eseniya

Hello everyone,

I hope you can help me with the question below.

I am a US citizen currently residing in Australia. My spouse and I are thinking to move back to the US. 

1. Can we apply for CR1 visa for him if I do not reside in the US at the moment but intend to move back. What evidence should I provide for intention to move back? At what stage is that evidence need to be presented?

2. Am I able to sponsor my spouse with the income I earn in Australia ( I still file US taxes and show international income)? Or the joint sponsor from the US will be the only option? Can it be my friend also a US citizen?

Thank you!

Hi Ron,

I am from Belarus. I became a US citizen in December, 2013. My mom came to visit this past February and had no problems.

The whole application was submitted and paid for online and we chose Mocscow for her interview. She was in and out of the embassy - pretty quick process. I understand that since I am a citizen she was 90% guaranteed a US visa.

The officer did ask her whether she wanted the visa for 6 months or 1 year. She chose 6 months since she was planning to visit only for 2 weeks. The visa only allowed for 1 entry to the US. It is unfortunate, as far as I know Russian citizens can get a visa for up to 3 years.

Also, she flew through Frankfurt and did not need a transit visa. I hope that helps:)

Hi All,

I had my citizenship interview based on 3 year marriage in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, CA on 11/20/13 and thought I would share my experience.

Preparation:

I created a massive binder with tabs and table of contents for all of the documentation that could possibly be asked for by the immigration officer: copy of N400, copy of green card, marriage license, my husband's birth certificate, tax transcripts, bank statements, utilities statements, medical insurance, life insurance, paystubs with "married" as filing status, trips together, pictures, mail to both of us, credit card statemetns, and other evidence. I also put all of our bank cards, credit cards (with the same number), my id, greend card and my passport in a separate envelop to have it ready when asked.

I also took an additional small binder that contained all the forms ever issued to me by uscis, plus my birth certificate and SSN card.

I know, it was an overkill but I like to be over-prepared:)

Interview:

We got to Chatsworth 2 hours before the interview because i could not sit at home and wait any longer. To kill time we had lunch. My husband quizzed me on the history questions and 40 mins before the appointment time we entered the building. Side note: the parking is conviniently located accross the street from the immigration building and it is free.

The security check point did not have any line, so we went through it very quickly.

In the waiitng room I was called to a window for my finger prints and the picture to be taken and then I went back to waiting.

I was called in at around 2:30. So the wait was pretty long considering we got there at 1pm.

My immigration officer was a japanese lady. She was neither super friendly nor mean or rude by any means. She asked me 6 questions which I answered correctly: Why does the US flag have 13 stripes? Which ocean is on the west coast? What is the rule of law? - and the rest I do not remember unfortunately. She asked me to read: How many senators do we have? And write: We have a hundred senatros. Then she said I passed, made me put my alien number on a few pieces of paper and on my name change application.

Then she moved onto asking some questions about my marriage, where my husband works, how old he is, where we met. She asked for the most recent bank statements, medical insurance and car insurance.

Then she crossed referenced my trips outside of the US (I only had 5 - totalling 93 days) using information from the immigration database. She tried to check the stamps in my passport, but I renewed it a year earlier, so not all of the entrance stamps were there.

After that she printed the paper where she checked the box "recommended for approvaL" and said I would have my oath ceremony in December or January. She took a copy of my ID and that was it.

I think I was in her office for about 25-30 min.

I hope this is helpfull.

Good luck to all of you who are still waiting. Dreams do come true! Everything will be good in the end, if it's not good, it's not the end:))

Hi all,

Here is a quick update on my removal of conditions:

05/13/13 - received a strange email from USCIS stating that they'd updated my mailing address even though I had not requested any address change. Contacted USCIS with the issue. The representative on the phone submited a service request to an immigration officer.

05/14/13 - received yet another email from USCIS stating that they'd ordered the production of a new card (the approval letter was received almost three weeks prior)

05/15/13 - another email saying that the card was mailed

05/20/13 - green card in mail.

It took almost a month to receive a greencard. And it looks like USCIS has some serious issues with automatic emailing system (my friend also received a couple of strange emails absolutely not related to her case)

Just as a side note, when I was waiting on my approval, I contacted my congressman and they did get back to me about 3 weeks later with the case update. At that time I already had my approval letter but it was still good to know that they did not drop the ball on my request and contacted the immigration services.

Best of luck to everyone who is still waiting!

Approved. Finally! Received the approval letter in mail today. The approval date is 04/24/13. The website still says Intial Review. Good luck to everyone who is still waiting!

Thank you. I will try calling.

Can someone please add me to the list?

Date of I751 08/03/12

NOA1 date 08/06/12

Biometrics 08/31/12

Approved: xx/xx/xx

GC received: xx/xx/xx

When do you guys think I should schedule an info pass? After 9 months mark? Or shall I wait longer?

Thank you for your help.

Hi all,

My NOA date is 08/06/12 and I still have not received any updates on my case.

I am just very confused about why so many September/even October filers are being approved while many August cases have not even been touched yet.

I am running out of patience on this waiting process...