travelinggirl

Hi,

We are going to interview soon in the Bahamas for my fiance's K1. Once approved, we need to go to another country in the Caribbean for him to finish his last couple months of school. The problem is it's very difficult to get flights from the Bahamas to the other island without going thru the US (most flights go to Miami/Ft. Lauderdale first). Once he has an approved K1, can he still travel thru the US while in transit to another place? If so does he just not say anything about having the K1 and wait to bring that up when he's entering the US on the K1 to marry? When it is time for us to marry we would like to leave the Caribbean, go to Canada to get his car, then enter the US (by car) for the K1/marriage but most likely he would have to go thru the US in transit then as well. I just don't know if any of this being in transit business is going to mess up his K1.

We were also hoping to make one last trip to the US to finalize wedding stuff before we get married in August. If we get the K1 in the next couple weeks could he still enter the US on a B2 to plan the wedding? I know that prior to approval, during the K1 process you can, but haven't seen anything related to that after the K1 has been approved.

Anyone been thru something similar or can offer any advice?

Anyone have any thoughts? Since he has a resident visa for the Bahamas for a year do you think we could still interview here? Do you have to show proof of residence at your interview if you are not a citizen of that country? What if we keep an apartment here? You're allowed to travel right or would the stamps in his passport to/from the other island get him in trouble?

Hey guys I really need any insight anyone has..

So we were approved in February for the I129F and got a call a few weeks ago from the US Embassy in Nassau that they have our file. We still have not received our Packet 3 but the woman at the embassy knows we're not moving to the states until the end of August so we weren't in a terrible rush to get our interview since we still need to make some trips back to the US for wedding prep before he gets his visa. Unfortunately, we just found out TODAY that his school is moving us to another place until August that's under a different embassy (Barbados) and we don't have a choice in going, we have to. So what I don't know is

Do you think we could still interview at Nassau if we're no longer residents?

If not - can we switch embassies at this point in the process without starting over?

If we switch embassies do we have to wait 90 days or something to be considered residents and be able to interview there?

I should say we're moving back to the island we just came from so he was granted a student resident visa there right before we left there in December.. we just didn't pick it up because we were 2 weeks away from moving off the island and they wanted to keep the passports for a week to give the visa (and on this island that week might have turned into a month).

I'm SO nervous because we have to have his visa in hand by the end of August and there's less than 5 months till then. We will be moving to the new/old island a few weeks into May so if there is a 90 day wait it won't start till then and it's cutting it SO close.. plus our I129F will be expired by then.

UGH! It's complicated because he is a student and has to enter the US for school at the end of August.. so if we don't have that and he enters and then we get married sometime down the road they could say he had a failed attempt at a visa so we knew all along he was going to immigrate when he entered as a student.. and boom - intent, immigration fraud, deportation.

I hope someone can help! We can't find anything out from the embassy until 2pm Monday when their hours are.

Here's my update - received a letter from the NVC on 3/15 that they had received and approved our I129F from USCIS and would be forwarding it to the embassy in Nassau (Bahamas). Got a call today from the Nassau embassy telling me they had received our file. She asked for an email address for my fiance (beneficiary) and verified mine. She said she would be emailing us some information and forms because there would be paperwork, a medical interview, etc. She asked why he's in the Bahamas (he's Canadian) and I explained that he's here for school. She asked when he would be done with school here and I told her the end of August. She gave me her name and phone # in case we had any questions. Exciting! Hopefully we can take our time a little bit to gather all the stuff we need to send it before they schedule an interview, because we have a trip planned to the US at the end of April between semesters to do wedding planning and see my family.

NOA2 on Feb 19, 2009. Hope to hear from NVC soon!

Does anyone know if once you are approved for the K1 visa you can enter the US as a visitor, leave, and then come back in and give them your K1 and start the 90 day clock? Or once you're approved for K1 do you have to enter the next time as K1 no matter what?

We're planning to get married in August.. we're both outside of the states now (Bahamas) and before we get married we may have to go to Canada first.. the problem is where we're flying from we would have to go thru the states first (no direct flights).. so as an example could we fly from here to say Atlanta, he enters US there at the airport (but is in transit to Canada), we fly to Canada then drive into the states and at the border he gives them his K1 envelope. Any ideas? We're trying to figure out how to plan our travel in August since we need to bring his car here.

Thanks in advance!

Any idea on the touches?

So I got my receipt number off the cashed check. When I put it in the USCIS Check Status app it shows I am in Initial Review and says "On November 30, 2009, we received this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E), and mailed you a notice describing how we will process your case."

So is Nov 30 the NOA1 date also? I'm not sure if this is a general thing it always says or if the NOA1 was sent say two days later if there would be another date.. i.e. "on Nov 30 we received and on Dec 2 we mailed..."

I signed up for an account to get email updates and in my Portfolio it shows only one line with a Last Updated date of Dec 2nd. Did I get touched or is this possibly my NOA1 date? As stuff happens will it be specific there.. like NOA1 sent or will there just be a date that it's been updated?

Just trying to figure out how to interpret all this. I'm not sure what date to put in my timeline so I can get a forecast

Thanks in advance!

Hello.

I'm a Japanese fiancee and just wondering if there are any possibilities the U.S. consulate in Japan might have sent a packet to outside of Japan since I haven't reported my address change after I-129F petition. When my fiance filed the I-129F, I was still in the U.S. as a student, then my U.S. address was written as my address. Of course, I put an address in Japan as "fiancee's address abroad". And now, I'm in the "fiancee's address abroad" in Japan.

In the middle of November, my fiance reviced the NVC notice transferring fiance visa case to consulate, and I'v been waiting for a packet since then. One thing I concern is that the U.S. consulate in Japan sends the packet to the address in the U.S. instead of the address in Japan because our I-129F says the U.S. address as my address? Or shuld I let the U.S. consulate know I have been in Japan?

I'll cantact to the U.S. consulate to make clear this issue as soon as I am told the NVC case number from my fiance. But before that, I would be really happpy if I hear any ideas about this.

I think everything will be sent to your fiancee's address abroad and as long as you put that as Japan you're fine. Where did you list your US address? What form?

I called USCIS asking about the fiancee's address abroad as my fiancee will be attending school in the Bahamas, but the school has a US address in Fort Lauderdale that mail could be sent to. We didn't know what to do because the island doesn't have mail service and everything is done thru a PO Box and we weren't sure if that was ok. We asked if we should use the US Fort Lauderdale address that gets forwarded to the Bahamas or an on-island address and we were told that USCIS will not send any mail to a US address for a foreign fiancee.

Home Maker?

Caregiver for Elderly Mother? or Non-profit Caregiver.. something like that?

My I-129F was received by CSC this morning! Yay! I know I'm now waiting to get an NOA1, but where/how are you able to login and see when your file has been touched and all that?

Thanks and good luck to all!

Nevermind! I figured it out. Hopefully I can get my receipt number off the check once they cash it.

My I-129F was received by CSC this morning! Yay! I know I'm now waiting to get an NOA1, but where/how are you able to login and see when your file has been touched and all that?

Thanks and good luck to all!

Usually just white envelopes with one of the little window things on it showing your name and address. in the corner it has the address of the USCIS center thats processing your things, thats all.

Ok, great! As long as it has an address in the corner I can tell her to look for that's perfect. I just didn't want her having to open everything. Thanks!!

I'm currently out of the states so I sent all of my documents to my mother so she can add the copy of my birth certificate and then mail everything to CSC for me.

When I start getting NOAs and other mail from USCIS (hopefully no RFEs, knock on wood) what will the envelopes say on them so I can tell her what to look for and open for me?

Thanks!

He is Canadian but we are living together abroad and he will be doing his interview at the Nassau Embassy in the Bahamas. (If everyone wants a chuckle, a guy at USCIS told him - "you can interview there, no problem.. besides it's a US territory". Umm.. no, it isn't. It's a British Commonwealth. I guess they didn't ask that during his job interview.)

I thought sending more now would be better because I was reading that some people who say they sent in a lot of proof with their petition got asked very little at the interview because they already had everything.

Our issue with sending boarding passes/passport stamps is this- all of the boarding passes from when we were living apart (me in the US, him in Canada) and traveled back and forth are all packed in a box in storage back home. (We're living in Dominica right now and don't have access to it.) I have boarding passes from when we came here together, but they are from maybe May and September. As far as passport stamps, he was living in Toronto and most of the time he drove to Buffalo and flew from there because it was cheaper.. so he did a land crossing into the states, therefore no stamp. Or we may have a stamp going one way but not the other.

I'm putting together the proof of our relationship and have a few questions. For those of you who printed out your Skype log, how many pages did you give them? Ours is something like 45 pages so I'm assuming they probably don't need all of it.

We have receipts from where he ordered Christmas presents and had them shipped to his name at my address so when he came in for Christmas they would be there for him to wrap and give away (so he wouldn't have to carry so much with him on the plane). Is that good to include? How do I explain it? Do I write a letter and attach it to those print outs or do I just explain it on the cover letter?

Same question for the print outs of our air travel itineraries.. do I need to write on the print outs stuff like 'His first trip to see me', 'my first trip to see him', 'trip together to..' etc or do I include that on the cover letter or just print them out and not worry about it?

We have tons of pictures of us together, him with my family, me with his, so that's no problem. Should we also include emails or do we have enough? If so, would it be better to use emails of us talking about upcoming visits or just general back and forth/misc emails?

Thanks for the help!!

Do you see the Bene's BC listed on the Guides?

They will take their passport at the interview and return it with the K-1 visa attached.

Addresses usually include street, city and state; mine does including a zip code.

Wow. I thought this forum was here so people could receive helpful advice, not to give people an excuse to be a jerk. Why bother expending your energy to answer if you're going to act like that? Don't forget that not too long ago you were asking pretty stupid questions and seeking advice too.

I did not see the foreign fiancee's birth certificate listed on the guides, but I did see some people mention on the forum that they had sent copies of their ff's birth certificate. I also hadn't read anywhere that it would be needed for the interview, so the people who were kind enough to answer and tell me that were very helpful. Since those can sometimes take a while to order a copy if they are lost, that is important information to know early in the game.

Well, the residence section right above asks for specific address information but not the zip. You would think that since they want to know where you lived the zip would be important. They don't really give you enough room to put the street name and number and since the 'example forms' tend to say 'see attachment' but don't have the attachments available in the example to check I wanted to know how other people filled theirs out. Sue me.

I'm just starting to fill out the I-129F and I think the answer is no, but it's always better safe than sorry. Do we have to send a copy of the foreign fiancee's birth certificate or a copy of their passport? I know you have to send one or the other for USC to prove their citizenship, but since I don't see anything where you have to send something to prove the foreign fiancee's citizenship I wasn't sure. If you don't need it for the 129, do you need it for the K1 interview?

Do they keep the foreign fiancee's passport at any time during the interview process? I saw something on the DoS website about the courier time to return the passport and I wasn't sure what/when they were talking about needing to keep it. ?

For the G325, for the Full Employer Address, do they want the street address or just the city & state? What did everyone else do for that?

Thanks in advance!

You can file petitions from anywhere. However the K3 visa can only be interviewed for in the country the marriage took place unless that was the USA. K3 is virtually obsolete anyway. The CR1 spouse visa process can be completed in the country of the beneficiary's residence. If that's going to be the Bahamas, simply show that as the beneficiary address and indicate that as the location the relative will interview.

We're moving to the Bahamas in January and then moving from there to the states in August.. so his temporary residence during that time will be the Bahamas, but I read you have to have lived in the country for at least 6 months prior to doing DCF.. and since we'll only be there 7 1/2 months total I don't know if it can be done in time. He HAS to be in the states to complete his next semester of med school and start rotations at the end of August.. and I don't want to mess anything up with him being able to come in to do that.. but we're worried about him coming in as a student, getting married, changing status and then getting questioned/hassled about his 'intent' when he came in as a student. I'm wondering if it would be better to get married in the Bahamas ASAP then do K3 visa stuff from there. Nassau's interview wait is something like 14 days but I don't know how long total approval for K3 would take so he could come into the country by August.

Has anyone ever had any exceptions made to the rule about residing in the country for 6 months prior to do DCF in that country? Is there any leniency on that or exceptions?

I'm the USC, fiance is Canadian. I'm not sure what type of visa I will be getting when we move to the Bahamas as he is a student but I'm going too. We will only be there for 7 1/2 months before we move from there to the states for him to continue medical school so I don't know that I would have time to wait 6 months to qualify for DCF then start everything. Any advice?

Original post with my situation is here: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=227559

Can a USC file the stuff for a K3 visa from outside the states? Can you mail the stuff in from overseas or mail it from the US and then leave the country or will that affect you later down the road if they look at your passport stamps?

Can the foreign spouse use an embassy in a different country other than their home country? i.e. The foreign spouse is Canadian but if we are living in the Bahamas when the K3 gets filed will everything be done there?

I've seen some people say you can study on a K3 visa but I haven't read it on any government sites.. has anyone?

Here is my original post with info on my situation: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=227559

Thanks for any help!

Not a Canadian but from what you write, assuming you are both legally in the Bahamas at the moment, I believe the easiest thing for you to do would be to get legally married now, and then file for a sousal visa via DCF (directly with the local US embassy). That would mean he could then enter the USA to study or work, and gets a greencard immediately upon entry. You can then plan a religious wedding/ reception whenever and whereever you wish.

We're not in the Bahamas now, we'll be moving there from another island in January. We'll be there from January - August. From what I read on the State Dept website: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/ty...types_1306.html "Sometimes a U.S. citizen living abroad can file an immigrant visa petition at an U.S. embassy or consulate or with the USCIS overseas, when the American citizen petitioner has been a resident there for the preceding 6 months and has host country permission to reside there." The problem is we'll just be getting to the Bahamas and we'll only be there for 7 1/2 months so we'd have to wait 6 months to qualify to apply at the embassy, then we'd only have a month and a half before he would need to go to the states.. and I'm assuming it couldn't be done in that short of time for him to be ok to enter the states for school.

Hey everybody,

I really need some advice on where to start. Here's our situation.. I'm a USC, my fiance is Canadian. We were friends online for 10 years, then met in person 2 years ago and have been dating ever since. He would come see me each month and I went to see him a few times. After 6 months of long distance I quit my job, sold my house in the states and moved to Canada. I more or less only took my clothes and my cat, and entered as a tourist. We signed a lease for an apartment together and I tried to get a job there but my employer's request to hire an American for the position was denied. We were in Canada for about a year.. crossed the border back and forth many times so I never overstayed.

He was accepted to medical school in the Caribbean so that is where we are now. In January we will be moving to the Bahamas (he's still in school) and then next August we will be moving back to the states where he will be finishing school and starting rotations. When we go to the states he will get either a B1 visa (that's what the school says he'll need) or an F1 visa (I think that's what he will actually need and another CAN student told me that's what they had to get) to finish his last semester of school and then start his hospital rotations.

So we have just gotten engaged and we are trying to figure out all this immigration stuff. We want to get married next year, sometime before October. We were thinking August but once we started finding out about all the immigration headaches we are thinking that this will now determine where and when we get married. We obviously don't want to spend any time apart.. and I understand the I-129F has to be filed by me while in the states and he has to remain outside of the country until that and then the K1 is approved. I don't think we can file DCF or CR1 in the Bahamas because you have to be there for 6 months before you can file at an embassy. We will be in the Bahamas only for 7 1/2 months total so I don't think that's enough time. We also don't want to screw anything up for him to come into the country to finish school. (Medical school is reaaally expensive and we don't want to mess anything up with that.) We also read that if we wait until we're in the US on his F1 or B1 visa and then get married and try to change his status we would need to wait to do that and still might get questioned about his intent when he entered (since he will be entering with the intent of school).

We had originally been thinking of getting married in Canada next August during his semester break but he would need to come right into the US after that for school.. but now we don't know if it would be better to get married in Canada or the US or in the Bahamas or when to do it, how to file so we can stay together and not interfere with him coming for school.. I don't know if anyone has been in a similar situation but if anyone has any advice at all we could really use it. Planning a wedding from outside the country was going to be hard enough since we'd only have 2 opportunities to go to the states to arrange things (the break over Christmas and the break next April) and now that we don't even know how to get married and not screw up our travel in and out and his immigration I'm really stressing out.

Thanks SOO much in advance!