Dan & Jovy

Hi All.

Jovy is a citizen of the Philippines and we are in the K-1 visa process for her to move to the US and marry me. She has a passport already. My friend is getting married in the Mayan Riviera, Mexico in November, and I can't find anything on the internet that would indicate whether or not she could freely enter Mexico with only her passport. All google topics I found on the subject related to people in the US (including citizens of other nations) wanting to travel to Mexico, and it directs you to visit the consolate in New York City (which clearly Jovy cannot do).

I'd like to spend a week of vacation in November with her in Mexico so she can attend the wedding with me and meet some of my friends. I would then get almost two extra days to spend with her for my week off, since I work and she is not working, and its only 10 total travel hours for me to/fro Mexico (versus 45+ hours for a round trip to the Phils). Does anyone know what would need to be done in advance, or how I can find this info? Thanks for any advice.

I sent my I-129F package on July 9, and the cleared check posted my bank's website today. Was able to use the image to get my receipt # to login to my USCIS case and set-up e-mail updates and check status. I learned my NOA1 was mailed on July 12, though I've not yet received it. It's nice to know the check cashed which I guess means there was no basic horrible oversight by me. Just mailing the thing was a relief to me after all the reviewing and updating I did.

In case it helps anyone, my case number was located as the 4th line of a computer stamp undeneath the "endorse here" on the back of my check. The first row of this stamp read "For Credit to U.S. Treasury". There is a dotted underline after the 3rd row, and under that my case # was listed in row 4 as 3 letters followed by 10 numbers. (EAC##########)

There are a few different stamps and references so hope this helps someone login to their own case.

Good luck to all.

I think its most useful to measure the increased cost of marrying someone from another country versus the cost of having a significant other and getting married all in the US. The travel back and forth for me is clearly the biggest expense (plane ticket alone around $1500), along with phone bills (about $120/month) and sending financial support to Jovy ($ varies). I spent about $75 on office supplies (not all were necessary for the 192F itself) and $170 on the I-129F filing fee, and did everything myself. Express mail to the VSC was $21, and the pictures I sent in the package cost maybe $5 to print on CVS.com.

On the flip side, when Jovy arrives and we're married, it will likely be more additional cost for living expenses, food, utiltities, clothes, etc. than the amount of support I currently send, and we'll still be sending some money to improve quality of life for her family. So, I don't really count the financial support as incremental to this process, its just a part of life now. If she lived here, we would spend much more going out to dinner, movies etc. whereas now I am eager to get home so I can call her on the phone (savings). The cost of wedding is going to be expensive, as it would have been if I were marrying someone that lived in my own neighborhood, so I wouldn't really count that either.

This topic is a good idea, it would be good if I can budget the remaining costs of the immigration process, as my journey has only just begun.

I've read so much in the past few months that its difficult to separate statements of opinion from those of hard facts. But I did read somewhere that the FC-029 is optional, and you can just include the same statement about unaltered copies of originals in the cover letter, and avoid the FC-029. I both filed one and included it in my cover letter as sort of a belt/suspenders method. In any case, I believe only the petitioner would need to sign the form, as the beneficiery really isn't submitting anything directly in the I-129F petition. The form itself isn't listed on the USCIS web-site under immigration forms, and it apparently hasn't been updated since 1998. These lead me to believe that making the certifying statement in the cover letter would suffice. Good luck.

I assume her signature related only to the G-325A and letter of intent? I just express mailed my 129F petition this morning, and had a sudden panic that I missed a spot for Jovy to sign the I-129F itself, but I am pretty sure there was no such signature line. By the way our G-325A forms were signed about 2 weeks apart as she also signed when we were recently together in the Phils. As a practical matter it made sense to get her info out of the way first before worrying about my own.

Best of luck with your process! I am now playing the hurry up and wait game, but glad to get my first deliverable out of the way this morning for the chance to start waiting.

When we visited my fiancee's family in their village, i talked to a few people about how a barangay with 700 houses can have no house numbers for mailing address??? Ultimately, I learned the name of the Barangay captain and someone explained that the mail man just leaves all the mail with this person. So on my cover letter I explain the lack of numbering and request that anything to be mailed to Jovy be sent to the c/o provided. All of her addresses for the G-325 (work and home) were similar format:

Barangay

City

Province

I stressed over this for more than a week before just deciding to put down what information i have and let 'er rip. The restaurant she used to waitress at a few years ago is out of business, and she doesnt remember the name of it (if it even had a name, lol). I had to put Restaurant (name unknown) - city, province, country, and hope i don't get a question about it (as there's no more info to be had).

I am getting ready to send in my 129-F petition package in the next few days. Just trying to double check as many things as possible....My photos of us together were from my recent trip, and I uploaded onto CVS.com and picked up at the store. The dates on the back are the printing date, not the date photos were actually taken. Will this cause the photos to not be useful in my application?

Also, if including my boarding passes, and boarding passes of us flying together to her family's hometown, do I also need copies of my passport page with the date stamps? I am trying to keep it simple, and not overload the package with excess evidence. Is this adviseable? Thanks for any help.