Pat2Bos

guys, my case status still have NOA date as the last updated date. Is it normal ? My bio metrics was 01/06/2014 and I did it early in 12/16/2013.

Hi Roki,

Just wanted to check how was your early biometric experience. Was that a walk-in or you got it rescheduled? My biometric date is 01/28 but I am trying to get it done earlier too.

Thanks

Thanks "Yurika & Jim" for adding my timeline to the list.

Has anybody got experience with walk-in biometric at Boston or any other ASC?

I am going to call them anyways. Fingers crossed.

Hi Guys,

So just got my biometric notice today and it's scheduled for 28th Jan. The only issue is that I have some travel plans during the last week of January but I also don't want later date as it might delay the process. So I want to get it done before the scheduled date.

What are people's experience with advancing the date for biometric? and can it be done online as the letter says you have to send the letter back by mail for rescheduling and that will take time.

Thanks

Hey guys,

So it's been two weeks since I received my NOA1 but no bio-metric appointment letter yet, whereas I have seen for most people they get bio-metric appointment letter within two weeks of getting NOA1. Shall I call them to check or just wait? I am bit more nervous as I haven't heard many good things about the VSC.

Thanks for your ideas in advance.

Thanks, Good idea!

Hey guys,

So it's been two weeks since I received my NOA1 but no bio-metric appointment letter yet, whereas I have seen for most people they get bio-metric appointment letter within two weeks of getting NOA1. Shall I call them to check or just wait? I am bit more nervous as I said earlier that I haven't heard many good things about the VSC.

Thanks for your ideas in advance.

Hi guys,

Thanks for your helpful comments. We filed on the 20th of December 2013 and received the one year extension letter on 27th. No Biometric appointment letter yet.

Going by the responses it seems the Vermont center is worse than the California center in terms of RFE etc. Any perspectives on this?

_______________________________

I-751 Packet Sent- 12/20/2013

Dear AKSinghSingh79,

I don't know why I am responding to this, probably because I have been through this situation and can empathize with MyDream2012 and don't want him to be in limbo.

So MyDream2012, my advice is that go ahead, come to India on a month's holiday (or if your job allows remote working, work remotely) register an application to marry at the local marriage office (usually the Sub Divisional Magistrates are nominated as marriage officers by the District Magistrate/Collector), screw the priest and marry under Special Marriages Act after 30 days, You will get the marriage certificate the same day. After that it's your choice if you want to file for CR-1 for your wife in India or come back to US and file here. For most of the Indian states, this information is available on the state government's websites but if your fiancée is from a state where the administration is digitally challenged you will have to request someone to go to the local SDM's office to get the forms etc. And by the way, this whole process will cost you only about INR 500 and it's fairly simple, so no need to go to a tout, agent or a lawyer.

Now, I will come to point by point rebuttal to issues raised by Mr. AKSinghSingh79

I still don't understand where you are getting this "conversion to the CR-1" information from. If a petitioner files for a beneficiary to come to the U.S. as their fiance(e) then they apply for the K-1. According to the K-1 terms, the beneficiary must marry the petitioner within 90 days. After they are married they may apply for AOS. There is no CR-1 after this. There would be no need for it. The beneficiary would be a legal permanent resident. As I said before, if they wanted to return to India to get married in a Hindu religious ceremony with family and friends present then they would need to apply for Advanced Parole (AP) or wait until her permanent resident card arrived.

Well on this forum I don't expect people to require a English grammar refresher, therefore I use words which are not legalese but convey the meaning in shortest possible space. Therefore when I said conversion, it meant changing the application by the petitioner. As for coming back to India is concerned, I have already said in my original post that if you get K-1 it's better that you get married in US as coming back to marry would just complicate issues.

"On no CR-1 after this", well Mr. AKSinghSingh79, I don't know where you get your information from, would just advice you to check if it's not a fake website or the person is not on a high. As the US State Department website (http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_2991.html) is very clear that if your marriage is less than two years old, your spouse can only get CR-1, and only after completing two years of residence in USA (please note- not two years of marriage) you can apply for AOS which will remove the condition. Both the CR-1 and IR-1 give you permanent residence rights only that in CR-1 it's conditional for two years in the sense that it depends upon your relationship.

WRONG. U.S. senators endorsing a case means absolutely nothing. The consulate officers are above influence. A congressman's advice to grant a visa is worthless to a CO. A CR-1 being approved in 6 weeks in India is not likely. The only way I can see this being a possibility is if DCF was involved. If you are willing to site an article to this particular case, then I will gladly reverse my statements. Regardless if this were true, the normal processing time for a CR-1 is 8-12 months. Telling the OP that you heard of a possible case where it only took the couple 6 weeks to be granted a visa is not at all helpful. It may only get his hopes falsely high that his case may be approved in that short of a time frame.

Well Mr. AKSinghSingh79, I am happy to know that there are still some people who believe in the absolute power of a CO and thus in fairness and transparency of the US visa processes. Good for you. Also 8-12 months is not the normal processing time. Normal processing time is 10 weeks to 24 weeks, cases usually go beyond 12 weeks only if they have been put in Administrative Processing (AP). As in the case of six weeks explains itself that it requires uncommon access and leverage with US law-makers which not many people in India can boast of. Anybody who has solid paperwork and adequate finances for the affidavit of support, can realistically hope for a decision in about 12 weeks.

Well in your original post, you didn't clearly explain this at all. You said "the K-1 will lapse immediately into a CR-1". I (and most others) would interpret this as, marrying in the middle of a pending I-129f will automatically upgrade your case to an I-130 for a spouse. If you choose to marry in the midst of a pending I-129f, you must immediately notify USCIS so that your petition can be withdrawn. After this, you must start your case over from the beginning but will file the I-130 instead.

Well I have already adequately explained this.

I have read the Special Marriage Act. Many, many times. I myself am getting married via the Special Marriage Act but our case is different as we are an inter-religious couple. The law is very ambiguous regarding the marriage of two Hindus. From reading it, I would interpret it as 2 Hindus are free to marry under the Special Marriage Act but since I am not an expert on this law, I recommended the OP seek advice from a qualified legal source (i.e. Marriage Registrar)

Well I have not only read the act but have also have been married under the act for more than a year now. In the process, I have had detailed discussions with two different Sub Divisional Magistrates, their office staffs and a High Court Judge who in his law practicing days used to be a marriage law specialist. All of them have been very clear, along with the documents, that as long as one of the partners is an Indian citizen and fulfills the local residence requirements, he or she can marry anybody of the opposite sex (except prohibited relationships) without any consideration for age, nationality, religion, caste or creed. I don't know if this is not clear, what is? I think Mr. AKSinghSingh79 is one of those people, who feed and abet the humongous good for nothing Indian bureaucracy and the multi-million strong army of useless lawyers.

I didn't say it was the best solution. I was simply offering it as a viable alternative because nobody has mentioned it already.

That's very kind of you Mr. AKSinghSingh79. Since nobody has mentioned this option so far you just mentioned it off the cuff, without even thinking that, far from viable, this could put their married lives in jeopardy as a marriage thus solemnized will have no recognition either in India or in US. That shows huge consideration on your part. Kudos.

So please spare us the condescension and check the facts first.

Take your own advice Posted Image

Dear AKSinghSingh79,

I admit my mistake on 180 days instead of 90 days for K-1. You are right there.

But on everything else I am bang on. When I said K-1, I meant getting a K-1 and not just filing for K-1 as MyDream2012 wants to get her fiancée to US ASAP. If he can prove the credentials of his relationship, she will get the K-1, get to US, get married and apply for conversion to CR-1 which would be easier since the credentials have already been established. You can check with other members of VJ and they will vouch for it. The fundamental point being "if she can get the K-1".

On the six weeks CR-1, just because you haven't heard anything doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I am aware of a case in Bombay where the girl married to a US citizen (the bride coming from an influential Gujarati business family) got a CR-1 in less than six weeks. Tortoises can turn into rabbits overnight if you can have six US senators endorse your petition, so please hold your horses. I gave six weeks as the absolute lower limit whereas it has also taken almost two years for people of specific nationalities to get CR-1 (my colleague's Pakistani husband just arrived after waiting that long).

What I meant by lapsing is that once you get married while being on a K-1 visa, you are obligated to inform USCIS that you have gotten married and in that case your K-1 will be invalidated in the anticipation that you will now apply for CR-1. If you don't inform the USCIS immediately that you have gotten married then a charge of perjury can be brought against you which might result in fine or/and punishment for the US citizen concerned and a life ban on travel to US for the non-US citizen in the equation. I don't know how many people would be willing to run that risk by hiding their marriage while being on K-1 visa.

On the Special Marriages Act, 1954, I wish that you would have read the act first before commenting. Having gotten married under the act I can safely say that spirit of the act is that anybody as long as the two people concerned are of opposite sexes and don't come under the purview of prohibited relationship, can marry irrespective of caste, creed or religion. In terms of the basic difference between getting married under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) and Special Marriages Act (SMA) is that under HMA you have to declare in writing that you are a Hindu whereas in SMA there is no such compulsion. You can very well say that you are a Hindu/Muslim/Christian/Sikh/Parsi/Baudh/Jain/Rastafarian/Jew or an agnostic or atheist and can still get married under the SMA.

On getting married in a third country without any of them living there for long term, this is a problematic route on many counts. First, in the visa interview the first question would be why did you get married in a third country? Second, when the US citizen wants to apply for PIO in India on the basis of his India spouse, the marriage certificate has to be apostilled by the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, which does is for the marriages solemnized in India as verified by local officials. If they apply in US, they can do without MEA apostilled only if the marriage has taken place in US as verified by the local Indian consulate. So, in case of a third country marriage that will never happen because neither MEA nor Indian consulate would recognize a marriage certificate from a third country.

So please spare us the condescension and check the facts first.

Pat2Bos

I'm not sure where you're getting your information about the K-1 but it is incorrect and it's not going to help the OP. I'm not sure where you're getting six months from. When a person is granted a K-1 visa, they must marry the USC who petitioned them within 90 days. That's 3 months, NOT 6 months. You cannot come to the U.S. immediately after filing for the K-1. You have to petition in a similar way to the CR-1. It takes an average of 9 months to be granted a K-1 visa.

Why would someone go the K-1 route, get married in the U.S. and then file for the CR-1? The process would be complete at that point (the K-1). If the OP wanted to go back to India and do a religious marriage, then his wife would need to get AP/EAD or wait until she filed for AOS. Filing for a CR-1 after the K-1 would be pointless not to mention a waste of time and money.

Also the K-1 does not "lapse immediately" if the petitioner were to marry the beneficiary. If the couples chooses to marry while there is a pending I-129F, then it is up to the petitioner to withdraw the petition and file the I-130 for a spouse. Failing to do so could mean a denial of a visa attached with a material misrepresentation charge (since the couple is married therefore directly violating the terms and conditions of the fiance visa).

I've never heard of a CR-1 case completing in 6 weeks. Not even with an expedite. Giving the OP false and misleading information will not help him or anyone else seeking advice from these forums. I suggest you get your facts straight next time before you decide to post.

OP, have you consulted the marriage registrar regarding the Special Marriage Act? I'm not sure if it is applicable when both parties are Hindu.

If you cannot marry in India in a non-religious ceremony and you do not want to wait another year, maybe you could look into marrying in a third country. For example, Thailand grants Indian nationals a visa on arrival for 15 days (if arriving by air). I just wanted to offer this suggestion since it has not been mentioned yet.

Best of luck.

Hi there, K-1 is essentially a fiancée visa through which you can get her to USA with the condition that you will marry her within the next six months (Hindu/Muslim/Christian doesn't matter) and then apply for CR-1 in USA. If you can get K-1 then it would be the best option since she can come with you to the US immediately. The flip side would be that not a lot of her family or friends would be able to attend the wedding since it would happen in US. If she gets a K-1 visa but you choose to marry her in India, the K-1 visa lapses immediately and you will have to apply for CR-1 from India. Now that can take anywhere between six weeks to a year (in my case it took 8 months).

On the marriage, the fastest (and cheapest) marriage is a court marriage. There are two ways, either you can get married in a traditional Hindu ceremony and register your marriage under the Hindu Marriage Act (but both of you have to be Hindus for this- you will have to sign a declaration). The other way (without a traditional ceremony) is that you get married under the Special Marriages Act, 1954 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Marriage_Act,_1954). There are no restrictions but of sex (no same sex marriages) and some prohibited relationships (incestuous in other words). The process is fair and simple, the only issue is that you have to give the notice to marry at least a month in advance in the local marriage registrar's office and both of you have to be present for that. I got married in Delhi and the link to the office is - http://dcsouth.delhigovt.nic.in/registeration_marriage.htm#SM you can look for the local office wherever your fiancée lives as at least one of the partners need to be a resident (with proof- Driver's License/Bank Pass Book/Voter I-card/Pan Card/MTNL Bill) of that area. You will also need three witnesses from the same area (with at least two of the earlier mentioned documents). The best thing is that once you give the notice you can get married anytime after 30 days. The actual marriage takes less than 5 minutes and you get the certificate (two copies) on the spot within half an hour (of course with some humoring of the staff with sweets and a couple of 100 Rs notes).

The best thing would be to send somebody down to the office and ask for the booklet on Special Marriages Act (only 10 Rs. but hugely helpful) and then just follow it. One thing which threw us off was no-objection certificate from the US embassy (they would happily do it for $50 but would also clearly say on the certificate that they don't take any responsibility).

Once you get the certificates the real battle begins with the filing of I-30 forms.

Feel free to ask for any clarification/additions

Pat2Bos

I need your expert help with my visa questions. been reading the forum for a few days but still really confused.

I keep going back and forth between the two visa options: K1 and CR1/IR1.

I am a US citizen and she is in India.the priest told our families that religious wedding can be done in november and if we go that route and then file papers,it may take two years from now till she comes here and this is killing us both.

i am trying to find if there is a faster way of getting her to usa or if you can provide any other suggestions.

here are some questions that i need help with.

K1:

Can we get married(religious hindu wedding) at any point with this visa?

her family was told that after we get the visa, we can do the religious wedding ceremony before she comes to USA. is this true? is there such an option?

If we get married either before or after she gets a K1, what will happen to the K1 application, does it gets converted to CR1 saving us time or does the process starts all over again?

CR1/IR1:

Can i go over for a week and we do a court marriage in india and file for CR1 based on that? i cant find any info on court marriage in india, from all the info her family gathered, there is no such thing as a court marriage and only a registration of marriage after the religious wedding ceremony.

will doing a court marriage now, and then a religious marriage in november work out well with the whole process? i don't want our case to be denied because of this.

which visa has a better option of getting approved or in other words, which one is more risky of the two visas?

can you please help me?

Hi Guys, so now I am in the same boat.

My wife is a US citizen and we got married in December 2010. We filed I-130 in March 2011 and had our interview on 4th May 2011 at New Delhi embassy. All seemed to be going well till we got to the CO for the interview only that he hardly talked. We had got the interview intimation only on 2nd May so I didn't have my medical report with me. Just after asking where I work he handed us two sheets. One was the g221 asking to submit the medical report along with my passport at New Delhi VFS and the second sheet was the dreaded mandatory AP letter. My wife was so angry as the CO didn't ask her anything neither did he see any of the photographs (we had submitted about 20 photos with I-130 and they were there in his file but we took about 100 more photographs with us). So all in all the interaction was very brief. I don't know what to make out of it. I am going to submit medical report and passport on Monday. Do you think VFS guys would have any information on this?

In hindsight I feel it was my wife's tax returns which might have created issues. My wife has been working in India for the past five years and as per US internal revenue services rules if you spend more than 330 days in a year outside of US and your income is coming from non-US sources, then your income is tax exempt up to $91,500 (my wife never made that much). Accordingly my wife's tax returns on I-864 were in negative since she is also repaying her student loans and the interest on study loans are also tax exempt. She had all these documents ready with her to respond to any such queries but the CO just didn't talk at all. Do you think it would be helpful if we also sent these clarification when I submit my medical report and passport?

Personally I don't have a positive feeling about it and looks like I have been sucked into the vortex called AP.

Glad to hear your thoughts on this.

Hi Guys, so now I am in the same boat.

My wife is a US citizen and we got married in December 2010. We filed I-130 in March 2011 and had our interview on 4th May 2011 at New Delhi embassy. All seemed to be going well till we got to the CO for the interview only that he hardly talked. We had got the interview intimation only on 2nd May so I didn't have my medical report with me. Just after asking where I work he handed us two sheets. One was the g221 asking to submit the medical report along with my passport at New Delhi VFS and the second sheet was the dreaded mandatory AP letter. My wife was so angry as the CO didn't ask her anything neither did he see any of the photographs (we had submitted about 20 photos with I-130 and they were there in his file but we took about 100 more photographs with us). So all in all the interaction was very brief. I don't know what to make out of it. I am going to submit medical report and passport on Monday. Do you think VFS guys would have any information on this?

In hindsight I feel it was my wife's tax returns which might have created issues. My wife has been working in India for the past five years and as per US internal revenue services rules if you spend more than 330 days in a year outside of US and your income is coming from non-US sources, then your income is tax exempt up to $91,500 (my wife never made that much). Accordingly my wife's tax returns on I-864 were in negative since she is also repaying her student loans and the interest on study loans are also tax exempt. She had all these documents ready with her to respond to any such queries but the CO just didn't talk at all. Do you think it would be helpful if we also sent these clarification when I submit my medical report and passport?

Personally I don't have a positive feeling about it and looks like I have been sucked into the vortex called AP.

Glad to hear your thoughts on this.

Hi Guys,

So I am in a kind of quandary. After frantically refresing New Delhi visa interview page last week, today morning it changed to show the May 2011 interview schedules. Now I have my CR1 visa interview scheduled for 4th May (yes, day after tomorrow). On top of that we have also not recieved any letter so far from the embassy. So I am without an interview letter and so also haven't done my medical tests yet. I have written to the consular section for a letter by email.

Now my questions:

1. Has anyone been in this situation, and if yes, how did you manage?

2. Can you appear for an interview without a medical? the visa being conditional on the outcome?

3. What if you have to reschedule the interview? Does it automatically go to next month or you can be accomodated

within the same month?

Any insights on the issue are welcome.

Thanks in Advance

Hi Guys,

For all awaiting their interview dates in Delhi, please see the New Delhi May 2011 visa interview schedule at the link: http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/visa_interview_dates.html

All the best

Same situation here, I have been waiting for the May 2011 interview schedule and they still have the April schedule on their page.

Grateful if somebody can point out a source where this information can be found.

Thanks

http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/visa_interview_dates.html

Ok, I have been waiting for the New Delhi US Embassy to post interview dates for a month. Their website states that the dates for next month is posted by the middle of previous month. Up until April 3, their website was showing March 2011. Now they changed it to April 2011 but when i click on the document, it still shows the march document, How lame is that? Anyone knows how else I can find April 2011 interview dates, is there another link?