A ring proves nothing except one of you bought a ring. You do not need a ring to be “engaged” (which is not a legal status anyway) and you certainly don’t need it for a K-1. Stop thinking about trivialities and focus on the bigger picture. You are trying to convince a stranger that a person you have spent one week with is the one you want to marry. Show evidence of quality time spent together and that you have made the right life-changing decision. Photos are nice but not the most important evidence.
My wife will not need a visa to visit Canada because as a Green Card holder, the visa requirement is waived. Visa requirements into Canada depends on the country that issued your passport. In my wife's case, Colombia nationals would require a visa to get into Canada. But, that requirement can be and is waived because of her possession of a U.S. Permanent Resident Card (Green Card).
Also, will not need a study permit (study visa) because her time of study will be less than 6 months, which again allows the requirement to be waived.
So it appears there should be no issues for her 5 week stay, attending classes at a Canadian University as part of a "Study-Abroad" program hosted by her U.S. based school.
Some apartments won't because they have no way of verifying who someone is, it most likely is in their property management contract which, I'm sure has been reviewed dozens of time by the property management's lawyers, so I'm pretty sure it is legal. Also without a SSN, who's to say the person isn't illegal or an overstay. That's the apartments rights to verify it's tenants. Not everything is 'discrimination'. Really dislike that word honestly. It's like crying wolf.
I wanted to share my quick story and recent updates on the K1 visa process I am going through with my Panamanian fiancee. I used this site quite a bit to gather information so I feel it is prudent to give back to the community and hopefully save some other people from searching for answers. I did not use a lawyer for any of this and simply used my best judgment in gathering resources from the internet. Please be careful with pulling information from potentially unreliable sources (a lot of the YouTube videos I saw were full of fluffy baloney like putting everything in a colorful binder with some silly heart-covered front page, remember these are government employees, any extra work for them is probably annoying) or sources that are outdated. Below is a (hopefully) short summary:
-I met my fiance in the United States as she was here under the Au Pair program on a J-1 Visa where she stayed for a year and a half (from November 2016 to June 2018)
-I proposed to her on my second trip to Panama about 4 months after she returned home (proposed early October 2018)
-I submitted the paperwork for the I-129F mid-November 2018 and received the NOA1 about 2 weeks after (late November 2018)
-Just yesterday (April 1st, 2019), I received the NOA2 showing that our request was approved (about 4.5 months total)
Hopefully, this gives good hope to those in the middle of waiting for their response. It is literally some of the worst anxiety I have ever experienced in my life and receiving this great news well ahead of time was a major relief.
Some notes that I believe helped our case go so quickly and smoothly:
-She is from Panama, a country that demonstrates a very low occurrence of visa overstays and fraud (from what research I have done)
-She already spent a year and a half in the US and, despite meeting through Tinder, we had spent plenty of time together face-to-face in the two years prior which continued even after she moved back to Panama
-She did not have any immigration issues between her visit in 2015 as a tourist and her stay as Au Pair; she left on time and did not get in any trouble with the law while here
-We had known each other for about two years by the time I had filed the I-129f paperwork
-Despite me having a criminal record (misdemeanor marijuana possession in 2007, served unsupervised probation successfully), I still had all of the original paperwork which I included in the submission (and made copies for myself to keep), and I wrote a letter specifically describing the circumstances and outcome (because, really, the whole thing was not a big deal)
-Included original documentation to prove legitimacy of the relationship and having seen her in the past two years (boarding passes, hotel reservations, receipts for the necklace and engagement ring, dinner receipts)
-The packet was organized by section with an outline included for easy searching and all papers with photos were labeled with date, location, and names of everyone
-The entire packet was two-hole punched at the top and I used ACCO prong fasteners (apparently, this is how they will file it anyway, it saves them time)
One major thing I want to mention is double-check, double-check, double-check your work!
I spent about two whole months on this and I am glad I took my time to do it correctly. I gathered documents that I had been collecting for quite some time and information from her and her family. It was very arduous, but it is incredibly important to be accurate in your submission. I probably rewrote parts of the I-129F form 10-15 times because I kept doing it incorrectly or I would later realize that I misinterpreted what was being asked of me (it's not straight-forward in all parts of the form).
Another major thing I want to mention is MAKE COPIES OF EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU SEND IT! Your fiance(e) will need to know what's going on and it doesn't hurt to have copies of the exact submission to verify what USCIS and the NVC have.
I very well may have overdone it, but I prefer the extra time put forth to getting an RFE or being outright denied.
Good luck to everyone else out there and I hope this helps. I was surprised to know that even with declining approvals for I-129F applications in the past two years, some of us can still be lucky to have their process move quicker than the 7+ months that we have been told.
Even in the off-chance that USCIS approves your hardship K1 petition, my biggest concern for your case is the affidavit of support portion of the K1 Visa process. You'll have to prove to the USCIS in the K1 interview that you can solely support your fiancee financially. By claiming that you have financial hardship as the basis for not seeing your fiancee in the past two years, you are basically removing any chances of proving to the USCIS that you can support your fiancee financially once she arrives in the US.
Even in the off-chance that USCIS approves your hardship K1 petition, my biggest concern for your case is the affidavit of support portion of the K1 Visa process. You'll have to prove to the USCIS in the K1 interview that you can solely support your fiancee financially. By claiming that you have financial hardship as the basis for not seeing your fiancee in the past two years, you are basically removing any chances of proving to the USCIS that you can support your fiancee financially once she arrives in the US.
Even in the off-chance that USCIS approves your hardship K1 petition, my biggest concern for your case is the affidavit of support portion of the K1 Visa process. You'll have to prove to the USCIS in the K1 interview that you can solely support your fiancee financially. By claiming that you have financial hardship as the basis for not seeing your fiancee in the past two years, you are basically removing any chances of proving to the USCIS that you can support your fiancee financially once she arrives in the US.
CC&TD got a reaction from Stevephoto in Have not seen fiance within 2-year period before filing petition.
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