USAUAinCZ

luckily crisis was adverted. They found their marriage certificate. 

Thanks for the help though!

Also I'm not sure if I posted this in the right place. 

The father lives in the USA currently under the United for Ukraine. I'm not sure if that changes anything. 

Hello all,

I'm filling out the i-130 and i-485 for my father. He doesn't have his marriage certificate but he's on my birth certificate. I'm reading the instructions for the I-130 and it says it requires his marriage certificate to prove that we are related. Why doesn't the birth certificate with his name provide that information? Do I need to provide the marriage certificate?

Thanks!

5 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

I don't see him listed as an exception.  Am I missing it?  "Yes" would be a safe answer, imo.  Otherwise, USCIS could ask for a reason why he is not subject to Public Charge.  It has happened for other people who answered "No".

thank you crazy cat!

Hi everyone,

I am helping my wife apply for the i-130 and I-485 for her father. The one question I'm not sure about is question 61 on the i-485.  "are you subject to the public charge"

I found this https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-8-part-g-chapter-3 website and went down to section C. But I'm not sure if United for Ukraine would apply. They are considered parolees and were offered healthcare, snap and temporary assistance by the county when they moved here. 

So should I select "No" on question 61?

Thanks everyone!

3 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

Who are "her family"? Parents?  Siblings?

ha well I forgot the most important piece of information. They are her parents.  Mother and Father. Both birth parents. 

Also would the fact that they came as refugees under United for Ukraine and accepted food stamps through the local refugee program make them inadmissible? Just trying to see if applying for them even makes sense since its quite expensive. 

Is the process just file i-130 and i-485 concurrently? They currently live in the USA and I'm a bit confused what the process is. 

Thanks everyone!

My wife filed her n400 online the 2nd. Hopefully, it goes fast!

On 9/24/2023 at 10:37 AM, Kineo said:

Some questions for discussion:

Has anyone here on U4U started the TPS process? Or thinking about starting the process?

My understanding that if you file for TPS it does not affect your U4U status, just protects you from being expelled. Does this sound right?

If you have an EAD, do you now have to file for another EAD under TPS?

I'm finding the information so far pretty vague.....

-K

My wife is currently applying for TPS for her mom. Our local charity here who does the paperwork for Ukrainians has told us it just gives her 6 more months of being here. Kind of like an extension before she would have to go home when her 2 years is up. 

I have no idea if this is true since I have not verified any of this yet. Usually I'm way more up to speed on the visa process but since I had to apply for her 4 other family members and help them get settled in America while having a 2 year old and a full time job I don't have much time lol. 

Just for some updated timelines. I applied for the rest of my wife's family to come over on U4U. 

I applied July 10th. My family was then sent all of the medical attestation on August 4th. And on August 7th they received their travel authorization. It was still a very fast process. 

Good luck everyone! 

15 hours ago, OldUser said:

Sorry I don't fully understand the question. Were the biometrics taken or the office was closed? Did you go to the right place (as instructed in the letter)? 

 

USCIS sometimes have different places:

- Application Support Centers for biometrics

- Field office for interviews

the biometrics were not taken because the office was closed. I went to the right place but due to a snow storm it was closed. 

Do we have to wait for another letter in the mail? We got the letter a few days ago so I feel like if they mail us another appointment date I'm going to get the mail way after the next planned biometric date and miss our appointment. I feel like we got super lucky we got our last mail just in time to go today. 

what is everybody doing about health insurance when their family arrives? My mother in law wasn't eligible to join mine that I get from work as she isn't my direct family, which is annoying as it covers absolutely everything. 

my mother in law was just approved and we received the notice. What documents should she have on her when she flies from Poland to the USA? I'm reading the website now and it says pre departure Covid Test and she'll need to have a medical test done when she arrives. Anything else she should bring besides her passport and covid vaccination proof? 

3 hours ago, Kor2USA said:

Reverse culture shock is definitely a thing... people tend to romanticize the old country city after they move... and remember only the good things. 

I moved back to my home country thinking I would live there for at least a year. Instead, I left

 after 3 months because I missed Korea so much. 

As soon as I moved back to Korea, I remembered all the issues I have here but I do prefer living here. Now, we are preparing to move to the States and I'm not ready. All the issues you've listed are concerns I have about moving there... but after weighing the options I know the US will probably be better for us and if it isn't we will move back to Korea, move to my home country or move to another country. 

 

Food in Japan is so amazing! 

Interesting for you to mention you prefer fruit overseas because the fruit here in Korea is awful and extremely expensive! 

One of my reasons for wanting to move to the States is because I want to eat fruit again 🙈 and whenever we visit I go on a fruit and vegetable buying frenzy! 

I also love my father-in-law's vegetable garden. 

Good luck moving back! I hope you guys find a great city to move back to as I feel like this is one of the issues I've run into and we are looking to make a move soon.

I have to say moving back during covid has been pretty brutal. A lot of the things I missed about America now don't really exist here as much anymore such as things open 24/7, cheaper big housing, cheap used cars, people being friendly etc. I don't mean to be a debbie downer but I'm still trying to find some things I like about being "home" and its tough after living for 10 years abroad. 

Any other Americans who lived abroad for a substantial amount of time and move back feel really weird being back in the USA? I read into this a bit and discovered it's called reverse culture shock. It's been a year since I've been back full time and I still can't seem to shake it.

Having to drive everywhere again, deal with traffic, having higher expectations at work, more aggressive people, polarization of so many topics, increased cost of health and dental care, expensive rent prices while apartments are lower quality etc. It's all just been pretty tough to get used to again. I'm still kind of glad we made the move to the USA as the work situation is better here as I work in IT but everything else just seems like a massive downgrade. Could just be also that we don't do much as we have a newborn and coronavirus has made it tough for us to meet with people. 

Anybody else go through this?

3 minutes ago, Orangesapples said:

I'm curious where you are. Here in SoCal people are almost afraid to ask me where I'm from and only do it after a while. No one ever mentions my accent in any context. But accents are extremely common here, SoCal is very diverse and Orange County in particular is full of immigrants. 

We live in rural upstate New York. Immigrants are common but they are usually much older than my wife who is only 30. So the fact that a young person would willingly move here is probably shocking for them 😅. Definitely nowhere close to as diverse as socal that is for sure lol. We both want to move to a city though so hopefully I can find a new job soon so we can move. 

My wife so far likes everything here in the month she has been here, she doesn't like the driving culture though. The fact that we have to get in a car almost every day is shocking for her coming from a big city in Ukraine. 

However she loves the supermarkets, the beautiful nature, lack of trash in the wilderness, how friendly people are to her and how curious people are to her while she is pushing the baby around in the stroller. She also gets a lot of kind comments about her accent in English.

I think she likes America more than I do 😂. 

39 minutes ago, Alex Ndayi said:

Congratulations for you.

They didn’t ask for ds5540?

nope! not even sure what that is, so i'm glad they didn't ask for it  

The CEAC status changed to issued today  . Finally the process is over. I can't believe it

6 minutes ago, payxibka said:

Does the additional dependent cause you to be below the income threshold for sponsorship?  If not, you are fine.

Hey!

Luckily no. Our Joint sponsor has more than enough income. 

Thanks for the response. It's helped calm me down a bit 😁

Hey everyone,

My wife finally had her cr1 interview in Kyiv yesterday. The consular officer told my wife that everything went well but that we didn't upload the i864a on the ceac website. So we were handed the 221g to do so. The thing is my wife had the original document in her hand and they didn't ask for it and I had already uploaded the document to the ceac website but under the I-864 tab for the joint sponsor. My wife while walking out handed the original 1864a document to the security guard and it was confirmed by the consular officer by e-mail to me that she received it. I then uploaded the I-864a document to the ceac in the correct tab. 

However it got me worrying more. My wife gave birth a week before the interview and we did not update the I864 documents to add my kid as my dependent. However the consular officers didn't ask for any of the i864 documents while she was there and didn't even look at any of her original paperwork. Am I wrong to be paranoid that they will probably ask us to send an updated I864 eventually? I only worry because my tourist visa won't last that long for me to wait here and traveling with covid is tough due to flights possibly not letting you transfer through. 

Has anybody else been in a similar situation?

I just flew Turkish airlines to Ukraine from the USA to be with my wife as she gave birth and to go to her interview with her. I received a ton of sh*t going through the border control in Lviv because I flew through Istanbul and not direct from the USA. I had to beg to be let into the country and after 10 minutes of talking they let me through. This is even though I had the covid 19 insurance, regular Ukrainian health insurance an invitation from my wife, our marriage certificate etc. 

Just FYI for anybody else who plans on flying to Ukraine you may be in for a bit of a battle. 

Wow if they are processing k1 visas I hope that means they will do cr1 as well. great news!