Legalizations, Police Certificates, & Physical Exams

Hello everyone! Today’s post is a continuation from last time and will review legalizing documents, police certificates and the physical examination. Let’s get started:

Note: The requirements below are for the Alien Fiancé(e), NOT for the U.S. Citizen. Meaning the U.S. citizen does not need to gather these documents or have a medical exam.

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Legalizations

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What are legalizations?

Like I explained in my last post, you need to get certificates (that you will send to the U.S. embassy) legalized. Legalizations are done to make sure that certain legal certificates are official and not fake.

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What do I need to get legalized?

You need to get any certificate (birth, marriage, divorce, and death certificates) that come from the foreigner's country legalized.

Note: You may not need to get a certificate legalized if they do not apply to your specific situation. For example, my fiance has never been married, so we did not need to get a marriage, divorce, or death certificate legalized.

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How do I get certificates legalized?

You should first call the place where you can get the certificate legalized to see if you need to make an appointment before coming in. In some cases you can mail the certificates in and they will legalize it then send it back.

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Where do I get documents legalized?

Argentina: Ministry of Internal Affairs of Argentina located at: Calle 25 de Mayo 179, Capital Federal. To legalize your certificates in Buenos Aires you need to have previously legalized them in your province’s Registro Civil. For example, my fiance got his birth certificate in the county house (registro civil municipal) of the city where he lives, then legalized it at Dirección General de Registro Civil de La Provincia de Córdoba (the province he lives in).    

Other Countries: This location may differ in each country, but if it is the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the foreigner's country you can click here to see a list of the locations of other countries’ Ministries of Internal Affairs.

Note: You should receive the exact address of the place where you can get documents legalized once you get the K1 Application Instructions packet in your email.

Police Certificate

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What is a police certificate?

A police certificate is a document from the police explaining any crimes that the alien fiancé(e) may have committed (or not committed). Your fiancé(e) will need a certificate for each of the countries that he or she has lived in.

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How do I obtain a police certificate?

Argentina: To obtain a police certificate you must go to the “Registro Nacional de Reincidencia” website and make an appointment. After this you will get an email confirmation of your appointment and a form that you need to complete and print to bring with you. Once you go to your appointment (you can go there up to 45 minutes before your scheduled time) you will pay a fee (you must pay in cash) if you didn’t already pay online or in the bank. They will then fingerprint you. After this you must (before you sign) tell the person “con excepción al artículo 51 del Código Penal”. He or she will then tell you where to write that statement before signing. Once you finish he or she will give you a receipt. With this data you will be able to access your certificate online, which you will be able to print. This certificate is electronically signed. This is the original certificate that you will bring to the interview. This is important to note, as one may think that they have to go in again to get a non-electronic signature, which is NOT the case in Argentina.

Note: When you are completing the online form you need to select how much time after your appointment you want to be able to view your certificate online. You will pay a higher price the sooner you want to be able to view it.

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Other Countries: The process may vary in each country. The exact process will be described in the K1 Application Instructions packet.

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Where do I obtain a police certificate?

Argentina: “Registro Nacional de Reincidencia” of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Human Rights at Tucumán 1353, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires.

Note: Even if you are from another province in Argentina you need to get the police certificate at the Buenos Aires location listed above.

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Other Countries: The location will vary in each country. The exact location will be listed in the K1 Application Instructions packet.

Physical examination

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Who can give me my physical exam?

Argentina:

Note: You will be able to communicate and coordinate your appointment with the doctor you select. My fiance was able to get the whatsapp number of the doctor and she answered all of the questions he had.

Other Countries: There are specific doctors in each country that are qualified to give this exam. You will need to wait until you receive the K1 Application Instructions packet to get an exact list of the doctors.

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What vaccines are required to enter the U.S.?

Mumps, Measles, Rubella, Polio, Tetanus and diphtheria toxoids, Pertussis, Haemophilus influenzae type B (HIB), Hepatitis B, Varicella, Pneumococcal, Influenza, Rotavirus, Hepatitis A and Meningococcal.

Tips:

*You should get all of the required vaccines BEFORE going to your medical exam. Not having all of the vaccines before you go will slow down the process.

*Call the doctor to ask if you can get everything done in one day. The reason this process may take more than one day is because after you go to the doctor’s the first time, you will then be sent to get your blood tested and X-Rays of your chest (this is sometimes located at a separate doctor’s office!). After doing all of this you will need to wait until your results have been sent back to the doctor so he or she can include that in your medical exam report. Since my fiance lives 8 hours away from Buenos Aires (where the doctors are located in Argentina) he called ahead of time to request that it all be taken care of in one day.   

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Note: Your approved medical exam will be put into a sealed envelope. You will be required to send the embassy a photocopy of the front side of the envelope as evidence that you have completed the Medical Exam. You will then bring the sealed envelope to the interview. If that envelope shows signs of tampering or has been opened it will not be accepted.

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*Remember: You will have to send COPIES of all of these documents/certificates (and the ones listed on my last post) to the U.S. embassy and bring the ORIGINALS to the interview.

The K1 Fiancé(e) VISA- Part 2

Hello Everyone! Before starting this blog’s topic, I wanted to remind you all that you can visit and follow my pinterest account for more information regarding the VISA process!

My last entry went over the initial steps and paperwork needed to apply for the Fiancé(e) VISA. I recommend reading that post before reading this post. Today’s blog will focus on the necessary steps to take AFTER submitting the Petition for the Alien Fiancé(e):

1) Wait. Yes, you heard that right: wait. What will you be waiting for and how long will you be waiting? You will be waiting for various documents that I have listed below. The waiting time however varies for every case. It took 8 days from the day that I sent the Petition for the Alien Fiancé(e) to the day that I received the first notification from USCIS. After this, it took approximately 2 months to receive the approval notice of my petition (I have been told that this is faster than the average time it takes).

Documents you can expect to receive after submitting the first round of paperwork:

1. Receipt from USCIS for the Petition for the Alien Fiancé(e).
2. Approval Notice from USCIS for the Petition for the Alien Fiancé(e).
3. Retrieval notice from the National Visa Center (NVC) (this is just a fancy way of saying that the NVC received your approved petition from USCIS and will now be forwarding it to the U.S. embassy in your Alien Fiancé(e)’s country).
4. An email from the U.S. embassy with an instruction packet on further documents needed before an interview can be scheduled.

2) Follow the application instructions in the packet that the U.S. embassy (in my case, the one in Buenos Aires since my Fiance is from Argentina). This instruction packet lists further documents and information that you and your fiancé(e) will need to provide to the U.S. embassy before they can schedule an interview for your fiancé(e). Here is a list of the documents that you need to submit:

Note: this list may not be correct for all countries and may change depending on the year that you are filing the petition.

1. DS-160: non-immigrant VISA application online.
2. Photographs: 2 identical recent photographs 2x2 inches (5x5 centimeters), front view, light white/ off-white background, on glossy paper, unretouched, and unmounted.
3. Valid Passport and 1 copy of the biographic page.
4. Previous Passports.
5. Birth entry/certificate issued by the Civil Registry.
6. Marriage entry issued by the Civil Registry (this is only if your fiancé(e) has been married before).
7. Death certificate of a spouse (of petitioner and/ or applicant) issued by the Civil Registry (once again, this is only if a previous spouse of the U.S. citizen or foreigner has died).
8. Divorce Decree of Petitioner and applicant (only if you or your significant other have gotten a divorce with someone).
9. Military Record: A certified copy of any military record, if applicable, is required.
10. Police Certificate: Each visa applicant aged 16 years or over is required to submit a police certificate from the police authorities of each locality in which the applicant has lived.

11. Court and Prison Records: Persons who have been convicted of a crime must get a certified copy of each court record and any prison or criminal record.
12. Physical Examination: This must be done with one of the Certified doctors in the country, which will be listed when you receive the instruction packet.
13. Evidence of Support: The US Citizen will have to complete form I-134. If the petitioner does not qualify as a sponsor, a Joint-Sponsor should ALSO be presented (any US Citizen living in the US or Legal Permanent Resident), who will also have to complete form I-134. This form is required to show that the US citizen or a Joint-Sponsor makes enough money to support their future spouse while in the U.S.
14. Evidence of Relationship: They prefer to see photos of you and your partner throughout your relationship. Receipts of money sent from the U.S. citizen to the foreigner is also good proof of relationship, as well as cards and letters with the original post marked envelopes, and phone records.
15. Fee (yes, MORE money): The current K1 visa fee for 2016 is 265 USD for each applicant.
16. Translations: All documents not in English or Spanish (Spanish is the second language for my situation because my Fiance is from Argentina) must be accompanied by a certified English translation.
17. Legalizations: Any document issued by the Civil Register in the foreigner's country (Birth, Marriage, and Death Entries) must be legalized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Argentina located at: Calle 25 de Mayo 179, Capital Federal (once again, this information is specific to Argentina. It will vary for each country).

3) Wait for an email from the U.S. embassy telling you the official interview date for the foreign fiancé(e).

Note: You must mail a COPY of each of these documents to the embassy, and bring the ORIGINAL copies to the interview.

A lot of this information is pretty easy to come by (ie. passport photos) and others are more difficult (ie. I-134). In following posts I will explain how to complete or obtain some of the more difficult items on the list. For now, feel free to ask any questions that you may have!

The K1 Fiancé(e) VISA- Part 1

In this post I describe the final option for achieving residency through marriage in the United States:

The K1 Fiancé(e) VISA

As I revealed in my last post, this is the option that my fiancé and I have chosen! I am more familiar with this process (I am in the midst of it as I write this post), and will be writing several detailed posts about it. First thing’s first: why did I choose this option when there are two other perfectly good options out there?

1. My boyfriend and I already had the intention of getting married in the U.S., so option get married in the U.S. was out.
2. I didn’t want to have to be apart from him again (we had already done the long distance thing and it wasn’t fun), BUT I didn’t want to marry him right when I arrived in Argentina.

Let me explain reason number 2 a bit more: Another very appealing option for my boyfriend and I was to marry in Argentina and apply for the K3 nonimmigrant VISA. But this VISA usually takes about 10 months to process. Let me remind you that I am only staying in Argentina for 12 months, meaning that we would have had to get married ASAP upon my arrival in Argentina. This is bad for several reasons: one being that it would be super stressful gathering all of the documents to get married and planning a rushed wedding, and two being that I wanted to live with him for a good amount of time before committing to marriage. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my boyfriend and wanted to be with him forever! But I always said that I would live with my future husband before committing to marriage. This is something else to keep in mind when going through this process: marriage is a huge commitment whether your future spouse is from the same country as you or not. The process of immigrating to the U.S. is stressful and expensive and is sure to cause some arguments. You need to be positive that this is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with before starting this process.

In the end, the K1 VISA, which only takes around 6 months, has allowed my boyfriend and I to live together before committing to spending the rest of our lives together and (hopefully) return to the U.S. together. Our personal situation led to choosing this option, so it is important to do your research before picking one. We submitted all of our documents just before christmas and heard back from USCIS on December 21st saying that they had received our petition.

Now for the information that you came for. Question and answer time:

• What forms are needed for the Fiancé(e) VISA petition? 
• g-28 (X2)- For both the petitioner (the U.S. citizen) and the Alien Fiancé(e). This was only necessary as we had an attorney representing our case. If one does not have a lawyer he or she will NOT have to fill out this form.
• g-325A (X2)- For both the petitioner and the Alien Fiancé(e). This document provides biographical information such as where you have lived and your places of employment for the last five years.
• i-129F- This document is the actual petition for one’s Fiancé(e) to come to the U.S. and provides more biographical information. This document only needs to be signed by the petitioner (the U.S. citizen).

Note: The documents use the title petitioner to refer to the U.S. citizen and Alien Fiancé(e) to refer to the foreigner so I am trying to stick with those terms when answering questions.

• What other documents are needed for the Fiancé(e) VISA petition? 
• Declaration of intention from both the petitioner and the Alien Fiancé(e).
• Flight itinerary for the times that you have visited each other (We simply printed out the flight confirmation emails that we had received. As an extra document we sent a trip itinerary for the U.S. that we had made together).
• A copy of the petitioner's and Alien Fiancé(e)’s passports and birth certificates. 
• A passport-sized photo of each the petitioner and Alien Fiancé(e). 
• Photos of the petitioner and Alien Fiancé(e) together (no more than 10 pictures, we only submitted 5).
• Email conversations (we didn’t have any email conversations, so we printed out snippets of our whatsapp conversations). 
• What is the purpose of the “Declaration of Intention”? The purpose of this document is to explain how the U.S. citizen and Alien Fiancé(e) met and that they plan on marrying within 90 days of entering the U.S. (Our lawyer had us submit two, one a little more detailed than the other. *Sample at the end of this post).
• How soon must one get married once entering the U.S. with a K1 VISA? One must get married within 90 of entering the U.S. with a K1 VISA.

 

*”Simple” Declaration of Intention Sample: (This is an example of what the U.S. citizen would write. You will also follow this pattern to write a declaration for the foreigner)

The more detailed declaration of intention was one page long (no spaces!) and did not fit this cookie cutter format. Although each of our detailed declarations mentioned some of the same events in our relationship, they were both in a unique format. We each started off with meeting each other in Argentina when I was studying abroad and ended with the formal statements of intending to marry the other within 90 days of entering the U.S. In these declarations we gave a chronological summary of our relationship. We mentioned trips we went on together, meeting each other's families and friends and finally, when we decided to get engaged. Having to write these statements kind of annoyed me at first, as the information we were providing was pretty private! But just keep in mind that the reason they are asking for this statement is to see if your relationship is legitimate or not. In the end, I wrote a good sized statement with simply stating the facts of our relationship.

I hope this post has answered some of your questions regarding the Fiancé(e) K1 VISA! My next post will detail the next steps (yes, there are more) after submitting the petition. Click here here for even more information on this topic. I have also started a Pinterest account dedicated to information on immigrating to the U.S. Click here to take a look at other sites that can help you through this process!

K3 Nonimmigrant VISA

Hello everyone! In this post, I will be explaining another option for obtaining residency in the United States through marriage:

K3 Nonimmigrant VISA

This option requires you to get legally married in the country of the foreign spouse and apply for the K3 VISA through the U.S. consulate in that country. But remember! After getting married, the U.S. resident must file an I-130https://www.uscis.gov/i-130 (this is basically a paper petitioning for the foreigner to become a resident of the U.S. on behalf of his or her spouse) and I-129F https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f petition for the foreign spouse. Once you get this VISA you can go to the U.S where your “status” will be adjusted to a resident instead of a foreigner.

*Note: there is a separate process for adjusting status (a.k.a. applying to become a resident) that is not explained in this post.

As always, feel free to ask me any other questions you may have and I will do my best to answer them! Ready? Let’s get started….

1. Out of all the options for obtaining residency in the U.S. through marriage, which is the cheapest? Applying for the K3 VISA.
2. How much do the filing fees for a K3 VISA cost? The answer to this question is still unclear to me, but I will do my best to answer. There are many fees that come along with any type of VISA (medical examination, printing of all required documents, etc.). The number that my lawyer gave to me was $420 for the filing fee. This is on top of the $500 attorney fee that she charges in order to file the VISA.
3. How long does it take for someone to get the K3 VISA? Since this VISA will be processed in the U.S. consulate of the Foreign Spouse’s home country, processing times will vary. My lawyer told me that in Argentina it takes an average of 10 months, but could take up to a year and a half.  
4. Is there an interview required for the K3 VISA? Yes. The foreign spouse will be interviewed at the U.S. embassy or consulate in his or her country. If there is no U.S. embassy or consulate in the foreign spouse’s country, he or she will be required to go to the nearest one outside of the country. In Argentina it is located in Buenos Aires.
5. How soon can the foreign spouse start working once he or she arrives in the U.S.? It depends (just the answer you wanted, right?;)) According to my lawyer you can start working almost immediately, and do not need to be a resident in order to do so. One needs to file form I-765 https://www.uscis.gov/i-765, application for employment authorization, in order to start legally working. This form generally takes 90 days to be approved.

In my lawyer’s opinion this is the best option in order to become a U.S. resident through marriage. Although this option is not the shortest, it does allow for the non-U.S. resident to stay living and working in their country while all of the paperwork for the VISA is being processed. If after reading this you still have doubts or questions follow this link to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for more information. If that is a little confusing (I know it is for me), follow this link for a simpler step by step “How to” for the K3 VISA. In my next post I will be talking about the final option for becoming a U.S. resident through marriage: the K1 Fiance(e) VISA. Yep! You guessed it! This is the option that my boyfriend and I (or should I say Fiance) decided to take.

Becoming a U.S. citizen takes a lot of work, as I’m sure you have already realized. There are many steps that come with each option, and I have not gone into every last detail on these posts. While researching immigration to the states, I have learned that although it is good to be prepared, there are also some things that you simply will not understand until you yourself actually get to that step in the process. As much as I don’t like it, getting a lawyer is truly helpful. They can help to decode all of the technical terms and make sure that you are turning in all of the paperwork on time. I am by no way advocating that everybody go out and get a lawyer to help with this process, because it can be done without them. After researching everything, and for my particular situation, it seemed like a good idea, but not necessary, to hire a lawyer. See you next time!

Marry in the United States and Apply for Residency

Hello everyone! Even though I haven’t written in months, I didn’t forget about you all. As you know, my original plan was to keep everybody updated as I got new information. I decided it would be best to wait a while before explaining the process, so I could make sure I fully understood what I was explaining and therefore give more precise answers.

In this post, I will talk about one of the options for becoming a United States citizen through marriage:

Marry in the U.S. and apply for residency

On the surface, this may seem like the best way to go. You don’t have to get any VISA before marrying, or wait a certain amount of time before coming to the U.S. You just come, and get married! BUT one very important factor to note is that you must NOT have the intention of getting married when you enter the U.S. in order to later on get approved for residency. Here are two hypothetical situations of couples getting married in the U.S., one couple being approved for residency, and the other not:

Situation # 1: John (a U.S. citizen) met Maria (a Colombian citizen) while studying abroad in Colombia. During John’s year abroad, he fell in love with Maria and proposed to her before he returned to the states. Within a month Maria was on her way to the U.S. to marry the man of her dreams. John and Maria easily got married in the local courthouse, but when they were applying for residency, their lawyer said that they were unable to… Why?

 

Situation # 2: In this situation, John still met Maria while studying abroad, but did not propose to her in Colombia. After John left for the States, Maria came to visit. While the two were touring the U.S. together, John proposed to Maria. Within two weeks they went to the local courthouse and got married. After this, they hired a lawyer to apply for U.S. residency for Maria. In this situation, given that they met all other factors, Maria was approved for residency.

Why couldn’t Maria legally apply for residency in situation # 1, but could in situation # 2? The answer is simple: in situation # 1, Maria entered the U.S. with the intention of marrying John, while in situation # 2, Maria entered the U.S. with the intention of visiting John. In order to legally apply for residency in situation # 1, Maria would have had to apply for a Fiancé VISA before entering the U.S. (I will get back to this option in a later post).

Let’s bring this example back to my situation: My boyfriend proposed to me in the United States. All good and dandy, right? We can get married in the U.S. and easily apply for residency, right? WRONG. If we had married BEFORE he left to Argentina again he could have legally applied for residency through marriage, but we didn’t. So now here we are in Argentina knowing very well that we want to get married and apply for his residency in the States. We can do this, but just not through the option I am explaining in this post. I will get back to what we have done in a different blog entry, but for now let me explain the “Marry in the U.S. and apply for residency” option, as it may be a viable way to apply for residency through marriage for some couples.

*note: My boyfriend has not yet started to apply for U.S. residency, so while the remainder of this post will not mention too much of the ins and outs of applying for residency, it will answer some practical questions that you may have about marrying and life in the U.S. before being approved for residency.

1. Out of all the options for getting residency through marriage, which is the easiest/least time consuming? Getting married in the U.S. and applying for residency.
2. What documents are needed in order to get married in the U.S? The documents needed to marry in the U.S. are different in every state. Click here to find out the requirements for each state. 
3. What is the difference between a getting a K3 immigrant VISA and directly applying for residency? After marrying in the non-U.S. country, the foreigner can apply for a K3 VISA in the U.S. consulate in his or her respective country. If approved, he or she will become a U.S. resident upon entering the states. A K3 VISA requires one to get married in the foreign country, while directly applying for residency requires one to have gotten legally married in the U.S.
4. How long will it take to get approved for residency? Once all of the paperwork is filed, it will take an average of 6- 12 months.
5. How long until the non-U.S. citizen can start working? After sending in the residency paperwork, it will take about 2 months until he or she can start working.
6. When can the non-U.S. citizen get a bank account and driver’s license? He or she can get both right away.
7. How long should we wait from the time we enter the U.S. to the time we get married? There is no rule for this, but one may want to wait at least 30 days… otherwise government officials may suspect that the foreigner came to the U.S. with the intention of getting married, which as I stated before, is not legal.
8. What is the price to apply for residency? The filing fees add up to $1,700.
9. What is the price to hire a lawyer to file the papers necessary to apply for residency? All lawyers’ fees differ, and some are of course cheaper than others. My lawyer in California gave me a price of $3,000. So paying the filing and lawyer’s fees would cost about $4,700. Yep. It’s not cheap.
10. How much income should I and my partner make in order to be eligible for residency? The joint income of you and your partner must be above the U.S. poverty guidelines. The price will depend on the number of people in your household, what state you live in (Alaska and Hawaii have different numbers than the rest of the states), and if the U.S. citizen is on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces. Click here to check out the 2015 number.

Did you look at the income numbers? (now would be a good time to do so if you haven’t already). Now that you have looked at them, don’t freak out. Although this may be a lot of money for some people (I am one of those people!), you can have someone “sponsor” the foreign spouse. This means that someone (generally a U.S. family member, in my case my parents) who has this amount of income or more can sign a form saying that they will be responsible for this person, therefore letting your loved one be clear for residency, as far as money requirements go. Of course this sponsorship comes with it’s fair share of responsibilities. Check this site out where it says “Obligation Duration” for more information.

Feeling a little overwhelmed? Don’t worry, I would be concerned if you weren’t. Immigrating to the U.S. (through marriage, or other means) is no cake walk. It takes a lot of time and money. Although all of the forms and lawyer-talk can seem complicated at first, what I’ve realized is that after researching your options and getting multiple opinions, everything becomes a bit clearer. The process that I thought was completely confusing about a year ago, no longer seems that daunting. If you are truly committed and have the financial means to bringing your loved one to the U.S., it will happen!

I answered these questions with the help of my Lawyer and the internet. I hope you have found the information useful. Keep checking back for more information!