US Immigration from Sweden

Hello everyone,

I am back in my home country of Sweden now after spending 86 days with my now husband (as of January 10th). I was wondering some things regarding the steps moving forward - I am intending to change my last name (taking his), which would require me to get a new ID and passport, but that would also mean applying for a new ESTA. If I apply for an ESTA with an I-130 pending, I suspect this will most likely be declined? What would be the best approach here? Don't change my name and deal with changing the name on (hopefully) the greencard later? Don't send in the I-130 until our next visit is over, as we have not yet filed it? Would love some advice if possible. Thanks in advance

Hi!

Completely new to this website so I hope I am doing this correctly! Me and my husband got married January 10th 2025, I return to Sweden on January 18th. I will be changing my last name once I get back, then we are planning on submitting our I-130 application.

We have been reading a bit about the embassy interview I will have to do when that is approved, and we are a little confused. Do I need the original marriage certificate with me, or is a scanned copy AND a photo copy enough? Can the original stay here in Louisville with him, or do I need to bring it with me to Sweden?

We have another visit sort of planned for the end of July, and we assume we will be far from over with the application process with then, but we'd like to sort the paperwork stuff out now in case our visit plans fall through.

Thanks so much in advance!

Hi, I have been lurking on the forum and this is my first post after having trouble getting my account set up! I was curious if anyone filing AOS in December received a RFE for their I-864? I did even though I make consistently more than 125% for the poverty level. The RFE had generic verbiage on the first page about meeting this guideline and then the second page was more specific stating the form needed to be signed (which I did) and of the latest edition date. They also want a copy of my entire federal tax return for last year even though I sent them IRS transcripts for the last 3 years. I did screw up the household size because the form self populated #1 when it should have done the math and made it 2. I will have to correct that by hand. Finally they mention making sure the petitioner's SSN is on the form which I know mine was.

Any thoughts on this? Attached is the RFE. They received my I-864 on 12/10/2024. When I went online to fill out a new one, I see the latest form came out 12/17/2024! I think they are holding that part against me.

Other than giving them a new I-864 signed in the latest version, with my SSN and copy of my last year Federal Income tax, do you think I need to do anything else to satisfy the RFE?

Thanks in advance! (I'll fill out more of my timeline when I have time to pull out my paperwork )

Pretty much what the title says. I officially got my I-751 approved today and my N-400 status changed to "Oath Ceremony Will Be Scheduled" so I'm guessing that I will probably get a notice for that in the near future.

Since I am not yet a US citizen, will I get a new permanent resident card (10 year) in the meantime?

I had my combined N-400 and I-751 interview today in Fairfax, VA. Everything went great - I answered all the civics questions correctly and everything went well with the questions about our relationship etc. She asked me if I wanted to submit any further evidence about our relationship so I gave her 2-3 more months of bank statements from between when we applied and now as a nice extra because I had them with me. She was having some issues with the system on her end and couldn't access our marriage certificate so I gave her the one I had with me and she scanned it.

At the end of my interview the interviewer said that I passed the interview and that she was going to approve me (woho!), however, she was not able to put me as "approved" on the piece of paper and had to put that "a decision has yet to be made" until then. She did say that she has to do this until she put everything into the system but I should receive a notice about my oath ceremony and to check my USCIS account because sometimes people get it on there faster.

I'm not super familiar with this and I should have asked her at the interview but does this just mean that she's not able to "officially" approve me until she has put the new bank statements and/or the marriage certification on my file or could it have to do with the I-751? Also, should I expect this to take a few days or could it be longer? I'm guessing she was unable to do this due to the issues she was having with the system. I also signed the Oath documents and verified the information that would be used for naturalization.

Additionally, do you usually get some type of notice that you were "approved" on your USCIS account? I'm guessing that it might take a few business days for that but just want to have an idea on what to expect.

In short - my experience was great but now I'm at home and getting a bit anxious so figured it would be good to ask and see if anyone else is more familiar.

Thanks!