W199

Strictly FYI: Regarding the topic of a legal name change in this thread, if you google There Is No Such Thing As A “Legal Name” then you will come to an article at "Columbia Law Human Rights Group" with a downlink link to a PDF paper that discusses this extensively, along with so called USCIS Legal name requirements. It is a very interesting paper

The policy of the USEM has always been to accept copies of everything from the petitioner unless there is some issue with the document (cropped, back copy, etc. etc..) But there appears to be a new employee, someone said maybe Korean background, not sure, who went rogue and started asking for originals/certified copies. But it appears they are reigning her in and making her get with the program. But the details of this are not clear if she is still forcing you to get certified copies or not. Has anyone within the last few weeks got a 221g in Manila because they had perfect scanned copies, just not certified?.

It would seem to be a critical piece of the waiver in order to show that she didn't intentially mis-represent. But maybe your lawyer's argument will be enough. You would think that getting married and providing an actuall marriage certificate would be enough to forgive a questionable and subjective case of being married or not. Therefore, you'd think they would approve the waiver, It would be absurd and cruel not to. But if it were me, this is the time to throw everything you can into the waiver .. from proof from the religions leader, proof, etc etc... to give it the best shot possible .. But thats just me.

There was a case where someone was refused for being too married or something like that. They fought it all the way to the USCIS appeals panel and was still denied. The USCIS director said that simply attesting to the fact that it was not a marriage ceromony was not proof. They would need a letter from a respected high level religious leader with credentials to certify that it was not equivalent to a wedding. Thats why I keep saying his waiver needs to includes proof of that sort, but he seems to ignore that. Maybe because he knows he can't get it?

Because there is a 2 week wait just to get the marriage license while you wait in the Philippines, everything is slow at best. Google how to get a married in the Philippines for more details.

Plus several months at least after that to get the marriage certificate needed to file for the CR-1. Plus the time until you acually return to get married. Thats why I said if you want a church wedding a K-1 is going to be faster if all you care about is the time until she gets to the USA. But this whole topic is way premature since you haven't met her yet, except for my post above for what you need to do on your next trip, as a bare minimum, just in case you do decide to file for a K-1 after you meet. You could even prepare her 2x2 photo and intent letters while you are there to make it easier.

Unfortunately you don't know what you don't know so you can't really appreciate the advice others have giving you international relationships and cultural differences that can distort what kind of relationship you really have. But in anycase, you are right about being proactive. When you go there, make sure at the airport you take photos of the boarding passes, and then photos of yourself with her, and photos of you with her and her family, and maybe her with her friends. And note the date, and location of each photo. You'll need this for the K-1. And since you want a Church wedding, not a Utah wedding, the fastest thing to get her to USA given what you described will definately be the K-1 as long as you don't mind the disadvantages of it. Finally, given how much you don't know, and your confusion, I would recommend you use a professional agency. Its going to save you a HUGE amount of time and confusion and mis-information on the internet through the whole journey. Thats what i did .. I used a agency that specializes in Filipino K-1 and CR-1, thats mostly all the do, it was the best $600 I spent. I'm not here to advertise for them, I just think you need it .. you can google to find them or send me PM .. and then you can call them for a free consult and decide for yourself.

I just talked to someone who got denied their K-1 because they met after filing the K-1. He paid the lawyer who filed the case $2500. Prior to filing, he had a zoom meeting with the lawyer and his fiancee. His lawyer told them it is fine that they can meet for the first time after the I-129F was filed. An extremely experienced retired CO/VO said that 90% of all lawyers he has dealt with are incompetant. Therefore, sadly, it seems you really need to research, interview, compare, and do your homework with the lawyers for something as serious as this. Same for doctors, ... etc... otherwise I wouldn't expect too much.

Wow, I'm not a lawyer, but it seems to me with that argument your lawyer is forcing the DOS to deny the waiver. DOS is not not going to open that door and set any precendent that they need to respond and provide proof to you. Is this the same lawyer that submitted your enagement ceremony photos for your K-1. Maybe your lawyer doesn't want to admit liability? If it were me, even if it was not technically a legal requirements, I would have been more humble, and focused the waiver on providing proof on how solid and sincere your relationship is, how much harm will come to the USC by not approving the waiver, an appology for any confusion, and proof from an official recognized religous leader that it was nothing more than an enagement party. I hope I am wrong .. but ......

All the lawyers that I had a consult with were dangerously incompetent. But I have heard some people talking about Shusterman, albeit extremely expensive. But I have no experience, you will need to do your own research and beware of anyone's recommendation. I would suggest an initial free consult to see who you feel comfortable with and can trust.. Getting on the youTube hacking law show seems like a good idea. Someone else suggested it in this thread.

My suggestion was as before. Get the highest, respected, top religous leader, who has the credentials to match to write a letter certifying that your engagment ceremony was not a marriage ceremony, and to explain the customs, and maybe some legal docs from the registrar showing there is no marriage records ... Maybe you need to do a public records search in USA too, not sure. But in anycase, consult some additional attorneys that specialize in this .. not your average immigration attorney who are generally imcompetant.

Anything is possible. Maybe USCIS deferred the determination of engagement photos to the embassy. No one knows how the security and investigation procedures of the USCIS, they are all redacted. And the embassy just uses form letters and check off boxes, and purposely does not reveal the details. But its all a moot point. You know they told you they believe she is married and misrepresented that, and told you she is eligible for a waiver. You will just have to wait for thee waiver results. Hopefully your lawyer did a good job on it. You might want to get a 2nd opinion with a more experienced lawyer in the meantime.

On second thought, during the approval process they do an investigation, and the results of that information may have been harmless and not related to her misrepresentation of being married . But they simply use that as an excuse not to release that part of her file to her. Therefore, I would suggest not getting paranoid and reading to much into this. Its probably simple, and the waiver will be enough. Just hopefully you lawyer did a good in addressing the waiver and pointed out that the engagment ceremony was not a wedding ceremony. But I defer to your attorney what the right legal thing to do is, we are just guessing,. I suggest you don't worry about it and wait for the waiver

Well, that is not good. My simple plausible theory that I posted above MIGHT be wrong and there is something much nefarious going on with you or your fiancee that you are not aware of. If you waiver is approved then you will know there is nothing nefarious going on. If it is not approved, you might want to think about an annullment or a divorce. That is the one big but very rare disadvantage of a CR-1.

Then it does seem to all add up . USCIS got the photos and notified the embassy that it appears you had a religious marriage ceremony. All your researched confirmed that the embassy received information about your marriage, and Legal net informed you that USCIS made the determination that you are married. Finally, the embassy told her that she is eligible to apply for a waiver for the CR1, so that means they must think she is married to you and simply misrepresented that fact. I don't think they would say she is eligible to apply for a waiver if they thought she was married to someone else. Hence, your application for a waiver seems like the right thing to do. Hopefully in the waiver you addressed the fact that your engagement ceremony was just that, and not a legal marriage, and you request a waiver now that you have been legally married and applying for a CR1. If I were you I would request an expedite on the basis on a clear error that your enagement based on her Indian customs was not equivalent to a wedding and not a religious wedding ceremony. For that you would need the religious leader in her town to write a letter. Just you or your financee writing it, won't be enough, Including that letter int he waiver would have been good too ,

When people spend that much time in the USA, and go back and forth like that, it is highly suspicious that you are working illegally in the USA, especially since you don't even have a job or other finances to support your trip.

Did you provide those pictures with your original I-129F petition?

The document name should be Sentencia Judicial firme issued by the court that passed the sentence, and should have the seal/format of Judicial sentence and must be certified and have a certified translation to english.

As crazy cat said, the tax returns transcript is the correct one. However, depending upon your embassy, your unique financial situation, and so forth they may want additional evidence such as recent pay stubs, letter of employment, and/or the "wages and income" transcript since it contains your W2 and 1099 data (which is usually required if you are submitting your actual tax returns instead of the tax transcript). To be on the safe side, I am including my wages and income transcript, but not the other additional evidence based on my unique situation.

No, you need to wait for your GC or EAD (the EAD will come faster than your GC). Hopefully your attorney filed for your EAD.

Thanks, I stand corrected, it does appear that at the federal level, all they require is a marriage certificate as evidence of a name change, regardless of whether at the State level the legal name change requirements are met. Though it all seems to be an inchorent set of name change regulations. For example, the SSA will not accept my passport, driver's license, marriage certificates, etc. for proof of my first and middle name being swapped (same surname). The SSA wants me to get a State issued name change order to make the change. But other agencies like the VA will accept a passport as a name change. So the State, and Federal agencie have different requirements, and hence you can have different legally acceptable names between them all.

I do not understand how you make that conclusion based on the rules you posted. The rules said for immigration purpose they may use the legal married name (spouse's surname). Therefore, it is implying for immmigration purposes in order to use the spouse's surname, it must be your new legal name. The Michigan laws state the following. They marriage certiificate must be signed with the name you intend to use, otherwise, its not a legal name change. Therefore, since the spouses's surname is not the legal married name, then I do not understand how you conclude the that USCIS will accept it. Can you please clarify what I am mis-interpreting? But maybe I am reading it wrong because the 2nd set of parentheis in what you posted does say "spouse's surname" .. But this seems really vague and contradictory with the previous sentence that clearly says "legal name". A SPOUSE WHO INTENDS TO CHANGE THEIR NAME AFTER MARRIAGE MUST SIGN & PRINT ALL THREE DOCUMENTS WITH THE NAME THEY WILL BE USING AFTER THE WEDDING.

That is very interesting that you can still legally use your maiden name or a combination even though you legally changed your name. Thanks for posting that. However, the above rules say it must be either the maiden name and/or a legal name change. A marriage certificate can legally document a legal name change, as there is a line on it that says "surname after marriage". That line is is the legal name change, just the same as a divorce certificate says the wife will resume her maiden name. The OP question does not specify whether or not the marriage certificate specifies that she is taking her husband's surname after marriage. She only says "signed in the maiden name" which is not enough information to answer the question if her lawyer is right or not. Disclaimer: This this is correct for my State, I don't know if other States have their own laws on what a marriage certiifcate needs to say to make it a legal name change.

First off, have you checked your case status online to see if they sent you an RFE or got any returned mail that they sent to you? Assuming you did, and it just says "case received", there were nearly 4000 cases submitted in the month corresponding to 400 days ago. There are 4.5% of those cases, about 186 still remaining to be processed. Just in the last 7 days for that month (August 2022), they approved 56 cases and sent out 38 RFE's. So either you didn't get the mail, check your case status online, or you are one of the 186 remaining cases. There are so many reasons why you are still remaining. You have not provided any useful details about your case, for everyone here to make wild speculations on what might be the reason it is undergoing deeper investigation or has been set aside due to issues .. how many pages was your app, what country, ages, visit, what did you submit, etc etc But to answer your question, you are not alone, 4.5% of all cases that month ... just check your online status

>> I also sent a FOIA request to USCIS, and the file came back with a section of six pages labeled "Risk and Fraud" fully redacted. One reason why it might have been redacted is because they can not release any information they gathered on your Wife without her consent signed under perjury (and probably notorazed) as well your VOI signed under perjury. I suggest re-filing the FOIA, request that "risk and fraud" section, and include the above in your request. Here is what I received from an FOIA appeal I did. As with all FOIA requests you will need to provide Verification of Identity/VOI - the full name, current address, date and country of birth, and consent from the subject of record signed under the penalty of perjury/notary to have those records disclosed to you. They may still redact for other reasons, but it is free and worth a try. Let us know.