Any Nigerian Couple do a K1-Fiance Visa

[Olusola 26]

Hi, how's everyone doing? 

I want to file for my Fiance around the April period. She's in Nigeria and I'm currently visiting Nigeria. Here are my questions:

1. What are the challenges? 

2. What parts will bring problems?

3. What are the best things to do while I'm here to ensure we don't have any problems?

4. What are the best things you guys did to prove your engagement and that you've seen each other?

5. How long did yours take?

7. What would you have done differently?

6. Any other thing I should know? 

Thanks in advance

[Abies 1,713]

6 hours ago, Olusola said:

Hi, how's everyone doing? 

I want to file for my Fiance around the April period. She's in Nigeria and I'm currently visiting Nigeria. Here are my questions:

1. What are the challenges? 

2. What parts will bring problems?

3. What are the best things to do while I'm here to ensure we don't have any problems?

4. What are the best things you guys did to prove your engagement and that you've seen each other?

5. How long did yours take?

7. What would you have done differently?

6. Any other thing I should know? 

Thanks in advance

1.The major challenge is the duration as the fiance visa is even taking longer time now than spousal visa.

2. Nigeria is a high fraud country so its safer to get married&use the spousal route but dont marry if its the first visit.

3. Visit&take pictures with his friends and relatives,also spend quality time with him 

4. During the interview I answered all the questions correctly even though i was denied the visa

5. Ours took 10months from start to finish 

6. Lagos is a tough embassy for k1 so be prepared.

7. I would have opted for the spousal visa(CR-1) if we had known in time

[Unshakable Faith 493]

On 1/20/2018 at 3:43 AM, Olusola said:

Hi, how's everyone doing? 

I want to file for my Fiance around the April period. She's in Nigeria and I'm currently visiting Nigeria. Here are my questions:

1. What are the challenges? 

Do you have any red flags? Is there a huge age gap? Are you different religions? Do either of you have any prior marriages or recent children? Is this your first time meeting?

By "Nigerian couple" do you mean that both of you are Nigerian and one of you is also a US citizen or do you mean that one of you is American and one of you is Nigerian?

After looking through your profile I believe that both of you are Nigerian and you are also a US citizen.  I see on your profile details that you filed an I-130 (I believe for your mom). In this case, I would make sure that you have the finances or a co-sponsor to make sure that you are able to meet the financial requirements for everyone that you are sponsoring for a visa.

 

2. What parts will bring problems?

Problems can arise in many different areas regardless of the country.  If there are any red flags, if there have been any issues with the embassy previously, very little time spent together can also cause an issue, although I've seen couples from Nigeria be approved after one 8-9 day visit.

 

3. What are the best things to do while I'm here to ensure we don't have any problems?

If you are planning to petition as soon as you get home, I would make sure that you go ahead and get them to sign the Intent to Marry so that you don't have to bother with it when you get back. I would also ensure that you take a lot of pictures with the family and with one another.  Take pictures of things you two are doing around the city, keep any receipts of places that you've gone together, (for example- if you've gone to the movies, keep your tickets). Keep any type of receipt of things that you've done together.  I would also suggest keeping your boarding passes as well.  These all prove that you have had FaceTime and that you have actually met in person. 

 

4. What are the best things you guys did to prove your engagement and that you've seen each other?

See above. Also it would be great to front-load your petition.  This gives the interviewing officer an opportunity before your interview to look through your file, which would include your chat logs, call logs and pictures to get a feel of the two of you. When I sent my petition I sent all of the proof of meeting one another, I sent hundreds of pages of chat logs (some between myself and his mother as well as him and my family), phone call logs and anything that I could think of that could help show our relationship is legitimate. Nigeria is a very high fraud Embassy and they are very difficult at times. They are trained to see through lies and scams, and at times are skeptical of even legitimate couples.  It is not so much that you have to prove that you are engaged (because an engagement is really just two people stating that they want to get married to one another), it's much more about proving that you have a legit relationship with one another.

In saying that, please make sure that you do not do any type of "engagement ceremony" while you were there.  Any ceremony that includes anything with exchanging rings, something that looks like a big party with traditional clothing, or anything involving anything official.  Any of these will be considered a cultural marriage and you will be denied a K-1 Visa.

Also, when sending chat logs make sure that you do not reference one another as husband or wife.

 

5. How long did yours take?

Feel free to look at my time line as to how long it would take.  There is no set time frame and many things make the waiting time fluctuate.  In January it was taking three or four months to get just the petition approved, right now it's taking anywhere from 6 to 8 months.  Before you file the petition make sure you read the guides here on Visa Journey as well as any threads that you can find about country-specific suggestions so that your case is not held up with an RFE.

 

7. What would you have done differently?

As you can see, my fiance and I have had a very long immigration Journey that has not ended yet. We came through a lot of different bumps in the road and struggles but there's not much that was in my power to change or to do differently.  The option of choosing a K1 visa vs a spousal visa is a personal option that you need to weigh with your fiance and decide what will be best for the two of you.  Even though our first K-1 was denied and we are now on our second K-1, I would have not done anything differently as far as the type of visa that we filed for.

 

6. Any other thing I should know? 

Pray, pray, pray, fast, pray some more. This is a very trying process, make sure that your relationship is ready for it and that as individuals you are ready for it. When you get to the point of scheduling an interview, my suggestion would be to practice interview questions and get comfortable with the answers. Even though it was very time-consuming, I went through every Embassy review for Nigeria and I wrote down all of the questions and my fiance and I go through them and practice the answers so that we can make sure that there's a lot of confidence when going into the embassy.

It was very helpful for me to read through all of the embassy reviews so that I could give him a heads-up of how the process was going to go.  It can be a very nerve-wracking time and you want to make sure that you know all the information like the back of your hand so that when you go in you can focus on the interview itself instead of trying to remember answers and being nervous that you could get something wrong.

 

Also, visit as much as you can.  And Nigeria Unfortunately they do not let you attend the interview with your fiance like some other countries do. I've always made sure that I'm in Nigeria and that I'm at the embassy when he is interviewing. He takes my passport in so that he can show them that I'm there and support and I think it means a lot to see that I'm willing to fly across the world to be there for something that I'm not even allowed to be apart of.  It's also a great support system for him!  It gave us the opportunity to prepare in person, get ready together, and pray together before going.

I also took an accordion folder full of chat logs, call logs, additional pictures, and updated documents since we had sent our petition.  He was able to take that into the embassy with him and it was very organized so that when they ask for something he could just pull it out and show it to them.

 

If you have any additional questions please feel free to ask!  Also, have some suya and La Casera for me while you're there!

 

Thanks in advance

 

Edited January 21, 2018 by Unshakable Faith

[Unshakable Faith 493]

14 minutes ago, Unshakable Faith said:

 

Please excuse the grammatical errors, I was "talking-to-text" and didn't catch some of the errors before the edit period was over.

 

 

[Larenn&Loda 58]

On 1/21/2018 at 11:30 PM, Unshakable Faith said:

 

Thanks for this info, its really helpful tips Unshakable,

my fiance and I will be starting our K-1 process soon too. Can I reach you if I have any question in the future? 

[Unshakable Faith 493]

15 hours ago, Esycream said:

Thanks for this info, its really helpful tips Unshakable,

my fiance and I will be starting our K-1 process soon too. Can I reach you if I have any question in the future? 

Of course!

[Bure 161]

On 1/20/2018 at 3:55 PM, Abies said:

1.The major challenge is the duration as the fiance visa is even taking longer time now than spousal visa.

2. Nigeria is a high fraud country so its safer to get married&use the spousal route but dont marry if its the first visit.

3. Visit&take pictures with his friends and relatives,also spend quality time with him 

4. During the interview I answered all the questions correctly even though i was denied the visa

5. Ours took 10months from start to finish 

6. Lagos is a tough embassy for k1 so be prepared.

7. I would have opted for the spousal visa(CR-1) if we had known in time

4. But I have also seen a lot of accepted K1 visas from Nigeria. So why did to think ours was rejected/ the reason behind the rejection.

Edited August 13, 2018 by Bure