visaqueries

This is the future, let's hope it expands going forward and makes the process much faster. 👍

We applied online yesterday for my husband's n400.  Tonight I got a text that said his status was updated.  Apparently, yesterday they mailed his receipt notice.  Tonight the update was that they mailed him his biometrics appointment letter.  So...I am very happy we finished his naturalization application and mailed it in.

We hope so too!
Congratulation to you also 😊

If we were to do it again, I still would want to do the K1.  At the time of our filing we knew we wanted to start the process (because we knew it would take a long time), but we weren't 100% sure we were ready to marry.  We filed in August 2012, and things were slow.  It was the perfect time to deepen our relationship (met 2009, officially together after my visit in May 2012).  After filing I was able to visit 3 more times, and that really helped.  Our approval came February 2014, and by the time he arrived in May, we were ready...married 5 days after he arrived.  Yes, it was a gamble on our part to file prior to our unmovable decision to marry, but it worked for us.
 
My husband would probably agree that we would do the K1 again, but he did not like NOT working.  That was the hardest part for him.  Other than that, we were pleased with the process.

Consider a fiancée visa.
 
it will be quicker and sort the marriage issue - I am from Dubai and can confirm you cannot marry there unless one of you were resident.
 
Coming from the South East Asian culture, I can place my money that in a year of living with him the stakes are high that you may come on here telling us you feel used for green card, that you are married to a chauvinist man with severe anger issues and you want out or he has left.
 
i am not saying that's how all South East Asian mean are.  But going by you story and a lot of life experience that is the likely outcome.
 
remember Pakistani men who marry white women going against their families do it for a strong real relationship.  This is not socially okay.
 
if his family is supportive for a woman that he hasn't met let alone they have not met it's likely they are all hopeful for his US dream.
 
I can write a book on here but don't have the time and if you like you could call me.
 
this is too high risk darling.
 
meet in Dubai if you like and although that will not be enough I assure there will be red flags (that you will likely ignore).
 
file for Fiancé visa after ( as I know you are not giving up now).  I will hope for you that you wait 60 days to marry once he is here and hope that you don't go ahead if things are not working out.
 
better still I will PM you.  Remember I am not a social worker and we all have our busy complicated lives to manage.  The only reason we are taking our time out is to possibly help and not to spoil your party.

Once your fiancee comes to the US, you'll marry then file for your adjustment of status.  Along with that you can file for AP (Advanced Parole) and work authorization.  Once you receive the AP/EAD card, you would be able to return to her country for a visit.  I don't know what the going time is for receiving the EAD/AP, but a general idea is it will take around 90 days after you file for your adjustment of status.  So:
1.  Enter the US
2.  Marry
3.  File for Adjustment of Status, AP/EAD
4.  Wait for arrival of AP/EAD (processing time varies)
5.  Visit her home country.

At 8am this morning, while sound asleep, incessant loud banging on the door as if the house was on fire woke me up.
Sleepily I stumbled to the door in my night gown and in front of me were a man and a lady announcing they were from immigration.
Knowing all about home visits I responded as calm as a cucumber : "Sure come on in have a seat, I need to put some clothes on."
Nothing rattles me anymore on this journey.
I said to my husband honey get up, immigration is here.
He quickly threw some clothes on and came into the living room where the man started asking questions.
Meanwhile our 4 dogs were barking like they were out of their minds drowning out the questions we no longer could hear
and I said excuse me and like the true alpha told them to shuuuut uuuup. Silence at last. Proceed.
It was truly like a scene out of Chevy Chase National Lampoon movie,
Endless Bummer, Animal House, Barely Legal, Threshhold of Hell, pick any title.
(They should make one about immigration it would be a hoot).

Questions asked were about travel together, our work schedules, how long I owned my business, etc.
He took pictures of several things in the house, my African culture decor, photos in frames of us together,
of my husband's mom, of him as a baby, a photo I had sitting in my
bedroom of my naturalization ceremony from almost 20 years ago tucked into a forgotten corner of the dresser,
(I immigrated here over 40 years ago). He recognized that it was from a naturalization ceremony with eagle eyes, must have
been doing this job for a while. I was impressed.
Yes, we were all in the bedroom by now, they wanted a
tour of the house...meaning checking closets, seeing if we really lived together, slept in the same unmade bed and so on.

Now I always pictured the perfect home visit with a clean sparkling house, having coffee with the investigators
and exchanging niceties. No, it was just like they prefer it, a total surprise. The house was a mess and so was I with
a big shiner on my forehead because I ran into a sharp fence post bracket the day before.
I did point to the beautiful bouquet of flowers he bought me a few days ago though.
In the kitchen they took pics I had on the fridge with magnets of my family and they took pics of joint bills, joint bank account
 and CC's we had laying around on the table. I asked if they would like to see our AOS "evidence box". They said no.
They seemed to be only interested in what their eyes randomly caught and peeked their interest.

Fun aside, they were very nice and the whole experience lasted 20 minutes.
I was glad they came so now we can move forward from being stuck in the abyss.
We filed AOS in May 2015, had each a one hour stokes interview Sept. 2016 and now  8 months later after
 numerous service requests, EAD/AP renewal twice, senator contacts, Ombudsman contact it came to this visit.

He said you will have no problems, everything checked out fine and you are obviously legit as a couple as we see you here like this.
He said they came all the way from Texas because my filed office is so backlogged.
He said he didn't know why all the scrutiny when I asked what's up with the checks.
 Again I want to mention the whole thing was like a friendly chit chat,
relaxed, respectful. Don't let that fool you though, they get exactly what they want to know by friendly chit chat.
The worst was the loud banging on the door which freaked me out but I wouldn't have
 heard just a normal  knock because we were sleeping and they would have probably left, leaving us marinade
even longer in the AOS background check sauce of despair.

So why the constant hurdles for us you may wonder. I don't know.
It took us 5 years to come together, first K1 refused after 16 months in AP, second one approved.
I had petitioned someone else in 2005 which was also refused after long AP and he did not make it here because
I stopped it due to his fraudulent motive I discovered in my own investigations. The louse was a liar.
Interestingly, lots of questions were asked during the AOS interview about that.
Other flags may be that we had several trips to Turkey, a somewhat flagish country to visit these days and Cyprus being close to
Syria, him having a Muslim name (he has been an active Christian all his life) and being originally from a high fraud
West African country.

I will update when he receives the green card. We have been a couple since 2009.
Almost 3 years married.
Long story short, no sweat if you have a real relationship and abide by the requirements then eventually
you will be approved. If at first you don't succeed, try again, is my motto.
Never give up, keep your cool and be patient. Be yourself, try not to open the door in a night gown though
and throw the robe on before you open the door.
If we can't mention the funny parts of this and laugh at ourselves then we are taking ourselves way too serious.
So relax and chill and I wish you all  speedy approvals for visas and AOS, ROC and naturalization.
There is always a silver lining for a long drawn out AOS, we qualify for a 10 year green card now because we are married
over 2 years and don't have to ROC. Yay !
 

Annnnnnndddd....APPROVED!!!!!!! Ahhhh yeah!

Married filing jointly is perfectly fine. Despite your mom not working, your parents are entitled to a larger standard deduction. I'm sure this might put your dad in a lower tax bracket (meaning he'll keep more of the money he's earned), and that's really a positive thing for them.

Married filing jointly is perfectly fine. Despite your mom not working, your parents are entitled to a larger standard deduction. I'm sure this might put your dad in a lower tax bracket (meaning he'll keep more of the money he's earned), and that's really a positive thing for them.

Great news! Congratulations!

Let's Limerick!
Hopefully there are people out there who love a good limerick. Here's your task...I'll start the thread with a limerick. The next person to post must take one of the rhyming words from my limerick and use it in their own. The word you choose can be placed anywhere within the poem (see KNOW below).
For example:
First Limerick
There once was a girl named Flo,
She fell for a guy we'll name Joe.
They tried for a Visa,
Then had little Lisa.
And that is their story I know.
Followed by...

We know that the show is just grand.
It's the best we have in this land.
The people are funny
My day becomes sunny.
When finished, I'll give them a hand.

My husband loved being able to use cruise control. He hated at first, but when we went to buy a car, he insisted it have cruise control. There's not much need for it in Cairo .

Thanks for returning with the "all's-well" update!

So he has a 10 year ban and will require a I 601 to be filed once he has been refused a visa at his interview, adds about 6 months to the process. Do you intend using a Lawyer for the waiver?

It's been a long time in posting. We made ourselves busy with our marriage and our lives and didn't let AP destroy us. After his interview in June 2011 we spent two years in ap only to have our case returned to USCIS for recommended revocation. We responded with an attorney to the issues and sent 17 lbs of information we were reaffirmed within two weeks and send back to the embassy.
We spent the next two years with me visiting yearly and trying to make our lives as normal as possible without making AP take over anything. On Aug 10th we got a phone call regarding an email the embassy sent us. They wanted us to fill our the DS 260 online once we did that they sent him an interview letter for Aug 31st. He called to get the medical done but unfortunately they were overbooked and couldnt get him in until Sept. When he told them why he was calling they told him to come in that night and worked him through the medical exam.
He went to his interview prepped with the ongoing relationship documents and i864, medical etc. He was called to the window asked for updated medical and i864. He was asked to sit down while they review. Then 30 min later he went back to the window to the CO. He asked my husband if he had been out of the country. His answer of course was no. He kept typing then said everything looks good. YOUR APPROVED and will get the Visa within 2 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My husband received the Issued status on sept 8 and picked up his passport today sept 10!!!!!! VISA IN HAND AND THEY ADDED THE IR1 so he's coming home after 4 yrs!!!!!!!!!!!! His POE is this coming Saturday Sept 19th!!!!!!
We are proof that not giving up will give you your dreams. For those on AP... nobody knows more than us how much that hurts but there is nothing you can do so live your life the best way as possible and make your relationship strong. Nobody is more important than your spouse and your family. DREAMS DO COME TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were worried my husband's EAD/AP card would expire (May 2014 filers) prior to the arrival of his green card, so we filed the application for an EAD/AP renewal. We didn't want there to be any time when my husband couldn't work. Fortunately, the green card was approved and produced before we received the second EAD/AP card, but we didn't want to take the chance...and it is free to renew. You might experience the same situation with the green card coming before your first EAD card expires, but if not, you definitely want to be prepared.

I ended up sending a letter with the explanation. Then I sent the required paperwork, a copy of his passport with visa (new spelling), and a copy of the letter we originally sent explaining the spelling change. I assume if both of you have had documents with multiple spellings, this won't be uncommon for them. They are set to receive it Monday (going to Guam), so we'll just cross our fingers!

My husband asked the same thing when we went through the K-1 process. I didn't get many responses (http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/451793-with-a-k-1-visa-in-process-can-you-also-put-your-name-in-the-diversity-lottery/#entry6483537). We had been waiting a long time, and he wanted to speed up the process...plus he felt he'd get a green card faster and he wouldn't potentially be as big of a burden on me if he secured the diversity visa. I think he ended up applying but wasn't selected. He's now been here a little over a year, and we still wait for the elusive green card .

My husband is Egyptian. We had lots of red flags to overcome. I'm older by 11+years, we are different religions, he'd been married to a westerner before (she was from Australia), and he was in tourism. We worried about all those things. As a result we did everything we could to make sure that our red flags were minimized. I visited 4 times (5 if you count when we met and weren't dating), we traveled together and had matching stamps in our passports. We made sure we had messages to go along with the many months we were dating. We had receipts of hotels where we stayed. Being Muslim, we had receipts for his room and for my room. In the end, all of our work to overcome the red flags helped us. The interviewing officer didn't focus on our age, our religion, or his job. Instead he focused on the previous relationship and our relationship in which he thought we were married. My husband was easily able to answer all his questions. How this relates to you is if you have compiled your evidence to prove you are legitimate, and that evidence has depth to it, the issue with your uncle-in-law will not be important. I wouldn't worry that he could keep you from a visa. If you make sure your evidence is solid, they will not deny you.
As for your original post, you said you picked a wedding date. Be careful with that. We were told by an immigration lawyer (we only consulted once with her) that the process would take a year. We applied in August of 2012, and we weren't approved until February of 2014. There were slow downs in the system we didn't foresee. So, I wouldn't want you to have a date that you couldn't make.

Never under estimate the power of banana nut bread.

Trust your gut, it is very rarely wrong.

My husband is Egyptian. We had lots of red flags to overcome. I'm older by 11+years, we are different religions, he'd been married to a westerner before (she was from Australia), and he was in tourism. We worried about all those things. As a result we did everything we could to make sure that our red flags were minimized. I visited 4 times (5 if you count when we met and weren't dating), we traveled together and had matching stamps in our passports. We made sure we had messages to go along with the many months we were dating. We had receipts of hotels where we stayed. Being Muslim, we had receipts for his room and for my room. In the end, all of our work to overcome the red flags helped us. The interviewing officer didn't focus on our age, our religion, or his job. Instead he focused on the previous relationship and our relationship in which he thought we were married. My husband was easily able to answer all his questions. How this relates to you is if you have compiled your evidence to prove you are legitimate, and that evidence has depth to it, the issue with your uncle-in-law will not be important. I wouldn't worry that he could keep you from a visa. If you make sure your evidence is solid, they will not deny you.
As for your original post, you said you picked a wedding date. Be careful with that. We were told by an immigration lawyer (we only consulted once with her) that the process would take a year. We applied in August of 2012, and we weren't approved until February of 2014. There were slow downs in the system we didn't foresee. So, I wouldn't want you to have a date that you couldn't make.

We have the time. What was the story?

Miss, the reason people are saying these things is because they believe you're missing the point. And of course, this is all based on what you told us. Based on everything youve said--other than you uncle's issue--you have a relationship that appears to be full of red flags. So while you may have originally brought up your uncle, you opened the conversation to additional information by which everyone here is replying. No one wants you to fail. We're all in the same boat and have our own issues to deal with. But I've learned that people are incredibly frank and honest on VJ because they want to help. There's no sugar coating the immigration process, and the sooner you understand the learn from people, the easier it may make your journey. You may not like what people have to say, but they only want to help.