max+patricia

Where to File :

All petitioners filing a stand-alone Form I-130 must submit their petitions to the Chicago Lockbox facility. Form I-130 petitions filed with the Chicago Lockbox will be routed to and adjudicated at the appropriate USCIS Service Center. This routing will be based on the petitioner’s place of residence. Important filing tips, as well as additional information on fees and customer service, are listed on our Lockbox Filing Tips webpage.

Under the new rule that became effective Aug. 15, 2011 petitioners residing in countries without USCIS offices may file a Petition for an Alien Relative based on the addresses provided in the revised form instructions, also available on www.uscis.gov:

For U.S. Postal Service:

USCIS

P.O. Box 804625

Chicago, IL 60680-4107

For Express mail and courier deliveries:

USCIS

Attn: I-130

131 South Dearborn – 3rd Floor

Chicago, IL 60603-5517

http://www.uscis.gov/i-130

You havent gotten to the stage to worry about how many Pics,Pages of Chat Logs,Telephone history.

What is primary at this stage if you have both seen one another in the past 2 years..evidence to prove that..copies of tickets,visa pages and docs showing ongoing relationship

Depends on whether the OP actually filed I-129F or I-130. Documentation of meeting in the last 2 years is more relevant to I-129F petitions for K-1 visas.

Hi everyone!

I'm thinking about proposing sometime soon to my beloved girlfriend, and I'd like to discuss something regarding a possible I-129F with you guys, hoping for some answers

Since her and I have been discussing possible options of bringing me to the US to stay, we have both decided that we want to do everything the right way (no B2 -> AOS) and agreed to go with the K-1 process. Now, since I have sufficient funds to support myself for a few months in the US, if I enter US on my B2 visa, then we decide to file I-129F, is it okay for me to stay in the US till the petition gets approved, provided that it gets approved no later than the date stamped on my I-94? We do not want to be apart during the process so I don't want to risk being denied entry on B2 while I-129F is pending. Also, as soon as the papers are out of NVC, we both would go to Poland for further processing and attend the K-1 interview together.

As far as I am concerned, what I want to do is legally sound. The question is, will it be frowned upon, let's say, during the K-1 interview?

Kind regards!

We did the exact same thing - no problems at all. We ended up canceling our petition (we're still together, just getting things worked out) but there shouldn't be any problems at the interview since you're not breaking any rules. On your I-129F it will ask if your fiance/e has ever been (or is currently) in the US - and if he/she is in the US, you'll have to provide their I-94 info. No sweat, just don't overstay

Good luck to you guys!

Congrats guys Enjoy!

Not applicable to your situation.

If (and a big if) anything comes up about the abandoned K1, life happens, circumstances change, all that your wife would need to do if asked is explain.

Thank you! We were figuring the same thing.

Two other questions if you don't mind.

1 - on the I-130 and other forms, would my fiancee have an A#? She has a tourist visa but has never had any other type of visa. I know I can schedule an Infopass appointment to check, but would an A# have ever been assigned to her if the K-1 was completely canceled before the interview?

2 - my fiancee will take my last name when we marry and I am a bit confused about what to do from there. Her passport is obviously in her maiden name but we want to put my last name on the I-130 and all other documents from then on. Is this a problem down the road for her visa not matching the name in her passport? Is it advisable to have her change her name in her passport before the interview for the CR-1? Any suggestions?

Hey all, been a while! Good to see so many people doing well.

My fiancee and I have been through plenty this year. It was about this time last year that we filed for our K-1 (back when it was taking FOREVER to process, looks like times have changed) and we waited the whole thing out, had our interview date set, etc - and decided to cancel it thinking we'd start over when we picked up again. Long story short, I was up for a possible job move and my fiancee was about a year away from finishing school. I emailed back and forth with the embassy and sent a signed letter (scanned/emailed) asking to withdraw the petition. They said they'd take care of canceling it and that was that. The interview never took place, done deal. We thought we were being smart about it.

Fast forward to now, we are going to get married sometime soon and I'll file a CR-1 for her. We know we're back to the beginning with fees and waiting which sucks, but it was our doing. I have read a number of threads on here about people getting married and filing a CR-1 after their K-1 was denied, but I haven't really read much about people that canceled their K-1 petition as far into it as we did. We were about a week or two away from the interview.

I'm not worried about showing documentation that we went about this the right way (although we never received anything from USCIS or NVC saying our petition was withdrawn - only from the embassy?) but I am a bit worried that since it was only 6 months ago, that might make us look suspicious. To be honest, we regret having withdrawn it after holding on for so long, because maybe a month afterwards we both realized that we didn't want to be apart for another year while finishing school, moving, etc and did nothing to try to salvage the K-1. So here we are.

Does anyone have any suggestions or experience with this? I've read a few things saying you're required to include a waiver if you're filing for a K-1 again for the same person (within 2 years, something about IMBRA) - but does that apply for filing a CR-1 after a K-1 was canceled? Thanks in advance for any input.

My situation was similar to yous in a way.

My wife and I were married for over 2 years before filing the I-130. We did receive and RFE asking why we took so long to file.

Just like your situation my wife wanted to finish what she started with her education. I was also self employed and operted completely under a corporation. My taxes and everything was under the corp so I had no income under myself for I-864.

Our delay was based on her finishing school and me disolving my corp to file taxes under my own name.

When we sent this information in we were approved a week later.

Yeh, that's interesting to know they look at it that way (as they should I guess) - but if you have a good reason for delaying something majorly important, it should (hopefully) speak volumes about the fact that you're doing things the right way.

Since you are so close to getting the K-1 visa, why not get the visa now and then decide what you will do next:

1. Never use the visa.

2. Use it but leave the country within 90 days and without getting married.

3. Use the visa, get married in the USA. But do not file adjustment of status yet.

4. Get the visa, get into the USA, get married, file the adjustment of status and then also file an I-131 to preserve status, and then go back to your home country do whatever you need to do. You will get the green card in the mail.

I see none of these hurts you.

Why get a visa to not use it? Besides, she has a valid B-2 tourist visa that was just renewed last year for another 10 years. If we went for the K-1 (which I know we would have gotten without a problem) it would have cancelled her B-2 on the spot. If she came here on the K-1 and had to go back for classes as early as September to be gone for almost a year - and we hadn't done everything for AOS - she'd be in a precarious situation.

Since she can come here anyway without a K-1 - we could marry here, she could return home, do it all that way - or we could get married there just the same and still file CR-1 as we would anyway. I know this seems crazy to alot of people that have waited and waited to get to where we are. In hindsight, I wish we would have done the CR-1 route in the first place - since we'd be pretty much done with all this nonsense already.

Thanks for the responses guys.

Take a look at all the things you need to do, and it might make sense to get married RIGHT NOW, and then finish everything in Venezuela, and enter the US 2 YEARS from the day you were married, in which case you would get a 10-year green card.

Definitely worth considering, however, she'll be done with what she needs to get done in less than 2 years time - and as we have already waited 6+ months for the whole I-129F drama only to start at the beginning of the line later with I-130, I know we'll be anxious soon enough. Thanks for the suggestion tho

Thanks for the info guys

I guess my last thing would be if anyone knows how long it takes to receive something (if I do at all) from USCIS/NVC about our K-1 petition being cancelled? Even though we wouldn't even be touching anything with the CR-1 for several months, I'd like to know it's a done deal at USCIS/NVC before submitting something else later on.

Hey folks,

It has been a rough few months for my fiancee and I. We filed the I-129F in December last year, got NOA2 in April, had our interview date about a week ago - everything was great - but a few days before the interview we decided to cancel it. This was something that we did not take lightly - we actually canceled it a month before as well (for the same reason) but got scared and were able to contact the embassy before they returned it to NVC. This time though, we intend to leave it as it is. The embassy staff in Caracas has been excellent in their dealings with us - but we are a bit worried our back and forth may have annoyed them. We'd be annoyed by us by now...

First of all, none of this is due to inconsistency in our relationship, but rather some admittedly late considerations about our current living situations. My fiancee is 3 years into her studies at her university in Venezuela, completely paid for - and we started realizing it was crazy for her to bail on that being so close to finishing, to come here and start at zero (hardly anything would transfer) plus have to pay for all of it herself. I am also all over the place with work between the mainland and Hawaii - which I began to realize wasn't fair for her to be thrown into such back and forth right now. We came to conclude we need to finish things up to be a bit more stable before taking the next big jump. My fiancee and I have known each other for 8+ years and have been together for almost 3 years - we are just trying to do what's best for each other and for us as a couple - but realize we are dealing with some pretty serious circumstances that we need to get figured out now (and should have better considered before starting all of this)

My questions are these -

* Will our canceled I-129F/K-1 have any negative effect on us if we were to marry sometime in the next 5-6 months and file for a CR-1?

I have read some things saying "cancelled with prejudice" and "cancelled without prejudice" - but since we didn't actually even have the visa to be cancelled without prejudice, I assume this would also apply to the petition itself? They made no decision on it - we did.

I'm trying to plan this out so that my fiancee will be done with school in July next year - we could get married sometime this winter and then file for the CR-1 - probably putting our interview at sometime next summer which would be perfect timing. Is there anything we should know about our cancelling of the K-1 petition and refiling as a CR-1 visa so soon afterwards? Obviously we can explain all of this, but we are nervous this could look strange to USCIS/NVC + the embassy. Any thoughts?

* If we went the CR-1 route, how long after POE would she receive her green card?

I ask this because she would have to return to Venezuela at some point the following fall to defend her thesis and then attend the graduation ceremony in December - but we could go back for both as brief visits. I know we can file the I-131 AP for this, but when exactly could/would we do that? Do we send that with the actual I-130 petition? She would be out of the US for no more than a week or two in total, but obviously we don't want to jeopardize anything.

* In regards to our cancelled petition at the embassy being returned to NVC - will I receive anything about that? Any notice or proof of cancelling it so that we can include it in a future petition? I'd just like to show that we did this the right way - we didn't just let it expire and keep the embassy waiting - we cancelled it for good reason and intend to take it up again when it's better for us.

Sorry to make it such a long post, but thank you in advance for any advice!

If you sent it with the petition, it'll probably go to the embassy since USCIS/NVC forwards it on to them.

However, you might have a problem since the info there isn't current. An affidavit of support from 6+ months ago probably isn't going to look good to a CO trying to determine the petitioner's CURRENT financial situation. You'll also probably need the I-134 to have an original signature from the petitioner. Keep in mind the affidavit of support generally includes (at least) the most recent year's tax info, a few recent paystubs, and a recent letter of employment. Is there any way he can fax/scan these things to you tonight?

Thanks for the advice here! I was worrying that would be a problem since it says to answer all questions - but obviously there isn't an answer to something that was already marked "none".

I know my fiancee is supposed to fill these forms out, but there is also a place to note if anyone helped you fill it out. It's easier for me to do it. She already has them all anyway, sent them last week - but I'd have rather fixed something now than have it come up at the interview. We'll keep our fingers crossed! Good luck to you guys!

Hey all,

Last minute worrying - I am going over the copies of forms I sent to my fiancee (originals and copies for her) for her interview next week. I have read some back and forth things on here today and hope someone can clarify some questions so I can make changes now, if necessary, rather than have a problem at the interview! (Should have asked in advance, my mistake)

On DS-230 question 14 asks "spouse's name" - I put "none" because she doesn't have a spouse. However, I left questions 15 (DOB of spouse), 16 (address of spouse), 17 (spouses occupation), 18 (date of marriage) - all blank, since they are all pertaining to question 15 - info about your spouse (which is NONE). Should I have written "none" in all of these fields?

On DS-156 question 19, similar situation in that question 18 asks for "spouse's name" - and I wrote "none" - however, I left question 19 blank (spouse's date of birth). Should this have also been none?

If I have to make a new DS-156 to correct the error here - will there be any problems with the whole barcode thing? I mean, will they see that I have printed out 2 of these now? I doubt it, but hope someone knows for sure.

Thanks in advance for any help!

We waited 3+ weeks for our case to arrive at NVC. Called everyday, told the same generic response.

The good things is once it's there it's usually in and out pretty quick. Hang in there.

If you send it UPS/Fedex/DHL it needs to go to the street address. USPS goes to the PO Box.

For U.S. Postal Service:

USCIS

P.O. Box 660151

Dallas, TX 75266

For Express mail and courier deliveries:

USCIS

Attn: I-129F

2501 South State Highway 121 Business

Suite 400

Lewisville, TX 75067

IIIEEH, I am sooo excited

Should be! You guys had a LONG wait!

Congrats on staying strong, you're almost done

Very organized! Two things missing (that I'm sure you'll throw in once back in the Netherlands) are your medical paperwork and your police certificates (if required). Don't forget them

I'd suggest you make a complete copy of everything you listed - just in case the embassy wants to keep certain things. We're doing the same thing - making sure to sign everything like an original (no copies of signatures) that ultimately leaves us with 3 total sets of our complete petition - 1 set of copies for backup to keep at home, 1 set of copies for the embassy to keep if they want it, and then the original set of everything that I have no intention parting with.

Good luck to you guys!

How soon is your interview? How do you have a copy of NOA2 if you haven't received the hardcopy? I'd assume you mean an email or something from USCIS.

I can only think the full-time job must be minimum wage (or close to it, since full-time @ $8.90/hr puts you over the poverty requirement for 2 people) and that the consular officer sees the part-time job as temporary - meaning if the part-time job is lost - the full-time job no longer sufficiently meets the requirements.

Thank you for that link. It is very useful.I knew there was some threshold restrictions, but i was not sure where to find it. Thanks again!

Thank you Barbara J for the info. The 134 should be notarized right?

That is comforting to know. I just checked the poverty guideline too. Thanks gigi_a

Doesn't need to be notorized anymore. Good luck!

Congrats and good luck!

Most people put something like "N/A - K-1 visa for permanent residence" in the notes for this question and don't check either box. You can email the embassy and ask them specifically if it concerns you - some are known to be more picky than others.

Bank statements aren't exactly required as long as you can prove ongoing and sufficient income. We are including a letter from my bank stating how much I deposited in total last year - just for added benefit. It can't hurt.

WOW! I read your post when you were asking about how to withdraw, and yes I was also close to tears!!! SOOOOOO happy things worked out for you and that you're getting there!

Goodluck on the rest of your journey!

Thanks guys, very kind of you

Hope the best for the OP here as well, however it all pans out.

They did mailed NOA1 a week after we filed our petition and we currently waiting for NOA2 even though she hasn't sent in our proof of relationship, I called to tell her this today cos I was worried but she told me she is in control that everything is on the right track but what I don't know is when are we to send in our proof of relationship.

Thank you

Bring it with you to the interview.

Again, the only thing USCIS is concerned with is whether or not you have physically met within the last 2 years. Everything else is considered by the consular officer at the embassy.