John+Lourdelie

Ok, some of you may know that my fiancée had her interview on April 13 and was told that she was approved. Well, we waited and waited and never got notice from 2GO that her visa was being delivered. Based on other timelines we were expecting that she would have her visa by April 18th (she was staying in Manila) and be able to fly here on the 19th. How wrong we were. On April 18th I called the embassy to see if here visa had been printed. I was told that while all of her documentation was in order and her interview went well and she had in fact passed her interview, the consular officer had not yet signed off on her visa printing and was holding her visa for a reason that they were not allowed to tell me over the phone. They told me to just wait and her visa would be printed soon. Ok, so I am pissed off but I will wait a little longer. I call back on the 20th and check again. Still nothing and no movement and there is no telling when my fiancée's visa will be approved for printing. I think the CO is asleep at the wheel. Since it is the Holy Week and the embassy is closed on Thursday and Friday I decide that the only way for me to proceed is to go the the Philippines and confront them my self. I booked a flight out of Phoenix on Friday night and arrived in Manila on Sunday morning. Monday, April 25th, we went to the Embassy and again inquired about her visa. It still has not been printed and we were again told that everything was in order and there was no reason for the hold up. I asked if there was anything I could do, talk to her superior, talk to the CO, etc. She told me that I could write a letter to the CO requesting an expedite. I am thinking, ask for an expedite! It has already been 2 weeks since her interview approval. What needs to be expedited? So I write my letter basically begging the CO to send her visa for printing since I am leaving the Philippines on April 30 and want my fiancée to be on the flight with me. We leave hopeful and upset. Nothing on Tuesday on the 2GO website so Wednesday we go back to the Embassy to inquire again. They are closed. The IV unit is having training that day so there is no one there. Still nothing on the 2GO website on Wednesday. We go back to the Embassy on Thursday and viola, they tell us that her visa is out for delivery. Now if you were told that your visa was out for delivery you would think that means that the courier has it. Well, not if that is what the Embassy tells you. It means that the Embassy is getting everything together to eventually give to the courier. So we wait some more. Remember that my flight leaves on Saturday and it is Thursday. The courier does not have her visa yet. She does not have her CFO sticker yet. I do not have a plane ticket for her yet. Friday morning at about 8:30 I check the 2GO website and it says that they have her visa in the manifest. We call them and ask about delivery time. They tell us that the requested delivery location is not allowed (Robinson Mall, even though it is selectable when you setup your interview) and we have to have delivery to another location in Manila. Also it won't be delivered until Saturday. All hope is lost at this point. But then my fiancée asks if we can come down to the main office and collect her visa. They tell us that we can pick it up after 5pm. Ok, now we are onto something, but there is still the issue with the CFO stamp. The CFO office will be closed by the time we get the visa. I remember that Tahoma mentioned that there was a CFO office at NAIA so we called there and the gentleman said that he was not sure if we could get the stamp at NAIA until he looked at her documents. After collecting the visa and making sure that all the information on it was correct, we went to NAIA and attempted to find the CFO office. Everyone that we talked to pointed us in a different direction. Upstairs, downstairs, over here and there. After about an hour we finally got to the right person (CFO is inside the secure area so he had to come out to us). He looked at her docs and had her fill out the form. All of a sudden we realize that we don't have a passport photo for the CFO registration form. He tells us that it is not necessary. He takes her passport and goes away then returns with the sticker and stamp inside. Wonderful. Almost there now. We just need a ticket on the same flight was me. I ask the information desk where I can purchase a ticket for my airline and he send me over there. Nope not over there. So we ask someone else and they send us over here. Still not the right place. Another security person tells us to go to the 4th floor and it is there. So to the 4th flooor we go even though that seems a little odd to me. Well it is not there either. That is the airline flight operations. The man there is nice and tells us that you can not buy a ticket at the airport. I am shocked. You can not buy a plane ticket at the airport? How ridiculous!!! He give us the number to call for reservations. When we get back to the hotel. I call and the reservation desk is closed from 6:30pm till 9:00pm. I wait and call back at 9:15 and finally after all that has happened get a reservation on my flights with a seat next to me for my fiancée. Just need to print the confirmation at the hotel and it is done. She tells me to be sure that we are at the the airport 3 hours before the flight departure time. I am thinking, 3 hours. That is pretty early, but it is needed. Any less and we might have missed the flight.
We arrived POE Honolulu on 30 April 2011. It took about 45 minutes to clear immigration and customs. There were no problems at all. Very smooth. Arrived in Phoenix, Arizona at just after midnight on May 1, 2011.
Thanks to all that helped during this portion of our process. Now onto Marriage, AOS, AP, and EAD. The journey continues. Just hope it gets a little smoother from here.
:dance: :dance: :dance: :dance:
John and Lourdelie

The only thing hiring a lawyer will do is speed up the time it takes for your wallet to empty.
John

While my situation was different (my fiancee's visa was approved but the CO decided to hold it for unknown reasons), I decided after calling the embassy and getting nowhere that I had to fly next day to the Philippines. When I got there (my fiancee was very happy to see me), my only recourse was to hand write a letter to the CO expresssing my concern for the visa not being released and it was my intention to fly back with her when I left on the following Saturday. We got the visa in hand on Friday.
While it may not be necessary, and it is a big expense, you might consider going there and hand writing the CO a letter explaining the error of your not informing your fiancee about your past transgressions. He may see that your relationship is indeed valid since you took the time and expense to rectify the situation. Your fiancee will probably enjoy your company (and a good long talk) also.
Good luck to you both,
John

Historically this does happen from time to time. I happened when we were going through our I-129F filing back in 2010-2011. Back then what it came down to was the service center was performing training sessions and would randomly select cases and move them through. Sometimes they selected older cases and sometimes very recent cases. Fair or not, that is what they did and it appears they are still operating in the same way. Nothing you can do except write your Senator and Representitive.

Historically this does happen from time to time. I happened when we were going through our I-129F filing back in 2010-2011. Back then what it came down to was the service center was performing training sessions and would randomly select cases and move them through. Sometimes they selected older cases and sometimes very recent cases. Fair or not, that is what they did and it appears they are still operating in the same way. Nothing you can do except write your Senator and Representitive.

Pizza Hut is on speed dial. We don't care where they work. They know where we live.
John + Lourdelie

Pizza Hut is on speed dial. We don't care where they work. They know where we live.
John + Lourdelie

Well, we were finally able to file for AOS, EAD & AP on the 29th of July (day 90). That was a load off my wallet .
Now let the waiting game commence again.
John & Lourdelie

any country that supports terrorist activities or takes part in them.
in doesnt necessarily mean every man and woman in that country is a terrorist,it means the government is suspected of terrorist activities.
im perfectly fine with using that word,cant sugarcoat everything

Just to be clear, anything that doesn't help to support the claim that you met, face-to-face, at some point within two years before filing the petition, is not going to be useful in responding to the RFE. Examples you provided of evidence which does not help prove this are letters, chatlogs, call logs, text's, remittances, and cards. People do not use any of these forms of correspondence unless they are physically apart from each other, which is the opposite of what you have to prove to USCIS.
Providing an itinerary might be marginally useful if you feel the need to explain your schedule to USCIS, but it's not really useful as evidence you've physically met. The reason is because you can produce a very authentic itinerary on any travel website without actually booking any tickets or traveling anywhere.
Primary evidence is proof that you've traveled - airline boarding passes, visas, passport stamps. Receipts are useful if they are identifiable, and place you in the destination country in the correct time frame - credit card, ATM, hotel receipts, etc. Secondary evidence is proof you and your fiancee were together during the trip - photos, receipts or ticket stubs for activities together, etc.
Providing the other evidence you mentioned is fine if your intention is to frontload the petition with relationship evidence, but it won't help make the case that you've met within the past two years. Focus on meeting that requirement first since that's what's needed to get the petition approved.

As a VJ member, I appreciate the way this is done. It lets us know who moved the topic, why it was moved, and sometimes provides context to comments that were made before the topic was moved that might otherwise seem to not make much sense.

The Site Administrator requires us to comment with each topic we move so that the original poster (OP) will not be confused when they don't see their thread in the forum they originally posted in..... which is why we are also required to leave a marker showing it has been moved.

If he's been clean for 26 years then he's got a pretty good chance of getting the I-601 waiver based on it being more than 15 years since his crime and that he's been rehabilitated. If your dad hasn't already submitted his B2 visa application then he should get off his duff now and do it, and then have the I-601 prepared so he can submit it as soon as his visa is denied. Cases that don't depend on hardship tend to be decided more quickly since they are less subjective.
I'm going to go against the tide and disagree with most everyone else in this thread.
If it means a lot to your dad then I would give him a little time to get the I-601 submitted and a decision made. If it gets within a month of your visa expiring then go ahead and leave for the US. You and your fiancee will have the rest of your lives together, but your marriage is a once in a lifetime event. It will probably mean a lot to your dad if you can at least give him a chance to try.

Hey, wait a minute...didn't you do THE SAME THING?

What you have described is tax fraud so it's best that you don't post something encouraging someone unfamiliar with US taxes to break the law.

I usually don't respond to these kind of things but here goes.
By your logic it would seem that if YOU are planing on having a child YOU have about $125,000 to $250,000 laying around that you are not using. This is just to make sure that if you lose your job and never find another on you will be able to provide for that child until they are age 18. But, oh wait. What about you and your wife and any other children that you might have. Maybe you should have about $1,000,000 of disposable cash laying around so that you and your loved ones don't become dependent on anyone. Life is unpredictable. Don't ever fault someone for having a child and then losing their job for no fault of their own.
just my two cents,
John

No, you came to a website where the focus is on legal immigration to the US and asked for people who have violated US immigration law to share their personal experiences using that process to enter the US.
I am a Canadian (dual citizen now with US) and when I still lived in Canada worked as a Constituency Assistant to the Member of Parliament. Our Riding was within a short distance of the US borders at Sarnia and Detroit. We did have the occasion to deal with Canadians who had been banned from the US because they chose to violate US immigration laws - either intentionally or unintentionally. The US makes no differentiation between the two - kind of like, if you mistakenly eat potassium cyanide thinking it is sugar you are still going to experience the 'effects' of the 'cause'.
You will find no one on this site - which is full of people who HAVE done the legal process - advise you to do anything other - and if anyone did, the post would be removed and they would face an account suspension. (I speak now as a Moderator for this site).
When my husband and I decided to marry we chose the K-1 route. My personal experience with people who had violated some part of US immigration law (and on the other hand Americans who had violated Canadian immigration law) confirmed that the legal options were the only way to go that would allow peace of mind. Btw - did you know that there is no statutes of limitation on immigration violations? That even if you were successful and 25 years down the road your violation came to light - even if you were then a US citizen - your citizenship would be stripped, you would be deported and you would face a ban.
USCIS takes immigration very seriously. Misrepresentation and Visa Fraud are two of their highest 'crimes' and bear heavy consequences. Getting married to a US citizen and living in the US is a multi-year process - it doesn't 'end' when you cross the border. You have to prove the validity of your marriage and that you satisfy all of the medical, criminal and moral requirements to be allowed to live and work in the US after you are married before you will be allowed to remain in the US - conditionally for 2 years only. You then have to apply for permanent permission by showing you still qualify for all of the personal requirements plus prove the legitimacy of your marriage by providing documentary evidence that you have co-mingled your financial assets and liabilities, your personal and your social lives together.
To enter the US with the intent to marry and remain in the US is considered Visa Fraud - using a visa issued for one reason as a means to bypass the legal process of the proper immigrant visa. In this case, using the 'implied' visitor visa status that Canadians have with the US - a non-immigrant visa that promises the border you will leave at the end of your legally authorized stay - to immigrate. This is misrepresentation - one of the 'highest' violations for USCIS - and makes you ineligibile to receive permission to live in the US. Your real worry is how long it will take until USCIS finds you out - and right now in the current economic situation, all political parties are facing very heavy pressure to deal harshly with anyone found violating immigration legislation. As I said, there is no statutes of limitation for immigration violations - are you really sure it is worth a lifetime of worry and fear to avoid a few months delay of doing the legal route?

Just like in every other walk of life, some people have more money than they know what to do with, others make enough to live comfortably, still others just make the cut and some require the assistance of a sponsor. Love strikes everywhere whether one can afford it or not.
John

@lifesjourney. What is your problem???? Seriously dude! How rude!!!

Per the instructions for the I-693 (Section III, 2A), if your visa medical is not over 1 year old at filing your I-485, and the medical exam did not reveal a Class A medical condition or if you did not have a Class A medical condiditon, ... (Section III, 2B) if the DS-3025 vaccination record was properly filled out during the visa medical, a transcription is not necessary. If it was not filled out correctly, you are required to submit Part 1, Information About You, Part 2, the vaccination chart and Part 5, the Civil Surgeon's Certification, of Form I-693.
You should get a copy of the I-693 instructions and read for your self to see if there is anything else of importance for you.
Hope this helps.
John

They start the treatment for two months on the presumption that she has TB, based on the test results so far. The results of the sputum culture will either confirm or deny that presumption. If it confirms, then she continues treatment for a further four months. If the sputum culture is negative then she can stop taking the antibiotics.
There is no earthly reason to postpone treatment. TB is serious and often deadly. The longer you wait to treat it, the higher the chances that the treatment will fail. The visa is secondary to your fiancee's life. Do the right thing.
As Tahoma has indicated, TB skins tests are not reliable in that part of the world. The skin test only checks for the presence of antibodies, and a large portion of the population there has been exposed to the bacteria that causes TB. In your fiancee's case, they did a chest x-ray first and that obviously showed something to be concerned about. That, combined with the positive skin test, is a sufficient reason for concern. The doctors are right to proceed under the assumption that she's infected with TB.

there you go...another february approval...thanks for ignoring october filers CSC...

Or maybe not. Three of five CSC approve petitions from February are from the Philippines. Same as me and many other older petitions. One of five CSC approved petitions from January are from the Philippines. Again same as me and many older petitions. If they were adjudicating petitions based on open interview slots, they should be doing the oldest petitions first.
What makes those petitions easier and/or more special than mine is a mystery that will never be solved. I am not angry with those who were lucky enough to have their petitions approved at lightening speed. I am very happy that they will soon be with their loved ones. I am angry with a system that appears to have no rules and no regard for those of use that have been waiting patiently for such a long time.
This will be my last post on this subject. I can only hope that I will get my approval soon.
John

I guess that when my fiancée is here and we are married and gone through AOS and got her green card and applied for citizenship I might tell people to just wait. Your petition will be processed in due time. Don't worry about all those people that just applied 2 weeks ago and are already approved. That means nothing and you shouldn't worry about it.
For the record, I did know how long the process was when I met my fiancée and made the decision to go through the process to bring her here. My mistake was in assuming that everyone that applied would be treated the same and that everyone would be treated fairly. I do understand that there are those who require and are granted expedites. I do understand that USCIS hires new people and that they require training. I don't understand why these training exercises are not performed on petitions that are at or have exceeded the USCIS stated goal for processing time.
Like many others here, my loved one lives half a world away. I can not just jump on a plane and go see her for a weekend or what ever. I need her here with me so that I can tell others not to worry and that their petition will be processed in due time, just like you have told me.
John