CM&KV

8 hours ago, CM&KV said:

I didn't know about women's day till my hubby( bf then) gave me flowers and cooked me dinner. It was awkward since I didn't know about that holiday and I don't ever expect gifts from anyone for anything, but I'll take random flowers any day.

Actually the flowers that are my profile picture are the flowers hubby gave me last year when he was in the USA on a business trip. 

2 hours ago, Shiran said:

I guess this is a good time to remind y'all that 8 March is international Woman's Day, and while this holiday is not fully appreciated in US (yet.. Though it was mentioned in Deadpool films) it is a Major Holiday in Russia, Ukraine, and most other countries. Take it as an opportunity. 

I didn't know about women's day till my hubby( bf then) gave me flowers and cooked me dinner. It was awkward since I didn't know about that holiday and I don't ever expect gifts from anyone for anything, but I'll take random flowers any day.

44 minutes ago, millefleur said:

**Moved from Adjustment of Status (Green Card) from K1 and K3 Family Based Visas to the RUB regional subform**

 

 

Lol, what about us lucky women who married Russian men? We're in the minority I know but we're also quite lucky to have men who still believe in chivalry towards ladies and buying flowers on all occasions...unfortunately no 24 hour flower shops here like there are in Russia, though. Such a pity.

Wait there are 24 hour flower shops in Russia??? Okay I think I'll be moving there then...

My husband has spoiled me when it came to opening doors for me. But I thought it was a russian thing since all his coworkers were doing that all the time with me when they were all over here for business trips. This was before him and I started dating.

Husband's case is still pending.

Feb 1st husband sent email to embassy asking if they needed anyrhing from us.

Feb 5th received this reply:

"The administrative processing of your case is not yet complete. You do not need to provide additional documents. At the end of the administrative process you will be sent a visa, or we will inform you about the missing documents.

Immigration Visa Section
US Embassy in Moscow"

Case was never updated on ceac.

Feb 13th case was touched. Still in AP from Nov 29th, the requested document at interview was for his Resume / CV officer kept his passport.

I read the emails and saw the paperwork they gave him. Only CV or resume, its was the same set up as his past CVs he sent in in the past. We didn't get a request for the ds5535, husband has heard of that form before from other coworkers which I'm thankful he didn't have to fill it out.

9 hours ago, H&K❤️ said:

Unfortunately not yet, I submitted joint sponsor papers then got an email to submit additional documents which i did almost a month ago. I’m waiting for their response now. It’ll be two months on Feb 12th since my husband’s interview.

Husband and I just hit our 2nd month from our interview. We got a 221g asking for his CV. They received the hard copy on Dec 4th, and the electronic on Nov 30th. I feel that the shutdown had an effect on our AP. Other people's case numbers around ours have been issued or also in AP (i found a case was was created way after ours and it said it was returned to NVC, it had two case numbers 😕 so sad) Our last update was Jan 24th, husband is thinking of sending an email to them. Unsure if we are stuck at the Washington DC AP part or results came back and they are back logged.  In the past visa(B1, B1/B2, and J1) interviews his AP only lasted about 3 weeks and took a week to get his passport back, so I was assuming it would be about the same lenght of time. They have always kept his passport and this time they kept it.

Husband's coworker that was getting a new B1 visa was in AP for 6 months ugh. Hoping not our case but sooner. He needs to get here and have a job before Aug 1st or I will have to move to him or something. My apartment lease expires in Sept and both my roommate and I are not renewing with each other.

Did they keep your husband's passport?

As of December 31st 2018 you were married. You can do it as married and filing jointly or separately. I have done mine last 2 years as separately, even though my spouse has a SSN, but we don't want to include his foreign earned income yet. Keep in mind the interviewing officer will see these and it will raise a red flag why you filed as unmarried when you have proof of being married.    In the end you would have to amend 2018. 

4 hours ago, Possible18 said:

Yea just call and speak to a person directly.  They close at 12 Eastern time.

Was on hold for 30 minutes, and the lady said it's still in AP,  and had asked if my husband had returned his passport which I was able to confirm. She said something that the embassy is doing the AP and they might not be running at full because of the shutdown. (I had asked about the shut down) The embassy should have enough money.... there is a backlog for nearly 10 months to get a tourist visa.... plus they are super understaffed.

25 minutes ago, Possible18 said:

Yea just call and speak to a person directly.  They close at 12 Eastern time.

Chances they wont help since we are in secuirty checks and this is part of the embassy part of the petition.  But never know. When we were rescheduled they told me I would have to contact embassy to confrim the date since they rescheduled us 2 days after nvc scheduled us.  According to Ceac we been in AP at least 3 days before our interview date.

1 minute ago, Possible18 said:

Have you called NVC to check?  Maybe they might have some answers for you. I know now every process is taking longer than usual since our president took office😒 

I have checked our case in their website, still says Moscow.  All we want is to be updated, I'll call them when I get home.

I tried to search the forums with really no luck.... But does anyone know if being in administrative processing for resume / CV for the TAL security background check is effected by this partial goverment shutdown? The closest that I got was since its a matter of National security it should be processed as normal or with a dely, but that was for other APs.

Its been close to 2 months since our interview and husband keeps thinking he is denied... his friends with somewhat the same career background and same interviewing country are claiming that its taking too long. I know we had USA holidays and Russian holidays, but the Russian holidays should not have an affect on the Washington DC part. 

This shutdown has been a dampper on our moods since we arent 100% sure if we are effected by it.  And he has been thru this security check each time he had to get a new visa, and that only took 3 weeks and another week to collect passport... And I keep thinking we have been stuck as the next person to be checked for these last 4 weeks.

6 minutes ago, Xia said:

From what I understand from previous years of research the conditional / unconditional green card is based on the date the visa is issued not the date of interview, they wont give an unconditional green card based on you will be 2 years married after the date visa issued. If your interview date is scheduled for 2 weeks before your 2 year married date, it might be a good idea to call the embassy to ask if you can reschedule your interview date for a day or more after your 2 years married date, so you can get the 10 year green card. Of course, do not mention that as your reason for rescheduling, if they ask just say some other reason.

 

CONGRATS!! To those who finally got interview dates scheduled! 

Its based off of the day you activate your green card aka when you enter the USA, not when interviewed or visa issued. There's been cases of peole having interview before 2 years and entering after 2 years and getting the 10 year greencard.

1 hour ago, qianl said:

How do you claim him on taxes? 

I was able to claim for an exemption on the 2017 taxes for him since he also had a SSN from his J1 visa a few years ago. I tried all of the online tools like HR Block and Turbo Tax to do all of this, I found out that HRBlock was the EASIEST to use for what I needed it to do. (He was here on a business trip and had medical insurance for those 5.5 months here, turbo tax was refusing to let me select the right options.  I'm trying to look at the HRBlock website right now to see how I did it. I selected Married but filing separately, 

"You can claim an exemption for your spouse only if your spouse had no gross income, isn't filing a US tax return, and wasn't the dependent of another person." When I did research on this exemption, and how I understood it, the gross income had to be from a US Source, his per diems are a non taxed item he gets for being able to buy food and gas etc on his trip. " https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3537208-spouse-is-non-resident-alien I choosed option number 3

Quote

• Option 3 - Married Filing Separately (or HoH) and you claim an exemption for your NRA spouse (You can claim an exemption for your spouse only if your spouse had no US source income, isn't filing a US tax return, and isn't the dependent of another person other than yourself).
  • leave NRA spouse's SSN blank (if no SSN or ITIN). 
  • Under the Personal Information section, choose the box for "NRA spouse" option and select all the questions on the next screen regarding your NRA spouse.
  • skip the error check section as long as your only error is missing spouse's SSN.
  • If your NRA spouse does not have a SSN or ITIN, under the file tab, you will need to select "file by mail" and print a copy of your federal income tax return.
  • apply for NRA spouse’s Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) using Form W-7 (Click ITIN) (see above for information about filing a Form W-7 with your tax return.)
  • mail in your return with Form W-7 to the IRS address listed above.

Also waiting till 2019 taxes to maybe hire someone to do our taxes for that year, and do the addmen the 2017 and 2018 taxes, or maybe see if we get any more back. Sadly the above option made it so I couldn't get the interest deduction on the student loans.

I will send you the link incase they remove the URL from this post. I know there is something in the tax guide about it, but I'm not 100% sure where it is.

43 minutes ago, Diachka said:

I'm sorry that it happened to you.   Do you have idea why they put your husband on AP?  Did he have a specific  education or job? 

His education is based off of engineering, he is also works with one of the largest airplane makers in the USA (aerospace engeer), which my dad used to work for up till the day he died.

With all his past B1/B2, B1, and J1 visas they all went into AP for less than a month (also happens to his other coworkers) and it was issued a bit afterwards, this AP was expected by me, he thought it was weird they requested his cv/resume. He also has 2 citizenships Ukrainian and Russian, but we preffer Russian, since he also works in Russia, and both passports had this month AP done to them after the visa interviews.

Update, I'm a few weeks behind...... Holidays!

Still in AP since Nov 26th

Interviewed on Nov 29th, was told everything is good, asked for CV / resume, kept passport

Email submitted Nov 29th

They sent us an email for a physical copy of CV on Nov 30th.

Submitted Dec 3rd

They received CV on Dec 4th.

Dec 7th, 14th,18th, 19th, 20th case was touched.

Dec 20th Passport sent back to the Pony Express .

Dec 21st ready for Pick up.

Dec 23rd pick up passport with no visa.  Was given the following document with passport. 

Husband was freaking out thinking that we failed our interview.... I think he misread the 1st and last 2 sentences....... The Russian embassy is currently closed since Christmas or so till January 9th..... So that is like 2 weeks of holidays. 
I had to call him to calm him down, he was drunk and extremely depressed. He was hoping there would have been a visa so that he could surprise me for New Years. For Tax reasons we were going to wait till after the New Year so I could claim him on 2018 and addmend 2017 taxes.

On 12/14/2018 at 8:00 AM, CM&KV said:

Still in AP since Nov 26th

Interviewed on Nov 29th, was told everything is good, asked for CV / resume, kept passport

Email submitted Nov 29th

They sent us an email for a physical copy on Nov 30th.

Submitted Dec 3rd

They received Dec 4th.

Dec 7th case was touched

Dec 14th case was touched.

 

With all the stress at work and dealing with my apartment mate..... I wish we would get our results back now so we can do any planning.

Husbands case was updated / touched today... anyone know how often the site gets updated? Once a day or what? An hour ago it wasn't updated to the 18th. 

Still in AP since Nov 26th

Interviewed on Nov 29th, was told everything is good, asked for CV / resume, kept passport

Email submitted Nov 29th

They sent us an email for a physical copy on Nov 30th.

Submitted Dec 3rd

They received Dec 4th.

Dec 7th case was touched

Dec 14th case was touched.

With all the stress at work and dealing with my apartment mate..... I wish we would get our results back now so we can do any planning.

Husband's interview was on Nov 29th, and his status is also in AP, ours was for his CV, yay security check to Washington DC.... almost been a week since the last update, heard this takes nearly a month and also his last visas (B1's and J1. etc) were a month of AP and then issued.  We don't even know if we are approved or what, the IO told him everything looks good and he needed his CV. =\

Case has been touched,

Been in AP since Nov 26th

Interview Nov 29th Told everything looks fine

Requested doc (resume / CV) at interview via email: sent same day
Requested physical copies Nov 30th: sent Dec 3rd, they received Dec 4th.

Case last updated Dec 7th. still in AP.

I keep checking Ceac nearly every hour...sigh. This unknown wait time is depressing and we just started it ><

44 minutes ago, CJlove said:

Yeah. I think it’s normal to be in AP after submission. Our case date was updated on the day we dropped off the joint sponsor documents. It was updated again on 11/30, and yesterday said “Issued” and we received the visa packet today. Yeah. I get the anxiety. All will be good. Then you will feel major relief!!!! Hope you hear some good news soon!!! 

We went into AP 3 days before his interview. Unsure why though. Husband was questioning why they waited till after interview to start looking at his background, sadly I only have theories.  1 is maybe they are going thru this part since they want to approve (they kept his passport and gave him the paper about his rights in the USA)

2 is they do it regardless if they want to approve or deny to find people that is a national security risk.

But hey he will be able to spend one last holiday with his parents and son befire moving here. Postive right? I never been able to celabrate the holidays with him. Technically our 1st and only Christmas and new year's he was in the USA and I was grieving the lost of my father (passed away a week before christmas) which was hard and he didn't know what to do since our relationship was still considered new.  So yeah I dislike this time of the year.

2 minutes ago, CJlove said:

any updates on your end? 

He submitted his cv/resume at the drop off at 1430 and the documents arrived at embassy at 0830 the next day. Ceac still says ap last update was Nov 30th as of an hour ago. He's still worried why he is in AP......... I tried to explain it to him.

2 minutes ago, CJlove said:

I have one son. So, I should have been fine. I don’t know why they wanted a joint sponsor, but I have heard from a friend of mine also was required to have a sponsor when clearly she made enough money... I really don’t know why... It is what it is... 🤷🏻‍♀️

True, i know i was afraid I would need a sponsor, only person that could have help was hubby's friend at got hired to a big local business.  Making a lot more than I.  Husband has 2 kids, we will be starting his daughters petition once he gets working over here.

22 minutes ago, CJlove said:

Congrats!!!!! 👏👏👏👏🥂🍾

 

Congrats!!!!! 👏👏👏👏🥂🍾

 

My income last year was $38,000. It was okay with USCIS and with NVC, but during the interview my hubby was told to bring a joint sponsor and gave us 3 days to compete the i864 along necessary documents for evidence of income. If I were you, just to be SAFE, have another joint sponsor ready as a backup! Just Incase. You never know. If they ask you for joint sponsor during interview, it only delays the process, like it did me. Just my opinion. 🤗 

 What did you submit as proof? You make more than me, 28k currently, 27k for 2017 and 16k for 2016. I know for a total household for 2 people for Hawaii is like 23k or so.

I submitted pay stubs for the last 6 months(I get paid weekly), employment letter, tax transcripts, w2s.

I wonder why they requested another sponsor when you make enough for 2 people, unless you are supporting a total of 4 people or more.

A few hours ago husband dropped off his CV/ resume to the document drop off location, even thought we submitted via email per the paper they gave him at the time of his interview.

18 minutes ago, MsKayC said:

I'm at work and can't concentrate.. I keep trying go make random conversations with my coworkers to keep busy

This is one reason why I took the day off, but I had personal time off to use up or it disappeared on jan 1st. =/ was hoping to have him before this month etc etc.

My husband was asking me a few questions about the courier stuff, if it costs to do the pick up, and if it costs to drop off his 221g documents (They requested his CV/resume)

If I heard him right he told me that when he got his J1 Visa he had to pay the courier.