Greetings. I am an American citizen, and my longtime boyfriend and I will marry in a month in Pakistan. He was here in NYC on a Fulbright scholarship, and has been back in Pakistan for 6 months doing his 2 year home residency requirement. (HRR). He will be released from this in June of 2009.

We are planning on filing the I-130 papers, but I worry about timing it right. Does anyone have experience with this? We are not looking to evade his HRR, but to have everything processed and ready to go when his HRR is over.

Cheers.

I think, you can file I-130 as soon as you marry in Pakistan.

You can file I-130, NVC will receive the file after it gets approved by USCIS, but will not process it until the 2-year HRR is over.

Hi,

I was in the same boat as you, with the difference that I had not discovered the wonderful wealth of information on VJ. I kept recieving contradictory information regarding this, so my husband and I waited a full year before applying for the I-130/I-129F. Had we applied as soon as we married, I'd be done with my HRR and in the states with him now.

I agree with the previous posts, the J1 visa doesn't prevent you submitting the I-130.

You might want to check this thread out, where they are talking about "timing" things.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=37200

Good luck to you. I know how hard the two-year HRR is; if it wasn't because I was fortunate enough to get a visitor visa and visit my husband every once in a while, I don't know how we could have handled it.

Oh, and this one too:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33617

Thank you all!

Does this mean that they will receive our petition, but not send the DS-3032 until his HRR is over?

Or will they go as far as approving it, but not send it to his local consulate for the interview process until then?

THanks...