CQ & CS

We got our NOA2!! Received an email that it was sent yesterday, March 12. Our NOA1 was Feb 8--amazing. Good luck everyone!

Richard and Kathryn

Awesome!!!! Congrats!!! Ours is Feb 9 hopefull it's on the way

I figure I should give some background before explaining my case and asking for advice...

I am a Canadian who just happened to fall for an American and make both of our lives more complicated.

We met in Vancouver in May 2007 while he was attending a Canadian University for a year. We were

together the duration of his stay. The following year (summer 2008) he had to return home to Las Vegas.

I decided to do my fall 20008 semester of university by distance while staying with him in the US. They

gave me a little grief at the border but nevertheless let me go. After that semester I had to return

to Vancouver to work and save up for more school (Dec 08 - May 09). We visited back and forth without any

trouble at the border during that time.

I had planned to do my summer semester of university by distance again and traveled to the US May 12, 09.

This time though, the border guards were not as understanding and limited my stay with an I-94 to one month

(until June 12, 09).

Since we were planning on getting married in the next year or so anyway, we decided we would get married

that summer and save the hassle of traveling/border crossing/a long distance relationship

We were married June 6, 2009 and I have remained in the US since then. We filed our I-130 and its accompanying

forms (biographic immigration, affidavit of support) in November.

Last week (the first week of May) we received our first "request for evidence" asking only for a copy of my husband's

birth certificate, which we mailed off immediately.

My question is:

My mother is getting married in Vancouver this July and we would REALLY like to be there. Now, the way I understand the

travel document that you can apply for, is that you can only apply for it once the I-130 process has been finalized and you

are awaiting adjustment of status.

We are very weary of traveling at this point (I don't want to not be allowed back). I understand that I am not really supposed

to be down here in the first place, however we were not intending to get married when we did and at the time I did not realize

it was such a difficult process.

If I try to travel this summer and my immigration process is not yet complete what should I expect with border guards?

Thanks in advance!

Like other memeber said you should not risk it because the CBP can give you a very hard time for crossing the border. I was detained for fours hours at the border and sent back to Canada. I know how bad it is for not being able to attend to someone special's wedding but it will be more horrible for not being able to get back to your husband until your get your visa. I'm suffering now.

AAAHHH!!! I know watching the NOA2 estimate dates coming down is giving me so much hope. Plus its starting to be spring where I am so spring fever heeellloo!! It is amazing to think that we could all be looking at early to mid summer moves to US...maybe...hopefully

That's right and having a summer wedding on the beach

Hey All !

Please excuse my french ( no offense meant to any French folks ! ) but " HOT DAMNNNN !!!!!!!!! " received an email today that said Approval Notice mailed on March 4 2010 !!!!!

WOW ! that's 34 days since the post office delivered the packet until approval !!!!! CSC is moving them out !

To all who are waiting ..... very Best Wishes !!! It WILL HAPPEN SOON !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

p.s. I've been reading and posting to both January and February filers seeing as the packet was received 29 January and the NOA1 date is 1 February ... apologies for the duplicate post.

Wow, so happy for you. Your NOA1 date is quite close to mine. Hope we will get it soon

Your frustration is totally understandable. Yes, seems most get the noa1 within 10 days of receipt, but...not everybody. With that said, There is a 30 day response time window. Meaning, USCIS has 30 days to get your noa1 out before they have to start acting on your calls. But, based on your timeline, seems like you are in the position to request some action. How did you send your packet? If it was regular mail then unfortunately you might have to start over. Stop pay the check and send your application packet again. Hopefully you sent it via fedex. Verify the delivery date and who signed for it and push a little harder for them to track it down.

Hard to tell you to relax because we would be worried too.

BTW...I called USCIS once or twice every week because our I-129f never got uploaded to the website. I never got the impression that someone could call too much or too soon. Customer service reps sometimes do their job and sometimes they don't.

The way I saw it...they are working for me so I was not shy to call and ask questions.

Hang in there and good luck

I think their application has been received already as shown on her timeline. Would it be hurt if she send her packet again?

I am going out of my mind!!! I am so happy for all of my fellow February filers receiving their NOA1's, but I am also a tad jealous as we still haven't!! My husband has called USCIS multiple times now. For awhile he was getting zero information - they were saying it was just more backlogged than usual, etc. But then when he called yesterday, they told him that our file was receiving "additional processing". He couldn't find out what that meant exactly - he called and talked to two different people. They said it could be a variety of things - something could have been missed on the application (so hard for me to fathom, as I must have reread everything 20 times!!), we could have misspelled a name or address, didn't put in the correct name, mixed something up, etc, etc. I just can't imagine that we did any of those things, as, like I say, we both checked over everything so many times before sending the package! I feel like I'm at my wits end already!! The people he talked to said they will likely mail or phone my husband for further information....but it's been a month today since they received the package and there's been no contact yet! Both of us have perfectly clean records, so nothing like that could be an issue. We haven't had any previous marriages, and there are no children involved. It seemed like an extremely standard petition to me! So I am feeling so lost and completely crazy with my lack of control on the whole thing. I hate that I can't personally call - not that my husband isn't perfectly capable and doing a great job, but I just really want to be able to talk to someone myself! And I hate that no one has any information! And since there's no file started for us yet, we can't even give them our email addresses to try and speed *something* up! It's just really driving at my very last nerve....I feel like I had an expectation at how things were going to go down, and this is failing left and right. It's not giving me a lot of hope for the speediness of the rest of our application....I am just so down

Has anyone heard of this or been through it? If so, please tell me your story! I guess is this an RFE?? I guess we won't know until they finally get in contact with us will we? Ugh. Thankfully, we are booking tickets for Luke to come and visit me in Canada in a few weeks, so that will be wonderful. I was just so hopeful about where we would be in the process at that point, and it's not looking good so far!!

Ugh, sorry to be a downer. I truly am super excited for everyone who is getting further along in the process! I can only imagine what a relief that must be I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Hi KristinAnn, sorry to hear that you haven't received the NOA1. Did you check if they have cashed the check already? I'm also new here and I just wanted to give you some support here.

I HEAR THAT !!!!!

Quick question ...... being the computer genius that I am ( NOT ! ) ........ how do you guys get your timelines to pop up whenever you post something ? Is there some button, icon, next page to go to that I have not seen,double-clicked on or cussed at ????

I guess you mean the timeline that we list at the end of our reply?! It a signature that you can add from My Controls (if i did not remember it wrongly)

That is why I am leaving in six days to go visit my fiancee. I miss her and when we meet we are going to be peeling back a lot of gift wrap. I can tell you that for sure.

Looks like we have very similar timeline. Good luck

That is why I am leaving in six days to go visit my fiancee. I miss her and when we meet we are going to be peeling back a lot of gift wrap. I can tell you that for sure.

I wish I could visit my fiance too but I was denied at POE before and they want me to stay out of their country for 6 months Hope the NOA2 arrive soon

I think according to Igor's List under immigration timelines, Ljuba and Warren have alread been approved.

Their info:

Service Center: CSC

NOA1: Feb 3, 2010

NOA2: Feb 24, 2010

Approval time was 21 days.

Igor's list

http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/monthl...=1&sortby=2

Ljuba and Warren;s timeline:

http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=73740

I am happy for them. I am depressed for myself and my fiancee.

Wow that was quick. Our NOA 1 was dated Feb 5 but sure enough we are not as lucky as them. Very happy for them to get NOA2 so quick. Waiting is just a PITA!

When your K-1 is approved and you go to enter the US, you will be entering the US with the intention of moving there permanently and adjusting your status to that of permanent residence. In actual fact, once you enter the US, you will be completely UNable to, without badly screwing up your life, return to Canada, for a minimum of 2-3 months [until you have an AP document or Green Card in your hand]. Ties to Canada would be completely beside the point

If someone was denied entry to the US with a K-1 visa in hand, it would be for a reason completely unrelated to having immigration intent. The K-1 visa is what allows you to have immigrant intent. I don't know why someone would be denied, but inadmissibility due to possession of controlled substances is the first obvious thing that comes to mind.

I wouldn't worry about it. The worst thing you have to fear at the PoE will be a cranky border officer. If you've got the visa, then you've done everything right to that point, and the PoE should be a formality. Worst realistic case scenario is a long, tedious formality. Don't worry about it

Thank you. That's exactly what I was told couple month ago by some senior members here and their answers made sense to me. K-1 visa is non-immigration visa with immigration intention. I was just getting anxious and paranoid when I read the thread about the member who had the K-1 on hand and still got denied at POE. May be I need to re-read his thread and understand why he got denied. Being finger printed and detained 4 hours at POE was a really horrible experience.

Just sent I-129F on Feb 2 to California. No NOA1 yet.

My fiance submitted I-129F on Feb 2. Welcome to the long journey!!!

It's not a big issue but now that they flagged you with "prints and pictures' along with the date and reason for denial, that will pop up when they scan your passport, be sure you have your ties to Canada ducks in a row next time!

Hi I got denied in Oct last year due to lack of ties to Canada too. By then I just moved back from Hong Kong to Vancouver with no job and no house (I stayed with my parents). They told me to try six months later and show them ties.

My question is now that my fiance has submitted a I-129F petition and we have just started our long journey. However, I still have no job and no house (still staying with parents) but I'm selling on ebay. So what if when my K-1 visa is approved but I still have no jobs during these couple months and I'm trying to enter USA with a K-1 Visa? Will I be denied of entry for the reasons that I have no ties to Canada? I read from someone's thread here that he got denied at POE even though he had his K-1 on hand. I'm very anxious. What should I do to prepare? Thanks!

CQ

Hi All, thanks for all the information and advice here. I'm grateful to found your site here.

So we finally decided to get a fiance visa and we have started looking into the K-1 visa application and procedures seriously. So far we get the petition procedures quite well. However, when we get to the police certificate part we are stucked.

I'm a Canadian citizen but I was born in Hong Kong. I moved to Canada with my family at age 17. For the past 6 years, I worked in Hong Kong. So I understand that I definitely need police certificates from both Canada and Hong Kong. I have checked the requirement to get a Canada Police Certificate and it is quite simple. My problem is to get a Hong Kong Police Certificate, not because I'm a criminal but because they need full set of fingerprints taken and certified by a recognized police or law enforcement agency where he or she presently resides. Certification of the fingerprints must clearly state:

i. The name and rank of the person taking the fingerprints

ii. The full name of the police or law enforcement agency with their official chop, and

iii. The date and place taken

I'm not sure where in Canada to get my fingerprints taken and certified. Is RCMP a place to go? What are the procedures and how long does it take?

Can any one from Canada share his/her experience? Thanks!

A K-1 fiance visa is technically a nonimmigrant visa. But the stated purpose of entry under the visa is to marry the US citizen petitioner within 90 days of entry and adjust status on that basis to lawful permanent resident. It is a nonimmigrant visa insofar as no legal basis for immigration exists yet, i.e., at the time of entry. But it anticipates immigration, and so requires many of the same procedures and processing as an immigrant visa.

In short, a K-1 is not really the right choice for you if you just want to come visit. A K-1 is to come here, get married, and file for a green card.

Actually I think the K-1 is really what you want.....if that is to move to the US, marry your BF, and then stay with him permanently here in the US.

Yes marrying each other is what we alway want just that now we are speeding up our plan as we originally wanted to spend more time together knowing each other and get marry. Now our plan might be he visits me more frequently and file a petition meanwhile then move the US when I get my K-1 and get marry. Thanks all for you prompt replies. I was terrified by those CBP and that ties to home country things.

Hello All, I'm new to this VJ and find this site is very helpful. I'm so grateful to find this site before I make another big mistake. Here is my story:

I met my bf online when I was working in Hong Kong in 2008. I was born in HK and moved to Canada with my family in 1993. I'm a Canadian and my bf is an American. This June 2009 I decided to quit my job in HK and moved back to the North America soil so that I could be closer to my bf and meet him more often. Our original plan was I moved back, then I stayed in US for couple months and then get married. However, things ain't working out as easy as we thought. I have been travelled back and forth US without a returned ticket couple times without any problem. But this time (this week) I was refused entry to the USA for the reasons that a) I did not have a returned ticket; B) they found job resume in my suitcase; c) I have no Canadian ties, ie house, mortgage, bills, rent, job etc. The CBP officer said to me that I needed those evidence in order to let me in and I will need them every time I try to enter USA. So I was sent back to Canada. My problem is that I do not have a house in Canada as I stay with my parents. I'm now at the stage of looking for a job in Canada. And it makes no sense to rent a house without a job.

I talked to my bf and we thought that may be he would petition a K-1 fiance visa in order to get me in. My question is: if my K-1 visa got approved and I am going to USA under K-1 visa, do I still need to show the evidence of Canadian ties? Coz as far as I know, K-1 is a non-immigrant visa and as long as it is a non-immigrant visa you need to show ties to your home country.

Please help us. Thanks!