Ryan H

she's coming here again in Italy at the end of the month and if I have to tell you the first things we're gonna do,I'm afraid I might get kicked out of this forum LOL

I'm going to do my best to ignore the ignorant use of the word "retarded" and focus on the issue. OP, you need to do what's been suggested to you countless times in this thread. A Visa is a piece of paper in your passport. Damaging that piece of paper does not erase the months it took to get that piece of paper. There would be no need to do this entire process all over again. Your life is not over, the world is not ending, put on your big girl pants and deal with this situation like an adult. Do what needs to be done.
If you choose to believe that everything is indeed hopeless simply because of some water damage, then that's exactly the result you'll get. These boards cannot get you another Visa, only you can do that.

<--- me after page 2 of this thread!
OP, I hope everything works out as it should!

Seriously a little over dramatic do ya think; you say you are retarded but your English is great and you have enough sense to know a lot of information in regards to different forms of ink and other things so i hope you are not using the word retarded out of context. There are many people on this planet that are mentally challenged and to throw the word retarded around just for the sake of your clumsiness is disrespectful to those who are truly mentally challenged. I do not doubt you have a cyst in your head or on your brain but you are articulated well enough that i would not consider you mentally challenged! maybe a little unstable but these two things are opposites.
P.S Pull your **** together and take the advice you have been given by others. It is my opinion that the people here have afforded you enough of their time and all you have done is complain, I have seen no gratitude given to those who have offered help so maybe it is all about you here and not about anyone else on the site.

I'd make an appointment and go to the embassy and check this thing out, I know it sucks but what other options you have? Better than being at the border and get denied. I'm sorry you're going through this, but what happened has happened and you can't go back in time, just try to find out how to salvage the situation... I hope it'll be resolved and I don't think you need to re-do the whole thing. I know when some people mistakenly rip their brown envelope they take it to the embassy and they fix it for them.

You're a very very weird person, everyone here keeps telling you contact the darn consulate by phone or e-mail and you refuse to and keep panicking, what do you want us to do?? Go and get you a new visa?? Call them!!

I'm sure you're very upset with yourself, we all would be if this happened to any of us, but you just need to take a few deep breaths. This journey is so difficult and the process takes a lot out of all of us emotionally, I know to reach the end and then have something like this happen must feel huge right now. It's not. It's really really not. Don't fret anymore over this, pull yourself together and move forward, this is really not a big deal even though it feels earth-shattering right now while you're still in the moment. Accidents happen and the consulate knows this, I am certain you can get your visa replaced. You're going to look back at it one day and get a good laugh, I promise.
You've come so far, just some baby steps to go. Don't let yourself fall apart, your other half needs you!

Now you are going overboard. You can continue to enjoy your misery if that is what you want or you can start to move forward. You are not the only one that this has happened to, guaranteed. There is a solution. It is found by contacting the Consulate.
I would take the additional visa fee part to mean covering the costs of re-printing - not re-doing the visa. Realistically, I would be very surprised if it were even as high as $100 - still much cheaper than doing the process over again - especially when it ISN"T NECESSARY. . Really - vent a little bit more, get it out of your system and then start working to make things right - like you did for the medical.
btw - this is the part of the Consulate post you would be better focusing on: " . . . it should be no problem to reissuue your visa"

Regardless of what happens 3 to 5 days are going to pass anyway whether you do something or do nothing.
You have a choice. You can continue to wail and complain that things are hopeless and that there is nothing you can do so you don't even try - - in which case, I can guarantee you will not be completing your visa journey.
OR - you can do something constructive to resolve the problem. Instead of thinking of all of the things that you can't do - think of the things that you can do. If you can't phone them, then email them. Go in person and sit on their door step and ask an officer if he will take in a letter explaining your problem.
Even if the number is expensive it is probably cheaper than any of the other options you are considering. If it takes 3 to 5 days those 3 to 5 days are going to pass regardless. You might as well get the process started and then the time will pass and you will get an appointment to get the visa replaced. Sure, it may add some extra time but that is time invested in your future. You can choose to invest your time in your future living here in the US with your husband - or you can invest your time in doing nothing and staying separated.
Your other option if your flight is scheduled in the next few days is to proceed to the airport and let them decide if they will allow you to board with the visa and the damage that it has. If they do, then you have no problem. If they don't, then you are just back to where you are right now - in need of making an expensive phone call to get an email code so you can send in an explanation of what happened and ask for an appointment to bring in the damaged visa, your passport and whatever else is necessary.

Have you *tried* calling the embassy before jumping to conclusions?? I'm sure it happens to people all the time - just call them and calmly explain what happened. It's not a big deal.

This is for the Ghaunzou Consulate but in response to a question about an immigrant visa being damaged (in this case during canceling an old passport)they respond:
So, if one Consulate has a process in order to re-issue a damaged immigrant visa, you can be assured others do as well. As it notes here, you need to include an explanation of how the damage happened and you may be required to pay an additional fee. You do not have to re-do the whole process.

Contact the consul, bring your passport in they will print a new visa and you are done.
You may want to speak to a counselor though, you are taking this way to hard.

The links are to NON-IMMIGRANT visas - you don't have a non-immigrant visa. You have an immigrant visa. An L-1 visa is a type of employment visa and an L-2 is for a dependent of an L-1. The second link discusses non-immigrant visas only.
Contact the consulate. You may need to bring in passport type photographs. Be sure to tell them the type of visa that you were issued. The process for a non-immigrant visa is vastly different and much shorter than for an immigrant visa. Good luck.

There have been cases before yours where something has happened to a visa - one person even washed his passport with the visa in it by accident. It will invalidate the visa that is in the passport only - it does not invalidate the process. You do not have to do it all over again from the beginning. You just need to contact the Consulate - explain that the visa has had water spilled on it and what can you do about it. Ask if you can come in and if they can officially cancel that visa and re-issue one that isn't damaged. The documentation has been damaged only - not the approval for the process that resulted in the visa.
You've come this far, you have climbed over many hurdles - not one is going to steal your victory away from underneath you at the last minute. You are fine. You are upset because this does mean so much to you and it is so easy to be afraid of losing what is important. Think how well you handled the medical situation. You can handle this just as effectively.
So, take a big breath, contact the Consulate, explain what has happened and ask them when you can bring back the passport to have the damaged visa replaced.
You'll be fine. Honest.

Don't beat ur self up please, u need to breath in and out sloooooowly. Now pick up ur phone and contact ur consulate and tell him exactly what happened. Just call them but please be quiet and clear with them don't let them feel u panicking. Please think positively and don't think that u messed up before knowing the real answer from them. Please contact them and let us know cos I'm really worried abt u!! Best of luck and I'm gonna pray for u

WOW, it was just an accident. Don't beat yourself up. Simply contact the consulate and see if you are still able to travel on it. If you are, then no worries. If you aren't, they will probably re-issue you a visa
Good luck

Aren't you special. Do people have to be 50 years old or older too?

Bragging about assets is probably the same as bragging about the size of your #######.

Uh, K-1ers pay their fees just like everyone else and go through the same lengthy process if not longer.
It's a lot more than just 'infatuation' for most people. Perhaps they want to get married at home as well? Where one gets married is irrelevant at the end of the day.
I would love to see the divorce statistics for IR1/CR1 visas as well if you're going to play this silly game.

Are you talking about the K3 visa (which would require filling both forms)? If so, I would say don't bother.
This is the typical sequence of events if you were to do that:
You file the I-130 and receive your NOA1
You file the I-129F
USCIS ties the I-129F together with the I-130 by pulling your I-130 from its place in the queue and places it with the I-129F you just submitted.
USCIS approves both petitions at the same time and forwards them to the NVC
NVC receives both petitions at the same time and administratively closes the I-129F for K3 leaving only the I-130 for CR-1 active
Now, there have been some recent posts from 2 different users who had their I-129F arrive at the NVC a day ahead of the I-130 and the I-129F for K3 subsequently went forward. Now it's too early to tell is this is a trend or an anomaly.
IMO, the best course of action for you is to file the I-130 and let it run its course alone without filing the I-129F.
Congratulations on your marriage and best wishes going forward!

:thumbs:
congrats! if there was to be a case that needed to be expedited, it's yours. good luck with the expedite through NVC as well.

The lawyer is right. You can AOS right here and now but there's a couple of things to take into account.
1. The K1 fee is lost. You need to pay for an I-130 when you apply for AOS, you'll need to pay for a medical in the US which from people's reports is more expensive than doing it at home. So in order to AOS safely you're looking at spending $1070 (AOS) + $420 (I-130) + medical ($400+) for a total of $1890 before your I-94 expires.
2. If you were to stay till the end of your stay and then return home (still engaged and not married) you can organise all your stuff to take/ship over. You can continue to work and save money while you wait for the K1 to process. You still need a medical, and you'll still need to AOS when you eventually get to the US but you don't have that looming deadline of the I-94 date
I'll be honest though you "decided" to see an immigration lawyer? Why? You had a K1 processing so it's obvious you had plans to marry and AOS before you saw the lawyer, or at least heard about it, or considered it, or wanted to see what your options were before you left. I know you say you didn't but there is no reason to see an immigration lawyer unless you had plans for something and wanted advice.
I don't see trying to AOS whilst having a K1 as being an issue personally, but I do see it as risky because of the deadline and no appeal, and more expensive because you'll pay the higher medical fees and the I-130 fee here in the US.
Completely up to you what you want to do. Stay and AOS or leave and finish the K1. I think the K1 is safer but the AOS is still possible.

Oh I got a bit frustrated when seeing CSC started approving Jan and Feb filers two weeks after they filed. I think it might be less complicated with Vermont since they have a backlog. Each adjucator has a box by their desk and if yours is with someone who's either slow or something that makes is easier for petitions filed later to get approved before you if they're sitting on someone else's desk.
I mention the CSC because I'm almost certain they're trying to get the average waiting time down to 5 months again, that might be the case with Vermont too.
When you had to get a tourist visa(instead of VWP) it sounds to me it is very important to show that you're doing everything the legal way. Being denied entry once and since then they allowed you shows to me that both the embassy and officer believed you'd return to the Netherlands. Just beware not to spend more time overseas than in your home country, too.
I really wish I could reassure you that everything's okay, hopefully you'll get some(good!) news from either USCIS or the ombudsman.

Hei there,
I'm happy that you get to spend time together while waiting. Like others have said, there's a bit more to it than just getting married if the i129f is denied. First off, you can get married anytime you like but then you'd have to cancel the i129f petition and then apply as a spouse and then return to your home country while waiting(as far as I know?). I don't know how it's going to look if you try to stay in the US when you've already shown intent to immigrate with the first petition.
However - my advise is to simply wait it out and see the outcome of the i129f. Right now you have a whole 2 months worth of ongoing relationship as proof. I think it's natural to be uncertain about the petition whether it's denied or approved. Just make sure not to overstay or in any way jeopardize your chances.
I'm wishing you the best : )

Even if you use a service, you will still have to gather information yourself and send it to them (I believe they will assemble it for you).
People have to decide what they feel is best for them in regards to hiring an attorney or using a service agency for their case. What works for one couple does not always work for another.
My two cents is this, if one feels they can handle the process on their own, they don't need to spend extra money for a lawyer or service agency. On the flip side, if they feel overwhelmed and are totally uncomfortable with the process or if their case is a complex one, then legal or agency assistance may be something for them to consider. Ultimately the person making the call will know what the best call is.