Chris & Mara

Thank you for your advice and input flanags, we think this one might work, so we are going to have a chat with the Sydney embassy when we get home and see what the deal is. Thanks again.

Hmm I guess we could apply earlier how would be go getting the entry date extended so that we can enter next June/July though? I really don't want to do the process through USCIS they have already totally screwed us once, I'm not sure my mind is mentally prepared for it again....

HI all,

I have posted this on the Australia DCF pinned post on the DCF section of the boards so that hopefully it gets some views. I am hoping that after 4 years in this game we can get things finished very soon.... Anyhow onto to topic:

Just wanted to see how up to date all this information that is in the DCF boards from Aussiewench. My Husband (USC) and I will have been married for 2 years this October, which is when Chris is meant to receive Permanent residency in Australia. As our end goal is to live in the USA we are looking to make our move in the Summer of next year. With this in mind we are trying to work out when the best time is to file for my Immigration Visa/Green Card. As far as I am aware the process from application - approval takes about 8 weeks and the the entry permit is valid for 6 months, is this correct? Would starting the process in Feb for a June/July move make the best sense?

Any help would be wonderful, our Visa Journey has truly been enough hell already

Thanks,

Mara

HI all,

Just wanted to see how up to date all this information is. My Husband (USC) and I will have been married for 2 years this October, which is when Chris is meant to receive Permanent residency in Australia. As our end goal is to live in the USA we are looking to make our move in the Summer of next year. With this in mind we are trying to work out when the best time is to file for my Immigration Visa/Green Card. As far as I am aware the process from application - approval takes about 8 weeks and the the entry permit is valid for 6 months, is this correct? Would starting the process in Feb for a June/July move make the best sense?

Any help would be wonderful, our Visa Journey has truly been enough hell already

Thanks,

Mara

I've been plotting to revive it... you know... anniversary and all that coming up, but yeah, this thread sinks into the abyss on a regular basis now, and well, I think a few people are still not done with their journey... a year and a half later

Haha that's us!

I live in Australia and Chris lives in America, 6 months into our marriage and we are living the dream right there, on the positive there is a special box for us (Married but living separately) on the US census which is nice of them.

Our US visa was bumped out of the system last November and due to Chris losing his job we just didn't bother re-applying for a (I think) 5th time. Sadly we are still waiting on the Australian Visa for Chris, you would never believe it but once again the US government is holding us up..... Still need an FBI check (only thing the Aussie Embassy needs now), we actually have our own special agent assigned to us because we got lost in the FBI system *Bangs head on desk several times* and we have now heard back from 11 out of 14 regions so hopefully we are only another week or so out from getting that.

Once he has that it should be a matter of weeks to visa time..... we hope....

Glad everyone else is going so well on their journey's, me personally I'm missing the states, and am looking forward to the 2 years (next October actually) after which point when we go back we don't have to deal with USCIS.

Indeed merry christmas, and a happy new year, me personally im looking forward to next year, it might finally spell and end to us living in separate countries and our visa #######...

You have to be legally wed on US soil, so getting married legally in Australia, whilst the right thing for you family situation, is totally out of the question for the US visa. If you do, you wavier the rights of a Fiance visa as you are married, and would have to start over to file for a Spouse (K3 or CR1) visa.

Having a mock ceremony/practice ceremony, where no legal documents are signed or where you don't have someone who can legally perform a marriage (a celebrant doing it without you signing the paper can be considered just as legal as signing the paper i believe) may work, but you need to get all the answers from the US government otherwise they may deny you entry at POE.

Hi its only Marm and I left waiting for anything so i think its a little lost

Oh USCIS sent our CR1 back to use with "rejected" on it, because their machine couldn't read the clearly printed "2" at the end of Chris' zip, Chris rang them and they told us to "print clearer" next time

Looks like Australia is in the lead to winning us as a prize....

I fly today, been fighting off tears for the last 2 days, not gonna be pretty once i clear security

Hey all just thought I would let you all know we filed (Posted) our CR1 on Saturday (24th) and intend to head to the Aussie embassy on Monday to file that one.

Dani grats on your AOS finishing up

Hey all, just a note on how things are (Gemmie Im jealous of the new bed)

We got married last Saturday which was lovely, the weather held out for us which was nice and my father in law pulled out all the stops with flowers champagne dinner and a cake, it was very sweet of them. Everyone has been supportive of our decision, and we plan to renew our vows and have our reception in Australia next year, which everyone (particularly Chris' family) is very excited about.

We start the visa process again this week, just waiting on our marriage certificate and some affidavits to put in the package from family hopefully it will all go smoothly and at the start of next year we will finally be together properly.

Hope everyone is well

I know its frustrating and annoying, and that you feel lost and confused, but you need to remember as my mum has been telling me since my now husband and I started this process. This is a step you go through together, so what you are feeling your partner all the way on the other side is feeling as well. Use it to make your relationship stronger, talk to him/her about the things that you want to do when you are together, make a list of places in america to take them, or make a list of things they would like at "home" to make their new home feel that way. And work on those things you can semi control whilst USCIS does the rest.

Im not going to preach to the choir about the horrors that can be involved in the K1 case but you must remember, on the USCIS website the processing time says (I believe) at current 5 months, nobody will take you seriously until you have been past that point (Nor will they after as we found out). However If your worried that they have lost your application, you can call and check the status of your case with your case number, however just remember the person you get at the other end of the phone is only going to read off to you what you can read at home on the internet.

For Chris and I the last 14 months of our relationship have been really tough, and will only get tougher this week as we start the application process over as husband and wife, but it has made as strong. It has made us realise that being together is the end goal no matter where it is, it has taught us that we can talk about anything, that we can talk to one another for hours on end and not run out of things to say, even if we sat on the phone for 8 hours a day 4 or 5 days a week for 6 months (Yay for Skype, if you don't have it get it - it will save you so much money). And I know it sounds stupid, because this process p***** me off as much as the next person, but there are some things about our relationship I may have never learnt if our process was easy, and once we get through this, everything else on the horizon seems so much easier, simply because we will tackle it physically together instead of just mentally and emotionally.

I wish you the best of luck for a speedy approval, just remember that no matter how long or short the journey is the goal at the end is just as sweet.

Kaus&Sanu,

To be honest taking USCIS to court is like getting your hopes up and yet still having to walk off the cliff.

We did it and we won, They had to have a response to us by the 21st of August 2009, if you look at our timeline you will notice that they never bothered to reply. So it went back to court at the start of September, and that frankly was the last we ever heard of it.

There is nothing you can do, WoM apparently does not apply to them, they lost our case twice, went to court twice and were in contempt of court, and yet we still got nothing, other then a lawyer who stopped speaking to us and being several thousand out of pocket. We ended up having to physically go there to withdraw our K1 as our lawyer wouldn't talk to us (in fact we withdrew it over a week ago and he still hasn't contacted us).

Like Sara (Estadia) we have made plans to move to the Beneficiary's (me) country at the start of next year, and we got married over the weekend to enable that to happen. No we haven't given up on the US, we are filing to both countries, but we certainly aren't getting our hopes up about it, frankly we don't care were we live, we just want it to be together. It has been a long 14 months in this process, and if we are lucky we have only 6 more left before we can be together. But definitely not holding our breaths.

Long story short, take the 10K that having a lawyer to sue USICS would cost you and have a holiday together somewhere nice, suing them just really isn't worth the cash.

- Mara

Chris and I are getting married on Saturday at 4 in his Dad's garden . Sadly I dont have my wedding dress, but his sister and I are going to go shopping tomorrow to find me something nice to wear.

Im really excited about it now

Ok Chris and i officially withdrew out K1 petition on Tuesday this week.

So whilst we are free for the clutches for a few days we got ourselves a marriage license for VA on Monday and intend to wed over the weekend, then next week will be reapplying for a CR1 to the USA and a Spouse Visa to Australia.

The Chief of staff at the DC office believes we have rights to expedite our case for the US, which is exciting, Chris just has to take our NOA1 number down to him when we get it. Good God I hope we get this one.... But on that note he seems to think it will only take 2 months. But Ive been told this story before so Im wary of the if its true or not lol. The Aussie one is meant to take 4-6 (however only 4 is most of the stuff is collected, medical, police check, etc before you file) So fingers croosed that this means either way we will be back together by March next year. Frankly it doesn't really matter which country this occurs in.

Wish me luck And keep me posted on how everyone is doing. I want to be here when We can finally Cheer for Marm getting spat out of that blackhole....

Hey all, Chris and I withdrew our K1 on Tuesday this week.

We got ourselves a marriage license on Monday however and intend to get married over the weekend and next week hopefully get started on the Aussie process and the CR1 Process.

missing_my_baby, just a word from the "over usicis's #######" if you choose to get married and reapply go down the CR1 route, much quicker and you come into the USA with a Green card in hand, unlike the K3 there is no AoS involved (to our knowledge), this is what the Chief of staff over there suggested was the best route for us.

Tom your biggest wait that you may need to mentally prepare yourself for is how long things are held up by the chinese consulate, they don't let people go lightly over there so it may take you a few more weeks then others to schedule an interview. I hope that for you this is not the case.

Chris and I picked up a marriage license on Monday, and then removed our K1 application on Tuesday from USCIS. Our intention is to get married over the weekend and file our CR1 for the USA (which we are apparently allowed to expedite according to the Chief of Staff at USCIS) and our Spouse visa for Australia at the end of next week.

Thank you all for the support in here, and if you want I can keep you updated as to how we end up, but otherwise drop into the August 08 file or 6 month filers where I will keep everyone updated.

Good luck to everyone on their journeys and I hope that nobody gets caught up in one like mine (as interesting as this story is going to be for our kids one day its not a whole lot of fun to live).

Awe Marm, your situation truly sucks and i really wish that they would realise that they are dealing with people

And yes Gemmie, it is a case of which ever comes first

Afternoon all.

Just thought I would update everyone, today Chris and I went to the court house and paid our $30 for a marriage license, it was quick and painless, no real questions asked, which after playing this game for so long surprised me....

The plan is to have a civil service later this week (which his dad is back in town) to get married and get our Australian and US spouse visa applications in before I go back to australia. Yes it will suck being married and apart, but hopefully it will only be 4 months, which in theory is shorter then the time after we got engaged that we were apart lol. Chris has already done his medical, applied for his FBI check and police check for the Aussie visa, im just waiting for some papers from home and we are almost good to go. As for the CR1 application it seems fairly straight forward (and there is a whole lot less paperwork in it then the Aussie one o.O) and we already have most of the things we need for it.

Hope everyone is going well and enjoying the fall, I love the colours the trees change too

Marm if your reading this, any word for you?

No news at us, we are currently looking at withdrawing our visa application getting married and applying for a spouse one, big over the whole process now to be honest.

Yeah should be easy about a 4 month process, but i think ill still post all our steps in here to keep my VJ family updated, besides if all goes well it wont be long and we will get to come back this way.

Cuhita I am on facebook, Dani (leo and Lioness), Gemmie, Kamz (HD) and DJFredddy are on there too

Oh, on a plus, if we move to Australia i can finally get a job

Lol I likes it Cuchita

Sara, yeah its been eaten by a black hole, our Lawyer has taken to ignoring our calls, and not returning them, Chris calls him about 5 times a day and we haven't actually spoken to him in 2 weeks .

We are actually organizing paper work for Chris to come to Australia, and looking at getting married maybe next weekend (after withdrawing our visa application) and apply for the CR1 to america and the Spouse visa to Australia and see which one comes through first, I think it will be Australia.....

Frankly it doesn't really matter at this point which way we go, we just want to be able to get on with our lives together, yes we are aware that we will be doing this for the next 5 years setting up our family and all, but at least that way we can do it together, I don't want to sit around for another 12 months in case they "maybe" find our application...

Thank you all for the answers I really appreciate it

We intend to withdraw our our K1, in fact if our lawyer would answer his phone he would know that...

Is the filing for the CR1, much different to the K3 if that is the case with the costs? I was under the impression that both were automatically filed together if you file either.

Good morning all.

I was just hoping to have some questions cleared up about the CR1 visa. I know i might sounds like a might of a newbie in here, but we (my fiance and I) know USCIS very well, as my timeline kinda points out. Sadly we are at the point of so much frustration with the system that we are looking at alternative arrangements.

A bit of background first.

I (Australian citizen) am currently staying with Chris (US Citizen) in the USA, we applied for our fiance visa (K1) 13months ago. It has been screwed around by USCIS, expedited, lost twice, into court twice and frankly going nowhere. So we were considering getting married in the next couple of weeks and applying for a spouse visa, before you get all excited yes I will be exiting the USA on the 27th of October no matter what as that is when my visa expires. If we were to marry and I stay, they would have us for visa fraud in AoS, even though all we want is to get on with our lives....

Onto my questions.

Application of the K3 and CR1 visa are one in the same, and thus require the same forms, and checks right? However I can drop the K3 during the process as lately the CR1 has been faster, and more appropriate (come in with work rights extra)?

From what I have been seeing looking around at the moment the time from NOA1 - NOA2 seems to be around the 3 month mark, how long should i expect that the process will take?

Is this one done mostly through USCIS like a K1?

And if i choose this route over K3, am I making a better choice for my situation? (i know that seems like a dumb question but any insight would be wonderful).

Thank you anyone who takes the time to read this and reply I really appreciate any help anyone can give us at this stage.

- Mara