France/America couples

[RhondaM 0]

My fiance just came in through JFK on May 2, and he had no problems at all. They didn't ask him one question, just a look through the envelope, and a "Welcome to America, good luck"

That's it - easy as pie.

Good luck, and congratuations on this next step of your journey!

Thanks for the encouraging words.......

[pmbuffle77 0]

Hello evryone. I am new to VJ and i have lots of questions. I am part of a french/american couple. I m the American half of the troop. I studied in france and bilingual in french, my fiance from paris speaks some english and he is learning eveyday. I registered on this site because we do not know where to begin. We just got engaged and I am in paris right now visiting. My fiance contacted a company where i live in virginia and got a great job there but we need to get the paperwork started. I have talked to everyone Embassies, maries, prefecteurs ect... We think we are going to need a K1 visa. I do not know anything about this type of process but from the info i have gotten its overwhelming and the thing we are most scared of is being separated for a long time. Help!!! I am going to the US embassy tomorrow to ask questions but maybe some of you could give me some much needed advice or info. For example, Can i start the paperwork for the K1 fiancee visa while I am here in France? Is it possible to file the docs at the US embassy here? If not how long will it take for the K1 to go through so that my fiance can come back to be with me in the states? I read some messages that gave some grim outlooks on time. I can t imagine being apart for months and months and I hope that wont be the case but the law will decide that for us i guess. We are new to all this and coming from the idea that we love eachother , we didnt think much farther until now because we are going to get married and need to start our lives. We are only 25yrs old and needless to say this process is more overwhelming than anything we have done thus far in our lives. Anyone who can tell us their story or give any helpfull advice as to what to do or where to start it would be so greatly appriciated.

[RhondaM 0]

Welcome and congratulations! I wish you the best. This site is wonderful and there will be many people to help you along the way. You're smart to start looking at your options first. I would first look at the link on this site that explains the differences between a K-1 and a K-3 visa. Maybe after looking at your options, you could marry before you return to the US and start the K-3 spouse visa for your SO. There are pros and cons listed. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...mp;page=compare

My French fiance has just received his k-1 visa and is arriving in the US on Monday after our separation of 15 months. I know that isn't typical given the timelines for others, but it is hell to be apart! We did put in paperwork to marry in France this summer, but that will no longer be needed because we'll do that here when he arrives. If you do decided to marry, this is what I had to do for that:

First of all to be married in France you need to go to "city hall" the mairie of the town where at least on of you resides. There you must set your date so the marriage 'bands' can be posted.

Once that is determined they will give you a little marriage booklet. In the booklet it spells out exactly what you need to marry their. The paperwork must be at the city hall ONE MONTH before the determined date.

The paper work we needed:

My birthcertificate with translation to French

His birth certificate (current and valid within 3 months--he is French and BC is only valid for 3 month period)

Copy of our divorce decrees (we were both divorced before)

My decree had to be translated to French

Copy of something to prove current permanent address for both

Copy for both--of prenuptial medical visit that was done in France (cost 20 euros)

Certificate that I was not married (my divorce decree was not enough to prove that I had not been married in the meantime)

for this document I talked to my state clerk of courts who did a search for marriages since the date of my divorce. This of course showed that I did not have any marriage and the form was sent to me within one week and for a cost of $25. This document was then translated to French.

For all documents that were translated to French, we had our translator notarize everything. We provided a statement that said she was competent to translate (she is a teacher of French like me)

We attached her teaching license and every single page was stamped by the notary. The French love their STAMPS!!

I hope this helps. Let me know if you need anything else.

Rhonda

[pmbuffle77 0]

Hi Rhonda, Thanks for the encouragment. I was wondering in your expirience if you think that it is easier to marry in france ou the us ? or which do you think is faster and will facilitate not having to be separated for a long time? I keep going over in my mind whether we should strive to get things straight on the french side or the US side, which one will give us less headache. I had talked with a french couple that i met in the states while my fiance was trying to get a work visa after finding a great company, but with all of the quotas and restrictions the work visa was not going along as planned. They kept telling us that we should get married and not worry about the work visa. We wanted to wait alittle while to marry and plan a huge wedding thinking that a speedy wedding wasnt something we were going to do right away. All of the people i had met had married their french partners and said it was so much faster and less hassle. Now that we are engaged and looking to marry it seems that the process isnt at all simple or fast and we feel like the other couple we had met must have been kidding when they said that this was the easy part; lol ... I hope to get more info tomorrow here in paris at the embassy. Thanks again for answering me and for any insights that might help .

[RhondaM 0]

Truthfully I don't know which is easier for you. Even though the process is more complicated to marry in France as I described in my earlier post...it isn't too difficult to meet the requirements. (in the US in my state it is so simple....3 day waiting period and photo ID is all we need) And for you a young couple if you haven't been married before like we were, you don't have to worry about all the translations of divorce decree, etc. The decision has to be yours and you should look at that link that I gave you because it does spell out pros and cons of k-1 fiance visa vs k-3 spouse visa. For example in looking at the site, if you were to marry in France and come back here to begin the process to bring him here as your spouse, one immediate plus is that he would have his work visa. (at least that's what I think I understand from the link) Whereas waiting to bring him in as your fiance, marry him here, then you have to file an adjustment of status to change him from fiance to spouse. It is at that time you apply for the work visa. I see another plus to a k-3 visa is that it isn't necessary to apply for Advanced Parole for you spouse to leave the country for visiting, etc. In our case we will have to apply for advanced parole for my fiance to be able to go back to France--his aging mother is there and his 2 sons from his first marriage. OF course we want him to be able to visit them as he chooses and when it is necessary. (also I want to be able to go back to France with him--I am a French teacher after all and love the country)

You spoke about having a big wedding....you know one option is to have the legal ceremony in one country and begin the filing of paperwork and once that is done, have a large gathering (religious one or merely a big reception) to celebrate the approval of which ever visa you obtain.

Anyway, ask questions--try to get the opinions of others. There are so many people on this site that have wonderful information to share. I just found the site two weeks ago--I wish I knew about it as we were beginning this journey. Also use all the links to research information yourself. There is a wealth of knowledge here. I wrongly got involved with an immigration lawyer thinking that was the best thing to do--and I wasted thousands of dollars. If I had known about this site, I would have done it all myself.

Again best of luck...

rhonda

[shayrene 0]

Hi Rhonda, Thanks for the encouragment. I was wondering in your expirience if you think that it is easier to marry in france ou the us ? or which do you think is faster and will facilitate not having to be separated for a long time? I keep going over in my mind whether we should strive to get things straight on the french side or the US side, which one will give us less headache. I had talked with a french couple that i met in the states while my fiance was trying to get a work visa after finding a great company, but with all of the quotas and restrictions the work visa was not going along as planned. They kept telling us that we should get married and not worry about the work visa. We wanted to wait alittle while to marry and plan a huge wedding thinking that a speedy wedding wasnt something we were going to do right away. All of the people i had met had married their french partners and said it was so much faster and less hassle. Now that we are engaged and looking to marry it seems that the process isnt at all simple or fast and we feel like the other couple we had met must have been kidding when they said that this was the easy part; lol ... I hope to get more info tomorrow here in paris at the embassy. Thanks again for answering me and for any insights that might help .

Welcome to the site. How long are you planning on staying in Paris? It used to be that you could DCF (direct consular filing) at the Paris consulate and this would be faster. DCF could be used if the US citizen lived in France. This used to be quicker. (I would check out the IR1/CR1 board about the new developments of DCF and be sure to ask the consulate about this tomorrow)

My husband and I got married after he came on a K1 visa and are planning the big ceremony in November. This gave us time to plan. I think alot of people on VJ do the civil ceremony first and then plan a wedding later. Immigration is too unpredictable to plan it the other way. (setting a wedding date without knowing when his visa will be approved).

We didn't do the K-3 because I did not want to be apart from my husband while we waited. But my husband would have been able to work right away even after his K-1 visa expired.

I would read the pros and cons as suggested by someone. It is a hard decision to make and depends on your situation.

Initially our K-1 was approved fast and my husband would have been here last summer. But because Bush passed a new law that delayed processing, he wasn't able to come to December. However, if we had gotten married he would have been here sooner.

Bon Chance with your decision.

[pmbuffle77 0]

Wow its nice to talk to all of you. Knowing that you have all been through the same or similar expiriences is helpful and reassuring. I thank you for ur insights and DCF I ll be sure to ask tomorrow!

I ll keep u all posted.

[bostonparis 0]

Wow its nice to talk to all of you. Knowing that you have all been through the same or similar expiriences is helpful and reassuring. I thank you for ur insights and DCF I ll be sure to ask tomorrow!

I ll keep u all posted.

Good luck, I hope all went well at the embassy - I'm curious about how they do DCF now. Were they helpful?

[pmbuffle77 0]

Salut tout le monde!

I found out that they reinstated the dcf for certain cases and that I would have had to be a resident for at least 6months prior to the filing. Thats what I understood from a website I found. I did not get to the embassy on Friday and will have to try again this Friday.

I was wondering if anyone knows what rights an American has in France after mariage. For example I (the american) marry my fiance (le francais) in France, what paperwork do I have to do in order to live or work here? Am I allowed to stay here in France legally while we file the necessary paperwork (K3 ect...) for the United states? I ask this because I have been looking into the process for the US part and I dont know much about the french end of it. I am wondering if I am allowed to stay in France while we work out the american papers , that way we can be together.

Goodnight to all from Paris

[Cécy 44]

Hi everyone.

I'm back... again... with maybe an other decision yet again. >.>

To summarize the all thing: after we decided to go ahead and do the fiancé visa, I got a job offer. Yeah! Until today when they called me to say they can't seem to find a working visa that would work out (obviously the H1B ran out the opening day. I don't even know how that's possible) and the other option can't work out.

So here I am with 2 month left on my B2 visa (after extension) trying to figure out what to do.

We're thinking we might do a civil wedding and apply for the AOS directly or the K1 but that would mean an other so many month without seeing each other and even more without a job.

So yeah. We're going to talk about it tomorrow.

I know that a lot of you might say I can't do that. Well I didn't plan to get married with him when I came back to the US. I just couldn't stand being without him and came so we could be together and maybe I could get a job+working visa. So as far as I know it's legal.

The current policy really makes it hard for couples to live their lifes don't they? You never think about such things when you start an international relationship. I think we all diserve an award for the hardship we go through.

I'll keep you updated.

[Cécy 44]

Ok, so it's official we are going to get married within a month to avoid the raise of the fees hopefully. I have a medical appointment next monday and we'll get married as soon as we can.

My family is being amazing.

My grandmother has offered to pay for all the fees because she knows it's hard for us and wants us to have a good start in life. We can even buy a table now thanks to her

But what touches me the most is that they are going to try to fly my little brother so he can be the witness to my wedding.

Does anyone know if a non american person can be witness? He lives in France...

I'm so happy. My jaw hurts, can't stop smiling and having tears of joy.

This website is really helping me.

[kimandfred 0]

Hello all fellow French/American couples. I'm surprised that I haven't looked for a thread like this sooner.

My fiancé Fred lives outside of Paris. I'm going to travel there in two weeks, and I'm very excited because I have never been to Europe before!

I do speak some french, but I think I'm terrible at it, and I'm terribly shy about it too. I just studied it for four years in high school and I didn't get a chance to continue in college. I remember when I chose to study french, my father told me that it would be a waste to learn french, since he didn't think I'd ever need to use it. How wrong he was!

I'm going to have to pay more attention to this thread and watch everyone's timelines as well. We sent out our K-1 packet April 26th, had it received April 28th, but it wasn't officially received until May 23rd! My check was cashed, but I'm still waiting on receiving the actual NOA1 hardcopy.

I wish the best of luck to everyone with their journeys!

-Kim

[Cécy 44]

Hi Kim.

Don't worry about your French not being top level. Just speak it, even if it's wrong, people will help by correcting you. If they see you try it will be easier and that way you'll learn (or re-learn faster).

Good luck on your journey and have fun in France.

[adelaarsvaren 0]

FYI folks -

My wife was "temporarily denied" her visa at the interview in Paris, because when submitting the I-864 I had included a stack of paystubs and 2004 and 2005 tax returns. They wanted a letter from the employer, despite it not being a required document. I submited ORIGINAL paystubs - much harder to fake than a letter from an employer... And to top it all off, my father (who quite frankly is wealthy) had made a I-134 for her as well as a back-up, which they wouldn't even consider!

This "merde" ticks me off. They aren't specific, they say submit "supporting evidence", so I do. I make WELL over the 125%, and we do have not children, have been married almost three years, were married in France, lived there almost 2 years....

They did allow me to overnight them the documents and then approve the visa, but still, if they want something specific, they should say.

All this just pisses me off even more that our war-mongering president also thinks it is a good idea to make all the people here illegally legal in one fell swoop after all the BS those of us who are law-abiding go through to get this stuff done.

Anyhow... hopefully she'll have her passport soon.

[RhondaM 0]

FYI folks -

My wife was "temporarily denied" her visa at the interview in Paris, because when submitting the I-864 I had included a stack of paystubs and 2004 and 2005 tax returns. They wanted a letter from the employer, despite it not being a required document. I submited ORIGINAL paystubs - much harder to fake than a letter from an employer... And to top it all off, my father (who quite frankly is wealthy) had made a I-134 for her as well as a back-up, which they wouldn't even consider!

This "merde" ticks me off. They aren't specific, they say submit "supporting evidence", so I do. I make WELL over the 125%, and we do have not children, have been married almost three years, were married in France, lived there almost 2 years....

They did allow me to overnight them the documents and then approve the visa, but still, if they want something specific, they should say.

All this just pisses me off even more that our war-mongering president also thinks it is a good idea to make all the people here illegally legal in one fell swoop after all the BS those of us who are law-abiding go through to get this stuff done.

Anyhow... hopefully she'll have her passport soon.

Just because I'm curious, did you wife go through the embassy in Paris? Did she happen to have Gonzales as the person that she dealt with? We had a very interesting experience there...

She will have her passport soon. It took only 2-3 days by chronopost to reach my "fiance". He is here now in the US for two weeks and we were just married on Saturday.

Good luck to you on your continued journey.....

Rhonda