driving over the boarder

Hello, I am planning to move to the States and get married. I will ship my furniture before I leave so my fiancee can receive it at the other end. Then he's coming up to get me and we will drive over the border together in Niagara Falls. I will enter the States with my passport in hand and finance beside me. We'll only have clothes for the trip. When I'm at the border do I declare my intentions to marry the man sitting beside me or do I say I'm on vacation? Note we sent in a K1 in May but have heard nothing at all. If I tell them I've moving in, I understand that I need a declaration from Honda to let me drive over the boarder (I still owe 2 years on my car). Is there anything I should do to make the drive over the border easier? When I tell them I'm moving in, will I have any problems? I don't have a police record. Thanks for your help, P.

There's a thread over at visajourney dot com that might help answer your questions. It can be found in the K-1 section and is entitled "Can you file a I-129F and marry the person while waiting?" (Sorry, I would post the direct link, but canuckabroad won't let me yet. Need 10 legit posts first.)

Sorry it couldn't be better news for you. My fiancee put in our application in June, and we still don't have word either. Looks like we're in for a loooong wait.

~J

The car will be the least of your worries.

If you filed you K-1 in May, don't abandoned the application just yet and give up hope. If you haven't gotten any NOA's yet or heard anything, have you called to say you haven't? You should really do that first before you decide to do what you are about to do.

If you go to the border with your fiancee they are going to know you filed a K-1 petition already. If you tell them you are going to get married, I would assume they aren't going to let you pass. If you say you are going to go on a vacation and then get married, you might have a bit of trouble later on. I sure some others can give you some more indepth info as well.

Head over to http://www.visajourney.com/forums/ and check out the K1 forum and read the stickies at the top of that sections lots of super FREE info! It is a forum, so good and bad advice of course, but for the MOST part it is excellent! Take ur time and read, and do a search, 99.9% of the time the question has been asked, and yes, the search feature is a bit lacking, so ask the question a few different ways,lol. I didnt come in on a K1 but here is what I know (not gaurenteed to be accurate:

K1 (fiance based visa) thus you CAN NOT marry until u pass the interview in Mtl or Vancouver, Well u can, but then have to start all over again doing a K3 or CR-1 (relation visas)

- it is a ONE time entry, this once u enter the USA and activate it, you just cant decide to go outside of the USA (including Canada!) until u get ur AOS complete or ask for advane parole (AP)
Was one gal on visajourney (VJ) that was on a K1, didnt get the required paperwqork (AP) to leave the USA, and got denied entry! Thus she had to do a K3 or cr-1, right from the start!

And if u had enough hours in Canada to get Employment insurance (EI) u CAN get it in the USA! There is a section on VJ in the CANADA section that deals with that!

There is a lot more info and more accurate on VJ, so give it a read! And its pretty much a NO to bringing ur stuff across the border until u get the visa! Unless its a small crossing anf u know the guards. And u can visit the usa while the process is going. Ensure u have documents proving u have ties to Canada. Always answer their questions TRUTHFULLY If ya dont, that could lead to HUGE problems, always be honest! You dont have to tell the guards ur whole life story. Keep ur replies short and to the point, but truthful! Best of luck

You cannot move your belongings to the US without an accompanying visa with the shipping documents, US Customs will confiscate all your stuff. You can't just turn up at the border and say "hey, I'm moving in!" they'll just turn your butt around and tell you don't come back until you have a visa.

Wait on the K1 to finish. Processing times are somewhere around 9+ months currently I think, so it is not at all unusual that yours is not approved yet. Be patient, it'll happen.

Have you rec'd the first Notice of Action yet (NOA) that tells you the petition has been rec'd by USCIS? If not, your fiance should contact the service centre that he sent it to, if necessary make an INFOPASS appointment at the nearest USCIS office to find out what's going on. It is possible that they've sent the notice, but maybe it got returned in the mail. If he sent them a check to pay the fees, he should be able to find out from his bank if the check has cleared yet, and if it has, he can get a copy of it and your file number will be stamped on the back. You can trace the status of your case with the file number.