wazzujoel

In Part 3 it states the following : "Have you ever applied for an immigrant visa to obtain permanent resident status at a US Embassy" My partner is Cuban. I applied for i-129f for her in Oct 2021, USCIS accepted that application in Feb 2023, and sent the application to NVC. In Jan 2023 I filed an application for her with Cuban Humanitarian Parole, and that application was approved and we are living together in the US now. This i-129f application was just abandoned, and she never filled out any paperwork with NVC. She is now filing i-485 to get permanent residency via Cuban Adjustment Act. My question is - Do I answer "yes" or "no" to if she has ever applied for a immigrant visa to obtain permanent residency? I believe the K1 visa is a non-immigrant visa which she never even received, so I would answer "no" based on that. Additionally, since she never filled out any documentation with NVC, she also technically didn't apply for anything. I requested with USCIS a non-immigrant path for her, but that wasn't her request, it was mine. Note - I am not trying to hide the i-129f, I am really just trying to make sure I am answering the questions correctly.

This was helpful. Thank you. We will be submitting i485 with a blank middle name. I agree I'd rather get an RFE for not putting "NONE" or "NMN" and then having that be a middle name on the green card.

You can get a K1 approval with one "in person" meeting at the airport for 1 minute before you reboard and fly home. The meeting doesn't have to be substantial to pass the USCIS i-129f "in person" meeting requirements. Additionally USCIS does not require you to prove you have a real relationship with the initial i-129F application packet. This is a mistake many people make in my opinion because they get so hung up on proving their relationship is real versus reading the directions carefully and providing everything they asked for exactly and nothing more. On personal note - You should really reconsider your path where you want to move forward with someone you have only met in real life 11 days total. I also have a relationship with a Cuban. I met her randomly on my first trip to Cuba in 2017 and I wasn't looking for love but a friendship formed from a spark I noticed. We remained online friends for 5+ years and during Covid a romance developed online. I traveled to see her again in Sept 2021 during the height of covid which at the time all flights from the Americas were canceled. I had to fly from NY to Spain, and then from Spain to Havana, and then had to be locked for 5 days in a "quarantine hotel". I then spent the next month with her. After that I traveled to see her for 1.5 weeks in Nov 2021, 2 weeks in January 2022, 2 weeks in March 2022, 1 weekend in may 2022, we both traveled to Trinidad and Tobago for two weeks in June 2022, and then I came back for a week in July 2022, and then two weeks in September 2022, and then a weekend in Oct 2022, 1.5 weeks in Nov 2022, and then two weeks in Jan 2023, and finally she arrived to the states on April 7th 2023 on i-134a. Why am I telling you all this? This is important - Even with all of this in person visit, it's a huge change going from "full time long distance romance" to "full time 24/7 in person living together". We talked often about how our relationship would change when we were finally living together full time and it did, it was as we thought it would be. In my situation the transition has been quite successful. We are still in love and we are living a good life together, however I'd be lying if I said there aren't difficult times where we need to work through relationships. A long distance foreign relationship is no different than any other relationship, the only difference is you aren't spending enough time together in person to really discover the potentially real deal breakers. I'd highly encourage you to find some way to see your partner more. Borrow money from friends or family if that's what you need to do.... but without spending substantial time together you are really sitting yourself up for failure and heartache.

I successfully brought my Cuban fiancée and her direct family (and one friend) to the USA on i-134a. I applied on January 6th 2023 and they were approved late March 2023. I have additionally applied for one of her first cousins in May, and that application remains untouched. I will tell you that it's a very frustrating process, and I feel that we were very lucky to have our applications worked on. You need to fill out the application correctly (read the directions closely and use common sense), but the process for selecting which applications will be processed is a literal luck situation. There are no timelines for processing, and it's possible your application will never be processed. Your application could be processed in 1 day after submission, or you could be waiting 1+ year of more. The i-129f fiance visa application was also frustrating, however at least that one has set timeframes which you can force them to process your case if you are outside of the established processing order. my thoughts for you would be to apply as soon as possible and cross your fingers. Also I would recommend submitting your application around 10:59-11am EST on a Monday and not the last week of that month and not a monday that is a holiday. This advice is me being a little superstitious but I have watched approvals in various groups, and I've noticed unsubstantiated patterns in approvals and I feel the timeslot I just listed gives you your best chance of approval.

As a side note - If you do end up going to Trinidad and Tobago you absolutely must get a rental car and drive out to the eastern coast and stay at the AcaJou hotel! Link below. They have super cute bungalows that are nestled between the beach and a rain forest. The food is locally grown, natural, and fantastic. The accommodations are are very romantic, and nice. And the most amazing part is the beach where this is, from like May-July these massive 2,000-2,500 lb leatherback turtles come onto this beach to instinctly dig a 4 foot hole, lay their eggs, and then head back into the ocean. They do this at night and to the early morning. The beach is protected but they sell passes where you can go with a guide and see all this first hand. Even baby turtles that were laid weeks ago might hatch and climb up through the sand. I helped a little guy get to the ocean, super amazing. And these animals are so massive! You really wont believe it. Probably about the size of a riding lawn mower, except maybe not that tall. www.acajoutrinidad.com Here was one of the turtles in the morning. If you go, get up early and head down to see them in the morning... At night they are guided and give you all the information you need to know. Early in the morning you can go by yourself and still see a few. Most of the magic happens at night. This turtle pictured below wasn't even one of the big ones.

Hello friends! Long time no see. And before you offer condolences, this isn't a sad story but a happy one! We received NOA2 on I-129F in February 2023, however before NVC contacted us she was approved for Humanitarian Parole (i-134a) and she has been in the states since April! Things are going great. She's enrolled full time in the local community college taking English classes and ESOL classes. Although she's fluent, she wanted to spend time with her grammar and pronunciation. She plans to get her dental education sent to the states, and work at becoming licensed here which requires decent English skills. Here is the question - Since USCIS/NVC doens't make it easy to cancel an application, we just decided to let it resolve itself of it's on volition. However I've heard through the grapevine that when we go to apply for premiant residency (I-485) under Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) that an open i-129F case could cause a denial or delays. Is this true? And does anyone have a nice form letter to sign and send to USCIS and NVC to cancel this case? Lastly I never even contacted NVC, is it easy to find their mailing address or can any of this be quickly resolved with a phone call? Thank you Bonus pic : We claimed Mt Rainier up to Camp Meir last July. Not an easy hike, but we did it!

When I took this trip it was June 2022 and at the time I was able to buy a direct flights from Havana to Trinidad and Tobego on CaribbeanAir. I booked this flight in the states for her. At the time there was Covid restrictions which almost derailed the entire trip however we were able to work around it with appropriate bribes to get her a WHO approve covid vaccine. This isn't an issue anymore though. So give CaribbeanAir a call and try booking his RT flight for him. T&T might require him to have cash when he arrives because otherwise it looks like he might be trying to commit illegal immigration. When we went, I met her there and arrived before her and explained the situation. Immigration just rushed her through when she arrived because they knew she was with an american and only on a vacation.

I've seen two people approved with a 1 month processing time. I am not an expert on USCIS's process, however I would guess perhaps the reason for the quick processing time is because the burden of proof is so much lower for CAA. All the agent needs to verify is that it's been 1 years since they entered (i-94) and that they have a Cuban birth certificate. It's gotta be one of the easier AOS's categories right? That is a real question because I haven't looked at the i-485 for marriage or any other category. I just know the amount of evidence required for CAA i-485 is almost nothing.

Yeah all of this is spot on with my situation. I have heard that marriage based i-485 AOS are taking 1-2 years for approval, and I have seen two cases where a Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) based i-485 AOS took 1 month. So it's not clear what path would really be faster for citizenship if that was our main motivating factor (It isn't). Marry on day one, and then marriage based AOS in 1-2 years, or wait a year to qualify for CAA and then AOS in 1 additional month.

Yeah, I know that's an option for some, however I personally would prefer a 'good enough' wedding on a rushed 90 day timeline, verses a courthouse wedding with big ceremony later. My first marriage (to an American) was basically a rushed courthouse marriage and it's something I personally don't want to ever do again. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the idea, it makes a lot of sense for sure... but it's just not for me. 🙂 Regardless since my partner is coming on Humanitarian Parole there is a lot of things on our plate and now we will have the time to marry when it's an appropriate time for us. I sponsored her entire family so getting everyone integrated into American society will be a massive chore.

I was being careless with my words. The 90 days isn't enough time for us to plan the wedding that we both desire. I (we) want to have a "dream wedding". At the time of the year we desire, at the perfect venue we want, with the perfect dress, with all our close friends and family, and lots of planning of events/speeches/flower arrangements/photographers/etc. Had she traveled to the US under K1, 90 days is a little tight to really organize everything we really wanted. Lots of corners would have been cut with Venues and things like that. We would have settled for a "good enough" instead of "perfect". Certainly if this had happened the Wedding we would have planned would have been cute and great for us... But having more time for preparations would be nice.

My last update to this post. The law I was worried about being enacted in Cuba is still only rumor and speculation. After a couple of months of daily action and analysis to find some way to get movement with USCIS, I am convinced there is nothing that can get this organization to process your application any faster. You best hope is to be patient and work on your own mental health to try and not go crazy over how unfair the system was. I received approval last Friday (really 11:46PM on 3/24) after I had submitted applications for her family on 3/20. It was one of her family members applications which triggered being confirmed on 3/24 which then caused all other applications to be confirmed. My partner will be coming to the US next week 🙂 Here is an update success thread I made

My best advice would be to remember what path you are arriving from, and make sure your honest answers are appropriate for the path you are traveling on. For example - If the CBP officer asks my fiancée - "Where will you be staying?", a decent answer to that question is "With my boyfriend who is my sponsor". A poor answer would be "With my fiancé, whom I plan to marry within 90 days, and so I could file an AOS". This might cause the CBP agent to say you are traveling on the wrong immigration path and send the beneficiary back to Cuba. In my current situation, we have no immediate plans to get married. Had we got to the embassy interview stage of K1 then we would have scrambled to make some sort of marriage plans, and had she traveled on K1 we would have married within the 90 days even though 90 days isn't nearly enough time to get married. i-134a is much more applicable path for us, as she really is traveling for humanitarian reasons.

77 days waiting for me... I emailed/called congressmen regularly, senators regularly, filed application with ombudsman, emailed the President of USCIS, made duplicates that I regret I made, called USCIS often, was put in a queue to talk to a Tier 2 agent on 1/31 and never received a callback. Analyzed this from every possible angle, trying to find some logical sense to why some are processed within days, while others wait 6+ months.... In my experience, everything I did was wasted efforts. And this is what I would suggest for anyone waiting on this process : Limit social media time. Accept this is a unfair random process, and there is nothing you could have done differently for your application to be accepted. I do believe that the longer you go in the system, the system does put some weight on those that are bumping up close to 90 days. This is pretty much all the advice I can offer. Be patient and try your best to not allow yourself going crazy over how unfair the process is. Tips for those about to apply - Submit your application at 11am EST on a Monday. idk why but I am superstitious a little and this was the submission time on the application I submitted that got approved. Note - it wasn't my fiancée who was initially approved but one of her family members that I applied for on 3/20 at 11am. They were confirmed at 11:46 pm on 3/24, and then everyone I applied to sponsor was then approved.

Yup. You remember correctly. We are in the process of getting her Cuban Dental degree sent to the USA and once she passes the dental boards here then she will hopefully enroll in a 2 year International Dental Program here to be a fully licensed dentist in NY. 🙂

I met my fiancée in 2017 when I randomly visited Cuba after changes President Obama made for US persons traveling to Cuba. I knew she was someone special right away from this chance meeting, however when I told her I was interested romantically she said, "Joel, I live in Cuba, you live in NY. It's ridiculous to think we could maintain a romance when we have spent so little time together. Please don't speak of this nonsense again, and accept that we will only ever be friends". So I accepted this even though I thought she was wrong, and over the next 4-5 years we had an online friendship only. We usually chatted once a month and liked each others social media, but nothing much more and I never believed it would be anything more than a friendship. In March 2021 during Covid, a spark happened and she realized that she had developed feelings for me. We started talking daily, and discussing how we could make this romance real. It took until September 2021 for me to finally get back to Cuba, and when I did I had to fly through Madrid Spain because travel to Cuba had been highly restricted by the Cuban Regime because of Covid. I spent September 2021 in Havana, and over the next 2 years I've traveled to Cuba 11 additional times; Additionally we both traveled to Trinidad & Tobago for a two week vacation. This was her first time leaving Cuba. I filed for i-129f and received NOA1 on October 18th 2021. On January 6th 2023 I applied i-134a Humanitarian Parole. On February 10th 2023 we had our i-129f application approved by USCIS (NOA2) without receiving an RFE. On 3/24/2023 our i-134a application was confirmed, and she received Travel Authorization later that same day. I tried literally everything to get USCIS to take action on my application, however getting movement out of USCIS is impossible. Feel free to ask me questions about the i-134a humanitarian parole processes, and I'd be happy to share more about my details. I've shared this before, however this is a short video I made last October that is a glimpse of our life. Finally after two years we are about to start our everyday life together 🙂

Unless you are Cuban. Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) of 1966, allows Cubans Permanent residency after staying in the US for 1 year. Additionally I have seen Cubans receiving AOS via CAA in roughly a month. The amount of evidence you need to get Permanent Residency is I-94 showing when you arrived in the country, and your Cuban Birth Certificate. That's it which is why I think the approval is such a quick process. It's an amazing immigration path for Cubans.

I couldn't agree with you more. It's interesting to me how easily it is for "bad advice" to creep into widely followed practices. And I find it even more puzzling when actual immigration lawyers also follow these undocumented "bad advice" practices. Lawyers should really have no excuse. I know they are humans and can make errors too, but you'd think after studying law they have been very keen to following exactly what is being asked by the process and not reaching outside the scope of the instructions. But what do I know, I am not a lawyer... I only watch a lot of Judge Judy lol

Yes you are right that it does come down to the agents. I will even admit the two signed letters I sent were on the light side of evidence of intent to marry. Had they provided me an RFE then I would have followed up with my engagement ring receipt, wedding plans, chat exchange I had with pastor who will be marrying us. Things like that. I am not trying to discourage people from provided additional evidence of "Intent to marry" besides the two signed letters I sent which worked for me. Perhaps you might get one of those agents who want a little more evidence than letters of intent. I wish you best of luck on your journey. You will probably be okay, don't worry about it. If you do get an RFE though, read it very carefully and make sure you respond back with exactly what they are asking for.

Just to be clear - I am not saying that by providing "proof of relationship" that you will receive an RFE. You have to think of this from USCIS's perspective. They have a checklist of things they need to verify for them to give you approval. You application should be clear, and concise on exactly what they are looking for, such that they can give you a quick approval. Let me give an absurd example to prove my point : Perhaps someone applying starts thinking that passport photo isn't sufficient evidence to prove they are really a US citizen. Maybe they decide they wanted to send USCIS pictures from when they were 8 years old and their family took them on a road trip to Disneyland.... Maybe they include 20 pictures of their diary during that time so USCIS can see they really did go to Disneyland so they must be a US citizen. USCIS is not going to reject or RFE the application because they added this evidence of a family trip to Disneyland. The agent will probably roll their eyes and be slightly annoyed that people don't just follow the instructions. Now if this person decided not to send the passport photo because the "Disney pictures should be proof enough they are a US citizen", well then they are going to receive an RFE. I absolutely disagree with your immigration lawyers advice, and makes me question their capabilities. I am not saying you will receive an RFE for providing unnecessary information, however my biggest concern would be that you have not overlooked providing the correct evidence that they do require - "Evidence of two year meeting" and "Evidence of marriage Intent" being the two major pieces of evidence. You want to make the agents job as easy as you can. As I previously said, I saw someone get an RFE for "proving they had a relationship" because the "proof of having met within the last two years" was completely not-obvious. They had provided a dozen different flights, and 4 pages of passport stamps, and lot of whatsapp conversations and yet everything they provided only 1 of the trips was during the correct time period to count. Be clear, concise, and organized. I highly recommend a cover letter such that you can keep everything organized and clear.

I read through this thread and yes that was an RFE for "Intent to marry" Evidence. Again they are not asking for proof of a relationship, they are asking for proof that you two intend to actually marry. Note that it is very possible to be in a decade old relationship, having dozens of trips yearly to see each other, but not intend to ever really get married. So, what you need to prove to USCIS in this situation is that you really do intend to marry. People who receive this RFE shouldn't get caught up in trying to prove they have a relationship. They listed things on the RFE that could be used for this evidence, but let me give you an example of so anyone reading this can understand the distinction I am making. One of the items you could send for evidence of "intent to marry" is "ongoing communication". Now lets assume two hypothetical communications that I will number for clarity. 1. 10 pages of WhatsApp history where you are discussing the March Madness basketball tournament. This is a topic you both enjoy a lot so every day you are engaging in lots of discussion about what team is going to beat the other. Since you are partners, lets also assume there is an occasional "I love you" thrown in there. 2. 10 pages of WhatsApp history where you are discussing your future wedding. Discussing how much is appropriate to spend on the dress, cake, venue, music. You are talking about friends you want to come to your wedding and who will be the best man. Basically you are talking about your life plans. Hopefully it's perfectly clear that in these two hypotheticals, #2 is what USCIS is wanting to see. They are not looking for evidence that you have a relationship, they are specifically looking for evidence that you "intend to marry". My evidence I submitted for "intent to marry" was light. What I included was two signed letters, one from me and one from my partner, that was addressed to USCIS and explained our marriage intent. This was sufficient for the agent that reviewed my case. Here is one of the two signed letters that I provided so you can see how simple it was. I have redacted the names and addresses but kept the coloring the same so hopefully it is still readable.

Thank you 😄 I was recently on this large Facebook group "K1 fiance Visa Filers" where I often times helps many people with detailed comments like above. Anyways the Admin of the group (Sabrina) kept telling everyone that they needed to provide evidence of a relationship otherwise they would get an RFE. She was advocating for sending 100's of pages of Whatsapp chat logs and other ridiculous pieces of evidence to "Prove you have a relationship otherwise USCIS will give you a RFE to prove your relationship". I asked her to show me a single RFE from USCIS showing me you needed to "prove you had a relationship". First she shows me a RFE from the embassy asking for extra relationship evidence, and then when I point out that this was not an RFE from USCIS then she provides me with a USCIS RFE for "2 year meet evidence". She then banned me from the group since my advise was contrary to hers. Anyways, stupid story I know, but just telling it because after that it's nice to have my posts here appreciated 🙂

I am happy to hear my post is helping people. 🙂 I think scanning the plane tickets is the best approach because scans are very easy to read, However pictures of the plane tickets are also okay. The important thing is if dates and locations and names are readable. Just remember, you want to make your evidence clear, concise, and easy to follow. The evidence you are supplying should only be evidence that establishes clearly that you met each other in real life, and I would personally only include evidence from one trip. Although copy of boarding passes, photo of passport stamp, hotel receipt, and pictures are sufficient, I personally don't have an issue with providing any potential extra information you might have to establish you met each other. For example, if you two went to a zoo on this trip, have two dated tickets for the zoo during this trip, and have a photo of you two together at the zoo, then this would be excellent evidence. For me I only supplied plane tickets, passport stamp photo, hotel receipt, and photos together because that's all the evidence I really had of the trip. And I received NOA2 without an RFE. My main recommendation is to avoid suppling evidence of relationship because USCIS does not ask for that. And I would strongly recommend if you have multiple trips that would qualify, pick the best one that you have the most evidence for. No reason to confuse USCIS with multiple trips and timelines.

Follow this.

You have provided USCIS information extra information that they don't need. And I have seen cases where people provided extra information and they ended up getting an RFE because the evidence they provided was not concise and it was hard to follow. I honestly don't know why people keep doing what you have done, because you are operating outside the scope of what USCIS asked in the i-129f instructions. You do not need to prove to USCIS that you have a relationship. In fact, it's literally not USCIS's job to confirm that you have a relationship, that's the job of NVC/Embassy. USCIS's job is to confirm that you filled out the form without errors, that the petitioner is a US citizen, that both parties provide evidence that you intend to marry, and that you have evidence that met at least once in the previous 2 years prior to filing. Additionally there are some extra steps you might have to prove if either has been previously married, if either have a criminal record, or if you met through a marriage broker. That's literally all USCIS is going to verify.... USCIS will NOT send a RFE for you to "prove you have a relationship" and if they did I would like to see it because it would be a legal case against USCIS for asking for material outside of their scope. I was approved by USCIS (NOA2) on 2/10/2023. I Provided a correctly filled out i-129f, check for 535, two passport style photos, copy of my birth certificate, two signed letters stating that each of us intended to marry the other, copy of our divorce decrees, and finally evidence of meeting in the prior 2 years. This evidence included exactly copy of plane tickets to/from my fiancée's country, copy of passport stamps, 4 dated pictures during this visit, and one hotel receipt during this visit. I provided literally nothing else and was approved without a RFE. You might ask "What was the situation I saw where someone received an RFE by providing too much information?" Well this person was not a English speaker and they didn't understand the RFE they received. The RFE said they needed to provide clear evidence of seeing each other in the last two years. They then showed me 4 pages of passport stamps proving they had a relationship, said they sent them 10 airline tickets, and 30 pages of whatsapp chat logs, and lots of pictures. Well I looked over their evidence and no wonder USCIS denied them... on the 10 flights they submitted only 1 of them actually met the 2 year meeting requirements. Whoever advised this person to submit a massive packet of evidence that USCIS doesn't ask for was wrong. These agents approving applications are working on a checklist of things they need to look for. If you drown them in information then maybe they overlook the actual information they need to give you a checkmark and approve you.