scienceworks

I can understand certain frustrations from those who have gone the longer route and filed for a K1/CR1 however those that do decide to drop everything to stay and file from a tourist visa also have to go through the consequences of that decision as well. I know from my own personal experience it was not an easy decision to decide to not get on a plane and go home. I didn't get to say goodbye to my family and friends and I know I hurt a lot of people by doing that. I had to quit my job suddenly after ten years and suffer the consequence that my reputation with that company may well be tainted. I had to put the burden on my brother to clear out my apartment, sell my things or put them in storage. I only have a suitcase of vacation clothes to live with at the moment until I can get someone to send or bring things over. I lost my security deposit on my apartment as I left so suddenly, terminating my phone contract early was expensive and overall financially it is a struggle not being able to work yet. I am going to miss my sisters baby being born in a couple of months. The hardest was I didn't get to have my family and friends at my wedding... For some people they couldn't do that and that is why they go home and file for a K1 but for my own personal situation my relationship won and it was more urgent to stay with my now husband. Did I choose the easier option? Well I think it is a matter of opinion and depends on each person's own circumstances. I'm only at the start of my journey but I'm very grateful that we were able to decide to stay together and AOS as it may well have saved our relationship that had been weakening due to the distance.

But you didn't have any legal consequences compared to someone who wait forever to get just the i-130 approved and then all the drama about Affidavit of support, and then consulate and the eternal wait. The IR-1 route can also cause difficulties like what you had to go through. The AOS with B2/VWP is a loop hole and needs to be plugged, Eventually, someone in the USCIS/DOS will realized it is getting abused. What do you think of tourist who come intentionally during their pregnancy and then deliver here so that their kids are born citizens. They just go back to their home country and when the kids grow up ( college age) they send them back to get all the benefits of the citizenship

http://world.time.com/2013/11/27/chinese-women-are-flocking-to-the-u-s-to-have-babies/

Govt. moves slower, but it will move. When they realize the trend in AOS with visit visa and VWP, they will put an end to it.

From the instructions, it looks like they need an affidavit that states the details of the marriage and need to executed by parents of couple or relatives if the parents are deceased. I am not sure what the difference is between affidavit executed by and what you have.

On a second thought my suggestion about including the statement "registration is not common" can be ignored, since the instruction says Hindu marriage are not typically registered (In reality from what i understand, all marriages need to be registered these days.

I am not sure what kind of document you have. Getting an affidavit from pleader in stamp paper is not costly I suppose, compared to the hassle of going to consulate and then getting a request for more documents. Talk to an experienced pleader, What city are you from? There is a chance he/she might have written one of these if your place has a significant NRI population.

From DOS website.

The Hindu and Muslim communities do not usually register marriages, however, marriages by Hindus, Buddhists, Jains or Sikhs may be voluntarily registered under the Hindu Marriage Act of l955. This Act does not apply to Muslims, Parsis, Jews or Christians, who may register their marriages under the Special Marriage Act of l954, or the Christian Marriage Act. Marriage certificates for marriages registered under these Acts may be obtained from the offices of Government Registrar of Marriages, which are located in the headquarters of each district. The certificate will be issued by the Registrar only if the bride and groom personally appear before the official and pay the required fee.

A certificate of marriage between Muslims is usually issued by the priest who performed the ceremony. The document is in the Urdu language, and a certified translation is required. Marriages between Christians are usually obtainable from Church records. If the marriage has not been officially registered, then two sworn affidavits giving the names, dates and places of birth of the bride and groom, and the date and place of marriage, as well as the names of the parents of both parties are acceptable. The affidavits must be executed by one of the parents of each party, or if the parents are deceased, by the nearest relative of each party who was present at the wedding.

From the name I assume it a Hindu marriage.

Also get an affidavit from Notary (Govt Pleader) in a stamp paper, which states that they are legally married couple under so and so Hindu marriage act and that during that time ( I guess there were married pre '90s) registration of marriage was not common and not mandatory (ask the pleader for details if this statement is needed). State the date and place of marriage and name of parents of each (father and mother) This info should match on all records and G-325A. If possible get someone older close relative who was present at the time of wedding .

Do you have a naturalization certificate? No. Insert an "or" after every point in that instructions. If aren't convinced, read point 6. 'if you do not have any....."

Do you have a US passport? and or birth certificate?

The truth is bringing a senior citizen above 60 years old has many problems beyond the immigration. Health insurance and health care being the most important and difficult. Retired Americans are moving outside US coz of expensive health care. You would be better off sending a portion of the money you might spend on her healthcare for her to live Queen style back home.

You cannot file a i-130 petition for your grandmother.

High chances the second visa/petition will be in jeopardy since during the first interview no documents were presented and that should have gone on record. Many here are suspicious, so don't expect the CO to be any lenient. The whole good-friend-visa thing is very sketchy. You will have a hard time explaining this. On top of that, since same sex relations are not that common in India, that can add to the issues. Many hetero-sexual inter-racial, inter-religious couples are having trouble getting K-1 visas from Indian consulates, so your case is a tough sell given the circumstances. You will have to prove hard the legitimacy of the relationship.

3 years before when I called IRS to ask what should be my filing status if my wife is outside US and never been to US and do not have any US visa, I was told to file as single or married filing separately. However, to use tax document as an evidence of relationship, I filed MFS.

The passport stamp is only temporary and 1 year ( I think it is 1 yr for any immigrant visa). The validity of the passport stamp doesn't reflect the validity of the GC that you would receive later.

Just a small note, a fork in yer process above.

NVC ain't shipping anything, for a CR-1 visa chaser, till all of the documents are in the casefile and the fees paid.

Best time to fix this, is at NVC, on day 1 or 2 of knowing the Consular Casefile #. Changing Embassies then takes about a day, and requires a telephone call with a supervisor to get a different Consular Casefile # generated.

That's basically what I said.

yes original signature is required.

and it is back,.

Thanks all

Hello science, I don't think that is how the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion works. My understanding is you have to be a USC or LPR living abroad due to business while still keeping domicile in the US; but I could be wrong. Nonetheless, the foreign income still needs to be reported to the IRS.

The more the reason to consult a real tax attorney for each specific situation. Cheers!

I have been reading from IRS , that if SSN/ITIN # is available, you can do what I said.

I have been trying to check the visa status since today afternoon. In the beginning, I couldn't get the page at all. Now, I can enter the case#, but then it say unexpected error. Anyone facing this?

Right after your petition gets approved and before you get case # from NVC contact NVC and give them the new address. The first three letters should correspond to the consulate ( you can get the list from DOS site). If you get the wrong case# , make sure you get it corrected before they ship out. Once it leaves the NVC, things are complicated. One consulate needs to get approval from the other to transfer the files. So more complicated at consulate level.

I see this topic often in VJ and it can really get confusing. What I gathered from the experience of a close friend that went thru the process and from multiple posts in these forums is the following: During the NVC process, the manner in which you report your status in your income tax returns makes no difference. You will present your tax forms as part of your Affidavit of Support and that is all NVC will look at; the dollar figures to make sure it substantiates your ability to support your spouse. Case in point, the post above from Memphis, as well as posts from many other VJ members saying NVC did not give them any issues.

However, your marital status WILL matter on subsequent tax returns once your spouse is in the US and you are working on the Adjustment of Status. This time, you may present your tax returns, not as proof of income, but as proof of commingling finances with your spouse. My advice is leave your last year's tax return as is and if you wish, file 2013 as married filing separately.

Also, everyone careful with some of the tips about redoing previous taxes in order to get a bigger refund. If you decide to amend previous tax declarations to include your spouse in a joint return, then legally you need to also report any foreign income your spouse received during that particular year (from my close friend's case). This last part is a complicated topic that should be discussed with a real tax attorney, and not just any tax preparer.

There is foreign income exclusion upto 95000. So you include your spouse's income and then exclude it which mean you get a bigger refund.

Hi, you can just state that the medical records are unavailable and that would be it.

Then you might need to re-take some essential vaccinations like MMR, Tdap etc

This whole no-visit-visa-for-high-fraud countires, have-to-prove-ties can be easily fixed by completely eliminating any kind of adjustment of status from visiting visa, VWP, no-visa-Passport-only-travel. No one should be allowed to adjust using visit visa (B1/b2). If you "all-of-sudden-fall-in-love" while visiting US after living your whole life in your own homeland, then fine, get married, leave, wait outside. There is nothing inhuman in that. The whole "proving-visit-with-no-intend-to-marry" is a joke.

It's ironic to use the word high-fraud countries, since after joining this forum, I have seen people from european countries with visa waiver program and canadians are the ones who really abuse the visa-free system and use it to abuse it. I can forsee that raising red flags with USCIS in near future.

Not sure how Indian consulates does it. You might want to ask in India Forum

No and then you can explain that your currently obtaining required documentation and will be presented at interview

why then petition in the first place?

Wow this could put a strain on our relationship not seeing each other for nearly 8 months.

I have been married for 3+ years and there was an 8 months gap between engagement and wedding. All this time, we are in two diff continents. The irony is we spend more time talking to each other than married couple staying together. So be optimistic. This forum is full of people dealing with 1+ years of LDR.