teresa

Good afternoon everyone,

Hope everyone is well and happy.
I am new to this and glad to know that there is a place like this where I can go with questions.
I just got engaged, my fiance lives in Canada (he has duel citizenship...swiss and canadian. Has lived in canada for the past 10 years and I live here in the states.
We would like to get married in the spring if not sooner. I want everything to go as smooth as possible, and don't want to make mistakes in regard to this process because it is stressful enough. So here are my questions.
1. Is the Petiion for Alien fiance different than the INS, and can you apply for both at the same time?
2. How long does this process take? And how much?
3. Also can he keep his duel citizenship and not become a US citizen, but work and live in the US?
4. Would hiring an Imigration Attourney be the best and quickest way to go?
Thank you so much and I look forward to hearing back from anyone.
Teresa

Ptarmigan

The petition for Alien fiance is form I129f and is submitted to the INS. Once it is approved he would have to go to the embassy in Canada and participate in an interview there.

He is then allowed to enter the US for the purposes of marriage and adjust status to lawful permenant resident. You could get married if he were just visiting, but the I129f allows him to apply to adjust status from within the United States. The visa he will be issued is called a K1 Visa.

Once you have married he can apply to adjust status. At the same time he files a request for an employment authourisation document. Once this is recieved he can work. When his status is adjusted he can remain permenantly in the USA and work indefinitely.

He does not need to become a US citizen, but he can do so after being a permenant resident for 3 years if he so chooses.

I recently came to the USA on the same procedure from Great Britain. The form I129f was originally filed in October 2001 and I arrived here on May 1st

teresa

Gee..........this makes my head swim! Would it be easier if we got married first then do all this? So if we go the fiance route.... can he not work till he get's his green card? I am sorry about these questions, I just do not know a thing about this! I am sure I will know a lot about it by the time this is over. The things we do for love, he is well worth it.
Thanks,
Teresa

Ptarmigan

Thats ok, the idea of this forum is to answer questions that people have. I had many when I started down this road, and people answered them for me.

You could get married first yes, but he would have to remain in Canada whilst his application were processed. It is supposed to be faster to do it the fiance way.

As for working, he cannot work until he has an employment authourisation document, but he will get that before he gets his green card

teresa

Your awesome! I am learning!!!!! Thank you so so much! How long does it usually take to get the employment autherization?
By the way do you know if it is fast to use a lawyer to file all the paper work?

Ptarmigan

I am waiting for mine, it depends on which office you file with. All a lawyer can do is make sure that the forms are filled in properly and that all the correct information is attached. They cannot get the INS to process it any faster. We did ours ourselves, it costs a lot less that way and we dont feel that it has gone any slower for doing so

Ptarmigan

Here are the processing times posted for individual INS offices. I dont know how current this is though

http://members.aol.com/MDUdall/instimes.htm

teresa

Well I sure do appreciate you sharing your knowledge today, and I sent this link to my fiance so that he can take a look at what were up against. I am sure I will have some more questions and I will know where to go.
Thank you so much and good luck to you.
Teresa

donahso

Here's a really good place to start. It will answer a lot of your questions.

http://k1.exit.com/

Happy reading,
-Don

teresa

Don,
Thanks for the info, I am off to do some reading. Can not thank you enough.
Teresa

Mrtravel

teresa wrote:

    > here are my questions.
    > 1. Is the Petiion for Alien fiance different than the INS, and can you apply for
    > both at the same time?

Not sure of your question. You file I-129F (fiance petition) with INS

    > 2. How long does this process take? And how much?

For Canada, usually 6 months or less.

    > 3. Also can he keep his duel citizenship and not become a US citizen, but work and
    > live in the US?

yes, he would be a permanent resident. There is no requiremnt to become a citizen.

    > 4. Would hiring an Imigration Attourney be the best and quickest way to

Best? Depends on your ability to do not too difficult paperwork Quickest? I doubt it.
Once the papers are filed, an attorney isn't able to speed the processing.

Rete

Actually the correct place to start is with the FAQ:

http://www.txdirect.net/users/mike38/k1faq.htm

I married a Canadian and went the I-129 route. It is the best way to do it.

Rete

teresa

Now did you marry first then do the paper work?
Thanks,
Teresa

teresa

R.
I know the answer to my own questio....you did the fiance. Too much info, I have been on here too long today.....
Sorry about the silly question,.
Teresa
Well it looks like it is going to be a spring wedding then.

Mdudall

    >All a lawyer can do is make sure that the forms are filled in properly and that all
    >the correct information is attached.

It is true that this is part of the job (completing the paperwork for the client and
properly documenting a case depending on the couples unique situation to try to
reduce the chance that the INS will issue an RFE, or the Consulate put the case into
administrative review), and I suppose an attorney could just leave it at that, but
there are other things/tasks an attorney can bring to the case.

No two cases are exactly the same, and the clients will always have a lot of
questions that will come up along the way. Hopefully an attorney with experience
would be familiar with issues or fact patterns (be able to spot potential red flag
issues) that might cause problems with the INS or Consulate. If so, then hopefully
that attorney would be able to determine (and explain to the client) the best
approach to take with the INS or Consulate to try to reduce the chance that the
potential problem becomes an actual problem. And hopefully his clients could easily
reach that attorney by phone or e-mail, to answer the client's questions as they come
up along the way.

The attorney will also be receiving copies of the receipt and approval notices (in
addition to the copies received by the clients). This provides a nice "safety net" of
sorts in that there are two copies of these important notices (in the AOS context, it
would be notices for fingerprinting appointments, EAD appointments, AOS interview
appointments, etc.) out there just in case the client does not receive his or her
notice for whatever reason (perhaps they move, perhaps INS screws up). This "safety
net" feature, when it comes to receipt and approval notices in the fiancée visa
context really does not come up that often (as the clients usually do receive their
notices directly from the INS), however it does happen every once in a while (and
I've seen this reported on the group by other do-it-yourselfers). Again, it does not
happen often, but it does happen occasionally.

Much more commonly, if the INS or Consulate screws up, hopefully the attorney will
have the names and numbers of the appropriate INS or Consular officers to immediately
contact them to try to resolve the INS or Consulate screw up or other issue that is a
snag in the case. I personally think this is likely the most important thing an
attorney brings to the case; the ability to immediately reach the appropriate officer
and talk to him or her in a courteous (respectful yet focused on the issue at hand
and being able to explain what needs to be done), logical manner in order to achieve
the objective of getting the case approved or the particular snag/issue resolved.

I've had 4 or 5 RFE's with my fiancée visa cases since 1996, and only one of them was
really my fault in that I did not supply them with enough information/evidence about
the couple meeting within the past 2 years. By the way, that was my very first
fiancée submission (I was just starting my practice, this was one of my very first
cases of any kind and I wasn't a member of AILA yet), so while I did my homework
before submitting it, I was still at the level of a do-it-yourselfer at that time).
The other RFE's were all INS screw-ups where they asked for information that I
already provided with the initial submission.

A little over a year ago, I had such an RFE from the TSC. They lost the copies of the
U.S. petitioner's divorce decree, their ADIT photos, and a few other items. Upon
receipt of the RFE, I immediately contacted the TSC about this, explaining that this
was already submitted. Kathy V., the head of the division that processes I-129f's
called me to say that she was sorry for the mix-up, that she was going to make some
changes with their procedures at the TSC so the contract workers would start putting
the evidence in a file sleeve earlier on in the TSC's process (to try to prevent
evidence loss in other cases), that I could fax to her copies of the things they lost
(which I immediately did), and that she would personally walk this file back to the
officer for immediate adjudication. The case was approved later that day.

Granted, that was superior service by the TSC in resolving this problem in this
particular case, but I'm pointing it out to show that if someone does hire an
attorney, hopefully it will be an attorney who does more that just the bare minimum
of filling out the clients forms for them and adequately documenting the couples
unique situation to try to make the case fly through as quickly as possible.

Good luck with your case, and thanks for the plug for my page where I post the AILA
processing times.

Regards, Matthew Udall Attorney