lacolinab13

You can apply for citizenship after being a permanent resident for 3 years minus 90 days, provided you are still married to the US citizen. So, you can apply 90 days before the third anniversary of your becoming a resident (the "resident since" date on your green card).

If, at that point, you are no longer married to the US citizen, you can apply after being a permanent resident for 5 years minus 90 days.

In some special cases (eg military deployment), you can obtain citizenship earlier. 

10 hours ago, Sukie said:

There are many households where couples do not combine finances.  Keep your joint account open, but use it only for certain monthly expenses you have that don't change a lot - like rent, as a strong example.  Both of you contribute to it (even if the monies are unequal), so they can see the money going in and coming out.  Then use your separate accounts for all the other stuff.  When you submit your ROC package, just explain that you use the joint account for rent only, and have separate accounts for your other expenses.

 

You should also consider doing wills and medical powers of attorney.  There have been folks with "less strong" packages that are starting to get RFEs for things like this.  That will help your case.

 

Best of luck!

 

Sukie in NY

 

Thanks Sukie, NDB and Pedro. That's a good idea and makes me feel less nervous about separating out most of the rest of the finances. 

Hello,

Coming up on a year of marriage to my immigrant husband. He got his green card in early March. Right after we got married, I added him to my bank account and credit cards, and we've been using the joint account and cards for all of our day to day financials.

For various reasons, this system is not working for me, is creating a lot of resentment and is straining our marriage. I would really like to have separate accounts and separate our finances. But I am worried about ROC down the road and shooting ourselves in the foot. 

Is it possible to have a strong joint ROC case without joint financials? Or would it be very detrimental for us to separate accounts? Any advice or experiences to share? 

Other relevant info: We filed taxes jointly for 2016 and would continue to do so. We are on a joint lease, joint health insurance and have a family cell plan. He is/would continue to be the beneficiary to my 401k and Roth IRA.

Annulments are only granted on specific, narrow grounds and it's unlikely that you'll be able to get one, depending on your state. Consult a lawyer.

Why exactly are you so worried about a VAWA claim? It won't have anything to do with you. You won't be investigated. 

To protect yourself from a claim of domestic violence, just don't be with her. This should be easy to do since you live separately. Let her know that you are filing for divorce and wish her well. If she has keys to your apartment, change your locks. You don't have to keep engaging with her once you have let her know that you are filing for divorce.

And don't encourage her to commit immigration fraud by marrying any old USC in order to remain in the country. What she does after a divorce has NOTHING to do with you. You can move on. 

Even if she did file a VAWA case and it were approved (which it wouldn't be without substantial evidence), it would not affect you in any way. It wouldn't have anything to do with any divorce agreement you two many come to, nor affect you in any other way.

Given the short length of your marriage, you're unlikely to be ordered to pay alimony. Don't empty out your bank account and hide your money offshore. Hiding assets during a divorce will not look good to a judge.

Just tell her you wish to divorce, withdraw the i-864 and do your best to move on. What she does is her business.

The USC petitioner has to submit an I-864 for the adjustment of status, so if you didn't, her case can't be approved anyway. Did only her roommate file the form under his name as a joint sponsor? 

Just now, arken said:

If you are the joint sponsor, you need to fill in i864 and your wife needs to fill i864A since you are including her income. If you are using the income of both of you, you need to provide the proof of income for both of you. For both, paystubs, letter of employment. 

Agreed. 

It sounds like you do meet the requirements. I think the RFE you received is that you need to send in more evidence to document your income. I would re-send the I-864 (assuming you mean I-864 and not I-134) with the three transcripts, the requested 2016 1040 or full tax return, the requested 6 months of paystubs and the letter from your employer.

(My father was a joint sponsor for my husband. We submitted three years of tax returns, an employment letter and 3 months of pay stubs. We got a similar letter saying "the income was listed as sufficient but no evidence was submitted". Resubmitted transcripts, full 2015 tax return, employment letter and 9 months of paystubs, and that seemed to do the trick). 

While there can be several joint sponsors, each individual joint sponsor has to meet the income/asset requirements for his/her household size, so getting an additional joint sponsor for your nephew would not be helpful, given that you do meet the requirements. 

I would call your insurance company and ask them to clarify. I've never had to do this, but it really depends on the type of insurance plan and coverage you have. 

I flew my cat from Peru to the US a year and a half ago. Total door to door travel time was around 20 hours or so. I've also flown cats from France to the US several times before that (probably more like 12-15 hours total travel time), and from California to the East Coast (10 hours or so total travel time?). 

Personally, I would not recommend fasting a cat for 24 hours before a long flight (meaning a total of close to 48 hours without food for the cat), and I don't think a vet would recommend it either. It can be very dangerous to cats to fast, as they are at risk of developing a serious/deadly condition called hepatic lipidosis. It's just not something I would risk even if it means kitty vomit to clean up. I don't know if it is common for cats to be car/airsick or not, but I've never had it happen. 

In all my experiences, my cats have never peed or pooped in their carriers, not have they ever eaten. I did wet my cat's nose and try to get him to take a bit of water as I was worried about dehydration, but he wasn't interested.

On this trip, I declared my cat and went through the special inspection line, but they didn't ask any questions nor did they ask for any documentation. They just looked at him inside his carrier and waved him through. I had to carry him through security checkpoints at the international airport in Lima (Peru), just in my arms and he was so terrified he didn't even try to escape. 

My cat had a terrible time on the flights, and managed to claw through both the sides of the carrier and the zipper. I had to keep stuffing him back in there. It was completely traumatizing actually - this is the first time this has happened, other cats I've flown with have been unhappy but never so agitated or distressed. I did have a tranquilizer with me, which I gave him, but it barely worked. I wouldn't fly again with my cat in a soft-sided carrier again, and probably wouldn't attempt a soft-carrier with another cat. I'm not trying to scare you, but I think it can be difficult to predict how a cat will react. I think a sturdy carrier is safest. Just something to think about. 

Does your husband have a passport? A passport would work just as well as a birth certificate. 

Just a quick note that TDAP (diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis aka whooping cough) has nothing to do with chickenpox (varicella). 

You can only apply for citizenship when you have been a permanent resident for 3 years minus 90 days if you are still married to your USC spouse.

Since you've only been a permanent resident for 6 months, you don't qualify. The time you spent waiting for your greencard does not count. 

That's correct she does not actually become a US citizen until she takes the oath. 

As long as the trip would not cause a continuing residency issue (and I can't see how it would as it's just a week long), I can't see any issues with you going on your vacation as planned. When her oath ceremony is scheduled you'll get more than a week's notice so you shouldn't need to worry about her missing an appointment while you're gone. 

If you followed the steps the embassy outlined for you then there's no reason to worry. Many embassies don't mail out appointment letters anymore and just correspond over email. I'm assuming you have some sort of electronic confirmation of your interview? It sounds like everything is on track. 

Can your wife not travel on the trip as planned using her current foreign passport? How long is the trip? 

So you're applying for a K-1 visa and you've just gotten the case number from NVC? 

The next step really depends on the country. In some countries you must wait to receive instructions from the consulate or embassy, in others you can start fill out the DS-160 and schedule an interview without hearing from them first. You should check out what the Abu Dhabi embassy says on their website and you can also contact them asking about next steps. Check in the regional forum and ask there how the process works for UAE. 

It's just a generic error message advising that the case number can be found on all official communication including on a 221-g form. I don't think it's anything specific to your case. 

What is the status of your case?

It looks like you are not entering a valid case number. Are you sure you are entering the correct number? 

No, you can submit a new service request, or call USCIS and ask to speak with a Tier 2 representative. (Or you could make an Infopass appointment at your local office). 

There are lots of us on here who have gone to get SSN within 48-72 hours after arriving with no issue. I think the 2 week info is quite out of date. 

In your shoes, my concern would not be deportation if you don't apply for AOS right away, but rather coming back to the US if you overstay and then decide not to adjust status. You could no longer use the visa waiver program, and, depending on the timeline, could face a ban. Since your husband, by the sounds of it, couldn't immediately immigrate to the UK, you'd potentially be facing a long-ish separation where you could not easily visit him in the US.

I don't know how tight your financial situation is, but I would file for the adjustment of status ASAP, within the 90 day window, and wait in the US until you receive your EAD/AP. That way, you will not jeopardize your use of the VWP in the future. Once you receive EAD and AP, first of all, you're likely to enjoy being in the US more as you can have more freedom (driver's license), get work etc, and you can go home for a visit and see take your time making a decision. 

Moving is notoriously difficult, especially if you're making a big move for the first time as an adult. I don't know what the difficulties in the US have been, but many of those difficulties may just be par for the course moving and experiencing culture shock ... difficulties your husband might likely experience in the UK. I'd think about why the two of you decided for you move to the US in the first place (do those reasons still apply?) and what you might do to improve your situation in the US, and then what life would be like for the two of you in the UK and the pros/cons of that. 

If he is in the US now, you can file for adjustment of status now (I-485/I-765/I-131) but he would have to stay in the US until his AP is approved, around 3-4 months from the time you send in the form.

If he needs to return to his job and leaves the US, he can't later come back on the visa waiver program with the intent to adjust status. He would have to wait out the visa process in the UK and be interviewed in London, although he will be able to visit you. 

32 minutes ago, dreamliner1823 said:

Hi VJ members! I have already filed AoS together with my children. So far things went well and we already received our AP and EAD. I checked on USCIS for updates and it says that as of January 10, 2017 our case is now ready to be scheduled for an interview and they will just send us a notice for the schedule. I'm still waiting for the notice. How long does it take for them to send and schedule an interview? Thanks!

Some people get their interviews within a month of that status, others wait up to a year, sometimes more. If you came with a K-1 visa, you might not have an interview at all before your case is approved.

You can check the processing time at your local office to get an idea of when you might get an interview or an approval. Not all K-1 AOS cases get sent to the local office, and some get transferred to other offices. You can call the USCIS help line and find out where your case is. 

3 hours ago, prenouveau said:

OMG! Make it 2 of us who got an approval after submitting an online request to check the status of our case. We just got notified "New card being produced" as a result of our inquiry. Thank you to the member who suggested it! 

Congrats! I do think those requests work