Timeline of Relationship & US Consulate in Vietnam Immigrant Visa Inquiry Form

[SaiGonWithTheWind 0]

Hey there so my fiancée and I have our interview on February 27 and we are in the final stages of preparing all documents and practicing potential questions.  

Upon going over everything, I realized that although we had heavily front-loaded our I-129F with flight tickets, hotel invoices, itineraries, photos, letters of intent, text messages, etc., I had forgotten to submit a timeline of our relationship.

Keep in mind that a timeline of our relationship is not listed anywhere on the I-129F as being a required document for submission.  I thought I was just following the rules of the document, and hadn't come across this forum until now.

Safe to say, my fiancée was none too happy to learn that I hadn't submitted one and wouldn't let me hear the end of it.

Regardless, the I-129F was approved and sent to the NVC for processing, who forwarded everything to the US Consulate in due time.  She received the PKT-3 not long after.

 

I spent countless hours and came up with about a 40-page timeline of our entire relationship from the day we met until now, which I then had notarized.  Keep in mind this is after she had received the PKT-3 and we had just booked our interview slot.

 

Fast forward to now, and I'm not sure what we should do.  I've heard rumors that they start reviewing cases 4 business days in advance to the interview in order to prepare the questions they will ask us.

If this is true (or regardless of if this is true or not), should I attempt to submit the document on the US Consulate of Vietnam Immigrant Visa Inquiry Form as an attachment and hope they add it to our case file?

Or should I bring the document to the K-1 visa interview and hope they take the time to at least thumb through it? Is there any other possible alternative solution without further delaying our case or repaying fees?

 

I'm hoping to avoid (if at all possible) receiving a "green/blue paper" which means they require more information, as I've spent significant amounts of money to attend this interview with her and we've been extremely diligent along this entire process.

 

Any feedback is highly appreciated!

[appleblossom 2,417]

40 pages?!? I've been married for decades and have two kids, I still couldn't come close to that. 😂

 

I think if you do submit it, you need to seriously reduce it to a much smaller document, no officer is going to take the time to read that. 

[SaiGonWithTheWind 0]

I would like to preface my previous comments by saying that the document is about 9 pages of actual text and 30 pages of images to support the text.

I've scaled photos to reduce file size to fit the inquiry form website, but I suppose I could significantly pare down the document if it is an acceptable form of submission.

[SteveInBostonI130 3,429]

What?

 

Why?

 

Timeline:  You met.  You like each other.  You want to get married.

 

Sprinkle in a few (less than 6) photos of being together.  

 

Also, the consulate prepares 4 business days before the interview?  I think our CO looked at ours 4 minutes before the interview, if that.

 

Where are you getting this information? 

[Redro 4,611]

For K1 you just need proof you met in the last 2 years before the I129F was submitted. 
We went the spousal visa route and our timeline was a page with important dates. 
For a timeline, I would keep it to ONE page. 
As I assume you are going to be in Vietnam for the interview that could be more than sufficient to show your relationship is bonafide. 
You might want to move this to the Vietnam forum if you think the Vietnamese consulate requires additional information (40+ pages over and above the evidence you already submitted). As many of us will say this sounds like overkill.

Also, the more evidence you give them the more questions they can ask… @JeanneAdil often explains her and her fiancé were dinged for a small innocuous comment she made about what she liked to read as they submitted a lot of evidence. 
Time spent together is the best evidence. So just highlight the time you’ve spent together and with friends/family but you don’t have to be too detailed. 
E.G My husband and I met my family and spent 30 days with them… 

My entry for our timeline was 

01/01/2022-01/31/2022

Flew to South Africa to meet Redro’s family 

Edited January 23 by Redro

[SteveInBostonI130 3,429]

P.S.  For an item you actually need:  Did you complete form I-134?

[Boiler 45,426]

I am pretty sure the CO had never seen my file before I was called up.

 

Only thing I was asked for was a photo.

 

Now Vietnam will no doubt be a bit more demanding and I do not know the totality of your situation.

 

I did take everything I could think of.

[mc962 55]

Looking back at what we did, I wrote about 2 pages, split into 2 sections.

I think I detailed a rough timeline of the past 2 years (which is the period that they care about in K1 for the most part). As we lived in different countries at the time, I basically detailed all the times we met since then (e.g. last time we met I proposed, before that we met to travel around country X, before that we met to travel around country Y, etc). I wrote where we went, the approximate dates (based on passport entry stamps), and roughly what we did/why we went (generally tourism and to see family), but didn't go into much more detail than that. I think I also had like 1 or 2 pictures from each trip I mentioned, but not a ton. I'd fit at least 2 pictures per page, 3 might fit as well (just pasted them into the Word document with a small caption).

Additionally, I had a paragraph about how we met and how long we've been together.

Then, if they still cared to read, I had another section briefly summarizing our relationship between 2 years prior and the X years prior to that since we first met.

 

In short, I tried to keep it brief, and so it was about 2 pages of text, 1 page for 2 years prior to the I-129F, 1 page for beyond 2 years if they cared, and then separately photos from any trips I cared to document. I think it was probably a bit much for the consulate we went through (not Vietnam), but I think something like this would be a good balance between focusing on what they care about but giving a bit more background if they want it, as I felt in general Immigration wants to understand the overall facts and story of your relationship, not every minute detail.

 

I'd bring it to the interview unless there are rules not to bring extra stuff for some reason, but maybe condense it a bit as I agree with others that no one wants to read 40 pages. Unless you have been in a really long and complicated relationship they don't need to see everything, just enough to get the sense that the relationship is real / valid for the immigration benefit that you are applying for (although I also agree, cross-post it in Vietnam sections to see if there is country-specific advice on quantity/quality of materials that you need to bring/submit).

[SaiGonWithTheWind 0]

1 hour ago, mc962 said:

Looking back at what we did, I wrote about 2 pages, split into 2 sections.

I think I detailed a rough timeline of the past 2 years (which is the period that they care about in K1 for the most part). As we lived in different countries at the time, I basically detailed all the times we met since then (e.g. last time we met I proposed, before that we met to travel around country X, before that we met to travel around country Y, etc). I wrote where we went, the approximate dates (based on passport entry stamps), and roughly what we did/why we went (generally tourism and to see family), but didn't go into much more detail than that. I think I also had like 1 or 2 pictures from each trip I mentioned, but not a ton. I'd fit at least 2 pictures per page, 3 might fit as well (just pasted them into the Word document with a small caption).

Additionally, I had a paragraph about how we met and how long we've been together.

Then, if they still cared to read, I had another section briefly summarizing our relationship between 2 years prior and the X years prior to that since we first met.

 

In short, I tried to keep it brief, and so it was about 2 pages of text, 1 page for 2 years prior to the I-129F, 1 page for beyond 2 years if they cared, and then separately photos from any trips I cared to document. I think it was probably a bit much for the consulate we went through (not Vietnam), but I think something like this would be a good balance between focusing on what they care about but giving a bit more background if they want it, as I felt in general Immigration wants to understand the overall facts and story of your relationship, not every minute detail.

 

I'd bring it to the interview unless there are rules not to bring extra stuff for some reason, but maybe condense it a bit as I agree with others that no one wants to read 40 pages. Unless you have been in a really long and complicated relationship they don't need to see everything, just enough to get the sense that the relationship is real / valid for the immigration benefit that you are applying for (although I also agree, cross-post it in Vietnam sections to see if there is country-specific advice on quantity/quality of materials that you need to bring/submit).

Thanks for the information! How can I cross-post this to the Vietnam forum? Literally my first day on here and trying to get the hang of this...

[Redro 4,611]

Just now, SaiGonWithTheWind said:

Thanks for the information! How can I cross-post this to the Vietnam forum? Literally my first day on here and trying to get the hang of this...

Click on your first post and request it be posted in the Vietnam forum. 

 

[Legend of Summer 23]

On 1/23/2024 at 4:12 PM, Boiler said:

I am pretty sure the CO had never seen my file before I was called up.

 

Only thing I was asked for was a photo.

 

Now Vietnam will no doubt be a bit more demanding and I do not know the totality of your situation.

 

I did take everything I could think of.

when was that?

[Legend of Summer 23]

On 1/23/2024 at 1:11 PM, SaiGonWithTheWind said:

 

 

I spent countless hours and came up with about a 40-page timeline of our entire relationship from the day we met until now, which I then had notarized.  Keep in mind this is after she had received the PKT-3 and we had just booked our interview slot.

 

 

 

40 pages? You might need to down to 3-4 pages for them to review, if they review before the interview.