Tee and Megan

Hey y'all!

We are BRAND new to this whole process and I'm so sorry if this has been asked a million times, but my searching in the forums isn't yielding the answers I'm wondering about. 

My husband is an USC; and we want to bring his sister here. She is married, but we only want to bring her here. We also want to bring her 17 year old daughter here. 

Questions:

1. Sister has four kids----but we only want to bring her oldest daughter. Do we need to list all 4 kids on the application?

2. How does it work to attach the daughter to our I-130? Or do we have to wait until the priority date comes up?

Yes, I know our niece might've aged out by this point. Sigh. We still want to bring sister here. 

Thank you all, so much, for any info and for this awesome community. 

Hello all!

My apologies if this has been asked before--but my search efforts aren't finding anything. We are working on bringing my mother-in-law to the US and eventually getting her citizenship. WAAAY down the road--we were just curious if it would ever be possible for her to petition, as a USC for one of her grandchildren to join her in the US? 

Thank you all so much for all your help on our immigration journey. We don't know what we'd to without VJ!

Peace be with you

Megan 

Hello all!

My husband has his Citizenship interview on Tuesday. My deepest apologies if this has already been asked before (I couldn't find threads for it when I searched through the forum---but I'm not the most tech savvy)

We are wondering if anyone would be willing to share a bit about what the USCIS asks about during the Citizenship interview. My husband has been studying the civics questions, vocab, and practicing his writing. What else should we expect? TIA! 😊

Hello all! 

We have some family friends who would like to bring a niece over from Cambodia to work in their family shop/market. I've only ever done a K-1 visa for my husband and have no experience thinking through work visas. Where do we start? What do we need to consider right off the bat? Any thoughts or guidance is super appreciated. 

Hello VJ community! 

So thankful for you all and all the wonderful thoughts you've shared with us over the years! 

We have a niece in Cambodia who is very determined and driven with her studies. She's going to graduate high school some time next year. She'd love to come to study in the US under a student visa. However, she only has the basics of English mastered so far. Is there such a thing as a school or classes for ELL students that help them gain more English skill, that they can then use to transfer to a college or university for more study? Thank you all for your help! 

28 minutes ago, Lucky Cat said:

How does a nephew qualify for an immigrant visa???  Without a qualified petitioner, you can't do much.

Hi! 

I should've said---they want to help him file for a CR-1 visa for his Cambodian wife and children. He's already a  US citizen. Sorry! Trying to type with kids running around my feet! 😆

Hello all!

Some family friends of ours have asked us to help them file the paperwork to bring their nephew and his wife and children here from Cambodia. They said they'd compensate us for our time. I am wondering if this is okay? Do we need to be certified in any way to help people close to us with their immigration cases? Is it okay if they compensate us a bit for the time we spend helping them? Can we fill out the forms for them (as long as they are the ones submitting them?). Thank you so much for your thoughts! We just wanted to help folks through the process as we remember how hard it is---I'd totally do it for free--but they really want to compensate us. Thanks everyone! 

Hello all!

Hope you're having good summers! My husband has his 10 year Green Card. He's currently looking at going back to school for Cybersecurity. We've received word from his school that he's eligible to take part in a grant program that will pay for his school because he's going to be earning a degree for skills that are in high demand. It's part of big North Dakotan program to strengthen our workforce and draw people to work in the state.  (Jeez, why wouldn't anyone want to live here? It's only -40F most of the year...)

HOWEVER, I'm still super leery of applying for any sort of state aid--because aren't I technically his "fiscal sponsor" until he becomes a Citizen? Would this be classified as a forbidden kind of aid? Or does that kind of aid only refer to things like Food Stamps/SNAP and such?

Thank you all so much for your help! 

Hello all;

My husband is just waiting, waiting, waiting for his Citizenship application to process (biometrics done back in January). We are curious,in the meantime, about whether it would ever be possible for us to file a petition to bring over one of his nieces. She is a brilliant 18 year old who wants to be a nurse. We could help her file an student visa but we were curious if it's in any way possible for us to file for a green card for her. Would we have to be her legal guardians for her to qualify?

Thanks for your help, all! We are so thankful for the VJ community. 

Arrggh, sorry ya'll! I'm just full of questions as we start this process. 

We're almost done with the application and it says we can submit additional evidence to support the application if we choose. I uploaded scans of my husband's GC, our marriage license, and our son's birth certificate. Is there anything else you'd add to support the application? Taxes, leases from where we've lived? Or just bring those things to the interview? 

Thanks SO much everyone!! So thankful for VJ!

Hi all!

We're working applying for citizenship; and I'm using our previous leases to help me remember the exact day that we moved or started to live at our various apartments (I'm a pastor so while I was in Seminary, we moved a lot because of the requirements of my degree). I have every lease from the last five years except for one. I know approximately what day we moved out and what day we started living there--but I don't have a document backing up these dates. Should I be worried? Is an approximate date okay? Any advice? Thanks all!

Hi all!

Just one more question from me this weekend. We're working on applying for citizenship--we've actually started the process a number of times but life got crazy busy with COVID and our online application "expired." 

I just tried to login to our account and was denied because apparently I used the wrong password too many times. UGGGH. 🤦‍♀️  (I'm currently 8.75 months pregnant with our second--could we blame it on baby brain??) And now the account we were using is locked. I submitted a request to have it unlocked, but given how fast we know USCIS moves on these things--should I just make a new account? Rather than waiting for them to get around to unlocking the one I was using? Any tips or advice? Thanks everyone!

Hi all!

My husband and I were applying for a loan to buy a car together and the bank put up a fuss because his Social Security Card says "work only." Were we supposed to get him a new card when we removed conditions for his LPR status? Or let the IRS know somehow? We didn't have this problem when we bought a house, but I think we just used my credit for that situation. But now we want to start building up his credit, so we're curious about this. Thanks all!

Hi all!

Not to say that any part of immigration is "easy," but I want to make sure I'm reading this correctly. 

My husband's GC says he has been a resident since 09/19/2015. (He arrived in Oct. 2014 and we removed conditions in 2017)  This means, as of last week, that he's officially eligible to apply for Citizenship without needing to submit proof of our relationship/my citizenship, yes? I was reading through checklists, and as far as I can tell, he just needs to submit a copy of his GC, show that he's been residing here continuously for five years, and pass all the tests, of course. Is this correct? We don't have to submit a huge pile of evidence showing our home together, our insurance stuff together, our children together, etc?  

OO! I'd love to know the answer to this question as well!

Hi all!

My husband is filling out an I-9 for employment verification and using his Green Card as his document for employment. We know where to find his A number, of course, but the form also says "Documber Number." Does anyone know what that means? Thanks all! 

Hello all!

We are working through the n-400 and I'm quite frustrated with myself. We are currently working on the sections which ask for employment and address data, and we never kept track, to the day of when we moved apartments or when my beloved changed jobs. 

If I estimate and am wrong is this a huge deal? Uugh! I am just not sure how to figure out exactly when my husband left certain jobs, especially because one of his previous employers is out of business now, and another has almost entirely new staff.

Any advice?

Thank you all so much! 

Happy New Year to everyone!!

Megan 

Hello all!

My beloved has a Cambodian passport that will expire in June. He just got his 10 year GC in the mail a month or so ago. ( Yay!!) Does he need to renew his Cambodian passport for any reason other than if we would like to travel outside of the US? 

We are planning on applying for citizenship soon, but haven't finished all the paperwork yet. He won't need his Cambodian passport to be valid for that, will he? 

Thank you all so much!

Megan and Tee

Hi all! 

Just wanted to stop by and say, don't lose heart! We've been waiting for GC since July of last year, and two weeks ago, we got a letter in the mail saying the card was on its way. Two days later, it arrived! We were approved one day after the anniversary of my beloved's arrival in the US. We can do this! Continuing to hold us all in prayer and in Light during this LONG waiting process. 

Oo! Thanks all. I guess I didn't think it through that way.  I wasn't sure we had to change our residency right away if we moved because lots of people from MN live in Fargo and keep their Minnesota plates and driver's licenses. I already filed the AR-11 when we moved, so that is taken care of. So what I'm hearing ya'll say is we need to:

1. Change our address on EVERYTHING and our residency to reflect our move to North Dakota

2. Wait three months to be eligible for citizenship. 

Thanks for thinking this through with me! My brain is a little scrambled from the move! 

Hi amazing community!

My husband came here on a K-1 in October 2014. He received his 2 year GC in Sept. 2015.  We've been waiting on his 10 year GC since July 2017--no movement yet. Everyone on the July 2017 thread says things are massively backed up. 

HOWEVER! We are looking ahead to citizenship. It is my understanding that we CAN apply for citizenship, even if his 10 year GC is still in processing, yes?

If this is the case, the part I'm struggling with is that we JUST moved to ND from MN last week.  Our residency is still in Minnesota; and since we're living in Fargo, just across the river from Minnesota, we don't intend to change our residency to North Dakota any time soon ( we may end up buying a house in Moorhead, MN).  At the moment, we are renting a place in Fargo, North Dakota.  Does this bar us from applying for citizenship because we haven't lived in ND for three months yet?

His extension for his 2 year GC expires in September, so I'm hoping we don't  have to wait to apply for Citizenship. Any thoughts or advice you have would be so helpful!

Thanks everyone!

Megan and Tee

On 1/5/2018 at 5:32 PM, tdotca said:

 

I too am still waiting ( last called mid December) and my I751 was received end of July.  In regards to INFOPASS, I thought that we don't do that until our extended period is (close to) expiring and still waiting for ROC to be completed?! Can someone confirm? 

 

Also calling local USCIS office ..  is it just calling them and asked if you have been scheduled? 

Ugggh, the waiting! I kind of thought INFOPASS was a last resort too, but the Tier II officer I talked to strongly suggested it. However, our local office (Minneapolis) has had no openings for the last three weeks and doesn't  have any projected openings. I also couldn't find a phone number to call the Office and the USCIS 1800 folks told me that the Office don't have phone numbers. Our Office also only works M-Th from 8-345, so it's tricky for us to even figure out when we'd try to just walk in and get biometrics done. That's all I know so far. Have you heard anything? 

On 1/13/2018 at 6:11 PM, snnan said:

Did you have any success at your local USCIS office? Did they do the biometric for you without any appointment scheduled?

 

 

 

 

Hi! 

We haven't even been able to schedule an appointment! It's been VERY frustrating.  We've checked online every day for the last three weeks and they never have any openings.  I am not sure if we should just try a walk in? But we live four hours away from the Office and we're not even sure if they accept walk-ins.  So it would suck to show up at the Office after driving four hours, only to be turned away.  

They also don't have a phone number to call them. Sigh. 

Does anyone know if the USCIS offices take walk ins? 

I called the USCIS 1-800-375-5283, before Christmas because I was tired of us not having a receipt number. (Due to never receiving a biometrics/ASC appointment letter, we've never had a "valid" receipt number to check our case status.)  

I have submitted two case status inquires thus far.  The first one was back in September, and the second one was in early December. The inquiry from September only generated another copy of the NOA1. We still haven't heard back anything from the inquiry we made in early December. However, I called again because we moved and I wanted to make absolutely certain that they had the correct address for our case processing (because we didn't have a case number, I was worried the "receipt number" on the NOA1 wouldn't work.) 

Well! This apparently allowed me to get bumped up to a Tier II representative who gave me the first answers I've received in five months! He not only confirmed that they have the correct address on file, he gave us a receipt number to use from now on to check our case status. However, he also told us that there is NO WAY we will hear from the USCIS about biometrics any time soon, unless we go in for an InfoPass appointment. And he said there's NO WAY our case will move forward without those biometrics. 

Thus, I've been checking our local USCIS office every day for appointments, but NOTHING shows up.  Has anyone had any luck booking an Info Pass Appointment? We live four hours away from the closest office, so it would be difficult for us to get to the appointment with only a day or two's notice. Arrrgghggggh...

Can anyone explain what an InfoPass appointment is? 

My husband and I filed at the end of July 2017, same as many of you on this thread. We filed an inquiry and all we got was a new copy of our initial NOA1. Sigh. We also got an email that said something like "we're experiencing longer than average delays..." etc. We're fine waiting until next year for the Green Card to process, but we're both getting anxious that we've heard NOTHING about the biometrics appointment. Any advice?