msdiamond2171

They called me today And gave my fiancée an appointment for February 22. Fingers 🤞. God is able!!

Notify NVC now that you are interested in a visa but not this at this time. And send this notice every 6 months until you are ready.
 
For next two years meet with your wife at least 4 times a year, at least one week per meeting. Document each meeting. With photos, plane tix receipts, hotel receipts.
 
If at the end two years you both want to proceed, then pay NVC fees and upload papers. And continue to meet. 
 
On the day of your interview, she should be in Egypt and you should show the CO her U.S. passport to prove she is there providing moral support.
 
If your relationship is real, a competent CO will see that.

While your lawyer certainly wronged you, I strongly suggest that going forward, you do your own reading and become educated on whichever process you choose.  No one cares more about it than you do, so it is unwise to blindly turn it over to even someone you're paying.   You're 100% responsible for knowing the eligibility for the petitions you submit, as well as all of the content, regardless of whether it is submitted through counsel or not.

Omg, this lawyer just wasted your time and your money regarding a very basic immigration requirement that should have been a given. Fire him.

Sorry Everyone for not responding till now. I was cut off since I am a newer member of the website. I've read all your responses. I have a lawyer, they never explained to me that we must meet prior to filing. He did said, Quote " Hey Peter, you are supposed to meet prior to filing, but sometimes there is an exception to the meeting requirement" End Quote
 
Which is quickest please, K1 now that we have met, or go there marry her and file a CR-1?
 
Also I don't know if any of you are lawyer or know if I can demand my money back from my lawyer since he should have know clearly that immigration would deny based on the fact we did not meet yet before filing. I paid him $5000.00 for the filing.
 
I will update you all with what the paper says once I get it.
 
 

See the comparison, as compiled by our fine member Crazy Cat:
K-1        
    More expensive than CR-1    
    Requires Adjustment of Status after marriage (expensive and requires a lot of paperwork)    
    Spouse can not leave the US until she/he receives approved Advance Parole (approx 6-8 months)    
    Spouse can not work until she/he receives EAD (approx 6-8 months)    
    Some people have had problems with driver licenses, Social Security cards, leases, bank account during this period    
    Spouse will not receive Green Card for many months after Adjustment of Status is filed.
    A K-1 might be a better choice when 18-21 year old children are immigrating also
    In some situations, marriage can affect certain Home country benefits, making a K-1 a better choice   
    A denied K-1 is sent back to USCIS to expire
    CR-1
    Less expensive than K-1    
    No Adjustment of Status (I-485, I-131, I-765) required.    
    Spouse can immediately travel outside the US    
    Spouse is authorized to work immediately upon arrival.    
    Spouse receives Social Security Card and Green Card within 2 or 3 weeks after entering the US    
    Opening a bank account, getting a driver's license, etc. are very easily accomplished with GC, SS card, and passport.
    Spouse has legal permanent Resident status IMMEDIATELY upon entry to US.

What do you plan to do? File again? If so, with such a basic fundamental mistake, I bet there are other  more subtle issues with your petition that will result in an RFE. You may want to consider using an agency to help you this next time around. The one I used was only $600 and was invaluable and cuts through all the different opinions you will hear  But there are a lot of agencies and incompetant lawyers that will also do it for you. Choose wisely. 

If failing to meet is the reason for denial, then OP can refile an I-129f.  However, I would consider a CR-1 spousal visa. 

In the past, they have rejected cases for failing to meet within 2 years prior to filing.  Looks like they decided to deny this case instead (which is their choice).  

Looks like you sent the I-129F in March of 2022.....then met in March 2023.  That is the reason for denial. 

The instructions clearly say you have to meet within 2 years to petition for a K-1 visa.  COVID is not an excuse. 

On what date did you file the I-129f?
You MUST have met within 2 years before filing.  That is a firm requirement.

Meeting in person prior to filing the petition is the most crucial part of filing. No meeting = no approval. COVID is not an excuse that USCIS entertains, we have seen it countless times. There’s no appeal, you must refile but at least this time you’re eligible because you met in person. 

True ! Yes filed January 28th, haven't heard anything 

Well, it all depends on the strength of paperwork you submitted. Until they give you an answer, don’t negotiate against yourself. Furthermore, you can add “unsolicited evidence”, if you feel you would do things differently next time you apply, submit an addendum as unsolicited evidence. 
myself, when I applied for 3 people on Jan 10th, 2 got confirm notices on Jan 12…I had to wait until February 13 for the 3rd one. When I called I was told to wait.

Do not cancel. Literally just wait. Remember, it’s 30k per month for 4 countries. The sooner you get in the line, the better. Canceling and reapplying will only get you further back.
 

It's a gray area that has been up for debate for years. The IO at your green card interview has the right to decide you violated the rules and not grant you a green card, which could result in deportation.
 
I know there's stories on this forum from people who successfully worked remote while waiting for EAD and got their green card, but if you want to be safe I would not do it. If the company is this fond of you, they might just keep your position for you until after you obtain your EAD.

Yup. You remember correctly. We are in the process of getting her Cuban Dental degree sent to the USA and once she passes the dental boards here then she will hopefully enroll in a 2 year International Dental Program here to be a fully licensed dentist in NY. 🙂 

Wow! You got confirmed???? Congrats! I am hoping ours will come too. 

Good advise. Also, I am happy to know that your pending K1 didn't affect it. I was worried, that if USCIS saw we have an approved K1 then they wouldn't bother with the i134a petition. 

I have looked to see if there is any pattern with processing, none is obvious.
 
If there is a way of finding what is going on I have not come across it.
 
I would think they must be getting into a backlog by now but yet again no information. 

My best advice would be to remember what path you are arriving from, and make sure your honest answers are appropriate for the path you are traveling on. 
 
For example - If the CBP officer asks my fiancée - "Where will you be staying?", a decent answer to that question is "With my boyfriend who is my sponsor". A poor answer would be "With my fiancé, whom I plan to marry within 90 days, and so I could file an AOS". This might cause the CBP agent to say you are traveling on the wrong immigration path and send the beneficiary back to Cuba. In my current situation, we have no immediate plans to get married. Had we got to the embassy interview stage of K1 then we would have scrambled to make some sort of marriage plans, and had she traveled on K1 we would have married within the 90 days even though 90 days isn't nearly enough time to get married. i-134a is much more applicable path for us, as she really is traveling for humanitarian reasons. 

WOW IM SO HAPPY FOR YOUR ...i have been following you and im so overjoyed for you yeahhh!!! finally 

77 days waiting for me... I emailed/called congressmen regularly, senators regularly, filed application with ombudsman, emailed the President of USCIS, made duplicates that I regret I made, called USCIS often, was put in a queue to talk to a Tier 2 agent on 1/31 and never received a callback.  Analyzed this from every possible angle, trying to find some logical sense to why some are processed within days, while others wait 6+ months.... In my experience, everything I did was wasted efforts. And this is what I would suggest for anyone waiting on this process : 
 
Limit social media time. Accept this is a unfair random process, and there is nothing you could have done differently for your application to be accepted. I do believe that the longer you go in the system, the system does put some weight on those that are bumping up close to 90 days. This is pretty much all the advice I can offer. Be patient and try your best to not allow yourself going crazy over how unfair the process is. 
 
Tips for those about to apply - Submit your application at 11am EST on a Monday. idk why but I am superstitious a little and this was the submission time on the application I submitted that got approved. Note - it wasn't my fiancée who was initially approved but one of her family members that I applied for on 3/20 at 11am. They were confirmed at 11:46 pm on 3/24, and then everyone I applied to sponsor was then approved. 

I met my fiancée in 2017 when I randomly visited Cuba after changes President Obama made for US persons traveling to Cuba. I knew she was someone special right away from this chance meeting, however when I told her I was interested romantically she said, "Joel, I live in Cuba, you live in NY. It's ridiculous to think we could maintain a romance when we have spent so little time together. Please don't speak of this nonsense again, and accept that we will only ever be friends". So I accepted this even though I thought she was wrong, and over the next 4-5 years we had an online friendship only. We usually chatted once a month and liked each others social media, but nothing much more and I never believed it would be anything more than a friendship. In March 2021 during Covid, a spark happened and she realized that she had developed feelings for me. We started talking daily, and discussing how we could make this romance real. It took until September 2021 for me to finally get back to Cuba, and when I did I had to fly through Madrid Spain because travel to Cuba had been highly restricted by the Cuban Regime because of Covid. I spent September 2021 in Havana, and over the next 2 years I've traveled to Cuba 11 additional times; Additionally we both traveled to Trinidad & Tobago for a two week vacation. This was her first time leaving Cuba.
 
I filed for i-129f and received NOA1 on October 18th 2021. On January 6th 2023 I applied i-134a Humanitarian Parole. On February 10th 2023 we had our i-129f application approved by USCIS (NOA2) without receiving an RFE. On 3/24/2023 our i-134a application was confirmed, and she received Travel Authorization later that same day. I tried literally everything to get USCIS to take action on my application, however getting movement out of USCIS is impossible. Feel free to ask me questions about the i-134a humanitarian parole processes, and I'd be happy to share more about my details. 
 
I've shared this before, however this is a short video I made last October that is a glimpse of our life. Finally after two years we are about to start our everyday life together 🙂