levizjw

Hello everyone,

I've browsed this site a few times but I haven't yet posted. You all seem very helpful, so I hope some of you will be able to help me with my situation.

We are both in early 20s, so young by immigration standards, I assume. No convictions. I am a dual UK citizen living in the UK and my fiance is a US citizen living in the US. Like many of you, we are very in love. We've been in a relationship online since 2007 and in early 2010 we finally met in person in the UK and have been flying back and forth between US-UK every 3 months since, - so we've had a physical relationship for nearly 2 years. We've been to the U.S, Canada, Ireland and the UK together, we have lots of proof of relationship, etc and many people can vouch for us. Obviously now we want to be together (4 years is a long time to do this and flights are expensive), so we have decided to get married and go the CR1 route. We'll be getting married in Ireland (both have family there and I'm a dual citizen UK/Ireland) in January 2012.

My fiance has recently finished college and so have I, so we both have jobs (her in US, me in UK, but we don't fit the income requirement that is currently set. My fiance's grandmother is going to be a joint sponsor as she more than exceeds the income requirement. We have seen an immigration lawyer, but I am considering doing this myself to save some fees. So with all this in mind, I have the following questions for any of you kind people that will be willing to help me out:

- Do you advise me doing this myself, or do you think I need an attorney?
- Do any of you have any experiences to share regarding CR1 route?
- I am confused as how to go about filling in the affidavit of support: where do I put the grandmother and do I fill in two separate forms for my fiance and her little income and her grandmother?
- Do you think us both being young will affect the outcome of this? (The lawyer we saw said for us not to worry about this as immigration aren't too concerned about people our age marrying but rather when there is suspicious cases among older people and those coming from questionable countries)


The whole immigration process is practically putting our lives on hold in regards to future plans. It all seems horrific and while our relationship is genuine, etc, I keep worrying about us being rejected for some reason or another.

I hope some of you can throw in your two cents. I would appreciate any help you can give me.

Thank you.

Levi.

P.S: We plan to start filing in late Jan/early Feb.

redarmy990

hi.levi.
im currently going through the cr-1 route.
we got married in the us in october and filed our paperwork.

we are doing it our selves no lawyer involved.

an immigration attorney wanted to charge us $ 2500 plus all our filling fees
its easy to proceed.

we used a book published by nolo called Fiance & Marriage Visas: A Couple's Guide to U.S. Immigration it was extremly helpful.

we borrowed the book from the library and it takes you through every step of the process. telling you how to fill out all the forms required.

hope this may help you and good luck

ian-mstm

As long as you pay attention to detail, it's quite easy to do it yourself.


You don't do anything with the affidavit of support. Your (then) USC wife will complete an I-864, and her grandmother will complete an I-864.


It's a non-issue. Age is not a factor.

Ian

hobbes79

The state of New Hampshire allows 13 year old girls to marry with parental consent and special circumstances. You ain't that young

Seriously though, it'll be a non-issue.

Noorah101

Hi and Welcome to BE.

Many people do it on their own. Many people use an attorney. The choice is totally yours to make...no one can really advise you one way or the other, since we don't really know you or your personality, how detail oriented you are, how organized, if you have an issues that could be problematic, etc.

There are many, many, folks here on BE who have done the CR-1 Immigrant Visa route. Just browse the threads and find them.

As Ian said, YOU don't actually do anything with the Affidavit of Support. Your wife will fill out one I-864. Grandma is a joint sponsor and will fill out a separate I-864. That step isn't for a while down the road yet, anyway.

No.

Then you'll most likely be immigrating around Oct - Dec 2012. Just so you know.

Rene

jeffreyhy

TMI but way to go, stud Why do you make this assumption? You have both reached the age of majority. The latter does not follow from the former, as many recent college graduates can attest. So congratulations to the both of you. It appears, then, that you have not read the I-864 instructions or the USCIS Customer Guide for financially sponsoring an immigrant. But, as Ian has written, you do not fill in the affidavit of support in any case.

Moonshadow_Girl

Dual what? Citizenship? Which other country besides the UK? If you are also a U.S. Citizen, you don't need a visa, just show up!

Noorah101

UK / Ireland, according to his post.

Rene

Gingerert

My husband and I got married Dec 2006, when we were both 23. He went back to the USA in Jan 2007 (so, a month after the wedding) and we filed the CR-1 paperwork at that point.

We did everything ourselves because a) we're smart enough to understand instructions, b) neither of us had any previous marriages, children, or criminal records to complicate matters, and c) we were desperately trying to save money.

There were no problems, other than the waiting time. If you do go ahead and do this by yourselves, you can spend the lawyer's fees that you've saved on flights during the waiting time! There are no issues with visiting each other during the process, as long as you stay within the 90-day waiver guidelines.

Good luck, and I hope it goes smoothly for you both.

Wolfy

Agree with redarmy on this, no attorney needed really as long as you have the patients to proceed on your own, I had a juvenile conviction and was worried about this, but it did not qualify as a CIMT nor did I have to declare it when filling out the ESTA but had a US immigration attorney on standby just in case this became a problem.

With the help of this forum my wife and I completed the initial steps on our own with advice from our UK based attorney who at the end prior to my interview said he wasnt going to charge us the additional 300 quid to have pre-prepared waivers etc that he thoght we might need at first, he was very honest with us and straight up front. We did all the filing ourselves and as long as you follow instructions it reallt no biggie!

We also did the CR-1 route and it took us 7 months from start to finish, couldve been a month sooner had it not been for my oversight on something.

Thats our experience anyway!

ian-mstm

There's no indication that the OP is a physician.

Ian