C and Lore

what's really interesting is that LPR's filing for children over 21 is still only 5 months but LPR's filing for under 21's or spouses is backed up a year....seems like VSC has their priorities a little off. Best of luck. I filed Nov 2010 and my fiancee just got approved last Tuesday, so I know how long it takes and how frustrating it is. Hang in there you'll make it!
Best of luck!

May I suggest that you use the generic term "foreign fiance/e" instead of "Filipina" when referring to negative behavior on the part of the foreign national? This is out of respect to the many Filipinas like myself who are in genuine relationships and only wish to be with their loved ones, like most people on this site.
By the way, good luck on your own visa journey :-)

Here's my bullet list:

The OP cannot stay in the US legally. Either marriage to the petitioner or a successful asylum claim are the only two options available. The K1 entry doesn't allow for any other route to immigrate.
The 90 day period is not intended to be a "trial period". It's intended only to provide enough time for the petitioner and beneficiary to get married - nothing more. That said, there are lots of people who discover that the relationship just isn't going to work within this 90 day period. Consider this a 'side benefit' of having 90 days to get married, and not specifically an intended use of this period of time. Be damned sure that both parties want to marry before you send the petition.
USCIS will not help the OP return to their home country unless they are deported. If they leave voluntarily then they must arrange their own transportation. They may be able to get help from the embassy of their home country in the US.
There is no cap on how many K1's a beneficiary can apply for. Plenty of people have been approved for a K1, but something came up and they couldn't move to the US before the visa expired. They subsequently applied and were approved for a second K1. It doesn't raise any suspicions if it's the same petitioner. If a subsequent K1 is filed by a different petitioner then it substantially raises the level of suspicion that the beneficiary's primary goal is immigration rather than a genuine relationship.

Precious80, you asked for "good advice". My advice is to go home and start putting your life back together. As difficult as you think it will be to return home, it will be far more difficult to remain in the US. You have no path to legal immigration without marrying your fiance. Being in the US as an illegal alien might be appealing to someone from a third world country, but living legally in any country in Europe would be better than being an illegal alien in the US.

Actually the 90 days isn't a "check point" to be sure about getting married. You NEED to KNOW this before you move here. The 90 days is a deadline that the USCIS gives you to accomplish this. If you aren't sure about being married BEFORE you get to the US, you need to step back, slow down and figure it out.
Drives me crazy that people think of the 90 day deadline as a decision or trial period. You should absolutely KNOW you want to marry this person you are moving your whole life for BEFORE you get here.
-Blu-

I printed something thicker than "War and Peace" and then went outside and planted two trees.

ok i'm not going to flippant this time in case this is legit. these are all things you need to sit down WITH him, go over and DISCUSS. you are not his mother so do not nag, you are not his child so do not beg or whine for things... you are his WIFE and as such you need to treat him as a man in the home. you are equal but different. you are correct that nagging will hurt more than help. but to "back off" and ignore a situation is just as bad.
get a binder and notebook.... you need to get organized
#1 - make a honey-do list for the unfinished projects. obviously he knows these things need done, he worked on them. find out why the work stopped (lack of money? job was too large for one person? or too dangerous for unexperienced?) address the issue and go about fixing the problems holding up the projects (hire a professional or get a family member to come help or save the money to buy the materials).
for the jobs that CAN be completed... make a list, or put them on pieces of paper and put in a jar which he will select one at a time and work on that job till it is complete. or some other method that the two of you come up with that will work for you two.
do you also do home projects? or do you help him with them? (just curious)
#2 - as far as 'you make 10x what he made while working' perhaps he doesnt feel the need to work if you remind him of this. obviously money isnt an issue if for 5yrs he hasnt worked so perhaps he should look for a volunteer position to hone his skills (out of job market for 5yrs) and bring his resume/CV back up to date. it will get him out of the home in a good way (working, rather than going out at night to party) and bring his self-esteem up a little as well if he is feeling depressed.
with the economy the way it is, trying to send him out to find a job now (5yrs out of the job market) would be quite ruthless and is a recipe for disaster. if money is an issue, have you considered a home-based business of some type? are his skills marketable on the internet? try temp agencies who might be able to get him a temp job into a company who wouldn't normally give him a chance otehrwise. exhaust all options.
#3 - make goals. daily, week, month, year, and even 5yr.
what does he (and you) want to accomplish in these time periods
what does he (and you) need to do to meet these goals
#4 - begin treating each other like you are newlyweds again.
look for the good things in each other, not the faults.
do nice little things for each other EVERY day.
treat each other kindly

well you made him like he is so deal with what you have created
why was ok for him to sit for 5yrs and not ok now ... is it getting close to that 7yr itch creeping in?

Since we don't know exactly why you were denied before (exactly what was said and what was stated) and also what country you are going through, none of us can answer that.
Usually just going back with the same evidence will not satisfy the Embassy's concerns and it is highly likely you will be denied again. Regardless if you marry or not, this initial denial and the reasons for it MUST be satisfied before any type of visa will be granted. All the Embassies are different and have different "criteria" so we need to to know this information.
If you were denied once and things haven't changed (adding emails and chat logs may not be substantial enough) you most likely will be denied again, and again, and again.

We finally did it!!
For everyone going through this gut wrenching, exhausting, trying, maddning process.... KEEP WITH IT!
My Fiance and I went through London... it took us a month and 2 days to get his passport back with his K1 Visa inside.
Keep the faith kids! Its a waiting game like no other.. but believe me, the relief you will feel when this part of the journey is over.. will absolutely overwhelm you...
keep smiling.. and keep fighting....

There were actually a couple of NOA2's handed out early this month. Check Igor's list for VSC. Also VJ members only make up a tiny fraction of all the petitions that USCIS receives, so for all we know, there've been TONS of approvals recently, just not VJ ones.

I agree with Yes and No.
They are as accurate as the members who post them are. Expect variances for multiple reasons. A: because some members want to keep accurate info for their own purposes and some want to to help others and are accurate. Some members update as they remember and may not be as accurate. B: it doesn't take into account the specifics of your case and any slowdowns the government may be working with. For example if the government gets a backlog with other request types they may move some staff to clear those out, causing a backup as they try to balance out all the requests. Also groupings of holidays such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years in roughly 1 months time will distort times for those filing close to that time.
The lesson here is. Use the estimates to see if your case is being processed in a timely fashion and move forward with contacting them if its past the normal amount of time. I wouldn't use the estimates to plan anything money related, for example travel or planning weddings. If you do its unlikely even with the help of a Congressman/woman to get on track to not have to reschedule. Others here have contacted their Senators and State Representative (House of Representatives) to help and it may fix the problem if you fell through the cracks but it wont speed you up, at best its useful to get them working on something that fell by the wayside outside of 'NORMAL' processing. Not for getting you through the process faster.

a little bit Offtop, but imagine applying for K1 whn petitioner is from NY and beneficiory from Puerto Rico only to find out there s no such wonderful and very breath taking option available.

I disagree with your dad and the other posters. I presume the lawyer knows exactly what he is talking about. For him to handle immigration cases and NOT know he is lying to you is preposterous. The lawyer is not ignorant, he is lying. Telling you the truth would not be conducive to you giving him large amounts of your money.
Be advised, NOTHING the lawyer can do would reduce the wait time of any application, whether you marry the man first or not. If you feel you cannot do it yourself, then pay someone that doesn't lie to you. I wold suggest a visa service that has more experience and actually handles VISAS. This is not a process requiring an attorney, it requires someone honest and knowledgeable. Anyone faling on either of those two qualifications should be eliminated from consideration.
It should not be assumed lawyers that handle immigration filings do "not have a clue". Assume they are lying. It is to their benefit to LIE, it is not to their benefit to be ignorant. They do this for THEIR benefit.

He either did not have a clue, or not much experience with Iranian beneficiaries, or he simply wanted to scare her in order to make her feel as though she could not do it alone and would, therefore, require the lawyer's services.
You can choose either the fiance route or the spouse route. There are pluses and cons to both choices, but being that you are back in the US and making it back to Iran to marry would not be the kind of thing you can do on a weekend, it seems to me that you have chosen your route: the fiance visa.
Definitely read the guides over and over again until the process makes complete sense to you and you could explain it to someone without need of looking it up. Befriend some VJ members with beneficiaries from Iran and ask them specific questions as you have them. This is a very helpful community and it enables people to complete the paperwork on their own.
Yes, it is a difficult journey, but it should be encouraging to know that there have been MANY people who have made it. You can, too.
Best wishes!

The wait can be a little longer from Iran but K3 is not the currently available spouse visa. K3 is dead. CR1 would be the immigrant spouse visa applicable to a newlywed. For what it's worth, my experience indicates the lawyer you talked to simply doesn't have a clue. Additional administrative processing after interview applies to fiance or spouse equally. How long it takes is case specific, not category driven.

Just for clarification: A K1 visa is NOT a travel visa. DO NOT leave the U.S. without at least having AP!!!

that is because they do not understand the difference between "with" which they think means "in the same envelope" and "concurrent" which is what the instructions say. Concurrent means during the same time period and in conjunction with a pending AOS. You CAN send the AP and EAD later WITH a copy of the NOA1 from filing AOS. BUT, there is littel point in doing that. They are free, so why not do them at the same time? If they are delayed you may get the green card first and then what is the point? As it was, we filed them together (in the same envelope) and still got the greeen cards first.

No. AP & EAD can be sent WITH AOS, or they can be sent after AOS is filed (but before it's approved) but a copy of NOA1 from AOS would need to be included with the applications.

Your tax assessed value is useless for an affidavit of support. Property is frequently overvalued by the tax assessor, especially with tax revenues dropping as fast as they are.
When you list your property on an affidavit of support you'll need to provide an appraisal from a professional appraiser. They won't accept any value you conjure up yourself, even if you believe you're 'low balling' the value, and they won't accept a tax assessment. They'll usually accept the value provided by a professional appraiser without question.

If you qualify on income there is no need to list assets.
If you need to use assets to qualify then you will need a recent valuation from a licensed appraiser along with any mortgage/loan information to determine your equity.

It is what it is. Write what is appropriate and correct. Alla was born in "Ukraine SSR" a country that no longer exists. But that is what it says on her birth certificate and I can't change it.
My forms contained references to "USSR", "Ukraine SSR", "Russian Confederation of Independent States", and "Ukraine" All of which were at one time or another the name of Alla's country during her lifetime! Alla and her two sons have lived in the SAME city all their lives yet ALL THREE were born in different countries! Alla in the USSR, Sergey in the Russian CIS and Pasha in Ukraine. Never had a problem.

Requirements for the K1 Visa
A. You and your fiance are legally eligible to marry under the laws of your country as well as the laws of the U.S.
B. You will marry the petitioning U.S. citizen within 90 days of entering the U.S.
C. You intend to enter the U.S. solely to marry the U.S. citizen
D. You have met the U.S. citizen within the last two years before filing for the K1 fiance visa. However, this requirement can be waived only if meeting your fiance in person would violate long-established customs, or would create extreme hardship for you
This you would have to prove and Morocco is considerd a high fraud country and it is already hard for couples to prove a bona-fide relationship with several trips meeting in person. There are probably no guarantees they will even consider an approval without meeting at least once in person. Sometimes things may not appear as it seems on-line without physical touch and emotions and meeting of family and vise versa. Isn't it only logical to meet in person to see if you both are experiencing genuine REAL feelings?......she could get a sitter for her to at least visit you only if its just for two weeks Morocco. Surely she has friends or family who can help out. I had only visited my husband once in nov 2008...again in April 2009 when we married and in 2010 (even thought its nearing the end of the year) I have not visited him any this year 'cause of waiting for immigration this year almost taking about 8 months so we patiently waited. Both my trips could only last about two weeks with my work schedule. we got approved & he has his visa but I kept up with every e-mail chat record since our very first meetings on-line. I would encourage you both do this.
Its going to be a long process so I encourage you to burn your logs onto CD's incase your computer ever crashes from a sudden unexpected virus to not lose important key evidence of your relationship.
Most all visitor's visa's to come and visit a lady fiance or friend gets rejected. I met a lady on the plane who had a mere friend in tourist business she visited every year and he applied she said 10 times and never accepted and you lose those fees. Im sure if I am wrong someone here on VJ will correct me. Good luck to you both.

Women have far more approvals too. This information is meaningless in predicting the outcome of any individual case as each case is INDIVIDUAL.

I want to post a review of our interview that took place Feb 12, but when I try to do it through the embassy reviews, the page tells me I need to register. As far as I know I AM registered, so I will just post this here, since I know there are a few people with upcoming interviews in Guayaquil.
Our interview was scheduled for 8:30am on Tues Feb 12. We both arrived in Guayaquil on Sun Feb 10 (I by plane, Johnny by bus). Monday we stopped by the clinic where he had his medical exam done a couple of weeks ago in order to pick up the sealed envelope with his results and his x-ray. We also had to go to the police department to pick up his police record (don´t even get me started as to why this wasn´t done before!!! Let´s just say that the laid-back nature of Ecuadorians translates over to getting their papers ready for their US visa interview... at least for my fiance it does!). We are staying in a hotel called ´hotel velez´a couple of blocks away from the consulate. There are tons of hotels in the area, but this one fit nicely in our budget ($11 a night).
Tuesday morning we woke up early, assuming we needed to be in line at the consulate early (not sure why except that i got this impression from reading about other people´s interviews - not necessarily specifically about the consulate in Guayaquil). Johnny´s interview appt was 8:30am, and we probably got in line around 6:30am. There was absolutely no reason to do this. They started checking people in around 7am, but told us we were too early for our interview time and to come back around 8:20. We went down the street to the cafeteria at the Hotel Oro Verde and had some breakfast before going back to the line around 8:10, at which point they let us check in. They took Johnny´s folder with all his required documents and passport, pics, receipt for paying, etc, and then we had to wait until 8:30 to actually go in. They searched my purse and took my gum and my water and threw them away. We went back to a waiting room and waited to be called.
The first time we were called to a window was by a younger woman, very nice, who was looking through his papers, and told us we had to leave and fill out his DS-156 on a computer, print it out, and attach one of his passport photos to it. He was never told this previously. She gave us a yellow sheet that would let us back into the consulate Luckily, there´s a cybercafe across from the consulate, where we got that done quickly and came back to the consulate. At this point it´s around 9:30am. We waited to get called up by the woman again (although we were confused about how she would know we were back, but she did), and she took the document we had printed. Then we sat down, waited more, got called up for finger prints, sat down and waited more... By the time the IO called us up I think it was close to noon.
He called us up, had us both raise our right hands and swear, and told me he would ask Johnny questions in Spanish and me in English, but that if I didn´t understand anything to let him know. He was very nice. He first asked Johnny to describe how we met. He asked me some specific questions about the circumstances that I was studying in Ecuador, but nothing difficult at all. He asked me a little about my financial documents, but nothing hard. He asked Johnny where he would be living in the USA (Madison WI) and advised him that it would be very cold. ASked us both if we had been previously married or had any children. Asked JOhnny if he had been to the US before. Asked Johnny his profession here in Ecuador. Asked if we had pictures. We pulled out about 15 pictures to show him. Asked me how many times I had been back to visit since the summer we met (2 not including this time). And I believe that´s all the questions he asked. He gave us back a bunch of documents from our I-129 petition and from what I had submitted with the affidavit of support (didn´t keep any of my pay stubs, but I had also submitted tax transcripts from 2004, 2005, 2006, letter from employer, W2 from 2007, and a copy of my taxes I submitted this year.) He then said he was going to approve the visa, and he started explaining where DHL was to go pay to have it delivered. I interrupted him, said I was leaving to go back to the US on Saturday, and would there be any way for us to come back to the consulate to pick up the visa instead of sending it so that we could fly back together. He said that would be no problem, and we are to go back at 3pm today to pick it up (he apologized that we couldn´t pick it up the same day but they have to do some sort of checks overnight in Washington). So that´s in about an hour here - hopefully there are no issues picking it up.
I had brought lots more evidence of our relationship with us to the interview, but they never asked to look at anything except the pictures. I had emails, phone logs, plane tickets, passport stamps, etc etc. Better to be overprepared than underprepared though I imagine.
Anyway, I hope this proves useful for someone. And I hope that it´s not too long for those who probably don´t need to know these details!
Good luck to everyone in the visa process... we´ve been waiting since the beginning of June last year - and I can´t believe we are finally to this point and that everything went smoothly for the most part. You will all be in our shoes soon...

Looks like I'm getting hit the wrong way on both ends. It appears I had to pay the higher of the fees for the I129F and since the AOS fees are going UP, I get to pay the higher of that one too. Gotta love it.