US Immigration from Russia

My MIL lives in Ukraine and is a successful lawyer. My wife is us citizen (from April this year). Ukraine is at war, as you know, and situation may change to the worse any day. MIL doesn t even want to talk about moving anywhere. She has 10 year US visa and came here for 2 months after the start of the war. She left after 2 months instead of allowed 6 months (stamp) because she was missing home and her practice.
I am still thinking of convincing my wife to file for GC as an insurance. Can someone who went through this share what are the technical minimal requirements for opening and maintaining GC for as long as possible:

1. Day 0 - entry at POE

2. Stay in us -how many weeks minimum?
3. Go back home - technically, what is the REAL time she can stay in Ukraine without coming for the maintenance visit?
I would truly appreciate if someone can explain, essentially, timeline-wise, if it is possible at all to have GC while visiting US?
of course, under the normal circumstances we would just file when and if she is ready to move. However, she may be forced to move fast. This is the only issue.
thank you.

Hi everyone!

We received an RFE stating that the sponsor, my husband, does not qualify due to insufficient income. His tax transcript for 2022 shows that he's made an amount that's less than 125% of poverty guidelines income requirements. He was actually out of the US and made a modest salary working at a school in SEA. Yet, this year being back in the US he's got a job her that pays way above of the required amount.

Unfortunately we could not find a joint sponsor. We're planning to respond to RFE with a letter from employer and pay stubs from the last 6 months, as well as a letter explaining our situation.

My husband talked to a lawyer who said that since his current income is sufficient it should be fine. Though I can see that many sources state that when your case is processed within the US they only care about the amount shown in the previous year tax return.

What do you think are the odds that we get approved relying on his current income? Maybe someone was in a similar situation and got approved?

Thank you!

Hi guys,

My fiancee is in Russia, will be going to Warsaw for her interview, just cleared NOA2 and NVC and waiting for the embassy packet. The question is, I am seeing different requirements online for the Covid vaccine, however, it appears the Warsaw embassy is saying a Covid vaccine by Pfizer or Moderna is required, that would mean 2 Moderna shots or 3 Pfizer shots with a month inbetween. Russia does not have those vaccines. If this is true, my fiancee would have to take her kid to something like Kazakhstan 3 times over a 3 month period to get the shots, which is obviously a huge burden. So if you have recent experience going through Warsaw or a similar situation, please let me know what options you had and any advice. Thanks in advance.

Hello friends,

we have this approved K1 fiance petition, and we are at the last step. My fiance is from Russia, and she cant travel to Poland because of the schengen block. All other embassies are not taking our case, as they only take cases from residents of that country. The only embassy which can take our case is Israel and they are in war and not operating currently.

Please anyone can help me with any advice on where to go or what to do? Anyone in similiar situation?

My wife and I have been debating this point and I'd love some input to minimize potential issues. We have an attorney but feel that the advice given so far has delayed our case and think this may be an area of bad advice...

Background: At the NVC stage I had submitted a letter explaining I was a student with no income last year and did not file a return but included evidence of current salary (started job January 2023 (qualifying income)). Due to no prior tax filing, the joint sponsor is my father who had tax extensions until October and does not utilize W2s or 1099s (partner in a partnership). My mother does not work and did not sign any forms although they file taxes jointly. Basically, our attorney directed us to submit letters and schedules each time DQ asked for w2/1099 forms so we have a fairly cluttered and confusing income/tax submission... even the 2022 income on my joint sponsor's 864 is different than what is on his actual 1040 since the lawyer used business schedule forms to extrapolate projected income.

We were DQ'ed from NVC in August but received a notice at the same time (screenshot attached) stating our reported income is insufficient. After that we submitted the newly acquired 1040 for 2022 on behalf of my joint sponsor which still shows "Submitted" on CEAS since mid-September.

I am afraid that my mother not being on these financial forms at all, my joint sponsor's original 864 with incorrect income remaining on file, and tons of schedules& miscellaneous tax filing forms now on CEAC for my joint sponsor that we will encounter problems at the interview. Our immigration attorney stated that by submitting my joint sponsor's final 1040 after being DQ'ed that we effectively corrected the i864 form. We were never advised on using tax transcripts which would have greatly simplified these issues.

Specific Questions: In your experience/opinion...

1). If total income was corrected post-DQ but before receiving an interview date should my joint sponsor resubmit a new Form i864 at this point?

2). Being DQ'ed already, should we submit a 864a for my mother (joint sponsor's spouse filing jointly) at this point to be safe?

3). Would requesting and uploading 3 years tax transcripts from the IRS likely save us headache later or add more problems at this point?

We are afraid that having been DQ'ed and waiting for an interview date +2 months that adding too much or new critical documents would slow our case or mess up our case from being scheduled. I asked our attorney about adding these documents/corrections and got a simple "no need" answer.. my gut is telling me different.

Any thoughts?