elle13

I am a foreign attorney too, (LLB, not JD) and took the bar exam two months after I arrived in the US (I moved to the US at the end of May 2013). I self-studied and it was insane to learn and memorize all that material in 2 months, on top of practising Bar essays and MBE techniques. I wouldn't recommend it! You should definitely start studying now if you're taking the Feb bar exam. We are at a disadvantage because we haven't been studying this stuff for 3 years. For me, there were also the little things like making sure I spell in American English rather than UK English.

I won't get the results until Thanksgiving but the good news is that a couple of weeks after the bar exam, I found a legal job in my desired practice area. The job market is very tough but praise God, not impossible!

Good to know! Will work on that tomorrow :-)

Definitely! I think it made a world of difference. I got feedback on my first résumé by a kind HR manager who basically said it needed a complete overhaul because US recruiters wouldn't be used to it and would chuck it straight into the bin!

3 weeks of job hunting resulting in an interview. A week later, I got the perfect job! Praise God! I am really blessed and grateful because I know it's difficult to land a desirable first job with no US qualifications. As I'd moved from the UK, I had to update my resume to speak to the US audience (you'd be surprised how "foreign" a resume can look just because of its writing style). I also brushed up on my interview skills and made sure to prepare answers to more difficult common interview questions.

I got the job offer!

It's a full time permanent position and I'm incredibly blessed and grateful. Just want to encourage everyone making the move, despite our foreign qualifications and experience, it is possible to land your dream job in the US. I'm so grateful to God and my supportive husband, as well as this forum. Nobody truly understands until they've been through the visa process themselves. I started my CR1 visa process thinking it would take about 6 months and boy was I wrong! The wait has taught me two things: patience and faith. Don't lose hope!

Well as a post-interview update, I got a call from the hiring manager saying they're still interested and that I am still in the running for the position but they need a few more days to work out the details.

In summary: I'll need to wait and see

Legally speaking, a co sponsor can be anyone. There's no regulatory requirement for them to be a relative. However I think the officer would question why a non relative would be willing to sign a co sponsor agreement, and so you need to be ready to dispel any doubts - ie show proof of relationship. My husband's co sponsor is his father and they happily accepted that without question.

congrats, interviews and work are hard to come by here. But just fyi, 3 weeks is not a long time. It took my husband 4 months to get an interview, he has a degree in computer engineering with years of experience in his country, his interview was at walmart, he got a job loading trucks, hurt his back on the job and workers comp denied it. He took walmart to court and won, but only after they forced him into an unpaid leave of absence for 8 weeks. Judge ordered workers comp to pay his back pay(only 60% minus the 20% he had to fork over to an attorney) and his medical bills, and ordered them to put him back to work light duty. A week after returning to work they fired him. So now he is in the middle of a wrongful termination suit.

He just started working in his field as an intern 3 weeks ago, the low man on the totem pole. He is happy to be working and getting experience here, and he really loves his new job, but it isn't even close to what he was doing in Jordan. Getting your foot in the door in your field of expertise here is no small feat.

Best of luck. Don't get discouraged if you don't get the job(I pray that you do), my husband was depressed when he wasn't getting any bites. I just kept encouraging him to send his resume, he sent it to literally hundreds of companies and things are finally looking up after being here almost a year.

Thanks for your well wishes. Sorry to hear about your husband's situation. Yes definitely don't give up on applying. I'm going to keep applying until I find something!

They allow a co-sponsor for the spousal CR1 visa so hopefully they take the same position with regards to K1s

Well that's done. The interview went on for 1.5 hours in total! Just happy to have an interview experience and now waiting to hear. They agreed to my expected salary which made me wonder if I lowballed too much should have asked for more.

Thank you! I know 3 weeks is not long and I am very grateful to hear back after sending out many resumes. I really pray I get it. Will report back

After 3 weeks of sending out resumes, I have my first job interview tomorrow! Was starting to think I wouldn't get anything with my UK degree and experience.

Only you lovely people here would understand how it feels to be a foreigner who left a great job in her home country and is trying to land that first job in the US.

Sorry I misread your question, you say you haven't paid your IV. Please disregard my post above. FWIW I notice the bar codes on both the IV and AOS cover sheet look identical but like you, I wouldn't risk it.

I've done this and both were processed by NVC without any problems. I also received a single checklist that listed both the AOS and IV RFEs, which made me suspect one person was processing both packets.

I POE'd with a CR1 at LAX on may 7 and got my SSN in the mail 8 days later without initiating any application. The green card then arrived shortly after (think it was a couple of weeks after POE). We paid the $165 fee the day before I left for the US though.

I feel really sorry for you both. Having to deal with such a huge red tape juggernaut is not easy. They're dealing with the lives of families, and great care should be taken. Pray you get a speedy resolution.

Hey elle, thanks.....how are you doin? Got yourself a driving license yet?

I'm good thanks. Yes I got my California driver's permit!

You should get it pretty soon. Mine arrived at our US address within 14 days of receiving the confirmation email from ACPO (I paid for premium delivery). In any case, the UK police certificate gets processed a lot faster than the Malaysia police certificate!

Well, thanks again!

Here's an update of what I have. A day after receiving an email notification from ACRO, I received a Citysprint collection confirmation email shortly after the booking confirmation email.

So I figured, it should be making its way to the States right now. I'm guessing by end of week or early next week it should reach my hubby. He will then make a copy to keep and send it to the NVC from there.

Thank you for reading and responding.

It's not a problem if he trusts you. I completed all our forms too, including the petitioner docs and my husband basically said "just tell me where to sign". We were both incredibly busy but he trusted me to get the paperwork right because I'm the lawyer in our marriage! He made the right choice, everything within our control went smoothly from start to finish. I'm happy because I'm a precision freak, he's happy because he now has his wife in the US.

My USC husband paid this last week without a problem. He did it in less than 5 minutes and I received an email confirmation/receipt. He followed the exact instructions on the one-page paper instructions given to me along with my sealed POE envelope. Did your wife get that sheet of paper with instructions? It had the payment website address and step by step guide.

Thank you.

Also, (sorry!) will my green card arrive in my married name or my maiden name? My passport is in my maiden name, and my DS-230 had my maiden name also (to match my passport). I would prefer my green card to contain my married name. Is there a way I can ask USCIS to ensure my green card has my married name?

Is there a website where I can track the production and delivery of my green card? Presumably this is dealt with by USCIS and not DOS or NVC.

Are you already at NVC stage? I believe there is a time limit if you are at NVC stage, which is 1 year. If NVC doesn't receive any correspondence from you within 1 year, they will close your file. However please double-check this position with the K-1 forum as my case was a CR-1 (spouse) visa.

If you want K1-specific answers, it's better to ask on the general K1 forum as your questions are not Malaysia-specific. There are lots of people there who are filing K-1 who can help you.

Hello All

I read this forum the moment when me and my fiance start to file for K1 visa back in May last year. And i only received my package last month and i do hope the process of this will not change much from those who had applied back in years.

There is no time limit as to when i need to get all the documents ready right? Because i do not see it stated in the letter.

I am now at stage 2 where it requires all the list of documentations. Would someone that been through that stage help to advise whether i understand correctly of what they required in the letter?

1. Ensure my passport has at least 6 months of validity
2. my birth cert ( need to be translated and must be certifiied true copies)
3. Police certifcate ( photocopies need to be certified true copies)
4. Photographs
5. Evidence of support from my fiance
6. evidence of relationship
7. Fee

As for OF-167 , under the section " Applicants own funds" , i basically need to submit my bank statement only ? as i do not have property, stocks or bonds.

Now , the confusing part in the OF -167 , under the section of " Employment ". What i understand about this section is that it is only applicable for those who has an offer of prearranged employment from a company in US. This is where we need to ask for employment letter. If we do not have any employement offered by an US company, then we basically do not have to worry about this section.

We do not need to ask for employment letter from our current company in Malaysia , am i correct?

cheers

Thanks for all your responses!

Great! Thanks for the reply. Yes I did check in the form to ask for a SSN to be assigned to me.