Attorneys

[ram1009 42]

1 minute ago, geowrian said:

The US issued 5,779,411 new/renewed tourist visas last year alone (plus Canadian visitors and VWP travelers). I would hardly consider that "every obstacle possible" in the way of every applicant.

I would submit that the numbers you quote mean little unless compared with the number of rejected applications.  Also, there's no way to verify any of these numbers since the US government is the source of all such information.  On  my side of this issue are the ridiculously convoluted and lengthy forms to be filled out along with the multiple steps in the process all providing opportunities for rejection.  I think here's a lot more actual evidence on my side of this issue.

 

[geowrian 22,335]

1 minute ago, ram1009 said:

I would submit that the numbers you quote mean little unless compared with the number of rejected applications.  Also, there's no way to verify any of these numbers since the US government is the source of all such information.  On  my side of this issue are the ridiculously convoluted and lengthy forms to be filled out along with the multiple steps in the process all providing opportunities for rejection.  I think here's a lot more actual evidence on my side of this issue.

A better number for comparison would be the number of people rejected, not the number of visas refused. But either way, that's a heck of a lot of visas issued if they're trying to make it as hard as possible.

If the suggestion is those numbers are being manipulated, then you're talking about baseless conspiracies of the raw data. In which case there's no point in bringing the issue up as there's no reliable source of information.

 

I'm not sure what forms are convoluted in a K-1 case, and most take under 30 minutes to complete (and much less than that in most cases). Going through an attorney will certainly take longer than that.

Obtaining some documentation tends to be the longer part of the process, although even that is pretty basic...I'm not sure what evidence that is being requested is excessive or unnecessary - evidence of wanting to marry, evidence of being free to marry, evidence of being a US citizen, criminal history records, evidence of name changes, evidence of meeting within the past 2 years. They're all there for very good reason to avoid abusing the immigration process and making it harder for others later.

 

The main forms are the I-129F, then several months later a DS-160. Rejection of the petition is based on meeting basic criteria. Evaluation of the visa application is more complicated.

[Scandi 3,970]

39 minutes ago, ram1009 said:

Well, I'm a little surprised by this response.  It's pretty obvious that lawyers are frowned upon around  here and in general, I agree.  I wish I had as much confidence in myself as the rest of you seem to have in me.  At the moment my problem isn't filling out the I-129F which I have already done but rather what to do with the large quantity of paperwork required to be filed with the form.  What have some of you done to organize this mass of evidence or have you all just thrown it all together in a pile and left it tothe examiner to sort through?  Please advise?

You just gather all the documents a d forms needed according to the VJ K-1 guide. When you have everything you need to send the petition, you type up a cover letter, listing all the documents and forms that is in the package. You organize the documents in the order they show on your cover letter.

 

Start with the important things. The check should always be first, then the G-1145 if you choose to send it (they want this form at the beginning of the pile, we put ours at the end by mistake but it worked just fine anyway). Then the petition form itself (i-129f) and so on. 

 

And on a side not.. the truth is - nobody cares more about this petition than you do. That means nobody will WANT to get this petition approved more than you do. A lawyer (who won't do anything himself, but let an intern do the job as it's THAT simple) don't care if you end up with an RFE or possibly a denial. Actually, you getting an RFE might mean more money in his/her pocket as you're likely to keep consulting the lawyer despite such a set back. We see this often here on VJ, people turning to this website after their lawyer screwed up their petition/application. There's a reason people on here give you the answers they do. It's to make things easier, smoother and cheaper for YOU, it's to help.

 

You will do a better job than a lawyer who's just in it for the money. Personally I would never put something important in the hands of someone else, no way.

Edited March 1, 2019 by Scandi

[ram1009 42]

5 minutes ago, geowrian said:

A better number for comparison would be the number of people rejected, not the number of visas refused. But either way, that's a heck of a lot of visas issued if they're trying to make it as hard as possible.

If the suggestion is those numbers are being manipulated, then you're talking about baseless conspiracies of the raw data. In which case there's no point in bringing the issue up as there's no reliable source of information.

 

I'm not sure what forms are convoluted in a K-1 case, and most take under 30 minutes to complete (and much less than that in most cases). Going through an attorney will certainly take longer than that.

Obtaining some documentation tends to be the longer part of the process, although even that is pretty basic...I'm not sure what evidence that is being requested is excessive or unnecessary - evidence of wanting to marry, evidence of being free to marry, evidence of being a US citizen, criminal history records, evidence of name changes, evidence of meeting within the past 2 years. They're all there for very good reason to avoid abusing the immigration process and making it harder for others later.

 

The main forms are the I-129F, then several months later a DS-160. Rejection of the petition is based on meeting basic criteria. Evaluation of the visa application is more complicated.

You sound like you work for the state department.   Tell me  how my fiancee's parents names and place of birth have any bearing on her fitness to marry me.  I'd love to watch you fill out any of these forms in 30 minutes.  They take me several days.  And, yes, i think the US government would happily cook the books.

 

[geowrian 22,335]

29 minutes ago, ram1009 said:

You sound like you work for the state department.   Tell me  how my fiancee's parents names and place of birth have any bearing on her fitness to marry me.  I'd love to watch you fill out any of these forms in 30 minutes.  They take me several days.  And, yes, i think the US government would happily cook the books.

That's a shame because I don't. i actually work for a living.

 

They don't. USCIS and DOS don't determine one's fitness to marry somebody. They have no say in any marriage.

As for how do they impact your eligibility to qualify for a K-1 visa, they can be useful in background checks to ensure you have the correct individual and not just somebody else with the same name. They can also be used to help establish a record of biological relationships. People lie and provide false documents. One way to catch discrepancies is via comparing records. Few people would think to lie on a form now so that years or decades later they could provide consistent information with the lie and matching documents.

 

I filled out my I-129F in well under 30 minutes with my then-fiancee. There was nothing on it (or the G-325s needed at the time) that we didn't know off the top of our heads. If there was - such as I-94 information if they visited previously - then that adds a few minutes (unless it was almost a decade or more ago, in which case the paper forms would need to be retrieved).

Adding the necessary supporting documentation took about an equal amount of time to scan and print (I used my cell phone since I don't have a physical scanner).

DS-160 questions may take a little longer if you have an extensive travel history without easily-findable records to verify dates and such.

Is there a particular question that is (or did) cause you a problem?

Edited March 1, 2019 by geowrian

[Scandi 3,970]

I agree with Geowrian. Especially if you have gathered all info beforehand (stuff about your fiance such as previous jobs, addresses etc that you might not keep in your head), the i-129f doesn't take more than 30-45 minutes to fill out. 

[TBoneTX 42,990]

Folks, please lighten up in this thread.  No assault of the OP or his thought processes is necessary.

[SalishSea 16,726]

1 hour ago, ram1009 said:

Well, I'm a little surprised by this response.  It's pretty obvious that lawyers are frowned upon around  here and in general, I agree.  I wish I had as much confidence in myself as the rest of you seem to have in me.  At the moment my problem isn't filling out the I-129F which I have already done but rather what to do with the large quantity of paperwork required to be filed with the form.  What have some of you done to organize this mass of evidence or have you all just thrown it all together in a pile and left it tothe examiner to sort through?  Please advise?

You do realize that you’re going to have to personally gather together the evidence whether you or an attorney submits it, right?

 

if you follow the optional checklist on the USCIS website and do not include non-required, non-requested fluff (please don’t send 2000 WhatsApp chat pages), it need not be a “large quantity of paperwork.”

 

Keep it simple and include a concise cover letter describing the contents.   

 

No one, including adjudicators, wants to wade through a novella to dertermine if you meet the three basic criteria for an I-129f petition.

[mushroomspore 3,043]

1 hour ago, ram1009 said:

You sound like you work for the state department.   Tell me  how my fiancee's parents names and place of birth have any bearing on her fitness to marry me.  I'd love to watch you fill out any of these forms in 30 minutes.  They take me several days.  And, yes, i think the US government would happily cook the books.

 

The fact is, most of us on this site have navigated our cases without the help of a lawyer. Also, they request parents' names and birth places to be listed on the AoS forms. There are a lot of forms and repetitive language in the instructions, but if you can read and write English, there's no reason as to why you can't do it yourself. Plus, there's a search function on this site. Trust me, literally any question you encounter has already been asked and answered here.

[Going through 5,668]

All I can say, is it's your money---spend it how you want to.

As for how long/complicated the forms are to fill out----you do realize that most of the people on VJ have filled out those same forms without an attorney.  If something on the form confuses you, you can always ask your question in the forums for free (rather than pay for every time you speak to your lawyer to ask)

 

Use an attorney if you wish---its your life/money.  We'll still be here to help if/when the lawyer screws up something and you need further assistance...as has also happened many times around here (using a lawyer isn't fail-safe by any means).

 

Best of luck.

[Nov2017AD 52]

8 hours ago, ram1009 said:

Well, I'm a little surprised by this response.  It's pretty obvious that lawyers are frowned upon around  here and in general, I agree.  I wish I had as much confidence in myself as the rest of you seem to have in me.  At the moment my problem isn't filling out the I-129F which I have already done but rather what to do with the large quantity of paperwork required to be filed with the form.  What have some of you done to organize this mass of evidence or have you all just thrown it all together in a pile and left it tothe examiner to sort through?  Please advise?

There isn't a large amount of evidence that should be submitted. It's like 4-5 things. Just make an index sheet and use paper clips and put it in a folder.

[Nov2017AD 52]

8 hours ago, ram1009 said:

I have a very different opinion of the immigration service.  I believe they consider it their mission to place every obstacle possible in the way of every applicant.  This seems obvious to me just from knowing about a section of immigration law called section 214b which states that all non-immigrant visa applicants shall be assumed to intend to overstay their visas unless proof to the contrary exists.  Isn't their intent obvious?

....which doesn't matter in your case since you're not applying for a non-immigrant visa. (It is classified as non-immigrant but it's really an immigrant.)

[Limey 550]

11 hours ago, ram1009 said:

Well, I'm a little surprised by this response.  It's pretty obvious that lawyers are frowned upon around  here and in general, I agree.  I wish I had as much confidence in myself as the rest of you seem to have in me.  At the moment my problem isn't filling out the I-129F which I have already done but rather what to do with the large quantity of paperwork required to be filed with the form.  What have some of you done to organize this mass of evidence or have you all just thrown it all together in a pile and left it tothe examiner to sort through?  Please advise?

Seriously, it really isn't so hard. There is no specific way that they require you arrange the documents, but they way we did it, and most people here is

 

1) A cover letter listing all the documents you've provided - each item numbered, for example you might have item 3 listed as "proof of meeting"

2) In your "proof of meeting" you have copies of documents that prove you have met in person within past 2 years. This will likely include plane tickets, boarding passes, passport entry stamps, visas, hotel receipts, photographs of you together, with family, etc etc. A good mixture of different types of evidence is better than lots of the same type (eg photos by themselves rarely prove the date of the meeting). For each copy annotate what it is, if not immediately clear (eg  "passport stamp of Person X entering airport Y on 15 June 2018", facebook post of X and Y together at Z tourist resort on 20 June 2018 etc.
3) Don't overload the submission with irrelevant documents, like pages and pages of online chat. Focus on the ones that are specifically required and the ones that you need to prove that you meet the criteria

Its a pretty similar process later on when you apply to remove conditions (ie applying for 10 year green card).

All a lawyer is going to do (at best) is review your documents and evidence and flag things you don't have, or could add. But people on this forum are helpful - if you're unsure you've got everything, post the list on here and people will let you know what you need to add, and they won't charge you 200 bucks an hour. I'm sure we did a better job than a lawyer because we REALLY knew our background, evidence etc, and we REALLY cared about getting the visa and not getting an RFE that would slow things down.

Edited March 1, 2019 by Limey

[dray 20]

basically , as others have said ,  there is a checklist of forms , documents and evidence to submit that can be found for free on the internet . a lawyer would take your money and give you that same checklist . every step in the process is objective , straight forward and predictable until you get to the interview . the interview is subjective , less predictable and unappealable by a lawyer . without a lawyer the odds are high in your favor , with a lawyer the odds are high in your favor . but i'm not aware of any stats that they are any higher one way or the other .

[Comanutd33 61]

alright everyone lighten up please! 

I decided to go with an attorney and I still love this forum. I decided to do it because my busy schedule just didn’t have the time gap for me to put everything together. And my attorney experience was easy. I just filled out a quick questionnaire and sent over required pics and she put it together for me. Yeah it sounds like I did all the work but I just wanted to have the ease of the attorney to go over my work to prevent simple RFE’s. If it makes you feel better do it. Made me feel better and honestly she did everything ina week for me. If it was in my hands it would have take months. If you have the time to look at this forum for everything then don’t get an attorney. If you don’t then do hire one. Mine was very nice and helpful and processed everything within 2 weeks. She wrote all my statements and descriptions. If you want her info let me know