Sm1smom

The possibility of your being a derivative of your mom’s F4 application is a non-issue at the moment considering your mom’s priority date is still pending. So again, you do not currently have an immigration case based on the I-130 petition filed for your mom.

OP - you have no pending “visa” or any other pending application as a matter of fact. Even your mom has no pending “visa application”. What your mom has is a pending petition filed on her behalf by her sister. You may apply for a F1 visa, or any other NIV you wish to apply for. Your application will be reviewed on its own merit and adjudicated accordingly. Your own totality of circumstances will be used in making a determination as to your eligibility for an approval or otherwise. As a matter of fact, there are known folks with approved I-130 who successfully obtained NIVs while waiting for their priority dates to become current. So yes, it is still possible to obtain a NIV with a pending or approved I-130 if the applicant is able to convince the CO of their current ties to their home country and their plans to return at the end of their authorized stay in the US.

Considering Part 8 Q.16 of the I-485 specifically asks applicants “Have you EVER Worked in the United States Without Authorization” and Q.17 asks “Have you EVER Violated the terms or conditions of your nonimmigrant status?” - is your friend planning on answering “NO” to those questions considering he/she will be swearing and certifying under penalty of perjury to the accuracy and correctness of the information contained on the form? Note, those questions are not asking about violations from most recent admission into the US.

When is your interview scheduled for? May or June?

The EU being referenced in OP’s question and other responses on this thread are in reference to the European region, as used in DV lottery. The post has nothing to do with the European Union. Let’s not go down the rabbit hole.

I edited my previous post to reflect Portugal as your country of birth while you were posting the above ^^

Your saving grace however will be if you’re married, and your spouse is born in Portugal, then you definitely should proceed and claim chargeability to your spouses country of birth (provided your spouse meets the educational or work experience requirement also, as you’ll both be treated as primary selectees).

You will only be informed of your disqualification when you’re face to face with the CO, which will be after making the payment. You will not only be losing the payment fee at that point, there’s also the cost of the medical exam and any other cost associated with getting your documents which would also be lost since denial is inevitable should you choose to proceed.

Unfortunately you will be disqualified and subsequently denied at the time of your interview since Israel is under the AS region, and Portugal is under the EU region. No amount of explanation will lead to an approval, seen this year after year. The DV 2025 instructions linked below shows the different regions and the countries within each https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Diversity-Visa/DV-Instructions-Translations/dv-2025-instructions-translations/DV-2025_Instructions-faqs.pdf

Thanks for confirming the physical presence requirement for the re-entry permit. So why are you contemplating paying some lawyer over $3K to fill out and submit the I-90 on your behalf when you can equally do so on your own? The processing is exactly the same whether you fill out the form on your own or some lawyer fills and submit on your behalf.

Wait. Your apply applied for your re-entry permit while you were outside the US? Or you were in the US, but used the services of a lawyer to submit the application? If the application was submitted on your behalf while you were outside the US, I wouldn’t bank on it being approved. Unless there’s a recent change for the requirements to be in the US while filing for a reentry permit which I’m not aware of.