SuperDuper!

The money spent on any lawyer, who will tell you the same thing we're all telling you, but for a fee, would be better spent on booking a plane ticket.

If you don't want truthful answers stop asking questions

One thing that I have learned on VJ is that in many cases the best, and most helpful answers are also the harsh, straightforward and blunt answers. Sugarcoating doesn't help anyone.
Remember this: It's not us you're trying to convince, it's the IO who has complete authority to approve or deny your case, and thus decide your fate. If a VJ member plays devil's advocate, it's to prepare you for a worst case scenario.

OP, I'll be really blunt, with only one "evidence", THE CONSULAR OFFICERS WILL BE MUCH WORSE THAN EVERYONE ON VJ IS. People here are trying to HELP you. You can totally go to the interview with one piece of evidence, when the 221g comes around, don't say no one told you to bring more evidence.

Dear Freedove7,
People rushed to help you, they spent time writing you tips, and asking you leading questions. You came here for answers, and you got them.
If you have 10 pictures that show you together on important events, that is great.
Also, adding you to the bank account is not a bad idea, it will be easier as a family to keep track of your money, and budget wisely.
Do you feel uncomfortable talking to an Immigration Officer, who has suspicions, about your marriage?
Nobody is here to judge you, and please do not rush into judging others.
Good luck on your journey, and please click reply, instead of creating new threads.

What this boils down to is that you want us, and more importantly (because what we think truly doesn't matter one bit), the USCIS offical you'll be interviewing with to take your word for it that your marriage is real and you intend to live life as a married couple from here on. Whether you like it or not, the USCIS employee is probably going into this interview thinking your marriage is for immigration purposes, and it's up to you to prove it's not.
Let me make that clear: The burden of proof is on you to prove your marriage is genuine, not on the USCIS offical to prove it's not.
So, given that statement, based on what we've been able to gather in your other posts, you'll be walking into an interview under the following conditions:
- Very few photos of you and your husband together (you yourself said there are maybe 3)
- No photos of your son and your husband together
- Husband didn't file taxes for a year
- Husband can't really prove he's working now
- Husband can't locate his birth certificate
- There are NO documents (financial, legal, lease, or otherwise) with both your names on it
Every single person on this forum is telling you that you have some real obstacles to overcome given all this information, and they said so based on your request for their advice. You are posting on a forum with people going through the same 'journey' you are, so you aren't going to find another group of people anywhere that are more sympathetic to your cause.
Do you think the USCIS office is going to be more or less sympathetic to you? If you answered 'less', you win the grand prize. People here are trying hard to help you. Don't complain because their advice isn't what you want to hear.
Just like others have said, good luck.

Dear Freedove,
What is upsetting is the format in which you are replying. If it was your intent to want people ot understand what you are talking about , you should quote the information or responsed regarding your subject response. I for one have not seen your previous posts nor the responses and do do not know what situation you are talking about. Visa Journey is a free, open website and a resource where people can converse about this immigration journies and get information and help on lots of issues relating to immigration. So when you post something on a forum or board you can expect to get answers and or comments to your posts. Some of them you must screen and rate the value of the information that has been given. And some posts might be derogitory or not what you really want to hear. There are lot's of reasons the resposes might not be helpful. But for the most part I personally find this site to be very helpful, thougthful, understanding well run, probably one of the best resources on the web that could help someone understand their process to a journey to the US and all that is encountered during that journey. I count the members here as my friends, my family and welcome their advice, outlooks and life stories in order to help fulfill my existance and make life more meaningful. That being said, I think it is up to wvery individual to be intelligent enough to know which responses that are given will help you, and consider all the information that is given before taking any possible action. You are ulitmately responsibe for your own destination and the route your jouney takes you, cafefully consider all input and make the correct choices based on your situation. We are only people and people make mistakes, I consider myslef lucky to have a bunch of people on this site you truly care and want the best for everyone.
I hope that you understand and take the good with the bad and carefully consider information from the responses that are given, good luck on your journey and I hope you continue to find Visa Journey a source of inspriation and a resource to help you arrive to your destination.
B. Franklin
quote name='Freedove7' timestamp='1339682211' post='5448916']
To have the audacity to question my marriage is very upsetting and that is what some of you guys did in my previous post.Who in their right mind would think a 10 year relationship with a guy I met as a teenager isnt real? We have pics we took at my high school graduation! I got married at 20 and got pregnant soon after.We filed 10 years after being together and 5 yrs after getting married while some people who supposedly fell in love filed weeks or months after getting married.I wonder if the people who were bashing me in my previous posts entered their marriage in good faith and not to evade immigration laws.How dare some of you say that I dont sound convincing?? Because I dont have 100 fake photos? Its so easy to fake a smile or a kiss in photos.I bet the fake marriages have the most photos ! When my husband opened his bank accounts,I did not have a legal status nor a social so how on earth could I have been added? He no longer owns an account anyhow.The same with the utility bills.only one name goes on the account.Again,he has bad credit so we have separate finances.I dont want my credit to get ruined aswell! My marriage is fake because we arent financially stable enough to take vacations?? I should not have wasted time writting this post and should have just laughed at the uneducated,ridiculous remarks,but Its just so upsetting that some of you have the nerve to bash me about my marriage who anyone in their right mind wouldnt question if its "real" or bona fide.

I just read back through all of your many threads on this topic, and all I saw was people being unfailingly helpful in trying to point out potential issues that may arise with the evidence you are planning to present in support of your case. I'm guessing this latest tirade from you is probably going to quash that helpfulness pretty effectively, though. Maybe it's time to take a breather from Teh Internetz if you're getting this worked up about what total strangers say to you in an online forum?
Remember, though: no matter how well or how badly you do at convincing people on VJ of whatever you are trying to prove, it won't make a whit of difference in your immigration process what people at VJ think.
All that matters is the evidence. No, it doesn't feel good to live your life being constantly aware of the necessity of creating evidence along the way for future immigration processes, but it's part of the reality of being in an international relationship, and most of us are used to it by now (or getting there).

I never questioned whether or not your marriage was real....ever...i gave you suggestions as to what evidence to bring to the interview and you became defensive. I was trying to help and it fell on deaf ears. You asked for advice. And most of the others were not questioning your marriage, they were trying to help as well. You now have a SS number and it is very easy at this point to be added to your husbands bank accounts.Adding you to his accounts does not give you bad credit. Please don;t go to your interview with the attitude that you deserve a visa, because it is on you to prove to the USCIS that you have an ongoing relationship, merely having a baby does not prove this. Take pictures now, you have time before the interview, it takes an hour at Walmart to have pictures developed. Gather all the evidence you can, it really is in your best interest. Lashing out at the people who are trying to help doesn;t do anyone any good. I wish you the best and good luck.

Congrats on surviving the Stokes Interrogation. Is it true it looks like this?

Filipino have colonial mentality and doesn't care about the quality as long its branded, as its more pleasing to the eyes of other Filipino.
And please don't get me wrong, but most of the Americans that can afford to be generous with their wife are in their 40's+ because they don't have so much mortgage, lower insurance, paid off cars and of course, been working for so long that the salary been high enough. But if you're between 25 and 35, you just bought a house/paying rent that goes up every term, higher insurance, car loan and of course you are starting in lower position, so your salary is enough to cover household expenses.

Why would you think they have to return to their country?
The K1 was created primarily because the process for foreigners getting married in some countries is difficult and time consuming. In some cases, it's nearly impossible to marry in the beneficiary's home country if the couple aren't the same religion. The K1 makes it possible for the beneficiary to come to the US, marry the US citizen petitioner, and then apply for a green card.
Another advantage of the K1 is that it allows for derivative K2 visas for the beneficiary's children up until they are 21 years old. A spousal visa doesn't allow for any derivative visas - each child would need a separate petition, and they're only eligible if the US citizen step-parent married the children's parent before they were 18.

There are lots of American women who are treated as badly by their American husbands. If the fact that you are a foreigner had anything to do with it then you probably wouldn't have a green card. Your husband is a jerk because he's not a good person. It's not because he's American, and it's not because you're a foreigner. Divorce him and move on with your life. If you have sufficient evidence that you entered the marriage in good faith then you can remove conditions and get a 10 year green card on your own.

Definitely time to lawyer up.
There is obviously something seriously remiss.

Your best bet for getting your husband a visa is to demonstrate that he will be coming back. The best way to do that in a situation where a Filipino is married to an American is to show that the U.S. citizen part of the couple is permanently based in the Philippines (ACR cards are good for that).
R visas require a petition and the type of activities you must be doing are very specific. visiting family and friends and doing fund raising by speaking to various church groups would be a tough sell.
Another hurdle religious folks tend to have is financial because they don't make very much money. There's not much that can be done about that.
Good luck with your interview.

I send 400.00 a month. 150.00 for her mom and 300.00 for her daughters.

That is the Filipino culture. Tyey raise their children, sacrifice for their education all the way through college and the children put back into the household when they get a job. It is unreasonable for you to think that a person marrying a Filipina should not do anything for the family. We are taking one of their bread winners from them that they have sacrificed a lot for. A set amount should be agreed upon with no miscellaneous expenses popping up on a frequent basis. Yes the Filipina wife could work and send money home to help her family since she can make a lot more here in the U.S. even working at a fast food chain, but should also contibute to her household here in the U.S.. When you make statements, just be aware that their culture may be different form yours. I wan to marry a Filipina and I know what comes with it. I didn't go into it with my eyes closed.
Now as how much I send to my Fiancée and her family, it is $330.00 a month. That is because I choose to give her and her family a support allowance of $250.00 a month and the rest is for internet and cable TV that I offered to pay for. She or her family have never approached me and asked me for any money. I make a good salary, got a 12% salary increase for my recent promotion in August 2011, so what I send does not hurt me. I was blessed with a good promotion and it came at the right time for a reason. What I send to her and her family is a small price to pay for my happiness and her peace of mind that I love and care for her family and they are taken care of. When she comes to the U.S. and we marry, she will not work as we are trying to have children soon and I informed her that she did not have to work and I would send the allowance to her family. My fiancée’s family is not lazy. Her father is a police officer who will retire in the next two years and makes roughly 17,000PHP, which is roughly $405.00 a month. She has four younger siblings, an older sister and her mother doesn't work because she is raising the children while papa is at work and they are responsible for paying on her and her sister’s student loans and board certification for her older sisters accounting tests that she had to take 3 times before finally passing and the ongoing education expenses for her younger siblings. The average working Filipino is lucky to make 400PHP ($8.00 USD) a day. So I don't have a problem with my financial responsibility if it will help support her family and make their life a little easier. Living in the Philippines for most Filipinos who are not educated or do not have skill sets to get a good paying job, is very hard. Some families are lucky just to have rice, small bananas and salted fish to eat to stay alive. Now granted some families will take advantage when their daughter is married to a foreigner because they look at us be rich. Most of us aren't but we have a better lifestyle than most Filipinos who are poor. One thing I will say in conclusion is that even though a lot of Filipino families are poor, they are happy with what they have and would even offer you the last food they have if you visited them. I am proud that my wife is Filipina, I love her family and I will retire in the Philippines as soon as I reach retirement age. I guess I just love the Philippines, their culture and family values. I am american, but I consider mysely pinoy also. Just my two cents worth.

Be careful of the bolded statement above. You MUST file for removal of conditions before your two year green card expires. If you don't then your permanent resident status will automatically be revoked, and they can start removal proceedings against you.
If you are within months of your conditional green card expiring then it's highly unlikely you'll have a divorce final before your conditional green card expires. If your wife is determined to make things difficult for you then I can guarantee you won't have the divorce final in time. She can drag the divorce process out for years, if she's determined to do so. My previous wife turned what should have been a simple divorce into a five year nightmare.
You MUST file the I-751 before your conditional green card expires, even if your divorce isn't final yet. Just fill out the form as if you were self-petitioning based on divorce, include a letter explaining that your divorce hasn't been finalized yet, and include all of the other evidence you would normally include to prove you entered the marriage in good faith. A USCIS immigration officer won't get around to looking at your I-751 for several months. When they do then they'll see you didn't include the divorce decree and they'll issue an RFE for it. They'll usually give you 12 weeks to respond to that RFE. If you get the divorce decree before the RFE window expires then send it in. If you don't then respond before the 12 weeks has expired that your divorce is still pending. At this point, the immigration officer can start removal proceedings, and you'll eventually be scheduled for a master hearing in immigration court. Go to the master hearing and bring whatever documents you have so far related to the divorce. Ask the judge for a stay while you wait out the divorce. The judge will almost always grant the stay.
In other words, you can delay the process until you get the divorce decree, but ONLY if you follow the rules and file everything when you're supposed to file it, or respond to any requests when you're supposed to respond to them. If you do anything that isn't "timely" then that could blow everything for you.

Why not leave early and avoid the rush?

Why not leave early and avoid the rush?

It just goes to show that in some circumstances, it STILL is a man's world. It's ok for a 50 year old man to marry a 22 year old woman and everyone give him a pat on the back. But when a woman does it,the thinking is that she is being used and he just needs a meal ticket. I wish people would just open their eyes and realize love comes in all shapes, sizes, and ages.

The senior members here are aware of this apparent loophole in the regulations but we are also aware that such waivers are almost never granted. There is no strict and long-established custom in Pakistan where the bride and groom are actually prohibited from meeting prior to the wedding day. Such customs are extremely rare and obscure. In cases where they DO exist the couple has to do a lot more than present a few "convincing reasons" for not meeting. They must ACTUALLY establish that any and all other aspects of the traditional arrangements have been or will be met in accordance with the custom or practice they claim applies to them.
Travel to Pakistan is not an issue. To take the hardship route, the couple must demonstrate that they've made every effort to meet in any country to which they both could reasonably arrange travel. (The UAE is good example.)
None of the above applies to this couple. My advice is that the go ahead and presume their petition will be denied and either make the necessary arrangements to meet in person before filing again, or face the fact that without meeting, they will not be together in the USA.

It's human to do so, thatz why. I just saw a bumper sticker that confirms it, which reads:
"How come there is always time and money to do things right the second time, and not right the first time?"
I feel that if we could answer this question accurately, we could all be billionaires.