Starflyer 59

This happened to us as well.  My wife applied back in November, after the rule change.  She had her interview in late February and they told us to go get two passport photos and bring them back to the reception desk.  We went ahead and did it even though it ticked me off immensely because it wasted the rest of our day for something that wasn't even our fault - we had followed the instructions.  A month later, her status changed to "Oath Ceremony Scheduled", and she took oath in April.
 
My advice to those with upcoming interviews - go ahead and bring photos with you.  If the officer doesn't ask for them, use them in your passport application.

I can't help but wonder why or how you would have showed up as paying bills at your friends' houses if you never lived there. Did you have mail rerouted to their addresses at one time or another?
 
Have you got a copy of your credit report? It is possible that you may be the victim of identity theft - someone listing your name and information at someone else's address raises red flags for me that have nothing to do with immigration.
 
Yes, this is certainly an immigration worry, but you should be able to provide sufficient proof that you and your husband live at the same address - mail, utilities, lease agreement - obviously the officer who interviewed you was determined to doubt. Whatever is listed on the letter they send, just be sure to send that and you should be fine.
 
The other issue though, is how it is that your name could be associated with addresses where you've never lived. I'd also investigate that. It might even help with the immigration - if you can write a letter saying that you were also concerned, thank them for bringing it to your attention etc. and you are following up on that.
 
Could be they inadvertently did you a favor!

Never a bad idea in my opinion--if they do not take the photos from you then you have them for the passport! Good luck!

This might be a good idea because it happened to us as well.  My wife filed in November so we did not send in the passport photos.  At interview, they told her to go get them and bring them back, so we did.  Their reasoning was because the system they use to retrieve them was giving them problems and they couldn't access the photos - at least that was our best understanding of it.

I am a 5'6" male - US citizen. I used to be teased when I was much younger, but that stopped after I graduated from high school. In my adult life no one has ever really cared (except for one woman that I dated years before my wife who was 1" taller than me and it bothered her to no end. Needless to say, we didn't date for long). In my professional life (an office engineering job) no one cares in the least, and I've never been teased in that environment. Now, if you were to work in a factory or construction job, or somewhere where you're surrounded by much taller/bulkier men, you may be the brunt of a few light-hearted jokes, but you'd be very unlikely to experience outright bullying. I've been in that type of work situation too, and the men were all very friendly and respectful toward me even though there was an occasional "fun-loving" comment made.
I too was able to wear children's clothing sizes (10-12) even as an adult in my late thirties. Now, they'd be a little tight around the mid-section for me though so I am more comfortable in adult smalls and mediums, but I totally get where you're coming from with that. But nothing to be concerned about - no one ever thought anything of it when I shopped in those departments.
Like you, I also do not drink any alcohol, and this has never been a problem with any of my friends or co-workers. They are all very understanding (and even supportive) of that fact.
All in all, don't spend too much time being concerned about these things. You'll find that most people will be friendly and accepting of you as you are.
And good luck with your studies!
[Funny side story about being small in America: When I turned 16 and started driving I was only 4'10" and I had an extreme baby-face. You should have seen the looks I would get in parking lots when I would pull up in my car and people saw what they thought was a 9-10 year old getting out of the driver's seat - hahaha].

I am a 5'6" male - US citizen. I used to be teased when I was much younger, but that stopped after I graduated from high school. In my adult life no one has ever really cared (except for one woman that I dated years before my wife who was 1" taller than me and it bothered her to no end. Needless to say, we didn't date for long). In my professional life (an office engineering job) no one cares in the least, and I've never been teased in that environment. Now, if you were to work in a factory or construction job, or somewhere where you're surrounded by much taller/bulkier men, you may be the brunt of a few light-hearted jokes, but you'd be very unlikely to experience outright bullying. I've been in that type of work situation too, and the men were all very friendly and respectful toward me even though there was an occasional "fun-loving" comment made.
I too was able to wear children's clothing sizes (10-12) even as an adult in my late thirties. Now, they'd be a little tight around the mid-section for me though so I am more comfortable in adult smalls and mediums, but I totally get where you're coming from with that. But nothing to be concerned about - no one ever thought anything of it when I shopped in those departments.
Like you, I also do not drink any alcohol, and this has never been a problem with any of my friends or co-workers. They are all very understanding (and even supportive) of that fact.
All in all, don't spend too much time being concerned about these things. You'll find that most people will be friendly and accepting of you as you are.
And good luck with your studies!
[Funny side story about being small in America: When I turned 16 and started driving I was only 4'10" and I had an extreme baby-face. You should have seen the looks I would get in parking lots when I would pull up in my car and people saw what they thought was a 9-10 year old getting out of the driver's seat - hahaha].

My wife was forced to return to her home country to complete our CR1 even though she had been living in the US legally for over a decade as a student due to a 2 year homestay requirement (J-visa I believe) from when she was a high-school exchange student that prevented AOS. Luckily she had gone home to visit over the years and only owed 6 months, but it was a painful and frustrating 6 months and I feel for those separated even longer. Fast forward years later and we're waiting on her removal of conditions we filed last year because Vermont is way behind and odds are we'll be filing for citizenship before we ever hear from them.
Through this whole process, we hardly complained because that's what it takes to do this properly. The only time I have gotten huffy is when our Gov. talks about making the path easier for illegals or when I hear of the waivers from people breaking the rules.

No they don't.

I am getting a T Shirt made:
Dont mess with me! I came on a K1.

Thank you, JayJayH, for confirming this. I appreciate it.

It's not an issue. They change it for both as the case numbers are tied together.

So you're a charitable guy doing it "for the people," who just so happened to end up on a PROTECT list, and also had the misfortune of trying to sponsor an underage girl on an I-129f who also just so happened to have changed her name.
Quite the run of bad luck and coincidences there.

Human nature. Somebody must be responsible for my misfortune. Other than me of course. There's such a culture of instant gratification anymore, they want what they want when they want it, not unlike a group of 2 year olds.
I used to try and reason with people with that mindset, but you can't really tell a dill pickle nothing. It matters not that they have no facts, no premise, no proof, someone is darned well going to wear the blame for them having to wait. They don't care that in many cases they are comparing apples with oranges, they don't want to understand the differences in the visa types or the benefits of those, they don't want to know that centers speed up and slow down alternately. What they do have, in excess, is too much darned free time to search the net and find anything that feeds the conspiracy they invent. See! I was right! That's not fair!
It isn't right. Not by a long shot. Is there a way to stop it? I am doubtful. Short of VJ mods locking those sort of attack threads and not allowing that kind of carry on at all, people will be lemmings.
It's a pity people can't think before they post, and go off on some half baked rant against a group of people they don't know thing one about.
The process is long, it's convoluted, it's expensive and time consuming. It is not transparent, your congressmen and senators cannot help you. It isn't for the faint of heart, and all you can do is wait. Try to use your time while waiting in some productive manner.

What exactly are the "getting away with"? Transferring their own money to their new place of residence? Moving assets for the place the "used" to live to their new home country? Using assets they legally possess to establish their new residence here? There is absolutely NOTHING illegal or,shady about this... Do you not think the USA would WANT immigrants to bring money (that they will spend and invest) here in the USA, where they can tax any interest they earn on it?

Schloss Dyck is pretty close to where we live and we go there each year to their Classic Days auto show. Gorgeous estate.

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Amsterdam red light district

Berlin, Reichtag

Cinque Terre, Liguria Italy


Dachau Concentration camp Munich

Zugspitze, Garmin Partenkirchen on the border of Austria and Germany

Diving at Samal Island, Philippines

Duomo in Milan

Milano Centrale

Higashi Matsushima, Japan

Sakura season mid May

London:

Stonehenge:

Prague:

Sydney:

New Zealand:

Jiuzhaigou National Park, Sichuan Province, China:

OK ~

1) Early morning at Alona Beach, Bohol, Philippines:

2) Atop the Taoist Temple, Cebu, Philippines:

1) Economics. This is a multi-pronged subject. Filipinas have a cultural mandate to be a bastion of support for the family. A woman over the age of 25-30 in RP (Philippines) is considered "old" related to finding/keeping a job. This blatant age discrimination in RP affects men too, but perhaps not to the same extent. Even for Filipinas under the age of 25 job opportunities are rare. Thus the mandate to be able to support the family is difficult. Foreign lands offer less age discrimination. Foreign men, especially those who can travel to RP offer economic support. These men are also likely to be able to keep their career intact with no or little age discrimination.
2) At the risk of drawing the ire of some, Filipino males have an undesirable (broadly speaking--of course there are exceptions) set of mores. Mores are cultural/moral values. The machismo attitude runs deep in RP culture. It likely comes from RP's Spanish heritage. It is common for males to woo young females, impregnate them, and then dump them as now being worthless. Philippine men cheat. Again, though there are exceptions, the cultural mores come into play. A male who has the resources to me married and have children and who decides to maintain a second household with a kabit (mistress) is not looked down upon. Though not openly admired, most even within the family will tolerate this, and some will even clandestinely admire the male. Filipina's on the other hand rarely cheat. The book "Lust in Translation" tells that only Tibet and Ghana has women with this level of fidelity. We can ignore Ghana as a male who finds his wife cheating might kill her--a good reason to be faithful. This leaves RP's women very desirable in the eyes of many Westerners who find the mores of Western women with their "Sex in the City" attitude and their lack of fidelity undesirable.
3) Filipinas want white! It is utterly ironic that most Western women admire and try to emulate through tanning the skin color of many Filipinas. Western men enjoy women who are not pasty white--we like all shades of Filipina. Filipinas want their babies to be white and they are smart enough to know how to attain this.
4) Many Americans are culturally adaptable and most are polite and considerate (and indeed, there are exceptions). This runs in opposition to other nationalities such as the Koreans and Chinese. I apologize to those of Korean and Chinese heritage who might be here and realize again, there are exceptions--but having traveled a bit the Koreans and Chinese unless you are friends with one seem by and large simply rude and inconsiderate.
5) Filipinas crave stability. Young men, worldwide do not offer the type of stability--but older men do. (same 'ol caveat--a generalization) Filipinas are age-difference tolerant. In 1972 I remember reading an article that said that the average American woman desired a male partner 2-10 years older than them. Today if that article would be re-written the statistics would likely indicate that American women now want male partners 2-10 years younger than them. This creates a situation where RP offers what American men want, and had until the feminist movement changed things. I, at my age, am, generally speaking, not what American women want and they, especially from their attitudes/morels/mores are not what I want. And I, at my age, value a woman who wants a lifetime relationship and have found one.
6) As others have pointed out: America is a melting pot. Everyone can fit in. America has its share of problems these days, but it's still a wonderful country to move to.
7) American men want sumbissive women. Oops...who wrote that--not me, where is the erase button.
Indeed, this is a loaded subject and all too often misunderstood. To some "submissive" means that a Filipina might become a sort of slave, or second class citizen, kept barefoot and penniless down on the farm and be subjected to the sexual whims of the dominant male. Yet I believe that though this concept might exist--it is rather rare, and really not what most American men desire.
I prefer to remove the word "submissive," and as another poster here has done--interject the word "feminine."
Back in the '60's most women in America stayed home and raised kids while the husband worked. The husband made the decisions. This is far from the case today, in America most women work--indeed most have to work--such is the economics of today. But what it's really about is that the women of the sixties at least seemed happy to have a nice home, a loving husband and happy children. Women of today in America, at least to me, all too many have become "independent," or rather beyond independent. They don't need a husband--in fact millions are better off with no husband to worry about. America's nanny state gives a single mom quite a lot. Subsidized or free housing; free medical; free education (college) and oftentimes even assist the single mom in buying a car. In my opinion America's changed to where marriage is a negative thing and as girls become women in their fatherless environment--the need for keeping a husband around has taken on less importance. For me the close family values that the Philippines espouse is a treasure. That a Filipina is more likely to be happy with the basic necessities of life is a refreshing alternative to the last two American women who I dated about 5 years ago. Both, after a nice dinner, as I walked them to their car said exactly the same thing: Smiling each said: "Oh, which is your car?" I responded: "the older blue Honda Accord." Both reacted the same--there appeared an odd look on their face that might have had a bit of disgust in it. Neither asked: "Why do you drive such an old car?" (Note: It looks nice to me and runs quite nicely, but it is 11 years old) Had either asked, my answer would have been: "I don't place much status value on having to have a new car--I'd rather not have $400 a month car payments (or $800 a month with two cars) and I prefer to pay off the mortgage on my house or use the money for investing. Though I had a nice time with both of them--neither responded to further calls or emails. Sadly--if you don't have a new car in America, a large percentage of women will write you off. It's a terrible thing too as so many men become so stretched out on debt to maintain the supposed status of the new car and big "dollhouse," (a big fancy house) that eventually it is this very economic loop of debt that destroys their lives and their relationships. Filipinas tend not to be particularly materialistic. They seem to be happy with a nice house and a car that runs. I like that.
8) Filipinas don't smoke and don't like smoking. This is not the case of way too many American women.
9) We American males are astounded at how beautiful all the Filipinas are.

Agreed.
I was really astonished to see topics saying they didn't know what to do next. There is too much info on this site for someone to say, "I'm approved, now what!". Use your resources folks.
Once I get my NOA2 , I have paperwork for Packet 3 cocked and ready. I have phone numbers programmed into my phone, emails waiting for me to hit send on them, paperwork already mailed to fiancee, and websites that are bookmarked o pay neccesary fees. It helps to create some sense of control in this process for me.
"On your mark, get set,......"

"This would never have happened if we could just bathe in our tub like NORMAL PEOPLE do!"

"This would never have happened if we could just bathe in our tub like NORMAL PEOPLE do!"

Exactly! The wait together is much more bearable than the wait for the initial visa was. It hasn't seemed like more than 5 months has already gone by since we applied for AOS. Good luck to you all.

"OMG my case status says something. Is it normal?"
"OMG My I-485 says acceptance. Should I worry?"
"OMG where is my EAD?? I sent in the application a week ago and I thought I would get it in a week, right?"
"OMG I got a RFE for proof of meeting in the last two years, but I sent them lots of photos and chats!!!"