W199

As I've experienced, to reduce the risk that they'll find out sooner than later, make sure you don't have any social media profiles that reveal your relationship, even under a fake name. With all the friends of friends, and "profile suggestion to friend based on contact lists", there isn't any privacy.

That would be very nice to come in on an IR-1 instead of a CR-1. Given how slow the Philippines can be in giving you your PSA, that may be a good plan, even if you needed to stretch it out a few months.

In about ~3 years from now, when you file the I-751 90 days before her 2 year green card expires, then you should change the house to joint names. I know someone who was rejected because they didn't do that. But after they did, they got it approved. For myself, I changed the house and car to joint names to assure everything goes smoothly for the I-751. You could also do a postnup if you feel uncomfortable it or move it into a trust later. As far as loosing ownership rights, It really doesn't matter much in my State due to marital and estate/inheritance laws that override wills and such,. unless its in a irrevocable trust.

BTW, I am a USC and was able to open a bank account in the Philippines from the USA, without needing to even step foot in the Philippines. all without an ACR card, and not even married at the time. The bank even sent me by FEDEX the security dongle and ATM cards. This was all free too. The catch is that it was a non-resident account with a lot of restrictions. But it is perfect to do instant transfer to it from USA, and then transfer money elsewhere in the Philippines using pesonet. Its not allowed to do the reverse, unless its USD. LOL, almost like a one-way account. I like that I can get a better exchange rate than using WU or Xoom, and the safety net that it provides when I travel there. The account will lend me upto $10K in emergency money even if my balance is near zero.

You have way more than enough evidence that your marriage is legit and eligible for the CR-1. It is during the I-751 removal of conditions, to change her green card from a 2 year one to a 10 year one when you need to have the stronger evidence, such as a joint lease or home title, joint bank accounts and so forth, they don't expect you to have that at this point. It will be hard for you to get a joint bank account in the Philippines since you are a non-resident. A non-resident account is very restricted, almost useless

If you don't trust her, then for sure you should email the embassy (since its in their hands now) to let them know you are withdrawing. Otherwise, what I had done, was to do nothing. That caused the I-129F petition to expire at the embassy, which in turn caused the embassy to send it back to USCIS. This did not have any affect on my subsequent K-1.

"joint" in this context is not slang for a "joint" that you smoke. In this context, "joint" means "shared, or 2 or more people" .. as in a 2nd person will sponsor you financially. But sure, it would be really cool if USCIS required you to have a joint sponsor using the slang meaning of joint. But they prefer money and must stay clear away from anything that is illegal by the Federal govt such as marijuana

> Do u have a joint sponsor? >> I don't smoke. But my girl does and she's excited about moving to Oregon where weed is legal. A joint sponsor is referring to someone that will sponsor you financially, and co-sign the financial documents for you to meet the financial requirements of K-1.

Our filing was a little later than yours, mid-February. A few weeks later the receipt showed up in the documents tab, a few days after that in the mail, and then about a week later (a few days ago) got an online biometrics appointment.

IMBRA limits you to 2 approved I-129F petitions in a lifetime, or a 2nd one within 2 years of the 1st one. But you can get a waiver for either case. Without an approved I-129F you can't get a K-1. So there is ultimately a limit of the number of K-1's, Its just semantics saying there is no limit to K-1 just a limit on I-129F. In fact, I'm pretty sure if the USCIS inadvertently approved a I-129F and the embassy discovered he had 2 prior approved I-129F's or an approved one within 2 years without a waiver, they would not issue the K-1 and send it back to USCIS. Hence, enforcing the spirit of the law. So its all the same thing, just semantics. If the embassy denied the K-1 visa and the petitioner went to legal net, I bet they would side with the embassy that there is a limit of 2 I-129F. They would not say that IMBRA only limits I-129F and the embassy should have issued it the K-1 despite USCIS approving the I-129F. So its all the same despite the terminology. The question the OP was asking and such was a practical question, not a legal terminology question.

I don’t know if you are playing semantics trying to say a I-129F approval is different from the visa itself, but IMBRA does limit the number of approved I-129F in a lifetime, without a waiver. For all practical purposes that’s the same as 2 K1 visas. That’s why I got an RFE for my 3rd K1 for a 2nd approved I-129F that was close to 30 years ago. It’s not just a 2nd one within 2 years. IMBRA says If you have filed two or more K-1 visa petitions at any time in the past, or previously had a K-1 visa petition approved within two years prior to the filing of the current petition, a waiver must be obtained before your K-1 petition can be approved.

My friend did that because his fiancée decided she wanted the security of being married before giving up her job and life and moving to the USA. It worked out fine for them. The costs are complicated. Being married this year affects his taxes, either more or less, depending on complex factors. For me, I took a HUGE hit in taxes by doing a K-1. Then the costs of flying to meet you again to get married, the wedding itself, the dress, even flying over guests/parents, etc... can affect the costs. For myself, my Wife got her EAP/AP very quickly. Nearly 1 year before she even needed it. She spent the time learning to drive, getting accustomed to everything, going places with me, and focusing on our relationship, and only about a year later was she ready to look for a job. It really helped didn't rush into getting a job sooner. Even the CR-1 is going to have some risks. Its a very low risk, but what if it is not approved, then you will be stuck married, or during that 1.5 year wait, the LDR goes sour. Everyone and every relationship is so different and has different priorities. Just decide what is your priority, where you want to get married, and do what are you are sure won't cause resentment and hurt the relationship, for the both of you. Either is going to be a good choice, I think.

What do you mean? The OP's question literally said he had 2 approved K1 visas, which he further elaborated on. Therefore, why are saying that he did not have any approved K1 visas? USCIS does limit you to 2 K-1 VISAs in a lifetime. The wording of "limit of filing 2 I-129Fs is just semantics. You can file as many I-129 as you want, they will gladly take your filing fee. But they will not be approved without a waiver, In addition, you do not need a waiver before you can file more K-1's. You can simply include the waiver in the K-1 filing itself. In fact, you don't even necessarily need to do that. I didn't even include a wiaver. They just sent me an RFE and asked me to send them a waiver due to the IMBRA limit of 2 approved K1 visas in a lifetime. Again, not a limit on the filing itself, bur rather getting it approved. A few days after I sent it in, I was approved.

Close! I had a prior CR1 too! Nope, only a waiver after the 2nd K1 for the case of multiple K1's. But there are other cases where you need a waiver for a K1. You can send me a PM about chatting on the phone ....

The limit on K1's only apply to additional K1's. It does not affect future CR1s. This is a reason why people with multiple K1's choose to go the CR1 route. For myself, I got a waiver for helping a multiple K1's and got yet another one. I had a similar history as you with 1 returning to their country, and 1 never coming to USA and never getting married.

BTW, yesterday, we received the receipt notice in the mail. Total time, just under 3 weeks. The weird thing is it didn't show up in USPS informed delivery.

Many embassies have an email address to report fraud. I once sent an email to the fraud reporting email for the USA embassy in the Philippines. They thanked me, and asked me to continue sending any more fraud reports. Hence, if i was me, I'd email the fraud unit at the Manila embassy if it was the Philippines, and notify USCIS with the evidence. It may not amount to anything, but it at least you did your part.

I just checked my VISA card, and you are correct, we were charged $700 for the online filing. The weird thing, and the reason I got confused, is that the I-751 receipt notice that we just got online says "amount received: $750", Obviously they need to update their SW for this new online filing feature. Does your receipt notice also say $750?

Actually, about 2.5 weeks after filing and the status changing to "a receipt notice was sent", we just received a pdf copy of the notice in our online account. Also, the fee was $750. Did you make a typo when you said your fee was only $700?

Are you saying in your documents tab of your online account there was a pdf of the notice? Or do you mean that the status changed to something like "receipt is issued and will be sent to you"? For myself, it was the latter. we only filed 3 weeks ago, and there is nothing in the documents tab, except the status says a receipt notice has been issued. I expect it to take 6 to 12 weeks to get it in the mail. Some people I saw got the I-751 approved in just 6 months or so, but most take 2-3 years. This is a moot point in most case, because in just 1 more year most people apply for N-400. You will get your naturalization even sooner.

Congrats! Just in time to enjoy the blizzard!

Also, when we finally did hit the "pay and submit" button earlier this week, the status changed to something like "received, please allow 30 days for the application to be accepted or rejected". However, the very same day, we got an update that it was accepted and receipt notice is being sent out. Though there was none in the documents tab, so I suspect that it will take up to 6 weeks to receive it along with the GC extension.

We just submitted our I-751. We were able to add all the evidence online prior to submitting. You can start this before the 90 day window opens, just can't pay and submit it until the 90 day window begins. We could also just add and delete any evidence that we had uploaded without any issues, multiple times, as long as you did not let your application sit idle for more than 30 days. You can also delete the whole application and re-start later. It does a validity check on the I-751 pdf itself. So to give it a quick check before we finalized it, we uploaded the actual I-751 app to validate it. Then we deleted it. But that was a mistake because it also deleted all the uploaded evidence files. For the photos, we had to break it up into 2 PDF's to keep it below the 12MB file limit.

I do agree that the CR-1 is a better choice for you because she will need (and want) to work when she gets here, and it will give you more time to get a stable job with sufficient income. Note, in 1 year and 9 months after she arrives, you will still need to apply for her 10-year greencard (I-751) since her initial greencard will expire in 2 years. Also, I doubt it would be faster than a K-1 since you are not even going to get married for 4+ months. Then you need to wait for the marriage certificate, which can takes weeks or a lot longer, and then do all the paperwork, etc.. Though, you can and should start the paperwork now so you can be an A-student by the time you send it in. By the way, it might be a lot less expensive, and a lot faster and easier to get the marriage certificate by doing a Utah virtual wedding rather than trying to a marriage in the DR. You can do that marriage while you are in the USA over zoom, get the marriage certificate, then you need to go meet her to make it valid for immigration purposes before you can submit the CR-1.

He already said "I have no one else. Everyone in my family is dead. My Mom is the only person I have left in my life. "