wazzujoel

My last update to this post. The law I was worried about being enacted in Cuba is still only rumor and speculation. After a couple of months of daily action and analysis to find some way to get movement with USCIS, I am convinced there is nothing that can get this organization to process your application any faster. You best hope is to be patient and work on your own mental health to try and not go crazy over how unfair the system was. I received approval last Friday (really 11:46PM on 3/24) after I had submitted applications for her family on 3/20. It was one of her family members applications which triggered being confirmed on 3/24 which then caused all other applications to be confirmed. My partner will be coming to the US next week 🙂 Here is an update success thread I made

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.

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.

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. 🙂

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 🙂

Unless you are Cuban. Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) of 1966, allows Cubans Permanent residency after staying in the US for 1 year. Additionally I have seen Cubans receiving AOS via CAA in roughly a month. The amount of evidence you need to get Permanent Residency is I-94 showing when you arrived in the country, and your Cuban Birth Certificate. That's it which is why I think the approval is such a quick process. It's an amazing immigration path for Cubans.

I couldn't agree with you more. It's interesting to me how easily it is for "bad advice" to creep into widely followed practices. And I find it even more puzzling when actual immigration lawyers also follow these undocumented "bad advice" practices. Lawyers should really have no excuse. I know they are humans and can make errors too, but you'd think after studying law they have been very keen to following exactly what is being asked by the process and not reaching outside the scope of the instructions. But what do I know, I am not a lawyer... I only watch a lot of Judge Judy lol

Yes you are right that it does come down to the agents. I will even admit the two signed letters I sent were on the light side of evidence of intent to marry. Had they provided me an RFE then I would have followed up with my engagement ring receipt, wedding plans, chat exchange I had with pastor who will be marrying us. Things like that. I am not trying to discourage people from provided additional evidence of "Intent to marry" besides the two signed letters I sent which worked for me. Perhaps you might get one of those agents who want a little more evidence than letters of intent. I wish you best of luck on your journey. You will probably be okay, don't worry about it. If you do get an RFE though, read it very carefully and make sure you respond back with exactly what they are asking for.

Just to be clear - I am not saying that by providing "proof of relationship" that you will receive an RFE. You have to think of this from USCIS's perspective. They have a checklist of things they need to verify for them to give you approval. You application should be clear, and concise on exactly what they are looking for, such that they can give you a quick approval. Let me give an absurd example to prove my point : Perhaps someone applying starts thinking that passport photo isn't sufficient evidence to prove they are really a US citizen. Maybe they decide they wanted to send USCIS pictures from when they were 8 years old and their family took them on a road trip to Disneyland.... Maybe they include 20 pictures of their diary during that time so USCIS can see they really did go to Disneyland so they must be a US citizen. USCIS is not going to reject or RFE the application because they added this evidence of a family trip to Disneyland. The agent will probably roll their eyes and be slightly annoyed that people don't just follow the instructions. Now if this person decided not to send the passport photo because the "Disney pictures should be proof enough they are a US citizen", well then they are going to receive an RFE. I absolutely disagree with your immigration lawyers advice, and makes me question their capabilities. I am not saying you will receive an RFE for providing unnecessary information, however my biggest concern would be that you have not overlooked providing the correct evidence that they do require - "Evidence of two year meeting" and "Evidence of marriage Intent" being the two major pieces of evidence. You want to make the agents job as easy as you can. As I previously said, I saw someone get an RFE for "proving they had a relationship" because the "proof of having met within the last two years" was completely not-obvious. They had provided a dozen different flights, and 4 pages of passport stamps, and lot of whatsapp conversations and yet everything they provided only 1 of the trips was during the correct time period to count. Be clear, concise, and organized. I highly recommend a cover letter such that you can keep everything organized and clear.

I read through this thread and yes that was an RFE for "Intent to marry" Evidence. Again they are not asking for proof of a relationship, they are asking for proof that you two intend to actually marry. Note that it is very possible to be in a decade old relationship, having dozens of trips yearly to see each other, but not intend to ever really get married. So, what you need to prove to USCIS in this situation is that you really do intend to marry. People who receive this RFE shouldn't get caught up in trying to prove they have a relationship. They listed things on the RFE that could be used for this evidence, but let me give you an example of so anyone reading this can understand the distinction I am making. One of the items you could send for evidence of "intent to marry" is "ongoing communication". Now lets assume two hypothetical communications that I will number for clarity. 1. 10 pages of WhatsApp history where you are discussing the March Madness basketball tournament. This is a topic you both enjoy a lot so every day you are engaging in lots of discussion about what team is going to beat the other. Since you are partners, lets also assume there is an occasional "I love you" thrown in there. 2. 10 pages of WhatsApp history where you are discussing your future wedding. Discussing how much is appropriate to spend on the dress, cake, venue, music. You are talking about friends you want to come to your wedding and who will be the best man. Basically you are talking about your life plans. Hopefully it's perfectly clear that in these two hypotheticals, #2 is what USCIS is wanting to see. They are not looking for evidence that you have a relationship, they are specifically looking for evidence that you "intend to marry". My evidence I submitted for "intent to marry" was light. What I included was two signed letters, one from me and one from my partner, that was addressed to USCIS and explained our marriage intent. This was sufficient for the agent that reviewed my case. Here is one of the two signed letters that I provided so you can see how simple it was. I have redacted the names and addresses but kept the coloring the same so hopefully it is still readable.

Thank you 😄 I was recently on this large Facebook group "K1 fiance Visa Filers" where I often times helps many people with detailed comments like above. Anyways the Admin of the group (Sabrina) kept telling everyone that they needed to provide evidence of a relationship otherwise they would get an RFE. She was advocating for sending 100's of pages of Whatsapp chat logs and other ridiculous pieces of evidence to "Prove you have a relationship otherwise USCIS will give you a RFE to prove your relationship". I asked her to show me a single RFE from USCIS showing me you needed to "prove you had a relationship". First she shows me a RFE from the embassy asking for extra relationship evidence, and then when I point out that this was not an RFE from USCIS then she provides me with a USCIS RFE for "2 year meet evidence". She then banned me from the group since my advise was contrary to hers. Anyways, stupid story I know, but just telling it because after that it's nice to have my posts here appreciated 🙂

I am happy to hear my post is helping people. 🙂 I think scanning the plane tickets is the best approach because scans are very easy to read, However pictures of the plane tickets are also okay. The important thing is if dates and locations and names are readable. Just remember, you want to make your evidence clear, concise, and easy to follow. The evidence you are supplying should only be evidence that establishes clearly that you met each other in real life, and I would personally only include evidence from one trip. Although copy of boarding passes, photo of passport stamp, hotel receipt, and pictures are sufficient, I personally don't have an issue with providing any potential extra information you might have to establish you met each other. For example, if you two went to a zoo on this trip, have two dated tickets for the zoo during this trip, and have a photo of you two together at the zoo, then this would be excellent evidence. For me I only supplied plane tickets, passport stamp photo, hotel receipt, and photos together because that's all the evidence I really had of the trip. And I received NOA2 without an RFE. My main recommendation is to avoid suppling evidence of relationship because USCIS does not ask for that. And I would strongly recommend if you have multiple trips that would qualify, pick the best one that you have the most evidence for. No reason to confuse USCIS with multiple trips and timelines.

Follow this.

You have provided USCIS information extra information that they don't need. And I have seen cases where people provided extra information and they ended up getting an RFE because the evidence they provided was not concise and it was hard to follow. I honestly don't know why people keep doing what you have done, because you are operating outside the scope of what USCIS asked in the i-129f instructions. You do not need to prove to USCIS that you have a relationship. In fact, it's literally not USCIS's job to confirm that you have a relationship, that's the job of NVC/Embassy. USCIS's job is to confirm that you filled out the form without errors, that the petitioner is a US citizen, that both parties provide evidence that you intend to marry, and that you have evidence that met at least once in the previous 2 years prior to filing. Additionally there are some extra steps you might have to prove if either has been previously married, if either have a criminal record, or if you met through a marriage broker. That's literally all USCIS is going to verify.... USCIS will NOT send a RFE for you to "prove you have a relationship" and if they did I would like to see it because it would be a legal case against USCIS for asking for material outside of their scope. I was approved by USCIS (NOA2) on 2/10/2023. I Provided a correctly filled out i-129f, check for 535, two passport style photos, copy of my birth certificate, two signed letters stating that each of us intended to marry the other, copy of our divorce decrees, and finally evidence of meeting in the prior 2 years. This evidence included exactly copy of plane tickets to/from my fiancée's country, copy of passport stamps, 4 dated pictures during this visit, and one hotel receipt during this visit. I provided literally nothing else and was approved without a RFE. You might ask "What was the situation I saw where someone received an RFE by providing too much information?" Well this person was not a English speaker and they didn't understand the RFE they received. The RFE said they needed to provide clear evidence of seeing each other in the last two years. They then showed me 4 pages of passport stamps proving they had a relationship, said they sent them 10 airline tickets, and 30 pages of whatsapp chat logs, and lots of pictures. Well I looked over their evidence and no wonder USCIS denied them... on the 10 flights they submitted only 1 of them actually met the 2 year meeting requirements. Whoever advised this person to submit a massive packet of evidence that USCIS doesn't ask for was wrong. These agents approving applications are working on a checklist of things they need to look for. If you drown them in information then maybe they overlook the actual information they need to give you a checkmark and approve you.

Unfortunately I've made no progress. USCIS is a mess.

My application was approved last Friday. NOA1 - 10/18/2021. NOA2 2/10/2023. No RFE.

K1 Process (481 Days and counting) 10/18/2021: I129F NOA1 02/10/2023: I-129F NOA2 No RFE received Waiting for NVC case now

I have seen one example of a case being approved where the sponsor did not meet the requirements of the system. I am not saying my case is any more qualified than the others that are applying... But I am saying that I did apply on the first day, my case remains untouched, and I have credible information that the Cuban regime is moving forward with blocking my beneficiary from ever being able to leave the country. My beneficiary is not unique in this urgent issue, however I do believe anyone under similar circumstances should have their processing accelerated.

I am an engineer. Of course I am over analyzing this to death.... Need to remember to stay calm, deep breaths, one day at a time.... I suspect (and have no proof) but applications regardless of the country are thrown into a big pool of applicants. The numbers for the cases being assigned are random, and a lower number 100% does not mean you applied first. The agents working on these cases have no obvious pattern, and it is my belief that the allocation is not spread evenly but is determined by random draw and approval numbers are likely skewed to the country that has the most applicants. Again I don't have proof of this, but I am plugged into a lot of communities tracking all this, and it's what I have seen. Many many people are filing multiple duplicate applications because there is no application fee. I have heard that USCIS gets cranky when people do this, however this is a problem that USCIS has created for themselves so I don't feel sorry. If they didn't want to have a problem of duplicate applications then it has a very simple solution.... process applications IN ORDER

Last month they approved 5k Cubans, and I would imagine Cuba would have the most applications from these 4 countries because they have a larger representation here. Not that this is any surprise, however I applied on the first day (Jan 6th). I can assure you that my application couldn't be any more simple and straight forward approval. If someone at USCIS looked at my application for 5 minutes it would be a clear an obvious immediate approval. I would bet anyone who is against immigration in general, if they looked at the details of my sponsorship they would say "This is the sort of immigration we should be approving". Anyways, not that this is surprising, but my application submitted on the first day remain completely untouched, while people who submitted days ago already have their beneficiary in the US. I even read about someone getting approved to be a sponsor when they are living in Section 8 housing and on SNAP food stamps. It's extremely frustrating when you read about unqualified people getting approved in a matter of days for people that will come here and also live off the taxpayers like the sponsor is, while people like me who are sponsoring a highly educated person and have a clean background and ideal financial picture sit completely untouched.

Thanks for the link. I can't really comment on what you said as I have never tried this. I am going to look into it though.

Yes, expect to pay 1k in airfare, and then living in Trinidad and Tobago isn't cheap either. Trying to get to Nicaragua or Guyana would be cheaper to live, but I think most flights you find will need to transit between Panama which requires a transit visa and they aren't really given them to cubans anymore. I wish I had better news for you but it's a lot of dead ends no matter what way I look. And USCIS is no help in trying to get urgent support. I've read stories of people being approved for parole when the sponsor is living in Section 8 housing and is on SNAP (food stamps). Yet here I am with a spotless record, hold government clearances so I've had more stringent background investigations than anything USCIS can do, hold advanced degrees in Engineering and work for a prestigious fortune 500 company, no debt, own my own home... And my beneficiary holds a dental degree, has plans to practice dentistry in the US after she passes her boards and does two additional years of education in a International Dental Program, and has also never had trouble with the law. Applied on 1/6 and my application hasn't been touched. I've been in line to talk to a Tier 2 agent for 120 business hours which they have told me multiple times I would be contracted within 72 hours. Oh and my case is marked Urgent. USCIS is awful. I wish I could get some national news to pick up my story. I'd love to put them on blast and show the would just how incompetent they are. Oh and my K1 application has been in process now for 16 months while the bulk of approvals for K1 now are people that have been waiting 14 months. I wish you a luck but I can't say I have any faith in the US immigration process. I swear their goal is to keep families apart and do nothing to help people that might actually contribute to our society. Sorry Im a little jaded and frustrated right now.

Sent you a PM. I will update the thread when we get some good news, but I am just hitting roadblocks at every corner. I never would have imagined an immigration case could get this stressful and life uprooting. I am just trying to stay calm, take it a day at a time, and hope nothing detrimental affects our long term plans.

It's actually quite amazing how fast this process is as soon as an agent at USCIS processes your application. If an agent gives my application 5 minutes of time, I will get an approval which will kick off an email to my fiancée. She then signs up for a CDP application, submits her info and a few hours later is given a travel authorization paper. This could all literally happen on Monday and I could have her on a flight to the US on Tuesday. Considering how slow processes like K1 and CR-1 move, it's crazy how quick this can move..... But USCIS is so disorganized on what applications they work on. It seems like it is random. and there is no way to expediate these sort of applications because by definitions they are all already expeditated. Anyways, my plan right now is like TBone said... Talk to a travel agent on Monday and get her out of the country. I have a location in mind already which I think is my best bet. I will get an Airbnb there and go live there with her until we are approved. When USCIS finally touches my application then I will fly with her to the US without her never going back to Cuba. She actually might never be able to return when the details of the Cuban law emerge. Now to focus on the main part.... "Dont panic" - easier said than done.

Thank you. All spot on and exactly what I am planning. Regarding point 4... Yes, I am not fooling myself and I know they are going to be affected. I am hoping this plan I have will result in only at most 60 days away. Even 60 days away is a lot in the lives of my kids, and it is something I never thought I would consider. I feel a little trapped though. I can't leave my fiancée alone in another country, and I need to get her out of Cuba asap. i-134a parole processing is taking anywhere from 2 days to 90 days.... and I am currently 30 days into it. Hopefully my congressman and/or his aide can help get this pushed through a little quicker.