LilyJ

All 12 vaccinations are required. Get your vaccination records. Find out which ones you already have. Get the ones you don't already have, or wait until your medical exam to get them. Chances are you've probably already had at least half of them

There are some jobs only available to US citizens and you cannot apply for those while only having a green card.
 
If you don't know that CR1 visa grants you a green card then you should REALLY do more research about your immigration journey. This is pretty basic stuff..

Hello!
 I am the USC and my husband is a Danish citizen, we got married in December and he returned to Denmark mid-January. We sent in our package on February 8, delivered on February 14 (3 days later than it was supposed to, they ping-pong-balled it back and forth between two post centers in the same city! Thanks USPS...), and NOA1 through text on February 21, assigned to Nebraska. Hoping it isn't going to be as slow as I keep hearing about and as my timeline estimation shows!! But even if it does lets all hope the NVC and embassy stages are quick to make up for it!

As I understand it
If you do not live with your parents: Either mom or dad will fill out I-864, then the other will fill out I-864a. So if mom does I-864 dad will do I-864a or vice versa.
If you DO live with your parents in the same primary residence: Both mom and dad will fill out I-864a.
You, of course, will still fill out your own I-864.

I would renew and get a new passport first since for your visa your passport needs to be valid for at least 6 months or more. I recommend getting a new passport so you don't get hitched up with it expiring so soon

You may just have to transfer money to your husband so that he can pay from the US

If you did not include the USC's birth certificate, didn't include the marriage certificate, and didn't include other ongoing marital evidence, that is why, make sure to send those in asap! Make sure they are copies though, not originals.

With a K-1 visa, the intent will have to be to enter into a genuine, good faith marriage, within 90 days of him arriving in the US, or else he will have to go back. He can't just arrive on a K-1, not get married, and stay, on the chances he does get a visa and arrives in the US you would HAVE to get married and STAY married for him to be able to stay on a K-1 visa. However, you haven't seen each other in 5 years, and he is still on a 10 year ban for residing in the US illegally for 5 years. Even if his ban was over, with him overstaying by such a long time illegally in the US before, the likelihood of him receiving a visa is slim. Him having gone off to have other kids while you were together and applying for the visa also doesn't help your relationship and intentions (on his side) look very genuine.

Just FYI; You won't need to provide your financial information until later in the process. You won't send your financial information in with the petition, you'll only send that once the petition is approved and goes to the NVC

With a K-1 visa, the intent will have to be to enter into a genuine, good faith marriage, within 90 days of him arriving in the US, or else he will have to go back. He can't just arrive on a K-1, not get married, and stay, on the chances he does get a visa and arrives in the US you would HAVE to get married and STAY married for him to be able to stay on a K-1 visa. However, you haven't seen each other in 5 years, and he is still on a 10 year ban for residing in the US illegally for 5 years. Even if his ban was over, with him overstaying by such a long time illegally in the US before, the likelihood of him receiving a visa is slim. Him having gone off to have other kids while you were together and applying for the visa also doesn't help your relationship and intentions (on his side) look very genuine.

As someone who has hired RapidVisa for help with my petition: Not worth it. Wished I had found this site before I paid for it. The customer service is either great or terrible or frustrating depending on what agent you're talking to at any given time. They have no actual first-hand experience with the visa process like the people on this website do. All RapidVisa knows is how to organize it and send it off (if you decide to pay them an extra $600 for it). And their advice, especially on evidence, is not great.
 
I've heard that lawyers are also not worth it. I have seen many people on here talk about their lawyers request very odd items from them for their visa, which weren't even required documents for the petition, or just make straight up awful mistakes and errors on their petitions. Many people with lawyers on here have also not been given very great advice from them.
 
Just like RapidVisa, not many lawyers have actually gone through the process first-hand. They know it, but they haven't done it themselves personally. And, all that either of them can really do is put together what you give them, you still have to find out all the information and prepare the evidence and everything else yourself. A lawyer can't really do anything for you other than prepare it and send it off, it won't be any faster or easier with a lawyer since you still have to do nearly everything yourself, and any questions you have, the people here can answer for free and usually more accurately and helpfully.

A lease will definitely do, you can also show proof of both of you being responsible for/paying bills to show proof of financial commingling. Photocopies of passport stamps work just as well for proof of travel along with pictures from the vacations. Don't worry about not having original film photos, a printed out word document of the photos with captions of where/when is fine enough. They usually prefer you send copies than originals anyways unless they ask for them.

Make sure to include more evidence of your marriage; marriage certificates are required, but USCIS also wants to see things like pictures, trips together, and since you have been living together and have been married a longer amount of time, evidence of financial mingling such as a joint bank account, proof of residence together, insurance, and other things like that

Two important lessons for others to learn from this post:
 
1.  never buy airline tickets or do anything that requires a financial commitment until you have the visa in your hands, in your passport
2.  attorneys do not help at all in most cases, all they want is your money
 
 

She can stay with you for as long as she is allowed to in Canada but she will need to prove domicile in the US later on in the process

Make sure to include then pictures from visits (and the wedding), plane tickets, passport stamps, etc

You can get married in the US, as long as you return back to Russia afterwards before beginning the CR1 process. You can't get married and stay without a K1, but you are certainly allowed to get married in the US and return back to Russia and then file the CR1. It's what we, and many others, did, as long as you return to Russia after the marriage there is no problem  

It will take about the same amount of time for a K1 or a CR1. An IR1 is only for couples who have been married for 2 years or more, if she goes with a spousal visa she will be coming on a CR1 since she will, presumably, have been married for less than 2 years. A K3 is basically an obsolete visa and K3 applications are automatically converted into CR1 visas these days (or so I've heard; pretty sure they are trying to phase out K3 visas because they are irrelevant now, so this is why they are converting them into CR1s). So if she's planning to do a spousal visa instead of the K1 fiance visa she might as well apply for a CR1 instead of a K3 because it will become a CR1 anyways. The process for an IR1 and CR1 is the same however, but she will automatically receive a CR1 if they are married less than 2 years by the time she arrives in the US and will have to remove her conditional residency after she has been in the US for 2 years if she comes on a CR1.
 
Whether she goes with a K1 or a CR1, it will take around 6-8 months for the petition to be approved, and around 12-14 months for the entire process depending on how quickly the petition is approved, how quickly they pay and send NVC documents and fees, and how quickly the NVC case is approved and how long it takes to get an interview where she lives. There is no faster way, they take around the same amount of time.

I don't think you need to wait for her to get all new documents before applying. I should think just her name being legally changed in her should be enough since you don't have to send in her ID with your petition. Just make sure she gets her passport with her new name on it and whatnot before the interview (which shouldn't be a problem since the interview won't be for a while).

As long as her name is legally changed to the married name, then you can use her married name even if you don't have her updated documents yet. I would wait to file until her name is legally changed and use the married name since that will be easier than updating it later on, but as soon as it is legally changed and recognized as her new name in her country then you can use it still.

Proceedings means basically has she ever gone to court for immigration reasons before a judge or immigration court, for example if they had been to court for removal proceedings (aka being deported). Her i129 being processed is not a court or judicial process, so no, unless she has been in court for deportation before

I am about to submit the petition for my husband's CR1 tomorrow but I want to know if the evidence we are including is enough, since we didn't have any financial assets to include
We have:
Timeline of relationship letter 6 pages (22 pictures) of pictures from vacations (4 are from the wedding), including pictures of us alone and pictures of us with family/friends, captioned with when the pictures are from and where (made in word doc) Photocopies of his passport stamps and plane tickets from his previous visits Photocopies of my passport stamp and tickets  One notarized 3rd party affidavit from my mother Certified copy of marriage certificate Will this be good enough to avoid an RFE?