SusieQQQ

Bit contradictory also seems they wouldn’t be able to keep it anyway if they’re living elsewhere anyway 99.5% chance they don’t need to worry about it at all, and I’m sure they’ll figure it out if your mom gets selected.

It’s confusing to me why her parents would have chose to leave her in the first place given how you have described the situation. Surely at least one can stay with her till she gets her visa?

Not fraudsters. There are people who sit out there with nothing better to do than cause trouble for other people. Your e spent enough time on the internet to know that, surely.

Lol even your iPhone facial recognition software would not get confused by that. It looks at things that you don’t change without plastic surgery anyway, like measurements of and space between eyes, angles of bones, shape of ears, shape of lips etc. maybe a bushy full face beard would block some of that but not enough.

Curious as to what insurance exactly it is - clearly not French public health insurance, which ceases coverage for those who spend more than 6 months a year outside France and doesn’t cover medical costs abroad. If it’s private insurance it’s not clear why that’s preferable to just getting US insurance. Under the terms of France’s public healthcare system, if you are planning to spend more than half of the year out of the country, you aren’t eligible for continuous coverage. Thus, short-term expatriates going abroad for a short work term will be happy to know that their coverage continues. But that only applies when they are home. They aren’t covered for medical expenses that happen in another country. And if they are gone for more than 6 months, whether or not it's continuous, they lose their eligibility. Furthermore, they will have to reapply for coverage once they return home. https://www.internationalinsurance.com/expatriates/french-citizens-abroad.php anyway this is all a long digression for the 0.5% or so chance they have to win the lottery. They can worry about it when they get selected.

Facial recognition software is not fooled by beards or clothes. The chances of someone having used it are small, it wasn’t up long. Don’t overthink every tiny detail of the photo like you did last time, just follow the photo instructions on the website.

No interference. It is obviously very low probability to be selected, but if you are the DV route will be much easier for both you and your spouse. Good luck.

The change to F1 is automatic once NVC is notified, but you can apply to retain the F2B priority date if it is more advantageous for you. If it’s not worth retaining ir (are you Philippines?) then just notify NVC of the sponsoring parent”s citizenship - they won’t know about it otherwise - and leave it at that.

Some things are needed to file for the petition and others for the visa interview. It is all explained in the DoS pages as well as the instructions for i130 https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-130instr.pdf https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition.html please read them both properly.

French health insurance to pay indefinite medical bills throughout their retirement in the US? Really? I’m surprised. Anyway if not, it sounds like they won’t have a problem paying for health insurance plus deductibles in the US, so that’s fine. Probably be a couple thousand dollars a month plus the deductibles for the couple, sounds like their rental incomes should be more than enough for that. If your mom gets selected.

Agree.

It matters more because there’s no sponsorship - it’s up to the applicant to prove they won’t be a public charge. Being selected for DV doesn’t get you off of any fundamental immigrant visa requirements, of which public charge is obviously a critical one. https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Diversity-Visa/DV-Instructions-Translations/DV-2024-Instructions-Translations/DV-2024-Instructions.pdf FAQ 37 If you are selected to apply for a DV, before being issued a visa you must demonstrate that you will not become a public charge in the United States. If you are selected and submit a diversity visa application, you should familiarize yourself with the Department of State’s public guidance on how the likelihood of becoming a public charge is assessed and what evidence can be provided to demonstrate that you are not likely to become a public charge.

For completeness, the UK has one embassy as is usual. The other locations are all consulates (or a “virtual presence”) in one instance). https://uk.usembassy.gov U.S. EMBASSY LONDON Embassy of the United States of America 33 Nine Elms Lane London, SW11 7US United Kingdom Phone: [44] (0)20 7499-9000 U.S. CONSULATES U.S. Consulate General Belfast U.S. Consulate General Edinburgh U.S. Consulate General Hamilton (Island of Bermuda) U.S. Virtual Presence Post Wales

That question has been answered.

Answered in the interim , please see above Not sure why you are so dead set against doing the H1B first

Maybe you can ask the employer to explain that - it’s possible that they (uscis) will not want to change you to H1B if you have an AOS process in place. So here’s another question though. Can your employer do premium processing for H1B? If not, then if you think it’s going to be that easy to get an H1B appointment in your home country, that seems a better idea than doing a change of status to H1B given that current COS processing times are months-long. to the earlier part of the question- yes, if you are already on H1B you can leave without abandoning the application. But you can’t just have applied to change to it, you have to have been approved,

To reiterate, AP is not required if /when he is on H1B.

Is your employer cap exempt? You seem very sure of being able to get an H1B through them. So here’s the thing, if your spouse starts the green card application while you are on F1 (and assuming you maintain that status), you cannot leave the US without first getting an advance parole document or you will be deemed to have abandoned the adjustment case. Plus, when you return on AP, you are paroled in and no longer on student status and unable to do those things you could before (unless you also have an EAD by then) if you are on H1B, you don’t need advance parole as it is a dual intent status. You can leave without abandoning the adjustment case. The catch here is that while you can leave & return on H1B and maintain that status, if you get the H1B in the first place by changing status in the US, you will need to get an H1B visa stamp at a consulate before you can return to the US on H1B. If your travel is for work, it may be tricky to figure in a consulate visit especially if not your home country ti get that done' but that totally depends on individual consulate appointment availability.

Well, maybe , seeing as they are not looking at family sponsors but would have to rather show they would be not a public charge to get DV, they could well fall into the donut hole where they don’t qualify for Medicaid but can’t afford medical care. Of course that’s even aside from the how the general cost of living in California and New York factors into the overall affordability equation. Assuming most immigrants dont want to live in the sticks just to be able to afford to be here.

As an example: someone whose grades are good enough to get into a top 20-50 school, decides to go to a school ranked maybe 100-200, because their grades will be well above average and they will be in the top x% of students that get merit scholarships. Specific rankings aside this is the reason a lot of kids that could get into upper tier schools go to places like U Alabama Huntsville or ASU Barrett - the schools are still good, and these kids get into the honors colleges with serious merit $$ that turns $50-70k annual spend into maybe $10 or $20k. Again - this is harder for a foreigner and for a transfer, but it’s worth looking into what options may be around. How far along in their studies is this student? If only a freshman now, maybe a local CC for sophomore year to ease the financial pain but keep credits in line with local state 4-year college requirements might be an option. CCs are also more expensive for foreign students than locals but should still be significantly cheaper than a 4+year. This probably isn’t an option if the student is further along in their studies though.

Curious why elderly, retired, not-rich parents want to move to the US. Have you looked at how expensive medical care for the elderly is? As they have already retired they will not be able to do any contributions for social security /Medicare (much less max them, requires 10 years) - Medicare funds the vast majority of elderly medical expenses in the US and not having it can be financially crippling if things go wrong. Things went pretty wrong with my dad and his medical /hospital expenses are somewhere in the upper 6 figures by now, thankfully all paid by Medicare + gap insurance. He certainly didn’t have $600-700k lying around to pay it all.

Quite a few posts seem to have shown a significant improvement in wait times recently, very encouraging. Hopefully it will improve further.

Like I said ours didn’t even need lines for USCs, they just go to the front of the queue and show their passports. I guess if there are a lot of citizens somewhere it’s different. Embassy is where the ambassador is based. There is normally only one per country. The consulates are run by consuls and offer various consular services including both visas and various US citizen services (CRBAs, lost passport, etc). The embassy will have all the main ambassadorial business located there including trade and business ties to host country, spies going under diplomatic cover, etc.

Another option if more financial support from the current school is not forthcoming - if the student transfers to a college where average grades are lower than the current one, they may be luckier finding merit scholarships. Many US students follow this route of hunting merit to get funding, and although funding is always more scarce both for foreign students and transfers it might be worth looking into as a possibility if nothing else pans out. Good luck.

Well, if the retiree is rich enough they can do an EB5 visa. Other than that or family sponsorship, no. Not sure where you are but it’s a lot cheaper to get a golden visa in a number of EU countries than in the US, if that’s an attractive alternative.