HungNhi

1 hour ago, Cougarfalcon83 said:

This post is such a tease for us CSC folks. 

Sorry about that 
I do hope they'd pick up the pace for everyone, especially those with travel plans. They should do a volunteer thing to help them get caught up. Im sure there are many who would be willing to spend a day or two helping them get organized. For example, sort all the applications by date order, and do them from oldest to newest. That'd also let them forecast expected time better than what they're currently doing.

Correct. VSC. Although i would never want to live in NYC. Haha city/ busy life isn't for us. 

My check got cashed this morning, may 16th.

Sent apr 13th, Recieved apr 16th at 12pm. 

We sent our package to the VSC on Apr. 13th, got there the 16th at 12pm. Check still hasn't been cashed yet, no NOA and her green card expires tomorrow. Thankfully, we havent got any travel plans in place yet, and wont until we get the NOA. 

So we got approved. Yesterday, Nhi and I left Vietnam. Today we are sleeping in my bed (shes already sleeping, since shes been sick for the past couple days - visited mui ne, went swimming).

With regards to POE, we entered through Newark. It was extremely easy. At customs and immigration, I told them I was her fiance and that she didnt speak any English. They let me go with her to the visitors section, then when it was our turn, she had her finger prints taken. We gave them her passport and the brown package. We were then taken down stairs for processing. After bringing us down stairs, we joined others and waited for our name to be called. After about 15 minutes, they called us up to the counter, asked when the big day was (which I said i didnt know yet, but I plan to get the certificate first then plan the wedding after), and finally congratulated us.

After being given back the passport, we had to get our bags re-checked, which was just pulling our luggage about 30 feet, so nothing difficult there.

All in all, we're finally in the US together, and everything went pretty smoothly. A huge thanks to everyone here as I wouldnt have been able to do the paperwork and everything without you guys.

Hung&Nhi

Were they there for k1 visas or something else?

Im not too sure, but they were ~ 20-35 in age range and they mostly went alone, so i assumed it was either for k1 or cr1?

there was a guy selling books, we bought one from him.

Thanks Guys. ^^ what FrontGear said. We did promise to buy a book from a guy before we went in, if we passed, so when we did, we came out and upheld our promise. Ended up costing 400k, but we were euphoric, so it was worth it.

Hey Everyone, we passed the interview!

I was there with my fiancee upon going in, then was asked to take a seat. The layout is very similar to a dmv. she stood in line to get her finger print and a number. The first time they call your number, they have you hand in all the paperwork they asked for. They girl at the counter asked if we had any children together or anything (we dont). The second time they call your number is when you go up to another window to interview (we expected to go into a room to be interrogated/interviewed, but this wasn't the case). I went up with my fiancee the second time as well and there were two people behind the glass. A vietnamese lady and an american guy who spoke decent vietnamese.

First he asked me where I was from, if i was crazy for living in New York since its cold. I told him about the snow storms we just had and he said hes so thankful for living in Vietnam. Then he gave me a little background on himself and how much he loved Vietnam. It was a pretty laid-back conversation. After a few laughs about getting fat in Vietnam, he had me sit down to interview my fiancee.

I was looking and listening to him interview my fiancee the best i could, but from what i saw/heard it was more of a conversation than an interview. However my fiancee did say he asked the following questions:

1. 'How did your fiancee get to the US?'

2. 'How did you meet?'

3. 'Do you think you'll be happy in the US?'

Other than that, he just said congratulations, you guys passed your interview. Chuc em hanh phuc, and have a good weekend.

Note all of this was in Vietnamese, but i dont know how to translate hanh phuc very well. lol

We then had to exit and register the address to send the passport and visa to, and that was that.

Other notes:

When you leave, be careful, the people across the street will try to trick you to get money, or even try to pick pocket you. The guards told us this upon leaving and sure enough, some guy came up and said we HAD to give him the two white paper so he can check it for us (BS). We called a taxi and went straight to get some food since we were both starving.

Overall, we got there at 7:15ish and left at 11:20ish, but the interview lasted about 10 minutes. It was extremely nerve wrecking though. We saw/observed 8 out of 10 girls get the blue slips and crying as they left while we were waiting, and our heart goes out to all of them.

On a last note, dont worry about arriving too early, they pretty much just go in the order the stack of applications is in.

If anyone has any questions, we'd be glad to answer them.

Edit: They didnt ask for a timeline, history, or any of that. Didn't check my income, tax papers, and i didnt have a co-sponsor. Pretty much just looked at 3 pictures of us and that was it.

HungNhi

awesome to hear. Thanks Klipsch17310

So our interview is tomorrow. Im here with my fiancee and i have some final questions regarding the required docs. We wrote the timeline and 10 year residency history, as well as my family listing sheet, but none of these 3 docs are notarized. Since i'll be attending the interview with her (or atleast be there in the same place as her waiting), can i just sign it there if needed?

My taxes for last year stated I made 18k in wages + 3k in self employment (i make websites for people/companies as a full time and freelance gig), so im not sure how that would look (I visited my fiancee for 4 months out of the year), but my current income is over 40k (evident from paystubs), and i have a job offer that I just accepted for 60k (also in programming, just a fancier title), do you think there will be any problems with that regarding the i134f?

Thanks guys.

I could be wrong, but this looks like the i-864. I believe the form you want for the k1 visa is the i-134f, if your fiance(e) hasn't entered the US yet. As for whether or not a co-sponsor is allowed, it depends on the CO. Technically theyre not obligated to accept a co-sponsor, however theyve been known to for some cases.

You can file for the I-129f as long as you are engaged. Dinh Hon, although it most likely will be asked about at the interview, is not required for this stage. Also note that if you decide to go i129f, and you do get married, youd have to start all over again, because the I-129f is only available if you are legally able to be married.

In case anyone else wonders in the future, my finacee was not required to get any vaccinations. We went to IOM and she said it was overall, an easy process.

We decided on IOM

Hey everyone,

My fiancee's medical exam is tomorrow, She called to verify her appointment and they told her (again) to make sure she doesn't get any vaccinations. They said it isn't necessary and to MAKE SURE she doesn't get any done (with strong emphasis on not getting any vaccinations at all, they told her twice on the phone on the same call). They also said not to bring any passport/visa photos and that they'll take her to take pictures when she's there since bringing it up from rach gia wont be the right size. Has anyone had this experience before? Any advice on how we should proceed?

thanks

Dudeeeee. Too Awesome!! I was JUST going to pm you asking if you were excited for tomorrow! haha

congrats!!!

I answered NO on that question.

It looks like people have answered both ways for that question with minimal consequences. I answered yes, but she can explain if needed at the interview. We got around to scheduling it for july 24th! Super excited and i'll be able to go back to attend it with her for a few weeks.

Wait, they'll actually ask her a few questions in English, even if she chooses to have it in Vietnamese?! I was born in the US so I have birthright citizenship in the US, but my fiancee and I only speak vietnamese to eachother and i keep telling her she'll pick up speaking english easier when she comes over here, since its hard to enunciate over skype and be heard clearly. We haven't practiced english much, but i guess we should start asap!

congrats man! less than a month away, you must be excited!

Good point. Im trying to work out a deal where I'll freelance for a couple months, then If theyre satisfied with my work, I'll commit to moving. This would allow me to keep my current job while also working the new one. If that doesn't work out, i'll likely end up moving. Talked it over with my fiancee and she agrees that its a great opportunity. Thanks for the advice everyone!

I have a week to decide. :[ starts in mid may.

I can't say for certain, but I also can't see why it would be a problem. You're bettering your career and thus increasing the ability to care for your future wife. If anything I would ask the new job, to provide a letter, showing your job offer and salary.

I do have the official job offer letter from the company's HR, i was just worried as it would mean moving to a completely different state just months before my fiancee's anticipated arrival here. And im worried that in the eyes of the CO, having a new job might mean not being stable in my career (although it would be in the same field of work).

Alright, im sure you guys are sick of seeing me post, lol, but I have yet another question and need some opinions. I would greatly appreciate it.

We are at the stage where we are about to schedule our interview and it will probably be 3 months away until our interview. As such, having a job is probably pretty important, and what may be more important, is having a job for X amount of time to show stability. However, ive just received a job offer for almost double my pay now, but taking it would require me moving to another state (i actually applied in 2014, and they said the position was on hold depending on budget; i didnt hold my breath for it) and at the time of interview, I would have only been working there for a couple months.

On the one hand, I really want to take it since its a pretty great position with a ton of benefits and may include some stock options. On the other hand, my current place of employment allows me to work remotely sometimes and im making over the minimum requirements (125%).

Last year, I made 23k, but was only able to work about 7 months out of the year. Ive been at my current place of employment for about 10 months now and it is pretty stable. Would taking a new job look bad at the time of our interview? Should I just turn the job down and continue at my current place until my fiancee comes here and start applying for higher paying positions?

Pretty much, i guess im asking if anyone knows how bad it would look if i just started a new job as opposed to having a long term stable job if they asked my fiancee at the interview.

Thanks ya'll