Mena28

I am Austrian and on the US embassy homepage for Vienna it says this:

"Note: If you will return to your permanent place of residence outside the United States after the marriage ceremony, you should apply for a B-2 tourist visa or, if eligible, travel visa free under the Visa Waiver Program. If the marriage will take place outside the United States, you will require an immigrant visa to reside in the United States."

Check your embassy website to double check!

When traveling on the ESTA during the K-1 process (that I am in) I hear it is a good thing to bring prove of ties to home country like rental agreement, paychecks, letter from employer that you are expected to return to work and return flight ticket. You could bring those as well, just in case?

Do not propose until you are in the country and a student! - we were facing the same choice, and it turns out that entering the us as a student and then marrying shortly after is frowned upon (i.e. they dont want you to do it). Part of the student visa is, that you have to convice them that you will go back to you country after you finish school.

We chose the k-1 route, even though i was already accepted at school (which i now have to postpone until fall, instead of starting in january) because we were already engaged when we realized that. And i decided i would rather have it this way than be found out through some freak mistake or slip on my part and be in trouble. (Also we are lucky enough to have had the choice, money, work and living arrangement wise.)

But if you can truthfully say you do not intend to get married at this time, havent proposed etc... Then i agree with what the others said.

Time wise, if you end up at TSC you will be in the US late summer either way ;-)

Good luck whichever way you do it and fingers crossed you get into the school!

Do you still have your passport that contains your "old" J-1 Visa? It says directly on your visa, whether you are subject to the two year rule or not.

I am not an expert, but look at your passport, see what it says and then just send them a copy of your passport page?

Also, I can´t see which country you are from - there are country specific rules for this that you should be able to find on the internet.

I have done the opposite (right hand traffic to left hand traffic) when moving from AUT to the UK.

After two weeks of walking and biking in traffic I was able to take on driving as well - I had someone with me to make sure I didnt mess up, but the only tricky thing were right turns for a few days and that was it (for him that would be left turns, as he is an the US now). As you are not only driving on the other side of the road, but also sitting on the other side of the car, that has always served as a good reminder. That was just my personal experience, however, I have Australien friends who moved to the US for whom it was similar.

The hardest part was not so much switching the first time, but switching back to right hand traffic when I moved back to AUT. Almost got run over by cars a few times, because I looked the wrong way *ups*

But I understand that driving is only part of what you are trying to find out... Hope it gets better for both of you!

Mena 28 says the work load is virtually the same, as I thought that TSC was just over loaded. If this is true, then, management is not doing their jobs of processing applications.

Why has this been this way for years, as when we went through VSC, we were 186 days, and CSC was doing in one half the time, now TSC is the new VSc,.,.,.,somebody is NOT doing their job!

With so many lives effected, why can we not get an investigation as to """WHY""" VSC, and TSC, are so similar, and ssssooooooooooo, slow, compared to CSC???

I was just looking at the numbers on VJ though - where all the timelines are? under each month it says how many petitions for each month for K-1. And there the numbers are virtually the same. Sure, only a part of all applicants finds VJ, but still it should reflect reality to some degree. (what are the chances that 2/3 of all CSC people find VJ, but only 1/3 of TSC? We all have access to the same internet)

Don´t know what their "official" numbers are, how many different types they are processing or haw many employees they have. All factors.

Yes, I can't even look at that other thread anymore. I'm quickly filling with rage at the injustice of this process. It's not the CSC people's fault, but I may just lash out one day. I think I just need to take a step back and not come on vj for a few months. I can't imagine 5-6 more months of this. This is bringing out a dark side of me.

I hear you. It is not that I don´t think it should be fast - I am happy for anybody who gets approved quickly, don´t get me wrong - but I wish their turn around for _everyone_ would be in the two month range or faster. Even that is a looong time to wait, but not knowing any timeframe is really not so much fun. Makes one be grumpy. And I really dislike myself grumpy, because I usually have a cheerful disposition ;-)

My fiance (who is the USC, works all day and doesnt have the time to hang out around forums all day :-P) have actually talked about complaining about the state of USCIS at the proper places now - more in general and less pertaining to our case. They (whoever "they" are, havent done my research yet), will not care unless enough people complain and they start being worried about votes.

And do not tell me that the government does not have a say what happens at USCIS and how, I simply don´t believe it.

Also with this immigration reform, that Obama just announced - I am happy for those people to stay, I really don´t mind if they get to legally change their status from illegal to legal, those who will do it are those who actually care about it anyways - but can they please put in an extra taskforce to deal with it, rather than dumping those 5 million people onto the already backlogged Service Centers?

Have you read my most recent thread, "Is This NOA2?"

Go check it out....

Thats awesome! I am happy for you :-)

Yesterday a guy what was in the TSC received his NOA2. He filed in October. He received it in 27 days.

Are you sure he was TSC, not a member of active military or otherwise expedited???

I think I read a couple at TCS who got their NOA1 in September got their RFE a couple days ago.

IF there is rhyme or reason to their processing order, it is highly... strange, lets call it that :-D

There was an October 2014 NOA1 thread somewhere, but it got buried under all the other ones, because noone ever posts anything, since _nothing_ has been happening :-)

Our NOA1 was October 20, so it has only been a month *puhhh*

There seems to be a huge discrepancy between TSC and CSC for some reason. But when looking at the number of petitions (for K-1) for each month for either one, CSC has at least as many, sometimes more (and that is even thoug a lof of people dont do their timeline right and show um as TSC, even though they are CSC). It is kind of weird. And also frustrating, yes.

Folks, there is already a pending petition on this topic! Means we can just jump on it and add our signatures. Here is the link

http://www.petition2congress.com/15763/uscis-texas-service-center-catch-up

Thank you

sevendelta!

maybe writing one that is inclusive of ALL pending petitions (rather than specifically I-485 like this one or K-1 etc) would be a good idea? I get a feeling that all types of petitions are affected, therefore it makes sense to combine _everyones_ voices. Rather than having 100 people for K-1, 200 for CR-1 or whatever, the number would be much higher and maybe, just maybe, someone might be more likely to listen?

Noone stops us from being concerned about long processing times before the 5 month cut-off, or pointing out discrepancies along the way while we wait.

PLEASE I HAVE A QUESTION, IF YOU KNOW OR WEBSITE I CAN FIND OFFICIAL ANSWER.

AS IN MY K1 VISA STATED VALID 12 NOV 2014 TO 06 MAR 2015,

DOES IT MEAN I HAVE TO ENTER BEFORE 06 MAR 2015. AND THERE AFTER I HAVE THE TIME OF 90 DAYS TO MARRY

Thats what it means.

You have to enter while it is still valid, and then once you enter you have 90 days to get married (and file for AOS, because otherwise the K-1 holder is out of status)

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but thats what I understood :-)

Did you check the K-1 guide?

you're not alone

the same boat

we've thried many times to create an account or to check our said case on USCIS website but all the trails went in vain, so we called them to investigate about this ERROR PROBLEM and they said it's a technical problem and will be solved soon, so we've been waiting since November 7th and nothing's solved.

thanks! that makes me feel somewhat better :-)

Always makes me feel so stupid when I cant get computer stuff to work, that should working!!! :-D

Random question - I can´t access my status (nothing new there), but both my fiance and I are also unable to even create an account in the first place. It just says "technical error, please contact tech support". which is about as helpful as the number I get with the validation error message.

Does anyone have any idea how to get around that? Or the same issue so I know I am not alone?

thank you so much!

I forget where it was, but in another thread someone pulled all the data and wrote a whole analyzing program (for the sake of doing something ;-)) and arrived at the working theory that only the ones that are approved are in the system and everything else is just sitting there, until it gets approved.

Needless to say, I am not a huge fan of that theory, but the poster made it sound very plausible.

I am October NOA1 myself, and I can´t access it either, and its only been a month...

Fingers crossed, right?

There is really only one aspect I know something about here - learning to drive in the winter is not a problem, I did it too, in a winter when everything was covered in snow and ice from October until April. Take it slow. Trust him to be able to do it. Being independent is such a huge thing - especially in NE OH, right? ;-) Drivers Ed is probably a good idea - maybe also for someone else to go driving with him, other than you? Or is he OK with you knowing how to do something better than him? (I had a boyfriend years ago who had a huge problem with that, thats why I am asking...)

Culture shock can be a huge issue too - I had reverse culture shock and it took me over a year to adjust. During that time I was not the easiest person to be around, but work and a supporting family helped a lot.

I think it is hard to prepare for the first time really being together - having the visa and getting married is only the beginning :-)

All the best to both of you!

I hope someone who has had a similar experience can give more supporting ideas.

I have been getting the error message since my fiance called and asked if we could add some more to our application (forgot about G-325a because we filed before finding this site :-D and overlooked it in the USCIS instructions - which are really not that good, I dont think) and they said, sure, just send it in. And now we can´t get a status.

We got our NOA1 October 21.

Oh yay! More Austrians!

My fiance and I are only two weeks into this process, at the TSC, how do you stay sane not knowing how long this takes?

fingers crossed for everyone :-)

Transfering from the Texas lock box to the CSC still only takes 8 days? i work for the government and can't believe they can be that expeditious! i take it that they sort based on the address on the front of the packet?

Lol.

According to the Map we should be in Vermont, but the Dallas Lock Box rerouted us to Texas, for some reason (my fiance lives in MA)... looking at processing times I wish we had ended up in VT though :-P