US Immigration from Canada

Hi Folks,

We are looking to move closer to my wife's family in the US, and I just wanted to make sure we've got our ducks in a row, so to speak.

I'm a Canadian, married to a US dual citizen, living in Canada. We've been married for 10 years and have two kids. The kids do not have US citizenship.

Steps:

File a I-130 and I-130a.

File 2 Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) Form DS-2029 for the kids.

Questions:

Are the steps listed on this VJ link still valid? They talk only about mailing a package in, and not applying online. Do I have it right that you can submit the application online, but additional materials are then needed to be mailed in (original documents, etc.)?

My wife hasn't done her US taxes in a while, so we'll be doing those at the same time. I understand that this has no bearing on filing I-130, and is only important for IR-1 approval?

My wife has no US income at the moment, though due to the nature of her business, she will continue to make CAD when we move. Is this enough to satisfy the sponsorship requirement, or do we need to get another sponsor?

If for some reason, we decide to visit the US and stay (both of our jobs are entirely online), can I apply for adjustment of status and file I-485 from inside the US?

Many thanks in advance to everyone here.

Congratulations to all who received their IL.

Just giving an update on the car import process. (Moderators - please feel free to move this post anywhere else if needed as I don't want to hijack this thread).

First, some info on my vehicle. I bought a used car last Aug in Ontario which was a 2013 Ford Model made in USA. It already has TPMS so I didn't do anything else for Tire Pressure system.

At the border I presented the following documents :

1. EPA-3420 form

2. HS-7 form (I partially filled these two forms with whatever info was straight forward. Rest the officers at the border helped fill it up, They were super helpful)

3. Letter from vehicle manufacturer that states information regarding the vehicle's safety and EPA compliance. For those living in Toronto, I got this letter from Mike Knapp Ford in Welland, Ontario. They asked me to submit my model, year and the VIN number and then sent me the letter both over regular mail and e-mail. E-mail letter came the very next day and by mail it took a week or so. I was charged around $110 CAD for this letter.

4. My Ontario Original Vehicle Permit

5. Bill of Sale

6. My Ontario car insurance

After presenting the above documents, the officers gave me the "Entry Summary" sheet.

At this time I had no idea where I would get the rest of the paperwork done for import. So my first stop was I at Penndot (I moved close to Philadelphia) office to get my DL. Since I already had a US DL in the past which was expired, it was easy for me to get the renewed DL same day with an expiry of 1 year. I'll have to get another one once I receive the physical GC. I was told at Penndot to go to an Auto Tag office for getting the car import paper work done.

So next stop was at Auto Tag. I used the one in Malvern, PA (Malvern Auto Tag). They asked for all the above 1-5 documents along with VIN picture from the car, car mileage, Pennsylvania DL and Pennsylvania Car Insurance. The only thing I had missing was the Car Insurance. So I went back and got it from Geico the next day.

Today I went to the Auto Tag office again, they charged me overall $286 dollars that include $150 service fees, and rest state fees including title cost and registration cost. I was given a license plate at the same time and was told the original title and registration documents will come to be my mail in another 90 days or so.

That is it. I didn't pay any import taxes at the border as the officer told me its an American made vehicle. ( I think there is also an exemption to a certain level if you're spouse is US Citizen. I'm not 100% sure but there is some reading to be done for that).

One last thing for Pennsylvania. If the vehicle was bought within last 6 months and if the taxes paid are less than 6%, you have to pay the difference to make it to 6%. This tax is waived off if the vehicle is more than 6 months old after you bought. My case the vehicle was just less than 6 months but Ontario already charged me a 13% sales tax ( I should have got a 7% refund lol).

That was the overall process. If anyone needs any help, please feel free to drop me a message and I can assist whatever way I can. Good luck to everyone

HI there,

We submitted our documents at the NVC on October 22nd. We added an additional document on December 9th.

On January 26th, I got a case review note in my message. The message was blank so I called NVC and they said the message is blank on their end too, but that my documents had not been looked at yet.

They said they will be looked at when the NVC is looking at documents submitted on January 26th, 2022.

Having submitted my documents in October and waiting for three months, it seems that I m once again at the back of the line with no explanation at all from the NVC.

Does anyone know why this is happening? What I can do about it?

I know the case FE note is usually related to insufficient income, but my wife is sponsoring me on the basis of her assets which are more than sufficient (+$100k)

Thanks

Really hoping we didn't screw something up. Today we got a notification that we had messages from the NVC. It's been a few months since we submitted our documents. I know what the issue is with the one document and it should be a quick, easy fix, but there is also a message that says "DS-260 Review Note -The petition you have filed does not allow derivative status for family members. This means that any spouse, unmarried child under age 21, or parent will require his or her own petition to immigrate."

This is causing me to panic a little bit. I am the applicant (in Canada) and have 2 kids under the age of 18. My husband (the American) is their stepfather, not their bio dad. Did we miss a step somehow where we needed to file completely different applications for the kids? If so, is this something that will be able to just be attached to mine, or are we going to have to go all the way back to square one? It's already been about 15 months and I feel physically sick at the thought we will have to wait that long again because we did something wrong with the kids part

Also, once we do submit the one fixed document, how long does it take before they review it again? It took around 3 months for them to review the stuff we had submitted originally. I'm hoping that is something that will only take a short time to re-review instead of going back to the start of the review process again. Anyone have some insight into that?

I appreciate any replies. Please be gentle. I'm feeling overwhelmed, frustrated and very anxious already.

Hi my fianc and i just received our packet 4 today with a very near appointment date (feb 14th 2022) and im a little confused in the information packet they sent us.

IMPORTANT: ***please bring this letter and the appointment confirmation sheet you will receive from http://canada.usvisa-info.com/to the panel physician medical appointment. ***

Now i had just registered to the website and paid the MRV fee and have set my delivery to my home address. Now is the "appointment confirmation sheet" what they sent me when i paid the MRV via email? or does that "appointment confirmation sheet" come in the mail?