K1 visa and K3 visas require that you can prove you know each other well enough to carry on a life long marriage. A K1 visa requirement is that you have met in person within the last 2 years
and be able to properly prove it.
A very common mistake made by anyone trying to start a relationship with a person from outside the US, especially foreign ladies, for romantic reasons is that they rarely think of documenting the correspondence from the first day on. The biggest mistake is courting over Internet chats or phone calls, especially those that are paid through 'phone cards'. They do not prove what you talked about, nor do they supply hard copy proofs. Read about the case adjudicators. USE EMAILS.
In order to get a foreign sweetheart or spouse to the US, this documentation is a MUST. Especially the first few messages that prove the date the relationship began, which must be demonstrated to the US Consulate officer at the time of the visa interview which takes place at the end of the immigration process.
These early dates are used by the US Consulate officer, who interviews your sweetheart, to determine the length of time the couple spent getting to know each other. These dates are measured against the time of first communication date, and the date the immigration petitioning forms are dated. This time span tells the officer how long you've known each other before making a decision to make a marriage commitment.
Any effort made to get to know each other more after marriage or the petitioning forms are sent in, doesn't count. The reason is you're making the decision to marry between those dates, not after. The officer will make a judgment as to whether you could actually get to know each other well enough to make a marriage commitment for life in that period of time. He/she will also want to read some of the correspondence to see if the couple are really trying to get to know each other.
On going relationship is also important. Once the relationship is built, the case adjudicator will expect you to continue the communication, else it will appear to some as fraud.
Should you meet a person in a shopping mall, or some other place in that person's country before corresponding, it still means you must have a significant time afterwards spent getting to know each other. People do not talk about personal things like values and principles during first Meeting In Person unless they did this in depth before they met. Communicating in print is required to open up such subjects before you can feel reasonably comfortable to discuss them face to face. An open subject is MUCH easier to discuss in person, else the other person will usually avoid the subject or change it, in person.
Letters, be they e-mail, postal or chat-room transcripts are often filled with a bunch of, “I love you,” “I can't live without you,” and other infatuated nonsensical phrases that are meaningless statements after just a few letters. These cause the officer to believe you're both nuts. “How can a person say such things when they don't know each other?” he thinks.
Worse yet, quite a few people who are not married, eventually begin to refer to each other as “My dear wife,” or “My dear husband.” If the interviewing officer spots this in a letter or message, a fiancé's visa would be rejected without further discussion. The officer would claim you are already married and deny the fiance visa and tell you that you must file a relative visa petition. Arguing will accomplish nothing since he already has “evidence” in writing. The Consular Officers are not your friends and don't give a damn if you live or die.
Language difference: If your foreign sweetheart cannot speak English, you have another strike against you. While Spanish is common in the US , the Consulate officers pay less attention to that problem. However, since the IMBRA law got past, but is being challenged, the Consular Adjudicators are starting to pick on Spanish and Portuguese speaking visa applicants now.
It's also getting worse with people from Eastern Europeans, like Russia , Belarus , Ukraine , Kazakhstan , etc. Usually the foreigner can wing it. But keep this in mind when writing to your sweetheart. If your honey is from the People's Republic of China, she better speak English well enough to hold an English conversation. If she has a hard time, they often ask that the petitioner supply a VHS video tape speaking in Chinese the story of how they met and got this far. If you mention that you've used a translator the visa likely will be denied now.
They will ask how often you've met in person (mainly in China cases). If only once, she will have a very hard time if her English is poor. If you've met 2 times. That helps the language problem a lot. If 3 times, then language hardly matters.
East European agencies and many other foreign agencies, restrict your communication with a foreign lady so they have control over your wallet. When joining an agency, make sure that you get to write to the lady directly. If the agency insists it must be done through them, find another agency.
Such restrictive agencies are especially known for acting as a translator. This will usually come up in the interview and the visa is likely to be challenged or denied, as in the paragraph above.
Many such agencies have some charming beauties that get paid per client to write and act as though they are interested. Such ladies rarely marry a US Citizen because the money they are making is so significant. Also keep in mind that many of the gorgeous ladies are spoiled rotten and make terrible wives. Don't let your hormones high-jack your brain!
Phone call records are often used as evidence of relationship. However, a phone bill only shows you calling a number, not who you spoke to. But rather than being negative, it does have some positive effect on most Consular officers. But not much.
Phone cards may save money, but are of no value whatever for proving any attempt at building a relationship, and doesn't help your sweetheart at the visa interview.
Fraud - - Remember, the US Consular officer's job is to find fraud. You and your sweetheart are guilty until proven innocent. Don't make it difficult for her. There's such a thing as a fraud profile, and if you use our service, we can assist you in avoiding the margins of that profile.
When writing to a prospect, do not put your best foot forward, talk about money or past marriages. Allow the person to get to know you a little first. Otherwise the person may simply drop you immediately. Once he or she gets comfortable with you, then discuss the previous marriages, He/she will usually ask questions about the divorces rather than ignore you.
Putting your best foot forward is formally cold and not believable, because nobody's that perfect and formal introduction gives the person nothing about your character. Pretend you are writing to someone you know very well, like a sister, brother, cousin or close friend. The foreign person will read you as being a comfortable, honest person. The benefits are that he/she will take on much of the same easiness and not feel intimidated when writing back – more open.
In communicating, just be yourself. Certainly there are lots of people out there that don't like formality because it sounds too good to be true and makes you look like a BSer. You'll get less response by doing this, but it weeds our a lot of those you'd never want to live with in a hurry. That saves you time and cuts your prospects down quickly, to those most compatible with you.
If you're looking for the mate of your dreams, you need a way to determine which one is closest to your expectations of a good spouse. Mutual fulfillment is the name of the game and you must communicate that with each other. Example: I can be pretty sloppy in leaving my tons of paperwork and mail lying around. But my is that way too. We both tolerate that and know each recognizes when it's reaching it's limit of irritation and clean things up. If I start cleaning up, so does she without a word, and vice versa.
The more people you write to, the more you've got to compare with. If you only write to a couple, your chance of getting yourself involved with a super loser is proportionally greater than writing to more. Divorces are far more expensive than a few hundred dollars worth of ladies or guys. And when it's difficult to find the time to write to so many, DO NOT tell them you don't have time because of work, or whatever. You can say that it's not easy for you to write, but you think of her everyday and what's important to write about next.
Meeting in person is a requirement for a K1 fiance visa. The tough part is proving it.
In most cases, it's nearly impossible to have your honey meet you in the U.S. Even then, documenting that meeting is difficult since USCIS doesn't like foreign documents as proof ( a copy of a U.S. visa in the person's passport can be faked and arrival / departure passport stamps can be faked). We have some bullet proof ways of doing this as part of our service.
Meeting your honey in his/her country merely requires you've been there and have photos taken together. Pictures in front of landmarks, holding up newspapers in the photo, etc., are more likely to "seem as fraud." There are other simple ways to document such meetings that are bullet proof. Showing a flight itinerary, credit card statement, airline ticket receipt, or ATM receipts, do not prove you were actually there. Such things could be done by another person. Most petitioners overdocument such requirements and that leads to trouble at the visa interview. Apex follows a set of rules that are bullet-proof, and do not give the case adjudicators something to pick on at the visa interview. My point.... this is a VERY important issue (and we are not giving away our hard earned secrets).
Meeting outside your honey's country (and not in U.S.). This is usually complex since it involves foreign documents to prove both of you were there at the same time. We have a trick solution for that that goes with our Meeting Service.
After 23 (August 24, 1984) years in this business, working one-on-one with so many people, I've seen so many winners and losers. It eventually becomes second nature to me to see what people do wrong. Be patient and dig deep into his or her soul. Know who he/she is. My wife and I exchanged well over 50 multi page letters while I was still writing to others. Lots of others. She endured (a very good sign) while others were in such a hurry and avoided personal issues as best they could (a bad sign).
We've now been married 15 years and never have called each other a name, love each other to death, and are religiously and politically the same. We often joke about how long our honeymoon is going to last? And both respond, “Unto death do us part.” It's took a lot of work to find her. But it was worth it and I'm truly blessed as she claims she is. Neither of us have ever tried to change the other because neither of us ever put our best foot forward. We are who we are, and that's wonderful for us.
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