Joe&Diane

I heard Marc Ellis is good. You should contact him if you think you need it. http://www.marcellislaw.com/

I heard about him reading through VJ. So I thought he will get things done for me. And what happened? I went through hell with Marc Ellis and his co partner, so I would NEVER recommend him. I lost $500 + $100 consulation fee with that office after I dropped him to represent me. He charged $2,000 and $600 was down payment. When I saw his name on a discussion here, I just have to raise my opinion and write my own experience. Oh btw, I saw 5 couple in his office during my time there and they were not treated well. That should have send a red flag for me.

I got married in VN and about to send out my I-130 form and packet. Do I send 1 G325A form of myself and 1 of my wife? I think it's the new version but i'm not sure and want to ask first. I'm hoping that it's 1 page because i just got back and my wife only signed 1 page because of my incompetent lawyer said only 1 page for each person. that's why i want to come here to get more information. And do I need to send form I - 485 also? I read on here that some people got blue slips for not submitting a list of relatives of the beneficiary. however, hard to believe but my wife doesn't have any close relatives that she contact in the US. i don't know how else to prove it other than ask my wife's parents to submit an affidavit stating so.

in the instructions it states that if i live in the state of TX then i should send the packet to:

USCIS

P.O. BOX 804616

CHICAGO, IL 60680-4107

my lawyer says to send it to:

USCIS Lockbox

ATTN: SAI - 130

131 South Dearborn - 3rd Floor

Chicago, IL 60603-5517

what do you all think? please advice and thanks in advance.

If you are going to be in HCM, VN in August 2009, please provide your dates of travel...maybe we can meet??

I'll be there August 18 - September 9th...Quan 12...

Wish I can go sooner, but i'm aiming around Nov 16 - Dec 28. if anyone is going to HCM around that date let me know, can meet for drinks.

with 4 word names, before filling 129k form i just want to make sure... her FIRST = Dung, MIDDLE = Thi Ngoc, LAST = Tran. Can i just put her FIRST = Ngoc , MIDDLE = Thi, LAST = Tran ?

As you all know, the letter D in vietnamese is pronounce like a Z in english. however i'm afraid once she's in the US people will have a hard time pronouncing her name. She will be called "Dung" and ladies and gentleman that's animal manure. i really hate the thought of my lovely fiance's name being butchered. Can i omit her first name DUNG to her middle name NGOC? and make sure i put DUNG as previous name used? please any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

it's great that this subject came up because I just have a friend in a similar situation,so since I'm a member I can ask VJ members who might help him with his dilemna. My buddy is an US citizen,he met and fell in love with a vietnamese citizen but she applied for a student visa to study in Australia and was granted,so she's been living there for a few months now.He wants to know if he can petition K-1 visa while she has a student visa in Australia.does she have to come back to vietnam for police certificate or can she ask a family member to obtain it for her? she would have to come back to vn for all the paperwork and interviews?can she visit him in the States with a studen visa?he will appreciate any comments or advice.

Ken,

gosh sounds very very tempting. wish i can go with you but my wife and i are planning to go there around nov - dec. maybe next year huh? anyhow, good luck and have fun!

make sure you get a copy of her medical examination and shot records. if not, you will have alot of headaches later on. it's good for 1 year once she gets here. my wife's physician didn't give her anything after her physical exam and shots in bangkok. they send the results to uscis. so my wife and i assumed everything will go smoothly. but when she arrived here and we applied for her green card, you have to submit the i-693a and we didn't have record. so she had to contact the doctor who was responsible for her medical exam and shots in bangkok. they finally sent it to us. but by the time we sent her AOS application, her physical exam and shots is about 1 yrs old. so we had to get another exam and shots here. but luckily we had to pay only for the physical exam. for the shots, we went to a county public clinic and they gave them to her for FREE! i'm posting this to hopefully help you as well as others.

AJ

my heart goes out to ya. i bought plane tickets to visit her parents. i was granted days off from work. then we got an AOS interview date in the mail. we were happy but had to chang travel plans, changed dates on tickets and with my employer. everything seem great until we got another letter from uscis stating that her interview is cancelled due to some circumstances!!! great! she has a biometric appointment this coming saturday. what should we do??

after i post some comments, i received a call (i'm currently at work) from the wife and told me she got a letter from uscis again stating that they have to cancel her AOS interview due to some circumstances!!! what the heck does that mean? we are going to get her biometrics done this saturday. then what?? this experience has given us much stress. i'm going home and drink a 6 pack! anyone experienced the same problem?

i posted this same incident on other threads. so here it is again....i'm glad we are not the only one that this happened to. my wife received her AOS interview letter 1 week before her biometrics appointment. so we are heading to her biometrics appointment this saturday. and her interview appointment will be in 2 weeks. good luck!

AJ

forgot to mention...what was strange to us was not because of the biometrics appointment being on a Saturday, but the weird part was that we received an interview letter before the biometrics. ???

my wife is having hers done this coming Saturday. good luck to ya!

our AOS interview is on Feb 16. so i will let you know about our experience. something stranged happened to us. we received our interview letter before the biometrics appoitment notification. isn't that strange? did that happen to you? and did you have to get another physical exam and vaccinations done? my wife had it done on jan 2006 in Thailand, but on the AOS letter it states that we have to bring a sealed envelope of her exam and vaccinations if we haven't done so. if it's over 1 year old, does she have to get another physical exam. and vaccinations? don't want to spend more money than i have to. i think we will have to spend about $135 at Pro Med and that is not including vaccinations. any advice is appreciated.

AJ

we received NOA for an AOS interview. on the "MUST BRING" list it includes **a completed medical examination (Form I-693a) and vaccination supplement in a SEALED envelope (unless already submitted). when we applied for her AOS we submitted my wife's medical examination and vaccination records from Thailand. so my question is, does she need to go to a civil surgeon just in case? any advice would help. thanks!

thanks sjoefloi !

roi aggie,

i live in tx and there is no stamp on her ss card. i mentioned that i asked the ss clerk while he was preparing for her ss #, that if she's able to work and he assured me that she can. this is even before she received the card!! we are both very naive and ignorant about all of this. and we both can't help that her old employer didn't know about the situation either. i thought this site is a great place for info and advices not for someone like you to doubt me and place blame when i have no idea...

and i thought you can file for AOS after the I-94 expires, as long as you get marry within the 3 months before the I-94 expires??!!

my wife and i are filling out AOS forms and what i'm concern about is that my wife worked after her I-94 expiration date. the story is.. my wife came here on a K-1 visa on 4/11/06 and her I-94 expires on 7/11/06. we got married, got her SS # and card. at the ss office i asked the worker there if my wife is able to work after receiving the ss card. he said yes she's able to work. he reassured us that everything will be ok. so she looked for a job and finally got one on aug 03 (after her I-94 expiration date). but she only work there only 1 week and quit. afterwards i looked at her ss card more carefully and noticed on it that it says "valid for work only with dhs authorization". i panicked. was that illegal what she did? is this going to affect her applying for AOS? what should i put on her G-325A on the job listing section? should i even report it? any advice will be greatly appreciated. thanks!

i'm trying the best i can to show residence prove by copying phone bills, cable, joint bank accounts. but one thing i'm concerned about is that we got married at the JP and didn't have anyone there to take photos for us. but we got someone to take a photo of us in front of our apartment before heading to the court to get marry. do you all think that's sufficient?

AJ

greatly appreciate all of the replies!! this is why i love VJ!

Anya,

thanks for your reply. i have many questions concerning applying for AOS. and since my fiance is khon thai, is there anyway we can exchange email address so my fiance can talk to you to cut me (middle man) out? i just think it's easier for her to talk to you. but if not, i understand...i'll just have to keep coming to this wonderful VJ...

my fiance came here on a k1 visa and we are about to get marry. then we are going to apply for her SS card. next in line is AOS. to save money and we are not hurting financially, does my fiance must have a EAD? if not, will that hurt processing the AOS? and 1 more question when i do claim my wife on my tax and how? sorry for the crazy questions.

my fiance had the same problem. the hospital in bangkok sent 2 forms DS-3025 (vaccinations) and DS-3026 (medical exam) to the embassy and told her not to open it. after the k1 interview in bangkok they kept the forms so she didn't think to ask for copies. now she doesn't have any of it for me to apply for AOS. so we had to call the hospital in bangkok who performed her vaccinations and medical exam to obtain the 2 forms. they were very understanding and were willing to help us. they asked if they should either email them to us or mail it. i rather have them mail them to me. after i get them i'm gonna see which vaccinations that she received there and if she has all that's required for the !-693 then i'm just going to send the DS-3025 with the AOS application and hope we get approved. but if not i would have to see a civil surgeon or a public health place here to see if they can help me with the I-693A. hope our experience will give you some reassurance. good luck! i know we need it.

AJ

i'm having this major headache concerning my fiance's I693-A. recently i posted my concerns on how i can obtain my fiance's ds-3025 (vaccination) and ds-3026 (medical exam), since the thai embassy kept it after her k1 interview. i contacted the hospital where she had her shots and medical exam done and they were willing to email or mail it to me here in the states. so for a faster and more convenient delivery of these important documents should i confirm them to email them to me and i can print them out to take it to a civil surgeon here in town? or should i ask the hospital to mail them to me, which might take forever (i'm very skeptical about everything at this point). but they will send me the copies of those documents. if in fact i get the DS-3025 from the hospital but realize that they didn't give my fiance all the vaccinations that are required for the I-693A, will the civil surgeon charge me for the remaining shots? need some advice, please help!!

i have the same complaints!! i'm going through the same dilemna with the medical I-693A thing. my fiance just had hers done 2 months ago before the K1 interview in thailand. now i'm trying to figure out how to obtain copies of the shots and medical exam that they gave her there.

my fiance said she received only 2 shots from the nurse and a full medical exam. the hospital gave her a sealed envelope with her x-ray inside and told her not to open. the us embassy also informed her that if she opened it, the K1 case will be dismissed! so she couldn't have a copy of her medical exam and shot records. so now i think the only thing for me, like you suggest is to make some phone calls to the same hospital in bangkok and request a copy of those shot records and what they perform as far as the medical exam on her. i called almost all of the offices of civil surgeons in town, they all told me that my fiance has to go through another medical exam and all of the shots. they all quoted me $200-$350!!! that's insane.

Thanks Brent and Ty! my dilemna now is the I-693A. my fiance had her medical exam and shots done in bangkok in feb '06. how do i obtain the results to file for the I-485?? they kept everything there. now i have to pay $150-$350 here for the civil surgeon to perform the shots and a medical exam!! what should i do?