Ryan H

Congratulations!

Good luck and good thoughts!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and congratulations on receiving a pink slip (the only time you would ever want to receive a slip of that color ) Did you have you include any 3rd party affidavits with your package when you started this process; if so, from whom?

Thanks for posting that!

Based on the posts of warpedbored and Randy, I retract the statement I am quoting above. In a nutshell: Marry now, file I-130; you wait a long time. Marry now, obtain your citizenship, file I-130; you wait a long time, longer than previous scenario. Have an engagement party, obtain your citizenship, file I-129F; you wait a longer time. Obtain your citizenship, marry afterword, file I-130; longest wait. I wish the scenarios were more favorable for you, but you will probably just have to tell your fiancee the reality that it will be a long time from initial filing of the forms to a visa being issued and decide on the best course of action for you both.

Have lots of patience.

It seems you already aware of this, but I'll reiterate; if you want to go the fiancee route, you will have to wait until you become a citizen (only citizens can petition for their fiancee). Since May 2011 is the soonest you can apply for citizenship and I do not know what the current time lines are for application to naturalization are; however, I figure the citizenship process takes months. Since you are looking for the most efficient way to bring your SO to the USA, the fiancee process isn't it. You also may want to consider getting married and having your wife come here and then start the citizenship process. Applications for IR-1/CR-1 visa did used to take a long time, which is why the K3 visa exists. However, processing times have improved and many K3's are administratively closed by the NVC now. Some of the time lines I've seen for recent CR-1 filers have been 7 months from application to interview. Besides the obvious differences between fiancee and spousal visas, spousal visa applications are processed by the NVC after they are process by USCIS. Fiancee visa applications go to the appropriate embassy or consulate via the NVC from USCIS; NVC does very little with them (other members, please correct me if I'm wrong). Good luck and best wishes.

It's not required, however, an EOR is always a good idea. Describe how you met, when you met, when you met in-person, how you communicate, etc. Notarization is optional. Good luck to you!

OP: Whether you choose the K1 or CR-1, I would consider making more than one visit before filing the petition. Good luck to you!

Addresses in Chinese characters are written in reverse order. In addition, I have never seen a postal code used.

Good luck!

I wish you and your fiancee good luck as you begin your visa journey! While front-loading your I-129F is a good thing to do; you have received and have followed the good suggestions to downsize your packet. Your "tracking number" will be on your NOA1 (Notice of Action) receipt. You recieve the NOA1 when your petition is received by the appropirate service center from the Dallas lockbox facility. You will use the number on the NOA1 when you register on the USCIS website. Once USCIS approves the petition, they will send you the NOA2. You will need the NOA2 for when you enter the Adjustment of Status process.

My fiancee had read the 001 board and even got some information about the form I-129F and the forms that go with it. However, the information she got about said forms was out of date.

Congratulations and thanks for the information!

I searched for "China customs regulations" and found this website: http://www.yoyochina.net/Tips/tipdetail.aspx?tipID=19 I don't know how current it is, but I think it will be useful as a guide. Wish you both a great journey!

Check out these websites: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/index.asp http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/index.asp

Congratulations on your wedding. For a CR-1, you only need to fill out the I-130.

Congratulations and best wishes to you both!

Thanks for all of your replies! Here are my answers to these questions: 1. Her birth city? Yunxian, Hubei Province 2. Her current city of residence? Beijing 3. Age? 29 (I'm 33) 4. Previous marriage or children? No and No 5. How you meet? (if website, which one) Met on Myspace 6. How long chat before visit china? Exchanged messages for 2 years, IM'd for 1 year prior to first in person meeting. We officially became a couple approximately 5.5 months before I made my first trip 7. How long after visit to file for visa? Filing for a CR-1 would occur immediately after the 3rd visit was over. My last visit ended 2 months ago; have not yet filed I-129F 8. Number of trips to china at the time of the interview? If we go ahead with K1, it would be 2 trips; if we go CR-1 route, it would be 3 9. Her english ability? Not fluent, but not bad either. So-so may be an accurate description. 10. What were the blue slip questions and answers? N/A since there has been no Consulate interview as of yet.

It may or may not come to this. I have not yet sent off the I-129F and I'm thinking it may be necessary to pursue a CR-1 instead. I'm finding the K-1 process to be way more difficult than I anticipated, and I anticipated that it would be very difficult. I know all the procedures required to file a CR-1. I am asking all recent CR-1 filers what has been your average wait time on all the steps and what have been all the difficulties you have encountered. Thanks.

Good luck to you!

I saw this question on a Visa Journey forum; while the background on that case and yours are different, the answer can probably still be the same. This is the answer I have seen, "we are pursuing a K1 visa instead of a CR1 because we do not want to be separated after we marry." Don't know if that will help in your case, but it's one way to look at it. Wishing you success.

From the two trips I have taken to China, I have no shortage of photos of the two us together. However, I do not have any of me with her family. Out of all the pictures I have, I have selected 29 for possible use. Whether or not all 29 get submitted will depend on some things. The 29 are date and time stamped. The backgrounds in pictures of my first trip are of all well-known sites in Beijing. For my second trip to China, the two of us went to Jiuzhaigou and Lijiang. Many second trip pictures have the colorful lakes and the waterfalls of Jiuzhaigou in the background. Thanks for your replies!

Hello everyone, The time will soon come to mail the I-129F. My fianc¨¦e has mailed me a letter of intent to marry, a completed G-325A, and a passport type photo. This is the background on our relationship. We met online in 2007 on a social networking site (MySpace). At first we just exchanged messages and comments and it was this kind of exchange that allowed us to become good friends. We started instant messaging just over a year later. At the end of 2008 and into early 2009, we grew closer to each other and became a couple in March 2009. I made my first trip to China in September 2009 for our first in-person meeting. I made a second trip to China in June 2010 for our second in-person meeting and we got engaged during this time. I intend to submit some emails as well as a print screen showing all email activity since we became a couple. I intend to submit phone records showing we sent text messages to each other. We chat just about every day on MSN Messenger. However, I only recently started saving conversations and it saves as a Word document and what I have saved contains no time-stamps (I can probably fix that for the future). Also, I would not want to include entire conversations just because. Therefore, I'm not sure how useful a chat conversation would be if it A) had gaps and B] was a word document. I saved messages from MySpace and Facebook. However, some of the MySpace messages are ones that I archived onto Word and WordPad. Again, I'm thinking that is not very useful only because it is on Word or WordPad. I've read time and time again how people send in logs of their IM's and I have mentioned that we instant message each other in my EOR letter. However, without much proof of that, it may not be work mentioning it all. Feeling overmatched here, I'm not asking, "what should I do" for I know that I have to figure that out for myself. However, any suggestions, ideas, thoughts, or advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.