Catica

Okay Im starting to gather this up now and besides the usual calling records, some postcards, emails and msn convos heres a few more things I wanted some opinions on:

1. Im not sure if all local newspapers do this but ours run engagement/wedding annoucements once a week on Sundays. We put an egagement annoucement in the paper last week, basically its just a picture of us(taken before the k1 petition), and underneath it says our full names our parents names where we currently live and that we are officially engaged with a few little congratulatory expressions. Does seem like good evidence to bring? It kinda has all the factors pic of us togther, our names, parents names, and of course a current date on the newspaper itself.

2. I know you dont want to give the consulate any reason to think you are already married thats why Im a little unsure about the next 3 ideas, But i have some emails/letters from some places I wrote too about having our wedding there and the responces from those locations- would this be good to bring? And I have my wedding dress thought about taking a few normal pictures of me in it to show we are preparing for the wedding and finally We have also purchased our wedding bands already how about including our invoice/reciept/ and order notice( they were custom made) with our evidence?

This stuff sound good to use to anyone? Or anyone foresee any problems with it?

OKay mt fiancee recieved packet 3 the other day and filled it out and mailed it back today. I asked him about paying the fees for the medical/interview and he said packet 3 didnt say anything about it besides how much the fees were. I thought you had to go to a bank and pay the fees and they put some kind of stamp on one of the forms then you mailed that back when you mailed packet 3 back. Just when and where do you pay for the fees?

Thanks

Cat

Okay Im probably just having one of the dumbest moments ever, but I reread and reread packet 3 and im still confused. Do we send off the I-134 with the other forms but keep the supporting evidence till the interview, or do we keep the I-134 and supporting evidence and take it to the interview with us for the london embassy?

Thanks Again

Cat

If you go to the London Embassy website, click on visas then click on visa forms all the forms for packet 3 are there including the checklist.

Link to make it easier:

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/.../visaforms.html

Hopefully my fiance will be able to get a job where I work to start out, then once we are all settled and life isnt so hectic with trying to get adjusted, situated, and through the next leg of the journey, Hes hoping to start attending school at ITT to get a degree in software design after that he will be looking for a job that fits that career feild.

Getting ahead of myself again but all this time waiting gives so much time for thinking and planning on working out any bumps that may inccur. I know its still way early for us to recieve packet 3 so this isnt an issue yet like I said just doing some planning to be prepared for any bumps we may hit. Reading through posts I have seen were quite a few people never recieved packet 3 so they usually did 1 of 2 things either downloaded the forms from the embassy website or requested a new packet from the embassy. Is one of these ways the prefered method? Is it better to request the packet again from the embassy before downloading the forms from the website or it really makes no difference? I know you can call the state department number to get updates about your interview etc instead of calling the embassy and that way you dont have to pay the calling charges the embassy has, do you do this for packet 3 too or is it a you have to call the embassy or email them directly to request packet 3 again?

On my timeline it has there for me to put in the date the consulate receieved the petition from the NVC. How do I get that? Is it stated in packet 3? or is that just a approx guess from people using the dhl tracking website? Or can you once again call the state department or the embassy and they will tell you when they recieved your petition?

Mmmm I think my last question is for the medical do we call to have that set up or is a date given to us in packet 3? If we have to call to set it up can we go ahead and do it now or do we have to wait for packet 3 first?

Thanks again Everyone

Cat

I believe my fiancee checked yes on his and just put will work with when in eligible status or something close to that. He just filled out the DS-156 form yesterday Ill ask again today and see what he put for sure.

For you. It would be filled out for whoever the beneficiary is or alien.

Adding the additional stuff you already said sounds good, if you dont mind the extra wait I would go ahead and wait and get more evidence from next trip. Not sure as you said if they want only proof preceeding the application, but the extra can never hurt.

Called the NVC today at 3:10pm only had a 2 minute wait and was sent directly to an operator, didnt even give me any automated options. Just called them pressed 2 for k1 petitions and it said please hold whole we connect you to a operator. They recieved our case on Jan 29th and sent it to London the very next day(in the words of the operator) Jan 30th Another little step down weeee!

My fiancee and I always use http://www.cheapflights.co.uk/ definately usually the best deals I can find, and new offers are updated almost daily, so when we are ready to buy the tickets we usually monitor the site for about a week to watch the prices.

I think with the I-864 you need the past 3 years of tax returns not just 1, Also a leter from your bank showing all the deposits in the past year and your current balance. On top of the pay stubs usually a letter from your employer stating your position, length of employment, and salary. These may be some of the things they are looking for with your RFE.

mmmm I think I remember reading somewhere the center will only send notices to US addresses. This may be way you havent received anything. Did you list an alternate US address on any of your forms? If so you might want to check to see if they were sent there. Someone else can probably verify the first half of what I said better.

If you paid by check remember you can get your case number off the back of the check once it is cashed at your bank, if your bank offers that service. You can usually find out faster if you got your NOA1 then actually waiting for it to come in the mail that way if your a person like me and couldnt stand to wait even for the NOA1

Does anyone have any experience of entering with a K1, but asking the immigration officer not to 'start' it?

I know I have 4 months to use the visa once it's been issued, but what if I needed to visit before getting married?

If you enter with a K1 visa there is no asking immigration not to start it. The whole point of the k1 visa is to come and get married, and when you filed for your K-1 petition you submitted 2 different letters of intent stating you would get married. You have up until 6 months once your visa is issued to leave your home country and come to the USA, once here in USA you have 90 days in which you must get married. To my knowledge they dont offer any extensions on the 90 day time frame either.

If you need to come to the USA before getting married, its probably better you do it before you send off your k1 petition on a vistors visa or VWP or if your petition is already sent off then come before you have your interview ( just make sure you under stand there could be a delay in getting your visa if you are denied entry).

Found this doing some digging of my own. I think its pretty much the checklist in packet 3:

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/iv/docs169.html

Only thing Im confused over is where some are saying mail it and others saying not, the website says:

Important: These documents must not be mailed to the Embassy. You will be required to furnish the documents on the day of your visa interview

*shrugs* so Im a little lost nothing new there.

Nevermind - assuming they are current (or current enough) there are scans in the gallery section. My bad.

the pictures I found in the gallery for the checklist for packet 3 the ones posted by ewos had a 2002 date in the bottom left hand corner.

If the name on the birth certificate doesnt match the name on the application, you might expect an rfe, your case sounds like it could get very confusing for USCIS, I would prepare for the worst better safe than sorry. Now as to how exactly you would prepare I have no idea. Maybe call the USCIS and explain the situation to them and see what they say, and/or if nothing else go ahead and redo the the applications with Mark listed as the main name and Gary listed for other names used, this way at least if they do ask for corrected forms you already have them done.

Hello

it took around 7 days for us to get our rfe in the mail, though bear in mind we were at the beginning of the holidays. However it hasnt been that long yet for you though trust me I know ow each day feels like forever, I would give it till the end of this week.

Your future father in law and I are in the same boat (no pun intented). I am actually scared beyond reason of flying and refuse to do it. As said before there are many cruises across the alantic and even frieghters are an option usually quite a bit cheaper too though they may take longer. The fastest boating voyage I could find was around 12 days to get there. If you find any awesome deals with small travel times you should post them here. We have been considering a trip back to the UK sometime in the future after the wedding for me to meet the rest of his family in person that arent coming to the wedding. His grandfather actually refuses to fly too lol.

So far for our proof of our ongoing relationship this is what we have/or going to get:

very few phone bills and text messages, think we have 2 showing 1 call each and 1 showing 3 text messages.. we just seldom call when msn voice and Vent are free to use to talk.

I did turn on save History for my msn messanger, though I did hear this wasnt really good proof, but either way all our msn conversations have been saved this about July 2006 Im going to print off just about 1 random day from each month from now until close to the interview and add that.

Postal stamps from presents we sent at x-mas, his b-day, and soon Valentines day.

A few letters/cards we have sent to each other and will send.

Reciept from the purchase of our wedding bands.

A few emails we will send each other.

Dont think we will risk another trip to actually see each other before the interview, However he was here with me when we mailed off the K-1 petition and left about 3 weeks after we got the NOA1, so I have a few pictures of us togther after the "filing" date of the K-1 not sure if it still counts but Ill probably send 1 or 2 of them too.

Alrighty here goes after it asks you about your current job and salary and how much you make a year which I made enough just files my 2006 taxes Friday and my AGI was 24,498.00 so Im good to go there and I see it asks for stocks, life insurance policies etc after that. Is that required information or for people who didnt make it above the poverty line to fill in their income other ways? I have stocks and a $150k life insurance policy, should I fill that in just in case anyway and if I do do I then need to send copies or originals to my fiancee to prove the stocks and life insurance policy? So Far I already have pay stubs for the last 3 months and will have them for probably the next 2 or 3 months too or at least until the interview that I can send him, A information from bank with my balance, deposits made in the past year, and the year I opened the account. Tax returns for 2006back until 2002. I had originally thought I only had my 2005 and 2006 ones but digging through some of my old files that where in storage I found my previous tax papers from back until 2002. So Im pretty sure I have enough to cover the affidavit without the stocks and insurance if its going to be more hassle to add them in too.

Also I didnt really understand question 11 that says:

11. That I intend(check one) do not intend(check one) to make specific contributions to the support of the person(s) named in item 3.

(If you check "intend," indicate the exact nature and duration of the contributions. For example, if you intend to furnishroom and board, state for how long and, if money, state the amount in U.S. dollars and state whether it is to be given in a lumpsum, weekly or monthly, or for how long.

What does this mean exactly am I supposed to list exactly what Ill be paying for for my fiancee once hes here and exactly how much I intend to spend on him? If so does anyone mind answering on how they answered this? Cause of course Ill give him anything he needs within my power as long as we are married but Im not to sure how to put that into "exact nature".

Finally Im going to take this hopefully tommorrow and have it notarized what other things that I need to send to my fiancee either for the checklist or the interview needs to be a notarized document? Just the statement from the bank, and the I-134 or just the I-134?

Agreed. Have the originals of your divorce decree(s). Also I've heard they want the marriage certificate - not sure why, exactly, but I got mine just in case.

Do they really? Eep! For some reason I'd totally failed to spot that - thanks for the heads-up!

I didn't provide mine.... no RFE.

Our rfe was for not including my marriage certificate from my first marriage, I had my divorce decree in there but not my marriage certificate guess just depends on is working on your case.

I think statistically speaking the K1 is the "fastest" option with DCF out of the question, just keep in mind nothing is guarenteed. Though since you mentioned DCF does this mean you are living in Brazil with your fiancee atm?

Cant help much on the 325a, if it was me I would call the USCIS again and tell them what happened and see if you can go ahead and send the corrected documents if needed before you get the rfe. Dont know if this is the right course of action just what I would do.

If you do get the rfe you wont have to resubmit everything only what the rfe asks for which in your case will probably just be the corrected 325a forms. To my knowledge there is nothing to make sure your rfe will get processed faster. Just make sure you follow the intructions on the rfe, and add your case number to anything you send back to them once you have a case number. Even on the envelope you send it back in mark it with Att: rfe case #.

Just a note be flexible with your wedding date its a very hard thing to set in stone especially with this process. We already changed ours 3 times and our new date is still only a tentive one.