scottfede

5 hours ago, iwannaplay54 said:

Break in residency was never a question, looking at 2 1/2 years after re-entry to apply.  Minimum.  We waited three.  Just to avoid the hassle.

Ok, so based on that, because I stayed out of the country for more than a year, I will have to wait 2 and a half years from re-entry to apply for naturalization, regardless of what I do? Is it even worth it for me to apply for an SB-1 or does it make more sense to reapply for a green card whenever we decide to go back to live in the US?

Last question: if we want to go back to visit family for only a couple of months (considering we cannot move back now) should I just apply for an ESTA and enter as a tourist?

37 minutes ago, Mike E said:

The other option is to come back to the USA when ready and see what happens.  As @Dashinka says YMMV.  Some if not most just get admitted as returning residents without drama.  
 

https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-3671?language=en_US#:~:text=The CBP officer will collect,final determination on your case describes the possible drama and when you break it down it isn’t as bad as some might tell you.  

 

We might just end up trying this. We were supposed to fly back to the States this February to go see family (but had to cancel cause the Covid situation is way too bad right now), and we were just gonna try to access the country hoping they don't decide to deny me and put me on the next flight back to Italy. I am just afraid that the more time I spend outside the country, the lower my chances get to be admitted with no drama.

42 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

Understandable, but unfortunately situations change and that forces plans to change.  Like I said, you could still choose to relocate back to the US relatively soon even though you have been outside the US for over a year.  There may be questions asked by CBP, but many people seem to be able to do this.  It appears the timing for you did not work out well given the financial situation you were dealt that was not helped by the fact that according to your profile you were living in California.  Like I said, you can also look at the SB-1 and do a little more research there.  I am not sure that is an option, but it might be.

 

Good Luck!

We were actually in Arizona, but rent prices in Phoenix got crazy during the pandemic because of people moving from CA to AZ. We had our rent blocked at $1250 until November, but then our lease expired and rent went up to $1850. There was just no way we could pay that much money with only one of us working.

I will definitely look into the SB-1 and see if that might be an option. Thank you!

40 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

have u applied for the child's US citzenship and US passport?

Yes we have, and she already got her US passport and social security number.

1 hour ago, Dashinka said:

I am curious, you married in February 2017 and received your conditional GC in November 2017, did you complete the ROC process prior to you relocation back to Italy? 

I did, I got my permanent green card in June 2020, that’s kinda why I don’t really understand this whole thing of having to give it up after all the money we spent to get it and to remove conditions, just because we had to leave the country. Based on expiration date my green card is technically valid until 2030.

I honestly didn’t even know about the abandonment rule until after we were already in Italy and found out we were pregnant. I had already met the requirements to apply for naturalization, if I knew that I would not be able to leave the country for  more than 6 months without losing my green card I would have applied for citizenship.

Considering we are not able to move back permanently now, I am guessing my only option is to give up the green card?

Hi everyone!

My hubby and I got married in February 2017 and I have been a US permanent resident since November 2017. We lived in the US continuously from January 2017 to December 2020, so over 3 years and 10 months, but then because of the pandemic I lost my job and hubby's income wasn't enough to pay all our expenses so we were forced to move back to my home country (Italy) because we couldn't afford to pay rent and bills in the US anymore and we had no one who could help us or host us there. Our plan was to only stay out of the country for up to 6 months while working at our small online business to be able to make it into a full time income, but 20 days after we moved back to Italy I found out I was pregnant and things changed a lot. With the whole pandemic situation I really did not want to travel while pregnant, on top of the fact that i had a complicated pregnancy and was put on bed rest at 12 weeks, so going back to the US with no jobs and no insurance was out of the picture at that point. We decided to just stay here since I own an apartment in Rome and we don't have to pay for rent. We had our baby girl at the end of August and she is almost 5 months old now, we are doing good here, and as much as we really would like to go back to the US now that we have our business, we would have to start all over again and go back to pay rent which doesn't make sense for us.

So my question at this point is, since I did live for over 3 continuous years in the US, can I still apply for naturalization, or am I just going to lose my green card and the possibility to become a US citizen for as long as we are not able to go back to live in the US permanently? Am I going to have to restart the whole green card process from the beginning if we decide to move back when our daughter is older in a couple of years? We did register her at the US embassy, so she is both a US and Italian citizen and has two passports. We are still very tight to the US, we have family there, kept all our US bank accounts open, and we keep paying quarterly taxes to the IRS and filing for annual taxes since we have income from our business, which is registered in AZ. We would like to be able to go back to visit my husband's family for 3 to 4 months at the end of 2022 but I don't know if they are going to let me in the country at this point.

What do you suggest? How should I go about this? I can't afford to pay for a lawyer right now (having a baby is expensive so we need to keep expenses down as much as possible).

Thank you for your help!

Hello,

sorry if the title of the post is not very clear but I don't really know how to explain what I need in a few words so I will try to describe my problem here.

My husband (U.S. Citizen) and I are about to file for AoS after getting married on a K1 visa.

We have been traveling together abroad from February 2016 to September 2016, then he moved back to California while I stayed in my country.

As soon as he got back to the US he sent the I-129F packet for our K1 visa.

Less than a month after he flew back to California he found a job as a security guard in a store. That was a part time job and the pay wasn't very high but in less than two months he got promoted to area supervisor and he passed from a part time to a full time with a better pay. Just 3 weeks ago he got another promotion and he is now manager. He works full time and makes way more money that he did in the start.

Now, my concern is: in the AoS affidavit we wrote he makes enough money to support me (his boss wrote an employment letter stating his annual income with the current pay) but, since he has been working for only 5 months in this job, and only 3 weeks in the manager position, his past pay stubs don't support the amount of money we are declaring. Also, since we have been traveling for 7 months in 2016, his last tax return was only $4,000 for the few months he worked. We were thinking about writing and explanation letter as a supporting document for the affidavit but we have no idea what to write on it and what should we write as a title of the letter. Do you think a letter is needed in out case? Could we have problems because of this? 

Do you have any ideas, suggestion or examples of letters we can use?

Thank you very much.

Hm, yea, I get it!

I guess we will be staying at his mom's house until I get my EAD. Not that I'm happy about it, but I understand we really don't have many other options. It is not a very easy situation for me since we had an argument about the wedding some days ago and now there is an awkward feeling in the air and every time I see her in the house she barely talks to me. I've been living in my own apartments for 3 years when I was in my country, before moving to California, and I already feel like I'm going crazy without my privacy and space. Unfortunately we can't move from here because that would mean for my husband to lose his job, and since I don't have a job right now that can't be an option. 

Thank you all for the help!!

Hi everybody,

I entered the US on a K1 visa and got married 3 days ago. We are now waiting for our marriage certificate to be ready (takes 2 weeks) so we can file for adjustment of status.

My husband and I are now living in his mom's house but we would really like to find an apartment to finally start our life together. The problem is California is crazy expensive, he has a full time job and gets about $2100/month, which is enough to meet 125% of poverty guidelines, but certainly not enough to rent an apartment and still have money to survive in California! The rent around here is crazy. We are not looking for a big house but even to rent a studio we can't find anything for less than $1200 and they require applicants to make 2,5x to be able to rent. We found some low income housing (sec.8 and sec.42) and would like to apply (his income of $25000/year is considered very low-income) but I am afraid this could be a problem since I am about to apply for adjustment of status to get my green card and I don't know if I'm even allowed to live in a low income house. I can't wait to be able to work but I guess I will have to wait at least other 3 months to get my work permit, and we really need to move out as soon as possible.

Any advice?

Thank you!

Oh ok! Thank you very much!

I will try not to worry, then.

Hello,

I have a huge problem and I don't know what to do!

My K1 visa interview in Naples is scheduled for Tuesday, January 10th 2017. I live in Rome so I will be traveling to Naples on January 8th in order to be there a day before the medicals. I already booked the hotel and the train to go there with my mom, but this morning I found out that the birth certificate I have doesn't contain all the information they ask. They want the certificate to report the date and place of birth, plus the names of both parents and my birth certificate doesn't contain the names! So I went to ask for a full version of the birth certificate and found out it has a different name (it's called "estratto di nascita" instead of "certificato di nascita"), and they told me it will be ready by January 10th. I tried to ask if I can pay an express fee to get it faster but there is no way to accelerate the process. I will already be in Naples by that time and even if my dad goes pick it up on Tuesday morning he won't be able to come to Naples in time for the interview, since it takes 3 hours to drive from Rome to Naples and my interview is scheduled at 8:30 am.

What should I do? Do you think it will be a big problem if I don't have my full birth certificate? Is there any way my dad can send the birth certificate by fax to the embassy?

I'm in full panic mode right now. If I try to reschedule the appointment I will lose more than $300 of train tickets and hotel, but I'm afraid that if I don't I will get denied the visa!

What should I do?

Thank you!

Thank you very much for your answer.

I will contact the consulate in Naples and ask about it. Do you think it is ok to tell them that I can't attend the interview before January because I am currently in the United States?

Hi everyone!

My fiancé sent our I-129f to USCIS on September 8th 2016. Since we really hate to be distant, I decided to fly to California and spend 90 days in the US while waiting for our visa to be approved. I arrived in the US on October 6th and I will go back to Italy on January 3rd, 2017.

We thought the visa would have taken longer to be accepted and sent to the NVC but we actually received the NOA2 on October 24th, only 35 days after NOA1.

I know that the NVC will take some time to process our case and send it to the US Consulate in Naples, but is there a way I can avoid to get the interview scheduled before January? I really hope this is not going to affect the process.

Also, I have another question: we already know we will get married on May 20th 2017 (we booked our venue and we are organizing everything now that I am here in California), this means I won't be able to enter the States with my K1 before February 20th. Would it be a problem for me to get the interview and obtain the K1 at the beginning of January, and then wait almost 2 months before entering the States?

Thank you!

Hi everyone,

my fiancé Scott (US Citizen) and I (Italian) are about to send our I-129f packet to USCIS to apply for the K1 visa.

We are currently living in Italy together, but Scott has already been here for almost 3 months now and the tourist visa only allows him to stay 90 days so he will need to leave soon. We are evaluating the option of having him flying back to California while I stay in Italy until the visa gets approved but honestly we would like to find another solution if possible because we don't want to stay apart for more than 5 months. Our idea was to fly together to California at the end of September and then I will be flying back to Italy before my 90 days tourist visa expires. Could it be a problem to spend 3 months in US while we wait for an answer on our K1 visa packet?

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your answers!

@Greenbaum we would prefer receiving USCIS mail here in Italy, if possible, so we don't have to constantly ask his parents to send us things. Do you think it's a problem if he writes as a mailing address the one where we are now in Italy, and on the cover letter, intent of marry and g-325a he writes his permanent address in the US?

Also, I have another question: Is it necessary to put in the package the beneficiary's birth certificate (in my case I need a translated one, since mine is in Italian), copy of beneficiary's passport (all pages) and affidavit from the petitioner's family? I was reading the list of reasons why you can get an RFE and apparently many people got it for not including these documents in the package. In every I-129F checklist and videos online about how to assembly the package, I've never seen anyone talking about those documents. Should we include them?

Hi everybody!

My fiancé Scott (U.S. citizen) and I have been together for a year now and are currently living in Italy.

We spent the first 6 months of our relationship in California where I was working as au pair (I had a 1-year J1 visa). When my visa expired, we moved to Australia where we lived together for 4 months before moving back to Italy. I have my apartment in Rome and we are living here for now, but we decided we want to get married in California after I finish my university in January, so we are starting our K1 visa journey, in order to be able to move back to the US after I graduate. We are working on our I-129F package and we were wondering if you could help us with some questions we have.

1) I-129F form, Part 1. Your Mailing Address - We filled out this part writing the Italian address where we are currently living together and where we want to receive all mail. Is this correct? In question 28 (Address in the US where your fiancé intends to live) we wrote his parents address (we will live there for a while before the wedding), but on the USCIS website is specified that the US address where the beneficiary will live should be the same as the petitioner's US address. The form only asks the petitioner's address once, so we have no way to specify his permanent US address on the form. What should we do?

2) I-129F Cover Letter and Fiancé letter of intent to marry [PETITIONER’S ADDRESS] - Which address should we write here?

3) I-129F $340 Fee Payment (Check) - Since we are in Italy we have no way to send a check from here. Is it possible to have Scott's best friend send us a check to pay the $340 fee from his bank account, and put that check in the package? Can it be a problem to send a check from a person who's not directly related to us?

4) Petitioner's G-325A form. Applicant's residence last five years - We wrote the addresses where we lived in the last 2 months in Italy and 4 months in Australia, but before moving with me he had always lived in his parents house. What should we write as a beginning date for the period he lived there?

5) Beneficiary's G-325A form. Applicant's residence last five years - The form has only 5 rows to write the addresses but in the past 5 years I've lived in more than 5 places and I don't know if it's necessary to list all of them. To give you an idea of what I'm talking about: 2011 to 2012 I lived in my parents house, in 2013 I moved to Spain for 7 months (Erasmus), then I went back to Italy until the end of 2014. In 2015 I moved to California and lived with an american host family for a year. In December I went back to Italy and stayed with my parents for a month and a half, then flew back to California and lived with Scott in his parents house until we moved to Australia in February. In June we moved to Italy, where we are now. To cover the whole period (5 years) I would need 8 rows. I will obviously omit the last month in California since that was just a vacation, but do you think it's ok if I omit the 7 months in Spain and just say I've always been in Italy before California?

6) The last question is just a doubt I have: I've been reading everywhere that we need to put in the package "documentary proof of having met in person in the past 2 years and an ongoing relationship". We have no problems in proving the ongoing relationship with flight tickets, hotels, photos and even a joint bank account we opened in Australia, but can it be a problem that we've been together for only 1 year? Do they want people to be together for at least 2 years before applying for the K1, or just to show that the relationship is recent and ongoing?

Sorry for the stupid questions, I know some of these are not important, but I want to be sure everything is correct before sending the package. I would like to avoid receiving an RFE for stupid errors.

Thank you very much.

Federica