It was long a dream of mine to become a legal citizen of the United States and even more so after having met my boyfriend (now husband) after one of his recent trips down to my country of Mexico. After several months of dating and traveling back and forth, we decided it was time for us to tie the knot and to move in together so we could start our family. Like I said, it has always been a dream of mine to be a legal citizen of the U.S. so when we started the immigration process, it seemed like it took forever in my opinion. Below is a brief description of my experience applying for a K1 fiancé visa.
My boyfriend, Reginald, started the process by submitting what’s known as an I-129 petition. It’s essentially a bundle of forms which begins the whole visa process. There are some requirements that you have to meet to fill out this petition like one of you has to be a U.S. citizen and you both have to be able to marry. Neither of us had been married so that wasn’t a problem and Reginald was born in the U.S. so we were clear there as well. In the package, Reginald had to include documentation that he was a U.S. citizen as well as proof that he would be able to support me when I arrived. The fee was a total of $340.00.
Several months later, Reginald received a form stating that the petition had been approved and that it have been forwarded to the National Visa Center which was apparently the next stage of the process. The National Visa Center further processed the petition and forwarded it to my U.S. Consulate here in Guadalajara, Mexico. The whole process took five weeks.
I received a package from the U.S. Consulate containing an application with several pages of questions and documents I would have to provide them. A couple of months later I was reached by the U.S. Consulate and told the details for my interview as well as to schedule a medical examination which was to be done by one of their doctors. The medical examination was pretty typical but it was pretty expensive, about US $400 which was a lot for me. Thankfully I had already received all the recommended vaccinations…
Finally it was time for my interview and I was so nervous but that nervousness soon turned to frustration after waiting in a crowded room for several hours. Finally it was my turn and again I was extremely nervous.
I can’t remember all of the questions during the interview, because I was so nervous, but I recall them asking a couple of times about how I met my fiancé and how I was planning to work once I was in the U.S. Finally after several months of waiting, I was told that I would be getting my K1 visa and that I would have to pay more fees, surprise.
All in all, it was worth it for me because I got to marry my husband although I’m still working on changing my permanent status here in the states!
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