Agency or do it myself?

[dcs5743 0]

Ok so I'm an American citizen, I've been with my girlfriend since last summer, neither of us was married before. We met through DominicanCupid.com and in person for the first time in August and spent five days together. She had me promise to visit her for her birthday last December, but I lost my job and had no income for two months, so it's delayed my overall process. I visited her at the end of February got more pictures together, met her family and am now trying to figure out what I'm missing for the initial step.

I thought I needed a passport and/or her birth certificate but I don't know where I saw that. I'm not sure if I need to use a service to put together things or if I can handle it myself. The main concern I have for why I'm waffling, is she doesn't speak english well at all, and I don't know if I need the support from an agency or not to handle things.

I also am unsure whether DominicanCupid qualifies for line 35, since it was basically like match.com rather than a marriage broker but am trying to avoid complications.

We talk about every day on Whatsapp and I'm not sure how to copy all of that to send and further prove the ongoing relationship.

[aaa2zzz 27]

if you go to settings and then chat settings you can email whats app chats

[MarkerOne 10]

I just sent my Petition on the 22nd. I have to say you SHOULD do it yourself. The hardest part is getting all the documents and have them arranged and then file, its pretty easy after that. On the other hand, if you do hire someone else to do it, you still have to provide them with all the documents and then they will do the easy part of putting all together for you...

My fiance is in Sg, I visited her on February and came back on the 17th. We started getting all the documents all together, she even did most of the work on the petition and she send to me three days ago. I opened it, looked it all over, attached the documents required from me, signed everything and sent it out yesterday in a simple NO three hole binder, just used paper clips.

Read in this site and get yourself familiarized with the process and it will be easy.

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

Ok so I'm an American citizen, I've been with my girlfriend since last summer, neither of us was married before. We met through DominicanCupid.com and in person for the first time in August and spent five days together. She had me promise to visit her for her birthday last December, but I lost my job and had no income for two months, so it's delayed my overall process. I visited her at the end of February got more pictures together, met her family and am now trying to figure out what I'm missing for the initial step.

I thought I needed a passport and/or her birth certificate but I don't know where I saw that. I'm not sure if I need to use a service to put together things or if I can handle it myself. The main concern I have for why I'm waffling, is she doesn't speak english well at all, and I don't know if I need the support from an agency or not to handle things.

I also am unsure whether DominicanCupid qualifies for line 35, since it was basically like match.com rather than a marriage broker but am trying to avoid complications.

We talk about every day on Whatsapp and I'm not sure how to copy all of that to send and further prove the ongoing relationship.

Follow the guides and and you won't need any agency.

http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1guide

DR is a tough embassy to go through and many are refused so make sure you have plenty of visits and evidence.

Proof that you both communicate because she can't speak English well.

Be there for the interview !

[soulstriker 274]

you should probably do it yourself to avoid spending extra money , from what ive seen ive seen ppl make more mistakes even having lawyers because they didnt physical look at the documents

[phd1974 17]

You do not need your WhatsApp conversations for this initial process. You may, or may not, need it during the interview process (I printed out WhatsApp and Facebook messages, but the officer never looked at them during my interview). Nevertheless, I did include a few pages with my I129F petition just in case as part of my proof of on-going relationship (secondary evidence).

The requirement for the K-1 Visa is to have met in person within a 2 year period from filing, but ultimately it is up to the interviewing officer if they issue you a visa or not ... and since this is the Dominican Republic, it would help with multiple visits when it comes down to the interview process.

We also met in DominicanCupid.com and I did not label them as an IMB, and we had no problems during any of the process.

For the initial step, you do not need her Passport or Birth Certificate at this time.

You can put together the package yourself and save some time and money. I did everything myself. You just have to be accurate and thorough.

I speak only mediocre Spanish (I only know one word for "fat" in Spanish [gordo]... if you use another word for "fat", I will say "Que?")

My wife speaks NO ENGLISH, yet we were fine ... as long as you can communicate effectively with one another.

For WhatsApp

, to get a copy of your convo emailed to you, go to Contacts, go to the person in question, at the bottom, select "Export Chat" ... without media (adding media takes up space and takes a long time)

[phd1974 17]

Concerning the IMB portion .... in my letter of "How We Met", I thoroughly explained the process of how I got on DC as a monthly paying member and saw her photo, she had her phone number listed and I messaged her on WhatsApp, a few days later she messaged me, and we started form there ...

[Carrie7003 7]

I agree you should do it yourself. As long as you follow the instructions for filling out the form and come here for advice and questions you can do it yourself. Even if you hired someone, you're going to have to provide all of the information and that's the hardest part of the applications is compiling everything. The most benefit they can offer is proofreading which any friend or your fiance can do. Good luck!

[Tricked 33]

Another vote for doing it yourself.

If you follow the guides and apply common sense and your own due diligence in the material you're sending you will save quite a lot.

For example, one company I've seen mentioned, rapid visa? Charges $300? for the application.

Fair enough if you have the money to spend and want to remove some hassle, but, if you take the time to read and do the leg work, you can save a lot, and a lot of extra hassle as well arguably.

Having a company, or even a lawyer petition on your behalf will not make USCIS process your application any differently.

And for what it's worth I've seen people get RFE's even when using these companies, or a Lawyer. And people who put the effort in themselves get through without any issues.

[Carrie7003 7]

Visa Coach charges $600-something and we were willing to spend the money on his services. The selling point is always that it's a fraction the cost of a lawyer! However, after an initial 30 minute free consultation with him, we decided against it. The conversation left us feeling very discouraged and questioning the validity of our own relationship. He said (among other things) that it was a red flag was that we met on match.com. Needless to say, meeting online is not an uncommon occurence. In fact it's so common, the government created IMBRA. He emphasized the obstacles and talked down to us like a consular officer probably to scare us into using his services. We didn't want or need that. We wanted to feel well-equipped and educated, but also wanted to feel positive, encouraged, and supported. We found that here. Don't let agencies convince you of their "experience". You won't find as much experience, expertise, or good advice anywhere as you can find here.

Edited March 29, 2016 by dana7207

[Unlockable 7,322]

$300 bucks? $600???

Best thing about Visajourney is it's free!

dcs,

Do it yourself.

The best advice I can give you is don't rush it. Collect as much evidence as you can. I actually sent chat logs from whatsapp. You don't have to send all of the logs but a constant timeline of chats is sufficient.

Pics with extended family helps.

Best of luck to you.

[baron555 934]

I thought I needed a passport and/or her birth certificate but I don't know where I saw that.

Needed for the interview, not the initial filing.

I'm not sure if I need to use a service to put together things or if I can handle it myself.

IMO not needed, however your Embassy is not an easy one for K-1s. You will want to have solid evidence of a legitimate relationship and include that (called front loading) with the petition.

The main concern I have for why I'm waffling, is she doesn't speak english well at all, and I don't know if I need the support from an agency or not to handle things.

There's not much she needs to do. I assume you can speak her language? If not, then that is a red flag. How do you communicate? How will you communicate if married? If you do, then ignore the previousl

I also am unsure whether DominicanCupid qualifies for line 35, since it was basically like match.com rather than a marriage broker but am trying to avoid complications.

If you paid any kind of money to access her information, then according to the 129f instructions, USCIS would call it an IMB. It would do no harm to list it. I did and it wasnt' an issue. Many folks these days are getting RFE's because they didn't list such when they used an online service to meet.

We talk about every day on Whatsapp and I'm not sure how to copy all of that to send and further prove the ongoing relationship.

Content is key. They will want to see what you talk about. And hopefully it is serious relatiionship stuff.

[Transborderwife 4,666]

The best part of diy is that there's no room for interpretation. Lawyers and services often leave out details or could write something about your story that is not quite how you want things. You're in control of documents, handling rfe's etc