Rumor or Fact?

[scwt36]

I was told that all k1 visas after march 6 is put on hold and will not be processed becoz of new security guidelines and the k3 visa is better to do now. I dont know if this is true yet or not. i plan to call them on monday to find out more about this. this is all i have for now.
Homeland Security said Tuesday it would send additional forms to the estimated 10,000 couples to get answers to the questions about criminal pasts and marriage brokers. But it said it was still waiting for the White House Office of Management and Budget for approval of those forms and the new application.
It affects you because it changes the way that ALL K1 visas are processed ... they are developing new K1 application forms ... these forms were supposed to be ready by now but the dead line was not met ...
ALL K1 aplications are being forwarded to the California Service Center ... none are being processed at this time ... there is no word on when they will begin processing again ...
A background check is being added to the process ... there is no word yet on how much time this will add to the process ... nor is there any word yet on how much this will increase the fee for the K1 application ...

Until ALL of these issues are resolved ... no K1 visas will be processed ... K1 visas are in limbo ...

[mmmata]

Whoa!! I found this...



Fiancee' visas are not on hold, but request for evidence that the petitioner is not a criminal..


This was post June 13, 2006

USCIS NOTIFIES PUBLIC OF NEW POLICY CONCERNING FIANCÉ(E) PETITIONS
Agency to Request Additional Evidence to Comply with IMBRA
Washington, DC – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that in order to comply with provisions of the International Marriage Brokers Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBRA), it will need to issue “Requests for Evidence” for more than 10,000 Alien Fiancé(e) Petitions (Form I-129F) currently being held at USCIS Service Centers. USCIS will begin immediately to issue RFEs to affected petitioners using an RFE template that has been approved and cleared by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
All petitions filed on or after March 6 must be supplemented with additional information to satisfy the new evidentiary requirements established by IMBRA. To adjudicate the petitions that are being held as quickly and efficiently as possible, USCIS is issuing “Requests for Evidence” (RFEs) asking petitioners to provide the additional information including data pertaining to a petitioner’s criminal history (if any). Details on the waiver process for those affected by the new limitation for filings of I-129Fs are also provided in the RFE. A new Form I-129F that incorporates these changes should become available later in June. In certain circumstances, USCIS may need to issue a second RFE to some petitioners later in the process if it is determined that other required information was not provided in the initial filing.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005, of which IMBRA is a part, are designed to continue Congress’s efforts to prevent domestic violence and spousal abuse. Immigrants who have been victims of domestic violence have long benefited from VAWA immigration provisions, which allow abused spouses and children to self-petition for lawful immigration status. Under IMBRA, Congress has further extended those protections by regulating more closely the international marriage broker market and by requiring disclosure of violent criminal history, such as domestic abuse, rape, or murder, of which a fiancé(e) may be unaware.

[mmmata]

This is not good for K1 visas

Not good at all..

This IMBRA law is going to really throw things out of whack..I'm going to find out more info Monday.

I think anyone here who's waiting for a K1 visa should find out too..The processing date has NOT changed since Feb 3, 2006....we're pushing 4.5 months..5 months in july (says it should take 3 months on the application)

Basically, how you met your fiancee (online dating service/match making) is key. If you paid for these services, then that web site needs to be in compliance with the IMBRA law. If they are not, the request for k1 might be denied..

ugh

[sil80]

just a rumor

Hi, i do not know wheather there is a new immigration law. You can check the k1 visa timelines there/a lot of people have posted theirs/ and you will see that in Vermont Service Center petitions are being processed after march.
I hope that this will give u some hope.
Good luck.

[mmmata]

California Fiancee Visa date has not moved!

The California data has not moved since Feb 3, 2006!

What a bummer..This is really going to take some time..it appears the fiancee visa is no better then the spousal one. I mean its probably better to goto the fiancees country, marry them, then do spousal visa.

I'm beginning to get that feeling.

ugh

well I'll just keep posting here. I got the NOA1, but nothing else since May 8, 2006.

[Ars]

yes sometimes they dont do updates on website..,well you can try to check status online..,and you can see processing dates well yes you are right IMBRA effecting most of petitions now days..but this will over soon be patient this delay is nothing but a test of love

[mmmata]

phew..ok the date moved

Feb 15..

that at least tells me that fiancee visas are not in limbo..but still lagging in california..it took a month to move the date 12 days...<Sigh>

but we're both up for this challenge

[mmmata]

damn Im cynical..arrrrrrgh IMBRA stuff

Has anyone thought about this?

They've moved all the Nebraska cases to the California office..Nebraska shows a process date of May 29 (I mean a 3month jump over california?!?! if it was that lopsided, shouldn't they move cases around to load balance work load??), ..I've been fixated on this date and it usually moves only a little bit (moved 12 days since May 1)..so maybe that date in Nebraska is for cases that are 'leftovers' (stuff they cant transfer to california for some reason or another) and that everything else has been moved to California..

So now California's date has simply slowed to a crawl..its been set to Feb 15..because of more/higher case load..and maybe it'll STOP moving once it hits March 06, since this is when IMBRA grace period ends..

so to catch up with IMBRA law, maybe they've moved all the cases to californa, backing up california more, and then they'll request RFE for those cases (proof the petitioner is not a crimnal AND a request to resubmit a new form (because all the forms out there are not valid because it doesn't specify the IMBRA requirement).

So maybe they're going to request everyone to resubmit and restart the process..?? I just found the new fiancee forms were posted 5/23/06 and this one INCLUDES the IMBRA information...



Maybe I watch too many Xfiles..conspiracy stuff..

arrrrgh

I'll be waiting to hear from people who's case is with california:

1) Filed after March 6 and received NOA1 (this is me)
2) HAVE received NOA2/RFE (this is not me, yet.. )

Thanks

Maybe they'll just request RFEs for all the cases in the system that were filed after the IMBRA took effect without the correct application form (good on is for 5/23/06)

[andyh]

wow! this is a new one on me what is imbra?

i just read what everyones saying about imbra and ive never heard of the acronym. i guess im really behind. sounds bad. -andyh

[andyh]

will having met on a free site save us from IMBRA

My fiance and i met on a free site, and neither of us ever paid any kind of fee. she simply posted a free profile, as did i. i saw her profile, wrote her and she sent me her email and asked for mine, and all communicaiton after that was done by us with nothing to do with any site. Does this save us from the Big bad IMBRA wolf? also this all happened two years ago. But not knowing there was a deadline comming, where someone would start trying to kill all hope of ever meeting the mate of your dreams, we foolishly took out time getting to know eachother, and i just flew to meet her in february,asking her toi marry me while there. Now, both being certain that we want to marry, we started our paperwork in april to bring her over here to the USA. her best reiend started her paperwork just a month earlier and has the petition approved already. i hate to think we may have to wait many months or even years because of some buisybodies, having nothing better to do than to mess up a love weve worked soo hard to achieve. it seems unconstitutional in so many ways, depriving us of the persuit of happiness, selectively singleing out American Males to investigate, making everyone wait indefinitely because of a few anticipated bad apples, assuming were all bad bad treating us as such, simply because theres a new law criminalizing sites that help us find love. god knows we wouldnt wouldnt work soo hard and spend soo much to find love elsewhere if what we want were more readily available here. But womenh here by and large carry too much baggage from bad relationships and wish to blame us for it. while many women seeking love overseas have a less complicated view of it, and rarely seem to take the incomprehensible tact of blaming you for what someone it the past may have done.
Well, be that as it may, i wonder if perhapse simply bungling into a free site and finding my finace there may have in any way helped us aviod a missile that may otherwise harm us? does anyone have any idea? also we filled out all our paperwork before the new forms and instructions using the current forms at the time, i wonder if that will help also? or are they retroactively punishing all couples who simply arent approved as yet? God what a mess. just when my fiance and i were feeling so positive about having found eachother. now we may need a new place to live, inorder to be allowed to be together, if all this isnt being over reacted to. it does scare us though, really really scare us. i wonder who it helps? -andyh

[mmmata]

you took the words right out of my mouth

I feel exactly as you so eloquently expressed in your email. I guess the biggest mistake anyone can do with dealing with the government is just thinking a check, application and a stamp handles everything...

not even close..

I think you'll be ok. Don't be in too much despair. If your site is free, then there's nothing to worry about. What the application itself says is clear in this regards:

"If you met your fiancé or spouse through the services of aninternational marriage broker, you must notify USCIS ofthat fact by answering Question 19 on this form. The term“international marriage broker” means a corporation,partnership, business, individual, or other legal entity,whether or not organized under any law of the UnitedStates, that charges fees for providing dating, matrimonial,*********** services, or social referrals between UnitedStates citizens or nationals or aliens lawfully admitted tothe United States as lawful permanent residents andforeign national clients by providing personal contactinformation or otherwise facilitating communicationbetween individuals. For additional IMBRA requirements,see items 4 and 9 of these instructions"

We met on match.com the international version. Been in emails/chats for solid 2 years. She came here just last year in Dec and she stayed with me up until the last week of her visitor visa. Good times..We debated getting married and moving her visa over to a spousal one. The nod for the moment was to go with the fiancee visa, "its quicker, faster"..etc. Changing her visitor visa to spousal would take forever..Then IMBRA hit and everything is up in the air..

Its interesting this happened..and then people wonder why there's so many illegals running around..I see what they're up against..what a joke..a sick joke..

good luck andy...I submitted my application May 1, got NOA1 on May 8...nothing since..

Im ready to move to her..but we're not so bad <yet> the time apart is horrible..and we have a ways to go still..it appears fiancee visas are taking upwards of 6-9months..processing dates are Feb15...

argh

[andyh]

whos behind the IMBRA bringing a screechging halt to online dating

ever since i heard about IMBRA a few days ago when i nearly had all our paperwork done for my fiancee and i, ive been wondering who actually started it. it turns out not to be fat ugly unwanted us women, not wanting to allow amercian men to search for true love overseas, but a nutcase running a dating site called True.com. thye name of the site i suppose doesnt mean true love but "Tether Real Unions Eternally". the guy Herb Vest apparantly did it to try to push the other dating sites out of the competition and to increase his income, by forcing everyone to use his site only.

maybe its just me, but it seems if everyone in the dating comunity got together and agreed to boycott True.com permanently and every site he ties his name to, maybe he'll allow people to keep meeting online and dating to resume. and finally fiancee visas to resume where he stopped them. with his moneymaddness. also i discovered one reason for the fiancee visa system screaching to a halt, while researching this. the computers the immigration service is using are still running windows 95 and attemtps to upgrade them partly due to Herb Vests demands, seemed to cause crashes in computers and the need to revamp a lot of the systems and centralize work that was previously handled in more offices but the computers wont talk to eachother so they're centralizing to get access to more data with antiquated computers and systems.
i found this information in a cnet news story titled "true love with a criminal background check", the author said he cant imagine anyone responding to a man again after the site tags his profile with the disclaimer required by Vests meddling, " this site has not completed a criminal background check on this man"
that should effectively end online dating, if this lunitic doesnt realize what hes doing to his life support system and quit.
he had a lucrative buisness, i assume selling information to the lovelorn so they could meet someone to love, but decided he didnt want any competition and so destroyed the golden goose he was living off from, out of greed, apparantly.
andyh

[andyh]

im considering moving to where my fiancee lives too.

its a backward country in the normal sense of the word but one that still believes in roamnce not needing to be legislated. well well see if my new revamped forms get anywhere wiuth the info that we met on a free site, and that none of the crimes they list on the form seem to apply to mje although i have spit on the sidewalk a time or two. andyh

[mmmata]

Rec'd my IMBRA RFE Friday

Apparently they were all mailed out 6/23...

I was reading it through and basically they ask if you met your fiancee through a broker. Also, they asked if you have a criminal backgroud.

it also ask that question about you were courtmartialed from the military..

it also mentions 'I'll marry my girl within 90 days of her getting here' SURE!! just get her here! damn!

ok ok that's my internal thought..

anyhow..wondering..I see this form says 'submit this form by Sept 18, 2006', so wondering if that's some *****al date? It also says your case will be processed by the time indicated on your form..so Im not sure whats going on with that..maybe that's our processing date?

ugh

this thing is so messed up!

[bella]

Apparently they were all mailed out 6/23...

I was reading it through and basically they ask if you met your fiancee through a broker. Also, they asked if you have a criminal backgroud.

it also ask that question about you were courtmartialed from the military..

it also mentions 'I'll marry my girl within 90 days of her getting here' SURE!! just get her here! damn!

ok ok that's my internal thought..

anyhow..wondering..I see this form says 'submit this form by Sept 18, 2006', so wondering if that's some *****al date? It also says your case will be processed by the time indicated on your form..so Im not sure whats going on with that..maybe that's our processing date?

ugh

this thing is so messed up!

I just received mine too....however it does not ask me about the miliatary or if i will marry my fiance within 90 days of him getting here. Do u think the forms are different for males and females??
I guess even though they are moving so slow they are still saying that your case will be processed within the time frame....which i think is something like 80-110 days