blanche

Hi everyone!  Happy to report that we finally got to the US in January and have been here for a month now  Amazed at all the abundance here in so many ways.  And how kind and considerate people are.  We're having so much fun and looking forward to what comes next.

How do I check the status of the green card?  I went to the links I found online but they are telling me the numbers I'm putting in are invalid.  I thought I'd write here to let you all know we're finally HERE!  And to ask this.  Thanks so much!  I'm so happy we're finally here!!!

Ouch, that's a real bummer. Sorry to hear it.
I would send them copies/scans of the originals. Not entirely sure if it's necessary to have the originals on hand, but it might be a good idea in case they ask for it.
A couple of other things: have you paid taxes at all during those seven years? They will expect to see the last three years' tax returns or a letter explaining why you haven't filed (unemployment, student, not a high enough income, etc.) during that time.
Also, you're running out of time, but VOTE!! If you aren't registered already in a state/county, that's a problem and you most likely won't have time to do so. But voting records are helpful for showing your intent to re-establish domicile.

You may not realize but you are making the case for her being pulled aside and grilled. All of her stars are "misaligned". A very young American woman with zero travel history withdraws all her cash over a series of a few days and hastily applies for a passport (with what ID, may I ask?) for a short trip alone to the Middle East, with a ticket bought by a foreigner she met just 6 months earlier online, whose tourist visa was recently denied.

Correct me if I am wrong, I don't believe the source is the SSA. They don't have any interest in this. The source will be the instructions to form I-864W and the INA. Specifically, INA 213(a)(3)(b), which is referenced by I-864W instructions. Have you read the instructions? Did you understand the part where the instructions state: "You can acquire 40 qualifying quarters in the following ways: By being credited under section 213(a)(3)(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act with quarters worked by your spouse during the marriage...?
Section 213(a)(3)(b):
(B) Qualifying quarters.-For purposes of this section, in determining the number of qualifying quarters of coverage under title II of the Social Security Act an alien shall be credited with-
(ii) all of the qualifying quarters worked by a spouse of such alien during their marriage and the alien remains married to such spouse or such spouse is deceased.
I wasn't trying to use the form because of anyone's "interpretation." I don't want any questions left unanswered as to which form I should file, which is one reason I joined this forum. Any posts I have made about I-864W have been to gain certainty. While I appreciate your responses, I wonder if you are just guessing on this subject.

My husband was approved! I'm so grateful to each and every one of you for being on this stupidly long journey for the last 9 months. He won't be joining me for another 2 months but I'm okay with that and just knowing we are done with paperwork/documents/approvals/RFEs/checklists/etc is SUCH a relief.
I thank you for sharing your kind words, your prayers, and your wisdom throughout the process. Thank you for being the much needed support system through this.
Remember, the interview itself is a formality. All your paperwork and everything has been already approved beforehand. Just be honest about everything they ask at the interview and answer sincerely. They are trained to pick up on red flags so even if there is any issues at the time, just be honest about it. A lot of times, the locals that work at the embassy have animosity against the applicants because your spouse will be getting to go the US while they don't. So try not to use a translator at the interview and just speak in English to the Americans there. My husband did this and his American interviewer still spoke to him in Hindi which was pretty funny.
Finally, trust in God's timing. He knows you best and he knows what is best for your life. He is the best of planners. My prayers are with all of you <3

I think if it was me, and I understand your sort of complicated situation, I would go ahead and GET MARRIED right now to help speed things up. You can always do some kind of other ceremony in Thailand or wherever later on but right now, being married to a US citizen and living abroad - your partners chances of getting an immigrant visa are much better. I'm not sure of all your details but I think that's what I'd do. Just be aware it can take such a very long time so being married from the get-go is the best, in my opinion. I applied for my foreign husband last November and between the offices in America losing one of our papers, which added 6 more weeks to our case, then me not submitting them all fast enough, we're still waiting for him to get his immigrant visa based on marriage. And we've actually been married for 20 years and he already had a green card! Just saying - it takes a very long time to do any of this - no matter what you're situation. Good luck, though! I'd get married pronto. Most people who do a direct consular filing can shave off a few extra months from the typical wait of a year or more but you can't know now what obstacles you might run into along the way - like me with them losing one of our documents for example.

Thanks Blanche! it's a great relief. Looking at your timeline, you should have received CC a while before me. Yours will come too. Good luck with this journey.

I want to followup here. It might be a help to others. NVC has accepted our I-864w without any check lists. Now we will see what the consulate says. This is what a did. I am the USC and have the social security credit. My wife filled out I-864w and signed it. We included my social security statement printed out from the SS website. We both signed a statement that we did not receive any welfare. I signed a ssa-3288 giving permission to verify my social security credit.

Here is my last follow up. We went to my wife's interview at the consulate. The person reviewing the documents started to say that we filled out the wrong paperwork. I said that we where claiming 40 quarters of SS. She quickly asked a higher up and said it was OK. She said she had been working at the consulate for some time and it was the first time that someone summited a I-864w claiming 40 quarters of SS. They didn't see interested in the statements saying we didn't receive any welfare. They did look fairly closely at the SS statement. The only things they kept was the I-864w form fill out by my wife and my SS statement that I printed from the SS website. So I think this should help others that want to claim 40 quarters of SS and not file a AOS. It does appear to be rare case.

Totally agree!
I'm lil miss organised and although ive not even entered the US yet I have already started getting my head around the AOS, I just printed off your AOS content list and have stored it away for future reference lol.

This is a fantastic post and great for people like me who find this next step of the AOS confusing. I'm going to refer to this when the time comes for me to file so once again thank you.