misswhy

why attorney when you can do it your self? unless you or your fiance(e) has so much money to waist you don't need an attorney, unless your case is complicated.

no, neither one of us has money to waste, or wants to waste money.. and should not have any real complications that i can think of right now. since i am going into this without knowing much about it, it's good to hear from people who have done this on their own and can help walk me through. this gives me a good idea that maybe i can do this on my own.

thanks for your comment..

If your case doesn't have anything crazy involved with it then I suggest NOT to get an attorney. I know a lot of people that have gotten attorneys' for no reason, people that have not helped their case and in fact somewhat hurt their case (because they would stretch things out for the money)... (not to say that there aren't some people that have chosen to go the attorney route and are satisfied, but it was not something I saw necessary for myself) This site will help a lot with the applications and forms and proofs that you should provide. And in response to your question on another thread... granted your case isn't put on administrative processing (AP background checks) and granted you provide everything correctly and on time, the average processing time for a K1 visa is now 5 months. When I was applying for my husband, it was averaging at 6 months, and that's about as long as it took (I was a bit slow at the NVC stage). Every case is different though. 5 months is not a definite number, it's an average... for MOST people. Exceptions always exist. By the way, welcome!!!! Let me know if there's anything I can help with!

Good luck,

~M

yeah.. I get what you mean. The more I read about on this site, the more it makes sense to keep the attorneys out of it unless it becomes a real problem. i think for me, one of the most important things i'm trying to figure out is what kind of plan to come up with since he has 14 months of his stupid military obligation. i don't want to do things too soon if he can't exit the country for a while anyway, but i don't want to waste time either... ugh. thanks so much for the info - you have been most helpful!

Going to be completely honest with OP, looking at the pic from your profile you do not look your age at all. I am 40 also and you look older than my mom. That DOES NOT give the CO the right to deny based on age though - NOT AT ALL. As others have said, contact Mark Ellis.

WhidbeyGirl, why would you kick a person when the are down?

I was thinking the same thing - that was absolutely awful.

I really hate it when people rush to judge. If he wants her, and she wants him, that's their business. Just because one person thinks they may not "look right" together, does that mean that they don't deserved to be loved, or deserve to choose?

call the embassy! make sure your case stays there...is there any way you can go out there? i guess also find out if it's been denied for sure...did they take his passport?

I have emailed them. They wont answer calls. I know from trying to get info about the interview. First she told him she was sending it back to the processing center, then she told him she was denying it, so I have no idea. He got a 221 form but there is no reason on it... should there be?

When I emailed, I said I felt we had been discriminated against based solely on my appearance because thats what she kept talking about was how old I looked and asked very little about us and talked about how handsome he was.

I asked for appeal. I hope that was the right thing.

please come back with any updates so we know the outcome.. that is so sad and unfair.

I am here to learn how the whole K-1 process gets done.. for if and when I get there.. just want to know what to expect. So far, what information I've seen from the experiences of others has been informative.

However, I've heard of people hiring attorneys or a "visa service".. although I'm not quite sure what either of these are supposed to provide that the person of average intelligence can't do on their own.

I wondered if anyone has had good results with these, of if there is any true benefit to using them at all?

So this is halfway a rant, and halfway a solicitation for advice. Here's my situation.

Back in June, right when I got back from Iran, I tried to get my wife's case expedited because of the situation there. It was very dangerous for a while. The request was immediately denied. (What a great way to start my visa journey, right?) But luckily the situation in Iran settled down, so I was no longer concerned for her safety.

During the month of July I took steps to apply for exemption from military service in Iran. (I was born in the US but am considered an Iranian citizen by the Islamic Republic.) According to their laws, I am exempt, being that I am my father's only son, a student, and he is over 60. The Iranian interests section of the Pakistani embassy assured me there would be no problem.

Unfortunately, this turned out not to be the case. To make a long story short, I am now unsure if I can ever enter Iran again--they told me (and the person who had power of attorney for me) that if I tried to enter the country again I would be arrested, unless I paid them $5000. As you can imagine, this was very upsetting to me. I am attempting to sort that situation out, since the bulk of my family and all of my wife's family are in Iran.

So, with this new development, I decided to contact my Senator's office. On my privacy release form I explained everything above, and then EXPLICITLY STATED that I wanted no action taken on my case until I had a chance to speak with them directly. The reason for this is that I had no idea if my situation mattered to USCIS--and if it did not, if this sort of thing was not grounds for expedition or special consideration, then I didn't want to apply for expedition again only to be denied. To put it bluntly, I didn't want to piss someone off and complicate my wife's I-130 processing.

So after sending the privacy release form and dropping off some additional documentation at the Senator's office (again making sure to emphasize that someone call me prior to doing anything), I waited to receive a phone call. Instead, on August 6th, I received a letter from the Senator's office stating that they sent a letter on my behalf to USCIS. I called the case worker and asked him what had happened. He replied that he'd sent a letter to USCIS "for more information," and that we would hear back in 30-40 business days. I told him I was worried because I did not want to do anything to jeopardize my wife's petition, and he assured me everything would be fine.

Today I received a letter from USCIS stating that my request for expedition had been "carefully reviewed" and summarily denied. Imagine my delight.

So, it's Saturday, and I can't call anyone. But I'm really not sure what to do. First and foremost, I am terrified that I'm pissing USCIS off and they're going to drag out my wife's petition as a result. Second, I'm furious with the Senator's office for doing exactly what I told them NOT to do. And finally, I'm frustrated with USCIS because there is absolutely no guidance on what DOES qualify for expedition, or how to assemble a compelling case for it, unless you're a service member. "Extreme emergent or humanitarian situation" has no qualifiers or examples, or guidelines on what to do when applying. I didn't think I qualified for expedition in the first case, which is why I went to my Senator's office, because I assumed the case worker there could speak with someone at USCIS for roughly 5 minutes and get a straight answer.

That's the end of the rant. I guess now I ask for advice? I'm going to call my Senator's office on Monday and express my extreme dissatisfaction with them, and then I want to call USCIS and find out exactly what happened to my wife's case. Do any of you have any better ideas? All I wanted to do was sit down with a case worker and see what they thought. I figured, since they do this sort of thing so often, they might have a good idea of what I should do. I now have 2 denied requests for expedition on my wife's case. I can't help but think someone in USCIS is going to look at my case and think I'm some kind of maniac.

Anyhow, thanks for reading.

I don't think they will delay it if you piss them off, but I know someone who had a difficult time with this being very slow, and her congressman's office contacted them and it seemed to help.. I guess it brought attention to her file that had likely been backlogged or delayed for whatever reason, and it got brought back to the top of the pile I assume..good luck with everything.

Regardless of whether you're actually exempt from the military service or not in Iran, if you are a citizen of another country, (even if you also have an Iranian passport) and male, you are allowed I believe one entrance per year with a stay of up to 3 or 6 months (don't quote me on the months) in Iran, without any issues. And with the exemption, you are allowed exemption if you are your fathers only son and he's over 60, but I don't believe its free exemption... bayad bekhari. You're allowed to buy yourself out of service was my understanding under such circumstances. There was a period of time in which everyone could buy themselves out of service, but now it's only under certain conditions. But regardless, I believe you're still good to go to Iran as long as you have a stamp in your Iranian passport (mohre khorooj) which is given to all those with dual citizenship. So ask them about that, and check your passport and you should be fine. Also, did you try and get this done in Iran or through the embassy here? Because you are a US citizen, the best thing to do is work out all the stuff here, not in Iran...you can find the forms and guidelines for all this stuff on their website, www.daftar.org.

About your wife's case. I noticed that you received your NOA1 back in June, I waited about 3 months before my case was approved, you're almost there, so don't worry about anything! You should get an approval soon! In the time remaining the best thing to do is gather all the info you'll need for the NVC stage (see VJ wiki guides) so that you'll fly through NVC. Processing times for the whole visa thing now is 5 months total! Back when I applied it was 6 months. Look at the bright side of things, your case is still in the right place within the right time limit. Fill out the I864, the DS230, gather the proofs you'll need--you'll need to get some documents from your wife, some signed by your wife... so if you want things to go faster, best thing to do is gather those items. Good luck with everything, and stay strong, you're close.

Good luck!

~M

Is it really about 5 or 6 months in total for everything - assuming you don't delay in getting your documents in to them?