echoota

My wife and I aren't the most organized of people...

She came in on a K-1 visa from Canada in what is approaching two years ago. What we're trying to figure out is when exactly our 90 year window for filing the I-751 kicks off.

First, there is the date when she comes into the States on her K-1 in July of 2006.

Then we get married in August of 2006.

Then it's onto the Adjustment of Status, we're given a notice in October 2006 that it was approved and a green card would eventually show up.

In December the green card finally shows up.

Now the wrinkle... about a year later my wife lost her green card and we had the go through a long process to have it replaced. She finally got a new one. On the replacement green card it says that it expires in October 2008.

I guess my confusion lies with that replacement card. I wasn't sure if the replacement card was altering the date on which her conditional residency expires. Since we lost the old card we don't know what it said on that one. I suppose the confusion has more to do with the timing when the new one was finally issued, roughly around a year after the old one had been issued.

Anyway, am I correct in assuming that the 90 day period to file the I-751 is based around what the green cards expiration date says, when she came in on the K-1 visa, or is the date hidden somewhere in the mounds of paperwork we have filed away?

Thanks!

My wife got home so I could finally look at the "green thing". It looks like a passport, but is green, has "travel document" on the outside along with the US Seal. Inside I found "Permit to Re-enter, Form I-327".

She normally had her green card on her all the time. It was in her wallet that went missing. She does misplace a lot of things though so I'm keeping my hopes up that it is somewhere in the house.

So my wife has misplaced her green card. It could be LOST lost, or it could be just buried in the house somewhere. We're going through things in the house to see if we can track it down because from what I read it's going to cost another chunk of money to get it replaced.

Nonetheless... we've been kind of asleep at the wheel for awhile with status issues. We're waiting for 90 day time zone for the adjustment of status after the two year probationary period and everything has been fine so far. Now however with the green card lost somewhere we're having to confront the border again with anxiety.

She's Canadian and we've gone up twice so far without the green card to visit family and friends. She's using this green passport-like "travel document" thing. The first time upon entering back into the US it was just fine and we zipped through border crossing. However this last weekend the border guard was scrutinizing her and it was getting stressful. We got through, but I was shaken out of my slumber and want to figure out what to do next as we had more travel plans back into Canada in the next couple of months.

Obviously the first thing is to make a concerted effort to find the green card. This weekend I'm going to comb the house for it and if it isn't found we'll go through the expensive and tedious process to replace it. Isn't all of this stuff in the computer? Can't they just crank another one out?

But what of travel up to Canada? This green passport looking "travel document" kinda works, but I suppose we need more paperwork with us to prove residency to smooth things over. However what is more important to find out is whether these trips without the green card are somehow screwing up the transition between the probationary period and the permanent green card we were aiming for in the next year?

Thanks, that clears things up quite a bit.

Still, it's odd because we never had an interview, just the biometric appointment, and now the card has suddenly arrived.

Not complaining though, the holidays are going to be much easier now, but we're a little thrown off by having this show up so soon.

My wife got her Permanent Resident Card today and it's left us a little confused.

When we sent in the adjustment of status we also sent in the forms for the employment authorization and the permission to travel outside the US.

However this came first and it says on the card that she is authorized to work, and in reading about what the card is about on the USCIS site it makes it sound like she can now travel freely outside the US again and be able to return within a year.

So does this card over ride the employment authorization document and the advance parole document that we have yet to see?

If so, that was easy... but didn't we also end up wasting a lot of money on forms that were taken care of with the AOS?

Sorry if some of these are dumb questions... we just got married and now in this post K-1 phase we are plowing through all the paperwork before us, which seems to be even more than for the K-1. There seems to be a lot more to absorb and process here.

1. What is an "A#"? An alien number? Where do we find this?

2. What is the visa number? There are a lot of numbers on her K-1 and we aren't sure which one to use.

3. What is a "class of admission"?

4. Advance parole travel dates - do we have to fill in a specific date? We don't have any specific plans to travel, but we want to have that option in the future. We'd like to keep that space blank so that we can travel when the issue comes up, not plan it out months in advance.

5. The advance parole also asks for an explanation or evidence that warrants issuing a travel document. What do people write here? What if the reason is "I'd just like to visit family a friends"? Is that enough or is it only fire dire circumstances? The thing is that she's from Quebec, Canada and I'm from Vermont and so up till this point we've been moving back and forth for whatever reason between Montreal and Burlington without any fuss, now it makes it sound as if her mom has be be dying for her to be able to cross the border.

6. Affidavit of Support - I already submitted this before. Can I just give them photocopies of the bank and employer statements used for the K-1? Or do I have to go back and make appointments again with these two places and have to explain I need them to do this all over again for me?

Thanks for any help!

My finace spent five years living in Japan and so she had to get police records for her stay there. She went to the Japanese consolate in Montreal (she is canadian) and they were able to take care of her, however it took three months for that one bit of paperwork to get processed and given to us, so don't be surprised if you have to wait awhile.

From the USCIS website it appears anyone who is competent can do the translations of documents. Since my fiance is fluent in both French and English we are assuming that she herself could translate a couple of french documents and certify that they are correct. Anyone have any problems with the beneficiary doing this?

My fiance has been waiting some time for a criminal background check to complete itself with Japan because she lived there for five years (she's Canadian) and the other day I was looking over our paper work and noticed that the NOA2's notice is only going to be valid only a little longer.

We already have her information at the Montreal Embassy and are just waiting for this one item to come in so that she can send in her packet. I'm just wondering what happens once this deadline passes, or is there some way to file an extension?