the_bears

Hello,

Just a quick update for anyone reading this in the future that may have the same problem I did. It is in fact very easy to get quick copies of your birth certificate from your local council where you were born, and it seems they can have them turned around very quickly, if you need it that way. I'd highly recommend just ticking it off the list early, however, and avoiding any unnecessary stress. Trust me on that one. Also, if you do screw up the MRV thing, and you realise it sooner than e-mail the support e-mail address ASAP, because it will take them a couple of days to get back to you. Thankfully, I had a response the night before my interview and they were able to fix my screw up, so I could pay the MRV fee before my interview.

So, thankfully everything went absolutely fine at my interview. It was very easy, once I got to the window both times. I think I got asked about three questions & that was it. The woman at the 2nd window was in fact very nice and friendly and just make everything a million times easier as soon as I got up there. Although, I think due to all the appointment times being PM ones, the place was absolutely packed. I must have been in there close to 4 hours in the end, I've never seen it that busy before. Anyway, I picked my passport up last week, it was about 10 days from Interview to it being back with me in Leeds, so not bad really. Thank you to everyone who has helped out! I owe you all many, many drinks to say thank you. Now, onto the next phase!...

If you are worried about the appointment, that isn't a problem. The same Immigrant Visa Unit folks do immigrant and K1 appointments. You will get an "immigrant" sticker and number when you go in.

If you paid $325 (immigrant) instead of $265 (K visa), you may not get a refund, but you have a receipt showing you are paid up plus. Sort it when you get there. It is all fixable, even going without the proper birth certificate.

That's the strange thing, I don't have the option anywhere it seems to actually pay anything?! I guess because I've registered under the different visa category perhaps it isn't prompting for payment anywhere? At this point I'd happily pay the extra $60 or whatever and be done with it. I called the call centre for them and whilst the woman was very polite she basically said there's nothing that she could do about it & that I would have to e-mail their customer support e-mail & they MIGHT be able to sort it. I've e-mailed so hopefully they will see it sooner than the 3-4 business days they quote you :/ time to pray.

Thanks for all the help everyone - I have use the Surrey Council website and ordered a long-form certificate, which I can pick up from their office. I will just have to make a little detour the morning of my interview to be there for 9am to pick it up & make it into central London by 12:30pm. Not ideal, but I'll have to make it work.

Good luck to you too, Spahawk. You might see me there, I'll be that dude pulling his hair out.

Anybody got any other advice for me on the other (and potentially bigger) problem about "registering" for the wrong type of VISA when trying to pay for my MRV Fee? :/ Eurgh. Idiot.

Yup. I'm THAT guy. That guy that I never thought I would be. And about 2 days before my appointment I come to realise that I don't have a 'long-form' birth certificate. That is to say that my birth certificate is a little square piece of paper that doesn't have any of my parents information on it.

I know this is the wrong one. I am just realising that now, for whatever reason, it was something my eyes have just chosen to blank out. I'm an idiot.

It is now Monday evening as I write this - my appointment is at 1pm on Thursday afternoon. Is there ANY chance of me being able to get a long-form birthday certificate before then? I'll literally do whatever I need to do to get one in time. I was born in Surrey but now live in Leeds, I'll happily go down to the local offices on Wednesday if it means I can pick one up the day before?! I just don't know if that is even possible?

Please any help at this point would be HUGELY appreciated to make me feel like somewhat less of an absolute idiot.

Also, to make matters even worse (yup, it's just been one of those days...) I registered to pay the MRV fee over the weekend and in my wisdom I selected the wrong option (I chose immigrant visa instead of K-1.... it gets me every single time the difference in my head). However, I can't seem to cancel this or delete the appointment or anything and obviously can't just register because their system already believes that there is an appointment with that Case number etc. I've e-mailed the embassy to see what I can do to change that, but due to the bank holiday haven't heard anything yet. Any advice please?! I just need some reassurance today that I'm not the worlds biggest idiot and that these problems can be fixed.

Congrat Pheebs, that's awesome. Glad that it's worked out so quickly for you. Hope you're enjoying Portland for me, haha.

Congrats Chris (And Kas too, of course) How did he find the medical appointment to be? Glad to hear that you guys are progressing well.

As far as the vaccinations go, I spoke to my GP surgery yesterday and apparently I have had....

- MMR (x 2?)

- Polio

- Diptheria

- Pertussis/Whooping Cough

So, am I correct in saying that I just need the Tetanus shot? Would that be Tdap?

Also, because I'm expecting to have my medical before the end of March, I will need the Flu jab too, right?

I have an appointment with the Practice Nurse on Tuesday where she said she could go through everything I need, so just want to make sure I'm all clear for her. I just need a copy of my vaccination history, with dates next to them all & then signed by the doctor?

Thanks for any advice!

Hello all! Sorry for the slow response, I had been trying to enjoy my last few days with my fiancee in Portland before heading back to the UK for a couple of months. Pretty sad as I'm sure you can all relate to. But alas, I'm back in the UK now and more determined than ever to figure this out.

Thanks to everybody that has contributed and I'm glad that this has helped some others too, that's great. After all the advice we'd been given on here, we'd decided to completely avoid the lawyer option. Seems pointless really because at this point it's all about the numbers - if you're sponsors don't earn X amount of money then, find ones that do. Not much a lawyer can do about that, other than advise really. And like @Nich-Nick said, a Lawyer might not be as clued-up on the local points as much as you guys on here might be, so cheers for that.

Thanks @Nich-Nick anyways for all the info (and everybody else too) it has definitely been very helpful and we have made a few developments I guess since then. Thanks for clearing up the difference between the I-134 and the I-864, that was definitely something I hadn't really appreciated the difference of before, but now it makes sense, so cheers for that. And also a big cheers to you and the other guys for creating that London K-1 guide, I have read it multiple times now and it's a big, big help, so cheers for that too.

As far as my Fiancee's sister goes, she is married as I mentioned, am I correct in saying that we could use the form I-864A and we could use his (the husband's) income also towards the sponsorship? Between them they make way over the required amount. Or would he have to technically become another co-sponsor? And is it possible to use the overall household income for the I-134 also?

I also don't quite understand (more a fault of the forms in my eyes) why the spouse is a +1 on the household size, because surely (as they are both USC) he can go on Welfare etc. if needed anyways - in the same way that my fiancee could. Just the discrepancy between the two is a little weird to me.

It's good to know that the I-134 is easier, but I figure if we can get everything into place for the I-864 NOW, then it's something we don't have to worry about come AOS time. Although it is a little more reassuring that London is a little easier on you than other places might be, so that's good.

Also, on a side note, I am self-employed in a business that doesn't require me to be in the UK to run - is this something that could be used as far as income and how would I show that on the available forms?

Thanks for all the advice so far, it's been really helpful and glad to see there's lots of PDX people on here too! I was definitely sad to say goodbye to it last week!

Hello Chris,

Thanks a million for the responses, very much appreciated. And that's awesome! I love Portland, I think it's a great city, I definitely love the vibe of the place, it's cool. Good to know I'm not the only one in this situation.

Hmm, well that kinda sucks anyway. So she'd have to include all 7 people in the household size? Even if the husband has his own job/income and my Fiancee surely wouldn't need to be included would she? I was hoping it would be more around the 5 mark (her, their three kids & then me). Hmmmm, definitely makes it a little more complicated.

Also, as far as my fiancee's tax return/income - how does that work because she doesn't have that job anymore (because obviously she is a full time student now) and so a lot of those questions on the I-134 don't really apply anymore - she did have that job for a couple of years, but on the form now surely she would have to list that she's a student with an income of '0' essentially, right? So surely at that point her previous tax returns are irrelevant because she's no longer earning that money?

And I definitely can't use any of my own US-based income on it in anyway, even though it's something that I could continue to earn once I enter the US?

I officially hate this form! I definitely don't want to go down the lawyer route, because you're totally right, that is a lot of money that could be spent on flights (which you know how important those things are in this situation!) but this just seems way too complicated to be solved on our own, and no matter how much I read, I still don't know what is possible and what isn't at this stage.

Definitely tearing my hair out!!

Hello all,

Having discovered this resource in applying for our K-1 Visa, I must first say that this is a wonderful, wonderful place and we owe a great deal to the help guides we've been following on here so far.

All has been going well so far, we submitted our I-129F package and all the supporting evidence in Mid-November, and a couple weeks ago we received our NOA2 - I've been amazed by how quickly the process has been progressing (especially after reading all the horror stories and studying the time charts so meticulously hah).

However, now appears to be where the problems may be forming, and as usual, they are complicated money-related problems. So, let me try and set the scene for you...

I am the beneficiary in this equation - I am from the UK. My partner (she) is from the US and has in September 2014 moved to Portland, OR (side note - lovely place!) to become a medical student. Which is great for her, but makes this situation a little more complicated.

We are currently in the process of filling out our I-134 Affidavit of Support and have hit a bit of a brick wall. So my first question, which I fear I already know the answer to:

Q1). Is she able to use her federal student loans, which she lives off of as a medical student - as an Income on this form?

Q2). She was working in the first 3/4th's of the 2014 year up until becoming a student, and has worked full-time for the past 2 years prior to this. So would she be able to use her Income from her 2014 tax return from Jan-Sept as Income? And even from her 2013 tax return?

Q3). Her sister has agreed to be a co-sponsor, if required, but we also have realised that her sister has three young kids... I assume that this bumps up the necessary required income for a co-sponsor - but what specifically does it increase it to? It's her, her husband and three kids. Then obviously me and the fiancee. Would this be 5/6/7? Please help. And specifically, what is the required income for this scenario?

Q4). To further complicate matters, I have also been employed in the US on a VISA previously (totally unrelated visa etc.) but it means that I also have a W2/Tax Return from the 2014 tax year with some Income on it (not much, but a few thousand here & there) - would I be able to use this as viable income on the form also?...

With this complicated of a situation, we are debating consulting an immigration lawyer, is this something you guys would definitely recommend doing? Obviously given our already laboured financial situation it wouldn't be our first choice but if it's something we may need to do we can.

Sorry for the long first post, but thank you so much for any insight anyone can give us, at this point it's very much appreciated.

Many thanks,