Agnieszka

If you do get married in August, it's perfectly ok, but remember that if they ask you whether you entered the US with the intention of getting married, you have to say NO! It's legal to get married in the US as a tourist but it's not ok to plan it. It's kinda ridiculous and seems like it doesn't matter but they do ask about that during the interview!

I got my passport with the CR-1 visa and the sealed envelope on Friday.

We're planning to leave in July and I was just wondering about the next visa journey step. What happens at the airport? Will they take me to a separate room to ask questions? What kind of questions? We're flying to JFK. Do I go and look for an immigration office? Is it before or after the passport control? Can my husband be with me? I suppose I can ask someone at the airport, but I like to know what to expect :-)

Anybody who went through this, I'll appreciate sharing your experience.

Good luck everybody!!!

Based on my knowledge, once you get to your POE in the US you will be brought to a little room(once you get to immigration line) and you will give the sealed envelope and will ask you a few questions. Unfortunately you husband can't be present because this is at a point where greeters are not allowed to enter in the arrival section in the terminal. But once you get through the immigration check, baggage claim and customs you should be able to meet your husband with all of the others waiting for their arriving party.

My husband is actually going to travel with me. We're lucky enough not to be apart.

I got my passport with the CR-1 visa and the sealed envelope on Friday.

We're planning to leave in July and I was just wondering about the next visa journey step. What happens at the airport? Will they take me to a separate room to ask questions? What kind of questions? We're flying to JFK. Do I go and look for an immigration office? Is it before or after the passport control? Can my husband be with me? I suppose I can ask someone at the airport, but I like to know what to expect :-)

Anybody who went through this, I'll appreciate sharing your experience.

Good luck everybody!!!

Got my passport with the CR-1 visa and THE envelope today.

What happens at the airport? Will they take me to a separate room to ask questions? What kind of questions? Can my husband be with me?

Anybody who went through this, I'll appreciate sharing your experience.

Good luck everybody!!!

I would say the Adam Walsh check was complete when you received packet 3 in the mail.

At our I-130 appointment the consular officer said our documents were in order but they have to do the adam walsh check before they can approve it. Sounds like the consular officer there maybe got ahead of himself?

Anyway sounds like your visa journey is going fine.. they are probably reviewing your packet 3 at the moment and will schedule an interview with you once that is complete. But if you're anxious you could always send a polite email to them confirming that they received your packet 3, and asking how long the processing time for scheduling interviews currently is.

It took 2 months for us, but the lady at the embassy told us it wa going to be between 2 to 4 months.

Have you tried looking on the US military base in Bamberg for a job,...??

Absolutely. I have tried countless times, you have no idea!

When I first got to Germany last year, my husband wanted me to relax and not work for 2 months or so. So I didn't pursue a job until late September. When I went to the Human Resources office on the Army base, I was informed by the lady working there that I pretty much had NO chance of ever getting a job on base once I received my Residence Permit to live in Germany. I also did not want to turn in paperwork that week, and then 2 weeks later have to update the information with my new last name. (We were married 10.10.2008.)

Anyways, it wasn't until late November/early December that I found out that the HR was full of #######. She SHOULD have told me that she would be able to provide me with a Work Permit for a year if I did not get the Residence Permit, but at the time, I was confident that the Residence Permit would be the only way for me to stay here legally.

So now that I have my German Residence Permit and Work Permit, I am only legally allowed to apply for the same jobs that German citizens are allowed to apply for. This makes getting a job on base VERY DIFFICULT! And that is not including the people who are referred to jobs by military families. It's just rediculous really. I have applied for countless jobs as a "Local National" and have had no luck thus far.

@txladykat:

That's awesome that you both managed to secure jobs in the US. Great job!

I am also hoping to have such good luck upon returning. I have remained confident the entire time that I have lived here in Germany that, upon return to the US, I will be able to secure a somewhat decent job to be able to pay bills, rent, and food for my family. I know that there is a possibility that I will need to work two jobs from the beginning, and I will do that if it is needed.

I am pretty sure that we will continue with our first intentions of doing the DCF. I know that neither of us would be able to separate from each other and function appropriately for a very long time. DCF is definitely the way to go, even if I leave 3 months or so before my husband and step-children.

Definitely DCF!

It's really fast, so you won't have to wait too long while being bored (plus you'll be busy collecting all the documents and stuff) and it allows your husband to enter and work almost right away.

We didn't have to show any proof when submitting our I-130. We only had to prove that my husband lives in Poland, so he showed some letters addressed to him and his residency card and that was it.

Nobody wanted to see any proofs of bona fide marriage at the interview either. We took a bunch of photo albums and some letters addressed to both of us. I was a little concerned, because we didn't have any joint accounts or leases or anything, but they didn't ask even a single question.

Good luck!!

great!!!!

Although I have a question regarding the lady with I-864 - NVC has the original one, then they send it to US Embassy - how come they wanted from here original I-864?

:/ weird

I'm not sure. We filed directly in Warsaw, so we skipped the NVC step and had to present the original I-864 a the interview, so maybe she did too.

We just had our interview in Warsaw, Poland and this is how it went.

The interview was scheduled for 9.30 and even though they say in the papers that coming early will not get you an earlier interview, that's not true. We were there at 8 (I attended the interview with my husband) and they let us in right away and told us to get a number. There were 4 people (1 was the whole family) with earlier numbers, so we were 5th in the line. First we were asked to present our documents and a Polish lady checked them and asked some simple questions, for example whether I entered the US knowing I would be getting married. For those of you who don't know, if you get married on a tourist visa and then you go back to your home country the answer should be NO. We didn't plan it, so it was true for us:-) The lady was ok to us, but she was quite nasty to a woman who came in with her mobile phone token (the security gives it to you when depositing your phone) and thought that was her line number. The poor woman looked really scared and, honestly, how are you supposed to know what to do if they don't give you any instructions, just let you in the lounge.

Then they asked me to wait till my number shows up again. They took my fingerprints and then we paid the fee. All of those things happen in the same room only at different windows, so you don’t have to go anywhere. Then we waited quite a bit. During that time we could hear other interviews. That sucks a little bit, as everybody can hear what you’re saying and you have to speak loud, as it all happens through the glass. The first guy was on older fellow and they only asked him to raise his right hand and swear what he said in the papers was true. Then he signed the application and got his DHL slip. The consul was a younger woman, she sounded very nice and congratulated the guy. I was very happy for him! It sounded like he’d been waiting for years. One girl had to present the copy of her mother’s green card and the consul lady took a while to check it (that was a different lady) then the girl had to sit down again and wait and then she had to go to a different window for something but finally she was asked again to the original consul lady and was told everything was ok. The next applicant was an older woman and she was sent away because she didn’t have the original I-864 from her daughter. The consul lady said the copy was not enough and asked her to come again. She was very apologetic and helpful, but the older woman seemed disappointed and tired. No wonder, I guess. After that lady nobody was asked for a while, so I got a bit nervous, as our number was next. Then a new window opened up and our number showed up above it. The consul was a guy and I bet it was his first time doing a visa interview. He looked confused and stressed out and those two consul ladies were telling him what to do or say. He was trying really hard to speak Polish (actually read it from a hand out). We made it clear he didn’t need to but he clearly wanted to. He didn’t ask me or my husbands any questions, just told me to raise my right hand and swear all I was saying was true. Then I signed, he said everything was ok and that my passport would be sent to me within 5 business days. Then he asked the other consuls if he should tell us that I have 6 months to enter and they just said ‘No, they know’, so he looked at us and we said ‘Yeah, we know’, so he asked me when we were planning to leave and we said July and that was that. The whole embassy visit took 2 hours, but most of that was waiting. The interview itself was no more than 5 minutes.

We never had to present any proofs of bona fide marriage and they didn't ask for the official USCIS petition cancellation (they asked me to bring that in an e-mail sent to my husband).

I'm really glad our Visa journey is completed and even though we started it in November 2008, everything went much faster when we refiled though DCF. If you have a chance to do it, don't hesitate!! You skip the whole NVC process and for us from the moment we re-filed the I-130 petition and the visa interview the process took less than 2 months! Thank you VisaJourney family. We would never know we could refile withot you! Good luck to everyone!

Here's our story. We got married in August and moved back to Poland in September for a year thinking that we would get the visa in the embassy in no time. We applied for my husband's Polish residency in October and tried to file for CR-1 in the Embassy. Then we found out about the 6 months wait period before DCF and the requirement to be a legal resident. Not very encouraging. The Polish visa was taking much longer than we thought and at some point we thought the chances of getting it were very slim. Then we decided to file I-130 in USCIS not knowing it takes a lot more than a couple of months to be approved. Our thought was that Vermont will approve our petition before we can file in Poland. Then I came accross VisaJourney and saw the process was ridiculously long. We filed I-130 in Vermont in November. It sat there for 4 full months with no touches. In the meantime I learned how DCF worked and just when the 6 month residency period ended we called the Embassy to ask if we can reapply. We could! Obviously we had to repay $355 (which by the way goes to USCIS again), but it took 6 days to be approved. We just got an email that we have been approves and that packet 3 has already be sent to me!

I'd like to thank VisaJourney team for priceless information, timelines and useful stories (I learned here that you can actually refile and cancel the original petition).

Good luck to everybody who's waiting and if you can do DCF, don't hesitate!

Help!!! My wife needs to get a new Polish ID card and passport since hers expires in August. We are in the process of waiting for our next correspondence for the green card interview, already went for biometrics in Buffalo, NY. Well, we sent over a certified marriage certificate for her dad to help in her home town's city hall in Poland, but they are looking for a legal document that says she changed her last name to my last name. I live in Erie, Pa and we went to the erie county office but all they can do is give us a gold seal document and a few other documents that help us obtain an aposstille from the state. The nice ladies in the marriage bureau office said that it is assumed that the woman is taking the man's last name and that document doesn't exist in this state. Please any help is much appreciated. Thanks a lot and this is a great online community.

Does it need to be changed in Poland? Is she getting her ID and passport in the Embassy in the US? Because if she is, a marriage certificate usually has information about changing the name after the wedding. I mean, if you assume that the wife always takes the man's name, that's not accurate, right? What if a woman decides to keep her maiden name? Our wedding certificate says: "name" and then "name after marriage". If your wedding certificate has that information, this should be sufficient.

I'm guessing it's not, though. Polish town halls and offices are very hard to deal with. Why did you send paperwork to your wife's dad in Poland? Sadly, from my experience it's almost impossible to change anything in the town hall here unless you do it in person. The only way for them to acknowledge the fact of marriage and name change is to show your US marriage certificate with a certified translation and complete birth certificate (obtained in the place you were born only) and apply for a Polish marriage certificate. This, unfortunately, can be done only in person, so the idea with your wife's father might not work in this case.

I don't know your situation well enough, but my advice is to skip dealing with anything in Poland unless your wife can go and deal with it in person (note: it can take weeks to issue a Polish marriage certificate). But since you apply for an ID and a passport through the embassy (I'm guessing), they should be able to recognize your US marriage certificate and name change. If they don't, just tell them a document stating the name change does not exist and obtaining it in Poland can be done only in person (which they should know).

I'm not an expert on dealing with embassies (only bad experieces with getting a Polish visa for my husband), but if you have any questions or problems about getting things in Poland, I'm eager to help.

Oh, and the Apostille was not necessary. We got it too, but nobody knew what it was here.