Fiancee Visa Questions

Preparing a successful visa petition is both ‘Art’ and ‘Science’. The science is filling in the blanks correctly, and remembering to attach all the official documents that are needed. The ‘Art’ comes in when you choose what evidence to present and how much to present, in order to prove to a possibly unfriendly stranger that you are a bona fide couple.

One element of the rainbow of evidence, are photographs, of the two of you as a couple. Imagine this as if you were giving slide show, but you only have a few minutes to tell your whole story. Choosing the ‘right’ photos to show to immigration is very important.

To see samples of photos, and a Youtube presentation that describes how to choose your photos go to:
http://fianceevisaservices.com/youtubepetitionphotographs.html

Simple Purpose:

1. To prove you have met ‘face to face’

Key purpose is your Opportunity

2. To demonstrate you have a ‘bona fide’ relationship

Easy to accomplish #1, #2 is more Art than Science.
You want to tell a story. The story should be about a genuine, ‘in love’ couple that wants to spend the rest of their lives together.

What should be in the photos?

Couple Should Be in the Photo:
This is all about the two of you, so both of you should be in each photo.

Positive Body Language:
Smiling, holding hands, leaning in to each
other. One of my clients took pictures of him and his gf on his first trip to meet each other. It was obvious from the photos that they were strangers, and a bit uncomfortable with each other. Her arms were always crossed across her chest, and they always kept as much distance between them as they could. I insisted that he go on a second trip, and get more photos and proof of the bona fides. And it worked just great. They ended up very happy to take more time to build their relationship and enjoy their engagement. The photos from the second trip showed a real couple, who were happy to be together and comfortable in each others company.

Mid-distance shots.
Another client gave me a bunch of photos of he and
his fiancee, taken when he was holding the camera at arms length away from his body pointing back at the couples faces. Such a photo accomplishs #1 that the couple met. but does nothing to prove bona fides.
Better the shot is taken at a farther distance and the background is easily identifiable. These close up face shots could have, and probably were taken all at the same time, which is a red flag.

Identifiable Backgrounds.
Make sure there are easily identifyable landmarks
or events going on in the background. If a couple are trying to trick immigration and pretend a sham marriage in order to obtain a passport, typically the tricksters don’t spend too much time together. So there photos would usually be taken all at once, one afternoon. So instead you want to make sure it
is obvious you have spent a lot of time together and shared some travel and activities. So presenting a photo in front of downtown, another at the zoo, another at the acqarium, another at a historical site or in front of a ‘Welcome to Our town’ sign, for a town far away from the city she lives in, another in the countryside, mountains, lake, beach all add up to ‘tell the story’ that you have a genuine relationship.

Seasons, Events, Holidays:
If you make multiple trips. Try to vary the time of year you go, so that the background of the photos clearly indicate this was a totally different trip. For example if the fiancee’s country has winter and summer, some photos with snow in the background, or wearing heavy coats easily delineate from another trip taken during the heat of summer. If the seasons
look similar, try to find backgrounds that indicate a seasonal holiday. The background might have a decorated Christmas Tree, or a Happy New Years
banner, or show an independence day, Kings Birthday or other national holiday, or celebration.

Time of Day:
Vary the time of day. Choose some photos taken at day and some at night.

Date Stamping:
Having your camera automatically insert the month,
day and year onto each photo. Is the simplest, and most effective way to demonstrate when your photos have been taken and that they have been taken on different days. Another way to also show the date is to find a background that shows the date, a sign in front of a wedding party, or a sign in a hotel lobby often show the date.

Clothing:
Vary the clothing you wear. Again you want to dispel any suggestion that you are taking all the photos on the same day. So each day of your trip vary the wardrobe that you and your partner are wearing.
So each photo that you say is taken on a different day, looks consistent with another day.

Friends or Coworkers:
If a couple is genuine, one would expect the proud
fiancee to ’show off’ and introduce her fiance to her friends or coworkers or fellow students. So a group photo at her place of study, work or liesure with
her peers is a good choice.

Family:
A serious fiance will meet his new ‘in laws’ and especially want to meet her parents or family elders to ‘ask for her hand’. A photo showing the couple together with her happy ‘on board’ family is a must.

Less is More:
Don’t be repetitive. One of my clients gave me 12 pictures of him and his fiancee at a single restaurant. Of course, every single picture was precious to him and his fiancee. But they should be saved for the
family album not used for the visa petition. One, possibly two pictures telling about a moment in your time together is interesting. 10 pictures repeating the same story is boring and not effective at all. Better to share 12 photos that each and every one tell of a
different activity or event that occured while the couple was enjoying their time together.

What you should Avoid:

You want to keep the Consular officer who is reviewing your petition and preparing to interview your fiancee, friendly and on your side, interested and feeling positively about you and your fiancee when he sees your photos. Each photo should bring him closer to identifying with you as a genuine couple. He may have strong moral, racial, religious and/s cultural biases. Be extra careful not to inadvertantly offend him. If he feels offended, or that something is wrong, he will dig for problems until he finds justification to deny your case. Make sure your entire petition consistently leads him to be utterly convinced you are a bona fide couple

No Sexually Charged Images:
No Kissing or groping. My clients present me with a lot of photos with them kissing, hugging, the girl sitting on his lap, laying on a bed together or simply obviously in a hotel room. While none of these so far has been X rated, I am a liberal person, butI would be
uncomfortable if my daughter was in those pictures. Just show normal happy, friendly, comfortable couples.

No King Kong carrying Fay Raye, images:
When I see a 6 foot tall, 270 pound man, bear hugging while towering completely over a tiny 5′, 100 pound, girl. I can’t help but feel uncomfortable for her. Try to minimize size differences. Try mid range shots, or have both sitting down side by side, so their heads are about the same level.

Avoid Negative Body language:
Any negative body language by the couple obviously should be avoided. In addition look how the other people in the photo appear. I got one photo of a couple with her parents. The couple was smiling but the parents were scowling. Perhaps thats the way the
parents always look. We will never know. But that particular photo made it appear they were not happy with the engagement. That could be a red flag.

Avoid Culturally Offensive Images:
I got a photo and the couple were in front of a statue of a character out of her countries cultural history. The couple made hand gestures like the character was wearing horns. Perhaps the CO would have thought that funny, like the couple did. Or perhaps he would have been offended. I would not take the chance.

Don’t cheat:
Every week I catch one of my clients faking the dates on his trip photos. He took a few photos on one day, then falsely claimed they were taken on different days, so he could (he believed) tell a better story
about his trip. Ever CO carefully looks at the clothing the couple is wearing and the backgrounds in each picture. If told two pictures were supposedly taken a week apart, but the couple is wearing exactly the same outfit, the CO knows there is fraud going on. Don’t attempt to use photo processing software to fake photos. Once caught in even the smallest
misrepresentation, the entire petition is put in question. My clients were lucky I caught their ill advised attempt and stopped it before it could get
them into trouble.

My imaginary ideal of the timeline of a genuine romantic engagement

My ideal couple have been corresponding for 6 months or MORE. The man flys to meet her for the first time. They spend a week getting to know each other. She shows him her country. They are in love.

3 to 6 months later, he can’t bear to be apart from her any longer and flys back to her country. He stays longer this time. He meets her family. He gives her a ring. They have an engagement party. She shows him
more of her country.

Upon his return to the USA he submits the petition.

The photos this couple should attach to their Fiancee or Spousal, I-129F or I-130 petition are:

From First trip:
Photos of the couple together on different days, wearing different cloths, in various identifiable locations.

Second trip:
Same: Photos of the couple together on different days,
wearing different cloths, in various identifiable locations. Now added are photos with her family, and/or friends. An engagement party. She wearing the ring.

Certainly not everyone’s experience is like this ‘ideal case’. But the closer your courtship and engagement appears to be like that of other genuine
couples from her country and culture, the better.

When you choose the right photos, and tell a clear and compelling story, the more likely it is your petition will have smooth sailing.

To see samples of photos, and a Youtube presentation that describes how to choose your photos go to:
http://fianceevisaservices.com/youtubepetitionphotographs.html

Tags: Photographs

Getting Fiancee or spousal visas for Vietnam is much harder than from most other countries.

The consular officers in Ho Chi Minh City apply a higher standard before they accept that a relationship is genuine.

Like the consulate in China,  see my blog http://www.expertfianceevisas.com/?p=26 they expect a petitioner to have made multiple trips, to have had a long engagement, and to be able to communicate well with his fiancee (English no problem).

In addition they expect each petitioner to have celebrated a large, formal engagement party and banquet called “Dinh Hong” (but not on the first trip).

Some of their “official” reasons for denial are:

Photographs submitted as evidence of the relationship indicate that Petitioner and Fiancee have spent only four or five days together.

(This is their “code” what it really means is “only one trip = no visa”. If only one trip, it doesn’t matter how many photos you give)

It does not appear that the claimed relationship is continuous and on going. For example, Petitioner has not returned to visit Fiancee for one year.

Fiancee and-or Petitioner submitted evidence of only a small, inconsequential engagement ceremony without any US guest. This contradicts local social and cultural norms in which many family members and friends, including those in the US, are invited to engagement celebrations numbering in the hundreds of guests for families of even modest means.

In contrast to Vietnamese social and cultural norms which mandate a lengthy and careful period of pre-nuptial arrangements, Petitioner and Fiancee became engaged before meeting in person.

The decision to approve or deny is generally made by the consular officer before he meets with the Fiancee, before the interview. This is why taking the extra effort to make a complete and convincing petition at the start is essential to your success. If the officer has decided to deny, he will ask her detailed questions about the “proposal, the petitioners home town or the future wedding plans”. Any answer the Fiancee gives will not be “credible”.

Beneficiary’s chronology of the claimed relationship is not credible. For example, Fiancee can not recalled when Petitioner proposed to her.

Fiancee is unaware of basic facts regarding Petitioners location and or hometown (features, characteristics, etc). For example Fiancee was unaware of where Petitioner has lived for the past two years.

Fiancee is unaware of the exact wedding plans, what church, or venue, when the marriage would take place.

If these issues apply to you, to be successful you MUST remedy them prior to submitting your Petition.  And you MUST provide the supporting documents to irrefutably prove the remedies have occurred.  Many petitioners have their multiple trips and engagement party after the fiancee visa petition has been submitted, then bring proof of the trips, etc to the Fiancee’s consulate interview. They leave dumbfounded when finding that their Fiancee who attended the interview alone, but with all the documents, was not allowed to show the proof, instead was asked a few questions and left, denied due to the weak initial petition documentation.

Submit a stronger petition with more “proof of a genuine relationship”, UP FRONT.  Contrary to official statements, decisions to accept or deny a petition are often made early, prior to the interview, while the consular officer is reviewing your petition. The officer then asks pointed questions during the interview in order to justify the decision he has ALREADY made. Be sure to provide all proof of your genuine relationship “up front” in the petition.

See my youtube on proving a Genuine Relationship at
http://fianceevisaservices.com/youtubegenuinerelationship.html

Strategy to successfully petition:  Immediately take extra care to ensure that your “paper trail” is solid, and put at least two trips to meet her into your plans,  sign her up for English lessons if her conversational English is not good,  and celebrate your “Dinh Hong” during one of your trips.

If you are using a prepaid phone card make sure it provides you with itemized call records. These are the best proof that you are making regular and frequent contact. If your current phone card does not give you an itemized call logs
see http://fianceevisaservices.com/international-prepaid-long-distance.html

My petitions generally get approved faster than average. This is due to the professional way I assemble your petition package, including extensive, but very necessary efforts needed when applying for  a Vietnam fiancee, to prove the “bona fides” of your genuine committed relationship.

Click for Fiancee Visa Preparation Help

Prepaid Calling Cards: a great way to watch your budget and at the same time cheaply talk with your fiancee. These services provide you a toll-free access phone number and a personal identification number (PIN). To make a phone call, you dial the access number and then enter the PIN. An automated voice will ask you to enter the phone number you are calling, and tell you how much time you have left. You get AMAZING cheap rates for your international long distance calls.

But BEWARE! when it is time to demonstrate to immigration you have a sincere genuine relationship most calling cards are not worth the plastic they are printed on.

As expressed by the US consulate in Guangzhou China in their recently updated Packet 4 instructions, (the info packet they provide just before an interview), “Calling cards, without an itemized list of calls made using the cards, will NOT be accepted.”

My guess is, those consular officers were plain tired of the frequent arguments they had with applicants, having to explain that a pile of dead calling cards, or handful of calling card purchase receipts DOESN’T PROVE ANYTHING. If there is no specific record that the phones which were connected were yours AND your fiancees, then there is NO record. There is NO proof.

In fact a Full Fiancee Visa Support client of mine with a fiancee in Thailand, had known the gal for five years, and had carefully retained every phone bill for all those years. But he used a calling card too. The only thing that his detailed records demonstrated, was that every day he called the access number of his calling card service. There was no proof at all where the calling card routed his call. It could have been to Thailand, could have been to his fiancee, but it could have also been to anywhere or anyone else.

Why are these calling cards not accepted as proof of contact? Well, a tricky person could buy a calling card, and claim he used it to call “Ms X” when he really used it to call “Ms Y”. Or he could buy cards and resell them to friends, retaining the original purchase receipts. Dead cards or receipts do not show how the cards were used.

Rejecting calling cards that do not provide itemized records, is not only a policy of the Guangzhou consulate. It is the policy throughout the State Department. Guangzhou just had too many unpleasant scenes, and was frustrated enough they decided to post the policy specifically in their interview instructions.

What to do? Use a service that lets you keep detailed calling records. There are plenty of cheap long distance calling services, and some of them provide itemized usage records. Shop around.

I did.  I checked out dozens of services from a google search. And I was AMAZED at what I found. Almost NOBODY wanted to provide a useful call log. They gave bogus answers like “we can’t do it because of privacy issues”.  “Contact us a speak with an operator and she will tell you what was the number you just called”. ” Send a certified letter requesting the information”.  “If we receive a subpoena we will provide the information”.  And best, “for $200 we will provide you with your last year’s call re cords”.

So I was surprised to find that the service I currently use stands out from the crowd because it provides this information. And this information is necessary for proving you have been calling your fiancee regularly. The service I use and recommend is called LD-Peanuts offered by LDPost.
More details are available at http://fianceevisaservices.com/international-prepaid-long-distance.html

It is cheap, prepaid, you buy in chunks of $20, AND you get access to their website, where you can view the last 60 days of call history. The history shows the number you called from, and the number you spoke with, the date, time, and how long you spoke. What you should do is log in every two months and print out a copy of the call history page and save it for when you apply for your fiancee or spousal visa.

You pay online with a credit or debit card and it buys you a ton of time. Calls cost  US to China 1.7 cents a minute, to Philippines 16 cents a minute, to Thailand 1.8 cents a minute, to Vietnam 7.5 cents a minute. There are no connection fees, and there are competitive cheap rates for the rest of the world too.  You can make calls from any phone by calling a local access number. And they have local access in most countries. You can even give your fiancee the pin number and she can call the local access number in her country and call you.  And EVERY call made would be listed on the history page of your account. Just regularly print out the history, and you have clear proof that you and your fiancee or spouse talked regularly.  More details available at http://fianceevisaservices.com/international-prepaid-long-distance.html

Another of my Full Fiancee Visa Support clients went to visit his Fiancee in Morocco. He took his cell phone with him. He ended up with about $2,000 in roaming charges. If he had signed up for LD-Peanuts the same calls would have cost him less than $100.

For more information on International Prepaid Long distance visit Fiancee Visa Services.

The new USCIS G-325a has been released with technical flaws. This error may cause thousands of petitions to be bounced back to their petitioners

USCIS just released an updated version of its G-325A. This is the biographical information form, that has been used for many decades and is used in conjuction with MOST petitions filed at homeland security, including but not limited to Fiancee and Spousal visas.

The new form Revised: 06/12/09 does not ask any new questions. The only slight modification is that the styling is slightly more modern. As questions have not changed in many decades, previous versions are acceptable.

Whoever got the contract forgot to check his work. For instance, there are 8 data fields where a petitioner types dates, 6 of 8 will always be illegible when printed. I spoke with USCIS. “No problem, the petitioner can hand write in the dates”. I know a lot of people, who after they carefully type the correct date in a fillable form, will not be checking to see that what they typed did not print properly.

A bigger issue is the print settings themselves. The original G-325 was a multicopy form that had carbon paper, or its equivalent so that the petitioner got 4 copies. Each copy identical except for its designation at the bottom of the page (1) Ident. ,(2) Rec. Br. , (3) C. , or (4) Consulate.

Earlier online pdf versions automatically printed out the 4 copies with the four unique identifiers at the bottom of the page. USCIS requires all four signed pages whenever the G-325A is submitted. Since carbons were always provided, or the online forms did this automatically, USCIS instructions rarely refered to the G-325A in the plural. Instructions always simply stated “file the G-325A”. The underlining assumption was that all four copies constituted the form.

The latest version forgets that 4 pages are required and only prints one page. That is all well and good if only one page was required. Or if new instructions told users to print the form out four times. But that knowledge is not shared.

How many petitioners will without specifically being instructed to, send in four copies of this new form?.

Too Few.

How many petitions submitted with only one page of new G-325a will be rejected.

Too many.

I reported this issue directly to USCIS. I hope they take action before too many new applications are delayed.

For help in filing Fiancee or Spousal Visas visit
http://www.fianceevisaservices.com

There you will also find free downloadable copies of USCIS
including the new G-325a Rev: 06/12/09 (which I don’t recommend using) and the previous acceptable edition
G-325a Rev: 07/14/06 which I use and recommend you use until the technical problems are corrected.