bellsbells

17 hours ago, visafrompa said:

They will tell you what you already know.  I can do that for $500.

 

Does he have the X2 visa paperwork?  A report card from the school?  He lived and studied in Shanghai for a year, it's a school in a Tier 1 city.. the school should have paperwork on him.. how long ago did he live there???  You can't live in a foreign country for a year, go to school (which entails visas, enrollment, tuition) and not have ANY paperwork.

 

Look at it from the PSB's point of view.. they need SOMETHING to at least put you in the city for the time period you say.

 

Thanks for the suggestions. He will definitely gather as much paperwork as he can find and see if that can work.

Hi all, my fiancé has spent the past month gathering all of the paperwork he needs to be able to schedule his interview, except that he cannot obtain a police certificate for the year he spent studying in Shanghai because he no longer has the passport that held his visa and entry/export stamps. (French law requires that you turn in your previous passport when you renew.) Applying to get the PC is complex, and seems wholly unworth it knowing they will not issue it, and it's unclear whether they would even provide any sort of official refusal. There are websites offering to provide proof of refusal from China police, but this costs about $1000 and it's unclear what exactly they will obtain for you. But he does need some proof, and even worse, according to someone else on this forum, the US may still decide not to approve the visa without the certificate, even if it's unobtainable. 

This is really discouraging for us. We started our application process in December and were hoping he would be able to come to the US by Christmas, but it's not looking good. Any advice about what to do would be much appreciated!

Thanks for that info about other people having issues. This is very discouraging however. Without his passport showing the visa I don't see how he could ever hope to obtain a police certificate.

On 7/19/2019 at 1:18 PM, Hank_ said:

They didn't return the old passport with the new passport?   That is different.

In France they require you to return your expired passport when you renew. There is only once exception to this rule: you may keep your expired passport if it contains a visa that is still valid. Since this was not the case for my fiance, he did not get to keep it. If he had known back then (3 years ago) he certainly would have scanned all the pages first. 

We just received an email from the Paris consulate that they received our petition, but I'm really confused by our next steps. The letter clearly states:

Quote

 

We are pleased to inform you that we have received an approved I-129F petition in support of your immigrant visa application. To all Beneficiaries: please visit the following website re the IMBRA pamphlet https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/imbra.html.

 

To prepare for your interview, please visit our website at https://fr.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/. See the section “How to Apply,” where you will find detailed, step-by-step instructions. Applying at U.S. Embassy Paris France, all Portugal -Azores and Madeira islands- residents must complete their DS-160 by selecting PRS (Paris) NOT LSB (Lisbon) as location/place of interview.

Once ready and ONLY ONCE READY with your documentation you need to visit the contactor’s website at https://ais.usvisa-info.com/ in order to first, we repeat FIRST, pay the mandatory fee of $265; only then, you will be able to arrange your interview date.

 

However, their link to the US embassy of France website has different instructions:

1. Wait to receive notification from Embassy Paris that your file has been received from the National Visa Center (NVC).  Follow the instructions carefully.
2. Register, pay the visa fee, and schedule a K visa appointment through the online appointment system.  Note:  You must have a French mailing address to register.  Residents of Portugal/Azores only:  Use the Embassy address for your mailing address: Immigrant Visa Unit, 4 Ave Gabriel, Paris 75008.
3. Assemble the required documents.
4. Schedule a medical examination with the Embassy-approved physician in Paris, Lisbon, or Ponta Delgada.(PDF 814 KB) All visa applicants, regardless of age, require a medical examination. Your medical exam results will be given to you in a sealed envelope. Opened medical exam results are invalidated and a new exam will be required at your expense. Medical exams from a doctor other than a designated panel physician will not be accepted.
5.  etc. etc

We really want to book the appt as soon as possible, but since he needs to obtain some police certificates from various countries, we don't know how long the documentation will take.

What should we do?

Thank you SO MUCH for this info! In the meantime, my fiance has found out that to get a police record from China, he needs to show his student visa as proof that he lived there. However, since in France they revoke your old passport when you renew it, he can no longer provide the visa. Would this mean that the police certificate for China would be waived?

P.S. You suggested I fill out my profile, but it's already done. I see a French flag under my name on this page, and I've added all of the dates so far in the timeline.

1 hour ago, Pitaya (火龙果) said:

Please provide a copy of the embassy/consulate's specific document on police certificates...the devil is in details.

Here is the item in question:

Police certificates from your present country of residence and all countries where you have lived for six months or more since age 16 (Police certificates are also required for accompanying children age 16 or older).

Hi all, my fiancé is currently waiting to hear from the embassy in Paris that they received his application from the NVC, which was sent on June 25. In preparing the documents for the K-1, we are particularly confused about the police certification requirements. He has lived in several different countries for various amounts of time, either in successive 3-month visits or authorized longer stays. In determining which countries he can be considered to have lived in for more than 6 months, what are the criteria? Do 180+ cumulative days over the period of one year count, even if visiting on a tourist visa? 

23 hours ago, Limey said:

I don't think you need to go that far. Your lawyer screwed up for sure by not including sufficient evidence, but the evidence you need isn't too demanding. Think of it this way - the photos prove you have met, but don't prove when. The flights prove you met within the last 2 years. If you can prove you flew there within last 2 years then USCIS are unlikely to conclude that you didn't meet him while you were there.

 

Also, think about the photos you use. Eg if you traveled for Christmas, and you have photos showing you around a Christmas tree etc, use those - 2 bits of evidence that tie together well are more powerful that 2 bits of evidence that don't have such clear ties.

 

Thanks, that all makes sense!

14 hours ago, Shiran said:

I am not sure you need to go to that degree. Usually they are satisfied with passport stamps + boarding passes showing trip to country of the partner. I know in my case I didn't have boarding passes for ... reasons, but I did have baggage tags that showed my full name and destination city/country. I never provided any additional proof of my fiancee at the time address. Well, other than her address filled in 129F itself. 

This is good to know, thank you!

Sorry to be a pest, but in your experiences, what is the best way to prove that my fiancé was present in his hometown when I went to visit him? I can show my boarding passes and passport stamps, but I stayed with him at his apartment so from his side, I don't know what would be the way to prove that we were together....

7 minutes ago, treppenwitz said:

https://www.uscis.gov/forms/filing-your-form-g-28 "Withdraw your legal representative"

Thank you, this is very helpful! 

You all are awesome. This community is so responsive and helpful. 

I have a follow-up question: since the lawyer has shown incompetence by not having asked us for proof of meeting to include with the original application, we have decided not to continue with him. He had quoted us something like $5K for the whole process and we so far have not been billed for anything, so we planned to just quietly take care of the rest of the process and hope he forgot about us. However, we have just received an email from him asking us to provide the evidence to him to send to the USCIS. So what we didn't realize was that the USCIS also informed him about the RFE. Does this mean the USCIS will be updating him on each step of the way, even if we take things into our own hands? If so, is there a way to prevent him from being notified going forward?

I'm a little worried now that if we tell him we don't need his services anymore, he will still charge us the full amount, or a ridiculously high fee, even though he only took care of the initial application.

Just now, payxibka said:

People have used statements showing local purchases and local atm withdrawals. 

 

In my situation I showed my entry stamp  and copies of boarding passes with us in adjacent seats on the same domestic flight.  Game, set, match.  Nothing more was required.   So it is not quantity but quality .

Sounds like you hit the jackpot there. We don't have evidence of travelling together because I always went to visit him. That's why I thought 3 trips would be better, because it would show that I went to his home town twice, and to China while he was there. I will include credit card statements, too. Thanks for all of your help!

12 minutes ago, payxibka said:

When you say flight receipt,  what does that mean exactly?  Boarding pass?  How does it show flight completion? How does it show you were on the plane?

 

In country reservations means you booked a hotel,  a copy of the hotel folio would be better 

 

 

The flight receipts show either "USED" or "FLWN" for each leg of the trip listed. I was able to find boarding passes for the most recent trip, as well. For two of the trips I stayed with Xavier at his apartment, and in China I have a receipt from the hotel showing that the stay was completed. I hope this is good enough? When you visit someone in their home town, how else are you supposed to prove that you were there? I didn't save any receipts, unfortunately. Although my Visa bill would show that I made purchases there. Have you any idea if copies of my credit card statements would be useful?

2 minutes ago, payxibka said:

No, but you best have one that is undeniable rather than three that are halfass

I have plane ticket receipts (showing that the flights were completed), hotel reservations, and passport stamps for all 3 trips. I think this is pretty good, no?

5 minutes ago, payxibka said:

For the interview but not the petition.   The petition does not adjudicate the validity of the relationship 

 

No such thing as extra credit at the petition,  you either met within two years or you didn't 

Understood. But since I have already put together evidence for all 3 trips, is there a good reason *not* to send it all now?

Just now, payxibka said:

You only need to prove one meeting.   Go with the one that you have the strongest evidence of 

Really? I would think evidence of 3 meetings would make an even stronger case. People have said the more evidence, the better.

10 hours ago, Ash. said:

 You said your fiancé is French but that you have a Chinese visa and stamps.

 

did y’all meet in China at some point?

 

if you want to use that as proof you would need to also provide that he was in China as well, unless he currently lives in China.

 

if you are proving you’ve met in 2 years by showing you met in a country that wasn’t each other’s home country, you have to take the second step of proving you were both in this other country together. So you’ll want his passport stamps and such too.

He lived in China for a period of time and I visited him there. He has proof of that in his passport. However, I'm not sure his passport will show an entry stamp to France, as they don't stamp passports of French nationals on entry. I wonder what would be the best way to prove that he was in France when I visited him there before and after the China trip?

Unfortunately I don't have boarding passes, which I'm now kicking myself for not saving. I called Delta and they can only provide receipts, not copies of the boarding passes. One of the trips was to visit Xavier in Shanghai, so one would think the Chinese visa and the passport entry and exit stamps are even better evidence than a boarding pass, no?

Thanks everyone! I just updated my timeline, as it was an old one from years ago when I petitioned for my now ex-husband. My current fiancé is also French.

For my ex, I too care of all of the paperwork myself and it was a lot of work but everything went smoothly, thanks in no small part to the help I got on this forum!

I now regret hiring a lawyer at all. I was told that immigration lawyers know what they are doing and are more effective at getting the visa done as quickly as possible. I'm now learning the hard way that this isn't true. I'll be taking care of the rest of the process myself. 

BTW, aside from plane tickets, photos, hotel reservations, and passport stamps, what does everybody think about affidavits? Are they effective and worth including?

Also, I didn't save my boarding passes (stupidly). Are e-ticket confirmations sufficient, along with passport stamps?

After waiting over 4 months since the first NOA for our K-1, I received an RFE asking for proof of meeting in last two years. I'm pretty surprised that this happened, because we hired an immigration lawyer to submit the application for us, and it seems to me that he should have included everything necessary so we could have avoided this kind of delay. He never asked us for anything but the dates of our last meetings and photos of us together. Does the RFE mean that he didn't do his job properly, or is this standard practice? Thanks.

Hi all, it's been a while since I came here but it might be of some help to note that we went with re-establishing domicile, by sending emails of correspondence with schools for our kids as well as a letter describing how we would continue our same freelance jobs in the States. However, during the interview at the US Consulate in Paris, the agent seemed to think, since I still have a US bank account and drivers' license, that it made more sense to claim that our residence in France was temporary. I replied that having been a resident of France for 12 years, I didn't see how that could work. She seemed not to really care either way, and approved the application!

My husband received his visa soon after, and a few weeks after entering the US, received his green card. YAY!

Bump... anyone? we are quite desperate to find out if it makes sense to keep the interview or not!

Thanks for your replies. It's near impossible to get answers from the consulate here, and they don't take phone calls. I'd love to hear from anyone else who has first hand experience with getting a green card without establishing immediate residence in the USA. We are particularly worried by this vague info from the USCIS FAQs:

How long must I remain in the U.S. after I have entered on the immigrant visa?

U.S. law does not specify how long one must remain in the U.S. after first entering. Immigration officials, at the time of your return to the U.S., will look very closely at the amount of time spent away from the U.S. If they determine that you have been spending more time out of the U.S. than in the U.S., they are empowered to revoke your lawful permanent resident status. You would then have to re-qualify for permanent resident status.

Hi all! My husband and I are in a difficult predicament. When I began the immigration process for him in January, we were planning to move to the States in September. We received a checklist in April asking for court documents, and around that time we decided we had to postpone our move to the States until next fall (for unrelated reasons). Since the paperwork says that you have up to a year before the application expires, we planned on submitting the court documents next year so that the visa could (hopefully) be granted in the months preceding our move.

But then—surprise surprise—a few weeks ago we received notice that our interview was scheduled for July 18th! (The letter states that the court documents need to be presented at the time of the interview.) Now we don't know what to do. What happens if we keep the interview and the visa is granted? From what I've read, my husband has 6 months to enter the States. We were planning to go to the States at Christmas time, so that would not be a problem, but of course we would only stay a couple weeks before returning to France.

What I can't seem to find out from all the FAQs I've read here and on the USCIS website is, what happens if you are granted permanent residence but don't establish permanent residence for another year?

Does anyone know if the interview can be postponed for a whole year?