Tohoku

Dear fellow VJers,

For a country like Japan, where the police aren't allowed to give out certificates without valid reason, how would you go about receiving a certificate? I asked some people from Japan, and they said that they were allowed to get a certificate with just showing their NOA2. Can anyone confirm this? I told my wife to go try, but she is insisting she needs a letter from the NVC stating the NVC needs the police report.

Thanks!!

She doesn't need letter from NVC, at least not in my case. I just went to the Prefectural Police Headquarter, bring a print out of NOA2 and the print out from the US Embassy Tokyo webpage the processing section which enlist that one of the document I need to send to NVC is Police Record. They asked for a letter of request for the Police Record from the Embassy, and I explained to them that I didn't have any and before the Embassy got the case, I need the Police Record for the NVC in the US.

They were very nice and it took a bit of explanation from my part (with my limited Japanese) but in the end, they said it's OK, they took my fingerprint and they called me the next day and said the Police Certificate was ready for pick up.

It took a bit of an effort to ask their help and some explanation but in the end, they were very helpful. I am not even a Japanese national, so for your wife I am sure it will be even easier (at least she won't have a language barrier like I did;) )

Hi, everyone. I have a question about interview date. Does NVC notice us interview date on the same day that they completed our case? Or do they notice our case complete first and after, they will notice our interview date?

They emailed me the notification that the case has been completed at NVC and in the same email they also notified the interview date and where it will take place (in my case, it is in Tokyo Embassy). Since the date is a bit difficult for me to attend, I submitted the request of a change of date to US Embassy in Tokyo, then, I received an email from the Embassy saying that the new date has been approved. That is the only time I received anything from the Embassy. Other communication came from NVC.

Good luck!

Hello VJ,

I am getting busy i preparing documents now. Medical Examination an Vaccination done today it cost me alot total 525$ and should get result in 3-4 days. It cost me 150$ for registration and they said i had to get at least 5 vaccines that was cost me $375. I said to doctor that i have done vaccine back in my country but they will not complete the form if i have no proof them in records, oh well...i didn't expected to spent that much money thought.

can someone suggest me, we are trying to get things Proof of bona fides marriage, like joint insurance, joint auto and other joint company but the problem is that i dont have SSN and those kind company required to have my SSN if my husband wanted to include me since im holding tourist visa. (unplanned - getting married in tourist visa). Will i be able somehow to get the SSN, will they let me have if i show certified copy of Marriage Certificate?

If any thought and shared are appreciated

Join apartment lease or join bank account doesn't require an SSN. When I opened my Bank account and later a join bank account with my husband and also sign our apartment lease contract, all I needed was my passport.

Yeah, getting a Nordstorm membership card requires an SSN but opening a bank account doesn't, lol.

Hi guys, wondering what country of domicile I should put on my I864. I have been living with my wife here in Indonesia since August, 2011.

I previously rented a home in America before coming here, but I no longer rent that home. So, it is no longer my US mailing address.

My wife and I are going to live in my father's home. I still maintain health/car insurance in America listing my dad's address.

My car titles are still in US, and I am on leave from my job in US and will be returning to work there after I am back (I have an employment

letter too from my work).

Does that mean my country of domicile is still US? I am legally residing in Indonesia, but I am not allowed to work or obtain a driver's license (I lost my US D.L. too, by the way, so I can't use that for proving domicile).

What do you guys think? Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

OK, first, I am not sure if the same qualification applies to USC and non USC regarding maintaining the residency in the US. I suspect it's the same, but I am not 100% sure. Anyways, in order to say that you are a resident of the US, you have to submit certain proofs such as home ownership, DL, home/apartment lease/rent contract etc. (I guess you've already known this) And letter of employment only works if it contains Employer’s statements showing that the recipient worked on several days a week or evidence showing that the claimant worked one or two hours several days weekly.

Second, what is your visa status in Indonesia? Are you on 'extended' visitor Visa or do you have KITAS/KITAP. If you have KITAS/KITAP, you are a legal resident of Indonesia and not just a visitor, thus, if I were you, I would be leaning toward writing down Indonesia as my country of domicile.

I hope I am not making you even ore confused, God knows we have enough paranoia which drive us bonkers with this whole conundrums! lol.

Good luck!

Thank you Kenzie and Usbound!

I I will go ahead and say yes about the trip then, and thanks for the tips Usbound, I will prepare proof of ties just in case.

Thanks again!

Greetings all,

Can anyone give me an information wether it is OK to travel to the US during the NVC process? I have a valid B1/B2 visa which still have 3 more years before it expires. I have every intention of going back to my country of residence. And I think I will back long before the I94 expiration date or the interview date for that matter. It is going to be a 10 days only trip anyways.

I called the NVC and they said they were not authorized to answer this. I think legally I still can do this, but still, I want to re-check before I say OK to this trip.

Any information and/or experience about this will be greatly appreciated.

we will send our ds 230 soon, and we decided to send the certified ones, but now hubby changed his mind, he said he might wanna send the original of marriage book since it will be sent back to indo/USEM using DHL (he trust it) arrghh...if NVC lost it, we still have 1 (the wife marriage book) but i know i wouldn't feel ok with it. u know, loosing one of the most important docs in your life and knowing it's irreplaceable is not fun at all!

police cert @ Tohoku: i didn't get one, my hubby emailed the embassy and they replied police cert from indo isn't required, think that it's all up to us, to get or not to get. i live far away from jakarta, it's kinda difficult...not that difficult though, but still i don't like the idea going there just to get a piece of paper (although i understand it's important, but i read their website it's not available...so confusing) i just wished i could get one from the Police station nearby me. but i heard from some of friends, the CO didn't ask for it in their interviews, so this made me n my hubby r certain to not obtain one for me.

Thank you all for the inputs!

@Bule&Cantik and Paul&Vha, I will do as you guys suggest about school, list 'em all!

@Maryam: I called the NVC, and they checked and said it is unavailable (what does that even mean? unavailable?) I asked her if that meant I didn't need to submit any, she just said, unavailable, lol. I live in Japan, so I guess for now we are not going to submit any from Indonesia, and fingers crossed this will be OK. Worst case scenario, we get the RFE then maybe I will go to Jakarta to get it (please please please don't let this be the scenario)...

Paul, sorry for re-routing your thread a bit hehe..

And best of luck to you all! May we go through this tiring process successfully and who knows, someday probably we can meet in person and we all can laugh about this process!

Bule, thanks this is great advice. We were worried about losing the Buku Nikah also. We will definitely check that out. And what did you do about the birth certificate? I hear that is hard to replace here too if lost, but we also don't know how/where to get a certified copy of it. What did you do about the birth certificate?

Greetings!

I agree with Bule&Cantik, you can get a special Certificate from KUA and it is replaceable, unlike Buku Nikah.

As for Birth Certificate, my parents lost mine when I was in kindergarten, but the Catatan Sipil can produce you an Excerpt that is acceptable as an official replacement for your Birth Certificate. We used my Birth certificate excerpt (along with translation and all) during our I-130 application and no problem there, so I assume it is acceptable in the US as well.

My husband and I are filling the DS 230 as well at the moment and boy, we're so happy that we are not alone and have people to 'discuss' this whole process with!

And if you guys don't mind, we have few questions about the DS 230 as well:

What did your wife fill in the education section, do we need to include high school? Or from college onward is enough?

And about police record. Did your wife get one from Mabes Polri? Or just follow the Department of State guideline which said we don't need one from Indonesia? I posted about this previously, and Ryah H said I didn't need one from Indonesia but I just want to double check. You know how these things generate the paranoia from us, lol.

Sorry I answered your questions with more questions from me,

And thanks in advance!

Firstly, the reciprocity page you reference is the from the US State Department, not USCIS.

Secondly, police records are considered unavailable for Indonesia by the State Department, you do not need to obtain one from there.

Ooops, apologise, my mistake.

And thank you Ryan, your answer is very reassuring!

Dear all good people out there,

I wonder if someone can suggest me what I should do about police records from Indonesia? Should I get it, or not? The USCIS Reciprocity page said there is no reciprocity for the police records from Indonesia. Does this mean that I don't have to get one from Indonesia?

I have been living in Japan for the last 7 years. Getting the police record from Japan is simple enough, but unfortunately, if I have to get one from Indonesia it means that I will have to travel to Jakarta (outside my regular schedule to visit Jakarta every autumn). Does anyone have any experience, hopefully one with the experience of not submitting the police records and still got through the process OK?

Thank you so much in advance!

Hi all. My wife's i-130 petition was accepted back in April, and we are getting ready to send in her DS-230 package this week along with my AOS package. All the paperwork is fine and without error, but I am still concerned about something. I was recently reading that a conditional resident (or any marriage visa for that matter)can be denied for many reasons that would lead the officer to believe that the marriage is not bonafide. My wife and I are 100% bonafide, but we got married rather quickly. We met online on a facebook dating application in April of 2011. I visited her for the first time in June, 2011. I then returned back to Indonesia in September 2011 to marry her, and I have been here with her since we've been married. Is either marrying so soon/from a dating site a possible red flag? And what can I do to ensure that the VO doesn't misjudge the situation? Me and my wife are very real but I just heard some horror stories about visa denials and my wife and I do not want to experience this ourselves. Any input or suggestions? Thanks a lot for the answers guys.

Hi, first, I have no personal in IR-1 interview myself, (and have been procrastinating in filing the DS-230, lol), and your timeline might be a red flag, but I think you will be fine, since you have the best asset for this interview and the whole process: your marriage is real, and you are nothing but being honest about your relationship and your intention. I had experience for interview with US Embassy in Jakarta about 8 years ago for B1/B2 visa, and the officer was pretty reasonable. He didn't try to make me nervous, and just basically doing his job. Once he saw that I was truthful about my intention for visiting the US at that time, the rest was smoothly done and I got a five year visa. The same happened at the US embassy in Tokyo when I applied to re-new my B1/B2 visa. I am hoping that the IR-1 interview will be the same, and go smoothly for us and for you and your wife.

Best of luck!

PS. I think the officers will be smart enough to see that it wouldn't make sense at all for someone to live in Indonesia for almost a year just for a scam marriage

I went to the hospital in Kobe. I hear many good things about the British Clinic. If I was in Tokyo, I would go there.

Every clinic uses the same exact form "Vaccination Documentation Worksheet" provided by US department of State. On the form your doctor checks what you're and you're not immune to. I got shots for D&T but not P because we don't have Tdap in Japan. So the doctor checked "Insufficient Time Interval" for the P and 2nd & 3rd D&T. I'm also not immune to Measles and he also put "insufficient Time Interval" because I couldn't get the shot for it on the same day as D&T.

I mean....don't worry. They know what to do. For the vaccines you didn't get, they will check something relevant to it. There are categories like "Not Age Appropriate" and "Not Routinely Available" etc. Just be nice to the doctor

OK, I understand now. Thanks a lot! I won't worry too much now, and I think I will go with the British Clinic, especially since they are open on weekends as well!

Good luck with your journey, and Yoroshiku!

You don't need to get all the vaccination before you enter the US. You probably have to get them all by the time you remove condition though.

I took a blood test first then got some shots, but for some vaccines I have to wait for a half year to get the 2nd one so it is impossible to take them all before I go to the US.

Good luck!

Hi sms78, thanks for the reply! Do you mind telling me to which Clinic/hospital you went to? And no worries if you can't tell. I am just curious since three clinics gave three different answers! lol. All three told me they would give me MMR shot, but only one clinic said they would also give me Tdap. Personally I'd prefer to go to British Clinic in Shibuya, since they said I only needed MMR vaccine, and no need for Tdap since it isn't available in Japan. But I wonder if this is a common understanding with the US Embassy in Tokyo or not.

Thanks again!

Greetings,

I am new to this site and will begin starting a K1 Visa for my Indonesian-Chinese Fiancee. I believe that everything will go smoothly with Immigration, but I do have one concern. I am a US citizen and my Fiancee is a Indonesian citizen who is Chinese. We had a non-legal Social Wedding or what she calls a Chinese Wedding (non0legal) or otherwise known as a Commitment Ceremony according to Indonesian standards. We are both Christians and because of the Chinese Ceremony her family and Church accepts me as her husband even though the Indonesian government still considers her "Single" since our Chinese Wedding was a non-legal one and not registered with the Indonesian government. In our hearts we consider ourselves as husband and wife even though out Wedding/Marriage was not a legal one. My fear is the I am afraid that the USCIS might think that I am filing for the wrong type of Visa. How do I adviad this misunderstand to prevent any delays with my K1 filing? Our commitment to each other is real to the point that most of our emails we refer to each other as husband and wife. I know that I can still bring her to the USA on a K1 Visa. I just want to advoid any misunderstanding which might cause delays with Immigration. Any suggestions?

Michael Vernon Harper

Dear Michael,

I am not sure if you are still on this thread, but to my best knowledge, the US consulate/embassy/USCIS will only consider a marriage is legal/exist only if you have a legal certificate, that is, if you are legally married. I might be wrong here, but I am sure you can not apply for IR-1 visa for your wife since the IR-1 requires marriage certificate.

If I may suggest, you can:

1. Apply for K1 visa, get married in the US

or

2. Your fiancee apply for a tourist visa (B1/B2) visa, go to Hawaii, get married, return to Indonesia, then you can apply for IR-1.

or

3. Get married in Indonesia (be prepared for the long process and red tapes for you to get the permission to get married in Indonesia), then apply for IR-1.

Personally, for getting married, I think Hawaii is your easiest choice, the trick is, how to get your wife to Hawaii so you both can get legally married there.

I wish you both the best of luck!

Dear all,

Hope everyone is having a nice day.

I have a question regarding medical examination/vaccination. The embassy listed three clinics for the medical examination in Tokyo area, and I contacted all three of them to compare the working hours, cost, etc, and turned out one clinic (Tokyo British Clinic) said that the only vaccine I need is MMR, since the T.dap is not available in Japan, but the other clinic said they had Tdap (especially imported from the US) and can give me one. I want to avoid unnecessary vaccination, so I wonder if it is OK not having the Tdap vaccine since the Tokyo British clinic said it's OK if I don't have Tdap?

Anybody with experience of having the medical examination in Tokyo who can give me a suggestion will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance!