user97

I have sent numerous emails and left countless voice messages only to be ignored by the lawyer. I was eager to talk to them this week because we planned on going to the Embassy on Thursday to ask about getting married. I spoke with the lawyer's assistant for about 30 minutes and was pretty upset by the end of the call.

During the call, she didn't believe me when I told her I had sent many emails and left voicemails with no return. She also didn't understand why I hadn't called earlier... which I had, but with the time difference, only left voicemail messages. I explained to her that Haydar's Korean student visa was ending soon, and we were contemplating getting married here in Korea. I wanted to know if this would mess up our fiance visa application that has been pending security checks since June. The Embassy had given me a mixed message about this, and we were planning on talking to them on Thursday. At this point, she interrupted me and said, "Have you thought about the possibility that this might not happen[Haydar getting the visa]?" I was shocked by this. I asked her why she would say that. She said she had never heard of someone being stuck in security checks for 7 months. She also said they had never had a client from the Middle East either. I told her that I had been in contact with many people online who had significant others from the Middle East and that this was a normal time frame. At this point, she told me that if she were in my shoes, she would just get married and plan on staying in Korea. I was almost in tears.

I called my mom after this conversation and we decided she just didn't know what she was talking about. After all, they didn't have a problem taking our money for the case last year. They said it wouldn't be too hard. Still, I was upset.

Anyway, Thursday morning we headed over to the US Embassy in Seoul. I went to the American Citizen Services area armed with the paperwork needed for us to get married. I explained our question and we were sent over to the Visa unit to ask them the same question. The visa unit said that we would have to start over with a new application if we were to get married... so we didn't.

While there, we also requested Haydar's old passport back so that he can renew his Korean visa. The lady that brought it out to us knew who we were. She said that they had put in a "rush request" to Washington to process our case but they hadn't heard anything yet. This made me hopeful. Between the lawyer's office, the senator's office and myself calling continuously, hopefully something will happen soon.

To the best of my knowledge getting married will invalidate the K-1 process as your SO will no longer be a fiance -- even if they issue a visa after, you will not be able to legally use it.

Below is the link to an article about a family who spend many YEARS fighting USCIS to prove that they did not commit fraud/misrepresentation when the spouse entered the country on a K-1 visa. What happened is that due to the delays in the K-1 visa issuance they decided to get married. The immigration officials held that by they committed fraud when they used K-1 visa after marriage.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/28/...on-Families.php

I am not a lawyer, but to the best of my knowledge, if you get married you will have to start over going via IR-1/CR-1 visa or a K-3 visa route. This will require a new petition as well as the secuirty checks will need to be started over as well. Do not get married until you get a competent legal advice.

I am sure that people on this forum will give you a lot of information.

Best of luck

Your fiance will most likely get his K-1 visa in a few months as they have been making efforts to keep security checks from lasting over a year.

Thank you All,

Just posting an update -- 15 business days after submission of the requested paperwork I received notification that the visa has been approved. So now we are just waiting for the passport.

Many thanks once again...

P.S. Just out of curiousity -- how long does it take on average to receive the visa after approval?

its supposed to be 2 days (according to the mailer thing that you gave them) which might be a good average, but this is holiday and bad storms. They sent ours on the 24th...and we're in Newfoundland, haven't gotten it yet. you might get your before hubby does lol

Thank you so much for the info -- I will post an update when we get ours.

Good luck with the move and best wishes for the New Year.

Thank you All,

Just posting an update -- 15 business days after submission of the requested paperwork I received notification that the visa has been approved. So now we are just waiting for the passport.

Many thanks once again...

P.S. Just out of curiousity -- how long does it take on average to receive the visa after approval?

Hey there everyone..quick question (after I give some background info). I'm in the process of getting the IR-1 visa for my wife (we are both in japan) and all that is left to do is get her physical done (which we are doing at the Tokyo British clinic). anyway my question is for my son- who is american/japanese but has lived his whole life (whopping 3 years) in japan. should he have any shots done prior to travelling to the us to live. ( i know we can do them there) he has had all the shots required here in japan but not sure if the embassy will say anything about it at my wife's final interview. i asked the hospital but they couldnt say and i dont feel like sending an e-mail to the embassy for ￥2000 yen ($20)...just for that one question. thanks all---it would really help

Was your son born in japan or in america? if your son was born in japan i believe in order for him to get the american passport he will need certain vaccines before that happens. You should be able to find that out at the american embassy website or dept of state website. If your son does not have a american passport you can apply for him at the embassy and they will let you know. Now if he already has a american passport he can get all the shots in the US.

We went through the process of documenting US citizenship for our child in Canada (my spouse is a USC, I am not). There is no vaccination requirement to document your child's US citizenship. But the USC needs to provide proof of having resided in the US requisite number of years prior to the birth of the child in order to pass on the US citizenship to the child. US Embassy Tokyo has detailed instructions on documenting your child's citizenship as well as the requirements.

http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/acs/tacs-7115.html

As you can see from the website, if you meet physical presence in the US requirement and your child gets US citizenship at birth there are no vaccination requirements.

Thanks

In regards to the proof of domicile -- the same thing as in your case. As per instruction sheet, provided evidence of a place to live, financial ties (bank account, investment account, etc), a number of quotes for various things that we would need to move down there and live there, etc.

Basically, mailed evidence of the things we pretty much were already doing in preparation for the move. We just had to get letters from people to document our actions.

When the visa arrives, I will give an update -- at this point it is still pending, so I do not know if the evidence provided was sufficient.

Take care...

Thank you so much for all the information. I hasn't been over a month yet since the paperwork was sent in. From your responses, I gather that the AP in this case may either mean additional background checks or it may just due to theml just waiting to review the domicile paperwork.

I will post when I have any updates on the case.

Many thanks....

My USC spouse and I had CR-1/IR-1 interview in Montreal a while ago now. The consular staff was very friendly and helpful. At the time of interview, the consular officer told us that my USC spouse had to provide additional proof of US domicile due to prolonged period of residence in Canada. The officer also advised us that once we gather the necessary information, we are to mail the documentation along with my passport to the consulate (they returned the passport at the time of the interview). The officer further mentioned that it will take 3-4 weeks from the time they receive the paper work to issue the visa. To our relief, we were also told that we would not need to come back for a second interview as the documentation in question is the only thing they would need to complete our file. In completion, they issued a while sheet that said that they are unable to issue visa at the moment due to a 221(g) due to the insufficient evidence of domicile.

The documentation and the passport has been mailed to the consulate. When we called DoS to follow up we were advised that they have indeed received the needed paper work and that the case was now in "administrative processing".

1) Does anybody know how long it takes Montreal on average to complete the administrative processing?

2) Does it look like the original estimate of 3-4 weeks from the time the missing paperwork is provided until visa accounted for AP time?

2) Also, any guesses as to what triggered the administrative processing -- was it the lack of paperwork in the original application, or is it the fact that I was born in a country (and still am a citizen of) nationals of which require additional clearances? -- this is pretty much a curiousity question, as it does not really make a difference for us now.

3) Is there still hope that the visa will be issued in a matter of week or should we be prepared to wait months and months?

Any experiences in regards to AP in Montreal would be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Waiting

My wife filed I-130 on my behalf via DCF. As we did not hear anything back from Montreal, we sent them an e-mail and they told us that the petition has been approved and the informational packet (packet 3) has been mailed to me 1 month ago. Since we did not receive the packet, I wrote back to Montreal and asked them to remail the packet. After 2 weeks they replied that they did. Now another month has passed since they re-mailed the packet but I still did not receive it. I tried e-mailing Montreal about the situation, but they do not seem to be responding to my e-mails anymore.

I called DOS customer service, which confirmed that they have the right mailing address on file.

At this point I am at a loss as to what to do. I am thinking of mailing in DS-230 Part I along with a letter of explanation as to why there is no checklist.

What is on the Montreal document checklist -- if someone has recently completed IR/CR-1 process via Montreal, I would appreciate if they could post the checklist so that I could re-create it.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

PS: when I submit DS-230 part one I will also include 3-4 pre-paid express post mailers so that they could use those for further communication to avoid this mess.