Married in colombia

[JefferyC91 0]

Good afternoon, My wife and I got married in her home country in Colombia back in October. I'm a US citizen and the sponsor. We are starting to file for the Visa and was wondering what is some good advice to file the I130 and the CR1. 

We have been together since December 2019.

[Crazy Cat 41,980]

This is a pretty good guide:

 

[Crazy Cat 41,980]

My advice is to read, read, read..... the immigration process requires a great deal of knowledge, planning, time, patience, and money....good luck.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[Bri and Thor 3]

On 4/2/2021 at 6:10 PM, JefferyC91 said:

Good afternoon, My wife and I got married in her home country in Colombia back in October. I'm a US citizen and the sponsor. We are starting to file for the Visa and was wondering what is some good advice to file the I130 and the CR1. 

We have been together since December 2019.

 

First of all, congratulations to both of you!

 

Regarding advice, some general advice that served us well during the I-130/USCIS portion of the process (we're currently at the NVC stage) is:

 

- In the evidence packet, we submitted lots of photos, screenshots of chats, tickets/receipts corresponding to events in the aforementioned photos, etc. Essentially, you need to establish that the marriage is indeed bonafide. We probably overdid it, honestly...but it's better to be safe than sorry. They don't need to see *everything*, but certainly enough to prove that there's an ongoing relationship.

 

- Check and double-check the information before you submit it. Dates, spelling of names, addresses, etc.

 

- For translation of Colombian documents with the certification statement found elsewhere on VisaJourney, I did the translations for us (obviously not for any items that had to be officially translated/apostilled). Depending on your comfort with and command of Spanish to English translation, you may or may not elect to proceed the way we did. Translations aren't terribly cheap (at least in terms of the official ones) in our experience...but in all honesty, there's also something to be said for paying a professional in return for a solid translation, timeliness, and peace of mind as well. YMMV.

 

- Be patient. Unless y'all are lucky, it is going to take a while...we filed the I-130 in early May of last year, and were transferred to NVC last month. That said, it depends upon the service center where your paperwork is reviewed. We were at Potomac. Estimates kept being extended and extended later and later (we thought we'd be waiting until the end of this summer at one point), and then out of the blue we received the good news...so don't lose hope even if the process seems like it's taking forever and a day.

 

Cheers, and good luck!

[Troy B 224]

On 4/2/2021 at 3:10 PM, JefferyC91 said:

Good afternoon, My wife and I got married in her home country in Colombia back in October. I'm a US citizen and the sponsor. We are starting to file for the Visa and was wondering what is some good advice to file the I130 and the CR1. 

We have been together since December 2019.

 

And note you do not file for the CR1.  The CR1 visa (or IR1 visa if your spouse waits after the 2nd anniversary of your wedding to use the visa) is the almost end of the process result, which allows your spouse to come to the USA. Where the green card is the final result of filing the petition for i130.   Where that green card is only valid for 2 years if CR1,  or 10 years if IR1.

[pushbrk 12,969]

19 hours ago, Troy B said:

 

And note you do not file for the CR1.  The CR1 visa (or IR1 visa if your spouse waits after the 2nd anniversary of your wedding to use the visa) is the almost end of the process result, which allows your spouse to come to the USA. Where the green card is the final result of filing the petition for i130.   Where that green card is only valid for 2 years if CR1,  or 10 years if IR1.

Sort of.  You file a petition.  When the petition is approved, the foreign spouse applies for an immigrant visa.  The appropriate visa gets issued when the time comes.  The "visa" does not change based on the entry date.  It's the same visa.  One can be issued a CR1 visa, then delay entry and get IR1 status.  It's the same visa.  OR, if the visa is issued after the two year wedding anniversary, the VISA will be IR1 as will the status upon entry.