Mark and Melyn

hi

yes she can, your sister will be very close to turning 21 if not over 21, so she will see if she can come as a child under 21, if not it will take a very long time

I just sent my N-400 form in to apply for US Citizenship. Once I'm approved I'll send in the I-130 for my mom and dad. By the time my parents arrive my sister will likely be 21, I'd heard that the US will give a little bit of wiggle room for an unmarried child who just turns 21, but I'm not sure how true that is, or how much wiggle room is allowed.

Otherwise, the only hope is with my 18-year-old sister and 13-year-old brother. Thanks for the advice.

hi

you can file for both of them, your mom will take around a year and your sister around 20 or more years

I have a 13-year-old brother and 18-year-old sister as well, can my Mom petition them once she has her green card?

I got my Green Card August 16, 2013, I am going to fill out my paperwork right away to become a US Citizen. Is it possible to petition my Mom and my sister right away? My fear is that my sister turns 21 this January 24th. Thank you for your help!

My new wife had her medical exam for her K-1 Fiancee Visa in June; does she need to do a new medical exam now for her I-485 Change of status?

If you have the MNL case number, I suggest you follow up with the Embassy in Manila. Then have your Fiancee go and pay for the interview at BPI then schedule online afterwards.

My Fiance actually received 2 eligibility letter from the Embassy, 1 of them arrived 1 week after she had schedule the interview the other the following week. It was a surprised cause we were not expecting the eligibility letter.

She got approved today!!

My Fiancee lives in the provinces and so in her case the deliver service came to the main road where she begins to walk towards the mountains and asked where she lives; they said to the people, "please tell her that we will be back tomorrow." and they never came back; I'm sure they threw her NVC letter away. And so as you can imagine I'm really glad that I scheduled her interview online simply using her case number that I received by calling the customer service.

I happened to call the the very day that her case number was assigned; so I scheduled her appointment 16 days later from that date, which happened to be more than enough; had I not received confirmation that her papers had reached Manila I was going to reschedule her appointment, but in our case it was not necessary.

The reason that I mentioned my method of bypassing the NVC letter is that I'm sure many are in my situation where receiving that letter is not fast, and certainly not guaranteed. Doing this saved us 2 or 3 weeks of delay. Doing it online saved at least 1 or 2 more weeks because you don't have to wait for the confirmation letter, instead you are able to just print off the online confirmation and this was accepted at St. Lukes for the medical exam.

I hope this helps others.

How long after the noa2 did you call?

I believe it took about 1 week after the approval in the mail; maybe 10 days tops. You can just give a call each day or two after that period.

She went in at 5am and was #21 in line and got approved today by 10:30!!! Yeah, we are so happy.

See my notes here for http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/367790-secrets-to-scheduling-interview-online/ where I talk about this in more details. I'm glad that we did not wait for the NVC letter; she lives in the provinces and they did not deliver her letter.

Agreed, no reason to go at 4am. My fiance's interview was two weeks ago. She arrived around 6am, and was done by 10:30.

Also, just FYI because I found out by doing it, we had to move our interview date twice because of late paperwork. You are allowed to change your interview date twice, and after that, you'd have to pay again the $350 or so fee. And when we were doing it, interview dates were available within a week, so not a bad strategy to book it, knowing you can easily push the date twice if you need to without any penalty.

I agree that 4am was not needed; she went in at 5am as was #21; by 6am however on her day there were 300; so it seems on her day that 5am made a big difference.

We got approved!!! Melyn went in at 5am and she was #21 in line; by 6am there were over 300; she was approved by 10:30 am. We're so happy!

We scheduled her interview without waiting for the NVC package (I'm glad because she lives in the province and the delivery guy came to the town, realized where she lived and threw the letter away); so I did not wait for the letter, instead I called USCIS Customer Service at (800) 375-5283 and asked them what her "Case Number" was. This allowed me to schedule her interview online (see http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/312942-how-to-schedule-your-k1-visa-online/

I scheduled her interview date 16 days later to give her papers time to reach Manila and all worked out just great; I'm glad that I did not wait for her letter, because we'd still be waiting.

Also, I recently started my job and so Melyn only had my very first paystub--but this was accepted because I'd just started the new job; also, noteworthy to some who may be in my situation, my job ended just a couple days after sending in the I-129F form, and I was not able to find work until AFTER her I-129F was approved! I qualified with enough for my 1040, and I only had my first 2-week paystub, which only had 8 days of pay, but it was accepted.

Also noteworthy to some who may be in my situation, for job reasons, we had to delay filing for our I-129F for 11-months after I had visited her and gotten engaged; so now, after all of the filing time, we have been apart from each other for 17 months now. It appears that the magic limit is 12-months to file the I-129F, I've heard that "maybe" 13-months, but you really need to try to file that I-129F within 12-months of visiting her--I pushed it to 11-months and we got approved, just fine, it was not even questioned.

I called the NVC shortly after receiving notice of our I-129F approval, so that I could get the case number, which then allowed me to schedule her appointment online (or phone if i wanted). It was better if I (the US citizen) scheduled it because she was getting some refusal when she tried on the phone. So I scheduled it online, and got her appointment scheduled out for the 30th, estimating that all the papers would have easily arrived at the embassy by then; I estimated well because her official letter arrived to her home on the 25th.

Scheduling early like this saved three weeks of time, but doing it this way her scheduled appointment time is 6:30am, which I have learned is a non-priority, first come, first served basis; some local folks have said that you must arrive at the Manila embassy by around 4am to get a good place in line. I just wanted to pass that info along if anyone gets a 6:30 appointment.

Also, I recommend having your Fiancee arrive a few days early before her interview because the medical exam is a 2-day process and the vaccinations on the second day may make her a bit tired the day after.

If you schedule like I did, you can save 2 or 3 weeks of waiting but your Fiancee will be scheduled for a 6:30am appointment time; which is a non-priority, first come, first served, basis; so she must arrive at the embassy at 4am to get a good place in line.

Ok, I learned a few secrets to scheduling the interview online, so I want to pass on these special keys to the magic kingdom:

First, location: http://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph/index.html

here is a nice tutorial:

There are going to be 2 challenges that are not obvious:

1. it will require that you enter a priority date; I used the approval date (NO02) of when we were approved.

2. it will ask for an MVR Receipt number; this is simply your Passport Number.

I found one other nice piece of info; if you are having troubles and would like to email the US embassy in Manila to work through the final stages, here is their email address: ConsManilaNIV@state.gov

Be sure to provide the names of the Applicant and Sponsor and any official numbers that you have been given to help them locate your records.

Ok, I learned a few secrets to scheduling the interview online, so I want to pass on these special keys to the magic kingdom:

First, location: http://www.ustraveldocs.com/ph/index.html

here is a nice tutorial:

There are going to be 2 challenges that are not obvious:

1. it will require that you enter a priority date; I used the approval date (NO02) of when we were approved.

2. it will ask for an MVR Receipt number; this is simply your Passport Number.

Yes, this is true. You can use the net value of a vehicle you own, BUT only if it is not your SOLE vehicle. If you only have one car, you cannot list it as an asset, even if it was completely paid off.

From the I-864 instructions: "You may not include the net value an automobile unless you show that you have more than one automobile, and at least one automobile is not included as an asset."

Thanks for pointing that out. I learned yet another new item in this process.

We received our I-797 that shows she's been approved (NO02 was on April 18, 2012). I called earlier this week to see if i could get the case number, and it was given to me and I was told they were going to mail this to Manila soon and that I'd be told when it occurred via email. I've not seen any emails and as you can imagine I'm dying to schedule the interview. Is there a way to schedule the interview now with just the case number and the other info that we have?

My fear is that it will take forever for any mail to reach her small town in the provinces... time seems to be moving in slow motion waiting in agony for a simple letter to arrive.

Thanks.

The embassy interview primarily seeks to confirm that you are truly in love (demonstrated by your responses to questions) and that you will not be a financial burden to the people shortly after your arrival. So they are actually more interested in your future earnings rather than your past. And so if the income is over the 1.5 x poverty limit then all is fine.

I did not notice that I'd made a typo in my sentence quoted above; it's 1.25 x poverty limit.

here is what it says on the I-864:

"Provide the intending immigrant any support necessary to maintain him or her at an income that is at least 125 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines for his or her household size (100 percent if you are the petitioning sponsor and are on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces and the person is your husband, wife, unmarried child under 21 years old.)"

I recommend reading this form and it will show you what is needed and the obligation for the sponsor (or co-sponsor).

Probably not as the vehicle is still owned by the bank.

It most likely would only be an asset if you had the pink slip

free and clear. I could be wrong though

If the value of the vehicle is greater than the loan amount due then it is definitely an asset that can be declared. What needs to be demonstrated is that you are being realistic about your assessment. The way to do this is to take a picture showing each side of the vehicle and the interior as well; document the make, model and year of the vehicle, and it's VIN number. Then research and document the current value of the vehicle using the following FREE popular sources online:

Kelly Blue Book

NADA Guides

Both of these books are written for bankers and car dealers and so the prices listed are conservative and therefore perfectly reasonable to be used for purposes of value assessment. These online sources will show you the current value of your vehicle if it's in average condition. You will have to reduce the value for vehicles with greater than average wear and perhaps damage.

If the value of your vehicle is very near the loan amount then don't bother listing it; but if you have a net asset value of $500 or greater then certainly feel free to list this as an asset if your income is not as strong.

Can a car be listed as an asset? and if so can it if im still paying on it? Though its almost paid off.

If you want to use your car as an asset then write down all the details of it for your Fiancee including the VIN number. Show pictures of it outside and inside. Then scan a recent Blue Book evaluation of it's value and perhaps some recent advertisements of people trying to sell their cars if this helps your case. Now you obviously need to subtract from this value any debt that remains unpaid on the vehicle (so get this remaining balance due from the lender). So your Fiancee should have: vehicle blue book value, remaining vehicle debt, and net value (which is blue book value - debt = net value).

Just add this vehicle net value to the total value of your other personal assets (e.g. gold, furniture, coin collection, electronics, etc.).

Important: if you are listing a vehicle as an asset, be sure that your Fiancee can answer this question: "If your Fiance sells his car how will he get to work?"

awesome... I am in the same boat. Fiancé just got a job today, so I will have his first pay stub and probably the second by the time of my interview. I was worried. But did you file negative in tax last year?

The embassy interview primarily seeks to confirm that you are truly in love (demonstrated by your responses to questions) and that you will not be a financial burden to the people shortly after your arrival. So they are actually more interested in your future earnings rather than your past. And so if the income is over the 1.5 x poverty limit then all is fine. The only reason that assets are of concern is for 2 reasons:

1. If it's used to offset an income that is below the poverty limit.
   
2. You need to have at least some cash to buy the plane ticket and afford some of the initial expenses related to the move and visa process.
   

You have the cost of the medial exam and visa embassy interview, plus it takes money to get to Manila and to stay there for about a week (or longer if you intend to fly out of Manila); a one-way plane ticket will generally be more than $1200 for most countries; and there are some fees to changing the visa status. And so it's wise for all people to carefully research all expenses and get enough money saved up to handle this.

The interviewer will at least want to make sure that you have enough cash to pay to change the status of your visa once you are married, and pay for the wedding and wedding fees, and at least have some cash for the extra expenses that are about to enter into your life simply from moving.

If you have less than $2000 in the bank then it would be wise for the Fiance to have a detailed list of where every dollar is going to be spent; have a solid budget plan and this will show the interviewer that you know where your money is going and that you know that you have enough. Show them that you are wise with the money that you have.

I need some real help. My fiance did not make it past the homeland security screening and was sent back. k-1 was cancelled. Any recommendations for lawyers or what could I do to fix this.

I think that you should get a lawyer--this is too crazy for belief. At this point only a good immigration lawyer can help you to see if you can salvage your current K-1; otherwise, if you must start over then I agree with others, just marry her there and then go through the process of bringing her here.

Just out of curiousity, would a co sponsor also work in this situation?

Thanks for sharing. Very thoughful and helpful post

Yes the $3 in assets for $1 of income works for any sponsors, including co-sponsors.

Line 11 of the I-134 would allow for limited support using phrases like this below (and they would check the "Intend" check box):

• SUPPLEMENT LIVING EXPENSES WHEN NEEDED OR PROVIDE FREE ROOM AND BOARD IF NECESSARY.
  
• SUPPLEMENT LIVING EXPENSES UP TO $200 PER MONTH (NOT TO EXCEED $1000 ANNUALLY) OR PROVIDE ROOM AND BOARD FOR $100 PER MONTH IF NECESSARY.
  
• SUPPLEMENT LIVING EXPENSES UP TO $200 PER MONTH OR PROVIDE FREE ROOM AND BOARD IF NECESSARY.
  

But remember, the I-134 Affidavit of Support is immediately replaced with a new Affidavid of Support once you are married and file to change their visa status, and this form, the I-864 Affidavit of Support does NOT provide for specified language to limit your commitment; instead the sponsor(s) agree to provide money to the sponsored Fiancée up to the 125% level as needed without qualifiers, and the person sponsored has the legal right to sue for this support if it is refused, even after divorce; and government agencies can sue for it if this person is forced to receive benefits because you are not supporting them. You can read all about this in detail on the I-864 form, and it shows how many years this sponsorship obligation lasts.

So it's important to figure out how to qualify and the best way is without co-sponsors if possible; given the long-term commitment it may be easier and certainly less risk for your relatives/parents/friends to help you place enough money into your checking account to help you qualify. E.g. let's suppose you are just $200/month short from qualifying, so $2400 annually; $3 cash in the bank will replace $1 of income shortage, so $2400 x 3 = $7200; if your relatives/parents/friends could help you to get $7200 into your checking account just before you fill out your I-134 and I-864 documents, this allows you to qualify on your own without co-sponsors.

Another question: I understand there's some discussion regarding the proper way of answering question 11. Some of you here advise to check "do not intend" and type in "N/A" in the description field, while others say otherwise, to check "intend" and make something up in the description field. What is the way to go here?

For question 11 on the I-134 form, check "Intend" and for the notes write "ALL EXPENSES AS NECESSARY." or "ALL NECESSARY EXPENSES AS NEEDED." or "ALL NECESSARY EXPENSES WHEN NEEDED."

You want to show that you are going to provide whatever financial support needed when it is needed; I personally chose my "ALL EXPENSES AS NECESSARY." It's short and sweet, says it all.

RE: Only one pay-stub (the first paycheck) is acceptable for a new job and cash assets can replace or reduce income requirements

I wanted to know how many paystubs are needed to be approved and accepted by the consulate; this was important to me because I’m starting a new job in a week and my Fiancée was just approved last week in the US California office, and so I'll only have just one pay-stub (my first paycheck) right at the time when they will want to interview her for her final embassy interview with the consular in Manila, Philippines. I called the embassy and told them my situation; the Director said that because I am starting a new job it is acceptable for my Fiancée to bring just the one pay stub as long as she also has my signed employment offer letter that shows my rate of pay. My Fiancée just needs to explain this to them during the interview and they will accept just the one pay-stub.

I wanted to pass this great news onto others who may also be in this same situation because you won’t have to wait for that second paycheck, you can scan and email your first pay stub and your Fiancée can use that. I would advise calling to confirm like I did and I hope that you receive the same answer. I’ll confirm back here later once she’s been approved as stated.

For those who like me are unemployed when she has been approved in the US, the only thing that you can do is work very hard to find a job fast because you can’t send your I-134 form without a job (or cash assets valued at 3-times the income requirements); and so if I did not have this job coming at exactly this precise moment my Fiancée would have needed to delay scheduling her final interview until I could get a job and receive my first pay-stub.

My income is strong and so I don't need the cash assets to offset my income requirements, but for those who are slightly below the income requirements let me offer this helpful hint: If you did know know, assets can be used to replace (or reduce) the income requirements; $3 in assets is considered as $1 of income; it must be liquid assets, and generally cash is best. If you are able to get enough cash into your bank account during the interview process this cash can be used to offset your income requirements.

I hope this information was helpful.