MichonandRuben

Yes I actually know exactly what you have to do.

1. First you need to have to documents translated by an official translator. There are quite a few to choose from. However I will give you the one we used.

Mario Duran Quesada (Offical Authorized Translator):

506-2233-6420 (this is his phone number)

zeusmad090@gmail.com (this is his email)

His building is located right down the street from "la casa amarilla"

2. Second you take the orginal documents plus the translated documents over to "la casa amarilla" located in San Jose. If you ask a taxi where to go, they know exactly how to get there.

Once you arrive at "la casa amarilla" you must buy the stamps out front from the guy .they call them "los timbres". Once you have the stamps. Go in, take a number, and wait.

A couple things I need to add as advice. Be there when they open. After about 9:30 or so they start getting really busy and you will end up being there all day. Also, if you can't find the translators office; the guy standing outside of "la case amarilla" or the yellow house knows where it is and he will walk you there if you ask him. Make sure to tip him.

Hope this helps and hope my response is not too late.

Thank you for posting this, it is extremely helpful!!! I was wondering about how long it took for them to do the translations? We are getting everything ready right now and it would be helpful to have an idea so that we can plan his trip to San Jose accordingly.

The US Embassy in Costa Rica asks for Form I-134 – include job letter, earnings statement, and letter from bank. So you should be ok with not including any tax returns. The documents are country specific. Look at this link for more detailed information:

http://www.visajourney.com/consulates/index.php?ctry=Costa Rica&cty=San Jose

Thanks for the suggestion, I have been following that in this process so far, but I didn't see my question addressed and that is why I put it out there... I was pretty sure I didn't need them but saw a few posters that talked about including them so I just wanted to be on the safe side. I would rather have too much than not enough.

Hello,

I am trying get everything ready for our interview and have seen people talking about turning in tax returns with your i-134. I have a couple of questions because I would rather not turn in my tax returns if I don't have to, and never made enough until this year to support my fiance anyways.

I am not self-employed so do I need to include copies of my tax returns? I have included a letter from my employer, a letter from my bank, paychecks for the last 6 months and bank statements for the last 3 months.

Am I missing anything for the i-134?

I appreciate any help you can give.

I have used UPS 2nd day delivery from USA to Costa Rica in the past and it cost me $65 and arrived safe and sound. I am currently prepping my packet 3 for my fiance and am planning on using UPS once again. It will depend on where you are sending the documents and the weight but it might be worth looking into. I am sure you could check online. Good luck!

The letter was along the lines of:

To Whom it May Concern:

We are writing this letter to inform you that we would like to welcome (fiance's name) into our family. Our daughter started dating him in (date) and he is the father to our grandson (insert name, age, date of birth). We have spoken to him over the phone multiple times and finally met him in person when we visited Costa Rica in (month and year) and were able to welcome him into our family. I traveled again to Costa Rica in (insert month and year) to visit with our family, which includes (fiance's name).

We are hoping you will allow (fiance's name) to move here to the United States to be with our daughter. (Followed by more personal details, no more than two more sentences.)

Sincerely yours,

I hope this helps you. The letters were pretty basic and to the point. Just stating that my parents and my fiance had met each other, when and how they felt about him being part of the family. My fiance and myself also wrote similar letters stating when we started dating and dates of prominent family events that we experienced as well as our wish to be together. Nothing was sappy and was very basic and to the point, also stated in letters that we intended to marry within 90 days of his entry to the USA.

I hope this helps, and Good luck!!

Should I have my family and friends sign letters saying my relationship is legitimate, and put them together in the K-1 Visa package? If so does anyone have any examples that I can see?

Thanks

My lawyer had both my parents and my fiance's parents write letters that we had met and they had seen us as a family and that they accepted the other person into the family. The letters are best when written from the heart, they can state when they met them and what they think and feel about the relationship. He said it would help strengthen the relationship in the eyes of the outsider reading our paperwork. I hope this helps!

at_long_last-- make sure you're getting the vaccines you need! it's likely that by trying get everything on this list, you're paying too much $$ and unduly stressing your body out. if I understand it right, you should only need vaccines as required by this chart:

http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/exams/ti/civil/vaccination-civil-technical-instructions.html#tbl1

(joventud3 pasted it above, but the link was broken.)

it couldn't be a more useful link, as long as it universally applies to immigration. it matches what worth_the_wait posted as well.

Thank you for posting that! The link is a life saver. Great stuff to have an idea about heading into the Dr. appointments.

Hello all,

I am a little confused about the single certificate in Costa Rica. My fiance got his divorce decree and on that it states that he is single and able to be married. He thinks that this means he doesn't need the single certificate, yet from what I have read here on VJ that doesn't look to be the case. Does anyone here have firsthand knowledge of this issue? If we do need to get a single certificate, is it gotten from the Registro Civil?

While I am at the questions, does anyone know if all documents that we get from Costa Rica will need to be certified at Casa Amarillo also?

From what I have read the documents do not need to be translated since the staff at the Embassy are all bilingual, is this correct?

Thanks for the help! I am suddenly getting really nervous as the we get closer to interview time.

P.S. I would put this in a Costa Rica forum if I knew how, I am looking for pretty specific answers.

My name is Sean,

This is my first time posting on the VJ forum.

My wife is a Costa Rica citizen. She and I are just about prepared with all of our

documents, so that I can send the I-130 petition.

We have one question and I'm not certain of the answer.

My wife obtained a single certificate of divorce from the Costa Rican Civil Registars office (Registro Civil).

I was under the impression, that document, along with the proper signatures and notaries would be suficient to

send with the I-130. I have recently found that I might need my wife's full Divorce Decree,(13 pages) translated and certified in order for the petition to be accepted.

Also I was told by the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica, that we are required to obtain notaries for my wife's Costa Rican

birth certificate, her son's and our Costa Rican marriage document in order to start the I-130 petition process.

At $50 each I would like to avoid if possible.

I welcome and appreciate any and all advice.

Hi Sean,

Have you received any news yet from USCIS on your wife's visa process? We are in the process of getting all our documents ready for the interview. What I wanted to find out was if you ever got an answer to your question on whether the forms were required to be notarized? Did you end up having to have them done through Casa Amarilla?

I have, as I am sure you did, been reading through the old posts in the Portal for Costa Rica and came across a couple of opposing statements. I thought we might be able to help each other since we are both going through the process at the same time, albeit different visas. Best of luck!

BTW, we only used the one page divorce decree that they print out(it was translated but not certified except with los timbres) and had no problems... I am curious why they would require the WHOLE divorce decree.

Just as an FYI, vaccinations are optional for the K1 visa though you will need them for AOS.

Thanks, I did read that. However, I would prefer to save myself a lot of money by taking care of this through his public healthcare system rather than here in the USA where our medical care fees are through the roof. It will lessen the headache later.

We are at that point that it seems so many others have come to in Costa Rica, where we need to get a history of vaccines and it is full of holes. My fiance moved around so much when he was a kid that it will be impossible to get an accurate list. He is contemplating just getting them done over but I wanted to ask and find out if anyone has been successful in getting a titer test done in Costa Rica? I read back through older discussions and it seemed that they were never able to get the test done in that country... anyone out there have any luck with it?

Suggestions other that just redoing all his vaccines?

He has already gone into the public clinic and spoken with the nurse that gives the shots and knows he will need certain ones that they were not giving at the time he was a child, but any help from someone who has experienced this first hand would be helpful. FYI - We are going to get all the required vaccines done through the public system before making a doctors appointment so as to save ourselves that expense.

Thanks!

I found this in some of the older Costa Rica topics and thought it would be more relevant for you:

I got the checklist past week and I have a questions about the official documents, it says I do have to translate all the official documents, in Costa Rica "La casa amarilla" is the one that translate those documents, does someone has any experience???

1. First you need to have to documents translated by an official translator. There are quite a few to choose from. However I will give you the one we used.

Mario Duran Quesada (Offical Authorized Translator):

506-2233-6420 (this is his phone number)

zeusmad090@gmail.com (this is his email)

His building is located right down the street from "la casa amarilla"

2. Second you take the orginal documents plus the translated documents over to "la casa amarilla" located in San Jose. If you ask a taxi where to go, they know exactly how to get there.

Once you arrive at "la casa amarilla" you must buy the stamps out front from the guy .they call them "los timbres". Once you have the stamps. Go in, take a number, and wait.

A couple things I need to add as advice. Be there when they open. After about 9:30 or so they start getting really busy and you will end up being there all day. Also, if you can't find the translators office; the guy standing outside of "la case amarilla" or the yellow house knows where it is and he will walk you there if you ask him. Make sure to tip him.

Hope this helps and hope my response is not too late.

Hello All,

Firstly, I apologize for the repetitive nature of my question but I just need clarification on a couple items regarding income requirements and filling out the I-134 Form. My fiancee (from the Philippines) and I (from the US) received our NOA2 a little over a week ago and are waiting on our MNL number now. I have all the required documents pretty much prepared to send to her but have a couple questions:

1) Will my annual income of $39,000 (before taxes) be sufficient to get my fiancee approved for her Visa? I only have about $2000 in the bank (about $1200 in savings. $800 in checking) and no additional assets (property, etc). I know about the income poverty guidelines but just want to be sure I make enough.

2) If my income is enough, should I still include my banking information on the I-134 Form?

Thanks in advance for your help/responses.

-Dos

Yes, is the answer to your question. I am in a very similar situation but I have a family of 3 and less income. If you will only be supporting a family of 2 (yourself and your fiance) then your would need to make above $18,387 which is 125% of the poverty line. You will be fine with your income. Just be sure to follow all the directions and supply all necessary forms.

Submit in duplicate evidence of income and resources, as appropriate:

A. Statement from an officer of the bank or other financial institutions with deposits, identifying the following details regarding the account:

1. Date account opened; Supporting Evidence

2. Total amount deposited for the past year; and

3. Present balance.

B. Statement(s) of your employer on business stationery showing:

1. Date and nature of employment;

2. Salary paid; and

3. Whether the position is temporary or permanent.

C. If self-employed:

1. Copy of last income tax return filed; or

2. Report of commercial rating concern.

D. List containing serial numbers and denominations of bonds

and name of record owner(s).

Good luck!

Hello, I have a one-year old son and am currently staying at home with him.

However, I believe that he could benefit greatly from more social interaction and daycare. I would also like to work, but am qualified to do absolutely nothing. Back home I lived pretty off a "McJob," (I'm one of those weirdos who actually enjoy working those kind of jobs, tending the cash register at fast food places, working at grocery stores, etc), and daycare is government subsidized so less than %5 of my monthly paycheck would go towards daycare costs. However, it seems for a McJob (assuming minimum wage, or just above it/hr), would just barely net me daycare costs! I could cut costs a little by finding an in-home daycare or a nanny instead, but not by much (not to mention, a nanny would defeat the purpose of increased social interaction for him). How do people do this in America? Because I'm feeling pretty dejected at the moment, to be honest. :/

Hey there, Have you thought about working at a daycare as a trade? There are some types of childcare where it can be cheaper if you assist a couple of hours a week at the childcare facility. Otherwise, you might have luck meeting other mothers in the same age range at kinder gyms for that age group and you could do a mothers' group or something of the sort. When I lived in Costa Rica I actually spoke with some who posted to Craigslist.com looking for other mothers of children in the same age range to do play dates with. I hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi I woke up this morning with an email from NVC with our case number. Im so happy! Fibally we can start with the process now! Filed May 29, NOA was June 5, NOA was AUg 3 and Manila Case Number just today Aug 22.

Congratulations!!! It is so exciting as things start moving along.

Just got an RFE for my fiancees divorce decree. We included the original "short" form in Spanish, but need the long one translated. Does anyone have any information about using "certified" translators? I am really nervous about responding to the RFE and getting it wrong.

Thanks!

I went ahead and sent you the information that I have on a translator in San Jose, Costa Rica that I used before for my residency there. I have been using a lawyer this time around, so he has taken care of translating documents for the visa process here in the USA.

Hi friends here in VJ!

I just wanna ask who among you here who got approved this August (early August to be specific) has there Manila Case Number already? We filed May 31, NOA1 was June 5 and NOA2 was August 3. And til now we don't have yet our case number. We do keep on calling NVC but they the best answer so far they gave us was they received our papers from USCIS last August 6. And worse is, most of the agents whom we talked to do not have consistency in answering us. Others say they haven't received our papers yet, some say call again after 10-20 days. Haayy.

We're still waiting though to have it before the end of the month. Anybody here who is going through the same stage? Please feel free to comment. Thank you!

I am in the same boat, NOA-1 was on May 3 and NOA-2 was August 2. When we contacted them we received an email back stating that they recently received it and that they would be in contact within 6-8 weeks. Like you I am hoping to have my fiance reunited with myself and our son before Christmas. I wish you the best of luck, and hopefully for all of us waiting they will continue working as fast as possible to process the papers.