I just want to bring my wife to the U.S.
I just want to bring my wife to the U.S.
Hi,
I’ve been trying to bring my wife here to the USA since 2019. So both of my parents were born in Cambodia and came to the USA as refugees. I was born in the USA. My wife and I had an engagement ceremony in 2019. When I came back to the states I filed a K1 Visa for her. She had her interview but they denied her the visa. In 2020 I went to Cambodia and we went to the commune office in her village (it’s my dad’s village also) and had a civil marriage. We did our thumbprints in a record book and got our marriage certificate. When I came back to the U.S. I filed for a spousal visa. USCIS called and did a phone interview with me, approved the petion, and now its at NVC. Someone told my wife that what we did was wrong and they would deny her right away at the interview because we didn’t let the U.S. embassy and the Cambodian government know about our marriage. I thought me being Khmer was good enough. Now I’m afraid to go on with the process because I don’t want her to be denied a visa the second time and barred from coming to the U.S. ever to be with me. What do you guys think? Thanks. P.S. I know I should get an immigration lawyer….
I’ve been trying to bring my wife here to the USA since 2019. So both of my parents were born in Cambodia and came to the USA as refugees. I was born in the USA. My wife and I had an engagement ceremony in 2019. When I came back to the states I filed a K1 Visa for her. She had her interview but they denied her the visa. In 2020 I went to Cambodia and we went to the commune office in her village (it’s my dad’s village also) and had a civil marriage. We did our thumbprints in a record book and got our marriage certificate. When I came back to the U.S. I filed for a spousal visa. USCIS called and did a phone interview with me, approved the petion, and now its at NVC. Someone told my wife that what we did was wrong and they would deny her right away at the interview because we didn’t let the U.S. embassy and the Cambodian government know about our marriage. I thought me being Khmer was good enough. Now I’m afraid to go on with the process because I don’t want her to be denied a visa the second time and barred from coming to the U.S. ever to be with me. What do you guys think? Thanks. P.S. I know I should get an immigration lawyer….
All I know us if they think you lied deliberately you're shafted, so probably do get that lawyer and address any omissions/mistakes you made.
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You’ve answered your own question quite well there.
Personally I recommend getting a lawyer even for the most straightforward of immigrations to countries like the US or UK, whose immigration officers delight in finding any excuse they can think of to reject an application.
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Good luck bro, I hope you can sort it out soon.
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Thanks for your input guys. I didn’t know about the whole process at the time until after I filed I-130. I thought because I’m Cambodian it would be alright.
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It sounds to me like you have done everything right.
There is a high rate of fraud among Cambodians and Cambodian Americans when it comes to fiancee visas and spouse visas. It's not uncommon for them to be denied unless you can show a long documented history of an in person relationship with the fiancee. There are lots of scammers who offer money to struggling Cambodian-Americans to fake a relationship and apply for a fiancee visa so their nieces/sisters can move to the USA.
When your fiancee visa petition was rejected, the correct next approach was to apply for a spouse visa.
There is no "letting the embassy" know about marrying a Cambodian. The embassy will know when they get your petition for NVC and then schedule her for an interview. That's how the process works.
And you presumably let the Cambodian government know about the marriage when you got legally married in Cambodia.
If you want to increase the chances of visa approval, you should visit Cambodia as much as possible for as long as possible before her interview and show evidence of that in person time spent together. Passport stamps, boarding passes, Cambodian hotel receipts apartment leases, photos of time spent together in Cambodia or around Southeast Asia, these are all a lot more convincing than a binder full of "I miss you" Facebook chat logs. The problem is that this costs money and not everyone can afford multiple trips or take so much time away from their jobs in the USA.
What I highly recommend though is that you come to Cambodia for her interview at the embassy. This shows real commitment and it's a lot harder for a consular officer to say "no" when the American is standing across the window next to the applicant saying he loves this woman and wants to bring his wife to the USA.
There is a high rate of fraud among Cambodians and Cambodian Americans when it comes to fiancee visas and spouse visas. It's not uncommon for them to be denied unless you can show a long documented history of an in person relationship with the fiancee. There are lots of scammers who offer money to struggling Cambodian-Americans to fake a relationship and apply for a fiancee visa so their nieces/sisters can move to the USA.
When your fiancee visa petition was rejected, the correct next approach was to apply for a spouse visa.
Who is "someone" and what expertise does this person have in such matters and why is this person commenting on your efforts to get your wife a visa? Does this person have an ulterior motive of some kind?Someone told my wife that what we did was wrong and they would deny her right away at the interview because we didn’t let the U.S. embassy and the Cambodian government know about our marriage.
There is no "letting the embassy" know about marrying a Cambodian. The embassy will know when they get your petition for NVC and then schedule her for an interview. That's how the process works.
And you presumably let the Cambodian government know about the marriage when you got legally married in Cambodia.
I don't think it has anything to do with it. You got legally married. That's what the US Embassy needs to see. Now, if there is some documentation of legal marriage in Cambodia that the US Embassy requires and that you are lacking, then that could be a problem.I thought me being Khmer was good enough.
Denial of a spouse visa doesn't result in a "bar." Who told you that? Realistically though, if she doesn't get a spouse visa then she's not going to be coming to the USA anytime soon. They're not going to give her a tourist visa as a Cambodian woman with a US husband who clearly wants to immigrate to the USA. Your only chance of her going the USA is with a spouse visa. Withdrawing the application would be foolish.Now I’m afraid to go on with the process because I don’t want her to be denied a visa the second time and barred from coming to the U.S. ever to be with me.
What I think is that the Americans who have trouble getting visas for Cambodian partners generally can't show that they have spent a lot of in person time with their partners. So the consular officers are skeptical when you claim you want to spend the rest of your life with someone you've only met 3 times for a total of 5 weeks.What do you guys think?
If you want to increase the chances of visa approval, you should visit Cambodia as much as possible for as long as possible before her interview and show evidence of that in person time spent together. Passport stamps, boarding passes, Cambodian hotel receipts apartment leases, photos of time spent together in Cambodia or around Southeast Asia, these are all a lot more convincing than a binder full of "I miss you" Facebook chat logs. The problem is that this costs money and not everyone can afford multiple trips or take so much time away from their jobs in the USA.
What I highly recommend though is that you come to Cambodia for her interview at the embassy. This shows real commitment and it's a lot harder for a consular officer to say "no" when the American is standing across the window next to the applicant saying he loves this woman and wants to bring his wife to the USA.
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You being Cambodian probably decreased her chances of getting a fiancee visa.
There aren't a lot of white or black guys in America who have distant relatives, ex-neighbors, and family friends in Cambodia who will offer them $20,000 to pretend to have a relationship with their niece to get her a visa to the USA, and who would then take the money and travel to Cambodia to perfect the charade of faking the relationship.
The chance of visa fraud is higher with Cambodian-Americans.
However, the approval rates for spouse visas are higher than for fiancee visas. If you can show that it is a genuine relationship with 3+ in person meetings you shouldn't have a problem getting a spouse visa.
Follow my lame Twitter feed: @gavin_mac
gavinmac,
Thanks for taking your time and putting positive thoughts in my head, I needed that and appreciate it. That “someone” works at RK Visa service in Cambodia. He told my wife to tell me to get a lawyer and to withdraw the I-130 application. My thought was that he was probably trying to get our business.
As I did more research and dug deeper I keep thinking maybe he was right.
we went straight to the Chief of Commune and got our marriage certificate, we had to wait 10 days of course. Instead of taking it to the MFA for translation we went to Pyramid. But if it wasn’t good enough wouldn’t USCIS let us know before sending it to NVC?
Thanks for taking your time and putting positive thoughts in my head, I needed that and appreciate it. That “someone” works at RK Visa service in Cambodia. He told my wife to tell me to get a lawyer and to withdraw the I-130 application. My thought was that he was probably trying to get our business.
As I did more research and dug deeper I keep thinking maybe he was right.
we went straight to the Chief of Commune and got our marriage certificate, we had to wait 10 days of course. Instead of taking it to the MFA for translation we went to Pyramid. But if it wasn’t good enough wouldn’t USCIS let us know before sending it to NVC?
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adding to gavs list is< taking her on trips out of Cambodia so her passport has various visas to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Europe.... where you all travelled together spread out over a year or more
showing up for her interview is a big +1 and her having $$ in her own bank account over a year + ( not $10,000 deposited the day before
curious; how much time have you actually spent with her in Cambodia previous to ur filing in 2019?
showing up for her interview is a big +1 and her having $$ in her own bank account over a year + ( not $10,000 deposited the day before
curious; how much time have you actually spent with her in Cambodia previous to ur filing in 2019?
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You are getting hung up on the marriage process. I think unnecessarily so.MagU wrote: ↑Thu Jul 14, 2022 12:04 pmgavinmac,
Thanks for taking your time and putting positive thoughts in my head, I needed that and appreciate it. That “someone” works at RK Visa service in Cambodia. He told my wife to tell me to get a lawyer and to withdraw the I-130 application. My thought was that he was probably trying to get our business.
As I did more research and dug deeper I keep thinking maybe he was right.
we went straight to the Chief of Commune and got our marriage certificate, we had to wait 10 days of course. Instead of taking it to the MFA for translation we went to Pyramid. But if it wasn’t good enough wouldn’t USCIS let us know before sending it to NVC?
Are you officially married in Cambodia? It sounds like you are, you were lucky that you didn’t need to go the foreigner route. You benefitted from being Khmer-American. But if you have a Khmer marriage cert then use it, don’t worry about all the supporting fluff that other foreigners needed to get married.
Now…the visa process for USA is a separate process from the marriage process. One follows US law and the other follows Khmer law.
For people that were rejected on a fiance visa, the next route is to get married and file for a spousal visa. As long as you have the required paperwork that shows you are married you have made the next logical step in the process.
You said "Someone told my wife that what we did was wrong and they would deny her right away at the interview because we didn’t let the U.S. embassy and the Cambodian government know about our marriage." So do you have the official paperwork showing you are married or not? If not, I would be sorting that out in Cambodia ASAP.
When I filed K-1 I used www.visajourney.com to research and ask questions, I recommend checking it out and posting questions there.
You said "Someone told my wife that what we did was wrong and they would deny her right away at the interview because we didn’t let the U.S. embassy and the Cambodian government know about our marriage." So do you have the official paperwork showing you are married or not? If not, I would be sorting that out in Cambodia ASAP.
When I filed K-1 I used www.visajourney.com to research and ask questions, I recommend checking it out and posting questions there.
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I met her for the first time in 2016 through family friends. We hung out for a bit. We didn’t really started talking until I came back to the states through Facebook messenger. I fell in love with her and had my sister talked to her mom, both my parents are dead, and paid a dowry to get married. In 2019 we had our engagement ceremony and I was there for a month.Phuket2006 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 14, 2022 4:39 pm
curious; how much time have you actually spent with her in Cambodia previous to ur filing in 2019?
We have a marriage certificate, but didn’t follow the process. So I don’t know if its really official…
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