Mogambi

One potential problem with asking them to stamp your passport is this. They might ask 'why'. And if you then tell them, oh, we have a K1 petition, they might very well deny you entry into the US. They can and apparently often do if they know you are engaged to an American.

In this case, better to rely on secondary evidence. I admit, it's a lot easier for people flying overseas for the K1, they have flights, passport stamps, etc...

You'll have to get creative and get as much as you can.

But I would also think, to a large degree, Canada must be about the easiest place to do the K1 from. I mean, since Canadians can already come and go nearly as they please, not so much reason for a fraudulent petition from a Canadian...

Even if it doesn't show as 'taxable' income, it's clearly still 'income'. As long as he can document it enough, I can't imagine why it wouldn't suffice. He can also include savings if he has it to make sure he's over the poverty line.

How did you buy the plane ticket? Do you still have that itinerary? Just write a letter explaining the situation, you traveled no your Nigernian passport and you have no stamp. Send them copies of both passport pages.

And yes, try hard to think of any other documentation that you can find.

And if others are reading, 1) ALWAYS get a stamp in your passport anywhere you travel, and 2) NEVER throw away your boarding passes and receipts!!!! These are the two strongest pieces of evidence of meeting in person!

Also, the immigration class is the last step, don't worry about that until you have the passport back with the Visa. There's no appointment needed, it's a single day thing, and she can go the day after she gets her passport. It's run by CFO, you can find threads about it here.

It's possible you can have the visa by September 1st, but it might be pushing it. The problem is that in May there appears to have been a screw up at NVC where a bunch of petitions were sent to the wrong place. They got them back, but appear to be in a backlog. It seems to be taking at least a month at the moment for them to catch up on petitions. That's why you just have to start calling and asking if you case has been assigned a case number yet. Because that's all you need. Once you have it, you can schedule an interview within two weeks usually.

Some things to remember:

Get the NBI clearance request in now, and make sure she tells them it's for travel to the US. There are two colors, and they should ask her why she needs it, but you don't want her to get the wrong one!

Get the CENOMAR and Birth Certificates ordered asap as well. They can take up to a couple of weeks to get as well.

She'll need to do her medical (which takes two days for most) at least three or four days 'before' the interview, because it takes St. Luke's a few days to forward the case file to the Embassy. You want it already there when you interview.

After the interview, if she is approved, it will still take anywhere from 5 to 15 days for 2GO the company the Embassy uses, to deliver the passport. If it's a huge rush, she could inquire at the embassy if she can return herself to pick it up, I'm not sure.

Ours took 12 days to arrive after the interview.

So you see there still are lots of little things that can and could delay things. Best not to assume Sept. 1 as a given.

NVC can also hold on to the petition for administrative processing. This can hold it up at NVC for months. Pray that doesn't happen. For most it doesn't, but it does happen.

You'll be much more sane if you don't try and hit a certain date. You're tempting fate if you do. You're well on your way now, so just keep your eye on the ball, get started on those things I mentioned, and you'll be good to go! Let us know if we can help more.

Also, this is the form / packet that they will eventually send to your fiancé, that lists pretty much what I have. But study it, it's all the things you'll need at the interview!

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/manila/19452/public/Revised%20K1%20Instruction%20Packet%20_3__rtf2_005.pdf

I was able to get my Fiancee Visa-expedited Approved based on heath issues and got the NOA2 done, My fiancee is from the Philippines.

I know that the next step is USCIS sending it to the Visa center

What are the next steps?

When will I need Affidavit of support by?

I am having her work on the BPI clearance and told her for the medical exam she need to bring Vaccines and take the immigration class

What else can I do?

Am I correct that the visa could be issued by September 1?

Thanks

USCIS will send the petition to NVC, where it will sit for a while, but not too long hopefully. At some point NVC will forward the entire package on to Manila Embassy. You don't have to wait. After about two weeks from the date you know USCIS forwarded your package to NVC, start calling NVC and ask them for your 'Case Number'. It will start with MNL. This is the number you need so that you can schedule your interview.

Your fiancé will need your Affidavit of Support AT the interview, not before.

You mean NBI clearance, not BPI. BPI the bank where you will go and pay your Visa fee. NBI isn't hard to get, but can take a couple of weeks, but usually much faster.

Here's what I would (here's what I did

1) In about two weeks start calling NVC to get your case number. They are backlogged at the moment, it could take a month. Once you have that number...

2) Go to BPI and with that case number and her Passport number, pay the visa fee.

3) Go to http://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph/ This is where you will set up an account so you can schedule your interview. Schedule an interview and print out the confirmation page that will be emailed to you.

4) Go to the Saint Luke's Extension Clinic www.slec.ph and 'register' for the medical. You don't pick a date, but you can enter a bunch of info that will make it go faster for your fiancé. Print out the registration page for her to take to the medical, read all the instructions.

5) Also immediately register online with the NSO to get her CENOMAR and also you might as well get an official NSO Birth Certificate, as this what they'll want in the interview. I got two copies of both, since they'll keep one at the interview. https://www.ecensus.com.ph/Default.aspx

You can register online, super easy, go to the bank to pay the fee, and in a couple of weeks at most they'll deliver both!

These are the main things you need to get started on. Hope that helps!

At some point you will receive the official notification with your case number, at least you should. It will come from the US Embassy in Manila. But you don't need to wait for it to move forward. Your fiancé should get that in a letter at some point. But by then you can have nearly everything ready already!

Just list everything the truth!

Well just FYI, it took almost 24 hours before our receipt number entered and we were able to schedule our interview. So it might not be anything other than that.

IF you can schedule the interview, I can't imagine it would be a problem when you got to the embassy. If you talked to them and they said no problem, then no problem.

By the way, in general a bad idea to make travel plans before you have the physical visa in hand. Lots of things can delay it! And superstitious but just better not to plan anything until you have it!

Ah OK, well that seems strange. Did you try and talk to a manager? That's ridiculous, you couldn't have screwed it up, only them, so sure seems like they should have fixed it. I do forget how differently things work there though.

Sigh.

If BPI made a mistake, take back the receipt and passport to them, and make them fix it! They can re-enter it in the system, even if they have to make it look like a new registration. I agree you need / want the passport number to match exactly. If not, you are asking for trouble.

Make BPI fix it, clearly they made a mistake. Why do you think BPI will do nothing for them? That makes no sense, it's their mistake, they can fix it!

If you are here in the US and do not plan to be in Australia at the time of the interview, it is totally not required that you be there, only your fiancé. I wasn't at the interview of my fiancé in Manila. I don't think there is any downside to not being there, as they know it's a far flight just to go for the interview. And as others have noted, some consulates might not even allow you. Most I think do however, if you want to. I'm sure there are cases where it would be beneficial, but it's certainly not required.

Yeah it would be easier to load up some photos on a flash drive, and head to any Targer, CVS, Walgreens, etc. They can and will print them cheap, and I think most of them can also print the time and date stamp that is in the file, onto the photo, which in the past was always recommended. Not sure it matters much these days, but it wouldn't hurt.

I wouldn't print onto regular paper, in my mind, at least I think it looks tacky, but there is no technical rule. But as they are sometimes looking for fake pictures, having it on real photo paper will have more resolution, and look more 'professional'. Since you are projecting an image, being organized, and showing that you take the whole thing very seriously probably helps. Just my two cents.

But again, you can get photos printed on photo paper all over these days, Costco, Target, probably K-Mart, Walgreens, CVS, etc.

Your fiance would bring the completed I-34 along with any needed documentation to the interview, you won't send it in! Other things usually sent with an I-34 are copies of your paycheck stubs, last years tax return transcript (you can get this free from the IRS online), and sometimes a letter from your employer listing your salaray and that you are employed.

The other form, the I-864, is the form you will use much later when you are adjusting the status after your marriage. It's similar except that that one is legally binding. For now, all you will need to worry about is the I-34 for you, and I-34 for your sponsors.

Mostly fairly obvious questions, how did you meet, when was your fiance last here, what did you do, does he have brothers and sisters, what are their names, did you meet his parents, do you have wedding plans, what kind of work does your fiance do, what is job title...

All things you should really already know, so no reason to panic!

How recent are your police clearances? I assume they will have to be within 6 months of your interview.

But no, it shouldn't matter, as long as you have the police certificates from the countries.

I'm kind of shocked at how many times this seems to happen. Don't people look and trust the website? Why would you assume your neighbor who filed years ago would know the proper fee, and the website would be wrong? Makes no sense...

Luckily, easy enough, new check, re-submit...

I'm not sure if this would be a possibility, but recently there was a thread similar to yours, but from a different country. They had what they thought was plenty of evidence too, and were either rejected, or asked for more info. But they thought they had plenty. So they appealed to the embassy, and were granted another interview, with a different CO. That CO approved the visa quickly.

It's possible, as there are humans involved, that your CO was either having a bad day, maybe just a jerk, etc. Maybe something about your case annoyed him/her, and they are just being difficult.

It sounds to me that you have plenty. In fact, part of your problem is probably that you submitted too MUCH. It is considered often a red flag to produce such a huge volume of chat logs. The reason being that they sometimes assume that the people not genuine try to cover it by producing way too much evidence because they are afraid of being caught. I'm in no way saying this is you. But usually people just print a sampling of the chat logs, one page for every week or something, something that shows a long chat over the distance of time.

I have no idea why you were denied, but I might contact the embassy, explain the situation, and ask if you can get a second opinion.

I would also maybe write a letter explaining perhaps why culturally your chats don't contain the type of language that they are looking for. Maybe this is something that just isn't considered proper.

But sorry to hear you had such bad luck. I imagine Pakistan is probably one of the hardest place to do a visa from.

Also, if you have an itinerary that you print out before the flight, include a copy of that. It has the flight details too.

Also, the financial status of your beneficiary doesn't matter either. Most of the fiancés that come here are unemployed at the time they come here.

Your savings can be used in the situation where you don't meet the poverty guidelines for income, but you're well above that, so lack of savings won't hurt you.

Clearly they want to charge you more money by insisting that she have a full exam. I've heard this is common. Keep trying some different ones until you can find one who will do just what you are asking.

More than relaxing when they post, people should only post something here if they KNOW it's true. People come here for advice, and if people just post things that they 'think' without knowing the facts, it confuses people, and what if someone acts on that incorrect action.

In another thread, someone was posting that they have pretty much zero evidence of their meeting. No boarding pass, no receipts for hotels, and not even ONE photo together. He's asking, 'am I ok'. Hell no he's not OK. But of course someone in the thread just posts, 'Oh you'll be fine'.... Imagine?

The reciprocity tables help, but there appear to be countries that are still ambiguous, There was a thread recently about Jordan. The table states that police reports are available for resident foreigners. The question was, what if someone left the country. The table says there are no established paths to get it from outside the country. Is that saying there are NO ways? So I wish there was a USCIS or NVC website that would list the countries you need it from, and the paths to get it!

My fiancé lived in Kuwait and Thailand. It took me months to get the answer that she would be waived from the Kuwait one. At least in the table Kuwait clearly states that she is not entitled to get a police report.

So anyway, yes, any country you lived in, no matter what the circumstances, you must either get a police report, or make sure it's a country that is waved.

You should try. He might get a letter from his accountant showing that his return for 2011 isn't filed yet. But he should also include the information from 2011 that would help. If he has a W2 or 1099 that shows the income he will be reporting he should include it.

The worst thing that will happen is they will hold off issuing your visa until he shows last years return. Just bring as much information as you have. But a letter from the accountant explaining that his return isn't yet filed for 2011 might help.

I wouldn't worry too much about the interview, it sounds like you have plenty. That's about the amount of info I prepared for my fiancé. Having only met once is OK, you spent 25 days together, that's a lot. 10 pictures, you might consider trying to make that more like 15 to 20, but 10 should really be enough.

Just FYI, for our interview in Manila, they didn't look at a single piece of the evidence we brought, except the photos. These they looked at. Which is why the photos are probably your main thing you want to have prepared enough.

They will give him the choice to be interviewed in English or Thai. I think my fiancé chose English. My personal thinking is that one should choose English. I have no evidence to back this up, but just seems to me that choosing English shows that you are already trying to embrace your new country.

Also they usually recommend that you send to her the original boarding passes, and other evidence that you submitted copies of in the I-129F. Again, they probably will never look at it, but not a bad idea to have it there.

But of course we were nervous about our interview, most people are. It was really quite painless. A few questions like 'how did you meet, when was the last time he was here, does he have brothers and sisters, etc... Things that in a real relationship, she or he would know without having to think too hard.

So don't sweat it, sounds like you plenty of evidence ready!

Usually the I-34 is filled out, and send with 1) the last years tax return (the 1040). And also some current paperwork showing current employment status. Paycheck stubs, checking account statements that show deposits, a letter from an employer that shows that one is employed and their salary.

I'm not saying a LOT of people are denied because of co-sponsors. But I have been reading a few threads where it has happened. If a friend is the best you can do, then by all means do it. A parent as someone else noted would be fine I would think, as a father sponsoring his son is more likely to actually help if something were to happen than a 'friend'. By all means proceed, just do the best you can.

But besides checking if the relationship is real, and that the beneficiary isn't a criminal, the next thing they're concerned with is that the person won't become a public charge.

It also sounds like some consulates are more discerning about a co-sponsor.