Whats wrong with USCIS?

[RobBell 32]

I'm sure I'm not the only parent separated from their children who would disagree with you. In fact, I'd venture that you might even agree that where kids are involved it ought to be a priority to reunite families before fiancés...

Sorry for your situation. But in that case they should put all tourist visas, work visas, student visas, on hold until until every spousal visa is approved because they may have children?

There are also many fiances with children as well, but I guess they aren't as important.

[Protocol417 161]

Married couples are started their life but fiance are jus gonna start their life after they marry. thats the only reason. Preference can be given to one who already started. coz the pain is more for married couple. They shouldnot end up their relationship while the CR1 is on process. the legitimate relationship is more powerful n committed one than fiance visa applicants.If fiances breaks up the relationship, they wil be still single n can get another fiance. but for married couples, if they ends up the relationship, their status wil be changed to divorced. I dont want this to happen to married couples when CR1 is on the process. If they live together , the interest n intimacy wil be increasing. It decreases the divorce case. they can stay , committed with the relationship. I jus dont want USCIS to be the root cause for couples getting divorce. Any more explanation u want?

My fiance and I have also "started our lives" together. We make daily decisions together, "landlord" a house together, make financial decisions and plans together, are each others' legal beneficiaries, cry when we're missing the other, feel like throwing things at the wall when we hear of yet another delay, support one another, and do everything that a married couple who lives 4,000 miles apart and is also trying to be together would do (except on top of all of that, we also have to try to plan a wedding when we have no idea when we'll be able to get married). That stuff is already happening. It's not like we live completely separate lives until one day we get this magical piece of paper and suddenly our lives are joined. They are already joined. We have already started our lives together. Or as much as anyone can from this distance.

I agree that USCIS should not be a root cause for divorce, but it ALSO should not be a root cause ANY couple to split. The end result is the same: Two people who were in love are now going their separate ways. I don't want that to happen to anybody.

I've been married before, I know what it's like from both sides. Marriage is not a magic wand that amplifies the pain of being separated. It's a piece of paper. Being separated from the person you love is being separated from the person you love, period. And if my fiance and I were to split up for some reason, it's not like I'd just shrug my shoulders and "get another" fiance (any more than you would just turn around and "get another" spouse).

I am very sorry for the couples here that have to be separated for so long, and it does appear that CR-1s have to wait longer and there is no excuse for that. It should be equal. Loved ones should be reunited at the same pace.

But the things you've said here about being "legitimate" and "more powerful" or that you experience "more pain" are pretty darn offensive, especially when the only reason we're not already married is because we're waiting for the government to let us!

[MacauPDX 24]

Sorry for your situation. But in that case they should put all tourist visas, work visas, student visas, on hold until until every spousal visa is approved because they may have children?

There are also many fiances with children as well, but I guess they aren't as important.

I'm not suggesting anything like that...

[BOS_LHR 829]

I don't know why we need to look at each other as adversaries, or try to rank ourselves against each other. It's the USCIS we should be upset with and this thread is losing track of that.

[Kaylara 814]

My fiance and I have also "started our lives" together. We make daily decisions together, "landlord" a house together, make financial decisions and plans together, are each others' legal beneficiaries, cry when we're missing the other, feel like throwing things at the wall when we hear of yet another delay, support one another, and do everything that a married couple who lives 4,000 miles apart and is also trying to be together would do (except on top of all of that, we also have to try to plan a wedding when we have no idea when we'll be able to get married). That stuff is already happening. It's not like we live completely separate lives until one day we get this magical piece of paper and suddenly our lives are joined. They are already joined. We have already started our lives together. Or as much as anyone can from this distance.

I agree that USCIS should not be a root cause for divorce, but it ALSO should not be a root cause ANY couple to split. The end result is the same: Two people who were in love are now going their separate ways. I don't want that to happen to anybody.

I've been married before, I know what it's like from both sides. Marriage is not a magic wand that amplifies the pain of being separated. It's a piece of paper. Being separated from the person you love is being separated from the person you love, period. And if my fiance and I were to split up for some reason, it's not like I'd just shrug my shoulders and "get another" fiance (any more than you would just turn around and "get another" spouse).

I am very sorry for the couples here that have to be separated for so long, and it does appear that CR-1s have to wait longer and there is no excuse for that. It should be equal. Loved ones should be reunited at the same pace.

But the things you've said here about being "legitimate" and "more powerful" or that you experience "more pain" are pretty darn offensive, especially when the only reason we're not already married is because we're waiting for the government to let us!

I don't think the married couples are more legitimate, more power, or more painful. (Unless there are kids involved, then yes, it is way more painful than people with no kids. That doesn't mean your pain is invalid, it just means that carrying your own pain, plus the pain of your little ones is worse than just carrying your own.)

Marriage might just be a piece of paper, relationship wise, but it's also a legal contract. As such, there is a legal commitment there that someone coming in on a fiance visa doesn't have. For instance, when I moved to the Netherlands, our relationship was filed as a civil union. So we were living together, etc, but it could be dissolved immediately by either party without having to go to court. We were only entitled to those assets that we brought into the relationship, etc. As a married couple, we would need to divorce in the court (thus dissolving the legal contract between us) and split up our marital assets 50/50 because that's the way the law works in that country. Fiance's do not have that legal contract in place, is all that I'm saying. And I think that having a legal contract should work in the favor of those who are married, which does not seem to be the case, currently.

I don't think that fiance's should be slowly adjudicated. I think they should hire more people and speed up the process for all of us.

And if you want to get married, you don't need a fiance visa to do so. You can do it on a tourist visa, you just can't adjust your status or immigrate. My husband and I got married here in NJ while he was on a tourist visa, and then we went back to the Netherlands. You only file for the fiance visa if you're planning on immigrating. Yes, you need to adjust status afterwards, but you get to stay with your spouse while you're doing it. I really do understand, I've done it, and it sucks having to go through that, but it's a completely different kind of suck when your spouse can't even visit you (without a serious chance of being denied entry) for months or possibly years.

But I honestly don't blame the K1's. Not one little bit. I'm jealous as all hell that they are getting their files processed so quickly. I miss my husband so much there aren't even words. I cry every day. My kids cry every day. And I HATE the USCIS for doing this to all of us. But it's not the other petitioner's faults.

[MacauPDX 24]

Thank you Kaylara for articulating better than I ever could. At the end of the day, we're all of us aching to be with the ones we love, regardless of the process we find ourselves mired in...

[RobBell 32]

I don't think the married couples are more legitimate, more power, or more painful. (Unless there are kids involved, then yes, it is way more painful than people with no kids. That doesn't mean your pain is invalid, it just means that carrying your own pain, plus the pain of your little ones is worse than just carrying your own.)

Marriage might just be a piece of paper, relationship wise, but it's also a legal contract. As such, there is a legal commitment there that someone coming in on a fiance visa doesn't have. For instance, when I moved to the Netherlands, our relationship was filed as a civil union. So we were living together, etc, but it could be dissolved immediately by either party without having to go to court. We were only entitled to those assets that we brought into the relationship, etc. As a married couple, we would need to divorce in the court (thus dissolving the legal contract between us) and split up our marital assets 50/50 because that's the way the law works in that country. Fiance's do not have that legal contract in place, is all that I'm saying. And I think that having a legal contract should work in the favor of those who are married, which does not seem to be the case, currently.

I don't think that fiance's should be slowly adjudicated. I think they should hire more people and speed up the process for all of us.

And if you want to get married, you don't need a fiance visa to do so. You can do it on a tourist visa, you just can't adjust your status or immigrate. My husband and I got married here in NJ while he was on a tourist visa, and then we went back to the Netherlands. You only file for the fiance visa if you're planning on immigrating. Yes, you need to adjust status afterwards, but you get to stay with your spouse while you're doing it. I really do understand, I've done it, and it sucks having to go through that, but it's a completely different kind of suck when your spouse can't even visit you (without a serious chance of being denied entry) for months or possibly years.

But I honestly don't blame the K1's. Not one little bit. I'm jealous as all hell that they are getting their files processed so quickly. I miss my husband so much there aren't even words. I cry every day. My kids cry every day. And I HATE the USCIS for doing this to all of us. But it's not the other petitioner's faults.

Coming on a tourist Visa for purpose of marriage is fraud. And even if that wasn't the case many people are unable to obtain a tourist visa because of the country and/or financial status.

Regardless of the legalities, if you love someone you want to be with them, and its painful not to be.

We should all supportive here and fight the system, not each other.

[Protocol417 161]

I don't think the married couples are more legitimate, more power, or more painful. (Unless there are kids involved, then yes, it is way more painful than people with no kids. That doesn't mean your pain is invalid, it just means that carrying your own pain, plus the pain of your little ones is worse than just carrying your own.)

Marriage might just be a piece of paper, relationship wise, but it's also a legal contract. As such, there is a legal commitment there that someone coming in on a fiance visa doesn't have. For instance, when I moved to the Netherlands, our relationship was filed as a civil union. So we were living together, etc, but it could be dissolved immediately by either party without having to go to court. We were only entitled to those assets that we brought into the relationship, etc. As a married couple, we would need to divorce in the court (thus dissolving the legal contract between us) and split up our marital assets 50/50 because that's the way the law works in that country. Fiance's do not have that legal contract in place, is all that I'm saying. And I think that having a legal contract should work in the favor of those who are married, which does not seem to be the case, currently.

I don't think that fiance's should be slowly adjudicated. I think they should hire more people and speed up the process for all of us.

And if you want to get married, you don't need a fiance visa to do so. You can do it on a tourist visa, you just can't adjust your status or immigrate. My husband and I got married here in NJ while he was on a tourist visa, and then we went back to the Netherlands. You only file for the fiance visa if you're planning on immigrating. Yes, you need to adjust status afterwards, but you get to stay with your spouse while you're doing it. I really do understand, I've done it, and it sucks having to go through that, but it's a completely different kind of suck when your spouse can't even visit you (without a serious chance of being denied entry) for months or possibly years.

But I honestly don't blame the K1's. Not one little bit. I'm jealous as all hell that they are getting their files processed so quickly. I miss my husband so much there aren't even words. I cry every day. My kids cry every day. And I HATE the USCIS for doing this to all of us. But it's not the other petitioner's faults.

I agree with pretty much all of this. But I definitely agree with this statement: All the files should be processed at the same speed.

The process is confusing, especially when you're first starting and deciding what you need to do, and there is lots of misinformation out there. When my fiance and I were looking at the options, it seemed to us that the CR-1 visa was intended for people who had met while one was living in the other country for a time (maybe on a student visa or something like that) and had already gotten married, and that wasn't us. Also, we were seeing stories about people getting turned away at airports because they were planning on getting married and therefore were seen as a risk in the US of having intent to immigrate (I'd been told a couple times while visiting in the UK point-blank in Customs "you are not allowed to get married while you're here" *lol*), and as such thought the CR-1 route was either not the correct visa for us, or carried too much risk. Right now, it's kind of a moot point, because it would be stupid to throw out all of the work we've done and money we've paid to get married and start over. We are so close, relatively speaking. Had I known the things I know now, we may have made a different decision (actually, we may have decided just to move to the UK instead of the US, but that's another topic entirely).

What you've said, though, is much more fair, and I appreciate it.

[del-11-03-13-3 11]

It's legal to come here on a tourist visa, get married, then go back to your country and wait for a spousal visa; it's illegal if you stay and AOS. That's something I didn't understand when I made my choice to go with the fiancé visa. In the end we all will be married and together with our love, it's just two different ways of accomplishing that and one way isn't lesser than the other. The wait for spousal visas should really be national news more than a website not working when you still have over a month to sign up for health insurance to get coverage on 1/1. We need to work together to get fixes and improvements to the immigration process and fighting isn't helping. I made the best choice for my circumstances with the knowledge I knew at the time and that has no reflection on the merit of my relationship. I was lucky I had a choice and picked the 'right' one. I hope USCIS finally gets its act together and the backlog gets cleared.

[r060106 109]

In the end we all will be married and together with our love, it's just two different ways of accomplishing that and one way isn't lesser than the other. The wait for spousal visas should really be national news more than a website not working when you still have over a month to sign up for health insurance to get coverage on 1/1. We need to work together to get fixes and improvements to the immigration process and fighting isn't helping. I made the best choice for my circumstances with the knowledge I knew at the time and that has no reflection on the merit of my relationship. I was lucky I had a choice and picked the 'right' one. I hope USCIS finally gets its act together and the backlog gets cleared.

No, it won't become national news and a lot of us feel like the wait will never be over - especially I-130s. We'll likely wait 2 years or more to be with our loved ones and saying that one day we'll be together doesn't help the situation.

Unlike the K-1 situation a year ago or so, this backlog looks like the new norm and USCIS appears to not give one care about it. And unlike the K-1 backlog, they don't appear to be doing anything to fix it. 2 year processing times are here to stay, I'm afraid. Spouses of U.S. Citizens aren't respected anymore.

[Kaylara 814]

Coming on a tourist Visa for purpose of marriage is fraud. And even if that wasn't the case many people are unable to obtain a tourist visa because of the country and/or financial status.

Regardless of the legalities, if you love someone you want to be with them, and its painful not to be.

We should all supportive here and fight the system, not each other.

No, coming on a tourist visa and getting married is not fraud. Coming on a tourist visa, getting married, and then trying to stay in the US is fraud. If you return to the spouse's country, then you don't need to file for a fiance visa. It says specifically in the instructions that the fiance visa is for those who are planning on marrying and staying in the US. You also have the option of trying to get married in your spouse's country. I know for us it wasn't an option as we were waiting for my residency permit, and it wasn't allowed until I was a legal resident in the Netherlands, but that's not necessarily the case for everyone. If your financial status or country is a problem with getting a tourist visa, it shouldn't be *easier* to get a fiance visa.

As for the rest of this, I entirely agree.

[Protocol417 161]

Coming on a tourist Visa for purpose of marriage is fraud

This is what I mean by confusing. I believed this wholeheartedly when we started and for a good while after (one of the many reasons we chose the K-1 route, as I mentioned before) but I've had multiple people tell me that it's not precisely true. Some have said that if you come into the country on a tourist visa with evidence of ties to your country, get married, then leave and start the CR-1 process properly, you are fine. I've even heard that you are not required to tell the customs officer you are getting married (that you're only required to inform them if they ask you). Others say this isn't the case, it is fraud, period, and you could get banned for up to 10 years.

[BOS_LHR 829]

The UK requires a special visa to enter the country to get married -- which doesn't grant any benefit aside from permission to come marry and then go back home -- while the US doesn't. Totally fine on a tourist visa, and that's part of the reason my SO and I got married in the US. We even mailed our I-130 packet while still together, but then we said goodbye and returned to our separate countries to wait out the visa. That's all perfectly legal. Now we just make ourselves extra prepared for visits (proof of ties to home, etc.) to minimize the risk of someone getting turned away.

[Hollyday 122]

This is what I mean by confusing. I believed this wholeheartedly when we started and for a good while after (one of the many reasons we chose the K-1 route, as I mentioned before) but I've had multiple people tell me that it's not precisely true. Some have said that if you come into the country on a tourist visa with evidence of ties to your country, get married, then leave and start the CR-1 process properly, you are fine. I've even heard that you are not required to tell the customs officer you are getting married (that you're only required to inform them if they ask you). Others say this isn't the case, it is fraud, period, and you could get banned for up to 10 years.

Yeah, it becomes fraud when the person tries to stay in the country after getting married. Just getting married itself is allowed.

[Hollyday 122]

No, it won't become national news and a lot of us feel like the wait will never be over - especially I-130s. We'll likely wait 2 years or more to be with our loved ones and saying that one day we'll be together doesn't help the situation.

Unlike the K-1 situation a year ago or so, this backlog looks like the new norm and USCIS appears to not give one care about it. And unlike the K-1 backlog, they don't appear to be doing anything to fix it. 2 year processing times are here to stay, I'm afraid. Spouses of U.S. Citizens aren't respected anymore.

Where do you get the concept of 2 year processing time?

And hey, the petition transfers seem to be an attempt to do something to fix it.