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 DocumentsI-129F Package SentNotice Of Action 1 Received by US PetitionerNotice Of Action 2 Received by US PetitionerCase Forwarded to the National Visa CenterCase Forwarded to the Foreign Beneficiary's US ConsulateCase 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
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