kris&me

This process takes patience / a lot of patience
it will be about a year before the petition itself gets an "approval "  notice which just means all the needed documents are there for that part Step 1
then the case goes to NVC and waits for Ecuador to send for it to interview
u should check the guides above 
u should read the portal for Ecuador and posts and timelines of other people going thru that embassy
and USCIS doesn't discriminate for not being straight 
 
these posted timelines at USCIS are the last thing they update as they are short staffed still
as for hearing day to day, week to week or month to month about your case,  u will not unless the USC gets a RFE because a document is needed or something needs to be explained 

Ecuador is only nice for those who have a decent job and money 

Ecuador is only nice for those who have a decent job and money 

Ecuador is only nice for those who have a decent job and money 

Ecuador is only nice for those who have a decent job and money 

More important than any of this, is that you'll be dealing with the Consulate in Guayaquil. I advise you to get to that regional forum and study up on the difficulties there.

i can not even begin to count the times i have opened and scanned posts when an american is "in love online " sometimes never having met the person
and people here tell them 'take it easy"  " don't rush into a marriage"   get to know the man/woman
but if fact ,  no one wants to hear that but it is said many times
and even if a person marries another american,  it can be for the wrong reasons and one of them is using the other
Please forget and forgive and move on 
and take this as a hard hard lesson to learn because if you don't ,,  you will age fast and none of us needs premature  grey hair

i can not even begin to count the times i have opened and scanned posts when an american is "in love online " sometimes never having met the person
and people here tell them 'take it easy"  " don't rush into a marriage"   get to know the man/woman
but if fact ,  no one wants to hear that but it is said many times
and even if a person marries another american,  it can be for the wrong reasons and one of them is using the other
Please forget and forgive and move on 
and take this as a hard hard lesson to learn because if you don't ,,  you will age fast and none of us needs premature  grey hair

i can not even begin to count the times i have opened and scanned posts when an american is "in love online " sometimes never having met the person
and people here tell them 'take it easy"  " don't rush into a marriage"   get to know the man/woman
but if fact ,  no one wants to hear that but it is said many times
and even if a person marries another american,  it can be for the wrong reasons and one of them is using the other
Please forget and forgive and move on 
and take this as a hard hard lesson to learn because if you don't ,,  you will age fast and none of us needs premature  grey hair

November 2 CR1 and 42 IR1 approved in Guayguail
October 9  CR1 and 61 IR1's approved
 
11 K1 in October 
and 19 K1 in November
 
plus several other types of visas
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics.html

I don't post much on VJ but i read as a visitor
and to me this is not the place for politics as it does nothing to help our other members wade thru this process 

I don't post much on VJ but i read as a visitor
and to me this is not the place for politics as it does nothing to help our other members wade thru this process 

I don't post much on VJ but i read as a visitor
and to me this is not the place for politics as it does nothing to help our other members wade thru this process 

The exception that I made with Mrs. T-B.'s family was when they were "trying but couldn't quite."
 
When Mama-Mrs.-T-B. got her tourist visa and wanted to visit, she could pay some of her air ticket.  Mrs. T-B. could pay some but not all of the remainder, and she asked me.  Answer = yes.
---
Background for these next stories:  In Ecu, things made locally are quite affordable, but tariffs/taxes on other things -- chief among these, clothing and textiles -- are startlingly high.  As further background, no one in Mrs. T-B.'s family ever asked her or me for money, or for items that they didn't intend to pay for.
 
Story #1:  Before each time that I visited Ecu, I asked Mrs. T-B. what clothing sizes my "nephews" wore, and what size my brothers-in-law wore, and what household items my sisters-in-law might want.  I would bring an extra suitcase filled with stuff -- all nice, all bought resale at thrift stores/garage sales/estate sales -- that I'd personally laundered.  This was chiefly clothing, thick towels, bed sheets, and especially bathmats (which for some reason were not prevalent or affordable there).  My sisters-in-law were invariably surprised and thrilled, and they were tickled to learn that I had personally laundered everything (in Ecu, husbands don't do that).
 
Story #2:  When Mama- and Papa-Mrs.-T-B. came to visit, they usually had money to buy things, but I'd often pay.  Despite a 99.44% language barrier, I was able to stop Mama-Mrs.-T-B. from spending $65 for a pair of jeans for Papa-Mrs.-T-B in a department store.  The next day, I took him out with me to several resale stores and got him 6 jeans for something like $27 total (he and I each paid for some).  At the end, in his rusty English, he observed, "Things in America are really cheap!"
 
So for very little cash outlay, I was able to make a lot of family members happy -- with unexpected gifts or savings, at a level of thrift that I myself could abide.  I did learn their chief needs through Mrs. T-B.
 
Whether or not our foreign relatives ask or don't ask for money or things, perhaps a plan like the above will enable them to save more of their own money to have available for their other needs in life.  If foreign relatives are greedy, bluntly point out exactly what you're doing and why you're doing it.  I bet that they won't say much more except perhaps an embarrassed "thank you."  This sure beats merely forking over money, I think.

I am from Kenya and I can relate, these guys have a dollars syndrome...they end up hating you if you don't do like they want

Great thread and one that hits close to home right now as my husband's grandmother had a very serious stroke a few weeks ago in Brazil.  In their culture, family members are expected to take care of all his grandmother's needs at home once she gets out of the hospital.  They don't have a tradition of long-term care facilities in Brazil, the responsibility is all on the family, even very poor families like his.  Because $100 US goes a long way in Brazilian reais, he is in a position to help financially even though he is not there personally.  He doesn't send money to family members but pays for his grandmother's medical supplies, hospital bed, home nursing care, and physical therapy directly.  His income in Brazil would not have been enough to provide this help, so he is so grateful that he is here and his earnings higher.  This fact makes it so much easier for him to not be there at this difficult time.  He is also a rock solid source of emotional support plus I'm behind him 100%.  So I think it depends on the circumstances.  Definitely no to luxury homes, new computers and iPhones, Audis, sending buckets of cash, etc., but for basic needs and emergencies I think it is justified as long as you talk about everything and agree to it as a couple, to avoid problems in the marriage like resentment and financial problems down the road.  There is a way to balance the different cultural expectations in relationships like many of us have if you communicate constantly and agree on everything, to keep the spending at a reasonable level.  90% of your income seems way too high, that is not sustainable in the long run so you need to make adjustments and decide together how to balance the two cultures so that your relationship gets better, not worse.  Good luck!

I think from reading your post that you are starting to resent this .  Maybe more than your husband
many countries think Americans are rich.   just plain rich and have no idea how hard we work and how expensive it is to live here
talk to your husband and decide with him how to cut down on what you do to help back home
My in laws are quite well off so i don't have an issue
but i see many who go to Good Will and send clothes every month home and to mail boxes out of the US is costly.  
and send money for everthing
cut out some of the lesser relatives and how much you send
if they get angry and stop talking to you,  they never were that close and  are just using you.  No one deserves to be used 

I think from reading your post that you are starting to resent this .  Maybe more than your husband
many countries think Americans are rich.   just plain rich and have no idea how hard we work and how expensive it is to live here
talk to your husband and decide with him how to cut down on what you do to help back home
My in laws are quite well off so i don't have an issue
but i see many who go to Good Will and send clothes every month home and to mail boxes out of the US is costly.  
and send money for everthing
cut out some of the lesser relatives and how much you send
if they get angry and stop talking to you,  they never were that close and  are just using you.  No one deserves to be used 

I think from reading your post that you are starting to resent this .  Maybe more than your husband
many countries think Americans are rich.   just plain rich and have no idea how hard we work and how expensive it is to live here
talk to your husband and decide with him how to cut down on what you do to help back home
My in laws are quite well off so i don't have an issue
but i see many who go to Good Will and send clothes every month home and to mail boxes out of the US is costly.  
and send money for everthing
cut out some of the lesser relatives and how much you send
if they get angry and stop talking to you,  they never were that close and  are just using you.  No one deserves to be used 

I think from reading your post that you are starting to resent this .  Maybe more than your husband
many countries think Americans are rich.   just plain rich and have no idea how hard we work and how expensive it is to live here
talk to your husband and decide with him how to cut down on what you do to help back home
My in laws are quite well off so i don't have an issue
but i see many who go to Good Will and send clothes every month home and to mail boxes out of the US is costly.  
and send money for everthing
cut out some of the lesser relatives and how much you send
if they get angry and stop talking to you,  they never were that close and  are just using you.  No one deserves to be used 

I think from reading your post that you are starting to resent this .  Maybe more than your husband
many countries think Americans are rich.   just plain rich and have no idea how hard we work and how expensive it is to live here
talk to your husband and decide with him how to cut down on what you do to help back home
My in laws are quite well off so i don't have an issue
but i see many who go to Good Will and send clothes every month home and to mail boxes out of the US is costly.  
and send money for everthing
cut out some of the lesser relatives and how much you send
if they get angry and stop talking to you,  they never were that close and  are just using you.  No one deserves to be used 

We just printed a few lines from some chats showing we talked over a long time- we were sure to show the dates of each conversation
from when we started talking to the present
embassies are all different but they don't need hundreds and thousands of pages 
they need proof the relationship has been ongoing for as long as you have indicated in the letter you submitted when the application was sent

Nothing will speed up the process when immigration has been slowed down by need of additional funding  the fee increase was approved , and then stopped by a judical order they asked Congress for 1.2 billion and were denied  approved was the following:
On September 30, 2020 the President signed H.R. 8337 - the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2021 and Other Extensions Act, which will fund the government through December 11, 2020. The bill, introduced on September 22, 2020, Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-NY) includes the language from Emergency Stopgap USCIS Stabilization Act (H.R. 8089), seeks to address USCIS budget shortfall by giving the agency immediate access to existing premium processing funds that were dedicated to infrastructure improvement to cover operating expenses. It also increases revenues by raising existing premium processing fees for most form types and expanding premium processing to other form types to address USCIS’s current budget shortfall. The relevant language begins on page 30 of the Act. Please note that while the law takes effect immediately, the increased fees and expanded availability of premium processing will not take effect until USCIS is able to implement. Timing of implementation is unknown at this time, but we expect a public announcement will be made.
 
So,  i would expect even longer delays and this would be a money issue and that part has nothing to do with whoever is President but with Congress either giving financial help or the fees increases to happen

Every embassy has made a statement about the slowdown because of the virus and USCIS did also and updates it frequently
https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/uscis-response-to-covid-19
 
Not sure why you would not think a slowdown would happen when offices closed completely and some still are not open
Our information is private and for security reasons to protect us,  officers could not work on cases from home
 
Example:
Yesterday i called AT&T to change my card info when a new one came and the girl could not do it as she works still from home
i had to wait for someone to call me back that was in the office /  that is happening with all our office personal here for company after company.
 
Advice to get thru this:
Forget immigration unless you are asked for a document
When you talk to each other,  keep it romantic or talk about the future 
Dealing on immigration will drive you nuts and possibly create a wedge between the 2 of you 
No one needs this anxiety so stop worrying day to day and stay busy 

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/gay-marriage-advocates-want-mississippi-law-struck-down-n807166
 
I even found a site that had gay couples against gay marriages
 
this is one decision i have not followed closely but i do know conservatives (even not associated with a church) marched in protest 
 
and i am so happy i don't have to make these decisions