K1 sent back to NVC / Will Mumbai recognize Utah online marriage?

[littleredscooty 3]

Hello all,

 

After sitting in 221g for 10 weeks, our status has updated to say it was sent to NVC. From what I am reading, this means we are being denied. We had already discussed that if we were to be denied, we would go the CR-1 route, vs. refiling the K1 petition. If we were to get married in his country, I would need to have been in the country for 30 days and a whole host of other things that will not be feasible. What could work for us is to do the online Utah marriage ceremony, and then me fly out to him for a few weeks right after. We initially did the K1 visa because at the time it was the quicker way to be together in person (or so was the logic, that isn't true, now is it). I am just wondering if anyone here has knowledge or experience of India accepting and recognizing our marriage as legal and valid, if we go the Utah route? Thank you in advance.

[Dashinka 24,375]

To my knowledge, the Utah Zoom marriage is accepted at all consulates as long as you meet the requirement of meeting in person (consummating the marriage) either during or after the ceremony.  Why not go to India, and do the Utah Zoom marriage while you are together?  You can then submit the I130 as soon as you get the marriage certificate which I understand is done electronically for this type of ceremony.

 

Good Luck!

[JeanneAdil 6,414]

would be helpful for u to know why K1 was denied.   there may be issues u have to overcome even in a CR1 

the intending immigrant should have a clue as to questions asked and responses from the CO

[Summerbrezz07 14]

9 hours ago, littleredscooty said:

Hello all,

 

After sitting in 221g for 10 weeks, our status has updated to say it was sent to NVC. From what I am reading, this means we are being denied. We had already discussed that if we were to be denied, we would go the CR-1 route, vs. refiling the K1 petition. If we were to get married in his country, I would need to have been in the country for 30 days and a whole host of other things that will not be feasible. What could work for us is to do the online Utah marriage ceremony, and then me fly out to him for a few weeks right after. We initially did the K1 visa because at the time it was the quicker way to be together in person (or so was the logic, that isn't true, now is it). I am just wondering if anyone here has knowledge or experience of India accepting and recognizing our marriage as legal and valid, if we go the Utah route? Thank you in advance.

My husband and I were married via Utah online zoom in 2021. It was accepted and no RFE's during the USCIS and NVC stage.  I will mention with Utah, when you receive the marriage certificate it is a "marriage license and marriage certificate" all in one, so it will have the date you applied for the marriage license and the date of marriage ceremony listed. My husband had his interview in Mumbai January 2024. The consular office asked him many questions about the dates on the certificate, even showed it to his supervisor. We believe this is one of the reasons we were given a 221g, even after my husband clearly explained to the consular officer. Perhaps this method of marriage is not the norm or not seen as often at certain consulates/embassies.

[pushbrk 12,814]

You have good answers already.  To my knowledge the one big difference in how the US Consulate's Immigrant Visa Unit in Mumbai operates, is that they want the petitioner to have current and three past years of qualifying income.  You are not dealing with "India" though.  It's the US Consulate.

 

For example if you substitute "Philippines" for "India" then no, the Philippines doesn't recognize any proxy marriages, but the US Embassy's Immigrant Visa Unit does.

[littleredscooty 3]

8 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

would be helpful for u to know why K1 was denied.   there may be issues u have to overcome even in a CR1 

the intending immigrant should have a clue as to questions asked and responses from the CO

 

Nothing asked at the interview gives any indication, in fact very little was asked at all. The interview lasted a few minutes of which the majority of that was the CO staring at his computer and not saying anything at all. Asked some basics like where did we meet, when did we get engaged but there was no "grilling" and no "probing" to get more information or better understand sometime the CO may of been questioning, if that makes sense. From what I gather, we can request our immigration records from USCIS in order to learn what the red flags / errors could possibly be? I agree we will need to understand what went wrong with K1, we just have no idea at present.

[littleredscooty 3]

1 hour ago, pushbrk said:

You have good answers already.  To my knowledge the one big difference in how the US Consulate's Immigrant Visa Unit in Mumbai operates, is that they want the petitioner to have current and three past years of qualifying income.  You are not dealing with "India" though.  It's the US Consulate.

 

For example if you substitute "Philippines" for "India" then no, the Philippines doesn't recognize any proxy marriages, but the US Embassy's Immigrant Visa Unit does.

  Thank you for the response, I wonder if this was the problem? I did submit last three years of tax returns in which case all three years well exceeded the minimum income limits, I was however unemployed for a period of time after an accident in this last year. I had recently resumed gainful employment about six weeks prior to the interview, and did submit the employment contract and paystubs for what I had been paid, my employment contract was 40 hours per week @44 usd per hour + 66 usd per hour for any time exceeding 40 hours in a working week. I did only have 6 ish weeks of pay stub data that I could provide though, but before my hiatus from working, i was in the same exact field for 7 years, and had been continously employed.

10 hours ago, Dashinka said:

To my knowledge, the Utah Zoom marriage is accepted at all consulates as long as you meet the requirement of meeting in person (consummating the marriage) either during or after the ceremony.  Why not go to India, and do the Utah Zoom marriage while you are together?  You can then submit the I130 as soon as you get the marriage certificate which I understand is done electronically for this type of ceremony.

 

Good Luck!

That is a great suggestion, and very doable! We could certainly be together during the ceremony this way.

[Crazy Cat 41,610]

1 hour ago, littleredscooty said:

I wonder if this was the problem?

Taxes would not be the reason for returning the case.  They would have asked for a joint sponsor.  Either there is an admin error to correct, or one of you were not legally eligible to marry, as an example.  Another possibility is that they found something in the extended AP.

Step 1 is to determine why the case is being sent back.  It could be an admin error...in which case, it will be re-sent to the consulate after correction.  Marriage does not cure all issues.

**Please don't start another topic about this.  Keep the discussion here in this thread**

Edited June 14 by Crazy Cat

[JeanneAdil 6,414]

how much time did the 2 of u spend together in person?

[littleredscooty 3]

2 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

how much time did the 2 of u spend together in person?

we had 3 in person visits, one visit was 30 days, one visit was 10 days over Christmas/NYE holiday, and the third visit was 90 days

[littleredscooty 3]

18 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

Taxes would not be the reason for returning the case.  They would have asked for a joint sponsor.  Either there is an admin error to correct, or one of you were not legally eligible to marry, as an example.  Another possibility is that they found something in the extended AP.

Step 1 is to determine why the case is being sent back.  It could be an admin error...in which case, it will be re-sent to the consulate after correction.  Marriage does not cure all issues.

**Please don't start another topic about this.  Keep the discussion here in this thread**

 Thank you for the input! I was more so saying I wonder if my lack of recent pay stubs or because I had a hiatus in employment that was the reason more so than taxes. To my knowledge though we cannot get a joint sponsor on K1 visa, right? Either way, they never questioned finances or raised issue in the interview itself etc. We do want to find out why we were denied in the first place, my understanding is we do that through a FOIA request? I also have an online USCIS accouint for our case, so once the USCIS gets the petition back, would the reason it was returned be stated there? Thank you for your help.

[JeanneAdil 6,414]

alcan not imagine what CO was concerned with but if few questions and just the petition and DS 160,  something sparked sending the petition back

The AP for additional security checks may be worth filing to see what happened

 

 

[Crazy Cat 41,610]

1 minute ago, littleredscooty said:

so once the USCIS gets the petition back, would the reason it was returned be stated there?

No, USCIS could send the petitioner a notice which says the case has expired.  If it is an admin error, you might get a status that it was returned to NVC.

[littleredscooty 3]

3 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

alcan not imagine what CO was concerned with but if few questions and just the petition and DS 160,  something sparked sending the petition back

The AP for additional security checks may be worth filing to see what happened

 

 

what is it I would file in order to see what happened? I am trying to figure out what exactly we file for. Is it the freedom of information act records or something else? I can certainly file I just don't quite understand what specific thing I should be requesting.

[pushbrk 12,814]

1 hour ago, Crazy Cat said:

Taxes would not be the reason for returning the case.  They would have asked for a joint sponsor.  Either there is an admin error to correct, or one of you were not legally eligible to marry, as an example.  Another possibility is that they found something in the extended AP.

Step 1 is to determine why the case is being sent back.  It could be an admin error...in which case, it will be re-sent to the consulate after correction.  Marriage does not cure all issues.

**Please don't start another topic about this.  Keep the discussion here in this thread**

Previous case was K1, so normally USCIS does not review.  They just eventually send a letter saying their approval of the initial petition has expired and the petitioner is free to file again.  More likely they found something in the AP to disqualify.  THAT could have been an error, but USCIS will do nothing to correct it.

 

Time for a "come to jesus" kind of discussion between the couple, before proceeding.  Something caused this, and neither the Consulate or USCIS is going to give them further information on that.