jagsfl

Thank you all for your responses. I completely understand now the ins and outs of this! 

And ROK2USA, I completely agree with you. It's best to just go back and get the I-131 finished so we don't have to worry about how long we would be out.

Question, does getting an I-131 and being out of country for more than a year out of a year prolong the time it takes for the spouse to get citizenship?

Thanks!

On 6/17/2022 at 7:43 AM, ROK2USA said:

You're getting conflicting answers because there are no hard and fast rules. When your wife re-enters the US how she is treated depends on the CBP officer she meets.

I have a couple of USC friend's who've been questioned by CBP quite aggressively after re-entering the US after a long absence (but nothing else happens as they're US citizens). 

 

If you have no set plans, what's the harm in returning to the US and applying for the I-131? You never know what the future brings.. you could be traveling and decide for whatever reason you want to stay outside the US for over a year. This takes the guess work out of your travels and you won't be (potentially) risking your wife's green card. 

 

What's sounds more stressful? Flying back to the US now or dealing with coercion to file I-407/ a notice to appear when you finally decide to return to the US. 

Your choice. 

4 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

https://help.cbp.gov/s/article/Article-820?language=en_US#:~:text=If you are a lawful,for 1 year or mor

 

 

read  what US CBP says 

And this is exactly what I mean. Even the CBP website mentions nothing about 180 days. They just say if you're planning to be gone for more than 1 year that she would need to get the I-131.

Thanks Mike! I'm not sure if in my post I made it seem like my wife is planning to not live in the U.S., but that's not the case. We do plan to live in the U.S., it is just that we love to travel and was thinking of going some places later this year.

My next question would be... Is the 180 days considered in the Jan 1st to Dec 31st calendar year? Or is it from the day we arrived and 365 days later, so for instance ours would be March 20, 2021 - March 20, 2022 - March 20, 2023 etc?

What is considered to be the calendar year makes a bit of difference on when we would be able to travel again after this 5 - 6 months stint we are on now. Thanks!

Thanks. And yes I see that online. But i also see that you can stay longer too. There is no clear answer. 

Is it possible to stay longer without worring about abandoned the LPR status? Thanks!

Hi group! I have done some research on this subject, and I am getting conflicting answers, so I figured it was time to ask in here!

How long can my wife travel outside of the U.S. before having to come back to the states without jeopardizing her green card?

I see you must be in U.S. for more than 6 months each year. Then I also see you can be out of the U.S. for up to one year with no worry, and if you want to be put of the U.S. for more than 1 year you must fill out a form in order to do so.

I would love to have some clarity on this as here's our situation..

She moved to the U.S. March 2021, and didn't travel out until April 2022. This year in April we went to visit her family, and we are doing a bit of traveling. We don't really want to go back to the U.S. in September, so I'd like to see if we won't have any issues continuing to travel longer than the 6 month mark.

Thank you in advance!

37 minutes ago, Blkbam said:

@jagsfl  Congratulations! glad it all worked out. they gave us no indication of trouble so I'm going to take that as a good sign 🤞

Thank you! Yeah that's a good sign. You guys will be all set here soon. Just buy the green card before ya leave Indonesia! They will mail you the passport and the paper instructions. Good luck!

4 hours ago, Blkbam said:

@jagsfl do you have any progress on your visa? my fiance had her interview and was approved yesterday. They told her she should have her visa next week assuming all goes well. I'm wondering if they told you fiance at the interview or sometime after.

Hey @Blkbam, yep! Her and I are in the states now. It took her about 10 days or so to get the visa back. They told her same at interview - everything was approved and just wait for visa

My wife is from Jakarta, Indonesia. We are here currently. She has had her interview but they wouldn't give her visa yet. They said her passport name and birth certificate name has to be a 100% match. Her B.C. only has her first name.  We don't want to change her passport to only first name. We have also seen that many others have got approved without having an exact match between the two.  Could any of you give me some advice please? Thanks!   @Blkbam

Does anybody have any more info on how we can go about fixing this issue?

Why is the consulate saying my wife's passport and birth certificate has to be a 100% match in her name, when I've seen plenty of others on here be fine without the names being a 100% match?

1 hour ago, Lucky Cat said:

***Thread moved to the Asia: South regional discussion area.  Please do not start duplicate threads.  Thanks***

Lucky Cat, could you please move it to the correct Asia section?  You added it to Asia: South, and it needs to be Asia: East and Pacific. And by the way, I made the new thread in Asia East and Pacific because it was much better explained in the new thread with what I needed to know.  Now people need to go through a lot of mumbo-jumbo within this one... but oh well. thanks

19 hours ago, pushbrk said:

Check in the applicable regional forum here on VJ for the experiences of others from Indonesia.

Thank you for awareness, I went and asked within the regional forum. I did not know that was on here.

1 hour ago, pushbrk said:

Once she has the visa, you'll have everything you need to pay the new immigrant fee including instructions for doing so.

 

No, it's has nothing to do with adjusting status.  She'll never do that. Read the first sentence above carefully again.

 

Her passport name does not need to match her birth certificate if she's taking a married name.  If her birth certificate and marriage certificate only say "Mary" and based on marriage, she takes the name Mary Smith, then Mary Smith on the passport is no problem.  People using married names on passports never have birth names and current names that match.  Seriously, think about it a little.

 

Changing to Mary Smith will solve the Consulate's issue AND any other issue you are worried about.

Thanks!

Ok so if I'm understanding this correctly, the couple reps at the consulate is completely wrong? They told her specifically that her passport name needs to 100% match her birth certificate name.  I do completely agree with you, that there are tons of people who don't have matching passport/BC names.  It's either these two consulate employees are completely uninformed, or in Indonesia this is just how it has to be done. I'm going to do a little more digging to see if this is some weird Indonesia thing, and also on Monday AM we're going to call the consulate and ask into this further...

@pushbrk @aratamorne @JKLSemicolon, Thank you all for your quick responses! I was completely misinformed so this all makes sense now.

- Her marriage certificate also only has her first name, so yes it does match her birth certificate name. However, as I mentioned earlier, we don't want to change the passport name to match the marriage certificate / birth certificate name, because she will run into issues with getting Drivers License, Social Security Card, etc. The U.S. wants more than just 1 name on those. That is unless, what I read online is completely wrong, and people have absolutely no problem with getting drivers license, S.S. card, etc with just first name. (I've read quite a bit of misinformation out there before on the interweb).

From the way it is looking, if only one name on passport does cause problems, we are just going to have to go through the process of name change here in Indonesia: change name on her birth certificate.  It's a long drawn out process, but we'll just have to run this final lap and get it done..

21 hours ago, pushbrk said:

Note that these are issues that could have been identified and dealt with months ago.

Yeah, they certainly could have been - I just didn't know 😕, obviously didn't prepare myself enough unfortunately. 

Since we're on that note... I have a couple questions for clarity for what's next.

I understand that it is best to pay the USCIS Immigrant Fee after she is approved, and before we go to the U.S. In order to pay for it, I need the A Number and DOS.  Also, I've read that the social security card and green card will arrive a few weeks after she arrives to the states.

Questions:

- Is the A-Number and DOS mailed to her home with her passport at the same time? 

- I was told to go to go to https://my.uscis.gov/uscis-immigrant-fee once I receive the A-Number and DOS to pay for green card. Is this the same as filing Form I-485 / Application to Register or Adjust Status?  So after I go to that site and I pay for the green card, I won't have to fill out Form I-485?

- We don't plan to go to the U.S. for a few months.... does the Social Security Administration and Homeland Security know she has arrived in the U.S. as soon as she clears customs? Then we can just expect to wait for a few weeks and we'll receive mail from them two with the cards?

- Is there anything else that I need to do at this time? From what I'm aware of, once I take care of the above I am good to go!

I know this is a handful, so I Really appreciate your guys time in helping me.

Hey VJ!

My wife just had her interview today. YAY. Almost finished. She'll have an IR-1 visa soon.

However, since her name on her passport and her birth certificate do not match, she was told that she has to switch one of them to match the other. Her passport has her full name, and Birth certificate only has her first name.

She does not want to switch the name on birth certificate to be full name because it's a major pain, she has to go through many hoops to get that finished. So we're thinking about switching her passport name to just have her first name. We've done some research and have seen that there will be no issue with her entering the U.S. with just first name on passport, but when it comes to her getting a drivers license, social security number, etc, there will be problems. So what we're looking to do is switch her passport name here in Indonesia, and when she enters the U.S. change it again.

I've also seen that when she enters the U.S. with IR-1 visa, that she is considered a permanent resident right away. I've read that if you're a permanent resident, that you can go to the county clerk office and change the passport name.

Ok so my questions are: 

- Will she be able to change the passport name "Right Away" without having official green card yet...but only having her I-551 stamp for Legal Permanent Resident? 

- Will there be any complications later on with her B.C. and Passport having two different names?

Basically, we're wanting to please the folks at the consultant so she can get her visa, but also don't want to have a problem later down the road. The reason why we won't just change the birth certificate is because she would have to change all her other documentation in Indonesia, go to courthouse and get B.C. name change approved and other things - it'll just be a pain/drawn out process.

Thank you

Admin please delete this and keep other new thread, as new one is better stated. Thank you

hey VJ!

I have a couple of questions.

My Indonesian wife was instructed after she completed her medical check-up to email about scheduling a visa interview. She gets an automatic response that has no information about appointment, but there is a link to set one up. On the page there's the note:  *There are currently no appointments available. 

Is this common right now, and do we just keep waiting for them to email us with updates?

2nd question -

When we got the email about setting up the medical checkup - the subject line stated CR1, instead of IR1.  We have been married since December 2018. We started the process for getting marriage visa obviously months before our 2nd anniversary.

Will we still be able to get an IR1 visa? Or does the application process have to begin After being married for 2 years? Is there anything I can do to ensure we get an IR1 instead of CR1? I had seen another VJ member had an issue with this before, and I'm unsure of the outcome of it.  Thank you in advance!

Great info! Thanks everyone for chiming in! Fully understood now

8 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Immediately

 

You can pay the fee in advance

 

IR1 means she wants to be a US Permanent Resident.

How can I pay for it in advance?  Right now, we're in the part where she needs to go see the doctor. So we're getting immunizations done before she goes to see the doc.... and then having interview right afterwards.  Can I pay for green card fee now? Or when?  Thanks

2 minutes ago, Paula&Johnny said:

She can travel in the first moment. Her Visa allows her to use like a prove of permanent resident for 1 year, but remember that 

1) we are in the middle of a pandemia 

2) She is moving to the US to be a resident.

 

Is there any specific reason that she wants to travel right away?

 

Once her visa is approved she will pay for the Green card fee and yes, she will just receive it after she arrives because this will be the day that she start her visa "clock". She is not a LPR until she is allowed to enter the US border.

 

Any LPR can be outside of the US, they normally advise to don't be out for more than 12 months, but this doesn't mean that someone can live 12 months out 1 months here and 12 months out again.

 

This visa is for her to be a RESIDENT, so she need to be more in the US than out.  

Thank you! Yes, we are wanting to go to Europe this summer is why I wondered about travel right away... (this is even if we are able to anyway...) 

Edit:  My questions:

 

• How long will it take before she is able to travel outside of the U.S?  I have read she can right away as she will already have a green card in process and can prove it with passport, but then I'm also seeing online that it can take 6 weeks for her to get a physical green card and be able to travel... so I'm a bit confused.

• Are we only able to apply for the green card AFTER she arrives to the U.S.?

• With the IR1 visa, will she not be able to be outside of the U.S. for more than 6 months of a year?

Hey all, I couldn't find the answer to this where I've looked so hoping someone can help!

Once my wife arrives to the U.S. with IR1 visa, how long will it take before she is able to travel outside of the U.S?  I have read she can right away as she will already have a green card, but then I'm also seeing online that it can take 120 days for her to be able to travel... so I'm a bit confused.

Also, with the IR1 visa, will she not be able to be outside of the U.S. for more than 6 months of a year?

Thank you in advance!

Any advice would be appreciated 

Hey VJ!

My wife is at the end of the DS-260, where it asks for medical information. There is the question "Do you have documentation to establish that you have received vaccinations in accordance with U.S. law? "

She doesn't know where her records are for those. Would the rest of this process go faster for her if she got all of these vaccinations now and complete the DS-260 with this portion marked "Yes"?  Or can she just get these vaccinations when she goes to see the civil surgeon? 

Also, last year, or 2018, she did a TST test for Tuberculosis. It came back positive latent but normal for x-ray. I've read that the civil surgeon will sign the form if x-ray is normal so that's great. However in this question:  "

5 hours ago, Hilde said:

Call NVC and they will read it to you. Sometimes there is very important information there.

Some people have had luck clicking on the message and waiting 3-5 minutes or trying different browsers.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply! Every time I call NVC I get an automatic responder talking, and it says to try back at a later time due to call volume.

I tried different browsers and waited a few minutes too and nothing has came up unfortunately.

Hi VJ!,

Yesterday I received an email stating that I have a new message I need to read on the CEAC.state.gov site. I logged in and went to messages. However, I am not able to click on this link. When I do click on it nothing happens, besides an area below the link appears that is all a grey area with no text.  Could you please let me know what I should do if this happens? 

I did receive a different email stating that my wife needed to begin working on  her portion of the application, that of which we are working on now.  I could only assume this is what this FE Review Note was about, but I want to be sure... Thanks all!