neska2

We were never questioned about our sexuality in the interview. Situation is different tough. She was already here with a HB1 (job Visa), as soon as DOMA was repealed we got married and initiated the process. Our interview involved only 'normal' questions. We just recently did the removal of conditions and an interview was not requested. The last step would be citizenship in about 10 months. Just answer truthfully and hopefully you had tons of proof when you sent the paperwork.
Good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We received approval on Ap 26, mailing date Ap 29. Card not received yet. Sooooo happy :-)

thanks so after i receive green card i can travel outside the US but you also said If its for not more than a year, what do you mean?

We have our interview today in Houston at 11:00 AM. Wish us luck!!!!! :-)

I'm so excited to hear that! My son and son-in-law are waiting their turn. They've been living in another country all these years because that country recognizes their marriage. NOW, my son can finally return to the family with his spouse! Great times!! Enjoy your lives together!

Hi,
We are a same sex couple from Texas as well. We filed on July 12th and were interviewed on October 3rd and approved. We got the card production email this morning. Interview went very well. Our approval is from Houston. I know a couple of Dallas cases where they were interviewed 9-10 days back and have not seen a change in status. A lot of folks are not using a lawyer. We did but I dont think its necessary. Gather a lot of evidence to show its a genuine marriage. Take copies of everything to the interview including two sets of photos as they are retaining one set for the file. Good luck.
Google "trackitt same sex" and you will happen upon another forum where a lot of same sex binational couples have been posting timelines and interview experiences.

Harpa, gently, please. This thread was started for those of us who NEVER thought we'd be able to bring our loving spouses/fiances to the United States. We are excited, and we are scared, because we've been discriminated against for so long. Some of us have not been able to live in our own country for years because of this.
So instead of chastising us, how about pointing us to specific places where we will find our answers? I know you are very knowledgeable - and I know you've been here a lot longer than most of us have. Right now, this is the only forum we same-sex couples have, and often the answers for us are slightly different than for opposite-gendered couples based on the countries our loved ones are from.
I'm sure all of us will get used to the forum, and how it works and where to go to find specific answers, but for right now, we are still getting to know each other, and sharing our stories.
Sukie

We had a similar challenge. My partner is Australian, and while we can register our relationship in Australia, our US marriage (and, therefore, our marriage certificate) is not recognized. Here's what we did...
She traveled to the US under her Cxxxxx name with her Cxxxxx passport name. When we married in New York, she ticked the box to indicate that she was taking my Bxxxxx surname.
One month later she travelled home to Australia with her Cxxxxx name and Cxxxxx passport. She then went to the Department of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Queensland and petitioned to change her surname to my Bxxxxx surname. It's pretty easy to petition to change your name in Australia as long as you are not doing anything illegal.
She then changed her driver's license and passport to her new Bxxxxx surname.
Before we left the US, we changed her name to Bxxxxx at our bank and on our joint credit card. Other than those two things, she had no other "connections" to the US with her Cxxxxx name.
The hardest thing we had to do was to change an outstanding airline ticket. My partner had an outstanding leg of a "round-the-world" ticket in her Cxxxxx name. The airline was more than happy to change the name on the reservation with a copy of the Legal Name Change and her new passport.
The next time she enters the US - her ticket and her passport will show her Bxxxxx name - so everything matches!
Sukie

My civil partner (British Citizen) and I (USC) have been together the last 10 years. I have been living in England for the past 8 years and filed our I-129f (because the states don't recognise our civil partnership as marriage) in July. Received the NOA 1 in July now just waiting. Bit of a problem with sponsoring as I live in England and foreign income not accepted. First co sponsor pulled out so looking to alternative means of sponsoring partner myself.
Received a lot of criticism on k1 forum from people who I don't think understand what it's like to be forced out of your home country to be with your partner. However it's nice to see some supportive friendly people here.
Good luck to everyone!
Cheers

Yep. We included in our package our plans to marry in Iowa and indicated that we meet all the requirements to be able to marry there. Unfortunately most of us are going to have travel to another state to get legally married. For us Iowa is the close plus you can register via mail so no waiting. Just arrive and marriage license is ready to go.

If nothing else, there needs to be a same-sex forum to post all the information specifically addressing same-sex marriage coming out of DOS. It's currently being posted under General and is hard to find without doing a Google search. I think it's clear that there is a group of specific directives coming out that would best be grouped under a Same-sex marriage forum. And besides that there is a very unique situation in the same-sex community that are now allowed to petition for their spouse after being together or being separated for years or decades. Can you imagine as an opposite sex couple that the US government had said to you years or decades ago that you would not be able to petition for immigration for the person you love and want to marry until June 26, 2013, except we didn't even have the benefit of knowing if this would happen in our lifetime. This has created a tremendous hardship for same-sex binational couples and has required some to be very creative. There are an estimated 36000 same-sex binational couples in the US, many of whom have faced deportation because they either overstayed their visa or entered the US illegally to be together. I know of several couples who decided to move to the foreign national's country rather than stay in the US. Some even immigrated to Canada to be able to live together in a country that did not discriminate. So, now many of these couples will be returning to the US with histories and stories very distinct from opposite-sex couples. For example: Did your sister ever marry your partner so that he could come to the US to live with you? Did you ever apply for a student or tourist visa to be able to be with the one you love and want to marry because you couldn't apply for a fiancé visa? There are a lot of issues that same-sex couples are going to have to explain to immigration that has never come up in an opposite sex case. There needs to be a forum to discuss these very unique situations.

What? Same sex couples can get married in any state or country the same as traditional marriages? News to me. There's only 14 countries that allow same sex marriage.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage

The response to this forum since I started it yesterday had been positive. I expected negative comments right away from people with different views and opinions. That did not happen until today. There have been people that have come in here and commented and left their well wishes and congratulatory messages and I absolutely appreciate and thank you for that. Please, if you have no positive comments to leave for us, or if your views are different than ours, negative messages will not help us out, nor will it help you as it will only feed your ignorance. If you don't agree with our lifestyle, that is not what this forum is about, so please keep your comments to yourself or simply ignore my forum. This forum is for Same Sex couples going through the K-1 process, not for Biology lessons or negative comments. Everyone that has been supportive, again thank you so so so much.

Hello everyone! I started this forum for people that will be looking into and filing a I-129F application for their same sex partners. I have to say that VisaJourney.com is an extremely helpful website to gather information on how to create and arrange your K-1 package. I used this website's Step by Step guide to create my package, http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1guide. I decided to take on this venture on my own after being turned away by a local Immigration Lawyer. Another awesome website is ImmigrationEquality.com. These guys have poured their souls into fighting for same sex rights. I am extremely grateful that they fought without giving up and in huge part we are here because of their help. I have emailed them with questions about this process and they do reply back with any questions I have. They might take a few days to reply, but I can only imagine what their inbox looks like, so it's understandable. They also work with and train lawyers all over the country about same sex immigration. They can refer you to lawyers, unfortunately no lawyers in my local area participate.
I have been with my fiance for 10 years, 10 wonderful years. I can't say it hasn't been tough, but I think I have had it easy compared to other people. I live in El Paso, TX, which is just a border hop to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where my fiance lives. Jumping back and forth on a daily basis has been hard, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat if I had to. The day section 3 of DOMA was demolished I was with my fiance. I sat staring at the TV in disbelief. I was scared, excited, happy, and nervous all at the same time. I started working on the I-129F application that same day.
I filled out the I-129F application, making sure to fill in every question. Please read through the application's instructions a few times so that you feel comfortable filling it out. I created my 1-129F Cover letter, and our letters of intent to marry from the templates on this website. I only changed one thing on the letter of intent to marry letters, and that was to include that we had every intent to marry within 90 days of entry into the United States in a state where it is lawful. As far as evidence of our relationship, I knew I only had to send 3-5 pictures, but I sent 26. I included pictures documenting the 10 years we have been together. I figured what more evidence can I send to prove we've been together in an ongoing relationship than pictures that document our aging together. I did not send letters or anything more. I am not saying you should not send, every situation is different. I did go to my bank and requested a temp check to pay for the application fee. This way I would be able to see the day USCIS cashed my check.
I think I must have checked my package about 50 times before I placed it in an Express Mail package and sealed it. I did not buy a fancy folder, nor did I include fancy cover letters for every section of the package. I made things easy for whomever was going to open the package. I paid for Express Mail to have peace of mind, and to get it their faster. It turned out it wasn't going to be as fast as I wanted. I went to the post office on July 19th, a Friday. The USPS employee told me it would not be delivered Saturday because of course U.S. Government buildings are not open on Saturdays. He did assure me that delivery was guaranteed and they would deliver Monday, July 22nd. Sure enough, I checked on Monday and it had been signed for and delivered. I was not expecting USCIS to send me and NOA1 or even cash my check until maybe a week or two after. I checked my bank app on July 25th in the morning and saw that USCIS had cashed my check. A few hours later I received an email from USCIS stating they had accepted my package, NOA1. I was completely extatic! I know NOA1 is not a big deal, but still this was very exciting for me and my fiance. I did not think I would be getting more notifications until 5 months or so, but on July 30th I got another notification stating that my Alien Registration Number had changed relating to my I-129F, Petition for Fiance.
I know my journey has just started, and I still have a long wait ahead of me, but I hope this information is useful for someone else. I hope people use this forum to also document their same sex K-1 journey. I will continue to update this forum as time progresses. I really do hope I am helping someone else out with this forum. Please feel free to use this forum for your questions and to share your journeys!