jv86

Hi all,

My wife entered the US a few months ago and had the IR-1 visa endorsed. We didn't receive her SSN for several weeks so we went to the local office and were informed that she was not in the system. We applied for a card there and she received it a week later. My issue is that the name on the card is spelled correctly but the "given names" are printed all as one long name.

ex. Jane Carrie Julie Lastname was printed on the card as: JANECARRIEJULIE LASTNAME.

I've seen that there are character limits to the cards but wanted to know that if, in the future, when my wife is working or anytime somethings asks for a name "as it appears on the social security card", will this cause an issue if she spells it normally with proper spaces? The green card, visa and everything else has it spelled and spaced properly but the lady at the local office said she has to print it "the way immigration has it" and if it is wrong we have to go to immigration to fix it.

Any insights would be appreciated.

Many thanks as always.

Hi everyone,

My wife was issued a CR1 visa recently but we have been married for 2 years and 8 months. I tried to call the USCIS office call center here in Jordan where I currently reside with my wife to ask if this will negatively affect our entering the US but (surprise) they were less then helpful and told me that they cannot answer that question as it will be up to the CBP officer and I should check their website. I also tried to call the embassy directly and after being transferred, no one answered.

I've browsed a few topics that had similar issues and I want to say that it shouldn't be an issue since the green card will be issued based on length of marriage at the time of entry to the US so from what I understand it is possible to have a CR1 visa and have it stamped/endorsed as IR1.

Can anyone confirm that this will be the case? I'm just hoping that this entire process can be put aside so we can focus on moving.

Thanks.

Thank you for the reply. There aren't any job offers at the moment as I haven't applied to anywhere and didn't want to make promises about when I'd be there without knowing if my wife's visa would be approved. Since we will be staying with my parents, perhaps a letter from them stating so will suffice? I can discuss with them about an agreement to pay rent or share of utitilites.

Hi all,

My wife's visa interview is coming up in a few weeks and we were required to submit all of our documents 1-2 weeks in advance (new system i guess at the Embassy in Jordan). I went today and handed everything in, everything was going smoothly until i handed over proof of domicile. I handed everything over and was asked how long I had been in Jordan, i stated 6 years and staff member kind of smiled and said, "i'll take those" as he took the documents I had for proof of domicile as if to say 6 years is a long time and good luck proving domicile. I had many documents and copies including what i mentioned in a previous post such as valid driver's license, student loan statement, bank statement, voter registration, car title and insurance card.

I have been living in Jordan for 6 years, initially to study and gain some international work experience. So I studied for 1.5 years and worked for another approx. 2 years. When my wife and I were discussing the particulars of marriage and the visa, we agreed to stay in Jordan for 1-2 years to let her finish gaining the 5 years of work experience she wanted as well as to adjust to married life rather than immediately leaving her family and finding herself in a new culture. Thus we married in 2013 and started the visa process in the middle of 2015 when my last work contract ended.

After today's experience handing in the documents, perhaps i'm overthinking, but I'm worried that her visa might be denied on account of my lack of proof of domicile / intent to re-establish domicile. I'm hoping during the interview she has the opportunity to explain the agreement to remain in country for some time which makes the 6 years abroad understandable. I'm also trying to think of additional documents I may be able to bring to the interview.

If anyone has any advice or anything that may calm my nerves a bit (i'm not even being interviewed!) it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks as always.

Excellent advice. Since we will be staying with my parents, perhaps a signed letter from them will suffice. I'm also waiting for a response from my dad's friend who wanted to speak to me about finding opportunities in the area so if I get one soon I will add that email correspondence as another piece.

Thank you.

Ah yes, sorry i didn't mention those because i thought it a standard part of the affidavit. Yes i have transcripts from the previous 3 years which i had to file back taxes for. There is a joint sponsor as well, my father, we will be moving back home with my family. I also forgot I have my insurance card which is still valid as well.

Hi all,

I've been living abroad in Jordan for several years, initially i was studying and then started working a bit. Got married a few years ago and started the IR1/CR1 visa process in the mid of last year. My concern is about my proof of domicile in the US for her upcoming interview.

I have the following documents as proof of my maintaining ties to the US:

-Bank statement showing the year my account was opened (thus showing i've maintained it since then)

-Voter registration card

-Valid driver's license with home address

-Letter of recommendation from previous job showing my employment dates in country with an international organization

-Student loan statement

We also have a valid reason why we didn't apply for a K-1 visa and we didn't start the application for the IR1/CR1 visa until after a few years so there shouldn't be any suspicions about the validity of the relationship. We didn't try to go to the US sooner because we agreed prior to getting married that we would stay in Jordan for a few years so she could get a few more years of work experience and adjust to the married life without the stress of adding a new culture and lack of immediate family right away.

Should those documents along with our reasoning be enough to prove I've maintained my ties to home? I never did intend to permanently move and was always going to return home, marriage just changed the time frame slightly

Thanks for the assistance as always.

Prior to my posting here I sent a message to the embassy via the ustraveldocs website to try to get a response from them directly. They replied today stating that "the pp# will be updated when the interview is scheduled." I guess i wasn't clear initially to them since our interview was scheduled and my wife's passport was renewed AFTER scheduling the interview. Now i'm kind of worried they are going to tell me I will have to reschedule or something despite the previous replies saying not to worry. This is in Jordan if anyone has had a similar experience here since I'm starting to worry that it is all going to be delayed more and more. Any advice appreciated.

Thanks again.

Hi everyone,

Just a quick question. My wife recently renewed her passport which includes a new passport number. This was done recently and now only a month before her scheduled interview. The number of the new passport is obviously not the one that was used on all of the filing information, will this negatively affect any of the procedures? I was thinking that all we will have to do is take both of the passports to the interview and the embassy will sort it out themselves.

Appreciate any advice.

That's what I was thinking as well, but I do tend to overthink too

Thanks for the insight.

Hi all,

We have my wife's visa interview at the embassy in Jordan at the start of February and I have filed back taxes in order to ensure the Affidavit is complete. My question though is that I have the returns/transcripts for 2014, 2013 and 2012 but not 2015 as it was not due and still isn't. Does anyone know if this will be a hold up and if it is necessary to file the 2015 taxes (for myself and the joint sponsor) in order for the affidavits to be accepted now that the deadline is so close or will the 'latest' tax return (2014) be accepted?

Many thanks.

Hi all,

In the instructions for the DS-260 there is a point that mentions after electronic submission of the application that civil documents and pictures must be submitted to the NVC at a specified email address. When I got the checklist from the Embassy following the submission of the I-130 it only mentions submitting the DS-260 online but doesn't mentioned the NVC at all here (aside from a fee). Knowing that DCF skips the NVC process, do I still have to submit these documents to the NVC's email address provided or is that typically for those not going the DCF route?

Anyone with insights on this is appreciated.

Thanks.

Thanks mallafri76,

I think for the first question I'll put the total amount I made thus far in 2015.

I should have clarified, I'm applying for my wife's visa from abroad as I'm still residing outside of the US. That said, we haven't had to go through the NVC stage as we are doing it through the local USCIS office in country, but is there a place that I can find this checklist you mentioned or was it something given directly to you? I may just put $0 in the 3 years as you mentioned and have the letter from the accountant explain my annual salary in each of those years and other pertinent information as is noted in the instructions.

I'll also leave the other points blank to save myself the trouble since it won't make any difference anyway.

Thanks again for your help.

Hi again everyone,

Just a few questions I came across trying to complete the I-864:

1) I have been unemployed since the end of March, 2015. Under the "Current Annual Salary" do I simply put $0 or total up the amount I earned during the first 3 months of the year and put that as the total?

2) I have been residing abroad for several years working and studying. I spoke with an accountant and together we looked at my earnings from previous jobs over the past 3 years and in none of the years did I meet the minimum earnings required to have to file taxes. I know in the instructions it states that you just need a letter statings why you didn't have to file and he will help me with that. However, my question is in the section asking for the previous 3 tax return amounts, will it simply be left as $0 in each of the 3 years? I know it sounds straight forward but for some reason I feel like I'm doing something incorrectly by doing so.

3) Based on the above, I know I will need a joint sponsor and my father has agreed to do so. My understanding is that if there is a joint sponsor, earnings are not cumulative between the petitioner and the joint sponsor in order to reach the required level, in a sense whatever I put on my form will be tossed out anyway since I don't meet the requirements. With this in mind, is it even worth putting my wife's earnings or trying to figure out my own assets if I'm certain it won't come anywhere close to meeting the minimum requirement to be a sponsor? As of now I'm leaning towards making it easy on myself, putting in the minimum required of me and then completing the joint sponsor's form with everything needed.

As always, thank you all for the help.

Thanks, Ryan H,

You've been helpful providing information on a previous post of mine as well. Looks like we'll be keeping it the same for the sake of ease and looking into other options.

Thanks again.

Greetings,

Just a quick question I came across while filling out the DS 260 for my wife. My wife is Jordanian and her Jordanian passport spells her name in English in a different way than she has all her life. We've completed the visa related documents using the name as it appears in the passport but, if possible, she would like to have the green card (hopefully, in the near future) written in the way she's used to.

My question then is, will there be a point where she will be able to request an alternate spelling of her name prior being issued the green card or social security number. This question rose because I saw the one checkbox on the application asking if we want a social security card sent to an address. If we want a different spelling of a name, should we select no at this point or just go through the process with her name as is and then legally change it at some point in the future.

Thanks for the help as always.

Hi all,

Just a very quick question for anyone who has had any experience or additional knowledge in this regard. I currently live with my wife in Jordan, I have been residing here for some time and thus meet the requirements to be able to apply for the IR-1 visa through the local USCIS office in country. The problem I faced is that they told me that they are unable to make appointments until June and that it "may" be faster to apply through mail via the chicago lockbox.

My question is: in general, is it faster to directly apply through a USCIS field office vs the lockbox? If it is then I may wait out the extra 2 months but if it comes down to be the same amount of time then I'll just get the process started.

Any knowledge or experience is appreciated.

Thanks.

Many thanks everyone for your inputs. It seems like there is no cut and dry way of doing it so I'll discuss the matter with my wife further to see how she would want her name to appear on US documents and take it from there.

Thanks again and best of luck to everyone.

Thanks for the reply YV15 as well as the kind words,

The problem I have faced is that on her documents it will say "Given Names" and "Surname" so it isn't divided up the way they'd like it on the form. That's what confuses me, of the given names how can you decide which ones will count as first, middle, last. Referring back to my example (Laila Ahmad Muhammad Qais) I'm tempted to put Laila as first, AM as middle and Qais as last but I don't want that to be wrong and have it rejected for something so simple.

Any other advice would be appreciated.

Thanks again.

Hi All,

Trying to start my visa journey for my wife and didn't get too far before questions and concerns set in.

I'm sure this is a question that many have come across in their own way so I'm hoping this board will be a little more helpful than the vague replies I've received from the USCIS.

My wife is Jordanian and culturally they take the names of their father, grandfather etc. To give an example: Laila Ahmad Muhammad Qais (where Laila is her name, Ahmad is the father's name, Muhammad is the grandfather's and Qais is the family name). How should I put her name in the I-130 and other forms following the "First, Middle, Last" format as I don't want to leave a name out and have everything be thrown off or rejected because of a simple name mistake.

Many thanks for your assistance.

All the best.