jaime+leo

Wait, does all this mean that anyone who is fluent in English and the language in question can translate the foreign documents? It'd be a lot easier for my fiance to translate his police report than to pay a certified translator to do it and take two weeks.

Sometimes reading these forums give me more questions than I started out with!

Hello fellow Feb.-filers.... I just found this thread and thought I'd hop in. I enjoyed reading all of your experiences so far... so much of it was "oh! that happened to me too!" I sent everything in at the end of January, and my first NOA was dated Feb 5!

Mostly so far I've been very impressed with how quickly everything moved... Not just with the VSC but with the consulate too! Ten days after the date of the NOA2 the consulate sent out packet 3, which arrived 10 days after that! Actually the most surprising part was having the quick turn-around between VSC and the Montreal consulate, as the US/Canadian border is notorious for swallowing and/or delaying mail for weeks. (Seriously, if I send two pieces of mail on the same day--one to Brazil and one to Canada--the one sent to Brazil will arrive faster.)

We are waiting for a response to the checklist having been sent in.... A response which I assume will include an interview date! Then again, the checklist was only sent in on Saturday, so I really should not be impatient yet.

Quick question for you folks: My father is sponsoring my fiance, as I'm a grad student and am living that cliche'd life of ramen noodles and wonder bread. I hadn't planned on providing my own affidavit of support (I134), as I figured my father's $100k+ salary would appease them, but it seems most of you are filling one out yourselves too, even with a co-sponsor. Do you think that's something I ought to do? I still have time to pull the info together since we haven't gotten an interview date yet, but it's not something I had previously thought might be necessary.

Good luck to everyone here, best wishes for speedy deliveries of meandering packets!

If it makes you feel any better, I've only had very positive responses and very friendly phone operators when trying to call the NVC for info. Those people are there to help, don't hesitate to call.

Oh.... Well that makes sense too. I was looking into advance parole when I got this idea in my head, I sure was mixing things up. So he shouldn't be afraid of looking like he's not going back to Canada, then, huh? Excellent.

Thanks

Good. Right. Okay. That makes sense.... I wonder where this idea of mine came from.

Thanks.

jaime+leo,

You're making things up. There can be no adjustment of status if he skedaddles.

Yodrak

I've convinced myself that somewhere on the USCIS or NVC websites I read that a K1 only allows the fiance to visit, not to live, in the US--that is, to come to the US, get married, and skedaddle until his status is changed. Am I crazy? It doesn't make sense that the K1 wouldn't allow the fiance to actually stay, seeing as how it's impossible for him to leave the country and return without advance parole or a change of status.....

I want to make sure my fiance won't have a problem at the border whenever he does manage to get through this process. He will not be able to prove any ties whatsoever to Canada, since his student visa is up, his program is over, he doesn't have any family there, doesn't own property, etc etc. Like I said, over the past week or so I convinced myself that I read a K1 entrant has to be able to prove ties to the country he's leaving.

Someone just tell me I'm making things up! (Or, if I'm not making things up, tell me that too)

thanks

Wow, I'm very glad I stumbled across this site! I've already found tons of info here... I've been feeling very overwhelmed about this whole process. But it looks like this is a great place to start.

Here's a bit about my story:

(I'll try to be brief but any situation like this is by definition complicated!)

Met my fiance in Canada, where we were both studying on Student Visas. He is originally from Brazil. We tried to get a K1 visa, but are now looking at the K3... Our K1 application was returned to us (not rejected) due to the stupidest mistake I could have possibly made -- when I wrote the check, I dated it 2005 instead of 2006! (D'oh!) So they sent the whole thing back after two months with the "staledated" check (which I wrote two months ago... grr). So that was totally my fault. Now we don't have enough time before he returns from Brazil to go ahead with the K1.

Now we're looking at our other options. Still planning our wedding for October 8th, which we had decided upon due to the "must get married within 90 days of entry into US" caveat of the K1. We'll get married in the US. We've switched gears -- instead of applying for a fiance visa, we're going to try for a spousal visa.

I do have one question to put to you guys -- I've read different things. Is the K1 a prerequisite of the K3?? I'm so confused about this. On the USCIS website, I read this:

Who is Eligible?

A person may receive a K-3 visa if that person:

-has concluded a valid marriage with a citizen of the United States;

-has a relative petition (Form I-130) filed by the U.S. citizen spouse for the person;

seeks to enter the United States to await the approval of the petition and subsequent lawful permanent resident status, and,

-has an approved Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiance, forwarded to the American consulate abroad where the alien wishes to apply for the K-3/K-4 visa. The consulate must be in the country in which the marriage to the U.S. citizen took place if the United States has a consulate which issues immigrant visas in that country. If the marriage took place in the United States, the designated consulate is the one with jurisdiction over the current residence of the alien spouse

http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/howdoi/hdiknonimm.htm

But nowhere else do I find this restriction. So far this is my #1 question with this whole thing. I will continue perusing all the info contained here and see what else comes up

Thanks for your help, best of luck to all you waiting for your own applications to clear up, and I'll be back again soon! B)

Haha... you know what? Just reading over my post and the answer came to me!

The I-129F is not the same as a K1 visa. Of course! It's just that silly 2-page form I filled out before... Wow, totally disregard my question. I've been bothered by that question for a few days now and then all the sudden it becomes clear on its own.

Guess I just popped in to say hi then!