Your case seems almost identical to mine. My fiance and I went through the embassy in Delhi for his K1. My fiance and I met online at work, I visited twice prior to the interview, I didn't get to meet his parents until after the interview, I'm 5 years older (I'm the woman), and we are an interracial couple. I did front load but still got an RFE requesting further proof that we were going to marry and further details of our relationship.
Based on my experience (all of this is straight from the RFE) I suggest:
- Include an explanation of how you met and the progression of your relationship. Include details, don't just say "we met at work online".
- If you are planning a wedding in the U.S., be sure to include receipts, invitations, etc. AND correspondence of you discussing said wedding plans from your chat logs. If you are not planning a wedding and are planning a courthouse marriage instead, state that and explain why (financial reasons, doesn't make sense with uncertain timeline for visa approval, etc). It might actually be helpful to say that you are planning a traditional wedding later and include correspondence regarding that so that you have evidence of some discussion of the particulars of the ceremony. My now-husband and I had plans to just go to the magistrate here in the U.S. to be married, and the RFE asked why I didn't have correspondence about wedding plans or invitations, etc.
- If you had a formal engagement, send the pics. If you have an engagement ring, send the pics. If you do not have a ring or did not have a formal engagement party, explain why.
- Tell about the nature of your relationship (okay to get sappy here). If you have exchanged gifts, send a pic. Write about what you mean to each other. I asked my now-husband to write about this also, and I included it in the RFE. Have him write about how you met, what your relationship is like, etc.
- Since you met at work, not sure how comfortable you feel about telling people you work with about the relationship. Because of the work situation, we did not tell many people that we worked with. Due to this, I included affidavits in my RFE from friends attesting that they knew about our relationship. This may not be applicable to you.
- Be sure to include your declarations of intent to marry, 1 original from each of you. And, when you are writing about wedding plans, be sure to emphasize that you will marry within 90 days of arrival if you have not set a specific date. Have your finance mail it to you from India. I included originals, and they asked for them again in the RFE. Be sure to make a copy of everything, so you can prove that you already sent it if need be.
Basically because of the marriage culture in India, you should go out of your way to prove that your relationship is real and that you really will marry. Do include photographs from both of your visits. I included receipts showing that we shared a hotel room during my visits (the front desk printed these for us), copies of notes that we had written to each other, receipt and photograph of a birthday gift that he gave me. I DID NOT include money transfer receipts, and no one ever asked for them. I wanted to avoid the appearance of any financial exchanges.
Looking down the road-
- I made sure that I was present for the interview in Delhi. I wasn't allowed to speak, but I made sure that the CO saw my face and knew that I was there.
- His interview was not that easy. Rapid fire questions about the things from our chats. I made him study for the interview and I'm glad that I did.
Hopefully the process will be pretty easy for you guys. Bottom line, just be prepared and organized and stay positive. My husband and I are celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary in a few days, and our baby just turned 2 months old. There is life after K1.
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