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

FianceeVisaServices.com goes above and beyond the call of duty to help you prepare a “persuasive” fiancee visa petition. See the behind the scenes video that explains in great detail all the special details and extra effort FianceeVisaServices.com puts into each petition.

Tags: bone fide relationship, genuine relationship, visa petition review, visa preparation

I got a phone call today from a person asking for help. He said his I-129F K-1 Fiancee Visa Application was denied and he wanted to know what he could do.

Note: I had never talked to him before, he was not my client.  None of My Fiancee Visa Preparation clients have had their applications denied.

In his case after his fiancee attended her interview, they were notified that the Manila consulate wanted additional information.  They wanted copies of travel itineraries, emails, photos.

Some were provided. The Fiancee had a second interview. The I-129F Fiancee Visa petition was denied as the consular officer suspected the relationship was not Genuine.

Some applicants think petitioning for a Fiancee Visa is like getting a drivers license. You just fill in the blanks, pay the fee, get your photo taken and done.  This is not the case for petitioning for a Fiancee Visa, the process is closer to applying to get into college.  In addition to filling in the blanks, there is also the ESSAY question, where you must convince the reader you are worthy.

The essay question for a I-129F (which is not officially asked on the forms but had better be answered in full if you want the petition to smoothly navigate the system) is:  “Is this a genuine, bone fide relationship between two people who sincerely seek to spend their lives together in marriage?”

When I help prepare a Fiancee Visa K1 petition,  usually the final package contains about 100 to 150 pages. We devote at least half of the tabbed sections, and half of the pages to answering the “is this genuine?” question. The answer starts with a two page letter that describes the relationship, its history, present and future. I help my client write his letter. We try to cover the following points:

• Describe the history of your relationship.
  

• include, details of the courtship? Frequency of contact etc.
  

• How did you come into first contact with your fiancée?
  

• Describe the nature of relationship?
  

• Why did you choose your fiancée?
  

• What features, attributes do you find most attractive?
  

• What are your plans for the future with your fiancee?
  

• What are your plans for the wedding ceremony?
  

• What are plans for honeymoon?
  

• What are your plans for establishing a household?
  

• Where do you plan to live after marriage? – what kind of house, where, buy rent location and so on.
  

• What do you expect to happen within a year of marriage?
  

• What do you expect to happen after 5 years of marriage?
  

• After marriage, do you have plans about work for your spouse?
  

• Are you planning a family?
  

• Plans for vacations together?
  

• Plans for social, hobbies, educational interests?

Then in addition to this letter, I have my clients provide supporting documents, such as:

• Photos of the couple together

• Travel Itineraries

• Passport Visa Stamps

• Telephone Bills

• Copies of Emails/Letters/IM’s

• Hotel Receipts

• Engagement Announcements

• Engagement Ring Receipt

The objective is to fully dispel any doubt that the reviewer may have that the relationship is genuine. Once convinced that the relationship is real, the petition should move along smoothly.  Details on how to apply for the I-129 petition and how to demonstrate the genuineness of the relationship are also discussed in detail in the Fiancee Secrets eBook Chapters “Documenting the relationship” and “Letter to describe the relationship”

In the case of the caller, he was given the choice to appeal the decision or start over.  If it was my petition, and my relationship was genuine, then I would do the work I should have done in the first place. I would put together a clean, compelling package that included a detailed two page letter on the relationship, plus all the relevant supporting documents I could find. And I would file attach this package to the appeal request.

Tags: bone fide relationship, fiancee visa, genuine relationship, I 129F, K-1, K1, uscis