Alan-and-Ira

Get your case # from your lawers (or even the USCIS case # would be enough) - and your will be able to track your case status on the NVC's AVR system over the phone. Phone # is +1(603)3340700, available 24/7 - just listen to the options in menu. Best wishes!

P.S. NVC stage took us more than 60 days, but we blame only ourselves - we had not prepared our financial papers.

Should we do it ourselves or hire a lawyer?

My fiancee and are are just beginning the "visa journey" and are trying to decide if we should hire an attorney to assist with the K1 visa process.

What are other people's experiences? The K1 is already so expensive. We'd like to keep down the cost. But, we also want to make sure that we are approved.

Thanks in advance for your advice.

VisaJourney is a perfect DIY site, but, please, do consider all the options Darnell mentioned in the Post #2. Every case is different, and only you two can decide on what is the best for your visa process. Best wishes!

If she is in the states on a VWP when we receive the K-1 visa, I imagine she would have to go back to her country and re-enter with the new visa?

Yes, correct. She would have to go back to her country for the fiancee visa interview, and then re-enter on K1 visa. Best wishes!

• We were hoping to have the visa before Christmas, as we've already booked a flight. After speaking with a few attorneys, it appears this most likely won't happen if I file in September. That being said, would my fiancé be allowed to come into the States on the Visa Waiver Program for Christmas?

More likely it will take you from 6-8 months or longer. Our K1 filed in 12/2007 took us almost 14 months from the filing date till the time of the interview (after that the Consulate returned our I-129F back to USCIS for 'further review and possible revokation' on 221(g)). My personal advice is: do not book the tickets until the visa in hand.

• Is it possible to file for the adjustment of status at the same time as the K-1 visa? Or must I wait until we are married?

Read the I-129F instructions... It seems you missed a lot, not only the payment details.

And, as the previous poster mentioned, make a copy of everything you send to USCIS, including the I-129F and G-325A forms.

IMO it's better to be overloaded with proofing papers and never be asked to show anything than to miss something at the time of the interview...

Have an easy interview! Best wishes!

Congratulations!!!! Happy anniversary!

Congratulations, and just enjoy your life!

The old form had four pages of the same stuff... For now you have to print just one page four times. Am I right, folks? Please, correct me who knows.

No matter who is on this site - the petitioners or the beneficiaries of the petitions, but we all give each other great support and encouragement. A big thank to everyone whose post I came across when preparing our papers... We all make this community a great place! God Bless us all!

Hi, I am the Beneficiary of our petition; with the help of VJ and VJrs doing all kind of paperwork for our visa process. Best wishes to everyone here!

Congratulations on your marriage! We do wish you a lot of God's Blessings and many-many happy years of living TOGETHER!!!

CONGRATS!

If you look at our timeline, we also got a K1 denial for 221(g) - still have not been given an afficial reason. After getting married, we are currently between the NVC and Consulate stage awaiting on our interview e-mail from NVC. Till today we have been doing everything ourselves - which this site it a perfect place to do - DIY! Everyone here, all the posts and comments were extremely helpful, and we do appreciate every single piece of advice we got here! An attorney would be helpful if something goes wrong, but untill then (if it ever happens!) you can perfectly file on your own, having previously learned a lesson from your K1 denial! Best wishes on your VJ and God Bless us all!

P.S. When we found out that the attorney was going to charge $2500 just for filing, and then additional $100 for each RFE, we decided to do it ourselves and spend that money on an extra good vacation together!

We feel so sorry for you! We have near been in your shoes! Well, at least you have an option of getting married and filing I-130 after you find the reson for 221(g)!

Alan-and-Ira, Good luck to your upcoming interview! You are almost done :dance:

Loto

Thank you Loto! We have not got our date yet, but we do hope and pray for it!

Thank you for your support! Your immigration jokes were really the best ones!

We provided our PO Box US address in our forms in the attachments, like: Q.## residence address: ***; Mailing address: *** PO Box***, and now we get all the correspondence from USCIS to that PO Box. Best wishes!

Just have her to fill and sign G-325A form.

I really need to chill about putting this package together...however, couple of trivial (or maybe not) questions.

1) Do I have to include original witness affidavits attesting to the relationship or can I send copies? I'm afraid USCIS will lose them or something and then I'll just be left with copies. But if they need the originals, that's what I'll send.

2) How did you experienced folks organizing your I-130 package? I've got several sections of evidence compiled, but it seems I should staple them together in separate sections so it doesn't get all scattered when USCIS starts ruffling through it. Did you I-130 veterans use staples or paper clips to hold related stuff together? Or did you just stack it all up and put it in the big envelope loose?

Sorry, if these seem like dumb questions. I've gone over this stuff 200 times and I still keep thinking of things and finding things to fix. This stuff puts filing taxes to shame.

We included the notarised copies of the affidavits with the English translations (originals we are going to bring to the interview!). For organizing the package we used the plastic folder where we put all our evedence in sections to separated plastic files (like this: Link). The total weight of the package was about 6 lbs! And we made it well through both the USCIS and NVC. :-) The best of wishes!

Hello here, We just got our CC @ NVC, so we figure out that our interview will more likely be in October. Right now we are waiting on the NVC to send us an e-mail with that date. Best wishes to everyone in this thread!

Loto, here is a new day and we do hope you decided to stay... Hey, guy, don't leave, please... We all need you here!

We also got our SIF today, so, congratulations! And now everything depends on the consulate and their available dates. Best wishes!

LotO, please, don't leave... We all need you! Hey, guy, think one more time... Please!..

Congratulations!!!!

Thanks to you ALL!!! Without this wonderful site we could not have proceeded in such a confident manner, due to all the shared people's experiences at this site! We are so grateful and thankful for everyone here! For now it is just one more step to go, and we hope with God's help we will be together soon!

We got SIF today while signing to the NVC online payment portal. The operator later told us on the phone that our case was completed today! Thank You LORD for answered prayers!!!

We had the same issue with our I-129F petition In February 2009, when it was returned to USCIS the very next day after my interview 'for further review and possible revocation'. We filed a FOIA request for the dinial reason after that, for which we just got "no records on your case' respond 8 months later. Having understood that it was going nowhere, we got married in Ukraine in July 2009 and filed I-130 for CR1 visa in November, and sure we did make a reference to the previous petition in our new one! So, to cut a long story short, we never received a notice of revocation on our I-129F, as well as no NOID with I-130 (thank God!), insted one week before the I-130 approval at CSC, we got a notice of closure for our first petition due to the... term expiration! The letter was dated April 2010 (one year after USCIS received the returned petition!), and as you see, no actions had need made on it. On USCIS website our oficially closed I-129F is still "received and waiting to be reviewed". P.S. According to the site updated, the VSC received our returned I-129F exactly on its expiration date (2009 March 17th)!