From 129F application to K1 visa : journey

[rubensf 3]

Hello,

Last week on November 23rd, we (I and my Fiancée) got our K1 visa approved. I thought of sharing my start to finish experience, and things I have discovered along the way. It may be helpful to someone else who will be going through the same process. There are interesting and not so straight forward information I had to dig out. Since I did this whole process by myself, I would like to share my experience.

Profile summary:

Ben: Have been living in San Francisco for many years, work in technology field

Katy: From Ivanovo, ~400KM north east of Moscow. She did her biomed bachelors degree from UK and completed her degree on June 2016

We met over eHarmony, and started communicating with each other from September 2015 online, Skype, while she was in UK

Communication with each other:

I visited her on November 2015. While she was studying at UK, we applied for visitors visa for Katy at London. She got for visitors visa. Usually Russian nationals gets 3 years visitors visa. Katy visited me at San Francisco on December 2015, March 2016, April 2016. Before she completed her studies in June 2016, she stayed with me at San Francisco for several months.

Then after finishing her studies she came to San Francisco on early July 2016.

Note on travelling to US on visitor's visa and K1 application: According to USCIS, it is perfectly okay to for you fiancée to be present in US when you start your K1 visa application process. Where it gets tricky is that, once you submitted your K1 visa application, it is better not to try to cross the border to get into US. Since visitors visa is non-immigration intent but K1 is immigration intent, they conflict with each other. Though a visa officer may not make it a big deal, some may. So it is advisable not to cross the border once your application is submitted.

Preparation:

>> We kept all of our travel boarding pass, tickets, movie tickets, tickets for the national park we have visited etc. Keeping those and in case you are being asked to show evidence of relationship it builds the case better.

I 129F petition:

>> I prepared the packet and sent to national visa processing center on August 12th and it was accepted on August 17th, 2016. Katy entered US on visitor's visa on July 4th 2016 and her visitors visa "duration of stay" was valid until January 02, 2017

>> While submitting I129F be sure to follow the check-list, it is rather straight forward. I would recommend to keep a photo copy of the I129F and everything you submit.

>> If your fiancée travelled to US, as part of your I129F, you have to submit all the date she/he entered or exited the country. These days you can get those dates from the TSA website. You need to enter the travelers passport number, date of birth etc and you will get the list.

>> All of Katy's documents needed to be translated. Documents in this context would be birth certificate, if any prior marriage/divorce certificate. You can find a local translator on yelp. Submit the photocopy of the translation, photocopy of the original. Don't submit the original translation, as USCIS doesn't need the original, and you will need them again. Unless you want to spend money again for translation, submit the photocopy.

>> National visa processing center will forward the application to the regional service center, in our case it was California. You will get the case number and you check the status.

>> Our I 129F was approved by California service center by September 19th and we got the physical notification letter on September 23rd. Our application was forwarded to the national visa processing center again.

Early preparation for K1 visa application at Moscow:

>> As soon as we submitted our I129F application on August, we started working on our K1 visa application packet.

>> For police certificate in Russia: Since Katy was in US, her parents helped us regarding this. We had two choices, either we could go to Russian consulate in San Francisco and obtain it via Russian consulate or we could get directly from Russia. We chose to get it from Russia. We had to write up power of attorney in US, and got is translated. In order for power of attorney to be valid across international borders, be sure to get it apostile certified. In San Francisco it cost us around $120 (apositle + power of attorney + Russian translation)

>> Katy's parents went to the local police station and got the Russian police certificate. Needed to be translated.

>> Since Katy studied in UK, we needed the police certificate from UK. From San Francisco UK consulate website, we got the UK police commissioner (ARCO) website, where we submitted our request. We received the UK police certificated with in 20 days.

>> Katy's parents also helped us to acquire her medical vaccination history from local Russian doctors/hospital. It also needed to be translated.

K1 visa application process at Moscow:

>> As I was preparing the application all the documents I have scanned and kept a copy.

>> By October 12, 2016 our application was at the Moscow consulate and by October 14th, our application was ready for interview. We received our Moscow application case number.

>> First we set up our medical examination appointment date on November 21, 2016. While setting up the medical examination appointment, I would recommend that take an early morning time slot to avoid lots of delay and rush. We did it via phone,

>> Please note that, medical appointment can be done before or after the visa interview. Your visa won't be issued until US consulate receives your medical examination result. IOM sends the result directly to the consulate.

>> We did setup our visa interview on November 23rd, 2016 (that was the earliest date we could find) after making visa fee payment via visa appointment website (ustraveldocs.com). I would advise you to do this ASAP, before you finalize your travel dates.

>> I needed Russian visa. Katy wrote up a sponsorship letter and I have applied for Russian private visa (valid for 3 years, multiple entries) at the Russian consulate in San Francisco.

>> As a petitioner, I wanted to be present during the interview. If you want to attend the interview as petitioner, I would highly recommend that you send a email to the Moscow consulate beforehand, so that your name is on the access list, otherwise you may have difficulties to get in. I did that and that certainly saved me.

>> We travelled to Russia on 17th of Nov, 2016. On 21st we had our medical examination appointment. Though there are many hotels in Moscow, we stayed at Marriot in Tevorskya Blvd. Since we were staying there for 3 days, we got 3 days metro pass, each costs 400 Rub, that was the most cost effective for us.

>> Our medical examination appointment was at 8.30 AM, we decided to leave hotel early. We had bit of difficulties locating the IOM office. If you enter the address given in the Moscow consulate website

#12, 2nd Zvenigorodskaya, building 6, 1st entrance; Moscow, Google maps take you on the opposite side of the main road.

Either search with #12, 2nd Zvenigorodskaya ul, building 6, 1st entrance; Moscow (note the ul for ulitsa, after the road name or on the Google map search for MOM instead of IOM)

>> Since we made to the office on time, we were first in line. We paid the fees (in Rubles, cash), and then we were given address to the designated hospital. We were told by the woman behind the counter that we should go to the designated hospital as early as possible, as there are only two doctors work there, waiting period can get longer. We took metro to the hospital and 10 mins walk (close to Kremlin). Medical examination went rather quickly, at the end they gave us a document and a CD that we need to take back with us.

Please note that IOM will send the result directly to the consulate, and you can have visa interview either before the medical examination or immediately after the medical examination.

>>Our visa interview was on 23rd Nov, 2016, at 9.15 AM. We went to the consulate by 7.50 AM, there are already whole bunch people on the line. I must say that people are not really big fan of standing in proper line and following the order. There were many people who tried to cut in front the line even though they came late, all kinds of stuff. Just be prepare for that. We hand over our passport the security guard, after cross checking the security personnel let people in. Just to be on the safe side we didn't take any electronic devices (though if you have Phones etc. once inside the consulate that is the desk where you can deposit your phone)

>> Once inside, for the K1 visa (immigrant visa), first you need to give your appointment confirmation and DS160 confirmation page and the follow the red dotted line to the second floor. Go to the counter number 22 and 23 and hand over the green plastic sheet (with your serial number that was given to you at the first floor) and wait for your number to be called. Hand over all the documentation etc.

>> Now we waited for our final interview. We were called at the counter 24 for the final interview with the visa officer. Our visa officer was a lady from Vermont, just wonderful person. Asked both us when and how we met. Asked Katy what she studied in UK. That's about it. She said she will issue our visa as soon as she gets the medical examination result, due to Thanksgiving holiday it was a short working week.

>> Monday Nov 28th, 2016, we saw that there was a status update of the case, still it was marked as "administrative processing". On the Nov 30th 2016 our visa was issued.

>> Yesterday December 1st, 2016 we got Katy's passport with the K1 visa. So the Pony express took just one day to deliver from Moscow to Ivanovo (400KM north east of Moscow).

It was a great journey. I have attached a document with all the notes and important information, checklist I have created, in case you find it helpful.

US_consulate_Moscow_Interview_info.pdf

[millefleur 5,035]

Thanks for all of this info! Really informative!

Congrats.

[Dashinka 23,243]

Congrats on your visa experience and this for the detailed information. Hopefully your continued journey will be as smooth. We are just putting the package together for Katya's ROC and it just keep she growing and growing.