US Immigration from Ecuador

(there are a lot of questions in this post, so I will write them in red for emphasis)

Hello everyone,

Our situation is this: after getting married and starting the Adjustment of Status (AOS) process from a K-1 visa, my wife had to go back to Ecuador without Advanced Parole. We knew ahead of time that this would mean abandoning the AOS process, and accepted that.

We still want to be here in the US and that means starting the CR-1 process. Our biggest concern right now is that until the CR-1 visa is issued, my wife no longer has a way to visit here in the US. While we also accepted that possibility when she left the country, I see a couple of options to address that - a tourist (B-2) visa, or a spousal (K-3) visa.

Please let me know your thoughts on the following plan.

1. Send in the I-130 petition ASAP to get the CR-1 process started. This is almost ready, but I am not sure what is best to include as proof of a bona fide relationship given that we were living together but are currently apart, especially the items in bold below:
   • Joint bank accounts and credit cards (still working with my bank to get her added)
   • Health insurance documentation (I plan to keep her enrolled for now)
   • Lease and utility bills in both of our names (Will this confuse the issue? I could attempt to explain it in the cover letter)
   • Photos (a few from the wedding and a selection of us together over the years)
   • Copies of cards received congratulating us on the marriage (or save these for the interview, or omit altogether?)
2. Have her apply for a new tourist (B-2) visa.
   • She has had two B-2 visas in the past and used them for at least 14 short-term visits over the years, which I hope will help her case. Her last B-2 visa had an expiration in July 2020, although it was cancelled when the K-1 was issued. I am not sure if applying for a B-2 visa now would be considered "the same classification" (as needed for an interview waiver to apply) ?
   • We have the DHS/CBP list of ties to one's home country and will try to prepare that for a potential visa interview.
   • There is a still a good possibility that this will be denied because being married shows immigrant intent. We are not interested in AOS again (part of this has to do with the situation that led us to abandon it the first time), and hopefully there would be an opportunity to at least make that case.
   • Question: Does it make a difference whether she applies for the B-2 visa before or after the CR-1 petition has been submitted? I read the entire thread about visiting on tourist visas during the CR-1 process but wasn't clear about that part. Obviously the timing would affect the answers to some of the questions on the application and we would pay close attention to that.
3. After the I-130 has been submitted, file an I-129F petition for a K-3 visa.
   • Again, we would not be interested in adjusting status; this would just be another alternative that would hopefully allow her to visit while the CR-1 is in progress.
   • Question: Is there any problem with having both an I-129f petition for the K-3 and a B-2 application in process at the same time? Since it appears that the Ecuadorian consulate is not issuing B-2 visas right now, I would rather get the K-3 process started as soon as possible rather than waiting for the outcome of the B-2.
   • I understand that these are often denied as well, although it does seem like a good fit for a situation like ours.

I plan to email the non-immigrant visa section of the consulate to ask them for more clarification (in the past I have been able to get answers, although not without a lot of back and forth). In the meantime, I would appreciate the insight of anyone with experience in this, especially from the few out there who have abandoned K-1 AOS in favor of the CR-1.

If none of the above works, I can and will continue to visit her in Ecuador, but it would be great to have more options.

I'll be happy to clarify with more details as needed.

Thanks in advance!

Hi!

So we are almost done with the i-129f and i havr heard mixed things about this so i figured i would ask here...does my beneficiary need his passport for us to file the i-129f? Can he get it later on in this process?

Hello all!

My wife and I are all ready to send out the K1 AOS packet, after painstakingly putting this together - and checking and rechecking everything. I used the visajourney guide (find it at the end of this post) since VJ never steers me wrong.

Here is my table of contexts, located on the cover page:

1. Payment for I-485
2. Cover Page (this page)
3. Form I-485
4. Form I-944
5. Declaration of Self-Sufficiency Explanation
6. Credit Inquiry
7. US Citizen Spouse s credit scores
8. Evidence of Health Insurance
9. Applicant s HS Diploma (with certified translation from Spanish)
10. Applicant s college transcript (Issued in English from top Ecuadorian university)
11. Applicant s passport (all pages, including K1 visa)
12. Copy of NOA2
13. I-94
14. Applicant s Birth Certificate (with certified translation from Spanish)
15. Marriage Certificate
16. Six (6) passport style photos (for forms I-485, I-764, and I-131)
17. Vaccination Explanation Letter
18. Form I-693 (sealed, from civil surgeon)
19. Form I-864
20. US Citizen Spouse s Birth Certificate
21. US Citizen Spouse s 2019 tax return
22. US Citizen Spouse s Pay Stubs
23. US Citizen Spouse s Employment Verification Letter
24. Social Security Card Explanation
25. Form I-765
26. Form I-131

That's the order, based directly on that guide, and almost all sections have a title sheet that says the name you see above (unless it's a letter/explanation, no need to have a title sheet for a letter).

Then I kept seeing posts that we should treat this as THREE different applications, and have almost 3 separate packets, even thought they are sent together. I thought this sounded like overkill, and it's different than what I see in this VJ guide...but I wanted to ask you guys. Should I re-organize things tonight before sending? Or will they sort it out?

Hi! So my fiance ans i are toying with the idea of a destination wedding. Can he travel outside of the US during the 90 days? What if when he gets the k1 visa approval we travel to our destination spot BEFORE he enters the US? We have our ceremony there then fly into the states and get our marriage certificate all before the 90 days, obviously.

Hello,

Just a question on evidence: my fiance and i talk all day every day, on whatsapp and fb messenger...so in gathering evidence, I have found that pieces of a conversation are important or relevant to our case. There doesn't have to be any sort of flow or order to the conversations we choose to include in our packet is there? As long as conversations are relevant to our case and translated into english, is it okay if the screenshots jump around a bit?

Thanks,

Ashley and Manuel