DS-160 and Medical

By Colin

The next stage for me was to fill in an extremely in-depth form online: DS-160. This is the official K-1 visa application for submission to your interview embassy.

I was asked questions about myself, including details of my previous visits to see Victoria, employment history, a basic outline of my education and endless questions about whether I have been involved in things like genocide, people trafficking, terrorism, recruiting child soldiers and other shady things.  As with all forms, it is important to read all of the questions carefully and not presume that the answer will be no to all of them.

At the end, I had to upload a picture in the passport standard size, which proved to be a nightmare.  Every picture I took myself, would NOT crop down to the specifications required by the online "help" tool.  In the end, I went back to a photo shop where I got my passport pictures taken and they put the original onto a flash drive for me.  I uploaded that, and it worked perfectly.

One other problem that I encountered with the DS-160 was the very first question, which asked the location from which I was filing the application. I selected Belfast (being the closest place to me), but I hadn't realised that the answer should have been London, since that was the embassy which was processing the application. I received an email asking me to fill in the whole form again, because I made that one mistake.

I also have booked an appointment with the embassy doctor in London for my medical examination, which I will attend this Wednesday (Jan. 7th).  I've booked the trip so that I don't have to stay overnight, so hopefully I'll be okay for time, getting to and from the airport.

I'll post again later this week to go into more detail about what was involved for the medical.

So When is the Wedding?

By Victoria

This question is by far the one I get asked the most, and I have been asked it constantly since Colin and I became engaged: When is the wedding going to be?

Short answer: It'll probably be a year or more before we have a wedding ceremony.

Long answer: We are legally required by the K-1 Visa to get married within 90 days of Colin's arrival within the U.S., but that just means we need to get an official marriage license/certificate issued to us within that timeframe. Because there will still be so much to do immediately after Colin arrives in terms of getting him a green card, getting him official work permission and a job, getting him a driver's license (which means teaching him U.S. driving), etc. etc. etc. -- ALL of which require more government forms, processing, and fees -- we just don't think we'll be able to simultaneously plan a real-deal wedding ceremony anytime soon (and when I say "we," I mostly mean me, because we all know who's really going to be in charge of that). On top of that, we would almost certainly have our wedding ceremony in South Carolina where my family lives, which means I would be doing long-distance wedding planning from where I currently live in Virginia.

Our idea, at this point, is to wait at least a year after we're legally married to have ourselves an actual (small) wedding ceremony. The timeframe is flexible, and I don't think we'll be making any major decisions about setting a date or anything until after things with Colin's immigration calm down.

Even so, we will likely have an informal get-together of some sort down with my family after our legal marriage, so we can still have a chance to celebrate!

NVC Approval Received

We have a dual post for you today, since some things happened nearly simultaneously.

By Victoria

I finally received the National Visa Center (NVC) letter of approval on Thursday, the 20th. It's dated November 4 (it took 16 days to get here?!) and is a very simple letter stating that NVC has processed our petition and forwarded it on to the U.S. embassy in London. It also provides our official case number and the address of Colin's interview location...which turns out to be the London embassy. I guess he can't interview in the Belfast consulate after all (that's going to be annoying).

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By Colin

I received my letter slightly before Victoria, on November 18th.

It contains the check list of what I now have to do, which involves form filling and gathering documents.

The list includes: Passport, Birth Certificate, and Police Certificate (to prove that I'm not a criminal).

Once I have completed the check list, I can arrange an appointment for a medical exam, which has to be done in London. I'll report back here once that process has been completed.

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As it turns out, the London Embassy moves much faster than the U.S. government, seeing as Colin received his letter from the embassy before the NVC letter even arrived -- which means London had time to receive the K-1 petition from across the ocean, process it, and mail Colin's letter across another body of water from England to Northern Ireland faster than NVC could get a letter from New Hampshire to Washington, D.C. Who's surprised anymore?

Approved!!

By Victoria

We received the approval notice from USCIS (known as the Notice of Approval 1 [NOA1]) for our K-1 petition application! The letter is even printed on official watermarked paper, unlike other notices we've received in the past. Fancy.

The letter is dated October 16, and we received it early this week. (I'm a bit late posting this -- we've been busy!) It reads in part:

The above petition has been approved. We have sent the original visa petition to the Department of State National Visa Center (NVC), 32 Rochester Avenue, Portsmouth, NH 03801-2909. The USCIS has completed all action; further inquiries should be directed to the NVC.

The NVC now processes all approved fiance(e) petition [sic]. The NVC processing should be complete within two to four weeks after receiving the petition from USCIS. The NVC will create a case record with your petition information. NVC will then send the petition to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate where your fiance(e) will be interviewed for his or her visa.

You will receive notification by mail when NVC has sent your petition to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate. The notification letter will provide you with a unique number for your case and the name and address of the U.S. Embassy or Consulate where your petition has been sent.

Based on that information, I suspect Colin will receive his official visa around January. A maximum of 4 weeks for NVC processing puts us at the end of November already, and I imagine it'll take some time through December to go through the Consulate interview process (Colin will need to arrange a medical exam, obtain various records to present, etc.).

In any case, things should go a little speedier now! Woohoo!

Total USCIS process length
Application Receipt Date: May 14, 2014
Approval Notice Date: October 16, 2014

October Visit: Border Security Experience

By Colin

Since the application for my visa had been submitted, I wasn't sure if I should try to visit Victoria.  I did some research on a forum dedicated to visa procedures and discovered that there were a large number of posts from people who had successfully visited America with a visa application in progress.  I took the chance and booked my tickets.

Before I left, I asked one of my supervisors at work to provide me with a letter to say that I had a full-time contract and that I intended to return to work after my holiday.  It thankfully turned out that I didn't need it.

I left Belfast International Airport on Saturday 18th October.  The flight to Newark went well.


I handed over my passport at border control, expecting quite a few questions.  It turned out that the process was fast and straightforward.  I was asked why I was visiting America.  I replied that I was visiting my fiancee.  I was then asked:

• What my job is
• What Victoria's job is
• How did we meet
• How long were we engaged
• How long did we know each other
• How long I planned to stay
• When did I last visit
• How long did I stay then

I answered all of the above questions, and then I had to get my fingerprints scanned and a photograph taken.  After that, I was free to go and make a sprint for my connecting flight!

Three weeks of fun ahoy.

Request for Evidence from USCIS

By Victoria

Today in the mail I received a I-797E Notice of Action form (dated September 19) with a Request for Evidence from USCIS.

It seems that the proof of citizenship documents I provided in our original application packet didn't fit the bill. I included a copy of my birth certificate as issued by my hospital in South Carolina, as well as a birth certificate card from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC). The note I received back from USCIS explains, "If the petitioner was born in the U.S. and will be submitting a birth certificate as proof of U.S. citizenship, such must be a civilly registered long-form certificate. Abstracts of Birth and birth documents issued by hospitals are not sufficient."

In hindsight, I suppose I should've realized that I needed a full DHEC document (not the card) or looked into it more...but at the same time, it would've been nice if the I-129F Petition form instructions would've clearly stated that they needed the long-form birth certificate issued by a civil authority (i.e., my birth state government). The only thing the original instructions say is: "If you were born in the United States, submit a copy, front and back, of your birth certificate."

So I feel kind of dumb, and also ticked that I may have delayed our process a little bit longer. Since I imagine I would have to wait a while to receive my long-form DHEC birth certificate if I put in a request, I've decided I'll go the route of submitting a copy of my U.S. passport for proof of citizenship instead. I've already made the copies and will be putting the new evidence in the mail tomorrow (Friday). Hopefully approval won't be long after that.

UPDATE: Our online case status shows that the USCIS California Service Center received our response to the Request for Evidence on September 29, 2014.

He can Visit the U.S. Again!

By Victoria

Great news! Before I left Northern Ireland from my August visit, Colin kept thinking about it and saying there had to be a way for him to visit me in the U.S. again even with our K-1 application pending...so he did some more digging online and found a forum with a community of people going through U.S. immigration. One of the discussion threads is very helpfully called "Yes, you can visit!"

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/67796-yes-you-can-visit/page-65

It's focused pretty specifically on people going through K-2/K-2 and IR-1/CR-1 visas. The last few pages of the thread have a lot of recent anecdotes (as recent as this August) regarding foreign fiances entering the U.S. to visit their citizen fiances. People seem to have been able to successfully enter the States at all stages of their K-1 application process -- from pre-Service Center approval, post-Service Center approval, National Visa Center stage, and even up to the U.S. Embassy interview stage. According to others' experiences, the key is to make sure the foreign fiance has the evidence to assure the border official that they intend to return to their home nation and NOT get married or attempt to stay in the U.S. without the official visa. Such evidence can include a booked return flight, a lease agreement to show there's a home and financial obligation to return to, and a message or note from work regarding when the person is expected back at work.

There are still a few horror stories scattered throughout the pages of people being pulled into interview rooms and grilled (although often eventually allowed to enter) or even being turned away with some kind of probation term attached (eek!), which certainly sets off my anxiety mode. However, so many more of the personal anecdotes in the thread indicate that it will be okay. In fact, there are quite a lot of people who had/have foreign fiances from the UK coming for a visit during K-1, and I don't think I saw a single anecdote about a UK fiance being turned away.

Colin already went through the tourist/visitor visa waiver process a few days ago, since his previous 2-year one had already expired, and was approved by the online system. And now...he has also officially booked his flights! He arrives on October 18, so we won't have long to wait between visits this time.

There is still a little concern (mostly on my end, since I'm the major worrier), but we're both optimistic and excited about it! The countdown has started!