Timeshifter

Hi everyone,
My wife and I (USC) had a successful green card interview in Boston, MA today. It was very relaxed, and the interviewer asked some fair, straightforward questions about our personal histories, how we met, and evidence of a bona fide marriage. We were interviewed sequentially and separately, with the USC going first. I was actually disappointed that I hardly got to bring out any evidence. If there are no special circumstances and you have some time to be careful about paperwork, I think a lawyer is not needed for this process, as I handled all of the paperwork myself, and I'm glad to have the extra $1500. As an aside, my wife tried twice to do walk-in biometrics, but she was turned away twice, so we just stuck with the original appointment.
I want to thank all of you who offered advice a few months ago when we were thinking about what the best application route would be. This definitely was the safest and fastest route, with approval in less than 3 months after I mailed out the packet. I've updated our timeline, and we expect the green card to come in the mail sometime in the next few weeks.
To help assist others along this path, I'd like to share my own personal checklist/cover letters that I used, as I felt that this was the most difficult part of the process. My wife applied for employment authorization, but not for advance parole. I used removable stick tabs to label each set of forms, which I thought made things more organized. I didn't do anything else, such as ACCO fasteners.
Primary cover letter said that forms for the following would be enclosed:
Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative
Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status
Form G-1145, E-Notification of Application/Petition Acceptance
I-130 packet:
- Check payable to U.S. Department of Homeland of Security for $420 filing fee
- Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative
- Copy of all the pages in the passport for U.S. citizen and petitioner
- Copy of all the pages in the passport for beneficiary
- Copy of certified marriage certificate
- Form G-325A, biographic information, for U.S. citizen and petitioner
- Passport-style color photo of U.S. citizen and petitioner
- Form G-325A, biographic information, for beneficiary
- Passport-style color photo of beneficiary
- Evidence in support of a bona fide marriage:
- Letter from bank & bank account query confirming co-mingling of finances in the form of a joint account
- Wife and beneficiary listed as beneficiary of the 401K of U.S. citizen and petitioner
- Photos (6 photos) from relationship of beneficiary and U.S. citizen/petitioner, with dates of photos taken and descriptions of event and locations written on the back of photos
I-485 packet:
- Check payable to U.S. Department of Homeland of Security for $1070 ($985 I-485 filing fee + $85 biometric fee)
- Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status
- Copy of all the pages in the passport for beneficiary
- Copies of the front and back of the valid I-94 within the passport
- Copy of certified translated and notarized birth certificate of beneficiary, with original copy included behind translated copy
- Copy of certified marriage certificate
- Form G-325A, biographic information, for beneficiary
- Four passport-style color photos of beneficiary to be used for forms I-485 and I-765
- Sealed envelope containing form I-693, Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record
- Form I-864, Affidavit of Support
- Copy of 2010 Federal Tax Return for U.S. citizen and petitioner
- Two letters from employer of U.S. citizen and petitioner documenting employment, this year’s salary, and next year’s salary
- Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization -- no additional filing fee is being submitted since it is being filed concurrently with form I-485
I hope this helps!

Both K-1 and CR-1 can be started while the foreign spouse/fiance is in the US. The difference is that with AOS, she can stay here throughout the whole thing until she gets her greencard. With the other two options, she has to leave when her current authorized stay ends, and wait out the rest of the process abroad.
Out of those two options, personally I always think CR-1 is better. It is much cheaper than K-1, and because it does not involve the AOS part, once she gets the CR-1 visa and enters the US with the visa, she immediately becomes a permanent resident. With K-1, she is issued the K-1 fiance visa, enters, then must marry you within 90 days, and then still has to go through the AOS process to actually become a permanent resident and be allowed to work, for example.
I honestly think easiest would be to push back her plans to go to Taiwan and just get this out of the way. Depending on how fast you can get married and get all the necessary paperwork together, she could have the AP that allows her to travel by end of April/early May. She shouldn't plan any long trips abroad though until she has the GC, because the interview appointment cannot be moved or re-scheduled for anything short of a life-and-death emergency situation, so she would have to come back for that. Usually the whole AOS process takes between 4-6 months - 3 months sounds very fast to me, I've rarely seen anyone go through the whole process in that short of a time period.
If you manage to file by mid-February, if everything goes smoothly she could have the greencard by July, and be free to work, study and travel as she pleases.

K-1 or CR-1 is a proper way for fiance/ spouse of USC, if the spouse is oversea. There is chance she will not pass the interview there. By the way, K-1/ CR-1 she will not be able to re-entry to the US until she has the visa on hand. She is in the US right now, so AOS here is way more convenient. But pay some attention to the time frame, because if she gets marriage to close to her graduation, it might cause red flags at the interview. IMHO, to get married then file concurrently I-130 + I-485 + I-765 + I-131 when she is still in the US is the choice.

1. Apply for Advance Parole then she can leave, it is about 2.5 months to get (assuming you don't have any RFE) so she can come back.
2. No, but she needs Advance Parole to come back.
3. You can write a cover letter to explain your situation, no biggie. You can even expedite the process of AP which an emergency reason.
4. You can definitely do that, but I doubt you can have an interview before 3 months. So again, Advance Parole fit her time-frame.
5. Assuming she got her AP document, yes you can change the interview date.
6. No, she will state it on the AP application I-131 that her trip will be 2 months or so.
Good luck.