W Mark and Carol

I'll jump straight to it. My wife is a citizen of the UK. On her most recent stay in the US we randomly decided to get married, and we now have all of the appropriate forms prepared to mail to the Chicago, IL USCIS office. (I-130 Package and a I-495 Package) However, we are unable to send the paperwork until this Monday, which will lead to it arriving at the office by 3PM on Tuesday afternoon.

My problem is that her current Visa runs out on Tuesday, and I want to know if the forms will have time to process before she has to leave so that she may remain in the US as we wait for her biometric fingerprinting and interview? Or will she be staying illegally if she doesn't leave on Tuesday afternoon as originally intended?

Thanks so much for anyone who can give us an answer!

As far as I am aware - visa "overstays" are waived for immediate relatives (i.e. wife of a US citizen) providing you meet all the other criteria for AOS approval.

What kind of visa did you wife travel here on? If it wasn't a K1 Fiancee visa, then I think you should be prepared to have definitive proof that you did not intend to marry before she arrived here on her last visa.

I am a UK citizen, married to US citizen, arrived on a K1 Fiance visa which expired long before we were able to complete our AOS, but my green card was approved without too much trouble. Just make sure your paperwork is all in order.

CONGRATULATIONS!! :-)

Got ours today too!

Thanks for replying here. Good point there - but no, my fiance wrote "upon her arrival.."

We'll call California Centre on Monday to enquire, but I have already posted another original letter, this time dated next to my signature. Hopefully that will work...

took 2 days from California to Seattle for us..

We got our first RFE today stating that our "I-129F Petition is incomplete, please submit the following:"

"INTENT TO MARRY: The beneficiary must each provide an original statement (signed and dated) indicating that they plan to marry each other within 90 days of the beneficiary's admission to the U.S. and are both free to marry. Make sure you write your name, sign and date at the bottom of the statement/letter."

We certainly did submit an intent to marry, each. Both were written using the samples provided here. I signed and posted mine to my fiance from New Zealand where I was at the time to ensure he sent the original.

The only thing I can think - is that our letters were dated at the top of the letter rather than the bottom.

Anyone have any other ideas??

"MARRIAGE TERMINATION. "The Judgement/Order summaries submitted as evidence of marriage termination between [my fiance & his ex-wife] is not sufficient evidence. Submit a legible copy of the full final divorce decree that shows proof of filing, or the death certificate, signed, dated and issued by a judge or civil authorities that terminated the prior marriage(s) between....."

We submitted a copy of the ENTIRE five page Divorce Decree document, as signed by the judge and stamped with the date of filing. Although the first page has a main heading "Judgement/Order summaries" - it is definitely entitled "DIVORCE DECREE" on every page and is signed and dated by the Judge. There is no other divorce decree document as far as we're aware.. The filing date stamp on the copy is a little faded - but certainly everything is legible..

Any ideas?.... We're thinking perhaps we need to go back to the court and get another notorised copy from the original filed...

OR - Is it possible that USCIS have lost some pages of documuents we submitted? Any similar experiences?

Hi Everyone,

I'm curious to know if anyone else has had a similar issue:

We got our first RFE today stating that our I-129F Petition is incomplete, please submit the following:

INTENT TO MARRY: The beneficiary must each provide an original statement (signed and dated) indicating that they plan to marry each other within 90 days of the beneficiary's admission to the U.S. and are both free to marry. Make sure you write your name, sign and date at the bottom of the statement/letter.

We certainly did submit an intent to marry, each. Both were written using the samples provided here. I signed and posted mine to my fiance from New Zealand where I was at the time to ensure he sent the original.

The only thing I can think - is that our letters were dated at the top of the letter rather than the bottom.

Anyone have any other ideas??

MARRIAGE TERMINATION. "The Judgement/Order summaries submitted as evidence of marriage termination between [my fiance & his ex-wife] is not sufficient evidence. Submit a legible copy of the full final divorce decree that shows proof of filing, or the death certificate, signed, dated and issued by a judge or civil authorities that terminated the prior marriage(s) between.....

We submitted a copy of the ENTIRE five page Divorce Decree document, as signed by the judge and stamped with the date of filing. Although the first page has a main heading "Judgement/Order summaries" - it is definitely entitled "DIVORCE DECREE" on every page and is signed and dated by the Judge. There is no other document..

We were very careful to organise and clearly label everything in the package

Any ideas?....

Is it possible that USCIS have lost some pages of documuents we submitted? Any similar experiences?

Excellent post - thank you so much :-)

Wishing all of us December filers a Happy New Year!

May our Visa Journeys be swift and successful in 2011