US Immigration from Ukraine

Good day all!!

I wanted to give some pointers that I know are in the guides, but might be questioned when going through the process:
My fiancee had her interview in Kyiv early this morning and I thanked her for the information she provided me as I was going to pass it to here on VJ so that it would help couples.

One of the things she stressed was pictures. For Kyiv, we visited all sorts of random landmarks (motherland statue, Catacombs of the I cannot think but the cathedral, the glass bridge with the KIEV letters. recognizable stuff) and the embassy officer enjoyed seeing those pictures. So her encouragement to everyone is, "take pictures outside. If in Kyiv, take pictures at statues or landmarks that are specific to kyiv. If in RIO, take a picture of something specific to Rio." She mentioned Rio because a coworker of hers (colleague as she calls it) was there for a little bit.

She also said she thinks what helped our case was:
-We met in a 3rd country, but I traveled to Ukraine to see her. So it was not like we just met and I came to see the Mediterranean sea (because we met in person in Turkey September 2020 after talking on whatsapp/telegram since January 2020), I came to actually see her. (yeah I know i repeated myself. I am tired since her interview was 2:30am central time and I wanted to stay up and make sure she was ok ).

-She said financial documents were important (V2, VV2, wait no W2 it was cute to hear her say that so I had to post it, I-134, tax transcripts, i grabbed the transcripts from the IRS site. Saved me 5 pages of transcripts instead of 165 pages of my return, my letter of employment from my employer, almost mentioned my employer haha, my bank account statements, note i didnt say the signed one from the bank but just statements online i printed)
-The proof of relationship and ongoing that she brought? Nope not our chats, the man who printed documents for her forgot to print those. Nope not my intent to marry, they never asked for it. Photos and my paychecks. yes I said my paychecks. She said she was asked what she had proof of for our ongoing relationship and she handed them, my recent payslips. God bless her and her sweet Ukrainian heart.

My recommendation though, front load your I-129F petiton with photos, intent to marry (as this is required), even a little background on how you met (we both wrote our 2 page accounts. Or a page and a half at least. Send that all to USCIS and let them sift through it. We only sent maybe 10-15 photos of us. Then, when it is interview time, backload everything again. Updated photos, letters of intent, etc. Just do it so it is there. It might not even be looked at but do it. And yes, everything that is recommended in the guide here for the interview or what people have recommended from their own lists, do it. Then match it to the P3 you receive from your embassy (the list they provide) and take everything.

If your country provides original divorce decrees instead of certificates like hers did because she had a son involved with the divorce, prepare for a possible RFE during the I-129F petition approval process (before NOA-2 which is the approval letter of the I-129F), unless the translation puts in bold lettering the statement that this is the final paperwork. We were rfe'd and I kindly wrote a 1/4 page explanation and even took screenshots and drew circles matching the original and translation.

Best wishes to anyone who goes through the process It sucks during it, but man it will be well worth the wait. Unless of course your country is moving through spousal visas faster, then rock the spousal visa so your spouse can have the green card and not have to go through adjustment here

I have sent the K-1 visa petition to Texas and after two weeks I received the receipt notice from California Service Center. I'm in Atlanta, GA so just confused as to why they sent to the California center. Any ideas? If they take beyond 6-8 months is there anything a lawyer could do to move it faster and make the USCIS take action on our petition?

I just wanted to share something I came across while doing a backup of my pc.

I know my profile states CR1/IR1, but my wife and I went though the K-1 process first, in 2018. She came to the US on the K-1 in 2019 and we got married, but she had to return to Ukraine due to a family emergency. We started all over again with the CR1.

Anyway, one of the benefits of the Kyiv embassy is that they sent my wife (fiance at the time) a complete scan of the I-129F petition, with the markups and annotations made by USCIS and NVC. It seems USCIS focuses on a few key details, which they circled or hand-marked (the new A-number for my wife, as an example). I thought I would share with those who may be interested.

1. Header "USCIS section"

2. My divorce information

3. If I ever petitioned before

4. My fiance's A-number designated and filled in by USCIS

5. If my fiance was previously married:

6. Information of how I met my fiance within the last 2 years:

Hello,

I have been in a relationship with my girl for a long time. COVID and other things threw a wrench into the works. We met in person the first time in June of 2019. Then we met a couple more times and then COVID happened. There were closed borders, she had COVID and was down for 6 weeks and etc...

My question is since the requirement is meeting in the last 2 years, what date, and what meeting do I put on my petition. The first date in 2019 or the first one in the last 2 years. Number of trips is not an issue, just which do I use to fill out the K1 Petition.

Thanks,

Brian

I am 99% sure I am completely overthinking this but:

Here is the page on the profile when I am trying to schedule an appointment for my fiancee and her child. This first page threw me off because it shows Kyiv's TMM office so I figured I would put that as the mailing address (and put DOES NOT APPLY as the state). Then a couple clicks later, I landed on the "how do you want the passport delivered?" So I came back here and erased. I want to make sure. Do I put her address in here or my US address? I assume hers because everything else is listed in Ukrainian form (phone number with ukraine country code, ok maybe just 1 thing). I woke up at 1am (after falling asleep at midnight) this morning to help her submit her ds-160 so she felt comfortable to pay the MRVs with both applications submitted so my mind is not quite as clear.
Again my only question is, her Kyiv address, the TMM address, or my US address?
We put everything on rush to ensure they both would only be waiting on home selling and I am going to try to schedule an interview for either Friday or the week of the 20th. I know there is probably a post in VJ but my keyword is useless today. All i've found is either travel docs not working or post or other stuff that I understand. Thanks in advance as this forum has been awesome the last (almost 1 year since i signed up)