m134

Thanks everyone for the replies. We took this advice and now are going to send her diploma to ECE to get evaluated to the equivalent American degree. She is also creating her resume which I am helping her do. She understands completely that her first job won't be her career. Nevertheless, the choice is whether or not to start down the path of job "stepping stones" or just go to school. Anyway, once the evaluation is complete she will apply for as many jobs as possible, (not just 1-2 a day).

For the "post-bac" education, I have never heard of this before but after doing some research it seems that kind of stuff is mostly related to the medical field.

I’d like to ask the people here for some advice on our current situation. My fiance moved here about a year ago, married in October, and by January had the green card and driver’s license. She was already working by then. She worked for 6 months (at an office) and then she left to take full time ESL classes which will be done by the end of this year. She has a bachelor’s degree from her home country in business administration, she is 24 years old, and now the next steps are a bit unclear.

1. Go to school. But to get a bachelor’s degree means four more years of school. It is very demotivating for her to do this since she just graduated before coming here. She wants to work, and not feel useless to depend on me financially for the next 4 years. On top of that, she is scared about the cost of school and student loans. Working while going to school is possible for some people (I did this in college) but for her would be difficult. That would mean working nights and weekends and we would have little time to spend together. Additionally, hard sciences (engineering, medical, law, etc…) are not her strong suit. So it would be some other type of degree.
2. OR…Look for work. Does anyone have experience finding work with a foreign diploma? I guess her biggest concern about this route is not being able to find a decent job. Anyone can start flipping burgers, but this is not the point. Ideally, in the long term, she wants a 9-5 “regular” job… but what route must one take to do this? We are worried it will take a long time, or she might start at a lower position and never be able to get out of it. Experience counts more, as you accumulate it so the hope is that she can start somewhere and move up. It is obvious that currently starting such a job will not be easy. But is it worth trying? Or just go to school?

Often times a diploma is just important for your first job, a way to get your foot in the door. If that takes 4 years, wouldn’t it be more logical to try and find something anyway in those 4 years and not incur massive student loans? People say education is best, but I’m not sure if that is the correct path if she is just gonna try and get a non-science degree. I’m trying to think logically, but she is stuck about this decision and I guess looking for advice from people who have been down this path…

I’d like to share the timeline of my fiancé’s(now spouse) K-1 journey last year. I periodically lurked around this website during the process and found valuable information throughout the different steps. I always enjoyed reading the timelines people included in the signatures with how long each step took. It was very informative. As many know, the waiting is the hardest part. I was always a little worried that something will get held up or lost or a mistake would be made (when dealing with government organizations this is always a concern..). I saw some people’s timelines showing really long waits for certain milestones. There’s always a feeling of hopelessness and frustration when you don’t know how long it will take or what is happening. Calling USCIS is close to impossible so basically it all boils down to waiting. So, I decided I would share the timeline/milestones for us. Maybe someone going through the process now will read this and have some hope for a painless process and less waiting than expected. It certainly happened that way for us! I’d like to add three notes.

First, DHL delivered the documents sent from the embassy to the wrong person. By the time we figured this out two weeks had gone to waste waiting. So technically the K-1 visa interview could have been done two weeks earlier. The fault is with DHL though, not the embassy.

Second, we lagged a bit to get married. If we did it earlier it could have cut some more time. All in all I think if those two steps (which depended entirely on us or DHL) were done faster the green card would have come in before the end of 2015.

Third, there was no interview for the AOS and green card. It just came in the mail. I realize this may not happen for everyone, and I wasn’t expecting it either. But it certainly proves it can and does happen!

Anyway, kudos to USCIS, NVC, and the embassy for absolutely exceeding all our expectations with regards to wait time, and for making it a painless process. From sending the initial I-129F to receipt of green card was around 9 months, but could’ve been 8 if not for the factors I mentioned above. Since I don’t post much, I figure this would be more useful to people than including it in my signature. I hope this is the right place to post this info. This is a great site!

I-129F package sent 4/16/2015
NOA1 4/20/2015
NOA2 5/19/2015
NVC Clearance received

and documents sent to embassy 6/18/2015
Medical exam 7/17/2015
Interview at embassy 7/27/2015
Receive pasport with K-1 visa 7/30/2015
Arrive in USA 8/7/2015
Apply for SSN 8/28/2015
Get SSN 9/9/2015
Get married 10/24/2015
Apply for AOS + EAD + AP 11/2/2015
Receive EAD/AP 1/18/2016
Receive green card (NO interview!) 1/30/2016

Hi all. Just several more quick questions about all the AOS forms my fiance (K-1 holder) filled out. She had these questions:

1) On the I-485 and other forms when filling out the address there's a field which says "in care of" . What does this mean? Should she put my name or hers? Or leave blank?

2) On the I-864 there's a field which asks for a USCIS ELIS account number. I don't think she has this. Is that OK?

3) For the I-765 for the eligibility category she put ©(9) . The instructions say to put (a)(6) if she files within 90 days however she arrived on August 7 so the 90 days will be over in a week. Should I just keep the ©(9)??

4) Regarding fees, when I file everything together I can waive the I-131 and I-765. Does that mean I just pay $1,070 for everything? According to the link here it is $1,070.

http://www.uscis.gov/i-485

What about I-864? What I found indicated no fees but I just wanna make sure.

Thanks! If all is accurate I can finally send everything out on Monday.

Thank you for the quick replies! I’ve never gotten an RFE and generally our whole process has been very smooth and satisfying. We sent our initial application for the K1 at the end of April and she arrived in the USA at the beginning of August. So I just try to get everything done on time and correctly. Anyway, we hope she can receive an AP for a possible trip outside the USA at end of January. Is this feasible? Is the real marriage certificate needed for the AP? Currently, the marriage certificate should be available on November 6. But I wanted to send everything in by Monday to get a bit extra time and hope for the AP to be approved by end of January… henceforth my dilemma.

Hello everyone. My fiancée (now wife) came to the USA on the K1 visa back in August. We got married last week and now I am getting ready to send all the AOS forms in to try and get it done before the 90 days are expired. This site helped me tremendously throughout the K1 visa process but now I finally registered to ask a question. I have two questions.

1. All the K1 visa documents for her were filled in with my old address. I bought a house since then so now we live in a new address. Should I fill out all the documents for AOS with the new or old address. The old address is where my parents live so I would still get all the mail. I also heard I shouldn't do the chage of address for myself from the old to the new because they will get confused at USCIS. Is this true?
2. Can I just send the temporary marriage certificate they gave me at the marriage court or do I need to wait until I get the new one? They told me I have to wait 10 days and then go to get my marriage certificate, but I don’t want to pass 90 days since she entered the USA.