DeadFish

Go back to the website with none of your add-ons or other software running in the background. Google : chrome or firefox safe mode.. that makes your browser like the first day you ever used it, temporarily. 

try on another computer... There are too many variables that could be preventing this.

IR-1 Approved. ( If you saw my other thread today you can skip this post.) 

The interview in Taiwan was uneventful, the staff was friendly, it took about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

They asked questions about me (the husband and my parents), how we met, what are we going to do for work, all seemed pretty standard... only one minor trick question that my wife breezed through because the interviewer called my mom by her middle name... and asked if I met her.... my wife corrected her with the proper first name. 

If you are organized everything is very smooth:

 There were 3 checklists to deal with.. one being in mandarin we received in the mail, we had one envelope for what the mandarin checklist wanted and another for what the US embassy checklist online wanted... the third ( the  other online one is just really an overview, which is understandably so.)

The confusion is in both mandarin and the other checklist want the same items - which can make people nervous as to where is it located - in the envelope you put with the mandarin checklist of items.. or in whatever else you are carrying everything in.  This needs to be addressed, but thats the problem when you have two countries involved in immigration - no way around it.

Other small issue:

Online and checklists said that spouses are not to come to the interview, during the interview my wife was asked where I was?... ( down the street.)  I guess I could have gone inside if I wanted to. Glad, I went to starbucks instead and watched a movie. ( interviewer, said it would take too long for me to get there.)

Regardless, it was a great experience.  

I am thankful for this community - you answered allot of our most stressful questions, visajourney.com is a fantastic resource and community.

With that, our journey to my wife's greencard is nearing full completion.  Yes, it did take almost an entire year  ( even though we lost 3 months to USCIS incorrectly putting half of our mailing address on their first letter of action to us. )

The interview in Taiwan was uneventful, the staff was friendly, it took about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

They asked questions about me (the husband and my parents), how we met, what are we going to do for work, all seemed pretty standard... only one minor trick question that my wife breezed through because the interviewer called my mom by her middle name... and asked if I met her.... my wife corrected her with the proper first name. 

If you are organized everything is very smooth:

 There were 3 checklists to deal with.. one being in mandarin we received in the mail, we had one envelope for what the mandarin checklist wanted and another for what the US embassy checklist online wanted... the third ( the  other online one is just really an overview, which is understandably so.)

The confusion is in both mandarin and the other checklist want the same items - which can make people nervous as to where is it located - in the envelope you put with the mandarin checklist of items.. or in whatever else you are carrying everything in.  This needs to be addressed, but thats the problem when you have two countries involved in immigration - no way around it.

Other small issue:

Online and checklists said that spouses are not to come to the interview, during the interview my wife was asked where I was?... ( down the street.)  I guess I could have gone inside if I wanted to. Glad, I went to starbucks instead and watched a movie. ( interviewer, said it would take too long for me to get there.)

Regardless, it was a great experience. 

Looking forward to selling all our stuff and flying to USA.

Thanks, we are reviewing all of our documents now.

Thank you!

Laugh, sorry didn't mean to confuse you - yes we did go over the I-864 documents religiously, and got it through NVC the first time. Which was a huge relief.

Now I am just worried about the interview procedure with the documents - the signed originals etc.  

To add to this mess, we just received an email with the generic checklist of what my wife should bring and to bring it in this exact order with checkmarks MARKED on them.  Most of it already explained online elsewhere, not surprised.

However,  and not to go off topic, but there are many items on this checklist that are not checkmarked - but I know they still need. - for instance there is NO checkmark next to I-864 documents. 

WTH????

Though, online it says here is the checklist and in this order. You get an email - heres a checklist... Now go to your embassy and see their checklist online - ok, well we want it in THIS order..... and NOW... this checklist...  guess this latest checklist in order of documents 

is the one to follow. 

No wonder, in one embassy review post on here- the old lady at the embassy was angry and said to the applicant: "THESE ARE NOT IN ORDER! WHY ARE THEY NOT IN ORDER... WE GAVE YOU..... A CHECKLIST!!!"     holymonkeyballs~~~!!!

I just dont want my wife flustered over where every document is.... so we are going over the documents as we speak. 

We already had an arguement over - envelope or a binder, or one of those binders with index tabs at top ( which I preferred she used.) 

Background Info:

We are at the interview stage, and we are told to bring copies of all the I-864 documents for the petitioner, and sponsors ( my parents).

Here is the issue:  Previously, My parents sent me their tax info, and out of respect to them I just assumed it was correct and put it in with our parcel to NVC.

We get our letter from NVC saying "Here's your interview date!"  woohoo!!!

So, I would assume all the documents are correct. We didn't get flagged, or requests to bring anything unique or questionable to the interview. 

So now we review what the Embassy (AIT) and USA want us to bring to the interview. I go through both checklists, we got everything...originals, etc.

But, this Federal Income tax part is bothering me!

Here is where I am losing my mind... and need your advice:

I tell my parents to send me copies of the tax stuff they submitted before, because I did not make copies of them. So they did...  and again I didnt bother taking a look until today just to confirm that everything is legible. Now I don't know if my parents made a mistake or not... they are old and sometimes have senior moments.  

My parents are married and filed Jointly, so I  look in the parcel... I see that they also sent state tax info... so I removed that.

But I only got 1,  2016 Federal Income tax document! It even had a coverletter from their accountant saying that its Federal Income tax for both of them.

                  - My dad's name is at the top, my mom as spouse and all the supporting documents because they did an itemized tax return.

                  - Just to be clear.  Only one 2016 document copy of all that. 

This is my potentially stupid multi-part question:

Is the embassy going to need two copies of this 1 Federal income tax document? One for my mom (I-864), dad (I-864A)?

Or did my parents forget to send me my Mom's Federal income tax document?

Because i dont have a federal income tax form with her name on top and my dad as spouse. 

Thanks in advance for your reply!  Maybe I am panicking too much. 

2 hours ago, cusco10 said:

I just had my interview yesterday in taipei and i also had a joint sponsor since i have never done my taxes and have no income

I took it just if in case but they didnt even look at it they just took my explanation letter why i haven't done my taxes and my  joint sponsor new 2016 tax info

its up to you but i would take it just if in case

 theres no harm in just taking it to make sure plus if they don't need it they wont even ask for it when they pick up your papers before the real interview

BTW everyone in the Taiwan embassy was super nice good luck!

Thanks, I too have heard good things about AIT... and rarely anything bad - that I kinda blame on the applicant and not AIT.   Ok, then it will go in with everything else they need. 

We have sponsors for my wife. ( my parent who filled out I-864, & I-864A )

I filled out a I-864 but my income etc, was not enough.. so I needed the sponsors.

When she takes the paperwork to the interview, will she need to bring MY I-864 and tax info... even though I am not the financial responsibility?

From the guide:

For family-based visa applications:
The appropriate Form I-864 Affidavit of Support for each financial sponsor along with a photocopy of the sponsor’s IRS transcript or most recent U.S. federal income tax return, and any relevant W-2s.

Since I am not a financial sponsor... this is the reason for my question.

Congrats!

Thanks I have read that pdf and I have it, but that Taipei page is the reason for my concern.

It does not mention bringing any supporting documentation for the AOS, just the latest tax return.

So that is what I am going to bring, besides the other items as requested. 

When my parents gave me their private information I really did not want to know how much money parents actually make, I wrote our case # across the top of each page they gave me, I didnt make a photocopy of what they gave me. I just stuck it in the folder, and when I completed my AOS, etc.. I added it to the folder and sent it to the NVC. 

NVC - 11 weeks of nervous waiting, Says its good, and now we got our interview date. 

Now I need to ask my parents to resend the income tax info or preferably the IRS Transcript (latest).  Uhhhg! 

Understand my concern? 

My parents tax filing is massively complex - I already sent that to NVC. I really DONT want my wife to bring all of this to the interview if she doesn't have to.  By following exactly what they are saying on that document you showed a link to and I have read. 

It does not mention bringing any supporting documentation for the AOS - so that is what I am going to submit, besides the latest federal tax documents. W-2 dont apply they are retired. 

The consulate we are going through - Taiwan -  requests among other things:

           -for each financial sponsor a photocopy of the sponsor’s IRS transcript or most recent U.S. federal income tax return.

My parents are my wife's financial sponsor. Does the consulate just want the signed AOS document and the latest tax return info... or are they going to need a copy of the entire package of AOS we submitted to the NVC which includes a ton of additional information to support the tax return ( stocks sold for loss, etc. that was quite thick. ) .  

Which seems redundant. 

Will they need my AOS  as the petitioner, even though I am not a financial sponsor. I understand that I need to provide proof of domicile, and relationship (photos, letters, etc.) , Your original marriage certificate and a photocopy. 

I am just concerned that I will need ask my parents to send the ENTIRE AOS package.  

11 weeks... as they said. Only off by 5 days.

Depends if there is an issue regarding the validity of your marriage, finances, something is "fishy".... every embassy is different.

Got the email today... almost scrolled right past it since the email name wasn't NVC but was actually:  Ask NVC

Which confused me, and I almost ignored it assuming it was one of those "how did we do, answering your questions?" type of emails, like the credit card companies send when you inquire about something. Which I did last week. 

Anyway we are happy.. and moving on to the next step!

Thanks for the replies!

I made the call it seems that I need to wait another 3 weeks roughly. They confirmed my email addresses, so I guess its just sit and wait.

Is there a android app for NVC? I mean a google recommended app.. not some app thats going to harvest my data ( laugh!) while spitting out ads. 

Follow up question: When they said you were missing something.. did they say to bring it to the interview or did they request it sent to NVC and you lost another 11 weeks?

Thats my big fear... losing another 11 weeks - but I assume that happens when you really left out something important / they lost it. ( though I wrote my NVC case number on 99.9% of everything. 

2 hours ago, cusco10 said:

and when I called they told me I would receive the approved email in about a week

So they told you over the phone as well, your approval?

Next week will be 11 weeks of waiting since submitting our AOS paperwork, all fees have already been paid.

I put my email address on the petitioners and my wife did on her applicant form...

( sorry maybe I got the titles of who is who but, yes we did put down our email addresses on the forms.) 

So who is more likely to be contacted... the petitioner... the applicant... my parents ( as our sponsor)... all of us???   I been checking my email religiously.. even the spam files...   nothing.

When USCIS sent a approval reply for our I-130  it was delayed for over 3 months, due to someone there not putting our apartment number on the full address.  

Do I start calling NVC now? Can they tell me if its approved over the phone?                          

Contact the state department and explain the issue. Create a timeline.

Its like the whole world has tattoos... does he have a criminal background or not? That would be the only real concern. Your statement is as frivolous as saying they prefer interviewing fat people over skinny people. It's all in your head. 

If he thinks his tattoos are a problem... well then THEY will think his tattoos are a problem. 

I have a job waiting for me back in the US. They said they can wait, but I thought this whole thing would be over 1st week of May. Which we agreed would be my start date. 

The immigration is for my wife. NVC tells you not to quit your job, but we had to due to contractual agreements with a university - it would be unfair to them to just walk out mid semester after getting our visa approval.

June will be 11 weeks waiting for approval on our AOS. My work ended in October, granted I have savings... and some odd jobs... its not exactly a comfortable situation, burning through savings. So it is becoming a burdeon. My mom is our sponsor, if that matters at all. 

So I read this link outlining the possible reasons for expediting a case.

https://www.uscis.gov/forms/expedite-criteria

One of which is: Severe financial loss to company or person.

Does anyone know what is considered Severe? How do you prove this?

I cant find any guidelines regarding this. 

USCIS  1800 375 5283, You will need to go through the voice system.. just got to be patient or you are selecting the wrong department for your issue. 

Here is my experience and I lost allot of time: USCIS will not send a letter to an address that you are not a registered resident of in the United States. I have also been told that by a rep at USCIS and I swear he actually said this to me: "The US Government doesn't really like to mail things to addresses outside the US."

so ofcourse I responded:"Let me get this straight, if a US citizen marries outside of the USA, and is living outside the USA and is requesting documents regarding that... you wont send them? This type of scenario must happen every single day around the world... US Citizens get married outside the USA all the time." then he replied back with "I cant offer legal advice."

I had to go to USPS.GOV and have my last known mailing address changed over to my parent's house... they charge you $1 on your credit card for doing this. But its their way of confirming that its you. So I had my mail address officially changed. All my other mail is essentially online, in case you are wondering. 

Ok so this takes about a week or so to get completed.

In the meantime, after all this mail changing fiasco... waiting.... guess what shows up in the mail to my apartment in Taiwan... the freaking I-797... written in penciled mandarin on the envelope was "please confirm the apartment number at this address." Luckily the guard at my apartment are very nice guys and handled it. 

 Because apparently some dumbass at USCIS forgot to put the apartment number so my I-797 was in limbo for oh about 3 months atleast... while I flipped out with changing and confirming if all my US mail was correct, etc.

BTW, the I-797 is essentially worthless... it's just a document saying I-797, Notice of Action: Issued when an application or petition is approved. Ofcourse it doesnt mean you are getting a visa. I am sure you know that. 

I highly suggest you get your email address on all of your future documents where you can. 

You would need to explain why you didnt file taxes. I dont know anything about two checklists. The checklist is the list of required documents for your case. You could include a cover letter with an outline of everything included in your package. I suggest putting the items in the order requested by the checklist. 

Plenty of other things accepted as proof of domicile: Voter registration, drivers license, bank accounts in the USA, mortgage / renters contract, credit card statements, insurance statements of any kind.