~Alessa~

My case has been on AP for 7 months at Montreal. No additional documents needed. the consular officer said "Everything looks fine, you need to wait 2 or 3 weeks". My husband is a Canadian Citizen but was born in Cuba. Has been here in US many times visiting and his police records from both countries are clean. The consulate always answer the same thing to me and to my congressman, "Still on AP you need to wait". Has been a really hard and sad waiting but not other choices are given.
Good luck to everybody waiting, All the best!! and Happy Holidays

I just went through this same thing ! My husband had his visa photo taken in the city where he lives and had them download it onto a memory stick for him. He then sent me the file and I took it to FedEx/Kinko's and printed it out. They had to re-size it to get it to print 2x2.

как я написал выше, искать 2х2 не нужно. как только он вставит флешку в ихний комп пусть сразу выберет фото для паспорта (там фотография паспорта). или лучше сразу скажет персоналу что есть фотка на флешке и нужно отпринтовать для паспорта. ее наду будет загнать в одну форму а это пусть они сделают, они знают свою работу.
удачи!
translation
as I said above, he doesnt have to look for 2x2". when he connects his flash drive to their PC, he must select passport photo (or whatever it was). Or tell the staff he has picture on his flash drive and need to print it for passport. It must be adjusted, let the staff do that, they know it better
good luck!

Make sure to attach a translation when you are outside of regional forums! Supposed to keep it in English

Perfectly fine as long as they're legible.

Black and white is fine as long as they can translate and read it ur good

Yeah! They charged me 12 bucks for two of them! The guys specifically told me I cannot charge you like if you were printing 5x7 prints. So i said okay. it was that or my mom paying $25 through DHL to send me the pictures.

Give us the location and store number of that walgreen's so we can troll them

cvs and walgreens.
when you say 'sent' - do you mean you emailed something? if yes, have your petitioner use a computer, get online with cvs or walgreens photo section, and do it again. it's easy, really !

same amount of money? no way !
example - at walgreens:
1. get passport photo made and printed there - 13 bucks for 2 photos.
2. use digital services online, print at local store, 59 cents per print.

I would try different Walgreens! I had the same issue and went to a different Walgreens 8 blocks away and the guy was really nice and did it for me. I honestly don't understand what the big deal is. You are paying the same amount of money than if they were taking the picture for you.

The clown is just seeking recognition. The bill would never become law or even make it out of the committee. Knee jerk reaction doesn't ever fix anything.

so, his reasoning for suspending all k1s until congress votes to reverse it..is that ONE PERSON was able to enter the country out of ALLLLLLLLLLL the k1s that arrive. daily.
and this is how terrorists win, we limit our own freedom out of fear.

The Passport Photo's are not official, even when submitting a Visa Application or Passport application, the instructions specifically state to submit a Passport "Sized" Photo. There is no place that you can go and say "Hey I need a Passport Photo, and they provide you a 2x2 and state, now remember this is an official Photo, you cannot use it for ANYTHING else WHATSOEVER, It must, and only be used for a passport application." I'm sorry but that logic is silly. There is nothing official about wanting a place to print you a 2x2 picture of someone, Hell what if he had a Christmas Ornament he was hanging on his tree that only took 2x2 photo's.
The point is, a picture is a picture, what you use the picture for is your own decision, and a company cannot make the decision whether or not to provide you with services based on assumptions.

That is unfortunate, because according to Walgreen's corporate website all locations are capable of printing Passport photo's. I understand there is the immediate need for the filing of the paperwork so have him look into CVS Pharmacy, and Walmart as well, but he should file a complaint against the Walgreens location he went to with their corporate office because they refused a service they are supposed to provide. I have 6 different walgreens within 60 miles of my location, I have personally be to 4 of them to have passport photos printed, and not a one has told me they were unable to. 1 of the locations I had my photo taken, the other 3 I brought my photo with me on a thumbdrive.

http://www.epassportphoto.com/95/Free/United%20States/Passport/step1You need to scroll though the site for "upload your own picture" button.
You should be able to download the finished product in JPEG format. Then you can copy it to a USB flash drive to be print in CVS / Walgreens / target store for around 20 cents.
I have used it many times.

I had mine taken at Costco

Best option is Walmart , that the s what my US fiancé did

Just use E-Passport-Photo. It's free. You upload your own digital photo, size it, and in return you get a 4x6-sized jpeg file containing four passport-sized photos you can take to CVS/Walgreens ... etc to print for twenty cents.
http://www.epassportphoto.com/

I've encountered this problem, too. Especially at Walgreens. My wife also doesn't have a way to get 2x2 prints for our process. What I ended up doing was getting the photographer in Vietnam to send me the original, uncropped, high-resolution file. On the computer I scaled the file so that when printed as a 2x3 (wallet size), I could cut it down to 2x2 with her face in the middle at the correct size. It's tedious, but I expect to see this problem not just at Walgreens but at most places (in the US) that offer passport photos.

No, but you would probably want to include some sort of statement showing what the adjucator is looking at.
I did the same, included a copy of the receipt of a pizza for delivery that was in my wife's name and sent to the apartment where we were staying.
I included a copy of the rental receipt for that same apartment which had the same address....therefore establishing that we both were in the same place.
I also include copies of currency exchange receipts which established an address in the city where we met in person along with a date, to corroborate the dates of our meeting.
So I scanned these in and pasted them into a Word document, inserted the scans and typed descriptions similar to above beneath each.
No RFEs.

Make sure everything gets in the envelope and that the correct address is on the outside.
When your envelope arrives at USCIS it will be disassembled and placed into one of their folders in the order they prefer. No matter what you do, it will look exactly the same as everyone else's a few minutes after being opened.
I suggest paper clips on the relevent documents and a binder clip on the whole thing. Thye do not like if you use staples, but there is no particular penalty for doing so. Clips are better.
ALWAYS send it by some verifiable method. USPS with delivery confirmation is good enough, you do not need the extra cost of the return receipt, just delivery confirmation. ALWAYS use some form of delivery confirmation. ALWAYS make at least one copy of EVERYTHING you ever send to anyone in this process.
Use a personal check for payment, it is easier to find out it has been deposited and you can get your case number off the back of the check. The case number and the delivery confirmation = everything you will learn on the NOA1.

Well I have all the forms we filled out and scans of the evidence of meeting (including air plane boarding passes/stamps) on my computer. And I saved it on the flash card also. So that's why I was confused about making copy cuz we were filling out everything on the computer.
Ah, then you should be all set. The whole point of "make a copy" is so that you have your own records, they may come to be useful at some point or another. Or not.
And I also little confused about transliteration, I filled out my parents name using "russian" style transliteration, but when I will make an AOS and make professional translator to translate my birth certificate I guess that US department style of transliteration is going to used?
for example Elena (is russian style) and Yelena (is US style).
But since in embassy they don't ask for a translation of birth certificate I don't know what to expect in US.
My feeling is that you want the transliteration to agree on both elements. It should not matter much (my Russian Foreign Passport had different last name spelling than all US documents, and nobody ever cared), but just to be extra sure you can use
http://moscow.usembassy.gov/transliteration_e.html- this is the official transliteration system that you should use. Russian style used to follow the french transliteration at some point ("ш" was spelled as "ch", not "sh"), but since you're applying to US, you should just use the US style. E can be either "e" or "ye" when needed, but I think you can spell Elena as is, "ye" is more for words where "e" would have been read differently by itself.
Excuse me, I am little confused)) Are you sure that G-325A form for K-1 visa should match with AOS G-325A?
Well, with certain exceptions Current living place's gonna change, status will change to married, and the person will be out of work when applying for AOS. However, "historical" data like parents names, birth date & place, or previous jobs should not change. If the spelling issue is fairly minor, chances are, it won't affect anything, but if you were to change a birthplace, that would sure raise eyebrows. Also, it is much easier to copy data from existing form and not have to figure out the full address of that place you used to work at 5 years ago.

Hi. I am passing forward how we did ours. I hope this helps you as well as it did to us. This is a very detailed instruction on how you do the whole package.
How to make the I-129 F petition folder to send to Immigration:
This is what I had: the US Citizen will be the one doing all the work at this stage. All the foreigner has to do is sign 4 sheets of paper and submit passport pix to the US Citizen, so that the US citizen can start putting the application together.
First, I bought a manila folder, the kind that opens up, like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_folder.
On the cover of the folder I glued a sheet of paper that said, “ I-129F petition” . And I put our names on it.
Ok, now the inside of the folder:
First I put 2 holes at the top and I two hole punched everything, all the papers.
I fastened everything with the ACCO fasteners—
http://www.instaoffice.com/2-piece-paper-f...992-ctn.0.7.htm
Then I had dividers, the kind you put in a Binder with the colored tabs, they are three hole punched on the sides, but I 2 hole punched the top.. these kind of dividers: http://www.jiffysupply.com/servlet/the-298/Dividers/Detail
With these dividers they come with the sheet of paper that allows me to write in what the topic is on the tab.
Ok, so now for assembling—everything I am saying applies to the US Citizen—
A. The first thing you will put in the folder will be the I 129 Cover letter. This letter will look like the following (look below for example - edit it based on your needs. And make sure you put the right USCIS address on it—vermont, Ca, or somewhere else):
US Citizen name,address, number
United States Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Accurate address
Date
Nature of the submission: I-129F ORIGINAL SUBMISSION
To whom it may concern:
Enclosed please find my form I-129F, Petition for K-1 Fiance(e) Visa for (put your fiance(e) name here), and supporting documents.
Contents Include:
-Payment in the amount of $XX – whatever the current amount is—look here--it was 455, but it always increases:
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD
-I-129F Petition
-I-129F Supplement: Part B, Question 18, Explanation of meeting in person
-G-325A and Passport Style photograph (petitioner)
-G-325A and Passport Style Photograph (Beneficiary)
Letter Certifying intent to marry (Petitioner and Beneficiary)
Petitioners Birth Certificate
Petitioners Passport –(copies of passport and all the entry /leave stamps that sghow you visited your persons country)
-Letter Certifying intent to marry (Petitioner and Beneficiary)
-Proof of having met in person in the past two years (state the proof you are including)
Copies of documents submitted are exact photocopies of unaltered documents and I understand that I may be required to submit original documents to an immigration or consular officer at a later date.
Sincerely,
your name, sign it
---------------------
Ok, so lets talk about the contents of the package:
1. The petition –the I-129F petition- you the US Citizen will sign that petition.
2. i-129 F supplement: this is just a brief detail of how you met your honey.thats all—just type it up on a sheet of paper because that box they give you in the petition is too small. Sign it and date it.
3. the G 325 A- the US Citizen will fill out 4 copies of it and sign each copy. The immigrant also needs to sign four copies of it and sign it. You will see how each copy says something different in the left bottom corner, like consulate, etc. Make sure you, the US Citizen send immigration the copies with the ORIGINAL signatures. So if you need to send the immigrant the forms to sign and then have that person send them back to you in the mail, that is what you will have to do.
Make sure you fill out these forms accurate and accordingly. Look here for
examples of how to fill out the form right.
This website is GOLD!!! Look at it because it gives you EXACT examples of what you will need: Look at how they filled out the I-129F petition and the G-325A.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...p;page=examples
4. You and your honeys passport pictures. Write your name in pencil on the back of your passport picture and on the back of the foreigners picture, write their name and “ No alien number” on the back of the foreigners pix cuz they probably dot have an alien number... When your foreigner goes to take his/her passport picture , make sure HE/She tells the photographer that it is for a US PASSPORT/Immigration, so that the photographer will give the foreigner the picture in the RIGHT size. It needs to be the right size. So when you have the picture, and you have written on the back, stick it in a clear Ziploc bag. Zip up the Ziploc bag. Print a sheet of paper that has your name on it. Put the picture in the bag. And staple the bag to the sheet of paper that has your name on it. Do it for both pictures.
Proof of relationship:
You , the US Citizen, can include: used phone cards, copies of envelopes you have been sent through the mail, some emails, some Skype calls, pictures, your plane itinerary when you went to the foreigners country, the boarding pass, the stamps in your passport are proof, receipts of things you may have purchased while in the foreign land, the stickers they stick on your suitcase that show the destination, copies of the money receipts you have sent to the foreigner- like money gram or western union, post office receipts that show you sent something to the foreign country.
On the back of the photos, make sure you write your names, date, and where you were in the photo.
ASSEMBLING
So you will have the manila folder and all your stuff will be 2-hole punched at the top. Don’t STAPLE ANYTHING – only staple the Ziploc bag with the picture to a white sheet of paper that has your names on it. So you will only use two-3 staples.
Ok, you have your manila folder:And all your papers, including the dividers that are 2 hole punched at the top
1. get your cover letter , the one that says what is in the folder, example above. Type this letter (US citizen) and date it and sign it. turn it over.
2. get the divider and write i-129F on the white tab that comes with it. Turn it over.
3. get your 1-129F petition form. Make sure it is signed and dated by the US citizen, Hole punch it and turn it over. Take your 1-129F supplement, sign and date it and turn it over
4. get the divider and write G325A. turn it over
5. get the US Citizen G-325 As. There should be 4 with the same exact data,all with the original signatures and all signed. All 2 hole punched at the top. Flip them over get the US Citizen photo. Write the name in pencil on the back. Stick it in a Ziploc bag. Staple the bag (make sure you don’t staple the actual picture) to a sheet of paper that has the US citizens name on it. Flip it over get the foreigners G-325 As. There should be 4 with the same exact data,all with the original signatures and all signed. All 2 hole punched at the top. Flip them over. Get the foreigners pic. Write the name in pencil on the back and write ,”no alien number”. Stick it in a Ziploc bag. Staple the bag (make sure you don’t staple the actual picture) to a sheet of paper that simply has the foreigners name on it. Flip it over
6. Get the divider and write : Letter of intent to Marry on the tab
7. Print out the letter of intent to marry which should have original signatures by both of you. This is simply a three sentence letter stating that you and the other person plan on getting married within 90 days of receiving the K1 visa. The Us citizen can type the letter and email it foreigner. Foreigner prints it, signs it, and sends it through the mail to U S citizen. Then Us citizen gets that letter and signs his/her signature too—this way two signatures will be on the same page. Hole punch this letter and flip it over.
8. Divider – write birth certificate or passport . Flip it over on top of everything else that is flipped over.
9. Us Citizens birth certificate. If you don’t have it, you can submit a copy of the pages of your passport (copies- do NOT send the original of these document). On the copies of your passport pages, highlight the stamps which show when you visited the country of your foreign fiancé. Hole punch the copies and flip them over.
10. get divider tab and write : Proof
11. Now, put a sample of your phone cards on a photocopy machine and photocopy the front and back, if you have any. Hole punch, flip over.
B. Print phone records of the times you have called your foreigner or/anf when the foreigner called/texted the US American. Hole punch,flip over
C. Us citizen should photocopy plane itineraries, boarding passes, luggage tags. Hole punch the photocopy and flip over.
D. US Citizen should photocopy envelopes he/she has received from foreigner. Hole punch and flip over.
E. US citizen should photocopy money receipts he/she has sent. Hole punch and flip over.
F. US citizen should photocopy some emails that have been sent to each other. Hole punch and flip over.
G. US Citizen should photocopy receipts from post office showing he/she sent packages/letters to the foreigner.
H. US Citizen should submit pictures of the couple together – at least 2. Make sure you write your names and locations on the back of the pictures..Put these pictures in an envelope or a strong Ziploc bag.Seal the bag and punch two holes in the bag so you can fasten it. Flip it over.
That’s it. Now flip everything over and put it on the fasteners – the two pronged fasteners. Get a paperclip and attach your check/money order to the cover sheet in the folder. Everything is in order – make sure your pictures are not backwards. Make sure the check is the right amount.
Now, make two copies of this file—the petitioner and the beneficiary will need EXACT copies of the file. So now you, the US Citizen, will have 3 files which are IDENTICAL. Us citizen keeps one for themselves, foreigner will eventually get the other copy when the US citizen gives it to him/her, and the copy with the live check will go to USCIS.
Send it off in a waterproof enevlope--staples has them. Send it through the post offuice and get some type of signature confirmation so that you know for sure that it was received.
Send it off and wait.

It was helpful for us, because at the embassy they gave him a sheet to fill out that asked for the past 10 years of living and working (basically the G-325a plus 5 years). That 325a was the worst part of the process for us-- he's moved around a lot and changed jobs frequently, it was an utter nightmare pinning down the timeframes the first time, so I'm really glad we had a copy with us at the interview to copy from (and thankfully the previous 5 years he was a teenager at at home PHEW).

Hi Alessa!
What I've done is I've scanned the entire package right before filing, to have a good record of everything we've sent, not 2 copies, just 1 huge PDF that I later printed to have a hard copy in case of rapid computer failure.
But basically, the copies are just for you yourself to remember what you put down.
For example, g-325a is also used later when filing for AOS.The transliteration of parents' first & last names can be one of those things you'd want to look up to make sure whatever you file for AOS matches. Or their places of birth. Or, you know, the last 5 years worth of places of work.
It also helps you to figure out if an RFE comes to see what you've already sent and what can be added.
(we've sent 5 skype screenshots & 3 photos. this is secondary evidence either way, not that important. What matters are the airplane tickets / stamps in passport showing that one of you visited the other one in the last 2 years).