New to the site

[KM Cam 12]

@missileman @Jaquelly  @BRENTWOOD @Kim and Jermaine @agrabs  Thanks to all of you for pointing out the spousal visa.  The benefits of that route are abundantly clear.  I did look into it further.  Unfortunately, I don't think it will work in my situation.  Marriage is complicated in Brazil (even for people who live there and were born there).  The whole marriage process can take up to 3 months (because you have to register the marriage IN PERSON and then wait up to 60 days to get approved and get a wedding date).  It's not like the USA where you can hire a minister, get a marriage certificate and be married in a matter of days.  I have a really good job here in the states and I cannot take 3 months off to go to Brazil to get married.  In theory I could take two trips down there to accomplish this, but that would be pretty costly and complicated thus eliminating some of the benefits of the spousal visa route (plus, again, not sure I could get the time off from work needed for this kind of plan).  If it were easier to get married in Brazil, I'd prob go the spousal visa route, but I don't think it's logistically possible for us right now.  I know how hard it will be for my boyfriend when he first moves here and can't work (and hard on both of us financially), and I have talked to him about it.  I am truly worried about his mental well-being during that time, but he says he can handle it so I guess I just have to trust him on that!  It won't be easy but I can afford (financially) to support him during those months.

[KM Cam 12]

14 hours ago, Alabamak1 said:

@KM Cam whatever visa route you decide to take K-1 or CR-1, remember the process is unique for each application. Not 2 cases run the same path or length of time to be adjudicated. Good luck.  

While I "already knew this", thanks for reminding me...I am so bad about comparing things and setting up expectations, so I really have to remember this!!!!!   Thanks again!

[DaveAndAnastasia 2,092]

13 minutes ago, KM Cam said:

@missileman @Jaquelly  @BRENTWOOD @Kim and Jermaine @agrabs  Thanks to all of you for pointing out the spousal visa.  The benefits of that route are abundantly clear.  I did look into it further.  Unfortunately, I don't think it will work in my situation.  Marriage is complicated in Brazil (even for people who live there and were born there).  The whole marriage process can take up to 3 months (because you have to register the marriage IN PERSON and then wait up to 60 days to get approved and get a wedding date).  It's not like the USA where you can hire a minister, get a marriage certificate and be married in a matter of days.  I have a really good job here in the states and I cannot take 3 months off to go to Brazil to get married.  In theory I could take two trips down there to accomplish this, but that would be pretty costly and complicated thus eliminating some of the benefits of the spousal visa route (plus, again, not sure I could get the time off from work needed for this kind of plan).  If it were easier to get married in Brazil, I'd prob go the spousal visa route, but I don't think it's logistically possible for us right now.  I know how hard it will be for my boyfriend when he first moves here and can't work (and hard on both of us financially), and I have talked to him about it.  I am truly worried about his mental well-being during that time, but he says he can handle it so I guess I just have to trust him on that!  It won't be easy but I can afford (financially) to support him during those months.

In theory at least, you could get married in a third country (probably somewhere where they do a lot of destination weddings and so local law allows two foreigners to marry quickly). Though similar reasons are why we applied for a K-1.

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

Like others have said start gathering and saving “proof” of relationships. Print out photos, photocopies of passport stamps, airline tickets etc and put it aside as you will need to submit these. 

[KM Cam 12]

4 minutes ago, Luckycuds said:

Like others have said start gathering and saving “proof” of relationships. Print out photos, photocopies of passport stamps, airline tickets etc and put it aside as you will need to submit these. 

Thanks, fortunately, I have digital copies of all of the flight info/ticket info for each of our visits (5 so far with one more coming before the application), photos from each visit, passport stamps/visas, not to mention 4 years of chat logs from Facebook.  I feel pretty confident that documenting our relationship is not a problem!

[ronniebreda 120]

Hi! 

We did the K1 in 2016 when the wait times were significantly shorter and we would still have chosen the CR1 if we knew then what we know now. However, I understand if you are unable to go that route for whatever reasons. 

Everyone else has given you good advice on k1 - keep all of your documentation. The advice that I wish we were given is about after your significant other arrives in the USA. Get married ASAP. K1 is not about a fancy wedding. Start working on your AOS paperwork before your significant other even lands in the US. The quicker you get your AOS documentation turned in then the quicker you will be out of the horrible waiting period for the EAD and Greencard. We mailed in our AOS paperwork within the 90 days, but I wish we had mailed  it in sooner. (Shoulda, woulda, coulda) But I hope this advice might help you.  

Good luck with your journey! 

Edited August 13, 2018 by ronniebreda
Repeated words

[Catseal 268]

57 minutes ago, ronniebreda said:

Hi! 

We did the K1 in 2016 when the wait times were significantly shorter and we would still have chosen the CR1 if we knew then what we know now. However, I understand if you are unable to go that route for whatever reasons. 

Everyone else has given you good advice on k1 - keep all of your documentation. The advice that I wish we were given is about after your significant other arrives in the USA. Get married ASAP. K1 is not about a fancy wedding. Start working on your AOS paperwork before your significant other even lands in the US. The quicker you get your AOS documentation turned in then the quicker you will be out of the horrible waiting period for the EAD and Greencard. We mailed in our AOS paperwork within the 90 days, but I wish we had mailed  it in sooner. (Shoulda, woulda, coulda) But I hope this advice might help you.  

Good luck with your journey! 

Totally second this. We got married the first possible day after my arrival (weekends they are closed, and I arrived on a Friday so we had to wait until Monday morning) and went to Fedex between the legal ceremony and the family dinner to send off our AOS/EAD/AP application right away. My EAD/AP arrived 3.5 months later (check my timeline. i am not sure how this compares to the average waiting time right now, it might be longer), and while I am still waiting for the greencard, at least travelling and working are no issue anymore. 

 

I can also only stress what others said before: Make sure you are on top of your documents, get familiar with your specific embassy, be diligent with everything regarding the process. This is more relevant for the beneficiary (your fiancé) overall, but applies to both of course. You have very little power over the waiting times (for example, we waited over 50 day alone to have our approved petition transferred from USCIS to NVC, despite the fact this historically took no more than two weeks) so it is really crucial that whenever something IS in your power (filling out the forms, gathering the right documents, sending in additional info if needed, booking the medical, prep for the interview etc) you do it correctly and are always clear on what you need to do next so the process goes as fast as possible. I found the most difficult part to be the waiting time, as it is out of your control entirely, but that's also because we wanted to be together again ASAP. Which is also why we did not do the Spousal visa, although it is clearly superior at this point on many aspects. It's a personal choice of course, and I saw your reasoning as to why you dont think spousal would be better for you, but I actually think if you dont care about being together ASAP and you do find a place to get married with less hassle than Brazil (or fly down twice- remember having to support a second person for 3+ (likely more) months and the more expensive K1 process might add up to more than the flights either way, anyways), the Spousal visa is probably the better option.

 

Whatever you choose, good luck!

Edited August 13, 2018 by Catseal

[jdaveh 58]

3 hours ago, KM Cam said:

Thanks, fortunately, I have digital copies of all of the flight info/ticket info for each of our visits (5 so far with one more coming before the application), photos from each visit, passport stamps/visas, not to mention 4 years of chat logs from Facebook.  I feel pretty confident that documenting our relationship is not a problem!

 Digital copies of flight information do not count for much, better to have actual boarding passes, etc. They are of the mind that you can fake digital flight information.

[AshMarty 360]

5 hours ago, KM Cam said:

@missileman @Jaquelly  @BRENTWOOD @Kim and Jermaine @agrabs  Thanks to all of you for pointing out the spousal visa.  The benefits of that route are abundantly clear.  I did look into it further.  Unfortunately, I don't think it will work in my situation.  Marriage is complicated in Brazil (even for people who live there and were born there).  The whole marriage process can take up to 3 months (because you have to register the marriage IN PERSON and then wait up to 60 days to get approved and get a wedding date).  It's not like the USA where you can hire a minister, get a marriage certificate and be married in a matter of days.  I have a really good job here in the states and I cannot take 3 months off to go to Brazil to get married.  In theory I could take two trips down there to accomplish this, but that would be pretty costly and complicated thus eliminating some of the benefits of the spousal visa route (plus, again, not sure I could get the time off from work needed for this kind of plan).  If it were easier to get married in Brazil, I'd prob go the spousal visa route, but I don't think it's logistically possible for us right now.  I know how hard it will be for my boyfriend when he first moves here and can't work (and hard on both of us financially), and I have talked to him about it.  I am truly worried about his mental well-being during that time, but he says he can handle it so I guess I just have to trust him on that!  It won't be easy but I can afford (financially) to support him during those months.

We did the K1 visa also. Although the spousal visa is a more straight forward route and would have eliminated some stress but we survived and it all worked out. We couldn't be happier these days! 

 

If you do go the K1 route my suggestion is save money, save money, and save more money. My husband and I both picked up an extra job to save before the big move.  Life gets expensive during immigration (buying cars, health insurance, car insurance, cell phone, paying for weddings, immigration fees, etc) if you are prepared financially it will eliminate one big stress during the process.  

 

My husband is a worker bee and doesn't like to sit around and not feel useful. It was hard for the last couple of months before his EAD came in. We made sure we planned a lot of friend nights to look forward too (game nights were we invited friends over, my husband maintained his gym membership so he could get out of the house and socialize while I was at work, etc).

 

 

Know it is a stressful process but also knowing it is stressful will help give you a little patience while you are going through it  

Edited August 13, 2018 by AshMarty

[T_P 872]

21 hours ago, KM Cam said:

Greetings, I just joined the site.  My boyfriend (and soon to be fiance, of course) lives in Brazil and we are planning to start compiling our documents over the next 4 months, make our engagement official at the end of this year during our next visit, and file our petition in January, 2019.  All of the info and the whole process is so daunting and I am very overwhelmed.  I want to make sure we do everything right so we don't mess up our chance to have our life together!

 

My two initial questions are:

 

1) For people who have gotten further along or finished it, what is the one thing you wish you had known before you started?

2) Has the Trump administration changed anything with the k-1 visa process that I should be concerned about?

 

Thanks in advance, so glad this community exists to help everyone along the way. 

1- This process will require a lot of patient from the two of you since USCIS is taking a long time to process cases. Your relationship will be tested in a way that you may or may not have see before due to the distance, lot of facetime, if you have money travelling to see him is an options but in most cases doesnt happen.

 

2- No.

 

Read some of my posts which tells a bit of my journey and been from Brazil may help you.

[Kim and Jermaine 28]

I still support the K1 Visa, but the days of comparing are years behind me. He had his EAD in less than 2 months after filing AOS. 

[KM Cam 12]

2 hours ago, ronniebreda said:

Hi! 

We did the K1 in 2016 when the wait times were significantly shorter and we would still have chosen the CR1 if we knew then what we know now. However, I understand if you are unable to go that route for whatever reasons. 

Everyone else has given you good advice on k1 - keep all of your documentation. The advice that I wish we were given is about after your significant other arrives in the USA. Get married ASAP. K1 is not about a fancy wedding. Start working on your AOS paperwork before your significant other even lands in the US. The quicker you get your AOS documentation turned in then the quicker you will be out of the horrible waiting period for the EAD and Greencard. We mailed in our AOS paperwork within the 90 days, but I wish we had mailed  it in sooner. (Shoulda, woulda, coulda) But I hope this advice might help you.  

Good luck with your journey! 

Yes makes sense about getting married and filing the papers ASAP...I figure we'll get the first city hall wedding date we can once he arrives and apply immediately, then plan a real party later down the road.

[KM Cam 12]

1 hour ago, jdaveh said:

 Digital copies of flight information do not count for much, better to have actual boarding passes, etc. They are of the mind that you can fake digital flight information.

Well I don't think we have any of the previous boarding passes but we have photos from each trip (and it 's clear where we are in a lot of the photos, like in front of landmarks like times square in NYC) so I think it's clear we were really together in these places.  I'll be sure to save my boarding passes from my next visit before we apply.

[jdaveh 58]

22 minutes ago, KM Cam said:

Well I don't think we have any of the previous boarding passes but we have photos from each trip (and it 's clear where we are in a lot of the photos, like in front of landmarks like times square in NYC) so I think it's clear we were really together in these places.  I'll be sure to save my boarding passes from my next visit before we apply.

Please do save them. Photos don't count for much other than secondary evidence either, also easily faked. Yes , they do help but not as important as real documents and passport stamps, actual invoices from hotel etc.

  Good Luck

[Mrsjackson 300]

I wish I’d gone the CR1 spouse visa route instead, as I am currently in the US after having married on a K1 visa now working on the AOS paperwork. For the sake of a few more months and a little more money upfront I could have bypassed all this. Oh well. I read you mentioned somewhere you have “4 years of Facebook chat logs”. Common misunderstanding and this topic is ubiquitous on this sites. I printed 17 pages of text messages and I now realize this was total overkill. You do not need to print out years worth of chat logs. They don’t have the time or the desire to sift through a voluminous petition. It is only required at this stage to prove that you have met in the last 2 years so a boarding passes, flight tickets, perhaps a photo of the two of you (recommended) will all work in conjunction to prove you were in the same place at the same time at least once. Don’t waste a bunch of time on printing out chats and other Facebook things. They don’t prove much.