VISA process is driving me bananas

[Melancholic Mage 43]

@Cranberry_anon I really feel for you. I recently got my visa approved and myself and my partner submitted all of our documents solo, from our I-130 to our DS-260 (CR-1 visa). We never had any issues. We just combed through the instructions carefully and did what was asked.

 

I didn't find out about this forum until we documentarily qualified and I looked up embassy wait times while waiting for an appointment. I really wish I had! I've had ups and downs on here but 90% of the time the users are very friendly and the advice is invaluable.

 

Knowing someone else is tearing their hair out and swearing at the immigration process actually helps. Makes you feel less alone and trust me, the stress and sheer frustration I went through echoes yours very closely. Have faith. Get rid of Boundless (they should add 'Fees' to the end of their name...) and take the forms by the horns! You can do alone if we did. No matter how bad it gets, just remind yourself other people have managed with much less. My partner would remind me of this and it would help pick me up to keep going.

 

Take care and ask other experienced users if you ever get stuck.

[Verrou 1,948]

have to use big bold letter with underline and stated "BIRTH CERTIFICATED IS BILINGUAL ( ENGLISH & IRISH) on the cover letter, and on the index tab attachment/explanation. i heard a few horror story about the problem that u (might) encounter even though the birth certificate is indeed in english and xxx language in 1 single document. 

 

many of people that i helped lost their original birth certificate when they were born. they got new online replacement but now it has additional english language on the same document. never had an issue when i typed it BILINGUAL on bold, no RFE. etc. 

 

i always try to think that USCIS are like 5 years old kid, what is clear to me maybe its not clear with them because they deal with many2 variation of birth certificate all around the world. so we cant assume that "they supposed" to know even though they should. 

[OldUser 6,098]

4 minutes ago, Verrou said:

have to use big bold letter with underline and stated "BIRTH CERTIFICATED IS BILINGUAL ( ENGLISH & IRISH) on the cover letter, and on the index tab attachment/explanation. i heard a few horror story about the problem that u (might) encounter even though the birth certificate is indeed in english and xxx language in 1 single document. 

 

many of people that i helped lost their original birth certificate when they were born. they got new online replacement but now it has additional english language on the same document. never had an issue when i typed it BILINGUAL on bold, no RFE. etc. 

 

i always try to think that USCIS are like 5 years old kid, what is clear to me maybe its not clear with them because they deal with many2 variation of birth certificate all around the world. so we cant assume that "they supposed" to know even though they should. 

Do they know what bilingual is ?😃

Interesting suggestion, I heard of people translating the non-English part even though it already has English.

If this works, I guess it saves money.

[Verrou 1,948]

10 minutes ago, OldUser said:

Do they know what bilingual is ?😃

Interesting suggestion, I heard of people translating the non-English part even though it already has English.

If this works, I guess it saves money.

so far 5 people i helped without an issue. lol !

and yes, it's only $27/page to pay if wanna be extra cautious. i refused to let them pay for something thats so obvious. and when i typed BILINGUAL i always added : SWAHILI AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION for example

Edited Wednesday at 02:22 PM by Verrou

[Cranberry_anon 1]

Hey guys, I'm back, sorry for the late response. The daily post limit caught me off guard yesterday so I waited until I was home from work today to come back.

 

I've calmed down a bit in the time since I've made my initial post. I read all your stories, advice, suggestions, etc. while my post limit was in effect and I have mixed feelings. I'm so excited to be taking this route in life but so anxious whenever I start seeing all the things that can go wrong. 

 

At its core my fear comes from the possibility of having to start again if a small mistake shuts the whole thing down. I'm afraid that I won't be able to stop my partner from dragging their feet because they're overwhelmed and afraid that I'm going to miss a step that ruins our efforts so far. I forget sometimes that this is just the beginning. That is both comforting and terrifying. 

[Edward and Jaycel 55]

3 minutes ago, Cranberry_anon said:

Hey guys, I'm back, sorry for the late response. The daily post limit caught me off guard yesterday so I waited until I was home from work today to come back.

 

I've calmed down a bit in the time since I've made my initial post. I read all your stories, advice, suggestions, etc. while my post limit was in effect and I have mixed feelings. I'm so excited to be taking this route in life but so anxious whenever I start seeing all the things that can go wrong. 

 

At its core my fear comes from the possibility of having to start again if a small mistake shuts the whole thing down. I'm afraid that I won't be able to stop my partner from dragging their feet because they're overwhelmed and afraid that I'm going to miss a step that ruins our efforts so far. I forget sometimes that this is just the beginning. That is both comforting and terrifying. 

 

Please take my words here with the care I mean to impart with them. The part of your comment where you talk about your "partner dragging their feet" is what concerns me, regardless of being overwhelmed or whatever. I know everyone is different, but once Jaycel and I decided to go the K-1 Visa route (for various reasons and circumstances), learning about the Form I-129F, the petitioning process, what is involved, what Jaycel would have to do, etc. not only became my "Second Job", it became my passion because I would go to any length, get past any hurdle and obtain every scrap of information possible that would give us any advantage so that we could get her the visa and start our lives as husband and wife as soon as possible. Please don't take this as disparagement of your partner, maybe just a conversation starter for the both of you to dig into why the "dragging of feet" and not "diving in with both feet" into this process. I also am with everyone here in the recommendation to get rid of Boundless if it's not too late... I have read nothing but bad reviews of them. Just me here, a 2nd generation Irish-American trying to look out for my "cousin" 🙂

[Cranberry_anon 1]

5 minutes ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

 

Please take my words here with the care I mean to impart with them. The part of your comment where you talk about your "partner dragging their feet" is what concerns me, regardless of being overwhelmed or whatever. I know everyone is different, but once Jaycel and I decided to go the K-1 Visa route (for various reasons and circumstances), learning about the Form I-129F, the petitioning process, what is involved, what Jaycel would have to do, etc. not only became my "Second Job", it became my passion because I would go to any length, get past any hurdle and obtain every scrap of information possible that would give us any advantage so that we could get her the visa and start our lives as husband and wife as soon as possible. Please don't take this as disparagement of your partner, maybe just a conversation starter for the both of you to dig into why the "dragging of feet" and not "diving in with both feet" into this process. I also am with everyone here in the recommendation to get rid of Boundless if it's not too late... I have read nothing but bad reviews of them. Just me here, a 2nd generation Irish-American trying to look out for my "cousin" 🙂

We kinda had a talk about it 3 nights ago. Full transparency: I broke over the realisation that things weren't going as quickly/efficiently on his end as they were on mind. We had a long conversation and he apologised, we discussed why he was procrastinating and I'm trying my best to see his side of things. On my end I'm also very anxious to do paperwork but I'm still getting things done so when I lightly grilled him about this his explanation was that he puts things off because it looks like it's so much, which I already knew because I essentially read all the instructions and explain it to him in a shorter simpler way. It did initially hurt me because there were whole weekends he would get completely distracted by fixating on non-visa things and I felt like I was being hung out to dry but he understands now that he's hurt me by doing these things and has made a bit more effort to pick up his side of things since we had that discussion. I'm choosing to trust him because the alternative is to not trust him which is me giving up on the K1.

 

As it stands I've laid things out in a Google doc seperate from Boundless where he leaves his documents and I'm in charge of uploading/captioning/communication with the agency.

[apnzz 109]

10 minutes ago, Cranberry_anon said:

We kinda had a talk about it 3 nights ago. Full transparency: I broke over the realisation that things weren't going as quickly/efficiently on his end as they were on mind. We had a long conversation and he apologised, we discussed why he was procrastinating and I'm trying my best to see his side of things. On my end I'm also very anxious to do paperwork but I'm still getting things done so when I lightly grilled him about this his explanation was that he puts things off because it looks like it's so much, which I already knew because I essentially read all the instructions and explain it to him in a shorter simpler way. It did initially hurt me because there were whole weekends he would get completely distracted by fixating on non-visa things and I felt like I was being hung out to dry but he understands now that he's hurt me by doing these things and has made a bit more effort to pick up his side of things since we had that discussion. I'm choosing to trust him because the alternative is to not trust him which is me giving up on the K1.

 

As it stands I've laid things out in a Google doc seperate from Boundless where he leaves his documents and I'm in charge of uploading/captioning/communication with the agency.

I Hope you guys can figure that out, like the person commented before, the way they worded things was so perfectly and respectful and I think a lot of us here shared the same concerns about the wording of the "dragging" his feet.

 

Sometimes it can just be a case of, once you get into it all a little, it will become more familiar and then not so intimidating, paperwork wise.

 

My fiancé was exactly the same, I read stuff to him and he tends to shy away from paperwork, but as soon as we decided on the k1 process, he knew it is just one of those necessities in life, and we thought 'aw better dive in and get used to it now because the adjustment of Status paperwork will only be more intense / bigger responsibility'. 

 

I think you might find comfort in knowing that generally there's always one person who is more organised than the other in most relationships, and that person tends to "lead the way" more haha. 

 

An app I have found extremely helpful is called Notion, and Notion Calendar, ( 2 apps) but you can link it across multiple devices and share the same account so your partner can see it all too, got check boxes etc. It has been a life saver for us in communication and understand what docs we both need and tasks etc, and we can each tick off as we progress. It helps my fiancé to see things clearly outlined in a list. Perhaps you guys might find it helpful too.

 

Hope you feel better after seeing the responses here :)  you are not alone!

Edited Wednesday at 07:08 PM by apnzz

[hplusj 116]

11 hours ago, Cranberry_anon said:

As it stands I've laid things out in a Google doc seperate from Boundless where he leaves his documents and I'm in charge of uploading/captioning/communication with the agency.

I'm really glad you and your fiance are on the same page now but please, I'm begging you, do not file through Boundless.  Look through these posts, people have some sound advice.  They are taking you through unnecessary steps which will cost you unnecessarily in an already expensive process.  The I-129F is the easiest part, if you are meticulous and resourceful, which it sounds like you already are!  Please ditch the agency, work on your petition using USCIS guidelines as well as these forums.  If you receive a RFE or run across any snags, the people here will be able to recommend professional help if it's really warranted for your case.  It's good you're here.