Bradinator

Hello everyone!

My wife had her interview Thursday, August 2nd 2012 in the morning and was approved! I wrote a review that can be found at: http://www.visajourney.com/reviews/view-dos-cis-reviews.php?entry=10120 which lists the questions she was asked (very few).

I'm going to share some background information about us in order to perhaps show why she had a relatively easy interview (although apparently it varies wildly at the HCMC consulate.) The two of us met at a University food court we both worked at in August of 2008 (nearly 4 years ago now) and talked to each other as coworkers and were friendly. The next summer 2009 we had a class together and towards the end of the summer we started dating. After nearly a year of dating we decided to move in together and several months later got engaged. We were married in December of 2010 at the county courthouse, with just one of my friends as a witness and she graduated at the same time. She filed for an OPT in order to extend her stay and live in the US for a little while longer, and at this point we had no idea how the immigration progress worked. By March of 2011 we were running out of funds and she couldn't work so she moved back to Vietnam.

By the time August of 2011 rolled around I finally had a job that met the 125% poverty guidelines and was able to file the I-130. In December of 2011 I visited my wife in Vietnam for two weeks and we had a large reception where practically all of her family came to congratulate us on our marriage. In February we received the NOA2 and went through the NVC process. The whole immigration process from filing to interview took almost exactly a year, which is a terribly long time to be away from your loved one, but soon we'll be back together. After reading through these forums I didn't see anything that stood out as a red flag ,except perhaps the small initial wedding we had, which was mostly because we were broke college students. My wife didn't have any relatives in the US and neither of us had previous marriages or any of the other issues that I have seen.

The people on this forum and on this regional forum have been very helpful and I want to add what little I can to those that are going through this confusing process (immigration forms make tax forms seem super simplistic). Thank you all very much!

Hello everyone!

My wife had her interview today, August 2nd, in Vietnam and was approved! Her actual interview time was quite short, only about 5 minutes. She was asked about how we met (we worked together) and where we worked. After that she was approved so now we are just waiting for the courier service to deliver her passport with visa in it and for her to book a flight back to the US.

Everyone here has been very helpful, thanks so much!

Good luck to all!

Thanks everyone! I told my wife she can go to the consulate and ask for a rescheduling and she said she would try after she has her medical exam done.

Hey guys,

I don't know where to put this Thread so please forgive me if I put it in the wrong place...but I need some help

Okay so I am starting a new job next week and I have to fill out a new W4. We applied for AOS but my wife still does not have her Green Card yet. I get paid a yearly salary and will get a W2 at the end of the year. My wife will get a 1099 because she works at a nail salon. Because my wife still does not have her Green Card, she is considered a Non-Resident Alien. I looked at the instructions for the W4 form and it says: "Note. If married, but legally separated, or spouse is a nonresident alien, check the 'Single' box".

I understand that immigration law and tax law are completely different in regards to how taxes are supposed to be reported. The question is do I (US Citizen) have to report my tax withholdings as "Single" on my W4 or do I put "Married" anyways? My biggest concern here is that if I pick wrong, I will have too little tax withheld.

Regarding the resident status of your wife, she may be a resident alien if she meets the substantial presence test. If she has been in the US for 31 days during 2012 and 183 days during the years of 2012, 2011, and 2010 (only counting 1/3 of the days in 2011 and 1/6 of the days in 2010) then she is a resident alien for tax purposes. If she is a resident alien then you can file a tax return.

If you want more tax withheld from your income you can check the box on the form W-4 that says "Married, but withhold at higher single rate" on item 3 of the form. Also, you can put in an additional amount you want withheld from each paycheck on item 6 of the W-4.

I'd suggest researching form 1040 instructions, form W-4, and publication 519 (US Tax Guide for Aliens) for more information.

Hello everyone.

My wife has had her interview date assigned for August 2, 2012 and I'd like to know if we can bump that time up to a closer date. I looked at the HCMC inquiry form and it indicates that interview rescheduling would be for later dates. Has anyone successfully moved their interview date forward without any special reasons (I just want to be back with my wife ASAP)? How would I go about moving the interview to a more favorable date?

Any input is appreciated!

My wife's interview date has finally been assigned, she will have her interview on Thursday, August 2 which seems pretty far away (and took nearly a month to be assigned.) We have been unlucky concerning the length of time of our immigration journey but it will be ending soon I hope! All that's left is for her to get a medical exam, which should be simple since she already lived in the US so I imagine she already has all the necessary vaccinations, and the actual interview which apparently can be very hard in Vietnam.

Good luck to everyone!

Hien,

When I read what you have so far for your essay it does a good job of showing that things can be quite difficult for Vietnamese women that marry US citizens. It seems to me that the point of the essay is to actually discourage these marriages from happening by providing several examples of bad things happening and scarcely mentioning positive outcomes. Assuming that this essay is written to be persuasive (just my take on it) I'd say it's pretty good at arguing the point that coming to the US can be very hard and it can certainly not be the dream that some think it is before they come here. When I read something like this it always makes me curious about the other perspective, but I'd like to think that I'll find that out myself once my wife gets back to the US.

On a side note, don't be surprised at negative feedback on this forum. Many users of this site are in the process of getting their loved ones to the US or have already gotten them to the US.

Just waiting on our interview date to be assigned, but I'm not worrying about the interview too much. I just hope my wife gets a nice short interview not some crazy hard on that the Ho Chi Minh City consulate sometimes has.

Good luck to everyone!

Hey guys, I just received my tax return transcript for 2011 yesterday for the hubby to take to his interview. Can I scan it and send or does he need to have the original paper with him? There's no seals or signatures so I'm thinking a scan would be fine.

Scans of tax transcripts are fine, there's nothing differentiating a scan of it from the original that the IRS sent you.

After being in the NVC phase since mid February and mail issues with both the I-864 and DS-230 packets we finally got our case complete today! I'm excited that everything we sent in was accepted and eagerly awaiting finding out when my wife's interview will be.

Once the NVC schedules the interview with the consulate, will the consulate send out a physical packet (including interview letter and instructions) and mail it to my wife?

Good luck to everyone!

Hi folks,

I received an email from the NVC titled Checklist Cover Letter, stating that our immigration application (DS 230) is missing, though we sent it last friday.

Is it because we sent the I 864 package before the DS 230's and that they haven't received (reviewed) the IV package yet?

Thanks for any input.

Yes, they will send a checklist for your DS-230 if your I-864 packet is sent in and approved before they have received and reviewed the DS-230. If you've already sent in the DS-230 you shouldn't have anything to worry about, they should process it soon and get you a case complete.

Good luck!

Hello Guys!

Im in doubt about the taxes returns:

My co-sponsor, my father in law, he doesn't want to order the transcripts from IRS cos he already have the taxes returns at his house.

I know that if you submit the 1040 forms you will need to send the W2s too, I told him that, but not sure if its enough?

I've read that sometimes NVC ask for attachments and schedules with the 1040 forms, but this things are the W2s? or not?

Im soooo afraid to get a RFE because of that, cos my husband and my we live abroad, very far away from him, so he is gonna do this part by himself...

Who sent the 1040 forms plz, give some help here...

Thanks a lot!

To be safe, I'd send in a duplicate of what was sent to the IRS. It could be argued that the NVC really only cares about things that contribute to your income (first portion of form 1040) and not anything after your total income (none of the before or after AGI deductions), however if your sponsor has a full copy of what he sent at tax time, including W-2s, Form 1099s and additional schedules it would be best to send all of it.

For what it's worth, I submitted my previous year tax return the same way I sent it to the IRS because tax transcripts weren't available yet and had no issues.

Good luck!

After nearly four weeks, our IV packet finally arrived at NVC today. I called the local post office yesterday and they told me to wait one more day and if it hadn't changed status to call again and they would try to contact customs to see if they had the packet. Seems like they know what they were talking about this time. Hopefully next week we will finally get a case complete and we can start waiting to find out when the interview will be. Seeing that the packet was delivered to NVC was the best news I'd had all week.

On an unrelated note, I spoke to an NVC operator yesterday night and asked what would happen after the suggested wait time of 20 business days for review of the packet. They said that the review would be complete and they would be working to schedule an interview with the consulate. That sounded like a load of bunk to me though.

Good luck to all!

Also if you didn't know mailing stuff from Vietnam to the US takes forever, something I already knew before this process (but was still hoping we would get lucky and the IV packet would get sent quickly).

I checked with my wife and she did indeed have a tracking number for the Immigrant Visa packet she sent from Vietnam. I put the tracking number into USPS and it said the following: "Your item has been processed through a sort facility in JFK, VIETNAM at 1:10 pm on April 25, 2012." Is the JFK facility in the US (I imagine so given the name and that it's an airport)? If so it would mean that the packet was delivered to the sort facility a day after it was sent on April 24 and there are no other status updates besides that.

So does anyone know if our packet is just sitting in customs or being sent somewhere or anything else?

Thanks so much!

Can someone please clarify something for me? Do the NVC operators have any way of knowing when a Immigrant Visa package arrives at NVC? As far as I know there is no way for me to track our package that was sent from Vietnam and so when I call the NVC they just tell me to wait 20 business days for processing. Well that's great, but I don't even know if the package has arrived yet, I'd like to know if it's sitting on someone's desk even. After I sent the AoS packet and called like two days after it arrived they told me it had already been approved which I wasn't expecting at all.

Thanks, and good luck to everyone.

I just got my email from the NVC saying the case is complete. Now we have to wait for his interview date.

Congratulations on getting your case completed! Hopefully you get a favorable interview date.

Does the NVC always send out emails when the case has been completed? I think two different operators have told me that the only correspondence they would have via email would be when the interview was scheduled.

Thanks!

Hello everyone!

I've been in the NVC portion of my journey for two and a half months now and I'm about ready to have my wife receive her interview date.

We've sent off everything and the AoS package has been approved now we are just waiting on her DS-230 to be approved, but mail takes forever to get to the US from Vietnam. I wish I had done more research on this site about the NVC process, as this portion is where having things prepared beforehand can save a ton of time (probably at least a month in my case).

Good luck to everyone waiting on NVC, hopefully we don't have to wait much longer!

Looks like you have everything you need there. The full list of documents to be submitted to the NVC can be found at: http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3195.html.

So assuming all the documents you have are up to date and you don't require any of the additional documents on that link (divorce decrees, military records, etc.) you should be good to go.

Good luck!

I'm a US citizen and visited Vietnam on a visa exemption to visit my wife. I was never offered any customs forms entering or leaving the country, and I took over $5,000 out with no issues.

Anyways, that's my anecdotal evidence I'm sure others could give you more advice.

I'll just leave part 7 blank, I was probably being overly worrisome which is easy to do when filling out immigration forms.

Thanks everyone for your advice!

Hello everyone,

I'm filing form I-864 and curious as to whether I should fill out Part 7 (Use of assets to supplement income).

My current annual income is around $4,000 greater than the 125% poverty level which is backed up by a letter of employment and 6 months of pay stubs.

However, I have only had this job for around 10 months and so on my most recent tax return I was a couple thousand dollars below the 125% poverty level. I'm wondering if I should fill out Part 7 and attach bank statements and student loan information showing my net assets, which if added to my 2011 tax return would be over the 125% poverty line.

I have no problem filling out part 7 and providing the necessary evidence, but I wouldn't want to add extraneous information that would delay our case being processed.

Thanks very much for any responses!