Minsk_2_San_Diego

1 hour ago, solomanii said:

That's even more painful.  You can save progress I hope (maybe page by page)?

Yes, each time that you successfully navigate to the next page, your prior page is saved... emphasis on the "successful".  Too many times, we tried to advance to the next page only to be thrown to the login page again.  Since time is not critical in entering your DS-260, maybe waiting will safe you a few gray hairs.

On 5/9/2022 at 5:27 PM, S9471 said:

I would be genuiinely be interested to confirm whether they are eligible or not. Because...

Because technically they do have a refugee travel document, which is the humanitarian parole (IDK if that classifies), and also parole is not an immigration status, and AFAIK this is not TPS:

 

This topic is also of interest to me as we are trying to bring my stepdaughter here under the U4U program... and at the same time, she has qualified (with a very high case number) for the Diversity Lottery. 

IF she is able to come to the US under U4U and then IF she is selected for DV interview, I can only assume that she would have to pursue Consular Processing (as opposed to AOS in the US) because she would have no valid immigrant status under Humanitarian Parole... so, to attend her interview, she would have to fly to a foreign consulate with no way to return to the US if her green card visa is declined.

Lots of "IF" in this scenario, but this issue about being not/able to get advance parole is sort of a hot topic for us.

18 hours ago, solomanii said:

Yep, same issue, even today.

If you just try and try and try... sometimes you hit a gap and you're able to log in and start your form... but then you get to the bottom of that page and click "next" and you're kicked out again, only to be unable to log back in... and when you do at last get back in, you find your last page of work was lost anyway (personal experience).  If we had it to do over, we'd just take a week or a month away from it and try again without the aggravation.

5 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

it is contradictory to say both that everyone is current and that high numbers will “never” be called. Britsimon is a valid and trusted source of information about DV and is the only non-official source i would use.

I actually paraphrased that point of view directly from BritSimon's response to a comment I made on his site a few days ago in which he said, regarding possibilities for 2023 cut-off reporting, "On the other hand, if they mismanage the processing, the demand is underreported to the visa office, so the VB is moved (incorrectly) to current. In that scenario, people who are current miss out.  That scenario is playing out right now in DV2022. Regions are current, but many cases will be left without interviews." -- BritSimon

On 5/7/2022 at 2:05 PM, LetsGoBo said:

I was selected on my first attempt!!!!

 

I'm a bit worried though because my case number seems to be high and I heard that makes it very unlikely to get an interview. My case number is: 2023EU342XX

 

It has been my dream to move to the US for as long as I can remember. I really hope this works out!!

Your number is high... but it may not be too high to get an invitation to interview.  No matter what anyone tells you now to reassure you or tell you it's hopeless, nobody knows yet what constitutes a "too high" number for each region.  That will only become gradually knowable as KCC begins to work through 2023 applications in August, Spetember and October of this year - and by watching the Visa Bulletin after those months are processed - to see how many applications are made available for processing each month.  Only then could you start to extrapolate whether your number will be called before they run out of visas (or time) for the year of 2023.

On 5/9/2022 at 7:50 AM, milimelo said:

I also don’t think your visa number is too high. May 2022 visa bulletin is already on 27,000 for Europe - keep following it through September and you’ll see when in the year your number comes up next year. They also do designation of Current for DV categories- it means everyone who has interviews will be interviewed right up to the deadline of September 30. 
 

I think you can also look at past visa bulletins (I’d skip 2020 and 2021 as it wouldn’t be representative due to covid) to see when the number was listed (number range, not exact number) and/or when it turned current. 

I would use caution in having people compare this year against any prior year... ESPECIALLY the past two years where only about 5,000 visas were granted each year, worldwide, due to travel bans and COVID.  Even 2022 is not a fair comparison because that year has apparently been rife with problems.  The fact that EU is going "Current" in June does not suggest that everyone will be invited for an interview for 2022... I would suggest watching this video which was just posted yesterday.  Brit Simon is extremely knowledgeable about DV and has a lot of informative videos that are quite cautious and try to be very accurate.  

Best of luck to all who were chosen for 2023. 

We have applied for my stepdaughter to come to the US under the U4U Humanitarian Parole program - we have been approved as sponsors and are waiting for CBP to make a determination if she is qualified. 

Meanwhile, her name was just selected to move forward in the DV lottery (although her case number is so high that we are cautious about counting on that too much).  Full disclosure, we also have a pending I-130 (F2B) petition for her - but she is many years away from having her date become current.

My question is this:  If she is approved for humanitarian parole under Uniting For Ukraine and she comes to the US... and then is invited to an interview for DV Lottery, will she need to leave the country to attend the interview in the Consulate listed in her DS-260?  Is it possible for her to Adjust Status in the US when she doesn't HAVE an Immigration status (because she would only be here on parole)?  Does being in the US hurt or benefit her entry in the lottery?

If she waits where she is now, outside of the US, she may not be selected for a DV interview and then she will have missed the window of opportunity to come to the US under U4U.    We hope to bring her here asap, but don't want to block any options with the lottery.

14 hours ago, SteveInBostonI130 said:

Your stepdaughter cannot enter the US with expedited I-130.   

 

Her category is F2B.  There is no visa available for her for about 7 years.  The expedited I-130 would just get her file to NVC quicker, but the file will stay at NVC until her PD becomes current.

 

Humanitarian parole is the only option available to you to get your stepdaughter to the US in any reasonable amount of time.

NVC also has a separate expedite channel (NVCExpedite@state.gov) that we planned to try being approved for by requesting faster processing once her petition arrives at NVC.

@SteveInBostonI130, are you saying that NVC cannot expedite her case even if they want to - because there are no visas available?  Perhaps this is common knowledge - but I had been led to believe that a petitioner could also request "expedite" handling from NVC separately.  Can you point me to any reference you may have that establishes that as a closed path?

My step-daughter is a Belarusian citizen who moved to Kyiv, Ukraine in 2020 (due to political oppression in Belarus) and received a Temporary Residence Permit and was working in Kyiv full-time, had an apartment, was paying taxes, etc.  Then the war began.

As with most Ukrainians, she fled to Poland, leaving all her belongings, her apartment, her job - her whole life behind.  We were able to help her fly from there to Georgia where she has a friend to stay with, for now.

When the "Uniting For Ukraine" Humanitarian Parole program was announced, we (her mother (LPR) and I (USC)) registered as sponsors (even though she is not a Ukrainian citizen (nor married to one)).

We were approved as sponsors - she has been notified to create a USCIS account, attest to immunization status and respond to the CBP - presumably moving forward as part of the Ukrainian Humanitarian Parole program. 

We know that this program is specifically designated for Ukrainian citizens and non-citizen relatives - but she has suffered the same losses as Ukrainians have... and is fearful of returning to Belarus because of the war and her past anti-corruption protests.

Has anyone heard if non-Ukrainian's have been approved for Humanitarian Parole under this U4U program?

I (M/USC) am married to a Belarusian citizen (F, now LPR in US, N-400 pending).  Last year, we filed our I-130 to bring her 21+ y/o unmarried daughter to the US and began waiting our place in line ( F2B - 5+ years by current estimates).

Meanwhile, my wife's daughter (the beneficiary of the I-130) moved to Kyiv, Ukraine in 2020 (due to political oppression in Belarus) and received a Temporary Residence Permit and was working in Kyiv full-time, had an apartment, was paying taxes, etc.  Then the war began.

As with most Ukrainians, she fled to Poland, leaving all her belongings, her apartment, her job - her whole life behind.  We were able to help her fly from there to Georgia where she has a friend to stay with, for now.

When the "Uniting For Ukraine" Humanitarian Parole program was announced, we registered as sponsors (even though she is not a Ukrainian citizen (nor married to one)) and we were approved as sponsors - she has been notified to create a USCIS account, attest to immunization status and respond to the CBP - presumably moving forward as part of the Ukrainian Humanitarian Parole program.  We have no idea if her Belarusian citizenship will derail her process or not.

Meanwhile, we were advised to request that her I-130 be expedited.  We contacted USCIS this week and made a verbal request - and we are waiting to see if they will move the case forward by asking us to provide documentation for our claim.

Being approved for either process would get her out of harm's way and bring her to us quickly - but the expedited I-130 would give her LPR status (where Humanitarian Parole only lasts for 2 years, at most).   We have no idea if either of these endeavors will be successful but we don't want to pursue a path that closes off another.

If she is approved for Humanitarian Parole, would her expedite request be denied because she is no longer perceived to be "in need" of humanitarian aid?

If she comes to the US under Humanitarian Parole, and not under and expedited I-130, would she have to leave the country again at the end of her parole period - to wait out her I-130 processing?

Do these two programs conflict with each other?  If we follow one path, will it close off the other?

Any thought or opinions welcome

My wife came to the US on a K-1 Visa, we were married and she received her conditional green card shortly thereafter.  We have now reached the two-year mark and have just now filed the I-751 to lift conditions on her Permanent Green Card - we expect to be in the queue for at least 12 months, if not longer.

I only just discovered that she could have applied for citizenship while we wait for her I-751 to be approved (since she will satisfy the 3 year requirement for the N-400 during our wait for the I-751 to be processed).  Had I known that the N-400 could be submitted at the same time, I would have done so, but the I-751 went out on its own.

Does it make sense to go ahead and file her N-400 now?  If we want our two processes to be considered and processed together by USCIS, is there any way to do that when we send in the N-400?

I didn't really understand that these two things can happen at the same time - so if there are any guides on how to do them both at once... or bring two separate processes together for faster / easier conclusion, I'd appreciate the help.

I (USC) brought my wife to the US under a K-1 visa (from Belarus) and we were married 15 months ago and she is now a LPR (green card holder).

Her single daughter (my daughter-in-law) is a 23 year old university graduate who wants to come to visit us here in the US for a few weeks.  I understand that she needs to show "ties to her home country" such that she convinces the consulate that she intends to return after her visit.

Her daughter has traveled extensively to various Schengen countries and recently spent two months in Vienna, Austria, studying German.  She has held a variety of jobs but hasn't established a career yet.  She has a boyfriend and they've been a couple for over 1 year.

As she now presents herself, I'm guessing that she'd be unlikely to be approved for a visitor visa due to her age, marital status, lack of home ownership, etc.

Are there any things that she can do over the course of 6-9 months that could improve her chances of having her B-2 visa approved? 

After we received our NOA2 on our I-129F petition, it moved quickly to NVC.  In fact, I called there about 9 days after our NOA2 and found that we already had our NVC case number.  They told me that the status was "under administrative review".  Naively, I thought this was the common status for all petitions as they're being processed at NVC.  I've just found out otherwise.  

I've tried reading on this site and elsewhere about "AR"... but most of the information is years old.  Does getting sent to "administrative review" suggest that one of us was flagged in our background check?  I don't know what the probable reasons are for getting our case pulled into "AR" but from what I've read, it's NOT something that we would want to have happen.  It sounds like "AR" is some kind of administrative limbo where people have applications stuck for weeks or even months... perhaps as long as 6 months while no information is available about why the case is under review or when it may be released.

It sounds absolutely dreadful - I'm hoping that someone with more current info on this topic can offer a less bleak interpretation.

Help?

I'm not sure if USCIS continues to update the "old site" data... but when they are updating it, the "Case Tracker" app proved to be useful in helping to manage our expectations.  Even though applications were being approved with later dates than ours, I was able to look at where my case sat among others and I was able to see that I was in the middle of a whole block of applications that hadn't yet been approved.  If you're getting into a panic, thinking "there's something wrong with my case and that's why it's taking so long", maybe look at your case and how the other cases surrounding it are being treated.

If your case is surrounded by a lot of other "blue" (Received) cases, it probably means that you're in a stack on someone's desk and they jut haven't gotten to it yet.

It's also valuable to remember that there are still people from November who are still waiting - not because their case has a problem, but simply because they haven't gotten to it yet.

21 minutes ago, Little_Vixen said:

What method is everyone using to reach uscis these days? The first option in the post below doesn't work anymore.

https://goo.gl/54z5bZ

I phoned and got to a live person - but when I asked for our case status (NOA1 12/15), she simply informed me that they (CSC) are working on cases from 12/4 and I can call back in a few weeks if I haven't gotten any update by then.  Grrr.

34 minutes ago, Greenbaum said:

Finally, I see a "positive" post. Where have you been? With a sea of hatred, impatience, whinny, got to have it now, stressed out crowd opining, you are a ray of sunshine. Thanks for the uplifting message. I wish you nothing but sunny days and smooth sailing. Thank you for your post.

All I have to do is look back at this graphic of November's current status... or October (!!) ...to see examples of people who have waited longer than we have... and continue to wait. 

All steps along this road are necessary steps.  This is our process.  This is our story.  I hope that all who are still waiting will remember that these patient days are the price we pay for love, unparalleled.

"Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life." ~~ Theodore Roosevelt

Have a beautiful weekend, everyone.

9 hours ago, JustRaq said:

I sent in my application to the USCIS and noticed that the attorney made a mistake in the gender column for my fiancé and checked “male” instead of “female.” Clearly from the evidence through the pictures that I sent with the application, my fiancé is a female while I am a male. So would something like this cause a delay in our process? What is the best thing to do to solve this problem if necessary? 

We also made a known error on our application.  We don't know if it will result in an RFE or not, but I've been told that an RFE can usually be resolved in a matter of a few weeks, as long as you're able to provide the information they request right away.  I also inquired about trying to fix our application before it was adjudicated, but there is no guarantee that your fix would even be applied in time or applied correctly.  Your best bet is to just wait and see what they ask for, if anything.  If you get an RFE, it should only delay your process briefly if you respond right away.

10 minutes ago, Rodney & Cindy said:

Wonder if you get an email/text direct from USCIS right away ASAP when the NOA2 is approved??

Our NOA1 was approved Dec. 4th... but we are still waiting. 

Just be sure you set up your account (old system) to receive notifications

13 minutes ago, Naes said:

I had to make a double read because I thought I’m having a deja vu... then checked to see you replied almost exact same thing in the same page 🤣🤣🤣 like 2 posts before 

Naes, I'm curious to get your opinion on the value of these scans, going forward.  As I understand it, there is no way to scan activity in the new system - and it seems that USCIS is gradually moving away from the old system.  Would you say that these scans have an ever decreasing value in terms of showing trends about what kind of progress USCIS is actually making?  It seems that the weekly (or daily) scans are going to tell less and less of the real story as time passes.  Would you agree?  Is there any way for the people running the scans to gain access to the new system content?

2 hours ago, Little_Vixen said:

Im sorry. I only now noticed I forgot to answer this. 

Touching a case means they worked on it. It is used by us as an umbrella term for any action taken on a case. That can mean an rfe, update on birthday or name, or an approval. When we say 20% was touched we mean that 20% of the cases have had an action taken on them. 

Over the last several months the average of touched cases went up before starting the next month. October had almost 50% touched before starting the new month. The months before that had up to 80% touched in the first two weeks of the new months. So the first two weeks of starting a new month is usually the busiest a month is going to get. 

You are not left behind when they start a new month and you are not approved yet! It is perfectly normal. Do not panic untill they are at least 2 weeks into the new month. 

Unless I'm mistaken, your case is also "touched" if you submit a change of address.  "Touched" can mean anything from "almost nothing" to "NOA2", so, imo, tracking touches appears to only be meaningful for watching trends across months... touched-count doesn't seem to say much (anything?) about a single particular month.

16 minutes ago, isla543 said:

From what I understand, there may be a way around having employment. You need to be able to show a sustainable amount of assets. Anything that could liquidized like stocks, bonds, 401k, IRAS, etc. Otherwise, I would have a secondary sponsor lined up just in case.

If you don't have employment or "sufficient income" to meet the minimum for your household size, you can alternately show proof that you have enough saved assets to be able to support your beneficiary... If you don't have such assets you can use form I-864A to enlist the support of other household members (including their income as if it was your own for support purposes).  Finally, as suggested above, you can get a co-sponsor where really ANYONE can sign a legally binding contract that says they will make themselves financially responsible for your beneficiary.  This can be a relative, a friend or anyone else who is willing to tie themselves to your beneficiary for up to 10 years of financial obligation.

To clarify (hopefully)

From USCIS - "If You Can’t Meet the Minimum Income Requirements"

If you cannot meet the minimum income requirements using your earned income, you have various options:

• You may add the cash value of your assets. This includes money in savings accounts, stocks, bonds, and property. To determine the amount of assets required to qualify, subtract your household income from the minimum income requirement (125% of the poverty level for your family size). You must prove the cash value of your assets is worth five times this difference (the amount left over).
  • Exceptions:
    • If the person being sponsored is a spouse, or son/daughter (who is 18 years or older) of a U.S. citizen: The minimum cash value of assets must be three times the difference between the sponsor’s household income and 125% of the federal poverty guide line for the household.
    • If the person being sponsored is an orphan coming to the United States for adoption: The adoptive parents’ assets need to equal or exceed the difference between the household income and 125% of the federal poverty line for the household size.
• You may count the income and assets of members of your household who are related to you by birth, marriage, or adoption. To use their income you must have listed them as dependents on your most recent federal tax return or they must have lived with you for the last 6 months. They must also complete a Form I-864A, Contract Between Sponsor and Household Member . If the relative you are sponsoring meets these criteria you may include the value of their income and assets, but the immigrant does not need to complete Form I-864A unless he or she has accompanying family members.
• You may count the assets of the relatives you are sponsoring.

34 minutes ago, nj2202 said:

Thanks for your response. I have been feeling a little overwhelmed lately as we are drawing closer to our NOA2. Plus I have been unemployed since February so I tend to overthink things. I won’t be able to provide letter of employment/job offer if I am still without a job in July. Would my 2017 tax return 1040 and W2 be enough as evidence? Or would I have to provide letter of employment + bank statement as well?

The I-134 (Affidavit Of Support) instructions say this:

Submit in duplicate evidence of income and resources, as appropriate:
A. Statement from an officer of the bank or other financial institutions with deposits, identifying the following details regarding the account:
    (1) Date account opened;
    (2) Total amount deposited for the past year; and
    (3) Present balance.
B. Statement(s) from your employer on business stationery showing:
    (1) Date and nature of employment;
    (2) Salary paid; and
    (3) Whether the position is temporary or permanent.
C. If self-employed:
    (1) Copy of last income tax return filed; or
    (2) Report of commercial rating concern.
D. List containing serial numbers and denominations of bonds and name of record owner(s).

I would think that without employment, it would be difficult to show you have the ability to support your beneficiary.  I'm not an expert, but it seems like you really need to be able to show that you're employed or have means of supporting your beneficiary.

4 hours ago, Vintage girl said:

It's a exhausting journey but so worth it. soon we will get our turn. Can't wait to get my ### on that plane.

I'm curious how various people here will make their travel plans when they "get their ### on the plane".  Obviously, the moment her visa is approved, I want her to fly to the US... THAT DAY, if possible - but, last minute airfare costs a $ fortune $.  How do you intend to make your journey to the US happen quickly without giving the airlines all your money?   In our case, I have budgeted for this bit travel to cost more than "usual".  Waiting longer after we have already waited so long feels un-doable.