smilingstone

Yes, include the USCs passport stamps, that will help. The rest sounds like what me and my now-husband submitted. My passport stamps were hit and miss, and I neglected to include them, but did include my I94 as I traveled to the US. It doesn't look like there's an equivalent for USCs, and you do not get stamps as it's the EU, so USCs passport stamps are the best thing you have available. Did you include messages? It's a small detail, but we included screenshots of messages that included that days I arrived in US, showing convos about him picking me up, and made a note that our texts paused during this time as we were together. This would also be secondary evidence, but it might help.

The issue isn't with the format of how you presented evidence, it's to do with the quantity, or lack of, evidence. What county did you both travel to? Hard to advise without knowing. Photos are secondary evidence, as they can be dated any time. You need to focus on documents that proved you traveled to the same place and were together at that time.

"The O-1 nonimmigrant visa is for the individual who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements." With all due respect, although generating £50k p/year in revenue at 23 is certainly commendable, I don't think USCIS will regard it as extraordinary in this context and your employment experience is likely limited due to your age. By all means, try for the O1 but it's going to be costly, especially if you are consulting with lawyers. I think it would be more likely, even though still unlikely in your sector, to pursue an EB visa. Is your employer a multinational? If so, maybe you can speak to your management about the possibility of transfer.

U4U is no longer active as of January 2025.

You probably felt the same way during your K1. And again during your AOS. I think that in the eyes of USCIS, your relationship has been bona fide from the start, otherwise you wouldn't be at this point now. I don't think you have anything to worry about and I only hope to be equipped with so much when I am in your position. 🙂

I would guess the married name, if that is what is detailed as her current legal name.

You provide her current legal name, which, if married, is typically the married name. Except for the DS-260, if it specifically asks for the name detailed in the passport. I would assume on documents asking for the beneficiary's information, it asks for her current name and any previous names used. This is where you would list her name prior to marriage. On my I-485, I did this, and on any relating docs, I am detailed under my married name, despite my passport showing my previous name.

They should enforce a check, but they don't. There's no mandatory exit checks. It's pretty well known that any countries exit checks are nowhere near as strict as their entry checks. That's how they've ended up in the position they're in today with regards to undocumented immigrants who have overstayed. UK, but an example of the impact this has: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/28/border-exit-checks-records-of-600000-people-missing-watchdog-reveals "Anyone flying out of the US do not have to go through any immigration or passport control line as a standard practice. Sometimes, there can be random checks, but it is not a normal process.": https://redbus2us.com/travel/usa/us-immigration-exit-procedure-customs-records-no-stamp-faqs/ Maybe they think, in theory, the threat of a 10 year ban for overstaying would encourage people to tow the line.

Leaving several weeks will ensure the embassy have your records, so it's a good idea. I only left 1 week between mine because I needed to fit the travel from the North East down to London in with work, and it was difficult for me to stagger it out further. Although as @appleblossom said, the longer you leave it, the less time you have to move. It's your call, only you know the timeframe you're working with. I think as long as you have the LND number on your NVC letter, you can book your medical. You will receive that weeks, even months, before it appears as Ready on CEAC tracker.

This must be something to do with your specific circumstances, as my K1 application also contested with a minor offence (shoplifting at age 14, I'm 34 now). At my interview, I had my police records as well as a written explanation of the circumstances. The IO didn't bring it up so I mentioned a previous conviction when handing over my docs. His response was "I don't need to see that, we know." My interview was followed by a verbal approval. Could it be to do with you being 18 at the time of offense? But I'd have thought that a clean record for 15 years would've provided you with a little grace. Did you fully explain the circumstances? Did you detail exactly what was stolen (therefore implying a value, if not explicitly stated)? When it comes to a term as broad as "theft", there is a big difference between shoplifting a chocolate bar and walking out with an amount higher in value, so it's really important to make the context clear to them. I am sorry for your situation, and I'm not trying to detract from your experience with my own account. I just want to show other potential readers that it is possible to be approved under similar circumstances.

It might be only needed if you have previous convictions. I do, so included it. I just wanted to mention it as I've read stories of people with convictions not getting it, in case OP does. It's a seperate request and I think some people assume the police cert also includes the SAR. Just don't want OP to have any nasty surprises.

Do you also have a copy of your GP summary, detailing any ongoing or serious health conditions? Visa Medicals requires this, not only vaccinations. I had a nightmare getting this from my GP as they didn't understand what I needed. It took me around 1 month to finally get it, days before my medical. Too close for comfort. Have you ensured your police certificate is accompanied by the Subject Access Report (SAR)? People can miss this, but this is also required (and is a separate request through ACRO). It's required for medical and interview, if you don't have it, it will cause delays/AP. To book your interview (and medical from what I can recall), you need the LND number. You can't schedule interview before paying, but you can schedule your medical by calling Visa Medicals directly. I did this before scheduling my interview and paying the fee. Visa Medicals will email you a list of everything they need from you once you've booked your medical. You need to allow 1 week minimum between your medical and interview, as if the embassy doesn't receive your medical docs they will put you into AP until they get it. Not a big deal, but can cause unwanted delays. This is all I received from NVC (they did mail this to my now-husband, USC, and not me, so bare this in mind, recipient seems to vary): I did receive a letter from the embassy, but it was weeks after and I think I'd already scheduled everything. I just used a combination of the website listed in the NVC letter, VJ and reddit to help me prepare. The embassy letter wasn't that helpful. They release interview slots in 3-4 week chunks, so if you can't get on/around the date you have in mind (and that whole chunk is grey'd out) just wait until closer to then.

I used that service during my I-129F processing, and paid the monthly subscription. I can't recall now the exact estimate it gave me, but I can remember it was close (within a month or so). Others report it being way off. For me, I liked it because it helped me somewhat plan out my own rough timeline for medical, interview and moving, as well as seeing numbers going down. That just helped me personally keep in a good headspace during the wait. I could see that USCIS completely skipped over my filing week, and even though that wasn't nice to see, it at least gave me some insight into our processing. Though, in reality, there's no reason for anyone to pay for this as it doesn't provide any concrete answers and you're still at the behest of USCIS' speeds. It really just depends on if you will get any personal value/comfort out of paying monthly to see your number go down in a queue, while understanding that it isn't 100% accurate.

It's good practice to familiarize yourself with the flowchart posted by @Crazy Cat as it's incredibly helpful to know what's coming up well in advance. Although, it's a little outdated so some steps (such as medical forms) may not be relevant to you, so always a good idea to check with users here if you're unsure.

Yes, there's really nothing to worry about unless you have a criminal history. All reported accounts of people being detained at POE have convictions which is what raised the flag in the first place. 99.9% of people making the move shouldn't have any concerns. It's best practice to file ASAP after marriage, and that was our intention, but I think in reality life just gets in the way. Maybe your partner is at work, and it's reasonable to not want to spend all your time together doing paperwork and admin. We married 16th Feb but didn't get round to filing until 7th April (10 days before my authorised stay was up). Unsure about your state, but in AL we got our marriage cert notarized and took it to the local probate court same-day. We asked the probate for an additional certified copy, knowing we'd need one for the AOS, so for a small fee we received the extra copy there and then, rather than submitting a request later and waiting potentially weeks. I see a lot on here of people being held back by waiting for marriage cert in mail, but I think in some states or bigger cities it's unavoidable. After that, you'll need to change your name on your SSN (if you already got one before marriage) and that will make it easier for you to get on bank account(s), driving license, etc. I've had difficulty with that with my SSN having my maiden name so we're only just starting those processes now. As for your question on shipping belongings, I can't advise as I didn't do that.

It's difficult to go through the wait and not knowing, especially when you file during a brand new administration, as there's various things going on that cause delays, but this admin is really clamping down on immigration vetting processes. The best advice I ever received when I was at your stage was to just get on with my life. Your time will come so just put it to the back of your mind until that day comes.

This isn't outside of "normal processing time", as there is no normal in this context. Every situation is different. You gave no details on the nature of your RFE, and my response to your query reflects that. If you want help, you have to help us help you. If waiting out the K1 approval is putting a strain on your relationship, causing you to consider abandoning then maybe this was never for you. Be warned, once a K1 is on US soil, in between EAD and GC, it will get harder.

Perfectly fine to file I-129F while out of work. You will have around 8+ months to secure better financial situation in advance of the interview and further steps (AOS). You should however prepare a joint sponsor in the event that when income does become relevant, should your partner not meet income requirements.

Your main challenge will be your partner having a very recent history of SH. From my understanding, and comments made directly from the panel physician at my medical, they are concerned with matters that have occurred within the last 12 months. Clearly your partner continues to struggle with severe mental health problems, but the only way to combat this for visa purposes is to evidence an effort to seek help and trying to get better. If your partner is continually being given support but their circumstances are not improving, then I am not sure how you would go about this. USCIS' main concern here is that the immigrant won't be a public charge, and a strong pattern of requiring emergency medical assistance doesn't seem to indicate as much. If it were me, I would be considering a move from US to Canada instead, to allow your partner to still have the avenues of support available to them as a Canadian citizen. You say they don't have problems while with you in the US, but let me say from first hand experience as a K1, the time that you move and find yourself at home alone, while your partner is at work, away from your family and everything you once knew, it can get hard. There's a chance that your partner may not fare so well when the "vacation mode" of visiting ends and real life sinks in. Wishing you the best of luck in your journey.

When I was waiting for my NOA2, I was using ** and the stats showed that the week I filed was being completely skipped over. No idea why, could be any reason. I'd say that expecting approval in 4 months is incredibly hopeful... Average is more like 8+ depending on your circumstances.

Sounds like you're asking about the risks of entering on VWP with the intent to adjust. Not advisable.

Depends on the nature of the RFE.

If the RFE letter includes the questions that were missed, with YES or NO boxes, then you should complete them in the letter. If not, then print the pages you missed and include them in the return mail. If the questions missed ask for further information if YES, then you should also include this. If this pertains to a criminal charge, then the usual procedure is to include police/court documents. You must read the RFE instructions carefully, as missing any step, even as small as signing/dating the page, could result in denial.

I'm thinking there may be some confusion here as OP mentioned a K1, even though their timeline says F1. OP can you please clarify what visa you are referring to. Miscommunication would make sense considering OP had 18 month process in their head, which aligns with K1 more or less.

I'm guessing that you didn't have strong ties to your home country, so the mention of a USC partner was perhaps reason for denial. How will you present this? Just pasted text on a Word doc? Like you said, I'd be worried about it being perceived as edited too. In theory, you could just type anything, any dates, any times. But as others have said, this is secondary and isn't that important. Personally, as Brazil is relatively high fraud, I would skip this entirely and focus on the messages you can actually screenshot. Similarly, we included only 1 photo together, with approx. 12 screenshots of messages, 2 letters of intent and a 2-page doc explaining how we met and that we want to start a life together in the US. But the main evidence was boarding passes, itineraries, Airbnb booking, etc that showed we had met. We had an RFE but it was because we missed a question on the I-129F, nothing evidence based. What is this?