lanc3r30000

Alright I'm at a loss. The program I called said they destroy the records after 3 years. All they can provide me is the SEVIS information which I am waiting for them to send over. What can I do with the SEVIS info? Am I going to have to do that FOIA thing?

Actually found the sponsor on Facebook. Looks like she runs a new business now and still uses that same email. Hoping she is cooperative and responds soon. I suppose I can just call too.

Just contacted them. Their business closed down a few years ago, but I hope the email is still active.

Well I'm not 100% sure who would have a copy of the DS-2019. She used an agency in Thailand that does all these visas. Would that agency be the one to have the copy.... or does the sponsor from the US have it? We reached out to the Thai agency.

Yeah I don't know. Her J1 was from 2014. The program organizer said they can't find her DS-2019. Why does USCIS even need this info? She has her J1 and her I-94 already....

Sorry for posting 2 threads, I should have just made it into 1. To preface, my spouse was a refugee in Thailand. They were given the choice to go back to where they came from or become a Thai citizen. Upon becoming a citizen they were given a name. My spouse has changed her name from that given name shortly after. If none of her documents such as birth certificate, passport, etc., ever mention her old name, does she even need to mention that she had a name change? All her documents use the new name. I ask because she does have a document of her name change from back then, but it is old and it's cut off around the edges so they might not accept it.

Ok will have to ask my spouse. She does have the old J1 visa.

My spouse had a J-1 to visit the US over 10 years ago. I have the I-94, but now they are saying I also need the DS-2019? I don't think we have this. She has the DS-160 only.

Sorry to double reply. Forgot to add the lawyer suggested adding my spouse to a credit card account so both our names are on there. I have done that. Since it is February now, I am wondering if I should add more photos for Jan 2025? We still have many, but I didn't want to overdo it.

Short preface, we have talked for 1 year, beginning in Jan 2024, got married in Dec 2024. We met in June 2024 for 2 weeks, and Dec 2024 for 1 month. Evidence prepared so far: All the required documents(marriage cert, translations, etc). Phone log - Shows 1 convo and 1 video call per month with captions. So there's 24 images from Jan to Dec 2024. Even have a preface convo of me talking with her Uncle, the person who introduced us to each other. Photos together - Shows 22 photos total(2 per page with captions) between our 2 in person meetings, a few include her family and friends as well. Itineraries - Showed flight itineraries with some having both our names as we flew to different cities together. We forgot to save the actual boarding passes, but I assume having photos of us together at those locations are good enough? We do have our stamps on our passports too, but I assumed the same as the former so did not add those. Unless that is important. Gifts - Receipts of ubereats and photos, and a few gifts we bought each other throughout the year. Letter of Living Situation - A formal letter explaining why we live apart and do not share joint finances. A couple lines explaining our relationship. Just a few paragraphs. We are basically just missing joint finances. We didn't do affidavits because from what I've read they are pretty much worthless.

Ok. I decided to have a consultation with a lawyer just to answer some questions. I assume it is their job to make sure we have "everything", so she was saying that I needed more evidence or I risk a RFE. As for more scrutiny, was a youtube video I was watching from a lawyer this past year. But now that I think about it, I believe he's just talking about what is mentioned in visajourney's guide about how USCIS now requires these types of evidence.

I'm currently doing mine and our case should be pretty straight forward. No criminal background or anything like that. I have all the evidence except any joint financials like bank/house/utilities. I'm not sure if the process changed or anything, but I'm hearing people are going through a lot more scrutiny now at the I-130 stage?

It was just a consultation so she's not the one doing all the paperwork. It is definitely reassuring to hear you say that though. I'm planning to just file with just what we have.

Oh right. I just edited my post. She's from Thailand though.

I am filing right now and all we have are photos, communication, flight/hotel itineraries and gift exchanges. I just had a consultation with a lawyer and she said I need more evidence. So next step now is to add my spouse to my credit card account. Has anyone been approved with even less than what I currently have? or if you did not get approved, what happened? How long did it take? My spouse is from Thailand.

My spouse is a Thai citizen, but she is in Australia on a student visa. We funnily enough began talking Dec 31st, 2024. So it's been just over a year. We video/audio/ call and chat everyday, lots of screenshots saved. We met in person the first time in June in Australia. We stayed together and flew around Australia for 2 weeks visiting different cities. After this trip is when we decided we will get married, but we decided let's plan a trip to Thailand in December, then get married there. So in December we meet in Thailand for 3 weeks. We get married there(just the paperwork, no wedding ceremony or anything). Then I fly to Australia with her and stay for another 2 weeks. Now I'm back home in the US. Basically we spent over a month together on our second meeting. So we have no joint finances, just a lot of photos, call logs, and itineraries. Hopefully this is not an issue?

She has asked several people from thailand, and when people got denied they did not give them a reason why either.

Can you elaborate more on this? Does it take long? Did not know this existed.

She just says they never gave her one or else she would have known the subsequent times she filed. She's from Thailand. Not sure if it matters.

Did they give her reasons why? Do they give it to you when they deny you, or is it like a letter in the mail or something?

She just says they did not give her a reason. And when I mentioned that everyone says they give you a reason, she just says I'm not the one who went to the interviews so I don't know. English isn't her best, so that's why she had help from people who do the immigration stuff(i'm not exactly sure if it was an agency or whatever), but I don't know what happened with that because she and they did not prepare for the interview at all. I will have to ask her to be more clear before we proceed I suppose.

My fiance/girlfriend is worried about this. She has been denied B2 visa 3x in the past 8 years. The last time being Sept 2023. This was all before we met. She said no reason was given but thinking back to it, she says didn't answer the questions according to what she put down on the forms. The first two times was because she had someone fill out the form for her, and I guess they did not prepare for the interview together. Fast forward to today, we have been talking for 8 months now, already met once, and plan to meet again in December. I want to do a K1, but she is worried about the previous B2 denials and is suggesting maybe we go with a CR1 instead because we heard that you can at least dispute the CR1 denial. However, barring the B2 situation, there is nothing wrong with our backgrounds.