US Immigration from Canada

I immigrated to the US on a fiance visa and married a few years ago. We're working on bringing my minor child from the Philippines to the US through the IR2 process petition by stepparent.

We're still waiting on the child's visa, but can we somehow change my child's last name to my married last name?

Or do we need to wait until immigration is complete?

Not sure what is easiest but we want to have all the same last name.

Hi everyone,

I am a k1 applicant from Canada and our case status shows "ready". Now do I have to wait for Packet 3(instruction letter)from US embassy Montreal to start doing ds-160 and Packet 4 to take interview appointment? Pls help

thanks

I am filing online the I-130, I am the petitioner (US Citizen/Canadian PR) my husband is the beneficiary (Canadian Citizen). We both live together in Canada, and have since 2014. I have a few questions.

In the beneficiary section it asks;

Where in the United States does the beneficiary intend to live? What if we do not have an address in the US and do not know they exact address of where we will live once he is approved?

Where did you and your spouse last live together? When did you and your spouse live there together? It asks for the start date and end date, but we still live together and I cannot enter "present" in the end date. What do we enter?

Was the beneficiary EVER in the United States? We travel to the states at least once per week (live in border town) I answered yes to this but he does not have any travel document/visa so I am assuming I leave these blank ie: class or admission or I94 document number.

In the other information section it asks;

At which USCIS office will the beneficiary apply for adjustment of status to lawful permanent resident? AND At which U.S. Embassy or Consulate location will the beneficiary apply for an immigrant visa?

Since we are not in the US now but plan on moving to MN once he is approved what do we put?

Thanks so much for any help, I think because we are outside of the US the questions are throwing me off a bit. I am probably overthinking it all.

Hi all,

I'm currently in the US with a TN visa from Canada. We initially decided to go with CR-1 approach because it was quicker. I'm expected to get an answer for my i-130 in the next few weeks. Recently, my company notified me that sometime this year (they can't tell me when exactly), I'll have to renew my TN visa because of a merge, but I'm no longer eligible for a renewal because I filed i-130 already. As a safe measure, I contacted a lawyer and he told me that I should've filed for AOS from the very beginning because the Consular Processing is taking longer than expected, up to 1 year in total whereas it's better for me to apply for AOS so I can get my EAD sooner (~4 months).

I'm pretty confused because I thought consular processing would be quicker, I expected the entire process to be about 3 months after the i-130 approval so I didn't sweat. Now it sounds like my best option is AOS instead because I can be eligible to work sooner.

I need some help in fact checking if what the lawyer said is true. I don't mind the process taking longer, but I need job security.

I checked the processing time and it seems like EAD takes about 5 months (?), whereas Canadian consular processing is taking about the same time. So I'm not really sure why it seems so different from what the lawyer told me.

Thank you all!

Apologies if this is a topic that's overdone. I went through about a dozen pages of posts, but finding a direct comparable is never easy.

I went through my green card journey about 6 years ago and have since naturalized. I have a now 20 year old son from a previous marriage that wants to go through the process and immigrate, possibly naturalize in the future.

First step; I complete the I-130. No problem.

What I'm hoping to figure out is the next and best step for moving him here. He's coming from Canada, and as many of my fellow former Canadians could attest to, the medical and interview process in Montreal is a burden to anyone living in western Canada. I'm not sure if it's avoidable for him, but naturally I'm hoping.

My options, as I understand them, are as follows:

1 - wait for consular processing to contact him for the next steps while he remains living in Canada.

2 - form I-129F for a K visa while the I-130 processes. I-751 to change status later. It's my understanding he would get student and work clearance with a K visa? We've communicated our expectations that he attend college and acquire part time employment if he's doing this, so that's something I'd like to confirm. Had anyone gone this route? I'd love to hear what your experience is.

One last thing, with him being 20, I don't imagine that the old custody agreement with my ex is relevant to this at all? Most of these documents are gone. No longer relevant after he graduated high school.

Thank you for any advice or experiences!