Recently on Tengaged (and via Skype) lots of people have asked me about the visa process & how long until BengalBoy and I can be back together or just for their own purposes or for general knowledge...
So instead of writing similar messages to a bunch of people it just makes sense to blog it :)
I know it's long.. Sorry!!!
Here goes: There are like 4 or 5 ways to go about marrying someone from a different country and getting them to the U.S. I am not saying that any particular way is better than another but some ways are more risky or more expensive than other... I have some general knowledge about all of the options (as we definitely explored every option at some point or another) but the way we chose made the most sense for our situation.
For anyone looking for information on this topic in general, this is a good chart with plusses and minuses for each route that can be taken: http://www.visajourney.com/content/compare
**note that the costs given there do not include cost for police clearance certificate (varies from country to country), marriage license/ certificate fees, or the actual plane ticket that needs to be purchased to move here upon approval
For information about our case:
We got married on January 4th, 2012 in the U.S. and he returned home on the 9th. It is 100% LEGAL for someone to come here and get married as long as they do not intend to stay here and adjust the status. If you come here, get married, and return home for processing of the petition (which we did) that is legal. Unfortunately though, this first part of this petition process takes, on average, 5-6 months (we are 3.5 months in... our petition was received January 12th, 2012). The petition is the one where we had to send everything under the sun proving a real genuine relationship – pictures of us together over the years, marriage certificate/license, wedding invitation, actual wedding pics, photocopies of cards we’ve sent each other, receipts from gifts sent from me to him and vice versa, proof of having credit cards and back accounts in both of our names, affidavit from our friends/family saying they have witnessed our relationship grow over the years and were present at the wedding, copies of plane tickets from trips to see each other, engagement announcement...etc. Some people even went as far as to send Skype convos, facebook messages, e-mails!! I did not do that as I think that’s an INCREDIBLE invasion of privacy tbh.
Once the petition is processed, it goes to the next step and is sent to the National Visa Center where they send a packet of information and applications to each of us. I have to fill out an “affidavit of support” to prove that I can support both of us in the event that he is unable to get a job here right away and I have to pay a processing fee, while he has to fill out tons of general information, prove police clearance, have a medical exam and go through background checks... this step usually takes 1-2 months.
Once we clear the NVC step, they will assign an interview date (usually about 2 weeks to a month later) at the US Embassy in London and Dru (and maybe me too) will go and have an interview with an immigration officer and we will have to prove our relationship is legit, once again have proof of joint accounts, pics, marriage certificate etc.
As long as the officer finds no problems with our paperwork and sees that we are together for the right reasons, then his application would be approved that day and his visa would be mailed within a week. As soon as his visa is in hand he can book a ticket to the U.S. and will become a legal permanent resident upon entry here. He can live here permanently and will be free to travel and work in the U.S.
So, for our case in particular, we are probably looking at about 4-5 more months total... So we likely will not be able to live together until about August/September-ish. But we have heard that there are major delays in the process right now so it's hard to judge for sure :(
It’s been tough tbh, but we will get there someday :)
Thanks to everyone for the support and I will be happy to answer any questions I can if you are going through something similar with a loved one.
Comments
That's a long process! I hope you don't have to wait too much longer.
