IR-1 Visa process

[nickb803 2]

Recently I just filed the I-130 for my spouse to immigrate to the United States. Figured I would post our expierence so far as it may help some of you out.

My Background: US citizen by birth living in Japan. About to move back to the USA.

Her background: Born in Brazil, living in Japan for the last 7 years. She is half Brazilian and half Japanese.

In short we met in 2012, dated, then got married. Because she was born in Brazil there were documents that had to be translated from Portuguese to English/Japanese. Luckily she could do the Portuguese translation and I was able to find a competent person to translate the from English to Japanese and vice versa. If anyone is local in the Toyko area I can provide you with the contact information for my translater if you need the service. The paperwork to get married at the City Hall was fairly easy to accomplish and so was getting married. Even the process to change her name on her ID and Brazilian passport was easy.

Now for the Visa application process. Its actually really easy. The hardest part was getting the right information. I used a combination of resources to get all the information pertaining to my specific situation from: USCIS, US Tokyo Embassy website, and from the instruction forms. Our goal was to make sure our initial paperwork was right the first time. We did one form at a time until we were done and then we triple checked them. Some of the forms wouldnt allow the typing of "N/A" or the block was to short for the information we wanted to put in. So we simply typed what we could, printed the form, and handwrote the rest in black ink. There are also some good exaples of forms floating around the web. Just google your specific form and you will find an example. I found that useful for certain forms. Also we had to use multiple continuation forms for the I-130 and G325A. We made sure to cleary mark "see continuation sheet" on the applicable question. For the continuation sheets themselves we clearly put the following information:

Page X of X

Form I-130

Item # 15

Name and address of present employer (if any)

We tried to make the continuation forms flow as smooth as possible. Since we used three different continuation forms for the G325A we added an additional line which was :

Attachment 1

Or attachment 2, attachment 3 and so on. We made sure they were in order with the questions asked on the G325A. At the bottom of every continuation page we typed a signature block, then signed and dated above it. This is important to sign the continuation forms, my friend had his application get kicked back because he failed to sign it.

For supporting evidence we attached: our marriage certificate w/translation, reciepts for: rings, dinner, random shopping. We also attached a copy of where I added her to my credit card and some random pictures from different places. In total about 10 reciepts and 10 pics. Also for the pics and reciepts we wrote descriptions either in our table of contents or on the back of the pics themselves. After everything was assembled we made a top hanging folder (two hole punch) assembled our packet and mailed it in. Here is the order we placed the items:

G-145 E notification of acceptance w/USPS money order for filing fee (on the outside, paperclipped on), Table of contents, Form I-130 w/continuation, G325A w/passpot photo for me, G325A w/passport photo and 3 continutaion pages (her), My birth certificate and passport copy (only one required but I figured why not), Marriage cert w/translation, Supporting docs (pretty much our reciepts with descriptions), Misc pictures w/descriptions.

We mailed it express mail to the chicago lockbox. BEFORE we mailed it we made two exact copies of what we sent, one for each of us. We even made copies of the express mail ticket and money order as well. We sent no origionals, only copies. However we both have origional copies of everything important: marriage cert w/notarized translation, birth certificates etc. Yes we did spend a little more to get duplicates but we will need them eventually anyway. Plus if something happens to my copies we still have hers. Here is the timeline of our visa process so far:

4/16/2013 Mailed Visa Petition to Chicago Lockbox

4/21/2013 USCIS email verify they recieved our petition and are mailing our I-797

So after all the work and effort we put in our paperwork was accepted with no issues the first time. Some advice, be well prepared by doing research, sending emials, and not overthinking the process. Make copies, have duplicates, and prepare yourself for the next steps. If you can stay one step ahead with good preparation then the process should go smoother. We already have an idea of what to expect next, because we did our homework. Also even though its exciting to be able to start the process we still took our time. If anyone has a situation similar to mine just send me a message and I will help in anyway I can. Also if anyone would like examples of the forms I submitted I would be glad to help with that as well. Hopefully someone finds this useful. Good luck to you all.

[speedwell 224]

Some advice, be well prepared by doing research, sending emials, and not overthinking the process.

Do you say so? There's two schools of thought about this.

The first school of thought is "bury them with evidence". Good for you, you get the gold medal for weightlifting in the Paperwork Olympics. Silver goes to the lunatic who claimed this morning that your I-130 is incomplete unless the mailout weighs at least four pounds.

The second school of thought is more nuanced and could be stated as "bad things happen when people are desperate". Did you send in entire bank statements with information on what you spent on your bad habits? Did you send in your entire mortgage or apartment lease, instead of the front page with your names and the signature page? Did you send in your entire Skype chat history, especially if you didn't redact the steamy bits? Do you think that's fun for an adjudicator to have to slog through?

Remember that when you send in a stack of evidence a mile high, every single page needs to be, and will be, examined at some point for evidence of fraud or other issues that could prejudice your case. The time taken to examine that much information steals time that could be used to review five normal-sized, perfectly adequate submissions. (No wonder there's such a bottleneck at the processing centers.)

Every word and number in that dossier you sent could turn into a question you are asked about at the interview. Did you memorize the whole stack? (You did? Really?) Especially at difficult consulates, this is a trap for the less-well-prepared. Better to send targeted, quality information than affidavits from everyone from your grandmother to your car mechanic, pictures of your wedding caterer, and pages of chat and text logs from that time you fought over what to name the kids.

The reason I'm upset about this is because it raises the bar much too far above the heads of well-meaning applicants who are plenty well prepared, but who will worry and fret when they read your post, and cry and scream on the forum to us because they feel like they haven't done enough and they're scared they'll be rejected. You did enough. More than enough. Here's your gold star. Try not to wear yourself out before the end of the process. Good luck.

[nickb803 2]

Do you say so? There's two schools of thought about this.

The first school of thought is "bury them with evidence". Good for you, you get the gold medal for weightlifting in the Paperwork Olympics. Silver goes to the lunatic who claimed this morning that your I-130 is incomplete unless the mailout weighs at least four pounds.

The second school of thought is more nuanced and could be stated as "bad things happen when people are desperate". Did you send in entire bank statements with information on what you spent on your bad habits? Did you send in your entire mortgage or apartment lease, instead of the front page with your names and the signature page? Did you send in your entire Skype chat history, especially if you didn't redact the steamy bits? Do you think that's fun for an adjudicator to have to slog through?

Remember that when you send in a stack of evidence a mile high, every single page needs to be, and will be, examined at some point for evidence of fraud or other issues that could prejudice your case. The time taken to examine that much information steals time that could be used to review five normal-sized, perfectly adequate submissions. (No wonder there's such a bottleneck at the processing centers.)

Every word and number in that dossier you sent could turn into a question you are asked about at the interview. Did you memorize the whole stack? (You did? Really?) Especially at difficult consulates, this is a trap for the less-well-prepared. Better to send targeted, quality information than affidavits from everyone from your grandmother to your car mechanic, pictures of your wedding caterer, and pages of chat and text logs from that time you fought over what to name the kids.

The reason I'm upset about this is because it raises the bar much too far above the heads of well-meaning applicants who are plenty well prepared, but who will worry and fret when they read your post, and cry and scream on the forum to us because they feel like they haven't done enough and they're scared they'll be rejected. You did enough. More than enough. Here's your gold star. Try not to wear yourself out before the end of the process. Good luck.

[nickb803 2]

I posted my scenario because someone in my situation might find the information useful. You seem to have alot of opinions/knowledge about how I submitted my visa application. The fact is you dont know anything. Your nothing more than an over opinionated condescending #######. You might need to question your own process, not mine. My application was accepted the first time, which is what we wanted. So obviously we did something right and our method worked. I posted for the simple reason to hopefully help someone else out. What have you posted for? Besides to sling your useless opionions? Do you know why the processing of a visa takes so long? Its not because I sent in a well organized application. Its called a background check, times 2. Thats the main reason. But Im sure a know it all like you already knows that. Im glad the way I submitted my application upsets you. If I could do anything to delay your process more I would, just because your nothing more than a forum troll. Instead of slinging a bunch of bullshit around this forum why dont you post something helpful instead?

[speedwell 224]

I posted my scenario because someone in my situation might find the information useful. You seem to have alot of opinions/knowledge about how I submitted my visa application. The fact is you dont know anything. Your nothing more than an over opinionated condescending #######. You might need to question your own process, not mine. My application was accepted the first time, which is what we wanted. So obviously we did something right and our method worked. I posted for the simple reason to hopefully help someone else out. What have you posted for? Besides to sling your useless opionions? Do you know why the processing of a visa takes so long? Its not because I sent in a well organized application. Its called a background check, times 2. Thats the main reason. But Im sure a know it all like you already knows that. Im glad the way I submitted my application upsets you. If I could do anything to delay your process more I would, just because your nothing more than a forum troll. Instead of slinging a bunch of bullshit around this forum why dont you post something helpful instead?

Strong words from a newbie. I certainly hope your confidence in your process is justified.

[stevie b 141]

I posted my scenario because someone in my situation might find the information useful. You seem to have alot of opinions/knowledge about how I submitted my visa application. The fact is you dont know anything. Your nothing more than an over opinionated condescending #######. You might need to question your own process, not mine. My application was accepted the first time, which is what we wanted. So obviously we did something right and our method worked. I posted for the simple reason to hopefully help someone else out. What have you posted for? Besides to sling your useless opionions? Do you know why the processing of a visa takes so long? Its not because I sent in a well organized application. Its called a background check, times 2. Thats the main reason. But Im sure a know it all like you already knows that. Im glad the way I submitted my application upsets you. If I could do anything to delay your process more I would, just because your nothing more than a forum troll. Instead of slinging a bunch of bullshit around this forum why dont you post something helpful instead?

sorry bud, but speedwell was correct, not to mention knowledgeable and helpful to plenty of members. I did not see his remarks as being condescending, but quite accurate.

My whole petition was less than 40 pages including the g-whatevers, passport copies and the like.. and I was approved in 2.5 months. the front loading is best served with high fraud countries of which you and speedwell are not associated with.. take some time to get to know the site and the members before going off on some tangant. background checks are minimal dude the real time is the wait to get on someone's desk

Strong words from a newbie. I certainly hope your confidence in your process is justified.

some people aren't willing to hear about reality

[oohpartiv 484]

I posted my scenario because someone in my situation might find the information useful. You seem to have alot of opinions/knowledge about how I submitted my visa application. The fact is you dont know anything. Your nothing more than an over opinionated condescending #######. You might need to question your own process, not mine. My application was accepted the first time, which is what we wanted. So obviously we did something right and our method worked. I posted for the simple reason to hopefully help someone else out. What have you posted for? Besides to sling your useless opionions? Do you know why the processing of a visa takes so long? Its not because I sent in a well organized application. Its called a background check, times 2. Thats the main reason. But Im sure a know it all like you already knows that. Im glad the way I submitted my application upsets you. If I could do anything to delay your process more I would, just because your nothing more than a forum troll. Instead of slinging a bunch of bullshit around this forum why dont you post something helpful instead?

Wow, that was unnecessary. What a way to reply to a knowledgeable, respected member of VJ like an uneducated tool. Speedwell helps a lot of people here on VJ, and you, who just joined yesterday, talk like you've been around for ages and know exactly who she is. Personal attacks and ill wishing aren't well received here on VJ, so if that's what you've come to do, it'd be better if you'd leave. While you may have meant to be helpful in your original post, you have to understand that this is a DIY forum, so people have different opinions on that way it should be done. If you can't accept other people's opinions without going off on a long winded, offensive rant, just don't post anymore. What a way to introduce yourself to the community.

[Penguin_ie 5,996]

***** People are here because they want to help. Sometimes we may not like their opinions, or disagree, but please do so civilly. If you cannot post without swearing or attacking others (which is against our TOS), do not post *****