SnakeBite

13 hours ago, Grumpycatnj said:

Question:

when did she apply for her N-400?

im just trying to calculate my interview window frame. I applied  In April 2019, it said January 2020 as estimated time but now its March 2020.

 

thabk you!

Application was end-January 2019. Based on timelines it looks like they're taking about 8 months between application and interview right now, and I estimated at least a couple of months ago that the interview would be sometime around September-early October. If that holds up I would estimate December-January for you. (though it can always change for the better or worse!)

On 8/14/2019 at 9:01 AM, hayito said:

same day as long as the Interview is not too late....

Thanks! 8 am, so hopefully it goes quickly/smoothly and there's a saturday morning/midday oath. We shall see!

My wife was just scheduled for her interview at Newark...on Saturday, Sept 28. Definitely makes things easier in some ways as no one needs to miss work and we won't have to deal with rush hour traffic, though we won't have childcare so will be carting around our toddler.

Does anyone know if the Newark office does same-day oath ceremonies on Saturdays as well?

Hi,

We are filling out the I-751 right now, and there's a question I'm not quite sure how to handle - Part 1, #22 - "Have you resided at any other address since you became a permanent residence?"

My wife had a holiday trip planned to visit me in the US in 2015 but was called for her CR-1 interview earlier than we expected, days before that holiday trip. She entered the US on the CR-1 visa and moved some of her belongings, but she couldn't stay because she hadn't had a chance to give notice at work or on the apartment lease or to pack everything. After the holiday trip, she returned to the country she was working in for 2+ more months before finally moving herself and all of our remaining belongings to the US.

For question #22, should the foreign address be included? I am leaning towards no, but I'm not sure.

Her address in the USCIS system would be our address in the US where I had a lease from the date she entered. It didn't make sense to fill out a change of address form back to the address in the other country when she was wrapping up her life there to move everything here, and I don't think you can have multiple addresses listed at once.

5 hours ago, Nepo Cat said:

Thanks Ketsuban for your explanation. But our situation is little bit complicated. My wife was a full time student on last year so she had no income and not required to file a tax return. Also I was lived United Stated for 18 days and I also not required to file tax return. That what I found from IRS website.

 

As we were not required to file tax return, we did not filed tax return for last year. But we could file tax return or still can file the tax return showing no income which is not mandatory.

 

I send only one tax return with I751 and explained we did not file tax return for the previous year because we are not required to file by law. Lets see what USCIS expect.

 

Hi. We are in the same boat. My wife entered the country in December 2015 on a CR-1 visa, but because she had no US source income in 2015 she did not file a US tax return. I filed Married Filing Separately (MFS) because Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) would've been much more complicated with a higher tax owed based on our circumstances. 

Am currently putting together the ROC package and have been thinking about what to do for taxes evidence. I will include the 2016 MFJ tax transcript. For 2015, should I include my MFS tax transcript with a comment in the cover letter explaining why she doesn't have a transcript, or should I just omit mine as well? Which is less likely to lead to a RFE? 

I have other evidence including a joint lease, multiple bank accounts, life insurance and 401k beneficiary info, etc.

Separately, is the state tax return necessary? I can include the whole state tax return if so, but there are no transcripts easily available in my state.

18 minutes ago, FloridaMinsk said:

 

It went through the agencies.   That was stated time and again on the morning shows.  

Stated by Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway who lie about everything?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/29/us/politics/donald-trump-rush-immigration-order-chaos.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=a-lede-package-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Gen. John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, had dialed in from a Coast Guard plane as he headed back to Washington from Miami. Along with other top officials, he needed guidance from the White House, which had not asked his department for a legal review of the order.

Halfway into the briefing, someone on the call looked up at a television in his office. “The president is signing the executive order that we’re discussing,” the official said, stunned.

Week 1. Put this out on a Friday evening with no explanation. Only story that is covering potential impact on green card holders is here: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-order-blocks-green-card-visa-holders-airports-article-1.2957910?cid=bitly, but I'm waiting to see more. It's only going to get worse.

My wife is not affected as a GC holder from a non-affected country, but what's stopping her being denied entry for no reason in the future? Makes us seriously start considering options to move elsewhere.

Hi,

I've searched this forum and elsewhere and still don't have a clear answer to my question, so here goes:

Timeline:

My wife entered the US on a CR-1 visa near the end of December 2015, making her a green card holder from that date. She stayed in the US for 2 weeks before returning to the country she had been working in for 5+ years. She continued working abroad until mid-March 2016, then finished moving to the US in late-March 2016.

My question is:

Is she eligible to take the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (Form 2555) for the income earned between Jan 1 and mid-March?

My initial reading of Form 2555 instructions and IRS Pub 54 leads me to believe yes since she was physically present outside the US for more than 330 days between March 2015 and 2016. I don't seen anything that would disqualify her just because she was a new green card holder, but I'm not sure if I'm missing anything and don't want to mess anything up.

Thanks!

My understanding is the IOE number is needed which is only on the confirmation page when you paid not on the email receipt. received_1041542209202596.jpeg

What a brilliant system.

Luckily my wife printed the page. Unfortunately the IOE number doesn't help for us - it just says "User-defined error" when we try to check status.

Now waiting for 4 weeks...hopefully it'll come soon.

Ok, quick update, but I'm still confused.

I found a receipt number on the confirmation page for the payment (Though this number was NOT sent in the confirmation email).

It has a NEW USCIS ReceiptNumber starting with the letters IOE. The problem now is that when I enter this Receipt number at the USCIS Check status page, I get an error that says " Validation errors, you must correct the following error(s) before proceeding: *User-Defined Error".

Anyone had this problem. Ideas on what to do??

My wife's information is clearly somewhere in the system since the SSA sent her an updated card 2 weeks ago.

Thanks

Hi all,

I've done quite a bit of searching and found some others who had similar questions, but never an actual answer.

My wife received her CR-1 Visa on December 21, 2015.

She paid the $165 fee on December 22, 2015.

She entered the USA on a CR-1 on December 23, 2015.

She received her updated Social Security Card in the mail the first week of Jan (she already had a SSN from when she worked as a student in the USA).

We have not received anything from USCIS in the mail - no welcome letter or Green Card.

I've seen a number of threads that say we can check the status online at the ELIS website. Can anyone clarify how to actually do this? When I go to the payment site (https://www.uscis.gov/uscis-elis/log-online-filing), I click on " To receive status updates on the production of your permanent resident card, please visit Case Status Online." but then what should we enter at the case status online?

The Number I have that works, from our initial petition, just says the same thing it always has - the petition was approved on August 18. Should this end up updating once they've done something, or should I be using a different receipt number? The tracking numbers we have from the receipt for the payment don't work here.

To confirm payment, I tried paying again, and when I entered the Department of State numbers and A#, the website told me the Fee has already been paid.

Am I completely missing something? It's been 3 weeks, no letter from USCIS, and I can't figure out how to check status? I thought we were done with worrying about every little thing, but I guess not! (I'd like to add my wife to my bank account, but Chase won't let me without her physical green card. They won't accept the visa + stamp).

Thanks Sukie, that's basically what I'm figuring...

The unfortunate thing is, reading through past reviews at the Singapore embassy, a not insignificant number of people actually had the embassy contact them to move their interviews to an earlier date. Guess that's not happening anymore...

We'll just have to hope that she can travel to the US on Dec 23 for a vacation Christmas, a trip we planned 6 months ago. (She has a tourist visa and will mention at the interview...)

Thanks so much!

My wife had her interview this morning and was approved on the spot! The CO told my wife that the passport will be ready by next Monday or Tuesday latest, and she would check to see if it could be done quicker before my wife's flight next Wedneday. It looks like everything should hopefully work out - will be a very Merry Christmas.

Good luck to everyone else still waiting!

Snakebite, they used to ship out the packets to the Embassy within about 3 days of assigning an interview date - but now it seems they hold on to the packets until about two weeks prior to interview.

I don't know why they have changed their routine - but I'm betting it has something to do with people trying to speed up their interview dates. If your packet isn't at the Embassy/Consulate, you can't ask for an earlier interview....and someone caught on!

Best of luck!

Sukie in NY

Thanks Sukie, that's basically what I'm figuring...

The unfortunate thing is, reading through past reviews at the Singapore embassy, a not insignificant number of people actually had the embassy contact them to move their interviews to an earlier date. Guess that's not happening anymore...

We'll just have to hope that she can travel to the US on Dec 23 for a vacation Christmas, a trip we planned 6 months ago. (She has a tourist visa and will mention at the interview...)

Thanks so much!

Still waiting for NVC to send the package to the embassy...

We received notification of the December 16 interview date on November 13, but the documents are still at NVC. This is normal - I shouldn't be worried? I've seen a number of DHL packages head to the Singapore embassy since November 13.

We were hoping to try to reschedule my wife's interview a bit earlier because of travel plans, but I guess that won't be happening now since it's only 2 weeks away...

Congratulations. You are updated. Now this is what I suggest. First yes you can leave with your passport. But I would have your wife mention and even have the plane tickets for her trip in hand to show the CO and mention you didn't expect a December interview and is their any way to get the Visa expedited. If not I will need my passport back for my upcoming trip.

I have known people who had spouse at interview and just mentioned. My wife/husband is here and I want to fly back with them since they have to leave in X days.

Closed mouths don;t get fed. so ask.

Thanks dwheels, and thanks for all of the time you put into this.

Seems logical to me, and I'll relay that message to her. Expedite would definitely be preferable to just getting the passport back (except for some year-end tax issues...).

My big concern was that somehow after the interview but before the CR-1 was issued that her B1 tourist visa would be cancelled/not usable. But not sure why they would do that before issuing a new visa, and as long as CBP lets her in then it should be okay...

That's the best thing you can do!

See if you can move it up, once the case is at the embassy.

Let the embassy know of your plans and see what happens from there.

But if I am not mistaken, as long as you have everything and they don't require anything else, China delivers visa is 3-4 days.

Congrats!

Thanks!

Yeah, that's basically our plan.

The embassy is Singapore, though my wife is Chinese. The embassy in Singapore is typically pretty efficient, so there's hope.

My wife's interview has been scheduled as well!

December 16.

Very exciting, but unfortunately this might mess up our holiday plans since my wife is supposed to fly to the US on December 23 for a 2+ week vacation for Christmas.

Guess we'll have to contact the embassy once they receive the documents to see if it's possible to move it up, otherwise we'll just have to figure something out.

Hypothetical question - does anyone know what would happen if she has an interview on Dec 16, but official approval is not available by Dec 23. Can she get her passport back and fly to the US on her tourist visa, or would it be cancelled at the interview?

hey guys

CC 22nd Oct and still waiting for an interview to be scheduled

i dont know how much more i have to wait

anyone else waiting ??? same CC ??

Unfortunately Many people who had CC before you, and basically everyone after are still waiting.

It seems that NVC has gone on an interview scheduling hiatus, and don't bother calling them because they won't be able to provide you any more info.

I was wondering about the original W2. The sponsor's W2 is printed from the website of the employer (so there isn't an original mailed version). Is that a problem?

I have a similar question.I don't have a W2 because I just started working in the USA this year. Both my pay stubs and employment letter are printouts from PDFs...like most everything these days. I have assumed that these will be okay for my wife to take, and don't really know how I could get anything else.

I wanted the confirmation e-mail just for my records. It may not seem critical but that is still a piece of this journey I am missing.

Why it never came, even after requesting, who knows.

Agreed. I realize it's not necessary, but frankly I don't trust NVC as I've been told the wrong information on the phone more than once, and I've read enough horror stories from others that thought their cases were complete.

I wanted some tangible proof besides someone telling me something on the phone and a third N/A. Sorry that you haven't been able to get the same.

I just called. Still no interview. I asked whether I w oils receive an email for the case complete or only after interview is scheduled. The operator seemed flustered and took a bit of time to answer and finally said no email was sent. Not exactly the answer to my question. But she did confirm that my case complete and there's nothing I need to worry about, just waiting for an interview. (Maybe I should stop reading others' horror stories on here and stop assuming the worst...)

And after that, we received an email this morning telling us all the documents are received and we just need to wait for an interview date...

NVC is so inconsistent

Hi,

CC not yet received, but hoping to interview for December to spend Christmas together.

on the site of CEAC how that our case is complete? I see 2 N / A, the 3rd N / A will be where?

I'm so sorry because I Know That my english is bad

Directly underneath "Affidavit of Support Fee."

If it still says "Paid" then it's likely that the case is not complete yet, though it still could be...

Not sure why everyone's arguing about which process is worse. They're both terrible for all involved.

I don't understand the justification for needing to take so long - our visa fees are supposed to cover the costs. So why do have to pay so much and still wait so long? Shouldn't they hire more people to go quicker? Why is the system not more computerized?

None of our families, friends, or colleagues understand why it should take so long. Probably because most people who go through this process go through it only once, so there's really no large constituency to push for reforms.

Oh well. Nothing we can do about it other than to wait and keep our hopes up that everything will go quickly.

I was told something similar. They made it seem like I was referring to something that doesn't exist. Another name is a status letter.

Supposedly they put in a request multiple time for me to get one after I requested. All of a sudden It seems they can't send me an e-mail

I just called. Still no interview. I asked whether I w oils receive an email for the case complete or only after interview is scheduled. The operator seemed flustered and took a bit of time to answer and finally said no email was sent. Not exactly the answer to my question. But she did confirm that my case complete and there's nothing I need to worry about, just waiting for an interview. (Maybe I should stop reading others' horror stories on here and stop assuming the worst...)

Hi,

We got case complete at NVC this morning (10/27/2015). Scan date was 9/29/2015, so exactly 4 weeks elapsed.

Waiting on the interview date. The embassy is Singapore.

Quick question...

Should we receive an email that says case complete, or will the next communication only happen once the interview has been scheduled?

I ask cause we haven't received any emails, though I was told on 2 separate calls that case is complete. Just a bit paranoid after reading all the horror stories on VJ.