US and UK citizens living in Japan

[nathan688 4]

So we are completely new to everything and have been doing our research but we can't find answers to some specific questions.

A little background:

I am a US citizen and my fiancee is a British citizen, and we are both legally living in Japan. I've been here for 4 years, and she has been here for 1 year, but we plan to move to the US around April 2017. We both work at the same (Japanese) company, and will be until April 2017. Because I don't have a job/income in the US, we will need a co-sponsor for the financial requirements. I've read differing "facts" about co-sponsors on K-1 visas, however, and I am unclear if we can actually have one. By the time we hope to leave, we will have $15000-$20000 saved up, if that will help at all.

The questions:

A) Can we have a co-sponsor? And if so, is the 125% above poverty requirement the income for their household plus the two of us? For example my single aunt (1) plus my fiancee and I (2) = Household of 3.

B) Do I need to have an established job in the US in order to apply for the visa? I obviously don't have a job there, since I have a full-time job here in Japan.

C) Because we are on a specific timeline and , what is the best time to start applying? The I-129F petition is valid for four months from the date of approval, and once the visa is issued, we can apply for a single admission at a U.S. port-of-entry within the validity of the visa, which will be a maximum of 6 months from the date of issuance. I am confused at the difference between these two things. How can we time this so the application process and the validity of the visa both meet our timeline of arriving in the US in April?

D) Does my fiancee need police certificates from both England and Japan?

That's it from us for now. We appreciate any help that anyone can give us!

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

A. That depends on if your interviewing consulate in Japan allows joint sponsors. I think most do. Yes to 125%. Two people. You are American, not an immigrant, so require no financial sponsor.

B. No job required to apply if you have somebody who can financially sponsor.

C. It's impossible to time it in my opinion and I have been around a long time. Approvals change like the weather. What is happening today may be totally different three months from now. Your four month petition approval can be extended easily so not a huge factor. You could stall around getting your things done for the medical and interview until you are in the six month window. Your 6 months to use the visa starts from the medical clearance day, not visa issue day. There are some graphs here you can look at, but I wouldn't hold my breath it will be exactly that for you http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1historical And some consulate times (after petition approval) here. You can see how they vary if you look at the number of days of processing. http://www.visajourney.com/content/consulate-k1-historical

D. Yes. You don't need it to start the petition. That comes later for the consulate stage. There is petition by you filed with USCIS to bring a fiance to the US. If approved, then the case goes to an American consulate in Japan (Dept of State) where she applies for a visa, gets medical clearance, and attends an interview.

[aaron2020 11,651]

Hi,

A. Don't know. Someone with experience at the US Embassy in Japan will come along and answer this.

B. No.

C. The entire process can take 6-12 months. If you are talking about this April, you aren't likely to make it. Start the process now. You can not speed it up. You can slow it down by taking your time to submit things to the US Embassy.

D. Yes. Anyplace that he has lived for more than 6 months after age 16.

[Darnell 8,479]

grab an I-864 and it's instructions, and study it,

as

the adjudication of the I-134 uses the stuff in the I-864....

[nathan688 4]

Thanks for all the replies so far, we really appreciate it! We have a couple follow up questions.

D. Yes. You don't need it to start the petition. That comes later for the consulate stage. There is petition by you filed with USCIS to bring a fiance to the US. If approved, then the case goes to an American consulate in Japan (Dept of State) where she applies for a visa, gets medical clearance, and attends an interview.

So, even though we don't need the police certificate to start the petition, is it ok to get them in advance, or do they require the police reports to be extremely up to date? I mean, our timeline is roughly a year, so if we get them now, they might be 6-8 months old by the time they actually get in the hands of the people who need them.

... If you are talking about this April, you aren't likely to make it. ...

D. Yes. Anyplace that he has lived for more than 6 months after age 16.

Nope, April 2017, so we're not in THAT much of a rush

My fiancee lived in France as a student for 9 months. Is she required to get police certificate from there, even though she only lived there for less than a year? Being an EU citizen, she can freely travel and stay in the EU without the need of a special visa to live there.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Thanks for all the replies so far, we really appreciate it! We have a couple follow up questions.

So, even though we don't need the police certificate to start the petition, is it ok to get them in advance, or do they require the police reports to be extremely up to date? I mean, our timeline is roughly a year, so if we get them now, they might be 6-8 months old by the time they actually get in the hands of the people who need them.

Nope, April 2017, so we're not in THAT much of a rush

My fiancee lived in France as a student for 9 months. Is she required to get police certificate from there, even though she only lived there for less than a year? Being an EU citizen, she can freely travel and stay in the EU without the need of a special visa to live there.

Why don't you go sit down somewhere and read a summary of the whole process. This is a link provided by the U.S. embassy in Tokyo. It addresses qualification for a K1, step 6 has a link to documents you will need at the interview and will answer your question about what police certificates are needed. http://www.ustraveldocs.com/jp/jp-niv-typek.asp. There are further links from there, like a whole webpage on police certificates.

I think it will help you because it is the official word from Tokyo and is well organized.

Hint: yes to France.

[cookiesandcream 7]

So, even though we don't need the police certificate to start the petition, is it ok to get them in advance, or do they require the police reports to be extremely up to date? I mean, our timeline is roughly a year, so if we get them now, they might be 6-8 months old by the time they actually get in the hands of the people who need them.

You won't be able to get the police certificate (in Japan) for the petition until the final stage when you get to the interview part. I'm not sure about the UK, I think I got mine maybe 4 months in advance since I was home, and they weren't too fussy. But the Japanese police were super fussy, to the point it was dumb. Like I had a letter from the USCIS which states I need a police certificate, no one at the station can read English, so I go through and translate line by line - they were so picky even though they really had no way of knowing if what I was translating was accurate. They just kept looking at it over and over again. Of course they were very polite, but the process of getting it was just silly.

Our application process was very smooth and took 6 months, but that was CR-1. It's probably better to start now, as someone said you can slow it down at the final stages, but if something happens you can't speed it up.

What I would recommend the two of you do now (so you don't rush to do it later): get your tax transcripts for last 5 years, get tax transcripts from your co-sponser last 5 years, get finance's medical records (to check for vaccines), get any vaccinations. I think my vaccinations totaled something like 4 man in the end, so be prepared.