DakotaKid

My wife joined  a local Thai group on Facebook.  In her talking to and meeting with a few Thai's in the area, one of them gave her a job lead, which led to her first job in the USA.

https://www.uscis.gov/military/deployments-and-moving

16 hours ago, Zach2015 said:

Wow, no one told you that you couldn’t leave the US without your green card or AP card? I think you now have to start from the beginning with a CR1 visa. I’m not sure if there is any other way. Good luck!

In the 80's, when I was in the USAF, military bases were considered US soil.  Has that changed?  If it hasn't and you are living in on base housing, you should be able to adjust status.  I would contact the on base legal department.

9 hours ago, carmel34 said:

Often attorneys are wrong.  That's the truth plain and simple.  Just look at the recent episode of 90 Day Fiance when Angela's attorney said that a K-1 denial in Nigeria could be appealed and that 60% of appeals are successful.  That's so wrong, just one example of attorneys that don't know the US immigration process very well.  The attorney that Michael saw in Nigeria knew what she was talking about.  Good luck!

I was thinking the same exact thing about Angela.

13 hours ago, CitizenJ said:

But if I wanted to write a letter anyway, could I do that considering I'm in China with my father-in-law?

Forget the invitation letter, you'd be wasting ink.  The intended visitor must prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that they will return to their home country.  Other than assisting with filling out the forms, and perhaps putting up the money for the application/flights, there is nothing you as the US citizen can do on their behalf.

We really don't have a whole lot to base our advice on.  Speaking from personal experience, it was a really trying time the first couple of months for my wife.  Mind you, it wasn't the first time she had been away from her family.  The difference this time is she had children that are still back in Thailand with her parents.  She was incredibly homesick.  Thankfully, she was able to video chat with them on Facebook Messenger.  She was completely accepted most importantly by my family, and also my friends think she is wonderful.  I personally think that the waiting for the Combo Card was the most difficult.  While I was at work, she was basically stuck at home alone.  If she needed to go to the store or mall, I showed her how easy it was to walk down the street to the bus stop, and she could at least get out of the house.  She also was keen on me showing her how to mow the lawn.  She would take it upon herself to get the lawn mowed while I was at work.  Then after the snow started flying, she had me show her how to use the snowblower.  Then one day she sends me a picture of the snowblower by the garage door and asked. "How do I start this thing"?  I told her to wait until I got home, and I would show her how to get it running.  Imagine a 5'3" Thai girl having the driveway cleaned when you come home from work.  She was even willing to clean the elderly neighbor lady's driveway too.  I did make her save some work for me.

After getting her Combo Card, she went home for 4 weeks, and now has a job that she is thriving in.  She is doing so well that within a few months, she is now a lead.  After the trip home, her attitude is so much better.  She talks about becoming a citizen when the time comes.  We are in the planning stages of getting her teenage daughter and her pre-teen son here.  The daughter's father is a US citizen, but his name isn't on the birth certificate, so we are working on him doing what is needed to get her a US passport through CRBA.

Check your USCIS case status.  My wife and I interviewed a month ago.. Had Green Card in hand a week later.

The only advantage in using a service is the help that can be had on the beneficiary side.  It doesn't say what country your fiance lives in.  Also, I'm not sure what Rapid Visa provides in the beneficiary country.

In my case I completed all of the paperwork with the help from the guides on Visa Journey.

My wife used a service in Thailand for assistance filling out the paperwork in Thailand.  She doesn't have a computer/laptop, so we paid a little over $100 to have one of the services in Thailand to assist with getting her packet three and four completed.

Same deal though, she had to do the legwork to get all of the necessary documents in order.  They dd walk her through the process, telling her exactly what was needed and recommended several places that are approved for translations services, and etc.

The guides here are excellent.  We had our Green Card interview last week and no hiccups along the way.  Green Card will hopefully arrive next week..  The interviewing officer said 1-3 weeks, I'm hoping for the best case though.

I would be remiss if I didn't thank the community for all of the assistance in going through this process, 

The guides are absolutely fantastic.  I rarely had any procedural questions, but when I did, they were always answered quickly and accurately.  If I was more knowledgeable, I would certainly provide more insight.  I will defer most of those others with more knowledge than I possess.

Thanks again everyone for the support over the last few years.  I'll be more active in 1.75 years when we apply for the 10 year GC

I assumed that it wasn't something to be concerned about, as it was filled out before we interviewed.  He handed it to us at the end of the interview.

Interview for Green Card this morning.

We were asked the standard questions:

How did you meet?

How long before you decided to marry

How many times were you married

Any children, biological or step children, & etc

Officer told us if approved Green Card should arrive in 1-3 weeks.  He didn't think that we'd get an RFE

Received the form below, and assume that it is standard operating proceedure?

While I filed for a K1, I did it all with help from the good folks here.  To be honest, if you take your time and thoroughly read through the guides and/or use the search on here, you probably won't have many questions.  There will be others that had/have the same questions as you.  Just do a search on your question, chances are you will find several threads related to the question you have. 

We did use a service in Thailand for assistance as my wife doesn't have a PC or laptop.  We paid around $100 to have them fill out the paperwork for my then fiance and submit it for us.  The woman there that my wife was working with commented that everything I sent to them from here was well prepared.  I set up a Google drive for file sharing, and etc.

The zip code plus four is only useful to the USPS.

ZIP+4 Codes are the last 4 digits of a nine-digit ZIP Code. A complete, nine-digit ZIP Code consists of two parts. The first five digits indicate the destination post office or delivery area. The last 4 digits represents a specific delivery route within that overall delivery area.

When my wife arrived to LAX, they asked her my name, where I lived and if she knew how long we had to marry.

We filed for my wife's AOS at the end of August.  Paperwork was received on 4 September with NOA's shortly after.  Combo card was received on 14 March.

57 minutes ago, Roel said:

You can contact your embassy. 

 

But its literally been only few days... 

OP said 28 Feb, not 28 Mar.  Contact the Embassy on Monday.  Have you checked the status on CEAC site?  It could be in Administrative Processing.

31 minutes ago, Cyberfx1024 said:

She can go to a travel agency to buy a ticket. 

That's what I was thinking, too.  Surely there are travel agencies in Cebu.  I suppose they might not all be easily accessible for everyone. 

If it's anything like Thailand, they're plentiful in the tourist areas.  In Phuket, I could walk 500 meters and find many travel agency shops.

Another option might be to take the money you send through Western Union and possibly get a credit card that you pre pay the money to.  She could then buy online at Kayak,Orbitz, Expedia, and etc.  Not sure if those prepay cards would be available from the banks in the PI.

My then fiance landed at LAX at around 8PM July 2018.  Flight to MSP departed at 11:50 PM.  So she had nearly 4 hours to make her connecting flight.  Customs/Immigration got slammed and she missed her connection by about 15 minutes.  The time spent with the CBP agent went quickly once she got thru the lines.

Not fun getting a call at 0200 with a frazzled Thai lady.  I had to scramble to book another flight to get her here.

Generally speaking 3 hours should be plenty of time.  One never knows...

K1 interview will be at an Embassy or Consulate.  For the short term, you're done with USCIS, until you file for AOS.

Checked the status and saw this:

I had emailed both of my Senators and both were going to submit an inquiry on our case.  Emailed them today that it wouldn't be necessary.

This is from the EAD case status.  AP still says Case received.  Is it safe to assume the Combo Card is being produced?

11 minutes ago, K1visaHopeful said:

You are outside of normal processing times at the NBC for your EAD. Today they are processing Sept 11th. You can make a Service Request.

I did fill out the case inquiry for cases outside normal times.  The email I got back said I could expect a response by 18 March. 

25 minutes ago, clare240 said:

I see that Texas is your filing location, that seems to only be for asylum or employment based? But it looks like you're applying for K-1 also? Are these up to date or have you already been married? It looks like marriage based AOS processing times in Chicago are 13-34 months. You could try applying for AP (I-131 - permission to travel outside the country) on the basis of a pending AOS. They're currently taking about 5 months to process. 

Yes the original K1 paperwork was sent to the Texas Lock Box.  K1 issued, she came to the US, we got married

Filed the AOS (I-131/I-485/I-765) paperwork to the Chicago Lock Box.  Case was assigned to the National Benefits Center and received by them on 4 Sep. 

She is more concerned about getting the AP than the EAD.  What really has her frustrated, 2 other girls that we both know came from Thailand in the same 4 week period.  One has her combo card since December, and the other has interviewed and been approved for her Green Card

12 minutes ago, K1visaHopeful said:

Do you not have EAD or AP yet?

Nothing by way of EAD/AP.

At the end of August, we sent our AOS package to the Chicago Lock Box.

We received receipt notices on 4 Sep.  So we are now at 180 days since it was received.

If there was going to be an RFE, it should have been received by now?

I came home from work, and she's been crying.

She wants to go home to see her family, and I do understand her frustration.

Calling the USCIS was an exercise in futility.

Advice?