can take a lot of time off from working. I used to own a physical therapy clinic that I sold last year and now I just work on 3 month contracts and take off as much time as I want in between contracts, usually 3 to 6 months off. But when I am working on a contract for 3 months I am obligated to the contract for 40 hours a week for 3 months. I do not know how that would impact a possible future appointment in Guayaquil if the date is set while I am working on a contract.

How much notice do they give for the appointments? It would be possible to break a contract with 30 days notice and paying a penalty but I would like to avoid that.

I have a ton of evidence, mucho receipts for gifts for her and her family, and hundreds of photos of us together and with her family. I also created a website for the two of us as we are attempting to plan our wedding at www.wadeandcarito.com .

It would be helpful to find some people here in Guayaquil to meet for lunch and talk to as a sort of support group for each other as we all go through this process.

Amigo, caution -- 8 months plus considerable time spent together is very good, but the ####### Guayaquil consulate cannot be underestimated.

Read this thread in its entirety: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/110313-us-consulate-in-guayaquil-ecuador/

You should front-load your I-129F petition with all of the meaningful "evidence of bona fide relationship" that you can.

USCIS will not care about this extra material, but the consulate will... and USCIS will forward it to the ####### Guayaquil consulate.

Don't give the hellhole any opportunity to question your relationship, or to reject evidence that C. tries to bring to her interview. Include the extra material in your I-129F filing, and don't let any VJ member from elsewhere tell you differently.

Also, although the consular interview is a long way away, plan ahead: budget time & funds so that you are present for the FIRST interview, and be sure that you're in Guayaquil a full day ahead of whenever your interview is ultimately scheduled.

[fantonledzepp 159]

Thank you, I read that once when I was still in the US several months ago. I am now in Guayaquil for a total of 3 months this time. We created an account on here for both of us and are now starting to learn this process together. I waited 2 months so we can have fun exploring many places around Ecuador and making trips to the amazon etc.. before starting to look at this. I wanted to have fun and enjoy our time together for awhile before we start going through this long dreaded process.

I am lucky that I can take a lot of time off from working. I used to own a physical therapy clinic that I sold last year and now I just work on 3 month contracts and take off as much time as I want in between contracts, usually 3 to 6 months off. But when I am working on a contract for 3 months I am obligated to the contract for 40 hours a week for 3 months. I do not know how that would impact a possible future appointment in Guayaquil if the date is set while I am working on a contract.

How much notice do they give for the appointments? It would be possible to break a contract with 30 days notice and paying a penalty but I would like to avoid that.

I have a ton of evidence, mucho receipts for gifts for her and her family, and hundreds of photos of us together and with her family. I also created a website for the two of us as we are attempting to plan our wedding at www.wadeandcarito.com .

It would be helpful to find some people here in Guayaquil to meet for lunch and talk to as a sort of support group for each other as we all go through this process.

I believe that you set the appointment for K1 visas. Usually 6 weeks later, give or take.

[Andrea&Henry 311]

My husband and I started our relationship on june 21, 2011. Sent our k1 on september, 2011. Approved April 2012. Got married May 2012. When I went to my interview we had 10 month together, and 11 month when we got married

My husband and I started our relationship on june 21, 2011. Sent our k1 on september, 2011. Approved April 2012. Got married May 2012. When I went to my interview we had 10 month together, and 11 month when we got married

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

We met almost 8 months ago and we are wondering when would be a good time to start the K1 visa process. Someone said we needed to be in a relationship for 2 years but that seems way too long to wait!

Can someone tell me if it matters. Carolina(Carito) lives in Ecuador and Wade lives in the US. I (Wade) am in Ecuador now, have been here for over 2 months visiting my fincee. I plan on coming back here to live every chance I get until we get through the immigration process. I have to leave soon because I will have exhausted my 6 months for the year soon.

Anyway, we would love to hear what others have to say.

thank you,

Wade & Carito

Uninformed people are always giving advice. You can meet someone for the first time this morning and file the petition this afternoon. It will get approved. The petition requires ONLY that you have met at least ONE time in person within the last two years. Could be once two years ago or once this morning.

An approved petition is NOT a visa, it is an approval that you meet the requirements to apply for a visa. The amount of realtionship and evidence required to actually get a visa varies by consulate, check with people wo went through the consulate you will be using.

[AmyWrites 593]

I don't think relationship time matters. What DOES matter is your consulate. An easier consulate means you can get away with shorter periods of time together, a difficult consulate means they'll question you that much more. From what TBoneX said, it's not an easy one, so I'd prepare extensively if I were you. But yes, you CAN, and should, given the actual interview date will be months away, file now.