|
|
| Korea |  Review on November 18, 2016: |
katie2016
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
My visa journey started from pretty much February of this year. My husband and I got married in Korea on paper in February so that we can start working on getting my spousal visa for the U.S. Here's the whole timeline for my visa journey:
1. We got appointment for the petition 1-130 on May 3, 2016.
2. Got the petition approval mail on June 17, 2016
3. Had our wedding ceremony on July 9, 2016 in Korea.
4. Packet 3 email received on July 21, 2016
5. Medical exam done on October 5, 2016
6. We got the visa interview appointment on November 17, 2016, and it was approved on the interview day.
7. Got my passport mailed to me the next day on November 18, 2016!!
My journey with this visa preparation has been very time consuming and confusing because the situation that my husband and I are in is very unique. I am a Korean citizen and my husband is US citizen, and we met in Beijing, China at work. So, since we are in China for majority of the time during the year, we filed our petition at the consular office in Beijing, and we requested the interview to be at the US embassy in Seoul, Korea since it will be easier for both of to travel and get our documents ready.
The trickiest part among this preparation of the interview documents was to prove that his income is sufficient enough and is still getting paid from a company in the U.S. even though his work is based in China.
I had his i-864 ready along with his tax return forms of most recent 3 years, and his W-2s as well. However, in his tax return form for 2015, he had his total income as "0". After my long research about foreign income and tax return form based on foreign income, we came to a conclusion that it will be safe to have his mother as co-sponsor. So, we had his mom's tax documents along with i-864A. Also, for supporting evidence of income, I had his letter of employment, pay subs for last 6 months, and also proof of domicile with copy of his driver's license, bank statement, and his passport copy.
We went to the interview with about 4 inch thick file I had prepared, and after they reviewed the documents they gave me a lot of them back saying it wasn't necessary, including his mother's tax return information...
We were like,, wait... what?! We don't need it?! lol
Anyway, they reviewed all the documents, they called us again after about 20 mins, the consular asked us these questions -
1. Are you *** (my name)?, and looked at my husband, are you ***(his name)?
2. When did you guys first meet?
3. You live here in Korea? (our answer was "No, we both currently work in China, and that's where we met")
4. Where do you work in China? (we said we both work in an international school, and he was like oh, cool! )
5. Do you have any questions? (and we asked couple questions to the consular which he was very cool about it)
And, he said, "your visa has been approved! congratulations!"
That was about 5 mins... 
And, the awesome part is that, I got my passport mailed to me the next day!!!
THANK YOU, US EMBASSY in Korea, I appreciate your speedy work so much! I don't know if this was so fast because it was done in Korea (Korea is all about getting things done as fast as you can  ), but I was very impressed how this was done so quickly and efficiently.
Anyway, our next step will be once we enter the U.S., figuring out whether I need to get "re-entry permit" to travel to China.
For those who are preparing the spouse visa (CR-1), this visa journey website has been super helpful, and remember, any doubts you have, you should prepare for a backup plan. The embassy will give you back anything if it's not needed. It's better to be over-prepared than less-prepared.
Thank you all!
| |
|
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #20893