US Immigration from Japan

Hello all,

I've had a very eventful year - namely in regards to marrying my Japanese spouse last year in November (2023).

I'm a USC, she's 100% Japanese.

Since she will be moving here, the next step was of course to file the I-130. My research at the time made it seem like processing times could be around 6 months. In hindsight, it's clear it can take much longer and that I should have researched further.

I filed on January 9, 2024 and received the "Case is being Actively Reviewed" status on January 11.

Our plan was that around June/July this year, she could expect to visit the US (with no intent to permanently stay yet) while we wait for the I-130 to progress.

She's currently in Japan. By July, she may no longer be employed at her current job and also may not renew her apartment lease.

She currently has a US visitor visa (ESTA?) and has visited a few times already (unsure about the specifics of this, I will check).

Since we are now already in the month of March - I'm starting to feel some stress and anxiety about what likely will happen.

Planning for the worse, I will assume that this I-130 will not be processed before July 2024.

Therefore by July she will not have a processed I-130, no job or apartment (because of the planned eventual move to the US), yet also cannot temporarily stay in the US for longer than the ESTA allows.

I'm beginning to research alternative visa's or processes that will allow her to temporarily stay for a longer duration during this limbo period.

Does anyone have any insight on situations like this? I've learned quite a bit already, but I'm a bit stuck now on the best path forward.

I had my interview few days ago at the US embassy in Tokyo.

Since I have not gotten my covid vaccination in the 12 months prior to the date of medical exam, they told me to

provide the evidence of the vaccination after I receive my dose.

They gave me the web page url (https://jp.usembassy.gov/visas/) and told me to send online but I have no idea where to send my vaccination evidence.

Do any of you have similar experience?

I'm having trouble figuring out if I should file "married and filing separate" or just "single". Initially I was filing married and separate but an error message showed that I need to input something on the SSN field for my wife. An expert from TurboTax recommends I apply for an ITIN for my wife so I could put that on my taxes under the SSN field but also mentions that its safe to file single because we were married officially in Japan, not in US. An ITIN is going to take about 7 weeks according to irs.gov. We are in the phase where our NOA for I-130 "approval" should be sent soon. Not sure if its worth to apply for ITIN at this point. Also wondering if anyone has had experience with or without an ITIN on their tax returns in relation to the NVC phase.

Hello y'all,

My foreign citizen spouse and I visited not one, but *two*, SSA offices in Austin, Texas today and were told at both places that appointments are now required for all first-time SSN/card applicants. The Kafkaesque element lies in the fact that nowhere on the blessed ssa.gov site can I find a link to schedule an appointment. It does give you the option to schedule at the end of the online SS-5 application but that requires an account which you cannot create witout a SSN in the first place! Of course, my wife doesn't have an SSN and couldn't avail of this "feature". Furthermore, an agent on the 1-800 line told me that they couldn't schedule in-person appointments in Austin.

An employee at the second Austin SSA office did schedule us for a late Feb date using their terminal. He was insistent that he did so from www.ssa.gov but in all my searching I couldn't find the page where outsiders such as myself could schedule without a login.gov or ID.me account. My question is whether others have run into this issue? The helpful SSA officer did tell me that the process for first time applicants changed around 6 weeks ago. Not sure whether this is a Texas only thing or nationwide. I'd really appreciate some insights, recent experiences with SSA. Thank you!

Kind of a complicated situation and I could use some advice. I'm a US citizen and my wife is a Japanese citizen; we've been married for about 25 years and living in Japan for about the last 10 years. She was a green card holder for many years until we moved to Japan (and had to give up her green card). We were planning on eventually moving back to the US but recent events accelerated those plans.

I got a job in the US that had a very short-notice start date and was granted permission for Direct Consular Filing. I have an appointment in Tokyo next week to submit an I-130 and related documents at the Embassy. However, my wife just a few hours ago got a job offer from a U.S. university that is offering to sponsor her for an H-1B. They are flexible on the start date but would like to get her to the U.S. as soon as possible (as would we).

Three questions:

1. Which method is likely to be faster? I know that H-1Bs through universities typically get people working within 4-6 months, but I've also heard that some universities can do it in just a couple of months? This seems even quicker than DCF (and maybe minus the hoops of the medical exam and criminal history search?). It's also appealing because the university handles all of the paperwork and pays all of the fees. I really am not clear on how long we can expect DCF to take.
2. Can we do both in parallel? I don't mind paying the I-130 fees and other things twice but I worry that starting one process would close off the possibility of the other. Again, our goal is for her to be able to move to the U.S. as quickly as possible. If we go down the H-1B route I need to figure out what to tell the Tokyo Embassy pretty quickly.
3. Is there an advantage down the road to doing DCF? I have never even thought about what's involved in changing from an H-1B if you've already married to a U.S. citizen. I don't want her to get stuck in some sort of limbo waiting years to get her green card.

Thanks for any insight you may have! I don't imagine that many people have been in a similar situation but I know there's a lot of experienced people here.