process after entering the US

[Wade&Carito 0]

I have been reading what other people have posted and the guides. I read that some people fill out the adjustment of status and SS number after entering into the US. But some people posted they waited until after they get married.

We entered the US on June 29th, getting married on August 4th and then plan on doing the rest of the paperwork. We have not done anything yet. I just wanted some clarity on this to make sure.

I am planning on filling out the rest of the paperwork sometime after our honeymoon which would be week of August 12th.

Is there anything I am missing? Does that plan seem OK? I thought it best to apply for SS and do the rest of the paperwork once we got married and she got her name change.

[TBoneTX 43,518]

Brother Wade: You can always download the forms, fill out what you can, and add the rest later. Or, download the forms and fill them in (to the extent possible) purely as meaningful practice. You'll need to include a copy of your marriage certificate in the AOS package, so you can't file anything with USCIS until you have it.

To speed the process, ask the officiant at your marriage (the person who completes the marriage license) if you can hand-carry the signed license to the county courthouse (or wherever), in order to obtain a marriage certificate sooner than usual, for immigration purposes. The officiant ought to agree. Beat it to the courthouse with the signed license and ask the appropriate clerk to prepare more than one copy of the marriage certificate.

The extra certificates shouldn't cost too much (it's hoped), and they'll come in very handy. Between immigration, banks, souvenirs for the mothers-in-law, one for the home file, and losing one, we ordered 7 copies of the certificate and are very glad to have done so,

[J & L 10]

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Edited July 21, 2013 by J & L

[Wade&Carito 0]

Thanks for the response, the officiant is also a friend of mine so there will not be a problem with me taking the forms to the courthouse. Thanks for the advice for multiple copies I will do that.

It looks like I need to fill out more repetitive forms, I need to do another affidavit of support with tax returns, proof of income and bank account info. I just did all of that once, why do I need to go through all of that again!

Anyway, I will be starting my next job after the honeymoon so I will wait until I start getting another paycheck before filling out those.

Brother Wade: You can always download the forms, fill out what you can, and add the rest later. Or, download the forms and fill them in (to the extent possible) purely as meaningful practice. You'll need to include a copy of your marriage certificate in the AOS package, so you can't file anything with USCIS until you have it.

To speed the process, ask the officiant at your marriage (the person who completes the marriage license) if you can hand-carry the signed license to the county courthouse (or wherever), in order to obtain a marriage certificate sooner than usual, for immigration purposes. The officiant ought to agree. Beat it to the courthouse with the signed license and ask the appropriate clerk to prepare more than one copy of the marriage certificate.

The extra certificates shouldn't cost too much (it's hoped), and they'll come in very handy. Between immigration, banks, souvenirs for the mothers-in-law, one for the home file, and losing one, we ordered 7 copies of the certificate and are very glad to have done so,

[Penguin_ie 5,987]

*** Moving from K1 to AOS fropm Family Visa forum as this is the process OP is asking about ****

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

IMO, it is better to get a SSN before marriage, in visa name. Many times trying to get one after marriage doesn't work: you get a clerk who tells you you are now a K-3 (wrong) or your "name verification" takes weeks and when it comes back her I-94 is expired so they deny you the SSN.

Once you get the SSN, the number is the same, and you can worry about changing the name on it later at your convenience, with no stress.

Edited July 21, 2013 by Harpa Timsah

[bigdog 376]

Get the Social and DMV stuff done before applying before the AOS and your K-1 expires. VJ recommends going to SS two weeks after entry in the guides.

Edited July 21, 2013 by bigdog

[didopage 337]

Agreed. Go get a SSN first, with your maiden name. You can start preparing the AOS package, but don't date/print the forms yet. Gather the other required documents (copy of the visa, copy of I-94, birth certificate, etc...).

Just curious: your honeymoon is in the US, right?

[Wade&Carito 0]

yes, honeymoon here in the US.

We will go to SS office tomorrow and see what happens. Our wedding is in 2 weeks from today.

Agreed. Go get a SSN first, with your maiden name. You can start preparing the AOS package, but don't date/print the forms yet. Gather the other required documents (copy of the visa, copy of I-94, birth certificate, etc...).

Just curious: your honeymoon is in the US, right?

[Wade&Carito 0]

OK the guide listed getting the SSN first and some people here said that too, so we went. The guy questioned why we were getting it now and stated it will be easier to do it all at once after we are married. He recommended waiting. He was very pleasant and said he will go ahead and submit it now and to just come back after we are married and we can change it then.

On another note, for some reason, the jerks at the Miami airport scratched off the number on the passport which was the number he needed. But he could not read the numbers and had a lot of difficulty processing everything, 2 other people from the office came over to help too. In the end he said he will submit what he could and will do more research into it later. So word of advice make copies of everything even the visa that is inside the passport. I did not copy that.

I said in another post about how difficult Miami was, in case no one read it there I will tell you to make sure you book a long layover for your connecting flight if you fly through there. They cared more about gossiping with each other and were extremely slow, about 3 hours for us! It should have been about a 20 to 30 minute process but because of their extreme laziness, they were more interested in taking their time, going back to hang out with their pals than actually doing any work. It is like many other government employees have told me before, working for the government is great because you don't actually have to do any work. The guys working on that particular day lived by that example and were extremely rude.

So I do not know why the fat immigration guy in miami decided to scribble out all the important numbers on the visa but it caused us problems here.

Maybe SS offices are different but here they recommend waiting until after the marriage, the USCIS site did not mention getting SSN first, they mentioned getting married as soon as possible.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

So you didn't get it? Okay, we were trying to save you the trouble of this happening. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/442017-ssn-told-i-cant-apply-for-one-as-married-on-k1-visa/

But w/e, I guess?