K1 questions, concerns, and worries

[Marie & Steve 0]

Hi everyone,

I just got engaged this month and we haven’t started the k1 process yet, we just started looking into it. I have a lot of questions, concerns, and worries. We want the process to go as error proof as possible because of that we plan on obtaining a lawyer to help p us. Some burning questions I have after reading some of your posts are:

What financial documentation is requiring for the K1 visa? I am a high school teacher I make $79, 290 a year before taxes(been teaching for 10 years) and about $61,509 after taxes, union due, medical and 401 k deductions, I have a lot of student loans not much savings. It’s just me and my 8th year old son; I wonder how much must you make to sponsor someone if you are a family of 2 and how much saving must you have? As I mentioned above he has a crewman visa since he work for a cruise line and just resigned up for a six months contract ,is waiting a few months to the end of is contract wise? Or just go ahead and apply? We worry that he will not be home when we get request for documentation even worst the interview.

Thank you for your input.

Marie

Happy New Year to all May all our wishes and goals come to pass.

[maliciant 7]

Apply now, as the USC you will know what's going on the whole time (at least, you'll know before it's time to worry about the interview dates and stuff, for the most part you won't know what's going on, other than you still have to wait...). If you are able to communication with him then you should be fine to tell him what's going on. The interview can be rescheduled so if he's not able to make the interview date that is set, it can be moved.

Proving your income is not that hard usually, you can get tax transcripts from the IRS which are free, pay stubs, letter from your employer etc. There are poverty guidelines floating around the forums that state how much income you have to make to support X people... your income gives you enough to support something like 8 people probably... for the 3 you mention (you, your son and fiance(e)) you have no worries.

Sadly hiring a lawyer seems to rarely improve the chances of a problem free petition, most of the people here who did hire a lawyer have some horror stories, for k-1 processing all the lawyer really does is fill out the forms for you, the forms themselves are not that hard, you can easily do them following the guides on this site, it's all very overwhleming at first, but read through the guide a time or two to get familiar with it... it'll probably still be a big mystery and intimidating at that point, but once you start to fill in the paperwork you will find it's not so bad. A lawyer usually charges a pretty nifty chunk of change to fill in the forms for you after you... go through all the trouble of getting all the necessary documents together and ready for him (in other words you still get to do all the hard parts... he just fills out a pair of forms for you and charges you extra money, then frustrates you when he doesn't return calls or you start finding out that numerous mistakes were made in the original filings including simple address mistakes or a name miss-spelling etc...).

[bslsailor 0]

You are well above the 2008 125% poverty guidelines of $22,000 for a family of three.

If you can fill out a tax form, you can do a K1 - IMHO a lawyer will have to ask you for the same information to

fill out the form and slow you down. Just do a search on these forums for lawyer and read the horror stories.

Take time to read the guides here and you'll do fine.

Good luck on your journey,

John

[Tom212 0]

As mentioned above, you are well above the income requirements.

You don't need a lawyer. Just follow the guide here and be very thorough. We also use a book from Nolo on Fiance visa which was helpful.

[Gary and Alla 3,696]

Hi everyone,

I just got engaged this month and we haven’t started the k1 process yet, we just started looking into it. I have a lot of questions, concerns, and worries. We want the process to go as error proof as possible because of that we plan on obtaining a lawyer to help p us. Some burning questions I have after reading some of your posts are:

What financial documentation is requiring for the K1 visa? I am a high school teacher I make $79, 290 a year before taxes(been teaching for 10 years) and about $61,509 after taxes, union due, medical and 401 k deductions, I have a lot of student loans not much savings. It’s just me and my 8th year old son; I wonder how much must you make to sponsor someone if you are a family of 2 and how much saving must you have? As I mentioned above he has a crewman visa since he work for a cruise line and just resigned up for a six months contract ,is waiting a few months to the end of is contract wise? Or just go ahead and apply? We worry that he will not be home when we get request for documentation even worst the interview.

Thank you for your input.

Marie

Happy New Year to all May all our wishes and goals come to pass.

If you want it "error proof" DO NOT get a lawyer!!!!!!!!!! You do not need one and he can do nothing for you. The members here, including myself, have far more experience than any attorney and will gladly help you. You can email me direct at alshootist@yahoo.com

Financial documentation for you will be simple. Most recent tax return (2007 or 2008), most recent w-2 and letter from your employer verifying employment. For overkill you can toss in a letter from your bank...best if YOU write it and let them sign it. State when you opened the account and the amount of deposits for the last year. You will find a "sample letter" at this site, likewise the letter from your employer. Write it out for them and ask them to sign it. It does NOT need to be notarized, ONLY the I-134 afadavit must be notarized. They will use your "Gross" income to qualify you, BEFORE deductions, you have no worries unless your fiancee has like 10 kids! You are not required to have any savings, they do not even ask. They do not ask about liabilities, how much you pay for your home, etc. They ask ONLY for GROSS income. If it is more than 125% or poverty level for your family size (about $24,000 for a family of four) you are IN!!!!

Apply now. He MUST be present at the interview, you MUST make arrangements for that. And he MUST provide certain documents for the interview all of which are valid for 1 year, so he can go for the police certificate now and medical exam as soon as you have an NVC number. You WILL have to make some adjustments to your schedule, plan on it.

DO NOT USE AN ATTORNEY, I will gladly accept a donation in the amount you will waste on an attorney if you simply MUST throw away your hard earned money....throw MY way!!!!! )) ( I have already given you more and better advice than an attorney will)

Gary

[Marie & Steve 0]

Hi all,

Thank you all very much for your thoughtful advises; I truly appreciate your honesty.

Marie

[KimandRuss 0]

Hi Marie, welcome to VJ. You have found the best resource for this journey and have already got some good advice but I did want to point you in the direction of the GUIDES.

This link will provide you with a checklist of items/forms needed to file a I-129f fiance petition with USCIS. The example forms will help you to fill them out. Ever hear of the term if you want something done right... do it yourself? Have a read of all you can from the links above..being a teacher I would suspect you are more than able to complete this process yourself and very likely save yourself time and money as well. Do some research here, read all you can and then decide.

Just so you are aware, an approved petition can take 6 months (+/-). Once approved, the I-797 (petition approval/NOA2) is valid for 4 months(possibility of extension).... this would mean your fiance would have up to 4 months to be interviewed from the time the petition is approved here at the uscis level. Once he is interviewed and issued a visa he will have 6 months from that day to enter the U.S. Keep all of this in mind when choosing the best time to file.

good luck!

[Jesse and Hema 2]

Looks like folks on this one have pointed you in the right direction.

The main points with this process:

• Cross your T's, dot your I's (make sure you follow all directions on all forms)
• Have patience
• Keep your personal matters in check (don't go crazy, keep your relationship strong, etc)

Also, if you have any Trinidad & Tobago-specific inquiries, feel free to send me a private message or post over on the regional forums.

Congrats on your engagement, and good luck with the immigration process!