Hi All,

Firstly thanks again for all the help i recieved on this site. I am writing mainly because i just discovered that on top of the $170 we had to pay for i-129f i am to expect to pay a further £10 ($20) for police reports, £65 ($130) at the embassy and £160 ($320) for the medical, in London this is.

This is more than $600!! I am already in a state over the whole IMBRA mess and on top of the costs of travelling to be together AND condicting a relationship where when we are together only one of us can work, this is just one more thing that i didnt need.

Of course being together is priceless, but come on. This on top of everything else is just SOOO unfair. Why why should we pay both financially and emotionally for falling love?

Sorry for the rant, my question...are there any more hidden costs i need to budget for?

Thanks,
Jess

PS FYI Applying for K1, through London

Just wait until you file for AOS, EAD and AP.

Don't put a price on love, stop thinking about it and letting it upset yourself. Because you have just begun, just wait more costs are coming. This is just one of the costs, plus some couples gave up a lot more than a little bit of money to be together.

Before you know it you will be past this process and happily married and paying regular bills.


Paula

I guess if you want to spend the rest of your lives together, the costs are relatively minimal to buying a house and starting a family.

AOS - $395
EAD - $180
AP - $170

Those are the present costs. They could increase slightly before you file.

Tell me about it. Luis and I will start our lives totally broke. He's just out of college, I'm a law graduate and it will be a pain to validate my diploma and be able to sit the bar exam in Puerto Rico (will have to go back to law school), plus not even being able to work in other stuff while I can't practice law there (befor EAD). My parents are the ones that will pay for my AOS fees, actually. :crazy:

Being with the one I love - priceless!

Thanks guys,

Especially for the projected costs of AOS etc. Its good for me to know as i am in a similar situation to L&L. I'm out of collage and have been working sporadically. My boy and I met travelling and have been eeking it out together for the past year. Thankfullly we have a good co-sposer!!

$600 isnt a lot to some but for us it represtents a significant save so its good to plan ahead a little. I will just concentrate on the happy future and start saving.

Thanks again

I saved up for it and I'm 48 years old.....

Tack on the K-1 visa prices, the phone cards, the plane tickets and the AOS EAD and AP fees and you got yourself about a half years worth of mortgage payments.. lol

Don't get me STARTED on moving costs as WELL as flight costs et al..god I'll be lucky to see change out of £3000

(Hey i gotta laugh - its that or go postal somewhere, lol)

I figured it out once and Buying A Husband was close to $2500USD.
And that was four+ years ago.

You'd better mean it!

Buying a Husband... I love it... lol!

mary

And my ex accused me of being high maintenance! lol

I have paid a total of over $2000.00 so far, but then again I am including translations and delivery services. I am looking at my love right now on the webcam. He is worth that and more.

Oh yes, I shouldn't forget the price of 3 flights there at an average of $1200.00 each and the price to have my tubes untied so we can try to have a baby together, almost $6000.00. I'm feelking your pain!

I know its hard, but hang in there, there is nothing worth as much as the right wife/husband.

add plane tickets to the cost.
my plane ticket to pakistan was $1,900.00

I am just about to start and adding up all the cost is amazing. I have taken a second job on to help out cost running ragged. Wow those plane tickets are expensive the most I ever spent on a JA ticket was 400. It is hard but hopefully it will be better in the end for better or worse. And we have to start out worse with fiance sistuation which makes us stronger in the end. Best Wishes on your journey. Take Care.

Jess,

What's the £65 ($130) at the consulate for? The processing fee for non-immigrant visa applications is $100. Do you know what the other $30 is for?

Yodrak

I think you can pay extra for expidited delivery of the visa, but I didn't think it was $30.

Let's not forget the cost of applying for Naturalization.

I wish it was that cheap, that was how much I spent Morocco just to get married in a cheap way, just a listtle party wedding. That doesn't even count travel, immigration costs and etc after that. I don't think I could take it if I sat down and added up the total cost when I am done. But love is priceless!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Plus during the last winter my cat got sick and cost $2500 to get her healthy again. Trust me I did not have this money, so it went on my credit card to max it out. Now I will never get anyone to buy her for all I've put into her. LOL Like I would sell her, she's stuck with me, like it or not. LOL See love doesn't work that way, I had to take her and get her well and I even spoiled the crap out of her, now I am paying for it. She learned so many bad tricks during her sick period, she thinks she can get away with now which is not liked by her siblings one bit either. I know a cat is not a marriage, but it is love and proves you can't put a price on love even if it's your husband/wife or pet and it doesn't much matter if you don't have the money or not. If you want it, you have to come up with the money some how.



Paula

P.S. I couldn't let myself add up all I've spent on my cats, I'd have a cow or worse. LOL

Yeah, I'm unhappy about the AOS fees currently facing us but luckily James saved up a lot of money before he came over I factored in as well travelling costs because from what I can gather we are probably gonna have to travel somewhere to do fingerprints/interview etc (someone help me if I'm wrong? I don't think there is a local office where I live).

Just made the sum of what we've spent, and unless I have left something out it has so far been: £1682 or $3027!!!

Quite worth it though... IMO...

Honestly, it's probably a way to discourage the very-poor from applying. Same reason they charge so much when you call the consulate -- to discourage people from calling them.

But as everyone has said: It's money well spent!

Karen_L,

Actually, it's a way to get the people who are using the service to pay the costs of the service, so that US tax payers don't have to subsidize a (relatively) few people's visa journey.

Yodrak

A few months ago I posted the same message going through London........

since then I have had to file a waiver (nearly $300)

and am now looking at the AOS paperwork and the $400 or so dollars for that, the charges never seem to end.........

but there are people that have much worse to deal with

Once all the costs are paid, you can start saving for the trip back for a visit.

Yodrak

The cost is £65 i read on the London website. It may be that the confusion came as the exchange rate is constantly changing. The exact cost is $119 as of today. I now just double everything so $130 was my estimate. Better to overestimate slightly than underestimate. Especially as i havent included the costs of taking a day off work and travelling to the embassy! I am lucky to live in London as travel in the UK is very expensive.

Jess

Well I dunno about you but, from the current ($3000) and future (probably another $1000 at least) costs, I feel like I'm subsidizing SEVERAL people's visa journey!

Jess,

Thanks for the explanation.

True, adjustments to the visa cost in terms of the foreign currency are only periodic and sometimes can get out of line with current exchange rates. (Or maybe the cost has been adjusted and it's the web site that is behind.)

Yodrak