jaske78

45 minutes ago, Idd1989 said:

If the marriage is legit, and there are no suspicions, any filed office will have to approve you. 

It is legit. Absolutely.

However, you have no idea how often I have experienced people suddenly finding a reason to object. I won't even get into the horrors of the wedding: four bakeries that pulled out (one was "overloaded," two "religious reasons" and the last never returned calls), the venues suddenly found they had "double-booked." I was fired from my job right after I got married, citing "attitude problems" that had somehow never ever been mentioned to me in the five previous years of employment (And yes, it's legal in North Carolina, where I was living and working, to discriminate like that.) While many people were kind, many people also found small subclauses that "had to be consulted," before approving our mortgage, insurance, and other issues. ("All of our forms still say wife. can your...friend just sign under the woman's name?" "Your kind are not good for corporate morale.")

Look. as any citizen, it should not matter. As a straight person, you can walk in anywhere and have people smile at you and say "How nice." Gay couples do not have nearly the same tolerance level. For some people, the "ick" factor is written so clearly on their faces that it seems painful. For others, they effuse politeness and over-the-top friendliness, but I can never be sure what it means. The person with a Bible on the desk is a complete lottery for me: so far, about 50% veiled hostility, 10-15% genuine warmth, and the rest effusive pleasantry that I have often found to be surface-level only. I am really not comfortable with having people who have this kind of strong cultural opposition look at me and not treat me like any other citizen. That's why I am asking.

How important are the field office for making the decision?

Have filed the 751 but they are so backlogged that I will have to file the N-400 before the 751 is finished processing.

Am concerned: as part of a same-sex couple, one of the places I could move has a field office in Montgomery, which has had a very very bad reputation for anti-gay legislation/attitudes OR we could spend a little bit more money and go to a place that is in a solid blue state, and be seen in San Bernardino (At the moment, I work online, so we are not totally chained to location, it just has to be affordable. Blue states are, in general, not.

If the decision is largely independent of the local culture, made at some central location either way, with the local instances just doing the formalities and ferreting out possible red flags for fraud, it does not matter. However, if the decision is really left up to the local office, I am uncomfortable with having somebody from Montgomery making a decision. 

I have submitted the I-751, and just checked the timelines - the CSC is servicing people from July 2016--that's seventeen months ago!

We will become eligible to apply for naturalization after January 11, 2019, which is three years from the conditional green card. However, at this rate, it is possible that in January 2019, there will be no decision on the 751 at all--it might easily be May of 2019 before we get the final verdict. 

So then, what do we do? Can we apply for naturalization after January 11, 2019, even though the I-751 decision might still be unknown? Or must we wait until they decide? Let's say they send us a message in May saying, okay, we allow this. Do we then immediately apply, or must we wait for a year after the permanent green card?

Thank you!

Please help.

The following developments have happened:

1.) We got married in August and started looking for a house. The houses we found were awful.We bought nothing. I got downsized from my job so my income decreased.

2.) I, the US Citizen,was selected in February for a full scholarship to study in Canada for four years. Since it is either go to Canada and have a scholarship or limp through here earning very little money, I must go to Canada.

This puts a problem on us:

IF we go to Canada together, it constitutes abandoning the green card for my spouse. We will file for a reentry permit and will have to do the interview for removal of conditions in January 2018 (flying back to our local area to do it), but the data that shows we are still a married couple would be a lease for an apartment in Canada, as well as our bank accounts, insurance, wills, affidavits from my family members (for whom we have served as caretakers) and all those other things. Our permanent address will still be the same location, as I have family here, and I will still have a job (online-only) at a local location.

IF I stay in Canada and my spouse floats back and forth between us but remains in the US to get the passport in January 2019, then that's abandoning the marriage, isn't it, because we cannot prove we live together. i read that it is still actually possible to prove that we establish that itis still a valid marriage, because you can show phone bills, evidence of trips to come back to each other, etc. Given that my visa in Canada is (by definition) temporary, I do plan to return to the US.

I don't know if we can have a removal of conditions within Canada once our marriage is 2 years old at the local Consulate.

So we are working our way almost into hysteria here about what to do. Reentry permit is a definite must. After that, I just don't know.

Thank you!

Hi,

Shortly after getting married, I suffered a setback, and my job reduced me to part-time. Then my mother, who had been caring for my blind grandmother, became very ill. We moved in there temporarily and began househunting, but now it's very clear: my mother won't recover, and neither will Gran. SoI gave up my apartment (the lease was almost up anyway) we have become caretakers. (Frankly, that was the Better Half's insistence, not my own. I feel really guilty to say that.)

The I-751 asks for proof that we are a couple, that we bought a house or a car, but we didn't, and we cannot afford much with my decreased pay. I am worried that they will not believe us when we come together at the interview and say what we have been up to since getting married. We just don't have a lot of financial documents indicating that we are fused together

Fortunately, we don't have to submit the thing for over a year, so we can still make good decisions, but I don't know what to do. Can you help?

I am a US Citizen, married to a foreigner. We must go outside of the US, although only to Canada, and are worried about jeopardizing green card. The lady at USCIS, when I called and explained claimed that a foreign person can be outside the US for up to one year without compromising their green card.

On the other hand, we have also heard from anxious immigrants and "credible sources" (that are NOT working for the USCIS so I have grave doubts as to how credible they are) that we must return Stateside once every six months, and then once every three months! So, who is right here?

Thank you.

OH! I did forget to say something rather important. *I* am the American citizen. The one that I am dragging to Canada is the foreigner. Does that make any difference? It should do. Or at least, I hope it doesn/

I am newly-married. The conditional green card just came in January. But now, I am applying to a PhD program in Canada, and we will definitely need to go there for at least four years for the PhD program.

I am worried that this will jeopardize the conditional green card. We intend to go back across the border every three months at the very least like clockwork. However, when it comes time for the lifting of conditions, what can we say then? I am sure I am not the only American who has gone for education or work overseas and taken a foreign spouse with me. I just want to make sure that I am not endangering anything.

Can someone help me?

The tickets are flexible - we paid a little extra to be able to change the ticket arrangements. That's not a problem. I've got to be back Stateside in mid-August anyway. Going back alone again would not be the death of me.

We have had the medical and submitted the online form and mailed the checklist today (6/16), We bought tickets for 15 August to return to America. Did we make a mistake there? How long, on average, is the lag time for Belgrade to set up the interview? In Europe it seems about 4 weeks in general, but it seems to vary so widely by country that some of the statistics are shocking. Most of the data I found related to Africa and SE Asia. Has anybody any idea about how long this will take to set it up?

Hi there!

So the medical is done. The police certificates are in. My affidavit of support has been prepared. Tomorrow we will send in the checklist. So three questions:

1.) Now what? Will they contact via email or post?

2.) On the formal thing, it asks for the Affidavit of support. That's it. No affidavits from the banks, no information about when you opened the account, none of that. The thing is that I never received my own letter at all: my fiance got contacted from the Embassy in Belgrade on Monday and I was already on a plane about ten days later, so the letter giving me instructions is probably calmly sitting on my desk at home, where it does me absolutely no good.

So I am freaking out about that. I printed out the Affidavit I found here and filled it out truthfully for THAT DAY, but of course, my account balances changed because of bills that needed to be paid, buying tickets for the fiance, all that jazz. And while I was scrupulously honest, looking at my tax returns, looking up everything to the penny, it seems incomplete.

3.) I was horribly unprepared. I admit it. I have the packet that I sent on my computer, and LEFT THE BACKUP COPY ON MY DRESSER AT HOME. I can print it all out again and I am mostly assured that it is there, but it will be in black and white. The thing is that the Embassy does not seem to demand it at all. So how essential is this anyway?

Grumble grumble grumble.

Thanks,

Jason

PS - Am I alone in thinking that wanting to know if a potential immigrant is circumized about the creepiest thing ever? For what valid reason does Uncle Sam want to know this?

How relevant is the financial status of the foreign fiance(e) to a K1 visa? Can it happen that they refuse a K1 visa because the foreigner has no documented money? (There IS money, just not in the banks due to the unreliable nature of the banks in this country, and so therefore it is awfully hard to prove a penny of it is real. Even I would risk putting 62,000 in a Serbian bank.)

I absolutely assure you that they were starting on September in Texas in January. I checked every day and I know well enough the difference between a C and a T (CSC and TSC being the letter in question). Perhaps there had been a reporting error there - but still, on my internal timeline, it estimate that my case would be adjudicated in the middle of January based on what they had in. Now it is early April. Not that I mind, but something clearly happened in early January, either a correction here at VJ that revealed that some things had been misfiled or the receipt of some backlog from someone else.

RE: the moving of my thread. This is why I don't like to ask questions. I never know where to put them properly.

Re: terrorists: that's what Homeland Security does.Among other things, they check watchlists, backgrounds, etc.

Re: the wait: On January 5 or so, according to VJ (here), they were starting on September. I remember checking here every day. I was so very excited. Any day now, they would get to me... and then the next day, BOOM. June. I was horrified. I wanted to know why, but I was unsure whom to ask without looking stupid. Eventually someone mentioned Nebraska and I thought, oh. Since then, my expected dates have been steadily pushed back, from January 15, to now April 6. (WHAT DID HAPPEN, ANYWAY?)

Re: the packet processing. Thank you. Amazing that such a brief process can take so long to get to.

Thank you

Received NOA1 dated 15 September. And now, we wait. In early January, they were within a week of processing our application! And then they pushed it back because of the overflow from Nebraska, and it might be seen in April. Might be.

So my question is, what actually happens when the people at Homeland Security in Texas review it for NOA2? How long does it take to make that decision? Do they open it, sort through the applications, think, "Well, he's got everything we need," and then move on in a half an hour? Does it take a week to comb through the files and run background checks for terrorists? Does the fact that I didn't include my place of work or a pay stub or evidence of my income a problem at this stage? I read and reread the checklist, and nowhere was it mentioned, so I did not include it.

Does anyone actually know what the process is on their side?

I am a USC sponsoring a K1 Fiance visa. So far it has not come through, just waiting (and waiting and waiting and waiting) We are hoping to marry in the summer of 2015, and then hopefully the AOS will be done by the spring of 2016.

I am planning to start attending a graduate program in Canada, however, starting in the autumn term of 2016. I timed it this way so that the temporary green card would not have come through (giving it about a year).

My worry: the Canadian authorities say that spouses can tag along with students enrolled at Canadian Universities. They get a cool little temporary work permit while the students are busy exhausting themselves studying. That's not a problem. Canada is another kettle of frogs.

My WORRY is that by the time I have defended and am DONE with the graduate work, and am ready to return Stateside, that temporary Green Card will have expired, and that an officer, seeing that after we got the thing, spent most of our lives in a third country (Canada) due to my schooling) will, at best, refuse to adjust status from the temporary to permanent. Add to this the stress of border crossings in which people stare at the two passports, and then the horror of being literally unable to cross back into the US.

I read here that we could not stay outside the country for more than six months, but what does that mean? Catching the ferry to Buffalo to catch a Bills game, spending a night or two, and going back across the border? Returning during winter and summer breaks back Stateside? We'll have US bank accounts, car/life insurance, we'll be TOGETHER, PHYSICALLY... but this is getting headachey. When they say that they want proof of non-abandonment, are they saying that the immigrant has not abandoned the American country, or that the immigrant has not abandoned ME, the USC.

Also, if the worst happens and the temporary Green Card expires and they won't do anythign about it because we've been living in Canada together, can we be eligible to reapply? There HAS to be some sort of workaround for this, right?

Sorry, this is ages in the future, but I am a planner by nature, and I never even consider anything without looking squarely at all of the problems and finding solutions. Any ideas here?

Thank you,

Jason

I have had a problem with the K-1 pictures, and whatever advice I can get is really appreciated.

I took the pictures in Serbia, and got them printed out at several different places Stateside. At Wallgreens, they went so heavy on the background whitening for the off-white background (a sheet) that they CUT OFF AN EAR. I had to take it back twice to have it done right, but you can still tell from the moon that the background has been doctored even after I specifically said, leave it be.

For my own, my first pictures were clearly also doctored: there is a small ridge where you can see that someone as taken an eraser tool above my shoulders. I used to take passport photos about fifteen years ago, and I recall that the rules were VERY clear and VERY specific: the image MUST be the undoctored, natural image that is IN FRONT OF THE LENS AT THAT MOMENT. This was before we could alter things easily via computer, of course, but I cannot imagine that they grew less strict about this over the years.

I finally went to CVS and had them do it. I am satisfied with these, BUT for mine, they gave me one sheet with two pictures on them, which they said they are required to do for passport and visas. They said that they have a tool that they can sort of punch out the pictures.

So now I am at a loss. The European pictures are natural, the background is an off-white wall. There are no shadows and the pictures fit the standards exactly - I checked with several places first. The American pictures, of me, show either this extremely white background that looks like someone took an eraser to it (and from the line above y backgrounds or are merged together into one sheet.

Should I cut out the pictures for the application from the sheet, or leave them be as proof that they were taken together? Am I being too picky? When every detail feels of equally-weighted importance, I am at a loss. Part of me looks at the "doctored" picture, and says, it is 2x2, my face is clear, the background is completely white, but my face is untouched, so what's the problem? They will not look at mine as closely as my partner's, and they certainly won't take a magnifying glass to it. But you know how it is when your own desire is to get everything exactly right. You start feeling a little bit crazy.

I plan to post this as soon as tomorrow, if I get some feedback. Help would be very much appreciated.

Thank you SMA! The six months is exciting news. That is a massive change from just five days ago, when, according to the State Department's official release, Texas was dealing with NOA1s from December 31, 2014. It still is showing on this website: https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processingTimesDisplay.do;jsessionid=abcaxq1yjyVFLcuoxYlFu - where are these new numbers coming from?

I am glad that there is no significant extra hurdle for gay people. It is a relief to me. Living in a deeply anti-gay, anti-American country can be stressful.

Hi.

New to it all. I am so glad that I found this site though: the information here is really more organized and better than anywhere else.

I'm the USC, filing for a same-sex K1. My state is one of many that does not recognize marriages, so we have to travel several hundred miles one way to get married in the closest place, which is, at the moment, DC. Because getting married like this isn't stressful enough, let's add one last additional barrier after all of this.

At the moment, I am still in Serbia. I fly out in two days and will file on Monday using the checklist that we found.

For a while everything about this was so confusing once DOMA was abolished that I even got duped into paying a deposit for a lawyer who sold me smoke and mirrors and didn't. Know. A. Thing. I will call him and tell him that we will not use his services, because he didn't. Do. A. Thing. I wonder if he will give me the money back. Or, not.

I see that Texas is now three months behind, is this true? Is this frequent? Will they catch up? Texas is where our application will be processed. By my calculations, if they are at 8 months now, filing next week would put the application in front of the local Embassy sometime in April or May.

For those of you who might have the ick factor about the gay thing, don't. I'm tired, I'm sad, and in forty-eight hours some guy who doesn't know me is going to put an exit stamp on my passport, and from that moment, I am separated from the person I love. Anybody who's gone through that once and knows what it's like to fight tears in public knows the wrenching agony, the hurt. I have been doing it for ten years, and now I can do something about it. So if you want to hate us for it, please remember what you feel like at the airport that last day and ask yourselves seriously if you would like like to go through that for ten years in a row and have a little bit of compassion, okay?

Thank you.