Scandi

As an immigrant myself, I would be terrified if my USC husband was terrified of signing the form.

As an immigrant myself, I would be terrified if my USC husband was terrified of signing the form.

Correct, the CR-1 visa is the way to go. That would also remove the issue of the US citizen not being able to support their spouse down the road - once the visa is issued, the i-864 isn't an issue anymore. For the K-1, once the visa is issued you still have a loooong way to go and USCIS can absolutely ask for an updated i-864 by the time of the interview (which can be two+ years after filing, of course). 

There is a well-known time glitch with the online filing and online account, which is why people are advised to not file on the day they become eligible to avoid future headaches. The update is very likely the acceptance of your case, which comes with a receipt notice. 

I think the issue is that some i-751 get transferred, and some don't - customer service, service centers and field offices don't communicate very well at all with each other. We mainly see this when you try to reschedule an interview appointment with customer service, they confirm and everything seems great until the field office didn't get the notice and denied your case for failing to show up to your interview.

You never know what will happen in your case until you go to your interview. My guess, and it's just a guess, is that the IO at your field office doesn't look at your case until very close to your interview, possibly the day before or day of your interview. By that time, when they finally see your request to have a combo interview, it's too late to have the i-751 file transferred anyway (yes, they do send the whole physical file). But I would certainly give it my best try and add that request anyway, you've got nothing to lose. 

Correct, the CR-1 visa is the way to go. That would also remove the issue of the US citizen not being able to support their spouse down the road - once the visa is issued, the i-864 isn't an issue anymore. For the K-1, once the visa is issued you still have a loooong way to go and USCIS can absolutely ask for an updated i-864 by the time of the interview (which can be two+ years after filing, of course). 

I filed under the 3 year rule and did it online. So smooth and easy, I felt that the paper form looked a lot more complicated. The online form removes questions that don't apply to you and you can add as many previous addresses and work places as you like, without having to create extra supplements as you would have to with the paper form. Uploading documents was very easy, the payment section was super smooth, never had any issues with glitches etc. Highly recommend filing online. 

Same, no extension with the N-400 - but I didn't need one as I already had my 10 year greencard on hand. That said, if there was an extension likely they would send the exact same letter to everyone, not just those whose greencard had expired or was about to expire soon. No such letter was sent to me at any point. Must be a very new thing. 

I suggest you start the application now, that way you get an idea of what it looks like as compared to the paper form. That way you will also see what they ask for, and what documents you need to upload. There is zero rush, like previous posters have said - you have 30 days before your application gets deleted, and if you need more time you just change something little and save, then you get 30 new days (so technically you can do this for however long you want, just make sure to "update" it every 29th day or so). So start now, fill everything out and by the end of it you will get to the upload section. 

There are many of us who decided to go the K-1 route and really regretted it. And that was back when the K-1 was actually many months faster, which was pretty much the only reason to choose it over the CR-1. Today the K-1 is even slower than the CR-1 in many cases, so not even that is an argument to choose the K-1 anymore. 

If you decide to go for the CR-1 you will obviously not get the money back that you already spent, but you know that. Even so, it's still worth starting over with a CR-1 imo.

I filed under the 3 year rule and did it online. So smooth and easy, I felt that the paper form looked a lot more complicated. The online form removes questions that don't apply to you and you can add as many previous addresses and work places as you like, without having to create extra supplements as you would have to with the paper form. Uploading documents was very easy, the payment section was super smooth, never had any issues with glitches etc. Highly recommend filing online. 

There are many of us who decided to go the K-1 route and really regretted it. And that was back when the K-1 was actually many months faster, which was pretty much the only reason to choose it over the CR-1. Today the K-1 is even slower than the CR-1 in many cases, so not even that is an argument to choose the K-1 anymore. 

If you decide to go for the CR-1 you will obviously not get the money back that you already spent, but you know that. Even so, it's still worth starting over with a CR-1 imo.

You can always write a note in a Word document and upload that, in case you feel that there is nothing else you can upload. That way you can also explain the lack of "evidence". 

No it doesn't matter if you file jointly or separately, that's a personal choice and not an immigration issue at all. Your spouse's SSN and your address is the same and will show on both your return transcripts, that's what USCIS want to see. So instead of sending a joint tax transcript to USCIS, you send both your and your spouse's return transcripts if you file separately. That's all, no difference otherwise.

I was thinking the same, OP didn't even mention the most important form i-130 or the supplement i-130A. Definitely need A LOT more research done, especially if he doesn't trust the "specialist's" advice. 

The lawyer is correct. If you don't want to pay him, you can do this without him if you have a simple case. Most of us have done everything ourselves without any help - everything from visa and AOS, to ROC and citizenship. 

Believe it or not, but many people actually have their medical after the interview. In my case I had my medical on a Thursday and the interview the following Monday, and since it takes two weeks for the medical to reach the embassy they just interviewed me and then put my case into AP until they received the medical. No biggie. The other K-1 applicant at the time (there was only two of us that day) hadn't even scheduled his medical at the time of his interview, much less actually had the medical done.

So yes, if it's a close call one can usually delay the medical for a bit. 👍

For me personally, the wait times and money spent on ROC wasn't bad at all. It took a year and that was it, never needed an interview since I already had one for AOS (this won't be the case for you since you won't AOS inside the US, you're very likely to get an ROC interview). 

The pain was all the documents needed, all the saving of "evidence" for two full years, copying everything, putting the whole thing together etc. OMG it was so much work and took me a long while. THIS is the reason I would totally wait until my 2 year anniversary if I were you. Just to not have to deal with all the collecting of evidence, thinking of ways to get more/new evidence, worrying you don't have enough evidence etc. Not worth it. 

I mean, this quote is all we need to see from this poster. 😁

I mean, this quote is all we need to see from this poster. 😁

I mean, this quote is all we need to see from this poster. 😁

The N-400 under the 3 year rule is very much about your bonafide marriage. And the rest if the "scenarios" that you paint make no sense at all. 
 
They WANT the documents electronically, not only do we see this by USCIS starting to make more forms available for online filing, but they also mention this at many of the interviews they have with people, me included. 
 
They don't want the hassle of having to go scan the documents you bring to the interview, they very much prefer if you have already done that work for them, ie already uploaded them in their system so they don't have to.
 
And no, they will not "close" your file and move on to another because you have uploaded two new utility bills each month. 😆
 

The N-400 under the 3 year rule is very much about your bonafide marriage. And the rest if the "scenarios" that you paint make no sense at all. 
 
They WANT the documents electronically, not only do we see this by USCIS starting to make more forms available for online filing, but they also mention this at many of the interviews they have with people, me included. 
 
They don't want the hassle of having to go scan the documents you bring to the interview, they very much prefer if you have already done that work for them, ie already uploaded them in their system so they don't have to.
 
And no, they will not "close" your file and move on to another because you have uploaded two new utility bills each month. 😆
 

The N-400 under the 3 year rule is very much about your bonafide marriage. And the rest if the "scenarios" that you paint make no sense at all. 
 
They WANT the documents electronically, not only do we see this by USCIS starting to make more forms available for online filing, but they also mention this at many of the interviews they have with people, me included. 
 
They don't want the hassle of having to go scan the documents you bring to the interview, they very much prefer if you have already done that work for them, ie already uploaded them in their system so they don't have to.
 
And no, they will not "close" your file and move on to another because you have uploaded two new utility bills each month. 😆
 

The N-400 under the 3 year rule is very much about your bonafide marriage. And the rest if the "scenarios" that you paint make no sense at all. 
 
They WANT the documents electronically, not only do we see this by USCIS starting to make more forms available for online filing, but they also mention this at many of the interviews they have with people, me included. 
 
They don't want the hassle of having to go scan the documents you bring to the interview, they very much prefer if you have already done that work for them, ie already uploaded them in their system so they don't have to.
 
And no, they will not "close" your file and move on to another because you have uploaded two new utility bills each month. 😆