K1 I-129F Proof Of Relationship

[Naes 12,205]

3 hours ago, MrMoore said:

So my Question 54 supplement has become rather lengthy (20 pages or so and it may grow more) is that overkill or acceptable considering that we haven't really been apart the last 2 years very much? That is the description of how we met along with small description of each trip along with pics, boarding passes, passport stamps and Airbnb/ hotel receipts?

Evidence of ongoing relationship would be what happens between now and the interview at the end so i would do the same for everything that transpires over the next several months for then right?

Overkill is an understatement.

 

just write a simple description. Then add evidence to support it. If I was an adjudicator I would put that file aside the moment I see 20 pages of explanation to read...as they have to really go through everything that has been put there.

 

if you already have proof for being together for 2 years, you would need that kind of an explanation even less.

 

[Tram Le 26]

2 hours ago, MrMoore said:

So my Question 54 supplement has become rather lengthy (20 pages or so and it may grow more) is that overkill or acceptable considering that we haven't really been apart the last 2 years very much? That is the description of how we met along with small description of each trip along with pics, boarding passes, passport stamps and Airbnb/ hotel receipts?

Evidence of ongoing relationship would be what happens between now and the interview at the end so i would do the same for everything that transpires over the next several months for then right?

Here is the link of i-129f instructions, read page 11  about the evidence. https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-129finstr.pdf .

my 54 supplement had 3 pages, just describled the circumstances of us in person meeting and i attached pictures of everything we told in 54 supplement (21 pages, including our engament party) 

And proof of communition (Evidence of ongoing relationship) would be what happens between now and the interview at the end (maybe close). i don't print everything, pick random days. i learned from my friend who has a lawyer husband in the us and she got the k1 visa. He helped me a little bit . I'm still working on it. It is up to you.  It's just my opinion.

[AFraz 0]

YES you definitely need proof. Little to no proof  = you'll probably be denied right away because you're not showing that you have a real relationship. My fiance and I added photos from various times together, plane ticket copies from visit each other, and even had close friends and family write letters to further give proof of our legitimate relationship. Our I-129 was approved with no problem in 5 months.

[Naes 12,205]

Just now, AFraz said:

YES you definitely need proof. Little to no proof  = you'll probably be denied right away because you're not showing that you have a real relationship. My fiance and I added photos from various times together, plane ticket copies from visit each other, and even had close friends and family write letters to further give proof of our legitimate relationship. Our I-129 was approved with no problem in 5 months.

Little to no proof= rfe.

Not denial right away. 

 

of course evidence is needed. 

 

However people with no letters and just a few pages of evidence also gets approved with no problem at the same amount of time...important part is for the evidence to be hard evidence, clear and explanatory.

 

frontloading or not will only have an affect at the embassy level, and that will also depend on the embassy. 

[geowrian 22,338]

Evidence of an ongoing relationship is not required at the I-129F stage. It's not listed in the requirements, and I have yet to see anybody get an RFE or denial for evidence of a bona fide relationship on the I-129F.

 

That said, front-loading is useful for the embassy stage in certain circumstances to put a good foot forward as it is suspected that some COs make a decision on the relationship before the actual interview. This is especially true with certain high fraud embassies. Some other embassies don't look at the relationship evidence before the interview at all, in which case it provides no benefit either (but isn't harmful).

[Kyle&Ana 718]

Where u can find the embassy's high fraud countries....? 

 

Thanks! 

[JuniorMints 66]

Since we're from a MENA county, I front loaded our petition with a 1 page letter to support #54  about how we met and a brief explanation of both visits,  10 photos from each trip with us around his city and tourist places, AND with his family, especially his mother and older sisters in their homes, screenshots of call logs and chat logs, my boarding passes and passport stamped pages, tickets of places we visited (zoo, war monument/museum, etc.). 

 

I wanted to make sure the CO has a clear understanding of us and our relationship BEFORE my fiance goes for his interview.  We'll continue to save our daily communication logs to bring to the interview in case they ask for it and I'm going to try my best to be there for the interview.  

 

 

Edited April 23, 2018 by JuniorMints

[Mrsjackson 300]

We frontloaded a little, however I agree with the less is more advice on this one. We supplemented question 54 as well with one page, and looking back I don’t think that was even necessary. 20 pages is way overkill. Don’t overthink it (easier said than done I know). From what it sounds like you have a perfectly legitimate relationship and more than sufficient evidence (what you listed sounds great!). You have nothing to worry about just read the instructions to the letter and follow them carefully and as long as you both are free to marry and have no criminal records you should run into very little to no problems. Good luck! 

[Paul & Mallory 1,398]

We sent proof of both our relationship and having met in the last 2 years, but most of it actually went hand in hand and covered both at the same time. We didn't overkill with the evidence, but wanted to cover all the bases. We got no RFE and there was really no delay or hold up in our processing time, compared to others. We used copies of trip itineraries and boarding passes for all of my fiancé's visits stateside, copies of call logs and email logs.

 

It's all outlined in the instructions for the form - it's best to review those in length if you haven't already. It tells you exactly what they are looking for.

[George & Roth 1,485]

I made a timeline of our relationship in excel, with each important date assigned a letter. 

 

I.e. A) Date we first met B)Date I met her parents C) Vacation to Hong Kong

 

And I included a photo for each occasion and labeled the photo the same A,B,C (10 photos attached to 1 page timeline)

 

I had my parents sign a notarized letter confirming they met her and that we had a relationship. I showed her as a beneficiary to life insurance.

 

No need for 100s of photos or papers. Go for Quality, not quantity! 

[Ryanmaria2018 192]

12 hours ago, Loren Y said:

I honestly do not think they are spending 6-9 months on each petition, over 37,000 petitions were filed last year, 6 months each, no way. Your petition sits in a box for about 6 months, then gets moved to someones desk/cubical, then they look at the 129F evidence, they adjudicate your petition in less than a day ( I have heard an average USCIS employee can do 15-20 petitions a day, don't take that as fact), assuming you have everything required for the 129F they approve and forward on to NVC. Just because USCIS says you meet the requirements I doubt they even look at the evidence of the relationship any farther than you met within 2 years, and that's a quick glance at your passport entry and exit stamps to verify you were in the same country at the right time. And I am also pretty sure USCIS has nothing to do with the final decision, That is all done at the embassy stage before and during the interview. The CO is the person who says Yes or no to the visa, and they get to review the whole file before you show up for the interview, so they already have their mind mostly made up before you even sit down, and if they need more time welcome to AP.  If USCIS was making the decisions do you really think they are going to waste time and money sending your package to NVC, and then on to the embassy just to tell you in person yes or no( but I guess that would be job security and the chance to bilk you out of a medical exam and 260.00 visa fee), they can do that with a letter( and sometimes they do with a RFE, they ask for more evidence and if you don't provide it your petition is done). This is how I see it working, but maybe I have it wrong, but I think I am pretty close. I have many many hours researching the process, but maybe someone else can shed some more light on the process. And feel free to correct my thoughts on how it works, all I know is brace for the long haul, because anything immigration is a long road. I started this trip in December 2017, and if my fiancee is here by December 2018 I'll be throwing a party! A bigger party than after the wedding LOL.

Loren Y, great post and I'll be willing to bet about 95% or more of what you said is true. We forget that as you said about 37.000 petitions are filed each year so I can see how they would't labor over text messages or as in my case  facebook messenger. I 

 

12 hours ago, Loren Y said:

I honestly do not think they are spending 6-9 months on each petition, over 37,000 petitions were filed last year, 6 months each, no way. Your petition sits in a box for about 6 months, then gets moved to someones desk/cubical, then they look at the 129F evidence, they adjudicate your petition in less than a day ( I have heard an average USCIS employee can do 15-20 petitions a day, don't take that as fact), assuming you have everything required for the 129F they approve and forward on to NVC. Just because USCIS says you meet the requirements I doubt they even look at the evidence of the relationship any farther than you met within 2 years, and that's a quick glance at your passport entry and exit stamps to verify you were in the same country at the right time. And I am also pretty sure USCIS has nothing to do with the final decision, That is all done at the embassy stage before and during the interview. The CO is the person who says Yes or no to the visa, and they get to review the whole file before you show up for the interview, so they already have their mind mostly made up before you even sit down, and if they need more time welcome to AP.  If USCIS was making the decisions do you really think they are going to waste time and money sending your package to NVC, and then on to the embassy just to tell you in person yes or no( but I guess that would be job security and the chance to bilk you out of a medical exam and 260.00 visa fee), they can do that with a letter( and sometimes they do with a RFE, they ask for more evidence and if you don't provide it your petition is done). This is how I see it working, but maybe I have it wrong, but I think I am pretty close. I have many many hours researching the process, but maybe someone else can shed some more light on the process. And feel free to correct my thoughts on how it works, all I know is brace for the long haul, because anything immigration is a long road. I started this trip in December 2017, and if my fiancee is here by December 2018 I'll be throwing a party! A bigger party than after the wedding LOL.

   Loren Y I do believe your about 95% accurate of more on what you said and I think we don't realize just how many petitions are filed a years so to me that would be  a big factor. As for me and my fiancee met 2 and a half years ago and spent 24 days last June and July in the Philippines, so to me proof of a relationship is spending time together IN PERSON and everything else after that is just gravy. Having that stamped passport and boarding pass is pretty solid and within 2 years of seeing each other is critical. Thanks for showing us the most probable scenario of a case by case review of the petitions and with that many petitions? I agree they can't spend too much time on each case. Have a great day!!!

   

[MrMoore 0]

15 hours ago, geowrian said:

Twenty pages?? Mine fit on the I-129F itself. Some people need a little more space to fit something. This should then be backed up with supporting evidence, such as the boarding passes/receipts/etc.

 

They are looking for how you met in person within the past 2 years, not a life story or evolution of the relationship. Nobody is going to read 20 pages of text to figure out when you met.

I am copying photos, boarding passes, hotel receipts and passport stamps onto paper in the document for Q54 and it is only about 1/2  to 3/4 a page of writing in total with brief annotations and dates of photos.

And yes when you have spent pretty much every day of the last 2 years travelling around the world it get longer to explain and provide evidence of those meetings.

 

 

16 hours ago, DavidandJen said:

Sounds to me like you met your USC partner while teaching English in Japan? Me too. I also went through the London embassy.

 

I've just had a flick through my K1 packet to remind me and it looks like we submitted the confirmation emails of flights I took to visit my fiancé in the US, along with the passport stamps to prove I actually took those flights, some evidences of travels together such as a ferry to Ireland that had both our names on it and some hotel bookings in both our names, then 6 photos, including one with each of our families, half a dozen emails between us and maybe ten pages of Skype conversation screenshots, so the IO could see that we were in frequent communication. We also included some stuff that showed where we were residing in Japan and how close the towns we were teaching in were. That's all.

 

Going through the London embassy is not stressful. You won't be asked to "argue your case" during your interview; my interview was a really short chat and she didn't ask to see any ongoing relationship evidence. Aim to give the people reviewing your file a comprehensive idea of your relationship without becoming repetitive or wordy. 

Yeah I did, what a coincidence! We lived in Yamanashi, what about you?

 

That's good to know more about the London Embassy thank you!

Did you get your Japanese police certificate and take it to your embassy interview as well?

All I have to do to finish is attach the scanned documents and info along with pictures from here and there along the way.

 

Thanks for the help. Just out of curiosity, how long did your visa process take start to finish?

[DavidandJen 15]

Quote

Yeah I did, what a coincidence! We lived in Yamanashi, what about you?

 

That's good to know more about the London Embassy thank you!

Did you get your Japanese police certificate and take it to your embassy interview as well?

All I have to do to finish is attach the scanned documents and info along with pictures from here and there along the way.

 

Thanks for the help. Just out of curiosity, how long did your visa process take start to finish?

 

We were in Kumamoto  I actually know quite a few people who ended up living in different countries after meeting their partners while teaching in Japan.

 

Yeah, so for the Japanese police certificate I sent them a stamped addressed envelope and they sent me their finger print form, I made an appointment with Thames Valley Police (but whichever jurisdiction you fall in, use that) to get fingerprinted, then took the form to the Japanese Embassy. The procedure is all here: http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/index_000078.html

 

Don't worry about the bit where it says you may need a letter from the requesting authority - when I went the woman I spoke to was familiar with the K1 visa requirements. 

 

It did take the full 8 weeks for mine to arrive, so make sure you request it well before your interview. And yes, I then took it to my K1 interview. 

 

It's all in my timeline, but I think it took seven months for us from submission to POE. We actually chose to slow down the process though, as I was visiting my fiancé in the US when we got our approval, so there wasn't like an immediate need to book an interview ASAP. It does sound like things have slowed down quite a bit since 2016 though, so expect it to take longer.

 

[MrMoore 0]

 

15 hours ago, Tram Le said:

Here is the link of i-129f instructions, read page 11  about the evidence. https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-129finstr.pdf .

my 54 supplement had 3 pages, just describled the circumstances of us in person meeting and i attached pictures of everything we told in 54 supplement (21 pages, including our engament party) 

And proof of communition (Evidence of ongoing relationship) would be what happens between now and the interview at the end (maybe close). i don't print everything, pick random days. i learned from my friend who has a lawyer husband in the us and she got the k1 visa. He helped me a little bit . I'm still working on it. It is up to you.  It's just my opinion.

Thanks, my Q54 is 20 pages including pics so I'm sure that's not too much then. Thanks for the help it made me a lot more confident that what I'm doing is fine.

[Loren Y 2,756]

8 hours ago, RyanMaria 2018 said:

Loren Y, great post and I'll be willing to bet about 95% or more of what you said is true. We forget that as you said about 37.000 petitions are filed each year so I can see how they would't labor over text messages or as in my case  facebook messenger. I 

 

   Loren Y I do believe your about 95% accurate of more on what you said and I think we don't realize just how many petitions are filed a years so to me that would be  a big factor. As for me and my fiancee met 2 and a half years ago and spent 24 days last June and July in the Philippines, so to me proof of a relationship is spending time together IN PERSON and everything else after that is just gravy. Having that stamped passport and boarding pass is pretty solid and within 2 years of seeing each other is critical. Thanks for showing us the most probable scenario of a case by case review of the petitions and with that many petitions? I agree they can't spend too much time on each case. Have a great day!!!

   

Your welcome. and just to throw some statistics your way, The Philippines is responsible for 18% of the petitions, a little over 7700 if I recall, Ill see if I can find the breakdown again and post it below. Found the info, actually it was over 38,000, and you can see the breakdown from the 2016 data, the Philippines is a busy country.

 

The number of fiancée visas issued to foreign nationals has tripled from 12,088 to 38,403 a year since the late 1990s, signifying the trend in the past two decades. The K-1 visa allows American citizens to bring a foreign fiancée into the country.