Growing up back in the Philippines, I used to see couples of different races, and I had this idea that they just needed to simply get married to be together and live in the US or in other part of the world. Little did I know that the process is way far beyond that. On the other hand, my fiancé did not imagine that he would marry a Filipina, so this kind of process was nowhere as planned or imagined. He did not even know that the beautiful country of the Philippines exists and that we would meet out of nowhere and needed to do this.
I remembered that my fiancé used to tell me that the K1 visa process is the ultimate test of patience and love, and later I knew that it was – a tedious, lengthy process and a stressful one especially if your case was put to administrative process (221G). When we started our application, we literally had zero knowledge about it. We did it from scratch and I can give all the credit and hard work to him because he did all the research on what and how we are going to do it. He used to read all the articles, forums, or blogs on the internet to get all the information that he needed.
There are different types of petitions to obtain visas for loved ones, but we opted to have I-129F or the Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) commonly known as K1 Visa since this is the fastest way I can enter in his country. In this type of petition, my fiancé who is of US citizenship will be my sponsor going to the US and we need to get married within 90 days of my stay then the process of obtaining a green card known as adjustment of status (AOS), work and travel authorization will start which involves more documents and processing times.
Note: We documented the process of filling up the AOS form I-485 here.
We are going to share how we did the process and some tips that might help couples who are in the same situation as us. However, the complete step by step guide on how to apply for a K1 visa is available on the below link:
Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) – I-129F to USCIS
This petition is a prerequisite to obtaining a K1 visa. A petition must be submitted and approved by USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services). Once approved, you may then proceed to apply for the DS-160 – an actual visa application. The process is easy and simple, but the data must be complete and accurate.
Here are the steps and tips on how we did ours and we hope you’ll find it helpful to yours.
1. Preparation and Data Gathering
We only have one objective when we’ve started this process – do it right the first time. We need to learn a lot of things about the do’s and don’ts to achieve our goal. My fiancé read directly from the US Bureau of Consular Affairs website, articles, forums, and reviews, and watched vlogs to get information and tips. He told me what documents I needed to obtain, and I made sure that I got it all ready. For this process to go smoothly, there has to be teamwork and open communication .
Being organized and having a simple to-do checklist of documents that will be needed is very helpful. Here’s our actual list.
2. Preparing Proof of Relationship
I think preparing proof of relation is the most vital part of all the documents that need to be included in filing the petition because this will tell your story to the approver and one of the deciding factors if he/she will approve your case. Other documents are basic such as a passport, picture, birth certificate etc. Your story should speak to the approver the truth and why you as a couple need to be together. As simple as it sounds, this is just proof that your relationship is legit and proof that you love each other.
It is a big factor that the proof shows you’ve been together physically by showing photos. A long-distance relationship without the effort to be together even once might be tagged as suspicious (but not all in case). One of the requirements to be approved is to have seen each other in person in the last 2 years.
In our case, it is my fiancé who always thinks or plans, and I mean plan with action. When he traveled to the Philippines, he already brought some documents I needed to sign so they will be readily available with him when he’s back in the US since he’s the one filing our petition. Some documents might be required in their original form but in our case they did not ask for originals but it is always to better to be ready. We have documented every trip we had. We took as many photos as we could including the things we did together, places we’ve been, and all the people he met including my family, relatives, and closest friends.
What can be included as proof of the relationship? A lot of people have different opinions on this. Some include less or more than others but uniquely, this is your life and your petition, never take it for granted, and make sure to include as many as needed.
Things to include to make your petition stronger:
1. A written statement of the circumstances of your in-person meeting. In other words, why/how/when did you meet.
2. Create a log of all video calls shared between you both.
3. Screenshot important conversations that occurred via chat messages. This is very important because it will show the nature of the conversations, and it will give a unique perspective. Be mindful of the content of the chat and don’t provide anything not safe for work and/or very personal.
4. Did you send correspondence to your fiancé? Include that.
5. Any gifts, purchases, or engagement ring receipts, include that as well.
6. Celebrate special occasions via whatever method? Include it too.
Additional tips:
1. Take lots of pictures in popular places that are easy to identify, such as country/state landmarks.
2. Include your fiancé’s relatives and friends in the set of pictures if possible.
3. Your relationship should be genuine, an honest picture will tell a million love stories.
4. Use timestamps on your images, it can be helpful to prove you were there at said time.
5. Selfies are needed but also make sure to capture surroundings with it.
3. A Love Story
The story of how a couple met is also a crucial part of the documents for the submission of the petition. In our story, we tell how and when the relationship started. It can be short and concise but gives an entire overview of your love story, how it is going, and what your future together will be. This should be written by the petitioner.
4. I-129F Form
Once we had completed all the required documents that would support our petition, we filled in the I-129F form – Petition for Alien Fiancé(e). This form is basically a petition or a document filed by a U.S citizen to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services for your fiance to enter the country. Most of the details are to be provided by your fiancé/sponsor and you as a beneficiary’s basic information. The form asks for historical records of the couple for the last five years including all the addresses, work history, marriage/s, statements or declarations, and others.
The form is relatively easy to fill in. We just had a bit of confusion at first about what country my fiancé would put in the form as his birthplace. Puerto Rico is a territory but on the form, there is no option for territories, only states.
Important Points to remember:
1. Make sure that the form is completed.
2. Do not leave a blank filled. Put N/A to those that are not applicable.
3. Use the latest version of Form I-129F Form. The old form used will be rejected. The form has an edition date at the bottom, make sure it’s the current version.
4. Make sure that the footers are seen when printed. Some browsers when opening a PDF and attempting to print the document, they will cut a portion of the PDF footer. This will totally invalidate the document. The footer has a special barcode and numbers that are required. This caused us so many problems at the time of printing.
5. Make sure to add additional pages for addresses and work history as required, the form includes instructions on how to do so at the end.
6. The form should be duly signed by the petitioner before submitting to USCIS.
5. Filing Fee
Filing of petition for a K1 visa in 2024 costs USD 535.00 by check payable to the U.S Department of Homeland Security.
The check needs to be included when submitting the petition to USCIS. Once the petition is received, USCIS will attempt to cash the check. Only when the check is cashed, the process will start.
6. Submission
When we finished gathering and finalizing our documents, we compiled everything and made them ready for submission.
Here’s how our documents are in order:
- Cover Letter
- The check, me and my fiancé’ photos (passport size) – If you are located in other country, make sure to inform the photo center to have it in US passport size. Every country has different photo passport sizes so it is better to have the correct one to save time.
- Filled up Form G-1145 – e-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance – USCIS
- Filled up Form I-129F
- Supplement to Form I-129F – Explanation of Meeting written by petitioner
- Letter of Intent to Marry by Petitioner & Beneficiary in original copies
- Disclaimer from the app where we met stating that they are not a marriage broker
- Petitioner’s passport copy with stamps when he traveled to the Philippines
- Petitioner’s birth certificate copy
- Beneficiary’s passport copy
- Beneficiary’s birth certificate
- Beneficiary’s certificate of no marriage
- Beneficiary’s NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) clearance
- Proof of Meeting in Person (Photos such as our engagement, meeting my family, friends, and places we visited together.
- Me and my fiancé’s eTravel confirmation (Philippines)
- Hotel booking confirmations
- Flight tickets/boarding passes
- Proof of Ongoing Relationship (Photos, gifts, flight tickets to Dubai (planned travel)
- WhatsApp’s call logs and messages
- Divorce Decree/s (to be included whenever applicable)
Our documents were sent via USPS then we received an email that our case had been accepted. Make sure to check your email’s spam folder so as not to miss the notification as my fiancé received ours in spam.
7. APPROVAL OF PETITION
We’ve thought that once we have submitted our documents to USCIS, we will feel relaxed, but it is the other way around. It is the more we are getting anxious and impatient to get the result. Me and my fiancé talked about it every day since we filed. We are excited but at the same time worrying that it may take time to get approved. Approval depends on each case or depends on the USCIS service center that handles the case. There are centers who processed the petition faster than the other centers as discussed by people over the web but ours got approved faster too even if the one that got our petition has a reveiw of a longer processing center . The web shows that cases may be approved from 0 to 16 months.
The status of the case can be tracked through the USCIS website – https://egov.uscis.gov. However, we will not have any visibility on the progress of our case until it is approved.
My fiancé subscribes to a visa tracker app – https://trackmyvisanow.com. This app gives us an overview of how our case is progressing. We can recommend using this app because as their tagline says “The wait is long, but we know how long” is proven to be true based on our experience using it. The importance of this is that you will know what your position in USCIS processing is. There are 17,832 applications ahead of us when the center received our application.
Our petition was received by USCIS on January 19, 2024, along with the receipt of our I-797C Notice of Action commonly known as NOA1 then we got approval on May 3, 2024, wherein we received our I-797 Notice of Action commonly known as NOA2. Our paper will be forwarded to the National Visa Center for further processing. While we are waiting, we’ve started drafting our DS-160 form/application so that we will know what else we are missing or needed ahead of its actual filing.
We have notified through email that the our documents were sent to the Embassy where I will do my interview which is in Abu Dhabi. The email contains K1-FTP file that contains all the details about the petition.
Half of the process in obtaining the K1 visa is done when the petition is approved. The rest of the process will be concluded upon actual personal interview result of the applicant in the embassy. The interview can only mean instant approval, refusal (221g status) or denied. On the other hand, visa status in reference to the case number provided in the K1-FTP can be checked on Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) website.
Note: If your receiving embassy is Abu Dhabi like in our case, although you may see the status as “Ready” you cannot book an appointment for an interview unless a welcome packet (email) was received from them.
My interview was done on July 18, 2024. Unfortunately, I got 221G or administrative processing and so the visa status was changed to “Refused”.
Note: The case last updated field will change whenever the embassy is working on your case or whenever you send an email to the embassy requesting a status update. This is a good sign that the application is moving forward. However, the status will remain the same until they update the status. If you want to know how to follow up and reach out to the Abu Dhabi embassy, read the following post containing additional information on that topic.
When the status changed from “Refused” to “Application Received”, the embassy will send an email instruction to send the original passport of the applicant for visa stamping.
It means the visa has been approved but it doesn’t mean the visa has been issued until the status changed to the last update “Issued”.
Once the visa has been issued, the embassy will send another email notification that the passport was sent back to the post office to pick up the document or sent to the accredited courier of your choice when scheduling the interview.
For more information about the process to pick-up your K1 Visa after it was issued or to get an idea of what to expect on the point of entry to United States, check out our post here.
K1 visa process is straightforward as long as you have provided all the required documents. However, the most vital and deciding factor whether it can be approved lies mainly on the consular officer that is handling the interview. You may succeed or fail by chance and that is called luck.
If you have questions about our journey or would like to share your story, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
