How many times did you meet prior to filing?

[heo luoi 206]

Worried if we will have issues since we hadn't 'met' a lot. Hopefully others have been successful w/o issue...than just got curious, how many 'times' have you met prior to filing, assuming more than a weekend or something for those that are rather far away.

Edited October 30, 2015 by heo luoi

[TBoneTX 45,288]

The USCIS threshold for filing is very low. Conversely, "face time" can be crucial in the eyes of the consular officers at interview time, because it plays into the bona fide nature of the relationship.

Those whose beneficiary will not be interviewing in a VWP country or at a softball embassy like Manila might do well to front-load the I-129F petition with evidence of a bona fide relationship. USCIS won't care about this extra information but will nevertheless pass it to the consulate.

Couldn't answer the "attended interview" box -- wasn't on the consular premises for the first interview but was ordered to attend the Stokes.

Edited October 30, 2015 by TBoneTX

[Zedayn 485]

We met only once prior to filing, and then we saw each other again the 2nd time when I went with her to the embassy interview. No issues at all.

[heo luoi 206]

I fear the scrutiny level of our Consulate and Manilla is significantly different....:/

Guess we'll find out in a few days, but long night sleep yesterday

[Ash.1101 1,756]

A lot of people consider my timeline of dating/courtship a bit longer than most. We wanted to date for a bit of time before doing any of this.

started dating in March 2013, engaged Nov 2014, filed K1 in April 2015 he's visited 8 times since 2013. Normally once every 3 months or so. It would have been 10 or so by now, but we're just waiting for the K1 process to be done.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Ash.1101

[bowens44 214]

Once for two weeks prior to filing

[heo luoi 206]

Transcontinental travel seems certainly much more facilitative than others. Interesting if the CAN/MEX consulates expect more meet ups, but the inter continental travel is arguably much more time/money intensive to realistically travel frequently while maintaining any employment...etc. Hopefully the more distant Consulates are cognizant of that in their evaluations..

My first poll, probably should have left votes public so could hopefully see where the votes were coming from. Would help in the relevancy

@Tbone/Mods, can you retroactively fix that

Edited October 30, 2015 by heo luoi

[Ash.1101 1,756]

Weirdly enough, it's only a couple of hundred dollars more expensive for my fiance to fly from Canada to Tokyo from Toronto roundtrip (1100), than it is to fly from London, Ontario to Texas roundtrip (800). The price also seems the same for me to go to London or Tokyo. The cheapest flight to Vietnam from Texas roundtrip is 1200$. I'd imagine that my fiance would see me just as much if I were in one of those countries simply because he usually brings about 800$ spending money anyways, he'd just cut it down to 400$ to compensate the flight cost.

My fiance has only used his vacation time, usually would visit for 5-6 days at a time with again, threeish months inbetween.

Face time is important, but I'd imagine that they'd be more weary of a long term engagement with only a couple of visits, than a short term engagement with a couple of visits.

Like, it'd be weird for me to have been dating my fiance for two and a half years, be engaged, and only have had face time with him twice. Where as if you just started dating a year ago and only have had a couple of face time together then that looks a little less weird.

Edited October 30, 2015 by Ash.1101

[Umka36 781]

Visited my wife twice before filing (lived in her flat every time, so it allowed me to know her more). Made 3 more trips after filing the K1 petition, which included going to her interview/coming to the US on the last one. I burned through all my vacations that I accrued through the years of never taking a vacation. Worth everyone moment of it including the cost.

[vanityfair 4]

Face time is important, but I'd imagine that they'd be more weary of a long term engagement with only a couple of visits, than a short term engagement with a couple of visits.

Like, it'd be weird for me to have been dating my fiance for two and a half years, be engaged, and only have had face time with him twice. Where as if you just started dating a year ago and only have had a couple of face time together then that looks a little less weird.

This is what interests me as I wonder what they mean as facetime as it is fairly vague for me. For example, I wonder if they look into how many hours/days one spent together consecutively as I have yet to spend a solid straight week with my fiance, but I have been seeing him every other weekend for a casual date and meal for the past few months (not to mention knowing him for about a year and a half so far and me thus meeting him for over a dozen times in person).

It is certainly nervewracking as I have no idea how the embassy is going to interprete this.

Edited October 30, 2015 by vanityfair

[Mike-eeh and Odie 193]

My wife and I met once, spending 2 weeks in Singapore before we filed for the K-1 Visa. She had her interview in Manila, I was not there, and it all turned out well.

[heo luoi 206]

Totally agree w/ you about the relatively of face time

This is what interests me as I wonder what they mean as facetime as it is fairly vague for me. For example, I wonder if they look into how many hours/days one spent together consecutively as I have yet to spend a solid straight week with my fiance, but I have been seeing him every other weekend for a casual date and meal for the past few months (not to mention knowing him for about a year and a half so far and me thus meeting him for over a dozen times in person).

It is certainly nervewracking as I have no idea how the embassy is going to interprete this.

[heo luoi 206]

Having 'vacation' and being able to literally take a huge congruous chunk at once are very different things. Using 3 wks or more of vacation is certainly more difficult for employers to compensate for.

Edited October 30, 2015 by heo luoi

[baron555 934]

It is certainly nervewracking as I have no idea how the embassy is going to interprete this.

It all depends on your ability to convince the Embassy CO that you truly have a legitimate relationship.

For us, I paid $99 to gain access to an online catalog from which I pick out my wife (true story). Within three months of our online meeting, we met in person for 10 days, and then filed the K-1 petition.

Then waited 8 more months for the interview; which was successful.

So, from the above information one could easily think, "Yeah right, how can they have a relationship?"

Maybe some portion was based on our ages.

Maybe some portion was based on that a small child was involved and therefore would need additional care and support above and beyond the new spouse.

Mostly for sure based on the quality and content of the relationship evidences that we presented.

To me, most relationships undergo a normal progression, the getting to know you stage, the planning for the meeting stage, advanced discussions of feelings for each, the talk about life together, the visa process itself, planning for life in the US. We had (and in some cases purposefully generated) all types of evidences that would show, since we had to do this from a distance due to visa restrictions to visit her and her inability to visit here, that we were very serious about life together and living in the US.

I did and I urge others to do the same; draft a document (mine was 2-1/2 pages long) which could be titled "Evolution of Our Relationship". Describe how your relationship moved along and refer to specific evidences to corroborate the same. Hopefully you have them....and different types.

You'll see many couples who do not have these evidences because they didn't think about it (or maybe they weren't as serious as others about their relationship).

Those should be the ones that are nervous about the interview.

All that being said, Yes there are specific Embassies that are very difficult and the OP is one of them.

[heo luoi 206]

Could you clarify what is is you mean by 'evolution of our relationship' and the corresponding evidence in more depth?

I think this is likely a very valid point and possibly too late for me, but I think others could benefit from it. I tried to keep as much evidence as possible but aside from 'reading our dialogs' or tapping our phones not sure how much more evidence to the nuance of ones relationship...which is difficult which is why I used a cool word like 'nuance':)

I'm going to post about my approach and experience as soon as next stage happens but I aside from physically being there and taking better/more pictures while I was there...not sure how much more evidence I could have procured. Just switched jobs and couldn't take anymore time off and didnt want to wait a whole nother year and I need vacation time to do more of the stinking process when she gets here...

To me this is akin to the AOS/ROC evidence as well. Putting your name on a bill/CC means nothing...really.

Its certainly possible to add another user to a bill, you dont really need to cohabitate. So evidence like that I would argue is actually less meaningful.

I did and I urge others to do the same; draft a document (mine was 2-1/2 pages long) which could be titled "Evolution of Our Relationship". Describe how your relationship moved along and refer to specific evidences to corroborate the same. Hopefully you have them....and different types.

You'll see many couples who do not have these evidences because they didn't think about it (or maybe they weren't as serious as others about their relationship).

Those should be the ones that are nervous about the interview.

All that being said, Yes there are specific Embassies that are very difficult and the OP is one of them.