Pennycat

And I don't think it is appropriate for you to claim that people have been deported over volunteer work without anything to back that up. It is my lived experience, as I said, being told by a consular officer, that a true volunteer position at a non-proft is fine. It is also my knowledge that what I said about not fake volunteering is both true and simply boiling down those two regulations you posted (an attorney's explanation quoted below)
 
So, you have still not backed up your claim that people have been deported over volunteerism. And your proof of your argument, is actually proof of mine. I cannot help but conclude that you are either uninformed or fear mongering for fun.
 
"USCIS has stated that: “if any type of benefit could accrue to the alien, though it may not be wages or fringe benefits, the services will be considered unauthorized employment.” (89-05 Immigr. Briefings 1).
Volunteer services for a prospective employer constitute unauthorized employment if the alien will ultimately derive some benefit from the work.
The ultimate question in most volunteer cases will be: What did the alien expect in return?
If he or she expected compensation, reward, or future benefit, then the volunteer work probably violates status. (95-05 Immigr. Briefings 1).
Many community-based and student based organizations offer opportunities for volunteering.
As long as no compensation is involved, and the opportunity is officially advertised as a volunteer position, the foreign national may participate."
 

Never just go by "what you hear". Do your own research, seriously. A lot of these doom and gloom stories you see about student debt are from people who made very bad life decisions and are only just now realizing exactly what the consequences are (this, by the way, is the same as a lot of the immigration doom and gloom stories from people here, by the way). This is not to say that the system (or lack thereof) that we have is good, and I'm not defending the cost of higher education in this country, but I *am* saying that there are options available, many of which have been spelled out to you here, and often you find that the people with $100K in student debt failed to use the options available, for whatever reason.

Absolutely not!
All new i-129f petitions have been being sent to the "faster" service center since April. They are averaging about a month to process them (see Step 2: http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1historical) Even if they do ever start sending them to the black hole of Texas ever again....Texas won't be all that slow. The slowness was the backlog. They've been working off the backlog since April. If they send new petitions there, there won't be any line ahead of you. You're good.
Military petitions also get expedited (after applying for the expedite) if there is a deployment on the horizon.
If you apply by the end of this month, you will be out of CSC by the end of February or sooner. Then about 2-3 months of time processing through State and the embassy. You should have your visa by the end of May.
Now, keep in mind however that this is with how things have been going up until the San Bernardino attack. No one how if or how that may affect future petitions.
But still, apply now. Your most likely scenario is that you're able to immigrate and marry a month before he deploys. Your worst case scenario is that he deploys before you have your visa. However, you can make it work. You don't need him for anything after the petition (as long as he fills out the affidavit of support that you'll need for the interview. If it looks like he'll deploy before your interview (which I sincerely doubt, personally but you never know)-- just have him send it to you right before he leaves so it is as current as possible for your interview. Then, you do all the things you need to do for the embassy alone (you'd probably do that all alone anyway), and get the visa. You then have about 6 months to use the visa (6 months from the date of your medical appointment, to be exact). He will (probably-- check this with him) get R&R during deployment. He can go back to the US during that period of time. You can meet him there, marry, and stay. You don't even have to apply for AOS until he's back from deployment (but you can). As long as you don't need to work, you're fine. And remember, this is the worst case scenario here. I believe that with your timeline, it'll be tight but you'll probably be alright. And if not, then you have some logistics to wrangle but it is all doable.
Edited to add: my timeline was all based on NO expedites, too. If he does get scheduled for a deployment, you can apply to expedite through USCIS and State/the embassy and probably make it in plenty of time.
The poster above makes a good point about being alone in a foreign country during deployment during your first year of marriage. Everyone is different, obviously, but that is something to think about.

see highlighted from the link you have posted. Please refrain from unsound advise in the matter you are not knowledgeable.

This will vary pretty greatly state-to-state. 
 
From what I can see from the California DMV site, and probably because of REAL ID, they won't get a DL when the I-94 is expired and before EAD arrives. https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/wcm/connect/0d71782a-9301-4b4a-968c-af5f670be82f/Federal_NonCompliant_dl_DocsList.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CVID= Georgia doesn't allow DL's without the full green card (no EAD, nothing). Everyone is different. 
 
I urge EVERYONE on this thread or who has this issue to be proactive about it. Don't just take it, and if you solve the problem for yourself, please take proactive steps to help avoid this happening to others. This REAL ID thing is basically the federal government trying to get the state governments to enforce immigration law for them and they (obviously) don't understand all the nuances. 
 
K-1s are usually uniquely effected by this because they get just about the shortest authorized stay of all non-tourist non-immigrant visas. Students, temporary workers, etc, all get a long time and so their I-94 expiry doesn't bother them much. People adjusting from VWP/tourist fall into this trap too but at least they didn't expect to need to change their plans and stay so suddenly (right? ) so they'd expect some difficulty there. Contact your state legislator and explain the situation. Ask if there is anything that can be done in your own case and if he/she can look into writing an exception for K1 visa holders into the law. 
 
I had to go to WAR with our state's DMV. They wouldn't accept (repeatedly wouldn't accept, I went with him for his 4th visit) my husband's green card as proof of legal presence because it would expire in 13 months and we didn't have an I-797 (which  you can't apply for until 3 months before the conditional GC's expiry). NOWHERE in our state's laws or DMV literature does it say that. You better believe that someone got fired and the entire district re-trained about green cards after I was through. It is the only way to deal with this kind of BS. 

Luis and Molly got married in the US though-- just off camera and without the producers knowing.  If you watch them closely, you can tell pretty much exactly when it happened because that's when Luis stops being "cute" to her (he was never cute in my opinion, but his trying to be cute) to being dead-fish eyes refusal to have anything to do with the family. And then he left for his brother in New Jersey. And came back probably as soon as he saw his brother's immigration lawyer who told him that just being married isn't enough, he's got to stay long enough to get his green card. 

Luis and Molly got married in the US though-- just off camera and without the producers knowing.  If you watch them closely, you can tell pretty much exactly when it happened because that's when Luis stops being "cute" to her (he was never cute in my opinion, but his trying to be cute) to being dead-fish eyes refusal to have anything to do with the family. And then he left for his brother in New Jersey. And came back probably as soon as he saw his brother's immigration lawyer who told him that just being married isn't enough, he's got to stay long enough to get his green card. 

Luis and Molly got married in the US though-- just off camera and without the producers knowing.  If you watch them closely, you can tell pretty much exactly when it happened because that's when Luis stops being "cute" to her (he was never cute in my opinion, but his trying to be cute) to being dead-fish eyes refusal to have anything to do with the family. And then he left for his brother in New Jersey. And came back probably as soon as he saw his brother's immigration lawyer who told him that just being married isn't enough, he's got to stay long enough to get his green card. 

And just to chime in on the corrected timelines, even though it is completely out, the B1/B2 option is 12 months to a green card (5 or 6 to a work permit) so this lawyer is wrong on yet another front.
 
Avoid this person. They are either very, very badly informed or are steering you in a direction to make more money for themselves (make you think the B1/B2 to adjustment of status option is the best/fastest so  you'll choose it, knowing that you'll be denied the B1/B2 visa anyway, then you need to come back and pay them for more advice and more paperwork assistance for the visa you were supposed to go for in the first place). 
 
You'll meet people who have adjusted from B1/B2 visas. They were either already here and had a sudden change in circumstances that made them decide to stay or  (more likely) did not know that this wasn't legal and weren't caught or decided to take the risk and weren't caught. No one here can or will advise you to follow in those footsteps and anyone who does advise you to do that does not have your best interest at heart right now (there is an approximately 0% chance you'll get another B1/B2 visa at this point). 

You've got it on backwards-- you don't have to refrain from showing intent to immigrate to the US. You have to prove intent to leave. Anyone can hide a true intention, what they're looking for is positive proof of intent to leave. 
 
Where making adjustment of status from tourist visas/ VWP helpful impossible (or perhaps extremely expensive with other consequences) would help is here-- anyone with family/ boy/girlfriends in the US etc would have no (or limited) ability to adjust status and therefore have an easier hurdle to clear in terms of proving intent to leave. Can't adjust= can't stay legally. Not everyone will choose to stay illegally. 

You've got it on backwards-- you don't have to refrain from showing intent to immigrate to the US. You have to prove intent to leave. Anyone can hide a true intention, what they're looking for is positive proof of intent to leave. 
 
Where making adjustment of status from tourist visas/ VWP helpful impossible (or perhaps extremely expensive with other consequences) would help is here-- anyone with family/ boy/girlfriends in the US etc would have no (or limited) ability to adjust status and therefore have an easier hurdle to clear in terms of proving intent to leave. Can't adjust= can't stay legally. Not everyone will choose to stay illegally. 

You've got it on backwards-- you don't have to refrain from showing intent to immigrate to the US. You have to prove intent to leave. Anyone can hide a true intention, what they're looking for is positive proof of intent to leave. 
 
Where making adjustment of status from tourist visas/ VWP helpful impossible (or perhaps extremely expensive with other consequences) would help is here-- anyone with family/ boy/girlfriends in the US etc would have no (or limited) ability to adjust status and therefore have an easier hurdle to clear in terms of proving intent to leave. Can't adjust= can't stay legally. Not everyone will choose to stay illegally. 

Please see a lawyer. If you proceed on your own, you'll be digging yourself a bigger hole. You do have options, people here have tried to help you with them but you aren't open to receiving them and you haven't really done a great job at managing this yourself. It's lawyer time.
 
And no, I didn't note the date. So that's even worse than before. An 18 month old letter from someone saying that you currently live with them, when  you NOW live elsewhere (and presumably don't have any other proof of residency? Don't pay taxes in Virginia, don't have a Virginia drivers' licence, no official mail going to your Virginia address) is absolutely no proof that you WILL live there in the future. 

Please see a lawyer. If you proceed on your own, you'll be digging yourself a bigger hole. You do have options, people here have tried to help you with them but you aren't open to receiving them and you haven't really done a great job at managing this yourself. It's lawyer time.
 
And no, I didn't note the date. So that's even worse than before. An 18 month old letter from someone saying that you currently live with them, when  you NOW live elsewhere (and presumably don't have any other proof of residency? Don't pay taxes in Virginia, don't have a Virginia drivers' licence, no official mail going to your Virginia address) is absolutely no proof that you WILL live there in the future. 

Not really. They're going to want to see your Virginia driver's licence, your bank statements going to your new address etc. Also, you don't need to bother with notaries, you just include the phrase " l declare under penalty of perjury (under the laws of the United States of America) that the foregoing is true and correct". A notary just proves the identity of the person who signed it; not that they're telling the truth. 

Also, if you're trying to hide where you now live, the zipcode gives it away (I live close by, recognize it). 
 
I think that this point, you need to involve a lawyer. NOIRs are serious, you've got a few other complications and don't seem to be understanding what people are telling you to do (and... are you really moving to Virginia? If you're not, they will know in 5 seconds). 
 
The bottom line here is that people who are married almost always share finances. That is pretty much the #1 proof they're looking for. You can find whatever excuse you want for not being able to provide that kind of proof, but thousands of people in your situation manage to every year. And they're not even trying to generate proof for immigration-- they're just living their lives as typical married couples (although separated by distance). You keep saying "we can't, we don't live together yet" as if there aren't thousands of other married couples who don't live together yet. I won't pass judgement on the bona fides of the marriage (bona fide is different than legal), but I will tell you that given the lack of evidence you gave, the NOIR and your general approach to this, it is clear that you left a strong impression with the government that you're doing this for immigration purposes. You'll need more help than Visajourney can give to overcome that impression. 

They are far, far beyond simply proving that they've been on vacation together. Basically what's happened is that they appear to have nothing in the way of any financial co-mingling whatsoever-- he's not helping support her etc. That's not normal, or helpful for immigration in and of itself but add in that they're cousins and they very well may have tripped off someone's antennae that this is more about family migration than it is about this  marriage. Again, I personally am NOT making any judgement here, just pointing out the potential downfalls of presenting with this combination of facts, and their outcome (NOIR) as evidence that that's probably what happened. 

Please see a lawyer. If you proceed on your own, you'll be digging yourself a bigger hole. You do have options, people here have tried to help you with them but you aren't open to receiving them and you haven't really done a great job at managing this yourself. It's lawyer time.
 
And no, I didn't note the date. So that's even worse than before. An 18 month old letter from someone saying that you currently live with them, when  you NOW live elsewhere (and presumably don't have any other proof of residency? Don't pay taxes in Virginia, don't have a Virginia drivers' licence, no official mail going to your Virginia address) is absolutely no proof that you WILL live there in the future. 

I didn't say you're lying. I am saying that you have given the government the impression that this is about immigration, not marriage.  Whether you've intended to or not, that is the impression you made with them. Even just saying the words "I am doing the best to bring my wife" is more about the moving than it is about the marriage. People here are trying to help you, and you keep explaining how that won't work. You either need a professional at this point, or I suppose prepare to move home. It's clear that you're in over your head, and you aren't taking the advice here. 
 
And... just to note.... the letter from your friend says "is currently living with me" and you said "will move to Virginia". So. One of these two things isn't true.

I didn't say you're lying. I am saying that you have given the government the impression that this is about immigration, not marriage.  Whether you've intended to or not, that is the impression you made with them. Even just saying the words "I am doing the best to bring my wife" is more about the moving than it is about the marriage. People here are trying to help you, and you keep explaining how that won't work. You either need a professional at this point, or I suppose prepare to move home. It's clear that you're in over your head, and you aren't taking the advice here. 
 
And... just to note.... the letter from your friend says "is currently living with me" and you said "will move to Virginia". So. One of these two things isn't true.

Not really. They're going to want to see your Virginia driver's licence, your bank statements going to your new address etc. Also, you don't need to bother with notaries, you just include the phrase " l declare under penalty of perjury (under the laws of the United States of America) that the foregoing is true and correct". A notary just proves the identity of the person who signed it; not that they're telling the truth. 

Also, if you're trying to hide where you now live, the zipcode gives it away (I live close by, recognize it). 
 
I think that this point, you need to involve a lawyer. NOIRs are serious, you've got a few other complications and don't seem to be understanding what people are telling you to do (and... are you really moving to Virginia? If you're not, they will know in 5 seconds). 
 
The bottom line here is that people who are married almost always share finances. That is pretty much the #1 proof they're looking for. You can find whatever excuse you want for not being able to provide that kind of proof, but thousands of people in your situation manage to every year. And they're not even trying to generate proof for immigration-- they're just living their lives as typical married couples (although separated by distance). You keep saying "we can't, we don't live together yet" as if there aren't thousands of other married couples who don't live together yet. I won't pass judgement on the bona fides of the marriage (bona fide is different than legal), but I will tell you that given the lack of evidence you gave, the NOIR and your general approach to this, it is clear that you left a strong impression with the government that you're doing this for immigration purposes. You'll need more help than Visajourney can give to overcome that impression. 

Please see a lawyer. If you proceed on your own, you'll be digging yourself a bigger hole. You do have options, people here have tried to help you with them but you aren't open to receiving them and you haven't really done a great job at managing this yourself. It's lawyer time.
 
And no, I didn't note the date. So that's even worse than before. An 18 month old letter from someone saying that you currently live with them, when  you NOW live elsewhere (and presumably don't have any other proof of residency? Don't pay taxes in Virginia, don't have a Virginia drivers' licence, no official mail going to your Virginia address) is absolutely no proof that you WILL live there in the future. 

They are far, far beyond simply proving that they've been on vacation together. Basically what's happened is that they appear to have nothing in the way of any financial co-mingling whatsoever-- he's not helping support her etc. That's not normal, or helpful for immigration in and of itself but add in that they're cousins and they very well may have tripped off someone's antennae that this is more about family migration than it is about this  marriage. Again, I personally am NOT making any judgement here, just pointing out the potential downfalls of presenting with this combination of facts, and their outcome (NOIR) as evidence that that's probably what happened. 

Not really. They're going to want to see your Virginia driver's licence, your bank statements going to your new address etc. Also, you don't need to bother with notaries, you just include the phrase " l declare under penalty of perjury (under the laws of the United States of America) that the foregoing is true and correct". A notary just proves the identity of the person who signed it; not that they're telling the truth. 

Also, if you're trying to hide where you now live, the zipcode gives it away (I live close by, recognize it). 
 
I think that this point, you need to involve a lawyer. NOIRs are serious, you've got a few other complications and don't seem to be understanding what people are telling you to do (and... are you really moving to Virginia? If you're not, they will know in 5 seconds). 
 
The bottom line here is that people who are married almost always share finances. That is pretty much the #1 proof they're looking for. You can find whatever excuse you want for not being able to provide that kind of proof, but thousands of people in your situation manage to every year. And they're not even trying to generate proof for immigration-- they're just living their lives as typical married couples (although separated by distance). You keep saying "we can't, we don't live together yet" as if there aren't thousands of other married couples who don't live together yet. I won't pass judgement on the bona fides of the marriage (bona fide is different than legal), but I will tell you that given the lack of evidence you gave, the NOIR and your general approach to this, it is clear that you left a strong impression with the government that you're doing this for immigration purposes. You'll need more help than Visajourney can give to overcome that impression. 

Not really. They're going to want to see your Virginia driver's licence, your bank statements going to your new address etc. Also, you don't need to bother with notaries, you just include the phrase " l declare under penalty of perjury (under the laws of the United States of America) that the foregoing is true and correct". A notary just proves the identity of the person who signed it; not that they're telling the truth. 

Also, if you're trying to hide where you now live, the zipcode gives it away (I live close by, recognize it). 
 
I think that this point, you need to involve a lawyer. NOIRs are serious, you've got a few other complications and don't seem to be understanding what people are telling you to do (and... are you really moving to Virginia? If you're not, they will know in 5 seconds). 
 
The bottom line here is that people who are married almost always share finances. That is pretty much the #1 proof they're looking for. You can find whatever excuse you want for not being able to provide that kind of proof, but thousands of people in your situation manage to every year. And they're not even trying to generate proof for immigration-- they're just living their lives as typical married couples (although separated by distance). You keep saying "we can't, we don't live together yet" as if there aren't thousands of other married couples who don't live together yet. I won't pass judgement on the bona fides of the marriage (bona fide is different than legal), but I will tell you that given the lack of evidence you gave, the NOIR and your general approach to this, it is clear that you left a strong impression with the government that you're doing this for immigration purposes. You'll need more help than Visajourney can give to overcome that impression. 

Hello, fellow geography lover! You piqued my curiosity so I looked it up. The rule actually says "Canada, Mexico or adjacent islands" (best source I can find on this is on US emabssy sites, but I thought this was CBP's realm but... anyway here's an example)  and then adjacent islands is defined in the INA as: