cedrichadjian

8 hours ago, Boiler said:

The OP has an interesting Visa Journey.

What do you mean?

I see. Thank you all for your responses. 

Just now, Roel said:

Just so you know. Once you get married and file for AOS - you CANNOT leave US until you either receive travel permit or green card. It WILL take months.

I see. A year of waiting is easier than 3 years. Or maybe she'll visit us... We'll sort it out when the day comes.

9 minutes ago, Dee elle said:

And  you didnt think about this before filing? 

My fiance told me it'd take about a year but you guys are telling me otherwise.. I didn't research as I trusted him. It's okay though. we'll probably visit her while we're married and pass time together, we'll make it through.

Jeez, it's gonna be tough as I'm very intimate with my mother.

Thank you all.

4 minutes ago, BlessedAssurance said:

After the the alien fiance is no longer an alien but a citizen of the united states.

3 minutes ago, Dee elle said:

Only after you attain citizenship and then only  if the visa category.. IR5 .. is still available

 

Doesn't work with green card?

The question is simple: When can I, the alien fiance, bring my mother to the US after we get married? I don't talk to my dad because of some issues, so I don't really care about him.

3 minutes ago, SmallTownPA said:

I sent in about 6 photos of us together.

 

Sending in dozens of pages of texts is a huge waste of time.  

 

There have been USCIS employee interviews and they said the same thing..  meet the requirements and if they need something they will RFE it.

Thanks, I'm just feeling hopeless sometimes you know..
I'm ethnically Armenian, it's easy for me to get the Armenian passport. I told him let's just get married elsewhere and live together in Armenia as Armenia recently started recognizing same-sex married couples, he said everything would be hard for him, the language, work, etc...
I really hope everything passes well and we'd be together. I'm missing him so much and thinking about the denial is giving me so much stress and making me over-think as everything will become extra hard. 

Just now, SmallTownPA said:

Google stokes interview and see what they ask.  Its really up to each officer as to how much they believe you.  Its an imperfect system and if denied, there almost no recourse.

 

You don't list what country is involved, but that can have a major impact.  

 

The requirement is that you met at least once in the previous two years.  Some people spend months together and get denied.  Others a few days.  

 

We spent (about) 5-6 days together, we decided on seeing each other again during January as he got denied to take 7 days off from his work. We can't just meet and pass days together, I'm a freelance web developer, but he's an employee. 

1 minute ago, payxibka said:

For consulates other than high fraud countries, interviews consist of three to five questions.  Does that fit your definition?

I live in Lebanon, I'm not sure if it's considered a high fraud country.

Of course it does. 

1 minute ago, SmallTownPA said:

You completely ignored the second sentence "Google it and 'bonifide marriage interview' for ideas of what they may ask."  

 

When going through Counselor Processing they  can ask you detailed questions about your finance, as the presumption of fraud is still, by the FAM, the #1 reason for the interview.

 

So if your sweety can't answer basic questions about you (birthday, job, family) they can and will suspect fraud.

 

Or are you saying they don't do interviews for Counselor Processing???? 

I know details about my fiance of course, but I naturally won't remember small details like the high school he has attended, his 2 step brothers' name that he has little to no contact with since they live in another state, etc... And of course, I'm not gonna sit and learn them by heart! 

1 hour ago, SmallTownPA said:

The legal requirement is simply that you 'met once in the previous two years'.

 

But can you pass a Stokes Interview?   Google it and 'bonifide marriage interview' for ideas of what they may ask.

 

 

I believe Stokes Interview is only applicable if the officer suspects or has some evidence that a couple has a fake relationship (I guess if someone reports for example, even if it's a genuine relationship and the reporter has no evidence, the officer might suspect therefore do the Strokes Interview)

- My fiance started working around September 2017 and makes $21,840/year

- He hasn't claimed anyone, so it's me and him therefore 2 households hence it's more than enough to meet the poverty guideline

- He said he gets his tax returns around February 2019

Can we apply for I-129F form on june 15?

@pushbrk He doesn't claim his mom, makes $21,840/year, so for 2 households ($16,460), it's more than enough, correct?

Also, he started working around September 2017 and said he gets his tax returns around February 2019, should he still apply for I-129F form around 15th of June (13 days from now)?

7 hours ago, pushbrk said:

No reason to obligate Mom if he qualifies on his own.  He would only do so, if he claims her as a dependent on his tax return.  If she IS his dependent, he would need to combine their incomes to qualify as sponsor.  State his gross income as his current income.  That would be the gross pay for one pay period, time the number of pay periods in a year. Remember if he's paid every two weeks, that's 26 times.  Weekly is 52, but twice a month is 24.  Get it right, as the numbers are close to the minimum.

 

Aside, the OP is a foreign spouse, so using shorthand to talk about US Federal Tax returns is counterproductive.  

That's correct, I'm having some trouble understanding how taxation works in the US.

Regardless, I will show this topic to my fiance, he'll understand more. Thank you so much.

2 minutes ago, barashka said:

Like, on his taxes. Even if he lives with them, he doesn't need to claim them. So, if you are going to live with him and he only claimed himself until now, then it would be you and him eventually, so I believe you would put 2. I don't think he claims his mother on his taxes, does he?

Ah, I see. I'm not quite sure, I just texted him. I'll get an answer tomorrow, thank you for taking your time to answer. 

4 minutes ago, barashka said:

 

If he doesn't claim any of them, it would be just you and him. I would guess 2?

What do you mean by "claim"?

- My fiance lives with his sister, mom and his grandpa, soon he and his mom will move out

- His mom is retired and gets paid $500/month

- He makes $21,840/year before tax cuts, $19,440/year after tax cuts

- He doesn't own anything (house, car, etc)

How many households should he consider while applying for AoS? He, his mom and me (3) or he and me (2)?

1 minute ago, Ben&Zian said:

 

That is important to note also about country of beneficiary as some are more scrutinized than others. For us, we literally had 7-8 days together, so for you, 11-12 days is fine for the I-129f petition portion... come the embassy, that's where the scrutiny begins. Perhaps another trip could be made during the I-129f petition portion before the interview at the embassy? Would have 6-8 months to do it, that could help come the interview to show a second meeting.

 

Also, are there any other "issues"? Like large age difference? Religion differences?

We met about 5 and a half days when he came to visit me and we're planning on seeing each other again around October for 6-7 days in another country (he will apply I-129F about 15 days from now), so that'd be about 11-12 days of being together. There are no issues, we both are 23 years old and atheist.

Just now, geowrian said:

People have been approved with less time together and refused with much more. It’s really a case by case basis based on the specific circumstances. What country is the beneficiary from? That would likely be the biggest indicator on how much time spent together is advised. Some countries it’s not uncommon to meet that long so it’s not an issue. Other countries, especially ones in high fraud areas, it’s a red flag, meaning the CO will likely more heavily scrutinize the case.

Thanks for your reply.

The beneficiary is from Lebanon (me). I believe it is a high fraud country as we have an organization classified as terrorist by the US (Hezbollah), but I have zero ties with them, I'm not even ethnically an Arab, I'm ethnically Armenian.

Recently, my fiance came up with the idea of me visiting him in the US for a month. This is somehow impossible as I'm a freelancer and have no ties to the country I live in.

The reason he came up with this is that he thinks 5 days 12 hours of being together is not enough evidence to prove we have a bona fide relationship (we will also travel to another country and pass time there together for like a week, therefore 11-12 days before receiving a reply from USCIS), I've known my fiance for about 5 months now and 'til the end of reply from USCIS (for the form I-129F) it'd be around 1 year. We got lots of evidence like chats, photos together, with my mom and friends, plans for the future, how we met, hotel receipt, boarding passes, gifts we both sent on valentine's (though I didn't receive it because of address issues), and more and more in the future.

So question is, would the CO be convinced if we only pass 11-12 days (5 days 12 hours in my country and about 6-7 days in the country we will visit)?

What other way can we prove that we have a bona fide relationship?

We are a same-sex couple who met on an app, had a huge interest in each other and met 4 months later.

Thank you for taking your time to read, your opinions and advice would highly be appreciated.

26 minutes ago, Jojo92122 said:

Send the best evidence to support your case.  Original evidence or closest to it.  You can't send in your phone, so screenshots are the best.  With screenshots, people know what they are looking at.  With a 3rd party software that prints out your conversations, how does anyone know if you deleted or added thing? 

Right, and this will be a hard task for us as most of our conversation is on iMessage, wish it were on WhatsApp. 

I'm thinking about using a 3rd party software to retrieve messages between me and my significant other, print them to show them at the interview, would it be ok? Do they necessarily need to be printed screenshots?  iPhone's iMessage sucks when it comes to searching for a specific message or get to our beginning messages, it's also hard to scroll as when your finger swipes, it basically goes back and you'll have to scroll again from the end.

2 minutes ago, Christy&J said:

at the end it's CBP decision to let you go in or no, yet it happened already , visa granted but CBP didn't let someone get through.

 

I would say try to apply the visa, gather as many ties to homeland proves as possible and see what would happen

Feels bad paying almost $1.5K just to get denied and sent back home. 

5 minutes ago, x_driven_x said:

Engagement doesn't have to be anything fancy; but there does have to be intent to marry. This is not a "dating" visa, so you both should have agreed to get married, which is basically an engagement.   You will need to prove you've met within the last 2 years and have proof of that, passport stamps are one of the best ways to do that, add on to that showing airplane boarding passes (the actual passes not just receipts / booking confirmations), add on to that with photos dated and signed on to the back, etc...

Also, I found a way to recover the old facetime history (about 100 facetime logs! ),  do you think it would be ok if I print the logs from the software? Or it should be phone screenshots directly from the facetime app?