New to VJ.. Unique situation and the elusive question #22

[ChakanaWorld 0]

Hello all! Want to start by thanking all of you for your great posts and extensive knowledge. It's made me and my wife feel much more confident about doing the visa journey on our own.

We're almost done with the I-130 and I have a couple of questions that won't stop bothering me. I hope someone can help.

A quick background. My wife and I met in Linz, Austria the summer of 2010 while I was doing a summer program for graduate studies. I am from the US and she is Peruvian. She had been in Austria and studying for 4 years (she currently has residence in Austria on a student visa). We fell in love fast and spent the next year (2010-11)traveling back and forth between continents. After that we decided for her to come to the States for 6 months (the amount she could stay on the B2) to be together and see how it went. Well, after month 4, I knew I couldn't live without her. We traveled to China over New Years and I proposed. We returned to the US at the beginning of January 2011 and planned on getting married in Summer 2013. Well, we decided we couldn't wait that long and got married at the end of January. She must return to Austria by March 1st to start her next semester of school. We have decided to file the I-130 now, before she leaves, and deal with the whole visa process while she's in her last semester of school over there.

So, that's our story. And here come the questions.

1. Being that we have only been married a week and a half, we don't have as much evidence of a bona fide marriage as we'd like. Fortunately, we traveled together A LOT over the past 18 months so we have plenty of pictures, plane tickets, train tickets, emails between us and her and my parents etc. We also have affidavits from my parents and some of our friends attesting to our relationship and marriage. I created a Will and bestowed everything to her if I die. That's pretty much all we have. Does anyone have experience with this amount of evidence and do you guys think it will be sufficient? ( I must say, any idiot can look at our pictures and see we're crazy in love, but then I remember we're dealing with the US gov)

2. I have read that our file may get flagged because we were married within 30 days of her entering the US (She had been in the US for 4 months prior to leaving for China though) Her I-94 is valid until July but she's leaving in 3 weeks. We obviously put this on the 130.

a. If we are not filing for an AOS while she's here, will our file still get flagged?

b. Will the fact that she has a valid I-94 valid until July hurt us in the visa process?

3. My wife is a Peruvian citizen but she has been living in Austria for 4 years. On question 22(b) I put Vienna, Austria. Is this correct? Since she's a resident of Austria I assume she would not have to go back to Peru just for the visa process. Am i right here?

I think that's it for now. Apologies for the extra long and detailed post but you guys know how it is; this process can make any sane person loosen a few screws

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

It's NOT a red flag to marry soon after entry to the US.

[ChakanaWorld 0]

Thanks harpa. I was hoping it wouldn't be.

[yachachiq12 43]

I like your username!

The evidence of a bona fide marriage is more or less assessed according to how long you've been married and whether you've been residing together. It sounds like you have the sort of evidence you'd need.

Some might tell you it would be a good idea to file once she's departed the US, so there's no confusion about whether she's trying to AOS (even though you would not have filed the I-485, but still).

Hopefully someone will come along to say whether she can interview in Austria. Have you asked at the consulate?

Good luck with it all!

[ChakanaWorld 0]

I like your username!

Thanks!

The evidence of a bona fide marriage is more or less assessed according to how long you've been married and whether you've been residing together. It sounds like you have the sort of evidence you'd need.

Some might tell you it would be a good idea to file once she's departed the US, so there's no confusion about whether she's trying to AOS (even though you would not have filed the I-485, but still).

Hopefully someone will come along to say whether she can interview in Austria. Have you asked at the consulate?

Good luck with it all!

I guess we will have to contact the embassy in Vienna. Does anyone else have any idea about this issue?

Re: filing before she leaves. We really want to get the paperwork started so we will probably just file while she's here. I will make sure to make it very clear in our evolution of the relationship letter that she will be leaving. Hopefully that will work.

[jaycali 415]

There was a user here I saw with a Chinese wife studying in Sweden. Initially, the NVC had referred her to China if I remember correctly, but they ended up letting her do the interview in Sweden. I'm no expert on the matter, just giving a concrete case I saw.

Technically, there's no difference what embassy or consulate issues the visa, as they're all trained to do the same job. But, because situations in countries can vary greatly, they prefer the local consulate in the beneficiary's country do it. This is because some countries are considered high risk or high fraud countries, and some countries have extremely low cases off fraud etc. That's the general guideline I believe.

If she held permanent residency in Austria, it'd be the Vienna embassy for sure, but because she's a non-immigrant there, I don't know what the guideline would be. I'd still write Vienna since she plans to stay there for a while and holds a valid non-tourist visa.

Pictures of you guys in China together, coupled with some from the US and some from Austria shows that you go on vacation together - a huge plus! Me and my wife went to Iceland, Portugal, Norway and new York together and made sure to include pictures from all those places! If you have pictures of her with your family, that's a great asset too! Coupled with some passport stamps and some phone bill records I think you should be fine for now. The more heavy stuff comes later when removing conditions