0310

Thank you everyone

I found this here, so I think I'm gonna bring this to the interview https://www.sss.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Applicants-over-31-years-of-Age-USCIS-Policy-1.pdf

Hi,

I have my interview this Monday. I lived in the US on a TN work visa as a nonimmigrant from ages 23 to 29 years old. I got and EAD/AP card at age 29 and became a permanent resident at age 30 through AOS. I'm now 35, but I never registered with the selective service because I didn't know, but I also happened to be old enough to not be eligible.

Would it be a good idea to register with the Selective Service right now to get a Status Information Letter online? Does anyone know if you can get one of those right away or is it too late?

According to the N-400 application I don't need it if I was a nonimmigrant, but is there a chance that the IO still wants to see the Status Information Letter? I'm thinking like in the cases where you have a traffic ticket under $500, but the IO still wants to see documentation that you paid it even though it is "not required".

From the documents checklist: "If you did not register with the Selective Service and you (1) are male, (2) are 26 years old or older, and (3) lived in the United States in a status other than as a lawful nonimmigrant between the ages of 18 and 26, send: □ A “Status Information Letter” from the Selective Service (Call 1-847-688-6888 for more information)."

Got my card in the mail today! 😃

10 minutes ago, tab0712 said:

If you were K1 9 times out of 10 there is no interview as there was already one done in the US at  adjustment of status 

I'm not K1, but yes, I did AOS and had an interview in late 2018.

Looks like I was approved today?!

I filed in mid November 2020 with divorce waiver and missing divorce decree at the time.

Biometrics waived at the end of April.

Got RFE letter on September 17th, I replied the next business day with the divorce decree and it was received this past Wednesday.

Today the case was updated to new card is being produced.

No interview?!

I hope the status update is legit!

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

Not material, that you entered into the marriage in good faith is. They are not interested in the messy break up details, I might have a basic sentence ready is asked.

Got it, thanks!

1 hour ago, Boiler said:

This is removing conditions not VAWA.

Does that mean I don't need to explain the reason of my divorce?

1 hour ago, Timona said:

 

Since you are still married and not expecting final divorce soon, you would have to file I-751 as married. With this, you do not have to provide the highlighted now. When divorce is finalized, send it to USCIS and request to switch to I-751 with divorce waiver. I still do not think an explanation is need at that point because USCIS knows divorces happen all the time. However, if you feel like, then when that time comes, put down the highlighted paragraph. It is precise, short and clear.

 

I thought about this path, but I wouldn't be able to get her signature, so I have to file solo.

1 hour ago, James120383 said:

they dont really need a cover letter and divorce is not an issue as long as marriage was entered in good faith. Other than that any part of your life events do not  need explanation. CO will ask you at the interview if he needs clarification

 

Its not like you are fighting for the custody of your only child. 

Ok, thank you!

11 minutes ago, Duke & Marie said:

In all honesty... your wife hasn’t been diagnosed with anything... so your diagnosis of BPD is just your opinion, not fact so you can’t really say this is the reason for the breakdown in the relationship.. there’s plenty of ex’s out there that will no doubt happily say their ex is crazy, bipolar or off in another world.... heck you should meet my ex... or my husbands ex for that matter... we both think they’re crazy.. 

 

‘’extramarital activities can, when a person is emotional be taken well out of factual context and the imagination can come up with all sorts of weird and wonderful things... and as you said she broke up with you the same day 🤷‍♀️ you’d been on/off with all sorts of issues and aren’t sleeping together.. her letter says your both unhappy... Going out to dinner a few times could be as just friend or can’t she have male friends? how do you know for sure she slept with the guy before you split up we’re you there? similar to the BPD thing... it’s all hearsay or insinuation.. 

 

abuse... did you report it to police? You could always try attaching the evidence of scratches etc but dosent explain why your still living with her if it’s an abusive relationship... would be best for you to move out ASAP 

 

with ref to the explanation you need to give them... keep it simple, factual and provide a breakdown including timeline explaining of why the relationship broke down... provide evidence if available. Personally since you’ve got no proof of bipolar or infidelity all you can really do is say irreconcilable differences... arguing etc 

Right, it is not official, I was just telling the story so that people that are familiar with BPD know how my wife would behave. I didn't know about BPD, but we have a mutual friend who is diagnosed with BPD and she was the one who told me that my wife has it, then I read a few books about it and it made sense. I'm not the only one who thinks that, most of our mutual friends that have seen her agree that she acts "crazy" sometimes. Her behaviors are not only towards me, although obviously the closer emotionally they get to a person the worse it gets for that person. Oh I forgot to mention, her mom is diagnosed with bipolar disorder and my wife was abused/neglected during childhood.

I think I didn't explain myself correctly, we were sleeping together every night (meaning going to bed and literally sleeping on the same bed, we only had sex once or twice in July before all this happened) then she broke up (through a letter) with me to go have sex with that guy and from then on we have not spent a night on the same bed again. This is not something I imagined, she didn't want to "cheat", so she broke up with me first, then started her sexual intimacy with another person and told me about it.

She was allowed to go out to dinner or pretty much anywhere with whoever she wanted. She actually told me about going out to dinner with the guy she broke up with me for and she had met him on a dating app and I didn't say anything.  What I was trying to say is that it is not easy to provide proof of the affair because a lot of it was through verbal communication and it's not like I have her phone to screenshot conversations with the other guy, but she did post things about him on Facebook and also about our breakup. The posts about the other guy weren't straightforward "I'm in a relationship with this new guy", it is just pictures where you can see the other guy is there along with his dog, his car, etc. in different places and I could only get screenshots of these posts through mutual friends as I'm blocked, so I would have to bother a friend to get this evidence, not hard, but if I don't have to I rather not have to go through those posts.

As I said, I did not report it to police. I try to maintain peace as much as possible and police would only escalate things. And I would be afraid to call them, it would be a white woman against a brown immigrant man. They would probably think she called them! Here are the pictures I have of my scratches https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hqnEq_1BX3mF355JLibaY_JaA-As2m3q?usp=sharing I also want to say I never harmed her in case someone thinks "what did you do to her to get those scratches". I was scrolling through my Instagram feed once while she was sitting next to me and she saw a girl that I looked at for maybe a second, completely dressed btw, and I got the scratches from May 20, 2018.

I will keep it simple.

My 2-year CPR card is expiring in 10 days, so I'm planning to send my I-751 petition to remove conditions this week, possibly tomorrow.

The I-751 instructions mention "demonstrate any circumstances surrounding the end of the relationship, if it has ended."

What should I explain to USCIS?

I know that it is always better to disclose only what you have been asked to and the shorter the better, but I'm not sure what to explain to them about my end of the relationship.

This is the full story (short), but I don't know if it is necessary to explain everything to USCIS.

My wife (USC) suffers from BPD (undiagnosed). We've always had problems in our relationship, but I was codependent and even though times were hard, I loved her and was always there for her. She was very sweet sometimes, but also very abusive other times. I have texts and Facebook posts of what could be considered emotional abuse (defamation) and photos of physical abuse (sometimes she would scratch my arms causing bleeding and light scars, my face was scratched only once and have a picture of that). I thought about removing conditions through abuse waiver, but police reports were never filed and none of us never went to therapy or counseling.

I think we would still be together to this day, but in early July 2019 my wife and I got into some arguments (nothing new), but for some reason, this time she decided to create an online dating profile to start meeting other men. I think her reasoning was that she didn't want to be with me anymore. She told me about it, but I didn't try to stop her because she had always "acted out", threatened to leave then go back to her baseline after a few days. And also because I was hurt and mad at her for creating a dating profile. To this day she still uses this argument -that I didn't stop her- to make it seem as it was my fault for us separating and her having an affair.

She met a guy that she went out to dinner with a few times, then that same month (late July 2019), the same day she was finally going to sleep with him, she decided to "break up" with me and basically allow herself to have an affair.

She broke up with me in the morning and when she came back later that evening she was open about her affair (fortunately I guess), so I was extremely hurt. I have a "breakup" letter that she wrote to me that morning, but it just mentions how we were not happy together and how this is for the best, etc. We have not slept together ever since, but we still live together in separate rooms. I tolerated a lot, but I wasn't going to tolerate an affair, that's where she crossed the line for me.

Her affair lasted about 3 months, then she wanted to reconcile with me in late 2019 and again earlier this year. Maybe because I was still talking to her "friendly" after the peak of the emotional pain had passed, but I didn't and still don't want to have sex with her ever again.

I started divorce proceedings (California) in April this year, but because of the pandemic everything has been super slow. My wife was just served the divorce papers last week and there's a 6-month waiting period here, so the earliest my divorce can be finalized is in May 2021.

Even after being separated for so long, doing the service was hurtful because it meant that the clock to officially end our (though broken) marriage had started and we will be strangers again. If it wasn't because I have to be divorced for I-751 approval I would probably just keep being separated to keep "peace" in our house, at least while we were still living together. She has not been talking to me since the service happened and we were on ok terms and talking friendly before this. I tried to make her sign the divorce papers first, but she didn't want to, so I had to surprise her with the service process. I'll probably move out if things get ugly, but I'm hoping we'll be on ok terms again in a few weeks judging by her past behaviors.

Things I'm worried about:

1. I'm not sure what to explain to USCIS of the above story about the end of my marriage.
2. I filed a "no-fault" divorce even though I think she is at fault, I just want to make the process more straight forward.
3. During the AOS interview back in November 2018, the interviewer asked a few questions, one of them was if we had any problems in our relationship and she just answered that she was messy. I didn't disclose any problems even though we did have arguments weekly.
4. I don't have much evidence to prove her affair, but I could try to dig through text messages. There's a few posts on Facebook that with a detailed explanation you can come to the conclusion that she was going out with that other guy during this period. I would have to ask a mutual friend on Facebook to get this for me as she blocked me.

Can I just put on the I-751 cover letter something like this? What should I add or delete?

"Unfortunately my wife and I are separated and going through divorce proceedings. We are still living in the same household although separate rooms. The reason for our separation is that she had an affair from July 2019 through October 2019 and I've decided not to continue with our relationship. I have filed for a no-fault divorce in California in April 2020 and am attaching proof of the divorce forms filed with the court stamp. Due to the ongoing global health crisis, the divorce process has been slow and the service process was only done in November 2020. I should have the final divorce decree around May of 2021 due to the 6-month waiting period in California."

Thanks for reading, any help regarding the divorce explanation is appreciated!

Hey there,

I’m a CPR since November 2018 and will need to petition to remove conditions by November 2020. My wife and I broke up in July last year after 2 years and 4 months of marriage. She decided she wants to start dating other people and actually hooked up with someone else that same day, she basically "ended" our relationship as to not "cheat" on me, yeah right. That was really painful, but I'm over it now. We consider ourselves to be separated since then although we’re still living at the same address in separate rooms, we’re basically roommates and we're still in good terms because I've decided to be. Things do get stressful sometimes, but it’s been better. The reason we're still living together is that it's the Bay Area and it's hard to find another place that’s affordable like the one we have now. She still says she loves me and wishes we were still together, but I don't tell her I love her anymore even though I do care about her still. Over the past few months I've been thinking about what I'm going to do and I'm ready to leave now. I also know I have to file for divorce asap because my ROC is coming up in November and it takes at least 6 months to get the divorced finalized in California. From what we've talked it should be an uncontested divorce, although we're yet to see that.

I don’t have a lot of evidence since becoming a CPR. The evidence I have includes:

1. One tax return (two total, but one I submitted during the AOS interview)
2. Beneficiary of 401k
3. Beneficiary of life insurance
4. Shared health insurance
5. Shared rent insurance
6. Shared Internet bill
7. Driver licenses with same address
8. Two international trips together to my country/city of birth - Although the first one she came back early (we flew together) and the second one we met there, she got there a few days later and came back a few days earlier because originally she wasn’t going with me, but her plans changed, basically we didn’t fly together. We also did another international trip to the same country/city, one trip to NY and one trip to Portland, but those were submitted during AOS interview
9. Lots of pictures and Facebook posts

I was reading some of the tax law and we could file 2019 tax returns together.

Do you think it will be a good idea to file 2019 taxes together or should I do it separately?

Red flags:

1. We always had a roommate and he was basically the main tenant to the landlord, so we don't have any water or electric bills to our name, this was not an issue during AOS interview though
2. We never got a joint bank account
3. Some things like health insurance, rent insurance, Internet are still shared even after separation
4. She is self-employed and her health insurance is through me (and my job). I'm having her on my health insurance plan until the divorce is finalized

Thanks!

17 hours ago, Zhe Jin said:

I called them. They said the processing time now is up to 23 months. Mine is only 15 months, so they cannot do anything for me. I will never call them anymore because they will never tell us what we want to know. They don't know when we will get the interview and which month our field office is working now. They just told me to wait until beyond 23 months. It really made me upset and tired. I also tried to make an appointment to ask the field office too. But I found out they may cancel our appointment if it's not urgent. So after all that, I decided to do nothing but waiting for their notice. 

Hopefully we can get the interview notice this year😂

Thanks for the update. I consider that good news. You can work and travel with the EAD/AP card and hopefully we can skip the removal of conditions process 😂

13 hours ago, Zhe Jin said:

Hey do you get your interview now? I'm in San Francisco and I filed for AOS almost the same time as yours, but don't receive any notice yet.

Nothing yet. I'm hoping it won't happen until after March 2019 for us.

1 minute ago, Selma and Nermin said:

How long have you been waiting?

1 year and 1 week

At this point I'm hoping our interview is scheduled until after mid March 2019, so that we can skip the removal of conditions 

24 minutes ago, Beciee said:

Please do i need to pay to renew my ead while waiting for my green card. my green card is still pending with uscis since june 2017

You don't need to pay. I sent my renewal without a check and it got accepted. It's still processing. You do need to include a copy of your NOA for the I-485 to prove that your AOS is pending.

2 hours ago, MapleLeaf29 said:

Sorry to hear that you're still waiting too.  We're about to file our EAD/AP renewal forms.  Have you renewed your medical?  That's next on our list.

Ah! I haven't. I didn't realize I had to renew the medical too. Bummer!

I don't mind the long wait for AOS, but now I have to pay $400 for another medical, oh well.

Does it really have to be done again because  it's now 1 year old even though  it was new when the I-485 was submitted?

If so, I'll probably wait until our interview is scheduled. They had the results in 2-3 days.

51 minutes ago, MapleLeaf29 said:

Is anyone else still waiting for their interview to be scheduled?  VisaJourney just e-mailed me asking if I had forgotten to fill out my timeline.  No. . . still waiting!

We filed on the same date and still waiting!

Since August 1st, 2017, my case is ready to be scheduled for an interview. Around April 11th, 2018 the https://egov.uscis.gov/casestatus/mycasestatus.do website changed to "At this time USCIS cannot provide you with information for your case" and it has not been updated since. In the https://myaccount.uscis.dhs.gov website it still says "We are scheduling your interview".

06/16/2017: Mailed AOS package (I-130, I-485, I-765, I-131)
06/19/2017: AOS package received at Chicago Lockbox
07/21/2017: Biometrics Appointment
08/01/2017: Case Is Ready To Be Scheduled For An Interview
09/23/2017: EAD card is being produced
09/29/2017: EAD card in hand

05/07/2018: Mailed EAD/AP renewal package (I-765, I-131)

05/09/2018: EAD/AP renewal package received at Chicago Lockbox

05/15/2018: Received USCIS Acceptance Confirmation emails (still waiting for NOAs)

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm gonna be using my AP for the first time in January (through the airport), hopefully no issues!

You and many others have mentioned about the cruise/airline employees not letting people board easily with AP documents. This doesn't apply to everyone, but for those with unexpired B1/B2 visas, I wonder if there would be any problem showing the tourist visa to the airline just to board the plane with no questions asked and then actually showing your AP when you are at the Point of Entry.

I'm in Oakland and filed for AOS in mid June and received EAD/AP combo card in late September.

I-485 status is "Case Is Ready To Be Scheduled For An Interview" since the beginning of August! No updates since then.

My wife and I are traveling out of the country for 2 weeks in December and I wish we could have the interview before then, but probably not!

On 10/25/2017 at 7:34 AM, broppy said:

That's one of those grey areas with a blurry line. You are allowed to sell stuff that you own - you're even allowed to make a profit. You're not allowed to make a business out of it by buying stuff for the sole purpose of reselling it. The fact that you didn't keep records and got stung for taxes strongly supports the claim that you were not running a business. On the face of it, your actions here would appear to have no impact whatsoever on your status, nor on your admissibility.

Broppy, thanks for the reply! It helps me feel better about it.

We booked the flight today.

My wife and I would like to visit my family in Mexico for Christmas and New Year.

I’m a Mexican citizen. Last entry on February 2016 with an expired TN visa, but valid i-94 (expires in 2018).

I have never been arrested or stayed past an i-94 admit until date. My wife is a USC and we married in early 2017. I filed for family-based AOS in June and received my EAD/AP combo card last month. Case is ready to be scheduled for an interview since August 1st, 2017 per the USCIS website.

Below are my concerns. I checked with an immigration lawyer and she said that I should not have any problems coming back with my EAD/AP card, that I can consider this card a temporary “green card”, but I also want to know what you think.

In February 2012, I got a job in the US and came here on a TN visa. I’m still with the same employer and I renewed my visa in January 2013, 2014 and 2015 at the US consulate in Mexico. My last visa (2015) got me an i-94 valid for 3 years (until 2018) and that’s why I didn’t renew my visa in 2016 or 2017.

In January 2015, I received a “1099-Misc” tax form for the year 2014 because I sold a few hundred collectible items that I had bought here in the US through online websites (huge mistake). Collecting was my main hobby, then I realized that I had too many of these items (500+) and that it would not be easy to take them with me through Mexican customs if for whatever reason I had to move back to Mexico, so I sold a lot of them in 2014. In early 2015 I sold some of these items too, but I did not receive a tax form for that year. I took a big hit in the tax return because I did not find all the purchase receipts of the items I sold, and ended up paying taxes to the IRS for profit that I didn’t make. I also paid taxes for the items I sold in the year 2015 even though I did not receive a tax form. For the 2015 tax return (in 2016) I calculated the amount manually.

A couple of weeks after getting the 1099-Misc tax form (in 2015) I learned that I was not allowed to receive income from any sources other than my work visa employer as it counts as unauthorized employment. I also learned that once you do this, you fall “out of status”. I don’t think anybody knew I was out of status back then, but when I realized this, I went to Mexico for a week in May 2015 and re-entered the US to be back in status and never sold anything again. I never accrued more than 180 continuous days out of status because I was never more than 180 continuous days in the US in 2014, so I don’t think I am subject to a 3-year bar.

Is this correct? Can I be denied  re-entry to the US with AP because of these events?

Regarding a few odd things with my last two entries into the US. When I renewed my work visa in January 2015, I got an i-94 valid for 3 years (admit until January 2018), this was my last visa. When I went to Mexico in May 2015 for a week to fix my status, I came back and the CBP officer at the airport updated my i-94 admit until date to December 2015. A few days later I went to a CBP office for deferred inspection and they updated my i-94 admit until date back to January 2018.

I did not leave the US again until February 2016. My visa expired in December 2015, but my i-94 was still valid for almost another 2 years, so I went to Mexico for a week and came back to the US using the “Automatic Visa Revalidation” rule. The officer let me in at the airport with no questions asked, but when I checked the i-94 website to see my i-94 admit until date, I noticed that it was updated to the same date of my entry to the US! So I technically was out of status the morning after I came back to the US. However, I went to the CBP office again for deferred inspection and they updated my i-94 one more time to January 2018 (on my passport), however, on the website it says February 2018, most likely this was a typo at their end. This typo was never corrected, it still says February 2018 on the i-94 website. I have not left the US since then.

Another odd thing regarding a trip (within the US) from last year. My wife (then girlfriend) and I flew to another city. On the flight back, a guy sitting across the aisle reported me as “suspicious” because I was trying to get my camera from inside a half gallon glass jar. I packed stuff inside this jar to save space in my carry-on luggage. The guy stood up and asked me what I was doing. I told him that I was just trying to get my camera out of the jar. He did not believe me, I believe he thought it was a bomb. He talked to the flight attendants and they took the jar with my camera and miscellaneous stuff in it. The guy wanted them to take my phone away too, but the flight attendants did not agree. When we landed, the police were waiting for me at the gate and I was the first one to get off the plane. They did not grab me or anything. They asked me where I lived and I showed them my driver’s license. They did not check all my stuff, just the jar. I told them what happened, they helped me get my camera out of the jar and were laughing about it, then they said that I am free to go. They gave me a notice saying that I was not arrested. I don’t know if this will affect me in any way.

Sorry for the long post, I might be worrying too much.

I hope a few people can read it and tell me if they think I’m ok to travel outside the US or not.

Is Advance Parole to be used for emergencies only, so should we not go?

I want to visit Mexico for two weeks, but my wife only wants to go there for a week, so I was thinking I could either go one week before she does and we come back together, or we can go together and I stay for another week and come back separate. Are my chances of being paroled into the US higher if we cross the border together, or does it not matter at all?

Can the status of the AOS be changed to "denied" suddenly before the interview is scheduled?

The below notes about the POTUS executive orders make me worry too!
http://www.eb5insights.com/2017/02/16/the-trump-administration-contemplates-an-executive-order-affecting-advance-parole/
https://www.mmhpc.com/2017/02/travel-warning-for-all-individuals-with-advance-parole-documents/

Thanks!

2 hours ago, azblk said:

At some point in your original post it says you cant renew your TN. I took that to mean you have reached an time limit or something along those lines and now can only continue to work in a different status.

Oh I see, what I meant originally was that since TN visa is a non-immigrant visa I wouldn't be able to apply for another one after I got married.

42 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Those are all pretty minor items. The majority of cases would be more heavily scrutinized if that was the case. I'm not saying they are meaningless, but they're extremely low on the totem pole. Things like severe age differences (i.e. 30 years apart), religious differences (i.e. a practicing Muslim marrying a Christian), marriage after a very short time of seeing each other, somebody filing for multiple beneficiaries in a short time, etc. are what the community generally refers to as "red flags". You'll be fine.

Thank you