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Yes, it's true! There's an update at the end of this page! |
"Before starting out on any process like this people should research the whole process and not just the beginning.." -- quoted from the K1 FAQ
Each hyperlink in this summary schedule jumps to the corresponding place in the story. The "back" hyperlinks in the story jump back to this schedule.
| Feb. 10 | We decide to marry. |
| March 29 | Barbara mails petition to INS in Laguna Niguel, California, and Simon mails his forms (early) to the London Embassy. |
| April 29 | Barbara receives request for additional information from INS |
| May 28 | Barbara receives notification of approval from INS |
| June 13 | Simon receives call from Embassy to come in for an interview |
| June 24 | Simon has his interview and gets his visa |
| July 1 | Simon arrives, and gets work permit stamp in his passport, but no EAD (Employment Authorization Document) |
| July 5 | Simon gets a Social Security number |
| August 16 | We get married |
| Sept. 2 | Simon files papers at INS for provisional (two-year) residency |
| March, 2000 | Two and a half years later, we have an AOS interview |
The forms we've had to deal with are:
I started looking for information at the Immigration and Naturalization website. There was no description of the process for a fiance petition there, but I did find a description for a fiance petition at the State Department's visa pages . I obtained the forms I needed from the INS forms-by-mail page. Just to be certain I also phoned the 800 number provided on their forms-by-download page (since the fiance petition forms aren't there for downloading).
The forms I asked for were:
It took three weeks for both sets of forms (I requested by e-mail and also by telephone) to reach me. Later, we also found we would need these forms:
In the meantime, Simon phoned the London Embassy to get whatever information he could. They were amazingly helpful. They listed the forms he'd need and told him they'd mail him a set. And besides that, they suggested he fill out his forms right away and mail them to the Embassy to await the arrival of the paperwork from Barbara's end.
Simon makes business trips to the U.S. and has a visa waiver on which he travels. We had been hoping we could get married in April, when Simon was due to visit Barbara. Luckily we asked, and learned that to marry in April would mean we would have to re-start our paperwork in April with an I-130 (for spouse) instead of an I-129F (for fiance).
When we got the forms and started to fill them in, we had questions right away. For a start, it's not clear who signs the G325A Biographical Information Forms. From reading the documents, it sounds like maybe the petitioner fills and signs both forms. But the INS help phone line informed us that in spite of the way the forms were worded, in fact Barbara was to fill out and sign one form and Simon was to fill out and sign the other.
And yet another potential 'glitch' appeared. The I-129F asked for "certified" copies of documents. But how could Simon, in Britain, get his copies "certified? The INS help phone line asked whether we had the original documents in our possession (we did). And they said to just send copies, in that case. So we assume that somewhere in the process, we'll be asked to produce the originals of those documents.
March 29, Barbara mails petition to INS in Laguna Niguel, California, and Simon mails his forms (early) to the London Embassy.
April 29, Barbara receives request for additional information from INS
The additional information they requested was)
The INS isn't expecting anything elaborate. They're simply concerned to have evidence that this marriage isn't for purposes of obtaining citizenship. Here's what I wrote to them.
I'd think it might be worth while to send this information with the original I-129F. It may save a second round of paperwork. And at worst, you'd just be asked to send it again, so keep copies.
May 28, Barbara receives notification of approval from INS.
Barbara had waited until now to fill out the I-134 form, so it wouldn't be "old" for Simon's interview. As it happened, that wasn't such a wonderful idea, since her bank was less than efficient at providing the requested letter about her accounts. So in their place, Barbara mailed Simon all her bank statements for the previous year. They weren't needed. In fact the Embassy was a bit put out at all the paper, and told Simon that the latest bank statement was sufficient.
June 13, Simon receives call from Embassy to come in for an interview
June 24, Simon has his interview and gets his visa
and tells Barbara about it ...
July 1, Simon arrives, and gets work permit stamp in his passport, but no EAD (Employment Authorization Document)
July 5, Simon gets a Social Security number
This is what I've posted to alt.visa.us about the problem of getting the proper forms at the port of entry:
| My fiance just came in on a K-1. His port of entry was Houston. At Houston, they
stamped his passport "work permitted" (or words to that effect). And they gave
him a card ... I don't remember the form number on it and I'm writing this from work. He
asked at Houston about a work authorization, and they assured him this was all he'd need. He went into our local (San Diego) Social Security office to get a work-authorized SS card. "You need an I688B", they told him. "Well, in Houston they assured me this is all I'll need," he told them. And he spoke with a supervisor at that SS office. "You need an I688B", s/he told my fiance. So, he phoned the INS to inquire. "Absolutely not ... you do *not* need an I688B, in your instance, to get a work-authorized SS card", the INS told him. So, he phoned the general SS phone to inquire. "Oh, no ... you don't need an I688B", the person at the other end told him. So, he phoned the local SS office and again spoke to the supervisor. "You must have an I688B ... it says so right here, in this book". !!! Evidently the local SS offices haven't been given the word that a fiance with K-1 papers does *not* need an I688B! So, my fiance went to our local INS office to get his I688B. They first tried to tell him he'd have to go back to Houston to get it! He pointed out that he'd asked about additional paperwork in Houston, and the immigration officials there had assured him that he had all he'd need. Eventually our local INS office gave him his I688B. Evidently the immigration officials at ports of entry haven't been given the word that a fiance with K-1 papers *does* need an I688B! Keystone Kops, anyone? :-/ |
Since I posted this, I've read another post that sounds as though someone at the Atlanta port of entry had got all the documents right there, at the port of entry.
September 2, Simon files papers at the INS for provisional (two-year) residency
When Simon went to our local INS to ask about the EAD, he also asked about what we'd need to do after we got married. They had given him an information sheet with loads of documents marked as "needed". This looked like grim news, at first, until we realized that we had already submitted most of those forms. And since we'd kept copies, it was a simple matter to fill in new sets of forms.
As it happened, when Simon actually filed the I-485, they didn't want new forms for the ones we'd already submitted. And on the same day, they gave Simon a replacement EAD, this one good for a year. And they said they'd try to phone us within a year to come in for our appointment.
And Simon filed an I-131 form for Advance Parole. As of today (September 30) we're still waiting for a response from the INS.
Two and a half years later, we have an AOS interview
This is what I've posted to alt.visa.us about our AOS Interview
| When Simon filed the I-485 they told him they'd try to contact us for an
interview within 12 months. That stretched to 16 months. And
then 24 months. Some time last year Simon managed to reach someone
on the phone to inquire. "Oh, we're currently working on
applications from May of 1997. Call us back in a couple of
months. We'll be up to June applications by then."
Simon replied, "Do you realize the implication of what you just said?" After that, we gave up asking and simply waited ... :-/ Simon teaches seminars, and next week he's teaching in Stockholm. So we both have planned to fly out on Friday. In the meantime we needed to sort out our airline tickets, income taxes, and just to make it pour when it rains, my security clearance at work. So we get home Tuesday evening and find, in our mail, a letter from the INS. They request the hono(u)r of our presence on the morning of Thursday. Hmm ... Along with the letter are a few pages of checklists. Some have checkmarks already printed on them. Some checkmarks seem possibly applicable, some seem totally unrelated, and some are ??? And of the items that aren't checked, some seem probably applicable, some seem totally unrelated, and some are ???. The letter is dated eight days previous "to give us time to collect documents". Hah! That only works if they actually send it to us a few days previous ... We throw up our hands and shovel into two plastic grocery bags all the papers we imagine could possibly be needed. It's purely luck that they've decided to see us on a day that Simon is at home. We do not want to pass up this "opportunity". And we show up on Thursday morning. At least this time we don't have to deal with going downtown ... they sent us clear across town to National City. Is the parking situation any better there? Is it 'eck! There are maybe five parking spaces for INS clients, and rancorous proscriptions posted at all the other parking spaces in the lot (no doubt the other stores in that strip mall got tired of INS folks hogging all the parking). In the end we dropped off our appointment letter (to establish that we'd arrived) and went and parked at the curb a half-block away. Got back to the office. Simon took the chance to visit the men's room. And as though it had been a signal, they called his name to go to Window 4. "He's just gone to use the men's room; I'm his wife," I explained. They just wanted his fingerprints (the third set of his they've taken ... do fingerprints change with age?). After they got Simon's fingerprints, we commenced to do what one does best at INS facilities. Namely ... wait. Wait. Wait. Wait ... A couple who arrived before us apparently settled their business, and left. A couple who arrived after us apparently settled their business, and left. Finally the INS inspector calls us in. And it's all plain sailing from here. :-) We explain that we may be somewhat unprepared, having had only two days' notice. I explain that we have arrangements to go to Sweden on the following day, and ask whether anything today will be problematical. The inspector replies with an almost-hidden smile, "Well, assuming I approve ... " And she swears us in and proceeds to ask questions. Familiar questions. Questions that Simon has already answered on various forms. And tosses in a strange sort of question ... "have you ever committed a crime for which you have not been arrested?" We do a double-take, and Simon answers dead-pan "No". Then even the inspector laughs and says she wonders why they bother. As if anyone who had committed a crime would answer that honestly. And she asks for things for evidence of a "real" relationship. I happen to have a duplicate copy of previous year's tax returns, filed jointly. We have a joint mortgage statement, and joint bank accounts. I underscore the shortness of notice by opening right there and then the envelopes they had arrived in the previous day. We explain again why we don't have copies, and she says that we can go make copies and bring them right back. She doesn't bother to ask for statements from other people who know us. (Although I do know of two people from whom I could have obtained statements that same day.) She asks for other things ... joint vehicle ownership. Well, we don't have that since Simon rides a motorcycle and there are insurance issues. But we do have joint insurance on our car, and she accepts our 'evidence of insurance' statement including both our names. She asks about health insurance and I explain that it's all through my work. "Do you have cards?" she asks. We do, and except for our names they have identical information. So she tells us to copy them both on the same sheet. (In hindsight, my benefits confirmation statement from work also has both our names and would be an additional evidence of "joint" life.) And she asks Simon for his Advance Parole paper and I688B. We hand it over a bit cautiously ... since we would really like to fly to Sweden on Friday! And then, bless her, she says, "I'll just go copy these things." :-) She returns and proceeds to stamp into Simon's passport and write some notes with it. And explains that this is a residency stamp so he will no longer need his AP and I688B. :-) I ask about the application for removing Conditional Residency. She looks blank for a moment, then understands. "Oh, no need", she says, "This is for the permanent green card." :-D
Later on, Simon tells me that i) he was disappointed that there wasn't any drama, and ii) that if customs give him any grief over the stamp in his passport instead of AP papers, he intends to throw a "proper hissy fit" (to which he's quietly looking forward). *g* |
Risto's K-1 immigration web pages (coming soon)
This page last modified on: 30 September 1997
