Right now 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 for filing the Adjustment of Status, which is the I-485.
And so then we were just waiting to get our I-797C form, which is a notice of action, which means 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 try to figure out what was going on. They sent me some information in the mail that indicated that they had a problem with the application that I sent in 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 imagine 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, had my witness sign again, and then gathered up the paperwork and resubmitted it to the Registrar-Recorder office.
So that was a big thing that I finally was able to get 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 quite interesting when I run into other brown folks with their Vietnamese spouses or girlfriends.
Anyway, an African American gentleman comes in and starts walking back and forth. He has a bald head like me and is taller and thinner. He’s a little older, probably probably 65ish.
I’m sitting at the Security Desk watching him as he’s walking 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 wife, his future wife, and what he’s going to do, 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 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 information on what it takes to travel to Vietnam, and then two, to bring your fiancee or girlfriend back.
So I put on my mentor hat and I had to sit down and get a piece of paper and a pen to write with. 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 fiancee.
I had to tell him that it takes a lot longer than that and I had to explain to him the whole visa process and whether it’s the spouse visa or fiancee visa, it takes time.
And that’s when I opened the USCIS webpage on my computer. Then I printed it out then I put it on the front page of the Vietnam Embassy because he was planning on staying in Vietnam. After all, he was planning to stay in Vietnam until he was able to bring his wife back.
I told him about the extended stay visa because the typical 30-day visa would not work unless he was willing to leave the country and immediately return, 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 him 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 fiancee or future wife until they get married. And then they get the visa and then they come back to the United States.
So I essentially had to teach him about the whole process while I was at work and go through the whole thing 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, proof 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 fiancee, 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 fiancee and myself 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 fiancee spoke English, she should not use a translator.
I told him that in my case, my fiancee spoke very good English. So, although the translator spoke to her in Vietnamese, she responded in English. And then that caught the eye of the actual interviewer, an American like me.
The interviewer talked to Nghia and asked a few questions, and then he 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 fiancee speak in English because it was a clear indication that they were able to have a relationship under normal channels of communication while having 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 freely this gentleman probably a few hundred dollars worth of information so that he could get started on the right foot.And I have to tell you, I came away feeling good that I was 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 three bona fide travel agencies to come to 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 was able to help.
I can’t help but think that this was fate. And so I was 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 and then submissions and all these other things, it was really good to find some level ground.
It was nice to be able to help someone who would otherwise probably start off doing exactly 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, comet, and subscribe to my YouTube Channel where I talk about the same things: https://www.youtube.com/@AngeloBell
I have many videos dating way back to 2018 when my process for the K1 visa initially started. So you can get our history all through the 2020 pandemic and everything else is it’s I’ve got it all cool on YouTube,
I want to share more and I will. And thank you for being here and I’ll see you in the next blog.