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Sheila ordered the I-129F form (Petition for Alien Fiancé(e)), two G-325A forms (Biographic Information), and the I-134 form (Affidavit of Support) from the INS' online form service. They arrived a week or so later and she then forwarded to me one of the G-325A forms because that was something which I had to fill out, sign, and return to her. Also included with the forms she received, was form ER-750 EFC which allowed us to use photocopies instead of original documents, provided that the original documents were available if requested.

There has been some discussion in the Internet newsgroup (alt.visa.us.marriage-based) about whether or not to include the Affidavit of Support with the initial petition, or to simply have it ready for the fiancé(e)'s interview at the US Consulate. There seems to be varying opinions on which is better, but we decided to include it with the original petition, although it is required only by the consulate. Since the INS forwards all the documents to the consulate anyway, we decided that one way wasn't any better or worse than the other. I'll also mention at this point, that there is some confusion as to whether the US sponsor should use the I-134 form or the newer I-864 form for the Affidavit of Support. Many consulates are still using the I-134 form because the K-1 visa is a *non-immigrant* visa. It would be best to check with the alien fiancé(e)'s consulate beforehand to find out which form they require. After the wedding, you will use the the more detailed I-864 form.

On November 28, Sheila mailed the completed and signed forms to the Texas Service Center (TSC). Included in this package were the following forms: I-129F, two G-325A, I-134, and ER-750 EFC. Also, she included a statement from both her bank and her credit union, a confirmation of employment letter from her work, a letter outlining how we met, etc., several photos of us together and with her children, two 3/4 view (showing right ear) colour passport photos, copies of her phone bills, a copy of her divorce certificate and my divorce certificate, and a Summary of Investments statement from my broker. A lot of this extra stuff isn't required until the interview at the US Consulate but we didn't think it would hurt at all to include it at the beginning of the process, and might perhaps speed up the process to some extent. We did make sure to take extra photocopies of each document we sent as an additional precaution!

On December 3, Sheila got a letter from the TSC indicating that they had received our package and that it would take approximately 30-40 days for the petition to be approved. Always impatient, Sheila called the INS (there was a phone number included in the letter of receipt) on January 15, 1998 to see if there was any word on our petition and, listening to the recording, found that our petition had been approved on January 13 - which was 43 days after TSC received it. She received a Notice of Action letter on January 20 which confirmed that the petition had been approved, and that the documents had been forwarded to the Halifax consulate as we requested - since that was the closest US Consulate to me. Included with the Notice of Action were copies of all the forms and documents which Sheila had sent. It was at this point that we ran into our first and only major snag!

Since filing at the end of November, we discovered that Halifax no longer handles immigrant/non-immigrant visas and that the consulate in Montreal now handles this. A major dilemma resulted because, after receiving the Notice of Action, the Halifax consulate would neither confirm nor deny that any such petition was received and forwarded to Montreal, and the Montreal consulate would neither confirm nor deny that any petition was received either directly or via Halifax! In an effort to locate the wayward petition, Sheila wrote to her Senator to enlist his help in tracking down the petition. Most politicians have an email address these days and most states have a web site listing this information! I highly recommend that, should you run into difficulties with the INS or US Consulate, your US fiancé(e) get his/her constituent politicians involved in this process for two reasons - 1) they have some clout with the upper echelon, certainly more than you or I do; 2) they understand politics and paper pushing better than you or I do.