FrankBooth

Thanks all for the helpful replies!!

My father-in-law got his visa last week but he had to pay the new $165 fee for the green card. We created an account and submitted the payment. But the account still says case is pending review.

Anyone have any idea what that means? He has his visa, the payment was made and he'd like to come into the country, but with the status saying "pending," I'm not sure if he should come into the country yet.

Thanks for any advice.

My father in-law's i601 was approved (online status says so.) It says they sent notice out on December 17, yet we have not received any notification. If it was sent out at that date it should have been here by now. It also says there are instructions there on what to do next.

I don't want to let this lapse in case there are specific instruction on what we need to do next and we don't know.

In someone's experience here, what generally happens when they approve a i601 in terms of things the petitioner has to do?

Is there a number or email we can use to contact? I have not found one.

Thanks for any advice.

Nope.

Child is not a qualifying relative to submit a hardship waiver. Needs to be Spouse or Parent.

Maximum ban for an overstay is 10 Years? Multiple entries?

Not an overstay, just an illegal entry, one time. What I have read that the law limits ban up to 20 years for such an offense, if I understood correctly. This was over 30 years ago.

The hardship would have to be on the citizen, you.

Yes, thank you for your reply. It's a bit subjective, isn't it? I mean, how can I provide documentation that it would be very distressing to me to not have my dad here with me?

Hello,

I have applied to bring my mother and father to the U.S. They have issues my mother an PR visa but they denied my father's due to an illegal entry into the U.S. over 30 years ago.

There are no criminal or medical issues in the way. The hardship would be that my mother would be separated from my father. I don't know what evidence one can show to prove that that is a hardship, it wouldn't be financial because I would be supporting both anyway. My mother has written an affidavit in his support, but I'm just wondering if there's anything else that can be sent?

Also, it was unclear at the visa interview if they sent the documents to the office handling the i601 or, does anyone know, do we have to resend birth certificates and marriage documents all over again?

Thanks!

FB's wife

It's been so long I can't remember when I did this for my wife. She's the USC and she's petitioning for her parents. The question is, who signs the DS 230 form, is it her or is it her parents?

So the NVC sent us a notice after my wife sent in the i130 for her parents saying that they had received/approved it and to await further instructions, then they asked to send them money for the visa app etc... After not hearing anything we sent an email and the person who replied said we could apply for the visa for them and have them gather their civil docs and send pictures and send in the affidavit of support.

So here's the packet I THINK we have to send in:

--i864 one per parent filled out by my wife (the petitioner)

--i864A one per parent filled out by me(husband)

--DS-230's (Pt's 1 and 2) a set per parent

--Passport pics and civil docs, including police report

Does this seem complete? Any money and/or other forms missing?

Thanks!

My wife petitioned for her parents. She is a USC. She's a stay-at-home mother so she has no income. I will be sponsoring her parents. However, does she still need to file a separate i864, or is mine enough?

Thanks!

Once they received payment are able submit all of the forms. I just did this in November/December 2011 with NVC. You should also call them and speak to a live operator.

603-334-0700 press 1 for English then 5 for an Operator.

The thing is, I can't call because my wife is the one who applied and her English is not good. Do they have Spanish speakers?

My wife, a USC, applied to bring her parent to the U.S. last year. Thus far we've gone through the normal process and the last thing we did was to pay the visa fee and the affidavit of support fee. Since that time we had not received any communication from NVC neither had her parents. Last week i sent an inquiry regarding the case. This morning they replied, saying they had received the fees and that we should not fill out the Affidavit and the Visa application.

Being that this reply is written by a subcontractor (Serco, Inc.)...

Should I trust this?(I've read some not nice things about Serco)

The normal process should be that NVC contacts us when they need us to continue the process. Should I wait for NVC to formally send the Doc's to fill out as they should through the normal process or should I just go ahead and do what the reply to the inquiry says?

Has anyone had this experience in the past?

Thank you for any advice!

My wife has applied for her parents. When we sent in the forms we paid several hundred for each. Then we had to pay a biometrics fee of $88 for both. Now we get a letter saying that we have to pay a Immigrant Visa Application Processing Fee of $404 for each.

Her parents have not received any paperwork or requests for information as of yet.

My questions:

1: Is this the normal course to have to pay almost $1500 up front?

2: Anyone know what these fees cover?? I had thought that the original money we sent in with the forms was the processing fee.

Thanks!!

My wife is a USC she is petitioning for her parents. I don;t think it's necessary to notarize any documents that we are sending in, ie, translations, copies of passport, etc. Of course the original birth and marriage certs are already notarized by the source agency so need to further notarize those.

Just wanted to make sure because the I-130 instructions don't say anything about notarizing doc's.

Thanks

Your wife is a LPR until she takes the oath. make sure you doesn't claim to be a citizen (mentioning it just to be on the safe side). How long is she traveling for? She needs to be careful not to travel for an extended period of time - even though she passed the test already, but she is still required to maintain her continuous residence and physical presence. As long as these are maintained, then her status is not in limbo and she is good to go in August!

Congratulations by the way!!!

Thanks for your reply!!

She's traveling for two months, and she's never been out of the country more than 150 days total in 5 years. So I think she's good.

No issues - she will need to update info on her oath day for the time out of country but that's about it. Why so long until her oath ceremony?

Thanks for your reply. Not sure why so long for the oath ceremony, I guess Boston is busy making citizens

Works out great for us because of a planned vacation trip.

Thanks!

My wife just passed her citizenship test today and the oath is in august. She will be traveling out of the country before then. Just wondering if there's anything to be weary of, or if they ask certain questions upon re-entry to the US while in this limbo period?

Hi,

Not that I think my wife will fail, but since the possibility exists I wanted to get some advice on what happens if one fails the citizenship test.

1:How lenient are they when giving the test?

2:If she does fail it, do she get a one time do-over?

3:Would she have to restart the entire process over again?

Thanks!!

Hi,

Just got the naturalization interview for my wife. However she has tickets to go on vacation soon after that appointment. Is it possible to postpone the oath taking in case the date for the oath is inside the vacation time? Of course, provided she passes, knock on wood

Thanks!

Wondering if anyone's experiences this before.

My wife has gone through all the requirements for the last 5 years to prove that we've been married. We've been married for 5 years and have two children and have lived in the same place the entire time. She's now applied for citizenship and we're waiting to the interview app't. but we've received a yellow letter stating that they wanted more documents like a driver's license or state ID and 3 years of Income Tax.

1: Why don't they ask for this for N400 submittal?

2: In prior parts of this overall process I've submitted IRS forms showing both our names. Why ask again?

3: My wife does not have a driver's license or a state ID. Isn't the green card enough ID, I mean after all the stringent checks and evidence I've had to submit for them to issue a greencard, wouldn't that be enough?? Don't they trust themselves that they've checked well enough?

Sorry if that sounds ranty, it's just odd after having never received a request for extra info through the entire process, to now at this final leg, to be sent this letter.

Thanks for any advice!

Hi,

It's been a while since I've been here. My mother, came to US in 1975. She lived here more or less continuously until the 90's. Then she started having longer and longer stays out if the country, none over a year, but many over 6 months.

I've read in some places that you must live with uninterrupted absences or at least very short absences from the US for at least 5 years. Is this actually the case?

Anyone had any experience with this sort of situation and can any sort of waiver be gotten? My mom would like to get her citizenship now and not have to wait 5 years.

Thanks for any advice!

--FB

My wife just because an LPR, and now we want to bring her parents here.

I am a USC. I have have read this: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=166927 and understand that she can file before becoming a USC and then upgrade later.

I have two questions:

1-Am I able to file jointly with my wife for her parents?

2-If she files then upgrades when she becomes a USC, what exactly does upgrading do for her?

Thanks!

Received it yesterday!

That's a week after receiving notice that the I751 had been approved.

Starngely though, the Online status site still says they're reviewing our case. I guess they don't update that too often.

So there it is, 4 years from bringing wife here to getting the permanent GC and the only hitch was that despite applying for and paying $250 and being approved for an EAD, we never received it.

I'm so glad it's over! (naturalization is next.)

Thanks all!

By the way, the online status page is not showing our case approved, so there's a lag there.

Received a congratulatory letter yesterday from USCIS. I-751 has been approved and will be receiving GC within 60 days!! Funny, it wasn't a standdard NOA1 style green letter though, more a computer print-out on white paper.

Took long enough

Now it's on to the next process, citizenship.

To that end, I have this question: Does my wife become eligible to apply for citizenship at 3 years(I think it's 3) starting from when she received her conditional GC or from now (the permanent GC?)

Thanks!!

You are correct except that the stamp is only for 90 days from the date issued.

Hopefully the I751 approval will come before that 90 days is up er else we'll be in Limbo. It should have been in process by now according to the Processing Dates website and indeed they did tell us in Boston that the I751 was on its way to an officer, whatever that means...