When is the best time to apply for K1 visa?

[M.J 611LA 0]

Hi everyone,

I met my girlfriend in November 2015 when she came to visit the US. We are so in love that she changed her returned ticket. She stayed 23 weeks. When she applied for a tourist visa B2, she asked to have 24 days. When she arrived at the US Custom and Border, they stamped for her 6 months. So we thought that she could stay here that much time. She went back to Vietnam a week before the date on the immigration expire on 4th April 2016. And she did apply to renew her visa to go back America, but the consulate rejected and also cancelled her previous visa ( will expire on September 2016) with a stamp " Cancelled Without Prejudge". The consulate officer said that she applied for 24 days, why she stayed 23 weeks.

So here are my questions, please give advise:

1.Can I apply for a Fiancee visa now ? I can't stand the thought that she is in Vietnam and I am here. Distance will kill the relationship and she is very special, I have never met anyone like her.

2. She just got rejected from consulate in Ho Chi Minh city, will that give a bad affect on my K1 visa process?

3. Will the USCIS and consulate consider her case as "Overstaying" in America?

4. When is the best time for me to apply the K1 visa?

5 Is "age difference" a problem? I am 52 and she's 31.

Thank you! I look forward to hear from you.

Joe

[Georgia16 2,858]

Hi everyone,

I met my girlfriend in November 2015 when she came to visit the US. We are so in love that she changed her returned ticket. She stayed 23 weeks. When she applied for a tourist visa B2, she asked to have 24 days. When she arrived at the US Custom and Border, they stamped for her 6 months. So we thought that she could stay here that much time. She went back to Vietnam a week before the date on the immigration expire on 4th April 2016. And she did apply to renew her visa to go back America, but the consulate rejected and also cancelled her previous visa ( will expire on September 2016) with a stamp " Cancelled Without Prejudge". The consulate officer said that she applied for 24 days, why she stayed 23 weeks.

So here are my questions, please give advise:

1.Can I apply for a Fiancee visa now ? I can't stand the thought that she is in Vietnam and I am here. Distance will kill the relationship and she is very special, I have never met anyone like her.

Yes you can apply, though you need to find out if she overstayed first.

2. She just got rejected from consulate in Ho Chi Minh city, will that give a bad affect on my K1 visa process?

No not if she didn't overstay

3. Will the USCIS and consulate consider her case as "Overstaying" in America?

Can't answer that one from what you have provided maybe someone else can help you

4. When is the best time for me to apply the K1 visa?

When you are ready to get married and can fit the requirements

5 Is "age difference" a problem? I am 52 and she's 31.

No problem at all

Thank you! I look forward to hear from you.

Joe

[Penguin_ie 6,002]

She was allowed to extend her stay, but she stayed a very long time, and they will wonder if she didn't work illegally to support herself during that time; additionally, going to renew her visa (thus indicating she wanted to return) so soon after a very long stay in the USA would have aroused suspicion, as the rule of thumb stays you should stay out of the US at least as long as you were in.

But to your questions:

1. Yes that is fine.

2. No (unless she lied when she re-applied), as an immigrant/ K1 visa is very different from a tourist visa.

3. No

4. You can apply now. However, it may be good for you to go meet her in her country, take photos with her family, and have a traditional engagement ceremony. The US embassy in Vietnam seems very big on doing things the traditional way, in accordance with the cultural norms there. Read up some on local experiences in the regional forum here: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/136-vietnam/

5 Not a big problem; she may get some questions about it, be sure she knows about any previous marriages you had and kids you may have.

1.Can I apply for a Fiancee visa now ? I can't stand the thought that she is in Vietnam and I am here. Distance will kill the relationship and she is very special, I have never met anyone like her.

2. She just got rejected from consulate in Ho Chi Minh city, will that give a bad affect on my K1 visa process?

3. Will the USCIS and consulate consider her case as "Overstaying" in America?

4. When is the best time for me to apply the K1 visa?

5 Is "age difference" a problem? I am 52 and she's 31.

[heo luoi 206]

dont know about the first 3 questions and if overstayed and impact but otherwise many people seem to have been on pretty good timings as based on estimates and timelines available such as here on VJ. LD relationship is NOT easy but if you care about her as much as you lead on, its not bad and can maybe strengthen your relationship.

the K1 visa would be the 'fastest' to get her back here vs if you went abroad and married her there. You can see many threads on that.

Impacts like on when she could work here and that may be factors you need to consider.

Age shouldn't be a big deal particularly w/ u the USC and a man being the elder. Lots of resources in CA for help. www.ditrumy.com can be an additional resource for you and your GF is you feel you need it.

If you preplanned and really thought engagement / wedding was in the works pre signing anything could save you trouble before she left or as Penguin suggests certainly encourage an engagement party there..and planning to be able to be there during the interview.

Not sure where she is and her circumstances but skype/facetime would be a big friend for you and when she comes here to stay connected to her family.

[M.J 611LA 0]

Thank you very much guys!

For more clear details about this problem, she had admission to stay 6 months and she left in advance before the date expires. She did not know well the US law as it was her first time travel to the US. And me neither. That's why we think it's OK she stayed that long, but apparently it was not OK when she went to the Consulate in Saigon last week and they immediately cancelled her visa.

Penguin, my girlfriend knows well about my family. We spent Thanksgiving and New year Eve at my parents place in Las Vegas with my kid and they all like her very much, especially my Mom and my son. I divorced 14 years ago. No she did not work here during the time she stayed. She has her business at home in Vietnam. I strongly agree with you that we should have an engagement ceremony in Vietnam. She told me that the US consulate in Saigon is very very strict. Sound scary!

Please allow me to ask some more questions ( it may sound dumb but I need to know, sorry) :

What is the whole process of applying K1 visa?

Where can I download all the documents to practice in advance? I read some news about it and they said if I made any mistakes in filling the documents will result a refusal and slow down the process.

Should I hire a lawyer to do all paper works?

What is a timeline?

How long does it take from beginning to the day they issue a visa for my girlfriend?

Thank you and have a great day!

Joe

Edited April 29, 2016 by Joe Darling

[Georgia16 2,858]

Guide for K-1 visa:

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

https://www.uscis.gov/family/family-us-citizens/fiancee-visa/fiancee-visas

K-1 flowchat:

http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1flow

Some of the dates have changed. Like now it's about 2-3 months between NOA1 and NOA2 if no RFE is given. And about 3-5 weeks to get case number from NVC. You are probably looking at 4-6 months if everything goes well.

Forms:

https://www.uscis.gov/forms

Where to send it:

https://www.uscis.gov/forms/direct-filing-addresses-form-i-129f-petition-alien-fiancee

I have done it for you now but this is info you can easily do yourself but looking around in this forum.

This is a DIY forum so most people in here have done the whole process by themselves with out a lawyer. Just read read and read so you now what to do and so on.

[heo luoi 206]

#1 I implore you to use VJ via a full browser and not a mobile device particularly a phone. Apparently most people only manage to find the forums and never search or anything. Virtually everything is clearly found from the top menu bar as Georgia provided.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/300-general-k1-guides-and-info/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?autocom=custom&page=k1k3aos

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?autocom=custom&page=k1guide

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?autocom=custom&page=k1flow

SEARCH the forums/site. Particularly the K1 and AoS forums so you know what to do before she gets here and immediately after. The Vietnam subforum for particulars.

There are example forms here....but Id encourage you to DL the latest from USCIS, read the directions yourself, run through the forms yourself and corroborate w/ the examples some of which are old.

It seems daunting and long at first but really just the waiting is the worst part w/o a lot of feedback. The forms aren't particularly difficult. Getting her paperwork will likely be the hard part as Vietnamese documentation particularly for other people is horrible.

www.ditrumy.com again is another resource (not free, but not unreasonable). They offer free consultation and have offices in CA and VN.

Seems like you luckily found VJ early on but you still should go heads down and deep dive on this site and get a better handle of things to come.

Still unclear about your overstay as it sounds like she didnt but not sure what you mean HCMC tore up her visa as most are usually temporary she used it came back so not sure what you are getting that. Aside from that your case is rather vanilla and if you can understand the administrative aspects of the forms you dont need a 'lawyer' which can be rather expensive depending on your affordability.

GL

Thank you very much guys!

For more clear details about this problem, she had admission to stay 6 months and she left in advance before the date expires. She did not know well the US law as it was her first time travel to the US. And me neither. That's why we think it's OK she stayed that long, but apparently it was not OK when she went to the Consulate in Saigon last week and they immediately cancelled her visa.

Penguin, my girlfriend knows well about my family. We spent Thanksgiving and New year Eve at my parents place in Las Vegas with my kid and they all like her very much, especially my Mom and my son. I divorced 14 years ago. No she did not work here during the time she stayed. She has her business at home in Vietnam. I strongly agree with you that we should have an engagement ceremony in Vietnam. She told me that the US consulate in Saigon is very very strict. Sound scary!

Please allow me to ask some more questions ( it may sound dumb but I need to know, sorry) :

What is the whole process of applying K1 visa?

Where can I download all the documents to practice in advance? I read some news about it and they said if I made any mistakes in filling the documents will result a refusal and slow down the process.

Should I hire a lawyer to do all paper works?

What is a timeline?

How long does it take from beginning to the day they issue a visa for my girlfriend?

Thank you and have a great day!

Joe

[zeta054 111]

apply when u feel you both a ready for the K1 visa and make sure you front load your documents when you mail out your petition for her.

[M.J 611LA 0]

Georgia, Heo Luoi, thank you very much for very useful information.

I plan to go seeing my girlfriend in July. Do you think I should collect all her documents to bring with me home to US? And to do so, what kind of documents she has to submit? Heo Luoi, your profile shows the Country Vietnam, are you original Vietnamese? Could you please kindly name me all the papers that my girlfriend has to get from Vietnam? And if you could, please write them in Vietnamese language, it would be easy for her that way. She speaks very fluent English but I just want to make sure everything goes smooth.

Happy last day of the long week !

J

[WandY 430]

Don't need a lawyer, but you need to start reading this site and doing things on your own. That's how you'll learn the ropes - it's not as daunting as it seems. We did the K-1 in Vietnam in about 4 months. You don't need anything in Vietnamese language. And yes, have her sign the necessary forms while you are in Vietnam.

Your age difference is about the same as ours. Contrary to what some say on this site - it can be an issue. I went to the interview and was grilled by a Consulate officer regarding age difference. They wanted to know why I was dating (and wanting to marry) someone 20 years younger than me. I had my answer ready.

When you're in Vietnam, take a lot of photos together - specifically with family members and her friends in the photos. The photos were a big part of the interview, as was financial records and our future plans. The interview is a crazy, nervous experience. But stay calm, smile, and answer to the best of your ability. If you don't know an answer, don't lie - just say "I don't know." Don't beg, don't apologize. Be real. The officers (there will be two) seem to be fair. They are just looking for fraud and Americans with nefarious intent.

My best advice: Go to the interview in HCMC.

Good luck! Vietnam is awesome - and so is a Vietnamese wife