sophielas

Congrats! Hey don't feel guilty. It is what it is. I'm starting to get the feeling that USCIS has A LOT of I-130s to process right now and probably the cases where the petitioner and beneficiary are living together are easier for them to get out of the way...hopefully it's so they can get to the other cases faster.

Oh, don't feel guilty! We don't really know what happens when petitions are at USCIS.
Enjoy it! And prepare for NVC!

Oh my! You're probably the first I-130 Jan 2013 filer on here who got NOA2!! http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/407523-january-2013-i-130-filers/page__view__findpost__p__5955267
Ahhh! I hope I can get this awesome news this month, too. Congratulations!

Probably the first I-130 filer of January 2013 who got a NOA2 already!
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/357465-usc-petitioner-living-abroad/page__view__findpost__p__5954567
Sophielas, congratulations!!!

Um, so, I got an email when I woke up this morning telling me that our I-130 petition has been approved on the 31 January.
They received it on 3 January. That's 28 days from receipt to approval. What the... I practically choked on my coffee in disbelief.
SO I would suggest (as we made it quite clear on our packet that the USC is residing in NZ here with me) that the mysterious 'auto expedite' for USC living abroad is still happening at NBC. That, are I just got the world's most efficient staffer on our case.
Either way, I am very thankful, bemused, and have my faith restored in this part of the system. I am sure we will be stuck at NVC forever, as we need co-sponsor and to prove US domicile, but that's another post.
Today is a happy day for us.

Congrats on your approval! One of my besties is married to a Kiwi. They did all of this several years ago and are in the States now.

whoa whoa whoa wait a minute. In your initial post you made it seem as if your husband was self employed for the last 3 years. This is new information that he just entered into this new self-employment frontier beginning June of 2012. It makes a difference.
I suggest you refer to the federal guidelines on how they determine if the 864 qualifies for approval
Theyre going to look at your income for the year and your number of dependents. Theyre going to see if your income meets the 125%. Simple enough.
Then it gets tricky...
From the guidelines
"The sponsor's household income for the year in which the intending immigrant filed the application for an immigrant visa or adjustment of status shall be given the greatest evidentiary weight; any tax return and other information relating to the sponsor's financial history will serve as evidence tending to show whether the sponsor is likely to be able to maintain his or her income in the future. If the projected household income for the year in which the intending immigrant filed the application for an immigrant visa or adjustment of status meets the applicable income threshold, the affidavit of support may be held to be insufficient on the basis of the household income but only if, on the basis of specific facts, including a material change in employment or income history of the sponsor, substitute sponsor, joint sponsor or household member, the number of aliens included in Forms I-864 that the sponsor has signed but that have not yet entered into force in accordance with paragraph (e) of this section, or other relevant facts, it is reasonable to infer that the sponsor will not be able to maintain his or her household income at a level sufficient to meet his or her support obligations."
The parts that apply to you-
*any tax return and other information relating to the sponsor's financial history will serve as evidence tending to show whether the sponsor is likely to be able to maintain his or her income in the future.
*a material change in employment ... infer that the sponsor will not be able to maintain his or her household income at a level sufficient to meet his or her support obligations.
The problem youre facing is that the business is less then a year old. You only have a tax return showing apx 6 months of business history, and how ever many profit loss statements you can accrue between now and whenever they review the 864, since its already been submitted so 1 for Jan 2013, 1 for Feb 2013 1 for March 2013 (?) I dont know how many youre going to be able to gather until it becomes time to 'put up or shut up' so to speak.
So while youre in a position of showing a strong financial past, it unfortunately means nothing. Youre going to be judged on your business. When you look at just your business income on the 864- for 2 people the min income is roughly 18k, so for 6 months you would have needed your business income on your taxes to show atleast 9k- forget about the tax return as a whole, does the business income line show at least 9k or more in business income?
If it far surpassed that amount, then GREAT. That along with a strongly worded self employment letter should be proof enough that your business is a reliable source of income and your spouse is able to meet the requirements. (but again its not a slam dunk guarantee as you do not have 12 months of self employment history to submit) If its just over or right in the ballpark, then its going to come down to a judgement call on the part of the person reviewing your 864. Its up to them to determine if your spouse is likely to be able to maintain his income in the future or if the fact that he had had a change in employment constitutes him ineligible as his new job (the business) only has a 6 month tax history and a few current profit loss statements.
As for what is the 'risk' to file w/o a co-sponsor. I dont really think there is a risk (?) You would just be delayed. If you dont meet the requirements they'll RFE you. They dont shred your file and have you start over. They RFE you and tell you, you have the opportunity to then submit a co-sponsor or additional proof of income or assets to make up for it.
So its your choice what you want to do. I dont know your exact numbers. I dont know what your letter would look like, I dont know whose going to review your file. But I can tell you based on the guidelines, you do not have a case with definite approval based on the fact that your husbands current self employment income began apx 7 months ago and is only partially reflected on his last tax return.

Just because you don't understand how it could happen, doesn't mean it can't happen. The majority of cases I see on VJ are perfectly legit. A lot of people don't research anything visa-related beforehand - they go to see their bf/gf and then get engaged or something and then say "well what now?" A lot of people getting married are also young with no property etc and they are able to leave their possessions behind for a few months - I hear a lot of people saying they don't have the right type of clothes because they weren't planning on staying. A lot of these people have employment that they can leave or work remotely, they are self-employed, something like that.
Furthermore, a lot of these people are long overstays. You can disagree about overstaying (I think it's bad) but this courtesy is extended to the USC spouse. I can understand that you are a USC, minding your own business, and you meet someone in your town and fall in love and want to get married. This person overstayed their visa. It's not your fault that they overstayed and you were able to meet them in your own town. If the gov were on top of it the person would be deported and you wouldn't have met.
Adjusting in-country has no bearing on anyone else's wait times.
So no, it's not a lie. I think if you think more flexibly about the circumstances then it will become clear.
Unfortunately, I don't think this topic will result in anything fruitful, just misplaced anger based on misinformation. Everyone who did K-1 will say "it's not fair!" - we've seen it too often before.

Here's the MSC stats page - http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/monthly_filers.php?form=2&visa=3&scenter=4&option=3&sortby=2
Just in case you need it.

If someone want to create a general petition that we could sign. Look how many people sign to deport Pierce Morgan and that got to the white house. If we could get 25,000 or more I think the white house has to answer. Maybe we could contact this group The petition was created December 21 on the White House "We the People" petition site. It quickly passed the 25,000 signature threshold required for an official response from the Obama Administration, ultimately garnering more than 100,000 signatures. This is a direct line to the President it the White House website. I am open to writing a petition with the group help. Then we need to pass it around this is a free site. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/how-why/introduction

First of all, I would like to say that writing to your elected representatives is ALWAYS a great idea! They are elected to serve you, and they need to hear from the people loud and clear what the issues are. It's very important, and we should never forget it. Don't ever be complacent and accept the status quo if it is broken.
Secondly, there is so much emotion here, it's heartbreaking. I know how horrifying and criminal the concept that a government (any government) can have the final say on whether or not you can be with your loved ones. And everyone in this community feels that too. We are all just trying hard to get to the next stage of living our lives with our families. And it's hard. And challenging. And frustrating.
I also think it is very important that the US is taking steps to address the (huge and not going away) legacy of illegal immigrants living without rights and without paying taxes in the US. I believe that giving these people an avenue to legitimacy is a basic human right. Not to mention, once they are legally resident and able to contribute to the US coffers, there is more money to CHANGE THE SYSTEM.
This is the real issue as I see it. There is too much work, and not enough resource. I don't believe it has to be this way. This is what you should be writing to your representatives about.
I am lucky enough to have my husband living with me in NZ at the moment while we wait for the US to process my visa. He applied for a NZ work visa on the basis of our marriage, so he could stay in NZ with me while we wait for the US. It took the New Zealand government five days to approve his visa from the day they received it. Five days. Obviously this is a slightly ridiculous comparison because NZ is tiny, and the US is huge (and for many other reasons) - but - the point I am trying to make is that how long this takes is about expectations, resources, and what citizens are willing to out put up with.
If the US government were to spend, say 5% less on military spending for 2013, and reallocte that resource to relieve workloads for immigration petitions, then we'd see some radical changes.
You are the people. You demand the changes!

I'm not sure what you expected going in to the process, then. With years and years of data showing exactly what to expect, and being able to move through the process even faster due to having the immense guides those before us have so thoughtfully put together.
Why do you think youre entitled to a waiver? If IR1/CR1s start saying its unfair, what about the K1s and K3s and etc etc etc.
I dont LIKE to wait but when we decided to go for the CR1, we looked at the road ahead of us and decided it was the right thing to do. Please don't make it seem like I like to be apart from my husband.
Youre drumming up the wrong support. Your original post was in regards to the Dream Act. So if its just that you don't want to wait normal processing time, then that's just silly. You were approved in 6 months.. at the VSC no less. You are lucky lucky lucky that it was that short.
This wait is a drop in the bucket for the time we get to be married and living with our loves. Your time is better spent going through the NVC and prepping for the interview. Not stirring the pot of "anti-illegal" sentiment, which is truly heartbreaking from this community.
Also you posted on a public board, you can't tell everyone who doesn't agree with you to mind their own business. It's not how it works. Message boards are discussions. And I am truly worried some people are blaming their waits on the Dream Act (other threads have come up before).

See, I did read every post before I replied, and found there to be some very hateful things being said. Whether you said it or not, it seems like people following your lead are doing it for the wrong reasons.
Shouldnt be this long? How long should it be? Look at the volume of applications they get. Im surprised its this short!
My point was, dont use the Dream Act as your gunpowder, because its the wrong ammo.

Wait, if everyone is in NORMAL PROCESSING TIME then why are you complaining?
It has not been 5 months since the applications have been accepted for the Dream Act. So anyone outside of 5 months haven't had their "place in line" affected whatsoever.
Delays outside of "normal processing time" are the norm. Look back in VJ history.
You're looking for someone to blame. Don't blame these kids who grew up here with NO choice, established their identities here and then have been too scared to progress forward legally for fear of deportation.
Hell yeah, Dream Act. Hell yeah, legal immigration too. And in that vein, Hell yeah bilingual (trilingual? quadringual?) country.
Count me out. I knew I would be in this game for up to a year. If it takes longer than that, THEN I'll worry. For now we just gotta keep on truckin' !

This is a disgusting thread, why do I get the impression that as soon as you all get citizenship you will be the ones yelling "CLOSE THE BORDERS! IMMIGRANTS ARE TAKING OUR JOBS!". Hopefully you are all moving to hillbilly towns in the deep south so I don't ever need have any political discussions with you.
These people are family members of United States citizens, they deserve respect, not a 10 year ban from their families to go get their visa, which just traps them in illegal employment, not paying taxes their whole lives.
They have US born children that are majorly affected by this.
Most of the people on this website that are filing for K1 met their spouses ON THE INTERNET and hardly even know them. The people you are talking about have legitimate relationships, years and years of having families/lives and real life experiences which each other and America.
Maybe the USCIS should ban internet relationships from visa approval, that seems more reasonable to me. I could probably get behind that.

Evidence of time spent together and how and how frequently you communicate are the two most important kinds of relationship evidence. Affidavits from people who attended a ceremony and/or party are not useful unless they attest to their observations about how your relationship has developed over time. If you've been living together abroad, that tends to carry the day.

I haven't heard of any filers from abroad getting expedited since mid August, who knows if that will change, though?
You have more than enough evidence, certainly more than we submitted. I also agree that the Skype chats and logs are not really important, especially with a low fraud country.

You have tons of evidence there. I'd bring the Sype stuff to interview, not send it with submission.
October should be ok if you file now and be sure everything is correct so no RFEs- if you want to be on the safe side, I'd give it a year, so maybe plan for an early 2014 wedding. Some cases still get expedited, others not, so yeah, it's all up in the air.

Filing from abroad is no longer auto expedited like it was before
Your evidence is more than enough, I'd send the petition in asap so that you can try to take advantage of maybe getting fast processing from NBC!

I don't think you need the handbook excerpts... I'm not sure how its proves you have an ongoing relationship? You probably also do not need a letter outlining your relationship either as that is what the other evidence is for. You have plenty of evidence showing you are co-mingling your lives which many people don't have as newly weds. I can't imagine NZ being a high fraud place either so you will not need the amount of evidence someone from other countries would need.
Otherwise it looks good to me. I don't think anyone is being expedited at this time. My hubs filed for us on Oct 15, NOA1 is Oct 17 but I know there are approvals from after us in both October and November that aren't expedited. It's a bit of a guessing game ATM.