Randy CA

On the DS-230 there is a place where the sponsored immigrant can request that a Social Security Administration assign a SSN and issue a card. The DS-230 is to be filled out by the prospective immigrant and taken to the interview, in our case, in Moscow.

Is this the best time and place to make such a request? I worry about it getting lost in the shuffle. Or is it better to wait till the immigrant is in the USA and can go to the local SS office and make the request there?

Here is my stupid question for the day:

My fiancee is fill out her DS 230 and asks me what she should put down for "Degree or Diploma". She asks if it should be “Designer of sewing-ware” or “Designer of sewing production. I look at it and wonder if it should be "Diploma" or " 2 year degree" or something like that.

I just got back from SPb over the weekend. I have no understanding of Russian real estate prices. They just don't make any sense to me. Let me illustrate:

I bought an apartment of about 500 square feet, five or six years ago for about $35 K. The place is unrenovated and is basically a dump. However it has an amazing location being on the grounds of the Admiralty, next to the Hermitage, but still, it is a dump. And small. I am told by everyone that it is worth about $300k. Jeesh, that is what my nice 3,000 square foot home in California is worth. How the heck could that be.

An American friend of mine bought a top floor apartment on Sennaya Square about 3 years ago for $85k. It is also a real dump, cooks in the summer and you have to go up five stories to get to it - no elevator. Last night he told me he had turned down an offer for $400k for it. He said it like "well, of course I turned it down". Huh? How the heck could that be.

I have a good Russian friend who is building a few houses on the North side of the the Gulf of Finland about an hour out of town is a small area filled with simple little houses, dirt roads and no order. His friend showed me the house he built this summer. It reminded me of a simple mountain cabin of the type they built in the US in the 1950's -- real simple and no finish to speak of. I wonder if they even had plans when the built it. It cost him something like $25k to build the house. I don't know what he paid for the land. But anyway, he just sold it for $300k. They were saying he made something like $150 to $200k on it. How the heck could that be.

So, my friend is building the nicest house in the area, and really it is not bad but there are some crazy things about it. Like a garage who's door is smaller than the avage car. He does not have it finished inside yet and has something like $50k in it at this point. He was saying it is now worth about $700k. He has actually had offers on it. Wow. Crazy. I was a little skeptical until he took me around some of the developments in the area and showed me the listings in real estate magazines.

I just don't get it. They make so much less then us but the real estate is so expensive. In fact everything there is expensive; coffee for $5 - $6 per cup and the place is full of young people -- a nice photo book of old Russian photos for $200. I just don't get it.

I went there this time thinking I would sell my apartment, but just then the world economy had a heart attack so I thought I should wait till next year, and besides I can keep telling people "I have a little place next door to the Hermitage."

On Wednesday I am flying to St. Petersburg, Russia and will be joined there by my fiancee for 3 weeks. I expect the Moscow embassy to receive our K1 application during that time and I worry that they will be mailing out the instructions to Yulia while she is out of town. If you have ever seen Russian mail boxes, you will know how unsecure they are, and this is a sorce of concern.

What does the embassy mail out? Is it just a letter? Is it a big packet? Will there be a notice of it being mailed on the USCI web site?

As much as I hate to say it, this is one case where I think you need an attorney.

I thought the answer to #11 was self evident since this is part of an application for K1 (Marriage) visa. I answered it saying " I intend to marry Yulia and to fully support her till death do us part."

You can get it notorized in Romania or go to the US embassy and get an officer to certify the signiture.

Thanks.

I just now updated it. Any idea why my timeline and "filed for:" information does not display on my posts like your's does?

Thank all.

I don't want to sound too helpless but how the heck do I update my timeline? I looked all over "My Controls" and did not find anything there.

Hi,

I go to the USCI chart at: https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/jsps/Processtim...eviceCenter=CSC to estimate when things will start to happen but I am not really sure if I understand it correctly (and I sure hope I do not.)

They say the Processing Timeframe for K1 visas is Jan 17, 2008. I guess that means they are just now getting to the I-129f's that were sent in eight months ago (!!!). I sent in my orginal I-129f on April 7 2008, which is a little more than 3 1/2 months after Jan 17th. So there are still 3 1/2 months before anyone opens my file -- right? And then there are, what, 2 or 3 months till interview and posibility of the K1 visa being issued?

I was just going through the I-134 instructions word by word again and came across this:

"The sponsor must submit in duplicate evidence of income and resources, as appropriate."

Duplicate evidence -- what the heck are they getting at? Multiple copies? Photo copies of orginal documents? Several documents that support the same item?

Your answer has got me reading the instructions a little different. I have good income, but am self employed. I understood the I-134 to put a heaver burden on the self employed, and although I have a rather high net worth, much of what I own (trust deeds) is not an asset class that show on the I-134 form. And I would like to have every issue that might come up in the interview solidly nailed down.

The instructions for the Affiavit of Support state that you must submit a letter from your bank stating:

1. Date account opened

2. Total amount deposited for the past year

3. Present balance

I went to my bank (Wells Fargo) and was give a letter that does not have #2 on it. They say it is a form letter that can not be changed and they have never had an issue with it.

Is this true -- you don't need to have your deposits in the letter? I hate to leave it out since this is one of my strong points.

A friend of mine, a 50 year old guy, had his Affidavit of Support rejected due to low income. He got his elderly parents to cosign and was approved. But from a life management angle I would think it would be better to become established before getting married.

"USCIS no longer routinely uses this form for anything, so does not have much call to update the directions for the form."

I notice they also don't update the form -- the expiration date on the form fresh off their website is 4/30/07.

From reading the step-by-step guide on this site, have believed that the I-134 is to be taken by the fiancee to the interview. I filed my I-129F back in April and am just now getting the documents ready for my fiancee to take to the interview, which I guess will be in November, and I find this on the USCIS web site:

"Once the [i-134] form is affirmed*, it should be mailed to the same USCIS office where the application was filed."

Yikes! Was I suposed to have sent the I-134 in with my I-129F?

(*By affirmed they mean notarized.)

I don't know how this ended up in this Embassy forum. Could someone please move it to the K1 forum.

I was always under the impression that the K1 process was about 6 months long but I've been looking at the timelines of you guys on this form and it looks like it is a lot closer to one year. Can this be right?

As I understand it, with the I-129 you must establish that you have meet your fiancée in the last two years, and at the interview, your fiancée must establish that you have a real relationship.

With that in mind, does it make sense to send in with the I-129, the pile of evidence for establishing the real relationship, or is it better to keep your I-129 on message and not burden the processor with lots of items that really do not apply to the purpose of the review, and give your fiancée the evidence of the real relationship to take with her to the interview?

I like the idea of keeping the I-129 simple and easy to understand. But I am not sure I am correct on this point. The official instructions only mention “copies of any evidence you wish to submit to establish your mutual intent.”

Thanks all for responding. The credit card bill is just one piece of evidence. Here is what I will submit for this meeting:

My boarding pass

Fax I sent to a hotel in Costa Rica reserving a room for Yulia

The credit card bill

Yulia's boarding passes --- BTW: the boarding passes don't show the year.

3 photos of us together in a tropical setting.

That should be enough -- right?

This kind of thing drives me nuts.

I was in Coast Rica with my Russian fiancée and as evidence that we were there I want to include a copy of my credit card bill that shows dozens of charges in Costa Rican colons. That seems to be pretty solid evidence. But it also shows the names of the business, such as “Restaurante Y Marisq.Paso” and “Gessa Jumbo Guanacaste CR”, where Gessa Jumbo is the name of a super market and Guanacaste is the name of the region in Costa Rica. Do I need to get this translated? Really? It seems kind of like having to translate your birth certificate because it says “Los Angeles, California” on it.

My fiancee's is Russian and her name when translated from crilic to latin letters sometimes comes out "Julia" and sometimes "Yulia".

Question: Is the way to deal with this is to put on I-129F #7 "Other Names Used", one of the names? Will we need some kind of documentation that they are one and the same?

I suppose this is kind of the same as my situation, where my legal name is Randolph, but on my plane tickets, credit card bills and just about everything else it says Randy. I have just assumed that all I need to do is put on #7 "Other Names Used" Randy, and that is the end of it.

After you have brought your fiancee to the US on a K-1 and gotten married, how long is it until she can travel to other countries and return to the US?