SusieQQQ

Yeah well people don’t come onto VJ to post that they are having a normal tourist visit and going home, do they? Of course most of the ones you’re going to see here are the ones who want to adjust. I assure you the vast majority of visitors don’t “meet someone”. It’s like judging how many sick people are in the city by who you meet at the hospital. OP is not the first to get confused between visa validity and i94.

What a load of BS to try justify the fact that he didn’t follow instructions. Suddenly it’s a different reason, that he couldn’t get pictures? is he planning to lie under oath to a consular officer if they ask him about kids and step kids?

Jeez you guys don’t even read between the lines but off the edge of the page obviously they thought originally she’d have to leave when the visa expired, not understanding the difference between visa vs i94 expiry. Why not stay for a longer visit if you can? I did that when I had the time to do it. Without meeting anyone!! leave it up to VJ to find nefarious motives for every simple question

I copied the rules word for word for you. again: o all living stepchildren who are unmarried and under the age of 21 on the date of your electronic entry, even if you are no longer legally married to the child’s parent, and even if the child does not currently reside with you and/or will not immigrate with you. They are very clear. The CO’s job is to ensure that the applicant has followed the instructions for all potentially disqualifying issues. This is one of them. They always ask about kids for anyone, and step kids for anyone with a previous marriage. Even without prior applications (which yes they’ll check) he’d be caught out. And he does not want to lie to a CO, because lying about something like this is at best material misrepresentation and in an instance where it is knowingly done to mislead a CO specifically to get a visa it is fraudulent misrepresentation. That’s a lifetime ban from the US.

As I said before, I know of a case in Johannesburg some years back where someone was disqualified for exactly this reason - and everyone was going “that’s a stupid rule, why do you have to list stepchildren if no longer married to the parent”? so as it turns out - the reason for this rule is that as long as a de facto stepparent/stepchild relationship continues to exist after dissolution of the marriage, this is still a valid basis for an immigrant petition under US law as long as the step-relationship was created by marriage before the stepchild turned 18. https://fam.state.gov/fam/09FAM/09FAM010208.html Stepparent/Stepchild Relationships After Termination of Marriage: (1) A stepchild who has met the requirements to qualify as a “child” of the stepparent under INA 101(b)(1)(B) may continue to be entitled to immigration benefits, either as a principal or derivative applicant, from such marriage, even though the relationship between the natural parent and the stepparent has been terminated by legal separation, divorce, or by the death of the natural parent, provided the marriage was a valid marriage and the family relationship continues to exist as a matter of fact between the stepparent and stepchild.

That misses the point that they needed to be listed on the application he was selected on and were not. It’s disqualifying regardless what “kind” of children they were listed as before.

Yes, and unless they are over 21 he’ll be disqualified because he didn’t read the instructions and include them. The rules say: https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Diversity-Visa/DV-Instructions-Translations/DV-2024-Instructions-Translations/DV-2024-Instructions.pdf Number of children –Listthe name,dateofbirth,gender,city/townofbirth,and country of birth for all living, unmarried children under 21 years of age, regardless of whether they are living with you or intend to accompany or follow to join you, should you immigrate to the United States. Submit individual photographs of each of your children using the same technical specifications as your own photograph. Be sure to include: o alllivingnaturalchildren; o all living children legally adopted by you; and, o all living stepchildren who are unmarried and under the age of 21 on the date of your electronic entry, even if you are no longer legally married to the child’s parent, and even if the child does not currently reside with you and/or will not immigrate with you.

Visa expiry is a different thing, you can enter the last day your visa is valid and still get 6 months to stay as a tourist. I94 is what matters for considering overstay.

Please answer a different question, because i think you’re missing the crucial issue: are the kids listed, at all, in the entry in which he got selected?

It’s not part of the visa application , any more than being born to someone who becomes a citizen or an employment contract with a US company is part of the visa application process. It’s a separate aspect that allows you to apply for a visa. There’s a difference. This is -for example - why entering the lottery or even being selected has no impact on immigrant intent determinations, only Ds260 or i485 determines that. of course the difference here vs a random family or employment relationship is that DoS gets and keeps your bio details.

Which is it? He listed the step children or he listed no children?

Of course they have access to everything. If there is a discrepancy between what was presented as factual at one point to now, sure there will be questions. If marital status differs between entries, that’s an easy one as he will have to present all marriage and divorce certificates. The kids is a bigger problem, the entry is specific you have to list all kids including stepchildren where you are no longer married to the parent. As he didn’t list them now I suspect he’ll be disqualified. I actually know of a case in Johannesburg some years back where this happened. (Is also found out why they do this in case anyone wants a side track) Edit: see question in my next post please as your post is contradictory

Sounds like a huge amount of overthinking. Are you married? No, then you’re eligible. Are you bringing your son as a derivative? No, then you don’t need permission from the other parent for anything. Will your son follow you at some stage? Yes, then worry about what’s necessary at the time. It’s 2022 in Kenya too, right? — Also i don’t know others thinking on this, but please don’t tag me in posts, I would have answered this regardless. If it was a post I didn’t know how to or didn’t want to answer, then tagging is just annoying.

No, it did not. The DS260 is filed online and filing dates moved with priority dates. As F2A has been current the whole time, there wasn’t a filing barrier so no barrier to fulfilling that requirement. Aging out as a result of the pandemic backlogs has happened a lot where the priority dates themselves have not been moving, but that’s different from the seek to acquire provision.

Occupational hazard of using the internet for advice vs a paid lawyer.

Not sure why everyone is being so argumentative about the admittance date. However I would caution you not to be so dismissive about the custody advice. The father “being on board” is often not enough for various immigration issues, including if you potentially want to naturalize and give your child citizenship on the back of that. Having at least joint legal custody is necessary for that. Asking for limited advice is one thing, but we’ve seen often enough here that sometimes people just don’t know what they should be asking. This last piece of advice comes from having seen numerous people on these forums think that example the notarized permission to bring the check was all that was needed. Good luck with the immigration journey.

I got a different actual number to you but yes it was under 21. We’ve seen a number of times NVC make mistakes with CSPA - both ways, retaining people who’ve aged out or, more commonly, aging them out when they are protected by CSPA. I’m not sure but I suspect somewhere in the “small print”, the onus is on the beneficiary to confirm everything is correct. Of course, we see them here when people catch them at the time of case creation or request for documents. As far as I know, the NVC inquiry form is the best way to contact them. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/ask-nvc.html

Might be better to get your husband an Australian spouse visa, seeing as he (presumably) has no issues outstanding with Australian immigration authorities. Also I’m a parent and I get babies are work, but not filing a form for two years as a result of one seems like a stretch. Talking about filing forms, you want to take your daughter home with you, did you register her for Australian citizenship? Does she have US and Australian passports?

? Wouldn’t be a separate petition for the son in law, he would be a derivative spouse of the daughter

“Logging in and trying” is not seeking to acquire. Seeking to acquire is explicitly described by uscis below. Note the last sentence - that’s probably going to be your best bet to try for - blame the “extraordinary circumstances” on their error. https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-processes-and-procedures/child-status-protection-act-cspa Sought to Acquire Requirement In order to benefit from CSPA as a family preference (including VAWA), employment-based preference, or DV applicant, you must seek to acquire lawful permanent resident status within 1 year of a visa becoming available to you. This is referred to as the “sought to acquire” requirement. You may satisfy this requirement by: Properly filing a Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status; or Submitting a completed Part 1 of Form DS-260, Immigrant Visa Electronic Application; Paying the immigrant visa fee to the Department of State; Paying the Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, review fee to the Department of State (provided the applicant is listed on the Affidavit of Support); or Having a Form I-824, Application for Action on an Approved Application or Petition, properly filed on your behalf. USCIS also considers a written request to transfer the underlying basis of the adjustment of status application to satisfy the “sought to acquire” requirement if the request is received within one year of an immigrant visa becoming available in the new preference category. If you have a pending adjustment application as a derivative child and USCIS grants the principal applicant’s request to transfer the underlying basis of their adjustment application to a different immigrant category based on another approved petition, then the date that the transfer request is received by USCIS is the date used to determine whether you met the sought to acquire requirement. If you fail to satisfy the “sought to acquire” requirement, USCIS may use its discretion to excuse you from this requirement if you can establish that your failure to do so was the result of extraordinary circumstances.

Did you submit a ds260 within a year of the petition being approved? You were protected by cspa at the time, but that protection only applies if you “seek to acquire “ a visa within a year of a visa becoming available. For consular processing, submission of ds260 is usually what satisfies the seek to acquire requirement.

Yes of course but officially only at interview after they have paid all the fees etc. what’s the point of waiting to do that? Just wasting time and money.

The petition is dead. Exactly as boiler said. There is no category for married children of lpr, so it died. It cannot change categories because there is no category to change from.

What Mike said. Under 18s do not accrue unlawful presence.

His mother can apply for a visa to visit him unclear how “long” the recovery will be and therefore if the normal visit time will be long enough also not clear when she can get a visa, Havana only takes emergency non-immigrant visa appointments at present. Depending what country she applies to, most consulates are taking months and in some cases over a year for appointments. Edit: although I see Georgetown is “only” 89 days so Guyana may be her best bet. Hope your friend”s healing process goes well.