trinket

Hi Delicia,

Please update my timeline, got the approval notice today

Hi all,

Just wanted to update that our i-130 petition did get approved without the registered marriage certificate from court.

Not sure if just Arya samaj copy was enough or is the fact that I provided my electoral and my islander's identity card, which had my husband's name stated in those.

Thank you all for your time and help

Got that sweet sweet mail from CRIS exactly 33 minutes ago, hell I was in a meeting when I got the mail, but as soon as I got back to my table, I was so so *#*@# scared to open the mail, I let my co-worker read it aloud for me

I know its kind of fast and I am scared as #### for the NVC process, my husband still hasn't got his tax transcripts and I still have to get other copies of my birth certificate.......gosh I am a nervous wreck right now.

This visa process has been fast for us compared to others, but we have waited for around 4 long years to come this far, just hope and pray the next phase would be smooth too.

Thank you all VJ members and I would also like to thank our lawyer too, do realise most of you all have complains with your lawyer, but we had a good thing going on, me and my husband didn't have a registered marriage certificate but things still worked out.

Best of luck to all of you

And now I can do my happy dancing and call up my dad to give him the good news :dance:

Hi lotto,

I was wondering if you can guide me a bit.

I want to be prepared for the NVC stage, so wondering how shall I go about for PCC from police and passport offices? Do I have to show a document or can I print out a sheet where it says what exactly is needed from police and passport office?

Also, do I need 2 original copies of both these documents, one for NVC and another one for Interview? Or just one copy is enough, since the original will be going to NVC.

Sorry if this question has already been asked.

congratulations

Hope you have a good day ahead today

I see that for the IR1 visa, the couple has to be married for atleast 2 years. Also, I'm not sure I can apply for the IR visa while I'm residing in India - s this possible?

CR-1---> Close relative visa, IR-1--->>Immediate relative visa.

For CR-1 you don't need to be married for more than 2 years, you can be married the same day and apply, DCF and CR-1/IR-1 does the same thing. The only difference is that, with CR-1 your spouse will get 2 years of green card upon arrival in USA, where as with IR-1 yoru spouse will get 10 years of green card upon arrival. Now with CR-1, you will have to do further procession around the 21st month of your spouse being in USA, no extra fee, but you will have to fill up a few forms (I am not that educated about it because we have been married for more than 3 years, so that doesn't really apply to me)

I'm not aware of the timelines associated with the IR/CR visas. It would be terrific if you could (or anyone else) can give me a sense of the times involved. I have browsed several forums, but most of the information available is for K visas and DCF.

No one can quote you a right timeline, but do say around 8 months to a year time for IR-1, but things are much faster now compared to last year because of the July backlog.

Also, regarding the affidavit of support - you mean it would suffice if I had worked for 3 years in the US prior to applying for the visa?

Let me try to explain it as much as I can, say you leave for India to get married on August 2009, and you apply for your wife's DCF at around November 2009, given that it usually takes 3 months time for getting an interview date with DCF, say she gets her interview date around February 2010, so during her interview you will have to submite the tax transcripts of 2006, 2007 and 2008 (past 3 years, which you did work in USA, till July 2009). Now, god forbid something happens and your case gets delayed, and she gets her interview around April of 2009, then you will have to provide them with 2007, 2008 and 2009's tax transcripts.

So basically since yours is a short trip(compared to others who live for years in their spouses country), so do plan it before hand. Also it never hurts to make sure you have a joint sponsor.

About domicile, you can use any of your friend's address or if you have your rented house/apartment still on lease then you can use that also. Domicile is just so that they can send you the green card once you and your wife arrives in USA.

Hope it helps, do read the guides and make a wise decision.

Best of luck

For Delhi it usually is 3 months stay in India rather than 6 months, but do make sure you do show residential ties with India rather than just a tourist visa. I am not sure how OCI works, so can't say much.

And about your affidavit of support, well that will be when you are at the last stages of the visa process. You don't need to own a home, just make sure your last 3 years of taxation are above the 125% of poverty line. Here is the link for that --> http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/immigrant.../info_1327.html

And also since you are talking about something a year or 2 later, so do realise that processing rules do change time to time.

Do read more and analyse all the steps, there is fiance visa also which is the quickest, and there is CR-1 visa also, which is the slowest but it has its own advantages.

There is a fine line between, Registered marriage and marriage registration.

Registered marriage is in other words a civil marriage.

With what I have talked with the local lawyer, according to him both takes 1 month 10 days time no matter what. One party has to show domicile of that given district for the past 15 days, both man and woman (let it be you are married or you are intending to get married) go to the court house, signs a few documents infront of the district magistrate and then you will have to come back after a months time, sign some more papers and you will be issued with your registered marriage certificate.

Only significant difference is that, if you are intending to get married then your and your would be spouses name will be projected at courts enquiry board and also you guys have to give a publication at local newspapers saying if anyone has any objection regarding this marriage they can contact with the district court for that matter.

Now, there are ways to get through every thing in India and most of the places will, but at least its not the same from where I come from, I did offer the lawyer any extra money but he said nothing can happen, I do have family members working at the district court but they too can't "speed" up the actual process.

Whichever way you choose do let your fiance contact a local lawyer and get things sorted out.

Also, whenever you do make the trip to India, do make sure to have a notarized statement from USA saying how you are free to get married to any consent adult of any nationality. US consulates in India used to issue these no objection letters which are a requirement with Indian courts, but US consulates have stopped it, however they can help you with notarization for $30 fee I guess.

About that link, sorry I don't have it anymore, I am not sure but I do think it was with the OP laurarajesh's case.

I can somewhat relate to your story, though we have just started our visa journey this year, but me and my husband have been living this long distance relationship since 2003.

I really feel strong reading how I am not the only one and others too have gone through hell and conquered.

I wish you all the best for your future, may you have your wife and your daughter with you soon enough and start living like real family.

Best wishes

Hello,

I don't have anything to say but do pray that your husband gets his approval soon.

May be the AR is for the voter card and older passport he submitted later on.

A BIG BIG congratulation....... do the happy dancing

Hello,

Since I have been dealing with this issue myself and preparing for the worst with my i-130; I would like to say that "cash" isnt' always the king.

One of the vj members was denied visa at Delhi on the basis that the USC didn't stay 1 month in India prior to getting the marriage certificate, I guess they got the marriage certificate within a week's time or something like that and the official requirement for let it be an Indian by birth or a foreigner is 1 month 10 days to be exact.

I do realise that not every case is being scrutinised like this and every case is different, but then it's better to do it proper way than being sorry later on. And also with what all I have read, it feels like you can do things giving out cash in some parts of India but not every part.

So may be asking your fiance to contact any of the local lawyers of her/his district will be a good idea.

Also are you a OCI? Just make sure your fiancé go to any local family based lawyer or registrar office and clear up things beforehand.

Oh another thing which I have seen is, if you have less time and your fiancé doesn't live in any municipal area rather his/her domicile comes under any panchayat raj, then a certificate given by the panchayat holds as much value as registering, since panchayat is part of the Indian government.

Please do more searches and see what all options are available for you and your fiancé and move according to that.

Best wishes for your future

Ahh ok, thanks for the replies .

I will change it in a couple of days

OK, this really isn't IR-1 related question.

I just tried to log onto USCIS website to check my case status, and it showed me this message

Your password will expire in 14 days. Go to the Change Password screen to change your password.

I don't get it, why would my password expire and does uscis website has something like this that they let you use one password for 3 months or something and then you will have to use some different password

Wow, congratulations to you and have a great life ahead

congratulations

yes, if you check VJ album, you will find most of these photographs, they are real members

Congratulations

No, the presence is necessary of foreign spouse in solmnization.i statyed in india more than two months,i wanted to file direct in embassy diffrent story but yes i did stayed for 2 month to get the marriage cerificate done.

Yes my husband does need to be present for the marriage registration process to start.

One piece of friendly advise is, even though you don't get a RFE, I would suggest you get this registered later sometime at least as you would run into this problem in the future for any kind of legal requirement. All the best.

Thank you neethope.

We actually plan to have another wedding, let it be a small civil ceremony in US or even in India later down the line in a year or 2 hopefully. Just the marriage hasn't been all so ideal from 2004, well that's a different story (financial burden, this distance, blah blah).

So whenever we start our life together finally, let it be in India or US, we do plan for a small wedding.

Thanks again guys for all the help

Just keeping my fingers crossed for an approval.

My husband is a US citizen (caucasian) and we got married at 2004. That time around we were told that getting married at Arya samaj is enough ( I admit we both were pretty immature regarding all these technicality of getting married). The lawyer I contacted a few days ago told me arya samaj wedding comes under special marriage act and its pretty valid according to Indian law.

I still do have fear about the court papers, which we haven't been able to provide.

So basically me and my husband are going to register the existing marriage if we do get an RFE.

I have been researching on this subject and the legal way of registering the marriage also takes 1 months time.

I just hope my husband gets leave from work for around 45 days if that does happen; you guys do know how things go in India, 1 month can go upto 1 and half months.

Thanks Roza.

I hope not to receive any RFE but if we do, then we will go through that 1 month process.

Hello folks,

Well I have one of my biggest fears that our petition will get an RFE based on the fact that we didn’t provide any court documents with our marriage, though I have provided my government issued electoral and state identity cards where my husband’s name is stated.

Anyways, I am trying to prepare for the RFE, if we do get it, then my husband will fly to India and get the marriage registered.

Now I have talked with a local lawyer in Port Blair and he has suggested 2 ways of doing it, one is pretty fast, takes only 2 days where as the other ones takes 1 month time.

1) Both me and my husband takes an oath in front of a notary officer and he provides us with the notarized certificate.

2) On the first day of my husband’s arrival, we go to district court, signs some papers, wait for 1 month, get back there sign some more in front of the district magistrate and get the court stamped certificate.

Now my question is, which one shall I choose, the first one sounds more tempting but I don’t want to do any more blunder mistakes. So if you guys can help me choose, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

That's ridiculous! But if you have nothing to hide I guess its fine. First time I've heard of it

I disagree, its not about just hiding, what about personal space?

My husband's and my world rely over internet, there is everything, from banking details to family matters to every day fights.

Congratulations