Howy

Hello, Filipino beneficiary here speaking. We just received the NOA2 and will prepare documents soon. Im wondering how to sign my reaffirmed intent to marry letter. We will have our interview later down the line. My first intent to marry letter was submitted along with the petition about a year ago. It contained my new signature, but the problem is my current IDs (government issued like TIN, PhilHealth) contain my old signature. I will make my second, reaffirmed intent to marry letter soon and am wondering whether I should go back to using my old signature, but then it would not match with the signature on my first letter of intent to marry. Im not aware which the embassy will look more on, having the letter’s signature match across my IDs or having the letter’s signature match on the older letter. Am I better off using my old or new signature here?

(Sorry if content is in wrong category.) I (the beneficiary) already submitted my intent to marry letter on the I-129F petition, and my new signature there contains my first names, last names, and middle initial. It’s a new signature I recently took to using. At the same time, I got my first NBI clearance outside of K1 purposes. It had my old signature, only having my first name and last name. I will have to renew that NBI clearance soon… Fast forward to now, the petition has been approved (yay), and now I will actually need to submit a NBI clearance, a renewed more recent one at that, for the K1 process. I’m committing to using my new signature as much as possible. But my scenario might be this: the NBI forces me to use my old signature for my renewed clearance for the K1. If that happens, won’t I be in trouble since my NBI clearance has a different signature from my intent to marry letter along with the rest of my documents moving forward? Thanks :).

Well it’s still good to hear from them I guess 😆😅. I guess its safe to just take a look at the NOA2 package or what we have to next. The stressful hunt for documents starts again…

Weird enough, no. When I asked him, he said no.

Hi all! My fiance, the petitioner, just found a pending charge for “visa processing” on their credit union from the USCIS. He had submitted the petition at the end of April 2023, got our NOA1, and fast-forward to 6 months later, is still waiting for the NOA2. It’s only October 2023 right now that we are waiting for the NOA2. Is this a sign that we should be preparing for the next steps for the NOA2? Or is it still too early and we should just wait? I really don’t know whether the pending charge means the officers are looking into our case or what…

Yeah about that 🥹… the service center for my fiance and I is on Cali, but it wouldn’t show on my screen, so I stuck with Texas 😭

Hello all :), My fiance is a 2023 filer here. It's been two or so months of filing our I-129F, and the first estimated NOA2 date I got was around July 16 2024. Now it's moving to May 31 2024. Has anyone else been seeing the same improvement? What do you all think? Are processing times actually improving now?

Thank you all :). This eases my mind. We will focus on gathering documents to prove our ongoing bona fide relationship; that and that alone.

Hi, I am the beneficiary of an ongoing I-129F petition. We are on the waiting phase after receiving our NOA1. The embassy interview will be on Manila and is a dozen months away, but I'm concerned about a few things. My fiancé and I are both male. I am Filipino and he is American. When the petition was filed, I was 19 (now 20) and my fiancé is 41. I was unemployed (now still looking) and he has a stable job. The interviewer must find at least one of these things as red flags: same sex, age gap, third world country. My fiancé and I have been together for a year before becoming engaged and our love is genuine. This should be enough to ease my thoughts, but I can't help but worry. How will the US embassy in Manila see my case? Is my chance of getting a denial high? What precautions should I take? (If anyone has a similar case as mine I'd be grateful to hear your experience.)

Hello Chancy, I read you and Mike E's posts and am considering to ge rid of the affidavit of loss now. Just to be clear though: My fiance's lost passport might've had an entry stamp to the Philippines (as well as earlier stamps from other stops to get to the PH). Will the USCIS officer not wonder about this, and instead put two and two together with just the exit stamp on the emergency passport? Sorry if I sound like a broken record 😅.

In June 2022, my fiance lost his USA-issued passport upon visiting me here in the Philippines. He filed for an affidavit of loss, and he received an emergency passport (to be used for him return to the States after his visit). Now, we are using the affidavit of loss to explain the loss of earlier passport stamps on his visit in June 2022. My fiance is filing his I-129F petition. However, this 2023, it is only coming to me that there is a clerical error on the affidavit: it mentions there that my fiance is "a holder of a USA passport, issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs (PH)" instead of the Department of State (US). Should I file for an affidavit of correction now, or will this error be excused by the USCIS officer? Will this be grounds for an RFE, or am I being delusional?

By the way, I'm the beneficiary and I don't have a "ZIP code." I hear it's a US-specific code. But since the ZIP code is a numerical response, then wouldn't I use "None" instead of "N/A?" Also, since I'm only sticking with a deduction of five years on my physical address start date, should I write April 1, 2018? I thought of April 1 because that's the month my fiance is filing the petition.

Hello all, my fiance and I have a few questions about the Form I-129F :(. They are related to writing down dates and addresses. For pages 2 and 5, there are questions that refer to the petitioner and the beneficiary's start dates on the address history and employment history. - Since my fiance and I have lived our life beyond 5 years in our current addresses, should we write the appropriate start date for that, even though it is beyond 5 years from now? Or should we count five years back from now (2023) and write that start date instead (2018)? - My fiance, the petitioner, has worked in his job for beyond 5 years. Same concern as above: does he write the start date beyond 5 years or just in 5 years? On p.7, Part 2, item numbers 47.a. to 48, the questions refer to the beneficiary's physical address abroad. - How is this different from the beneficiary's mailing and physical address, both of which are technically abroad too? Are we supposed to write the same address as the written physical address of the beneficiary? Or are we supposed to leave this blank since it refers to a different meaning of "abroad?" (Bonus question, if I haven't irritated anyone yet by my overthinking 😅: is it advisable to write N/A on every unanswerable questions, or leave blank? For ex. information on children and previous spouses of petitioner and beneficiary, when both have neither children nor previous spouse.)

Thank you for your response Dashinka :). I agree that some sort of brief background is relevant. If you don't mind, a follow-up question is: what information did you put down? My fiance, the petitioner, mentioned this: - our first encounter online, attractions, as well as when we dated exclusively - his first visit in the Philippines - his second visit in the Philippines, as well as the surprise proposal - our plans of marriage (no bookings or preparations for actual wedding, though) Would you say it's similar to yours, or would there be parts you recommend taking out?

https://citizenpath.com/faq/k-1-declaration-sample/ This website includes a sample of a K1 declaration letter, which in essence provides a background of the relationship between the couple. It isn't a requirement according to the USCIS guidelines, but my fiancé and I believe even a brief declaration is important because it would "personalize" our petition. However, I'd like to ask a few questions: - Would a K1 declaration be more harm than good? (regarding the oversharing of information versus providing only what is required) - To those who submitted a declaration, do you recommend it?

I didn't realize my approach was forgery! Dodged a bullet there! Thanks all. I will print the letter, wet-sign it, and then scan it and send it to my fiance.

Hello, I am the beneficiary of my US fiance's petition and currently reside in my homeland. I've heard that scanned signatures are acceptable on filing the I-129F petition. Since giving my wet signatures to my fiance will mean going through the hassle of international mailing, I considered emailing him my scanned signature instead. As far as I know, the letter of intent to marry is the only required document for me to sign. But to be extra sure I also consider signing the proof of in-person meeting compilation. My question is this: is it acceptable to only use one scanned signature for all documents moving forward, or will that be ethically wrong? Is it recommended that I provide a new signature for each document to sign?

Hello, I have read that some COs see OkCupid as an international marriage broker and I have considered including related proof for them in our I-129F package. I plan on including OkCupid's Terms and Conditions as well as a confirmation email from an OkCupid representative. Here is the link of OkCupid's Terms and Conditions: https://help.okcupid.com/hc/en-us/articles/6640690915469-Terms-Conditions#:~:text=You agree that OkCupid may,%3B (iii) respond to claims What information should I highlight on OkCupid's Terms and Conditions page, or should I just include the entire thing without highlights/emphasis on any specific information?

Good luck :)! Did you submit an explanation sheet for the unknown info? I'll tell my fiancé to do so in case the officers wonder why the info is unknown to the petitioner. Reading other VJ posts regarding this, they've had successful approvals using unknown for a response.

I've been digging around the USCIS website and the instructions file for the form I-129F. I can't find them mentioning approval of using "unknown" for a response. Can you help me cite out trusty sources? This might sound like a silly thing to fret over, my bad for that.

Hello, My fiancé is a US citizen petitioner who is estranged from his father. He only knows his first and last name. He does not know his middle name, birth place, and area of residence. His mother has passed away, and nobody else in his life knows about his father. On his I-129F, is he allowed to write "unknown" on the appropriate spaces, or is it more appropriate to use "N/A?" This might sound like a silly question, sorry. The instructions on the I-129F don't seem to mention using "unknown" as a response. Edit: Is "unknown" more correct to use than "N/A" in this situation?