Hollyday

You can send the certified copy. Any attorney can do that.

Really? I thought 'certified copies' meant copies issued by the same issuing authority as the originals. Not a notarized copy.

So we're preparing everything for sending the AoS and IV package finally. I've spent a better part of i think 2 hours going through common checklist reasons (in a selection of posts from the last 2 years) and summing them up for my husband. Lessons learned:

* Everything has to be filled in in black ink;

* If you do a 1040 - put in total income in the place they ask for income, 1040ez - adjusted gross. No rounding up, as far as I understand;

* If you put in anything about assets, provide documents proving your statement, but don't bother doing this if your annual income is enough for sponsoring;

* Whatever's not applicable - mark N/A or risk checklist if they think you missed it.

Stuff i knew but double-checked:

* If the petitioner is sponsoring a spouse, then the spouse is accounted for as the main immigrant and petitioner puts "0" in "married" box for headcount;

* Don't forget to mark little flags like "Yes, i've reported stuff to the IRS" and "Yes/No" on active military duty.

Uh. Hopefully we finally send stuff off in the next couple of days.

hi there anyone

i started march 2013 i submitted my i30. im a us citizen and im petitioning my husband who is still in the Philippines.

we just submitted our document for aos and ds260 to NVC this week.

im just curious whats next?

do i wait for an interview date after this?

and anyone knows what the processing times for NVC to schedule an interview??

thank you

Basically if they're happy with the documents provided (and they take some time to review), then they mark the case complete, send it off to the embassy and the interview is scheduled. I suggest you check this thread, the first 2 posts are very useful.

You do not.

Thanks, that's the answer i was looking for. I think they (his tax accountants) don't have a lot of experience with such cases and are fairly confused.

when were you officially married ? i was married in 2013, so i only need to file married for 1 year. My wife does not have a SSN# so we are filing a w7 to obtain her ITIN and we include her income but take credit for her taxes paid. filing seperately depending on the income levels is horrible for me... so i am filing jointly and saving about 12k in taxes... the first year i have to file on paper and mail to a location for us.

i would question why you need to file for 2 years.. that means you need to open up the 2012 taxes your husband filed and amend them... then you need to re-order those transcripts... and have all that ready before you get to the NVC stage for AOS.

you can message me or just quote my text and i will reply... i know tax rules fairly well.

We got married in Nov 2012. He will get his taxes adjusted as MFS for 2012 as well. I am already on the NVC stage as you may notice from the thread we're in. Heh.

My question was: why do they need to file MY taxes if he is filing MFS and i'm not a legal resident there yet?

Powered off phone is a deal breaker. She's hiding something or she doesn't want to talk to you. Cut your losses and move on.

I'm sorry but have you never ridden the subway in your whole life? In many places there's no signal altogether!

Sooooo. My husband has asked his tax accountant to prepare his 2013 taxes as 'married filing separately'. They were thinking for 2 weeks and said we'd need to obtain a tax ID for me and file my taxes for the last two years. Eh?? I'm not even a resident yet! Any thoughts? Advice? Would be greatly appreciated.

I've perused the irs.gov site some time ago for how new residents are supposed to file and it appears they're starting to file with the year they arrive on the immigrant visa.

No not really. The whole purpose of the expedite is the petitioner showing a hardship. So if lets say the beneficiary was your sole support and them losing job will put you in a bad situation and create hardship than yes. But it is very rare.

How would it help the petitioner though? Either in home country or in the US the beneficiary would have to find another job.

If she was scamming for money only i don't think she'd rush into marriage and filing for the visa. It can be done without it - like by saying you need to give the bride's mother a gift before you actually get married. Which is not unheard of in some cultures.

You have a point. Too bad that the auto-expedite of cases submitted from abroad no longer seems to apply.

Too bad things don't work the same way it works in europe where the priority is to keep families together and where there is such a thing called service levels...

Regarding the sponsor part, yes, we have that covered.

What auto-expedite are you talking about?..

Also, one would think if you're both in the same country it's a tad easier than for people who're in different countries, eh? Not that i don't sympathize with your not being able to be apart for a day.

Just the thing about single Russian women not getting visas. I read somewhere that Germany is tighter than the other Schengen countries, but I did not read of any actual examples of Russian women being denied, only approvals.

I was a single Russian woman when i got my US tourist visas and multiple Schengen visas. I don't know what the process is for Germany (i've only done Italy and France as a tourist, Austria on business) but if there's an interview she can bring papers proving ties to Russia which she apparently has - and I never did.

Does anyone here have experience with a Russian woman getting a Schengen tourist visa to Germany? My GF is 34, owns her own business (a salon), car, and flat, and has extensive foreign travel... China, UAE, Turkey, Bulgaria, and in November she met me in Italy on an Italian Schengen tourist visa. She didn't have any trouble at all getting the Italian Schengen, and she arrived and departed the country exactly on schedule, no problems. (And we spent a LOT of money, LOL! Don't know if they know that, though.)

Her visiting me in the USA on a B-2 tourist visa isn't going to happen, so we have planned a meeting in Germany next month. Her current Schengen expires in a few days and she is going to the same visa center that got her the Italian Schengen, to apply for a German Schengen. They told her she will have it in ten days, which is almost two weeks before our planned meeting in Munich.

We've made plans and I have paid for tickets and a hotel room through Expedia... then I realized, she does not have the visa yet! She does not seem to think it will be a problem, and we planned and paid for everything before she actually had the Italian visa, and everything worked out. I have not mentioned anything about "what if Germany says no" (no point inviting trouble or making her worried) but I have just realized it is a possibility and nothing is guaranteed in the world of visas.

I am hoping her prior Schengen and travel experience makes it a rubber stamp for the Germans, and they do seem to be efficient. Does anyone have experience with German Schengens? I am starting to think back-up plan if necessary, but I am hoping we won't need it.

1. Why is she using a visa center anyway? I'd save the money and do it myself (this is what i normally do, anyway).

2. Erm. She doesn't have any red flags, why do you think she'd be denied? With multiple travels i don't foresee any trouble for her getting the visa. Germany is just another Schengen country.

Thanks a lot, I will try get a screeshot of when we first came friends on facebook, though I have a screenshot of our first message ever sent on another website we met on. I'll look for gift receipts too! thank you! So shouldnt really need to send in messages etc

though with the presents, will it really be that nessecary because it doesnt have her name on it, could have been buying them for my sister, etc

Ah, it was different for me: i was having the gifts shipped to his address with a note.

You can send in some messages if you want, just don't send in hundreds and hundreds of pages of those.

Brilliant thanks, we will but them both together, and match the dates together!

As for the facebook and skype chats? any ideas, print all, print some, print one, print none? what are you supposed to do when you have vast amounts of chat logs, do they want to see the content or just that we talked everyday since we met?

Thanks again

Thinking back i'd include the FB Friendship page screenshot (where it shows A and B were friends since... mutual friends C and D, etc). Maybe a screenshot of all e-mails received from B with counter of how many e-mails are there from this person all in all. Maybe gift receipts? Like when you buy a birthday present online and have it shipped to them? Stuff like that.

We had some really good evidence for our case, like copies of powers of attorney for each other to take medical decisions and buy property, then we were in process of buying an apartment together, so also showed that. Did family affidavits, but i don't think it mattered that much.

The problem is, we don't have any ticket stubs really, just the emails from the airlines and our passport stamps! - as for hotels, again, just email confirmations - we really don't have a lot and its stressing us out. We have baseball tickets, but whats the point don't have our names on it, could be anybodys!

Not sure what else we can do?

Well, we didn't have even 1 hotel bill. Anyway, passport stamps matter more than tickets (can buy and not use?) - i'd match passport stamps with tickets e-mail printout to show trips.

Okay i have a couple of questions not sure if its the right place to post ,but i can`t find clear answer to most questions

You might want to remove your real name from the post, you know?

Thanks for the response

Thats good to hear - now I'm sure you know yourself, it would take a literal tree worth of paper to print out conversations from skype and facebook on - what is the best way to tackle this, a screenshot or two?

Evidence of time spent together - e.g pictures of us, from our three seperate meetings?

We have fitted 3 pictures to a page, so for example

Page 1 - first meeting in Florida, 2 pictures of me and her then one of her and my mother

page 2 - again first visit - me and her and her friends

page 3 - second visit, me and her family

page 4 - proposal pictures

page 5 - her visiting Ireland/UK pictures of us and my friends

page 6 - pictures of me/her with my family.

Am I on the right track?

Sorry if I'm looking into it too much I just want to get it right first time

You should concentrate on hard evidence like passport stamps and ticket stubs and hotel receipts. Pictures are secondary evidence.

We attached a coversheet with, among other things, list of all trips we made to see each other backed up with copies of passport pages with stamps. Only had a couple of pictures in the petition altogether.

I'm thinking maybe it's time to make a sticky post on this topic where people can ask and exchange experiences on entering, etc.

If the locks are changed and she's still legally his wife is she not allowed to call a locksmith and change them as well?

To the OP: if it is 'marriage fraud' - and if you have proof - report her, if it is 'marriage failure' - either get couples counseling or file for a divorce. If it was a marriage entered in good faith by both of you you have no business sending her back. Divorce, split assets, move on.

Just checking in: we're hoping to send off the AoS and IV packages this week.

Hi! We just moved to NVC. I was naive enough to think it'd get easier! I spent the last few days trying to get my head around the many steps/ milestones. I think I have an overall picture, but not an idea of the current timeline.

Lately, how much time is it taking from receiving NOA2 to NVC receiving the material? And how long does until we get the case number? I understand right after that we can file the DS-261, correct?

Thank you

NOA1 7/24/2013

Transfer 1/14/2014

NOA2 1/24/2014

There's a link to Forms portal in one of the first two threads. After you get the case number and invoice ID you should start checking it and eventually the DS-261 becomes available (not immediately).

If you interpret resetting as 'every time you go out of the US the counter resets' you can effectively live in the US for years on end, only going out for a day after each 6 months. This is not how it works. We all miss our loved ones. No, we can't expedite based on this unfortunately.

Hi Hollyday,

I'm following your case as it is closer to my timelines. Have you sent the AOS & IV pkts to NVC?

Hi, no, we haven't yet. I'm hoping we will this coming week.

I have noticed that TSC will update the status,however CSC and NSC won't.

Yeah, our file was with CSC, we never had any update from them after the NOA2.

and now you're saying that you made a mistake and you don't want to marry him. You don't need to do anything, you've already done it...you gave him grounds for that VAWA stuff. A lot of men and women use it as a tool for staying in the country by making up lies that the spouse/fiancé kicked them out, wont adjust the status, etc. In this case...it would be totally valid if he went that route.

What exactly did the OP do that would constitute as abuse? Telling someone you're not ready to marry them is not one of those things. Here USCIS describes who's eligible to file under VAWA and i don't see how it would apply. Though this is exactly why she is advised to stay away from him now so he cannot make this stuff up.