I-129F package information

[Piebee 8]

Hi everyone,

 

My fiancé and I are putting are package together to file for a K1 visa. But I have a few questions about a few things, maybe you can help 😊

 

First of all, I'd like to apologize! I feel like I've been posting way too much on this forum because we're putting our package together but I think I'm slowly losing my mind doing so, haha.

 

I've looked up information on all kinds of website on how to put a package together, I've been on this forum, and I've read the K1 visa guide on here as well, and I'm kind of at a lost right now.

 

I read a lot of people say that including too many documents or too much "evidence" might be too much for the USCIS officers to read, or it could even raise red flags. Yet the guide tells you the more evidence you show (plane tickets, hotels, train tickets, receipts, real photos, boarding passes).

 

What we have done so far is show our 10 trips as a collage on 1 page per trip. On every page we have a few photos of us together, screenshots of our boarding passes and Airbnb stays. Will this be good enough? Are real pictures on photo paper better? Right now it's on normal printing paper.

 

Also, I read it's best to put our names on every page, has anyone done that?

 

Do passport style pictures, do they have to be professional pictures or can you take them yourself too? Anyone who's taken them themselves, were they approved or did you have to send in new ones?

 

Also, does it make a difference what order you put all the evidence and documents in? What did you guys do?

 

And then one final big question about the form itself. I'm the beneficiary, it asks about my employment over the last 5 years but I haven't had a job. I've received state benefits and I've done volunteering work, do I mention where I got my income from (so the state benefits), do I mention actual work I've done (so my volunteering), or nothing at all since I didn't have a paying job?

 

I'm so sorry for all the questions. I know it's a lot and I appreciate everyone's help so much. We just can't wait to be together (we've been a couple for 8 years), and we don't wanna mess anything up with forms and documents because that might mean we have to wait even longer. Agh, all the anxiety!!

 

 

Edited April 9 by Piebee

[MalloryCat 581]

you're better off the way you currently have it

photos organized on a sheet of paper with an explanation of the photos. you don't want to send in "real photos" i.e the ones on photo paper, that would be more tedious for the USCIS officer than including a lot of evidence. if it is all clear and concise, I don't see the issue of including a lot.

 

My husband (fiance at the time) and I only included about 5-10 photos of us together, and each one was on a separate piece of paper. and then passport stamps, airbnb receipts, flight receipts were all also on their own sheet of paper. each thing had a 1-2 sentence explanation of what it was.

 

we each took our passport photos ourselves, and I had them printed here in the states. and we used the photo tool provided by the government to make sure they matched the criteria. https://tsg.phototool.state.gov/photo

 

you really only need to include that you were unemployed. and since theres nothing on the I-129f that relates to your income specifically, i don't see the need to include that for yourself.

[Piebee 8]

3 minutes ago, MalloryCat said:

you're better off the way you currently have it

photos organized on a sheet of paper with an explanation of the photos. you don't want to send in "real photos" i.e the ones on photo paper, that would be more tedious for the USCIS officer than including a lot of evidence. if it is all clear and concise, I don't see the issue of including a lot.

 

My husband (fiance at the time) and I only included about 5-10 photos of us together, and each one was on a separate piece of paper. and then passport stamps, airbnb receipts, flight receipts were all also on their own sheet of paper. each thing had a 1-2 sentence explanation of what it was.

 

we each took our passport photos ourselves, and I had them printed here in the states. and we used the photo tool provided by the government to make sure they matched the criteria. https://tsg.phototool.state.gov/photo

 

you really only need to include that you were unemployed. and since theres nothing on the I-129f that relates to your income specifically, i don't see the need to include that for yourself.

Thank you so much for your feedback! 

 

I'm trying to tone it down a bit since 8 years of evidence might be a bit much for them to go through 🤭

 

I was wondering if the passport pictures were fine that way, that's good to know, thanks!!

[MalloryCat 581]

2 minutes ago, Piebee said:

Thank you so much for your feedback! 

 

I'm trying to tone it down a bit since 8 years of evidence might be a bit much for them to go through 🤭

 

I was wondering if the passport pictures were fine that way, that's good to know, thanks!!

thats understandable lol

 

i would say maybe stick with the most recent 4-5 trips.

And you can include a 1 - 2 page explanation of how you met, how long you been together, when you first met in person, etc.

[Piebee 8]

7 minutes ago, MalloryCat said:

thats understandable lol

 

i would say maybe stick with the most recent 4-5 trips.

And you can include a 1 - 2 page explanation of how you met, how long you been together, when you first met in person, etc.

Thanks for the tips!! Do you have any suggestions on how to put the package together? Like with staples, paperclips or punch holes?

[MalloryCat 581]

1 minute ago, Piebee said:

Thanks for the tips!! Do you have any suggestions on how to put the package together? Like with staples, paperclips or punch holes?

of course!

 

no staples, no hole punches

 

it should be in this order

cover letter

signed and completed form

evidence

 

and everything should be held together with 1 binder clip. you want to make it easy for the USCIS officer adjudicating your petition to do what they need to and not have anything hindering that

[Piebee 8]

4 minutes ago, MalloryCat said:

of course!

 

no staples, no hole punches

 

it should be in this order

cover letter

signed and completed form

evidence

 

and everything should be held together with 1 binder clip. you want to make it easy for the USCIS officer adjudicating your petition to do what they need to and not have anything hindering that

That's so useful!! Thank you so much! 

 

I read in your profile that you or your husband had the interview in Frankfurt. Do you know if you're allowed to go to the interview together?

[OldUser 8,888]

7 minutes ago, Piebee said:

That's so useful!! Thank you so much! 

 

I read in your profile that you or your husband had the interview in Frankfurt. Do you know if you're allowed to go to the interview together?

I'm a big believer in only beneficiary needing to go to interview.

 

There's 0 chance of stokes interview when only beneficiary attends. There's more than 0 chance stokes may happen if petitioner attends.

 

Interview suppose to last a few minutes. However, if counsular officer sees both people, the interview may get longer.

 

[smilingstone 331]

56 minutes ago, Piebee said:

I read a lot of people say that including too many documents or too much "evidence" might be too much for the USCIS officers to read, or it could even raise red flags. Yet the guide tells you the more evidence you show (plane tickets, hotels, train tickets, receipts, real photos, boarding passes).

 

What we have done so far is show our 10 trips as a collage on 1 page per trip. On every page we have a few photos of us together, screenshots of our boarding passes and Airbnb stays. Will this be good enough? Are real pictures on photo paper better? Right now it's on normal printing paper.

 

Also, I read it's best to put our names on every page, has anyone done that?

 

Do passport style pictures, do they have to be professional pictures or can you take them yourself too? Anyone who's taken them themselves, were they approved or did you have to send in new ones?

 

Also, does it make a difference what order you put all the evidence and documents in? What did you guys do?

 

And then one final big question about the form itself. I'm the beneficiary, it asks about my employment over the last 5 years but I haven't had a job. I've received state benefits and I've done volunteering work, do I mention where I got my income from (so the state benefits), do I mention actual work I've done (so my volunteering), or nothing at all since I didn't have a paying job?

 

I'm so sorry for all the questions. I know it's a lot and I appreciate everyone's help so much. We just can't wait to be together (we've been a couple for 8 years), and we don't wanna mess anything up with forms and documents because that might mean we have to wait even longer. Agh, all the anxiety!!

 

Me and my now-husband filed after our second in-person meeting. We had a single picture together, and I had Airbnb receipt, boarding passes to/from US, flight itineraries. Alongside this we included screenshots of texts that spanned over an approx. 6 month period, with around 2 screenshots per month.

 

All of our supporting evidence, both images and documents, we embedded as images on a Word document with headings on each page detailing the contents of that page, "Page X of Y", and our names to specify who the evidence related to: "Boarding Passes to the USA for MY NAME dated Month XXth Year", etc. We printed it all off on standard letter-size printing paper.

 

You only need to ensure that you have signed/dated any and all of the "Additional Information" parts of the 129F application. If you miss this, you will get an RFE asking you to do-so, adding more time on to your wait.

 

We took our passport pictures ourselves. I used a passport photo app on my phone and then multiplied them on a 6x4in template, then printed on the same size photo paper, cut them to size.

 

Our order of documents was:

 

1)      Two Passport-Sized Photos (Petitioner, Beneficiary)

2)      Form G-1145 for E-Notification of Application Acceptance (1 Page)

3)      Application Fee of $535 via Cashier’s Check

4)      Form I-129F, Petition for K-1 Fiancé(e) for Beneficiary (14 Pages)

5)      Proof of Meeting Within the Last 2 Years:

-          Confirmation of Approved ESTA for Beneficiary (5 Pages)

-          Airline Tickets & Flight Itinerary [November 2023] (3 Pages)

-          Airbnb Reservation [November 2023] (1 Page)

-          Boarding Passes to and from the USA for Beneficiary [November 2023] (2 Pages)

-          Picture Together [November 2023] (1 Page)

-          Airline Tickets & Flight Itinerary [March 2024] (2 Pages)

-          Boarding Passes to the USA for Beneficiary [March 2024] (1 Page)

6)      Proof of Relationship:

-          Communication Transcripts (10 Pages)

7)      Fiancé Letter of Intent to Marry within 90 days, executed by Petitioner (1 Page)

8)      Fiancée Letter of Intent to Marry within 90 days, executed by Beneficiary (1 Page)

9)      Statement of Circumstances of Meeting (2 Pages)

10)   Proof of United States Citizenship for Petitioner (2 Pages)

11)   Passport Copy for Beneficiary (1 Page)

12)   Form I-94, Travel History for Beneficiary (2 Pages)

 

If you haven't had any employment, then my guess would be that there's nothing to detail because what date would you put being employed from? Legal working age in your country? I'm unsure on that, but your income isn't really looked at here so it isn't a problem. However, a note on this:

 

Having few ties to your country of origin may become an obstacle for you if you plan to visit while your application is being reviewed, as CBP will regard you as at a higher risk of overstaying the closer you get to visa approval. For what it's worth, I went on 1 further trip after filing, with this being when my 129F was approved and at NVC. I anticipated hassle at the POE so arrived loaded with documents to support my return to the UK: bank statement evidencing address, tenancy agreement, employment contract, letter from manager. They didn't ask for anything in the end, but had they did and I not have any of it, they could have refused my entry thinking I am so close to the end goal that I may just decide to stay.

 

Good luck with your journey! 

Edited April 9 by smilingstone

[MalloryCat 581]

8 minutes ago, Piebee said:

That's so useful!! Thank you so much! 

 

I read in your profile that you or your husband had the interview in Frankfurt. Do you know if you're allowed to go to the interview together?

it was my husbands interview

I wasn't there, but ive heard of both people attending a K-1 interview, but i'm not sure how it went for them.

its probably better if only the beneficiary attends imo

[Piebee 8]

10 minutes ago, MalloryCat said:

it was my husbands interview

I wasn't there, but ive heard of both people attending a K-1 interview, but i'm not sure how it went for them.

its probably better if only the beneficiary attends imo

Thanks for the info!

[Piebee 8]

11 minutes ago, smilingstone said:

 

Me and my now-husband filed after our first in-person meeting. We had a single picture together, and I had Airbnb receipt, boarding passes to/from US, flight itineraries. Alongside this we included screenshots of texts that spanned over an approx. 6 month period, with around 2 screenshots per month.

 

All of our supporting evidence, both images and documents, we embedded as images on a Word document with headings on each page detailing the contents of that page, "Page X of Y", and our names to specify who the evidence related to: "Boarding Passes to the USA for MY NAME dated Month XXth Year", etc. We printed it all off on standard letter-size printing paper.

 

You only need to ensure that you have signed/dated any and all of the "Additional Information" parts of the 129F application. If you miss this, you will get an RFE asking you to do-so, adding more time on to your wait.

 

We took our passport pictures ourselves. I used a passport photo app on my phone and then multiplied them on a 6x4in template, then printed on the same size photo paper, cut them to size.

 

Our order of documents was:

 

1)      Two Passport-Sized Photos (Petitioner, Beneficiary)

2)      Form G-1145 for E-Notification of Application Acceptance (1 Page)

3)      Application Fee of $535 via Cashier’s Check

4)      Form I-129F, Petition for K-1 Fiancé(e) for Beneficiary (14 Pages)

5)      Proof of Meeting Within the Last 2 Years:

-          Confirmation of Approved ESTA for Beneficiary (5 Pages)

-          Airline Tickets & Flight Itinerary [November 2023] (3 Pages)

-          Airbnb Reservation [November 2023] (1 Page)

-          Boarding Passes to and from the USA for Beneficiary [November 2023] (2 Pages)

-          Picture Together [November 2023] (1 Page)

-          Airline Tickets & Flight Itinerary [March 2024] (2 Pages)

-          Boarding Passes to the USA for Beneficiary [March 2024] (1 Page)

6)      Proof of Relationship:

-          Communication Transcripts (10 Pages)

7)      Fiancé Letter of Intent to Marry within 90 days, executed by Petitioner (1 Page)

😎      Fiancée Letter of Intent to Marry within 90 days, executed by Beneficiary (1 Page)

9)      Statement of Circumstances of Meeting (2 Pages)

10)   Proof of United States Citizenship for Petitioner (2 Pages)

11)   Passport Copy for Beneficiary (1 Page)

12)   Form I-94, Travel History for Beneficiary (2 Pages)

 

If you haven't had any employment, then my guess would be that there's nothing to detail because what date would you put being employed from? Legal working age in your country? I'm unsure on that, but your income isn't really looked at here so it isn't a problem. However, a note on this:

 

Having few ties to your country of origin may become an obstacle for you if you plan to visit while your application is being reviewed, as CPB will regard you as at a higher risk of overstaying the closer you get to visa approval. For what it's worth, I went on 2 further trip after filing, with the third being when my 129F was approved and at NVC. I anticipated hassle at the POE so arrived loaded with documents to support my return to the UK: bank statement evidencing address, tenancy agreement, employment contract, letter from manager. They didn't ask for anything in the end, but had they did and I not have any of it, they could have refused my entry thinking I am so close to the end goal that I may just decide to stay.

 

Good luck with your journey! 

Thank you so much for the detailed information, I appreciate it! That really must help me put something together.

 

I have had jobs in the past, just not the last 5 years. I donhave ties to this country still since I have a son who goes to school here, so I'm hoping they won't see that as a problem then. 

 

We wanna file next month and hopefully visit in July on ESTAs we already have. This will be our only trip there until we get approved. My fiancé will come and visit us instead after our summer trip 😊

[smilingstone 331]

1 hour ago, Piebee said:

Thank you so much for the detailed information, I appreciate it! That really must help me put something together.

 

I have had jobs in the past, just not the last 5 years. I donhave ties to this country still since I have a son who goes to school here, so I'm hoping they won't see that as a problem then. 

 

We wanna file next month and hopefully visit in July on ESTAs we already have. This will be our only trip there until we get approved. My fiancé will come and visit us instead after our summer trip 😊

 

Oh, sorry, for some reason I read what you said as never having worked. My bad!

 

You should be fine to visit so soon after filing, but I would advise taking something just incase - maybe something that evidences your sons place at the school, and a copy of his birth cert showing he is your son?

 

Happy to help.  

[Piebee 8]

2 hours ago, smilingstone said:

 

Oh, sorry, for some reason I read what you said as never having worked. My bad!

 

You should be fine to visit so soon after filing, but I would advise taking something just incase - maybe something that evidences your sons place at the school, and a copy of his birth cert showing he is your son?

 

Happy to help.  

That sounds like a great idea, thanks! I'll definitely take a birth certificate and school information, hopefully that will be fine then. Especially since I can show our return tickets too 😊

[GingerZebra 15]

We just got sent to NVC, I don't have a job and haven't for the time asked, Just put N/A on the form. 

 

Everything was packaged like this:

1. Form G-28

2. Check
3. Form 1-129F

4. 1 passport style photo petitioner

5. 1 passport style photo beneficiary

6. copy of petitioners US passport identification page
7. copy of beneficiaries Passport identification page

8. copy of birth certificate for biological daughter of petitioner and beneficiary 

9. evidence showing petitioner and beneficiary intend to marry within 90 days of beneficiary entering the US as a K1 holder, including:
a)  statement from petitioner 
b)  statement from beneficiary 

10. evidence showing petitioner and beneficiary have met in person during 2 years preceding the filing of this petition including:

a) petitioner's entry stamp in his passport showing visit to the UK
b) beneficiary's CBP travel history

c) Petitioner's Itinerary/boarding pass
d) beneficiary's Itinerary/boarding passes and car rental confirmations

e) Photos of petitioner and beneficiary together

f) air bnb reservations

g) Moral statements 

 

On every photo put 'beneficiary and petitioner at *place* in *location* on *date*.

 

We only did 4 photos on standard paper, both statements were notarised.

passport photos were professional. 

A lawyer helped with ours, so your most important dates will be first in person meeting, and most recent meeting. Show you have both travelled looks best and in my statement I gave a complete rundown of our relationship up until that point, how we met, first in person meeting, all other meetings, a key moment from each meeting, mention meeting families, explain how you felt during moments, a small amount on future plans etc. the main thing is stating you legally can and intend to marry within 90 days.

 

This is the petition, it's what allows you onto the step where you then submit more evidence and then go for the interview where more things will be needed, you don't want to over load but you don't want to not have enough. 

 

The covering letter list everything you include, put it all in in that order and they can quickly flick through it, you dont really need to describe what everything is.