About to begin...
 

My fiancee and I are about to file the I-129F petition to the USCIS office in California. I am looking for anyone who has done this recently and is willing to share their experience as a lot of the information I have found seems to be out of date and contradict the instructions provided with the forms.

For Instance...

"What to send to your fiance(e) once the I-129F is approved (Receive NOA2):

I-134 Affidavit of Support form. Ensure it is notarized (by a public notary), with all required supporting evidence. Some consulates may require a different form. Some require an I-864. If yours does, send that instead. You can call or email the consulate to check. Additionally, the consulate will notify your fiance(e) via mail correspondence which they prefer. Begin collecting the required information ahead of time, as it can often take several weeks to collect it all."

however when looking at the forms on the USEmbassy website (www.usembassy.org.uk) it says;

"An applicant for a fiancé(e) Kii or V visa is not required to file an affidavit of support, form I-864 at the time he or she applies for the visa. However, the Immigration and Nationality Act does require the applicant to establish to the satisfaction of the consular officer at the time of the application for a visa, and also to the satisfaction of an officer of the Department of Homeland Security, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at the time of application for admission to the United States, that he or she is not likely at any time to become a public charge."

from here it goes on to state...

"An applicant for a fiancé(e), Kii or V visa may generally satisfy the requirement of the law by the presentation of documentary evidence establishing that:

1.the applicant has, or will have in the U.S. personal funds sufficient to provide support for the applicant and dependent family members, if any, or sufficient to provide support until suitable employment is located;
2.the applicant has arranged employment in the U.S. that will provide an adequate income for the applicant and dependent family members;
3.relatives or friends in the U.S. will assure the applicant's support; or
4.a combination of the above circumstances"

I have a few questions about this,

Do I need the affidavit of support or not?
If not then what do I need to show that I will not become a public charge?
I have a job waiting for me in the US, can I provide a letter from my soon to be employer as evidence?
I have family in the US who will be able to file an affidavit of support when the Embassy website states I need it (upon changing my status from K-1 to Conditional Permanent Resident) am I able to use that?

I would also like to get a little advice in deciding to involve a lawyer or not... Is this process fairly straight forward? Are there any hidden traps set out that will make it hard to obtain this visa? Should we file the petition ourselfs and save a lot of money or should we try and do this through a lawyer if possible?

please respond to this if you are able to answer anything I have asked or if you can offer some sort of reassurance that this is easy and we will have no troubles if we do this by ourselfs :)

I am very anxious to be with my wife to be and I am just looking for a little reassurance from someone who has done this type of thing before

Thanks

Andrew

I am sure that I have missed out a lot of the questions I am thinking about but this is only the begining please by all means send me a private message or email me at [email protected] if you feel that you can offer assistance or just be someone who can help with smaller details in this kind of situatiuon. Thanks again.

EDIT: It seems that Email is no longer Valid so i have changed it to a new one, it should read [email protected]

Re: About to begin...
 

You should really avail yourself of the forum's resources and read the FAQ on the K-1 visa. Your question is answered there. The FAQ is listed in the synopsis of the forum at the entrance and under the root post at the top of the forum under my name. Please have a read and then post away ;-)

As for some of the points in your post, your fiancee does not file at the USCIS office in California but the California Service Center. And the affidavit of support she is required provide you with is I-134 for the K-1 visa and it is taken to the US Consulate in London on the day of your interview/medical. If she cannot fulfill the requirements for the I-134, you will need a co/joint sponsor for that as well as for the I-864 later on in the process. You can also use your own funds if they are 5x the amount required and a letter from a prospective employer is helpful.

Also you can do a search of the forum for the upteem number of posts from UK K-1 recipients and there have been approximately 5 in the last two months and/or read their experiences on the interview experience pages on kamya which is also listed in the root post.

Rete

Re: About to begin...
 

Agreed. USCIS considers that a sponsored immigrant's funds, as in assets which can become liquid in 12 months, can be used to meet the financial requirements (only one fifth of their net value), but not income.

I think AndrewandKathy is confused by the two blurbs he quoted. The embassy in the UK refers to the beneficiary of the K-1 as an "applicant", this is not to be confused with the US fiancé, who is the "petitioner". If one substitutes the word "beneficiary" for "applicant" and "petitioner" for the US sponsor in the UK link, the explanation of Affidavit requirements is much clearer.

Re: About to begin...
 

Yes it was confusion... the US immigration forms and information in the websites takes some looking at before you understand it. Thanks for pointing out where i was mis-reading. I have other questions though....

I am in the TA and on a couple of the forms (there was a question that asked if i was trained in firearms) i had to tick yes to, it was not the set of questions that asks if you were a nazi etc i am still worried that this will cause a problem/delay. obviously i do not want to quit the TA just yet until i know whats going on so i have no military docs from then but when the approval comes from the NVC i should be able to sort all of that out. do you think that is the right course of action?

how do i go about getting a co-sponsor? i have my father and step mother who live in the same state and will be able to provide the letters i need but do i just get him to fill out a seperate I-138? or does he have to file on the same one as my fiancee? my fiancee was in college so i doubt she will be able to provide the correct forms and tax returns whereas my father and step mother will. what will he have to say on the form? will he have to state he is going to provide an allowance or just that if anything does go wrong while i am there and my money runs out he promises to make sure i dont apply for benefit? or can i just get my father to be the sponsor would my fiancee have to fill that form in atall if he would do that?

also i am currently looking for work and on benefit just coming out of education, will this prove to be a problem when applying for this visa even though i have employment when i get there?

as for the application to the USCIS and it meaning to go to the CSC my Fiancee has an appointment with a CSC field office on the 14th of this month I have just not yet learnt to see the difference between the USCIC and CSC as this is all new to me and the terms used are all a little confusing... my bad

Re: About to begin...
 

TA, as in Territorial Army? I thought that is part of the British Army and you would have some sort of certification for the use of firearms.

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TA yes Territorial Army and through the way in which it all works I am classified as a soldier the same as any regular soldier however i was never issued any certification when i passed my basic instruction on firearms as i have not yet left the TA (which i am free to do at any time) i do not know if they will provide me with discharge papers and i am unsure if i should contact them now or wait until i recieve confirmation that the petition has been approved

Re: About to begin...
 

Your father will be considered a joint sponsor. He will fill out an Affidavit of Support form, and provide the same sort of documentation. Keep in mind that he will need to demonstrate that he meets 125% of poverty level for the size of his household plus the immigrant. Your fiancée, is the primary sponsor, and will fill out an Affidavit of Support form, even if she does not meet the financial requirements.

Re: About to begin...
 

Your concerns are ungrounded. Many posters have been in the military and it has not been a problem nor should it be.

My husband was retired 36 year veteran of the RCAF when going for the K-1 and was not required to give documentation as to his firearms training. He is now a Captain in the US Army - New York State Guard and it was not an issue during his adjustment of status after marriage nor is naturalization to a US Citizen.

As for your fiancee regardless of her financial stability she still needs to complete and I-134 not I-138 and include the documentation as required IN ADDITION TO your joint sponsor.

Re: About to begin...
 

Thank you although I am here looking for help not a fight I am sorry if my questions seem naive or overcautions but unlike you I have not gone through the K-1 visa process nor the AoS. I am just trying to make sure everything is covered before something comes back to bite us in the butt.

With regards to a joint sponsor do they need to fill out a seperate I-138 or does it go on the same one as my fiancee will fill out?

you did inadvertently answer another question which was if i would be able to join the US forces after the long transition to US Citizen

Re: About to begin...
 

Hi,
Don't worry, Rete was just answering your questions in her no-nonsense, straightforward, moderator type of way. :)

As for the sponsor-co-sponsor issue: your fiancee, even though she was a student in the past, will fill out an I-134 for you to show that she does not have the income necessary to sponsor you. Your co-sponsor then fills out his or her own I-134 with supporting docs. to show that he or she does meet the requirements and has agreed to co-sponsor you. Hope this helps--good luck. Plenty of us here remember how overwhelming it can be just starting out.

~SecretGarden

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Can join as soon as become a PR...don't need to be citizen.

As for co-sponsor, they have to fill in the forms seperately, and they all get given to the fiance to go to the consulate in London for the interview.

Re: About to begin...
 

:) thanks until i started looking for testimonies of others and came across this forum both my fiancee and myself have felt rather lost in the sea of paperwork and uncertainty of the whole immigration process



as soon as you get conditional PR or does this have to wait until the conditional status is removed?

with regards to the co-sponsor is it a case of the more evidence you provide the better (if i get my fiancee and parents to file an I-134 then provide a letter from my employer) or is there a point where you can give too much overkill and have it cause problems?

Re: About to begin...
 

Can sign up once you get PR status, doesn't have to have the conditions removed. Being in the armed forces in war time means that they could then apply for citizenship straight away rather than have the 3-5 year PR requirements, in a gist.

As for evidence, can't have enough, better to have more than not enough, in our case, the missus makes enough, but because in previous years, she was a student, we had her folks be co-sponsors just in case, and wasn't a problem.

Re: About to begin...
 

Is there any reason why we shouldnt file this by ourselves?

that wasnt the reason i was curious about US forces... being in the UK reserve forces i would liked to have continued my participation i was going to wait until long after things were processed and we had done all of the paperwork before i started asking about it though



thanks :)

Re: About to begin...
 

Don't really know the details about the armed forces, just the gist of things, there's plenty of folks with spouses in the service over here, so might try posting in the US forum for more info.

As for filing yourself, shouldn't be a problem really if you don't have any criminal convictions or overstays which would complicate things, other wise, it's something you could easily do yourself, this site has great information etc, but if you still don't feel confident or want the reassurance of a solicitor doing it for you, then go for it, also, handy using one if you move around a lot, so your file doesn't get lost while you do address changes :)

Goodluck.