DavidandJen

At least you keep changing venues so that is a positive 

I mean different people have different circumstances..... I get the CR1 has big advantages, especially during the pandemic, but the amount of K1 bashing I see on this site can be discouraging 

This is a common misconception about H1B spread by anti immigrant groups. I’m surprised to find this rhetoric here in a forum that helps immigrants. There are two types of H1Bs, highly skilled with masters or PHD from an American university. Go to any top STEM school, you will find majority of students to be international. These students later convert from OPT to H1B.
 
These jobs typically require graduate level degree, which is hard to find among Americans. The other kind of H1B is from consulting companies, typically from outsourcing companies bringing their employees on board. If you abolish H1B, these jobs will simply be outsourced. Companies will loose talent on important projects. The H1B median wage is $80k. So forget taxes. Most of these jobs will be simply moved to Canada or India. The 3 million unemployed are mostly from restaurants and other low wage workers completely unrelated to H1B. All this potential EO does is to get some brownie points among his xenophobic anti immigrant base who doesn’t want high skilled brown immigrants in this country.
 
I myself have a masters degree from a top US university and working on H1B and earn a salary of $110k plus bonuses. I didn’t steal anyone’s job. In fact the very first requirement of getting a H1B is to prove to USCIS that you can’t find any American to fill the job. They have gotten pretty strict about it recently. I was hired solely because my knowledge in my field. All my friends in H1B have a similar story.

Just a quick reminder that without masks and lockdowns the disease would have probably spread many, many times faster. 
 
Would anyone be comfortable gambling with other people's lives just because they don't know 100% how the virus works? If the medical community says, "stay home" and "wear a mask" out of precaution, the fact remains that caution never hurt anyone. In fact, it might have saved many lives, and prevented healthcare from collapsing in many places.
 
 

As noted, DOS made the decision.
Only USCIS has set a planned date to reopen. DOS has not yet.
The individual employees have absolutely no say when they can resume normal visa processing work. Your anger and insults directed at them are misguided. The decision to resume visa processing is something from top DOS staff and/or the chief of mission for that country. It's like complaining that a DMV clerk won't issue a new license when the state's governor mandated all DMV offices closed. The worker has no say...you're talking to people at least several levels lower in the org chart than those with the power to make that decision.
 
If the plan is to remain abroad until the interview, I'm assuming you have a co sponsor lined up (or large assets).

I am the US petitioner and I have been living in Vietnam since November 2019. I have never left. My female vietnamese fiance and I are doing the K - 1 visa and our case has been "ready" at the embassy since late Feb 2020.
 

We are now waiting for Packet 3. I emailed the embassy FOUR times (twice in April and twice in May) and asked them very kindly if they could email me packet 3 and they all gave me the same BS response saying "we will do so once we resume operations".
 
For those who are still wondering if it is the socalled "virus" that is preventing them from opening, well, I have news for you. The economy here has opened up completely since early May and every single business and schools are open. The only business closed are discos. Hell, even Bui Vien is open. 
 
Vietnam has one of the lowest number of cases in the world. Only like 327 cases.. So it aint the "virus" that is preventing them from opening completely. 
 
I don't understand why it is so hard for these lazy low IQ government employees to start emailing/sending packet 3? These people are just sitting in their chairs texting on their cell phones for the past 2 months instead of actually working and try to atleast do something useful.

Lots of LPRs don't speak the local language in the US which is English.  This is why they are allowed to bring a translator to their AOS interview.  Speaking English is not a requirement to immigrate to the US.  

It has nothing to do with love, marriage is a business
 
For me I will not marry someone whom has a : Alcohol Issue,  Drug Issue, Mental issue, Money issues, I rule them out as life partner, the are only play partners 

You're probably not going to be able to use your UK hair straighteners and dryer in the US anyway, due to the difference in voltage.

You're probably not going to be able to use your UK hair straighteners and dryer in the US anyway, due to the difference in voltage.

We were fortunate that we were in a secure enough place financially that my not being able to work for six months wasn't a problem. I needed that time to get used to living in the States. By the time I was able to work, my perfect job came along, so everything worked out really well for us. I'm not sure I would have adjusted as well to living here if I'd had to jump straight into everything.

I'm pretty sure that's not true. There are millions, if not billions of explicit photos and videos on the internet and I'm pretty sure most of them are not married. 
 
Name change, rings, wedding cake is not good proof either, actually it doesn't matter at all. 

The last name thing, she probably didn’t realize how much it meant until she had moved and it may have felt like losing the last bit of her cultural identity.
 
The sex, why does it all come down to sex with men who import women, might be for other medical reasons not just meds. Friend of mine had sex with her boyfriends in her home town moved country for school and met someone new and developed Dyspareunia which led to vaginismus when she tried to push sex when she just wasn’t able to. Luckily she had an understanding boyfriend and was able to after several years of therapy and techniques to get her body to relax to have a normal sex life again. It was the stress of moving that led to the initial issue and pushing sex a couple of times that made it to the more complex issue. 
 
Not saying it’s this exact for her but she might be too embarrassed to tell you why she doesn’t want it, you did say you are only her second boyfriend.
 
You say she isn’t affectionate but also say she loves to cuddle when watching stuff, so which is it? Or by affectionate do you just mean sex or what you consider foreplay?

The last name doesn't matter. Would OP take her last name? How would you feel if you had to prove your love by changing your name? Facebook and rings don't matter either. So forget complaining about them, it's a bit petty. The lack of affection is concerning though. Focus on this issue, as well as the bills. 

You were convicted of unlawful sex with a minor, no matter how you try to justify your actions. 
 
Seriously, how can you expect anyone on VJ to help you. 

This statement shows you don’t understand the weight of what you did especially in the context of immigration law.
 
This is explaining away what you did, as if it was ok because her mother approved, as if it was ok because you were young looking and emotionally immature. That is what I refer to as minimizing your actions, if you or your wife refer to anything like this in an interview then yes it will be judged by them. The embassy in Manila has seen many of these cases, and the Philippines has a process for its citizens where they have to get their permission to leave the country.
 
Immigration doesn’t care if you are pardoned. This doesn’t go away and it isn’t forgiven as far as they are concerned. You have to show that you are absolutely not a threat, 0%.
 
As to your other comments, either I am a gay man or I am female, pick one to discriminate against but not both as it makes little sense 😊 
 
You asked if anyone could relate to being a 30 year old boinking a 15 year old with the child’s mother’s permission.

No -it’s quite screwed up not paying child support. Prior delinquents would leave the country and not pay anything and abandon their responsibilities.
 
Now it’s hard to do that since controls are in place.

I think the legitimate claims of racism come in when there is a preference for certain types of immigrants based on nationality or residency, skin color, religion, native language, etc., instead of the potential immigrant's contribution (or drain) on the US system.
 
For example, there's a huge and meaningful difference between saying you want stricter requirements to prevent the occurrence of public funds being used in immigrant families versus, say, remarking that you don't want people from s******* countries.

I know that I will never be in the position to be effected by this, but my great grandmother and her entire family came on the boat from Hungary. They went through Ellis Island and went through the process to become American citizens because they wanted a chance at a better life. 
 
I cannot fathom, for the life of me, why people think that we should act like we're not a land of immigrants. 

Visa fraud is very real, and there are a lot of faults with our current system, but I do not like the attitude that so many people have about immigrants - especially on a website that is here for people going through processes like this. Come on. Have some tact.

I've been through this. At the interview they go through the application page by page confirming your answers. If you made a mistake or typo, you can say "No, my birthdate is ________" and it gets corrected. 
If you husband answers no to being detained, he can pipe up and say "Well I was passenger in a car driven by my wife, and she was pulled over for swerving,  does that count?" And the interviewer will think your husband is a little dense for not understanding that it was the wife driving who was stopped, then he'll carry on to the next question.  
 
 

This is not a generational thing. Do you think everyone here got married before internet and smartphones? Everyone who has been in an international relationship in the past 10 +years has used Skype and messaging and all that, regardless of if they're Boomers, Xers or Millenials. Also most of the people on this thread are Millenials, older than you perhaps but Millenials nontheless. 
 
Why would he have thought that when he was arrivingin Canada with a certain visa he'd had to work out in advance? Did hr think ESTA was a work program and WHY would he think that when it is very clearly spelled out otherwise? This is deeply concerning in terms of judgement and responsibility. 
 
 
 
No Millenials I'm guessing because all of us are used to deciding to get married after an online only relationship?
It's really not. It's clear that you think you're different but.... no.  Everyone thinks their love is different and special and in a way, of course each love story is unique. But it doesn't change the fact that it is usually best to actually meet and spend time together before deciding to get married. Maybe not strictly necessary, I'll give you that, but there's literally no harm in it so why throw caution to the wind?
 

I once had an interview with police in a foreign country and even though I was reasonably competent in the foreign language I asked for an interpreter. The interviewing officer even remarked that I clearly understood his questions before they were translated to me, and I replied through my interpreter that, although I probably could conduct this interview without an interpreter, I felt more comfortable knowing that there wasn't going to be a misunderstanding if I couldn't express myself how I wanted.
 
The point of my anecdote is that this is an important interview, and if your wife misspeaks or misunderstands a question her response could cause your interviewer to doubt your relationship. I would absolutely pay for an interpreter so that your wife can relax and answer her questions properly, without getting flustered. She could even explain at the beginning of the interview, in English, why she wants an interpreter. Speaking a foreign language under pressure is hard, so why not make it easier on yourselves?

I once had an interview with police in a foreign country and even though I was reasonably competent in the foreign language I asked for an interpreter. The interviewing officer even remarked that I clearly understood his questions before they were translated to me, and I replied through my interpreter that, although I probably could conduct this interview without an interpreter, I felt more comfortable knowing that there wasn't going to be a misunderstanding if I couldn't express myself how I wanted.
 
The point of my anecdote is that this is an important interview, and if your wife misspeaks or misunderstands a question her response could cause your interviewer to doubt your relationship. I would absolutely pay for an interpreter so that your wife can relax and answer her questions properly, without getting flustered. She could even explain at the beginning of the interview, in English, why she wants an interpreter. Speaking a foreign language under pressure is hard, so why not make it easier on yourselves?

I once had an interview with police in a foreign country and even though I was reasonably competent in the foreign language I asked for an interpreter. The interviewing officer even remarked that I clearly understood his questions before they were translated to me, and I replied through my interpreter that, although I probably could conduct this interview without an interpreter, I felt more comfortable knowing that there wasn't going to be a misunderstanding if I couldn't express myself how I wanted.
 
The point of my anecdote is that this is an important interview, and if your wife misspeaks or misunderstands a question her response could cause your interviewer to doubt your relationship. I would absolutely pay for an interpreter so that your wife can relax and answer her questions properly, without getting flustered. She could even explain at the beginning of the interview, in English, why she wants an interpreter. Speaking a foreign language under pressure is hard, so why not make it easier on yourselves?

I once had an interview with police in a foreign country and even though I was reasonably competent in the foreign language I asked for an interpreter. The interviewing officer even remarked that I clearly understood his questions before they were translated to me, and I replied through my interpreter that, although I probably could conduct this interview without an interpreter, I felt more comfortable knowing that there wasn't going to be a misunderstanding if I couldn't express myself how I wanted.
 
The point of my anecdote is that this is an important interview, and if your wife misspeaks or misunderstands a question her response could cause your interviewer to doubt your relationship. I would absolutely pay for an interpreter so that your wife can relax and answer her questions properly, without getting flustered. She could even explain at the beginning of the interview, in English, why she wants an interpreter. Speaking a foreign language under pressure is hard, so why not make it easier on yourselves?