gigi_a

I see a lot of responses on this board from Canadians and Brits, but I imagine it was much easier for them to find work, given English is their first language.

My fiance is from Mexico and speaks English, although obviously he is a non-native speaker so sometimes he can't think of the right word or makes grammatical mistakes, more evident in his writing than speaking. He is well educated and has good job experience in his home country, but is worried that he won't be able to find a good job here because English isn't his first language and may not be "up to par" for writing business reports etc. We are hoping he can find a professional job on a similar level to what he does in his home country (sales analyst/manager). He would love to work in sales but is afraid since speaking is a huge part of the job and not sure how kindly clients would react to someone who doesn't speak the language perfectly.

Any stories from those who didn't speak English like a native and got a good job would be very motivating to hear!

ETA: Filipinos can respond although it seems most of them on here have amazing English and write it very well so I don't know if it is the same, is English the language school is taught in there?

I guess I am not the best to answer this question since I went to University in the US; however, I went thru the same rough patch of insecurity when I first started school. I only started learning English in high school.

You will notice with time that his English will improve dramatically with everyday use. I suggest he get a hold of a SAT dictionary and start looking over and studying some words(tremendous help for me) while he is still in Mexico. With his vocabulary expanding and his comprehension ability improving he will feel more confident. For me it was mostly shyness that I would sound awkward. I suspect that is the case with him too, since you said he knows English. Shyness will go away within the first month.

As far as the job is concerned - write a good resume and emphasize the fact that he is bilingual. Not a guarantee he will get a job (crappy economy) but will help.

One of the problems I see here in this case is the age difference a cruise romance. She is what 13 years older, on disability and a young Romanian man declares his love and wants to marry her. Sorry to be negative but I read Green card all over this.

I somewhat agree with this. Not in every case though age difference is a problem. My husbands is old enough to be my father, but we still got approved yesterday.

Of course, given their circumstances (cruise ship sailor,older woman,hasty marriage) may be this will be a larger red flag.

Even though my husband is the older one (somehow the stigma is not so big with the man being older),we met at worked, had been relationship in a relationship for a few yrs, lived together and later bought a house together while still not married, the interviewer still asked him if he was concerned that I married him just to stay in the States.

P.S I was not far away time-wise from applying for a work based GC too.

Tough situation and bad circumstances.

I feel certain from what I've read that he just can't legally get a job and that even if he could the income doesn't count towards HER ability to meet the minimum income levels.

Actually the income of the foreign spouse can be counted towards the 125% poverty guideline IF it can reasonably expected that the foreign spouse will be receiving that income from the same employment. As well, normally, illegal employment if forgiven when dealing with a marriage based immigration I WOULDN'T advice that though given the circumstances.

They may send you a NOAD which basically rejects the form i-130 and you would have to fill out and send corrected. At least this is what i was told when I called the service # with a similar issue.

I am sure someone with more experience with this will add to my answer.

Good luck

My wife completed her biometrics appointment on Monday. How long generally until we see some sort of action on our case? Mainly we are wiating for her EAD. One income is ROUGH! She is anxious to be able to work and make some money. Can anyone give me an idea of how long until the EAD gets approved?

I did my biometrics on 6/10 and still have not received my EAD. May be because I did a walk in. My actual appointment was scheduled for 6/28. However, on all timelines I have seen as of lately, people receive an approval on EAD within a couple days of biometrics. I also called the service # to check on progress and was told that my application is in normal processing timelines and to call back if I have not heard anything within 75 days of my priority date.

Hang in there and Good luck :}

I really feel bad for the people who are doing their I-130 from their home countries. It is a fortune to send documents with courier services to the US. and all I needed from my home county is 1 page :{

P.S I am already in the US, so we did a concurrent filing of I130, I485 and my interview is in Pittsburgh, PA. Do I still have to go though an Embassy? Those places are scary. When I was applying for my student visa ( like 100 yrs ago lol) I had to do an interview there and I was mortified.

Some embassies will give a little wiggle room, but you can't depend on it. I had a friend who recently went thru Costa Rica, with a situation very similar to yours. His wife did not have her original birth certificate, but after some persuasion, they accepted the copy. One thing for sure, it's a risk they put everything on hold.

I guess I am going to have to trust the DHL international shipping service that the letter with my birth certificate gets here on time (7/6/2011 according to their estimations).

When I was gathering my application, I submitted a front and back copy of my birth certificate (like I was required), however, that is all I have ever had on me - a copy,scanned and saved to my email (i never had the need/desire to have my original with me since I have my Bulgarian passport with visa and I-94, stamps, etc). I received my interview appointment yesterday and I am supposed to bring my birth certificate. I have copies of the thing, my grandma has the original, and a friend of mine will get it and send to me via DHL so I have it. I am hoping it will get here on time for the interview on 7/27/2011 (a month from now).

Question: If the original birth certificate doesn't get here withing that month, how big of a deal is that? Should I try to reschedule the interview in other words?

I know that for my husband I can take his birth certificate or his US passport (which I will probably be taking it all - hospital and court birth certificate and his passport)

But for myself, I suppose, I must bring both my birth certificate (original and not a copy) and passport (in my case passports), right?

Thank you for your answers :}

Hello everyone,

Currently I am on F-1 status(OPT). I got married with my GF who is U.S. Citizen. Now she is petitioning for me. We filled out most of our documents. I have couple of questions for I-485.

1. Who's information will be on part 1 of i-485

2. Which option should we select for part 2.

If anyone can shed us some light would really appreciate. Thanks in advance.

You, the alien, are filing form i485 to adjust your status, so part 1 contains your info.

Part 2 - select a. an immigrant petition giving an immediately available immigrant visa number.

Good luck

Hello All

okay so here is our situation:

My Husband and I were dumb and did not do our research. I am Canadian and was engaged to my Husband who is a US citizen (Born here) . Proving our relationship will not be a problem at all. anyway he bought me a surprise ticket when I was visiting New York to come see him in Michigan, and we decided to just get married (I am a ceremony freak who tends to get scared of big ceremonies so we thought this was perfect as it will not be a big "production" )

reading all of the info here I am realizing we did this the wrong way and I am beating myself up for it as I guess I am scared now as now I already gave notice to my landlord , quit my job and in essence screwed myself for going back to Canada, thinking we could just do everything here.

I am just wondering what we should do here? I did NOT enter with the intent to get married,I was actually trying to help out my sister with her knew school , but we did know eventually we were going to get married being engaged and all. I know I am dumb for not researching but they told us nothing when we got the marriage licence nor when they married us. I should have looked all this up beforehand and I am really kicking myself and scared to get into trouble for not doing this the right way.

Anyhow thank you for any advice you have and I wish you all well with your own journey!

Don't worry. Not that big of a deal.

You are legally married and have not filed a K1 from what i understand, correct?

If that is the case. Return to Canada, if you are not there already and apply for CR1. The process is supposed to take around 5 months but could be 6-8 or so from what I have seen. There are detailed descriptions on this site (guides up top) as to how to begin the process. Look through it and come back at us with more specific questions.

I am the petitioner.I have a question about form I-864 Part 2 (Information on the principal immigrant) in the mailing address part

Here do I need to give my current address(USA Address).

or I need to give my spouse's (Beneficiary) address (India Address)?

This is the mailing address for your spouse. So if she is in India that is what you should put.

Good luck

Anxious as always, i was nitpicking at my application yesterday.

Question 1: Form G325A-Any of that a serious problem that could get me in trouble:

1. I think I had forgotten (not sure if I hand-wrote it later or not) to write my name using my native alphabet.

2. I was in the process of moving into a new apartment in January 2009 and that is the date I put in. I went to check the place out twice and did some cleaning/ painting in January but I officially moved in at the beginning of Feb (that is when my 1 and last month’s rent check cleared).

3. I listed my job history since 2007. Well, being paranoid as I am, I started counting on my fingers last night (always the safe route to take with math lol)and came to the conclusion that maybe I should have included 2006 as well.

I called the help line to ask them what I can do to add/ correct those issues and the lady told me there isn't a way I can do so, unless they deny my form and ask for a new one, which was unlikely since it has been at the NBC for a month, or send a RFE.

Neither of those has happened. In fact I just got my date for the interview.

Question 2- what should I do??

Bring it up and point those issues out at the interview and let them know??

Wait and see if they are going to ask me??

My thing is, I do not want to be denied or my GC taken away later for something that I overlooked or something they might consider as me concealing my work history in the US.

Yes, if you are a concurrent I-130/I-485 filer, both the I-130 and the I-485 will be decided at the interview.

I see :} Thank you

Just wondering,

Has anyone received their interview appointment (i485 touch and a email with interview date) before I130 has been approved or even touched since they received it?

Somewhere along the line we seem to have lost my fiance's vaccination record from his medical exams in Malawi (if you could even call it a vaccination record - it didn't seem to have all of the vaccines on it anyway). We emailed the doctor/hospital to see if we could somehow get a copy of the records. We got a response back from the doctor that he is currently in the US and doesn't have access to the records and gave us a list of the vaccines 'that he recalls' giving. Would this be sufficient information to give to a civil surgeon here for a I693 (I'm seriously doubting it). I also doubt that the hospital in Malawi will fax us any kind of record, and if they mailed it it would take several months (if it ever even arrived). Does this mean he will probably have to get the entire vaccine series over again?

Can't vouch for every civil surgeon but mine took the copy of my medical report my doctor signed 7 yrs ago in order for me to come to college in the US. So I would say, if you can get your doctor to send you a signed copy of those vaccinations, that is a good thing to bring with you to a civil surgeon. Vaccinations and the exam here in the US are very expensive. I had most of them luckily, but for a booster, chicken pox and the syphilis test, as well as the tuberculin test it was $408.5. So I would say try to get whatever evidence you can that you actually had that stuff done. Anything might help - be it a paper from the doctor stating he gave you such and such or any kind of record from the hospital or his office.

PS the blood test to check if you have received vaccines is about as expensive as the vaccine itself.

Good luck

No greencard yet. Still no interview in San Antonio for our I-485. They are reviewing our file,

we have called and called. That is why I am renewing.

Did you say you paid $1010???

My fee was $1070.

Hello everyone!! so me and my australian fiancee have been working on packet 3 so that we can get the interview underway, but for some reason when completeing the DS-156 (online form) when we click on continue, the form does not show all of the wording. It shows what we have typed in, but does not display any of the wording that is suppose to be on the form. I have already printed this form up once, without his info in the empty spots and it did jus fine.but now when he tries to do it, it doesnt work. it is no longer working for me either. has anyone else been having this problem? if so, how did you fix it? any information is helpful...

(p.s. all computers we have used are updated in adobe)

That happened to me before. Instead of using the PDF format it opened by default with, I used Adobe Reader and it worked.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!

(p.s. all computers we have used are updated in adobe)

Oh Adobe did not work for you?!?

i keep seeing on peoples timelines etc that there case in between NOA1 and NOA2 has been 'touched' does this mean the USCIS has handled or done something with the case? im interested as to how they found out, id like to find out mine has been 'touched' but dont no where or how to, i am registered for updates on there website, sadly nothing yet, an so the wait goes on

Set up an online account using your case #. Then on the main page there is a table which lists all your cases. The 5th column in that table says "Last Updated". This is what touched means. Any time someone so much as looks at your case they have to scan the bar code on it and that is how you know that someone has looked/done something to your case.

Good luck

The doctor's office i went to provided all forms. I did my medical in the US.

Your best bet - call the doctor's office you are planing to visit and ask. That is what i did when i was scheduling the appointment.

Good luck

I have heard of being approved without an interview, if case is sent to CSC, but not of a local office approving without asking you to come in to an interview. I really hope that would be the case though.

Good luck.

Two questions:

I have a biometric appointment for July 5 in Albany, what do I need for a walk in?

There is a closer center just over the border in Vermont, could I do a walk-in there with an albany letter?

I did a walk in a couple weeks ago. All you need to walk in is a form of photo ID and your appointment letter. I took my drivers license and my appointment letter. The people were very courteous and it went by quick. I did not have to wait at all.

As to walking in at a different application support center, not too sure. I read a post where someone had done that successfully. I will try to find it and forward a link, so you can check it out.

Good luck :}

PS http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/141258-can-you-go-to-a-different-office-location-for-the-biometric-appointment/

After reading the requirements of Sponsorship again, and reading other posts on similar topics:

The sponsor is not required to financially support you (as in give you money for food, rent, etc. ), but may be responsible for the reimbursement of any means tested public benefits which the immigrant receives. That is for 40 financial quarters (10 yrs) time.

Good luck

@jay-kay : he visited me here in the philippines last february 2011, he is planning to pass his passport(with stamps on it), boarding pass. will this be enough as evidence? we have pictures together, but there's no date on it. or we could just put the date at the back of the picture?

write the date on the back of the picture. What you can also do is print multiple pictures on a sheet (say 4) and date them on the bottom of each picture. Also, what you might want to look into, if you used a digital camera, is the time-stamp settings on it. On my camera the time-stamp (the date and time of the pictures) is suppressed, but if you turn it on it would appear even in old pictures which were taken when the option was suppressed.

Good luck.

Hi every one.

I was advice NOT to leave anything blank on the G-325a and in the I-129F.

Is it Ok to use N/A and NONE on the same form?

What do you all advice is best of the two to use to avoid confusion?

Depends on what your answering.

Example- you or spouse have not been married before or do not have any children- put None under the previous spouse/children names section

It says in the instructions to not write N/A is None is appropriate. N/A means not applicable and there are very few things on there that could be N/A.

Need more info to answer more specifically.

Good luck

Hello I am currently waiting to get my EAD card in the mail as it was approved April 15th. I am an F1 student who has graduated and applied for post completion OPT. I got married to my USC husband in March 2011. My question is this: If I begin work on my OPT and then file for AOS will my OPT be voided and render me unable to work? For those of you who have been in similar situations with the OPT: were you able to continue working on your OPT until your AOS had been processed and you received your new EAD document? What is the best thing to do in my situation? When should I file for AOS and how do I start? Thanks in advance!

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You are fine working on your OPT. I would file the I765 (as a c9 case) with the I130 though just in case your GC processing is not done before OPT expires. Good luck :}