Important Advice for NEW K1 Filers

[ghosttridder 0]

If your engagement was arranged or introduced and "you have never met your fiance" it is very important that you DO NOT FILE FOR k1 Visa for your fiance. I am us citizen, but i have a southeast asian culture, and when we get married, we don't date, touch, spend time together physically until the wedding night. It is infact a religious, cultural tradition thing, countries like india, pakistan, indonesia, turkey etc..

basically in order to so called "qualify" for a k1 visa, you had to have met your fiance phsycially,

there is a clause that k1 visa filers have as a foot note, uscis says they can waive it if we can prove that it is against social customs and long established traditions or prove that it provides extreme hardship, ( THIS HAS CAUSED ME TO LOSE 8 MONTHS!!! from the love of my life).

I've tried so much to get this waiver, and it was denied because they simply "didn't buy it", i sent them so much evidence, information, papers, articles, bills, telephone conversations, typed letters, it doesn't work.

bottom line, if you never met your fiance.. FORGET FILING FOR K1 VISA! it's not worth it to wait 200 plus days and nights for a REJECTION!

Edited June 20, 2009 by ghosttridder

[rooster 1]

Perhaps I misunderstand your traditions, but, it does not sound like it keeps you from meeting. You could meet, with members of your SOs family in attendance, and therefore not break any customs but still satisfy the needs of USCIS. The do not say you have to engage in any specific activity, just meet in person.

[CA dreamer 3]

thats why i forgot about k1 visas cos it is not that socially,religiously perfect in egypt like marriage.we did the cr1 thing,and the lawer told my wife that,we can file without seeing each other for cultural,religious reasons,but we met and married for fear of denial after waiting

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Islamic law and traditions do forbid any physical intimacy between an unmarried couple, but they don't forbid them to physically meet. To meet "physically" doesn't require anything more than that the two of you are in the same room together. Even in cases of arranged marriage, the couple very often know each other and have even grown up together. There are many Islamic couples on this board who've successfully gone through the K1 visa process without violating any Islamic laws or strict social customs.

There is no rule against arranged marriage, but USCIS does scrutinize these cases a little harder because it's often used as an excuse for a lack of evidence that a genuine relationship exists. Requests for waivers of the requirement that the couple have physically met are also often used as excuses for not wanting to spend any money on the relationship. When the petitioner is willing to spend more on the immigration process than the relationship then USCIS will strongly suspect the intent of the visa is immigration alone.

USCIS is aware of the religious and cultural traditions in different parts of the world, and the consulates in those areas are very familiar with those traditions because the consular officers live there, and the consulate employees are often local citizens. Unless the vast majority of applicants from a particular religion or region of the world are asking for waivers, and the local consulate can confirm that the waiver is justified, then you have very little chance of getting it.

If you still believe that it would violate a strict religious or cultural tradition for you to meet your fiance then I recommend you marry her and then file for a CR1.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

If your engagement was arranged or introduced and "you have never met your fiance" it is very important that you DO NOT FILE FOR k1 Visa for your fiance. I am us citizen, but i have a southeast asian culture, and when we get married, we don't date, touch, spend time together physically until the wedding night. It is infact a religious, cultural tradition thing, countries like india, pakistan, indonesia, turkey etc..

basically in order to so called "qualify" for a k1 visa, you had to have met your fiance phsycially,

there is a clause that k1 visa filers have as a foot note, uscis says they can waive it if we can prove that it is against social customs and long established traditions or prove that it provides extreme hardship, ( THIS HAS CAUSED ME TO LOSE 8 MONTHS!!! from the love of my life).

I've tried so much to get this waiver, and it was denied because they simply "didn't buy it", i sent them so much evidence, information, papers, articles, bills, telephone conversations, typed letters, it doesn't work.

bottom line, if you never met your fiance.. FORGET FILING FOR K1 VISA! it's not worth it to wait 200 plus days and nights for a REJECTION!

Exactly. I think this question has been answered maybe a 1000 times here. The waiver for meeting in person is nearly impossible to get.

Your best alternative is to go to your fiancee native country and get married, and file for a CR1.

[brnidokiegurl 0]

to meet and talk does not mean to meet and (whatever) also others would or could be present to oversee this meeting. It often happens in Morocco you meet (introduced lets say maybe thru friends, family) maybe you talk quite a bit maybe meet again family gathering and marry soon, hopefully you already know alot of her from your computer talks etc and know this is the one you want to marry. The last i knew of one fr Morocco did this met, married same trip got the visa fine

[ghosttridder 0]

laides and gents..geez you need to understand the point here. i understand about meeting, and it doesn't have to be intimate, we can just meet without doing anything else.

where the uscis states that this requirment might be waived is a complete hoax, and it threw me off, way off.. like 8 months off of my love life.

this waiver statement shouldn't be there, because it will start misleading people into thinking that they don't have to meet

[Otto 83]

The advice should really be something like:

If you haven't met in person (within the last two years) you're going to have an uphill battle to get a waiver approved. If you feel you will qualify under either religious or cultural reasons, you will have the burden of documenting this.

or

If you do not want to go through the burden of the waiver - figure out a way to get married and THEN file for a spousal visa.

In my opinion...

[rooster 1]

Although you may not like it, it is your own fault that you were denied. You had NO circumstances that would have fell under the scope of the exemption. While religion and customs may keep you from intimate contact, as stated before, they do NOT keep you from meeting. Therefore you did not qualify for the exemption as defined. As others have stated, this has in the past been an abused exemption and the USCIS gives it a lot more scrutiny. The best way to help prevent any denial, is to arm yourself with knowledge on whatever Visa you decide to try for. You can keep trying to lay the blame on USCIS or anyone else you want. But, it's all smoke and mirrors trying to draw the blame away from yourself.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

laides and gents..geez you need to understand the point here. i understand about meeting, and it doesn't have to be intimate, we can just meet without doing anything else.

where the uscis states that this requirment might be waived is a complete hoax, and it threw me off, way off.. like 8 months off of my love life.

this waiver statement shouldn't be there, because it will start misleading people into thinking that they don't have to meet

So it took you 8 months to figure out you need to get yourself on an airplane and go to meet your fiancee in person? It would have been a lot cheaper and easier just to go 8 months ago, she may have been here by now.

[BokGao 0]

laides and gents..geez you need to understand the point here. i understand about meeting, and it doesn't have to be intimate, we can just meet without doing anything else.

where the uscis states that this requirment might be waived is a complete hoax, and it threw me off, way off.. like 8 months off of my love life.

this waiver statement shouldn't be there, because it will start misleading people into thinking that they don't have to meet

So it took you 8 months to figure out you need to get yourself on an airplane and go to meet your fiancee in person? It would have been a lot cheaper and easier just to go 8 months ago, she may have been here by now.

Right and advance research before attempting this maneuver would've save 8 months of unnecessary delay. There's plenty of post regarding this issue and 10 minutes of research would've told you what it took you 8 months to learn. Some people learn things the easy way and some learn the hard way. I understand the OP was just trying to educate others into not following in his footsteps. I'm sure someone will gain something from this post. Mission accomplished.

Edited June 20, 2009 by BokGao

[pushbrk 12,767]

If your engagement was arranged or introduced and "you have never met your fiance" it is very important that you DO NOT FILE FOR k1 Visa for your fiance. I am us citizen, but i have a southeast asian culture, and when we get married, we don't date, touch, spend time together physically until the wedding night. It is infact a religious, cultural tradition thing, countries like india, pakistan, indonesia, turkey etc..

basically in order to so called "qualify" for a k1 visa, you had to have met your fiance phsycially,

there is a clause that k1 visa filers have as a foot note, uscis says they can waive it if we can prove that it is against social customs and long established traditions or prove that it provides extreme hardship, ( THIS HAS CAUSED ME TO LOSE 8 MONTHS!!! from the love of my life).

I've tried so much to get this waiver, and it was denied because they simply "didn't buy it", i sent them so much evidence, information, papers, articles, bills, telephone conversations, typed letters, it doesn't work.

bottom line, if you never met your fiance.. FORGET FILING FOR K1 VISA! it's not worth it to wait 200 plus days and nights for a REJECTION!

Others have covered other aspects of this issue very well. However, your downfall was failure in combining reading carefully, interpreting literally and responding accordingly. The requirement was to meet in person. Your traditions don't forbid meeting. Words have meaning and in this context you use the literal meaning. I'm sorry for your lost time but the regular members here already know that such waivers are extremely rare. Had you inquired, you would have been informed. Had you read carefully and interpreted literally, you would have understood on your own.

I mention this because as you move forward with your chosen immigration path, the same principles will apply repeatedly throughout the process. If your language skill, and/or ability to attend to details is insufficient for the task, you would be wise to get help from somebody with the needed knowledge or skills.

[Starlight95 1]

If your engagement was arranged or introduced and "you have never met your fiance" it is very important that you DO NOT FILE FOR k1 Visa for your fiance. I am us citizen, but i have a southeast asian culture, and when we get married, we don't date, touch, spend time together physically until the wedding night. It is infact a religious, cultural tradition thing, countries like india, pakistan, indonesia, turkey etc..

basically in order to so called "qualify" for a k1 visa, you had to have met your fiance phsycially,

there is a clause that k1 visa filers have as a foot note, uscis says they can waive it if we can prove that it is against social customs and long established traditions or prove that it provides extreme hardship, ( THIS HAS CAUSED ME TO LOSE 8 MONTHS!!! from the love of my life).

I've tried so much to get this waiver, and it was denied because they simply "didn't buy it", i sent them so much evidence, information, papers, articles, bills, telephone conversations, typed letters, it doesn't work.

bottom line, if you never met your fiance.. FORGET FILING FOR K1 VISA! it's not worth it to wait 200 plus days and nights for a REJECTION!

I am a petitioner for the K-1 fiance visa and come from the similar background. But, I did fly to see my fiance and sought an advice from an attorney. I even got a declaration from his parents along with a proof of my itinerary with engagement pictures. I met him in person and I think that is important regardless if its arranged, I wish you had asked an attorney before you went through this. You would have saved yourself a lot of time. Yes, I do respect the constraints in our culture, but I think just meeting in front of people there is nothing wrong with that. Me personally could not make a life long decison with someone until I met them in person at least once. Best of luck hopefully you can get an attorney so you don't have to wait again. I know how difficult it can be to be away from a loved one I have been through this before.

[Kinito_2k3 5]

The advice should really be something like:

If you haven't met in person (within the last two years) you're going to have an uphill battle to get a waiver approved. If you feel you will qualify under either religious or cultural reasons, you will have the burden of documenting this.

or

If you do not want to go through the burden of the waiver - figure out a way to get married and THEN file for a spousal visa.

In my opinion...

Exactly Not to mention that the OP didn't provide with any viable solution but whined as a result of his own negligence.

[ghosttridder 0]

laides and gents..geez you need to understand the point here. i understand about meeting, and it doesn't have to be intimate, we can just meet without doing anything else.

where the uscis states that this requirment might be waived is a complete hoax, and it threw me off, way off.. like 8 months off of my love life.

this waiver statement shouldn't be there, because it will start misleading people into thinking that they don't have to meet

So it took you 8 months to figure out you need to get yourself on an airplane and go to meet your fiancee in person? It would have been a lot cheaper and easier just to go 8 months ago, she may have been here by now.

Right and advance research before attempting this maneuver would've save 8 months of unnecessary delay. There's plenty of post regarding this issue and 10 minutes of research would've told you what it took you 8 months to learn. Some people learn things the easy way and some learn the hard way. I understand the OP was just trying to educate others into not following in his footsteps. I'm sure someone will gain something from this post. Mission accomplished.

Do your research OR ELSE... lol

Thank you for making my point