Todd and Ann

1 minute ago, Boiler said:

Does not matter if the sister is 9 or 19

 

She does not need her sisters passport to sponsor her

I was not aware of that… thx

The article in the original post states that the girl is the US citizen’s sister and she is 19 years old.  The article states “teen” to garner sympathy from readers, but to the US Government that means adult.  She has no passport so her identity cannot be verified.  The USC and “teen” sister should both get DNA tests to prove relationship, then USC should go back to USA and petition her.  Unfortunately the nephew who is 16 needs a parent or sibling in the US with citizenship or a green card to petition him.

My wife and I applied August 4

On 9/4/2020 at 4:05 PM, Sneakerpimpz21 said:

Yes, that is correct.

We called the local office (Bartlett, TN) and they told us not to bring her sons with her.  They said if they wanted biometrics from them, they would have sent a separate I-797 asking for them.  She attended w/o the boys and they indeed did not expect them to be there.

Our case was received by USCIS on 07/01 and biometrics were taken 08/28 in Memphis.  Our case now says:  Case was updated to show fingerprints were taken 

Hey guys...  USCIS received our I-751 case 07/01/2020...  from a CR-1 visa and was directly assigned to MSC center.  NOA1 notice date was 07/23/2020.  Around 08/15 we received I-797C for Biometrics with notice date of 08/11/2020.  I brought my wife and two step-sons together.  USCIS auto-generated separate MSC cases for each stepson, but, biometrics was only requested for my spouse (so far).  The biometrics date is next Friday 08/28 near Memphis.

On 7/26/2020 at 2:58 AM, Todd and Ann said:

Has anyone who recently filed I-751 that received a text with MSC received NOA1 yet?  We filed 06/29 and received a text around July 8 but have not yet received a response by mail extending her visa.

Update:  I received NOA1 today 07/27.  I brought my wife and two step-sons.  The two step-sons received their NOA1 today.  I assume my wife will get hers in a day or two if it wasn't lost in the mail.

Has anyone who recently filed I-751 that received a text with MSC received NOA1 yet?  We filed 06/29 and received a text around July 8 but have not yet received a response by mail extending her visa.

8 minutes ago, DILAW said:

You are using a scare tactic to justify your decisions.  You are saying all these scary unwanted words like "deport", "extremely hard to find an attorney", "denied and send back to their home country".  How many people you know went through deportation after their I-751 was denied?

 

First of all, the USCIS keeps a record of everything.  The USCIS officers are not stupid and when they want proof of a relationship, a marriage certificate (assuming you have provided it during the I-130/I-129 or even after getting married in the USA if entered on a fiance visa) doesn't proof a relationship.  I will give you an example, when you claim a child or a sibling under you, you don't provide that person's birth certificate because it doesn't proof you are responsible or supporting them.  

 

You can send all the documents you wish...hell, you can even include a McDonalds empty cup and say that you and your spouse drank from it.  You can include anything and no one is stopping you.  Overdoing something doesn't mean you are doing it well my friend, but good luck with everything

 

 

Sometimes facts are scary.

10 hours ago, US <3 IND said:

 

Some personal advice for those still waiting to submit 🙂  I've been reading a lot of forums concerning what you should or shouldn't provide to USCIS. According to people who've had conversations with the staff who process these applications, it's much better to have fewer documents when possible. Quality should be the focus instead of quantity because more documents slows down the review process. Among other reasons, they have to scan an application multiple times across the different levels of review. 

In my personal opinion, making our applications easier for them to review is even more helpful in speeding up wait times, now that they are expected to suspend two thirds of the workforce due to budget shortcomings. That said it is up to each of us to decide how much we feel like we need to provide.

 

Try to focus on official documents with both your names included, and just include the first page of bills, bank statements, insurance statements, etc.

There is also no need to include every month, one is likely enough. And even if you are using it to establish address you can still skip months in between.

 

If you do have any children together, that makes your job really easy, as USCIS workers have told including their birth cert gets you about 70% of the way to proving your relationship. (Including my daughter's birth certificate my application only has around 40 pages of evidence )

 

If you feel your application still needs more strength after leases and joint financial documents, consider making wills, or power of attorneys, which can be done almost for free if you Google the legal formats in your state and then just pay to get them notarized. 

 

And as a last note, for proving travel, flight boarding passes are probably the best quality proof you can get in both your names. For pictures, clearly show both of you in recognizable places, or together with each other's family. Do remember though that this section is not as important as the financial and address ones.

 

None of this is legal advice, just good sense 🤗

 

Hope this helps more of you to come!

When we filed the I-129 or I-130 for our fiance or spouse, we filed a petition with supporting documentation and paid a fee.  If we did something stupid, like forgetting to sign the forms or not submitting payment, we didn't receive an RFE, we were outright rejected.  If we were missing a specific document or two, USCIS would not cancel our case and would send us an RFE to correct the file so we did not lose our application fees.  If all else failed, we had the privilege of starting over and to refile the application and pay the fees again.  This is not the case with an I-751.  We are up against a wall - a deadline.  If we fail to pass through the I-751 stage, our spouse goes back to their home country and we start the entire I-130 process over (again).  Not only do we lose the fees we paid, we lose their residency.  While the application and documentation for the I-751 are not as complicated as those we filed with the I-129 or I-130, the consequences of failure in this step are much more costly than losing a fee or losing 3-12 months together if we fail to pass the I-129 or I-130 process.  Do you really want to take a chance on not providing sufficient data to USCIS?  

For those who send some applications, they are making too many assumptions.  Many state "I already sent my marriage certificate in, why should I send it in again?".  Well, you are assuming that USCIS kept a copy of all your documents when you filed your I-129/I-130 and that USCIS still has those documents in their computer.  You are assuming that the person reviewing your case has access to those documents.  When USCIS sent our files over to the NVC at Department of State, did they keep a copy?  Do they have enough storage space and do they follow a specific statute of limitations on how long they retain documents?  USCIS is part of the Department of Homeland Security.  Our spouses were interviewed by the U.S. Department of State.  DHS and State each get independent funding.  They each have separate computer systems.  You are relying on a bunch of unknowns when you submit an application with assumptions that they already have documents because you submitted them before and that the person reviewing your case has access to those records.

Let's compare the 50-60 pages of "quality over quantity" documents this person submitted verses my 1000 pages (actually I rounded down).  Let's say we both fail to convince USCIS that our cases are valid.  We both will receive a notice from USCIS that they are preparing to deny our applications.  At this stage, since we both (likely) completed our applications without the assistance of an attorney, we will both find it extremely difficult to find an immigration attorney who will accept our case, since said attorney had no part in our initial filing.  If we are lucky enough to convince USCIS at this stage to hold off on a denial to give us more time, we are under an intense microscope at this point by USCIS.  This is specifically why we see recommendations from attorneys to use their services in the entire process, but we being cheap know-it-alls, we did it on our own.  Let's say we cannot convince USCIS to stop their denial of our case... they deny us both.  Now, we have to go before an immigration judge, facing a government paid USCIS attorney whose only job is to defend USCIS's decision in denying cases before the judge he/she probably goes to lunch with every day.  Again, we probably will find it very difficult to find an attorney to represent us at this stage because they did not participate when we filed the initial case.  Now here is the most important part.  A deportation hearing will be like an appellate court.  All the judge will do is to look at the application we submitted, listen to our testimony along with that of the USCIS lawyer, and make a decision.  They will not allow you to submit additional evidence at this time.  From the USCIS attorney point of view, the person who submitted "quality over quantity" has a very solid case.  There is very little wiggle room for the petitioner to defend themselves.  However, since I submitted such an enormous amount of documentation, I can say things such as look in the March 2019 Verizon bill I submitted (because I submitted all documents) and see where I pay for the phones of my step-sons and my wife and note that I spent 2 hours on the phone with her when I was out of town on business.  The USCIS officer who denied my case may not have noticed that (yes from the enormous amount of documents I submitted), but, I can point it out because it is evidence I already submitted, and, as I stated, this is an appeal not a time to submit additional evidence.  I have much more room to defend myself than the person who submitted a very specific set of documents.  They may have submitted just the credit card statement page (out of ten pages) that show the petitioner as an additional cardholder.  But, if that is not enough for USCIS, I can dig into the details of my statements in an appeal whereas the other person cannot because they just submitted skeleton supporting documents.  How does the individual submitting a low number of "quality" documents know for sure that the USCIS officer does not reconcile some credit card payment with the payment for the concert or trip you submitted pictures for?  We have no idea what they look for unless we have a spouse or relative who works for USCIS.  Even if we do, what one USCIS officer looks for does not necessarily equal what the officer reviewing our case is looking for.  Our officer may be very experienced and may be able to scan a Capital One credit card statement because they see them many times a day.  If we have a new agent, they may ask more questions.  

Because of the loss we are mitigating (deportation) by submitting a thorough application, submitting more is always better than submitted less.  We are not going to annoy the officers by submitting excessive documents.  If anything, we will give them ample reason to decide our case in our favor.

In summary, the risk is much too high to assume anything.  The risk is too high to judge what we consider "quality evidence" as being what USCIS considers quality evidence.  If we are denied, our spouses face a judge where they decide upon the evidence submitted and it is not a time to say "well you didn't see this..."  because that time is past when you reach this point in the process.  Don't make assumptions and don't assume you know what USCIS deems enough evidence to approve your case... unless you want to risk starting the process over entirely with your spouse in their home country.

Don't forget guys.... you keep mentioning you had an interview at the Embassy or "local office".... that is US Department of State.... you were not interviewed by USCIS...  With the memo that came out 1.5 years ago, they are becoming more strict on performing the interviews (by USCIS).  Remember we are talking government...  they are all different pieces so likely they don't communicate with each other either.  We are lucky if their computer systems are linked up... which is why you should always assume they don't have your documents.  Many said they did not submit their marriage certificate with their I-751...  Those went to NVC then to US Dept. of State...  how do we even know they kept them in USCIS computers... assume nothing!

1000.... the verizon bills were like 12 pages each times 24 statements.... the credit cards were 4-8 pages each times 24 statements times 5-6 cards.  30 pages of photos with two photos on each page.  etc.

it was in a box with 5 volumes (hardboard report covers with 3 inch binders).

This is my table of contents...  I had approximately 1000 pages (I'm overly thorough):

TABLE OF CONTENTS (Summary)

·        Volume 1

o   Cover Letter

o   Clear Plastic binder containing USCIS Forms

o   Letter of Introduction

o   Timeline of important milestones

o   Table of Contents

o   Exhibit 1 – Green Cards

o   Exhibit 2 – Proof of Marriage

o   Exhibit 3 – Proof of Termination of All Prior Marriages

o   Exhibit 4 – Correction of Name for Mary Ann David Markley

o   Exhibit 5 – Passports

o   Exhibit 6 – Proof of Identity

o   Exhibit 7 – Taxes

o   Exhibit 8 – Land Records

o   Exhibit 9 – Home and Auto Insurance

o   Exhibit 10 – Health Insurance

·        Volume 2

o   Exhibit 11 – Retirement Accounts

o   Exhibit 12 – Joint Checking and Savings Accounts

·        Volume 3

o   Exhibit 13 – Credit Card Accounts

·        Volume 4

o   Exhibit 14 – Joint Cell Phone Records

·        Volume 5

o   Exhibit 15 – Joint Utility Bills

o   Exhibit 16 – Educational Records

o   Exhibit 17 – Joint Medical Bills

o   Exhibit 18 – Remittances to Petitioner’s Mother in the Philippines

o   Exhibit 19 – Travel Itineraries

o   Exhibit 20 – Greeting Cards and Letters

o   Exhibit 21 – Social Media Accounts

o   Exhibit 22 – Photographs

o   Exhibit 23 – Affidavit of Support

o   Exhibit 24 – USPS Informed Delivery Images of Mail Sent to both Petitioner and US Citizen

o   Exhibit 25 – Selected Amazon Purchase Invoices

A suggestion on what to send in... include your cell phone bills with the details of calls...  you called each other, your families, etc.

Our I-751 was received on July 1 and sent to the MSC (National Benefits Center).  Is this a good thing or a bad thing that it didn't go to one of the service centers?