jbbailey

Well for all you Oct/Nov filers I am officially approved. Now just waiting for the passport and VISA to be shipped and then off to the US I go.

Thanks to all for the help and support along the way and good luck to those still waiting.

Medical scheduled for this Friday and then interview scheduled for June'25th

For those of you (Canadians) that have been through the K1 process (Vancouver specifically) what were your timelines for having your medical, then interview and then actually having the VISA to be able to cross into the US. I'm trying to plan out how many days I will need to be in Vancouver for medical and interview and then how long before I can finally move. I have heard mixed reviews were some say you are give the visa that day and others say it is mailed. Help

Got my NOA2 today!!! Keep strong October filers!

So now that we have our NOA1 we are wanting to start getting things set for our next steps in this process. I've done lots of reading and just want to confirm the below to be correct/incorrect:

1) No new information should be required for an NOA2 unless a RFE is requested.

2) Once the NOA2 is approved and it is sent to the NVC nothing is required until it is forwarded to the Consulate.

3) Once the consulate/embassy has received the package they will send a checklist & possible forms to be filled out (or downloaded). For reference they are:

- DS-230 Part 1

- DS-156

- DS-156K

- I-134F

4) Besides those forms, the beneficiary will need to bring:

- Certified birth certificate

- Police Ceriticate

- Certified Divorce Decree

- Vaccination Records

- Photo's

- Evidence of continuing relationship

- Affidavit from petitioner advising desire to still marry

- Copy of I-129F package (with originals for proof of relationship)

5) Medical Examination will need to take place, but consulate will provide details on whom to arrange through

I've believe based on everything I have read this is correct, but with how many people have gone through this, I figured I would at least validate that I am indeed correct.

So my fiance and I just started our K1 VISA (just got our NOA1 from CSC this past week) and my question is when should we be putting though a criminal background check? Is it to early to do it now and at least have that process underway (as it may take up to 9 weeks by mail to get it). I just am not sure if there's a particular period of time that the record check needs to be within for the consulate to consider it valid.

Thoughts?

Hi All.

I have been meaning to reply to this thread for a few days now and a text message/email received tonight has prompted me to finally post. My fiance and I (I am the beneficiary) submitted our I-129F on Oct 26th and received a wonderful text message and email tonight advising that it has been received and routed to the California facility. I presume that this is good news given what I have read about the Vermont SC and the wait times there.

So our journey begins. Excitement to say the least. Sadly she is asleep and I can't wake her to keep me company as I bounce off the walls. I know it's not much at this point, but I will gladly take this starting news. Good luck to all of you and hopefully we all have a smooth journey!

Jim

So my fiance and I are about to file our package and one question I have is regarding her legal name change. She (the US Citizen) was previously married and took her husbands last name. Since she was divorced she has not reverted back to her maiden name and her passport/drivers licence is still in her married name.

When we filled out all the forms we have used her current married name and not her maiden name so would we be responsible to provide a certificate showing a legal name change given that all forms and supporting material use that same married name? We provided photocopies of her passport instead of her birth certificate for this specific reason.

Of course, absolutely....that would be a great support for evidence.

That's what I thought. I have spent many times with her family and there are many pictures of us together over our year and a half together. I even was all traditional and asked for her fathers permission before asking her to marry me. She also has come to Canada and met family once and is set to come up again next week. My family is very excited as well for us and totally approves.

We want to have a wedding with all our family and friends, it's just not cost effective right now to do it and we don't want to have to wait to start the VISA paperwork until we can afford the $20,000 wedding (if that makes sense at all). To us it makes sense, and we would think it would make sense to whomever was doing our interview, but we don't want to assume that it would be enough or that it wouldn't be questioned prior to the interview.

I do understand that we have it easier than others with no visitor VISA requirements, but there are also restrictions on how much time I can spend in the US and we are looking forward to starting our life together and starting a family together and the sooner I can live in the US and start working, the sooner those plans come to fruition.

What about having the parents sign affidavits or letters showing their support of the marriage? Would that counteract the negativity of not having parents there at the civil union?

The other option is have her parents there, but not mine since they would be flying in for nothing more than a civil union.

So my fiance is a US citizen and I am a Canadian citizen and we are planning a wedding next summer (2013). We were hoping to do a small civil ceremony (maybe with a few friends but no family) so that we could start our VISA paperwork as paying for a wedding is difficult when we're in two seperate countries and are travelling to see each other.

Will USCIS look negatively on the fact we had a wedding with no family and it was more of a civil union or does it even matter?

So my fiancé was recently divorced and we are wanting to marry so that we can pursue me moving to the US to be with her. She's in Wisconsin which has a stupid 6 month waiting period for marriage again after divorce. Our idea was to get married somewhere else (Canada, Las Vegas, Chicago) where they do not have the same laws governing when you can re-marry. What are people's thoughts on whether or not USCIS would see this marriage as valid given that WI law would not show it as valid?

So my fiancé and I have been reading through these forums and taking in a lot of really good information, and wanted to post our situation to see if there was any ideas outside of what we have that others would recommend (or even to confirm that indeed we are on the right path).

Few quick points of reference:

- She is the US citizen // I am a Canadian citizen

- We've known each other and been friends for over 6 years, and have been together over a year

- She is finalizing her divorce currently (been separated for 2 years) and it will be completed early June

- Divorce is being finalized in WI where they have the 6 month rule in the state of not being able to get married again

So now on to us. Currently, our plan is to have me move to the US as the life we have together there is wonderful and it would not be worth it for her to come to Canada and get rid of her career. I work for a global company with offices all over the US (including WI) but they have advised that at this time, they will not transfer my current position. That does not mean that it couldn't transfer, but for the time being it is not an option. I have been looking for work within the US via monster/linkedin and other sites, but at present have not had luck finding a company that would be willing to sponsor a VISA (no real surprise there). So our thought process is that maybe we just push up a quick wedding for the sake of starting the paperwork and getting me into the US.

So given the WI laws, we had planned to do a wedding maybe in Chicago or Vegas with friends & family so as not to have to abide by the 6 month window in WI (and from what I've read on this site, the common belief is that given that the marriage is valid and legal in the state it was performed, that USCIS would recognize it as the same). At that point we would start filing for the K3 VISA and go through the processes outline in the stickied threads. Now one question I have. As a Canadian citizen, I am allowed to essentially come and go throughout the US so long as I have a passport. Once we have submitted documents for the K3 VISA and are going through those processes, I can still come to the US and have extended stays there as I presently do (usually I stay for 3-4 weeks and then come back to Canada for 4-6 weeks)? Once the K3 is approved, am I required to enter the US immediately or within a certain range? From what I've read, once receiving a K3 it takes about 90 days to get a EAD (believe that was the acronym for work permit) and we would want me to have that prior to coming full time. Essentially, I would stay in Canada working my current job until that came through and then be able to transition out of my current company and into a new company in the US (and possibly within my same company now that I had that working permit).

Any other thoughts that you all have would be great.

It's great to see and read the positive stories on here. It has helped us through some times where we have been pessimistic.