Advise on Getting K-1 Visa

[Burk 0]

Hello, I am a US Citizen that has fallen in love and will be marrying my Ecuadorian fiance. I am in California and she is in the Ecaudor, Guayaquil. I am filling out the K-1 application and wondering if any of you can point to me some pitfalls to avoid. She will have to fill out some forms but she does not speak English nor read English, are some of the forms in Spanish so she can at least see what they are asking her. Any help or direction where to get information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Anh map 2,098]

Get ready for quite a ride. There are very experienced members here who have survived the guantlet that is Guayaquil.

You should plan on completing the forms for her.

Do some reading in the Guides here on VJ as well as in the Latin America regional forum to learn the particulars of your consulate.

Welcome to VJ.

[MensahLuv 4]

http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1guide

[Penguin_ie 5,986]

Unfortunately, you are dealing with a very difficult consulate.

Make sure you have lots of relationship evidence. As she does not speak English, in your cover letter, you may want to explain how you communicate. This is some time in the future, but be prepared to go down there for her interview.

[Ashley and Manuel 0]

All the forms being sent in for your petition HAVE to be in english. There are no translations in any language. Fill them out for her and send them to her to sign. I also fell in love and he is in Puyo, Ecuador. We are in the process of filing our petition and I promise your questions will keep coming! Good luck and anything that your not clear on...even slightly...ask and get a 2nd and 3rd opinion before you send ANYTHING in. Don't give them reason to make things difficult.

[Maliajannah 0]

I also fell in love and he is in Puyo, Ecuador.

I fell in love in Puyo too! Puyo is a great place for love apparently.. :-)

I just brought my fiance to California on a K-1 visa and it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be based on what people said here on VJ. Definitely keep track of all the paperwork, make sure every i is dotted and t crossed. Also, be heavy on the evidence. Hand-written letters, call logs, tickets together, anything and everything you think makes you a couple. Be prepared to travel to Guayaquil for the interview, it is not technically required for the USC to be there but most people who make it through the Ecuador consulate recommend that both partners attend the interview.

If you have not yet sent your I-129F, include as much evidence as you can gather in the original package. That way they have to acknowledge it and it's guaranteed to be accounted for. When you go to the interview 6 or so months later you can bring the evidence covering those six months since you sent the package and everything will look really solid.

My fiance doesn't speak much English either and so far we've been ok. You'll have to fill out all of the forms and translations yourself, make sure she gets 2 copies of the original birth certificate so you can translate one for AOS. You won't need to do any translating for the consulate, it's only after when you adjust status that you'll need the English versions.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me, we just had our interview Jan 24th so it's still fresh in my mind. :-) Good luck!

[Maliajannah 0]

Sorry I seem to have double posted. My bad! Good luck everyone!

Edited February 21, 2011 by Maliajannah

[ecuababy 0]

Send as much info as possible with the original petition.