I have been dating an American for some time.

I never thought I would date or fall in love with an American. Their accents always seemed weird to me and to this day I don’t understand what tipping, and the concepts of ounces, pounds and sticks of butter mean nothing to me.

Dating The American (TA) has come with issues, mainly because when we first started dating I lived in Hong Kong and he lived in America. There were meant a lot of long haul flights, during which time I became really well caught up on movies (thank you, personal inflight entertainment consoles!). We lived together for awhile in Hong Kong but currently we live on opposite sides of the world with me in Australia, and him in the USA.

We talked about what to do about this for a long time. Late last year, we decided to apply for a K1 visa, otherwise known as a fiancee visa. TA was strongly in favour of living in the USA rather than Australia.

There are lots of components to the K1 visa. First, TA had to file an I-129F petition form with the USCIS. We did this between Christmas 2014 and New Year 2015. There is a bunch of supporting material you need to submit with the petition, including evidence that you have met in person, evidence that you are in a true relationship and evidence of your intention to marry within 90 days of entering the US on the K1 visa. None of this was difficult for us, given we have met up on many an occasion (as well as living together in Hong Kong).

The I-129F however, is not cheap. This is what it has cost us:

In Australia:

Cost of 5 holiday prints of TA with me and my family on vacation in Turkey and France (family holiday, 2013):  A$2.50

Cost of printing and photocopying various documents (including my passport ID page, visa stamps showing us in the same location at the same time, tickets and receipts from the family holiday): Free! (I did it on my own printer)

Postage for the material I sent over to TA via Australia Post by air mail: A$16.50

In the USA:

Fee for filing the I-129F: US$340

Other items we paid for but don’t remember the cost of: photocopying costs for TA at Kinkos, postage for the completed I-129F package.

Subtotal: A$19 (US$14.44 at US$0.76 to the A$) and US$340, excluding the costs we didn’t keep track of.

 

After you send in the form, all you really do is wait for it to make its way through the system. We received notification that our petition had been received and was being forwarded to the California Service Centre in January 2015, in what is known as the first notice of action (NOA1). In February 2015, they approved our petition in what is known as the second notice of action (NOA2) and sent our forms off to the State Department. From the State Department it goes to the US Consulate.

I happened to be in the US in February visiting TA via the visa waiver scheme and knowing that we would have more documentation to fill in when the forms reached the Consulate, I took the initiative to have some of the square US passport photos taken at Kinkos, as the Australian regular passport photos are rectangular.

Cost of 4 passport photos at Kinkos: US$32.03

 

I also took the time to read up on the types of information the US Consulate would request from me. One of the things they require is a police clearance for every country you have lived in for at least six months since you were 16. For me this is Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. As I was flying back to Australia via Hong Kong, I decided to apply for the Hong Kong police clearance, known as a Certificate of No Criminal Conviction, in person.

Unfortunately, trying to get out of the US I was hit by a snowstorm. I was flying O’Hare to Hong Kong, however my original flight to O’Hare was cancelled. I was rebooked via Cedar Rapids in Iowa, but weather meant my inbound plane taking me to Chicago was late. Despite the pilots making up great time to Chicago, and me sprinting through the terminals of O’Hare airport, I missed my connection to Hong Kong by 10 minutes (!) and had to stay overnight in Chicago. The folks at Cathay Pacific booked me on the same flight to Hong Kong the following day.

Cost of missing my flight and staying at the Westin O’Hare: US$89.27. I got reduced rates thanks to a “pink slip”, which is a piece of paper the airport staff give you that lets you ring a number/book hotels on a website at discounted rates. Sadly for me, my checked in luggage containing my coat remained at O’Hare, so all I had on me was my carry-on bag. Luckily I had packed my toothbrush in here!

Cost of food and drink while stuck in Chicago: $40 including tip – Yelp told me there was a well rated Polish deli in Schiller Park and well rated Polish deli in nearby Schiller Park, so I took a taxi there and back to get food, then stopped in at Mantra Indian Restaurant down the road for a late lunch.

Cost of taxis from the Westin to food: $30! This was a lot, but the owners at Mantra who I asked to call a taxi for me to get back to the hotel called me a black car instead. No idea why.

Cost of transfers to and from O’Hare airport: Free!

One 16 hour flight and many movies later and I was in Hong Kong. Cost of Certificate of No Criminal Conviction: HK$210 – but they don’t give any change, so I was lucky to have the exact amount!

Train tickets to and from HK Airport and to the HK Police Headquarters: HK$180 for a round trip ticket on the Airport Express, and HK$9.50 for the Jordan MTR (where I went to visit a friend) to and from Admiralty Station where the police headquarters are located. In total, including the cost of the police clearance, this works out to US$51.55 at HK$7.75 to US$1.

 

Back in Australia, I sent off forms for police clearances from both Australia and New Zealand authorities.

Cost of police clearance in Australia: A$42

Cost of police clearance in New Zealand: Free, but it costs NZ$32 (or US$24.32 at NZ$0.76 to US$1) to have an apostille certificate issued along with it to ensure its authenticity.

Postage costs to for the police clearance forms:  A$2.55

 

Total costs so far: US$655.47