To front load or not to front load?

[KozmicBlues 592]

I keep reading conflicting views on front-loading the i-129f with proof of ongoing relationship. I've printed many pages of our conversations together via FB and Whatsapp from various days as well as call logs from the past two months since that's all my phone shows, but it's about 40-50 pages of info so I don't want to annoy anybody with extra information if it's not really necessary. I can't imagine anything said in the messages would hurt us considering it's mostly all just sappy I love you's and whining about how we can't stand being apart.

 

1. Is front-loading with evidence going to hinder our case at all? is the general understanding that it will only benefit us, not hurt us?

2. If front-loading IS a good idea, should I also include evidence of money transfers to my fiance (beneficiary)? That's the only other thing I can think of that would show proof of ongoing relationship other than chats and call logs. 

 

I've read India isn't the easiest embassy, but we don't really have any red flags that I see being an issue. We met online through work, I've been to visit him twice for approx. 2 weeks each visit, no past marriages, only 2 years age difference, etc. The only thing that could be seen as a red flag maybe to the Indian embassy is that we are different background/races, but I think with it being 2017 and all that it shouldn't be much of an issue as it's the case with many couples applying for K1. I have not met his parents in person yet, but they have given us their blessing and I will meet them in person later this year after fiance gets his visa. We promised them that we will go back to have a traditional wedding in India after we marry in the US and fiance has his green card to travel (will not disclose that to immigration officers unless it is asked, of course). 

Edited March 22, 2017 by Traceratops
fix wording to clarify

[NicoAndNelle 127]

As some here will say it depends on your embassy. For us we decided to front load cause we wanted to make sure when(hopefully) it gets to Trinidad consulate that they can see as much of our history as possible especially with us being different races/culture. White Russian/Ukrainian originally from Crimea and black woman. Parents are in Russia (so fiancée yet to meet in person) so we even went so far as to include emails sent to them about us and how supportive they are of our relationship. If you know you dealing with difficult embassy it's a good idea to not go overboard but to definitely add a little extra in the areas that you know they might scrutinize 

Edited March 22, 2017 by NicoAndNelle

[KierenHby 897]

It's quality over quantity. Variety over volume. 

 

New delhi isn't the easiest, esp with some obvious flags. A number of threads here of India K1s being declined, but usually boils down to evidence of bonafide relationship. Alternative option is to marry in India with his family involved and go for a spousal visa. Odds of a CR1 being approved are much higher than a K1. Just sayin..

[KozmicBlues 592]

2 minutes ago, KierenHby said:

It's quality over quantity. Variety over volume. 

 

New delhi isn't the easiest, esp with some obvious flags. A number of threads here of India K1s being declined, but usually boils down to evidence of bonafide relationship. Alternative option is to marry in India with his family involved and go for a spousal visa. Odds of a CR1 being approved are much higher than a K1. Just sayin..

yeah, good point. I think I will include them because it does give more proof of our relationship than just photos/visits.

 

I guess our odds would probably be better with a CR1 but I've read that takes significantly longer than a K1 and I can't even bear the thought of being away from him longer than the already long timeline of a K1. Plus getting married in India to a foreigner is not simple...it requires a 30 day waiting period (we looked into it because we thought about just getting married during my last visit) and for me to get the time off work which is extremely difficult at this point. I'm just going to have faith in the system and hope that the amount of love we have for each other will come across and the visa will get approved without issue. The only flag I see is the Indian culture mindset and me being white/American. His family is Indian yes, but they are open to what makes him happy...if they were strict to some traditional Indian mindsets then he would've already been married to some Indian girl he never loved. They want him to be happy so they support us being together, whether the marriage is initially in US or India. Our original plan was actually for me to just move to India to be with him and get married then eventually in a few years come back to the states because we didn't want to be apart, but we decided that him coming here is much better for our future family. Also me trying to re-establish back in the USA after being gone would be difficult to show financial support even for the CR1. But if our K1 doesn't get approved I will just go through with our original plan and move there because even though I have a great job here in the US, it's not worth being away from him. I love India and would do anything to be with him and life is way too short, ya know.  

[team_gn 1]

Your case seems almost identical to mine.  My fiance and I went through the embassy in Delhi for his K1.  My fiance and I met online at work, I visited twice prior to the interview, I didn't get to meet his parents until after the interview, I'm 5 years older (I'm the woman), and we are an interracial couple.  I did front load but still got an RFE requesting further proof that we were going to marry and further details of our relationship.

 

Based on my experience (all of this is straight from the RFE) I suggest:

- Include an explanation of how you met and the progression of your relationship.  Include details, don't just say "we met at work online".

- If you are planning a wedding in the U.S., be sure to include receipts, invitations, etc. AND correspondence of you discussing said wedding plans from your chat logs.  If you are not planning a wedding and are planning a courthouse marriage instead, state that and explain why (financial reasons, doesn't make sense with uncertain timeline for visa approval, etc).  It might actually be helpful to say that you are planning a traditional wedding later and include correspondence regarding that so that you have evidence of some discussion of the particulars of the ceremony.  My now-husband and I had plans to just go to the magistrate here in the U.S. to be married, and the RFE asked why I didn't have correspondence about wedding plans or invitations, etc.  

- If you had a formal engagement, send the pics.  If you have an engagement ring, send the pics.  If you do not have a ring or did not have a formal engagement party, explain why.

- Tell about the nature of your relationship (okay to get sappy here).  If you have exchanged gifts, send a pic.  Write about what you mean to each other.  I asked my now-husband to write about this also, and I included it in the RFE.  Have him write about how you met, what your relationship is like, etc.

- Since you met at work, not sure how comfortable you feel about telling people you work with about the relationship.  Because of the work situation, we did not tell many people that we worked with.  Due to this, I included affidavits in my RFE from friends attesting that they knew about our relationship.  This may not be applicable to you.

- Be sure to include your declarations of intent to marry, 1 original from each of you.  And, when you are writing about wedding plans, be sure to emphasize that you will marry within 90 days of arrival if you have not set a specific date.  Have your finance mail it to you from India.  I included originals, and they asked for them again in the RFE.  Be sure to make a copy of everything, so you can prove that you already sent it if need be.

 

Basically because of the marriage culture in India, you should go out of your way to prove that your relationship is real and that you really will marry.  Do include photographs from both of your visits.  I included receipts showing that we shared a hotel room during my visits (the front desk printed these for us), copies of notes that we had written to each other, receipt and photograph of a birthday gift that he gave me.  I DID NOT include money transfer receipts, and no one ever asked for them.  I wanted to avoid the appearance of any financial exchanges.

 

Looking down the road-

- I made sure that I was present for the interview in Delhi.  I wasn't allowed to speak, but I made sure that the CO saw my face and knew that I was there.

- His interview was not that easy.  Rapid fire questions about the things from our chats.  I made him study for the interview and I'm glad that I did.

 

Hopefully the process will be pretty easy for you guys.  Bottom line, just be prepared and organized and stay positive.  My husband and I are celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary in a few days, and our baby just turned 2 months old.  There is life after K1.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

 

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[KozmicBlues 592]

11 hours ago, team_gn said:

Your case seems almost identical to mine.  My fiance and I went through the embassy in Delhi for his K1.  My fiance and I met online at work, I visited twice prior to the interview, I didn't get to meet his parents until after the interview, I'm 5 years older (I'm the woman), and we are an interracial couple.  I did front load but still got an RFE requesting further proof that we were going to marry and further details of our relationship.

 

Based on my experience (all of this is straight from the RFE) I suggest:

- Include an explanation of how you met and the progression of your relationship.  Include details, don't just say "we met at work online".

- If you are planning a wedding in the U.S., be sure to include receipts, invitations, etc. AND correspondence of you discussing said wedding plans from your chat logs.  If you are not planning a wedding and are planning a courthouse marriage instead, state that and explain why (financial reasons, doesn't make sense with uncertain timeline for visa approval, etc).  It might actually be helpful to say that you are planning a traditional wedding later and include correspondence regarding that so that you have evidence of some discussion of the particulars of the ceremony.  My now-husband and I had plans to just go to the magistrate here in the U.S. to be married, and the RFE asked why I didn't have correspondence about wedding plans or invitations, etc.  

- If you had a formal engagement, send the pics.  If you have an engagement ring, send the pics.  If you do not have a ring or did not have a formal engagement party, explain why.

- Tell about the nature of your relationship (okay to get sappy here).  If you have exchanged gifts, send a pic.  Write about what you mean to each other.  I asked my now-husband to write about this also, and I included it in the RFE.  Have him write about how you met, what your relationship is like, etc.

- Since you met at work, not sure how comfortable you feel about telling people you work with about the relationship.  Because of the work situation, we did not tell many people that we worked with.  Due to this, I included affidavits in my RFE from friends attesting that they knew about our relationship.  This may not be applicable to you.

- Be sure to include your declarations of intent to marry, 1 original from each of you.  And, when you are writing about wedding plans, be sure to emphasize that you will marry within 90 days of arrival if you have not set a specific date.  Have your finance mail it to you from India.  I included originals, and they asked for them again in the RFE.  Be sure to make a copy of everything, so you can prove that you already sent it if need be.

 

Basically because of the marriage culture in India, you should go out of your way to prove that your relationship is real and that you really will marry.  Do include photographs from both of your visits.  I included receipts showing that we shared a hotel room during my visits (the front desk printed these for us), copies of notes that we had written to each other, receipt and photograph of a birthday gift that he gave me.  I DID NOT include money transfer receipts, and no one ever asked for them.  I wanted to avoid the appearance of any financial exchanges.

 

Looking down the road-

- I made sure that I was present for the interview in Delhi.  I wasn't allowed to speak, but I made sure that the CO saw my face and knew that I was there.

- His interview was not that easy.  Rapid fire questions about the things from our chats.  I made him study for the interview and I'm glad that I did.

 

Hopefully the process will be pretty easy for you guys.  Bottom line, just be prepared and organized and stay positive.  My husband and I are celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary in a few days, and our baby just turned 2 months old.  There is life after K1.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

 

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Hi, 

wow, your case is almost identical to mine! Thank you so much for taking the time to give me so much information. I'm definitely more nervous now based on your experience, but now I have a better understanding of what I need to prepare in the meantime in case they come back with a RFE. We have a bunch of mutual friends at work and we started being open about our relationship on FB when I went to visit him for the 2nd time, so most people at our work know about our relationship now. I have several people (co-workers, best friend/roommate) who can write us affidavits stating they know our relationship is genuine based on their experience and a co-worker/friend in India who spent time with us together during both of my visits. So I can easily have those prepared if a RFE comes back. 

 

We're planning on having a traditional wedding so I'll continue to plan and keep records of everything wedding related so I can provide that. I did include an email with the wedding venue coordinator confirming that she has me booked for our date. We didn't have a formal engagement but in many of our chat conversations we talk about getting married and being excited to be each other's spouses. We got tattoos of each other's names instead of an engagement ring because I'm not super into jewelry. I mentioned the tattoos briefly in our 'how we met' page, but don't think I'm going to add photos of them. Maybe I can state that we got tattoos instead of an engagement ring to address the concern of an engagement. 

 

I guess I want to be careful not to add too much extra stuff up front because I'm worried it would come across as us trying too hard. I think our photos and conversations should speak for themselves, yet I don't know what an outsider judging our relationship will think. I will definitely have all of this stuff on my mind and ready to prepare for his interview or in case they do come back with a RFE.

 

As for me attending the interview, it's just not feasible. I will be lucky to get another two weeks off this year and I need to save that for when he has his visa in hand. If worst case scenario his visa gets rejected or put into additional processing I would have to come back to the states before he could come with me. Our plan is for me to go out there once he has his visa and then travel together back to the states. I'll just have to make sure he prepares like crazy for the interview and explains our plan as for why I'm not there at the interview if they ask. 

 

Thank you again SO much for your response. It makes me so happy to read that you and your husband are together and made it through the process. Congrats on your baby and your anniversary!  

[team_gn 1]

You'll be fine.  If you  haven't already, take a few moments to check out this thread regarding interracial couples in India.  I found it very helpful to see the variety of experiences and to check people's timelines for a realistic view of what might happen.

 

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/355017-interracial-couples-post-here/

 

[KozmicBlues 592]

On 3/23/2017 at 11:02 AM, team_gn said:

You'll be fine.  If you  haven't already, take a few moments to check out this thread regarding interracial couples in India.  I found it very helpful to see the variety of experiences and to check people's timelines for a realistic view of what might happen.

 

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/355017-interracial-couples-post-here/

 

Thank you! Just mailed the packet today! I will check out that thread also.  

[EandH0904 1,184]

On 3/23/2017 at 0:20 PM, KozmicBlues said:

 

 

We're planning on having a traditional wedding so I'll continue to plan and keep records of everything wedding related so I can provide that. I did include an email with the wedding venue coordinator confirming that she has me booked for our date. 

How can you have a confirmed date when you have no idea how long the process will take? 

[KozmicBlues 592]

56 minutes ago, EandH0904 said:

How can you have a confirmed date when you have no idea how long the process will take? 

The date is Jan 27th, so way passed the timeline of when we can expect his Visa to be granted. We filed this month, so assuming it takes 6-7 months that still puts us at October/November-ish. If it gets done sooner then we will get married at the courthouse as soon as he arrives. And the venue we chose is a clubhouse at a city park. It's only a $250 deposit to reserve it and it's 100% refundable or transferable....so tons of flexibility with our situation.