In The Beginning

In the beginning, I was living and working in Las Vegas, and my wife was living and working in Dubai. Her formal training was as a Physical Therapist, but she somehow ended up with a job there managing the personal affairs of one of the wealthiest people in the UAE.

We made this work for a while, but ultimately decided that managing things long distance was too much of a strain on us. Our choices were to go our separate ways, which was really never an option, or to take our relationship to the next level.

We evaluated the options, and debated back and forth about a K-1 Fiance Visa vs. a K-3 Spousal Visa, attempting to determine if we should get married in the Philippines and process the full visa from there, or if we should do just the more temporary visa and get married in the US. We ultimately decided to marry in the Philippines, so we both put in our letters of resignation and began planning to meet up in Manila, before going further south to Mindanao, where she is originally from.

Having spent quite a bit of time researching the visas, I knew the basics, but still had many unanswered questions, so I decided to call the information line for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to get some further information on the matter. This call should have given me some clue as to things to come, but I was still new to the process and really did not know better.

To begin with, USCIS was very insistent that after I marry I return to the United States. The reason they gave was that there would be deadlines for the forms they send, and if they aren't filed in time I will have to start over. I wasn't concerned with this because my intention was to have them sent to my dad, who could fedex them to me, and I would fedex back, which is exactly what I did.

I told him that I can't believe that people are willing to separate from their spouse for up to a year, since their web site said the process takes 6-12 months. He replied that the process doesn't take a year. So I said I can't believe they would leave them for even 6 months, and he replied that the process doesn't take 6 months. So I asked how long it takes. His response, in as close to word for word as I can get, was to say:

"First you file the form I-130. A month later we send the form I-129F. You send that in, and in about two months you're done."

Mind you, this was an actual official at USCIS, so I thought the information he was giving me was correct and accurate. As you will see in coming posts, he was far from correct. In fact, not one thing he said was true. The process is much more complicated than those two forms, and considering that I have been here almost a year now, I think it's safe to say that he was wrong about the time frame as well.

Sadly, no one else I have spoken to at USCIS or the National Visa Center has been much more helpful than this, so be prepared to receive information that is flawed at best. And if someone tells you what this individual told me, do not believe them for a moment. Fortunately I had more than 3 months of living expenses with me when I can here.

Until next time...