Hi, Tunisian guy with an American girlfriend. We've been together for about two years with long, extensively documented social media presences and daily video call logs. Both of us are nerds who feel like a match made in heaven for one another and thoroughly enjoy spending most of our time together over Messenger video calls, Discord and a myriad of online games. We're both doing fine financially, but her being a young wagie (early 20s) and me being a college student, neither of us could comfortably afford an intercontinental trip to visit the other without taking a loan and extensive time off.
In my case a B2 visa application to the US requires a 9+ month waiting period and is very often declined. USCIS is extremely paranoid of muslims. I tried applying for a B2 once naively unprepared, and all it took was the interviewer asking me "who are you visiting?" and me stuttering "girlfrie-- uhh, friend.." for me to get declined. Reasonably speaking, since me and her aren't legally bound together yet, any future B2 application will either pressure me into lying ("no, i don't know this girl. im just here for tourism. i love mobility scooters and walmart!") or to make myself look like an immigration risk ("yes i love her, not enough to elope with her though trust me haha"). Both of which might endanger any future immigration attempt. I have another B2 application interview coming at the end of this year and that's still a dilemma. What do I even say?
This year, we both decided we wanted more out of our relationship and started researching ways for me to move to the US rather than just visit, and the mechanisms for a young unmarried long-distance couple who want to move in together are sparse. Trying for a K1 while on the waiting list for a B2 seems like a safe course of action. The only problem is some of the things listed as "evidence" of emotional ties is things like pictures together and hotel booking receipts, which we don't have. Can't I just show the USCIS staffer our messenger logs? We have video calls every other day going back since the Covid recovery period. The word "cat" alone shows up 386 times in our convos. The word "love" shows up 835 times (not counting misspellings). That's gotta count for something. Is there any precedent for this?