you people are always such a ray of sunshine.

i dont see why i couldnt visit for the 6 months, then when the 6 months is up, return to New Zealand (while the process is completed) and then re-enter on the spouse visa.
i just want to be able to actually be with my husband and not have to be apart for months and months again.
we hadnt expected this, so its somewhat traumatic.
im just exploring all the options right now.

i dont understand your point about the POE.
explain?

Hannah,
Entering on the VWP if you are married to a US citizen is almost impossible. They will expect immigrant intent and you would most likely be denied entry. You are certainly free to try it, as long as you are honest in answering any questions so as not to trigger a misrepresentation accusation. Bring lots of evidence you plan to return to NZ, like your lease you are paying on or deed to your house, your job, bank accounts there, etc. But even with that, especially if you have filed the I-130 or I-129F, chances are very slim. I don't believe there are any repercussions of a denial at POE other than the possible cost and time wasted. I'm sure someone will correct me if there are any other downsides I left out.

Good luck.

im not good with the abbreviations. VWP?
thank you for your reply. this is helpful.
i figured id go to the U.S with my husband (using the airfares wed already paid for, etc) and wed file the I-130 when we got there.
then while that was sorting itself out, we could at least be together for a bit....enjoy being married and such.

i hadnt thought about the whole...being married to him already part.
ugh....this is so horrible.

If you are entering the U.S. under the VWP (visa waiver program, look it up on the internet), you can only stay up to 90 days. And there is more to the process than just getting the I-130 approved here in the U.S. The I-130 will go through a process here in the U.S., after that, it will then be sent to New Zealand. Then New Zealand will send you some forms and instructions on what to do next, which include applying for a national police report w/fingerprints, medical check up, etc... There is no way you can get all that done if you are sitting in the U.S. Once that is complete, you will send those forms back and then New Zealand will issue you an interview date.

I know you want to be with your husband, and I want to be with my wife. You should see my timeline. We got screwed just a few days before her FINAL interview. If this hadn't changed, my wife would be here permanently after Jan 30!

POE is the Point of Entry. Like LAX.

DCF is over. I know it's traumatic, and there are plenty of people here that can help you with your process. There are plenty of New Zealanders here... just ask around.

Don't waste anymore time. Accept that DCF is over and get your new plan started in a hurry to prevent further delay.

It is possible for you to come here while you are waiting. But if the POE Officer finds that out, you better prove that you will return to New Zealand and not overstay that 90 day limit.

Good luck! we all need it.

VWP = Visa Waiver Program
As a newzealander you don't require a visa to enter the US.

I do disagree with blueblue about it being almost impossible to enter the US when married to a USC. Plenty do it. Yes some are denied. Its up to the CBP officer as to whether you are granted entry.

Hannah, we're just trying to present you with your options right now and are being realistic about it.

To add to David's comment about the I-130 processing, not only does the petition need to be approved first at a USCIS service centre, after approval it goes through more processing through the NVC and then on to the consulate. It's a long process, much longer than a K1. If you want something faster, then don't get married and have your fiance file for a K1 immediately.

I know this all sucks and we all know it sucks. After all, we're all apart from our partners right now, but the sooner you decide what route to go, the sooner you can be reunited permanently.

Good luck with everything.

I know people who are married to a USC and use the VWP. No particular reason that would be a problem, certainly not a guaranteed refusal.

But no entry is guaranteed, all depends on individual circumstances, and sometimes luck.

Obviously you tend to hear mainly from those who have had problems, most people entering on a VWP would not expect any issues and would see no merit posting that they had had none.

our wedding is a week away. we cant not get married.
i just need to know if id be able to use the tickets i have (as well as buy tickets home) and at least spend some time with my husband.

ok, i just saw that comment.
thank you. it seems as though it would be doable to enter with the tickets i already have (as well as the ones ill buy to get home).
im guessing the person i meet at the POE wont actually know im married to a USC.

also, if i did make it in, could i apply to have my status changed after that? i was just reading that you can apply to have it changed if youre in the U.S and married to a U.S citizen...
though then i guess theres the issue of the I-130.
im so confused.....i cant believe this is happening.

VWP requires a return ticket.

Be a good idea to take evidence of your need to return, to be shown if asked.

That would be immigration fraud for you to enter on a visitor's visa with intent to immigrate.

ill take that as a no.

well...from what i can gather, it should be mostly doable to use the tickets i have and just return to NZ while the I-130 process is completed, so i can do my part of it, etc.

god...i cant believe all of this is happening.
so close...but now, far too far.

Hello, I am planning a trip to submit my I-130 to Guangzhou, China. I am a resident here in China and plan on staying here and working here until I can go home to USA with my wife. I can't seem to find any news on the consulate website, I know that the consulate has a USCIS office, will that be sufficient or no? If not, will I have to send these forms to USA?

Thanks,
Randy

That is a question for them to answer... the information so far would indicate that you file your petition at the USCIS office that is responsible for your (the USC's) place of residence. Since you are residing in China, you may still be OK

Thanks,

I have an email into them, but it will take several days to get an email back from them...
Thanks for your fast reply, though... When I first contacted them(a few weeks ago) they stressed the importance of having a residence permit.

Randy

Randy,

This is from the USCIS website, updated for the new law:

If you reside in Africa, Asia, Australia or the Pacific, file your I-130 with:

By Mail:

USCIS California Service Center
P.O. Box 10130
Laguna Niguel, CA 92607-1013
USA

By Courier:

USCIS California Service Center
2400 Avila Road
Laguna Niguel, CA 92607
USA


You can read this page at http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

How does this effect petitions ALREADY FILED AND APPROVED IN THE UK?

Can somebody please tell me where they are seeing this July 27th date? Is there a link to a web site? I have not found it anywhere.

Thanks!

That is a question to be ASKED OF THEM. They happen to have a USCIS sub-office at the embassy so it might not be as big a deal in the UK as it is for other countries...

And what if my I130 was approved on July 5, 2006? BUT we are still waiting for an interview?

Amy

27 July is when the Adam Walsh Child Protection Act was signed into law

Reference to that here

So this really means nothing?

Not DCF related but still the same law...

Does anyone think this will result in recalls for I-129F (K1 & K3)? I'm wondering if there will be RFEs or not. I'm thinking probably not since a police certificate still needs to be presented at the consular interview which would show if a beneficiary was convicted of any crime (and that's where people usually get informed that they are ineligible without a waiver for CIMT). I'm referring mostly to this part of the memo:

Section 402 of the Adam Walsh Act also amends section 101(a)(15) of the INA to remove spouses or fiancés of U.S. citizens convicted of these offenses from eligibility for “K” nonimmigrant status (Form I-129F). The operative definition of “specified offense against a minor” is contained in section 111(7) of the Adam Walsh Act:

“The term `specified offense against a minor' means an offense against a minor that involves any of the following:

A. An offense (unless committed by a parent or guardian) involving kidnapping.
B. An offense (unless committed by a parent or guardian) involving false imprisonment.
C. Solicitation to engage in sexual conduct.
D. Use in a sexual performance.
E. Solicitation to practice prostitution.
F. Video voyeurism as described in section 1801 of title 18, United States Code.
G. Possession, production, or distribution of child pornography.
H. Criminal sexual conduct involving a minor, or the use of the Internet to facilitate or attempt such conduct.
I. Any conduct that by its nature is a sex offense against a minor.”


Thoughts?

The Condi cable clearly allows for recall or RFE of K non-immigrant petitions (and more!) pending information from CIS:

Thanks for the input.

THE END OF DCF AS WE KNOW IT:
http://www.usaimmigrationattorney.com/DCFa...Fcountries.html

STATE DEPT. HAS ALSO POSTED THE CABLE MEMO IN QUESTION
ON THEIR WEBSITE:
http://travel.state.gov/visa/laws/telegram...grams_3120.html

I received this from the consulate at Rio de Janeiro today. We were "approved" on Dec 11th of 2006.

Dear Sir or Madam:

Due to the new Adam Walsh Law, as of January 26, 2007, all petitions approved on any American Embassy or Consulate, from July 27, 2006 until January 26, 2007, are considered not clearly approvable. Therefore, all petitions approved during this period had to be sent to the DHS for approval. This procedure will cause a delay of the minimum of 4 weeks in all those processes. The American Government is aware of all inconvenience caused to the petitioners and applicants but the law must be accomplished.

Regards,

IV Unit

I dont know what to think. If its 4 weeks only, thats great. But if its 4 months... man I wish they could give more information. But, its better than nothing.

Note that they said "had to be sent to the DHS". Due to the poor english of the writer, I cannot be sure if they actually sent them already or if they havent yet.

So, maybe I AM SAFE since we were approved on July 5, 2006?

Wife had her final interview today at the Sydney Consulate. They took Packet 4 from her including my affidavit of support, which totally met the poverty level. They told her that everything is fine and that my I-130 was pending approval and that it would be sent to Bangkok for final adjudication. After she submitted everything, Rose gave all her forms to the interviewer and my wife was asked a few questions. He tried to throw her off by mixing up the answers to her forms. I guess he wanted to be sure that my wife was telling the truth. After that, he said everything was ok and made my wife sign some form. My wife then asked if he was going to have a look at all the evidence of relationship like emails, letters, photos, etc. He said that he didn't need to do that since he already saw it when I filed my I-130 back in November. My wife then asked him what would happen to my I-130 and he said that it would now be forwarded to Bangkok for final approval. He said that he couldn't tell us when it would be completed, he just kept saying to check the Australia Consulate website for updates.

So, if it weren't for this law that was passed last year but not told until last week... we would have been done and my wife would have recieved her green-card within a couple weeks.

Oh well

So Sydney is sending pending approvals to get Banged at Bangkok.

Forgot to add... that once my I-130 is approved, they will not be contacting my wife by phone or email, they will just send the visa to my wife's address in Australia. My wife left a 3kg prepaid priority envelope.

The only way to find out the status of pending approvals is to keep checking the Sydney website, or you can email the Sydney Consulate.

First I want to say wonderful news for you!!! Appears Sydney may of handled this whole mess properly, I wished they kept the interview with my wife on the 23rd, then let the adjudication occur afterwards and just send the VISA in the mail when ready. My hats off to Sydney.

Now the question is how come they were able to do this and no other embassy could of thought of this instead of sending people home after long trips to the embassy's around the world?? I hope your wait is not long, keep in touch so we can get an idea the time frame to get adjudicated, then we can add the time to whenever they even decide to send out our applications to the appropiate USCIS center.

John

What I don't understand is, in this day and age of the Internet, why is this new Adam Walsh act such a show-stopper? Assuming for whatever reason that they can't get access to the required database(s) from the embassies, why can't they submit just the info required to do the check through an email or other means, have the check done by whoever can do it, and have that result sent back? I would assume most if not all people being checked will have a social security number or some other type of identifier that could be used to do this. I'd even support them taking the I-130s as before and doing what they can there...then mail them off to the nearest office that can do the criminal check and sending it back. That still seems like it would be faster than going through the USCIS offices in the U.S. I wish I was in the group that already had their I-130 approved but now has to have the criminal check...I have a feeling that's still going to be 4-5 months quicker. I have to say in general, I'm very unimpressed with the capabilities of our government across the board.

My wife was on the FINAL interview. My I-130 was already filed back in November when I flew to Sydney. When DCF stopped, last week, they called my wife and told her if she would like to keep her appointment. Of course my wife said yes since her plane ticket was non-refundable. So I'm assuming that people who already had the final interview had the option of keeping it, those who haven't submitted the I-130 got denied.

Maybe in Sydney. My wife was on her final interview on the 23rd, all paper work was completed, medical done, paid the $380 for her and her daughter. And was sitting there till they called her for interview. Then handed her money back, and told her to go home. Now when its time to go back for her final interview, she will have to travel again. So Sydney did it right!! And I am happy for the two of you and all others who were fortunate. It would be nice to hear from anyone else who had the same experience with still keeping their interviews at a NON-USCIS facility.

Aw man, I'm sorry John! I didn't realize we were in the same boat! Oh my goodness... how awful. They should have taken your wife's stuff!

Yes awful along with many other families. You are the first story I heard that allowed the interview anyway. We are still waiting for Ukraine to mail out approved I-130 petitions to Moscow. They keep saying waiting for instructions, but the instructions are posted. They are to mark "not clearly approvable" and send to Moscow. I have a B-2 visa appointment for Sonya on 2/6, we are going to try for a visitor visa till all this is take care of. I donot put much confidence she will get it because she is intending on immigrating, even though we have no plans on the B-2 to do this. This would be fraud anyway.

But if we donot get B-2, I am going to take advantage of the time to have a little face to face to get some info, the staff is wonderful at Kyiv, but they need a fire under them to get this process going But very happy for you, now hopefully they do your background check quickly for you so you can get her to the states!!!

John,

Continue to follow through... don't stop until you get definite answers.

I do have my hopes up, but until my wife has that visa in her hand, how I warn everyone else, it's not over until it's over.

Will post an update if we hear anything or recieve anything from Bangkok or if Sydney updates their website again.

Goodluck to everyone.

Holy crap.

Yes, David's experience appears to be unique. I wonder how long it will take till the visa shows up? And I wonder how/why Sydney decided they could go ahead with the interview..... David, did they give you an idea of when to expect the visa? (Paris had told us it would be a maximum of 10 days after the interview, back before DCF got yanked) Please keep up posted!!!

Marycat,
They really didn't give us any indication of when it would be finished. They said that after today, they will forward my I-130 over to Bangkok. I'm hoping they would have included some sort of statement saying that my wife had already completed her interview and that they are just waiting for my background check.

Wow, woke up this morning to see if there were any news added to this thread but instead I found 10+ new threads with 2 or 3 of them actually being news.

I can see how this can be even more confusing for people who are just popping in.

Anyway... If I hear anything new, I'll post it on this ORIGINAL thread, and in the Regional Discussion Asia: East and Pacific under "Land Downunder" for all the Aussies.

This law affects all consular sections. So yes it does affect both Embassies and Consulates. The only exception is if the Embassy or Consulate has a USCIS office. And then USCIS will accept your I-130 petition rather than consular section.

The instructions that Kiev is mentioning waiting for is hopefully comming this week.

I can tell you that the Moscow office of USCIS is typicaly very fast about process I-130 applications. The main holdup ever being having to wait for an afile to arrive from the USA. Assuming that you spouse has never applied for any kind of imigrant status in the USA she wouldn't very likely have an afile. This hold up of your petition will only take about as long as it does for the application to travel through the mail. There will be a little holdup also due to the sudden influx of pending petions. The Moscow USCIS office though is the largest of the Rome District sub offices so even the petion processing que will probably be quickly processed.

Hi, Like many of you, I'm in a similar situation. Our I-130 was approved by the tokyo embassy on dec 26,2006 and her final interview on Feb 5th was cancelled. Most of my questions were answered by reviewing this thread,however Id like to ask the posters an additional question.

My wife has an OPT visa that is valid from Feb 1 to Dec 15 of this year. Should she come back to NY on the OPT visa and wait for the embassy to call her for the new appointment or is she better off waiting in Japan for more clarification as to the extent of the delay? Are we jeopardizing her chances in any way if she leaves Japan on anything other than a family based visa? She has put this question to other forums and there is no definitive opinion either way.

Thanks in advance for any and all help

Ok I swear I almost had a heart attack last night. We had been to the embassy in Copenhagen where they had approved our I-130. So we were getting all of things ready to send the DS-230 I & II, I-864 and OP-169, just waiting for my husband's niece to send her birth certificate. BUT then last night I receive an e-mail from the embassy saying that the I-130 has to be RE-APPROVED!!!!!! Which requires us to fill out the G-325A form and send it to Copenhagen so they can send my case file to London for approvel. Only when that has been done can they give me a date for my interview. The mail also said that all scheduled interviews had been cancelled. This is a delay we JUST DON'T NEED!!

The only weird thing I see with that is that you should have had to file the G-325a's when you submitted your I-130 in the first place.

JazzeroKi,

Maybe not. See my post about USCIS Bangkok.

Yodrak

Not all Consulates require them (the form is quickly becoming obsolete?). CIS will require it thos, that's why she needs to add it in so they can forward her submission to London.

A staffer from my congressional rep's office was told by the Consulate in Paris that there was a "target date" set to get all the petitions back from Rome by March 3.

Don't really know what this means (I still don't even know if my paperwork is going to Rome, since I reside in the US.) Plus "target date" doesn't sound real solid. But that's the news I have for now.....

I contacted the CIS office in Seoul, Korea to see whether or not they are still accepting I-130's. According to the CIS office in Korea, they are STILL accepting I-130's.

Made a separate thread since this one seemed very long =P

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=52887