Jmeyer1987

6 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Welcome!

 

Hopefully your plan goes as...well, planned. But I'll just advise you keep an open mind as things will likely shift as your relationship progresses. From an immigration standpoint, you are only required to meet once within the past 2 years, but 3 visits would be much more preferable. Keep copies of boarding passes, itineraries, receipts, etc. as proof of meeting in person within that time frame. I know you'll want a lot of photos, but usually they're harder to place at a specific date and time, and are secondary evidence.

 

Next...the K-3. K-3 is obsolete. It's technically still on the books, but only a small handful are approved each year...the rest are administratively closed at NVC. Your options are to either do a K-1 (fiance visa) to marry within the US, or a CR-1 if you decide to marry (can be anywhere). Check out the guides here and see what better matches what you want. K-1s are currently about 6-8 months for processing, and CR-1/IR-1s take about 10-12+ months (but is much cheaper and grants a green card after arrival...instead of having an awkward period of not being allowed to work or leave the country for months like the K-1).

 

In short, if you are planning to marry in the Philippines, then a CR-1 visa is your best route. ETA: 10-12+ months from filing. K-3 would just be a waste of money and turn into a CR-1 eventually.

 

As for travel to the US...yeah, it hard for many young females, especially when the purpose is to see a significant other. There's a high risk of fraud from PH, so they need the applicant to have strong ties to return home. Also, you cannot sponsor a tourist visa...she needs to prove her ties on her own (and a sponsor letter normally does more harm than good). She just needs to apply for it, prove her ties, and hopefully get approved. If not...time for another PH trip.

 

Good luck.

I see! Thanks! I was unaware that K-3 was actually obsolete. Yes, her and I want to do the CR-1/IR-1. That's what I wanted to do with my ex who lived in Japan, but she has had some personal problems with family that is clouding her judgment; but as a friend now, I do my best to be there for her as a friend.

But since things changed and I moved on, I know that this relationship will work as it takes both parties (myself and hers) to make things work. We will take a lot of pictures of us with having the background show where we are. I will save things. I did with my ex as we did plan doing the K-1, but then later in my relationship we talked about marrying overseas in Vietnam (where she's from) and then having her immigrate over here.

Thank you for your feedback, too! I appreciate it  

Well, I did make earlier threads last year about my girlfriend at the time. We aren't together (she lives in Japan), so we broke up and we are just mutual friends now. However a few months ago, I did meet someone new and started a friendship. It really blossomed into something more, as her and I want to date very long term with marriage as the goal. We do plan on meeting each other, but it will be next January/February as I already (I know, already, haha) used up my vacation time for later in the year for my sister's wedding. Since she lives in the Philippines, I have heard things can be quite challenging with visas and such with people over there to either come to the USA for vacation, visiting family/friends/loved one, and such. We have dated about 3 months already, but we are taking things slow as we will meet each other at least 2 times, with the third hopefully being marriage.

See my plan is to meet her and her family first. If they like me the first time, I will ask my girlfriend to talk to her parents about my second meeting with them, to see if I will be a good man for her. Then on the second trip, I will ask them for their blessing if I can propose to her. Then be engaged on the second trip. Then on the third, I will be seeing if I can marry her in the Philippines with her family having the wedding there for us, and my family will come (they will probably be around the area and probably go to Boracay on their own for some alone time). While there in the Philippines for a third time, I will get all the paperwork for our marriage that is over there, like documentations. I'll probably be there for 2 weeks at that time so I can celebrate with her, and also get what I need to take back to the US to file all of the necessary paperwork like the IR1 / CR1 / I-130.

This is also just planned for the future, so things can change. Nothing is concrete yet. She also asked me to post this on the website forum to ask. The OTHER question is that if we do this form of immigration process, I have heard from someone else a few days ago that it may take years for someone from the Philippines to come over here for immigration if I married overseas. Will this process take a long time since she is from the Philippines?  

I just read through the processes / step-by-step for everything, so I think I understand that. If you do correct me with what I have typed, please understand that I am also autistic, so if you can actually try to give me advice on how things should be done, I would be appreciated! My autism is mild, but sometimes I have problems following and understanding directions. I will update this thread and STICKY it on my computer so I can respond to it quicker.

She had all of the things I gave her for the tourism visa, such as an itinerary I did for each day I had planned for when she was visiting (she made one last year to show me what we were doing each day in Matsuyama, Osaka, and Kyoto in Japan). Her and I talked a good while (several weeks to 2 months) about planning what to say for the interview. After the advice I got from members on here about being honest with her intentions for the visit, that is exactly what she did. I also told her to be extremely polite and kind during the interview, but she was also very nervous doing it because she wanted to make a good impression that she was a good and truthful person.

It's just my reason to believe that since she's not a Japanese citizen, she was denied because she had no ties to return to Japan (such as family, more expenses; even though she has a job and an apartment, it wasn't enough to show that she had a reason to come back to Japan).

I do want to thank any members that have helped me before with advice! I truly appreciate it so much! My girlfriend Anna (Khanh is her Vietnamese name, but I call her Anna because it's her Catholic baptismal name, but I call her both, hah) would really thank everyone as well. I told her that she did her absolute best by trying, even if that did not work out! I'm so proud of her, as I am every day since I've known her. I will ask more questions in the future if something is to come up! Thank you again!

All right, if people have noticed my threads before about my girlfriend who lives in Japan (she's originally from Vietnam) and I live in the US, I have something new to ask.

My girlfriend went to Osaka to have the tourism visa interview. She did everything correct and brought the correct documents and letters, including proof that she has an apartment and a job to come back to in Japan. However she got denied because of her "ties" to Japan. This made me think, and I asked another friend about this who's husband is from Italy and referred me to this website/forum, that my girlfriend was refused because she's not a citizen to Japan so that she has no real ties to come back to the country according to the interviewer.

Now I'm wanting to ask, does this make it so she is not qualified for me doing the fiancée visa for her later on? Since she was refused before. I just want to know because I would hate for something like this to affect our relationship, as right now she's still very upset and hurt about the interview not going well. I could always end up marrying her in Vietnam (if she goes back there), and then applying for another visa to bring her over. Her and I have a very strong bond and we love each other. I would just absolutely hate this to happen if we cannot be together in the future. I do not know what I would do without her.

So if anyone can help me with advice and information, please do!

I see now She is going to move from Okayama to Osaka next May. I'm not going to send out the documents unless she does move and I need her new address. Her and I talked about that this morning.

Thank you for telling me! I was a bit confused on their expiration dates. I was not sure that the forms may have been invalid if they had expired. I was just wanting to ask! And the truth is that my girlfriend is coming to visit from Japan for New Years this December to early January, and then we will meet up in Vietnam (she is from there but went to school and works in Japan) with her family for a week. I have to have her sign some of the documents when she is visiting me for New Years, like with her information and signatures. It is after I come back from the trip in Vietnam that I will send out my visa package in the mail. Today, and soon, I am going to get the current pictures I have of us and our proof printed out at a store (I don't want to use up all the colored ink on my computer printer) and I will file it in a folder for the visa package.

But thank you for telling me! Now I will know if I need to check back later with printing out updated documents.

It is going to be a good way off (until next year) when I do plan on issuing the fiancee visa for my girlfriend (will be fiancee next year or so in the earlier part of the year) later on, but I do have a few questions about the forms that can be used!

My main question is, that on some of the forms, it says that they expired earlier on in the year or just recently this year. Are they still good to use for next year, or do I have to wait until a new revision is released? I have saved the form documents and PDFs so I can print them out, but I am worried that they may have expired (because of the shown dates), and they would be invalid to issue next year (unless newer revisions are released).

For example, the current I-129F paper says it expired June 30th of this year. Would I have to wait until another revision is done before I can print it out and fill it out, then send it next year?

That's interesting. I was not even aware of that, or even heard that. I mean, I've heard of problems mainly with people coming out of the Philippines, but never Vietnam.

After this post, I have to wait until the newbie restriction for the forums is lifted tomorrow. So please, if any people comment further on my thread, do not be so harsh on me. I'm still learning all of this information, and if you have anything helpful that you want to add by giving me advice, please do so. I will mention that I'm autistic so sometimes I do not understand things fully, but if you explain them in detail and are patient with me, it will be easier for me to understand.

But as I mentioned on the last post I made, for some reason the DS-156K and the DS-230 are not coming up for me on the Visa Journey page that Chris provided. Is someone able to post links to forms/PDFs of those for me? They are on the K1 download page.

Why would my girlfriend being Vietnamese be a red flag? And people have MISREAD what I said. I have been told two things; tell the truth about the tourist visa or lie about it, and I was asking about either one. I was not saying that I want her to lie about it if she does the tourist visa.

I cannot pull up the links to two of those pages on the K1 forms. The links for DS-156K and DS-230 don't come up right.

Really? She can do that in Japan? (I was told that it had to be the country of origin. Still, I do think that I could help her apply for the fiancée visa in Vietnam as I want to properly meet her family and ask for their blessings.) That way they can trust me with her daughter.

Would I have to be present in Japan if we do the K-1 in that country? Sorry, I'm typing on my iPhone and cannot re-read the other comments so that I can add them to this post, so I do apologize for that if I get some things wrong.

EDIT: Oh, you mean if we apply for the K-1 in Vietnam, she can get things processed in Japan?

No... I did not say that she should lie. I mentioned before that I have been told by several different people to either tell the truth or lie, and I was unsure if either was true. That is why I asked for someone on here to tell me.

Yes, my childhood friend's husband told me about the paperwork. I'm going to get stuff printed out after my girlfriend comes to visit me here.

I thought Ho Chin Minh City was Saigon. I read in my updated Vietnam travel guide that a new US Embassy was opened up there in the city.

So she should say that she knows me and that I am going to show her around North Carolina?

Oh, I forgot to mention. She is actually Vietnamese and went to Matsuyama's Ehime University for college and she is a marine biology major (she has a bachelors in marine biology). She hasn't told me before, but I am assuming that she is on a student and work visa now.

See after she visits me, we will schedule a vacation trip to meet her family in Saigon, Vietnam. I will be visiting there for 2 weeks so I can spend time with her family, but also ask her parents for their blessings so I can marry her. We will also go to the US Embassy there in Saigon and apply for a fiancée visa there.

This is my first post on this forum, as I was told about it from my childhood friend's husband who is from Italy.

I have some questions about a Tourist Visa for my girlfriend who lives in Japan.

The time period she is wanting to visit my family and me is December through March for 8 days (she will leave Japan on Friday morning and arrive in NC, USA on Friday evening; I learned about the this time distance travel after I visited her in Japan last August). She is going to go to the US Embassy in Osaka to schedule a Tourism Visa interview, and I was wanting to ask questions and get some input for what questions she will answer.

I have been told by different people (mostly foreigners from different Asian countries who live in my city) that with some questions, you have to answer either truthfully or downright deny that she knows me during the interview and lie where she's going when she is visiting me.

I will ask, even if she states that she is visiting me, I told her to say this would strictly be only a visit and to see the area where I live in (I plant to take her to historical places around my city, take her to science and art museums, go shopping, go to the zoo, and go to the amusement park called Carowinds. I told her that she is to clearly state that she has a job to come back to in Japan.

So what is it that she should do for the tourist visa? Be truthful or deny/lie?