Hey everyone! Im new here but I guess this place is going to quickly become my second home.

My name is Simone, I am from Australia and my husband is in the US Army, so right now we are living together in Germany (where he is stationed).

I filed my 130 back in November, and up until last month, I hadn't heard a single peep from them!

Finally we got a letter from the Frankfurt consulate (where we filed) saying we now have to send in documents to prove our marriage is legit.

What confuses me sooooooo much is- the fact that I have had absolutely nothing else from them! I thought I was supposed to get a letter from them saying they got my application, with a receipt number??

I read so much online about all this stuff, and it's all SO contradicting So I really have absolutely no clue what I am supposed to do next, if the process is actually going right, etc.

Am I actually on the right path? Or has there been a step missed or what?

If anyone can help clear this up for me- I would be more than thankful!!!

What you do now is exactly what they have instructed you to do. Were they more specific? What did you send as proof of marriage when you sent the petition? For instance, did you send a copy of your marriage certificate? If not in English, did you include a certified translation?

One would naturally presume some important documentation was missing from your initial petition package. If not, then perhaps there is some reason, legitimate or not, they suspect your relationship may not be bonafide.

We have been told to send in evidence of a bona fide marriage. Joint bank accounts, tax returns, life insurance etc.

The letter was from the Frankfurt consulate and that's basically all it said, besides- if I don't send the evidence in 90 days, the petition will be considered invalid and it will be cancelled.

I am just so confused on why it is taking so long?

Our military lawyer told us to file the 130 petition with the geographical data, so we filed it and they took the money, and said we would be hearing something soon. However- we heard nothing, got no letter, no nothing, until last month?

Ok my hubby came home from work with the letter- this is what it says..

Name & address of petitioner - Name of beneficiary.........

_______________________________________________


In order to complete processing on I-130 you filed on behalf of the above named beneficiary, please provide the following items..

1. Please provide a statement as to how you and your spouse met.

2. Submit evidence to demonstrate that your present marriage to Simone is bona fide. This evidence may be in the form of birth certificates for common children, rent receipts, documentary evidence of joint ownership of property, joint income tax returns, joint accounts, etc. If you fail to submit any evidence or you submit insufficient evicence, your petition may be considered for denial.

Your petition will be deemed abondoned, and will be denied, if you fail to repsond to this request within 90 days from the date of this notice.

If you have any questions to this request please contact our office at ________ (which I did and they didn't answer).

(Then it has this at the bottom in fine print)

1-72 (FRG) Rev: 10/26/2004


---

And that's all. I am guessing they want us to send the documents to the Frankfurt consulate- but it dosn't say that either.

Like pushbrk said: send immediately what they are asking for. If the letter comes from the Frankfurt consulate ,send it there. Keep trying the phone - you'll find that the process is tedious, annoying, enervating, and insanity ensues. But hey! we are all going through it and are here to support each other.

But again, if you do not send what they ask, you can be sure they will deny/close/abandon your file. One step at a time, and gather as much humility and patience as you possibly can. We're here for you.

L.

It sounds like they've implemented a policy of requiring the evidence indicated in the instructions that come with the new I-130 form from December 2006. Again, what you DO NOW is send them what they ask for. Joint bank accounts and your name on any lease, your name as his life insurance beneficiary, your name as his dependant on military records etc. should be easy enough to secure. You don't need them all but I would give them at least two of the above and more if you have it.

Again, again, they are questioning your relationship. Did you actually send the marriage certificate? You didn't answer. Is there an actual reason you can think of that would cause them to suspect fraud? Regardless, send them the letter that tells them how you met and a brief statement of the evolution of the relationship. It can read like your husband is writing a letter to a casual friend who asked how he met his wife.

In all likelyhood, you'll have an approval notice within a couple weeks of them receiving the requested evidence.

I am really surprised it took so incredibly long. The only possible thing I can think of is perhaps there was a hold up with the DCF confusion this past January, where for a while people weren't allowed to file directly at a consulate. Another possibility is that something has been sent to you previously and didn't reach you due to a problem with the post.

Did you include anything in your original package that proved your ongoing relationship such as a joint lease/mortage or joint accounts? I am guessing you didn't because the I-130 instructions were revised in January, and you wouldn't have known to include something along those lines.

You're on the right track though. Just send some evidence in to the same address at the Frankfurt consulate. Double -check the letter and envelope just in case they do provide a different address in small print somewhere. Things should be much faster now.

I am baffled about why it took so long though for you to receive the RFE, and it doesn't seem fair to expect evidence of that nature from someone who sent in the I-130 before the instructions were revised.

One last thing - when you say "they took the money" - do you mean the military lawyer or the consulate? If you gave the package and the money to the military lawyer instead of sending it directly to Frankfurt yourself, perhaps some delay happened at the lawyer's office.

EDIT - I just realised it says you filed for a K3 visa and that you've posted in the K3 visa forum. That's not correct though. Sending the I-130 directly to a consulate results in a CR1/IR1 visa. You can't file for a K3 overseas.

Are you filing for a K-3 or a CR-1/IR-1? Did you file an I-129F as well as the I-130?
What docs were included in your I-130 package?

Submit evidence asap to the consulate (copies and state in the cover letter that originals are available upon request - unless they asked for originals)
Make copies of every page you submit for your files.

oh.. and please update your timeline. It is the "My Timeline" link to the left of your post.

good luck!

The only reason we are filing overseas is because we are stationed overseas, and that allows us to file the K3 overseas as my husband can't get to the states to file in person. That's something the military gets as a "benefit". I gave the money to the consulate when we filed our petition, our military legal adviser is free- and he told us that sending the 130 was the first step to the k3 visa?? Well........ we have now ONLY got some sort of correspondance with them.

And yes- we filed absolutely everything with the 130. We filed marriage certs, photos, geographical data... absolutely everything.

Hubby is now on the phone to the Visa center- and they themselves, are baffled. They are contacting the frankfurt consulate right now.

We have plenty of evidence- we don't have rent receipts or any sort of lease because we are in military housing.

What you did is called Direct filing, don't worry about the time, it took you so long because for a while there they suspended all direct filings due to "Adam walsh" law or some thing like that, and they held off responding to all previously filled applications unti they figure out how to proceed. They just resumed processing them, Just send them wat they ask for and they will call you for an interview real soon. Good luck.

The K3 visa is not relevant in your situation as you're able to apply directly to the Frankfurt consulate for an immigrant visa (CR1/IR1). I'm not sure why the lawyer thought that's what you would do.

If I were you, I would forget about the lost time (I don't think it's going to be possible to figure out why it took longer than it should have) and just reply directly to the consulate with the evidence they've requested. I am confident it will go more smoothly from here if you provide what they've requested. The visa center doesn't need to be involved and that may actually confuse the matter as they would be used to processing the visa application and then forwarding it to the consulate whereas you've been able to bypass that part of the process.

Write the letter about how you met, include information on traveling together where your husband is stationed. You say you live in military housing, but the military would be able to provide a letter listing where you live and attesting to the fact that you currently live there I imagine. That should count as evidence of your relationship. Do you have any joint accounts such as a joint bank account? Anything that is sent to you with both your names on it. Also, a letter from an officer who knows both of you and attests to the relationship would be good.

Ah man.. ok im off the phone. I took over cos he wasn't helping my husband out much.

Apparently they are so baffled on why it's taking so long, why we didn't get a receipt number or any sort of info.. but I guess we will find out on Monday as we made an interview with the Frankfurt consulate.

We are also going to be filing the 129F - so our process turns into a K3 visa (fault on the military lawyer right there)......

I will also apply for the visitor visa so I can enter and stay for 6 months.............we are PCSing to Texas in August so 6 months is a good start.

Basically I'm still hella confused. I mean- we did everything we were told to do BY the military lawyer and the frankfurt consulate- and somehow we still got screwed around.

Hopefully this vistor visa will actually get approved in time. The waiting list says 16 days........but after this whole episode- I won't be holding my breath.

So does this make sense? I will submit the evidence for the 130, and then file for the 129... to make it a K3 visa? And then enter for the mean time on a vister visa?

The dude on the phone said it will be fine, but you guys are the one with the experience.

I'm sorry, but I am not too educated on the CR1/IR1 visa. So we have actually applied for one of them instead of the K3 visa? Well that makes sense, because I just didn't understand what the hell was going on as everything I read on the K3 Visa was contradicting what we actually did.

We have plenty of evidence; life insurance beneficiary, joint bank accounts, orders, tax returns etc. So I am not too worried on that.

I am just pretty worried that this 130 is going nowhere.

If I should just continue the path of the 130 and not worry about the 129F then I will do that.

And in the mean time I could enter the states on a vistor visa correct?

Im sorry I make this sound confusing, lol it's confusing me because thats all we know. *sigh*

I think you might be better off not filing the I129F!

Here is why

If you do not file the I129F, then you are essentially going for a CR-1/IR-1. It seems like you are maybe half way thru this process and could get it done soon. The benefit here is that the beneficiary will get the Greencard right away.

If you choose to file a I129F, then you automatically put a hold on the I130 (untill you need it again in the US for adjustment of status). It will take you say 6 months to get a non-imigrant K3 visa for the benefficiary and then have to spend $1000+ to adjust status after moving to the US.

Since you never got I-130 notice of action (receipt), it does not mean that it was held up. It might have been processing and might be approved sooner that you think

my 2c

The process is confusing. When I first started, it took me a couple weeks to even understand that I wasn't required to file for the K3 visa and could just continue with the I-130 to get an immigrant visa for my husband.

The guy you spoke to at the visa center didn't understand your situation. Actually, your lawyer didn't even understand if he was advising you to file for K3. You have filed directly at the consulate in Frankfurt and will be able to apply for the CR/IR1 visa directly through the consulate. So yes, you need to continue with the I-130 and it will result in the best visa for your situation and should only take two to three more months in total.

Reply to the request for evidence with a letter from your husband describing how you met. Include copies of your husband's life insurance and a couple copies of joint bank account statements. A military letter describing your living situation can also be included if that's something you can obtain. All that information should satisfy them that you are in a bonafide marriage and currently living together. After that, you shouldn't have to wait much longer for NOA2 (notice of approval on the I-130). You don't have to do anything after NOA2 arrives. Packet 3 will arrive automatically not too long after that - that will contain instructions on applying for the visa directly through the consulate.



Another thing is that they would need a US address in order to file the I-129f and would have to go through a US service center. That just wouldn't make sense when they're both living abroad right now.

Oh, forgot to say that yes you can enter the states on a visitor visa while waiting for your immigrant visa. Although, I thought Australia was part of the Visa Wavier Programme and that you wouldn't need a visitor visa. You should be able to enter on your passport without a visa for up to 90 days. Just bring proof that you would be leaving after your visit - return ticket, proof of accounts and other liabilities in your country of residence.

Well that would be wonderful!!

I will be googling the IR1 after tea.

My documents will be there on Monday (we have that interview) and hopefully I will get some answers.

Lol - the US immigration process is extremely confusing!

So if I just stick with the 130 (which after what you told me, I most likely will do) - can I still file the Visitor visa? So I can be with my hubby for 6 months?

I'm pretty desperate right now- hubby just got back from a 12 month deployment to Iraq in Nov 06' and now he's due for a 15 month one in January 08'........ I just wanna spend the next few months with him cos they will be the last I get until like 2009.

Reading this thread has been very informative (thanks!) but I have a question to add -

I was told that I could file the K3 after the I130 to enable me to move to the US and wait there whilst the immigration visa is processed. Is that not the case?

Oh ok thanks Margot.

So I was sposed to get my NOA-1 (but I didn't), and right now the 130 is getting processed....and it's on the right track if they are asking for evidence (good idea bout the military letter ta), so i submit my evidence asap and then if I apply for the visitor visa- after it's approved, I can just wait for my 130 (unless its over 6 months) whilst im in the states?

I just wanna stay longer then 3 months....that's why I think the visitor visa would be appropriate. I have entered on the Visa Waiver before.....and that was great and convenient but yeah.. only 90 days.......

regarding travel checkout http://www.visajourney.com/faq/k1k2visa-application.html#4.6

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=67796

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=64124

This thread should probably be moved to the DCF forum as it's not actually relevant to K3 visa.

Arla - After receiving NOA1 for the I-130, you file for the K3 visa quickly. When you receive the K3 visa, you can move to the US. You can then either file for Adjustment of Status, or continue with the I-130 and return to your home country when the interview comes up. Just filing for the K3 doesn't mean you can move to the US - you have to obtain the K3 first. You can visit the US during the process as long as you have sufficient proof of your return to your home country or a visitor visa if needed for your country.

Yes, you should have received NOA1 but something happened to it, maybe lost in the post. And now the I-130 is processing and it will stay on the right track as long as you reply to the RFE quickly.

If I were you, I wouldn't bother with the visitor visa. If you reply to the RFE within the next couple of days, you should have the CR1 or IR1 by the end of roughly three months. You will need to be near Frankfurt during that time for when you need to do the medical and for the interview.

I thought your husband was currently at a base in Germany with you. Is that correct? What six months are you wanting to spend in the US on a visitor visa? I just don't think it will be necessary. Once they have the evidence, the process will go really quickly for you and like I said you'll need to go to Frankfurt a couple times. You're currently on track to be living in the US as a permanent resident free to work sometime by the end of August/early Sept this year.

Another comment for Arla - I see that you are a UKC. No visitor visa is needed to visit the US.

Unless your USC spouse is living in the UK, please disregard all information in this post. The information in this post can only be slightly helpful if the USC is currently in the UK.

Hun you are my new favourite person! No one can give me straight answers!

Ok I was wanting the visitor visa because.........my husband has just got orders to Texas and his report date is the 10th of August. That means we will no longer be in Germany after July 20. Apparently my interview will end up being in Sydney, Australia so I will have to go back for that- I mean.. if it's just going to be 3 months or so- I will be fine without the visa. But if its going to take longer then that- I will definately want to be in the states for longer then 3 months because he will be getting deployed in January.

I hope I make sense.

Do you know roughly how long it takes to process the K3 visa? I'm pregnant and have to fly before the third trimester if I'm going to travel at all!

Hmm... the thing about the interview is something I'm not sure of. For normal I-130 filing at a US service center, then yes the interview will be at the foreign spouse's home country. It might be at Frankfurt still though since you've been able to file directly there. At any rate, that doesn't matter too much right now - you'll receive instructions on it with packet 4 (you'll receive that after you've completed the instructions in packet 3).

So, let's see if I'm understanding - he has to report to Texas by 10th of August, but you'll be flying to the states at the end of July before that, right? And then he'll be in Texas indefinitely or least for a long time, right? I can't imagine that you'll need a visitor's visa. The process won't take that long unless something goes really wrong.

Look in the DCF forum and try to find other people who have filed in Frankfurt. Actually, have you read the Direct Consular Filing guide? That's the process you're doing. In the DCF forum, I think you'll be able to find other military couples who have gone through Frankfurt and can give advice.



What is the latest date you can fly? Have you filed the I-130 or I-129f? Where is your husband?

Yeah- he will be in Fort Hood TX until atleast 2009. I am on his orders so I am supposed to go with him. Lol dumbly enough we thought this whole process would be completed by the time this all happened, ofcourse I didn't expect too much- but I didn't expect that we would wait 6 months on 1 letter either. So im really worried that because it's taken so long to get this far- it's going to be like this the whole time.........really slow. And I think I kinda just want to safeguard myself with a visitor visa just incase this process does take another 5 or 6 months to hear from them again.

Thanks alot for your help! I will check out the DCF forum now- and sorry I put this in the wrong section lol- at the time....... I thought it was right!

It wasn't dumb to think it would be all done in time - really it should have been. I think what someone said about the Adam Walsh law (a big to-do earlier this year where direct consular filing was stopped for a while) probably did affect your petition. I don't think you have to worry about new delays, but I can understand wanting to be safe. Get your RFE done in the next couple days and keep us updated in the DCF forum.

We haven't filed yet because my idiot husband forgot! He says he's going to post the forms on Monday. The husband's stationed in Norfolk, VA (navy), and I can fly up to the end of September.

Has your husband read the K3 visa guide here? http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...mp;page=k3guide

That will help prevent any mistakes and therefore delays from occurring.

Unfortunately, you're cutting it close with end of September if the I-130 isn't filed yet. Your husband has to wait for NOA1 before filing the I-129f and then it takes time for the I-129f to be approved and for everything to get forwarded to London for processing and then for you to have the medical and interview and for the visa to arrive in the mail. I find the timelines here kind of hard to read, but I will look around and see if I can come up with a guesstimate for you.

Ugh, that's what I was afraid of! Thanks for your help

No problem. You can take a look at the K3 timelines here -
http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/stats.php

The averages depend on the service center where your husband will be sending the petitions and on the country of the foreign spouse. Vermont looks weirdly faster than the others - there might be someone talking about that on another thread in this folder. If your husband can file in Vermont because of where he's stationed, and if the averages are right, you're looking at roughly four months before you have the visa in hand.Which sounds like you wouldn't make it in time... and that's the fastest average as well. The California Service Center is showing more like six months in total.

Okay, I was just reading the K3 guide and I see that I've given incorrect info in my last post. I-129fs for K3 visas actually to Chicago and then to the National Benefits center. The timelines for different service centers are for K1 fiance visas. So, Arla, you're looking at an average of five months for the K3, which takes you to end of October.

Ah crap, I might as well not bother! Thanks again - I appreciate your help.

I think you should still consider going for it. It should be faster than waiting for the I-130 to go all the way through and result in an immigrant visa for you. The K3 visa is a multiple entry visa good for two years. So with the K3 at least you could enter as soon as the baby was allowed to fly. You also never know - it could take a bit less than average and your doctor could give you the go ahead to fly during the first part of the last trimester.