Fluffinhos

I think you're right. I included them for my fiance to be safe in my package, but she's not from Canada. The only other things I can think of are to ensure that your letters of intent and forms G-325A have original wet-ink signatures. You may wish to include some more relationship evidence, but what you have so far will definitely be enough to get through USCIS and to the interview.

Do you have your fiance's birth certificate and passport?

The potential for a shutdown is being delayed until December 11. It's way too early to predict how the budget battle in December might work out, but I'm hoping that there are no problems because my fiance will be arriving about a week later and we'll be submitting her green card application shortly thereafter.

Visa approved!

Hello VJ,

We are preparing all of the final documents and evidence for my fiance's interview this coming Tuesday. The last document we need is the "Sworn Statement", which is basically document with a large-font sentence stating that she understands that if she gets married prior to entry to the USA that she would be abandoning the K1 visa.

Unfortunately, both the English:

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/164149/pdfs/SwornStatement.pdf

and Portuguese:

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/164149/pdfs_001/declaracao-sob-juramento.pdf

versions of these documents appear to be dead. Does anyone here have a version of either of these documents saved on their hard drive, which they could either send to me or attach to a reply to this thread?

Thank you!

Fluffinhos

After consideration and consulting with my husband he says I actually did choose to say NO to the question in filling the form.I think thats the safest and honest answer. Considering she has not graduated yet. I have not yet graduated too. I think the purpose of the question is to ensure that no one has plans to practise medicine in the US without having the proper credentials and licensing. Yes, during the interview I was questioned in detail about the details of my medical school status and if i knew that I would have to take the USMLE in order to practise.

Thank you!

Yes, of course she is well aware of the various hoops that she will need to jump through before she is able to legally practice medicine in the United States, and will have no difficulty explaining that she is aware of them.

She technically graduates on August 11, so if she is able to get form DS-160 submitted electronically before that date, the answer to BOTH questions (B) and (B') above will be NO- because at the time of submitting the form she will not yet be a foreign medical graduate.

I need to get a case number soon!

If it is not clear, the reason for my concern and confusion is that the Foreign Medical Graduate question is immediately following this question:

(A) “Do you seek to enter the United States for purpose of performing skilled or unskilled labor but have not yet been certified by the Secretary of Labor?”

Which is phrased in a different manner than:

(B) “Are you a graduate of a foreign medical school seeking to perform medical services in the United States but have not yet passed the National Board... or its equivalent?”

The answer to (A) is NO, because she is not seeking to enter the US *for the purpose of* labor of any kind, including medical services. (A) is clearly meant to weed out those applying for work visas who are ineligible. (B) is pretty clearly intended to serve the same purpose, but ‘seeking to enter the US for the purpose of’ has been truncated to ‘seeking to perform’, likely just to make the question shorter.

The meaning is different from:

(B’) “Are you a graduate of a foreign medical school seeking to enter the United States for the purpose of performing medical services but have not yet passed the National Board... or its equivalent?”

The answer to (B’) is NO. That is not the purpose of her seeking entry to the US.

My concern was that USCIS computer systems or administrators may be too stupid to understand the nuance between (B) and (B’) and having this result in delays or problems for our case.

The question as literally worded in DS-160 is as relevant to a K1 visa application as a question asking if she ever intends to wear a red dress while in the United States, yet it’s mixed in with obvious horrible red-flag questions like “Are you coming to the US to practice polygamy?”.

I am an FMG immigrated coz of my hubby and I answered yes.. Got my visa and preparing for usmle now.. All the best

Hi Munny,

Thank you for your response. Were you asked about your answer to that question during your interview? Do you have any reason to believe that your answer to that question resulted in any more or less scrutiny than if you had answered it differently?

Best of luck with the USMLE! We hope to be in your situation soon!

Thank you!

Hello VJ,

I have a question regarding one of the questions in Part 5 of form DS-160 in advance of an interview for a K-1 visa.

The question is:

“Are you a graduate of a foreign medical school seeking to perform medical services in the United States but have not yet passed the National Board of Medical Examiners examination or its equivalent?”

My fiance is currently a medical student in Brazil, and will have graduated by the time she interviews. She is moving to the United States primarily to marry and live with me. After she is here, she plans on taking the US Medical Licensing Exams, and applying for a residency in the US. However, she is immigrating for me, not to work as a doctor. Her remaining in the US with me is not contingent upon her eventually working as a medical doctor in the US.

The question appears to be placed to screen out intending immigrant-doctors who may be seeking to circumvent a different visa process than the K-1. We would like to avoid any avoidable bureaucratic BS if possible.

So, how do you recommend she answer that question?

On the one hand, the answer is yes. However, it is neither the primary reason or a necessary motivation for her to obtain the K-1. She is immigrating to the US to marry me, regardless of any specific employment opportunities in the US.

On the other hand, answering NO may look suspicious and also raise red flags, as she will be working as a medical doctor in Brazil at the time of her interview.

Thank you,

Fluffinhos

I hope this thread gets a wave of TSC posters coming in soon with NOA2s and other progress!

Just the letter (I had gotten all of the letter, email, and text for my NOA1). The letter said it was approved on June 29, but the letter didn't arrive until yesterday, probably because of delays from the 4th of July weekend.

I just got NOA2 from Texas Service Center!

I can barely believe this. I'm shaking.

Based on Igor's List, I'm one of the extremely lucky ones with a lightning-fast approval. My NOA1 was January 14.

Hello VJ,

My fiance is Brazilian, but because she has lived in the UK for a year, will require a UK police certificate as part of the documentation that she will need to bring to her K1 interview in Brazil.

She and I are currently assembling the forms for this, and plan to have me request it online (with a signed statement from her authorizing me to do so) so that I can pay the fee via credit card.

I have two questions/concerns about this:

1) They ask for her passport- Clearly they need the photo/identity page and signature page, but do they also require the pages with visa stamps, and blank pages?

2) My fiance lives at two addresses (a primary, long-term address most weekends, and a different address near her work/school on weekdays). She is only able to provide 2 proofs of address for the primary address- however mail that is sent there will be returned to sender if no one is home (almost all the the time that mail arrives). The secondary address if *far* better for receiving mail. So, despite using the primary address to satisfy the ‘proof of current address’ requirement’, we would like to have the police certificate mailed to the other address in Brazil instead. – Will this be a problem? When filling out the forms, how can I specify to use the alternate delivery address?

We plan to use ‘international courier’ delivery, which hopefully will include tracking.

Thank you,
Fluffinhos

Thank you blahblahblog,

It's an old-fashioned research grant, not part of a mutual exchange program with Israel. He didn't get funded because he is foreign, however he was paid from a separate pool of government money than I as a USC am being paid.

If it helps anyone who has expertise in this area, we are both postdoctoral fellows at the National Institutes of Health, and applied and were accepted in the same way. The only differences are that he is an Israeli citizen and I am a USC. I am an IRTA (Intramural Research Training Award), and he is a Visiting Fellow.

Although the US government has funding set aside for IRTAs and Visiting Fellows in separate pools, and we are paid out of different pools, our application process was the same and everything else is the same. The Israeli government was not involved in my coworker getting this fellowship.

Is there a good way to express this within the Statement of Reason?

How can one apply for both hardship and No Objection at the same time? By submitting separate applications (one for Hardship, and one for No Objection), or by choosing one of them and including the other within the Statement of Reason?

Re: Boiler:

I am not sure. It is a position as a staff scientist (employee) in a research lab within the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, which is believe is a non-profit institution, OR it is a position as an employee in the private company of the person who runs that research lab (this would be for-profit). My coworker would take whichever of these options becomes available first.

Most other employment possibilities for my coworker (with other potential employers) are similar to this; either a position within a research lab based in a university, or a position at a private company.

Hello VJ,

I have some questions on behalf of a coworker who is seeking a waiver to the 2 year home residency requirement following a J1 visa. Because my English is better than his, and he knows I’m involved with immigration issues because of my fiance, he has some questions for me, which I am turning over to the experts here.

Here is the situation:

The coworker received a J1 visa (‘short term scholar’), and his wife received a J2. They entered the United States early 2010, and now have a USC child. He and his wife are Israeli citizens. His J1 fellowship is funded by the US government, so he is subject to the 2-year home residency requirement after the fellowship is done.

The coworker’s fellowship and J1 status ends May 25, 2015. He is in the process of obtaining a No Objection Statement from the Israeli embassy, and is preparing the paperwork to send to the US Department of State requesting the waiver as soon as possible. The Israeli embassy appears to have a reputation for issuing No Objection statements within a few days.

He would like to remain in the United States, and work as an H-1B highly-skilled worker. He easily qualifies for several such jobs here, but the timing of getting such a position is uncertain. His main preferred employer expects to have an opening for him by approximately August 2015, but this is uncertain.

Here are the questions:

1) Is there enough time for him to get the waiver? My understanding is that he has a 1 month grace period after his fellowship ends, so he can legally remain in the US until about June 25, 2015. If he must leave the US before the waiver is issued, does this constitute abandonment of the waiver request? Or, can the waiver be issued while he is abroad, and allow him to re-enter the US (provided he has obtained an appropriate visa for the re-entry)?

2) Are requesting the waiver and obtaining the H1-B separate events? Meaning, can he simply request the waiver on the basis of ‘seeking to continue research on this project within the US’, without any mention of later US employment of a job offer?

3) I have read that it is possible or even likely for the waiver to be denied if petitioned for using a No Objection Statement- because US Government funding was used for the J1 fellowship. Is this true? If so, would it be better for him to request the waiver based on hardship due to having a USC child?

I hope this situation and the questions are clear.

Thank you!

Your mom should consider wanting to go shopping in Miami, and perhaps visit DisneyWorld in addition to visiting you.

My understanding, through my Brazilian fiance who has many friends and acquaintances with tourist visas, is that the easiest way to get that visa is to want to go shopping in Miami and/or go to DisneyWorld. That's just what the great majority of Brazilian tourists want to do. "Going shopping" also strongly implies that you intend to return to Brazil, because then you're just going to America to take advantage of the extremely low non-Brazilian prices, for goods that you intend to use in Brazil.

If shortening the wait by 6-7 (or more?) months is important enough to you, you may wish to seriously consider having the USC petitioner move to a state that is serviced by the California Service Center prior to submitting the K-1 petition. Moving back to Florida after you submit the petition and receive an NOA-1 is an option.

The CSC states are the green states in this map.

While the TSC is a joyous experience for all, we shouldn't forget about the lucky ones who receive an RFE. Remember- this is a golden opportunity to either ignore USCIS' request, or just send them a reply thanking them for all the bliss they've given you so far. If you treat them right, they'll deny your petition, and you can re-file to start the experience again from the beginning!

All our situations are different, and I know I have it easy compared to most other TSC filers- I'd be going insane too if I'd filed shortly before when we expected/hoped to finally be together, and had to wait for months with nothing but the US government in our way.

I wish you the best, brett.

Much of the CSC vs TSC stress seems to be built around the assumption that the time spent waiting for the NOA2 is the only time you’ve spent apart so far. I’m only a couple months past my NOA1, but my fiancé and I have been living in different continents for two years before filing. Relationships don’t start at NOA1, I hope, so we all should have some experience being separate from our lovers. Averaging the difference between CSC and TSC processing over the duration of long-distance relationships somewhat lessens the effect.

I am lucky in that my time spent in line at TSC is not wasted- we intentionally filed about a year in advance of the intended move so the TSC clock could run out as my fiance finishes school. I understand that I am very fortunate to be able to do this, and almost all of the other TSC filers have nothing else but TSC/NVC/embassy keeping their lovers away.

That said, it would be useful if this site were more clear about the processing time differences between the two service centers, and had the TSC vs CSC map more prominently displayed. There is a link to ‘See processing times’ in the guides, but it would probably be good for a notification about the difference to be made explicit, particularly because the guides don’t specify which states will be processed at which service centers. This would be very useful for many reasons: giving people who live on the TSC side of the border a reason to move to a CSC state at least long enough to get the application submitted, give those like myself who are trying to time an NOA2 a framework to plan according to, and help keep the CSC people aware of the difficulties that the TSC filers have to face, so they can hopefully be somewhat sensitive to the situation.

By far the most aggravating thing is CSC filers complaining about how horrible it is to have to wait a few weeks, or wait a week longer than other people who had received their NOA1s around the same time as them. It reminds me of a time I had a friend over from California, who because of the visit to Maryland had not seen her CA boyfriend in tens of hours, and was complaining to me about how much she missed her boyfriend (who she lives with and would see again in tens of hours)... while on some level completely oblivious to the fact that I hadn’t seen my fiancé for almost a year, and wouldn’t see her again for several months.

CSC filers whose long-distance relationships have lasted over a year should be able to understand how frustrating that sort of complaint is. Now imagine it going on constantly as months tick by, and you’ll start to understand being a TSC filer.

Wishing speedy NVC processing, embassy processing, and visits to 'Effects of Major Family Changes' for all anti-TSC trolls.

Hello VJ,

I have what I hope is a simple immigration-related tax question, that I haven’t been able to find the answer to anywhere.

I am planning on marrying in 2015, and filing Married Filing Jointly to minimize tax liability for 2015. My future wife will have income earned in her home country, which we will declare on Form 2555-EZ, and will be untaxed in the USA.

Specifically, we will be including her foreign income on form 1040 Line 7 (Wages, etc.), and then subtracting it on Form 1040 Line 21 (“other income”).

The complication for me is that my main source of income (1099G) is also “other income” to be reported on Line 21. Is there any way to itemize different sources of “other income” on Line 21? Or should I just subtract the Foreign Income Credit from my actual Line 21 income, and expect to be audited?

My source of “other income” is a 1099-G that is reported to the IRS, and so if I subtract my future wife’s foreign income from it, it will appear that I am misreporting my earnings.

Does anyone here have a proposed solution?

Thank you!

-Fluffinhos

My NOA1 hard copy arrived today as well

It's also a welcome confirmation that they understand her somewhat unusual (3 part) last name and lack of middle name.