Hawksquill

1) Yes, you need to submit the biometrics fee for every petitioner (basically, if you were applying for spouse + 1 child, you would pay the biometrics fee twice) 2) Yes, you can travel and you don't need to apply for AP. When you submit the petition, you'll receive a letter of extension for your green card, probably for 12-18 months. You can travel with both the green card and the letter without problems. 3) That depends where you're filing from. You can filter timelines on VJ or check the USCIS website. 4) The instructions specify that a cover letter is required. You also need to submit a copy of the front and back of your green card. The other evidence is to prove bona fide relationship - send as much as you can, basically.

Package delivered this morning, woo hoo! Now just to wait for the text/NOA - for some reason I'm super anxious that we've made some small stupid mistake or forgotten something and will be rejected.

The letter will include instructions for how to reschedule the biometrics appointment. You can look at people on VJ who have filed in the past couple months to get a sense of how soon they're scheduling the appointments for. Or if you get the letter before you leave but the appt is scheduled for after you leave, you can see if your biometrics center allows walk-ins. Just bring your appointment letter with you and be prepared to wait.

You're safely within the 90 day window! I've read on here that they only sometimes send the letter reminding you about the window opening.

If they won't give him an official letter documenting his attempts to get it changed, maybe have him draft a statement about his attempts to get it changed and ask the official at the passport office to sign and date it? This is the sort of thing where, given the nature of the political situation over the past few decades in Myanmar, I think there might be some leniency about this, but if it were me I'd be concerned about documenting that I'd made a good faith effort to have the mistake corrected. Again, I'm not a lawyer, and it might be worth consulting an immigration attorney. They might have more experience with this or a suggestion we haven't thought of, and I think it would be better to have the peace of mind before submitting, as opposed to just submitting and crossing your fingers you don't get rejected.

Wow my husband's GC also expires 12/14 and it looks like we had our interviews on the same day, 12/14/2017, so we're literally on an identical timeline! Your evidence looks great, good luck Just to make sure you're calculating the window correctly: Look at the day the GC expires and subtract 90 days, that's when the window opens. So if the GC expires January 7, 2020, the window should open on October 8, 2019. You can also use this calculator here: https://www.uscis.gov/forms/uscis-early-filing-calculator Don't apply before the window opens, as they might reject your submission and you'll have to resend it. Everything should be dated for the day on/after the window opens, even if you fill it out before the window officially opens. For example, my husband's GC expired 12/14/2019, so our window opened 9/15/2019 (yesterday). We've been preparing for about a month but when we signed and dated things like I-751 and the cover letter, we dated everything 9/15/2019. We mailed everything today (yesterday was a Sunday and we were using USPS so no post on Sundays!) We thought about mailing everything on the 14th (Saturday) but decided not to risk having it sent back. Hope this helps!

Well as of a few minutes ago the package is officially in the mail and on its way to the Dallas PO box! We paid for informed delivery, which came to $13 - I always forget how expensive this entire process is when you take into account paper and ink, photocopying, envelopes, postage, time off work for biometrics and interview... It's honestly just a relief that it's out of our hands now, we've done all we can and now we just have to wait. Now to just obsessively check the tracking number!

Not sure why the PDF isn't letting you type in those fields - if worse comes to worst, you can always just fill it in in pen after you print.

If you mean 1a-1c and 2, that's not referring to the additional names question. The heading says Your full name, not other names. That's what question 1 and 2 are doing - just documenting your name and A# so they can cross-reference it to the rest of your packet in case the additional info sheets get separated. It's not asking you for additional names. That's filled out in the earlier sections (I think page 1 or 2, off the top of my head, there are several lines for other names/aliases)

You need to fill out all of section 1 (your name and A#) for the additional information page. I think this is in case that page gets separated from the rest during photocopying or when they're disassembling/rearranging the packet. Everything else looks fine as long as you've included your old address for section 3.

The most annoying part of ROC is gathering the evidence, and a lawyer won't save you time on that. The best thing we did was make a shared Google doc of a wish list of evidence and then gradually worked our way through it for gathering, printing, photocopying. We then turned that initial list into the table of contents in our cover letter. If you're worried about filling out the form incorrectly, have both you and your spouse review it separately, reading every word of every question and checking everything as you go (is the SSN right? The A#? Did you both sign in the correct places? Does the order of the evidence match the order of the table of contents, and is it a logical order? Is the check written for the right amount for the filing fee and the biometrics fee? It's stupid things like not signing or one wrong digit that you probably want to worry about.) If you're still worried, ask a TRUSTED friend or relative to review it.

Finished printing and assembling the packet today, all ready to mail on Monday! All together, 105 pages and 19 oz. Feels good to finally have it done. It feels like it's out of our hands now and I can stop worrying

First of all, take a deep breath and don't be rash about leaving the country. If you abandon status now you might regret it later. People receive RFEs all the time and are approved with no other problems. You can only submit what you have, so don't worry about not having credit cards and utility bills. If you sent incomplete documents, send the complete versions of what you already sent (ALL pages, even blank pages, if they see anything missing it looks suspicious), you won't get in trouble for submitting more complete versions of what you've already submitted. If you don't have utility bills do you have any mail addressed to both of you received at the address? Failing that, some mail addressed to you and some addressed to your spouse both showing the same address. Health insurance statements, other kind of bills, student loan documents, anything like that. You can request tax transcripts for free from the IRS to prove you've filed jointly since you married, get those for every year you've filed jointly. Include the recent change in health care coverage because it helps your case. It sounds like part of the problem is you didn't have enough evidence starting from the date of the marriage, so include bank statements starting from as soon after the marriage as possible. "Outdated" documents from earlier in the marriage are also good to send: old lease agreements, old car insurance documents, anything that has an earlier date on it even if it's no longer up to date/valid. You can also highlight things on bank statements even if you don't have other hard copy proof of them, such as paychecks being deposited, grocery shopping, charges for internet service at your address, etc. Other forms of evidence you might not have considered: birth certificates of any children, pet adoption papers or vet records in both names, any memberships or loyalty cards in both names (gym, Costco?) rental insurance in both names, car insurance documents in both names retirement account documents proving beneficiary status, life insurance documents proving beneficiary status, phone bills in both names.

Probably fine. If she's from a country where Maria is a common name, Ma. is likely used as an abbreviation (like Thos. for Thomas and Wl. for William). It doesn't mean her mom's name isn't Maria, just that it was abbreviated to Ma. on the birth certificate.

Probably a silly question. I saw a thread on VJ about how technically the form instructions say to put N/A or None for questions that don't apply rather than leaving them blank, so I'm going through and doing that. For the children question, do you think putting None on the first child question and leaving the rest blank is fine, or do we have to put None for every child question?