andrewwynn

I've sent MANY package over 6+ years to my now wife in Jakarta.. the 'fees' imposed are not logical at all, seemingly just complete corruption... the post office will say that their was 'postage due'..

Most of the packages i've sent had between $10 and $200 in value in them.. but usually the likes of clothing that without new labels on them, very hard to assign a value so i considered the value of 'rummage sale' for all items when putting on a customs form.. also.. 'vague is your friend!' trust me.

USPS express mail is by far the best value starting at $25 or so and i sent 9# once for like #70.. gets there in about 3-4 days typically and never once a lost package.. regular mail on the other hand.. might as well just leave it on the curb!

Oh.. BTW... married 2 dec.. marriage certificate in-hand 22 dec .. I-130 delivered to embassy 26 dec (a very long weekend).. i left indo 26 dec.. she had her appointment and visa approved 4 jan. .visa in-hand in passport 9 jan.. her plane leaves for the states 24 january... DCF.. it's your best friend.

-awr

Just did DCF in jakarta... i don't remember any requirement of the marriage lic. being made in indonesia just that it was translated to english, just call/email the embassy.

-awr

thought i should follow-up..

married 2 dec 06

I-130 application 26 dec 06

IV interview 4 jan 07

visa on 9 jan 07

US entry 24 jan 07

whoo hoo.

-awr

i can first-hand confirm the painless nature of DCF at Jakarta.. it was far more painful to get the marriage certificate.. grease some wheels to make sure you get that turned around quickly.. i got my certificate on the day my visa expired! you do not want to have that kinda stress!

Get all the files via email from the embassy to submit with the I-130 and things will go very smooth and fast!

-awr

the embassy in jakarta was very helpful and friendly.. emailing me all the forms we needed.. I had my wife get her medical exam out of the way before the wedding (in our case we used DCF).. which took all of 9 days from submitting the I-130 'til the IV interview and all of 5 add'l days to get her actual visa in her passport!

The embassy staff in jakarta were extremely helpful and responsive to emails.

-awr

I can give you some very comforting news:

27 nov 06.. leave for jakarta

2 dec 06.. married in jakrta

22 dec 06.. marriage certificate in-hand

26 dec 06.. down to the embassy to file I-130

26 dec 06.. i leave for the usa

4 jan 07.. IV interview

9 jan 07.. Pick up visa from embassy

9 jan 07.. pay for plane ticket already 'on hold' for 24 jan

24 jan 07.. wife leaves jakarta for the usa!

9 months to a year or literally less than a month from starting the I-130 'til wife is in america with a residence 'stamp' in her passport and able to get a job... DCF is the only way to go, don't mess with K1.

The critical thing is getting the marriage certificate before you leave since you'll have only 30 days to get out of dodge.

feel free to email me, my profile should have my address.

actually we are thinking of a honeymoon to malaysia or singapore which would have the same effect... the trick is dealing with the round-trip ticket to get to jakarta that they want you to show on entry to get the visa in the first place.

-awr

meauxna.. had i realized how the DCF would work.. I would have likely gotten officially married during my last trip.. and just used the 2 Dec. date as a reception.. Lita could have her visa by the time of the reception and returned with me.. as it stands now i will have to leave her behind because the visa process as quick as it looks like it will be.. will take more than 30 days of course so i will have to leave since i will only have a 30 day tourist visa of course. There is a chance i would go back to pick up lita if i have the $ at the time of her getting the visa, but that's not likely since i'd rather spend the $ on my USA reception.

The embassy has been exemplary with providing me with information, they emailed me all the forms that Lita will need AFTER the initial I-130 petition is put into motion, and the attitude of the agent was wonderful including a funny description basically saying 'duh why would anybody not use DCF' which made me feel very very good.. they also pointed out that i can actually give them a 2-week warning before i file my I-130 so they can verify Lita is not on a terrorist watch list... can shave 2 weeks off the wait for that I-130 interview.

Maspablo.. awesome feedback and thanks for posting again.. very cool on skipping visa to go right to green card.. sometimes it pays to wait i guess.. funny i miss-read your wedding date thought it was '06 not '05.

I will print out some of my phone records and emails etc to bring with to the interview.. I also have hundreds of pictures including her and me from my trips to jakarta.

email me with any juicy details i would love to hear any details you can supply!

Oh.. as far as handing in the I-130.. it will already be completely filled out only waiting for date and signature a month before i go there.. and i've already looked into using the 'magic form' that will likely let me waive the normal 10 day waiting period for registering the wedding..

Oh.. i have a question you might be able to answer:

with the religious and civil marriage separate.. what date do they use, or does the civil marriage registration just confirm the religious ceremony? i'm not going to be happy if my marriage certificate has a different date than my actual marriage.. the particular date has significant meaning to me.

-awr

very interesting comment about honoring which rules..

and extremely interesting comments about the happiness factor.

That is from this page

So.. there ya go.. at least in Bali (Indonesia).. what the locals will call a wedding is actually only a 'blessing'.. even if done at a church and in the true wedding style.. now you have some proper armament to use the right terminology should you decide to be 'blessed' before your usa wedding so you can use a K1 visa. Simple as that, it really can't be clearer from a legal point of view.

Like i mentioned.. glad that i've shifted from that line of reasoning to the 'keep it simple' and actually get married vs 'blessed'.. it really simplifies things.

-awr

i suspect a lot of my next visit will be spent dealing with the embassy there so i can get things all in-order before i have to go back home (man that one will be the hardest ever).. i've had to part ways with Lita four times and they are always not easy.. but once we are actually married.. ouch! I am saving $ for my increased phone budget that's for sure!

-awr

ps.. waiting i'm on pins n needles to hear back from maspablo!

as the saying goes.. better safe than sorry is a reasonable approach to take, but i don't see anything wrong at all.. it would actually not be difficult to prove you are still eligible for a K1 visa if you don't have a legal marriage. It's an obvious loophole and the important thing is to get clear in your own mind that you aren't married to avoid stupid mistakes.. if 'a wedding' doesn't make you married.. than you had better not call yourself husband and wife afterwards.. you are still engaged, etc.

It's a very interesting point just made above.. ALL people who are not legally married have EXACTLY the same proof.. *nothing*. There is no way to prove you never went before a priest with two witnesses and said marriage vows.. the USA has to go by the law.. which is.. not official.. not married... still 100% eligible.

It would behoove the interested parties to NOT refer to their church 'wedding' as a 'wedding' because that's a key-word that will bring up red-flags.. What to exactly call it, that's tricky, and another writer mentioned the important distinction of playing by man's rules or God's rules..

Being in exactly the position of being able to decide to do exactly the same thing, but having found 'a better way'.. i actually lean now much more strongly toward the 'keep it simple' rule of not playing games.. if you want to get somebody to the usa quicker (only conceivable reason for doing the 'double wedding' thing).. then just have a reception in the foreign country and use a K1 visa or use DCF if you can and just plain get married for real in the foreign country. The other straightforward method is to use I-130 and take the 6-9 months, bite the bullet and do it straight-forward.

In my case, my fiancée was insistent on having a 'big church wedding' (mostly parental influence) in Indonesia, so she could have the pomp n circumstance .. I would not have had any problem with doing the K1 visa after a big ceremony that was not official (exactly like the concept of this thread).. because it just plain simple is 100% legal to do it that way. In Indonesia (and apparently Brazil).. if you don't register with the state it is nothing more than practice, it's not official, it's not legal and it's not a marriage.

Now could some butt-munch find some way to red-tape-you to death.. sure.. but if you are careful in how you realize the perception in your own head and call it like it is (that you are NOT MARRIED) and never refer to yourselves as husband and wife, there really should not be a single issue with going the pre-wedding route.

-awr

i was very happy to have stumbled into a 'better way'.. as luck seems to be on my side.. that i won't be tempted to 'go that route'.. it would just be exceptionally weird being in this state of limbo between married in the churches' view but not the governments' view.

As far as a local wedding. you could certainly have an identical reception to a wedding and even have a wedding-like ceremony without vows that is clearly not regarded even by the church as a wedding.. like a very fancy engagement of sorts.. it will get you the 'feeling' of the wedding for family and not get you into trouble visa-wise.

-awr

I recognized the faq here i was very glad to have found it! also i like the step-by-step pages though i coudln't find one for DCF nor a very accurate timeline. Although.. the person that is 'just ahead' of me has an estimated date of adjudication .. i'm wondering if that is accurate at all or is assuming he's filing from the usa.

-awr

I will attack this from a different angle. The Church's angle.

If you go into a marriage ceremony thinking it is "just a church wedding" you may be using the church to bless something that she would not bless if they knew you took this religious ceremony so lightly. If I was the marrying official, I would like to discuss it with you. The Priest/Minister is legally (and sacramentally) able to marry you. You might get clarification from them as to what a wedding actually is, what it does, what graces it imparts. In any event, you might take the Church's role a little more seriously.

A wedding is not only a legal contract between you and your spouse, it is covenant with God, blessed by the Lord, a holy sacrament of the Church. God is the most interested party to your wedding, He wants to succeed more than anyone, He wants you to be happy with your spouse.

Good thoughts.. exactly... you would want to make it clear with the priest/minister that that 'wedding' is only for show.. it really would be just a practice or rehersal as long as documents weren't signed. My fiancee have said 'i do' to each other but it wasn't officiated so we aren't married. If 300 people watched somebody say 'i do' it doesn't mean you are married, and i don't even see it being a risk as long as you tell it like it is.. you had a big 'show' for a reception of guests at the 'home country' before going to the usa.. if you start using the word 'wedding' it will get very confusing... and of course the whole 'when did you *really* get married in God's eyes thing comes into play.

-awr

I use www.pingo.com it's like 5cents to land phone and 13.5 to mobile.. i call enough they added a local calling number to my city! (saves me a penny per minute!).

-awr

I was just about to get my K1 visa paperwork started when i realized that indonesia was still on the shrinking list of countries where you can DCF...

I've been searching and not finding timeline information for anybody that's filed DCF from jakarta, and of course would be wildly interested in finding out.

There is one member i emailed when noticing they JUST started DCF in the same exact embassy, so needless to say i'm quite interested in following that case!

I am very curious what to expect from the point of the initial acceptance interview which seems to only take a bit over a week (yahoo!).. 'til the 'packet 3'.. and any ideas from that point.

We are getting married 2 Dec and i'm really hoping she won't have to wait much more than Feb 'til she can have her passport updated with the glued-in visa/PR.

Anybody with experience in this particular embassy?

Since we didn't get married yet it was kind of interesting starting to fill out the paperwork.. first time i ever checked [x] married on a form! That was bizarre.. i actually had to go back and change it.

Also.. there was some confusion about the civil registry of marriage there.. the embassy website said there was a 10 day waiting period... my fiancée thought it could actually be done before the church ceremony.

I'm very glad to have found this site.. actually i had bookmarked the original 'k1faq.com' or whatever it was and it didn't work anymore but google took me right here.

DCF seems to have solved some major issues we were having regarding the 'dance' of where to 'really' get married... and VJ is helping very much to calm nerves.

BTW.. 'pingo.com' has excellent rates to indonesia and most of the world.. something like 5-6 cents to land phone and 13.5 to mobile.

-awr

It would seem to me.. legal is what actually counts.. even in the usa.. i have been to weddings where the couple weren't married after the 'i do' because it was in the wrong county.. they had to re-do their vows.. 'til the marriage license is signed and dated it was only a rehearsal. You are still engaged ... just because you practiced your vows in front of a lot of people doesn't make it legal.. now that depends on the country of course so do your homework.

-awr