wazzujoel

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.

Unfortunately I've made no progress. USCIS is a mess.

I submitted an i-134a case on January 6th. My background - No criminal record, hold a Masters degree in Engineering, working for prestigious fortune 500 company, no debt, own my own home. My application should take 5 minutes for a USCIS approval. My beneficiary - Cuban dentist, fluent in English, no criminal record, and she is my fiancée. We applied for K1 on Oct 18th 2021, and have yet to receive NOA2. K1 no longer matters. There are been several news outlets that are reporting that Cuba has law that is in the process of being passed. This law will prevent all medical personal from leaving the country. This includes Dentist, Doctors, Nurses, technicians, and anyone working at the hospitals or medical places. I have called USCIS for the last 3 days trying to get some sort of urgency. Every agent I have spoken too has been very sympathetic and has done everything within their power to get some help. I was placed in a queue to speak to a Tier 2 agent and my spot in line was marked URGENT. It's now been 72 hours and I have not received a call. My application(s) still sit there with no movement. I don't know what to do. I am fearful that my fiancée is going to be locked in this country. Please! does anyone know any ways of getting immediate action from USCIS. This is super time sensitive and this could be happening any day now. Please help. I am desperate.