rs1971

Hi,

I recently filed an I-129F (NOA1 April 26th) and all of the sudden my fiancee and I are having some relationship issues. It looks likely, though not certain, that we won't be marrying, at least not in the current time frame. I've read about people canceling their petitions before they are adjudicated but is there really any advantage to that over just letting it be approved and then expire? As we still have a glimmer of hope, I'd like to keep our options open as long as possible and there doesn't seem to be any downside to just letting it expire, but I wanted to check to make sure that I'm not missing something.

Thanks.

-rs1971

So effectively if I'm walking down the street an officer can demand my papers on the spot?

I don't think that this is right. I think that the check can only be made incidental to some other legitimate interaction with a public official. I don't mean to imply that the law won't be abused, because I'm sure that it will, but at least as it's drafted it doesn't quite permit the draconian scenarios being thrown around in this thread.

-rs1971

Hello, I recently recieved an email stating that my case is now at the request for evidence status, I filed with a lawyer back in december, and included many pics, chat history, western union receipts, emails, plane tickets, bank statements, intent to marry, birth certs, you name it we made sure we had it in there, I havent recieved the letter yet but should in the next couple of days and am wondering, what it may say? and how long does this delay the process? They told me that once i send the packet back with the info they need I will get my spot back in line and then I have read on here it goes to the NVC and that process is about 2-4 weeks, then off to manila which is about 90 days til interview. I would like to be there for the interview but its very hard to pinpoint when that will be until she gets the call, so realistically how much longer would you guess that she would be here if all goes well? I was thinking like September?

Thanks in advance

Steve

I'm no expert and this is purely a shot in the dark, but having read through the 'entire' RFE thread, my unscientific impression is that documents related to prior marriages / divorces seem to be the most common source of RFEs. Were either you or your fiancee previously married?

-rs1971

Hi,

I have a small number of documents (none of them strictly required or critical to the process) which are written in Spanish which I'd like to include along with my K1 Petition packet. They consist of a three or four emails written to me by my fiancee which serve as general evidence of an ongoing relationship as well as a pair of boarding passes and a letter from the Chilean government documenting her travel to Colombia all of which go towards documenting us having met within the last two years.

I know that I need to have all of this stuff translated, but is there some requirement with respect to who does the translating? I'm more than capable of doing it myself, but am I allowed? If not me, can I just have a bilingual friend do it? Or do I need to find a translator with some specific certification.

Thanks in advance.

-rs1971

Thanks everyone for all of the comments - they are all very useful.

-rs1971

Hi,

Just a couple of quick questions:

(1) As I read through the archives here there is a lot of talk about 'high fraud consulates' but I've not really seen any kind of list of which embassies fit this definition. Is there some kind of objective measure or is it pretty much just a subjective criteria. In either event, I'm wondering whether or not people consider Bogota, Colombia to be a high fraud consulate?

(2) A few weeks ago I received in the mail from my fiancee, signed / dated copies of her G-325A and letter of intent. The forms are dated April 3rd, but unfortunately, I still haven't got everything together to send the I-129F packet off. Does it matter if the signatures are stale by a few weeks?

Thanks in advance.

-rs1971

Hi,

I understand that generally speaking any documentation submitted to UCSIS has to be translated to English. I'm wondering if this rule is hard and fast for supporting documents or if it really only applies to those which are specifically required. On my most recent trip to visit my fiancee in Colombia, which is the one I'm using to meet the 'within two years' requirement, we traveled together from Bogota where she lives to Letecia, to spend a week in the Amazons. One of my strongest pieces of supporting evidence of our having been together is our boarding passes which show us sitting next to each other on the flights to and from Leticia. As these are domestic flights, obviously they are in Spanish. Is it really necessary to translate something like this? I can't imagine that it wouldn't be clear to anyone regardless of whether they spoke Spanish or not.

Thanks in advance.

-rs1971

The consulate will allow some time to respond to packet 3. I don't know the specific time allowed by the consulate in Bogota, but 1 year is not uncommon. Check with the consulate to be absolutely certain. If you go beyond their time limit then they will consider the application to have been abandoned, though they might resurrect it upon request.

The petition approval is also only valid for 4 months. The consulates have the authority to renew the approval, and most will do so automatically. Some consulates may ask that you send them a letter or email asking for the petition approval to be renewed. Again, check with the consulate. They should be able to answer both questions with a single email.

Hi JimVaPhong,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. If the consulate in Bogota, really does allow a year to respond, then we're all set and there is no reason for me not to submit my petition right now. I didn't realize though that the process varied from consulate to consulate so I'll have to try to find something on Bogota specifically to be sure.

One thing though about your response isn't clear to me. Let's say for the sake of argument that Bogota really does allow a year for the fiance(e) to respond, how does that work with the four month lifetime you mention for the petition? When does that four month window start and when does it end? It sounds like it starts when the petition is approved and ends after the fiance(e) interview. But if that's the case, how could any consulate possibly give the fiance(e) a year to respond? Wouldn't the petition expiration date require that the fiance(e) would have to respond in less than four months? (much less really, considering the time lost at the NVC and the time to mail out the packet). Where am I confused?

-rs1971

I went through this process in Colombia in 2007/2008. When your case is forwarded from the NVC to the Embassy in Bogota, they will send Packet #3 to your fiancee'. There will be a list of things she will need to bring to the interview and full instructions on how to complete them...in Spanish. When she is ready with all the items, she will FAX in the OF-169, DS-156 and DS-156K forms which indicate that she is "ready" to have the interview scheduled. When the Embassy receives this FAX, they will generate a letter stating when the interview is scheduled. They sent me a copy which I still have...it says:

Estimado (Name)

Esta oficina esta lista para iniciar los tramites finales sobre la solicitud de visa inmigrand de (de los) solicitante(s) que aparece(n) a continuation en esta expediente. Se ha concertado una cita para llevar a cabo la entrevista de solicitud de visa en la seccion de visas de inmigrante en la fecha que aparece al pie de la pagina. Se debe presentar esta carta al llegar a la oficing en el dia de la cita.

Sirvase examinar la informacion adjunta para obtener mayor informacion acerca de examen medico al que deben someterse todos los futuros inmigrantes. Asegurese de leer toda la informacion adjunta y sequier muy cuidadosamente las instrucciones contenidas en la misma. Al comunicarse con esta oficina, bien sea, por telefono o por carta, debera referirse siempre a su nombre y numero de expediente, tal y como aparecen al pie de la pagina.

Atentamente,

Jefe Seccion de visas de Inmigrante

Cita para la solicitud de visado

Date: 12 Marzo 2008 Time: 07:00

Numero de Caso: BGT2007XXXXX

Fiance': (Her Name) DOB: xx/xxx/xxxx

Child: (Child's Name) DOB: xx/xx/xxxx

Well, all this process fell apart a few weeks prior to her interview. I discovered that she had a boyfriend and was cheating on me. Sooooooo....I promptly FAXed a "Withdrawal of Petition" letter to the Embassy and cancelled everything. This information is relatively recent and the $131 fee has not changed. So, I hope that in some way I was able to help you.

Best Wishes,

Franc

PS Oh...and I divorced her immediately.

That doesn't help me with the question regarding the time frame specifically, but it's all great background information so thanks a lot for having taken the time to reply.

-rs1971

Hi,

My fiancee is a Colombiana who is currently and temporarily living in Santiago, Chile. She will be returning to Bogota, Colombia, where we'll be processing her visa, the first week of September. Based on the timelines I've seen on this site, it seemed safe to send the petition off as soon as possible, especially considering that in the unlikely event that the process went faster than expected, she could always return to Bogota sooner.

However, the situation has changed in a couple of ways. First, it turns out that she will be in Spain from the 20th of June until the 10th of August which makes an early return (at least in that time frame) impossible. The other thing is that it seems that recently people have been getting NOA2s really quickly. So, now I'm wondering if I should send off the petition now, or wait a while.

The thing that I'm not terribly clear about is what happens after the application leaves the NVC for Bogota and they send my fiancee the first packet. Does some sort of clock start ticking then, or is there no particular hurry for her to take action? That seems to be the crucial piece of information that I'm missing. Does anyone know the answer? I'm torn between not wanting to delay the process and not wanting to mess things up by her not being available to be in Bogota in time.

If anyone who understands the post NVC process, could offer some advice I'd really like to hear it.

Thanks in advance.

-rs1971

Hi,

I'm in the process of preparing an I-129F petition and I have a quick question. For reasons which have never been entirely clear, the last name on my birth certificate is my mother's maiden name and not my fathers name. I never used that name though, even for a day. When I was 15 or 16 (25 years ago) and needed a social security card, my mother finally got around to having the name legally changed to my father's name (this was the first I even knew of the birth certificate issue). Rather than dealing with getting copies of both the court order and the long form birth certificate, I plan on just side-stepping the whole thing by using a copy of my passport instead. On both the G325A and the I-129F I answered 'none' to the other names used question, which is truthful as I never have used the name on my birth certificate. Does anyone think that I might run into any problems here? I don't see how I could, but this is the government that we are talking about here.

Thanks in advance.

-rs1971

I have a similar dilemma. I am just putting my I-129F together now and my fiancee currently resides in Santiago, Chile and her G325A as well as my current draft of the I-129F both reflect her address in Chile. However she is a Colombian citizen and will be returning to Bogota, Colombia in July. So, I've specified that we wish to process her Visa through the consulate in Bogota, but I'm not sure how to guarantee that they send the paper work to her mother's address in Bogota rather than her address in Santiago specified on the forms. Depending on when they finally went out, having them sent to Santiago might be a problem if she's already returned to Colombia. I've decided that I'll just write a short memo explaining the situation and asking that all correspondence go to her mother's address. Hopefully they'll take note and honor the request.

-rs1971

Thanks everyone for the responses. I was looking around at Walmart yesterday and found some 'photo sheets' which are clear plastic pages with slots into which you can insert photos. I didn't even know that such a thing existed but this seems to be the neatest solution. Thanks again.

-rs1971

This is an interesting thread for me as I'm in the process now of trying to put everything together. Like most people, I have my photos in digital format and have chosen 12 of them to submit with my I-129F. I'm not sure though how exactly to present them. I've uploaded them to Walgreens and intend to have glossies printed, but what size is best? 4 x 6? 5 x 7? And then what? How exactly do people physically include them with the I-129F packet? I've searched through the archives and found information about putting together full blown photo albums for the interview, but certainly one doesn't want to do that for the petition, right? What about taping them to bonded paper? That doesn't seem to make sense as the information on the back of the photos wouldn't then be accessible. Someone mentioned using powerpoint to add captions, which sounds look a good idea. But then what did you do with the slides? Just print them out on your home printer?

-rs1971

Apologies for hijacking the original posters thread, but it reminds me of a question of my own. My plan for qeustion 18 is to just reference an attached time line of our relationship. The time line in turn documents all of our trips to visit each other (there have been several and in each direction) and includes evidence (boarding passes, hotel receipts) for the most recent trip. I realize that I'm providing more information than the question really asks for, but is this a bad thing? My impression is that this is what most people do (I think the term I've heard here is 'frontloading'). Should this material be somewhere else other than as a response to question 18?

Thanks in advance.

-rs1971

Does she have an address in Bogota right now, perhaps with family?

Yes, she has her parents address (which will be her address again in July / August).

Her address in Chile is her temporary address since that is where she is at school but not where she is intending on staying?

I guess that you could say that it's temporary, though she's been in Santiago for two years and we've filled out her G-325A to reflect that fact.

They will forward the approved petition to the Consulate that is responsible for the area in which she is living.

Well, presumably, they will forward it to the consulate indicated in question 20, the note I mentioned notwithstanding.

So, I would suggest that you indicate to them that her temporary address is in Chile but her permanent address is in Colombia and provide the dates that she will be returning to her Bogota address. [/size]

Yes, I think that I'll include a memo describing the situation along with the I-129F packet because another issue occurs to me. Even if there are no issues with processing things through the embassy in Bogota, the default would probably be for the embassy to send any correspondence / materials to her last address on the I-129F which is in Chile. It would be much simpler if everything just went straight to her parents' address in Bogota.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

-rs1971

Hi,

I'm in the process of filling out a I-129F and I have a question. My fiancée is Colombian but currently lives in Santiago, Chile where she is finishing up a Masters degree at the University of Chile. All she has left is to finish her thesis and she should be done and back in Bogota by July or August at the latest. Given this time frame, and that we are just starting the process now, it seemed to make the most sense to process her visa through the Embassy in Bogota and that's what I'm indicating in Question 20 on the I-129F. But the note below the question gives me pause. It reads:

"Designation of a U.S. embassy or consulate outside the country of your fiancé(e)'s last residence does not guarantee acceptance for processing by that foreign post. Acceptance is at the discretion of the designated embassy or consulate"

Does anyone think that were likely to have any trouble having her Visa processed in Bogota, where she is from, rather than in Santiago, where she happens to be living now?

Thanks in advance.

-rs1971

Thanks Guys. That's the way I was leaning but then I stumbled on some older threads which talk about converting asian addresses and wondered if I should do the same. But your responses have put my mind at ease.

-rs1971

Hi,

I'm in the process of assembling an I-129F Packet for my fiancee who lives in Chile and I have a quick question. In the several places where we need to enter her address, should we be entering them in their native format or converted to American style. I think that the only real difference is where the street number goes. Should I leave the forms as she filled them out (street number after the street name) or should I put the number first?

Thanks in advance.

-rs1971

While you do not have to it can be very important to send them more than they need at this stage. Here people will call it frontloading. Phone bills, pictures, e-mails. letters, copy of skype pages. You do not have to send all , just examples from each month is what i did to show ongoing relationship over time. It is not needed now but can be VERY helpfull to have it in your file when it goes to the consulate.

Your response reminds me of a question I had. I'm considering including a few emails from my fiancee with my I-129F, but they are in Spanish. I know that required foreign language documents need to be translated but since the various pieces of evidence of relationship are optional, would it be okay to include some of them in a foreign language? Thanks.

-rs1971

Ok, one more

(1) On the employment piece of my G-325A, I find that my employers full address won't fit in the alotted space. Is there any reason to think that just city / state aren't sufficient? I know that most of these are probably silly questions, but I really dont' want to make any stupid mistakes.

Thanks.

-rs1971

Thank you both for the responses. I have a few follow-on questions as we work towards preparing the I-129F. First though a clarification. Though she is currently living in Santiago, she will be returning to Bogota, Colombia in August and our plan is to process everything through that embassy. Okay, now for some specific questions:

(1) She is preparing the things which require her original signatures so that she can have them sent to me here in the states to be included in the I-129F packet. Since this is expensive, we'd like not to have to do more than one mailing. So far she has the letter of intent and her G-325A. Another possibility is the passport photo. Other than those three items, is there anything else that can't be sent electronically?

(2) Regarding the passport photos: I was researching the topic in the archives here and someone suggested taking your own photos with a digital camera, cropping them at www.portraitbooth.com and printing them out at Wallgreens. This seems like a great idea but I was wondering if anyone could confirm that there are no issues?

(3) Regarding the Letter of Intent and the G-325A: Is there any point in printing either of these out on anything other than standard grade, white copy paper? I'm assuming 'no,' but thought that it couldn't hurt to ask.

Okay, that's all for now. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

-rs1971

Hi,

I am just in the beginning stages of preparing an I-129F and after having read a bunch of the great information in the guides, I have a few questions. First the background: my fiancee is Colombian but currently resides in Santiago, Chile where she is finishing up a Masters degree. She should be finished and back in Bogota by the middle of August, though all that remains is work on her thesis which for the most part could be done anywhere so if there were a pressing need she could always fly back sooner without endangering her studies. Here are my questions:

(1) Given that time frame, is right now a reasonable time to submit the I-129? Having looked at the processing times and considering the four month window, it seems safe, but I wanted to bounce the question in case, there's something I don't understand.

(2) I didn't realize until just recently that the I-129 packet involved original materials from her (at least the letter of intent and the G325-A). This is particularly frustrating given that we were just together in Bogota (she was home for break). I should have begun my research before the trip, but alas, I didn't. So is there any optoin at this point other than having her fedex the materials to me?

Okay, that's it for now. Thanks in advance for any replies (and a big thank you to whoever maintains this invaluable site),

-rs1971

I've said visiting boyfriend four times and visiting fiance three times, gotten in all times but the last time I had some problems.. thank God for that evidence.

Thanks Gemmie, for that information. The first time she came she absolutely didn't mention anything about me, because we were afraid that that would set off some kind of flags. We went so far as to have her make reservations at a bunch of Hostels. We were also nervous I live in Phoenix which is a bit of a strange destination for a tourist traveling alone from Latin America. That said, she didn't have any trouble at all with immigration. Maybe it's okay to just say that she's visiting me. You were entering on a tourist visa, right?

-rs1971

i've had problems the last three times i have visited and been taken for interrogation (which never gets any less terrifying) but i've never been prevented from entering. i'm not working so that is why i always raise red flags with immigration. i'd assume that if she is studying that's good enough to prove that she will be leaving the states at the end of her visit. does she have paperwork showing where she pays rent? or does she have any bills, for example a cell phone registered in chile?

Thanks for the input, it's appreciated. She does have a cell phone so I'm sure that she has some paper work for that. And she rents a room in a private home, but I'm sure that her landlady would be willing to write her a letter. Those are both good suggestions, thanks.

-rs1971

She'll probably need evidence that she's returning home. Such as employer/school letter, tenancy contract, bank statements/utility bills, anything that shows she's coming back. I usually haven't needed any of that, but the last time I visited the US, he looked at 3 of my pieces of evidence before letting me through.

Ah, ok, I understand. I don't know that she has a lot of evidence that she'd return to Colombia. She's young (24) and doesn't own any property. However she is in Chile on a full fellowship and she's only half way through with her studies there, a fact which I think would be pretty good evidence that she doesn't intend to overstay her visa. She's already planning on bringing documentation demonstrating this fact. One question: when you've visited, have you stated plainly that you were here visiting your boyfriend?

-rs1971