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みるきーさん＆Mr.はっぴーさんの経験談 みるきーさん編 私は事前にビザに関して、ある程度自分で調べていたために、婚約者ビザにするか、移民ビザにするかで迷っていました。今回の経験を同じように、迷っていらっしゃる方の参考にしていただければと思います。 仕事で来日していた彼とつきあっていましたが、帰国の日が決まっているので、これからのことについて話し合った結果、私が渡米することに決定。 彼には、知り合いに日本人女生と結婚したカップルがいるのですが、彼女はなかなかアメリカに馴染めず、少し鬱になってしまい、日本に里帰りをして一年戻っていないということで、私の性格なら大丈夫だろうとは思いつつも、アメリカの生活に馴染めず辛い思いをするのではないかと心配し、確信したいのでということでした。 私は私で、なんでも事前に下調べをしたりプランをたてたり、一人で行動したりすることが好きな性格のため、彼に頼り切りになってしまう状態に私自身が耐えられるか確認したいと思っていました。 アメリカ人と結婚すると何が必要なのか、ビザなどについて事前に本などで調べる。そして渡米。 ポートランドの入国審査で、あっさりと別室送りに。 この一件を彼に話すと、事前に、こういうことも起こりうると説明してあったにもかかわらず、驚いていました。彼の認識が甘いように感じたので、クギをさすために、イミグレについて、どんなに厳しいか、多少大げさ気味に話す。（これくらいでちょうどいいかも。） お互いに、私がアメリカでも問題無く生活できるようだと実感し、私のビザについて話をつめていく。 彼の会社が大きな会社で、世界各地に支店があり、会社にビザのための弁護士がついているということで、彼の上司から私のビザのために会社の弁護士に相談するようにというありがたい申し出をしていただく。 私はアメリカで覚えたインターネットで婚約者ビザ、移民ビザに関して自分で調べる。特に、日本でとる移民ビザというものに関する、詳しい情報がほしかった。ぜったい誰かがホームページを作ってるはず、と思い検索すると「ぱたのうち」発見。私の期待以上のきめ細やかな内容、さらに井戸端と、思わず「おぉ〜」と心の中で叫んでました。しかも、見やすい！ まず、私が知りたかったこと。
これを調べた上で、弁護士の方にする質問等を用意。電話にて、彼の上司、弁護士、彼、私の四人で話し合いをしました。その後、お願いするかどうか検討しました。 同時に、「だって、それはオフィシャルなサイトじゃないでしょ。」という彼の懸念にたいして、私は「ぱたのうち」をまめにチェック。ぱたさんが更新している日付、内容を何度か確認し、かなり頻繁に情報が新しくなっていること、私が日本で調べていたことと内容も一致することなど、「私は信用できるサイトだと思うよ。」と説得、彼も簡単に納得してくれて日本で移民ビザ取得に決定。 「ぱたのうち」をプリントアウトし、蛍光ペンでチェック。自分なりに流れをまとめてみる。まるでテスト勉強のようでした。 私たちが「日本での移民ビザ取得」にしたのは、やはり期間が自分たちで調整できることが大きな理由でした。ビザを取得するまでの期間がだいたいわかっているので、日本にゆっくり滞在してもいいし、ビザ取得後すぐ渡米もできる。 実際、私のビザ申請から取得まで、余裕をもっての手続きで3週間でした。 2000年11月 彼がアメリカから大使館に電話をし、私の日本の実家へ書類一式を2部ずつ送ってもらう。私の両親の承諾を得るため、二人で帰国しました。 始めは大反対で、「絶対に俺は会わんぞ！」とがんばっていた父も、母や弟の 協力で、なんとか会うことに。ところが、彼はがんばって覚えた日本語の台詞を緊張のあまり度忘れし、固まってしまったのでした。私が訳すから英語でいいよと励ます。 彼が父に英語で誠実に語りかけると、なんと驚いたことに父は私が口を開く前に「そうか、よくわかった。」と。どうやら父は、若かりしときに英会話を習いに行っていたことが判明。直接彼に会い、彼の人柄をみて許してもらうことができました。 私は短期で仕事が決まったので、入籍と移民ビザ請願を4月に決定。 2001年3月末まで 〈彼がアメリカでそろえたもの〉 〈私が日本でそろえたもの〉 ＊わからない部分はあけておき、忘れないよう、大使館でしなければいけないサインと日付の部分といっしょに付箋をつけておきました。 ところが、問題発生。 2001年3月31日（土） 2001年4月1日（日） 2001年4月2〜4日 2001年4月5日（木） 2001年4月6日（金）
2001年4月7日（土） 2001年4月 8日（日） 2001年4月 9日（月）
私たちに月曜のみになったよと教えてくれたお友達と、クリニックで待ち合わせていたので3人でお茶をし、楽しい一時を過ごしました。 夜新幹線で地元のホテルに戻り、部屋に備え付けのＦＡＸでＯＦ−169を希望日を5月1日か2日と書いてＦＡＸしました。Form9003も記入。 2001年4月10日（火） 2001年4月11日（水） 2001年5月 1日（火）
2001年5月10日（木） そして、今私は無事アメリカにいます。こうしてスムーズにビザが取れたのもぱたさんはじめ、ぱたのうちの皆さんのおかげです。ほんとうにありがとうございました。 Mr.はっぴーさん編 I am by no means trying to state that anybody should take
the same path which we did, I am just trying to offer some helpful
information so that you can make a more informed choice for your
path. Also, this letter is not step-by-step instructions on how to attain an Immigrant visa. It is simply just a brief explanation of the pros and cons of two options as we see them. Anyway, onto the helpful (At least I hope it is) information. As I have already stated, I am an American who is married to a Japanese national. We meet and fell in love while I was on a work assignment in Japan. We decided to make our home in America only because the quality of life would be better for us here in the United States. Once I proposed and we decided where we would live; we then started our quest for information on our options for my wife to live permanently in the U.S. My wife, (fiancee at the time), was able to find some information on K-1 (fiancee visa) visas and Immigrant visas but not a great deal of this information was in English. Although there actual is some helpful information on the INS home page (http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/graphics/index.htm) and the U.S. State Department home page (http://www.state.gov/index.cfm). To give you a brief explanation of the two, a K-1 visa is a visa that is applied for within the United States and allows your fiancee to travel to the U.S. and you must get married inside the United States within the first 90 days of your fianceeAfs arrival. An Immigrant visa is applied for after getting married and can be attained inside the U.S., if married within the U.S., or at select U.S. embassies or consulate offices if married outside of the United States. I have the fortunate opportunity to work with a large American company that has several facilities located throughout the world and we have a division within our corporate Human Resources department that deals specifically with visas. I state this bit of information in this manner because we were able to get this assistance for free and did not have to pay the rather large fees (as I have heard) that these people can charge for their services. After speaking with these people and a Visa lawyer whom my company (another freebie) uses we decided that the Immigrant visa was the route for us. We decided upon the Immigrant visa because the K-1 visa can take quite a long time depending upon which regional Immigration office your application has to go through and which country your fiancee is from. We heard of wait times anywhere between 6 months to 1 year or more for approval of the K-1 visa. Another downside to the K-1 visa is also that you must get
married within the U.S. and there is a great deal of extra paperwork
that comes with the K-1 visa after marriage. Your spouse will
have to apply for a change of status after marriage to change
their visa from a fiancee visa to a permanent resident status.
Also, your spouse will not be able to travel outside of the U.S.
until after you are married and have filed for a change of status.
But these travel privileges are not automatic; you have to apply
for them also. We were married in Japan on April 6th. We had a small justice of the peace type service and filed for her Immigrant visa at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, which is the only place, besides Okinawa, in Japan that you can apply for an Immigrant visa. Marriage in Japan does not require an actual ceremony and the best comparison is a justice of peace type wedding in the states. All we had to do was go to a city government office (ku-yakusho) in Tokyo (or any Japanese city office will work, Tokyo was where we were staying) and fill out the proper paperwork. That is all that is required for a legal marriage in Japan but each country is different. Before getting married we first had to get the permission to marry in Japan from the U.S. Embassy. This was simply just a matter of filling out a simple form that we attained from the Embassy and took only about 30 minutes to complete the whole task. After getting this permission we were then able to go the city office and get married. After getting married we had to have our marriage certificate translated (which we did the translation) and notarized at the U.S. Embassy before filing for the Immigrant visa. We needed several copies of this translation to file with petition for an Immigrant visa and for other things also. We applied (you both have to be present for the initial filing, which only takes 1 day if you have all of the paperwork ready beforehand and you arrive early to the Embassy) for her Immigrant visa on April 9th and she had her visa by May 1st. We had checked with the Embassy in Tokyo beforehand to see what they required. You are required to fill out the following forms I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative), G-325 or G-325A (Biographic Information), and an I-864 (Affidavit of Support). For the first day we only needed our I-130 and the G-325 although I had already completed the I-864 before leaving for Japan. This is where it is important that you check with the Embassy at which you will be processing your Immigrant visa to see what they require. It seems that most follow the basic instructions that are with the I-130 but some Embassies require the G-325 and some require the G-325A. Anyway, all of these forms can be downloaded with an explanation of the fees required and instructions at the INS home page (This what I did and the address is given above). I also had to give the officer a letter proving my employment. I had asked the payroll personnel at work to put this together for me but you also can use check stubs to prove your employment from what I understand. There are some additional forms that we received in a package after filling our I-130. These forms once again were pretty easy and didn't require much time to fill out. After filing our I-130 my wife was required to have a physical at an approved doctor in Japan. The Embassy can supply you with a list of approved physicians but my wife already knew which doctor other people liked who had filed for the I-130 and she had made a reservation in advance. She had her physical the afternoon of April 9th because we were finished at the Embassy by mid morning. It only took us such a short time because we had done our homework and were prepared. There were other couples there that morning that were not as ready as us. They were in line before us and they were still there when we left. (Just trying to emphasize being prepared, it can save you a great deal of time and headaches if you are ready. ) She also had to provide a background check from her local police department and we had to fill out the addition forms that we received after turning in our I-130. After we had completed all of these things she was able to request an interview with the Embassy. We made this request on April 11th via fax from our hotel room and we actually asked for a couple of specific dates. Neither the interview request form nor the officer at the Embassy mentioned about the option to request specific days but my wife had heard that you could do this. She had asked for May 1st and that was what she got. I was able to return to the United States on April 11th because after the initial filing and completing the additional forms she was able to finish the rest of the process without me there in Japan. At her interview is where she had to turn in the results of her physical, her background check, the additional forms (package #2) in the package we received after turning in our I-130, and my completed I-864. In my wife's interview she was not asked a great deal of questions. She was asked such things as where her husband was at that time, what kind of work did her husband do, and if she had any pictures to prove our relationship. This is a part that up until now I have forgotten about. I had prepared a small letter explaining how we meet and our relationship up until we decided to file for the Immigrant visa. In this letter I briefly talked about how we traveled around Japan while I was living there and how she had come to visit me in America and how I asked her to marry me. When we filed our I-130 the officer did ask me for this letter. We also got some pictures together that we had taken in Japan to prove that we had know each other for some time and that this marriage was not just some way to get her into America. These were asked for in her interview. We heard of other people giving copies of correspondence (love letters and things like that) to the officers also. All they are looking for is some proof of an actual relationship. With an Immigrant visa your wife/husband will receive permanent resident status and will get an I-551 stamp in their passport upon arrival into the U.S. at the arriving Immigration checkpoint. At which time your wife/husband is able to travel freely outside of the U.S. This was a big bonus and one of the main reasons for us deciding upon the Immigrant visa. This was important because if some emergency arose with her family or we decided to take a vacation out of the country she could travel freely without have to worry about getting back into the United States. Also, upon arriving and receiving the I-551 stamp the request for my wife's green card was automatically performed and she should receive her green card within a few months of her arrival in the United States. With a K-1 visa this requires all of the additional paperwork I have mentioned earlier before this happens. Anyway, I hope this letter has not been too much of a bore and that it has been helpful in explaining a few things about the two options of the K-1 visa and the Immigrant visa. Like I said in the foreword of this letter, this is by no means saying that you should not pursue a K-1 visa or the Immigrant visa is the better choice. I am only trying to tell the reasons for our choice and the experiences that we had in the process of getting my wifeAfs Immigrant visa. Also, this is not a step-by-step list of things to do to get married in Japan and how to get the Immigrant visa through the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. Once again it is just our experiences. Before making your choice take the time to read through the information that is offered on the INS and State Department websites and if you can seek out some legal assistance. The more prepared you are the easier the whole process will be. |