US Immigration from Japan

Hi everyone,

I have a couple questions. I've applied for naturalization and I'm going to have an interview soon. Everything seems to be going well so far, but my marriage is not. I've been married for 12 years and I've been living in the U.S. for almost 14 years, so I'm not worried about getting naturalized per se, but I was wondering, can I still request a name change? Even if we do decide to get a divorce, I'm not sure if it will be final and a divorce certificate will be ready before the interview or the oath (does oath come at a different time after the interview?), but I remember hearing that name change is very flexible at naturalization, so I'm curious..

And even though I applied for naturalization under the category of 5 years or more residency in the U.S., the letter about the interview lists only two options regarding what to bring after the general list of things to bring:

"If applying for NATURALIZATION AS THE SPOUSE of a United States Citizen; your marriage certificate, proof of death or divorce for each prior marriage of yourself or spouse, your spouse's birth or naturalization certificate of citizenship"

"If applying for NATURALIZATION as a member of the United States Armed Forces; your discharge certificate, or form DD214"

I'm definitely not applying as a member of the U.S. Armed Forces. Should I bring my marriage certificate regardless of my situation at the time of the interview? Should I also bring tax returns from the past 5 years? Also, I thought that I needed to bring proof of 5 years of residency in the U.S., but now I don't see the requirement anywhere. Do I need copies of apartment leases from the past 5 years?

Thank you in advance!

Is it possible to get a student visa if my I-130 application is already in the process?

Is obtaining a F1 or M1 visa will be in conflict with my pending I-130?

In the past, she has had trouble entering but with good intention. I understand that good intentions are just that. During the below situations, we were not married at that time.

1. Just a little more than two years ago, she was denied entry to US and got her ESTA refused. She received a letter that writes VWPP refusal . The CBP told her that she needs a visa to enter, as usual, and will not be able to utilize an ESTA to travel (not sure if this means forever). She was refused entry for not having a return ticket and traveling with a large luggage of personal items. So she flew back to Japan.
2. About a year ago was when she was denied entry on tourist visa. CBP concluded she was traveling with the intention of adjusting status. She then flew back to Japan. Passport writes application for admission withdrawn & B1/B2 revoked .

We are still pending I-130 results (submission in Apr 2023). I have been traveling to see my wife almost every other month. We want to try out an ESTA knowing it has been 2 years since her previous ESTA was refused.

Currently, she has applied for an ESTA and pending results of approval. If approved, we will attempt at flying together to the US in hopes of passing through with no issues. My only concern is that CBP denies and we burned a plane ticket. Is there anything else that we should be concerned about or may affect our CR1 process? I understand strong ties back to Japan is necessary when talking to CBP. Is there anything we should know more about CBP questions at this point?

I ve read some of the most recent post looking for some info that relates to our situation. I would like to hear anyone s thoughts on this.

Good morning all,

I do apologize for making two threads, but the topics are sufficiently different than it didn't make sense to include both in one.

We are considering leaving the US and moving to my spouse's home country as soon as August, but have not decided on this. That said, we are not sure the move would be long-term. We may want to (or have to) come back depending on how the visa process works out in that country. If my residency application is not approved for example, we would be coming back to the US within a few months. In order to apply for the particular visa we are looking at, I'm required to be physically present in Japan - it cannot be done through an embassy here in the US. It would be several months before I'd find out if I'm approved and can remain in Japan.

My spouse has pending ROC filed last year January 2023 and has the 48-months extension letter. I've tried to research this, but there is very little info on how pending ROC works if we leave the country. This is the main the reason I'm interested in ROC approval estimates for LIN as the Nebraska Service Center seems to be quicker than others. If we go by USCIS processing time estimates, our application could be approved around July of this year. VisaJourney is estimating February 2025.

If anyone can assist with the following questions, it would be much appreciated:

1. If we do move prior to approval and file an address change with USCIS and include a foreign address, will that result in the ROC being denied or cancelled? I assume we cannot use a relative's US mailing address, as we would not be physically present there - or can we?
2. Do we simply have to withdraw the ROC if we move out of the US and then have my spouse file for IR-1 if we ever move back? This would be extremely problematic if my residency in Japan is not approved (unlikely, but possible) as it would result in us being separated.
3. What if we apply for a re-entry permit during ROC?

At this point, we are really stuck on whether we should just wait out ROC approval, apply for a re-entry permit first, and then consider leaving. Some days we want to wait it out, and other days we question whether to keep putting our lives on hold for USCIS, as we could potentially be waiting years for ROC approval by what some on this forum have described. Others have suggested using N400 to "speed" up the process, but that is not a consideration for us as Japan does not allow dual citizenship.

We currently have pending ROC with LIN (Nebraska Service Center). The USCIS processing time for this service center shows 80% of cases approved with 18 months. This is the quickest of all service centers I checked as some are almost double that. There are also many recent data points on this site showing approvals 14-16 months post-receipt date for LIN.

That said, I keep receiving emails from VisaJourney stating that our approval estimate is late February 2025, which puts us at 25 months. What is this data based on? Is it drawing on data from all service centers and thus not factoring that LIN is faster than the others?

In addition, why does the https://www.visajourney.com/times/ page only show CSC and VSC for I-751, when there are many other service centers?