W199

I don't know about 20 years ago, but when I did it 26 years ago, the I-129F approval took 3 months, then a couple of months maybe for the interview. I think the CR-1 was taking about 14 months at that time.

Yeah, until the delays return back to how it was 20 years ago when K-1's took a fraction of the time than CR-1's took, the decision between doing a K-1 vs a CR-1 are based on unique personal or special circumstances of the couple rather than a general statement as to which is better. Unfortunately, that can be complicated and many do not appreciate the impact that the pros and cons will have on them or think it through. Hence, the ones that choose K-1 for no other reason except it might be a little faster are more likely to regret it. Though that guy whose CR-1 got refused for misrepresentation might be regretting switching to a CR-1 if his waiver gets refused, which is more likely than not based on what Hacking said. Let's see...

Sounds like the lawyer scammed you. Did he factor in how much time it will before you can go back, how much time it takes to get marriage license, and the many months it takes to get a marriage certificate in the Philippines? Did he advise you of the Utah wedding which would be much faster? Did he advise you the impact to your life, getting a prenup, and many other things that would be impacted by getting married abroad, or in the immigration process? And every immigration lawyer I talked to offered this info in a free initial consult, certainly not for $250. I also found most of their advice wrong and not specific to the Philippines. Thats why I ended up using an agency that does exclusively Filipino k-1 and cr1 and knows all the subtle tricks and issues with the Manila process (saved up months of delay) ... to do my K-1 and advise me about the issues of marrying in the Philippines .. all for a fraction of the price the lawyer's charge.

Agreed, in the long run, the few months, or even a couple of years delay is going to an insignificant drop in the bucket and long forgotten after being married. In fact, I'll bet that in years to come many people will have wished it took longer and they had more time to be single. Except if babies, kids or unborn babies are involved, then time could be a very high priority for some.

@Crazy CatThe K-1 timelines you posted for the Philippines show An average of about 12-13 months from NOA1 to NOA2. USCIS has already sped on K-1;s, As of today, it is currently 10-11 months for about 50% of the cases. More importantly, all those cases show 4-5 months from NOA2 to the interview date. My fiancee is just 2 months from the NOA2 to interview at the Manila embassy,. We could have done it even faster if we wanted. The USEM has added Filipino consuls to do the final interview at the embassy (after the initial screening interview), and keeps opening up new and earlier appointments. Last week a ton of them opened up from Monday-Wed. Instead of the usual Tuesday. Must be because of the added Filipino consuls and speeding the process up. Therefore, I think the numbers in those timelines are 2-4 months longer than what 50% of the new K-1's that apply today will see if, and this is a big if, they don't mess up their I-129F (my filipino agency was a big factor in my case for making it go fast), and don't get confused by when you can start booking appointments for medical and the interview .. most people here do it later than what is really necessary for Manila. In fact, my only problem with the K-1, is I had to keep rebooking my plane tickets. twice. to make them sooner and sooner because the process keeps speeding up I was predicting February originally based on the timelines. Now it is end of October, Also I lost 3 weeks because I forgot about something leading me to need to do IMBRA waiver. If it wasn't for that, I'd be 3 weeks faster

Not bad, I got locked out for exactly 72 hours just for refreshing the appointment calendar a few times.

Now that you mentioned it, I just looked at my fiancee's copy, and it had the same crazy formatting. I doubt they are even going to take the time to even read it, esp for a K-1.

In my State, I don't need to get a SSN to add my wife to my health insurance, nor is it required for driver's license (though a denial letter might be needed). Therefore, I am just going to wait until after getting married, get an ITIN for her for taxes and bank accounts. I don't want to deal with going to the SSA office to change the name on the SSA card after marriage or after the work authotization done since there is no need for the SSN in my State. But some States are do need it .. so ... The SSA office near me is always very crowded and not a pleasant place to go to, hence I am avoiding it as necessary

The CFO was trivial for my fiancee. They interviewed her for about 10 seconds on the phone and said since you are doing the K1, and the embassy will check all your documents, we don't have to. Your CFO is approved, No need to supply any thing except my passport. That being said, I heard recently that the CFO is starting to go crazy again and ask for unnecessary documents that are not needed, and you need to push back.

The truth

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 ,