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Well, I did it... I'm Marrying a Colombian Girl

After speaking to a wonderful woman for almost 2 months (mostly by phone at the end), I decided to pay her a visit.

I was wary at first, not having traveled in a very long time and worried for my safety. Researching as much as I could about Colombia before actually going, I realized that much of the warnings were generalized and decided to go, if not cautiously.

Although I can speak spanish fairly fluently.. I was pegged as an american in an instant. Realizing I would never meld in physically, I did the next best thing: I was a polite and courteous visitor.

The people of Colombia have to be some of the nicest people in the world. I never saw any evidence of danger during my 2 week stay and only experienced courteous and very friendly people. Colombia is a beautiful, modern country with all the conveniences we are used to having in the STATES, except that the people are poor.

That doesn't seem to bother them much, they work hard and seem to enjoy their life. Without getting into politics, I will mention that everyone I spoke with told me that they were ecstatic at the changes Uribe is making for the benefit of Colombia. I see wonderful things in the next years regarding tourism here.

Anyway, back to my story:

I met Angelica through an on-line matchmaking service and we chatted in emails for a while, then in messenger followed by phone calls (for God's sake.. get those phone cards... it's the only way to call cheaply!). She is attractive, beautiful inside and out, sincere and a wonderful mother of a 3 year old boy.

She met me in Bogota, we stayed there 2 days, then flew to Armenia and I stayed there almost 10 days, meeting her family (HUGE) and taking trips to the Parque de Cafe, Parque de Cocora, as well as several other places. Aside from some soldiers, safety never seemed an issue.

As a small precaution, I never announced my plans ahead of time or became a creature of habit in my routine or visits. I think that mostly, I just didnt try to attract attention to myself and I was polite as I could be.

Angelica's family were very receptive, but a bit reserved as to how we met, not having heard much or believed in internet dating. In the end and after many "reuniones" and visits to relatives, they all welcomed me and wished the best for us. We bought her an engagement ring, custom designed by a jewelry maker who was inexpensive, prompt with delivery and truly an artisan.

Prior to my coming, we had discussed marriage and the best method for getting her and her son to the U.S. After reading much about this on this forum and in other places, and calling the embassy and various other controlling entities, we decided that the best method will be to fill out the FIANCE VISA request and hope this is the fastest method (any thoughts or ideas here?). I will definitely return to Colombia. It is our goal to have a small chalet or finka in the next few years and spend the summers visiting. Colombia is definitely a wonderful country.

By isaactraveler on Feb 24, 2004, 09:45 in Friendly Talkzone.

utopiacowboy says on Feb 24, 2004, 13:40:

If you want the fastest way to get her into the US, the K-1 (fiance visa) may or may not be the fastest way. It depends on where you live in the US. The US citizen must file his/her K-1 petition with the service center which serves the area of the US in which they live. If you live in the area of the country served by the Vermont Service Center of the USCIS (anywhere from Virginia and West Virginia and Pennsylvania on north), the K-1 is definitely fastest.
If you do NOT live in this part of the country, getting married in Colombia and filing a K-3 (spouse) petition is faster. All K-3 petitions are handled by one service center in Missouri and this center is much faster than the others with the exception of Vermont. Here is a link to the USCIS site where the processing dates are posted so you can see for yourself: https://egov.immigration.gov/graphics/cris/jsps/index.jsp?textFlag=N#
Buena suerte!

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

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asmith says on Feb 24, 2004, 23:06:

response to marrying a Colombiana Dear Sir: I believe you have decided to do the right thing EXCEPT----if you do not want problems, delays and tipical run around from Immagration U.S.D.H.S. Marry the beauty in Colombia then go to the Embassy and declair her as your lawful wife, take the marriage license, her birth certificate, that of her child,Babtismal certificate, and most important a statement from Her church stating that she was never married. This is most important. Make sure you have no less than three originals if at all possible. You sir, must keep all originals except I.N.S. does want some original documents. I was treated worse than a dirt sandwich at the American Embassy in Santiego Chile, and I am an American Citizen. The attitude that embassy workers have is that of The Ugly American, your government in action.Oh yeah, do not take 100 dollar bills, the U.S.Embassy will NOT accept their own currency, pay with 20s.If you do not do as I have mentioned, you sir will have to listen to your beautiful wife crying every day, all day long about her baby who may be granted permission to enter the U.S. in about 3 years, after all, U.S.D.H.S. might consider the baby a terrorist. I.N.S. has millions of applications under consideration at any one time. It seems to me that the workers at INS may find one small paper missing or ask you to explain something, and contact you. The worker reviewing your file will not continue reviewing the file for other papers that may be missing and request all of those documents at the same time but meerly focus on the one document, and set your file aside until you respond. If you do not respond in a timely manner guess what? Your papers go on the bottom of the file. Marry the beauty in Colombia and bring the baby at the same time. You will be very happy. Also see my story Check your Bags

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greenday says on Feb 25, 2004, 06:52:

zuma Mr. asmith,
Direct consular filing is no longer available in Colombia, hence he will have to file for a K-3 visa with the INS here in the US.

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seattlejames says on Feb 27, 2004, 10:43:

Hello Isaac I was interested if you had any concerns about wanting to marry a Colombian woman. I also have meet a nice woman on the internet via match.com and sometimes I am a little unsure if what I am being told is the truth or not. She lives in Barranquilla and I want to visit her soon. Is there anything about your experience you can share with me to aid me........Thanks

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utopiacowboy says on Feb 29, 2004, 18:53:

Seattlejames, I understand your concerns perfectly. I found myself in the same situation last April with the woman who is now my wife. My advice is to go slow at first, exchanging email and maybe online chatting. Most of the scammers and gold-diggers do not have the patience to continue like that. If she is authentic she will have the same concerns that you do and it will reassure her as well not to be rushing into anything. Many Colombian women get taken advantage of in horrible ways by American men so it goes both ways. I corresponded with my wife for a couple of months and then met her in person. After that we decided to get married. She is good as gold to me and completely trustworthy, loyal and devoted. Here is hoping for the same for you! Buena suerte!

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

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junior says on Mar 5, 2004, 09:46:

marrying colombian beauty i found your comments very encouraging and helpful. i was wondering if you could tell me where you married your wife, how did you finally get her a visa. did you married her in colombia? it seems as if you are saying that the fastest way is to marry her in colombia then return to the US and file a K-3 petition. and also, how long did it take for your wife to join you in the US? i know i have a lot of questions, and these are just a few. but i have never traveled, but i am very much in love and i am ready and willing to do whatever it takes. my experience with my colombia fiance is very similar to yours. we have been talking for over 4 months getting to know each other and we feel that it's the right thing for both of us. i really nees some guidance as this is very important to me. thank you very much....

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utopiacowboy says on Mar 8, 2004, 12:24:

I married my wife in Medellin, Colombia, first in a civil ceremony and two days later in a Catholic wedding. I will tell you one thing, weddings are a lot cheaper in Colombia! Of course my wife wanted to get married in front of her friends and family and she was able to have the wedding that she had always wanted.

There was a lot of paperwork involved in getting the Colombian visa needed for marriage as well as satisfying the requirements of the notaria and the Catholic Church. It took us about 3 months to get all the paperwork done. The US embassy's site has an excellent page summarizing these requirements: http://usembassy.state.gov/colombia/wwwsmare.shtml
For info on the Colombian visa requirements see this page from the Colombian Consulate in Houston: http://www.colhouston.org/english/visas/fiance.htm

When I returned to the US, I filed the I-130 and later the I-129F for the K-3. My petition was approved in early January, 2004 but the packet sent to my wife from the embassy in Bogota got lost. So we had to send her sister to the embassy to get a new packet. This cost us about a month. I am going back to Colombia on March 27 to get the visa and return with her, I hope! From start to finish about 6 months.

Any questions please feel free to email me at utopiacowboy at yahoo.com.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

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Ivonne says on Mar 14, 2004, 16:45:

I am a Colombian woman married with an american, the best and fastest way for us was asking for the fiance visa. Marry in the US, after she is stablish here, go and marry and party in Colombia. I know many cases that if you marry in Colombia, it will take at least one year before she can leave the country. Recomendation, go with her to the embassy interview , have more than two copies of all papers at the interview and have a happy life with a Colombian woman :)

www.cartagena-apt.com

www.cartagena-apt.com

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utopiacowboy says on Mar 16, 2004, 08:19:

Ivonne, why would it take a year? It did not take us a year and we know other couples who were married in Colombia in October and in the USA in January. Also if you get married in a Catholic wedding in the United States you CANNOT get married again in Colombia. The marriage is listed on your baptismal certificate.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

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isaactraveler says on Mar 23, 2004, 15:30:

I did it.. part 2 Seattlejames... shoot me an email at isaacsu2000 at yahoo.com.

You will get alot of warnings and "helpful" advice from people who have no clue what they are talking about. watch out for that, trust your guts, then take your time getting to know her.

I had also met her through match.com while sending out a few friendship emails. I really liked her, but never thought she would write me (she did) we chatted almost daily and after about a month we chatted on messenger and then on the phone. All this before my first trip to meet her. I understood from the beginning that she was looking for more for herself and her son. I am certain that just taking her out of Colombia would not have been reason enough for her to leave, especially with a little boy. She may not be rich, but she has everything including a TV, VCR and a computer. Her mom lives around the corner with her sister so she has a good family network. Ok, so back to the using issue: Once we got past her wanting to leave Colombia, and my wanting a young, beautiful and LOVING wife, we got to know each other and decided that we really liked each other.

I just got back from trip #2 to Colombia. She is still fantastic, still loves me and just wants to be with me. I speak to her daily on the phone (OUCH.. even with phone cards)Do I think she is using me? no. not in the least. My friend met us a few days after I arrived, partly to meet her, partly to meet her beautiful sister who has been exchanging emails with him. He can speak some spanish and communicate pretty well. They were charming and fun and he had the time of his life. It was pretty funny watching them court. He is 30, very nice, good looking but a bit shy. She is 18, looks older but is pretty, sweet, and very charming. I think something will develop there. His final word on Angelica? I would be a fool to consider anything other than to marry her. No worries.. it doesnt even cross my mind.

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Janice says on Aug 25, 2005, 12:55:

Marrying a Colombian Well, here's my story, and I kind of need advice. I went to south america to do some volunteer work, but plans kind of changed and I ended up going to this little town in ecuador that I had heard about. That night I met this colombian guy who worked as an artisan making a selling jewelery. We hit it off and then I ended up travelling throughout south america for the next seven months with him. I eventually had to come back home to chicago, because I had kind of ran out of money, and I just kind of felt that I had to. So saying goodbye was the saddest and hardest thing ever. I promised him that I would come back for him. Here is the deal I want to go back and meet him in brazil, and then marry him there. I am moving with my family within the next two months to costa rica, and they don't really let colombians in easy. I would like for him to come with me to costa rica and I don't really have time to do all the visa paperwork because I wont be in the U.S. I don't know if that stuff could be handled in the U.S. embassy of another country. I was wondering if anyone knows if just having a marriage license he would be able to travel with me to costa rica and have the same advantages that I would being there. I plan to leave costa rica every three months and then come back in because that is how it will have to work out for an american living there, but I think that they might not even give him 3 months to be in the country. Basically I just want to know that if we are married he can have the same travelling priveleges as me going to other countries. Thanks.

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Martai says on Jul 1, 2006, 21:05:

American citizen marrying a foreigner I'm a Colombian lady married to an American citizen for the last 5 years and living in the US. I already got my US citizenship.
The problem of Americans marrying foreigners is NOT only if you want to marry a Colombian citizen. It happens with EVERY person from a every different country in the world.

Before planning our wedding, we did some research and decided that the best and safest thing to do was to apply for a fiancée visa at the Embassy in Bogotá. It took a few months but it was worth it.

I arrived in the US and had no problems. We got married a week after I arrived and right away I applied for the Greencard. Everything goes very smoothly if you don't make mistakes and fill out the forms correctly. The first greencard, the conditional card, was issued to me 6 months after we got married. Two years later I filed for change of status. This time it took longer, sometimes they are very slow.

But let me tell you something..AND THIS IS NO JOKE!!! at the USCIS (former INS) they are "vengeful". And I mean it. If you don't do things they way they say and expect, they suddenly "lose your papers".. or take longer than they should. I've read here about people whose papers have been 'lost' and then 'found'. Don't you think that's very peculiar? They do NOT lose the papers.. They just leave them aside to punish you if you don't do things their way.

So, my advice is, get a fiancée visa and get married INSIDE the United States. Then you can go back to your spouse's country and celebrate or whatever.

I know cases.. several cases of Americans that married foreigners in their country of origin and the Americans ended up living in those countries because they never could bring their spouses into the United States. I know the case of a German lady and another one of a British girl.

So.. do NOT pay attention to what other people say. FOLLOW THE RULES.. and the people at the USCIS will be very happy with you and will not "lose" your papers.

martaif

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