Close to Engagement - Many questions!

[8607miles 0]

Hi VJ!

 

When I was travelling in India last year on vacation, a girl that i had chatted back and forth with on Instagram several times said she wanted to meet me for some photography. We ended up meeting soon after, spent a few hours taking photos and talking about each other lives, and then enjoyed coffee together before I had to fly home. We ended up keeping in touch... and several months later admitted our feelings for each other. I flew back to India for a week to go visit her and explore all the places in Delhi she loves, it was an amazing time and we've worked hard to build our relationship long distance with all the awesome new technology today (getting to video chat with my girlfriend in Delhi daily is a treat!)

 

I love her joy, her spirit about life, her sense of humor (always trying to make me laugh), her determination (she is always trying to push for a better design job!), and the sweet way she talks to me and treats me. She has great values and she loves her family deeply. I found something really special in her, she has a heart of gold! She tells me that she loves the way I treat her, support her, and support her dreams. I say these both to say that we both have found something special in each other and that's what is encouraging us to put a lot of work into our relationship. She's also a 11/10 on my beauty scale. I feel like she would be a great wife, a great mother, and I know that she's the one for me!

 

We both would like to get married and we will be meeting up again in a few months for 2 weeks in India again to enjoy some time together and hopefully get engaged! So we're hoping to take the K1 route shortly after that. I have done hours and hours of research on getting a tourist visa so she could meet my family but due to the fact she is my girlfriend, I saw no reason to believe she could get approved for a tourist visa here. It would also have been pretty tricky for her to convince her family to fly around the world her first time travelling. 

 

Anyways! We are definitely a couple in the western sense of the word, but we aren't exactly fitting the US Consulate in Delhi's definition of engaged couple just yet, as we want to have a private engagement and our families are not involved in our relationship. Here are some of the details I wanted to explain to see if we are going to have issues with our K1 process.

 

* I am a white american boy and she is an indian girl

* I am not close to my family, but they approve. 

* Her mom and brother approve of her finding love marriage, however, her dad wants an arranged marriage for her. So... we haven't told them about our relationship.

* We plan on telling her older brother about us soon, who seems like he could be accepting of it, however, we won't be telling her parents about us.

* We'd do a court wedding shortly after arriving to USA, but would have an small interfaith ceremony somewhere pretty so we can celebrate our cultures

* We are the same age (24), similar educational backgrounds, we work in very similar professions (she is designer, me a web developer). We have very similar interests, we love photography (how we met), we want to travel the world, we love interior design, I love bollywood (so we enjoy hindi movies together), etc etc.

* We are different faiths, but we both discuss what this looks like in our lives.

* Her english is very good and my Hindi is slllowwly getting better (main hindi thora bolo... i think!)

* We audio/video chat for about an hour a day. We whatsapp for 5-6 hours more.

* I'd have visited her twice (3 weeks total time together) by the time we get to an interview.

* I plan on attending the visa interview

* We'd use rapidvisa to take care of details

 

So I realize that different faiths, her family not knowing about us, and different races could make our interview process a little scary.

 

While we can get married in India if we have to (boss already gave me okay since I work from home anyways), civil marriage there doesn't seem romantic and we don't quite know how that would work out with her family. We'd probably be trying to get any tourist visa we can and float around the world until marriage visa would get approved, which wouldn't give us a home to settle down in like we both desire after marriage.

 

Can anybody leave some advice or anybody who has been in similar situation as us please leave some advice? Is there anything we can do to make sure our visa application will be approved without any issues?

 

In addition, is there anyway we have have the packet of papers mailed not to her home and to prevent home visits from consulate? I don't want her life to have any extra problems due to these.

 

Thanks,

8607miles

Edited June 21, 2017 by 8607miles

[Coco8 1,042]

The consulate does not care about whether the family approves of the relationship or if the family is involved. 

 

People of different faiths and ethnicity get married all the time in the U.S. I think that the fact that both are the same age and have similar educational backgrounds/interests makes it an easier case. The red flag is when the country of origin of the person is a "high fraud" country and I don't think India is one of those. 

 

In the process you have to show proof of the relationship and you seem to have several things. You probably need advice from someone that has done a K1 in India because sometimes there is variation per country. 

 

I think a K-1 would be alright. If you get married it would take much longer. 

 

 

[EandH0904 1,184]

I think k1 would be fine for you as well, but she really needs to consider telling her parents at some point. How will they react to her coming to the US? Will she lie to them about coming here and getting married? It's certainly not my business of course but entering a marriage by lying to her family is never a great start. 

 

You dont need rapidvisa either, there's nothing you can't do on your own with help from VJ. They don't get it done any faster than it will get done on its own it's just more costly. 

 

Read the portals from India and speak to others who have gone through the experiences in India, maybe there's even a FB group for it specifically (my fiancé had one in his city which helped him get papers etc). 

 

You can do this. 

[KozmicBlues 592]

20 hours ago, 8607miles said:

Hi VJ!

 

When I was travelling in India last year on vacation, a girl that i had chatted back and forth with on Instagram several times said she wanted to meet me for some photography. We ended up meeting soon after, spent a few hours taking photos and talking about each other lives, and then enjoyed coffee together before I had to fly home. We ended up keeping in touch... and several months later admitted our feelings for each other. I flew back to India for a week to go visit her and explore all the places in Delhi she loves, it was an amazing time and we've worked hard to build our relationship long distance with all the awesome new technology today (getting to video chat with my girlfriend in Delhi daily is a treat!)

 

I love her joy, her spirit about life, her sense of humor (always trying to make me laugh), her determination (she is always trying to push for a better design job!), and the sweet way she talks to me and treats me. She has great values and she loves her family deeply. I found something really special in her, she has a heart of gold! She tells me that she loves the way I treat her, support her, and support her dreams. I say these both to say that we both have found something special in each other and that's what is encouraging us to put a lot of work into our relationship. She's also a 11/10 on my beauty scale. I feel like she would be a great wife, a great mother, and I know that she's the one for me!

 

We both would like to get married and we will be meeting up again in a few months for 2 weeks in India again to enjoy some time together and hopefully get engaged! So we're hoping to take the K1 route shortly after that. I have done hours and hours of research on getting a tourist visa so she could meet my family but due to the fact she is my girlfriend, I saw no reason to believe she could get approved for a tourist visa here. It would also have been pretty tricky for her to convince her family to fly around the world her first time travelling. 

 

Anyways! We are definitely a couple in the western sense of the word, but we aren't exactly fitting the US Consulate in Delhi's definition of engaged couple just yet, as we want to have a private engagement and our families are not involved in our relationship. Here are some of the details I wanted to explain to see if we are going to have issues with our K1 process.

 

* I am a white american boy and she is an indian girl

* I am not close to my family, but they approve. 

* Her mom and brother approve of her finding love marriage, however, her dad wants an arranged marriage for her. So... we haven't told them about our relationship.

* We plan on telling her older brother about us soon, who seems like he could be accepting of it, however, we won't be telling her parents about us.

* We'd do a court wedding shortly after arriving to USA, but would have an small interfaith ceremony somewhere pretty so we can celebrate our cultures

* We are the same age (24), similar educational backgrounds, we work in very similar professions (she is designer, me a web developer). We have very similar interests, we love photography (how we met), we want to travel the world, we love interior design, I love bollywood (so we enjoy hindi movies together), etc etc.

* We are different faiths, but we both discuss what this looks like in our lives.

* Her english is very good and my Hindi is slllowwly getting better (main hindi thora bolo... i think!)

* We audio/video chat for about an hour a day. We whatsapp for 5-6 hours more.

* I'd have visited her twice (3 weeks total time together) by the time we get to an interview.

* I plan on attending the visa interview

* We'd use rapidvisa to take care of details

 

So I realize that different faiths, her family not knowing about us, and different races could make our interview process a little scary.

 

While we can get married in India if we have to (boss already gave me okay since I work from home anyways), civil marriage there doesn't seem romantic and we don't quite know how that would work out with her family. We'd probably be trying to get any tourist visa we can and float around the world until marriage visa would get approved, which wouldn't give us a home to settle down in like we both desire after marriage.

 

Can anybody leave some advice or anybody who has been in similar situation as us please leave some advice? Is there anything we can do to make sure our visa application will be approved without any issues?

 

In addition, is there anyway we have have the packet of papers mailed not to her home and to prevent home visits from consulate? I don't want her life to have any extra problems due to these.

 

Thanks,

8607miles

Namaste bhai! kya haal hai? (I am also working on my hindi...lol)

 

My fiance is Indian and we are going through the New Delhi embassy. Still waiting for our approval so haven't even gotten to the embassy interview stage yet. I can't give you much advice other than what I've read so far regarding the Indian embassy. It does seem to be one of the tougher/more strict ones and I've read that sometimes interracial couples can have a more difficult time than other, but luckily I haven't read any recent negative experiences in regard to that aspect being an issue.

 

I'm a white girl and my fiance is Indian so I definitely know where you're coming from. Fortunately though, his family is completely open to our relationship and accepting of me. They want him to be happy and with someone he loves so they all know about our engagement and future marriage. I would be 1000 times more stressed out if his family didn't know or potentially wouldn't approve so I definitely feel for you about that!

 

Technically it's not a requirement for the family to approve or even be aware of the relationship. However, there is always a possibility that the immigration officials at the embassy may question it if for some reason they don't believe your relationship is legitimate. I read one embassy experience where the officers actually asked for the person's cell phone and started calling random people in his phone asking if they knew about the engagement. You have to research and think what the possible worst scenario could be and make sure you are prepared if it happens. Her family not knowing or approving certainly isn't ideal, but it won't rule you out for the requirements of applying for the K1 visa.

 

A friend of mine in India went through a different immigration process (family-based) recently and they did the same thing to her. The visa was denied because people she knew contradicted what she was saying. 

 

Also, I agree with other posters that you don't need RapidVisa. I almost used it because at first look the application process seemed so confusing and complicated. Now I'm SOOO happy that I took extra time to figure it out on my own because it's actually pretty simple and I saved myself the extra few hundred dollars. RapidVisa doesn't really do much for you other than walk you through each step...you still have to fill out and prepare everything. IMO it just complicates it more to have a lawyer/service involved at this stage. 

 

Let me know if you have any other questions...I'm happy to help anyway I can. 

 

 

 

[TexasHeartsIndia 371]

Another vote for not going the RapidVisa route. As long as you can follow directions and poke around these forums, you'll be fine. In the forums, I've seen people who used attorneys and still got RFEs (request for evidence, which delays the process). Take your time reading the forums and the guidelines here on VJ. I spent about a month researching and preparing our petition and had no problem getting it approved (our application is on the way to the Delhi embassy). Another resource is YouTube. There are several videos of people showing how they arranged their petition packet, including samples of the evidences they submitted.

 

As far as different ethnicity, remember that you are asking the permission of the US government for your Indian fiancee to enter the US - you're not asking the Indian government. Interracial relationships are nothing unusual here, unlike India. As far as religion, just be honest and say that you two have discussed it, etc. I think what is more important is that there is no significant age difference (which they sometimes question) and she speaks fluent English (otherwise, they would question how you communicate).

 

I also agree with the others that not telling her parents is an issue. Not necessarily for the visa but in general. I understand that it is a cultural difference, however, I feel that it is important that they know well before she has her interview. Leaving the country for good is not something that should be sprung on parents. Just my opinion.

 

Remember that the K1 visa is much faster than the K3 (spouse) visa. Getting married in India, especially interfaith or secular, are more complicated and difficult than here. Seems to me like you have enough of a case to apply for a K1.

 

I am a white girl with an Indian fiance. It can be done. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know! Good luck!

 

 

[TexasHeartsIndia 371]

I missed your question about home visits from the Consolate... as far as I've seen, that doesn't happen. She will need to go to an approved physician for her medical exam and to the embassy for the in-person interview. You didn't mention which city she lives in, but there are only two cities in India to get the exam and interview: Delhi and Mumbai. If she lives far from those cities, she will need to travel. Knowing India, a woman traveling long distances alone is not accepted, so she might have a hard time getting there if it's far. Perhaps her brother could help her since you said that he is supportive.