The K1 Experience

Our Change of Status Paperwork has been pulled off the shelf well ahead of when we expected it so perhaps the consolidation in Chicago has been a good thing. We did recieve a request for more information as it seems the fact they had proof of an approved K-1 was not enough. They also needed the I-797 notice of actioni that I had filed a K-1 on Suzie's behalf. Not sure I have the energy to go all out on that like I should but by all means it speaks for itself. They had proof and records in their system of a valid K-1 to the effect it allowed entry into the countr and yet they not only need that but the early round notice of action that the K-1 had indeed been filed. If we do not send the information then our application is to be cancled. Needless to say we have mailed it but it really seems silly. To top it off it seems an RFI Also places an immediate injunction on the granting of any interim work priveledges. From what we could ascertain this did not apply to the EAD. Only to inter...

Change of Status: Ok folks here we go with the next serious round of paperwork after the K1 visa status. What is required? First off here is the general documents page . The following are the forms required with listed extra documentation required for our K1 application. Documents required for other applications may vary. Read the instructions carefully for details pertaining to your application. 1) I-485 - Application To Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. a. Fee of $325 (Be aware of older forms with $315 listed) b. Copy of Birth Certificate c. Copy of Passport page with non-immigrant visa (K1 page the put in the passport) d. 2 Photos (passport styles, we had ours done at FedEx-Kinkos). e. Fee of $70 for biometrics processing (include on one check with above form fee) f. Vaccination report (medical within last year from K-1 so only this was needed) g. G-325 – Biographic information h. Copy of I-94 arrival and departure record (you get this when you enter on K-1) i. Copy ...

Oddly enough my new brother in law is marrying an Austrailian citizen and thus is going through... make that... has gone through the same process for gaining admitance down under. As luck would have it they met while she was traveling abroad for a lengthy period of time. She wound up staying in England for a year and as such the two of them have qualified as a defacto married couple in Austrailia (Common Law marriage essentially). The processing for his visa took 3 weeks. Let me say that again. 3 WEEKS. Weeks. 21 days. He has the right to work as a part of this. He says he could have had it faster except that he didn't have his medical at the same time as he applied. We took 6 months for the K-1. It is goign to take another 3 months to get the EAD for right to work. By contrast lets say Suzie and I had lived together in England for a year (We Dated for 2) and then gotten married and applied to come to the US. We would have had to apply for a K3 visa and it would have been 8 months ...

Ok I have really been avoiding this issue because frankly everywhere I looked I found contradictory information. The website has changed two or three times just during our approval process. Initially when we started the site stated the k1 visa itself was an immigrant visa and conffered the right to work for 90 days after entry or up to your change of status. I wish now I had kept archived copies of the information on the website as it changed. Now I see verbiage stating the k1 is not an immigrant visa. Some one please explain that one to me.... I suppose one could simply come here to get married on the K1 and then leave but it makes no sense. If you are not comming to stay there is no reason to even bother Uncle Sam with the details. Enter on the standard visa waiver get married and leave inside your alloted time (60 days). The whole point of going through the pain of a K1 is to come to the US in order to immigrate while you are a fiance. It holds the reasonable expectation that you wi...

Well the visa came through well in time of all our planned dates for ceremonys and moving. When we got to immigration in America with the package of information that I was given when my passport was returned with my visa it all went very smoothly. My passport and visa was checked at the main immigration desk with no problems and I was told to take all the information that I had somewhere else once we had picked up the luggage. Through customs and sent into a room with a sign saying something about agriculure control which was a bit confusing. I had to put the my passport information that I had onto a rack with others waiting to be looked at. I was called over to give the rest of my information pack then called back again about 5 minutes later to be given my stamped passport and told that I was in and given some information printed from the government website about what happened next. We had our official but non-legal wedding ceremony in Wales before flying to the US and then we di...

Ok after all that prep work the interview took all of 5 minutes apparently. And its done. The visa was approved and her Passport should come back with it in the next couple of days. I don't know whether to jump for joy or be suspicious of it being 'too easy'? After all the horror stories I have heard of it was alsmot a let down for it to go so swiftly. Ironic considering if ever there were a simple open and shut case it is ours so perhaps just for once the process worked the way it should. Relatively painlessly and almost swiftly (still took an awful long time to get to the point where we could have an interview). So time from submital of I-129f to interview approval of visa was a shade under 6 months. December 21st acceptance of paperwork - June 9th approval. Of course this is just the first leg in the process. We will continue to document our experience as we go through the entrance process and application for change of status, awarding of the PRC with temporary condition...

I have so far kept to just talking about the K1 but after the Presidents address last night I had to say something about immigration in general. And I found a focus around which to vent my feelings from a morning Talk Show I listen to a great deal. The two hosts are usually very sharp and opinionated but that rarely make ill informed statements and normally go through the trouble to view an issue from more than one side. But their statements regarding the plight of illegal immigrants in the US struck me as highly uninformed and as such I took the time to send them an E-mail which I am simply going to paste below. Hello Rick and Bubba , Monkey grass (suppose that works for a first time E-mail as well). I have listened to your show now for about 5 years. In that time I have very much enjoyed the way you cover both the amusing and the serious with a candor and thoughtfulness that is so uncommon in today's media. While I have not always agreed with your positions on some issues I have ...

Well Dec 15th I submitted a form I-129f for fiance visa. On June 9th Suzie has her Interview which means that by June 15th some 6 months later she should have her K-1 visa in hand. It has been a long haul. Our journey through the insane process of immigration certainly is not over once the visa has been issued. But at least we will no longer havae to face it while living 4000 miles apart.

Form I-134. Well this one is a bigger pain than I realized. I need an official Work statment summing up my income. I need a bank statment detailing when My account was opened and activity on it for an extended period of time. Oh yeah... and this all has to be notoraized or witnessed by an official of Homeland Security Immigration services. Yikes. Well on the brighter Side Suzie got her Police forms back already and so the affidavit of support is the last piece of the puzzle before we can request an interview date. In our Case the exact requirements where a statement from my place of work that I am gainfully employed, How long for and and what I currently make on company letter head.... if only that is what I made, looks so much more impressive Pre-Tax. The other piece of information was 12 months of Bank Statements and history of my account such as total deposits, Date Opened Etc... On official bank letterhead. If you have stocks bonds etc... you need that information as well. In addit...

Ok it took 3 weeks from the receipt of our approval by the USCIS to the Consulate sending out the first packet. NVC processing 2-4 weeks was right on the money then. Now we are hopefully in the home stretch. We now hit another barrage of paperwork. Police Records for any place You established residence. Immunization records or a fresh round of shots. Regular ID stuff. Birth Cert, Passport etc... I have to fill out an I-864 affidavit of support DS-230-i biographic infor.... I hope that is what we already filled out cause we did it in quadruplicate by hand. And if they make us fill that information.... *deeeeep Breath* I HATE beauracracy. Anyway, Once the checklist is complete she must send a VISA application form certifying she is ready for her Interview (DS-2001) and then show up at the interview with all of this paperwork. The original and one copy. Sheesh. This whole experience is begining to strangely remind me of the electronics store rebate process. Its 500 dollars... after a 200 ...

We received our letter from the NVC stating that we had been entered into the system and that we now have a case number. The case is being forwarded to the Consulate and we should soon be receiving the 1st packet of forms for the actual visa application. When we get that I will take stock of the exact paperwork involved. It took about 2 weeks to receive this notification of processing and will probably take 2 more weeks to hear from the consulate. Fingers are crossed that the interview date and issuance of the visa will be swifter than the approach of early July. If it isn't it will not interfere with our plans for a ceremony. However it will mean that after our honeymoon I will be comming home alone while we continue to wait for the last of the visa paperwork to be completed.

Ok for any keeping track. Date paperwork was received into the system was December 21st. Date petition was approved is March 21st. 3 months. Now first off I am rather happy that it has been done however what exactly has happend here? The papwerwork has been vetted but no visa has been approved. Nope, now we have the right to get one from the consulate. But first the paperwork has to go the the NVC. National Visa Processing center. Now out of curiosity... why didn't the inital request go to the national visa processing center? Ah well logic. Anyway now it will take 2-4 weeks for the NVC to receive our approved petition and to get us set up in their system before forwarding our request on to the consulate where the interview will be held. Why the processing of creating the visa case needs to be forwarded on to another center for more processing is something that baffles me. Why hasn't the case already been created as part of the petition review process? It sounds like the actual ...

Well sometimes it is nice to expect the worst because occasionally you can then receive a pleasent surprise. The latest Update now has the california processing date for 129f forms at December 31st which is past our date of the 21st. So as long as all our paperwork is in order we should soon have our visa petition approved and can now actually apply for a visa at the consulate. Hopefully this means I can post a bit more information here on a more regular basis as the longest wait period for new information is by far waiting for your petetion paperwork to be looked at initially. The good news here is where we were expecting 4 months or more we had our paperwork off the shelf in about 2. Perhaps things are finally falling into place since the re-organization of the INS into the USCIS under homeland security. Course this is just the first step. Their are many to come. Hopefully all of them will come with similar nice surprise. Pardon me if I don't hold my breath. But I will enjoy this...

Dec 21 - Jan 24th, processing for the 129f K-1 processing at California - October 18th Most recent on Feburary 8th - November 3rd Progress at last. At this rate it may be to the Consulate sometime in April. Next update in a couple of weeks so we will find out if they maintain this pace of progress or if we go another three updates with no news. In other news we have decided to have our Wedding Ceremony overseas. However due to the nature of the k1 (that she has to be single when entering on it) The ceremony we have will not be a legally recognized marriage. We will still have to make a courthouse trip once she is in the country. Why you ask? Quite a few reasons, some due to the process some due to personal choices. We decided on the K1 because the process is faster. But turns out we want to hold the ceremony there. If we back out and make it a legal ceremony over there and then go 130 that means restarting the paperwork after the wedding. So we decided to just hold a non legaly recogni...

Well the USCIS California processing center seems to have taken the better part of a month off. At least as far as processing k1 visa requests. The second update in Janurary is out and as of the 24th they are still on the 18th of october. This Means we are 1 month in since our paper work was receieved... and no closer to having it looked at. Welcome to the world of Government paper work I suppose. Did I mention this was very frustrating ? Lets look at the other centers. Texas (supposedly the service center for my state) dosn't have a 129f processing date at all now. Nebraska is up to November 29th... I almost wish I hadn't looked at that one. Vermont, I take it back... I really didn't want to look at Vermont. They are on December 10th. Here is hoping they just forgot to update the California number... if anyone is still supposed to be going through Texas I hope they just left it off by accident. Some might find it interesting to read this months USCIS newsletter . They prou...

Well the first Update on the processing dates of the new year is out and they are unchanged. So from Dec 18th through Jan 6th the USCIS center in California (And Texas) made no apparent progress on 129f forms. They are still processing October 18th. I have seen this happen a few times before. One time three straight udpates (about a month and a half) saw the date remain the same for the Texas Center. One would think they managed to get at least a day or so of forms processessed in 19 days or so even if it was the holidays. Ah well... hopefully the next one will pick up the slack and advance it up into November.