American wanting to bring Dominican fiancee to marry in U.S.

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Mike_in_Fl

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Hi,

Although this is my first post as a member, this forum has been very useful to me as it's in English and I read a lot here before I visited the country. The long story short is I met a very nice woman on a dating website and she lives in Santo Domingo. We've met once, spent time together and use Skype daily. I met most of her family when I visited and I want to bring her here, to Florida, to get married and live.

I have reviewed the info on the government website regarding the K1 visa, but still have some questions. First, I know I have to submit a form to get the process started and then they would schedule an interview. A couple of questions on this. Any idea how long the process takes between me submitting that first form and the time she'll get the interview? Any idea how much time is given between receiving the notice for the interview and the actual date of the interview?

I am worried that she'll receive notice and it will only be a few days until the interview. It states on the website that I should attend the interview. This means I'll need notice to take vacation time from my job, get a plane ticket, hotel, etc., so I need some time to schedule.

I work with a woman who married a gentleman from Trinidad and she seems to think that completing the paperwork to get my fiancee here is something I should be able to do myself. However, their situation was completely different and I have been inclined to believe that I may be better off using an attorney. Any opinions on this and if so, where would it be better to hire the attorney? Here in the U.S. or in the DR?

Finally,lol, and to complicate things further, she doesn't speak hardly any English and my Spanish is horrible. So we rely on translation almost exclusively now. I'm probably going to use Rosetta Stone at some point for both of us, but wondering if this would be a problem during the interview if we're both still struggling with the other's language. I can pick up enough Spanish to know that all the taxi drivers were in shock that we not only met, but can communicate somehow.

I guess my main question is really how long may this process take? A year or less?

Thanks for any info you may provide. I understand this is probably not a normal question for this forum but any help would be much appreciated.
 

Riva_31

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Apr 1, 2013
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My personal opinion is if you have comunications problems and know the history of Dominicans with fiance visa because all the fake relationships, you will need a lot luck to be success, but if you dont try you will never know. If you are planning to get married i think will be faster if you are american citizen and is a real marriage relation to take her as wife and not as fiance. Also talk with a lawyer, as much information you have you could take the best decition. Wish you all the best.
 

Castle

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The waiting period between applying and the interview is roughly 9 months. The interview date notification is usually sent at least 2 months before the interview.

The fiancee visa is a shorter process compared to the spouse visa.
 

AlterEgo

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I did the K-1 visa application myself - a longgggg time ago. You'll have to demonstrate you've known her for some time, photos, letters, etc., and unless it has changed you have a window of time in which you have to get married. If you've only known her a short time, and met only once, they may not approve you, and I don't think a lawyer is going to change that. Maybe slow down a bit, visit several times, document the visits, [keep all plane reservations, hotel bills, car rentals, whatever; take photos]. If you buy phone cards, keep them. The fraud rate for Dominicans is high, they're particularly careful with those applications.
 

Viajero

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Dec 16, 2011
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I met a very nice woman on a dating website and she lives in Santo Domingo. We've met once. Finally,lol, and to complicate things further, she doesn't speak hardly any English and my Spanish is horrible. So we rely on translation almost exclusively now. I want to bring her here, to Florida, to get married.

Which translator do you use? There is a guy on this site that should be reading this thread.
 

Mike_in_Fl

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Which translator do you use? There is a guy on this site that should be reading this thread.

I have a Skype window open and a browser open to Google Translate, which is not very good BTW. I cut and paste her Spanish and get a translation, type my reply in English, paste the Spanish translation of what I said into the chat window in Skype. Early on, her niece would be there sometimes and she speaks English. The first time I called her on the telephone it was a good thing her niece was there! LOL, that was a difficult conversation. Her niece kept saying "how did you two meet when you can't even talk to each other?"

One time my fiancee was telling me a story and it just wouldn't translate, so I saved what it translated to, had her tell her niece the story, and then she told me the story. The translator was WAY OFF. I am picking up Spanish by reading the translations but I still don't know all the tenses. There are cheap English classes here if I can get her over. When I was there, we would do the same thing with a laptop at her family's house or at my hotel. Where there's a will, there's a way.

Thanks for the replies. I'm kind of disappointed to hear I should plan on having to spend money to visit more. I know they're concerned with fraud, but I would think it would be worse using some kind of marriage broker to find someone. I've known her (and enough others) to know if she was lying about something after this long. We generally are on Skype for at least an hour a day.

This is kind of funny. The website we met on said never send money to someone you meet, they'll tell you a sad story about a family member who is ill or something. Well, she never asked for money but mentioned a family member that has had a long illness, can't walk. I met him, yes it's true unfortunately.

She is a good person that goes to church and stays at home unless she visits family. We are both kind of "older" so neither of us wants to have children and she has none. I have a teen-aged daughter who tries to talk to her, my fiancee, and her new cousin, "our" niece. My daughter wants to visit with me, but I have to deal with my ex-wife to take her. That's a whole different, larger, problem, LOL.
 

Viajero

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Dec 16, 2011
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I have a Skype window open and a browser open to Google Translate, which is not very good BTW. I cut and paste her Spanish and get a translation, type my reply in English, paste the Spanish translation of what I said into the chat window in Skype.
OK, thanks. Sounds pretty easy.
 

Mike_in_Fl

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Hi, let me chime i here. Getting an attorney is just an extra expense like paying someone to do your taxes if the simple form is all that is needed, why pay someone $80.00 if you can do it yourself in half an hour.
But my advice is to come here and bring a couple of friends and marry her here. You have a much more solid case if she is your wife than if she is considering being your wife. And she is the one who should get busy studying English if the plan is to live in the USA where the official language is English. My own Spanish was learned by marrying a gal from Nicaragua who was too slow to ever learn English, and after that being a slow learner in matters matrimonial I married another gal who never learned English and then another!! But if she is going to live in the uSA and your combined future is there she should get busy and learn the language. Won't hurt for you to learna few phrases in Spanish,. but the burden should be on her.
Der Fish

That, getting married in the DR, is what I originally planned, for my 2nd trip there. When I looked at what it will take to get her here, it just seemed like bringing her here on the K1 and getting married within the 90 days would be simpler.

While I agree she needs to learn English, I don't think she imagined she would necessarily meet an American on the site we were on, nor would keep his word along the way and come meet her and her family. Here in Florida, I can definitely show you areas where Spanish IS the first language. I plan on getting her the online version of Rosetta Stone for English. I had 5 years of French in school and I can't speak a word today hardly. I had no intention of learning Spanish until meeting her because I have no opportunity to use it. If you can't hear it I don't see how you can learn it very well.

I definitely found it ironic that the cell phone service in Santo Domingo always works, but not the power grid. And her neighborhood only gets water twice a week. It would be the equivalent of a month or so after a major hurricane hit Florida, but it's every day for them.
 

Castle

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Sep 1, 2012
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Hahahaha online translators are seldom off. Can you link to any translation that makes sense after being porocessed thru one of those garblers? Try it once for all of us. Please. Had a professional translation here on this forum earlier today which translated some news article and she turned into "he" all thru it.

Der Fish

They are, Derfish. Given correct spanish, correct spelling and correct grammar, they are pretty much spot on. Not perfect, of course, but pretty close. Unfortunately, those conditions are hardly met in any newspaper article here in DR.
 

beastwood

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Mike you are likely to receive many warnings and accusations of stupidity here shortly, as folks here have a lot of personal experience being burned by women and men seeking visas...so the warnings should not be taken personally or lightly.

That said,
Bring Your Dominican Family to the USA - Dominicans to the USA - Index
Is a good info blog for those like myself by the way, who are not faint of heart or overly intelligent :).

I have known my wife for about three years, married about half that time, met her nowhere near resorts or hotels where
women and men troll for gringos to make a mini life life meal from. I travel for work so have spent a few hundred days living
with my wife in SD.
I know her family quite well, but there are many things that could still go wrong. This will be a long road for any who pursue it...at best.

I opted for the marriage route. That said our interview is Sept 18 in SD....I sent in my petition in Aug 2012...so 13 months.
Fianc? visas are in theory shorter, but We opted to marry in SD, theory being marriage in and of itself is stronger evidence of
Legitimacy than an engagement. But the US consulate is trained to assume visa and relationship fraud first, and offer visas
2nd. Good luck and hold on. The DR has some of the highest incidents of visa and marriage fraud on the planet.

If your lucky your in for a wild ride only and will not lose your dignity, wallet and blackberry. But a ride it is.
 

Mike_in_Fl

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I have known my wife for about three years, married about half that time, met her nowhere near resorts or hotels where
women and men troll for gringos to make a mini life life meal from. I travel for work so have spent a few hundred days living
with my wife in SD.
I know her family quite well, but there are many things that could still go wrong. This will be a long road for any who pursue it...at best.

I opted for the marriage route. That said our interview is Sept 18 in SD....I sent in my petition in Aug 2012...so 13 months.
Fianc? visas are in theory shorter, but We opted to marry in SD, theory being marriage in and of itself is stronger evidence of
Legitimacy than an engagement. But the US consulate is trained to assume visa and relationship fraud first, and offer visas
2nd. Good luck and hold on. The DR has some of the highest incidents of visa and marriage fraud on the planet.

If your lucky your in for a wild ride only and will not lose your dignity, wallet and blackberry. But a ride it is.

LOL, thanks for the honesty. I have pretty much known this was going to be a problem since I found out a Dominican can't even visit here unless they can prove they have something to go back to. I found a poor, honest woman and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. She wants the same, now it's just getting through the red tape. I'm certainly not a millionaire and she knows we're all not rich over here.
 

Castle

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Sep 1, 2012
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I know enough about the game to tell who the players are. If she was 30 years younger than me, that would be one thing, but it's not the case. If I was looking for chicas, it wouldn't have been the site I met her on, and I wouldn't be looking to marry her. If you don't think the US has plenty of lying women looking for men for their money, I'll be glad to introduce you to my ex-wives...

Ok, Mike. I guess you have it all under control...
 

Castle

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Sep 1, 2012
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"son, Derfish. Dada correcto espa?ol, ortograf?a y la gram?tica correcta, que son m?s o menos acertadas. No es perfecto, por supuesto, pero bastante cerca. Por desgracia, esas condiciones se cumplen casi en ning?n art?culo de prensa aqu? en RD." (google translate)

You can see minor mistakes there. But the translation is definitely pretty close. Close enough for most purposes.
 

beastwood

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Jun 30, 2011
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LOL, thanks for the honesty. I have pretty much known this was going to be a problem since I found out a Dominican can't even visit here unless they can prove they have something to go back to. I found a poor, honest woman and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. She wants the same, now it's just getting through the red tape. I'm certainly not a millionaire and she knows we're all not rich over here.

Actually about the time I proposed, I lost my job and this helped me in a number of ways. First I was able to spend 20 or 25
days at a whack with my then fianc? getting to know her and her family. Both she and her family drew me even closer with
Support emotionally and even a little financially. I learned how the extended barrio family works...those who cook offer a meal, those with the extra bed offer a room, loan you a car for the day, walk you and your fianc? home after dark (so blanco gringo
doesn't attract ladrones and don't mess with your girl but their sister/daughter etc.

Really advise if at all possible spend as many long weekends etc in SD as you can...you practically have a commuter flight from Dade to Las Americas...
 

Mike_in_Fl

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Sep 10, 2013
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Ok, Mike. I guess you have it all under control...

I don't know about that. I appreciate the warning but death and taxes are all I know to be certain. She could have had me taking her out to dinner every night while I was there but preferred to have me eat with her at her home with her family. I asked her why we didn't visit more spots, museums, etc. and she told me she was worried about me being robbed.

I know she has no sense of direction. We left my hotel to walk up to El Conde. It wasn't a straight shot to El Conde, we went north and then had to go east, then back north to reach it. We exited El Conde on a different street and I let her lead the way, until she got us lost. When she asked some locals, they acted like they didn't know the way to the street or the name. I knew we were too far south as I could see El Malecon.

All the talking on the corner drew the attention of a cop, and I took off across the street. She finally followed me and I found the hotel. It's quite a different experience to get the door unlocked to get out, and the door unlocked to get back in.

I'm pretty sure we drove through a semi-riot in the middle of the street to get to her house, in the dark, from the airport on my 1st night there. So yeah, I don't think anybody's exactly in control.
 

Mike_in_Fl

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Sep 10, 2013
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Actually about the time I proposed, I lost my job and this helped me in a number of ways. First I was able to spend 20 or 25
days at a whack with my then fianc? getting to know her and her family. Both she and her family drew me even closer with
Support emotionally and even a little financially. I learned how the extended barrio family works...those who cook offer a meal, those with the extra bed offer a room, loan you a car for the day, walk you and your fianc? home after dark (so blanco gringo
don't attract ladrones dont mess with hour girl but their sister/daughter etc.

Really advise if at all possible spend as many long weekends etc in SD as you can...you practically have a commuter flight from Dade to Las Americas...

Unfortunately, I'm not in Dade so I'm going through Tampa. My flight coming back was delayed in SD because they had no potable water for the sinks in the bathroom. Almost cancelled the flight entirely. I missed the connection in Miami and waited another 4 hours to get to Tampa. I don't know if I can risk that again for a long weekend. It was a good thing I had taken the next day off from work as I got home after midnight.
 

Mike_in_Fl

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This guy sounds legit. Seems like he's had enough failed marriages to know the real thing now. Maybe clear communication isn't always the key, if two people want the same thing.

The communication is clear enough now, but neither of us needs to rely on translators for the rest of our lives.
 

Mike_in_Fl

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Is that SW Florida airport still open and doing business and saving folks money? Don't remember exactly where it was, but for a few yeras we were glad it existed.
Der Fish

I'm not sure where it would be, but would probably be a hop to it like to Miami via Tampa. It was the long run from the international side, customs, back to the domestic side that made me late. You'd think American Airlines would know connecting passengers would be late from one of their own flights but I don't think they CARE.

I booked a combination through Expedia or the like for the flight and hotel. I didn't think it was a bad price as the flight worked out to like $450 round trip, which was the same as I paid to Seattle and back in like 1994.

I think I just could have gotten a better price at the hotel had I just emailed and booked it separately. I want to stay in the Colonial Zone again as it is close to her neighborhood and I didn't see everything I wanted to see. Only really saw Alcazar de Colon. If we do the wedding there first I was considering staying at a resort with her, but I think I've seen the DR that most tourists don't. We were talking to her sister-in-law and she said you can rent the church there on El Conde but I haven't looked into what that costs. I told her before I came that it might be a year before I could get back because I'm not exactly rich. That and I took my vacation around the days I don't have my daughter for visitation, etc. I just don't have much time to be gone from home and I have to board dogs to do that or pester friends to watch them.

If you take Castle's translation example he gave you and run it back through Google to English, you'll see it comes out a bit differently. When you hardly know a woman that only speaks Spanish, don't try to be funny and use that translator to say "going to catch you" because when it decides to use "coger" for catch, and you run it back out in English, you're sending an entirely different message.

The irony of this all is I'm only 3rd generation American from Europeans trying to marry a Native American in America and have to jump through all these hoops.
 

Expat13

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Jun 7, 2008
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I'm not sure where it would be, but would probably be a hop to it like to Miami via Tampa. It was the long run from the international side, customs, back to the domestic side that made me late. You'd think American Airlines would know connecting passengers would be late from one of their own flights but I don't think they CARE.

I booked a combination through Expedia or the like for the flight and hotel. I didn't think it was a bad price as the flight worked out to like $450 round trip, which was the same as I paid to Seattle and back in like 1994.

I think I just could have gotten a better price at the hotel had I just emailed and booked it separately. I want to stay in the Colonial Zone again as it is close to her neighborhood and I didn't see everything I wanted to see. Only really saw Alcazar de Colon. If we do the wedding there first I was considering staying at a resort with her, but I think I've seen the DR that most tourists don't. We were talking to her sister-in-law and she said you can rent the church there on El Conde but I haven't looked into what that costs. I told her before I came that it might be a year before I could get back because I'm not exactly rich. That and I took my vacation around the days I don't have my daughter for visitation, etc. I just don't have much time to be gone from home and I have to board dogs to do that or pester friends to watch them.

If you take Castle's translation example he gave you and run it back through Google to English, you'll see it comes out a bit differently. When you hardly know a woman that only speaks Spanish, don't try to be funny and use that translator to say "going to catch you" because when it decides to use "coger" for catch, and you run it back out in English, you're sending an entirely different message.

The irony of this all is I'm only 3rd generation American from Europeans trying to marry a Native American in America and have to jump through all these hoops.

Its not much to do with the generations more about the track record of Dominicans once they hit USA Soil.
 

Viajero

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I give Mike credit for taking this risk. I hope things work out for him.

If I ever got serious with a woman in the DR, I would probably move there because it is less costly to live there and she would have her friends and family close by. Otherwise, I would probably concentrate on a Dominican that is already in the USA, if I felt like I had to have a Dominican. I can see why guys chose the other route, however.
 
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