Comments: I met a lady who was a tour guide in The Mekong Delta for our group.  I did NOT have a photo taken of the two of us because I didn’t have a plan to bring her over here at that time.  Is it mandatory that I go BACK to The Mekong Delta in Vietnam to have ONE or more photos taken of us together?  This is NOT fraud…just circumstances as I would prefer to spend the air fare money to bring the lady here rather than for me to go back and forth myself.  Thanks for all the good work you do.  John 91320

The generic answer is, you could get the people who were on your tour to write affidavits and swear that you and her were on the tour together, and that they saw you spending time together. Such affidavits could be used in place of a photo to prove to prove you actually met in person.

The specific answer for Vietnam is: Vietnam is the most difficult post to get a fiancee visa from. The proof you must provide to have any chance of approval, is much more burdensome than just proving you and her were in the same place at the same time.

The HCM consulate reviewers expect you to make more than one trip, expect a long courtship before a proposal of marriage, and expect a formal engagement party, Vietnam style.

If you are serious about marrying this gal, or any gal from Vietnam you will have to put in time, effort and money.

Sorry to bring bad news, but I always tell clients  “like it really is”, even if it is not what they want to hear.

Assuming you choose to proceed (I can help you whether you take my advice more trips or ignore it)

Get more info at http://www.fianceevisaservices.com/

Photographic prints, showing the date when a photo was taken (Datestamping, normally on the bottom right corner), are increasingly hard to find today. While many generations of  film cameras had this capability, most digital cameras do not.   Even though datestamping is becoming rarer, it seems it is also becoming more IMPORTANT for immigration purposes.

Datestamping is Important for Immigration

One of my clients submitted photos without date stamps to USCIS. A few months later his petition was pulled from the processing que and an RFE (request for evidence) was sent to him.  It read:

During the last 5 years he had made three trips to China. the first five years ago, another 3 years ago and the last one 1 year ago. His first face to face meeting with his fiancee took place during the last trip.  So far so good. He submitted evidence of the trip from 1 year ago,  the plane tickets, passport entry stamps, and the photos of he and his fiancee.

There are many eligiblity requirements to be approved for a Fiancee Visa.
One requirement, is that the couple has had a “face to face” meeting within the 2 years prior to submiting the petition.

The RFE was sent because immigration was not confident that the photos they received  were actually taken during the recent (eligible) trip.  They suspect that the photos may be over two years old, taken during an earlier trip.  Since photos are really the ‘best’ proof of a ‘face to face’ meeting, we were in trouble. We had to scramble to find additional proof that the meeting really took place.

IF the photos originally presented each had a date stamp, this would NOT
have happened. The process would not have been halted, not delayed, and no
‘cloud’ would have been attached to the petition.

Why are Date Stamps so rare?

In the old film days, most cameras came with a feature that could imprint a date stamp onto the photo.  It was done by exposing the film with a small embedded LED display that could be turned on or off.  Most digital cameras no longer have this function. However, date, time and other information IS retained. It is stored in the digital file ( .jpg, jpeg, gif) of the photo as embedded data, called EXIF tags.  This means that the digital files of your photos STILL has the important information you need.

Digital datestamps can be resurrected

It is possible to extract the date from the EXIF tag, and then print it onto the
visible part of your photo,  and it will look exactly as if you used an old film camera.

There are many software programs available to do this.  The program can take each ( .jpg, jpeg, gif) , read  the date information (EXIF tag), then paste the date onto the ‘front’ of the image, and finally save as a modified (.jpg, jpeg, or .gif) digital file.  When your modified photo files are printed, the datestamp will be right where it belongs, where it can HELP your visa case.

All petitions benefit by datestamping

It is true that if you got your first passport, only ever traveled once, and that
was solely to meet your partner, date stamps would not be strictly necesssary. If  you only were there one week in October, that MUST be when all photos were taken.

However you should  take the ‘long view’ you should planning that photos will again be needed for the Green card application, and if ‘heaven forbid’ your petition is delayed or denied, and more ‘face to face’ meetings, would be needed.  Having your photos ALL have date stamps, will guarantee your petitions to immigration will be more convincing and won’t raise red flags.

For those who have many trips overseas, or who are together for extended visits, datestamping is even more important. This is the best way to  provide definitive proof of the course of your courtship, and to tell the story in a thorough and easily understandable fashion.

Professional Processing

There is much software on the internet that you can use to recover and print the EXIF data on your photos.  With time, patience and savvy you can probably achieve  this yourself.  I did not have any luck myself. I spent a few frustrating hours trying different programs and finally gave up.

BUT that lesson gave me the incentive to find someone who could professionally provide this service. And I  use him for my client’s photos.

For information o professional help to recover date stamps from your photos click  http://www.fianceevisaservices.com/add-date-stamp-on-photographs.html

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.

Tags: bone fide relationship, genuine relationship, Long distance telephone, prepaid calling cards

The most common reason Fiancee or Spousal Visa petitions are rejected is that Immigration is not convinced the couple have a genuine “bona fide” relationship.

There are many ways to prove the relationship, photos, phone bills, emails, log files, on and on.  Some couples though don’t really think about saving this “paper trail” until they are just about ready to file their I-129F or I-130 petitions.  By then it is too late. And they may end up rejected due to lack of planning.

I put together a Youtube video that teaches how to prove you have a genuine relationship. It speaks directly to couples who are applying for Fiancee or Spousal visas. And tells them what documents and proof to attach to their K visa petitions.

I think that a new couple who has just found each other, should ALSO  view this youtube lesson, so that from the start of their relationship they will know what is needed later on, and so can  save from the beginning, what they should have later.

For example:  Proof that the couple has regularly communicated with each other  is essential. What about the couple that uses Instant messenger every day, but never turned on “logging”? What proof do they have?  NONE. !

If they turned on LOGGING, they could print out a page, or pages that show each and every time they communicated, when they logged in, when they logged out.  It is not necessary to show the words of each conversation,  but is extremely valuable to show the frequency and dates of the conversations.

The same applies for telephone bills or logs.  It used to be that everyone got a regular phone bill each month, that showed the numbers called and the duration of each call.  Now there are ways to save money by buying pre-paid phone cards or joining discount calling services. Some keep track of your calls, and you could print out statements to prove your calls.  But many clients use prepaid phone cards, which don’t provide you any record at all!  The time to choose  a service that provides you a record of you calls, is  at the Start of your relationship.

If you are  starting a relationship, or still looking, take a minute to watch this youtube video on “How to prove a genuine relationship for the Fiancee or Spousal visa”.  You will be much better prepared in case you find you life partner and hope to live together in the USA.

Of course if you have already found your partner and are applying for a K-1 or K-3 visa, use the suggestions shown on the youtube video to make your petition more believable and thus help to ensure  a happy ending to your visa application.

For more information on Fiancee or Spousal Visas visit FianceeVisaServices.com

Tags: bone fide relationship, consular interview, genuine relationship

I just did a review of a I-129F petition for Alien Fiancee. The sponsor in trying to describe the relationship between himself and his fiancee, went into great detail about each and every gift, and each payment he sent her to support rent, tuition, internet access, and so on. He felt he was demonstrating what a good provider he was, and how serious he was to support his future wife. The problem is, when she IS your wife and you are doing all that, well, it is expected. But while she is your girl friend / fiancée, then the visa officer has a tendency to wonder, ” is this is a genuine committed relationship, or  sugar-daddy meets gold digger.?”

When dealing with immigration, you can NOT afford to send the wrong signals. I counseled him to rewrite his essay, and stick to personal topics of compatibility, relationships, romance, man to woman, partner to partner, plans for the future and so on. To read the full text of the review I conducted go to I-129F Petition Review

A lot of men go it alone, doing their own petitions.  They save thousands of dollars avoiding high attorneys fees. But it is easy for them to “shoot themselves in the foot” by writing or saying the wrong thing in front of immigration officials.

The instructions that accompany most of the forms for your petition seem relatively simple. What they do not tell you, is what the visa officer is really looking for, and what his agenda is when he reviews your forms. That is where the trouble occurs. Everyone understands simple errors and omissions. Very few understand what will satisfy the visa officer when he determines in his mind whether your relationship is “genuine” or not.

Having a second set of expert eyeballs, check out your work, and head off potential landmines is PRICELESS insurance. When you are doing the petition yourself, obtaining an expert review is the cheapest and best way to avoid problems and delays, to avoid rejection and heartache. For more details visit Fiancee Visa Services.com and review samples of the recent I-129F Petition reviews we have conducted.

Tags: visa petition review, visa preparation