paojack

I will be going to my interview next month. It seems like people are asked to bring their driver's license.

My full legal name is first name, middle name, father's last and mother's last as it is done in many Latin American countries.

My driver's license does not have my mother's last name. My passport and green card do.

Two choices. Leave it alone or get my driver's license to match exactly.

Opinions welcome. Thanks

Bring it as ID. The situation with the last names does not matter at all.

She hast to wait for her green card, otherwise she wont be able to come back.

Since you have all his passports with J-1 and other visas, can't you make copies of the visas and highlight the section below it with notes: it should say something like Bearer is NOT subject to section 212 (e) rule.

Also contact the employer - they'll often have copies of IAP 66/DS-2019.

In my case, my old j1 visa does say ''not subject....'' but that was not enough for the IO, she needed to confirm it with the DS-2019.

yes....so I am submitting a copy of the one i have. telling them about the others that I don't have...but really i don't know what to do to prove the other years without the DS 2019s for them, i called the state dept and they said i have to get an advisory opinion, if i can't end up locating the other DS 2019s then i am not sure how else to prove them. i need to call the uscis with my husband present, they would only give me really general info unless he is there since he is the applicant. so this isn't the over yet...

i am at least going to go for the advisory opinion on the off chance that they can help with the other ones too. it might be a longshot.

Your husband should request a letter from the agency(or program) he used to come to the US explaining all the details (date, place,visa,etc) of when he was in the US on his j1, and send that to DoS along with the other required documentation for the advisory opinion. I'm not sure that will help or not but that was one of the things I was told to do by DoS when I was trying to fix my situation.

It is the sole responsibility of the exchange visitor (EV) to retain copies of his/her IAP-66/DS-2019 forms. Therefore, if you cannot find your copy, the Department’s Waiver Review Division (WRD) will accept a signed letter from your program’s responsible program officer (RO), which gives complete information about your program and your participation in it.

thanks for the advice!

i am doing my best to locate DS 2019 forms for the other 4 summers he entered on a J-1 visa. I am also issuing an advisory opinion request to the State Dept. because it seems like that could also serve as evidence to submit to USCIS. let's hope that works...

but if anyone has any other thoughts on this or related experiences, I would love to hear them..

for the advisory opinion I believe you need the DS-2019's, don't u?

After going through the K-1 process fairly smoothly, my husband came over from the UK and we got married and filed for Adjustment of Status. Then we had an RFE concerning our joint sponsor which we took care of. Months have passed since then, our case was moved from Vermont to California, and now we have our 2nd RFE.

This RFE states that since my husband previously entered the US as a J-1 non-immigrant exchange visitor, "Section 212(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act requires that persons who enter the US as a J-1 must return to their sponsoring country for a period of two years after their period of admission has expired so they can share the knowledge they acquired. As such, the applicant must comply with one of the following:

1) Submit evidence to establish that the applicant has fulfilled the requirements and conditions of his J-1 admission, as stated above, or

2) Submit evidence to establish that the applicant has been granted a waiver of section 212(e) two-year foreign residency requirement, or

3) Submit evidence to establish that the applicant is not subject to section 212(e) of the Act"

My husband actually entered the US under J-1 visa FIVE times between 2006 to 2011, in order to work at a YMCA overnight camp every summer before we got engaged. It's where we met. Now obviously since he returned back every summer, and they LET him, he cannot possibly be subject to the 2-year rule. My question is, how exactly can I prove this without a doubt to the USCIS? We have his passport stamped with all J-1 visas and K-1 Visas, and his readmittance each time to the UK, but we had already sent them this. Do we send it again?

Also, I have heard people talk about sending them the DS 2019 form which would have something checked off about whether the 2 year rule would apply? The only form we have been able to find that might come close is one from his 2008 J-1 visa: it is a "Certificate of Eligibility for Exchange Visitor (J-1) Status" and down near the bottom it says,

"The Exchange Visitor in the above program:

1. Not subject to the two -year residency requirement (CHECKED OFF BY THE OFFICIAL!!! and STAMPED)

2. subject to two year residency requirement", etc.

I feel like this is our best proof, however it is only for his 2008 J-1 visa...I am sure the same applied for 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2010, but we do not have those papers.

Could sending in copies of his passport again, with this piece of paper, be enough to get us past this RFE?

It's silly because how could we get this far, and how could he have come back and forth so many times, if he was subject to this rule?

Do we need to prove that his job at camp was in no way funded by the government?

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH for any help regarding this!!! We have till May 23, 2012 to reply to the USCIS.

are you completely sure the UK is not subject to the 2 year rule?? Like the previous post said, the fact that he came and went many times says nothing.. that's the first thing you need to find out!

I went thru the same hell over a month ago, I got a RFE for the same reason at my AOS interview last month. The IO could not match up the dates I was here on my J1 visa and since I had only the visa for the first year she could not confirm that I was here 'legally' on my second year (I didn't have the DS2019) so she started counting months of overstay and also telling me about the 2year home residence requirement(even though I know mexico is not and my visa says not subject!).. it was just a complete nightmare, you would think they have all that information in their system right? but she says that Immigration don't share information with DoS, which is ridiculous! Anyways, we walked out the interview with a RFE but thank Goodness the IO was able to figure it out and approved us a couple days later.

I have really no good advice to give you as I was as stuck as you are right now...... The only thing that the IO told me is that I needed to find the DS2019 since its where it says if you are subject to the 2year HRR or not. I also tried contacting Department of state since I did not have the ds2019 anymore but unfortunately they were not very helpful, you could try that too though. I wish you very good luck and hopefully your husband will be able to find the other documents from every year!!

Thanks, the thing that concerns me most is that she opened it (ages ago tho) with her SSN, I don't know whether the IO can run a SSN check on her and discover it then ask her, it's like checking on her "integrity".

You mind if I ask what's your reason?

They won't. They just want to see financial co-mingling (in this case, bank statements with both of your names on it and the activity too perhaps). Doesn't really matter who originally opened the account or anything else than that. Don't forget to bring some other documents as well, like health insurance, joint leases, car insurance, etc etc.

Our reason was that we just bought a house and we are remodeling it, my husband (as the USC with obviously better income) is paying for everything and I am saving for school. The IO perfectly understood.

if you have a joint bank account as well, its perfectly normal for both of you to have your own. Its not necessary to tell the IO if you are not asked.

I had my interview over a month ago and we did not have any joint account, we explained our reason and had no problems. You having a joint one should have no problems at all!! Good luck!

Same. The A number is how they identify you and it does not change, you will use that same number thru all the immigration process.

I brought mine too along with a prescription, even though in mexico we dont need prescription to get them, I know here we do so I did not want to risk it. I have no idea if they checked my luggage or not but I had no problem whatsoever.

After 4 trips to the Department of Motor Vehicles my wife finally got her drivers license. So proud of her! From bicycles and Motos to a SUV it has to be a big change.

Congrats! 4 trips isn't too bad, I got my DL after about (literally) 10 trips to the DMV and I am not even done with them yet... :S

I can't tell what is your concern, but mine is that NO ONE ever falls victim and pays with their entire future life for any errors

committed that could have been avoided.

Hiring a good immigration attorney could be indispensable and save ones' future and future of the loved ones, all at the cost of

couple thousands of dollars that worth nothing in comparison to what might be at stakes.

I am NO lawyer, have absolutely NO knowledge of US Immigration Laws AND was able to AOS myself very easily as many others here have done. I did not need an attorney to ''save my future and my loved ones for a couple thousands''...

But don't get me wrong, I have nothing against attorneys, Would I ever hire one? Maybe, if I had a very hard case I would, otherwise I would not.

In the OP's case, seems like their case is pretty simple and if they are willing and have the time to fill out the forms themselves I don't see why they would need to hire a lawyer and waste their money.

A lawyer does not make the process go any faster, they have no influence over USCIS. If your case is pretty simple as it seems to be for what your saying I would advice you to save your money and do it yourself. Good luck!

Edit: Also VJ has A LOT of very helpful information, not to mention all the helpful people here in case you have any doubts. No need to pay anyone else!

I think the DHL fee is included in the payment he already made or something like that, I really don't remember very well but the point is that he does NOT have to pay anything else. He just need to wait until they update the website and go pick it up! Congrats on the approval!

It does have to be original but your letter is not even a month old, that should be totally fine. Usually documents have to be less than 6 months old so ur fine!!

Banks usually shorten either middle names or like in your case when someone has 2 last names specially if they are long.

All my credit/debit cards only have my middle name Initial even though I have given my full name when I signed up, its just easier I guess. Anyways... I don't see why USCIS would care about your wife's maiden name in the card. They actually want to see her using her MARRIED name, which is the one in the card, isn't it? So that should not be a problem at all.

JUST GOT AN EMAIL AND TEXT FOR GC PRODUCTION FROM CSC Really happy to be finally free.

Good luck to everyone who's still waiting....... I am sure each one of us would be free from his hell soon.

congrats!

You are a LPR, you don't need any other visa to go to PR and come back.

I would suggest at least 3, one day for the medical, one for Biometrics and the Interview day. The rest depends wether u will be waiting for the visa in Juarez or not. If you won't, you can leave as soon as your done with the interview. If u decide to wait for the visa its hard to tell how many days it will take. In my case it took like a week to arrive so I spent about 10 days total in Juarez, which was no fun at all!. Good luck!

Not sure if I 'LOVE' these, but definitely like them....

- (most) Costumer service

- Post Office, slow Mexican mail sucks!

- Shopping!

- Amazon

- I like how (most) people care A LOT about their pets too.

- Colorado weather and the outdoors! where I live in Mexico is darn hot.

- friendly people

Wish I could say I like mexican food better here but can't beat the real real mexican Although I like that I am able to find some mexican ingredients/spices here.

That part of the form is supposed to be NUMBERS in the boxes. Not letters. Your lawyer is screwing stuff up for you.

Exactly!! How did he come up with R as an answer? What is the R supposed to mean? IT's kinda stupid he has screwed it up twice as the instructions are pretty clear. If I were you I would get rid of him/her and would do it myself, no need for a lawyer when this site is also extremely helpful!

Hi ladies and gents!

I'm currently in the process of arranging my AOS (from K1) application.

I'm stuck at the copy of NOA2.

My fiance misplaced it and we don't have any copies of it.

Is it absolutely necessary to send in a copy of the NOA2 with the AOS application?

Is there any document we can substitute for it?

Thanks for any response!

If you have read the instructions, NOA2 is one of the required documents you need to send to adjust status.

If you misplaced it you can file an I-824 to receive a duplicate copy via mail but I have heard it costs about 400 dlls so you might want to dig in your entire house to make sure you definitely don't have it anymore. Good luck!

Why would companies incur costs why they can get tons of people locally at no additional cost (cost of sponsoring for H-1B visa - typically 4-digit kind of number) ? That's why you are hitting the wall and you attitude is somewhat (sorry) - naive.

And by the way - if you entered on a VWP or B1/B2, once you overstay, you can forget about any kind of work visa. Only path for you seems to be marriage.

Exactly! For companies to hire foreign people AND sponsor their visas can cost them thousands of dlls $$$, thing that obviously no one would like to do having so many IT's here, specially since that profession has become very popular lately and I am sure there's lots of them out there looking for a job. And again, you must be either very qualified or very lucky to find a company that would sponsor you.

Why you don't get married? Right here, right now! If you did not come to the US with intentions to marry, there will be no problem for you if you marry now and adjust status.

Noooo, you were right to begin with!

It states in the instructions for CDJ. This is why these type of questions need to be asked in the regional forums. All consulates have different instructions and procedures for the interviews.

DO NOT SIGN THE DS-156! He needs 2 copies, and he needs to sign in front of the CO when asked to sign it. They need to witness his signature.

From the instructions, very clear:: http://photos.state.gov/libraries/ciudadjuarez/231771/PDFs/K1%20PACKET%20COMPLETE%20_July2011%20UPDATES_.pdf

"FIRST: FILL IN FORM DS-260 AND TWO COPIES OF FORM DS-156 Non Immigrant Visa Application. These forms will have to be filled in online, print two copies of the DS-156 and the DS-260 confirmation page. DS-156 should be signed by the applicant on the appointment day."

Your right! I was right! So confusing... alright, I take back my previous post

the online DS-156 says to sign in advance... it is the DS-156K that gets signed at the interview??????

edit... or is that embassy specific??

You got me thinking and your actually right.

I apologize, I guess its been a while since I filed

OP: The DS156 can actually be signed in advance. The DS156 is the one that must be signed in front of the IO at the interview. My bad!