Question About Engagement

[useful89 692]

Hello,

 

I have a question about engagement pics being included in the packet. My fiancee and I had a very informal engagement ceremony at her family's house in her country. I did this mostly because I thought it was suggested if normal for the respective culture. We weren't dressed fancily, and it certainly wasn't a marriage ceremony, however should I refrain from including any pictures of it in my packet, lest the CO or someone suspect we are married and not merely engaged? Some places say do an engagement ceremony if culturally normal, others say no no don't include pictures. Which one am I supposed to follow??!  

 

Also, we met on Tinder, however I was not in her country at the time. I paid for an upgrade to where you can move your location on Tinder, so I was matching with people in her country before I'd even been there. I'm aware of the suggestion to print off the terms of service, and have an email from customer service saying they aren't an IMB, however I'm worried an overly-scrutinizing officer will notice I said we met on Tinder but before I'd been there, and thus wonder how that could be. What if I mention that I used the upgrade service, will that cause my more complications, or should I just stop overanalyzing and worrying?   I just want to do this correctly and not have any unnecessary problems!!

 

Thanks

[Detron 15]

For K1 visa process it honestly doesn't matter. It is actually a plus, if you show that you are engaged as beneficiary to the petitioner. Also lets say you were married to each other, the K2 visa process goes much faster than the K1. So either way I don't know where you heard that, but it is good that you have evidence of your engagement to your partner. I personally submitted photos of our rings and receipt from where we bought them to prove we were engaged.

 

Also, yeah you shouldn't over analyze things. Just like me and my wife we'd met online and we didn't start mentioning which games online we met at or so... Simplify things as much as possible. At the end of the day the most important is that USCIS would like to know if you guys want to be together and are a legit relationship. That's all.

Edited May 29, 2017 by Detron
spelling

[geowrian 22,338]

It's really your judgement call here. It sounds like you properly understand the pros and cons of sending thew photos. If you noted what embassy you are going through, maybe that would help in case others who went through the same embassy can share their experiences. That said, the "engagement" is not a focus of the I-129F or even the K-1 visa. The signed letters of intents to marry are usually sufficient to meet that aspect. An engagement for USCIS is literally just 2 people agreeing to marry each other. No ring and no party is necessary...albeit culturally it's quite uncommon not to have a party in a small handful of countries. I wouldn't overly worry about proving that you're actually engaged....just proving you met once within the past 2 years (for the I-129F) and that your relationship is bona fide (at the interview stage)

 

I would suggest sending a short description of how you first contacted each other along with the TOS for Tinder and the statement that they aren't an IMB. It's probably overkill since Tinder is so well known, but they've been pretty strict on this requirement in the past several months (lots of RFEs for this). There's no need to go into details...just a short description. I used the space in the I-129F to do it...it was literally that short of an explanation.

 

20 minutes ago, Detron said:

Also lets say you were married to each other, the K2 visa process goes much faster than the K1.

I'm confused by this. K-2 is for a derivative of a K-1 visa. That makes no sense here. I think you meant a CR-1/IR-1? If so, that would mean they would have to go through the entire process (6-8 months), get refused, then file for the spousal visa and wait the 12-14 months for that. So the time difference would be quite significant.

[useful89 692]

1 minute ago, geowrian said:

It's really your judgement call here. It sounds like you properly understand the pros and cons of sending thew photos. If you noted what embassy you are going through, maybe that would help in case others who went through the same embassy can share their experiences. That said, the "engagement" is not a focus of the I-129F or even the K-1 visa. The signed letters of intents to marry are usually sufficient to meet that aspect. An engagement for USCIS is literally just 2 people agreeing to marry each other. No ring and no party is necessary...albeit culturally it's quite uncommon not to have a party in a small handful of countries. I wouldn't overly worry about proving that you're actually engaged....just proving you met once within the past 2 years (for the I-129F) and that your relationship is bona fide (at the interview stage)

 

I would suggest sending a short description of how you first contacted each other along with the TOS for Tinder and the statement that they aren't an IMB. It's probably overkill since Tinder is so well known, but they've been pretty strict on this requirement in the past several months (lots of RFEs for this). There's no need to go into details...just a short description. I used the space in the I-129F to do it...it was literally that short of an explanation.

 

I'm confused by this. K-2 is for a derivative of a K-1 visa. That makes no sense here. I think you meant a CR-1/IR-1? If so, that would mean they would have to go through the entire process (6-8 months), get refused, then file for the spousal visa and wait the 12-14 months for that. So the time difference would be quite significant.

 

Thanks for the reply. Her country is Tunisia, so a high fraud country but she's not a male (not sure if it's better she's a female or not).

 

We had the party, although very informal (no fancy Berber dresses involved heh) so I just shouldn't include pics of that? I'm leaning heavily toward not, I think we have enough proof required that it would be an unjustifiable risk to include them at this point.

 

Another question: we lived together for about 6 months while I was there. At first I thought about including this fact somewhere to bolster our claims of legitimacy, however now I'm worried such a thing in the context of Tunisia will essentially qualify us as being "too married" for a K1 visa. I really want to avoid that classification, as neither of us want to get married for religious reasons (I'm not muslim and neither is she, although the Tunisian government would disagree). So, probably no need to mention that either?

 

[geowrian 22,338]

Just now, useful89 said:

Thanks for the reply. Her country is Tunisia, so a high fraud country but she's not a male (not sure if it's better she's a female or not).

Thanks! I don't personally know that embassy, but it doesn't ring any bells as being unusual in terms of requiring an engagement party.

 

Since it is a high fraud embassy, it may not be a bad idea to include evidence of a bona fide relationship with your I-129F (aka "front load" it).

 

Just now, useful89 said:

We had the party, although very informal (no fancy Berber dresses involved heh) so I just shouldn't include pics of that? I'm leaning heavily toward not, I think we have enough proof required that it would be an unjustifiable risk to include them at this point.

it's your call, but I think that's a reasonable decision.

Just now, useful89 said:

Another question: we lived together for about 6 months while I was there. At first I thought about including this fact somewhere to bolster our claims of legitimacy, however now I'm worried such a thing in the context of Tunisia will essentially qualify us as being "too married" for a K1 visa. I really want to avoid that classification, as neither of us want to get married for religious reasons (I'm not muslim and neither is she, although the Tunisian government would disagree). So, probably no need to mention that either?

I doubt that would trigger concerns of being "too married", actually. I think that's more of a plus than a minus.

[useful89 692]

6 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Thanks! I don't personally know that embassy, but it doesn't ring any bells as being unusual in terms of requiring an engagement party.

 

Since it is a high fraud embassy, it may not be a bad idea to include evidence of a bona fide relationship with your I-129F (aka "front load" it).

 

it's your call, but I think that's a reasonable decision.

I doubt that would trigger concerns of being "too married", actually. I think that's more of a plus than a minus.

I just don't want a CO to think "they lived together > that's not possible (or even legal) in Tunisia unless married > they were married > deny K1 visa. See my reasoning? Ours is an unusual relationship for Tunisia, but the CO won't necessarily know/believe that!

[Detron 15]

15 minutes ago, geowrian said:

It's really your judgement call here. It sounds like you properly understand the pros and cons of sending thew photos. If you noted what embassy you are going through, maybe that would help in case others who went through the same embassy can share their experiences. That said, the "engagement" is not a focus of the I-129F or even the K-1 visa. The signed letters of intents to marry are usually sufficient to meet that aspect. An engagement for USCIS is literally just 2 people agreeing to marry each other. No ring and no party is necessary...albeit culturally it's quite uncommon not to have a party in a small handful of countries. I wouldn't overly worry about proving that you're actually engaged....just proving you met once within the past 2 years (for the I-129F) and that your relationship is bona fide (at the interview stage)

 

I would suggest sending a short description of how you first contacted each other along with the TOS for Tinder and the statement that they aren't an IMB. It's probably overkill since Tinder is so well known, but they've been pretty strict on this requirement in the past several months (lots of RFEs for this). There's no need to go into details...just a short description. I used the space in the I-129F to do it...it was literally that short of an explanation.

 

I'm confused by this. K-2 is for a derivative of a K-1 visa. That makes no sense here. I think you meant a CR-1/IR-1? If so, that would mean they would have to go through the entire process (6-8 months), get refused, then file for the spousal visa and wait the 12-14 months for that. So the time difference would be quite significant.

Yes I meant CR1/IR1 That's correct. And my point was you should only worry about stuff like that (engagement dates and marriage certificates from another country) only if you deal with that type of process. In other words just like you repeated, it wouldn't matter in this case.

[geowrian 22,338]

2 minutes ago, useful89 said:

I just don't want a CO to think "they lived together > that's not possible (or even legal) in Tunisia unless married > they were married > deny K1 visa. See my reasoning? Ours is an unusual relationship for Tunisia, but the CO won't necessarily know/believe that!

True. But I personally don't think it would be an issue. Hopefully another Tunisian member can chime in with their opinion.

 

Best wishes!