dk123

On 6/1/2022 at 11:04 AM, arken said:

Or he can get married asap, submit DS260 for both, and immigrate together with DV visas. There is no safest or dangerous route to compare here. It's just a choice he needs to make.
Below are all safest options:  

1. Marry now and immigrate with the spouse,

2. Marry now, immigrate without the spouse and petition later.

3. Immigrate as single, marry and petition later.

Well to give everyone some final details of what happen. He decided the safest route is 3 because he doesn't have to make any modification to his application and avoid having to answer questions about his marriage which might or might not cause him to get denied.  So as a result he passed his lottery interview and received his visa. He mentioned that having a relative already in the states and sponsoring him through i-134 really help. After making sure he had the required documents they only were interested in confirming that he had a relative and they were willing to support him. The people who worked at the embassy said his was one of the fastest interview approval they've seen.  So now after he get settle in the states he'll just wait until he's eligible to sponsor his wife over. His family is excited for him especially since this is the only possible scenario  he could have ever come to the US because he doesn't have any immediate relatives there.

9 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

Where your thinking is wrong is that in both cases he needs to prove the relationship. So the start is the same. If he thinks he’s going to (1) circumvent by lying in your second scenario and pretend he just met her, then guess what he still has to prove it’s bona fide and wow on the face of it to the US embassy that’s totally going to look like a green card marriage and get denied, OR (2) he’s honest and tells them the length of the relationship (being honest is actually the only option), then there is no difference to now other than adding cost and time to the process, and (3) if he tries number one and gets caught lying, he gets his green card revoked and a permanent ban for material misrepresentation on an immigrant application. And his wife might get a a permanent.ban too.  So tell us again what’s the best option? Yes you got it, being honest.

I guess think that's where the misunderstanding is. The reason why he's thinking of doing the single route is because he believes it's not a lie. Remember he doesn't think his marriage is legal because he doesn't have a marriage certificate. As for coming back to sponsor her later he was never going to pretend they just met. He will tell them the truth they were together before he immigrated but he wasn't officially married to her. He then return to Cambodia to officially marry her and bring her back.

So here's the issue at hand, If not having a marriage certificate means your marriage is not official then if he adds his wife it means he lied on the DV entry, but if a ceremonial marriage is official then going the single route means he's lying. What we want to determine is which route is the route of honesty? He's definitely not trying to circumvent the law he's trying to figure out which route is legally not a lie. 

On 5/11/2022 at 9:08 PM, SusieQQQ said:

This reasoning makes no sense to me. If she is denied on her own, it doesn’t affect him as he is the selectee. If they are denied for being married then it will not change regardless of whether he tries to get her a visa via DV or spouse visa F2A. 

 

No, a month or two delay in submission at this stage would not have an effect on whether or not he gets an interview.

Ok so here how we think adding his wife would negatively effect him. Let me know if we what we're thinking is wrong.

If he was to marry his wife now and add her to the application he would have to prove that there marriage is bonified. In Cambodia he seen from others he know is difficult to do especially if all he has are pictures and the official marriage certificate would be dated after his selection.  Now if he was to continue the application as a single person he just needs to only prove he's meets the lottery criteria which he does. To him the probability of him getting approved for a visa as a single person greater vs having to prove that his marriage is bonified.  So if he was approved and become a permanent resident he would come back marry her officially and start the normal process of sponsoring his wife over it would be longer  but he can try to re-apply or he can appeal the decision but both option  would not be available for the DV lottery process if he was denied because they didn't believe his marriage was bonified. 

on a different topic I've been meaning to ask someone but can someone explain to me now to read the visa bulletin? Take this bulletin for example https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2022/visa-bulletin-for-may-2022.html.  When it list 30,000 for asia does that mean everyone with a case number less than 30,000 would probably get an interview?  Also what about for the month of June when it lists the region as current? does it mean everyone still has a chance to get an interview?

19 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

This is a pretty grey area, i know of couples who married religiously, entered as married, did a civil marriage after that to comply with legal us immigration rules, and were fine. But I can see a scenario in which your friend would be ok as well if they can argue that they knew the traditional marriage was not legally recognized. I don’t  understand though why your friend would want to complete the process as single. Why not get married now - they will certainly have evidence of a genuine relationship and no concerns about a green card marriage. If they marry now - wife gets a visa/green card with him, cheap, quick and easy. If he marries her afted he settles in the US, it is significantly more expensive, significantly more complicated and significantly more lengthy to bring her over (the fees are a lot higher, he will have to sign an affidavit of support /be earning enough to do that, and wait probably another two years after filing). There is no logical reason for him to wait to marry her until after he has emigrated. 

So here's his line of thought. He would like to take route that would have the highest possibility of getting approved for a visa. Yes, leaving her here and sponsoring her later would take longer but at the cost of time he will have more opportunities to try again if she was denied. but with the DV lottery there's no guarantee that he'll ever get selected again and since he has no immediate relatives in the states this is a rare chance that probably would ever come again.

but as for your suggest of just getting married now I thought of that as well but there's one unknown for him. Since everyone seems to make a big deal with saying that you're single on the entry form when you're really married is an automatic denial, would him admitting to be ceremonially married prior to entering the lottery would be considered by them as lying on the form? Would he be given a chance to plead his case before them making a decision?  If the answer to that is yes then he would rather go ahead and marry her officially now.

There  are some other gotchas if he goes with the married route. She right now doesn't have a passport will he be able to submit a DS-260 for her without one? if not he'll have to wait for her to get her passport before he can submit it would submitting a month or two later cut his chances of getting an interview significantly? His number is 2023AS7XXX

20 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

What country?

some ceremonial marriages are legal if legal and the norm for the country

 

 

so it's Cambodia but since in Cambodia you can't get any of the marital benefits without a marriage certificate I can only assume it's not legal. 

So I have a friend who was selected for the DV 2023 lottery but he's in a unique situation and not sure what is the correct approach. So my friend had a pure ceremonial marriage a couple years back, no marriage certificate. When applying for the lottery he entered himself as single because technically he's not officially married. He wants to just finish the visa process as single so as to not complicate the process further. If he was to be approved for a visa he plans on marrying his wife officially after he is settled in the US. Are there any issues with this approach? Also to throw a wrench in it he does have pictures of the marriage ceremony on his social media would he be denied a visa because of this?  He assumed that he would have been in a worse situation if he said he was married but did not have any legal document to prove it. So what do you think he should do? 

That's what I thought. thanks a lot.

Hi,

    So I my spouse filed an I-130 for her parents and she received the approval letter and the case has been sent to the NVC. We are about to file the I-864 and DS-260 online but we have moved to a new address since the I-130 was approved. Other threads only talk about change of address after submitting the DS-260 and I-864 but base on those conversations I assume we only need to use the new address on the DS-260 and I-864 forms. Since the I-130 was already approved do we need to do anything else besides just using the new address on this next set of forms? 

After so many years my wife finally got her IR-1 visa and is currently here with me in the US. She has gotten her 10 yrs green card and SSN but I like to know do we need to get remarried in the US? What I mean is do I need to go to city hall and get a US marriage certificate? Are we considered legally married in the US without getting a US marriage certificate? I hear conflicting answers from friends and family and I'd like to know for sure.

thanks for any info you can give.

So, we got engaged in 2011 and filed for a k-1 fiance visa but my fiance failed the interview in 2012 and was denied. We then got married in 2013 and filed for a CR-1. Had our interview in 2014 had the worst experience anyone can have at these interviews. This is at the US embassy in Cambodia and here what happened:

1. The Consular ask us about 3-4 questions and tells us he doesn't have time to interview us at the date specified and told us to come back.

2. Went back to the embassy after the specified period and was told to come between 1 pm - 2pm. We arrived about Noon waited 3 hours inside and was told they didn't have time to see us and that we should have came in earlier.

3. Came back a third time was again told the Consular reviewing our case is too busy but has assigned two other individual to ask us questions. They grilled us for 3 straight hours spending an hour and a half with each of us. Afterwards they can't tell us the result until the original Consular reviews their notes two weeks later.

4. Came back a forth time after all this and were told by the original Consular that he decided to deny our visa and would not say exactly what out of the 155 pages of text message printout, 2 affidavits from friends, 700 facetime logs with duration and dates, 9 gift receipts, a bunch of atm receipts , and 200 photos of us together was wrong.

Of all the people I've spoken to about their process no one has describe having to go through this. I believed that if the original Consular would have interviewed us entirely that first day we would have probably been approved. He seem to be a reasonable and easy to talk to guy but instead he made his decision on notes that two other guys took. First I don't think you can make an accurate evaluation by just reading our answers of the page. Second, How does he know that the answers he's reading was what is exactly said by me and my wife, the two guys could be paraphrasing since it's translated from Khmer.

now it's 2016 and USCIS has given their approval for us come back for another interview without us having to file any paperwork. It seems that USCIS seem to think the evidence we originally gave was enough. As of writing this we still have a few days until our interview. My wife and I are emotionally exhausted from this ordeal. If for some unknown we were to be denied again what can we do? I've contacted multiple lawyers, two senators a bunch of acquaintances that went through this and they all seem to think my evidence should have been enough. Is there a black mark in our file that we don't know about? How do we find out?

Ok, I've been doing my research on this but still not 100% clear so I was hoping people with experience with this can confirm if the follow is true?

From What I read in order to get any kind of tax benefits from being married with a nonresident spouse my wife, who is a Cambodian citizen, needs to get an ITIN.

1. The only really valid document that we have that we can use as of proof foreign status and ID is her passport. Other documents like birth certificates and medical documents, as indicated by the W-7 form instruction, is only considered as proof of foreign status if it's a foreign document. I don't want to send her original passport just in case she needs it before they send it back or if they lose it. I read I can send a certified copy but where can I get a copy of a passport in Cambodia that the IRS would consider Certified? I emailed the US embassy in Cambodia and asked them about it but they haven't got back to me yet.

2. I've also read I have to submit the W-7 with my tax return, so I assume this means I'd have to wait until next year to apply for the ITIN? Also when submitting my tax return with the W-7 I shouldn't submit it to the regular tax address but to the ITIN address is that correct?

3. Also since my wife has no income in the US and in Cambodia I read that the option with the most benefit for us is to file jointly but this would require both her signature and mine. Is there a way around having to mail my tax return to Cambodia and back for her signature each time I do my taxes? does the IRS accept printed scanned copies or some kind of e-signature from her? (probably not) anyone know of an easier and legal way of getting her signature? Is there any electronic submission option at all for us?

4. Lastly, she has land in her name but she doesn't get any income from it does this needs to be indicated in our tax return anywhere?

any help with answering my question would be greatly appreciated.

Always use the official name !

You can have your lawyer send an explanation when your case will be at NVC and then you can explain it at the interview.

If you get an RFE you will have a chance to submit clarification to USCIS.

Thanks I'm going to contact him tomorrow but it's easier said than done. I regret getting this lawyer sooo much, I didn't realize my mistake of hiring him until half way through the process. This guy didn't want to do anything more than the minimum required for this petition. Heck I blame him for not knowing or not telling me about withdrawing my I-129F in the first place. Plus he had the nerve to yell at me for asking too many questions and hung up the phone on me. I wanted to do something about him soo bad but was afraid that doing so would prolong my case further so I just took it and hoped that I'd never have to talk with him again. Unfortunately Now I need to ask him to actually do some additional work and I'm expecting him to give me some BS about the CO won't need him to write a letter etc... Do I need him to write the letter or can I write one myself?

ok so I found out I have another issue. Seems my lawyer put a different name for my deceased father on the I-130 form that what's on our marriage certificate. I know it seems strange but I never knew my father's name and so when filling out my I-129F I put what I was told was his official name. But when filling out our marriage certificate my relatives hold me his "Everyday" name ( the name everyone calls him) and that was what was used in the certificate because I had forgotten that I had entered a different name on the K-1. Now when my lawyer was filling out the I-130 he copied my info from the I-129F instead of using the info on the marriage certificate. So I'm wondering if they will even let us explain the mistake. Any one got any input on this?

When you filed the I-130 petition did you formally withdraw your I-129F petition? I know for some they got put in AP and other delays because they still had a I-129F on the books. That would be the only thing aside from the issues that they saw to deny. Long as you address them and have evidence you should be fine.

This is that rock and a hard place where you were denied and don't know the specifics and you are hoping that marrying erases those issues.

I know for Cambodia K1 is a not easy Visa to get. All the best.

Unfortunately I didn't know what needed to be done because I never received any notification from them about my I-129F. All I know was what was written on the refusal worksheet. At the bottom there was a note that basically said if we failed to take action our application will be cancelled so once we decided to start the CR-1 process I thought it was fine to not take action on the I-129F. So for instance if the I-129F was still on the books how would that effect us now? Will be be automatically denied during this next interview?

The service Center that process are petition is the Vermont Center.

1. No

2. No, the 221g is a general refusal sheet and not a specific reason. It is not the NOIR.

What was marked or written on the 221g as reason given ?

K1 refusals no longer get a NOIR. Only refused spousal cases get a NOIR.

3. The petitioner usually receives a letter after 180 days stating that you can re file without prejudice.

4. Focus on the reason you were refused and address the issue this time.

Again, the 221g is not a reason but a sheet that is supposed to have a reason on it, like a checked box, or written letters and numbers.

It could say "for immigration benefits only" or "not convinced of genuine relationship" etc as general reasons.

If nothing was written on it then you don't know the reason. Figure out what the CO did not like, address it, overcome

it and you should be approved.

So this is what is written in that checked area

Section 221(g) which prohibits the issuance of a visa to anyone whose application does not comply with the provisions of the immigration and Nationality Act or regulations issued Pursaunt thereto. The following remarks apply in your case:

Your case is being returned to USCIS for possible revocation or reaffirmation, base on the information obtained during your interview process that has caused the interviewing officer to believe that your relationship with the Petitioner is not credible, entered into solely in order to provide you with an immigration benefit to which you are not entitled.

All I want to confirm at this moment is that, does this mean this was a normal denial and I don't have to file something like the I601 or something like that? As far as receiving a letter saying I can refile, I never received anything from them after the first interview. does this mean anything?

I've been trying to do research on my situation but still haven't gotten a clear answer so I decided to post my question instead. So In June 2012 my Fiance (now my Wife) had an interview in Cambodia for the K-1 visa, was denied and was given the refusal worksheet with the reason for refusal being section 221(g). It was stated by the CO that our case will be sent back to USCIS, afterwards in January of 2013 we decided to get married and file for the CR-1 visa instead of waiting for them to send back the K-1 paperwork. (NOTE even until now I never received any notification that my paperwork was sent back or is under review or has expired) It took a year and a half and we finally got a CR-1 interview schedule for the end of July but after doing some research and reading a lot of post on this forum and a few others, here are some items that are not clear to me. If I'm understanding what I'm reading, it's saying that there is a high possibility that my wife's visa will be denied even if they believe us due to the following reason, my K-1 case was denied with a 221(g) and I was suppose to do a rebuttal to remove any flags that this denial would have left on our records but since I didn't most likely when this new interview happen they will see this and deny our request. So can anyone answer the following?

1. Is it true that when our K-1 case was denied with a 221(g) I am required to follow up or risk being red flagged?

2. What if I never received any NOIR or is that refusal worksheet that my Wife received It?

3. How do I check my the status of the K-1? I just used the USCIS site and it just listed as POST Decision wait to be contacted.

4. I have only a few weeks left before our interview what I can do before then to make sure they don't just outright deny our petition due to the K-1 denial?

My wife cries almost every night because she keeps thinking, "what if we're never going to be together?". This whole ordeal has been emotionally and physically draining on the both of us and I'm desperate for any kind of help.