This is my little place for my creativity.

UPDATE: THE SITE IS MOVING AS OF FEBRUARY 10, 2014 TO:

http://www.emilylikestomakestuff.com
http://www.emilylikestomakestuff.com
http://www.emilylikestomakestuff.com
http://www.emilylikestomakestuff.com
http://www.emilylikestomakestuff.com


It's time to move on to a place that is more DIY for this DIY-er. Please come on over to see what is up, comment, make suggestions, stalk, or just say hello.
The links are all the same--I have trouble clicking on tiny stuff on my phone so I thought that having it over a few lines of text might make it easier for folks like me.

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This is more or less a record of my crafty pursuits. I'll use this space to keep track of promising ideas and my own successes or "learning opportunities" for future reference.

Comments are welcome, but will be removed if they don't actually contribute to the content. In other words, comments should have all meat and no time-sucking fillers.

As I complete the projects/ideas on the right, I'll move them to the left so you can see how well it worked out.

Immigration Adventures

My other half will be immigrating to the US from Perú.  This is a compilation of information, websites, and tips that we learned along the way.  We will also describe our experience.

Websites

Click here: http://www.visajourney.com/
This is the best possible resource I have discovered to this point.  It is possible that this is the only site needed.  This also contains a forum where you can filter information by country to get firsthand reports of exactly what happens in that location.

Across the Pond-Person adventure blog with Q&A for others on K-1's

Click here: Airport processing times-International terminals in the US
The cost of flying is a serious consideration in the typical budget so, of course, we are looking at all options, including flying to Miami or Atlanta on one airline and continuing on to Houston on a different one.  As I am writing at this specific moment, September 2011, the price difference on the lowest possible prices is about 500$.  That is significant.  Especially when traveling in pairs or as a family.  The thing is, you want enough of a delay between landing and checking in to be able to make the second flight without standing around for several extra hours.  (I spent around 6 hours in the San Salvador airport 2x this year.  I'd recommend ANY entertainment you can find.  Also, the food isn't so great and is prohibitively expensive for total crap so try not to arrive there hungry.  Warning:  There is a Pizza Hut near the airport and several of  the staff will arrive carrying personal pan pizzas that are very fragrant and torturous to a hungry airport-hostage.)  Here's another handy flight-site:  http://www.seatguru.com/

Click here: Check your visa status
Shows you where you are in the processing/waiting game.

Click here:  Interesting article about marriage fraud.
It’s easy to understand how foreign students and workers in the United States might meet Americans and get married without wanting to return to their home countries to apply for immigrant visas. But it is unclear why USCIS allows foreign “tourists” who allegedly fall in love while on vacation in the United States to remain indefinitely via adjustment of status. But surely those who were honest about their original intentions would need to return home to settle affairs and collect belongings, as well as apply for the visa. In practice, adjustment of status is most convenient for tourists intent on fraudulent marriage. Most of them fear that if they return home, they’ll be denied an immigrant visa due to their misrepresentation.
I interviewed hundreds of visa applicants who wanted to visit friends or relatives who had arrived in the United States on tourist visas and adjusted status via marriages, some real and some fake. One month, while I was a consular officer in Budapest, Hungary, I kept track of visitors’ visa applications where applicants were applying to visit people who had adjusted status via marriage to Americans without having to return home from their “vacations.” During that month, I estimated that 5 percent of the total applicant pool were visiting people who had taken advantage of our liberal adjustment of status procedures. And, while there was no way to tell during those interviews what percentage of the marriages involved were fraudulent, I would always ask, “and is your friend/relative still married to the American they obtained the green card through?” Most often the answer was “no.”
Timeline
 2012 Apr 10 Wedding
2012 April 2 Fly to USA
2012 Mar 14 APPROVAL!!!!!!!!!!!
2012 Mar 14 Embassy interview!  Woohoo!!!!!
2012 Feb 21 Medical exam!  2 vaccines were needed and the total cost was over 300U$.
2012 Feb 14 Carlos received the packet from the embassy.
2012 Jan 13  NOA2. Apparently our things we sent in response to the RFE were good enough to move forward.  Yay!
2012 Jan 8 Still no response. Heavy sigh. Statistically, RFE's have been responded to within 30 days.
2011 Dec 5  USCIS  received our RFE response--2 affidavits, photos travel documents (with photos of us in those locations), passport photocopies.
2011 Nov 14 Received RFE (Request for further evidence) that we are in a bonafide relationship
2011 Jul 13 Received by USCIS
2011 Jul 7 i-129f submitted
2011 Mar 10 We were using the computer in the morning when he was being silly and sang the wedding song.  Naturally, I freaked out.  But then I thought about it.  All day.  I realized I had never been so comfortable with anyone in my life and that I needed him.  That evening, I asked him to come home with me and marry me.
2011 Mar 3 Met Carlos face to face in Lima
2010 Aug Carlos invites me to visit his country and stay with his family.
2010 May  "Met" on a website for language learners,  http://www.sharedtalk.com/

The Long Story 

The municipality in the city where Carlos lives announced the day before we were ready to send in the application in May that it was changing his address.  The street and number are now different.  We elected to redo the forms.  Mailing anything from him to me takes around 30 days.  That delayed our document submission by over a month.
July 7, 2011--First contact:  Copies of all requested documents, forms, and photo originals submitted.
July 13, 2011--Immigration cites this as the date of receipt.  A letter was sent to us stating that these had been accepted and were in line for processing.
November 14th, 2011--Here is the body of the RFE:
<<<"
Submit evidence that you and your fiancé(e) have met each other in person at some time during the two-year period from July 13, 2009 until July 13, 2011, the filing date of your petition.Evidence should include, but is not limited to:
--Copies of travel documents (itineraries, tickets, hotel accommodations, etc.)
--Photos (date and place of the photo must be handwritten on photos)
--Letters written to each other after your meeting(s), referencing the specific date and place of your meeting(s)
--Photocopies of your passport and/or your fiancé(e)'s passport, (including biographical data pages and pages showing entry and exit stamps)n showing that you have both been present in a given location at the same time.
--Affidavits of friends, neighbors, or other knowledgeable associates. All affidavits must conform to the guidelines cited below:
Written statements sworn to or affirmed by two persons, other than yourself and the person you are petitioning for, who were living at the time the event(s) occurred, and who have personal knowledge of the event you are trying to prove. The persons making the affidavits may be relatives and need not be citizens of the United States. Each affidavit must contain the following information regarding the person making the affidavit: his or her full name and address; date and place of birth; relationship to you, if any; full information concerning the event; and complete details concerning how he or she acquired knowledge of the event.
">>>
I don't have letters that I can send and the only people who can write affidavits for us in English are also travelers that I can't get a hold of. This has to be submitted within 3 months. With it taking a full 30 days or more sometimes for the mail to travel from Lima to Houston (I don't know why, but this has happened more than once!), and the difficulty accessing people who were with us that can verify our relationship, I really, REALLY wish we had done this first.
November 26, 2011--I have 3 English speaking friends who are writing letters for us.  Hopefully I will have them in my hands sooooooon so that I can submit them.  Until then, our application is simply on hold and aging like a fine wine. Sigh.
January 13, 2012--Notice of Action -- We are now officially SOMEwhere in our visa adventure.  There is still plenty of waiting to do, but now there is some hope! They are sending our documents on.
Febrary 14, 2012 - Carlos got his embassy packet.  Here is what he got: (click on the photo to see more detail--the ones that are Perú-specific are enlarged)












Medical:
He opted for the interview in San Isidro.  They refused to give him a copy of the DS-3025 vaccine form.  Other than that, it was good and easy.  You should schedule this for the earliest date possible in case there is something that needs treatment or labs that need extra time (this is rare, but there is the possibility of the sputum test that seems to take 6 weeks for many people from Asia).

March 14, 2012--The interview:
Here is his experience in his own words:
 
PARA PROMETIDO(A)S DE PERÚ
Mi cita fue programada para las 8:40 am. Llegué a las 8:00 am y desde el taxi miré que 5 personas estaban esperando afuera, ellos formaron una cola que rápidamente entró al complejo de la embajada. En la puerta principal de la embajada, un funcionario solicita ver mi carta de cita y escribe un número (indicando que soy el fiance(e) # 22 que llegó). En la entrada principal hay una oficina de seguridad, allí los encargados son serios y amables; no puedes ingresar con tu teléfono móvil (te lo piden y a la salida te lo devuelven) y si tienes una maleta, esta es examinada por una cámara de rayos x.
Caminé al edificio para gestiones de visa y antes de entrar me pidieron la carta de cita. Entré a la sala de espera, allí me llamarían para ir a una ventanilla. Había mucha gente -creo unas 60 o 70 personas- para hacer distintas gestiones y esperando sentados en sillas, el ambiente es poco cómodo porque no hay aire acondicionado. Hay 15 ventanillas para la atención; la última ventanilla es para la entrevista personal y está detrás de una puerta (sólo entran personas autorizadas). Del grupo de los prometido(a)s hay solo tres hombres, el resto eran mujeres. Todos estaban muy serios y nadie sonreía al salir del cuarto de la entrevista, eso me puso un poco nervioso.
Me llamaron a una ventanilla, allí la encargada me hizo algunas preguntas, me pidió los documentos requeridos (incluido las evidencias de la relación amorosa con mi prometida) y me tomó las huellas digitales; después me pidió pagar los 350 dólares (puede ser efectivo o con tarjeta) en una de las ventanillas cercanas; y luego tenía que volver a su ventanilla para entregarle el recibo de pago. Me dijo que espere la llamada para mi entrevista personal. Estuve esperando unos 25 minutos.
En la entrevista personal, primero realicé un juramento para decir la verdad. A continuación respondí unas pocas preguntas: ¿es casado? ¿tiene hijos? ¿alguna vez solicitó visa a USA? ¿ha viajado a USA? ¿dónde trabaja su prometida? ¿cómo se conocieron y desde cuándo la conoce? ¿cuántas veces y en qué fechas su prometida lo visitó?, mientras el funcionario revisaba solamente las primeras 7 hojas de mis evidencias de relación. Después tomó mis huellas digitales y enseguida me hizo jurar y firmar un documento para comprometerme a casarme dentro de los 90 días de entregada la visa. Sus últimas palabras fueron: “está aprobado su visa, regístrese para recoger su pasaporte, Buenos días” y me devolvió mis evidencias de vínculo. Me levanté y me retiré,
Ser puntual y es preferible estar 30 o 20 minutos antes de la hora programada en tu carta de cita. Estuve allí aproximadamente 2 horas y pienso: “yo fui el único que sonrió cuando me iba”. Yo calificaría esta experiencia como: Muy bien.
Estas son las preguntas que se me pidió:
En la primera ventanilla las preguntas fueron: ¿es casado? ¿tienes hijos? ¿cómo conoció a su prometida? ¿ha visitado USA? ¿ha solicitado una visa a USA? ¿ha viajado a otro lugar del extranjero? ¿por qué su prometida no lo acompaña? (No, por razones de trabajo.).
En el cuarto de la entrevista: ¿es casado? ¿tiene hijos? ¿alguna vez solicitó visa a USA? ¿ha viajado a USA? ¿dónde trabaja su prometida? ¿cómo se conocieron y desde cuándo la conoce? ¿cuántas veces y en qué fechas su prometida lo visitó?
Los documentos que presenté, fueron; ellos solamente quieren los documentos de las instrucciones. Algunas notas importantes: si no eres militar no necesitas el certificado de antecedentes militares; tampoco es necesario el certificado policial (yo lo presenté y me lo devolvieron, la encargada me dijo: “hace un año no se pide”). Prepara tus evidencias de vínculo con: fotos, cartas de amor, boletos de viaje de novia(o) de USA, boletos y comprobantes de pago para servicios o diversiones disfrutados por los dos; y reúnelos en un folder por separado. ¡SUERTE!

2 comments:

  1. The above comment contains a link for an advertisement on YouTube. Sigh. Just go to visajourney.com and start your process there. THEN, if you still need help or your are not confident in your English abilities, hire someone.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Emily im going trhu the Same process. My fiancée Ives in Peru and we already have the NOA1. Is there any way that I can get in contact with you?. I'm petty officer Darwin A. Rodriguez US coast Guard. Your help will be greatly appreciated you have no idea how happy I was to find you posted all these info. My email is daugrose@aol.com. Darwin.a.rodriguez@uscg.mil

    ReplyDelete