immifrustration

I would recommend not using ACCOS fastener too. I filed my documents using heavy clips and i used easily removable sticky labeled tabs to separate the different sections of my documents. During my AOS interview, i saw that the IO had all my documents filed in her file with a double hole punch on top of the document.

ye I totally agree with what you said. That being said, my work does not take taxes out my check, do I need them too? also what forms do I need to file?

If you work as a contractor, you need to fill out the 1099 form. I would advice using a tax software like turbotax or consulting a tax professional to have your taxes done. It will save you a lot of trouble down the road.

Yes you should send it in, I sent in mine. On my AOS interview day the IO wanted to see my original I-20 because it helps to establish that i entered the country legally. My application was approved yesterday.

Thanks for the feedback, its time for me to wait for my green card in the mail!

Hi there

I came to the USA on an F1 student visa in August 2009 and shortly after I met my now fiance. We plan on getting married in South Africa in Dec 2012 but we also plan on getting civilly married in the US within the next month in order to get the AOS process started. I have a few questions:

1.) I have worked a little bit during the summer illegally due to financial hardship with my parents and I needed to be able to support myself, I have been paid my a check made out in my name. Will this be an issue? Do I need to file for taxes?

2.)I will need to file for I 131 Advanced Parole because I am going to visit my family in December 2011, will this be easily approved on the condition of wanting to see my family?

3.) Also my fiance is about to graduate nursing school and does not have a job as of yet, if her parents co sponsor and show enough funds will I be fine?

I have downloaded most of the forms that I need and I have partially filled them out as much as I can thus far. I would appreciate all the advice I can receive seeing as though immmigration attorneys are very expensive

Regards

1) Yes you should file taxes and if possible file jointly with your wife after you get married, then it can be used as an evidence of bona-fide marriage. Working illegally is usually forgiven in such cases

2) I'm not sure about this one.

3) You need to meet the poverty limit posted on the USCIS site, which means its not just the amount of raw funds but also income.

Hi Everyone,

A little back story: I had my AOS Interview (based on marriage and F1 visa) today at the SF office. At first I was extremely anxious and neither me nor my spouse had our birth certificate, which was one of the required items on the NOA list. In the end, it didn't matter at all since the officer did not ask to see them.

The whole interview process went very smoothly, the IO was nice and didn't ask any particularly probing or embarrassing questions. She asked to hear our story and saw some of our pictures which we brought. I think the fact that both me and my spouse are of the same race, similar age and spoke perfect english helped a lot as we were able to strike up some banter with the IO to lighten the mood. At the end of the interview, i got a the I-485 AOS result letters which states that "Your case has been continued for the reasons(s) checked below - Further Review".

However within a few hours, my I-485 case on the USCIS website changed its status to "Card/Document Production", does this mean my case has been approved? However, when i put in the receipt number of my I-130 case, its still in the "initial review" phase, is this something i should worry about or does the I-130 get approved automatically as the I-485 get approved? I did submit my I-130 and I-485 together as a package but i got 2 different (but consecutive) receipt numbers.

Lastly, i would like to thank all the great members of this forum that gave me fantastic advice along my journey, i would never have been able to do this without you guys/girls. If you have any questions about my interview or the SF office in particular, let me know.

Cheers,

Josh

After the encouragement I received on the forums, I have started my filing process by myself. First on the checklist is the I-130 and I encountered a couple of questions while reading carefully through the instructions and filling ou the form. I was wondering if those of you who are more enlightened and experienced on this matter can give me a couple of tips.

The short backstory is that I'm an visa overstay (3.5yr) F-1 who is applying for AOS based on marriage, no other complications such as criminal record. I'm filling out the form electronically on my computer. I'm an educated and generally meticulous person.

1, Documents to prove citizenship

On the instructions for I-130, under the section "What Documents Do You Need to Show That You Are a U.S. Citizen?", it lists the need for many documents such as the Birth Cert, Naturalization Cert. My spouse is a naturalized US Citizen and the naturalization was obtained through parents and therefore he does not have a naturalization certificate. The only document we have at our disposal is his passport. Is this enough of an evidence or do w need to go through the trouble of filling out the N-565 to obtain a naturalization certificate for him? the latter option will increase costs and delay our application so we definitely prefer to use passport-only.

2, Leaving blanks

Under the I-130 instructions, it says: Answer all questions fully and accurately. State that an item is not applicable with "N/A." If the answer is none, write "none." Do I interpret this literally and fill out all the fields on the form with "N/A" or "none" even though it sometimes makes more sense to leave the fields blank? for example, do I fill in "none" for the middle name field since I do not have one? In general, is it ok to leave blanks on the form for the fields or should I insist on filling "N/A" or "none" for everything that should be blank.

3, Foreign Address

If both of us are in the USA, do I still need to find a foreign address to fill in under section 19 ("Your relative's address aboard") and 20 ("Foreign address in native alphabet")?

Thank you for reading through this and helping me out in these stressful times.

Thanks for the helpful and encouraging replies. There are no complicated issues like criminal records or anything close to that. I will proceed with the AOS filing myself. Thanks again for the helpful and encouraging messages.

Hi Everyone. I'm about to embark on this journey of AOS and it seems rather frightening so I'm here for some advice. First off, here's my story:

I entered USA legally on an F-1 visa for undergraduate studies and overstayed my VISA upon graduation. I've married a US citizen about a year ago and we are thinking of applying for AOS. My first question is that if I have a chance of succeeding in the AOS because of the overstay. the duration of the overstay is 3.5 years. I have been reading that overstay due to VWP have been routined denied in recent months and I'm wondering if this also applies to non-immigration visas such as the F-1? if anyone can shed some light on this, it will be greatly appreciated.

I'm also wondering if I need to get a lawyer in order to help me on this case due to the situation with overstay. Based on the information I've been reading, some people advice getting a lawyer if there's any form of complication such as overstay while others say that overstay is usually overlooked in marriage AOS cases. I'm wondering which one of these applies more to my specific circumstances.

Thanks for reading through this and any feedback is greatly appreciated.