I-130 : Beneficiary's Entry Information

[Sarah & Dani 0]

Hello,

 

My husband and I filed our I-130 Petition online. It has been at Vermont Service Center since October 2021. We recently got the notification that our case was being actively reviewed. We have not heard anything yet. 

Today, we decided to download the auto-generated I-130 form from our online account to look it over. We are very concerned and worried that our form was filled out incorrectly without us being aware of it. 

Basically, when you file online it asks "Was the beneficiary EVER in the United States?", to which we answered, Yes. We provided his passport number, country of issuance, and expiration date as followed. The last question on that page asks "Was the beneficiary EVER in immigration proceedings?", to which we answered, No.

After clicking "Next" at the bottom on the page to move on, it asks "What was the beneficiary's class of admission?" We provided the information of his last class of admission to the US and provided his Form I-94 Arrival-Departure Record number as asked. We then filled out his date of arrival and the date of when his authorized stay was to expire. (Nowhere on this page does it ask whether the beneficiary is STILL in the US or not.) 

We are now looking over the I-130 that was generated by USCIS (based on our answers to the online filing questions via USCIS.gov) and are noticing that in the Beneficiary's Entry Information section it reads: "Was the beneficiary EVER in the United States?" (our answer, "Yes", as we provided) and the next statement reads, "If the beneficiary is currently in the United States, complete Items Numbers 46.a. - 46.d." and those items are the class of admission, Form I-94 Arrival-Departure Record Number, Date of Arrival and Date Authorized stay expired (all of which are auto-filled with our answers that we provided regarding my husband's previous stay in the US). 

My husband and I are both living in Argentina and he did not overstay his authorized stay during his last stay. We are concerned though that the information included in our form (incorrectly) is impacting our processing time.

 

Has anyone experienced this same situation or heard of this happening before?

 

It seems like this would be a very common occurrence for those who have visited the US previously and then file online later on. 

 

Thanks so much!!

[arken 4,197]

So while filing it online, it doesn't show conditions like those in printable forms? I guess the online filing assumes one should know what not to provide based on whether the question is about present or past, like what was vs what is, what does and such.

 

Anyway it shouldn't impact the i130 even of your spouse was actually living in the US past the previous i94 expiry. It has been what just 4-5 months since you filed.

[pushbrk 12,974]

The online form is missing the instruction to provide entry information only if the beneficiary is currently in the USA.  USCIS is aware of his issue, so expect them to simply ignore the issue.

[blchaddy 15]

On 2/25/2022 at 6:32 PM, pushbrk said:

The online form is missing the instruction to provide entry information only if the beneficiary is currently in the USA.  USCIS is aware of his issue, so expect them to simply ignore the issue.

I’ve been wondering this same thing actually and have been delaying submission of the petition while doing research on the topic. This is what I was thinking, since printed instructions say it should only be answered if they’re in the US. Thanks for this input and confirmation on the issue.