The Wedding - Will It Really Be Mine?

Well, just thought I'd jump off the wagon and add in something about the wedding.

Since it will happen eventually... I just don't know a single thing about it.

You see, what I want to do is get married within the first month of getting there and have the ceremony in May. May 15th to be exact. One year after our NOA1 date.

But no, my mother doesn't like that. It's not right to have the signing of the certificate and the ceremony on two different days. It's not right that they wouldn't be there for the signing, it's the actual marriage.

Yeah, right.

This is what started the arguments between my mother and I.

As it stands, she will not listen to me with anything relating to the wedding plans.

I've already told her what dress I want, but she thinks I need to lose weight before I can wear it. Yes, I'm 200lbs. But what's wrong with that? I've seen much heavier people wear wedding dresses and look amazing in them.
She's been telling me for months to lose weight since I'm going to be married next year. Does she really think that basically telling me I'm fat will make me lose weight? No.

And now because of that and the fact that we don't have a date set, I don't know if I'll even get the dress I want. My dress is from Alfred Angelo. It's a really pretty dress, they just take about 3 months to make them and send it to you. Below is a picture:

That's the one I want. The back is a corset look and I'll be getting it (I hope) in a dark brown colour called Espresso. It's very nice. There's no exact price on this, but the website says it's under 600. Which isnt too bad by the sounds of it, considering I've seen common budgeting of 2000 dollars for the dress.

Because my mom wants us to get married in one shot instead of two seperate times, I dont know if I'll be getting this dress. I keep telling her I want a May wedding, but she keeps saying that she doesn't want to hear about it. If this keeps up and my fiance and I can't talk her out of her stubbornness, I may have to give up both my dates and my dress.

I will not be a happy bride. I sure hope she doesn't expect me to smile, because she certainly killed any hopes of it.

I have chosen the colours and will not be talked out of them. Dark brown, Dark pink and white. I've seen some nice wedding favour tags in those colours and I can get napkins too. Havnt really looked at what the party favour should be, but how can I plan anything when I don't even know a date?

It's impossible to start planning a single thing when my mom won't stop being so stubborn. I thought this was a time for mom and daughter to come together and work on this thing and be happy about it. I can't even speak to my mom about it without getting my mouth shut.

It's depressing, but my one happy day in life in which I'm supposed to be treated like a princess probably won't happen the way my fiance and I intend it to be.

I doubt they'll see a smile on my face.

It's mine and my fiance's day. Not hers.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step

The Ninth Step - Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms

Ah yes. Completing the forms.

It's pretty redundant.

There's 4 different forms to complete. They're not very hard, as they all have pretty much the same info.

In most consulates it seems, there's only 3 forms... Montreal is one of the guinea pigs for a new form that's supposed to replace an old form.

WHY MONTREAL?

Don't they know we're one of THE slowest consulates ever?

I believe about 14 or so consulates are taking part in this, Vancouver is one of the other ones.

First is the DS-156. It's not that hard. You just have to fill it out in one shot. It's weird... it makes you fill it out in an online format but then once you're done, it puts it into adobe and lets you save it/print it out. I mean, the info was super easy to fill in, since I have it all already. Took about 25 minutes.

Second is the DS-156K. It's just an added on form to the DS-156. This form, if you've never been married and don't have kids takes 1 minute to fill out. You just have to fill in about 6 blanks. Easiest form ever.

Third is the DS-230. This one is in two parts or a 4 page form. It asks for the same info as the other one, pretty much. So you pretty much just regurgitate info from the last forms to this one. 1st part is sent away with the package and the 2nd part is signed at the consulate. In the old package, this is the single form you send away. In the new package, you send everything. This one took about 25 minutes, just putting in the same info over and over.

Fourth and last is the brand spanking new idiotic online form. The DS-160. It, yet again makes you give all the same info over and over. It has way too many steps to it, and it's just a pain.

It even asks you to attach an electronic photo! I don't know how people without digital cameras or scanners can even do that step. I had a hard time with it and I used a scanner.

The only thing I liked about it is that you could save the form half way through or at whatever complete step if you wanted.

Interesting thing about this one as well is that you are given a confirmation page to print off, not the whole form. Apparently it sits in the system and they use the bar code on the confirmation page to look it up. I guess that's cool, but no. Pain in the ass. This one took about 40 minutes. I had to ask questions about it on the Visa Journey forums and wait for responses. I do not like this form.

I actually started all this paperwork about 2 weeks ago.

I'm done except I need my dad to help me remember when I started and quit my first job, since the DS-230 asks for 10 years of employment instead of 5.

I still think it's silly that I have to give them all the same info 3 times.

Those poor trees.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step

The Eighth Step - Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary

Well, I'm finally caught up when it comes to steps.

After waiting for a while, the forms were finally sent to me.

How do I know?

I received them today, haha.

The thing is, most people would call the Department of State to see if their forms have been sent or even been logged into the system.

You see, thanks to Montreal being really slow, it can take them almost a whole week just to log your case into their system. Mail takes a few days.

I didn't call the Department of State, because I just didn't have the money.

I was going to call them eventually if I hadn't received "Packet 3" as its called by the 1st of October.

Packet 3 consists of a few things. Apparently it's been changed now, so it contains less than it used to.

The old one sent the letter, the checklist and all the forms that are needed to be completed. The old one also asked for only one form to be sent back.

Apparently the new one does not send forms at all. They only send the letter and the checklist. This one also asks for ALL the forms back. I guess it's not so bad, but it seems like a waste of paper. Oh well, not my choice.

My mom called me today saying that something from the consulate came in the mail for me.

Mom: Something came from the consulate in the mail for you.

Me: About time.

Mom: Says something about an interview.

Me: Yeah right, I have to wait 3+ months for that.

And pretty much it ended there. I didn't get her to open it, but now I'm curious about it. Here's hoping she actually drops it off to me tomorrow. I don't want her taking her sweet time doing it. The longer I take, the longer I have to wait... and I think 6 years of waiting is long enough.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step

Steps Five, Six And Seven - NVC Receives Case, NVC Forwards Case to Foreign US Consulate and Foreign US Consulate Receives Case

These 3 Steps Take Place Between September 8th and September 16th.

These 3 steps are really short, unless you get unlucky.

Thankfully, I did not.

On September 8th, we got a touch. I mentioned it in the last post, but I thought I'd mention it again anyway. I know the dates here kinda smush in with the ones in the last post, but that's how stuff works.

I'm unsure if that touch was the case being sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) or it was the NOA2 being mailed, but whatever.

On September 10th, our case was received at the NVC.

What does the NVC do? Not much for K-1 cases. All they really do is assign a new case number depending on your consulate. Mine has MTL at the beginning, since it went to Montreal.

We got lucky though, we weren't put into Additional Processing. Additional Processing (or AP) is a random process in which random cases are pulled from the piles and are given extra checks. Not sure what exactly, but we managed to escape that.

We called the week after it was sent away, since I didn't really want my fiance having to call them alot trying to see if it had been sent off or not. He couldn't get through until September 15th, which was good timing. They had sent off our case that day to Montreal. We didn't get stuck in AP. Thank goodness.

NVC sends their cases to consulates via DHL shipping, so I was able to follow it through that. It was very fast, the petition arrived in Montreal the next day, September 16th.

First one of that shipping date to get to the consulate.

It was good to know it got there... but it got to consulate hell.

Montreal is known for being one of THE slowest consulates in the world.

I don't get why really, since you'd think we'd have semi fast processing. It must be because Montreal is the only place that CR-1 visas are processed, thus slowing everything else down.

Vancouver's K-1s are pretty fast though.

Time for more waiting.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step

The Fourth Step - The Second Notice Of Action

This took place between September 6th and September 12th

September 6th, just a lazy Sunday.

I don't really remember why I wanted to go to the grocery store, but I did. It was a pretty nice day and I had nothing in my mind about the K-1 process.

Picked up some stuff. Probably some junk food for all I can remember.

I got home and noticed an email in my inbox. Opened it and saw it was from the CRIS. Well, that's strange, it's Sunday.

It turned out to be our NOA2 email.

It must have gotten in the email box late, probably due to them having to send out so much email on Fridays. It was dated for September 4th.

It's not to say I wasn't happy about it, but it was more like "It's about time after that RFE crap." kind of feeling. Still happiness in a way.

Due to it being Labour Day weekend, mail didn't start up again until the Tuesday. We got a touch on September 8th. I'm unsure if that was them mailing out the NOA2 hard copy or them sending the petition to the next spot.

None the less, the hardcopy came in the mail on the 12th. Thank God too, because if it were to get lost, we'd have to pay about 300 dollars to replace it. Don't ask why. Apparently it takes a whole tree to make a single piece of paper with that info on it.

It was nice to get passed the longest step... for most people. My consulate has 3+ month waits for interviews, so it's almost the whole NOA wait again. Figures.

Oh well, the next few steps shouldn't be too long.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step

Something Unexpected - Request For Evidence

This Took Place between August 26th to September 4th

After almost going crazy waiting for something, on August 26th an email from the CRIS popped into my e-mail in box.

My heart jumped.

I was racing to click the little msn window before it dissapeared, dying to see my Second Notice Of Action. The email opens...

"Request for Further Evidence".

(This is given to people who didnt complete forms properly, forgot to sign things, things weren't translated properly, forgot evidence, etc... or when the USCIS misplaces it and makes you send it again.)

I broke down and cried for a good 2 minutes or so. This is NOT what I wanted to see. This is the LAST thing I wanted to see. I jumped to the assumption that they lawyer was a wrong choice and that it was stupid to use her.

I told my fiance and he felt really bad, since he was the one who wanted to use the lawyer. The thing is about the Request for Further Evidence email (Or RFE) is that they do not tell you what exactly they want. We had to wait for the hardcopy to come in the mail.

I was so depressed for a few hours. I felt dirty getting an RFE since this process is so simple. Over the days, I kept wondering what it was. Did we miss something? Was there something wrong with our G-325A forms?

On August 27th our petition got touched. Nothing happened.

On August 29th we received the hard copy for the RFE. It was pretty fast thankfully. Now, what they wanted just... made me smack my forehead. Nothing was really missing, nothing was really wrong... just a simple missed box that needed to be checked off either yes or no. THAT IS IT. You think they could call about it instead of wasting paper! Seriously. Sadly, the 29th was a Friday. We had to wait till Monday to send it back.

On the forums I go to, someone suggested that we FedEx back to them. It went to a different address, but I think it's better that it got signed for instead of going to a P.O box and potentially getting lost. My fiance didn't tell me how much it cost to FedEx it, but I'm sure it was at least 15 dollars.

August 31st my fiance FedEx'd the RFE back to them. I'm very thankful it was something so simple. Some people have had really hard to reply to RFEs. Mostly relating to divorce decrees. Another reason I'm thankful that my fiance didn't marry his last girlfriend... this case could have gotten a bit messy because of a divorce decree. But well, it wouldn't have mattered if had married before anyway. It wouldn't have changed my opinion of him.

The RFE was recieved at the California Service center on September 1st. Good to know it got there.

Nothing happened that day or the next day. Well, except my fiance's 34th birthday on September 2nd. I'm sure something from them would have made a good birthday present.

On September 3rd we got an email from USCIS (they're labeled as from CRIS, dont ask why) saying that they received our reply and resumed processing.. That was a very nice thing to see. Our file was also touched that day. I assume they put the reply with the file.

The next day we got another touch. Nothing else happened. Just a touch. It was depressing to see that, because the long weekend started then.

Little did I know that that touch was the magic one.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step

The Third Step - The First Notice of Action

This Took Place Between May 15th and May 20th.

Patience.
It's something I do not have alot of... when it comes to certain things.
Even though some thing my mom printed off ages ago said that people with my name have constant patience, I really do lack it in certain situations.
I mean, I can deal with idiots online no problem... but when it comes to things like sitting around waiting for people who control our future life do their job... that doesn't sit well.

May 8th our petition was sent in. The waiting started.

Time passed, I killed time by doing what I usually do. Watch stuff online and wander around the Visa Journey forums learning more about the K-1 process.

Eventually May 15th rolled around. Matt got the First Notice of Action in the mail. What is the Notice of action, or NOA for short? There is two different NOAs in the process. The first one lets you know that they have your petition and in time it will be looked at and approved.

At the time, and currently, California's service center is faster than Vermont's service center... by about a month. Which is nice. I do feel bad for the people at Vermont, but I guess that's how the cookie crumbles.

It was nice to see something coming from this, even though the check hasn't been cashed.

I decided to sign up for email updates on the USCIS website. You can add cases to your file and see if the dates change.

I signed up and added our case. On May 18th, our case date changed... but nothing else happened.

That is called a "Touch". It means someone physically handled your petition, even if nothing in particular happened.

May 20th rolled around and the check was cashed. Goodbye 455 American dollars. That was like almost 600 Canadian. Goodbye savings account. Haha.
(To be honest, I don't remember the exact cost. It's been too long and I don't really want to look it up again. It's depressing. Lols.)

I later assumed this touch on May 18th was our check being taken out of the package. Makes sense.

AND THUS MORE WAITING HAPPENED.

Yup.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step

The First & Second Step - Putting Everything Together & Sending It

This Took Place In The Month of April And Part Of May.

After getting denied at the border for almost committing visa fraud (I still feel guilty about it every time I think about it), we looked into the K-1 Visa.

I was saying maybe we should do CR-1, but that'd require us getting married and we didn't really have the time or money to do it at the time. And MAN. I am SO glad we didn't do it. The wait times for an interview for CR-1 at Montreal are absolutely horrible. 4+ months to even be assigned a date right now. I believe K-1's at 3+ months. It's still bad, since alot of other countries can give them out within a month... who knows why Montreal is so slow. I wish I lived closer to Vancouver, they're so much faster.

Anyway. I stressed and stressed over the whole thing. I was still feeling guilty for not knowing to do this in the first place so I was trying so hard to get this done properly. I looked at the paperwork over and over and filled in so I could understand it. My fiance said that he was going to get the person who did his citizenship paperwork to fill in the paperwork for him. Did I ever have a fit about that.

We argued numerous times about the lawyer thing. I told him we didn't need one, that we could do it ourselves. He said he trusted that person and that they're "professionals". In the end we did go with one... I don't really think I had much of a choice. I felt really left out in the fact that I wanted to see what was going into this, I wanted control over it.

This lawyer didn't really live up to what I thought she would. She didn't ask me to fill in a G-325A, which is the biographic information. I told my fiance that this was needed, and we just argued about it, that if the lawyer didn't ask, we didn't need it. I eventually looked it up online and proved to him we needed it. I mean, I felt kind of bad to argue with him over that kind of stuff, but if I couldn't put it together myself, I was going to try and make sure everything was done properly. So he went back to the lawyer and asked if I needed to fill in the G-325A. She said yes, but she was just going to do it based off the info I had initially given her. Excuse me? Do you know where I had worked/lived before the initial info I gave you? I'm not one of those people who got tied down to one job and one home. It kind of blew me away.

She had also asked for my long form birth certificate. I'm pretty sure I didn't need it right away, but well... if she didn't want to do this without it, I had to get it. Thankfully, I got it within a week. I faxed it off and that went fine. It's not too bad that she asked for it, because it's needed at the interview.

So eventually I sent everything. I sent 4 copies of the blank G-325A with my signature. I sent proof with explanations written in red pen and things on my visa bills that showed that I spent money while I was there. Okay, that's all fine and dandy. The paperwork was put together and sent off. I told my fiance to get an EXACT copy of what the lawyer sent in.

July rolled around and he visited me. Well, I wasn't very happy to say the least about what I was given. I was given 3 of 4 of the blank ink signed G-325As and everything that had been written on in red. What did she do, photocopy it? I purposely wrote on it in red pen. Nor did I get a full exact photocopy. Egh.

Needless to say, that's why I wanted to do it myself.

There was one thing we didn't put into the package. Letters of intent to marry once I get into the US. Apparently they're needed and they didn't get in there... unless the lawyer forged my signature or something. Who knows really.

It was strange. I was freaking out because I had wanted to get all the papers to him before April 22nd, when he was going to be sworn in as a citizen. Well, that didn't really happen. Haha. We didn't even get everything sent in till May 8th. It's strange that I wanted to get it all sent off so fast, that I just HAD to get it done... but ended up taking a long time. I wonder why. Maybe the pressure made me crack.

Though, it did get to the California Service Center in the end, which is good. At least the lawyer got that part right. They didn't wait a week to get it sent off like I've heard most lawyers would do.

I did have a huge weight taken off my chest when it eventually got sent off. As much as I was unhappy about not being able to put it together myself, I was just glad it got done.

Now we just had to wait for the check to get cashed (which was my money, my fiance didn't have the money at the time) and get our First Notice of Action.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step

The K-1 Fiance(e) Visa

This post explains what a K-1 Visa actually is.
It's not very confusing, thankfully.
I'll explain through the 5 W's (Who, what, when, where, why) and the How. The how will be very basic as the rest of my blog will eventually explain each step in general.

What:

What is a K-1 Visa?
A K-1 visa is a single entry visa into the United States of America that allows a foreigner to enter and marry their fiance(e) and adjust status legally. Now, this visa itself is not an immigration visa. This visa just allows you to adjust status (which it itself is immigration) through marriage.

K-1 is not to be confused with K-2, K-3 and K-4. K-2 is for children under 21 of K-1 holders. K-3 is basically the exact same as K-1 but just for people that are married already. K-4 is for the children under 21 of K-3 holders. I'm not quite sure about that age requirement, as I can't seem to find an exact source, but 21 seems like the right age.

There is also the CR-1 Visa and the IR-1 visa. I don't know a whole lot about these two, but I know CR-1 allows you to adjust status outside the country and enter with a green card. You must be married for this visa. You do not enter with a green card on K-1, you must file for one when you get into the states after marriage.
I'm not too sure about the IR-1 though. Go look it up if you're interested. Haha. I do think it has something to do with DCF (Direct Consular Filing) though. Don't quote me on it though.

Let me also add that people who apply for K-1 Visas must get legally married within the US. There's no way around that. People are more than free to have ceremonies elsewhere once they get their green card though. Because if you leave before that and you did not apply for Advanced Parole... well, sorry but you can't come back in the country.

Who:

Who can apply for a K-1 Visa?
Two people who are currently single/divorced/widowed can apply for a fiance(e) visa. As a rule of thumb, you must be engaged, but there really isn't a way for them to make you prove it. Though, if you end up referring to your future spouse as something other than a fiance in documents or at the interview, you might get looked at weird and questioned.
While no one can get the fiance visa faster, couples with one divorced person may have a hard time. USCIS is known to be picky with the divorce decrees, or so I've noticed on the forums I go to. Especially countries that have strange rules/exceptions about divorce or ones that must be translated into English.
There is no age requirement that I am aware of, other than the USA's marriage without consent age. Though, I'm sure if the family said it was okay for the person to marry below non-consent age, they would allow it.

Where:

Where can one apply for a K-1 Visa?
You can put the paperwork together anywhere you want, but the visa must be sent from within the US. I'm not exactly sure why, but whatever. Cheaper mail? Haha.
Of course, that doesn't stop you from doing your paperwork in the foreign fiance(e)'s country. Though, most people just mail their US citizen fiance(e)s their paperwork.

When:

When can you apply for a K-1 Visa?
Anytime you want as long as you meet the criteria. I believe the only criteria is that you have met within the last 2 years. Most people do this easily. Hell, my fiance and I met like 6 times in 2 years. I find it strange that they'll give people visas when they had only met once and met maybe like 1-5 months after starting to talk. I mean, how do they know those marriages will work? Maybe all the immigrants is what makes America's divorce rate high! Oh who knows. You really never know.
There are people who will fake relationships to get green cards, as sad as it is.

Why:

Why apply for a K-1 Visa?
Why am I explaining this? It seems pretty obvious to me. You want to go live with your fiance. Of course, you could get married first and apply for K-3 or CR-1... but maybe you want to get there fast and you would like to have your wedding in the US. Maybe you didn't have enough money for a wedding and don't want to wait to save up for it. I'm sure there's many reasons people choose K-1.
Why did we choose K-1? Because we were planning on having the marriage in the US in the first place, mostly. We also wanted the fastest route. After 6 years of having a long distance relationship, you just get sick of the distance and want to be together.

Now that those basics are covered, here comes the how.

How:

How do you apply for a K-1 Visa?
It's actually pretty simple. You fill out 2 forms. The I-129F and the G-325A. The first one is the actual petition. With this, you include proof of meeting, passport photos, emails, etc. Proof that you have a relationship and that you've met. The 2nd one is just biographic information. It's straight foward and easy, unless you were like me who's had numerous jobs and has lived numerous places. Thanks mom and dad.
I didn't know how to apply for a K-1 until I found the "Visa Journey" website. It's helped me so much and will continue to help me when I have to finish off this process.


Well, that's it really about a K-1 Visa.
If you want to know more, wiki it and visit http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?act=idx . They've helped me greatly.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step

A Little Bit About Me And My Fiance

Hm, well. I thought I'd give a little history before I really started this blog. A little history about my fiance and I.
Here's a nice easy set up that's good to your eyes. Haha.

A Bit About Us:

Name: Stephanie C.
Sex: Female
Age: 21
Birthday: November 27th, 1987
Location: Ontario, Canada

Name: Matthew J. Though, he prefers Matt.
Sex: Male
Age: 34
Birthday: September 2nd, 1965
Location: California, United States of America. Had previously immigrated from Taipei, Taiwan about 15 years ago.

A Bit About Our Relationship:

We met online iRO Ragnarok Online, Sakray server. We both ended up in the same guild after a while. I had an Acolyte named Rhiann. (Hence my screen name xD) He had an assassin named Sin Kazuma. I can't remember the guild's name for the life of me though. I wasn't really that active in guild activities, since it required higher level characters.
I'm not exactly sure how we started talking, but I do remember some of our first conversations. Not the exact words or anything, but I do remember what was going on more or less.
We had started talking on RO for a bit, then we gave eachother our MSNs. I remember staying up late the day before we moved out of our house to a new one in the countryside. Damn I was exhausted. Once I got settled into the new house, it was hard for us to talk. I had dial up (Yes, it still exists) and I could only be online 2 hours a day.
October 3rd, 2003 is when he asked me to be his girlfriend. To be honest, I wasn't sure if he was being serious or not, but I said yes anyway.

That was 6 years ago.

Over the years, stuff happened. My parents would tease me because I was always talking to him online, but one day they went over the top and I reacted a little too much. They got suspicious and ended up breaking one of those sacred things that you just should not do. They took my laptop and read the MSN conversations between us. Talk about invasion of privacy. For the longest time, my parents thought he was a stalker, haha. That was the one and only time (So far in my life) that my father has ever scared me. Eventually my mom talked with him online and said he was okay.

Eventually, I went off to college. We decided to meet without my parents knowing, and it went off fine.
I'll never forget that meeting. I was in North Bay and it was midnight. The airport was tiny and the plane had just come in. I was hyperventilating out of nervousness and I swear people were staring at me. He was one of the last ones to come off the plane. I remember hesitating slightly (the nervous thing again, what do you expect for someone who's never had a boyfriend) and hugged him. The whole time I ended up staring at the floor. I didn't really want my first kiss to be a public affair xD
We ended up going to the hotel and the rest is history really. I'll never forget he wore all white and it just doesn't match his skin tone, haha.
He later met my parents on a trip 6 months later. I'm not sure if my parents ever found out about it, but I'm sure they know.

Over the years, I visited him 6 times and he visited me 2 times. This was before we decided to start this immigration thing. He's visited 2 more times since then, making 10 visits over 5 years. Yes, 5 because the first year I was still at home with my parents.
Hm, hard to believe it's been that long.

We were engaged on September 1st, 2006.

What Made Us Start The Immigration Process:

Well, Matt was down for a visit, and I was planning to go back with him. Had a whole engagement party, met my family and everything. Everyone thought I was leaving and not coming back... well. SO MUCH FOR THAT. Little did I know, me crossing over to the US to marry and adjust status to permanent resident through marriage is "Visa Fraud". I got caught at the border and turned away. I didn't even get to see him after we got into the customs line. Wow that was a depressing night.
About a week later, we were researching the K-1 Fiance(e) visa. My fiance was still a permanent resident in the US at the time due to lawyers messing around with his green card process. Thank god I got him to apply for citizenship when I was last in the US visiting. We had to wait for him to be sworn in as a US citizen to start this. He was sworn in April 22nd, 2009.

Us Now:

Sitting here, waiting. Haha.
Montreal's a really slow consulate.

Hm well. Yeah.
Next post will talk about what exactly a K-1 Visa is.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step

Late Starting Blog

Well, I wanted to start blogging this quite a while ago, but I was unsure what website to choose for blogging.

Even though this blog is for my little big journey to immigrating to the United States of America to be with my fiance, I'm more than halfway through the K-1 process (so many more things still follow) and I just started. Haha whoops.
I didn't see myself getting into blogging at first, but hell why not give it a shot.

My next posts will detail one step at a time and what got in the way. I doubt I'll do them all tonight, or even within a week, but it'll be nice to get this all down somewhere except for my brain... since this whole journey extremely long.

Things will be explained on the way, including the basics since alot of people have no clue what a K-1 visa is.

Included below is the list of steps. I will be including it at the end of every post. The one in bold is the one I am currently on. Finished steps are in italics. Steps later in the process are in normal font.

Steps of a K-1 Visa:

• US Petitioner and Foreign Beneficiary Collect Needed Documents
• I-129F Package Sent
• Notice Of Action 1 Received by US Petitioner
• Notice Of Action 2 Received by US Petitioner
• Case Forwarded to the National Visa Center
• Case Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US Consulate
• Case Received by Foreign Beneficiary's Local US Consulate
• Forms and Checklist Sent to Foreign Beneficiary
• Foreign Beneficiary Compiles Needed Forms
• Foreign Beneficiary Sends Completed Forms to US Consulate
• US Consulate Issues Interview Date
• Interview Conducted at the US Consulate

Legend: Strikethrough + Blue show past steps, Bolded + Red shows current step