Sugarcane6321

yes an actual signature is required.

Also, let me interject with my usual ask an attorney advice. It may not be in the best interest of your case to go live in India with your husband if you are trying to prove on the hardship that you cannot live in his country. Something to think about... ask a lawyer.

Ok sure, I will ask him today when I go at 4:30pm. At some point I need to get to India and at least let him and his family see the baby. Whether it is perceived as living or vacation, well that's another story right.

Thank you again

Boiler, thanks for the laugh.

Sugar, I do feel sympathy for your situation. It sounds like a good idea to take the babe to India to wait out the process if you can. Keep in mind that FMLA is only good for 12 weeks. Newborns generally can fly 2 weeks after birth, sooner if approved by their pediatrician.

The CR1 wait is generally a little longer than the K1 wait, so if I were you, I'd send off the initial package ASAP. If the process turns out faster than you expected, there are many points in the process that you can delay. Everyone is right about the K3--if you apply for it, the NVC will just convert it to a CR1, so it's just extra paperwork that will be thrown out.

Congratulations on your pregnancy

Thanks a lot. I was originally looking for a new place to move into, so that when the baby is born he or she will have a nursery, etc. My place now is too small for a baby. My plan has changed. I will stay in this place until the baby is born. My mom is planning on coming to Oregon for for one or two weeks after the baby is born. Since all of my family is in Southern California, all I will have is friends here. I don't think it is best use of time to stay here if my husband will not be here with me. So definitely, I am planning on spending time in India after the baby is born. I am saving up my PTO and I can take longer than 12 weeks if needed by going on Short term disability. If I do that I would receive 75% of my regular pay.

I am getting the CR1 out in a week, only a couple of worries around getting my husband's signature. When we filed for the K1 I had completed the form and emailed to him. then he printed it out and signed everything and sent it back to me by mail. Obviously now we don't have time for this so do you have any ideas? An actual signature (non electronic or scanned) is required yes?

Thank you for your help.

The plus side of this is the time your husband and his family will have with your child that they might have otherwise missed. I can tell you without a doubt, it was worth every hardship, and I'd to it again in a heartbeat. It also really strengthened my relationship with my husband to live in his culture and understand better where he comes from.

If situation in Srinagar is not better by the birth then I will go to Delhi. My husband will start work there soon and he says he will have everything set up for me and the baby. I don't think that putting myself, or the baby, in harms way would be a good idea. Even he is leaving Kashmir this week because of the strikes and curfews there. He will again leave his family behind, but it is for good purpose...to go for work.

Trust me when I say that you will not get an expedite for having a normal, healthy pregnancy. I was also pregnant during the visa process, and there's nothing you can do to speed it up. I was faced with the same issue as you, a newborn baby with no help from family and no father physically present to help me. What I chose to do was get temporary cash assistance (welfare), food stamps, WIC, and housing assistance from social services for 3 months, until my daughter was old enough to travel, and then I went overseas and temporarily stayed with my child's father and his family until he was able to get his visa and join me in the States. I don't know if this is an option for you, people's monetary situations differ greatly, and I had a healthy child, so I wasn't overly concerned with the healthcare issue (though I hear healthcare in the big cities in India is not bad, if you can afford to pay for it). I just wanted to share my story with you, because I understand how you're feeling right now, and you do have options, although the choices are tough ones. Good luck to you and your family.

Sarah

Thank you Sarah. I have thought about going to India and staying there until he can get the interview and visa. I know he will not be present for the birth, but the plan is to work up until my ninth month and have the baby. Once it is safe to fly (for the both of us) we can go to India. Of course, I would have to take an extended leave of absence under the family medical leave act. This would be unpaid time off. My husband is working to get a job now in India. If he can get a good one, and I can continue to save money, then me and the baby should be able to be there with no issues. I do hope this process will be a smooth one. It is great to have the VJ family here giving positive reinforcement, advice, etc.

My husband is from Kashmir. Although situation there is not good right now, I don't know if it will be months from now. My husband is looking for work in Delhi at the moment. So we will be in a fairly big city. It's crazy, we always planned on returning to India to live there for a couple of years so I could have the experience of teaching there and so we could also be closer to his family. I never thought it would happen like this.

Thanks again for your advice.

The K3 is "dead". There was a post months and months ago about it so I have no idea where I could find the info on it now, I just know that if you apply for a K3, they will convert it to a CR-1. It's likely your attorney (as others have said) just isn't in the loop so it's good you're finding someone else.

The other thing I wanted to mention was the "single mother" comment. What the person who wrote that PROBABLY meant (what i read it to mean) was that the reason your expedite wouldn't be approved simply by not having your husband around is because women who have no husbands (hence single mothers) are doing it every day.. making you no different to them. What you need to prove is how your situation is different to any other "single woman".

Anyway I'm very sorry you're going through this. Lots of good thoughts your way.

Thank you. I really appreciate your response. I am working on the CR1 paperwork now and trying to stay positive.

You are not getting mixed replies, every reply that I have seen says CR1.

The Lawyer you implied does not do family immigration and may be out of date.

Do not forget the I601, I would second www.immigrate2us.net as being the forum for waivers.

I have not seen pregnancy in itself being able to be used as an expedite, the ones you mentioned probably had complications. If it was that easy, it would be a sticky and cause lots of comment.

Yes thank you. VJ is definitely saying CR1. I haven't questioned that. Only I became confused when my attorney suggested K3. I am not in talks with her anymore after today. I am working on getting a new immigration attorney, one closer to home. The I2US forum has a lot of good info about the I601 and I am just reading up on everything. Waiting for the mod to approve my registration. Thank you again.

There is another forum at immigrate2us.net that carries a lot of waiver information. There is little you can do to make things move faster. A normal pregnancy has never been a reason to expedite the visa process. It usually takes about a year to process a family based petition from start to finish and you will have to pay all the fees involved with the CR1.

Thanks a lot

You likely wont be getting any new answers because there is only one answer that has been given to you. File the CR-1.

Having a baby isnt going to get you an expedite, single mothers around the world have babys alone all the time.

I understand that. What I don't understand is the mixed replies I am getting. Here people are saying to do the CR1 and my attorney told me to do the K3. I will start the process and I am NOT looking for any new answers in regards to what Visa to file. I was told to come to this forum to get specific answers about the waiver, which is the one question I had. While I appreciate everyone's replies my question is still not being answered.

In regards to your reply about having a baby not qualifying for an expedite...there was two cases I have found so far when the expedite did occur due to pregnancy. Thankfully I kept researching. And for your information I am not a single mother.

Hello,

I received a lot of advice in the K1 forum. This was the VISA we had originally applied for. He arrived on Dec 25, 2009. We were married on Feb 14, 2010. No AOS was filed. I know this should have been priority, but lots happened that prevented it. Please spare me the scolding. Point is now I am 4 months pregnant. Husband is back in India as his fathers health was really bad. We never filed and now there is a 3 year ban on him returning.

The question I have is what waiver can be filed along with a new VISA to get him back here to the States. I talked to an attorney today who told me we should go for K3, but everyone in the K1 forum was saying K3 is dead and we should be looking at CR1. I am in the process of looking up a local immigration attorney, as the one I consulted was through a legal network via my job. While she did assist with the K1 process, she wasn't that helpful today.

I am not sure what I will do after the baby is born, as all my family is 1000+ miles away from me. I need my husband here to help with the care of our child. I don't know if this would constitute an emergency or not. Any help, ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated at this point.

Thanks a lot,

Margarita

I'm so happy for the two of you! I hope Zahid and I can come to WI sometime to see you!

I should mention at this point again that the embassy was quite helpful in all this process. It was very hard to get hold of them but once I did, between them and the VFS, they had all the answers to my questions.

So yeah I contacted them to set my interview up and they set up the interview for Oct 15th. The interview was relatively easy. The interviewer asked me -

How long have you known each other? What's her favorite icecream? Why don't you want a wedding ceremony in India? (Her parents live in the US so that was easy to answer.) What does she do? Where does she live? What do you do? How long have you been in the US? Where do your parents live? It was very straightforward because we had a lot of history. He asked for pics and I had plenty, he skimmed through all of them but barely looked at them. He explained that everything was good but they'd have to give a 221g because they needed two more documents. One was the original of a statement of support from her (Since she's still a student we didn't get one from her, only from her father who can actually support me. The interviewer said that it didn't matter even if she didn't have a job, they just need the form.) The other was a PCC from the passport office. I explained that I couldn't get a PCC and that's why I got the FBI clearance. They said that that took care of the police station PCC, now they want the passport office PCC which shouldn't be a problem since the certificate is from the national office and it shouldn't matter where I have lived. They were quite wrong about that it didn't matter where I lived but I didn't say anything.

I went back to Hyderabad and started the PCC process. It wasn't easy and I wish I could say I didn't have to bribe anyone. But almost 45 days after applying we got the PCC as well. I sent it to the Delhi embassy and less than a week after I gave the documents to the VFS office, I had my visa in my hand!

The visa is stamped in the passport and I also got a packet that says "DO NOT OPEN". This will be opened at immigration in the US.

That was my epic struggle to get the visa. Please contact me if you have any questions or if you need any clarifications on my process. I'd be more than happy to help. I certainly haven't had the hardest struggle of all the stories I've read, but then again, it wasn't a straightforward process either. All I can offer to those that are haven't had an easy path is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. All the best.

Congratulations on getting your Visa and the upcoming reunion. My fiance also just got his on the 17th and we will be reunited in less than one week!

As far as the Embassy goes, I didn't have too much luck with them at all. Out of four emails I sent them they responded to one. They actually did better with my fiance though.

I can't believe the PCC process took 45 days. Zahid had his in one weeks time. Anyways, I am glad everything worked out for you!

VISA APPROVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had my interview on 2nd Dec, and the CO just asked 3 question and that's it ,OMG i just cant believe this , i was expecting tons of questions but everything went sooo well...

Thank you everyone for your support and VJ really helped me alot in this long journey...thank you thank you thank you!

Wishing Best for Everyone!!....

Mohan

Yay! Congrats!

Hi everyone, My fiancee Erma had her interview this morning in Manila and was approved!!!! I thank GOD so much for helping us through this process but I also want to say thanks to everyone who has answered questions for me here at visa journey. Thank you all so much!!!

James

Congratulations!!!

Hi all

Does the I 134 needs to be notarised?

Thank you in Advance

No, but more importantly, your question indicates you did not carefully read the instructions for the I-134. Doing so with all forms is going to be critical to your eventual success.

Well I can say that from just having to deal with this same issue it wasn't that I did not read the instructions but that the embassy at Moscow states on their website that the I-134 form must be notarized and from my understanding the embassy rules trumps all. Upon further investigation I found out from the embassy that the form does not have to be notarized and that the embassy had not updated their website.

Before we jump down the OP's throat how about some compassion? We all make mistakes and the OP could have been confused by something similar to what I had experienced.

Thank you for your compassion. We all read up and prepare as much as we can, and this site is an excellent resource. Seriously, the help which Zahid has received from everyone on here (especially Karen, Sara and Tasha) has been monumental!

I think you are right Chris. See, the issue is we all (or maybe just some of us) get confused because sites are not updated and we are looking at something that used to be required, but isn't any longer. I appreciate your kind response. Have a great day and good luck with your interview.

Hi fellow VJ'ers -

Our case is now at the US Embassy in New Delhi and Zahid and I have been got an early start on gathering the documentation needed. I will be sending out a package with the original documentation submitted for the I129F as well as bank statements for the last 3 months, tax return from last year, phone records, IM chats, an updated statement of intent, etc. I know that I need to include a certified copy of my birth certificate. My question is this - is there anything else that I need to send? Not sure if anything else needs to be certified. Please advise.

Thank you,

Margarita

At 11 tonight I was typing to M & F when my phone got a text. I was PISSED. I hate when my friends call me late, especially when they are drunk.

So I reached for my phone and immediately told Marie that I got a text from USCIS. She kept telling me to hurry up and check it, when I did it was an approval!!!!! Then she wouldn't leave me alone about not wanting to call Dave and wake him up. LMAO!!!! I let him sleep another 45 minutes and now here we are!!!!

I hope this week is active because I really want to see M & F, roughsweet, and EVERYONE else get their NOA2s. This is progress and I am so happy CSC is moving again!!

Julie Julie Julie!!!!!

That was such a crazy feeling!!! Chatting with you and then being a part of your approval.

Woohoo!!! totally happy ....

AND STILL CANNOT GET OVER THE FACT THAT YOU WAITED 45 MINUTES TO CALL HIM!!! CRAZY I TELL YOU....CRAZY!!!!!!

Cngrts Julie

Ok - so far - we have 4 approvals tonight....anymore?!!!

julie

zahid

resha

norman (they posted on their own)

that's great!

Woohooo!!! Congrats to all, I'm sure everyone else's approval is on it's way soon!

Hi

Atleast a single touch will bring in hope that they have looked at the file.

Does anyone know where to contact CSC as we have been trying to call national service centre number from couple of days with no luck. Everytime computer answers the call. Guess itz high time to contact them.

Run CSC Run pls for lovers sake

All the hoping and praying FINALLY worked!!! Today after Zahid had retired for the night we got a touch! It had been 88 days and we were hanging on to hope by a thread. I seriously had to do a double take when I saw it. Still no email yet, but we shall wait and see what tomorrow brings. Ahhhhh so happy right now I can't even imagine how I am going to feel once we actually get our NOA2.