FeelingYoung66

Could someone please refresh my memory on why it is advisable for a K-1 beneficiary to have a SSN before marriage. Thank you in advance.

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Not quite true. American citizens are exempt from the ban.

Thank you for the above replies. I knew I could count on some calm and well thought-out advice. Thanks again. I made a slight error about what my fiancee had at the interview to show she was divorced. What she had was a print-out of "Final Order" from the court in New Westminster, BC that granted the divorce. It's an official court document proving divorce that had been sent to her in pdf form (digitally signed by the court) from her divorce lawyer at the time of her divorce. The problem apparently (I'm guessing here) was that when printed-out on a home printer it is no longer a "certified" document? Anyway.. that's what she had with her, and the CO in Montreal rejected it. Some consulates might have let it go. It was, at the very least, strong evidence that my fiancee was divorced. But clearly the CO didn't consider it enough evidence. Well the Consulate now has everything they asked for. An official"Certificate of Divorce" and a "certified" copy of the courts "Final Order" has been in their possession for 39 days and counting. I would not think that the Consulate in Montreal is so "backed-up" that someone could not have looked at these documents by now and given us a "go" if that's all that was lacking. Something else must be holding things up, and we are left to wonder what that could possibly be.

My Fiancee's K-1 interview in Montreal was January 8th. Everything went smoothly at the interview until the CO indicated that my Fiancee did not have the correct document to show that she was divorced. What my Fiancee did have with her at the interview was a copy of the divorce court's "final decision", a document that had clearly been acceptable to both the USCIS and the NVC, and which had also been reviewed and given a blessing by our Immigration Attorney as perfectly adequate to show that my Fiancee was indeed divorced. (Admittedly, my attorney doesn't handle Canadian cases very often. Most of her experience is with other Consulates around the world.) The CO did however reassure my Fiancee that all else was in order, and that the K-1 Visa would be granted upon receipt from her of an official "Divorce Certificate" with a raised seal issued by the court in which she was divorced in 2011. So the impression the CO left was that this would be a simple matter and would likely only cause a short delay. A 221g was then issued along with specific instructions on how to send the document to them. Somewhat stunned, my dear Fiancee met me on the very cold and snowy street outside and tried to explain what had just happened. She was upset to say the least. So was I. Our plans for a celebration that day were crushed. We had traveled nearly 4700 km just to get there for the interview. (Btw.. name another country where someone has to travel anywhere near that far to get to a Visa interview. It's ridiculous.) I immediately texted our Attorney in the U.S. about the 221g. She was surprised, but tried to keep things positive by saying this would only cause a "short" delay. Since the CO had essentially implied the same, we consoled ourselves with that. A "short" delay. Fast forward to now. My Fiancee traveled back to her native BC and was able to get the "Divorce Certificate with raised seal" and immediately sent it to the Consulate in Montreal using the prescribed method. The Consulate received it on the 16th of January. It has now been over five weeks since they received it, and more than six weeks since the interview itself. There has been no apparent movement to our case status. It remains in "Administrative Processing". The only indication that anything is going on at all is that there have been three changes to the case updated date during this time. At my request, my Attorney sent an email to the Consulate about 10 days ago to ask about the delay. Four days later she received back a form type response that gave no specific information at all. It was more a polite acknowledgement of my Attorney's email request. Suffice to say that my Fiancee is by now "losing it". This delay has caused an awful lot of stress in our relationship. To be honest, the entire K-1 process seems designed to put an enormous amount of strain on a relationship.to begin with. She is in Canada (without her passport for the last six weeks) and I am in the U.S. at my job and helping to take care of an ill loved one. She chose not to even attempt to travel to the U.S. during the K-1 application process after the 129f filing. That's just how careful she is. Our plans for getting married in early March are now cancelled. Our Attorney is as blind as we are to what's going on up there in Montreal. It seems to me that the amount of time that has now gone by is a very abnormal amount without an answer of some kind. What would have taken the CO at the interview about 30 seconds to accomplish (i.e., examining the divorce certificate that they now have) has now taken at a minimum five and one-half weeks additional and counting.. and that just doesn't make any sense to me. What could possibly cause such a delay? Thoughtful replies please.

At this point I don't think you have any other choice but to relax as best you can and wait for their next communication. Maybe then they'll give you some clues as to what happened.

So you were told at the interview that you were approved and also given the pink slip? Is this correct?

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Personal info on whom? The Petitioner? The beneficiary? Someone else? And had the info they're asking for now already been supplied to them on either the original 129f or DS-160? First.. I would make sure of the authenticity of the email to verify that it is not a phishing attempt. Second.. I would check the status of the visa on the ceac site to see if it's already been issued.

What was the source of the email? The Consulate in Montreal?

A reputable immigration attorney will never claim to be able to speed things up. My attorney went out of his way to point this out when we first met him. He even said that it is often counterproductive to even try. What he did offer was his decades of experience in doing this, effective guidance on gathering the required information, and an assurance that everything would be submitted correctly and as speedily as possible in order to maximize our chances of success. This is perhaps what people are talking about when they advise "it really helps speed things up". In our case it certainly did.

In my own case (K-1 fiancee), having an experienced immigration attorney has helped me. Gave me some piece of mind that things were submitted correctly and has also freed-up my time to do other things. Not cheap.. but would do it again. My 2 cents..

Okay, thanks canadavisa22.

Sort of. In this case the retired USC visits Canada on a U.S. passport to spend time with non-USC fiance for months at a time, but observing the six-month limit. They want to change that and live full-time in the U.S. as a married couple. To achieve that asap they chose the K-1 route over the CR-1 one.