Elvis&Sky

Update everyone; my husband's friend made it to his layover safely and is on his last flight to Seattle. He said going through customs/immigration in Dallas was pretty easy. He was only asked maybe 2 or 3 questions, and waited maybe an hour or so. So pretty good experience for him! Unfortunately the same cannot be same for my brother and mother in law. They're currently stuck in Bogota for two weeks because MIL did not have an approved vaccine. They tried to show Colombian staff there that the notice states she can travel even with the unapproved vaccine, she would just restart the series here, but the staff was not having it, and they were denied boarding 😡. MIL is going to try and get Moderna today, and we'll count 14 days from today. So if you're traveling through Colombia, please make sure you have an approved vaccine, otherwise you WILL be denied boarding, despite what the I-134 says. I'll update again once they're able to board in a few weeks.

Good luck!! 

Hey all, my in laws and friend will make their flights to the U.S. a little after midnight, so I'll post with an update on questions they were asked. Just a heads up, if anyone takes a bus into Colombia, makes sure you receive a stamp in your passport; my in laws were not allowed to board their Cucuta - Bogota flight without it, and had to return to the border to get it.

Hey all, my in laws and friend will make their flights to the U.S. a little after midnight, so I'll post with an update on questions they were asked. Just a heads up, if anyone takes a bus into Colombia, makes sure you receive a stamp in your passport; my in laws were not allowed to board their Cucuta - Bogota flight without it, and had to return to the border to get it.

"The process is capped at 24,000 beneficiaries. After this cap is reached, DHS will not approve additional beneficiaries..." It seems like DHS will only approve 24,000 travel authorizations. I don't think it will approve more than that. So the scenario of traveling with the travel authorization and not being granted parole at the POE because the 24,000 cap was reached already would be unlikely. But that's just my opinion. 

Ahhhh I see! Yeah, I was wondering if the 24,000 was based on the amount of travel authorizations they issued, or the I-134s they approved. It would be nice if they could clarify 😣 I read an article somewhere saying USCIS approved like 7,500 so far but only a little over 100 Venezuelans have arrived using the travel authorization. But again, I don’t know if that 7,500 are the travel authorizations or the I-134s only.
 
Edit: I see 7,500 sponsor applications have been submitted, a few hundred of those have been approved. 

On the travel authorization, it doesn’t state what spot number you’ve secured. It only states that you’ve been approved for travel and to be prepared to show the authorization on your account. You also need to make sure you meet the requirements to board the aircraft. One thing I want to point out, the travel authorization does state that you are REQUIRED to enter the US via commercial air, otherwise you’ll be denied. 

Check out this link! It’s for the Uniting for Ukraine thread, but there quite a few comments about people’s experiences at the port of entry. You can start at page 11 for those. 
 

On the travel authorization, it doesn’t state what spot number you’ve secured. It only states that you’ve been approved for travel and to be prepared to show the authorization on your account. You also need to make sure you meet the requirements to board the aircraft. One thing I want to point out, the travel authorization does state that you are REQUIRED to enter the US via commercial air, otherwise you’ll be denied. 

I bet! I'd probably be scared myself 🤣  but now that you have a the travel authorization, at least you have a bit of time to figure things out! The friend is travelling from Bogota to Seattle, but he'll have a layover......somewhere lol probably Miami. Mom and brother will make a similar journey, but they'll have to take a bus from their city in Venezuela to Bogota in addition.

Fingers crossed here too! Best of luck for you and your family xx

We filed for my husband's friend, brother, and mom 10/18. The I-134s were approved 10/19, and the friend's travel authorization was also issued 10/19. However, there's an error with the mom and brothers' A-numbers, so we've been waiting since Thursday for a callback from USCIS. I ended up submitting new I-134s on Friday (10/21) in the hopes that maybe they'll just issue new A-numbers?!? Fingers crossed.

Just got notification in the app that my husband’s green card is being produced!! 🎊 WAC seems to be getting some traction. I hope everyone who is still waiting will get an answer soon!

Just got notification in the app that my husband’s green card is being produced!! 🎊 WAC seems to be getting some traction. I hope everyone who is still waiting will get an answer soon!

Just got notification in the app that my husband’s green card is being produced!! 🎊 WAC seems to be getting some traction. I hope everyone who is still waiting will get an answer soon!

I drafted a letter to send with the rfe response. How does it sound?
I met my fiancé, Elvis xxxxxxxx, May 12, 2015 on the Plenty of Fish website. Plenty of Fish is a dating website that provides both free and paid services, of which I only used the free services. I had no interaction with any person or employee at POF that matched me with my current fiancé, nor have I paid any broker. I browsed the site at my own free will without guidance from any POF personnel, and when I started communicating with my current fiancé, again it was of my own free will.
I, Shakyra xxxxxxx, do state that Plenty of Fish is not an International Marriage Broker, and have attached a copy of the Terms of Service as proof. The IMBRA states,
Definition of an International Marriage Broker. “International marriage broker” is defined as an entity (whether or not U.S.-based) that charges fees for providing matchmaking services or social referrals between U.S. citizens/permanent residents and foreign nationals. The definition also exempts non-profit religious or cultural matchmaking services, and dating services that do not match U.S. citizens/residents with aliens as their principal business and that charge comparable rates and offer comparable services to all clients, regardless of gender or country of citizenship.
Therefore, POF is not an international marriage broker because it offers the same services to all countries and is not exclusive for the United States. It also offers the same rates for these services to all individuals, regardless of country of citizenship or gender. Plenty of Fish (POF) is not included in IMBRA due to those reasons. It is also not their principal business to provide services between the United States and foreign nationals as POOF provides services to citizens of all countries on an equal basis.
Regards,
Shakyraxxxxxxx

Actually this case is the perfect example that after you get married within the 90 days but don’t adjust you fall under an immigration limbo, you’re out status but that doesn’t mean you’re illegally staying in the country, otherwise the OP would’ve been on their way back to their home country by now, specially under the current administration.
 
By the way, I know you’re referring to one of my comments in another post, you even quoted things that never came out of my keyboard, it’s sad that some people in the forum are here just because they find comfort reading other people’s misfortunes and are quick to disqualify, no one here is holder of the “honest truth” because we don’t know how immigration in this country works we can only comment from our personal experiences. Thank you. 

I think my husband meant this more as a personal opinion than fact. I interpreted the I-94 expiration as, once it expires, and you have some sort of pending authorization, it doesn't matter because the I-94 is expired at that point, the point is that you have already have some sort of petition to adjust status. But if it expires, and you have not filed to adjust status, then you are most definitely unlawful, although it is forgiven once you do decide to adjust status. 

A lot of wrong info in this topic, to the person who started the discussion, you are fine you are not under any ban if your timeline is correct, the 90 days rule apply ONLY for you to get marry to the petitioner, there is not a time frame to AOS, after you get married within the 90 days you’re allowed to remain in the country indefinitely, the thing is that you fall in an immigration limbo, even though you’re allowed to stay you’re without a status and if you leave the country (which you did) you surrender your oportunity to AOS.

I think my husband meant this more as a personal opinion than fact. I interpreted the I-94 expiration as, once it expires, and you have some sort of pending authorization, it doesn't matter because the I-94 is expired at that point, the point is that you have already have some sort of petition to adjust status. But if it expires, and you have not filed to adjust status, then you are most definitely unlawful, although it is forgiven once you do decide to adjust status. 

Hi! I hope my post would help you.
I'm a venezuelan lawyer and I can tell you that a UNION ESTABLE DE HECHO is not a marriage! even though in Venezuela you have almost the same rights that a married couple, you do not meet all the formalities of a marriage,so the embassy won't issue a marriage based visa for your girlfriend, the option you have is a K1.

Hi! I hope my post would help you.
I'm a venezuelan lawyer and I can tell you that a UNION ESTABLE DE HECHO is not a marriage! even though in Venezuela you have almost the same rights that a married couple, you do not meet all the formalities of a marriage,so the embassy won't issue a marriage based visa for your girlfriend, the option you have is a K1.

This is a very easy to fix RFE, my fiance and I got one, we sent a document saying that the website we met is not a IMB, a copy of the terms of use and within a week we got our NOA2.

Hi Jafifa1978 I'm really sorry to hear your experience while reading your post my heart sunk to the bottom of my stomach, my fiancee (petitioner) and I have been together for almost a year now, we met last December for a week, after that we decided to file in January and in two weeks I have my interview, but now I'm really thinking if we should have met each other throughout this year, which is very difficult because she needs a visa to come to Venezuela and it is very dangerous for her to be here and it's just not a good place for foreing people right now, and I don't have a tourist visa to go there and to get one now is impossible, so we have to meet in another country where we both can go in without visas and where she can be safe, which is a lot of money for both of us because we have to pay flights for both, hotels, food, etc, so we decided to save that money while we are in this process and wait for the outcome, but now we are thinking if we made the right decision of not meeting again while this process.

K-1 visas are kinda special visas. They are considered non-immigrant visas in some respects that if you don't get married within 90 days, you have to leave. However, when applying for appointments for a K-1 visa for the embassy, they are listed under immigrant visas because they are used with the intent to immigrate, whereas tourist visas and business visas, the intent is to have a short stay and then leave, they are not for immigrating. K-1 visas can be looked at as non-immigrant visas that allow you to change intent and file for adjustment of status once you get married. Whereas on a tourist visa, even if you get married, the intent is SUPPOSED to be that you return home afterwards.