Ashley y Diego

I think the things apart from what you sent in before that they'll be interested in (you should bring documentation and/or be prepared to answer questions about) is your life here: wedding and living situation. We had a very easy interview after they looked at pictures of our wedding, we described it, and showed our apartment lease and bank accounts type stuff.

Congratulations!

I think you will be fine, in life and love things change and they understand that- as much as USCIS would like things to be black and white they're not! That's why in some cases they allow an AOS from a tourist visa, for people in situations like yours who honestly believed they would return to their country but at some point in their tourist stay something changed and they became engaged/married. As the other poster mentioned, try not to worry about denial but rather focus on making your K-1 application as solid as possible.

And.. CONGRATULATIONS!

You should send in a copy of those documents and bring the original to the interview.

Good luck! Start preparing for packet 3 (what you will mail to the embassy).

Pictures not just of the two of you but also with each other's families and friends are great.. I thought a strong piece of evidence for us was when I did a search of my mail for his name and printed out the results pages showing the thousands of times I had talked to him and the hundreds of times I had talked to other people about him, each with just the date, subject and a snippet of conversation..

But it's different for everyone!

Yes, we went to the SF office with the appointment letter (right after we got it, well before the date listed). They didn't even say anything about it not being the time of the appointment, it was very quick and easy. I'd recommend it!

When the embassy receives your packet and asks you to submit the paperwork required for the interview to them, they should specify exactly what the police report needs to be.

Hi Celina,

Congratulations on your marriage! I assume you don't report your work in Argentina on your US taxes, etc.. so you shouldn't report it in the visa application either. Which visa are you currently in Argentina on? as a tourist you could say you were just there "learning about the country" and "spending time with husband/family" things like that. If you are still on a student visa you actually do have some level of work authorization.. but either way.. I'd say it's easier not to report that/report it as a volunteer basis.

Best of luck!

I agree, highlighting to help them go through it faster is great!

Do you mean you have already received your NOA2 but want to make the rest of the process go faster? I would think a senator couldn't be much help in the part of the process you're in now--the visa packet going to NVC and to the embassy in your fiance's country, being reviewed there, interview, and visa issuance. After that, when you are in the AOS process, a senator might be able to help hurry things along, but for now it is mostly the embassy you need to talk to.

You are supposed to receive something from them, but it took my embassy almost a month to send it to us, and it was not even real mail, just an email! So depending on the embassy they may be slowww. You could try contacting them to ask if they received it, in our case they weren't responsive to that either so we did the only thing we could do, prepare for the next step. The thing they send is called Packet 3, it's a list of documents to make copies of and mail to them before they will schedule your interview. You should try to find the most accurate list for your embassy that you can on VisaJourney, and assemble everything for that so when you do get it you'll be ready to send it back to them the very next day, so you don't lose any time.

After 30 days past when they should have received it, I would get more aggressive if you still haven't received anything from them.

Best of luck!

ugh well I definitely hope that works for you! Suerte

We also wanted to plan a summer wedding, and had made some plans but working with our vendors explained about the visa and said we wanted to reserve but couldn't commit 100% to the date.. good thing because even though we got the NOA2 according to the timeline, processing at the embassy took much longer than we were expecting. In the end, we chose to have a legal wedding immediately after getting the visa, but because people were traveling and we couldn't confirm the date early enough for them to book flights, we had the big wedding party later in October. This wasn't our ideal plan at first at all, but it worked great in the end because soon after the wedding we could both start working, etc. (because we had filed AOS in August).

Do I wish the visa would have come through in time for our original plans? Maybe.. but it was too much stress cutting it so close and would not have worked out, you just don't have enough power in the process to make it go your way. Do I regret planning it the way we did? No, because it gave me lots of time to work with vendors and figure everything out (I was able to have my dress made for me, think ahead of time about a hairstyle, relax about everything while stuck waiting, and spend more time with my now-husband) which made me enjoy the wedding a lot more because I was so comfortable with it and not rushed!

I hope this helps. Know that you have no way to really predict when the visa will arrive, it could be significantly sooner OR significantly longer than average. Try to do things in a way you can have fun with them instead of stressing all the time.

I know I didn't state that in ours and we didn't have any problem.

That is annoying.. it definitely seems like you're trying to do everything right! Maybe it was just bad luck, you should call and make sure there's nothing else you can do, then send it back and hopefully get someone different who will do it?

In your situation, you are probably not going to be stuck with this option. But, for us there came a point at which we wanted to get the visa so bad and were not able to get the documents we needed from government offices in a timely way.. at this point, paying a little more, giving workers thank yous, bringing in a lawyer for show.. those things don't make me happy to have to do but they did get the job done quickly. Of course, as an Argentine, you already know that!

Hi Carolina,

They also could not legalize ours the first time we went to the Ministry, because the signature wasn't registered. It was because the birth certificate was old and I guess they just don't have proper records? We went to the place that issues birth certificates for where my husband was born and told them we needed a current one to legalize, they took the old one and put some new stamps and such on it then the Ministry accepted it to legalize. This probably doesn't help you.. but I think it also depends who you get at the Ministry, we saw some people throwing the "legalized" stamp on any piece of paper you brought in whereas others took it very seriously.

Best of luck!

Hi Eliana,

Perhaps Rugby7 has already answered.. but the embassy will contact you with packet 3 instructions, they will send you them over email, however for us it was a delay of several weeks from after the packet left the NVC so I would suggest getting that packet ready as best you can now instead of waiting for them, then once you get the email confirm you have everything they ask you for and submit it right away. All communication with the embassy that is not in-person will be through email (except when they mail you the actual visa); they don't even have a phone line apparently.

About the medical.. what happened to us was that we submitted packet 3 without medical, then got an RFE from the embassy asking for a copy of the outside of the sealed envelope they give you at the doctor. They would not give us an interview date until we submitted that, evidently they considered it part of packet 3.. because of this I suggest to others to have the medical exam and submit this if you can with the rest of packet 3 so you can have the interview sooner than we did.

Andy,

It is always a hard situation when country lines divide otherwise well-functioning humanity, like two people falling in love. Your scenario is especially difficult. Best wishes for coming through your visa journey stronger!

Congratulations! You should plan your wedding!!! Find out what you will need to do to get a marriage license where you live, get married and file for Adjustment of Status, with Advance Parole and Employment Authorization Documents (the first is to become perm. resident and get green card, the second is to travel while you wait for that and the third is to work while you wait for that) as soon as possible! We got married 3 days after arriving in US (my state has 3-day waiting period on marriage license) and put AOS in mail in the same week, and we are so happy we did.. anything that saves you more waiting, right?

We had to wait more than two weeks to get the SS#, I guess it took a while for him to get in the system, and longer for bank accounts and driver's license and such.. don't worry about that so much but file AOS right away! That's what you will be waiting on the most. Your fiance can legally drive and identify themselves with license from their country, and they can share your bank account for a few weeks.

Good luck!

My and my co-sponsor's letters were 4 or 5 months old by the time we had the interview, and there was no problem. If you can, have it be as current as possible, but if you can't I think it's fine.

Agreed, wait and file jointly as married.

I don't work for USCIS- but I don't think you would get an RFE if you were missing the letter, as long as you demonstrate you are in a relationship and have an intent to marry (pictures, letters, both submitting the supporting docs for application, etc.). So, try not to stress about it! Nobody can be "perfect", we don't even know what a perfect packet would be, everyone does something different. And most people say they worried too much about something out of their control!

I know it sounds nuts.. but spend your time shopping for wedding dresses, and let your packet do its thing.

I searched for my now-spouse's name in my email and printed out the 20 pages of results (with just date, subject, a snippet of text, and who I was talking to) rather than print the actual emails.. I think that gave them a good sense. Could this work in your case?

Best of luck!

Yllen,

I suggest you read posts by Argentina members, which you can find by going through the posts from the "Portal" page, and read reviews of the embassy on their VisaJourney page. This will give you a good sense of issues local to Bs As. If you have specific questions, feel free to ask them, either on the regional boards or the K-1 board, depending on what the question pertains to.

The medical exam is an appointment with a doctor the embassy works with, who will physically examine and test for various things, just like any other doctor, and fill out some paperwork for the visa process which you turn in to the embassy. It should take a few hours.

The police certificate, I'm not sure if you can get it in other cities, we went to Buenos Aires because we are near there. You'll have to ask at your local office.. remember to ask for it with exception to article 53. They won't take it if you don't do this and you'll have to get a new one.

Best of luck!

You don't need copies, you just will want them to know what is in your file because you will always have the burden of proof and responsibility if everything doesn't go the way you want!

You should maybe ask your wife to "make" a copy by noting down what she sent in before she forgets? Just so you have peace of mind about this?

Don't be afraid of not being able to visit after marriage.. as the poster above has said, you can file for AP which is permission to travel immediately after marriage before receiving conditional green card, but once you receive that in a few months after you file for AOS she will be a permanent resident and able to travel like anyone else without seeking special permission.