Fiance doesn't speak English very well yet...

[Kim 0]

Hi, my name is Kim, and I just posted this question over in the new members thread, but I thought it might be good to post it here too since I this hasn't come up in the recent threads...

My fiance and I haven't started the process yet; I'm just trying to get as much information as I can. My fiance is from Albania, and doesn't speak English very well yet. We talk in Italian to each other (I am conversational in it) so I'm not worried about the language gap putting off the person looking at our case. What I am worried about is that I wouldn't really be able to send him the forms he'd have to fill out, and a list of everything he'd have to do, since they'd be in English! He'd need them in Italian or Albanian. I'm also worried that I'd be able to tell him just over the phone of everything he'd have to do (since obviously I don't know Italian words for any legal terms that may come up). For these reasons I thought it may be best to get an immigration attorney. Now, I know that they don't speed up the case or anything like that, etc, but I just thought it might be easier to do it through a person who specializes in this and knows exactly what needs to be done. Because frankly, I look at the checklist of the whole process, and I'm intimidated :/

So I wanted to know what you guys thought? Would it be beneficial for me to do it through a lawyer, or would it be just as good doing it by myself (and saving a ton of money). Also, have any of you had a fiance that didn't speak English, and ran into problems with it? I'm kind of worried about that as well.

Thanks.

[Karen_L 1]

Hi. My husband is Albanian AND we met in Italy AND we speak Italian to each other AND he just arrived in the US and he still doesn't speak much English. We went through the Naples, Italy consulate and they sent him all the docs for the interview in Italian, and to me in English. Also, Italian legal words tend to be a lot like the English ones because they tend to have common Latin roots, so they're pretty easy to understand if you're translating from English, so don't worry!

And don't be intimidated! Everything will work out okay. Just take the forms one by one and read everything carefully. Also, if you need any help, feel free to PM me, since it seems you are in exactly the same situation I was in only a few months ago, so maybe I can help

Are you going through Naples or Tirana?

[Kim 0]

Whoa! How strange! ...You might be my new best friend, you realize. *clings*

Well first off congratulations to you and your husband for getting through this! Okay, couple of questions. Did your husband have any major difficulties because he didn't speak English? Or did everything go as well as you might have expected? This is very much down the road (but I always think of things way before I need to)... did he come over here on the plane himself, or did you travel with him? Because I'm kind of worried for my fiance finding where he needs to go in the airports... because once you reach the States, all the signs and things are pretty much all in English. And he'll have to go through customs too, how do they handle people who don't speak English?

Did you file your petition from here in the US or directly from in Italy? Right now I'm here at school (will be graduating in May, which is why we're starting now and hoping to get the visa for next summer) in the US, and he's in Italy. I talked to a lawyer briefly on the phone and she said that I basically do my part in the States, and he'd do his part over there.

I think we'll be going through Tirana. He's going home to Albania for Christmas, and he said all of his documents are there. And since he's a citizen there, he would probably have to file and interview in Albania, wouldn't he? We're not sure if he'd have to stay in Albania until the visa comes through, or if he'd be allowed to return to Italy (he really prefers living in Italy to Albania)

Ummm that's all I can think of right now. Sorry to be bombarding you right away! lol. But it's really a great relief to know that you were in pretty much my exact same situation. I don't feel as alone now

[bora bora 1]

Hi. My fiance is not Albanian but he doesn't speak English either so maybe I can help.

You can fill out the papers for him and have him sign - that is what I did. Over the summer my fiance and I went over the process AGAIN and he told me his last employers, etc. and I filled out all the information and he signed them. I found 2 mistakes after I had returned to the U.S. so I sent him the new papers and emailed and called him when they were received. He signed where I told him to (or where I put an X) and he returned the papers - no problem.

Later on, when you deal with the embassy, the forms are offered in their native language - for now you can do things for him.

I have a friend with a non-English speaking fiance who scanned a copy of the form filled out by her. He downloaded the forms and filled them in just as she had.

Just some ideas...

good luck.

[payxibka 10,045]

Did you file your petition from here in the US or directly from in Italy? Right now I'm here at school (will be graduating in May, which is why we're starting now and hoping to get the visa for next summer) in the US, and he's in Italy. I talked to a lawyer briefly on the phone and she said that I basically do my part in the States, and he'd do his part over there.

A K-1 visa application starts with a petition filed in the US with the USCIS as there is no "abroad" or "overseas" option for any "K" type visa.

[Kinsey 0]

I'm currently still in the UK with my fiance, and I filed from here. It says in the K1 instructions that:

"If you live outside the United States, mail your

petition to USCIS Service Center listed above that

has jurisdiction over the last place you lived in the

United States. NOTE: Your petition cannot be

adjudicated at a USCIS office abroad."

As long as you have with you all the supporting documents, you can just mail it to the Service Center from overseas.

Good luck and Congrats!

[Karen_L 1]

Whoa! How strange! ...You might be my new best friend, you realize. *clings*

Well first off congratulations to you and your husband for getting through this! Okay, couple of questions. Did your husband have any major difficulties because he didn't speak English? Or did everything go as well as you might have expected? This is very much down the road (but I always think of things way before I need to)... did he come over here on the plane himself, or did you travel with him? Because I'm kind of worried for my fiance finding where he needs to go in the airports... because once you reach the States, all the signs and things are pretty much all in English. And he'll have to go through customs too, how do they handle people who don't speak English?

Did you file your petition from here in the US or directly from in Italy? Right now I'm here at school (will be graduating in May, which is why we're starting now and hoping to get the visa for next summer) in the US, and he's in Italy. I talked to a lawyer briefly on the phone and she said that I basically do my part in the States, and he'd do his part over there.

I think we'll be going through Tirana. He's going home to Albania for Christmas, and he said all of his documents are there. And since he's a citizen there, he would probably have to file and interview in Albania, wouldn't he? We're not sure if he'd have to stay in Albania until the visa comes through, or if he'd be allowed to return to Italy (he really prefers living in Italy to Albania)

Ummm that's all I can think of right now. Sorry to be bombarding you right away! lol. But it's really a great relief to know that you were in pretty much my exact same situation. I don't feel as alone now

Hi! First of all, don't worry about the language issue -- my husband did travel over here, from Tirana, Albania to NYC by himself via Austria and he did fine and had no problems at all. In customs, he told me that they didn't ask him anything really, and before that, this family from Kosovo helped him a little bit with the departure card. Everything went fine and we didn't run into any problems because his English is/was limited.

I don't believe you can do Direct Consular Filing for a fiance', so I did everything for the petition in the US and mailed it. Before sending it in, I had been in Italy for a month to visit, so we filled them out together and I put the finishing touches on it when I got back and mailed everything to the Vermont Service Center. Once we got to the interview stage, however, my husband (then fiance) filled out everything himself, with my help over the phone, in Italian.

Regarding to consulate -- if he lives in Italy and has a valid visa/Permesso di Soggiorno, then it's perfectly fine to go through Naples, so he won't have to completely abandon his life and wait out the visa in Albania. I was also worried about this, but my husband was one of about 6 other Albanians in the consulate the day of his interview and they all got the visa But no no no he absolutely doesn't have to go back to Albania for any reason during this process, except if he wants to visit his family. In our original petition, we wrote that he wanted to do the interview in Tirana, but USCIS changed the interview location to Naples for us lol. While he's in Albania now, have your fiance get new copies of his birth certificate, vaccinations (if he doesn't have a recent copy), AND a letter from the police in his city saying that he's never been arrested for or convicted of a crime. These things are easy to get and in fact, my mother-in-law was able to get everything and just send it to my husband in the mail (though that's expensive and it's better to just get it himself).

But anyway, feel free to ask anything and I will try and help!

- Karen

[payxibka 10,045]

I'm currently still in the UK with my fiance, and I filed from here. It says in the K1 instructions that:

"If you live outside the United States, mail your

petition to USCIS Service Center listed above that

has jurisdiction over the last place you lived in the

United States. NOTE: Your petition cannot be

adjudicated at a USCIS office abroad."

As long as you have with you all the supporting documents, you can just mail it to the Service Center from overseas.

Good luck and Congrats!

I may not have been completely clear in my post. The USCIS does not care where you are in the world when you submit the petition. You can be in the US or in any foreign country (even Podunk, Iowa ). The bottom line is that the petition has to be filed in the US beginning at the USCIS service center that has jurisdiction over your US place of residence. If your residence requires you to submit your petition via Texas or Nebraska then the service center will automatically transfer it to California for you. It seems a little clumsy to file it this way knowing it will be transferred but that is the current process.

[Kinsey 0]

Hey, a question maybe you know the answer to fwaguy. There are 4 service centers in the US and only California and Vermont are doing K1s now. If Nebraska gets sent to Cali, is Texas going to Vermont, or Cali as well. Just curious which lucky people are getting Vermont. Or thinking maybe Vermont only does Vermont, period. That would explain how quickly they are moving.

I may not have been completely clear in my post. The USCIS does not care where you are in the world when you submit the petition. You can be in the US or in any foreign country (even Podunk, Iowa ). The bottom line is that the petition has to be filed in the US beginning at the USCIS service center that has jurisdiction over your US place of residence. If your residence requires you to submit your petition via Texas or Nebraska then the service center will automatically transfer it to California for you. It seems a little clumsy to file it this way knowing it will be transferred but that is the current process.

[mybackpages 0]

TSC and NSC forward all petitions to California. Vermont only handles the few states listed on the USCIS instructions.

[Turboguy 6]

Why don't you just fill out the forms for him and send them to him for his signature. If you need any other info such as old addresses he can give them to you on the phone.

[Kim 0]

Wow, thanks everyone for your replies. You gave me a lot of great help and ideas.

Bora Bora, thanks for your suggestions.... yeah that sounds like what I'll have to do, fill everything out for him right now and just have him sign. Since it requires his signature I guess I'll just have to send the forms in the mail, after I finished filling it out, and make a note where he's supposed to sign and have him send everything back. Thanks for your help!

Kinsey and fwaguy.... Ah, okay.... I see. That clears things up. I will have to file from Nowheresville, Pennsylvania, anyhow, since I'm stuck here for the time being. But good to know.

Karen,

Okay, I understand now. The only problem is that the main reason he's returning to Albania is that his visa for Italy expired. (And I was hoping to visit him in Italy during my spring break, I want to go back to Florence so bad! But if he's still in Albania in March, I guess I'll have to go to Albania.) He really wants to return to Italy afterward, but he'll have to apply for a new visa which would take time to go through, and would cost him a lot of money. So it just seem better to me if he stayed in Albania, and waited out the six months or so it would take for the fiance visa to come through, and then come here. It just seems ridiculous to pay all that money for a visa to return to Italy for only a few months. And also it probably wouldn't be good to start everything in Albania, then try to finish it in Italy.

I am just still not sure whether to go through a lawyer or not. I was up last night reading over the FAQ here and different threads, and I think I have a generally idea of the process. So I think I might be able to do it myself.... I mean, I've handled big stuff like this before, I pretty much did all the paperwork for my study abroad last year on my own. I guess I'm just nervous about screwing something up. This is slightly more important than study abroad forms. :/

[payxibka 10,045]

I am just still not sure whether to go through a lawyer or not. I was up last night reading over the FAQ here and different threads, and I think I have a generally idea of the process. So I think I might be able to do it myself.... I mean, I've handled big stuff like this before, I pretty much did all the paperwork for my study abroad last year on my own. I guess I'm just nervous about screwing something up. This is slightly more important than study abroad forms. :/

If you have a straight forward situation (no previous marriages, no criminal activity, no visa overstays, no previous k-1's, etc...) then the process is not difficult, just cumbersome. Even if you do have a sordid past still does not mean you cannot do it yourself. If you do "screw up" as you said and miss something then you will get to experience an RFE which will allow you to explain or correct.

[Karen_L 1]

Karen,

Okay, I understand now. The only problem is that the main reason he's returning to Albania is that his visa for Italy expired. (And I was hoping to visit him in Italy during my spring break, I want to go back to Florence so bad! But if he's still in Albania in March, I guess I'll have to go to Albania.) He really wants to return to Italy afterward, but he'll have to apply for a new visa which would take time to go through, and would cost him a lot of money. So it just seem better to me if he stayed in Albania, and waited out the six months or so it would take for the fiance visa to come through, and then come here. It just seems ridiculous to pay all that money for a visa to return to Italy for only a few months. And also it probably wouldn't be good to start everything in Albania, then try to finish it in Italy.

I am just still not sure whether to go through a lawyer or not. I was up last night reading over the FAQ here and different threads, and I think I have a generally idea of the process. So I think I might be able to do it myself.... I mean, I've handled big stuff like this before, I pretty much did all the paperwork for my study abroad last year on my own. I guess I'm just nervous about screwing something up. This is slightly more important than study abroad forms. :/

Okay, THIS is getting odd -- my husband and I met in Florence too lol May I ask what your fiance' does is Florence? My husband was a student at the Universita' degli Studi di Firenze and he was there on a student visa.

Re: your fiance's Italian visa. Does he have an up-to-date Permesso di Soggiorno? I ask because my husband's visa had also expired, but since he was still matriculated in school and kept his Permesso di Soggiorno current, he was able to leave and reenter Italy numerous times without any problems. Ask your fiance' about his Permesso di Soggiorno. IF he is in Italy on an expired visa/out-of-date Permesso di Soggiorno, then yeah, he might have to go through Tirana instead because, believe me, the first thing they ask my husband in his interview is if he'd ever stayed anywhere illegally/out of status.

[payxibka 10,045]

Okay, THIS is getting odd -- my husband and I met in Florence too lol May I ask what your fiance' does is Florence? My husband was a student at the Universita' degli Studi di Firenze and he was there on a student visa.

Maybe you need to ask his name too... I hope it is not the same man!

Okay, THIS is getting odd -- my husband and I met in Florence too lol May I ask what your fiance' does is Florence? My husband was a student at the Universita' degli Studi di Firenze and he was there on a student visa.

Maybe you need to ask his name too... I hope it is not the same man!