A few questions before the start of our K-1 journey

[TL2016 208]

Hello everyone,

this site has been so helpful for us already and we're very thankful for it. We've read a lot of information and tried to educate ourselves, but we still have a few questions. Some of our questions can probably be answered easy. But we'd still love the answers for them to help our nerves and to comfort us a little, so we don't think we're missing a piece of important information.

• We can start the K-1 Visa process while I’m in the US, correct?
• If so, how long can we go on before I need to be physically present in Germany?
• Are there any downsides to starting the process while I’m in the US?

• As my wife to be will just graduate college next summer, will her mom be a good cosponsor?

Those are some of our questions. But there is one more question that we couldn't really find an answer for. I'll try my best to explain what I'm trying to ask, but if something is unclear please do not hesitate to ask!

Seeing that we will be sending the petition from New York, technically the TSC should be handling our case. But recently we've read that some petitions have been forwarded to the CSC, which speeds up the process enormously. That's great news for everyone who wants to be with their partner as soon as possible!

But in our case, we actually don't plan on moving together until the summer of 2016 as that will be when my wife to be will be graduating college. So being sent to the TSC would actually work in our favor as the total processing time is longer than the CSC wait time as far as I know. We would love to start the process together this summer while I am with her in the U.S., but I wouldn't want to take the medical exam and attend the interview before the start of 2016 as the K-1 Visa is only valid for 6 months after the medical exam if I read it correctly. So my question is, is there any way to 'delay' the process when it's already on its way? We want the timing to be perfect, as getting the visa a little too early wouldn't be optimal for us.

There is some information about us as a couple in a different post I created in the Tourist Visa section, the link to the thread is this: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/541088-b-2-k-1-questions-about-upcoming-trip/

Thank you so much for reading our post, and again if there are any questions please feel free to ask!

[Cody and Daisy 373]

Hello everyone,

this site has been so helpful for us already and we're very thankful for it. We've read a lot of information and tried to educate ourselves, but we still have a few questions. Some of our questions can probably be answered easy. But we'd still love the answers for them to help our nerves and to comfort us a little, so we don't think we're missing a piece of important information.

• We can start the K-1 Visa process while Im in the US, correct?

  yes you would just need to return to do the medical and interview which will be shortly after the noa2

• If so, how long can we go on before I need to be physically present in Germany?

  as above

• Are there any downsides to starting the process while Im in the US?

  nope

• As my wife to be will just graduate college next summer, will her mom be a good cosponsor?

she would need to have 125% over the poverty line for AOS and her dependants would be her, you and anyone else that depends on her income that she lives with.

So keep that in mind.

Those are some of our questions. But there is one more question that we couldn't really find an answer for. I'll try my best to explain what I'm trying to ask, but if something is unclear please do not hesitate to ask!

Seeing that we will be sending the petition from New York, technically the TSC should be handling our case. But recently we've read that some petitions have been forwarded to the CSC, which speeds up the process enormously. That's great news for everyone who wants to be with their partner as soon as possible!

But in our case, we actually don't plan on moving together until the summer of 2016 as that will be when my wife to be will be graduating college. So being sent to the TSC would actually work in our favor as the total processing time is longer than the CSC wait time as far as I know.

pretty much all petitions are being sent to CSC as those who filed in August and September are only just being approved at TSC.

Why not hold off a couple of months before you file?

But then again no one can tell you exactly how long the process for you will take.

Every case is different and there are those even at CSC who wait an awfully long time

We would love to start the process together this summer while I am with her in the U.S., but I wouldn't want to take the medical exam and attend the interview before the start of 2016 as the K-1 Visa is only valid for 6 months after the medical exam if I read it correctly. So my question is, is there any way to 'delay' the process when it's already on its way? We want the timing to be perfect, as getting the visa a little too early wouldn't be optimal for us.

you can delay slightly between the approval and medical and you may be able to delay the interview, but that's embassy specific and I can't help you on that bit so hopefully others from Germany who have delayed can help you more on that bit.

There is some information about us as a couple in a different post I created in the Tourist Visa section, the link to the thread is this: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/541088-b-2-k-1-questions-about-upcoming-trip/

Thank you so much for reading our post, and again if there are any questions please feel free to ask!

Edited April 22, 2015 by Cody and Daisy

[TL2016 208]

Thank you for your reply Daisy, very helpful.

Just to make sure, 125% for just 2 people is $19,912 and then +$5,200 for each addition person, correct?

I didn't know that every petition submitted now is going to CSC. We have talked about possibly waiting a few months before filing the petition. But we would just love to send it in while I'm with her, which is this summer and we're not sure when or even if we will see each other again before I will over next year. She'll likely be very busy with her last year of college and I'll be working full time again after I come back from the visit in September. We just don't want to wait any longer than necessary, and I'd assume most other couples here feel the same way. Maybe we will just wait until 2-3 weeks before my flight back home.

We'd also like to file the petition because what if it really takes much longer than expected. Even if it may be unlikely now with the CSC being relatively fast, we just want to prepare for everything as good as possible and then expect the worst so we can't get too disappointed.

Do you have any idea how long the process can be delayed between the NOA2 and the medical exam? That would be great to know as that's when we will most likely try to delay the process if everything gets approved quickly. Because if the Visa is only valid for 6 months after the medical exam, delaying the interview wouldn't do anything at all.

Once again thank you for your help, I feel like I can't say it enough because there are so many helpful people here. I'm glad to see communities like this one still exist.

Edited April 22, 2015 by TL2016

[Cody and Daisy 373]

Thank you for your reply Daisy, very helpful.

Just to make sure, 125% for just 2 people is $19,912 and then +$5,200 for each addition person, correct?

yes that is pretty much correct. Here is a link for the table, so you can see the exact figures.

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864p.pdf

I didn't know that every petition submitted now is going to CSC. We have talked about possibly waiting a few months before filing the petition. But we would just love to send it in while I'm with her, which is this summer and we're not sure when or even if we will see each other again before I will over next year. She'll likely be very busy with her last year of college and I'll be working full time again after I come back from the visit in September. We just don't want to wait any longer than necessary, and I'd assume most other couples here feel the same way. Maybe we will just wait until 2-3 weeks before my flight back home.

it certainly seems like most petitions are going straight to CSC now. But we only account for a small percentage of the total applications they get. If you sent it in let's say June, the chances are it'll be approved before Christmas anyway so it may help delay it more. For the moment use the search box for recent German filers and you can get an idea of how long they have waited so far

We'd also like to file the petition because what if it really takes much longer than expected. Even if it may be unlikely now with the CSC being relatively fast, we just want to prepare for everything as good as possible and then expect the worst so we can't get too disappointed.

yes exactly, that's the other side to it, no one ever knows how long it will take but I've seen a lot that have been sent recently already been approved.

Do you have any idea how long the process can be delayed between the NOA2 and the medical exam? That would be great to know as that's when we will most likely try to delay the process if everything gets approved quickly. Because if the Visa is only valid for 6 months after the medical exam, delaying the interview wouldn't do anything at all.

after the actually approval it usually takes about a month before you get your new case number which if it does not arrive within that time you can call and find out. And then you schedule your medical exam. So that also depends on how far away you can push that and what openings they have.

After you have your medical dat you can fill in the online DS-160 which is the readiness form for your interview.

On there you put in the upcoming medic date and they also ask when you plan on getting married. So maybe if you put a date for next year you might get an interview a few months before it.

But they usually schedule them quickly because the medical is only valid for a year and you need to submit AOS within that year unless you want to pay for an entire new medical in the states which can cost up to 400 dollars!

Once again thank you for your help, I feel like I can't say it enough because there are so many helpful people here. I'm glad to see communities like this one still exist.

Yeah when we found visajourney it was amazingly helpful, and as long as you are prepared for absolute honest answers you will get so much help here because hose of us that stick around to help will tell you it like it is.

I don't like getting people's hopes up because you never know how the process is, and at times I've had people call me awful things because I don't sugar coat anything, which is why I now have the warning in my signature.

There have lots of situations like yours though especially before the transfers when people didn't expect to be approved so quick, and where as it is amazing that they happen (and of course awful for those who wait almost 300 days for an approval) it can shake everything up.

You expect to wait at least five months for an approval and you see that rarely happens at CSC.

So there are people who struggle with being approved quickly because it's hard to up and change your life so quickly.

So hopefully someone will reply who's gone through this situation you are in, and I'll do a quick search to see if I can find any examples from Germany.

Edited April 22, 2015 by Cody and Daisy

[Zedayn 485]

Hello everyone,

this site has been so helpful for us already and we're very thankful for it. We've read a lot of information and tried to educate ourselves, but we still have a few questions. Some of our questions can probably be answered easy. But we'd still love the answers for them to help our nerves and to comfort us a little, so we don't think we're missing a piece of important information.

• We can start the K-1 Visa process while I’m in the US, correct?
• If so, how long can we go on before I need to be physically present in Germany?
• Are there any downsides to starting the process while I’m in the US?

• As my wife to be will just graduate college next summer, will her mom be a good cosponsor?

Those are some of our questions. But there is one more question that we couldn't really find an answer for. I'll try my best to explain what I'm trying to ask, but if something is unclear please do not hesitate to ask!

Seeing that we will be sending the petition from New York, technically the TSC should be handling our case. But recently we've read that some petitions have been forwarded to the CSC, which speeds up the process enormously. That's great news for everyone who wants to be with their partner as soon as possible!

But in our case, we actually don't plan on moving together until the summer of 2016 as that will be when my wife to be will be graduating college. So being sent to the TSC would actually work in our favor as the total processing time is longer than the CSC wait time as far as I know. We would love to start the process together this summer while I am with her in the U.S., but I wouldn't want to take the medical exam and attend the interview before the start of 2016 as the K-1 Visa is only valid for 6 months after the medical exam if I read it correctly. So my question is, is there any way to 'delay' the process when it's already on its way? We want the timing to be perfect, as getting the visa a little too early wouldn't be optimal for us.

There is some information about us as a couple in a different post I created in the Tourist Visa section, the link to the thread is this: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/541088-b-2-k-1-questions-about-upcoming-trip/

Thank you so much for reading our post, and again if there are any questions please feel free to ask!

1. Yes, you can start the process while you are still in the US

2. You can stay as long as you are legally authorized, you only need to return to Germany for your embassy interview.

3. It does not make a difference if you are here or there during processing. The benefit of being here of course is being with your fiancee.

4. If her mom is above the poverty guidelines for her household size plus you, then yes she would be a good co-sponsor.

5. You can delay the process in two different ways (or a combination of the two):

• Once you receive the NOA2, it can be extended automatically for up to one year.
• You can delay using the K-1 visa up to the expiration date. The K-1 visa is usually valid for 6 months from the date of the medical exam.

[TL2016 208]

Thank you again for your response Daisy and thank you Zedayn as well. That's great news that I can delay the process after the NOA2 for up to a year. June just needs to come now and we will be ready to start the process!

Edit: Oh and before I forget, Zedayn you said that the NOA2 gets extended automatically. Do I really just leave it be and try to get an appointment for my medical exam whenever I'm ready or do I need to get in contact with anyone before I do so?

Edited April 22, 2015 by TL2016