forfars

Is it not an option to arrange a 2 week visit for example but extend your flight once in the US? I’m doing that but I’m on an ESTA so not sure if it’s different, I was originally going to leave on June 16 but Im extending til mid july. I think it depends what you get stamped in your pssport at the POE. 

Im a little confused on the processing times on the USCIS website, is the case inquiry date the cases theyre currently working on? For Potomac it says July but on the timelines im seeing people receiving NOA2 after filing in october/november

1 minute ago, Jojo92122 said:

How long will it take for you to complete your master?

You can draw out the immigration process and keep it going for years by simply contacting the NVC once a year.  Saves you from paying the filing fee again when you are ready to immigrate.

oh really? thats awesome, will take a year, 2 years max depending on if i have to delay getting in due to deadlines

Hi guys,

My wife and I have applied for an I-130 but we are now looking to cancel it as I got better grades than expected and would want to pursue a masters in the UK which would mean I wouldn’t be able to go through with the current I-130. If I cancel and reapply later would the withdrawal hurt my chances of reapplying later?

Thanks

On 13/03/2018 at 8:24 PM, Taffi111 said:

Well that's exactly what we thought but he seemed very insistent that now we're married and have a pending I-130, they'll deny us purely due to suspicion. He has 35 years experience and seemed very knowledgeable :/ I don't know if it makes a difference that it's an ESTA visa?

 

I will definitely do some reading because it's broken us all (my daughter is 8 and really missing him) that we could meet in Canada but the flights are so expensive so we're trying to come to terms with going more than a year apart. 

 

Oh it would be so fantastic if we could visit a few times this year like we have every other year! I really hope so!

Hey I’m not sure if it’s still useful for you but I’m currently in the US visiting my wife, when I got to the border they took me to a secondary processing room and took my passport. After about 10 mins I was called up and the officer just asked me questions like if i’m gonna live in the US or if my wife is moving to me (obviously they knew I have an I-130 pending they just wanted to see if im honest) they asked if I have a return ticket which I did and had to show him. They asked why we got married (because we’re so young) and asked if I had the I-130 paperwork which I didn’t, I did have documentation to show I still live in the UK like a tenancy agreement and car registration, I told him I have it but I didn’t have to show him then he let me go. All in all it was a minor inconvenience but the officer questioning me was superrr friendly and it wasn’t scary at all. As long as you’re doing everything legit you’ll get in

Hi everyone,

My wife and I filed for I-130 back in february for me to come to america, in the mean time things within her family became a bit hostile and we think it may be best to cancel my application and apply for a UK visa for her. 

I understand that you can’t get a refund for a rejection on the petition but would I be able to get one if I withdraw it? 

Thanks

Hi everyone,

Im currently awaiting form i-130 approval and was just wondering if i can change the address that i will be moving to when i arrive in the us? my wife is having big problems at her current place and needs to move. How can i go about ammending the address?

Thanks in advance

Just now, aland said:

Great Thanks for answering, so are I-130s processed at different sites across the US? like there are different NVC sites? or are they all either accepted or declined at same place then distributed to e.g Potomac, Nebraska etc. if successful?

 

Thank you once again?

the NVC stage is after I-130 is approved. I-130s are processed at USCIS service centers i.e potomac. It will say what service you are at on your noa1

2 minutes ago, Tasiedu08 said:

You will get that information with your NOA2. Your NOA1 shows the USCIS office it was sent to for processing.

my mistake, i misread your post. It will come with NOA2

Just now, aland said:

Good Day All,

 

I am new to this forum! 

My wife Filed our I-130 in Feb 2018, we have our Noa1 stating that the case was received on March 15th. However i am not sure which NVC my case is heading to! based on other comments i have read here most people already know theirs. May i ask where did you folks find out which NVC one's case might be? from Noa1 or Noa2? 

 

Many Thanks in advance.

it should say on NOA1, what are the first 3 letters of your receipt number?

it will be about 1 week an e-mail will come first if you filled out that form then the hard copy, the hard copy will take about 10 days.

Hi everyone,

Bit of a weird situation. I'm currently waiting for my CR1 visa and I am visiting my wife in the US on an ESTA while we wait. I want to go to school to become a pathologists' assistant which requires the shadowing of a pathologist/pathologists' assistant, would I be able to do this while on an ESTA? I know you can't volunteer work services on an ESTA but it's not really work, I'd literally just be following a path/PathA around for the day watching the procedures? I'm leaning toward it being too close to volunteering so I won't be able to, just wanted to see if anyone had direct experience with this.

Thanks

Stephen

1 minute ago, maria_04 said:

Hi! I''m a newbie,  PD feb 9, 2018 . Just want to share that one dec 2017 filer was approved.

hi there how did you get those real time updates? thanks

Just now, aleful said:

once you become a LPR you can go to medical school if you want and get student loans, there are certain loans only for USC, but there are loans as federal loans for LPR. You don't have to wait until you get the 10 year GC if you don't want to

 

 

thank you :), i'm only waiting for the 10 year GC because in the meantime I will be doing activities to strengthen my application such as volunteering, tutoring etc

Hi all,

I am currently in the middle of the CR1 application process, once I get removal of conditions and get a 10 year green card I want to attend medical school in the states, while I know I am allowed to study on a green card am I entitled to any form of federal loan that normal citizens can get or do I have to wait for citizenship?

Thanks

Stephen

12 minutes ago, Perfect two 💑 said:

I believe that you can go through the ESTA line. However, make sure you prepare as much evidence that will proof you will coming back to your country after the visit. It will be hard but not impossible since now you have an immigration intent. 

 

Good luck!

 

Thank you 😊 Im not worried about getting in, i have a return flight and my name is on a tenancy agreement here however I’ve read many many people getting in with no questions at all. It would be illogical to pay all the money for visas and doing my degree to run off when I get to America 😀

Hi everyone,

My wife has applied for a CR1 for me and we are waiting for NOA2 from I-130, I’m going to visit there for 88 days while we wait for NOA2 on an ESTA. My question is when I arrive do I have to wait in that long ### line for new tourists as I’m waiting for a visa or can I go through the fast self service kind of line for existing ESTAs (this is my second visit there). 

Thanks!

1 minute ago, Taffi111 said:

You're both 20!? You're so young. Married already as well? At least you started this process early on. 

 

Well that's brave of you. I'm an ex-paralegal and we still felt it best to hire an attorney (mostly because of the UK Court complications with my daughter's biological father). I just keep telling myself, it's only one year for the sake of the rest of our lives. Doesn't make it much easier though eh!?

Fair enough, our case was straight forward luckily. It is the longest year ever lol Yes we've been together since we were 16

1 minute ago, Taffi111 said:

Oh! Very true. Good point. 

 

Had I not changed my name we could be entering on a repeat ESTA too as it was only given in November so would still be valid. I wonder if that is enough of a clue - I could just apply for a new ESTA under my new name and if it's denied due to I-130 I know we can't go whereas if it's approved, I'm guessing it shouldn't be a problem; especially if I have all the proof were coming back to the UK. 

 

Hmm. Food for thought.

exactly, to be honest attorney's don't care about you getting your visa they care about money and their reputation (generally) so they're going to tell you not go to the US on the slight chance you'll get denied and it makes them look bad. I wouldn't worry. My wife and I are both 20 and we've literally done everything ourselves for this exact reason

2 minutes ago, forfars said:

Again in my opinion I'd pay more attention to what people are actually experiencing rather than what the 'rules' are on paper, I think you'll be fine especially coming from an ESTA country. I know someone who spent 88 days there while waiting for I-130 no problems, didn't even ask for evidence

also note how that link is talking about people who have to apply for a B-2 visa, an ESTA is the exact opposite of a visa, its a waiver

1 minute ago, Taffi111 said:

https://www.uscitizenship.info/blog/travel-to-america-while-your-form-i-130-is-pending/

 

It seems difficult but I think we'll need to weigh up the pros and cons. I almost think it would be worse to get there and then find out we couldn't see him just on the other side of the gate. 

 

I think I'm going to discuss this with our attorney. 

Again in my opinion I'd pay more attention to what people are actually experiencing rather than what the 'rules' are on paper, I think you'll be fine especially coming from an ESTA country. I know someone who spent 88 days there while waiting for I-130 no problems, didn't even ask for evidence

Just now, Taffi111 said:

Yes, please do let me know how it goes! If I find any solid sources of information on it, I'll link them here too.

 

I really wasn't sure how I felt about this site but it's really great to be able to share experiences and advice. 

 

Thanks for your input! Good luck to you both too

Thanks, you too. We originally looked into her coming here and went on the british immigration site, they are just full of people who have had negative experiences with it and are extremely bitter - not helpful at all and basically just made us feel like it's impossible. I love this site everyone is so helpful and positive

1 minute ago, Taffi111 said:

Well that's exactly what we thought but he seemed very insistent that now we're married and have a pending I-130, they'll deny us purely due to suspicion. He has 35 years experience and seemed very knowledgeable :/ I don't know if it makes a difference that it's an ESTA visa?

 

I will definitely do some reading because it's broken us all (my daughter is 8 and really missing him) that we could meet in Canada but the flights are so expensive so we're trying to come to terms with going more than a year apart. 

 

Oh it would be so fantastic if we could visit a few times this year like we have every other year! I really hope so!

well it may not be a big help to you but I'm going to the US in july once I graduate university (I'm from the UK too) to visit my wife for 3 months while we wait, I'll let you know how it goes. From what I've read from people's actual experiences I'm feeling confident about it and in my opinion a normal person's experience is more reliable than an old fuddy duddy lawyer that knows the 'on paper' rules

1 minute ago, Taffi111 said:

Wow, really? We were categorically told that if we tried to visit for a holiday, border control would assume we were attempting to bypass the immigration laws so we could adjust status once within the US. Therefore, they would deny us entry. We have been advised that if you have ever been denied entry into the country, it is taken into consideration when processing the application (which makes perfect sense) and can therefore jeopardise approval. 

If you think about it it doesn't make sense though, if you are literally going on  holiday and can prove it what are you doing wrong? Also it's unlikely you're gonna spend all the money on doing form i-130 etc if you're just gonna come illegally on a tourist visa, why not just get a tourist visa and stay? I'm only going on what I've read on here I'm no expert, also there are a lot of lawyers that have no idea what they're talking about

4 hours ago, Taffi111 said:

Wow. How interesting. I suggested showing US border control my tenancy agreement, letters from my daughter's school, my employment, return flights etc etc as evidence that we wouldn't stay and he was 100% certain that it was not a good idea because they get very suspicious very quickly and will deny entry - which would obviously then go against us in any visa application. 

 

I really really hope it works out for you - this whole situation is horrible in lots of ways. Do let us know how you get on!! I will be keeping everything crossed for you and your husband. If your legal advisor has said you can try it then why wouldn't you take her advice - everyone's circumstances are slightly different so maybe in your case, it won't be a problem. Best of luck!

Getting denied entry into a US has nothing do with your visa application - you're not doing anything illegal, there are many many people on here who visit their spouse while waiting for their application to go through with no issues at all