US Immigration from Australia

Just wanted to give some hope to folks still waiting for their SSN... My husband arrived in California in March. We had checked the box on the DS-260 for the SSN to be sent automatically. Weeks went by, and we received nothing. I called SSA, but they had no record of him in the system. At the time, all the local SSA offices were closed due to COVID, so they advised us to just wait. In July, we received his green card. Called SSA again, still no record; offices still closed.

Fast forward to end of September, I call SSA again, and they tell me offices are accepting limited in-person appointments, but only for persons with a dire need, i.e. you have a job offer letter in hand or require a SSN for health insurance. Since we didn't have a dire need, we couldn't make an appointment. We accepted that we just had to wait longer.

Then this Tuesday, completely out of the blue, my husband received his SSN! We couldn't believe it. The issue date was October 1, 2020. After so many months and multiple calls to SSA, we finally got it. Perhaps we should have called USCIS, but we just didn't think to contact them. We're just so relieved to have his SSN. We can now move on with getting his driver's license and getting ready for filing taxes, etc.

Do we need to bring a hard paper copy of all the original evidence of bona fide marriage submitted at the beginning of the process to the interview at an overseas consulate? Or do they have all that original evidence stored digitally on their computer to review? I'll be interviewing in Sydney, having applied for the CR1 visa.

We submitted a stack about five inches high of documents with the original I-130 to the USCIS, including hundreds of photos of us over the years, emails, messages, shared financial documents, wills, shared living evidence, etc. Do I need to fire up the printer, reprint all this and bring it with me to the interview?

Thank you

We have applied for a CR1 visa and are currently waiting for an interview at the Consulate in Sydney after being Documentarily Qualified by the NVC. We have a joint sponsor in the US who submitted a I-864, along with all the required documents to the NVC during the Affidavit of Support stage.

Question: Do I need to bring the joint sponsor's documents (signed I-864 and copy of joint sponsor's latest tax return) to the actual interview or will the immigration officer already have a copy of these from the NVC?

Due to the sensitive information contained (salary details, tax paid) my joint sponsor upload his I-864 documents to CEAC himself, therefore I do not have a copy and would prefer not to have to ask for one out of respect for privacy.

Thank you

Hi all!

First time posting so I m sorry if this is the wrong place etc, but I wondered whether any CR1 applicants have heard anything about their interviews at the Sydney consulate. They re woefully bad at providing any sort of updates, and have been pretty much entirely silent on the issue of partner visas since this whole pandemic began. There also doesn t seem to be a whole lot happening on the Aussie sub, so I thought I d post here and see if I get any bites

Hey guys,

Just a bit of a vent as my three year old and I are going stir crazy. Because we arrived in July; the SSO was closed and so I don't have a SSN. I have since applied for one through AOS but who knows how long that will take as I only filed in August and now have to wait for the upcoming I-944 RFE too. I miss driving! We are stuck at home all of the time. My husband works a lot and he tries to take us out even if it is just to go through the drive thru or something when he gets home but I would just love the freedom to go somewhere; drive to an empty park so my daughter can play.

I called twice earlier on and both times they said I need a SSN. I have heard others from SD say that is not needed - including an immigrant and I am at a loss as to what to try next. My I-94 expires soon and I am thinking my only option at this point is to wait for the green card but that could be half way through next year at this point? Unless they accept the combo card.

I understand most people here don't move to SD so there's less experience so it is more a rant than anything else. It is funny. My husband is in the highest risk category so I don't want to go anywhere crazy but just knowing that I COULD go somewhere safe would be nice. I believe I can only drive on my Australian license for 90 days which is a few days away..