CR-1 Visajourney to soon begin!

[TJandKC 11]

Hi everyone!

After lurking around on this site gathering information and reading personal experiences for a whole year, its finally time for my own visajourney with the love of my life. We are currently planning to get married in Norway sometime between October and November this year, and then file for the I-130 as soon as I can get our marriage certificate translated and apostille'd.

Here's our story in short; We met January 3rd in 2011, at a dollar beer night at Senor Frogs in Honolulu, Hawaii (Where she is from). The following 6 months were spent texting, facetiming, skyping, writing letters, you name it. And finally in July 2011, she visited me in Norway, and I was sold. We met while I was in my last year of getting my masters degree, so shortly after her visit, I landed a job. The perks with this job was my schedule, working for 2 weeks and having 4 weeks off. So needless to say, I had a lot of time off and also money to spare. I then decided to go and see her as often as I could, which turned out to be quite often. So almost every month up until this day, I've been traveling to Portland to see my love. I've always been traveling under the ESTA VWP, since I'm Norwegian, and I've never had any trouble getting in, despite my frequent visits. We even went as far as to rent an apartment together, with my name on the lease, water bill, sewage etc. And I also bought her a car that we have together (I'm on the title, but not on the insurrance paper)

On August 9th 2013 I decided to take the next step and propose. I had to leave shortly after to go home to Norway and back to work, so we planned on getting legally married when I were to return in September/October. Unfortunately, my employer decided that instead of going to work as scheduled, I were to take a one month course in Houston, Texas. As I had just returned from the US and only had 5 days in between my departure and new arrival, I was quite skeptic as to how the immigration officer would react to this. At my arrival in Houston, I was pulled aside for further questioning. This interrogation lasted for 6 hours, with a lot of waiting and just sitting around. I answered everything truthfully and told them my story. The officers believed my story and let me off with a warning saying that I should have the proper Visa in place for my next return. So instead of pushing my luck trying to travel to the US under VWP and get married, we decided that we should just get the legal part done over here in Norway. And also, reading on this forum, I came to the conclusion that applying for a B1/2 visa was useless, as I would have to state that my fiance is living in the US, and that would pretty much be an automatic denial.

When my fiance realized that this process was going to be time consuming and meant that we would have to spend some time apart, she insisted on consulting with a lawyer. I on the other hand have been intensively studying the CR-1 visa process and I'm fairly confident that we'll be able to do this on our own. Anyway, I told her that if she wanted to hear it from a lawyer, she was more then welcome to get a consultation hour.

A few interesting things from the Lawyer;

When he heard our story, he strongly advised that I were to be removed from any papers with both our names on it, to quote "hide our paper trail". When she asked about the I-130 application, he said to just submit marriage certificate and application, no other proof. He also said nothing about the G-325a. The lawyer wanted upwards of 3000 dollars just to help us with the visa application, not included fee's for the petition etc. Which in my opinion is horribly overpriced. Anyway, after she talked to him, she calmed down a bit since she pretty much got the same answers from him as I had previously told her. So together we decided that we should file and do this visa-application on our own. Our case should be pretty straightforward, since we are just one year apart in age, both with educations and jobs, and me being from a low-fraud country.With great help from the Visajourney community I'm sure that we will be able to complete and get this journey done with in no time!

And now to my questions:

• What is your opinion about the lawyers recommendation on "hiding our paper trail"?

• In the I-130 application, I'd like to send at least photos of our history together and maybe a few affidavits to support our relationship together with the translated and apostille'd marriage certificate. But would sending things like our lease, electricty bill, water bill, sewage bill and car title benefit or work against us in this case? I'm thinking since these things were signed before I was a legal resident, would this affect our case negatively?

• Is the G-325a still required to attach to the I-130 application? (I can see its mentioned in the guides for CR-1 here, but I'm not sure how up to date they are)

• Is the DS-230 and DS-3032 obsolete now that the DS-260 and DS-261 is online?

Sorry for completely bombaring you guys with info in this post, but I think this will be the master thread for our visajourney, in addition to the timeline which I'll be updating regularely!

[Boggy1974 124]

Hi everyone!

After lurking around on this site gathering information and reading personal experiences for a whole year, its finally time for my own visajourney with the love of my life. We are currently planning to get married in Norway sometime between October and November this year, and then file for the I-130 as soon as I can get our marriage certificate translated and apostille'd.

Here's our story in short; We met January 3rd in 2011, at a dollar beer night at Senor Frogs in Honolulu, Hawaii (Where she is from). The following 6 months were spent texting, facetiming, skyping, writing letters, you name it. And finally in July 2011, she visited me in Norway, and I was sold. We met while I was in my last year of getting my masters degree, so shortly after her visit, I landed a job. The perks with this job was my schedule, working for 2 weeks and having 4 weeks off. So needless to say, I had a lot of time off and also money to spare. I then decided to go and see her as often as I could, which turned out to be quite often. So almost every month up until this day, I've been traveling to Portland to see my love. I've always been traveling under the ESTA VWP, since I'm Norwegian, and I've never had any trouble getting in, despite my frequent visits. We even went as far as to rent an apartment together, with my name on the lease, water bill, sewage etc. And I also bought her a car that we have together (I'm on the title, but not on the insurrance paper)

On August 9th 2013 I decided to take the next step and propose. I had to leave shortly after to go home to Norway and back to work, so we planned on getting legally married when I were to return in September/October. Unfortunately, my employer decided that instead of going to work as scheduled, I were to take a one month course in Houston, Texas. As I had just returned from the US and only had 5 days in between my departure and new arrival, I was quite skeptic as to how the immigration officer would react to this. At my arrival in Houston, I was pulled aside for further questioning. This interrogation lasted for 6 hours, with a lot of waiting and just sitting around. I answered everything truthfully and told them my story. The officers believed my story and let me off with a warning saying that I should have the proper Visa in place for my next return. So instead of pushing my luck trying to travel to the US under VWP and get married, we decided that we should just get the legal part done over here in Norway. And also, reading on this forum, I came to the conclusion that applying for a B1/2 visa was useless, as I would have to state that my fiance is living in the US, and that would pretty much be an automatic denial.

When my fiance realized that this process was going to be time consuming and meant that we would have to spend some time apart, she insisted on consulting with a lawyer. I on the other hand have been intensively studying the CR-1 visa process and I'm fairly confident that we'll be able to do this on our own. Anyway, I told her that if she wanted to hear it from a lawyer, she was more then welcome to get a consultation hour.

A few interesting things from the Lawyer;

When he heard our story, he strongly advised that I were to be removed from any papers with both our names on it, to quote "hide our paper trail". When she asked about the I-130 application, he said to just submit marriage certificate and application, no other proof. He also said nothing about the G-325a. The lawyer wanted upwards of 3000 dollars just to help us with the visa application, not included fee's for the petition etc. Which in my opinion is horribly overpriced. Anyway, after she talked to him, she calmed down a bit since she pretty much got the same answers from him as I had previously told her. So together we decided that we should file and do this visa-application on our own. Our case should be pretty straightforward, since we are just one year apart in age, both with educations and jobs, and me being from a low-fraud country.With great help from the Visajourney community I'm sure that we will be able to complete and get this journey done with in no time!

And now to my questions:

• What is your opinion about the lawyers recommendation on "hiding our paper trail"? The lawyer is flat out wrong. The paper trail helps your case in my opinion. Gather as much "relationship trail" as possible. Most members on here will not recommend a lawyer unless one has a very complicated case.

• In the I-130 application, I'd like to send at least photos of our history together and maybe a few affidavits to support our relationship together with the translated and apostille'd marriage certificate. But would sending things like our lease, electricty bill, water bill, sewage bill and car title benefit or work against us in this case? I'm thinking since these things were signed before I was a legal resident, would this affect our case negatively? Short answer is NO. In fact the evidence you mention will work in your favor. If anything they strongly help to prove the "Bona fides" of your relationship and/or "financial co-mingling". Here's the instructions to the I-130 petition: http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-130instr.pdf from the USCIS website.

• Is the G-325a still required to attach to the I-130 application? (I can see its mentioned in the guides for CR-1 here, but I'm not sure how up to date they are). Yes G-325A is required for you both - You fill one and your spouse also fills one. See the guides for sample cover page and sample forms to be included in the petition.

• Is the DS-230 and DS-3032 obsolete now that the DS-260 and DS-261 is online? Yes the DS260 and DS261 are online forms meant to replace the DS230 and DS3032 respectively. They are submitted electronically. Here's a link for you - read particularly the first two posts: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/457530-nvc-filers-october-2013/page-5. But I must say those forms are for the NVC stage of the process. So I would not focus too much on them until you file your petition and get your NOA1. Good luck!

Sorry for completely bombaring you guys with info in this post, but I think this will be the master thread for our visajourney, in addition to the timeline which I'll be updating regularely!

First of all, congratulations in advance on making plans to get married. Good for you both!

Secondly, be sure to use the "search" button at the top right corner. If you search using some key words, you will find thousands of stories/cases just like yours. Read those threads as a feeder for you moving forward. I would say over 98% of those stories had success getting their spouses visas.

Now see my bolded responses to your questions above. My very best to you both!

Edited October 5, 2013 by Boggy1974

[TJandKC 11]

First of all, congratulations in advance on making plans to get married. Good for you both!

Secondly, be sure to use the "search" button at the top right corner. If you search using some key words, you will find thousands of stories/cases just like yours. Read those threads as a feeder for you moving forward. I would say over 98% of those stories had success getting their spouses visas.

Now see my bolded responses to your questions above. My very best to you both!

Boggy, thanks for pointing me to that post. It really cleared things up in regards to the online forms. I'll definitely be sure to use the search button, as I have been doing for the past year

A quick question regarding documents needed for the NVC part;

As most of my documents will be in Norwegian, I'll require a translation, and I've understood I'll need to submit originals with copies.

So, do both the copy and original need to be accompanied by a translation?

And do these documents need an Apostille or is the translation enough?

Does the passport photocopy need a translation ?

(Its in both norwegian and english e.g Name/Navn, Birthdate/Fødselsdato, so is my birthcertifcate as well come to think of it)

Cheers!

[Ryan H 3,791]

And now to my questions:

• What is your opinion about the lawyers recommendation on "hiding our paper trail"?

• In the I-130 application, I'd like to send at least photos of our history together and maybe a few affidavits to support our relationship together with the translated and apostille'd marriage certificate. But would sending things like our lease, electricty bill, water bill, sewage bill and car title benefit or work against us in this case? I'm thinking since these things were signed before I was a legal resident, would this affect our case negatively?

• Is the G-325a still required to attach to the I-130 application? (I can see its mentioned in the guides for CR-1 here, but I'm not sure how up to date they are)

• Is the DS-230 and DS-3032 obsolete now that the DS-260 and DS-261 is online?

Answers:

• Ignore that so-called recommendation that idiot lawyer made.
• First of all, an I-130 is a petition form, not an application form. To answer your question, pictures are good, affidavits carry little to zero weight, marriage certificate is required, and sending items such as utility bills and car title benefits WILL NOT hurt your case.
• Yes
• Yes

[Ryan H 3,791]

My answers in bold and red:

A quick question regarding documents needed for the NVC part;

As most of my documents will be in Norwegian, I'll require a translation, and I've understood I'll need to submit originals with copies.

Since you will be interviewing at the Embassy in Stockholm, see what their requirements are for document translations. If they do not require translations for documents in Norwegian, then you will not need to have translations for anything.

So, do both the copy and original need to be accompanied by a translation? See above

And do these documents need an Apostille ? No

Does the passport photocopy need a translation ? No

[jajaju 33]

As far as 'hiding paper trail', this is BS! If you haven't got anything to hide, don't hide anything. I think lawyers at times want to make you feel it's more scary and easy to mess everything up than it really is so you'll pay their ridiculous fee. Just my opinion.

[Joaozinho 15]

If you pretty much do everything the lawyer told you not to do, you'll be good and in the clear.

Send all the proof you can. Send the appropriate forms with the I-130 petition. (You can find them in the example forms area of VJ).

Congratulations on your marriage!

You'll be in the city of roses soon enough.

[TJandKC 11]

My answers in bold and red:

Okay, seems fair enough, I'll check with the embassy in Stockholm or over at the Scandinavian section on this forum.

I have no problem submitting originals of my birthcertificate, marriage certificate and police record, as these documents are easily obtainable from the Norwegian tax-register. And they all carry a stamp from the Norwegian Government.

However, reading on this page: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3195.html

It says; "All documents not written in English, or in the official language of the country in which application for a visa is being made, must be accompanied by certified translations and submitted to the NVC."

So do they not look at any of the specific paperwork at the NVC, and rather just forward them to the appropriate embassy?

[Ryan H 3,791]

Okay, seems fair enough, I'll check with the embassy in Stockholm or over at the Scandinavian section on this forum.

I have no problem submitting originals of my birthcertificate, marriage certificate and police record, as these documents are easily obtainable from the Norwegian tax-register. And they all carry a stamp from the Norwegian Government.

However, reading on this page: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3195.html

It says; "All documents not written in English, or in the official language of the country in which application for a visa is being made, must be accompanied by certified translations and submitted to the NVC."

So do they not look at any of the specific paperwork at the NVC, and rather just forward them to the appropriate embassy?

I'll take the last part of your post first; the NVC will check to see if the appropriate document is in the file and the forms are properly filled out before a file is forwarded.

As for translations, it's the Embassy or Consulate that makes the call. Some Embassies and Consulates do require document translations even though the documents themselves are in the official language of the country (China is an example of this). So, as I said before, go with what the Embassy in Stockholm tells you.

[Ketsuban 1,034]

That lawyer sounds quite dangerous to people who want a visa in their passport, imo.

[TJandKC 11]

I'll take the last part of your post first; the NVC will check to see if the appropriate document is in the file and the forms are properly filled out before a file is forwarded.

As for translations, it's the Embassy or Consulate that makes the call. Some Embassies and Consulates do require document translations even though the documents themselves are in the official language of the country (China is an example of this). So, as I said before, go with what the Embassy in Stockholm tells you.

Thank you! I'll definitely have to check with Stockholm then

And thanks to everyone else as well, I'll keep my timeline updated and keep this post alive once we get this ball rolling !

[TJandKC 11]

That lawyer sounds quite dangerous to people who want a visa in their passport, imo.

I agree. After everything I've been reading here, his suggestions to my fiance were quite odd, and this was seemingly a very reputable lawyer as well.

[Boggy1974 124]

I agree. After everything I've been reading here, his suggestions to my fiance were quite odd, and this was seemingly a very reputable lawyer as well.

TJandKC, I would let your fiancé read these posts above so he sees that that quark lawyer's advice were off base and dangerous. In fact, the lawyer was most definitely setting you guys up for failure!

Anyway, good luck to you guys!

[Jawaree 717]

Congratz...get marry in Norway and file I 130

*This is just a question (I don't have the answer) could

it be the atty says don't give up lease and utility bills

because it would make it seem spending so much time

in the US and being on a lease seem to say he was living there

on vwp?

[britishdakota 18]

Congratz...get marry in Norway and file I 130

*This is just a question (I don't have the answer) could

it be the atty says don't give up lease and utility bills

because it would make it seem spending so much time

in the US and being on a lease seem to say he was living there

on vwp?

Supporting evidence is needed so the paper trail could only be helpful.

As to the no living in the US while on B1/B2/VWP I don't really understand the obsession on the forums. Thousands of foreigners own property in the US without issue. Canadian snow birds "live" in the US for 6 month a year without issue. So long as the terms of the visa/waiver are not broken through working etc I can't see this being an issue. Of course I would be interested if anyone has examples of this being an issue.