sailorgal

I hope I am posting in correct forum.

So I reached the States earlier this month (on a K-1 visa), me and my (now) husband we did a court house marriage and now we're putting in all our paperwork together for my AOS application. I have a few doubts though.

1. The SSN guide here on visa journey does not say anything about having a valid EAD to apply for a SSN but I read over a few forums here how the SSA officials ask you why you need SSN when you apply for it and turn you down if you do not have a valid EAD and that mostly people apply for it after they get the EAD.

So is it okay if I apply for a SSN already? Or do I wait till I receive the EAD and then apply for SSN?

2. Name change: I wish to take my my husband's last name but the notary who got us married at the courthouse told us that they don't do name changes. That we would have to go the DMV in Orlando, apply for a driver's license and that's where I change my name. So the marriage certificate we got from the courthouse still bears my unchanged pre-marriage name, if you know what I mean. Now I will apply for AOS and EAD together and I would want all those documents to have my new name. So how do I go about this one? Apply for a driver's license first, change my name, and then apply for AOS? Or will I have to apply with my original name because that is what the marriage certificate has on it.

Just HOW DO YOU ACTUALLY GET YOUR NAME CHANGED is my question.

Really appreciate any help we need to send in our AOS package soon.

Thank you!

O lord I just got here like one week back, it was literally last Wednesday and till now everything has been good but I know I will hit the I wanna go home, I'm sick of everything here phase some day and I know nothing can prepare me or my soon to be husband for that. I just wanted to share that the day I got here I didn't even feel even like I was in foreign country. It was like I was home to the love of my life. That could be because I've known him for so long and I was ready to be here with him (or anywhere on earth but with him), because of all the anticipations I had about our life here and how I would imagine it would all be and how I'd read about the places we'd be staying at (which is Florida right now, could be Georgia next) that when I actually got here it really didn't feel like I was away from home. Did anybody here experience this? May be this feeling that I had/have will not let the homesickness phase get too bad. Or may be right now it's the excitement of being with him finally, meeting his family and planning a wedding is keeping the homesickness at bay. O well we shall see how things go in this direction after a few weeks.

OP I can't really comment on your topic, never been to Texas and I just got here. But I really really hope things get better with you soon and you feel at home here. Good luck!

A small umm excerpt from my signature. I hope this helps. USCIS takes time to get back to your USC fiance acknowledging that they received your petition. So just hang in there.

Also your checklist looks just fine.

March 24, 2015: K1 petition mailed to Lewisville, TX via UPS

March 27, 2015: UPS tracking shows USCIS has received the petition

March 31, 2015: C receives NOA1 notification in email and text with USCIS receipt number (7 days after submitting the petition) (waiting to receive NOA1 hardcopy)

I am not a 100% sure about this but I think you're not going to get your passport back until the embassy finishes processing your case. If your approved (which I think you are since they kept your passport) they will mail your passport to you with your visa on it. If theyb think you're not eligible to obtain a visa right now they'll send you your passport without a visa and issue you a 221g (if you applied for K1 visa, may be they issue 221g for other types of visas too). This form states your visa was denied. So all you can do wait and hope they process your case soon.

good luck!

Yes this means your case is progressing. For every day that someone at the consulate/embassy shall touch your case file they will update the date. Your case status might show 'ready' with that '...schedule an appointment...' message for a few more days but know that if the date changes they're processing your visa.

I had my visa interview on the 10th of July. Status said 'ready' on the 10th. Status remained ready but dates changed on the 11th, 13th and 15th. On 16th it went into administrative processing and stayed there until afternoon of the 17th when the status updated to issued. So it took exactly one week for them to issue me the visa.

Congratulations on being approved and good luck.

Me and my fiancé met online too over eharmony.com but he did not receive any such RFE. Thankfully. I do agree it is one crazy RFE and this is just me but may be match.com sounds like a match making website name so they generated that RFE for you?! But yea don't bother/worry too much about it and just send USCIS what they need. Also you've answered your question for yourself; I think those evidences you mentioned be enough along with the terms and conditions part like someone here stated.

No you don't have to mail it to the embassy/consulate. Your fiancé will have to take the sealed envelope with them to their interview.

good luck

Hei everyone so I had my K-1 visa interview at the Mumbai Consulate yesterday and I will write a detailed consulate review/interview experience in some days when I know more and have more time to write but right now I need inputs here.

So the interview happened yesterday was fine, the CO kept my passport and all my documents said "so your interview was fine, you will hear from us soon through an SMS and you will have your passport mailed to you in a few days" and then sent me off and I was on my way back when they called me back to the consulate for a re-interview; reason, the CO suspected we were married already by looking at our engagement pictures (the pictures that he had looked at already while interviewing me the first time and back then was like "cool!"). I explained to him what an India engagement ceremony is and how it is different from a marriage he saw the entire photo album (which he did not in my first interview).

Then while submitting the original petition to the USCIS we did not pay so much attention towards the hubby/wifey words in our texts and those words accidentally crept into the texts we had submitted with the original petition to the USCIS. So at the re-interview he asked me if we were married, I said no, and then the engagement photo album thing happened. He seemed convinced and then said "thank you I just wanted to clarify these facts" and kept my documents and passport again.

My question to you is, did I screw it up? And does keeping passport means a visa? I do know it could mean AP as well but they did not deny me the visa on my straight face. Now I am just afraid about AP or them mailing me a denied visa application with no visa on it. Do they do that? Keep all documents the end of the interview and then mail a denied application to you? I have read over other forums here how if a visa application is denied they give you back your visa right there and tell you it has been denied. I did not get a 221g thing either. So what do you think?

Also the weirdest part; the CO did not ask for any sort of financial documents from me, no affidavit of support, no tax returns from my fiance's job, no pay stubs no nothing. It that weird or do they do that sometimes?

And where do I track my visa application, over the ceac website? Do they show the result of the interview in approved/denied form there?

Thank for your help.

Here was my checklist for my interview

-Passport with photocopies of first and last page

-Around 4 visa size 2inch*2inch photos of the beneficiary (they ask for two but it is always good to keep a few extra copies)

-DS-160 confirmation page (keep at least copies)

-Appointment letter (2 copies)

-Medical examination report

-Police Clearance Certificate (2 photocopies)

-Beneficiary's Birth Certificate (2 photocopies, they asked me for a photocopy at the interview. And if possible Petitioner's Birth Certificate too, they don't ask for it but just in case they do)

-Visa fee payment receipt

-Affidavit of Support

-Proof of petitioner's employment including pay stubs (at least up to 6 months worth), IRS tax transcripts, letter from the employer if possible telling you are employed there

-Bank Statement from the bank where you have your accounts are at. Ask them to draft a letter for you addressed to 'To whom it may concern'. The letter should state the date your account was opened, total amount deposited over the last year and present balance. You may include a bank statement instead.

-Might want to send your fiance to send originals of NOA1, NOA2, NVC letter and take those with original letter from the Conculate/Embassy to interview

-Might want to send your fiance a copy of the entire petition you sent to the USCIS, not necessary but my fiance had sent me

-New letter of Intent from both of you dated closer to the interview date, I wasn't asked for this at the interview but I wanted to be prepared for anything

-Might wanna include letters from your and your fiance's parents saying they support you both and your marriage plans and are looking forward to welcome you and your fiance in their families as son/daughter in law. Again I wasn't asked for this but I wanted to be prepared.

-Photos of the two of you together, screen shots of Skype/Whatsapp/Facebook chats, screen shots of any conversations with petitioner's parents, petitioner's conversations with yours

The OP fixed this situation. However, for the benefit of others who are reading this thread: The above advice is perhaps the worst ever offered on VisaJourney. If the consul suspects that you're married, you WILL be refused the visa and will be placed in the position of trying to "prove a negative."

In general, provide the consul with information that YOU want HIM to see.

OP, looking forward to a positive report.

I hope you can help me out here. For others I will write a detailed consulate review/interview experience in some days but right now I need some inputs here. So the interview happened today a few hours back was good, the consular officer kept my passport and all my documents said "so your interview was fine, you will hear from us soon through an SMS and you will have your passport mailed to you in a few days" and then sent me off and I was on my way back when they called me back to the consulate for a re-interview; reason being the CO suspected we were married already by looking at our engagement pictures (the pictures that he had looked at already while interviewing me the first time and back then was like "cool!"). I explained to him what an India engagement ceremony is and how it is different from a marriage he saw the entire photo album (which he did not in my first interview).

Then while submitting the original petition to the USCIS we did not pay so much attention towards the hubby wifey stuff and those words accidently crept into our texts so at the re-interview he asked me if we were married, I said no, and then the engagement photo album thing happened. He seemed convinced and then said "thank you I just wanted to clarify these facts" and kept my documents and passport again.

My question to you is, did I screw it up? And does keeping passport means a visa? I do know it could mean AP as well but they did not deny the visa on my straight face. Now I am just afraid about AP or them mailing me a denied visa application with no visa on it. Do they do that? Keep every thing at the end of the interview and then mail a denied application? I have read over other forums here how if a visa application is denied they give you back your visa right there and tell you it has been denied. I did not get a 221g thing either. So what do you think?

Appreciate inputs from anybody else reading this. Thank you.

Forgot to add the weirdest part - he did not ask for any sort of financial documents from me, no affidavit of support, no tax returns from my fiance's job, no pay stubs no nothing. It that weird or do they do that sometimes?

back at post #1.

It's a lot of stuff to digest, but one thing I twigged on -

do not use the advice of a B1 visa chaser as gospel, the rules of adjudication on visas is different.

That's it..

It was a lot for me as well and I came to know of it right like a week before my interview and it sent me straight into a panic mode.

I guess I will find out what is and is not at the interview though yes I am sure they have different rules and criterion for very visa category.

Don't edit but definitely do not submit entire conversations where you call each other husband and wife or you can easily be denied.

NEVER make definite travel plans until visa in hand but since you already booked a flight it doesn't matter if you let them know or not.

You can submit wedding plans, no problem with that except you may lose all your deposits if you aren't approved or go into AP, some embassies

like to see wedding plans.

As to what can they see in your chats and social media account, email etc....everything they want to but that doesn't mean that they will

or do it automatically. Anything you don't want seen online don't put it there is the best policy.

Yes I agree. Removed any suspicious parts from the conversations. I hope I don't go into AP we forgot to consider that when my fiance brought my ticket but I am just going to be positive and hope everything goes well.

Your timeline was inspiring. Takes a lot to handle a denial and start from the scratch all over again. Kudos to you!

man you did good do you knew or heard anything about k3 visa help

THANKS DEAR

Hey sorry I know nothing about K3 visa so I can't help you on that one. May be you could refer K3 forum over here on VJ if they have one.

Good luck!

What evidence has already been submitted to them? Are you bringing additional evidence that was not submitted with the application originally?

I don't think USCIS is going to use the NSA to see your internet communications.

Travelling to the USA and making wedding plans is normal for people who are engaged. They are not going to be offended that you are presuming your visa will be granted or something. I wish people would read on here before they made plans like this though - the visa process is very uncertain and no plans should be made until you have the visa in your hand.

Be careful here. They are going to ask you when your wedding date is, where your wedding will be, things like this. You do not want to get caught contradicting yourself. How do you avoid this? Tell the truth 100%. You have wedding plans and flight plans. Don't try to hide stuff... you don't want to appear sneaky. That is my advice...

edit: Sorry I forgot to address the husband/wife part. Probably a good idea to remove that and call him your fiance. I have heard interviewers ask "is your husband blah blah blah" and if you don't say "fiance, not husband" they get weird. Don't worry too much - just relax and be honest.

We have already submitted pictures together and facebook/whatsapp/skype conversations from right when we met to when my fiance submitted the visa application in March '15. I'm just taking conversations after the month of March until now with me to the interview. And I know may be buying the tickets before the visa wasn't a smart choice on our end but ahh I think it was a 'on a spur of the moment' kinda decision we took. I mean riding through the uncertainty of the visa process we just wanted to make a few things that we had under our control, certain.

Though yes I don't want to appear sneaky and give them any chance to deny my visa or send me into AP.

Ah okay so they do that on purpose to test us? Say husband when they mean fiance? Thank you I will keep that on my mind.

I would definitely remove the part about being glad to have him as your husband. I would be cautious with hubby/wifey stuff..... you probably have many pages of chat, why not just pick something examples that do not have hubby/wifey? Keep it simple.

As for your ring, if it's an engagement ring I would wear it. When my wife went for her k1 interview in New Delhi, they asked about if she had an engagement ring then they asked to see it. So if you have an engagement ring, wear it proudly. If you have a wedding band, I would leave that at home.

You have a great shot at being ready for September, but it's a risk. You can be in AP for a long time plus there's no guarantee you will get the visa. With that being said, I'm going to assume your fiance cannot get a refund for the tickets so you might as well keep them for now. If you have all your paperwork, do everything correctly, and can readily answer the questions they ask you there's a 90%+ chance you will be fine.....

Hubby/wifey parts removed, engagement ring at the jewelry store for repairs so can't wear it but I have the repairs receipt that I am going to take with me just in case they ask. I hope I don't have to go through AP and I have taken every document with me I could think of so let's hope I fall in the 90% approval window and not the 10% denial window.

warning on editing chat. They have access to your data and they will not like edited submissions.

That does not sound too good. In fact a little scary even but like someone here said I think so too that they don't use NSA or that kind of snooping around on people. May be they check Facebook but I hope it is not more than that. It will be an intrusion into our privacy; none of us would want to share our private conversations with a stranger and never all the more if he is a consular officer!

I would consider taking out the husband part of the conversation. If they suspect you are married you will be denied. People on here have gotten into trouble because they called each other husband/wife, hubbie/wiffie.

I removed those texts and replaced them with others. I hope I will be okay now.

Good luck on your travel and congratulations on your wedding can't wait for mine!

Hi -

I am doing k1 visa as well and spoke to a lawyer in India who specializes in US visas in India. General suggestion is that the CO suspect that married couples file for K1. This is due to cultural reasons specific to India. So I would suggest removing any chat/transcript that indicates words like wife, spouse or husband. And in the interview if you have a ring - remove that as well.

I don't think ticket is necessary to show. In the interview if anything comes up - you can say you blocked a ticket.

Demonstrate you are aware of the process that you plan to marry in 90 days after landing.

Good luck - please share your interview experience. Chances are my fiancée will go to Mumbai Consulate as well.

Thanks,

Hi thanks a lot. Sorry for the late response I was travelling for the interview. Biometric went by real smooth and I was in and out in 5 minutes with around 10 minutes of waiting outside in the queue. I will write more in the consulate review. I went by everybody's suggestion here and removed any conversation screen shots that had 'suspicious words' in them and replaced those with other conversations. I already am not wearing the ring because it is with the jewelry store for repairs. But I am carrying a receipt from the store with just in case they want to see the ring. And I like your idea about telling them that we have only blocked a ticket but they might ask me for an evidence there and I have none so I am just not going to say anything about the travel plans. I will definitely share my experience in the review section. Hopefully everything goes well tomorrow *nervous*

And thanks a lot I need luck, loads of good luck tomorrow.

Hubbie wify is fine. But I don't think the ticket story would be a good idea. I had my interview on June 16, 2015 and I have been in administrative processing since then. CO asked me for my CV/resume. And I don't have one. So he asked me to go home and send it to them by email. Make sure to have a copy of your cv with yourself in your interview.

Cheers

Thank you. And I have a few copies of my CV but it never occurred to me that they could ask for so I did not include it in my interview file. Now I update it and take it with me.

Hello everyone

So I have my K-1 visa interview at Mumbai Consulate coming Friday, that is July 10. I have the entire paperwork ready but a few minutes back I had a talk with someone who has a B1 10 year validity visa and now I have some serious doubts.
For the proof of relationship part, I have taken several screen shots of my conversations with my fiance and his parents, our pictures together, have our engagement ceremony pictures and some more stuff.
I know I don't have my visa yet but my fiance still went ahead and got my ticket (for September) last month cause by the time I would have been done with the interview and had the visa the tickets would have become more expensive than they were last month. The screen shots of conversations I had with my fiance's parents have me telling them that he has brought my ticket and I am coming out there September 2nd. Me and his mom are also discussing about the wedding ceremony in the conversations. The screen shots of conversations I had with my fiance show us discussing which date we should pick for my travel and obviously some other general conversations.

Now this person who I talked to said I should remove any screen shots of conversations that say when exactly will I be travelling to the States, not carry a print out of my ticket with me and if they ask me about my travel plan I should say "nothing is concrete yet I will only decide once I have my visa"
Their reason being that if you tell them that you have already made travel plans then you would show that you haven't considered the visa process, that you have taken the process or the authorities for granted by already buying a ticket without a visa. They also said you could also come across as 'overconfident', again cause you have brought the ticket without the visa.

But I have read here over other forums how the Consular Officers ask for catering receipts, letter from a Minister or other 'concrete' wedding plans. So if having concrete wedding plans as these do not make a person appearing for the interview come across as overconfident or taking visa process for granted would buying tickets before getting a visa would? Should I remove any conversation that says when I am travelling to States?

And another doubt. In conversations screen shots with my fiance I have a few messages where we call each other hubby/wifey just out of love and there is one text where I say something and he says "I am fiercely proud of being your husband". We are not married but we just love calling each other that. So would it raise red flags if a Consular Officer reads hubby/wifey in our conversations and would that make them think that we are already married and pretending to be fiance? If that is so I will just go ahead remove those screen shots.

Thank you in advance for your help and appreciate your patience with my long question.

Thanks for your help everyone I hope they all are allowed to come out there for the wedding I couldn't ask for more

So you mean the important part here is to not prove what reason they are travelling for but that they will all come back right? All this time we mostly only discussed about what stuff we could give in to show why they wish to travel to States never discussed so much about stuff that shows they are going to come back.

Heii everybody so I have my K-1 visa interview scheduled for next month and if everything goes well and I get the visa I travel to States on 1st September, 2015. I and my fiancé are planning on registering the marriage i.e. do court marriage soon as I get there so we can go ahead put in paperwork for my AOS and work permit and get that major part out of the way. After that is done we are planning on having a little ceremonial wedding with his friends and family and my parents (mom, dad and one sibling) around October mid-ish to early November.

My question is that, what are the chances that my parents and my sibling would be granted a tourist visa? If not the 10 year visa would they at least be granted the 6 month tourist visa? Or maybe my parents would be given the 10 year visa and my sibling a 6 month visa? (She is only 15 we don't really have anything on her to 'prove her ties' to India apart from her school that she attends)

So I was thinking that after I am done with my interview and I get approved my family could go ahead and apply for their visas and carry my K-1 visa photocopy as a proof that they are indeed intending to travel for their daughter's wedding and do not wish to immigrate. Their return tickets and hopefully papers showing my dad owns a house here, papers showing he has money in his bank and letter from his work place stating he works at this place and that he is required to get back to work on so and so date would help. My mom is a German language tutor and runs a language training place so may be papers showing that could help mom get a visa. And we are also planning to print out invitation cards for the wedding and my family could take that for the interview. Also going to include wedding invitation letters from my fiancé and his parents. So that's all that we could do and show, that my parents got liabilities out here and they would come back, just got nothing on my sister.

So hit me hard with the reality here, would they all be granted a visa? Cause if even one of them is denied then probably none of them would come to States and I won't feel like doing the wedding either, just the court marriage then. Has anybody been through this situation? Do they make any exceptions in such cases as these? Please share your experiences with me. Please mention any additional documents that my family might want to carry to the interview to support their case.

Another question, if a tourist visa is denied does one have to pay visa fee again when they re-apply? Cause obviously they won't let you schedule an interview until you have paid the visa fee and if you are denied I don't know what they do with your visa fee.

Sorry for the long list of questions I would really appreciate some help.

I hope the consulate won't be cruel/stone-hearted enough to not let parents attend their child's wedding. Every parent wants to be with their child on this special day of their lives.

How lucky is that. You guys were literally in the first stack sent to CSC.

O boy now that makes up all the more lucky!

Wow I was never aware that all the K-1 applications sent in around late March were being routed to CSC. My fiance sent in our petition from Florida and we thought it would go to TSC like every other K-1 application since Florida falls under TSC's jurisdiction (if I remember correctly). And then we got this notice that said our case was being routed to CSC and all this time we were feeling super lucky that our petition was 'magically' routed to CSC and we didn't have to go through the TSC BS and that really made us both counting our blessings!

My fiance sent in the application to Lewisville lockbox on 24th of March and its been less than 3 months into the process and I already have my interview scheduled for the 10th of July, could have been sooner but I needed some time to prep for the interview.

So now I know we fell into this route-to-CSC category and no I am not complaining. But its kinda spooky (in a good way) how this new route-to-CSC thing came in just as we sent in our application, the timing couldn't have been more perfect on our end.

So yea if that is how it's working right now I think you should just let your application be @Pawstruck and may be 2 months from now when your case is approved by CSC you will be counting your blessing and be feeling glad that you didn't waste those two months in moving to Boston and then mailing your application.

Good luck with the process!

No you don't have to wait in Mumbai. While scheduling your interview you must have mentioned what city you want your passport to be sent to and that becomes your passport pick-up point. So your passport would to mailed to that city via blue-dart and you will have to go collect your passport from their outlet and carry an id proof with you when you go. Also they will only hand over the passport to the person who applied for the visa/the person who owns the passport so you will have to be present personally to collect the passport.

I read a few forums where the OPs stated how they were asked to wait for an additional day, at the Consulate/Embassy city they went to for the interview, to collect the passport from the Consulate/Embassy itself. I don't know how reliable this information is but I don't wish to delay anything and so after my interview on July, 10 (next month) at Mumbai Consulate I have planned on staying in Mumbai for one more day and leave on the 11th just in case they ask me to come back and collect my passport the next day.

I hope you have received your passport by now. Good luck on your travel to United States. Please update your timeline and review the Consulate/Embassy you went to for the interview.