Almost time to send off I-129F and start process

[Ryan H]

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.

[Kyle]

Photos of your two trips to China would be helpful. Pictures of the two of you, you with her family, etc.

[dnoblett]

Same level of evidence I sent in for our K-1.

 

• 1 or 2 emails per month plus a log kept on gmail
• Photos together on trip to China, as well as a photo of me with her family, timestamped the photos and made notes on the back of the photos as to where when and who is in pic. (5-6 pics total.
• Copies visa stamps, itinerary, airline tickets, receipts, ATM slips, etc.. from time in China.
• Log of chats, and skype calls. Never called using a land line, always used internet.
• Receipt for a ring I bought her.

If you feel there may be a "red-flag" issue, then expose it to USCIS when you file the petition.

 

We had no problems.

[RobertH]

Ok 1st take a deep breath....... trust me I know. From what I read in your post this has been a long developing relationsship and that is a point in your faver. Also you have been to China 2 times to see her with out getting married and I feel that will be seen as a plus for you also. Now many people have married quickly on the 1st trip to see eachother and been successful in getting the visa but those cases tend to get a little more of a look over by the VO's and result in more Blues slips being issued for additional evidance.

 

As for your questions.

 

Emails...... I sent a ton with her to the interview..... None were ever looked at. I feel Dan has it right in his advise to just send 1 or 2 emails from each month and if you can a email log along with the K-1 application.

 

IM's Same answer as above. I worried and stressed because I did not have all the IM's and chat transcripts from every month we were getting to know eachother.......Again NONE were looked at or asked for at the interview. Send in 1-2 for each month, make sure they are good ones that show lots of back and forth banter about things.

 

As for printing out the IM's I also used MSN to chat with my wife. MSN you can chose to save all the teanscripts and it will keep them nicely....now printing them out is another thing.....Its a pain in the ass....what I did was open the history of the chat where you can read it and then click on the body of the msg and hit I think ALT-P or control-P what ever the command to print is. It will then print out every page for you if you wish and it will be in a easy to read format.

 

As Kyle said (Kyles a nice guy if you can get by the stuttering and facial tic's) Pictures are a must. Not just pictures of you 2 looking happy and in love but pictures of her friends with you 2 or if you had a engagement dinner party ( we had 3) include those. Out of all of the pictures Hui took with her to the interview the only ones the VO asked about was 1 picture of me with her brothers son and a friend of her's little girl at dinner and 1 of me and her with her father and aunt.

 

The EOR letter..... Well that is a personal choice on what to put in there. Some say keep it short (under 1 page) and just the facts...IE.. Met online september 2008....traveled to see her december 2008....Just the facts no back story...This was not my style so I wrote a 2-3 page letter and broke it in to sections to cover each of my trips.

 

 

I guess just work steady at it and ask questions here. You will find many horor stories about problems others had gettign the Visa but you need to step back from those and not stress like I did. Yes some have been jerked round (tsap) and others like myself have had small hurdles placed in their path that were easily overcome. I dont buy into the GUZ is evil and out to screw us over mindset. It's the goverenment and well we all know how well the goverenment can run our lives for us.... All in all GUZ dose a good job (most of the time) I found them very willing to work with me on issues that I was concerened about when I was there.

 

If you can go see her again when she has her interview that way you are there to put out any fires that come up. In our case it was good I was there. I was able to go in to the ACH (Americian citizens hour) the monday after my wife got her blue slip and turn a 3-4 month wait for the visa in to a 3-4 week wait.

 

Just start asking questions no matter how dumb and no matter how many times you ask the same question we are willing to help all we can...

 

Robert

Edited August 21, 2010 by Kyle
Dan, not Don! How many times I have I told you this! :D (see edit history)

[RobertH]

Post picture of you 2 here also its always nice to have a face to put with the posts...

[Ryan H]

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!

Edited August 22, 2010 by Ryan H (see edit history)

[rongnjohn]

I am curious, how important are family photos to the consulate interview? Is it an immediate denial or red flag if a couple is missing them? What happens if the gal lives 1000 miles away from her family, or has been out of the home for 10+ years, not close to her parents (in a familial way)? Certainly not all couples have family photos, do they?

 

John

[dnoblett]

I am curious, how important are family photos to the consulate interview? Is it an immediate denial or red flag if a couple is missing them? What happens if the gal lives 1000 miles away from her family, or has been out of the home for 10+ years, not close to her parents (in a familial way)? Certainly not all couples have family photos, do they?

 

John

Not that important, they do look at the totality of a case.

 

A great forum to look through is interview results paying attention to the denials.

 

David bang off some possible red flags in this case: http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42144&view=findpost&p=560835

[rongnjohn]

Thanks Dan for your quick response. As well as Ryan, I am interested in this subject.

 

John