Right now, as I am writing this, the weather is crazy hot in SoCal, but let me tell you, it gets even hotter when you’re dealing with this K1 Visa, and things get denied.
Read along and I’ll tell you all about it. I’ll explain how, in a few short days, I transitioned from a cancelled marriage to a marriage counselor!
Ready? Let’s go!
So this week has been a crazy, crazy conundrum of things going on between me and my wife, and trying to get her Adjustment of Status process going.
As I mentioned earlier, we got married on August 3rd we filed the paperwork. We filed for the marriage license. We had an official ceremony, had the paperwork signed off, and sent it off.
Ch-ch-ch-changes
Then I started the process to file the Adjustment of Status (I-485).
And so we were just waiting to get our I-797C form, which is a notice of action, meaning they received the forms and are taking action on them.
However, things got a little freaky when I got a notice from the local county clerk. The register recorder told me that they could not process my marriage certificate.
What?
My mind was blown.
I reached out to them to find out what was going on. They sent me some information by mail indicating they had a problem with the application I submitted and that it was illegible.
I learned they couldn’t read the denomination of the Pastor who performed the wedding ceremony. When I looked at it, I read it, and it looked perfectly like, nondenominational.
They didn’t think so. I can understand they didn’t want to guess and get it wrong.
Marriage Cancelled/ Nuptials Voided
So they sent the form back, along with an affidavit that I had to have the Pastor sign again and have my witness sign again, and then gathered up the paperwork and resubmitted it to the Registrar-Recorder’s office.
So that was a big thing I finally got off my chest; it was one of the things on my to-do list to make sure it got done in time.
I didn’t want to face a situation where the USCIS was asking me for my marriage certificate, and all I had was a copy of the application.
Luckily, it didn’t seem like there was any other problem besides that. I accepted the fact that they couldn’t read certain things on their own.
No Man Is An Island
Then the next thing that happened was quite interesting. I work in a predominantly Vietnamese environment. So it’s not often that I run into people who are not Vietnamese.
And it’s usually even more interesting when I run into other brown folks with their Vietnamese spouses or girlfriends.
Anyway, an African American gentleman comes in and starts pacing. He has a bald head like me and is taller and thinner. He’s a little older, probably 65ish.
I’m sitting at the Security Desk watching him as he walks back and forth, pacing. He approached Kelly, one of my coworkers, and asked them where he could find information on what’s required to travel to Vietnam.
So Kelly turned around to face me and said, “You’ve got the right person to talk to right now because this gentleman has been to Vietnam many times.” He was indicating to me.
Traditional Women Rule Wifehood
The gentleman comes over and I ask him, “When do you see yourself taking this trip?” He told me he planned to take it in November.
And I asked him why, and he told me that he was going there to marry his girlfriend.
Talk about a crazy coincidence!
We started talking about how he met his future wife, what he’s going to do, and how he’s going to get there. And he told me that he was going there intending to bring her back.
And I’m like, Hey, brother, do you know how long this process takes? And he told me this was the very reason why he had come to the location where I work. He wanted to find out what it takes to travel to Vietnam and then bring his fiancée or girlfriend back.
So I put on my mentor hat and had to sit down to get a piece of paper and a pen. And I took him through the whole spiel of what it takes to travel to Vietnam, the kind of visa you might need. And then file a petition for your spouse or your girlfriend.
Work Hard For Your Spouse/ It Proves She’s Worth It
I had to inform him that it was not just a matter of filling out some paperwork and then going to the U.S. Consulate, where he’d immediately be issued a visa for his fiancée.
I had to tell him that it takes a lot longer than that, and I had to explain the whole visa process, whether it’s a spouse visa or a fiancée visa, and that it takes time.
And that’s when I opened the USCIS webpage on my computer. I printed it out and put it on the front page of the Vietnam Embassy because he was planning to stay in Vietnam. After all, he was planning to stay in Vietnam until he could bring his wife back.
I told him about the extended-stay visa because the typical 30-day visa would not work unless he were willing to leave the country and return immediately with a new visa on day 31.
Passport Brother In The Making
So I gave him information about the Vietnamese Consulate right here in California and told him to contact them directly and tell them what he was trying to do.
They would be the best source for getting him the type of visa that he needs to stay with his fiancée or future wife until they get married. And then they get the visa, and then they come back to the United States.
So I had to teach him about the whole process while I was at work and go through it with him. It was cool to realize how much I had learned about it
Following a petition, the supporting documents, proof that you have a bona fide relationship, evidence that you have a bona fide marriage, receipts, documentation, money sent back and forth, hotel stays, coffee, house, state, dinner, restaurant reservations, all these things you need to build into your proof that the relationship is real.
I also reminded him that if he is using any chat software application for most of his communications with his fiancée and future wife, he needs to print all of the messages out.
I ended up printing out 800 pages of Facebook Messenger chats between my fiancée and me just to make sure that the USCIS, National Visa Center, and the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City understood that while we hadn’t met in person for the first four months of our relationship, we were constantly talking online and building a relationship.
Speaking English Is The Great Multiplier Motivator
I remember during our interview at the US Consulate that they promised to supply you with a translator. I told him that if his fiancée spoke English, she should not use a translator.
I told him that in my case, my fiancée spoke excellent English. So, although the translator said to her in Vietnamese, she responded in English. And then that caught the eye of the actual interviewer, an American like me.
The interviewer spoke with Nghia, asked a few questions, and then turned most of his attention to me. And he and I started chatting, you know, like we were old friends. And that’s what I told this gentleman.
I explained why he needed to let his fiancée speak in English, as it was a clear indication that they could have a relationship through normal channels of communication when they shared a common language.
And I’m telling him the standard, and that it gives a better indication that it is a bona fide relationship.
I gave this gentleman a few hundred dollars’ worth of information to get him started on the right foot. And I have to tell you, I came away feeling good about being able to help him. And I couldn’t help but feel that.
This was fate. Fate brought that guy to my place. We are not a travel agency. He had to pass through three bona fide travel agencies to reach my place of employment.
Then the fact that I noticed him, and he asked one of my coworkers in front of me, what it took to go to Vietnam. And of course, how my coworker immediately thought of me and turned the gentleman’s attention to me. And how I helped.
I can’t help but think that this was fate. And so I was happy to help, and I was happy to point him in the right direction.
And I hope that if he has any questions, he comes back to my place of work and looks me up. I hope that if he does have questions, he realizes that I was sincere in my efforts to help him, and then he comes back.
CONCLUSION
So even though my situation has been a rollercoaster ride with rejections, submissions, and all these other things, it was excellent to find some level ground.
It was nice to help someone who would otherwise start off doing precisely the wrong thing.
So yeah, this is a crazy roller coaster ride, but I’m happy that I’m on it. If any of this has been helpful to you or inspiring, please feel free to subscribe. And also like, comment, and subscribe to my YouTube Channel, where I talk about the same things:https://www.youtube.com/@AngeloBell
I have many videos dating back to 2018, when my K1 visa process first started. So you can get our history all through the 2020 pandemic. And for everything else:I’ve got it all cool on YouTube.
I want to share more, and I will. And thank you for being her,e and I’ll see you in the next blog.