curiousgeorgina

I remember reading somewhere in this long and glorious thread that someone filled out forms in the wrong color ink. Can someone refresh me memory? I've started my forms with black ink and want to make sure thats okay.

Thanks!

From what I have read all throughout my research, filling out the forms in black ink is fine, but "signing" them should be in BLUE ink because if signed in black they might mistake it as just a copy.

You will be fine, just be patient...

thank you How long did you wait to be with your spouse?

Seems like you know a good deal about the immigration process before actually going into it, so saves you from some stupid mistakes many people make because they have no clue what they are doing (I am talking about my own mistakes here of which there are many :-)

Since you are ware of the evidence necessary to prove a genuine marriage, you are better suited to collect as much evidence you can while you are still with your hubby, COs like to look at pretty pictures, that's what I gathered from my own experience. The waiting can be frustrating, particularly if there are any stupid mistakes in paper work involved. So be thorough with that. And good luck, the wait will seem brutal and during the middle of it you might start regretting many things, but during this wait time a couple's devotion to each other also really shows the true nature of the person you have chosen as your life partner.

I'm trying to collect pictures but since my husband is the type who doesn't like to take pictures (me too, but now we are "trying" to take more pictures but it just feels awkward since we're never fans of picture taking) I'm trying to get as much photos as I can, though I hope it won't be a problem since the screenshots mostly I have is on my facebook page.. and not on his. If I try to get some from his, it's mostly him taking a picture of me and not liking to be in it. I just really hope that won't be a problem too. but hey, thank you for the reply I really appreciate this. I am humbled by everyone who's willing to help even though my question might sound silly or something.

Congrats!

Thank you!!!

You'll be just fine sweetie. Congrats ad best of luck!!

Thank you, fingers crossed things will go smooth. It's never easy when we're apart, it just feels like something's missing.

I would send hubby, go to court house and have the marriage license up-dated with a new address, and get a certified copy..,.,..as me and my wife did, as we moved. It just might keep a question from coming up.,.,.but I think you will be fine.,.,.and my compiments for being so forth coming, and honest. My wife is from Cebu, and most filipino women are the best wives in the world.,..,.,just my opinion.

I do have one question.,.,.,.,.,,,"HOW in the world did you get a tourist visa to the USA, as only 1 in 1000 are approved?" From the Philippines.

I might inquire regarding that.. but I really hope it won't be a big of a problem! of all the things and small details we need to consider, this would kind of drive me crazy. D:

yes, to be honest, I was shocked when I got approved I was like, hey, let me try this since my sister is going to get married and finally see my sister in law... and if I don't get approved at least I tried. It is weird, because I was a freelancer, and I didn't have any properties, and I was single at that time.. I did remember the CO asking me if I was single and if I wanted to find a husband as soon as I get there, I just said no and I got it. Though I did have a travel record to Holland and had a 3 year visa for schengen and before that 2 yearly ones.. I think that helped a lot because I was able to prove I will go back to my home country when the time is up.

Hope it goes well for you. Thank you for not misusing the tourist visa. Many ppl get denied because they are soooo strict in preventing the aos to happen when ppl can gi through shortcuts. Good girl! (I did the same.. would never try and bypass just because I can).

Best of luck,

UnaMexicana

oh yes, I have nothing against people doing the AOS, I admire them for being ballsy! I just don't like it when some abuse it.. and us who are willing to abide by the process gets to be judged due to other peoples' action. I really find it unfair and sad at times.

I think you'll be just fine, it's not like you used some random address, you used one you had legitimate ties to - I'd be shocked if that even raises an eyebrow.

He's only slightly (4 years) older, almost a year and a half together, and he's getting ready to take off work to come visit you on the other side of the world. I can't imagine any red flags there.

It's so nice, after reading an awful troll thread just a few minutes ago, to see a post of an obviously genuine couple. Best of luck to you, and I hope the CR1 process goes quickly.

Ithank you very much. Yeah reading all the threads makes me worried with some details that might lead to some bigger mistake as this filing seems to be very tricky. but thank you

I didnt understand one thing. Are you living in US or in Philippines currently

I am currently in the US right now on a tourist visa visiting my loved ones.. i'll be home on the 23rd. I just got married this year but instead of just getting married and adjusting my status I'd rather go home, I want to have my affairs in order and spend time with my family and other sister back home before actually getting to live here. I was just worried that maybe indicating on the marriage license that the address I stay at is (my sister's address, which in my head is an automatic answer of mine if they ask where I'm staying in the US.. but now since the circumstances have now change I need to erase that address in my head and use now my husband's ) when I have been living with my husband when I came here this year. I was watching videos and reading forums of how CO's try to figure out if the relationship is bona fide, and one of those is that the span of time the couple knows each other and time spent actually together.

I have been interviewed by CO's when I was getting tourist visas and I remember how cold and sarcastic they can be even if you meant well, and would like to avoid that and be prepared for any possible scenario.

Don't see any red flags here, I'm sure you'll make it.

Try to prepare yourselves for the long wait...

oh the long wait.. yes fingers crossed there will be no RFE's or AP's of any sort. Being away from each other is hard.

I see no issues with any of the above.

thank you for the reply I appreciate this.

Sounds like you'll be fine Good luck!

oh thank you! I really do hope so! I tend to overthink about things and the only way to appease this weird overthinking of mine is to have at least a little bit of assurance that I'm not doing any error on my end. Thank you

Hi,

I've been reading forums and sites to prepare myself for this tedious and seemingly stressful CR1 visa application/petition..

To give a short background, I came to the US for the second time to attend my sister's wedding. I met my husband on a dating site (OkCupid) and he was the first person I ever actually decided to meet.. I was the type to just talk to people online and not push through with anything since I'm actually a bit worried about those date rape stories I see on tv.. (yup tv fanatic here espcially crime shows).. But something about him felt right... and good thing I followed my instincts Anyway, to make the long story short, we dated once and we just continued seeing each other and exclusively dating, and after a few months, we became an official couple.. I was only meant to stay for 4 months but decided to extend since I wanted to see where it goes. Half of this time I actually do sleepovers so it was a bit like living with him but we weren't really splitting stuff with utilities or whatever expenses there is. This was year 2013.

We skyped, chatted on facebook, use Google voice, whatever we can use to keep the communication constant for 6 months while I was back in the Philippines.. I then year 2014, went back to the US to visit my loved ones.. this time, we decided to start living together, splitting costs, etc... we are on the 4th month of living together when we decided that we fit and that we decided to be together forever, he proposed and 2 days ago, we got married in a courthouse.. I was never a fan of big weddings so that's why we decided to just do that. And maybe a few years in, we'd celebrate just to have a mini reception wherein we can celebrate it with the relatives and maybe bring over my parents to witness it.

I was recalling everything we did and I remembered, when we got a marriage license, the address I gave to the clerk was my sister's address, I'm used to always having using her address as that was where the first time and second time I technically stayed whenever I visit the US.

Will that be a problem when the times comes I get interviewed by the CO? I believe that the marriage record/certificate will be reviewed and I heard that the address will be indicated there.. I feel stupid now for giving my sister's address because ever since I came back this year I started staying at my husband's place.

Is there anything I can do to correct this?

Also, do you think we have a red flag?

1. I am 29 he is 33

2. We have been together (including dating days) 1 year and 5 months and then got married

3. He didn't visit me yet as he couldn't get out of work as he and his dad owns a business. But now, during the process of the application and since it'll be so long before I can be with him, he will be visiting me in my country.

I have never had any applications before and and have no previous marriages.

I know this is a silly question, but I would like to avoid any AP just because of this.

Thank you

It's a lot of fun, that's for sure!!

If I call the courthouse I can get to the recorders office clerk, but it's not the same number if I call directly. Same street, different buildings but they seem to be the same entity. Maybe that's why? $25 seems to be outrageous!

oh maybe so! it's just silly to actually send the letter, since I'm like 10 minutes away from the register of wills. Maybe I can call them up again and ask if I could just drop by! Yes it's 25! There's actually another version called "exemplified" and the clerk says its for foreign documents or immigration and I hope it won't be that one we need because it's $30.00!

First off, CINGRATULATIONS!!!

I'm not sure how long it takes to get on file, but the clerk was helpful... I'd imagine a phone call would be a quick way to find out. They couldn't do it through the mail due to money. It only took 5 minutes to print them off and they cost $5/copy. I got three no problem!

Thank you! It's still new to me and I am still trying to let things sink in haha, I am still used to calling him bf haha! A great feeling though

anyway WOW! your clerk IS really helpful! I called mine up and "had" to send them a request with check! it's it's like 25.00 each! I wish I had your clerk. Haha! Was your courthouse marriage and where you got the license the same place? where we live it's like two separate entities they don't do courthouse marriages but you have to go to your district judge's office for some reason.

We were married in Pennsylvania. It's worth the wait to get it now just in case! It took me almost a month to get the rfe to see what it said and get the right thing back to them! What a waste of time.

got married in PA too! yes. I wanted to actually send already the request form yesterday but I just got married October 1, not so sure how fast the district court sends the records to the register of wills

You didn't seem snobby or rude at all! You were just asking a question Don't worry about it. Everybody is new here at one time or another (myself included, still learning as I go), you didn't do anything wrong.

We sent in the half page copy of the original with the signatures and got a RFE right away asking for the certified copy of the marriage license. They wanted a copy of the one that the courthouse that has the volume and page that our marriage was recorded on at the Recorder's office at the courthouse. That one also had our parent's names on it. We didn't know there was a different one to have!

wow! really! which state were you married in? yeah I guess I'll have to wait for the marriage certificates then! the last thing I want to have is an RFE!

Just make a copy of that, that's what they are asking for.

alright thank you! oh wow haha sorry I had a reply to my post along with the thumbnail, sorry it's my first time to post pictures i didn't know I wasn't able to include my reply! I might have sounded snobbish by just attaching it right away!

sorry though! and again, thanks!

We put my parents address in another state as the mailing address since we were about to move from one address in Washington, DC to another in the same city, but we didn't want to take any chances of mail forwarding not working.

USCIS scheduled my wife's biometrics in my parents' state, as if that was our permanent/physical address, which we clearly listed as Washington, DC. We did a walk-in for the same day and time at our local office in the DC area (where USCIS should have scheduled it in the first place) and they did her biometrics with no problem. In August we updated our address on file to our new DC address and found out that our case was still in the field office out of state as if we lived at my parents' address.

Now it's October and we still don't even have an interview date even though we filed for AoS in early January and we have had no RFEs or any complications in our case.

oh I see, hopefully you'll get a notification soon! It sucks having to wait not knowing when things should be happening.

the addresses my husband has is 5 minutes away from each other, I hope it won't be a problem.. this whole filing can be tricky!

again, I will keep my fingers for the both of you.

When we got married at the courthouse, they gave us what is called a statement of marriage afterwards. Different than a marriage certificate. That might be what they gave you at the courthouse as well, a statement of marriage rather than the certificate. It usually takes them a little bit to process it, and you'll probably have to request the official marriage certificate.

Once you get the certificate, just a photo copy of it will do, you don't need to send the original.

I did this for my wife's AoS and USCIS accidentally listed the mailing address as the primary, scheduling us in that state for biometrics. When correcting them and updating our address, I personally believe it's added a few months to our process since we are going on nine months without as much as an interview notice. Maybe our case is an exception but I wish I didn't use an alternate mailing address.

hi there, thank you for the reply and so sorry to hear that!

was your wife the petitioner? and what did you mean scheduling us in the state for biometrics? I'm sorry I'm not really that knowledgeable in the process yet but I'm reading and researching.

Hi everyone, I apologize for a lot of questions but I do really appreciate all the help this forum has given me. My question is:

My husband's residential address is different from his mailing address.. he's using his parent's address. He lives in a condo and had problems with missing letters/mail/items when he used to have them sent where he lives. Is there a way we can specify at the I-I30 petition that he actually lives in the address stated on the form and have the NOA1, or other forms to follow to be sent to his parent's address aka mailing address? I appreciate the help in advance.

Hi, just got married today at a courthouse just wanted to know, I already have on hand the marriage certificate that the judge gave us and it is half the size of a legal size paper. Is that actually enough to use for the I-I30 application? I noticed that when we applied for the marriage license, the secretary also gave me a slip where we can request for a copy of the marriage certificate.. And there is the 'exemplified copy' option. If I photocopy the one I have will that suffice or should we order the exemplified copy of the marriage certificate?

I Think about 30 pages total Just random dates over the time frame we had.

Just take a small selection per month. You don't need much, quality over quantity. Just to show you stay in regular communication.

thank you both for the answer. I've been reading and some said USCIS/NVC actually read everything so maybe if I send a 300 page of only chat logs it might delay our petition. Hehe, but that's just me having this weird sense of hope that it'll be a fast process like the others.

What we did for our k1 was to take a random selection of our chat logs over the time covered. It worked for us. Black and white are fine.

how many pages total was yours? and how did you base which dates to get?

Hi Everyone,

I'm filing a I-I30 and I realized that my chat logs on facebook and skype call logs is around 300 pages.. how do I minimize this? Do they read all of it? How did you do yours?

And for the copies that are required, can I just do it black and white or they need to be colored copies?

I am very new at this and just about to start filing the I-I30 petition, how will you find out about which service center you'll be put in? Seems like there's a specific service center that processes things faster?

Congrats!

Hi Everyone, it's me again and I really do appreciate everything that this site has done so far and also its members.

I am currently in the US, this is my 3rd time with a visitor visa.. during my second visit, I met my soon to be husband. After one date we totally hit it off and became inseparable so what my 3 month visit I extended it to 6 months.. after that, I went home and we continued to communicate every single day. After 6 months again, I came back here to see him and my familly and I stay at his place now. He then asked me to marry him 4 months in my stay here, so I said yes and we reviewed the pros and cons of K1 and CR1 and decided to just get married here and then I'll go home and then file the application.

Does that sound like a red flag? I am 29 and he is 33. We are getting married through a simple courthouse.. nothing big as we just want it formalized before I leave and the celebrations maybe later when we are both here again and stable.

For the I-I30, I am thinking of putting in:

1. affidavits from his parents, my sister and her wife (my sister lives here and has been living here for more than 3 years/working as a doctor).,

2. Facebook chat logs of everyday since we met last 2013 til present, skype chat logs of almost everyday calls,

3. a few pictures of us being a couple, some civil marriage photos (which won't be a typical looking wedding as to some), and some photos after we get married.

4. A wedding invitation of my husband's cousin with my name on it

5. Marriage certificate

6. The typical requirements like the forms.

7. Even included the site and email accounts where we first talked. (It was on OkCupid)

8. My e-tickets/boarding passes during my flight 2013 and 2014.

What are my chances of having it denied? I'm kind of worried this might not be enough evidence. I'm trying to look for other evidences of a bonafide relationship but so far since we will just be married for a few weeks we don't have joint accounts and other documents married couples have.

Also, I won't be changing my last name til I actually get here in the US again as it's more paperwork for me causing more delays. Is that alright too?

I appreciate the help have a good day!

1) for example if neither of you have been previously married, where it says "name of prior spouse" you would write NONE and then put N/A in the spot where marriage date ended. The asking of the name is applicable to you, but since there is no previous marriage then the date is not applicable. Answering the first question, then makes the second applicable or not.

2) yes

3) You include the evidence that works for you. Quality over quantity. http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/EZGuideSpouse at the bottom of this wiki is a large example list of evidence.

4) affidavits are the lowest type of evidence, but you can include them if you want.

5) most common issue for I-130s is not filling out all the forms and not having enough evidence.

Hi Again! I came across another section where I am a bit confused if I am to fill it out or not for the I-I30 form, there's a section where it's asked if the beneficiary is currently in the US... Should I indicate I am as I am here til the 22nd of October and was hoping to complete the forms and requirements and send the I-I30 forms before I leave, or should I just not send the forms yet and wait til I go home?

I am thinking I might confuse the USCIS that I will be staying here to adjust my status if ever I do indicate I am currently in the US?

The petitioner recieves the NOA1 and NOA2 because those are based on the petition. The USCIS won't even talk to the beneficiary. NOA1 and NOA2 can both be emailed with the use of a G-1145 and then signing up on the USCIS website. He should not put down an address other than his own IMHO. They do background checks on both of you and part of that is checking addresses.

I see Thank you very much again!

You're welcome.

Be aware that some of the fees are changing for the visas, I haven't updated the wiki yet.

Thank you very much again. And another newbie question, sorry I have been reading threads over and over and I guess my panicky mind seems to be not helping me.. who receives the NOA1 and NOA2? Is it the beneficiary or the petitioner? If it's the petitioner, we have a slight problem as he sends his mails to his parents' address as he does not trust his condo's mailbox... he had several mails missing when he was using his own address. Is that possible?

Also I would like to add that since you already have a tourist visa you will be able to visit your then husband while the petition is pending. You will have to prove to the satisfaction of the CBPO that you will return after your trip so you need to have proof of ties to your country if you will be traveling here after your marriage.

Oh I would love to use my tourist visa to visit him again but I remember the POE giving me a hard time the last time since I indicated to him I was a freelancer and the house I live in is still under my parent's name. So I doubt they'd let me in. But thank you fro the info.

1) for example if neither of you have been previously married, where it says "name of prior spouse" you would write NONE and then put N/A in the spot where marriage date ended. The asking of the name is applicable to you, but since there is no previous marriage then the date is not applicable. Answering the first question, then makes the second applicable or not.

2) yes

3) You include the evidence that works for you. Quality over quantity. http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/EZGuideSpouse at the bottom of this wiki is a large example list of evidence.

4) affidavits are the lowest type of evidence, but you can include them if you want.

5) most common issue for I-130s is not filling out all the forms and not having enough evidence.

Thank you very much for the fast repsonse. And also for the link. Will be reviewing this.

Hi,

I might sound a bit dumb with silly questions, but this is my first time to actually file/apply for a CR-1 visa.. I've been reading threads these past few weeks and it makes me nervous seeing how tedious and intense the filing can be. I would appreciate if I get some answers form you guys..

First of all, I am a filipina in the US on a tourist visa, and my bf asked me to marry him.. which of course I said yes, but as we looked at our options, K-1 won't do, his income is below 125% and since the Manila Embassy is strict with co-sponsors, we are opting to get married before I leave in October (some told me to file for AOS rather than go home, as much as I'd love to do that I'm quite scared that that is very risky plus, I have to get my affairs in order before actually living here in the US). I'm just starting to read the forms needed to file the petition and here are my questions:

1. In the I-I30 forms, there are some sections do not apply to us (for example, previous marriages, as we were never married before), do we leave it blank, or put NONE or N/A? I am filling out the form using a computer.

2. In the G-325a form, it is asking for my employer for the last 5 years, which I actually don't have as I am a freelance graphic designer, my clients varies a lot. Can I just put self employed?

3. We are a couple who doesn't like to take pictures.. my soon to be husband is not fond of pictures and me too, we do have some of course, will that be a problem? We do have skype/facebook history that would show that even if we are living together or away from each other, we talk every single day.

4. Will written affidavits from my sister and her wife, his parents and our friends (all living in the US) suffice too to prove we have a bonafide relationship? We will be married less than 2 months so we don't have any joint accounts or anything.

5. What is the most common cause for an I-I30 delays/denials?

Thank you so much in advance, would really love to hear from you guys!