Matt and Ângela
-
Posts
25 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Partners
Immigration Wiki
Guides
Immigration Forms
Times
Gallery
Store
Blogs
Posts posted by Matt and Ângela
-
-
9 minutes ago, Andre_Botha said:
Matt, was this ever resolved? I am going through almost the exact same thing, I really would like to know how this all planned out.
Yes, it was resolved -- in the end it was not a big deal. We sent in the materials as described originally in the thread, and we were approved. In the end, I believe the RFE caused a delay of about three weeks.
Of course this was all pre-Trump -- I have no idea what things are like now.
-
9 minutes ago, kumarmp said:
@Matt and Angela, Do you guys have template for sworn statement that you have provided ? Appreciate your help on this.
Wow, I had totally forgotten this even happened -- it was a small blip in retrospect. Here is the wording that our lawyer provided us for the sworn statement:
---
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is FIRSTNAME LASTNAME. My adjustment of status application is pending.
My address is:
FULL ADDRESS IN US
I was born on BIRTHDATE, in CITY, STATE, COUNTRY.
I arrived in the United States on a K-1 visa on ARRIVAL DATE. I have not left the United States since that time.
I swear under penalty of perjury under the laws of the state of YOUR STATE that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my belief and knowledge.
-
Hi, did you find a better a way to send this money from Brazil to US? Because Im going through the same problem.
Yes -- we ended up using MoneyCorp. It went quite smoothly, we ended up paying very little in the way of fees/taxes. Highly recommended.
They have Portuguese speaking staff available to help if needed.
-
transferwise.com peer transfer without bank fees
Looks like a great service for sending money to Brazil (and most anywhere else), but they do not support sending money from Brazil.
-
My wife sold her apartment in Brazil and has about $25,000 US worth of Reales in a bank in Brazil.
What is the best way to get it to the US?
She is hearing that bank transfer fees and taxes total 23% of the amount sent, which seems crazy to me. Short of flying down there and getting it, is there any way to do this without losing a ridiculous amount?
-- Matt
-
An update for those following this topic -- I just checked our case status online, our I-131 and work permit were approved yesterday!
So in case anybody else runs into this in the future, to answer my original question about how long does this kind of thing take to resolve:
- On December 2nd, we received the RFE claiming my wife had left the country. The RFE was dated 11/25 (delay in delivery because of Thanksgiving holiday).
- On December 4th, our lawyer sent back the response. It contained a sworn statement from my wife that she had not left (with wording from our lawyer), a copy of every page of her passport, a printout from the US Government's I-94 status page showing no evidence that she had left the country, and whatever cover letter the lawyer included.
- On December 9th our status changed to indicate the RFE response had been received, and case was going back in review.
- On December 18th status changed to approved.
Presumably if USCIS had not made this random inexplicable error, they would have issued the approval instead of an RFE on 11/25. So bottom line, the delay for this was just over three weeks.
-
Again though, my main question is whether anybody has any ideas as to how long this is going to delay our process?
-
How do I do that?
Nevermind -- I googled it. The only thing the I-94 history shows is her entry on August 7th (her previous trips to US were on an old passport).
-
What happens when you pull up her I-94 travel history?
How do I do that?
Did she have a round trip ticket? Did you cancel the return?
No, she flew here in August on a one-way ticket.
-
My wife (then fiancee) arrived in the US on August 7th on her K-1. We were married on August 29th, and filed all the adjustment of status forms within a few weeks of that.
We were expecting to receive her work permit and advance parole this week. Instead, yesterday she received an RFE (for the I-131), the crux of which is "USCIS records indicate that you have departed prior to the approval of your Advance Parole." and "If you did not depart the United States, please provide evidence that you did not depart the United States."
She absolutely has not left the US since she arrived here -- I have no idea why they think she did. We have been working with an immigration lawyer, who says that the USCIS makes mistakes all the time, and we need to send in a sworn statement that she has not left, and a copy of every page of her passport, which we have prepared, and the lawyer is sending in today.
Has this happened to anybody else here? Does anybody have any idea how much of a delay this is likely to add to the process?
Also, does anybody have any ideas why the USCIS would think she had left when she had not? I really can not think of any plausible causes. She last entered and left the US last December, on her previous tourist/work visa (which is when we met). Her only interaction with Homeland Security since then was a domestic flight over Thanksgiving (which was after the date of the RFE).
-- Matt
-
Per the subject, we had our K-1 interview at the Rio de Janeiro consulate on June 23, and my fiancée still has not received the package (and the tracking number has not shown up in the system).
How long does this usually take? Should we be worried? Is it safe to buy a plane ticket for August 5th (our planned date)?
I wonder if things are still gummed up from the June state department computer meltdown?
http://travel.state.gov/content/travel/english/news/technological-systems-issue.html
-
Sorry but your Lawyer is not fully right because getting married doesn't mean approval. Well, I am from Rio and June is not so perfect for us there, it can be a little bit chilly (Chilly for me means a cool weather for you, lol) for us and it does rain, but I am sure the weather will be okay.
She was saying that if we got denied for the K-1, there really is no point in trying to appeal, and our best bet at that point would be to try for a spouse visa. But she did not say that was guaranteed either.
Anyway, it should all be moot -- it is really hard to see why they would deny us. Especially with me there.
-
Well I ended up buying a ticket yesterday -- not a great time for me to travel (leaving on the Friday of the second week of a new job I am starting), but it works. At least the ticket was fairly cheap. Apparently it is the off season, though I have no idea why -- June weather in Rio looks perfect to me (low 80's and no rain). And we haven't seen each other since February, so it will be great to spend a long weekend together.
That's interesting that they would request a second interview with the petitioner. From what our lawyer told us, if she got rejected our only real option was to get married down there, then start all over with the visa for bringing in a wife, which is even longer and more complicated. Which is why we did not want to take any chances at all.
-
Sorry if this is addressed on a FAQ on this site somewhere, but I could not find it, so here it goes...
We have our K-1 interview scheduled for June 23rd at the Rio de Janeiro consulate.
We just met with our immigration lawyer, and she says it would be a good idea for me to go down there for the interview if possible. She says that though not really necessary, it would help our chances. For a variety of reasons, it would not be a good time for me to travel, but not impossible.
Our case is super solid -- it breezed through the system, we just filed in early March. Tons of evidence, and no real red flags. From what I have read in the Rio consulate reviews, it seems like things are relatively straightforward, so I hadn't really been thinking about going down there.
On the other hand, if somehow something happened, and she was rejected, and I hadn't gone down, it would be so awful.
What are people's thoughts? Does it make a big difference to have the sponsor there (in particular for Brazil)?
-
I do not think he will be able to get a visitor visa at this point if he has K-1 pending. They will think he is planning on marrying you and staying. Of course I am not a lawyer -- just a random dude on the internet spouting off.
It might be worth calling an immigration lawyer and discussing your case briefly. You will get at least some free advice on the phone, and perhaps you could just hire them for a 30 minute consultation or something.
Of course if you do that, in all likelihood you will hear exactly the same things people are saying here. Still, if I was in your position, I would do it.
-
Also, do the embassies really give higher scrutiny to a woman-older relationship than a man-older relationship with the same age gap? Even if those are in fact less common, doing so seems like it would be blatant gender discrimination, and banned by US federal law.
That being said, I am male and 20 years older than my Brazilian fiancée. I asked our very experienced immigration lawyer about that, she said it would be a non-issue. BUT, she did actually say that if the gap was really big -- and she gave 30 years as an example -- then it could be problematic. That is why in my opinion it would be worth the investment to hire a lawyer.
-
I just read this whole thread, and one thing that nobody has asked yet is whether you have hired an immigration lawyer? In a case like this where apparently there is going to be a high risk of denial, I think it would be worth the investment to have a top notch experienced lawyer working with you.
-
For the marriage brokerage act RFE's, they need to prove that neither the US petitioner or the foreign beneficiary paid a marriage broker.
I don't think paying a marriage broker prevents you from getting a K-1, but just requires more paperwork to be filled out?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Marriage_Broker_Regulation_Act
-
We met on Tinder, and described that in our application. We have our NOA2 -- did not get an RFE.
-
We got our NOA1 on 3/19, and never saw anything other than this message for our status.
Then last night I got a text alert that our status had changed, and when I checked it now says Approved -- after only 20 days!
So if you are waiting for NOA2, I would not expect this to change before you are approved/denied/RFE.
-
@Sabrina&Chuck -- maybe they are trying to speed things up in order to accommodate all of the new transfers coming in from the Texas center? I.e. see this thread:
When I saw that, I was afraid it would delay our application, but perhaps -- at least for the people who got in ahead of that -- it actually sped things up?
@ant330ci -- a lot of people -- maybe everybody -- has been getting that message. See this thread...
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/542136-uscis-case-status/
I never saw anything other than that message on our case, until last night when I got a text saying status had changed. Then when I checked, it said approved.
-
Our NOA1 was received on 3/19, and we just got our approval tonight 4/8 -- so only 20 days! This is through California Service Center, of course.
I don't know why ours was so fast -- we did have an excellent application package, put together by a lawyer, with tons and tons of super clear documentation. But I had the impression that that really did not matter as far as timing -- only really for avoiding RFE's.
-
Thanks for the replies everybody -- very encouraging!
I met with our lawyer again today, I think I have a better idea what is going on -- the California Service Center itself seems to be reporting a current processing time for I-129F as 5 months... http://www.aila.org/infonet/processing-time-reports/csc/csc-ptr-02-27-15, so that is what she based her estimate on.
But according to the stats on this site, the actual current time is 57 days. So apparently the official processing time report is wildly off?
-
We will be filing for a K-1 this week, via the California service center, for my fiancée who is in Brazil. My lawyer (who has done a lot of these) says we should expect it to take around 8 to 10 months to have a visa in hand. However, looking at the stats here for this combo, it looks like it has been taking most people more like 3 to 5 months.
Am I missing something important about reading the stats, or is my lawyer just giving an extremely conservative estimate?
There should not be any red flags or particular complications in our case.
N400 Seattle (merged)
in US Citizenship Case Filing and Progress Reports
Posted
My wife had her interview this morning, scheduled for 8:00AM. Basically the same story, she got sworn in at the 10:30 ceremony.
However one important additional piece of information -- to reduce the number of people in the building, they are only letting in individuals who actually have the appointment, so I could not enter.
I left to go work in a coffee shop, but then realized that today was the first day of all restaurants/coffee shops being takeout only. So I worked from my car for a couple hours until she was done, and I did not get to see her ceremony.