i-129F final thoughts before assembly

[PatGia 16]

Hello, back again with a question, or maybe a few.

FIrst of all, I'd like to thank everyone who has responded to questions that I have posted, and to everyone else here for creating such a wonderful place for information.

Of course like many other newbies here, the more I read, the more confident and the more worried I become. I am getting to the point of assembling our I-129F for submission. I have all of my fiance's signed documents, and everything I need from me all neatly sorted and ready for signatures and double copying. I'm certain I have everything that is required by USCIS for the submission, and slightly more.

My question comes in at this point. My fiance is in the Dominican Republic, which I have read is a high fraud country. Now I'm not really sure how the entire visa process works, as far as when things go from USCIS to her consulate, but is our I-129F submission the entire amount of information that a consular officer has to base initial impressions from? From reading the embassy reviews here and other stories that I have read, it almost seems that in some cases the consular officer nearly seems to have their mind made up before you even approach for the interview, which is so entirely unfair. I've read of people getting interviewed separately (I can't rememberwhat that was called) and getting denied without being told why. I'm hoping these are really the anomalies, and not the norm, but it certainly creates some apprehension and worry. So I guess my question is, if the I-129F submissing is in fact the only information that the consular officer is seeing about us, should I be including anything else in the I-129F submission to allay any doubts they may have?

I know the I-129F submission does not require any proof of an ongoing relationship (it used to, I think), but should I be including any of this as a proactive measure? We don't really have anything in our relationship that seems like it could be a red flag, except for a pretty big age gap, which I guess I've seen to be not completely uncommon. Also, I have only been there once, but will be going again likely before we would receive the NOA2. We have months of chats, facebook postings (we are also each "friends" with several of each other's family on facebook), literally hundreds of hours of skyping, phone calls, I guess the usual stuff that everyone here has gone through when making a relationship work with a bit of distance between you. For the evidence side of things, other than flight and hotel (well, airbnb) documents, I have the ring receipt, lots of pictures with her in every place that we went, and many pictures with her entire extended family on the day that we got engaged. Would any of this be relevant in the I-129F?

I aplogize for this being so lengthy, thanks to those who are still here reading. I just really want to take any steps possible to so our process is successful like so many others here. I know I've read here that a denial is not the end of the world, but I'm sure it would feel that way at that moment. Hopefully I am just being overly worried, and somebody here can tell me such.

So, any thoughts and input really appreciated.

Pat

To the moderators, sorry if I should have posted this in the Carribean section as this is somewhat country specific, but I thought the main section would garner more input as there also seems to be several countries outside the Carribean labeled as high fraud.

[laurainr 2]

My fiance just got approved yesterday, and he's from Mexico. As we know, Mexico isn't doing so well as a country. Why do so many Mexicans cross the border ilegally? To get here. So I was in a similar situation as you are. I felt that the officers would be skeptical of his motives.

So, to make things much easier, I included ALL the proof I had of his various trips to the U.S. to visit me. If you and your fiance have proof of various visits, that will help. Yes- do include a couple Skype/Facebook calls. But, what you need is hard evidence that you visit each other. For example, I lived in Mexico for 7 months and I included the proof of it. He also came to visit me every 2 months, so the officers could tell that this was real. If we were just looking for a green card, we would not waste that much money and time to see each other.

Photos together. We sent about 12, and wrote on the back the date and location. We traveled the US together so the various seasons and locations helped. If you follow all the procedures, and have a strong case, I would not worry about where he is from.

[PatGia 16]

Thanks laurainr! And congratulations!!

I'm beginning to think that I will add some more of those things to my submission, I'm sure it can't hurt.

You were very fortunate that you were able to meet so many times. I have a friend who married a girl from Canada about 7 or 8 years ago, and she was able to be here dozens of times while they were dating, which sure helped them in the process. Her mom worked for an airline, and she could fly for less than $50 each way. For my fiance and I, a couple visits is what finances allow, and lots of online time together.

[TBoneTX 47,551]

"Front-load" your petition sensibly and thoroughly with solid evidence of your bona fide relationship. Include anything that might convince a highly skeptical third party (the consul), and omit too-large quantities of things that would cause a busy skeptical third party's eyes to glaze over.

Yes, USCIS won't care about this extra information, but never take the consular process lightly when dealing with a high-fraud country.

[PatGia 16]

TboneTX, thank you for your reply. I have read the term "front load" before, but wasn't quite sure what it meant. Do you have any suggestions as to what or how much of each type of information that I should include, and perhaps the best way to present it?

I am thinking perhaps a few pages (maybe 4-6? Or more?) showing some chats, skype screenshots, and maybe some screenshots from facebook showing relationship status and other connections on there. We really don't have much for actual regular phone calls as most of our calling is through skype. The same goes for emails, as most of our communication is in whatsapp, viber, and facebook messenger, but I'm sure this is pretty common these days. I was certainly thinking to include the photos with her family, and showing her ring to her mother and grandmother. Would it be wise to include a letter describing how we met and about the relationship? Which I guess brings up another question about how we met. We met on the social networking site Tagged (we can't be the only ones here, are we?), which is not a paid site or marriage site, but will they know this or possibly question us on it? Each question and thought I have brings up even more questions.

Thanks again for the input, and any other advice you or anyone else can offer.