Edward and Jaycel

Congrats @JaneStaark !! We are about to file our AOS packet and I was wondering if you would mind sharing what your RFE was for? Trying to avoid any issues and would like to learn from your experience if possible 🙂

That probably means someone is working on it in the visa section. As long as everything is ok with the paperwork she sent back in, it should go to “Approved” and then “Issued”. Keep us posted!

I think everyone should do it.... It will remove that "Not valid for employment without DHS Authorization" message that they put on the one you get while still on your K-1 visa

NVC took about 5 weeks after USCIS sent our case there to send the K1-FTP letter to us. I understand you’re a I-130 filer, however NVC seems to work cases in the order they are received regardless. As of last Monday it appears they are working cases received on 10/16/2024 https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/nvc-timeframes.html

That was fast! Glad they officially received it for you guys so quickly! 😁

We are about to file my wife's AOS from a K-1 visa and as you can imagine, there is mot a ton of marital evidence. We are sending everything that we do have at this point because it can only help with the chances of us getting approval without having to attend an interview. Good luck to you! Looks like we will both be November filers 🙂

I get that we need to put the receipt number from the I-129F as the answer for question 3 but do we put the "Received Date" on the NOA1 for the I-129F in for question 4 as the "Priority Date"? I have seen answers on VJ here saying yes and others saying to put "N/A" so I am looking to see if there is any consensus on this? Appreciate any advice!

From the USCIS Website:

Here are screen shots of the 2 pages I have for our I-485 Cover Letter and 1 page each for the I-765 & & I-864 (I made generic versions with all the identifying info taken out)

I second this.... please do a little research and see if you can do it yourself. There are plenty of guides here on VJ that can help and the community here is always willing to answer things you are unsure of. Don't get yourself tied into any of these services. In the posts I've seen here and other forums, they do nothing but cause headaches. I'm no rocket scientist and I was able to figure it out and that was before I knew about this site.

Awesome! Glad to hear it and keep us posted! The two things that Jaycel likes to share about the CFO is: 1. Don't watch YouTube videos about "Horror Stories" regarding the CFO. They got themselves sorted out last summer (2023) and as long and your fiancee knows the details about your relationship it will be fine. She said hers was a breeze and because all of the proof of relationship she brought, she only had to spend like 10 minutes in the 1 on 1 with the counselor. 2. Bring proof of your relationship because they WILL look through it. Jaycel brought ~140 pages and the counselor looked through all of it! 😆

It can't hurt to start organizing all of the "evidence" from this trip (reservations, boarding passes, hotel receipts, pictures, etc.) that show that you two were together in person. It will help when you are ready to file the I-129F. It will be nice to have everything together already instead of trying to hunt it down at that time.

congrats! I can confirm what @top_secret reported… Jaycel said CFO was a breeze. Just bring lots of proof of relationship. Unlike the embassy, they WILL go through it all. Happy times my friend! You are almost there 😁

Since your brother is a US Citizen, immediate relatives (i.e. - his wife) always have a visa immediately available

So happy to hear this!! Ours changed to “Issued” after 2 days of being g in “Approved” status

I understand the thought process here and AOS does need more, however, almost a year had passed between our I-129F filing date and the date of Jaycel's interview. That plus the age gap complication, we erred on the side of "the kitchen sink" method because after all that time, the last thing we wanted to run into was a 221g from a Visa Officer who didn't get his/her cup of coffee that morning and decided to be a stickler and ask for everything. Besides, in the Philippines, at the CFO/CGP session Jaycel went to, the counselor asked for and looked through every page of our proof of continuing relationship. I believe it's what got her out of the 1 on 1 session in about 10 minutes. To each their own, but when it comes to anything immigration related we will always overwhelm them with evidence at every step of the way when evidence is requested/required. The key is keeping it organized. If you do that, the volume of documents shouldn't matter much. Just my two cents 🙂

I know this was asked of someone else.... I'll tell you ours too. Jaycel had a total of about 330 pages in her accordion filer, 160 pages of which were proof of continuing relationship. We went heavy on everything too because we have a large age gap between us and that sometimes gets flagged as possible fraud so we went with the axiom, "Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it". 😆

Jaycel used an accordion file folder and labeled the tabs with things like: Civil Docs, DS-160 Confirmation Extras, I-134 Docs, Petitioner Docs, I-129F Copy, Proof of Relationship, etc. She said it worked perfectly as she was able to grab the documents they needed quickly and didn't have to fumble around looking for them.

So sorry for you and your fiancee WCF... Unfortunately to even register for the CFO, you have to have the Visa number that's printed on the visa. You can't make an appointment without it. I will tell you that once we had Jaycel's visa, we were able to get the CFO-GCP appointment booked within 1 week. The one in Cebu had 18 appointment slots bookable for the morning session and the afternoon session (36 slots daily) every day except Fridays.

Thank you so much.... You know the deal with K-1, since you can't really plan anything because you don't know when things will happen, we are just doing a ceremony in front of a judge here in Colorado with some close friends to be there as our witnesses. We're trying to make it as special as we can and then we will plan something a little more formal for next year or the year after.

Happy to be here and do what we can.... I wish we had found VJ so much earlier in our K-1 journey but the support and education we have received since joining has been amazing so we just want to "pay it forward" wherever we can 🙂 We are all part of a big "Immigration Family" we believe and if we can do anything to help down the line, please don't hesitate to reach out. We get married in 3 days and 3 weeks after that we will be filing our AOS packet so there's lots more "fun" to be had 😆

That's awesome news! So happy to hear!

How did you do the email inquiry? Did you use the inquiry form on the embassy website or did you use an email address?

Praying that they grant your request and approve your I-485 expeditiously!

That's for the I-693 medicals done by a civil surgeon inside the US not for overseas medicals. The overseas medical exam still has a validity of 6 months and that is what your visa validity date is based on as far as I know. I could be wrong.