We already have a co sponsor who is well above the poverty guidelines and have shown they have the income to support my husband if needed when we submitted the AOS. I guess I just want to see if anyone has any advice or similar experiences. I'd  hate for my husband to be rejected at the interview because of me.

We have heard nothing at all since 9/5/25. Is this normal right now. It seemed I saw others on the forum in January in manila who had already had interviews with original letters from manila later than our original letter from Manila. Is this delay just normal now or should we be inquiring about mistakes or anything?. Our priority date is October 25, 2023.

Thanks all and good luck

Quick question.  I was documentarily qualified for my IR1 petition (wife & her son) in January 2026.  The case is waiting for an interview slot in Manila, Philippines.  We got the NBI clearance and foreign work clearances in January.  

1)  Is there anything I should be doing now? 

2)  Is there any way to estimate a wait time?

My husband and I are both living in Canada with our two kids and about to submit our affidavit of support.  Our lawyer insists we have to say I’m living in the USA at my husband’s interview but says I don’t have to actually live there - just use my parent’s address.  But we refuse to lie.  So we assumed I will have to move there with the kids before his interview.

Chat Gpt says we can instead just show that we have intent to reestablish domicile after his visa is approved and move there after with the evidence we have:

-He has a letter from his US employer saying they will hire him directly instead of through an intermediary once he has his visa. 

-I have a US bank account (from before I came to Canada) that we’ve been moving money over into, 

-my voter registration is still active. 

- I intend to get my drivers license and moving quotes, and hopefully have a rental house lined up before the interview.  

Our lawyer insists if we say I’m still in Canada that they will deny his visa.  Is that true?  Do I have to move ahead with the kids, or do we have enough evidence for the interview to show that we intend on moving after he gets his visa?  We don’t want to blow it and get a denial…

I am a Filipino citizen (26F) currently living in Australia on a student visa and my course is scheduled to finish in November 2026. My boyfriend is a United States citizen (25M).

We met in Australia while he was on a working holiday visa and have been together since May 2025. I had known him from October 2024 and we have been friends since February 2025. After his working holiday visa, he returned to the United States in July 2025 but we have maintained our relationship.

In September 2025, I applied for a U.S. tourist visa in Sydney because we planned to travel together in the United States and I intended to stay with him for a short visit. Unfortunately, my application was denied. The reason provided was that I did not have sufficient ties in Australia for them to be confident that I would return.

Because of this, we decided to meet elsewhere so we could spend time together. From December 2025 to February 2026, I joined him on his Latin American trip. During this time, we travelled together in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and Colombia. I also met his entire family for the first time in Costa Rica while they were traveling there with us.

Right now, we are looking into having a civil wedding here in Australia by this May and having another trip to Fiji as well. After that he will return to the U.S. to work and file the visa as well, which means we will be in long distance again. My boyfriend works as a cook in a seasonal job. He works approximately six months of the year and the business closes during the winter months, during which time he usually travels. So, we are concerned about the financial requirements. It seems his annual income may not meet the financial requirements so we’ll have his parents act as financial sponsors. As for me, I am working as a casual employee in Australia along with my studies. And while in the process and waiting for the result once we lodge it, I will continue my visa here in Australia and apply for an extension.

Our main questions are these:

1. Is my Tourist visa denial going to affect my K-1 application?

2. What strong evidence do we need to provide in a long distance relationship when we live in different countries to prove our relationship? (we don’t have joint accounts)

3. For the interview, am i going to do it here in Australia or in the Philippines?

Thank you very much for your time. I would greatly appreciate any guidance you could provide. 🥹🙏

We are currently awaiting the PSA version of the marriage certificate to complete processing so we can continue with the process. She wanted to change her last name to mine, so we are going through all of the things she needs to do for that right now... including changing her name on her passport. We have seen that it is OK to file with her maiden name and then change during the process, but she wants to have things as buttoned-down as possible when we apply.

We are both older, and have no plans for children. She has never been married and has no children of her own; I am widowed and have two grown sons from my late wife.

We met online and after a long time talking via chat and videocalls (multiple times daily), I began visiting her there for a few months at a time. I've been there a total of three times so far (I just returned from the third/marriage trip), and plan to go back later this year and return twice per year for a few months at a time until our processing completes. As I said we are both remote so we would travel together so we have several airline itineraries, AirBnB and hotel reservations, etc. from all of our previous trips. I've met her extended family. After my second trip, she returned with me to the US using her visitor's visa. We went straight to Florida, went to Disney, then flew back to Pennsylvania so she could experience life where I live. She was here for 2 weeks. Unfortunately, we were extremely busy trying to fit in all kinds of activities during those 2 weeks and although she met my entire family, we only have a photo of us with my sister. A big, missed opportunity.

As she is currently living in Singapore and we don't have much in the way of co-mingling of assets yet, we are looking for different ways that we can demonstrate proof of relationship as solidly as possible. We have all of our joint travel documented on the TripIt app as well as having various physical tickets/invoices/etc that we kept as souvenirs, photos of us together in the various places we've been. A very, very lengthy record of messaging/video calls. We had a very nice wedding at a large venue with all of her family there, and we have a ton of photos and videos from there that includes interviews with each of us regarding how we met, how we knew each other was the one, etc.

I plan to file my 2026 taxes as "married filing separately" since I don't want to have her income be involved with the IRS until necessary.

She does NOT like posting anything personal on social media and has no online presence of her own... just an Instagram account where she doom-scrolls and posts photos taken as a part of her subject photography hobby... but nothing of or about her at all. She is a private person. Though I did post general travel entries on my page, I respected her wishes and kept her out of the posts... but I did post our wedding video edits to my family/friends only.

I figure we will need to get a lot of affidavits from friends and family.

So, any ideas on more things we can do to more clearly illustrate proof of relationship? We may open up a joint bank account in the Philippines using our wedding gift funds during my next trip there later this year if useful; but is having an invested joint account enough or do we have to actively pull life expenses from it and use it as our primary account?

Also, after filing we are looking into the possibility of getting her processing done in Singapore. She isn't a bona-fide Singapore "resident" by status, but is there on a perpetual work visa and is only back in PH for maybe 2 weeks per year, or when I am visiting her (much cheaper for long stays than Singapore). We aren't sure what criteria they will use to determine whether she can have her processing done where she lives versus her country of citizenship... it will be a quite an annoyance and expense to have to go back and forth on 4 hour flights, rent accommodations, etc just to go to an interview, medical exam, or whatever else she will need to do for this process... plus the Philippines is very slow with processing. Is anyone aware of the current guidance in this area, will she likely be able to have much of her processing done in Singapore? We plan to send a letter requesting the transfer of the case to Singapore.

Any thoughts on our situation will be greatly appreciated, and we're looking forward to this journey together!

In the instructions it points out to fill all questions. but Im confused about when to use N/A or none or leave blank...

example: Alien Registration Number and USCIS account number (if any) I think in my head "none" but would it be N/A, None, or Blank?

The other question would be when filling information about beneficiary's family page 6 it has 5 persons. spouse (me) and children (none). Person 1 easy its me. But person 2-5 she has no children so my question is on person 2/ 29.a. family name... Do I put N/A, None? and if so do I only put in the first line under family name and leave 29.b-32 blank or continue to fill what I put for family name....

last question: interpreter and  if not use then blank or n/a or none.  in only the first line part 71.a interpreter's last name and leave rest blank?

thank you for your help

I'm putting together my I-864 for my wife's spousal AOS and could really use some advice so I don't mess anything up.

Quick background: I have two W-2 jobs from 2025.

• Job 1 (my main full-time engineering job) pays about $119k now. I have an employment verification letter with the exact salary, and it says the income is likely to continue, plus 6 months of pay stubs.
• Job 2 (part-time job) I have the 2025 W-2 and 6 months of pay stubs, but no verification letter from that employer.
   

My 2025 IRS transcript shows the combined total from both jobs (~$137k). I'm planning to include the 2025, 2024, and 2023 transcripts too.

I plan to rely only on Job 1 for the I-864 since it's already above the poverty line.

Questions:

1. In Part 6, should I just list Job 1 as my employer and put $119k as my current annual income, or do I have to include both jobs and the higher combined number?
2. Do I need to submit both W-2s (even though I'm only using Job 1 for qualification)?
3. Is it okay to attach pay stubs and the employment verification letter only for Job 1, and skip anything extra for Job 2?
4. Will USCIS freak out that the tax transcript shows ~$137k, but I'm only claiming $119k as current income?

Anyone who's been in a similar spot with multiple jobs (one solid with a letter, one without) — I'd really appreciate your input!

1 Additional question: Should I put 'not applicable' or (N/A) in all the blank spaces where I don't need to provide any information (see attached)? 

My wife is from Bangladesh. In her Bangladeshi passport, her name appears as:

Surname (Family Name): P
Given Name: A B

So her full legal name is A B P

However, “P” was originally intended to be just a nickname, but it ended up being included in her official documents by mistake. As a result, all of her academic certificates (high school through university) show her name as A B P.

When I filed the I-130, I entered her name as:

• First Name: A

• Last Name: B P

• Middle Name: (blank)

My intention at the time was to treat "B" as her surname and keep the full name consistent with her academic records. I was also thinking that once she immigrated to the U.S., we might simplify her name on future documents.

Now I am preparing the I-864 and DS-260, and I realized that the I-130 name format does not exactly match the passport structure.

My questions are:

1. Should I keep the same name format used in the I-130 for consistency?

2. Or should I match the passport format exactly on the new forms (Last Name: Pew, First Name: Anamika, Middle Name: Basak or First Name: Anamika Basak)?

3. Is this type of difference likely to cause an RFE or delay?

Any advice from people who have dealt with similar South Asian naming issues would be greatly appreciated.

Specifics:

Me: Petitioner, USC, retired, currently residing in Mexico with my wife. Its a border town with very easy access to US, and I maintain a US mailing address as well as all other financial close ties, including ownership of a rental house.

Spouse: Mexican citizen, with no work/financial ties in US (other than a new-ish joint bank acct.).   Has a long history of B2 visas and holds a current B2 visa (issued 2024) and has Sentri approval (for what that's worth) 

We have been together since 2015 and have no children, police records, overstayed visas, or any other complicating issue, so I feel like I could do this process myself.  However, my Wife is understandably concerned about the process and in the interest of marital bliss, I went to interview with a person who prepares visa packages.

When I mentioned to her that my current physical address is in Mexico, she immediately stated that I couldnt do that and if I didnt have a US address on the I-130, that it would be rejected.  I felt sure that this wasnt accurate but just in case there was some mis-communication, I stated that I know I would need to put a US address in the Part 4, q.12a regarding the address where the Beneficiary INTENDS to live, but that I didnt need it for current physical address.  

When I explained I owned a rental house, she said I should use that address. When I explained that the tenants paid all rent and utilities and that I wouldnt have the gold-standard utility receipt with my name on it, she said I would need to create a lease document showing I could still live there by occupying some room or other part of the property.  (Do what , now??)

At this point I ended the interview.  I am absolutely not going lie on any form in this process.   Now, do I know with an absolute certainty that we will move to my rental house when the time comes?  No.  We may choose another place.  But it is a viable option and I dont think it would be deceitful to list that address in the "Intent" question listed above, as it is the current default.

My questions are: 

Is there any prohibition about starting the I-130 process while temporarily living with my wife in Mexico while the process plays out?  Would it be advisable in the additional info section at the end to state that I am living abroad temporarily during the process and note my option of moving back to live in my rental house, or, would the fact that I already listed it under Part 4, 12a, Beneficiary Intent, remove the need for that?

PS. I know, that in the post-NVC, Pre-Interview timeframe that I would have to have the US address locked down with adequate proof (utilities or lease agreements).

Thank you.

From what I understand, in Poland they don't have separate marriage or divorce certificates. They have a marriage certificate with annotations of any divorce registered with the Polish registry. This is for a cr1. Warsaw embassy. 

I don't know if it'd make me safer for sure, but the peace of mind seems like it's worth the maybe a year longer wait.

Statistically I know most likely I would be fine on the K-1 route, I know this is pretty much just "peace of mind vs shorter wait", but I feel like making a big move on a comfortably mind set is quite important. I do fear I might grow to resent a longer wait, but so far we've been really strong in our LDR.

Is this crazy to consider? Has anyone had experience doing this?