US Immigration from South Africa

Hi group. I'm trying to thoroughly & accurately complete the I-130. I'm a U.S. citizen and he's Nigerian, still in South Africa. I have several questions, regarding changing things to my married name and signing forms with the correct name.

1. I have to change my name on my passport, aa I'm going g back to SA in January and, for a visit. Of course I'm required to send my original marriage certificate to Passport center, but I know that the USCIS could request my original marriage certificate sometime thru the petition and visa process. How likely is it that USCIS would request the original at the beginning of the I-130 process? I'm concerned that I might not get the original marriage certificate back timely, if USCIS requests it early on. Even paying the expedited fee can take a month or so.

1a. Or Should I not change my name on my Driver's License nor my passport yet, so that both docs have the same name, and change both when I come back? Or do I need to have it changed regardless, since I am officially married?

2. Before I thought of the questions above, I already submitted the form to have my married name on my social security card. Is that gonna be an issue, if I don t change my Driver's license and Passport yet? Or do I now definitely need to change everything right away?

3. I assume that I sign my petition with my new married name, even though passport doesn't have it on there yet?

Thank you.

I am a U.S. citizen, who married a Nigerian in South Africa on July 5, 2021. I went to visit him for 2 weeks this month, and unexpectedly got married. So here I am, trying to learn the correct and efficient way to get him over here to the U.S..

So of course I came back to the U.S. by myself, which was ok, because we both have things to organize before he comes over, so we were anticipating April 2022, even if, hypothetically, his I-130 would be approved before that. Since the whole marriage thing happened unexpectedly, I had to do some quick research on how we get him to the U.S. When I briefly read that we could apply for a Spouse Visa, while the I-130 is pending, we just assumed that it would be realistic to think he could be here with me for good, next April. But then some people told me to not apply for the spouse Visa, as it's a waste of time and money. Then I read somewhere, that only 5 Spouse Visas were approved in 2020??!! Some people tell me that the I-130 can take over a year to get approved, but some people tell me that since I'm a U.S. citizen, that it shouldn't take more than about 9 months. Im just very confused on what to do and how to prepare myself for all of this. We filed the I-130 this week. Do I just wait and see what happens, since we weren't planning for him to come til next April? Im going back in January 2022, for 2 weeks. I'll be so frustrated if it takes a year or more, before he can be here. It's hard enough to have to now wait 5 months to see my new Husband, but to have to wait a year or more, for us to be physically together for good, seems like it would be so hard. Advice, suggestions?? Thanks in advance.

Hello everyone, thank you for taking the time to possibly help me solve what is a frustrating issue!

My husband's South African passport is expiring soon and we plan to visit SA in November. He is a permanent resident (has a greencard) but is not yet able to apply for a US passport. The greencard also acts as an advance parole.

We began the process of applying for a new SA passport but keep hitting dead ends with fingerprinting. The only way to have fingerprints taken for the passport application is to travel to the consular in New York.

Does anyone know if South Africa will allow him to enter with his greencard and expired South African passport? If not, is there any other document that would suffice?

Thank you all again, you're insights are greatly appreciated!

Finally it s issued

Case changed from refused to ready now to administrative processing. Who knows when it will be finalized.