Anna Grant

Hi,

Take a look at this thread http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/357465-usc-petitioner-living-abroad/

It looks like people who live abroad but do not qualify for DCF sometimes have their petitions move faster then those in the U.S.A.

Be sure to write your foreign address and state that you are living in France.

Whoa! Interesting thread. Never realized this. Hopefully, this gives the Op some hope of expedited application with this recent application from France - http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/357465-usc-petitioner-living-abroad/?p=7095018.

I didn't think it would. I'm 17 stone and losing weight at the moment. Just wanted to be certain. Never had high blood pressure or anything medical.

I was overweight with white-coat hyper-tension last summer when I had my medical in London. The first reading was above the allowed level - I think the level is 150/95 or so. I asked the doctor if I could be allowed to sit quietly in an office and have it taken again in 30 minutes. By that stage, I had calmed down and my blood pressure was 148/94 and I passed.

My accent is RP, pretty much like the Downton Abbey lot. I get comments on it at least once a day. Last night, we stopped into a Sonic to get one of their ice-cream milkshakes and I ordered via the tannoy system at the entrance. The person taking my order said over the tannoy 'Just to start, I love your accent!' Everyone around laughed.

I don't find it an issue face to face. And I also look at it as an ice-breaker. I sometimes have trouble being understood over the phone. We live in Kansas at the moment and will be moving to Texas soon.

Huh? The girl forced him to propose to her?

And then, presumably, forced him to submit the I-129F including an 'intent to marry' letter.

We provided more than 50 photos and it probably overwhelmed him that after looking at each picture he said "I think theres no problem here, I will approve you." Just dump them with photos!!! They don't mind it anyway, and they usually ask for it.

We're discussing the passport style photos that you have to send attached to the application. I think you're thinking of the photos some people include to support the bona fide nature of their relationship.

Jose&Eli you are ok.

Look folks...if you are filing I-485, I-131, and I-765 TOGETHER....(2) passport style photos are all you need. We JUST did this, and everything was fine. No RFE...

Yet.....

It is 6 as I believe that the I-485, I-131 and I-765 are separated when they arrive at USCIS. They are processed by different departments. Hence why each application has 2 photos with it.

Quite what they do with them, I've no idea as the photo used on my EAD and PR card is from the biometrics appointment.

I was in a similar situation whilst going thru the K1 process - I was living with a friend as I had sold my apartment in preparation for moving to the US.

I was paying her rent, so we put together a rental agreement based on an online template which we both signed. I got a Rent Book from WH Smith and put in the payments into that book, which she signed. She also signed a letter saying that I had paid rent up until x date, she expected me back on y date and all my possessions were still in my room.

On my last 3 visits to the US, I was in this situation and I didn't have a job at all (I was made redundant). I just made a folder of all the stuff that proved that I had to go back to the UK and took that with me on each visit. I was never denied entry, so I didn't have that red flag on file. The only thing I was ever asked to produce was my return ticket.

BTW - I'm slightly confused about you situation, although I may have missed a post which explains it. The title of your thread says 'Want to visit boyfriend' but you said in your first post that you have separated from your husband. Are they the same person? Is he in Florida? Are you going thru any other visa process at all to join your husband permanently?

I aslo have another question.

What if i had a job here (illegally i suppose) while im overstaying, to pay my rent with my girlfriend and wanted to get married,wouldn't it be an issue at the interview if they ask me with what money i pay my rent and how i overstayed?

Please don't consider working illegally. You are already in a slightly dodgy situation. Don't exacerbate that situation by working illegally.

Since that day i've been going to canada and once back to Switzerland to cross the border to adjust my legal status so i could come back each time for another 3 months. Everytime at the border i said it was for hollidays and travel only. Never had troubles.

Just to clarify, did you go to Canada before your 90 days of ESTA were up and return to the US hoping that would 'reset' your ESTA? If so, it doesn't reset if you visit a country contiguous with the US or the Caribbean.

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/194/~/visa-waiver-program---eligible-countries

While in the U.S., you may go to Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean and Adjacent Islands and re-enter the U.S. using the I-94 admission notation you were issued on your VWP passport when you first arrived in the U.S., although the time you spend there is included in the 90 days allotted for your visit.

Was her passport stamped at the border? Was she given a paper I-94?

http://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/i-94-instructions

http://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/i94_factsheet_2.pdf

As much as I hate the expression, "it is what it is". It will happen when it happens and not a minute sooner. There's nothing you can do to quicken the process so try to accept the wait and attempt to make it as good as it can be. You dont wanna look back in 6 months time and think "that was the most miserable period". For the sake of keeping your sanity, exercise a little self care and less defeatist attitude. Lol just speaking from my experience. My advice may be dusting of past experience and offering it for more than it's worth so feel free to take it or leave it lol but before I squeeze in any more nauseating, compensatory cliche...if life gives you lemons...

+ 1

We applied for our K1 in July 2012 and we didn't get our NOA2 until April 2013. It went a bit quicker after that and we got married on 12 July 2013.

So we have been married for just over a year and the separation that we endured is now just a vague memory. When you can be together on the other side of the pond and wake up together every day, then the pain you went through is so much worth it. Of course, then everyday issues like trying to get a job and trying to get people in stores to understand you begin! And understanding different US accents. Only today, I couldn't work out if someone was telling me to go to office A or 8!

My advice is to investigate everything to do with the process post-NOA2. And AOS too, if you are a K1. You don;t want to be one of the people who post 'I have my NOA2, what next?' Or 'We've got married. What next?'

what ? how do u mean rfe on interview ? will there be a secpnd interview ??

Our AOS NOA1 date was 18 July 2013.

I got my EAD/AP card in September 2013 (expedited).

I got called to an AOS interview in Chicago in June 2014. By that time, we had moved to Kansas (which we had notified USCIS of in May 2014 and they had acknowledged).

We then had a rescheduled AOS interview on 7 August 2014 in Kansas City, MO. At the beginning of the interview, the officer handed me an RFE regarding my medical in the UK. The interview continued and we were approved conditional on resolving the medical issue. We got an appointment with a civil surgeon the same day and our application went to 'card production' a couple of days later.

So you can get an RFE during the interview! A bit annoying because, had we known sooner, we could have taken to required paperwork with us to the interview. And I still don't think I should have got an RFE as I came on a K1. But it's difficult to argue with someone when they have your future in their hands.

What happened to your interview in May? Did that not go ahead?

You should have had more co-mingling of stuff by now. Not just your rental agreement. Did you take checking account statements with you? Each other as beneficiary for investments, life insurance, wills.

Although by no means infallible, I would check your status online regularly to see if it updates to 'card production'.

EDIT: were both of your names on the receipt for the car? Did you get finance for it? Jointly?

My EAD was approved September 2013 - I got an RFE at my interview for AOS this month!

At your original interview for your visitor visa, did you mention that you had a boyfriend in the US? If not, that might come back to bite you if you decide to marry your boyfriend in the future and live in the US.

However, looking at your current situation, you are using your visitor visa to live in the US. It is supposed to be used to visit, not live. As a rule of thumb, you should be spending more time OUT of the US that IN it. I did spend more time in the US that out of it a couple of years ago but I was using the VWP to enter the US AND I spent at least 6 weeks back in the UK.

Thanks, that was very helpful! Did you take your birth certificate with you and everything else you had to send in? Do you remember if you brought anything else to the states in preparation? Thats one thing I am worried about that he will need while he is here

In the UK, we take the birth certificate, etc with us to the interview. It is only completed forms we send to the embassy. So I didn't take any of that with me to the US.

However, I did apply for the K1 visa from within the US. As I didn't want to be caught with my birth certificate, divorce papers in my luggage (they may consider that I was going to attempt to AOS from within the US), I actually mailed it all to my fiancé.

Hi everyone, I have a few questions...

We are in the process of waiting for our noa2, and we just got an RFE after 7 months of waiting. My fiancé who is from new zealand visited from march-june under the visa waiver. it has been 2 months since he has left and we are talking about him possibly coming back here while everything else finishes for the k-1 and then we both go back to nz for his medical and interview.

The questions are, 1) has anyone traveled to the states under a visa waiver, twice, in a short period of time? 2) And will they care if we do the rest of the forms and the remainder of the process while he is in the states and we go back to nz shortly before the medical and interview?

thanks to anyone who can help!

I travelled to the US with only short gaps between visits - 89 days in the US, 6 weeks back in the UK, 90 days in the US, 6 weeks in UK, 8 weeks in US. Not really recommended as you are supposed to spend more time OUT of the US than IN the US. I took plenty of proof of ties to the UK each time I flew - on my last trip in April 2013, those ties were getting quite tenuous. The only time I was ever asked for anything was on that last trip - I was asked for evidence of my return ticket which, naturally, I had with me.

I got my NOA2 whilst in the US on that trip and completed all the forms in the US and sent them to the US Embassy in London via FedEx (this was back in May 2013 - I think the process is different now). I flew back to the UK and had my medical the same day - not really recommended as my blood pressure was high. My interview was then 3 weeks later (my fiancé was also with me at the interview).

Thanks everyone for your help. I really do appreciate it. My Green Card arrived in the mail yesterday!

I just did some checking and don't mind me. I discovered that it is standard wording.

OK. I'm back.

My status has update again to 'decision':

The first paragraph seems fine and I'm really happy. The second paragraph seems to make no sense - '(approved/denied)'? Surely, I'm 'approved'? Is this a paragraph used as a 'catch all' to cover all circumstances?

Was there intent to emmigrate?

We do not have the full story.

The OP asked a similar question about 2.5 years ago, so I would suggest that 'intent to emmigrate' has been there for a long time!

But it probably depends on where he is right now.

Thanks Harpa. I thought that was the case. Just stressing me out a bit! I never really thought that we would be in the situation of having to wait a year for an interview and then get delayed further.

Now our status has updated to 'Initial Review' with an update date of today. So it seems that someone has opened our envelope - but probably not the officer who conducted our interview! He said that if we marked the envelope with his officer number, it would go straight to him and he would approve us (as long as we had the done the medical stuff right, of course). I'm just hoping that we move to approved shortly.

Oh rats! I've now realized that I could have applied for a renewal of my EAD card some time ago - I was certain that I couldn't apply for it until 30 days was left on the card. I have the original letter from USCIS, so that should speed it up. However, I do hope that my AOS gets approved early next week, so it's not an issue.

It is not fair at all. What is particularly galling is getting an RFE for it at the interview. Had we known about it earlier, it could have been rectified and I could have taken the paperwork with us to the interview.

Today is exactly one month until my EAD card expires. I now have to decide whether to extend that for a year or hope that my GC turns up before the month is out. And we are due to leave the area on September 9th and travel for 6 weeks before spending the winter in Texas. And I have to get back to South Dakota when I get my GC so I can update my driver's license (we're fulltime RV'ers). Illinois were happy to give me a DL for 5 years - SD would only give me a DL for the time my current immigration document lasted for.

I was kind of hoping that I could be done with USCIS after Thursday until ROC time. But it's not worked out like that alas.