US Immigration from India

Hello All,

Wish you all: Happy New Year

Need some help
For past 3+ years I am in India. I have been an OCI card holder since 2010. Presently I am 50 Years old. I have renewed my USA passport as the earlier passport expired. I have OCI details (Visa Page) attached to my earlier passport that is expired now.

Today I applied (Under Miscellaneous Service) to update the passport particulars.

Question(s)

(1) I need to travel to US, can I still travel while my online application is under processing

(2) Another thing I want to know my USA passport was expired on Jan-08-2020 and passport renewed on May-07-2021, hence a gap of around 1+ year. Do I need to fill any form to regularize this?

Appreciate your time kind advise.

Hi,

i applied for E visa to india on January 4th and put in as expected date of arrival for 4th February. I could only see the date 4th feb. My flight is actually landing on 5th feb. I just received the email that visa has been granted but the entry to India expires on 4th February and flight lands on 5th February.

any one had a similar experience? Can i reapply again without a hassle after a few days from now ?

already have the ticket and stressing now . :(

My wife visa I-130 had been approved by USCIS on June 21, 2022. Apparently, I became US Citizen just 3 days before the approval. So, the case got automatically converted from F2A to IR1. We submitted all the documents NVC asked in August and got DQ'ed by September 29, 2022. Since then we are waiting to receive Interview Letter. I tried to expedite by emailing NVCExpedite@state.gov, but it was denied. Then I tried expediting directly by AskNVC link and filled the form. It was also denied. Today marks 98th days since we DQ'ed. Cannot go through this every day. Mind you, my PD was 02-13-2020. So, almost 3 years since I filed for her.

Hi

My parents have received email from NVC that they will be notified an interview date at the consulate in India soon.My parents also have a multiple entry visitor visa in hand and they planned on visiting us next month( round trip tickets already booked) as we had a new baby.We did not expect the processing to happen so fast.Question is:

1) Can they schedule the interview for a later date in India and travel next month under visiting visa as the tickets are already booked?

2) Or at this stage can the interview be done here in the US after their arrival?

Any thoughts or inputs are appreciated. Thank You!

Special Immigrant Juveniles - https://www.uscis.gov/working-in-US/eb4/SIJ

This forum has great information & details about the VAWA process, but not much about SIJ. So posting our experience with SIJ.

In 2019, we had a family tragedy. My sister-in-law passed away suddenly leaving her 12-year old son semi-orphaned in India. The father had little interest in the child, and the grand parents were over 80 and couldn't take care of a child. The child's father happily handed over custody to us and promptly remarried.

We applied for and got a F1 visa for the boy. We brought him to the US to live with us in early 2020, before the Covid pandemic hit. He was enrolled in a SEVP Certified Private School that issued the I-20 for the F-1 visa. The school was expensive, but it was the quickest & easiest way to get the boy to the US and stay long-term.

We contacted several lawyers about his options for a Green Card. Most recommended adoption, but that was not practical due to us being US citizens and him being an Indian citizen. International adoptions come under the Hague convention and is a lengthy & expensive process with no guarantee of success. Plus India had a mortarium on international adoptions. And we had other reasons for not wanting an adoption. So that was not an option.

One lawyer (NM) finally mentioned Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) but suggested we wait 6-months so that the boy comes under the state's legal jurisdiction. We did our research and felt that SIJS was the best option for the boy. Meanwhile Covid happened and everything shutdown. No progress the whole year.

Step 1: Getting a court order finding the child a ward of the State (4 months, about $2500 for all - Lawyer Fees, Court Fees, Doc Fees etc.)

Early 2021 we contacted NM again and she referred us to another family lawyer (MS) who handled SIJS cases before. MS was great at his job, took about 6 weeks to get all the paperwork and evidence ready to support a case for SIJS and filed the petition with the county family court. Due to Covid backlogs, we couldn't get a hearing for a couple of months. It was tense waiting for the hearing. The day of the hearing came, MS told us not to be nervous and to be honest and sincere while answering the judge's questions. The hearing went on for about 30 mins and the judge asked both us and the lawyer several questions before approving the order. It was a big relief.

The order placed the child in our custody and finds that:
a) Child's reunification with his mother not viable as she is deceased.
b) Child's reunification with his father not viable due to abandonment and neglect.
c) Not in child s best interest to return to home country as he has no one to take care of him there.
d) The child is placed under the custody of an individual appointed by a State court.

Step 2: Petition USCIS for SIJ status, I-360 (9 months, about $50 - Consulting Fee with the Non-Profit, No USCIS Fee for SIJS )

It was now mid-2021 and the next step was to file form I-360 with USCIS for SIJ status. All the immigration lawyers wanted heavy retainers for this ($8K or more). Seemed kind a steep. Then came across a non-profit agency that mainly helps children & women with immigration issues and are familiar with VAWA & SIJS. We had a consultation with them (they had a lawyer too) and, after the meeting, we felt confident we could file it ourselves . We researched and gather a lot information about form I-360 and prepared our petition and supporting documents with a clear & concise cover letter. Checked everything half a dozen times before mailing it in August 2021. Got a receipt notice the next week.

As per rules SIJ petitions are supposed to be adjudicated within 180 days. When we didn't hear anything after 6 months, we called USCIS. The rep we spoke with was nice but didn't have any information. Said that the case is under review, and that they are running a bit late due to back log and asked us to wait another 3 months. Then in May 2022, we got the approval notice. Yay

School year had just ended and we were glad to take the boy out of that expensive private school and enroll him in a public school. No need to maintain his F-1 status any longer.

Step 3: Adjustment of Status, Green Card, I-485 (6 months, about $1,500 including USCIS Fee, Biometrics Fee and Doctor Fee for Medicals)

The last step is to file for AOS. Apparently GC is almost a sure shot as SIJ status is protected from "all bars to adjustment except the terrorist-related adjustment bar". None of those 'bars to adjustment' applied to the boy, of course, but we were still anxious. Submitted the form I-485 in July 2022 and got the Biometrics done the next month.

AOS for SIJ applicants is processed under the EB-4 category. We had a priority date of Aug-2021 (the date of I-360 filing) and EB-4 PD for India was current when we filed the I-485 in Jul-2022. So, we hoped it'd be processed quickly.

In Oct 2022 we got an RFE. We were extremely anxious when the online status said that, wondering what we missed and what could've gone wrong. It was stressful waiting for the notice to arrive in mail. When we got it, it turned out to be an error in the Medicals (I-693) - the only document not prepared by us. The nurse had made a couple of mistakes in entering the vaccine history. It took a couple of weeks to sort it out and submit a corrected I-693.

In Dec 2022, just before Christmas, the I-485 was approved. The SSN card came the next week, and the Green Card was delivered this week. What a wonderful start to the New Year

Finally, our SIJ journey is over. So happy & relieved.

Thanks for the community & support