Edward and Jaycel

FYI.... My USCIS case status said they sent my approved petition to the State Department on June 11th (4 days after my NOA2 arrived in the mail and 10 days after the approved date on the NOA2. However, that change in status did not appear on my USCIS online account until June 28th. So if you wait a week to 10 days between inquiries to the NVC it will be fine. I did my first one on June 21st and my second one on July 1st which is the one where they gave me our case number.

I would send that on your next inquiry in the attachment section of the inquiry form. I would inquire again on Monday Oct 7th. I would also recommend stating in the inquiry something like this, "Also, please confirm that you have the correct email addresses for myself and my beneficiary. The correct email addresses are (then give them both of your email addresses)" This will ensure that the NVC and later the embassy have your correct emails. I did this in my second inquiry to NVC and after that my fiancee and I both received all the emails from that point forward all the way to the email that the embassy sent after the visa was issued with instructions on how to handle the yellow packet that was returned with her passport/visa.

That will appear on your USCIS Case Status... When did you send the inquiry to NVC?

Hehe I get it.... I really do. Jaycel and I have a large age gap and that triggered all the same feelings you are experiencing about having a relationship that people in your life considered weird, abnormal, etc. Jaycel (much younger AND wiser than me as it turns out 🙂) after we had filed our I-129F said to me one day, "No one has to approve of our relationship besides you and I. Not even USCIS or the Embassy, they only have to be shown that it is real. You did your part with the petition, I'll do my part with the Embassy." (God did I ever find the right woman!) The packet I sent into USCIS for our I-129F was 110 pages LOL Do what makes you feel comfortable when submitting it and then let the process play out. You guys will be fine. Like I said in a previous post, we had only known each other for 7 months when we got engaged so don't let it stress you too much. And for God's sake, I don't care how much you have invested in Boundless, I beg you to dump them. They are only going to cause you stress and heartaches.

Thank you for this explanation! We plan to hand deliver our signed and completed marriage certificate to the County Clerk's office here. We can request as many official copies at that time as we want for like $1.25 ea. so we are going to get like 10 of them so that we can send in a certified copy to not risk a possible RFE. As far as evidence of a bona-fide marriage, we also decided to send whatever we have available at the time that we submit the AOS. We are hoping to avoid any possible RFE AND in the hopes that this will help our chances of getting approved without having an interview. We have a pretty significant age gap and we know that can sometimes be seen as a "red-flag" for some adjudicating officers, so hopefully we can get enough evidence put in front of them that they don't feel the need for an interview. As far as the DS-3025, yes we will send a copy of it and not the original. We are also planning to include a cover letter over the DS-3025 copy and mention it in the I-485 cover letter (see screenshots below) hoping this will grab the adjudicating officer's attention.

My fiancee and I knew each other only 7 months when we got engaged and had an RFE only for a missing document not for proof of relationship. I would not sweat it too much! 🙂 We were approved within days of responding to the RFE with the missing document and the embassy interview brought forth no questions about the "legitimacy" of our relationship. Most of the pictures we submitted as part of our I-129F were just the two of us. They are most concerned with proof that you have been together in person within the previous 2 years, that you are both legally eligible to marry each other and that you have the intent to marry within 90 days of your entry into the US (Covered by you both including letters of intent to marry in the application).

If you are filing the I-765 concurrently with the I-485 your category would be (c)(9)( ). See page 10 of the I-765 instruction PDF from USCIS.gov. I also watched a video on YouTube posted by USCIS that showed that if your category classification is only 2 characters, you put them in the first two parentheses as shown below

Thank you both @K1visaHopeful and @EatBulaga. Also, you recommended "Please JOIN your monthly AOS filing forum for basics and read the guides." I assume that the November AOS filing forum is not created yet? I know, silly question but I don't know if maybe they start these forums ahead of time? I would love to join a forum like that for sure.

I have a few questions - Please forgive me if these are redundant, I have searched the forums and have not found solid answers for these questions. Our 90 day date for Jaycel's K-1 Visa is November 27, 2024. We are getting married on October 25, 2024 and plan to submit out AOS packet (I-485, I-864 & I-765) on November 18, 2024. We believe that this will allow us time to get certified copies of our marriage certificate, gather appropriate evidence of our marriage and co-habitation, co-mingling of finances, etc. My questions are as follows... 1. I have read that filing the AOS package before expiry of her K-1 Visa is highly recommended so that she is not out of status after the visa's expiration. Does the NOA-1 from the I-485 provide this status? Not sure how that works. If we file on the 18th of November, is that far enough in advance of her visa expiration on the 27th of November? I just do not want to put her in any jeopardy. 2. Since she is coming in on a K-1 and filing her I-485 within a year of her immigrant medical exam (That was done in Manila on August 6th & 7th) she is exempt from having to do another one. I have read that all she has to do is include her DS-3025 in the I-485 packet with a cover letter explaining she had her immigrant medical within one year and voluntarily complied with all vaccine requirements as indicated in the attached DS-3025. I have also read that she should make an appointment with a Civil Surgeon to have him fill out the vaccine portion of the I-693 based on the DS-3025 and include the sealed I-693 with the I-485. Which one is correct? Thank you all in advance for your time providing any advice, answers, direction that you can!

If the original is in Thai then yes you will have to have it translated to English for your embassy interview

Yeah... ours (K-1) was treated as an immigrant visa by the US TravelDocs website but it slipped my mind that the NVC schedules the IR-1/CR-1 appointments. Sorry it wasn't helpful. Have you tried reaching out to the Consular Communications Group at the Embassy? The link is below... Maybe they can give you the UID? https://ph.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visa-inquiry-form/

The UID should also be on her original interview appointment confirmation sheet

I suggest you write to the Consular Communication Group just like they did and bring the response with you

Yes.... to assist them in getting around, etc. not to participate in the interview. But hey man, you posted here asking people's advice and have done nothing but argue with everyone that has answered your question saying anything other than what you seem to have your mind made up to do, so you do you. Good luck, hope everything works out the way you want it to.

Hope that helps.... not saying we were perfect but our status online did change to "Approved" 3 days after they acknowledged receipt of our RFE and we gout our NOA 2 in the mail 7 days later

Things changed during the pandemic and have not changed back... My fiancee just had her K-1 visa interview in August. Partners are no longer allowed to attend the interview. It is not up to the consular officer anymore, it is consulate policy that there are only two exceptions for accompanying persons. This is from the US Embassy Manila website for interview prep...

Here's a screen grab of the (redacted) RFE cover letter I included under the original RFE notice that I returned with the evidence they requested.

Yes the ORIGINAL RFE notice they sent you with the RFE notice number/barcode must be returned with your response, with it on top (Kind of like a cover letter). For our RFE response I also created my own cover letter detailing what I was returning to them and put that under the original RFE notice

Our I-129F was approved within 3 days of USCIS receiving our RFE response, however our RFE was a simple one, we were just missing one document. It all depends on the nature of the RFE on how quickly they will approve your case after receiving the response.

Please take my words here with the care I mean to impart with them. The part of your comment where you talk about your "partner dragging their feet" is what concerns me, regardless of being overwhelmed or whatever. I know everyone is different, but once Jaycel and I decided to go the K-1 Visa route (for various reasons and circumstances), learning about the Form I-129F, the petitioning process, what is involved, what Jaycel would have to do, etc. not only became my "Second Job", it became my passion because I would go to any length, get past any hurdle and obtain every scrap of information possible that would give us any advantage so that we could get her the visa and start our lives as husband and wife as soon as possible. Please don't take this as disparagement of your partner, maybe just a conversation starter for the both of you to dig into why the "dragging of feet" and not "diving in with both feet" into this process. I also am with everyone here in the recommendation to get rid of Boundless if it's not too late... I have read nothing but bad reviews of them. Just me here, a 2nd generation Irish-American trying to look out for my "cousin" 🙂

Just an FYI.... My fiancee had her medical exam at St. Luke's this past August and after her vaccinations, at releasing, they gave her a brown envelope marked "DO NOT OPEN" to hand carry with her to her USEM interview. She was asked for it at the document intake stage of her interview appointment where the Filipina consul opened it and placed the documents with all of her other civil docs, etc.

Having just gone through this year long process to get my fiancee here, I can empathize..... But I will tell you that when you are together in the US, finalizing your wedding plans and spending every day together, all the troubles to get the visa fade into the background noise of it all. I wish you both well and speedy resolution!

Not too early... there is no expiration for a Form I-134. I would just wait to sign it, scan it and email it to your fiancee until you have a case number from NVC, then you can put that case number on a cover sheet for the I-134 packet you send

I got my case number using the public inquiry form at the link below. Tell them that your NOA2 is a month old now and you are requesting your case ID. I would also in that same inquiry ask them to be sure they have the correct emails for you and the beneficiary and give them the correct email addresses. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/ask-nvc.html

I get the waiting part man… if I could put my two cents in, I would wait until the visa is in her hands. We did this with Jaycel and we were able to book a flight for 10 days later from Manila to Denver for like $1,000. This gave her time to book her CFO (we booked it for 2days before her departure as we were not worried about that part) and wrap up things at home. There are so many delays that can happen to delay the delivery of the visa. We set it for pickup at the Mall of Asia LBC branch and there were so many stories of people that did that and got it in 3 days, but Jaycel’s took a week. You just never know with the federal government, the State Department especially.