Now that you and your future spouse have decided to tie the knot, what do you need to do next? In a word…PAPERWORK!! Oh yes, you are both going to dive deep into the bureaucracy of the United States Immigration system.<\/p>\n
The first question will be “How \t\tdo I bring bring my Fianc\u00e9(e) to the United States?” The usual \t\tanswer is by airplane. \ud83d\ude42 Seriously this page will have all the answers \t\tand links to the forms you will need. They will also tell you what fees \t\tare required and what documentation is needed. In our case Mrs. Webmaster applied for a K-1 visa. This is also called the Fianc\u00e9e visa.<\/p>\n
When I came back I didn’t have a clue what to do next. I went to the Immigration and Naturalization web site to start looking things up. My first problem was keeping track of all the changes. This was the point when immigration was being rolled into the Homeland Security department, (Don’t get me started on that!), and they changed names several times. As of the creation of this page, the agency is called the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services<\/a>. (USCIS)<\/p>\n Once you arrive here you will need to start downloading forms. I did this and panicked. I could not make head nor tails out of them. It was at this point I contacted an immigration lawyer to help me. However, if you are feeling brave, here are the forms you should be looking for. (Please, please verify everything! Things are always changing and my information will go out of date.<\/p>\n The first page to head off to is the list of Forms and Fees<\/a>. Oh yes, the Feds want their 5 pounds of flesh and three tons of documentation.<\/p>\n First on the list is the I-129F<\/a> form. Read the instructions carefully. Both you and your beloved are going to have to fill out copies of this form and your beloved will need to supply certified documents. If your fianc\u00e9(e) comes from a country that doesn’t use English as the default language, you will also need to have certified translations of all documents made. After that you will both need to fill out the G-324A form.<\/p>\n Now that you have submitted the forms the process \t\tbegins. First the Service Center goes \t\tthrough everything and makes sure all the “I’s” are dotted and the “T’s” \t\tare crossed. After that has been completed the forms will then be sent \t\tto the National Visa Center. They will do more stamping, filing and \t\tprocessing. After they get through with folding, spindling and \t\tmutilating your forms, they send it on to the consulate in your \t\tbeloved’s country. In our case this was the “Black Hole of Guangzhou.”<\/p>\n Once the consulate gets the paperwork they will send \t\tmore forms to your intended. Your intended will need to fill these out \t\tand send them back to the consulate. Once they get them, they will sit \t\tin a closet somewhere until some Vogon wannabe gets off his\/her dead ass \t\tand schedules an interview with your future spouse. This interview will \t\tlast about 15 minutes and is the last chance the morons have of denying \t\tyour intended entrance into the U.S. This happened to Mrs. Webmaster’s \t\tsister.<\/p>\n Mrs. Webmaster hired a lawyer in Guangzhou when she went \t\tin for her interview. He helped prepare her and also worked with me to \t\tprovide the latest financial records. These aren’t supposed to be needed \t\tbut it can’t hurt. In fact, the more evidence of a relationship, the \t\tbetter. Mrs. Webmaster appeared with letters, pictures, a key to the \t\thouse I bought for us, her Vermont Teddy bear and a printout of all the \t\temail\u00a0 we sent to each other.<\/p>\n While Mrs. Webmaster was speaking with the lawyer, she also had to go to an approved hospital for a full physical as well as getting her inoculations brought up to date. One of the things she had to get was a chest x-ray. This is to make sure she doesn’t have Tuberculosis.<\/p>\n Your fianc\u00e9(e)\u00a0 will be given a sealed folder containing all his\/her medical information. DO NOT OPEN THIS FOLDER!! This will be given to the immigration officer at the point of entry and MUST remain sealed. If I recall correctly a copy was also provided for Mrs. Webmaster for her use.<\/p>\n Mrs. Webmaster was in the interview for about 15 minutes. She was told she was approved and to come back in three days for the visa stamp in her passport. The following week she had the visa stamp put in her passport. 30 days later the Webmaster arrived in China to bring his future wife back to the United States.<\/p>\n An aside: Once you and your beloved arrive in the United States you will have 90 days to get married. After that you will want to start the process for a green card, and what fun we had doing that…NOT!!<\/p>\n That is another section. Meanwhile follow this link back to the index.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now that you and your future spouse have decided to tie the knot, what do you need to do next? In a word…PAPERWORK!! Oh yes, you are both going to dive deep into the bureaucracy of the United States Immigration … Continue reading
\nIt cost the Webmaster about $850 for a single round trip ticket for himself and about $875 for a one way ticket for his wife. WTF, Over?\n<\/p>\n