K1 Visa and very overwhelmed!!!

[kateandedgar 3]

Hey Guys

I'm new to the forum and slightly scared to start the process as it seems so overwhelming!

We are a couple from USA / Australia and have been dating for the past 4 years!

It's time to get the ball rolling on the K1 visa and I have no idea what to expect and start.

I work for an airline so I have managed to travel to the US over 15 times to see my partner, but, now, its time to pack up and move to NYC.

Any tips, advice, pep talks appreciated.

I'm going to need a lot of help. My partner wants to use a lawyer, I think its doable on our own. Opinions?

Anyway, just popped in for a hello!

[Ortolan 381]

It's totally doable on your own, without a lawyer. Save your money! Explore this site for info on how to do a K1 visa. Here's a start: http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1guide

Edited May 9, 2016 by Ortolan

[kateandedgar 3]

It's totally doable on your own, without a lawyer. Save your money! Explore this site for info on how to do a K1 visa. Here's a start: http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1guide

Thank you!! That thread is wonderful!!

[LionessDeon 2,060]

http://www.visajourney.com/consulates/index.php?ctry=Australia&cty=Sydney

http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1flow

http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1guide

Follow the guides. Research and read all the requirements ahead of time. You really need to use a Laptop or PC as it is very difficult to do it all from a phone. It's very doable without using a lawyer. Lawyers don't necessarily know any more than you do.

http://www.visajourney.com/content/examples

There are even examples of how to complete the forms.

Edited May 9, 2016 by LionessDeon

[soulstriker 274]

after you study this site ull be your own master , good luck =)

[Unshakable Faith 493]

I'd say about 90% (if not more) of us do it on our own!

There are people here with a wealth of knowledge willing to help with any questions you have!

Good luck to you!

[Ash & Tiffany 4]

Thought I'd share my personal experience:

-Started the K-1 visa and waited a few months.

-Cancelled K-1 visa application.

-My then girlfriend visited me in Brisbane and we got engaged on my birthday.

-I visited her in Kentucky a few months later and we got married on her birthday (at her church with her family present). We immediately applied for CR-1/IR-1 status.

-I left the USA, and waited the two months it took for my petition to be approved.

-The petition was sent to the NVC and within a month I was back in the USA for my actual wedding ceremony (so my family could attend). On the day of the ceremony NVC sent me an interview appointment in Sydney at the Consulate (day after my birthday).

-A month later, had the interview in Sydney and was issued CR-1 status and an immigrant visa.

-Two months later, was on a plane to the US with my life packed into five bags. On one side of the yellow line I was an immigrant. Once I crossed it, I was a permanent resident. A two weeks later SSN arrived. A month later my 2 year temporary green card arrived. Excitement! I can work!

*1 & 3/4 years pass*

-Petitioned USCIS to remove the 2 year condition on my card. They extended my status 1 year while they processed it.

*ten months pass and we're at the present date*

-I could have applied for US citizenship a week ago, but I still haven't received my ten year green card and IR-1 status.

-Once I do receive them, I will be applying for naturalization and then my immigration journey will be complete.

Notes: I felt like the K-1 was an unnecessary step in my journey. With CR-1 you will get a two year green card and conditional status if you are married less than two years on the date you are granted the benefit. And then 1 3/4 years later you have to petition USCIS to remove this condition. They remove it, you get a ten year green card and at 2 & 3/4 years, provided you have the IR-1 status already, you can apply for citizenship.

If you've been together for 4 years... Is it worth considering CR-1/IR-1 versus arriving on a K-1 as a non-immigrant and then adjusting status? You have to wait in Australia while the process takes place... But you don't have the worry of adjusting status, and you can take care of all the medical/police/background check in your own city (if you live in an Australian capital). Once you arrive on CR-1, you only have to wait for your SSN and GC, then you can immediately start work. On a K-1, when you adjust status and have your application in, you can apply for a card that is proof of your legal right to work. However, I have seen so many people complain that they take forever to be approved and sent out. My SSN only took a month to arrive. And you can prove your work status by showing the visa in your passport provided it's stamped at the airport, and by giving your SSN.

I wish you luck, and this place is full of answers. All you gotta do is ask questions!

Ash

Edited May 9, 2016 by Ash & Tiffany

[LionessDeon 2,060]

http://www.visajourney.com/content/compare

You can evaluate for yourself. Just depends on what works best for your situation.

[lkerky 25]

Thought I'd share my personal experience:

-Started the K-1 visa and waited a few months.

-Cancelled K-1 visa application.

-My then girlfriend visited me in Brisbane and we got engaged on my birthday.

-I visited her in Kentucky a few months later and we got married on her birthday (at her church with her family present). We immediately applied for CR-1/IR-1 status.

-I left the USA, and waited the two months it took for my petition to be approved.

-The petition was sent to the NVC and within a month I was back in the USA for my actual wedding ceremony (so my family could attend). On the day of the ceremony NVC sent me an interview appointment in Sydney at the Consulate (day after my birthday).

-A month later, had the interview in Sydney and was issued CR-1 status and an immigrant visa.

-Two months later, was on a plane to the US with my life packed into five bags. On one side of the yellow line I was an immigrant. Once I crossed it, I was a permanent resident. A two weeks later SSN arrived. A month later my 2 year temporary green card arrived. Excitement! I can work!

*1 & 3/4 years pass*

-Petitioned USCIS to remove the 2 year condition on my card. They extended my status 1 year while they processed it.

*ten months pass and we're at the present date*

-I could have applied for US citizenship a week ago, but I still haven't received my ten year green card and IR-1 status.

-Once I do receive them, I will be applying for naturalization and then my immigration journey will be complete.

Notes: I felt like the K-1 was an unnecessary step in my journey. With CR-1 you will get a two year green card and conditional status if you are married less than two years on the date you are granted the benefit. And then 1 3/4 years later you have to petition USCIS to remove this condition. They remove it, you get a ten year green card and at 2 & 3/4 years, provided you have the IR-1 status already, you can apply for citizenship.

If you've been together for 4 years... Is it worth considering CR-1/IR-1 versus arriving on a K-1 as a non-immigrant and then adjusting status? You have to wait in Australia while the process takes place... But you don't have the worry of adjusting status, and you can take care of all the medical/police/background check in your own city (if you live in an Australian capital). Once you arrive on CR-1, you only have to wait for your SSN and GC, then you can immediately start work. On a K-1, when you adjust status and have your application in, you can apply for a card that is proof of your legal right to work. However, I have seen so many people complain that they take forever to be approved and sent out. My SSN only took a month to arrive. And you can prove your work status by showing the visa in your passport provided it's stamped at the airport, and by giving your SSN.

I wish you luck, and this place is full of answers. All you gotta do is ask questions!

Ash

You can apply for citizenship if you are eligible without your ROC completed.

Hey Guys

I'm new to the forum and slightly scared to start the process as it seems so overwhelming!

We are a couple from USA / Australia and have been dating for the past 4 years!

It's time to get the ball rolling on the K1 visa and I have no idea what to expect and start.

I work for an airline so I have managed to travel to the US over 15 times to see my partner, but, now, its time to pack up and move to NYC.

Any tips, advice, pep talks appreciated.

I'm going to need a lot of help. My partner wants to use a lawyer, I think its doable on our own. Opinions?

Anyway, just popped in for a hello!

By pack up and move to NYC you mean? If you choose the K1 your interview and medical will be completed in Australia? (Sorry, I didn't look at the country close enough).

[kateandedgar 3]

You can apply for citizenship if you are eligible without your ROC completed.

By pack up and move to NYC you mean? If you choose the K1 your interview and medical will be completed in Australia? (Sorry, I didn't look at the country close enough).

Yes, I want to apply for everything from Aus so I can continue working while its being processed.

[Allison and James 9]

Just my 2 cents worth.
When my fiance and I decided to start the process, we were so overwhelmed.
It looks so daunting, but we both took the time to do a lot of reading.

Don't look past the initial filing stage, or it will bury you mentally..
​We broke it down and wrote lists. For each list we would spend a day talking about it and seeing what exactly was needed.

We would dedicate a day a week on Skype to just deal with the paperwork, exchange thoughts on what we both had worked on, what we had both read, what both of our thoughts were.

​

This group is amazing and so helpful, and everything you need is here for you.

Like all of us here, when you finish and submit, you will look back and think 'that wasn't that hard.'

[Pennycat 880]

Just break down the process as outlined in the Guides here into a checklist for yourself or use the one they have on USCIS's site for the I-129f. It's a new thing they're doing and is pretty useful.

Note, that everything on the Guides and USCIS's checklist are available in the "Instructions for this Form", also available on that main site. They really should consider re-naming those things to anything but "Instructions for this Form" because it makes it sound like the instructions will be "In box 1 where it says "Surname", write your surname" and we all know how to fill out forms and so lots of people don't look at them. In reality, it's detailed instructions on what sorts of supplements and evidence they require from you -- essentially the bulk of the application. The form is just one little piece of it!

So #1 suggestion for both the visa process and everything that comes after is read those instructions. At some point during AOS phase, the instructions say to add on an additional form, and that form itself has its own instructions with required supplements. I've been saying it's like the movie Inception but this is no dream.....

You'll be fine without a lawyer. You'd have to give him all this information and go collect all this evidence on your own anyway. They'll just compile it for you and make sure you didn't skip anything. But if you do skip anything, you'll get a Request for Evidence (RFE) explaining what you need to submit and a week or so later, you're back on track. No big deal.

[kurto 0]

I'll give you an overview of my current process. We're currently awaiting the interview in 2 weeks time in Sydney but other than that everything is complete. You can most certainly do it yourself, I would NOT waste money on a lawyer. Literally all they do is fill the applications for you and help avoid getting an RFE. They do not prioritize anything, they don't guarantee that you'll get accepted or any of that, just filling out some forms and charger you a ####### load. This entire process is already going to cost at least $2000 without a lawyer, I'll breakdown the costs below more.

The most important thing here is you take your time and thoroughly research each part of the step. If ever you get to a stage and think "I don't understand", just Google it. If you see a question on an application form and not entirely sure, just Google it. Next thing is organisation. I setup a shared Google Drive folder that my partner and I have access to with a folder for the petition and K1 visa. I then store EVERYTHING in here - scans of ID, passport, birth cert, the completed petition, K1 visa, all of the various documents. Any document I have to scan, I save it there. Any email I send, print to PDF and save. I then used Google Keep (yes, I'm a Google fan as it's all online) to track all of my notes and everything that's happened, dates etc.

I used the following guides to help the process:

- K1 flow chart http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1flow

- General guide http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1guide

- Necessary forms http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1forms

I live in Aus with my partner so the entire process has been done within Aus. Here are dates:

Petition Lodged on 7/12/2015

- Received on 14/12/2015

- Approved on 28/01/2016

- Sydney Embassy received on 23/02/2016

After that, we completed form DS160 online, this is the actual K1 visa application. Within a few days, we had an email saying they'd like the schedule the interview for end of March (4 weeks after we completed DS160). We had to delay it to end of May, otherwise the visa would have expired before October and we can't leave until around November. They had no problems rescheduling the interview.

COSTS:

- The petition is about $360 USD. In Aus, you need to use a specific international bank cheque which I could do at Australia Post for about $40, so in total the petition cost $500.

- You need US passport specific photos, so that cost about $20~

- DS160 has a fee of about $260 from memory

- The medical MUST be completed at a specific centre (ours was ANZAC square medical centre) and costs $465 AU. If you require vaccines, that's extra (there's 3 vaccines required in AU). Ours was $550.

- The interview is free from memory? But we live in Bris so have to fly + accommodation, we spent around $1000 because we made a mini holiday out of it, we could have stayed 1 night and saved a few hundred.

- After this, I believe the only other costs are flights to USA which we're budgeting $1000 each for.

Pure visa costs: $1300

Total cost to get both of us into US: $3300.

[Unlockable 7,315]

Don't forget that after you are in America and married you will need to apply for Adjust Of Status (AOS) plus work and travel authorization.

This is an additional $1070.

Edited May 16, 2016 by NuestraUnion

[V❤M 0]

Hello ,

I recently applied for the k1 visa for my fiance and received a receipt last week wednesday. I know i screwed up by not doing much research(please dont judge lol) and forgot attaching the checklist document required by me the petitioner.I was able to get all the necessary documents asap over the weekend. Will posting the attachments now along with a copy of the receipt i received last week be too late since i have not been denied or giving an RFE yet ?