Dylan&Claudia

Hey Kirk

I know that the previous year's tax return is a requirement but in our case, the interviewers only asked for the affidavit of support I-134. We had also prepared proof of employment and a ton of paystubs but they didn't need those either. It might be different from country to country but we believe that if you are making enough right now, last year's income should not be an issue. It wasn't for us!

Best of luck!

Dylan&Claudia

Hey there,

When the NVC receives your case, they forward it to the consulate or embassy in your fiancee's country. They will notify you by mail when they do this (be prepared to wait a few weeks for this process to be completed). Once the embassy receives the case they will email you instructions for your fiancee in preparation for the interview.

If you don't receive the instructions, you can email the embassy in your fiancee's country. Make sure to include your case number, and ask them to send you them to you.

Hope this helped

Best of luck!

Dylan&Claudia

Congratulations on getting approved!

Now that the USCIS apporved your case they will forward it to the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC will forward the case to the consulate or embassy in your fiancee's country, they will notify you by mail when they do this. Once the consulate or embassy receives the case, they will email you with instructions for your fiancee in preparation for the interview.

Best of luck!

Dylan&Claudia

Hey Bybbies... It's our pleasure to help!

Okay, let's do this one by one

1. DS-160: if you already started filling it out and you did not need the invoice number then that is fine. We needed it to create the account to actually get to the website where we found the DS-160 but don't worry. Just make sure to fill it out correctly, print the confrmation page when you submit it and bring it to the interview.

2. Police record: Yes, it can be from the local office where he resides.

3. The second notice of action was a scanned and printed copy, it doesn't need to be the original one.

4. I'm sorry that it was such a hassle to get this certificate. Has your fiancee ever been married? If he has then he does need but if he hasn't then he does NOT need this certificate, but if he already has it then I would recommend him to bring it to the interview just in case.

5. The parent's name is not that important so you should not worry about it. Just make sure that you provide the correct information in the forms that you are filling out now. If at some point they ask him about it (which I doubt) he can just explain that it was a mistake and that you guys corrected it and it should be fine.

6. I think that it is possible for someone to come with you to the embassy, although I am not sure. I would recommend you give them a call to verify.

We are happy to help, we know how overwhelming and stressful this process can be so feel free to ask as many questions as you need.

Best of luck!

Dylan&Claudia

Hey there,

I would recommend you to email your embassy and wait for them to send you the instructions because this package contains a list of documents that you will need for the interview. Once you have the package you can create an account online to fill out the DS-160 form. In order to do this you will need your case and invoice number, if you don't have the invoice number you can call the NVC to request it. The consulates are usually pretty fast to reply to emails and it is always adviceable to be sure before doing anything.

Good luck!

Hi, we are Dylan and Claudia from California and Nicaragua and we just picked up our approved visa today after only 3 months of waiting! The K1 visa process can be very long and confusing so we wanted to outline our experience and offer the chance to answer any questions, especially for those dealing with the embassy in Managua.

We began working on the initial I-129f application in late January and mailed the completed package to the USCIS Dallas Lockbox Facility on February 6th. On February 10th we received an email from the USCIS providing a receipt number to check our case status online. On February 27th our case status was updated to inform us that our application had been approved. About a week later we received our first notice of action letter from the USCIS verifying the application approval. Afterwards we had to wait until mid March until we received the second notice of action letter from the Visa Center providing a case number and stating that the application would be forwarded to US embassy in Managua.

Pre-interview

On March 25th we received an email from the Managua Consular with a Spanish package of instructions in preparation for the visa interview. At this point you need to be very careful, since there have been several incidents of interviewees being denied for missing documents and the requirements are vague in the instructions (and contacting the embassy may result in conflicting information).

Here is a list of the documents that they actually requested at the interview:

• Medical examination envelope: the price of the exam is dependent on your age and medical condition. If you need extra exams or tests, it can be well over $200, but as a young, healthy 23 year old it only costed $170 (including vaccinations) with Dr. Matilde Reyes. After calling to make an appointment we were able to schedule one for the following day. Including x-rays, blood tests, and the physical examination it took 3-4 hours on a single day. The Dr. also asked for four 2x2 photos (separate from the photos that you bring to the embassy!). The instructions are outdated since Dr. Matilde Reyes was available on Thursdays.

• Police records: If you haven't lived in another country for more than a year then you only need a single unauthenticated police record from Nicaragua. Claudia obtained hers from SERVIGOB, 1.5 blocks away from Plaza Inter. Since she lived in Honduras for more than 1 year she had to take a trip to Tegucigalpa where she obtained a police record from the 'Corte Suprema de Justicia' located near Chiminike. The police record is authenticated by the 'Corte Suprema de Justicia' and then by 'Relaciones Exteriores' which is a few blocks away. This will take 3-4 days, but if you gently push the employees then you might be able to get it sooner. Any police record originating from another country must be authenticated.

• Birth certificate: Go to the address that is listed in the instructions. Since Claudia's birth certificate read "Libro de: reposicion de nacimiento" under the "Datos de la inscripcion" section, she had to get a unique certificate (Certificado unico) which took a couple of additional hours to process. They asked for both the regular and unique certificates during the interview, so bring both.

• Affidavit of support I-134: Dylan sent the original signed forms by mail (we received contradicting information on whether it needed to be an original copy or not). The instructions say that they request the I-864 form but at the interview they asked for this one instead, so it was a good thing that Claudia had both.

• Evidence: We worked on collecting as much evidence of our relationship as we could, which included: emails, call logs, chat logs, video call screenshots, photos and what we call a 'Relationship Diary' which is a google document that we have been keeping where we type out things and events that we experience together... It is full of romantic silliness so we thought that it would be good as evidence of our legitimate relationship.

• DS-160: There is a link in the instructions to an online application. In order to complete it you will need to create an online account using your USCIS case number and an invoice number. Since this invoice number was not mentioned in any of the letters that we received, we had to call the National Visa Center using the number listed in the instructions. After completion, print out the confirmation page to bring with you. The instructions referred to it as the DS-260, but it is actually the DS-160.

• Second notice of action letter: They requested this so that they could get our case number in order to retrieve the original I-129f application.

• Bring four 2x2 photos of the applicant to the interview (separate from the photos that you gave the Dr. during the medical exam!)

• Finally, here are other documents that Claudia brought to the interview but that they didn't ask for at all: the petitioner's copy of birth certificate and passport, proof of employment, pay stubs, previous year’s tax return, letter of intent, affidavit of support I-864 and the payment confirmation for the interview fee. You may still want to bring this stuff just in case.

Scheduling the interview

In order to schedule the interview you'll need to create an account at http://www.ustraveldocs.com/. Here we paid the $265 interview fee online with a credit card. On Friday, May 1st we scheduled the interview for Tuesday, May 5th. Claudia printed out and brought a copy of the appointment confirmation with her to the interview.

Interview

Claudia arrived at 7:10am for her interview scheduled at 8:00am. Tell the guard that you're here for a K1 interview and you can skip the line of people applying for regular tourist visas. You'll have to go through two security checkpoints. At the first security checkpoint they took Claudia's phone and anything else that they considered dangerous (e.g. a bottle of hand sanitizer in her purse). The second security checkpoint is basically the same except they don't take anything else from you (they don't have anything else to take!). Then they let her into a small room where a receptionist asked for her passport but couldn't find the appointment in the system so she had to scan the barcode on the confirmation page to find it. Claudia received a number and waited for about two hours to be called to the first of two interviews. A Nicaraguan official collected her documents and used the case number from the second notice of action letter to reference the initial I-129f application (which is presumably why they did not ask for Dylan's birth certificate or passport photocopy). Then he asked Claudia how we met, how many times we had seen each other, how we keep in contact, and if she had any evidence with her. That's when she gave him a binder with all of our evidence (the same that we submitted with the first application). He then told her that she was going to be interviewed by the consul and asked her to wait to be called again. After about 10-15 minutes she was called by name to a different window where the American consul asked her if she could speak English, to which she said yes, so the interview was entirely in English. This one was less than 5 minutes. He took her fingerprints and then asked her how we met, what we both do for a living, how long we have been dating and that's it! He had her sign some documents and told her that the visa had been approved. They will retain your passport in order to issue the visa.

After 6 business days the visa was ready to be picked up at the location selected on ustraveldocs.com. Overall it took us a few days over 3 months to receive the visa after sending in the initial application, and it would have taken at least 3 weeks less if not for some mishaps with obtaining the Honduran police record.

And now some advice for the application process that we developed after countless hours of research and reading other visajourney stories:

• Quadruple check all forms. It is easy to miss a field and the smallest mistakes can cost you months in delays. We were very cautious, so luckily we did not encounter any issues with our paperwork.

• Front load the initial I-129f with all proof of relationship evidence that you can find. Officially you only need enough evidence to prove that you have met at least once within the past two years, but this application will eventually be forwarded to the embassy in Managua and reviewed by your interviewers. This is your opportunity to show off your photos, chat and call logs, etc. before the interview even begins. It is better if you suffocate them with evidence so that they don't have any reason to question your relationship. A helpful tip is to caption all of your evidence with a brief description and date.

• For the proof that we had met within the past two years we included a copy of the flight itinerary email, a copy of the immigration stamp on Dylan’s passport, a copy of Dylan’s bank statement where we outlined transactions that he made during the visit, a copy of Claudia’s bank statement where we outlined the payment for two of our hotel rooms, and a booking confirmation for one of the hotel rooms. Once again, it is always better to provide too much evidence rather than not enough.

• For any documents or evidence included in the I-129f application that are written in Spanish or any other language, provide a second translated copy with a signed statement by the translator at the bottom (either applicant can serve as the translator, no need to hire a professional one).

• In general, it is safer to have original copies of any signed documents (so mailing documents with “wet” signatures may be necessary).

• Unless you’re allergic to paperwork, hiring a lawyer is definitely not necessary and in some cases may even hurt your chances since there seem to be a lot of stories of inept lawyers who improperly fill out forms.

• Be prepared for fees: $340 for the initial I-129f application, $170 (or more) for the medical exam, $265 for the interview, and many more fees to come during the naturalization process. You do NOT need to pay a post-interview USCIS fee online nor at the airport for the K1 visa.

We hope that this helped, we will be happy to answer any questions.

With love,

Dylan and Claudia