US Citizen Married to Canadian Citizen - Journey Begins

[jpatchett3 0]

I am a formerly married and now divorced man finalized in Sept 2010. I met the love of my life later that year and have been blessed to have her ever since, however she lives in Montreal. I currently live and work in Arizona and over Easter I asked her to marry me, she of course said yes. We then started looking into what we had to do in order for her to come to the states so we could be together.

In an effort to get the process moving we decided in May that we would do an Elvis wedding in Vegas and get married so we could get our paperwork filed and get the process rolling. We are also holding the "big wedding" in Montreal in Feb 2013. After the wedding in Vegas we started working through what paperwork we needed to prepare and file. It is now the end of Sept and we still have not send in the initial paperwork because of all the details that are required.

We have prepared the I-130 form, copy of my divorce decree, a G-325a for each of us, a certified copy of my birth cert, copy of my passport, certified copy of marriage certificate, certified copy of our marriage license and a picture of each of us signed and dated within the last 30 days.

My question to all of you would be, is there anything else that is needed for the initial filing other that a money order for the filing fees. I want to be sure that we are covering all of our bases. Also, can anyone tell me what the next steps are after we have filed this information and (hopefully) it has been approved.

Thanks in advance.... I am going to try and document this whole process until she is hear in the hopes that someone else can read it and use it in the future.

Jamie

[bigdog 376]

I am a formerly married and now divorced man finalized in Sept 2010. I met the love of my life later that year and have been blessed to have her ever since, however she lives in Montreal. I currently live and work in Arizona and over Easter I asked her to marry me, she of course said yes. We then started looking into what we had to do in order for her to come to the states so we could be together.

In an effort to get the process moving we decided in May that we would do an Elvis wedding in Vegas and get married so we could get our paperwork filed and get the process rolling. We are also holding the "big wedding" in Montreal in Feb 2013. After the wedding in Vegas we started working through what paperwork we needed to prepare and file. It is now the end of Sept and we still have not send in the initial paperwork because of all the details that are required.

We have prepared the I-130 form, copy of my divorce decree, a G-325a for each of us, a certified copy of my birth cert, copy of my passport, certified copy of marriage certificate, certified copy of our marriage license and a picture of each of us signed and dated within the last 30 days.

My question to all of you would be, is there anything else that is needed for the initial filing other that a money order for the filing fees. I want to be sure that we are covering all of our bases. Also, can anyone tell me what the next steps are after we have filed this information and (hopefully) it has been approved.

Thanks in advance.... I am going to try and document this whole process until she is hear in the hopes that someone else can read it and use it in the future.

Jamie

Sounds like you need a K1 application first?

[Ontarkie 13,917]

Moved to IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Process & Procedures from Bringing Family Members of Permanent Residents to America, as his topic title says he is a USC and they are already married.

Congratulations on your marriage. This forum will be better suited for many of your questions, and if you look at the guides at the top of the page they can help. Pop in the Canada forum also plenty of advice in there also.

[NikLR 13,220]

Congrats! I'm a Canadian girl married to an American man. You'll find a bunch of us on VJ. Saylin is an awesome person on here with great resources in her sig for the NVC part of the process. Look her up

[jpatchett3 0]

Thanks for the tips on moving it... not to sound too stupid but is there an easy way to move the post or do I need to delete and re-post in the other area?

[CarolinaGirl 2]

It's been almost 2 years since we filed our i-130, so I can't remember specifics. But we did it without visajourney and didn't have any trouble. There is a guide that is on this site that should be helpful if you haven't already seen it. Good luck as you start the process! We finally got our IR-1 visa in hand yesterday and will be POE-ing in the next couple of weeks! Here is a link to the guide

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1

[AstralEdge 2]

I'd like to say that paying with a money order is somewhat important, as you can track if they cashed your payment or not. Also, you should include a cover letter explaining what you are petitionning for (don't assume they will guess because ... they don't lol. I could send you a copy of the cover letter my husband (US citizen) sent with our application if you're interested.)

Your bases seem to be covered however I would include some evidence of a bonafide marriage. Here's what we sent:

- Pictures of us together or with friends or family

- Phone and Text logs

- Chat logs from Skype

- Receipts of packages we sent to each other

- Hotel receipt in both our names

- Plane tickets, itineraries of visiting each others

- Life insurance with me (Canadian beneficiary) as the beneficiary

- Bank account in both our names

- Military base card in my name with US citizen's name as sponsor

- Screenshot of Facebook when we told everyone we had gotten married (with me using his last name)

My husband was stationned in Colorado at the time and that is where we got married. Like your wife, I'm from Montreal so if I can help you with anything just let me know You can also take a look at my timeline for reference purposes.

Shortly after you send the I-130 packet you should get a notification from the USCIS called NOA1. We got ours 4 days after we had sent the packet. This is only to tell you that they received your packet and it is safely into their hands now. What you are really looking forward to is the NOA2. This is to tell you that they approved your I-130. We got ours 6 weeks after we had sent the packet.

Once this has been received, the fun begins! Your case will be transferred to the NVC and you will need to file a I-864. This is basically to prove that you can financially support your wife. Your income needs to be 125% the poverty level. Around the same time your wife will need to file the DS-230. This is an application for an immigrant visa. There is also a fee to pay which was $400 something back when i filed. Then, NVC will approve your case (ours was approved 9 weeks after we were done with USCIS) and they will schedule an appointment for your wife at the US consulate in Montreal. They say on average the interview is 3-4 months after that but ours was only scheduled for a month and a half after that.

Your wife will then go to the interview and get approved. They will keep her passport and stamp a visa in it which she will be able to pick-up aboiut 5 business days after the interview. Once she has her passport+visa in hand, she can go to the airport in Montreal and go through the immigration. They have to do some paperwork to the fact that she is activating her immigrant visa and then she's good to go in the plane and fly back into your arms!!!

That is where we are now: I have to pick-up my passport and POE!

[Ryan H 3,790]

Thanks for the tips on moving it... not to sound too stupid but is there an easy way to move the post or do I need to delete and re-post in the other area?

You do not need to delete and repost, the thread was moved to the proper forum for you.

[jpatchett3 0]

Thank you so much for the information Marie... That is all very helpful!

I will be sending the packet of information this Friday this week and I would love to see what your cover letter looked like so I can create one as well.

Thank you,

Jamie

[bsd058 296]

Saylin is an awesome person on here with great resources in her sig for the NVC part of the process. Look her up

I will second this.

[alizon 77]

Shortly after you send the I-130 packet you should get a notification from the USCIS called NOA1. We got ours 4 days after we had sent the packet. This is only to tell you that they received your packet and it is safely into their hands now. What you are really looking forward to is the NOA2. This is to tell you that they approved your I-130. We got ours 6 weeks after we had sent the packet.

Just so you and the OP know, 6 weeks to NOA2 is NOT typical. I think you were likely expedited because your husband is in on active duty with the military. Normal NOA1 to NOA2 times are more like 4-6 months, and the whole process takes around 8-10 months if you are on top of your game.

Edited September 24, 2012 by alizon

[jpatchett3 0]

Ok good news we FINALLY got our approval through the USCIS and the case is now going to the NVC.... That seemed like it took forever.

So next steps that I am aware of:

Waiting for response from NVC that they have recieved the file and assign it a number for tracking.

Are there any forms that I should start filling out now to have ready to go or anything that I can prep to stay ahead of this as much as possible?

Thanks in Advance....

James

[Ms Hogan 295]

Saylin's information on NVC process for Canadians: http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/NVC_for_Montreal_Beneficiaries_%E2%80%93_Electronic_Processing_and_New_Online_Forms

[hikergirl 277]

Join us in the Mar NVC thread. The first two posts in the thread contain a lot of links and answers to FAQs.

Congratulations!

[jpatchett3 0]

Hi guys,

I hope you can help me with this because I'm so lost.

I'd like my wife to come and visit for a week or so in May but we're hearing she can be denied entry.

What do you know about her being able to travel into the USA?

I found something about Advanced Parole for entry but I'm not sure it applies to our situation and still doesn't guarantee entry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_parole

Thanks for your help!!