Our story- Any feedback/tips?

[Eh0225 6]

**it's not finished but I really need to know if it's going in the right direction. Any tips or feedback are welcome, no hard feelings I just want to make sure it's good. Thank you!**

 

 

Austin and I met on an online chat website called Omegle in early January of 2014.

We were just two teenagers looking for someone to talk to and after several chats with different strangers which all led nowhere, we finally came across one another.

We knew as soon as we started talking that day there was something special between us, we felt as if we already knew each other and we were so open and comfortable with each other. We ended up moving to an app called Kik and talked for hours that day.

We have spoken to each other every day since then, texting, video calling, playing online games and spending as much time as we could together.

After three and a half years the time was finally right and I booked my flight to the US. On June 4, 2017, I flew to Indianapolis to meet Austin for the first time.

We were both so excited yet so nervous, we couldn't believe after all these years we were finally going to be together.

As as soon as we met and held each other we knew everything was worth it and once again, we felt so comfortable and happy with each other. We spent two amazing weeks together, full of firsts, travels, laughter, fun and most importantly enjoyment of the precious time we got to have together. During this time Austin showed me around the city, we went downtown and did some fun activities with his mother, he took me to his favorite places and restaurants and brought me over to meet his family and it was all so amazing. After the two weeks have come to an end we had to say goodbye which was the hardest thing we've ever done.

We had planned to meet again in three months but things didn't work out as we planned and we ended up waiting over six months to meet again. On January 16th of 2018 I flew to see Austin for the second time, we got to spend a month together.

We got to spend our fourth year anniversary and my birthday together which was so special for us.

On our fourth year anniversary during our romantic dinner Austin proposed to me and I gladly said yes. We decided we didn't want to waste any time, we wanted to make it official. And so on February 11th, 2018 we got married. We had a small ceremony in his mother's house with close family, while Austin's father and my mother watched the whole thing on video call.

[carmel34 3,531]

What's your question?  I assume from your post that you want a CR-1 visa, the first step in this long process is for the USC to file an I-130 petition.  Read and study the guides on VJ and read all the relevant posts on the subject.  Follow the advice and steps completely.  Collect lots of evidence, documentation.  Set up a timeline on your profile, it will give you estimated time for approval of the I-130, about 6-8 months, then another 3-4 months for NVC stage and another 2-3 months for the interview if all goes well and depending on your country of origin.  Check out the average processing times for CR-1 based on VJ members, currently it is 409 days from initial filing to interview.  The long wait sucks but visits, as often as you can, help.  Good luck with your visa journey!

[Eh0225 6]

1 minute ago, carmel34 said:

What's your question?  I assume from your post that you want a CR-1 visa, the first step in this long process is for the USC to file an I-130 petition.  Read and study the guides on VJ and read all the relevant posts on the subject.  Follow the advice and steps completely.  Collect lots of evidence, documentation.  Set up a timeline on your profile, it will give you estimated time for approval of the I-130, about 6-8 months, then another 3-4 months for NVC stage and another 2-3 months for the interview if all goes well and depending on your country of origin.  Check out the average processing times for CR-1 based on VJ members, currently it is 409 days from initial filing to interview.  The long wait sucks but visits, as often as you can, help.  Good luck with your visa journey!

Having the relationship story laid out from what I heard is part of the evidence for the spousal visa (Although I heard it is optional). So I was just looking for feedback because I want to know if it's good enough. Thanks though!

[Marieke H 2,314]

8 minutes ago, Eh0225 said:

Having the relationship story laid out from what I heard is part of the evidence for the spousal visa (Although I heard it is optional). So I was just looking for feedback because I want to know if it's good enough. Thanks though!

Which country is the beneficiary from? I know a few consulates like to see a story, but most don't need it, especially not such a long story.

[carmel34 3,531]

I think your story is  fine.  From what I have researched, the relationship history is useful, but not the key evidence that will be considered for a bona fide marriage.  Save all your documentation.  Boarding passes and all pieces of paper from visits to see each other.  And start to combine finances as best you can, living in two different countries this can be tricky, but there are lots of things you can do and documentation you can submit to show that your relationship is real.  Again, read the guides and posts about CR-1 on this site and others.   I wish you all the best in this long process!

[Eh0225 6]

4 minutes ago, MariekeH said:

Which country is the beneficiary from? I know a few consulates like to see a story, but most don't need it, especially not such a long story.

Israel.

[Eh0225 6]

2 minutes ago, carmel34 said:

I think your story is  fine.  From what I have researched, the relationship history is useful, but not the key evidence that will be considered for a bona fide marriage.  Save all your documentation.  Boarding passes and all pieces of paper from visits to see each other.  And start to combine finances as best you can, living in two different countries this can be tricky, but there are lots of things you can do and documentation you can submit to show that your relationship is real.  Again, read the guides and posts about CR-1 on this site and others.   I wish you all the best in this long process!

Thank you. Im pretty sure we can't really do anything financially like put me on his bank account because I'm not there but I'll have him ask. Other than that we saved everything but I want to have everything just so we know we're good. 

[carmel34 3,531]

Here are some suggestions for documentation showing co-mingling of finances that my husband and I have done or are working on:

 

beneficiary on life insurance policies

beneficiary on investments, 401K, retirement plans, etc.

will and living will naming each other (legal documents carry weight)

joint credit cards and statements

money sent to each other

joint bank accounts in one country or both (look on this site for ideas on how to do this)

coverage on health care plans as spouse

joint ownership of real estate or other assets such as cars, if possible

joint lease of rental property in one country or both

tax returns filed with both names

 

You can do a lot of these things even though you live in different countries.  The above documentation plus evidence of lots of visits, showing as much time together, in person, as possible, seem to be the key pieces of evidence that are considered in the CR-1 process for a bona fide relationship.

 

[Eh0225 6]

25 minutes ago, carmel34 said:

Here are some suggestions for documentation showing co-mingling of finances that my husband and I have done or are working on:

 

beneficiary on life insurance policies

beneficiary on investments, 401K, retirement plans, etc.

will and living will naming each other (legal documents carry weight)

joint credit cards and statements

money sent to each other

joint bank accounts in one country or both (look on this site for ideas on how to do this)

coverage on health care plans as spouse

joint ownership of real estate or other assets such as cars, if possible

joint lease of rental property in one country or both

tax returns filed with both names

 

You can do a lot of these things even though you live in different countries.  The above documentation plus evidence of lots of visits, showing as much time together, in person, as possible, seem to be the key pieces of evidence that are considered in the CR-1 process for a bona fide relationship.

 

Thank you so much good luck!

[pushbrk 12,115]

Concentrate on evidence of time spent together in person.  Your story indicates you'll have plenty of that.  It won't hurt to provide an "evolution of relationship letter" but it should come from the petitioner, not the beneficiary.

[Eh0225 6]

2 hours ago, pushbrk said:

Concentrate on evidence of time spent together in person.  Your story indicates you'll have plenty of that.  It won't hurt to provide an "evolution of relationship letter" but it should come from the petitioner, not the beneficiary.

Thank you.

[D & T 115]

15 hours ago, pushbrk said:

Concentrate on evidence of time spent together in person.  Your story indicates you'll have plenty of that.  It won't hurt to provide an "evolution of relationship letter" but it should come from the petitioner, not the beneficiary.

That’s what we’ve been doing. Till the interview we will have 7 visits in total to each other and travelling together (2 of them long ones), plenty of pictures of us with friends, family, in different countries, whatsapp logs, professional pictures of our elopement wedding in Hawaii with 3 friends, our engagement photoshoot... for our USCIS application we also put notarized affidavits of friends stating our relationship is real.

 

Regarding our finances, the only thing we could do so far is to open a joint bank account which we put some money for most my usage at this point. Since I don’t live in the US and don’t have a SSN, he couldn’t put me on his health insurance and other benefits. Should we be ok?

[VNN 147]

29 minutes ago, D & T said:

That’s what we’ve been doing. Till the interview we will have 7 visits in total to each other and travelling together (2 of them long ones), plenty of pictures of us with friends, family, in different countries, whatsapp logs, professional pictures of our elopement wedding in Hawaii with 3 friends, our engagement photoshoot... for our USCIS application we also put notarized affidavits of friends stating our relationship is real.

 

Regarding our finances, the only thing we could do so far is to open a joint bank account which we put some money for most my usage at this point. Since I don’t live in the US and don’t have a SSN, he couldn’t put me on his health insurance and other benefits. Should we be ok?

• Do not worry about the joint bank account, benefit packages, etc.  I see a lot of people in this forum trying to do this but personally, I see they do not carry much meaning when the two have recently got married/not lived in US together.  None of Vietnamese I knew/helped their case did these and they did not have any trouble getting their visa. 
• 7 travels should be very good, add some chat logs ( probably 1/2 page per month), phone call logs.

 

 

[D & T 115]

1 hour ago, RTLE said:

• Do not worry about the joint bank account, benefit packages, etc.  I see a lot of people in this forum trying to do this but personally, I see they do not carry much meaning when the two have recently got married/not lived in US together.  None of Vietnamese I knew/helped their case did these and they did not have any trouble getting their visa. 
• 7 travels should be very good, add some chat logs ( probably 1/2 page per month), phone call logs.

 

 

Thank you so much for your answer! I feel so relieved 🙏🏻🙏🏻 I won’t worry much about it anymore. 

 

I’ll also add chat logs with his mother, friends in common talking about us, all sort of cards (wedding, birthdays, events invitations with our names), the wedding planner website talking about our wedding, etc. In an overall I think we have strong evidences

[TBoneTX 43,059]

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