hannahw

We sent our application in February and just got our NOA2 this week, yay! Now I am starting to think more about the wedding and I need advice from people who know more than me. For a variety of reasons we don't want to live together until we have our religious ceremony, but I'd really love to have a summer wedding. At this point it looks like he'll be coming here in autumn so we'd have to do the civil ceremony by the end of the year towards wintertime. Is it true that they check up on you to make sure you're living together after the ceremony and everything? Should I give up on my dreams of being a summer bride?

I just (finally) filed our I-129F on Friday. I know it'll take a while for it to arrive and be processed at the USCIS office, but what should I expect next? How will I be notified of our next course of action? Also, is there anything my fiancé and I can do in the meantime to speed up the process?

Thank you!

I am working on the G-325A forms for myself and my fiancé. On the top it's asking me to fill out "File Number" and starts with the letter A. I'm confused about what this is––it seems to me that we don't have file numbers yet as we haven't submitted the petition. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thank you!

Hannah

I'm getting ready to send in my I-129F. I'm definitely front-loading since my fiance is Ecuadorian and we'll be going through the Guayaquil consulate. Thanks to all who have forged the path before me, and left great advice and warnings!

Here's what I have:

- G-1145

- Payment of $340

- I-129F

- I-129F Supplement: Part B, Question 18, explanation of meeting in person

- My G-325A + signed, dated supplements

- My passport style photo

- His G-325A + signed, dated supplement

- His passport style photo

- Copy of my birth certificate, front and back (back is blank, so I noted that on the blank page I copied)

- My letter of intent to marry

- His letter of intent to marry

- Proof of having met in person in the past two years:

- Boarding passes from most recent trip (November 2012)

- Passport pages from most recent trip (this will overlap with some of the passport pages in the "proof of ongoing relationship" section, but I wanted to make things as easy as possible for them to reference)

- Boarding passes from two flights we took together within Ecuador

- Hotel receipts and translations

- Bank statement showing ATM withdrawal in Ecuador

- Proof of ongoing relationship:

- Header page summarizing all trips to Ecuador and noting which passport page the entry/exit stamps can be found on

- Boarding passes from all trips to Ecuador

- All passport pages showing entry/exit stamps

- His passport pages showing entry/exit stamps from a trip we took together to Peru

- Photos (haven't decided on how many yet...I have about 40, but was thinking of sending 15-20?)

- 3 letters we sent each other and translations

- Envelopes from letters we sent each other, showing postmarks

- Engagement ring receipt and translation

- Wedding band receipt and translation

- Affidavit from my father, who has traveled to Ecuador and met my fiance (showing approval and support, not a financial affidavit)

- Email correspondence between fiance and my father (stating his intentions to propose )

- Fiance listed as beneficiary on my Roth IRA

- Skype logs

- Google+ hangout logs

- Gmail chat/email logs (this shows daily communication, but it is 40 pages long (!)...should I cut parts out? scrap it altogether? keep it in?)

Alright! Any thoughts, feedback, suggestions? I'm nervous, but also getting excited...can't wait to officially get this process started!

Maybe I am worrying too much, but how exactly are you organizing all of this within the packet you send to the USCIS office? A folder? Loose papers in the correct order? Everything stapled together? I'm having nightmares that they'll throw out my application if they see I made a mistake in the formatting!

-Hannah