umikoikaze

6 hours ago, kiwibean said:

I think whoever looks at it would have to be like "duh, we screwed that one up!" and accept whatever you sent.  Surely!  So I'd submit the photocopies.

I hope so! I found a place that does certified translations online, so I'll get that just in case and send photo copies of my birth certificate with that translation and a photocopy of my naturalization certificate. Hopefully that's enough evidence for them. I also found out that I could fill out the application online and generate a bar code, so that should hopefully eliminate any confusion. 

56 minutes ago, randy32 said:

Follow the info on the page below. You will need form DS-5504

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/have-passport/change-correct.html

Thanks, I know which form I need to submit and already read that page. I'm confused on what evidence I need to include with that form and whether photocopies are acceptable. It just says "evidence of the error" without clarifying what's accepted as evidence.

 

39 minutes ago, arken said:

Why can't you translate it here and include the original translation?

 

 

 

 

I assumed there wouldn't be a place in Chicago that does certified translations from Georgian, but maybe I'm wrong? I have photocopies of the translation but I'm not sure if that would be accepted. 

Has anyone gotten wrong place of birth printed in their passport? My place of birth is Georgia (country) and I thought it was clear when I applied for a passport with a certificate of naturalization that lists Georgia as my former nationality, however my passport arrived and printed "Georgia, U.S.A" as my place of birth. I'm confused on how I can get that corrected. What document would I need to submit as evidence of place of birth? My birth certificate is in Georgian and my last translated copies were submitted with my immigration applications. Can I submit a translated photocopy for this that's not notarized? I can't see how I could get a notarized translation without traveling to Georgia first. 

Hi,

I’m a newly naturalized USC and want to petition for my mom’s immigrant visa. I have a few questions:

 

1) She has a B1 visa right now. Will she have problems visiting US while the I-130 is pending/processing? 
 

2) Once she gets a green card, will my dad (her spouse) have problems visiting US on a tourist visa? He doesn’t want a green card yet. 
 

She has visited me several times and stayed for 6 months at a time a few times but never overstayed her entrance stamp date. 
 

Bonus question: 

3) Can I use my and my spouses combined income for the sponsorship or does one of us have to meet the limits individually? We file taxes jointly. I was confused on the wording on USCIS website. 

Update: Finally received my NoA in the mail today! Dated for 12/06, California service center I believe (WAC).

The timeline feature isn't letting me add the information because my NOA date is more than 30 days away from the filing date 😕

What number do i call to inquire about my NOA? Also, how do i set up an infopass? I’m in Southern California. 

I filed for ROC on October 31st to the Arizona PO box, the mail got delivered on November 1st and the check was cached on November 6th. I still haven't received my NOA and my green card and drivers license are expired. 

What's my next step? Do I call them? I'm located in Southern California.

ETA: Please no judgment about late filing, I know we could've timed it much better and not have this problem now. The check was cached before the green card expiration though. 

I don't see how you lied during the interview though. You wanted to visit your husband, so you could get divorced.. You also wanted to visit your fiance but one doesn't negate the other. Not volunteering information isn't the same as lying. Sounds like CO just didn't believe your relationship was genuine.

From personal experience, I got married 16 days after arriving into the country and just had my case approved. Wasn't even questioned about it. Never lied to the CBP officer but also didn't volunteer information about my boyfriend. The key here is being honest with CO, CBP and USCIS.

You need a SSN before you can get a DL.

You can ask for an I-551 stamp but you may be refused without travel plans, but you can always ask.

According to the SSN website they will accept the stamp, but I don't know from experience.

Best case you will get SSN within 2 weeks, if for some reason they need to confirm something with immigration it could take up to 4 weeks (even though I had my EAD in hand they still had confirm as I wasn't showing in their database yet).

I'm not sure of a way to get the number before it arrives in the mail.

Do you live near a DLPC, it's a DMV that only does licenses (no in car tests) and there is one north of LA in Granada Hills. I found this was a quicker way to get a license without an appointment personally and I could check the waiting time online before I went, which was a lot less waiting time than my other local DMV.

I actually live 10 mins away from Granada Hills. Do you think I could just show up to that office without an appointment once I have my SSN? And I didn't realize I could check waiting times online. That's very helpful! (Already found where to check).

Do you know if me EAD will be valid between the times I get approved and until I receive the green card? Or is it automatically invalid once I'm approved?

One more question. On my checklist that they sent me they have this item:
"All documentation establishing your eligibility for lawful permanent resident status".

As someone AOS-ing from expired F-1 what would that be? I'm thinking marriage certificate, passports, i-94, my F1 documents, evidence of bona-fide marriage.

Am I missing anything? Also confusing, since all of the above are already included in other items listed on the checklist

Hi! My interview is scheduled for November 7th and as I'm preparing my documents I'm kind of confused on what I need to bring to the interview. What I'm thinking is:

1) Originals of all the passports, certificates and titles submitted (do I need to make copies of them as well? even though we already submitted it?)

2) Updated financial information (recent bank statements and pay stubs, updated letter of employment since my spouse got a pay raise)
3) Renewals of our lease, insurance, car registration, recent bills (showing our names and address)

4) Recent pictures of us taken since the original submission
5) My original I-20 and SEVIS since I entered on F-1 (do I need to make a copy of these as well?)

My questions are:
1) Do I need to bring a copy of our whole initial package? (which was probably 200 pages and I'd rather not waste paper if not necessary)

2) We have a joint checkings and savings account where my spouse's salary gets deposited, but we use individual credit cards to make purchases so we can get cash back on it and then pay for both credit card bills the same month from our joint account. Also if a credit card isn't accepted for some service, we use our joint account to pay for it. We also have individual savings and checking accounts that we had before we got married. We use those to separate our finances into categories so it's easier to manage and pay for our rent from our individual accounts (mostly cause I haven't ordered a check book for our joint account until I can get my name changed with the bank). Could this create a problem? Do we need to bring statements from all of our accounts and demonstrate it? Even some of our accounts are separate, we know each other's online credentials and can login into each other's online accounts if necessary. Once I get SSN we'll be able to add each other as users on our credit cards, but right now our bank doesn't allow it without SSN.
3) We don't have a photo album as I haven't had time to sit down and make one that I'm happy with and I feel like it's kinda stupid/fake to make one just for the interview. Is it okay to just bring photos?
4) Do we need to bring our tax transcript that was already submitted? (Haven't filed a new one since then)


Here's a list of what we submitted originally in May: (In green I highlighted the documents that I'll be bringing originals of)

1. Check in the amount of US$420 for I-130

2. Check in the amount of US$1,070 for I-485

3. Form G1145 E-Notification of application/petition acceptance

4. I-130 Petition For Alien Relative

• Copy of US Citizen’s birth certificate

• Copy of US Citizen’s passport

• Copy of marriage certificate

• G325A signed by US Citizen

• G325A signed by beneficiary

• Passport photo of US Citizen (attached with a paper clip to Form I-130 and signed)

• Passport photo of beneficiary (attached with a paper clip to Form I-130 and signed)

• Evidence of Bona fide Marriage

- Copy of current joint lease agreement

- Copy of previous joint lease agreement

- Copy of joint car title

- Certificate of fetal death of US citizens and beneficiary’s baby together

- Copy of utility bill in beneficiary’s name demonstrating the address

- Copy of utility bill in US citizen’s name demonstrating the address

- Copy of joint car insurance

- Last 12 statements of joint bank accounts

- Pictures documenting our relationship

5. I-485 Application To Register Permanent Residence Or Adjust Status

• Continuation pages for Form I-485

• Copy of Birth Certificate with English translation

• Copy of passport page with nonimmigrant visa

• 2 passport photos of beneficiary (attached with a paper clip to Form I-485 and signed)

• G325A signed by beneficiary

• Copy of I-94 Form

• Form I-864 Affidavit of Support

- Sponsor’s tax transcript for most recent (2015) tax year

- Letter from employer

- Sponsor’s pay rate notice

- Sponsor’s last six months of paystubs

- Copy of sponsor’s Birth Certificate

• Form I-693 Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record (Completed by a Civil Surgeon sealed in an envelope)

6. I-765 Application For Employment Document

• 2 passport photos of beneficiary (attached with a paper clip to Form I-765 and signed)

• Copy of passport page with nonimmigrant visa

• Copy of marriage certificate to note the name change

• Copy of I-94 Form

7. I-131 Application For Travel Document

• 2 passport photos of beneficiary (attached with a paper clip to Form I-131 and signed)

• Copy of passport page with nonimmigrant visa

• Copy of marriage certificate to note the name change

• Copy of I-94 Form

And here's what we submitted with our RFE in September:

1. A copy of sponsor’s tax return for 2015

2. A copy of W2 forms submitted with the tax return for 2015

3. Updated i864 from – Affidavit of Support signed by petitioner

4. Copy of sponsor’s passport.

5. Letter of employment signed by sponsor’s employer

6. Pay rate notice from sponsor’s employer

7. Sponsor’s paystubs from January 2016 until August 2016

8. Bank statements from sponsor’s checking account covering September 2015-August 2016

9. Bank statements from sponsor’s savings account covering November 2015-August 2016

10. A printout of car value

11. A copy of car title for the card included as an asset

12. A copy of car title for the second car, proving ownership of two vehicles

13. Bank statements of intending immigrant’s checking and savings accounts covering September 2015-August 2016


Am I understanding everything correctly? Am I missing anything that I need to bring? I appreciate your help and input!

Here's my situation:

My driver's license expired in August and I can't renew it without showing them proof of my legal status. My F-1 is out of status and California DMV doesn't accept NOA-1 as proof. So my options are to wait for either green card or EAD.

My interview is scheduled for Monday, November 7th as for EAD I haven't received it yet. Today I got a notification that my card is being produced, so I assume I'll receive it next week.

My goal is to renew my driver's license as soon as possible and I have a few questions in regards to that:

1) For example, if I'm approved on the spot after my interview and get a I-551 stamp in my passport, can I use that stamp to apply for SSN and DL before my green card arrives?
2) If I get approved the next day and don't get a stamp in my passport and receive my EAD that week, can I use my EAD before my green card arrives? If not, what can I do in that situation to expedite the process?

3) When I apply for SSN will they issue me the number right away or do I need to wait for the card to arrive to know my number? (Or can I find out my number sometime in-between?)

4) Do I need to receive my SSN before I can renew my DL? Or can I apply for DL, wait for my SSN to come and then let DMV know my number once I have it?
5) How long does it usually take to receive social security card after the paperwork's been submitted? On their website, it says 10 business days after processing but doesn't say how long the processing takes.
6) All in all, what would be the fastest way for me to renew my license?


I wanna know this so I can plan on when to schedule my DMV appointment as waiting times tend to be about 2-3 weeks, so I wanna schedule it in advance if possible.


Thanks for your help!

FedEx has boxes for papers.

Thank you! I'll try FedEx then )

I have a stack of letter sized papers that are about 1 inch thick (bank statements). I need to mail those to USCIS. What would be the best shipping method for this? They definitely won't fit in a flat rate envelope, but I'm not sure what kind of box to use. Is there a good flat rate box that I should use? Or that's easy to purchase?

Thanks!

Hi,

My EAD/Travel Auth have been authorised. I assume they are in the mail, what forms do I need to file for an SSN?

You're gonna need your EAD card, Passport and Social Security card application form that you can find on this link https://www.ssa.gov/forms/ss-5.pdf

Just fill out the form and take it with those documents to the nearest social security office. You can use their website to locate an office nearest to you.

I haven't gone through the process myself yet, as I'm waiting for my card to arrive, but this is what I understood from the form's instructions.

trca101, you will need to have EAD and SSN to apply for California driver's license as they require a proof for you being in the country legally (EAD) and SSN if you're eligible for one (which you are after you receive EAD). I'm in a similar situation, my license expires next week and I can't renew until I receive those documents.

Same with us, called uscis, they said they're changing systems or whatever and it might take some time, not to worry though.

Thank you! My i-485 number started working, but my others still aren't working. I'd like to check on my EAD status ( Do you think I should call them or just wait for it to get sorted out?

Even my statement ( i-20) have been canceled by my school, and probably its not valuable anymore??

Even though it's not valid anymore, I'd argue that it's still valuable in terms of record keeping and wouldn't destroy it. I don't know what official information on it is, but I'm personally keeping my expired I-20 just in case I need it for something in the future.

So in my situation, do I need to bring my record and i-20 to the interview in the future???

Thanks,

I'm not sure if it's necessary but it wouldn't hurt to bring all the documents available to you to the interview in case they ask and want to see it. I'm planning on bringing it with me, just in case.

I think you should be able to use the old visa with the new sevis and I-20, but I'm not 100% sure.

There's so much stigma around AOS for non-K1 from people who couldn't care less to hear the fully story out first, it's ridiculous. Sharing our stories help encourage those who are on the same boat and are being constantly bombarded with judgment about "circumventing" the process.

Off-topic: Speaking of online status, I just gave the USCIS a call because it's been 40+ days since I got my NOA in the mail and the numbers are still not recognized. They say it may take up to 45 days, so I'll call again Monday. Good luck to us!

Thank you for saying that! I've got a lot of judgement and fraud accusation on this forum for adjusting from a student visa, without them knowing my story or anything. And thanks for mentioning your experience with online status. I'm having the same problem and was getting worried that the online status thing wouldn't work for the whole process.

Hey,

I really thank you for y'all responses. But may I ask one more question that should or shouldn't I do reinstatement for my I-20?

Someone said that I need my record and I-20 for the interview.

Would have any problems if I wouldn't do the reinstatement and just file the papers?

Thank you

If you want to continue going to school before you receive your green card, you could try resubmitting for I-20, but in my opinion, you're most likely gonna get denied since you have immigrant intent now and F-1 is a non-immigrant visa. As far as I know, you don't need to be in status if you're married to a US citizen, so you should just apply for adjustment of status.

Pls help

Also the wedding pictures etc . We send ,how did u put the pictures together to send ...in plastic bag or something ??

What I did was add the photos to a word document and put captions under them with dates and description. I then printed it out and included it with the rest for our evidence. I had 8 pages I think.

Hi, I have a question in regards to getting health insurance.
My husband (USC) is on a health insurance plan with his parents which is free and a very good plan. I'm not eligible to be added to that plan, so I'm looking for an option to get my own plan through marketplace.

Here's what happened:

We got married in January 2015
May 2015 I became out of status, so I couldn't apply during open enrollment period since I wasn't lawfully present in the country.
05/18/2015 I filed AOS and I have NOA1 dated 05/26/2015. Am I correct in thinking that I am now lawfully present in the states as my AOS is pending?

Covered CA website says that I'm eligible to apply for insurance during closed enrollment if I have a special qualifying life event within 60 days of the event. One of the events listed is this:

• Becoming citizens, national or lawfully present individuals. This event applies only to people who were not previously citizens, nationals or lawfully present.

Am I right in assuming that I qualify now to apply for health insurance? Could I show NOA-1 as a document proving me being lawfully present? Or do I need to wait for EAD to arrive? I'm just confused which one is qualifying life event: NOA-1 or EAD and don't want to miss enrollment period and have to pay the fee when filing taxes.
I'm also wondering whether NOA1 is sufficient for renewing my driver's license or if I have to wait for EAD.

I live in California, and this is what I'd be using: http://www.coveredca.com/individuals-and-families/getting-covered/special-enrollment/

Thanks!