*BestDayEver0425*

Awesome.  Send it off and keep us posted.  The process is easily done without a lawyer.  If you need some guidance reach out to your Visa Journey family.  There are some great people , with great information to share.    Enjoy the journey, it may be slow at times, it may be bumpy but it will all be worth it!

For the type of lawyer you had, i guess having no lawyer speeds up your process.

Now it’s less than 100 pages. Finally! We have removed all the things which are not needed. We are planning to remove our lawyer’s name from the forms cause he just gave us bad advice. If we don’t have a lawyer then that’s not going to make any difference anyway right?

@karishma I will let you know if I hear anything and @sherv thank you I am hoping we all do hear soon  I guess we just have to continue to wait .. Can we just get a fast pass like  at Disneyland and move to the front of the line hehehehe jk  *frustrated*

It will be quite a while. Mumbai is back logged. Back in the day (last year) it took just a little less than 2 months from CC - interview letter and then the actual interview.  Now I believe it is closer to 3 months. 

I suspect it was to be consistent with other countries.  No other country has more than one IV unit.  India went from 3, to 2, to 1 over  the last 3 or 4 years.

I think “can’t come to the airport to meet you” Evelin is trying to look cool and sophisticated to her friends. I think she wants to show off her American prize to her friends and say “I had the chance to live in the US but it’s not really that wonderful. I’d rather be here” because she knows her friends in her backwater town would cut their arm off to be able to live here and they will be jealous of her. She’s also trying to prove to her friends that she’s so good he will come to her, she’s not going to him (reminds me of “men cry for me” Jenny). 
 
He should call her bluff, tell her that she obviously doesn’t care about him or she would have been waiting at the airport for him and come back to Washington. Dude, if she’s not waiting at the airport, all excited like a kid at Christmas, then she’s not interested. You were just a trophy for her. 

We hired a lawyer in India itself cause our case was weak and now I regret it cause we are doing everything on our own after following VJ. I hope everything goes well

Oh ok. Then we will remove tax returns as well. So basically we have to submit I-130, I-130a, passport size photo, marriage certificate, birth certificate of the petitioner, and bonafide evidence. That’s all. I was really surprised to know that you all submitted 60-70 pages. Now I know how and why. Thank you so much! Good luck to all whoever is filing and/or waiting for the visa. I hope everything goes well.  

It's called load balancing,  they do it all the time

As said, they won’t even look at i864 during i130. Pointless to include.

What box and which form? Unless tax returns if jointly filed are being provided as evidences of bonafide relationship, there is no need during i130.
 
Petitioner’s Passport page can also be just the biographic page and any pages with stamps used for evidences.

@PoojaCh you had posted back in March under the topic I130 Packet Content   and in February under the topic  Need Help!!! I130  a lot of explanation was given and it does not seem like the advice that you were given is = 855 pages.  The more you provide the more they have to scrutinize, it will appear as if you are trying to prove something that might no be, (not implying that you are) but it will seem like over kill. Listen to @pushbrk from those posts he is very insightful.

What consulate? 

IMO ........ I don't think that is many places, it is a worldwide epidemic of double standards 
(referring to the woman being older )
 

My husband and I have a 27 year age gap and a relatively short long-distance relationship, so I was very concerned that our marriage would not be considered bona fide.  Plus he's from Brazil so I was worried that our case would be scrutinized every step of the way.  We were prepared for a denial with a plan B that I would move to Brazil.  Surprisingly, everything went very smoothly, the process was 11 months from filing the I-130 petition to CR-1 visa received in hand, most likely because of the many trips to be together (9) and all the evidence we submitted, described below.
 
Here's what we sent with the I-130 petition:
 
a few photos of each visit together, date stamped, from multiple visits over time (4 before filing petition)
four or five photos from the wedding, date stamped, some with family and friends
passport stamps, boarding passes, hotel receipts, restaurant receipts as evidence of these 4 visits
joint credit card account statements showing that we are already co-mingling finances
documents showing my Brazilian husband as my beneficiary on life insurance, retirement accounts, investment accounts
evidence of my husband's health insurance, dental insurance based on my US employer's plan
evidence of my husband as my emergency contact at work, statement that he is my husband on employer's HR website
wills and living wills
Christmas cards addressed to both of us at my US address
copies of cards and letters we have exchanged since the beginning of our relationship
wedding ring receipts
email logs, phone call logs, video call logs to show continuous daily communication
representative chat records (only a few pages of sample chats) from WhatsApp, Messenger
printout of our Facebook relationship with a few photos, comments from friends and family, words of congratulations on wedding day
affidavits from family members attesting to the nature of our relationship
brief statement of relationship history, how we met, how the relationship developed over time
 
We uploaded additional evidence of three more visits since filing the petition, at the NVC stage, and took more evidence from our 11-day trip to London and Paris together in April to the June 12 interview, but the CO did not even ask for it.  The interview was very quick and she said we were approved.  It was obvious from the questions that she had pretty much decided to approve the visa before the interview.  Two days later the visa was sent to my husband, and he received it a week after the interview.
 
I think the lesson learned from our case is that any relationship with red flags like an age gap or quick marriage after meeting (we married on my fourth trip to Brazil) can be overcome with time spent together and lots of evidence to support the relationship as bona fide.  Good luck!

I think we must remember that what may be described as cultural norms do not hold true when we add Immigration into the mix.

The big question is what is culturally normal ?   If  younger men marry old woman as the norm there you are OK.  If not then it is a red flag.  Most places older men marry younger woman so it isn't an issue.

I think Coltie even has Pole beat as a more creepy weirdo

The scene with Elizabeth and the guy from Maldova and the plane ticket was disturbing.  His father is coming to visit them (ALONE for 2 MONTHS--weird).  His flight from Maldova to Turkey got delayed and he missed his connecting flight to NY, so has to step a long time in Turkey to catch the next flight.  And then has to fly from NY to Tampa.  The Maldovan prince (that what he seems to inspire to be since he frowns upon work, doing anything around the house, makes his very pregnant wife do physical work "Shut up and go pack my bag") decides that he will fly to NY to pick up his father and then fly back to Tampa together.  Ticket was $600.  They are flat broke.  Princess Elizabeth wants to run and ask daddy.  But the prince gets angry at her again and says that they don't need her daddy's help. 
 
How does he believe they will pay rent.  My wife thinks that he really has no problem taking her daddy's money but is trying to save face so he pretends to be all offended.  
 
Those 2 are actually good for each other, they are both without any kind of motivation to become independent of daddy and his overly generous ways. And both are completely delusional as to their financial situation.
 
 

Whoa!  Chantel came VERY close to showing a facial expression when her friend revealed to her that her relationship with Pedro was a set-up.   The botox must be starting to wear off?

When Coltie's mother came back from vacation, he said "Wow, you look cute".  How many adult men have you heard say to their mother, "You look cute".  
 
ZERO!  He's a creepy weirdo.

I get that you're worried, waiting for the I-130 petition to be approved so that you can move on to the NVC stage.  You want to be with your husband, the love of your life.  We're all going through this and it's painful.  The waiting really sucks, and you start to wonder why it's taking so long....  Hang in there, you'll be approved soon.  TSC is taking at least 7-8 months.  Be grateful that you didn't get assigned to Nebraska!  Those people have been waiting almost a year for just the petition adjudication.  If your relationship is bona fide, your documents are all good, and there are no problems related to inadmissibility, your petition will be approved.  It's hard not to worry but try to focus on the next stage and get all the documents ready to upload as it goes so much faster after the petition is approved.  If you have any red flags like a big age gap then side-load additional evidence of your bona fide relationship like financial co-mingling and visits since filing the petition at the NVC stage.  It only took us 4 months from the petition approval to receiving the CR-1 visa, so before you know it, you'll be together.  Good luck!

Do you have a reason to think it will be denied?  Better to explain that and intelligently address it.
 
 I have seen people post here and have a concern but are afraid to have someone say they’ll have a problem so they won’t use a vague question to get reassurances but sadly are a waste of everyone’s time because what should be dealt with is being ignored.
 
Do you have red flags or a circumstance that concerns you?

Staying for an extended period has certainly been a consideration for us because we really miss each other. I have to tidy up some things here and be sure that financially we can make it happen.  Financially India and the US are on different planes. This next trip planned will be for a month so hopefully this will help us along for now.
Thanks for sharing.

Primarily through time spent together.
Five visits usually doesn't raise too much attention (assuming they are a week or so each), although over 3 years is also not fantastic. And I get that....time off work, finances, etc. are not easy. My now-wife is from the Philippines, and lived in Saudi where I couldn't visit her there (no tourist visas at the time).
But that's the reality of it....enough time spent together overcomes pretty much any red flag. There are occurrences of people moving abroad and living together for several months (or longer) before refiling.