ucijeepguy

Hello everyone,

I have a question, we are about ready to submit my wife's 751 paperwork but not sure what to do about a name change. When we filed the original 2 year green card paperwork we kept with her maiden name. Since then she's changed over her drivers license but we want to have her green card accurately show married last name as well. Does anyone know if I can do it at this time with filing the 751 or what specifically I need to do?

Thanks

Meeting the parents is not a requirement. It obviously makes a stronger argument for the K1 visa, but not required; it is a requirement that the two of you that plan on getting married meet in person, which you have accomplished. My wife and I met online, vacationed for a week in Thailand, and I proposed to her in Thailand. Never met her family or friends. Came home, applied, she moved. The next summer after she moved, we vacationed to her home town to meet all her friends and family. When I submitted K1 application, I just had pictures from our vacation, and about 100 pages of single spaced messaging to each other, Skype call log and had zero problems; the key factor is showing you have an ongoing relationship. She's been living here for a year and half, and married over a year and very happy together, just waiting for her green card and living life.

Hey guys,

I have a question relating to the time in between K1 and AOS with green card. my wife and I were planning to fly to Las Vegas, but have concerns with having a valid ID to fly. She has her drivers license on the way (passed the test!) but not sure if it expires due to the k1 expiring. if that is not valid and the visa is not valid will she be able to fly within the continental united states? Not sure how big of a problem this will be.

So you have until a little over the middle of January to marry. Contact the JOP ahead of time because we had to make an appointment. If you think the cost is too high, try contacting another JOP a little farther away. We had to pay cash and I suggest calling as soon as you are able too. I was personally a little surprised that I couldn't get into see the JOP sooner, but I was happy with the appointment time they gave us. It's better to prepare now than to be surprised later and scramble to get the license certified!

Also, see if you can get the Texas Twogether program. It saves money on the Texas license, removes the 72 hour waiting period, and may be something fun you two can do together. (http://www.bethechampion.org/relationship/engaged2.html) We weren't able to because I work on Saturdays, but it's only $25 to register and you may benefit from the experience! You get a certificate of completion afterwards that you can send in during your AOS!

We've seen the twogether thing, and talked about it. At first we laughed and said it was stupid, but on second thought figured it may be a good idea because a few hours counseling to strengthen our relationship is never a bad thing.

Great advise, thank you.

No, that doesn't count.

I'm in Texas and we just got our marriage certificate. When you pay for the marriage license, you get a blank marriage certificate with your names, DOB's and places of birth printed on it. A qualified officiant needs to sign the document as a sign of the ceremony, or it becomes invalid - useless for the AOS.

You can either wait to AOS until after your spring ceremony (you don't need to AOS within 90 days, but you do need to marry within 90 days of her arrival). Or, you can do a JOP ceremony (ours was $60, but another JOP wanted $100) and use that for AOS and do the spring ceremony for yourselves.

When did your fiance arrive? What is the Form I-94 date?

Okay, that's the information I was missing. So the plan will be court house marriage license, wait 72 hours, do a JOP ceremony, and be legal and no issues for K1 and AOS. and then do a ceremony for friends and family in the spring some time and not worry about it. Sitting at home is driving her crazy, and wants to be able to work, so we want to do the AOS as soon as possible.

My fiancé arrived on 10/23/15

I've got a question regarding the k1 visa requirements.

Since having a wedding in the winter just after the holidays was not a ideal plan, my fiancé and I thought we would do a marriage license through the local texas courthouse, and then a ceremony for our friends and family in the spring time. After doing research according to my local county courthouse where marriage license are performed, they require the marriage license to be signed and a separate ceremony performed by an authorized entity between 72 hours and 90 days. After 90 days the state issued marriage license would become invalid if a ceremony is not performed.

My question is this: in this instance does the marriage license issued by the state acceptable for K1 and AOS requirements without the ceremony? We would potentially have our ceremony within that 90 days of the states requirement, but I don't want an issue a k1 requirement violation.

Thanks for the help!

Yes our journey is concluding very quickly, she will be here this Friday, after 9 long month wait!

Can someone explain to me the immigration fee for K1 visa of $165? They told my fiancé it needs to be paid, but information I'm seeing here its not required. Some insight would be appreciated.

Fiance is coming from Russia, if that matters.

http://www.uscis.gov/uscis-elis

Perfect. thank you for the information! We are so very close, so excited, and scared and ready for the next step.

Hey all,

Tried searching but some of the info that confirmed seemed very old so not sure how reliable it is with changes in technology. But I wanted to see if I could get a confirmation about whether my fiance needs to wait for a package from the embassy or just schedule the interview on USTRAVELDOCS? We've reviewed the requirements and have everything we think we need and ready to schedule the interview, but not sure about this part.

Thanks!

Do you need to wait until you recieve packet 3 before scheduling? she's already gathered the documents needed for the interview, paid the fee, completed DS160 form. The visa package is suppsoed to arrive at the embassy on monday, so just trying to figure out how soon she can make the appointment, if she has to wait for the packet 3 from them or not.

Has anyone with a petition for Russian K1 been approved this month ?

Yes, Mine was approved at 190 days.

today was deffinitely our worst day, she was really depressed today and crying, i was worried about RFE and long wait.. So for you still waiting keep holding on, it'll come, when its most difficult, you'll get it.

Approved a few minutes ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Called the fiance, she was still sleeping and in a daze when i told her. now she can't go back to sleep because too excited.

Hi everyone, I'm still waiting and I'm a NOA1 February 19th 2015.

How do you know that 50% of Feb is still untouched please?

The waiting is excruciating isn't it?

Immifaiy.com provides daily updates with information taken directly from USCIS.

185th day here.. just downloaded the tracker app, which means my obsession with checking has gotten worse haha - is anyone else trying to plan some kind of a wedding?

We were doing planning when we were excited.. we havent even talked about it in a while.. hopefully she will get excited when the approval comes and start planning. its hard to plan and be excited about such an unknown.

Who knows, we may just go to las vegas and get married in a helicopter.

yeah me too we cant do anything about it but to just helplessly WAIT.

My boyfriend tells me to just chill and don't expect anything.

I'm turning 30 this saturday... so if i received my approval this august it will be just sweet icing on my birthday cake, but then again no expectations *sigh*

on the brighter side: goodluck to everyone, I'm really happy that texas is doing feb now

My birthday is also on Saturday, I'll be 32. It would be a great birthday present if I received the approval. Hell even on her birthday of the 26th. I doubt they are that considerate. I'm tracking others similar number to my case, and someone a few numbers ahead of me shows they just barely sent an RFE notice on 8/11 after reviewing for 2 months. I have a fear I won't even be approved until near Christmas time..

This whole process is ###### terrible. I disliked the gov. before, and this just strengthens my opinion of useless agencies that do little to help their people. It's like watching the EPA whom is supposed to protect the environment destroys an entire region by releasing toxic waste into the environment. (which is where we were planning to go for our honeymoon)

Per USCIS we received our notice on 2/9/15. Still have not received anything yet. It seems to get harder and harder for her and us each week.

"I'm sorry, you appear to be mistaken, which is understandable because the chart is purposefully misleading. If you'll look again, the chart specifically indicates that that is "As of May 31, 2015" which is now 8 weeks ago. I understand that they update these once per month, and I follow it closely. I am asking for help in regards to the fact that the date is extremely out of date (and sometimes doesn't change at all). I am unable to call and inquire about my case until I am out of this date range, but again, the information is so old and unreliable that is completely unusable. This is why I contacted you--to help with trouble with a federal process. Surely you aren't bound by the same "rules" they give to us regarding the ability to call and inquire about a case? If so, what is the point?"

Not particularly nice, and not liable to get the response you want but could at least point out to him how ridiculous it is that he (a) can't read a chart (b) thinks that 8 week old information is useful (c ) has to play by the exact same rules you do....if that's the case....what IS his job, then?

Thanks for that, I'm basically writing a similar one with more stats from VJ and IF.com to help shine a light to for him to understand. It's ridiculous though that he will not put in a simple inquiry for me. I will certainly be voting against him.

I do wonder what this congressman's assistant does since supposedly this is all he deals with.

ugh! stupid congressman's assistant. just send the damn inquiry for me!!

Thank you for your email. There is no standard waiting period for review of visas. Each application/petition has a different processing time. For example, a petition for alien worker is being processed in 4 months while a petition for Alien Relative is being processed in 5 months. Currently the Texas Service Center is processing Petition for Alien Fiancé petitions that were filed on or before November 10, 2014. This data is updated once a month on the USCIS website, and updated figures should be available in the next couple of weeks. Based on previous months, I would expect the Texas Service Center to process fiancé petitions filed in February of this year in roughly 3 months. The following link contains the current processing times of USCIS: https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processingTimesDisplay.do. If your petition is still pending once the Texas Service Center begins processing Fiancé Petitions filed in February, then our office will be able to contact USCIS to help expedite the process.

Hi everyone,

My fiance was looking at information online about her interview process, and said that she must send her Russian passport to the embassy prior to the interview. If she does this she will not be able to work prior to the interview as she is a flight attendant that regularly flies to multiple countries; additionally, if her passport/visa is given at the interview she won't be able to work afterwards until it arrives.

My question is, it true that she must send her passport prior to the interview and is there a way around this so she can work in the mean time? same with after the interview (I suspect she will be less interested in working after the interview as she will be preparing to move by that point.)

She can't afford to not work a month and if not approved may not have a job because of it..

I think that that bill is to have our fees go to Treasury instead of USCIS. The issue I believe is that when there's an overage...when our fees add up to more than USCIS's operating budget, USCIS can keep it in a special fund that they can do with what they like. It was a big topic at the Senate hearing in February. Basically, they paid for a new building for DAPA (which is being held up in court). The Senators wanted to know where the money for an empty building for a program that's in questionable legal status came from....from this fund. Senator Cruz in particular was livid about that fact.

Ah, okay. I hadnt done a ton of research other than what it briefly says on the website.

I was in contact early on with my congressman, and his assistant replies back, and I have a feeling he will not be very helpful.. However it turns out that my Senator is Ted Cruz, which he has a bill to eliminate the fee that we pay for this shitty service we get (that's what my understanding is of the bill), so I'm hoping he'll be helpful.

From Cruz's website:

A bill to eliminate the offsetting accounts that are currently available for use by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services"

But this is the response I got from my congressman Sam Johnson's assistant.

"My name is Chance Watson, and I am the District Field Coordinator for Congressman Sam Johnson. I handle all casework matters pertaining to USCIS and the Department of State. Thank you for your email concerning your application to petition your fiancée to the United States. First off, I want to congratulate you on being engaged and wish you and your bride-to-be happiness. As someone who got married last week, I can completely understand your desire to want your fiancée to be here with you. Unfortunately, the current processing time for I-129F petitions at the Texas Service Center is about 7-8 months. Any petition that is filed can only be expedited if you can meet USCIS’ strict expedite criteria, which I have provided below:



· Severe financial loss to comp

blah blah blah..."

Well, I am basing it on some data analysis that I have done. Just look at the case numbers either side of yours... Technically the ones before you should be done. So say if yours ends in 25... if you look at 24, 23, 22, to see which has been processed then you should guestimate how far in the queue you are. Mine ends in 16... 15 hasn't been done but 14 has. It got done of the 26th June, which was a week Friday. So I am guessing that the person who was doing our applications took the week off for 4th July, and should be back today.

If that makes any sense

Hm.. I decided to check also, my NOA1 is February 9th. 2 numbers ahead of me was processed April 13th. 2.5 months after the number in front of me, I'm still waiting.

Also looking in front of the numbers of that person have not been approved yet, so they must be an expedite or CSC transfer or something..

I was wondering the same thing myself. When I spoke to mine regarding the issue, he stated that the approvals are taking longer than expected, and the website showing processing times says longer than the 5 month duration as stated by many here.. if USCIS takes the stance that they are backed up and taking longer how do we validate that its actually supposed to be a 5 month wait, before contacting that we are outside of the "normal processing duration"