teach706

My wife completed her interview at the Paris embassy today, and the CO told her that she is approved.
The interview went well and was relatively quick (2 hours total). Thanks again to so many of you for all of your help with this process!

My wife completed her interview at the Paris embassy today, and the CO told her that she is approved.
The interview went well and was relatively quick (2 hours total). Thanks again to so many of you for all of your help with this process!

I would argue that the phenomenon behind the problem is that Americans don't take pride in their federal government -- too many are concerned with what the gov't does for them and doesn't do for other people. This comes down to a lack of trust between cultural groups (ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, whatever). You see this reflected in the tenor of the politics.
"Massive delays" would be a cause for great shame in Japan, because it hurts the image of the country. Image-driven politics has its own problems, but it would not permit this kind of problem.

We were in your same position a a few years back. I had gone to visit my husband ( then boyfriend ) in Romania several times and we wanted him to come here to visit before we made the decision to take the next step. He was denied a tourist visa twice, so we decided to go the K1 route.
The denied tourist visas never came up during our K1 process.
In fact, I attended the interview with my fiance and after the interview was over and we were having a friendly conversation with the CO, we asked about the denied tourist visas. He wasn't even aware of them until he looked it up in his computer. He then proceeded to explain that it wouldn't have mattered what ties to Romania my husband had, he never would have been issued a tourist visa being a young single male who had not really traveled out of his country.
You should really look at the difference in K1 vs Cr1. At the time we did the process, the K1 and Cr1 was about the same processing time. AT the time the K1 was the best choice for us. If I had to do it all over again however, i would choose the Cr1. It might take longer, but when your spouse gets here, they will get their greencard when then enter the country and be able to work right away, get a license, and travel.
With the k1 your I-94 expires 90 days after you enter the country, so there is this time period when you are applying for AOS while you are waiting on your EAD/AP carde and you are in "limbo" .You have legal presence here, but have nothing to show it. Until you get your EAD, you can't work and in my state, my husband couldn't get a driver's license. It might not seem like a big deal, but I underestimated how hard that time period of sitting around the house and not being able to work or drive would be on him. It took us almost a year from the time we applied for aos until we got the greencard.
We did not use an attorney for either step, I followed the guidelines on visa journey and read as much as I could about each step.
Good luck with the path you choose to follow

While all of the above posts contain correct information, I kind of feel like they just added to your confusion since you posted a very simple question. So heres the basic answer because a lot of people get confused when it comes to the divorcing close to the ROC date because of the overlapping of dates- plus you have the dilemma of how to file for ROC.
So your choices for filing for ROC. Obviously as you know it must be done by the specific date- no exceptions. That part you seem to understand perfectly. Your choice is just going to be how to file. The are provisions in the code for each way you can file because USCIS does understand divorce moves slower then immigration and situations like this does happen.
So looking at the ROC form what are your specific choices for filing?
Joint: file with your spouse signing it. Because of the DV going on, this is probably not a good idea because you need to remove yourself from the situation for your safety. Your joint application could be approved through the mail but if its not you would have to come in for an interview with your spouse and because of the mentions of him threatening to hold your status against you... well, thats not a good idea. ROc takes apx 9 months to complete so youd be tied to him for that long.
ROC with a divorce waiver. To file for this you dont have to be divorced yet. You can be separated. You could have just filed, already filed etc. Basically you dont need the final divorce decree with your ROC packet. You just send in the packet with your evidence of the marriage and check the box that divorce is going to be the reason why your spouse is not going to be signing it jointly and USCIS will basically RFE you for it. If the ROC process completes before the divorce process (which can happen) like I said USCIS understands that they move faster then divorce court, but they just cant hold your file while they wait for divorce court, so they will 'tentatively deny you' and youll have to go to immigration court when you get your divorce papers to have it adjusted. While it sounds scary its not. Its just paperwork and hassle. NO WHERE are you out of status or lose work privileges.
Your third choice which some abused people do choose, sometimes alone on a ROC application or sometimes in conjunction with the divorce waiver box is the abuse box. While you may feel - hey I was abused and do qualify for this, it is not recommend to be used unless it absolutely must be used. Basically when you dont file jointly and you need to select a waiver, USCIS wants to know whats the reason the USC isnt singing- divorce, abuse, theyre dead? And then you have to prove what you checked off. When you check off abuse it goes to a special division (the VAWA unit) who reviews all claims of abuse. The burden of proof for abuse is very high. You can read the VAWA thread for more information. It would really only be recommended in a ROC case if you had little proof of a bonafide marriage because your spouse was so abusive and controlling that you had little to no evidence of the marriage, so you could counter explain that.
SInce you seem to say you have enough proof of bonafides its best for you to just give the reason of your spouse not jointly signing as 'divorce' and leave the DV out of it because if you dont, well depending on what you check off is what you have to prove. Check off divorce and absue you will then have to prove bonafide marriage, divorce and abuse. Check off just abuse and you have to prove abuse and bonafide marriage, check off just divorce and all you need is the divorce and bonafide marriage.
Your DV paperwork can be useful in divorce court or family court if you have children and should be able to help you obtain a restraining order however.

I was just on the phone with NVC and learned that our case is now complete. Thanks so much for the info and the resources you've shared here. We'd have never made it this far in the process without your help!

For the spreadsheet, I don't add EVERYONE. I've been slacking a lot on the spreadsheet and it's gotten to the point where I don't add anyone unless they specifically request it, so there's a lot less data now.
Nope. The NVC threads are different
Just to make sure, you definitely submitted the DS-260? It shows as 'completed' (or whatever the status is)? I'm not positive, but the DS-260 may be similar to the packages where it won't be showed as received until they actually get to it. I don't know the current time frames to review the DS-260.
Congrats!

congrats and goodluck to your journey together soon

Congratulations!

I would also advise a k1 visa more than a CR1 visa because of waiting time....
my k1 visa got delivered in Paris and the whole thing took one year (even if we had anticipated each step).... so it might be also too much in your situation
I would consider another option.
You and your girlfriend have decided to get married when she got pregnant right?
If that's the case she did not break any law when she entered the US as a visitor.
You might propose and get married in the US without a visa since your mutual decision of getting married was spontaneous.
Once married she would be covered by your healthcare plan and it would be fine to have the baby here?
My fiance had met with an immigration attorney who had explained that the law is the following:
-either you anticipate your mariage (leave your job, sell your apartment) and in this case you need to apply for a visa
-or your decision is spontaneous (your fiancee arrived as a visitor and you made the decision of getting married while she was here). In that case if you can prove there was no anticipation you would not even need a visa.
I know it might sound tricky comparing to all people who applied for a visa and waited for it (me included) but that s what the lawyer had said. If i were you if you want to take that path I would meet with one and be carefully advised what needs to be done to do that.
Good luck!