pattyboy

Doubt a B-2 will work given the description but will look into it. Thank you both for your replies.

Hello all,

BACKDROP: I brought my wife back from Africa with me 4 years ago; green card acquired w/out problems just over 3 years ago. I'm US Army so she could have applied for USC 2 months ago but I received orders just then and now we are relocated. She has to wait 3 months on location and will now be applying for USC in 2 months. We've been married for the duration and have a great relationship. I'm a USC by birth; wife should be a USC within months (hopefully).

PREDICAMENT: My wife's family is entirely displaced past 18 months because of war/strife in Central African Republic. My wife has a 26 year old brother (my brother in-law) now in N'Djamena which is the capital of Chad. He suffered a serious abdominal wound in the fleeing process (non penetrating, accidental) which has been stabilized surgically, but continues to have significant problems putting him at high risk given the extremely dilapidated infrastructure available for refugees. He is registered as a refugee by the UNHCR and the two of them are very close. There is a US consulate in N'Djamena.

QUESTION: Does anyone have any suggestions as to simplest and/or fastest way for one of us to sponsor him under any visa program. I'm an Army doc and brought my wife here because she is very good people. She speaks several languages and has already obtained 2 associate's degrees (with honors); they really will be great citizens. It's painful that to hear of her brother she's so close to possibly croaking because of the absolute abyss so much of Africa is in. Any and all suggestions welcome.

pattyboy

Simple question, but asking a few friends to write letters/affidavits on our behalf; uncertain if it's a big deal (or required) to ask our friends to get their letters notarized. I think they are referred to as affidavits so guessing they should be notarized but if any experts know that it is not required (my wife read on another forum it was not), please jot a short reply.

BTW, my wife received her conditional green card in August 2012 and we have joint lease, insurance, dependency (Retired Army), joint taxes, bank accounts etc so plenty of documentation and do not foresee any problems, just want all the paperwork squared away proper.

Any and all input most welcome,

thanks, pb

We were interviewed in Seattle as well and the IO was very nice not much of questions just the mandatory and basic stuff

Have you received you GC already?

Outstanding and Congratulations!!!

Yes, received GC 8 days following the interview.

Congratulations !!!

Did you prepare anything keeping age difference in mind?

If you don't mind to tell, what things you think you share in common and what not?

Thanks !

We did not prepare for the "age difference" per se, as, to the letter of the law it does not matter. The ONLY thing that matters is the legitimacy of the relationship and to that end a couple living together and sharing same abode, accounts etc as well as at least SOME common interests (lol) should have no issues with the examiner. My caveat though is "my experience" is this one time and I do not have a great deal of experience to draw on, but my "gut" feeling was confirmed by this examiner who seemed very fair and open minded. All FWIW and IMHO only.

Best wish, good luck and thanks for your comments!

CONGATULATIONS!!!! :dance:

Wait for GC in mail should not take longer... mine it took 7days after my interview.

Thanks Da C! (and EVERYONE ELSE!!!)...HOWEVER I should have added one thing:

IF approval is made by interviewer AT TIME OF INTERVIEW (he stamped the 131 and 485 paperwork in front of us)...make sure you ASK FOR TEMPORARY GC a/k/a 551 which is a red stamp in back of passport. Now we can go on the cruise to Alaska and hopefully make entry into Canada before the actual GC arrives.

I had heard there might be an "electronic" or email notification of temp GC status, but the interviewer said no, but could give us the 551 instead (like, maybe he would not have if we had not asked).

BOLTA!!!

It did seem simple to me though we had a mountain of paperwork like shared lease, joint account statements, health and auto insurance policies with both our names and addresses.

The biggest thing he focused on was how we met, when we became romantically involved etc. I'm 51 and she is 22 and he made a comment about that being a reason for him to focus on legitimacy of our relationship, but the comment was made AFTER we answered his questions and he seemed to make the comment only to justify why he asked us questions to begin with, lol ("but that - age difference - is not any issue because you two obviously share many things in common")

First off they want you to know they are serious, advising you they are reviewing and interviewing to evaluate the legitimacy of the petition and will be looking at documents and asking a number of questions. Then, please stand and raise your right hand, taking an oath to tell the truth and noting but the truth.

We stayed calm and repeated what was the truth and to be honest, what we had rehearsed a bit as most people forget...even anniversaries, lol.

Funny moment when he was asking her history, like was she a criminal, prostitute, terrorist etc...had you ever been part of a militia...had you ever fired weapons or guns..."NO" she replied and then I had to interject, well, yes, I have taken her shooting a number of times to which he/interviewer was satisfied she was not running around central africa shooting weapons with a militia

:dance:

seems your case is very simple...

so thats all the question asked???

It did seem very, VERY simple to me though we had a mountain of paperwork like shared lease, joint account statements, health and auto insurance policies with both our names and addresses.

The biggest thing he focused on was how we met, when we became romantically involved etc. I'm 51 and she is 22 and he made a comment about that being a reason for him to focus on legitimacy of our relationship, but the comment was made AFTER we answered his questions and he seemed to make the comment only to justify why he asked us questions to begin with, lol ("but that - age difference - is not any issue because you two obviously share many things in common")

Just had interview for I-130 and I-485 for the little missus and went well. 551 stamped in passport and green card expected within a few weeks.

NOA Chicago lockbox May 29, 2012 to approval today...90 days!!!

Just returned from interview this morning and interviewer here in Seattle approved BOTH the I-130 AND the I-485. Green card will be mailed, but also stamped wife's passport with "temporary" green card (big red stamp he filled out).

Went very fast; just wanted us to raise our right hands and then explored how we met and where we live etc. Looked at our combined lease and a few bank statements, our insurance statement and that was about it, followed by routine questions for the 485 e.g. have you ever been arrested, engaged in prostitution, part of a militia etc, etc.

We are SOOOO FREAKING HAPPY!!!

Don't know how to insert timeline but Received date in Chicago lockbox was May 30 so less than 90 days from them getting application to APPROVAL!!! No RFEs, but we resubmitted paperwork a few times after getting contradictory scheduling/processing messages from them.

Thank you!

My thoughts for you would be to bring something that shows you paid (or still pay) child support.

Very Sage advice, I think and I have plenty of time to produce the documents. I look forward to the interview and thank you again for your comments as they put my mind more at ease and for heaven's sage congratulations again!!!

Thank you Dandt and CONGRATULATIONS!!!

No, he has no kids of his own.

And, Thanks!

How did the interview go Dandt??? Hope it all went very well.

Best Regards,

patrick

I didn't submit or bring any custody papers(I have three kids with my ex husband) and was never asked for them.

Thanks Flaherty!

Thank you for your response. The USA is stuck with me though, I was born here. My husband is Canadian.

You're probably right though, I'm panicking over nothing. (I'm a little prone to that.)

And, for the record, I think your newborn trumps my bank statements.

Thanks for starting this thread, Dandt as you know I had very similar questions regarding: "...and custody papers for your children and for your spouse's children not living with you..." (which I read as me- USC spouse - with noncustodial kids and MY plans for my kids who are not related to my non-USC beneficiary wife)

For what it's worth, I posted same query over on british expats forum and got same feedback, that they are not interested in sponsor's non custodial kids, care plans, custody agreement etc.

Wow, Dandt, I would really very much appreciate any clarification you get later this week and I hope it all goes VERY well for you!!!

Best Wishes,

Patrick

I'm thrilled my wife just received date for interview (scheduled August 29, 2012) of AOS from F-1 student visa to Conditional Residency however, one of the documentation requests on the NOA reads as follows:

Birth Certificates for all children of this marriage, and custody papers for your children and for your spouse's children not living with you...

My current wife (non-USC)and I have no children.

My oldest two children from previous relationships are already gone (26 and 23 years old) and I also have a 13 year old who lives with his mother. The 13 year old's mother and I only dated and the relationship was and still is amicable, but we never went though a court to file the administrative paperwork with the state of Washington. All support is paid through the state DHS so there is a clear paper trail on support, however the DHS does not keep copies of the original administrative agreement (i.e. custody papers, I think, per USCIS?).

So now the crazy part: I never kept a copy of the papers and my son's mother also did not keep a copy. And the attorney we had 13 years ago draw up the paperwork (administrative agreement required by the Wash state DHS) is probably dead (he was about 80 years old and I do not even remember his name). I was active army for about 24 years and honestly, the only thing I cared about at the time was making sure the boy was well taken care of, which he was.

Now with USCIS possibly asking for custody papers (has anyone with non-custodial kids ever been through the process of sponsoring an I-485 candidate?), I'm wondering what my next course of action should be.

Any suggestions?

I do not know if you have done any of the following yet, but you should do so to help obtain more data on your application process:

1. Register online at the USCIS website to get most up to date info on your application(s)

2. Call the USCIS application "customer" or applicant support line for any updates etc. I've got through to a human being in as little as five minutes, but it may take up to half an hour.

3. If you are near a local USCIS office you can use INFOPASS to schedule an appointment. I've been able to get in within a few days to talk to someone who can review and advise etc.

I'm not an attorney and not even very familiar with this process but until you get very clear information I would caution the non-USC against making ANY travel plans outside the country.

Best of Luck

Thank you EVERYONE for your comments and suggestions!

pb

My wife and I are doing an AOS from F-1 (education) visa to conditional residency and have filed I-485, I-130 which were received at Chicago lockbox with received date on NOA of May 29, 2012. They were both accepted and so far we have not got any requests for more info.

Now June 30 and still no biometry appt notice. We've called USCIS a few times and 3 days ago told "30 days"; call on June 28. So we called yesterday/June 29 (31 days since NOA receive date) and the woman said 30 days clock did not start until WE received the NOA in the mail from USCIS which was on or about June 3. The USCIS woman said call back in a week and then they could initiate an inquiry.

This bothers me as most all the visajourney timelines I'm reading on AOS and biometry appts are within a few weeks and I'm concerned the biometry appt might have been lost in the mail with no clarification from USCIS thus far AND that we might be missing an appt already made and thus delaying the application on the I-485.

Please, any comments would be appreciated.