mc962

It went well 🎉.He didn't really ask for much in the way of evidence after the questions were finished...I suspect he'd already made up his mind about what to decide towards the end of the questioning period. He did ask if there were any pictures that we had to show him, and he flipped through them quickly, but didn't even collect them...mostly just instructing us how to save good  evidence for the Removal of Conditions in 2 years so we could avoid another interview.
 
We were probably in and out of the interview in like 15 minutes 😌

She went first thing today, and they took care of it (and even updated her name to match her EAD while she was there).

Apparently they said that the second one wasn't even valid in their system 😕

I'd probably check with Canada to confirm the law, but my guess is that you'll need to 'officially' change her name in Canada...as in they would need to update their records. 

From a quick Google search, this appears to be the policy, you can probably call them if you have more questions: https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/change-name.html

sounds like the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing
Typical government 
When i got my first passport ,  it had my mom's birthdate as mine
and i returned it 
i got the corrected one about 2 weeks later 
and then got a letter saying the 1st one was correct and that the US government did not make mistakes
 

Life insurance is also another potential one, if you have it. You can designate your spouse as the beneficiary of that policy.

The EAD/AP card is just authorization to travel and return to the United States. The passport is a government issued identify document. They are separate in what they do. You should have no problems. My wife is renewing her passport in September, and we are traveling in November on her AP card, I have no worries myself.

AP isn't tied to a passport, so she can use her new passport alongside her AP without issue. 

When my wife (also doing K1 -> AOS) feels homesick, she makes food from her home country. I'm not sure if that makes her more or less homesick 🤔  but at least it's delicious. 😆

She also recently started taking some English as a Second Language (ESL) classes at the local library, and enjoys that as an activity to do and as well as to meet new people.

While that wouldn't necessarily make sense for you to take as a class, maybe you could volunteer your time as an ESL teacher at your local library/school? Or if you want to lean a new language (and as people said, it seems to be a university town), maybe you could enroll in that kind of class (or any kind of class)?

A heads up on a possible phishing scam email my wife (currently applying for AOS), received today:

The email went something like (paraphrased, the email had some more grammar mistakes, and names were redacted):
 
 
The website was 
https://theimmigrationenterprise.com/ On a quick browse, it actually looked pretty legitimate. Some further investigation revealed a lack of an easily identifiable address, and on further investigation I found the IP address is suspected to have come from Germany. Furthermore, the only people with my wife's email that know she is currently doing AOS is USCIS.

I suspect it was attempting to phish for personal information such as phone number (and more if she had actually responded).

NOTE: I'm not positive if it is or is not legitimate, feel free to comment if you know they are legitimate, but the email seemed really suspicious considering the circumstances, and I thought it would be good for people here to be aware of it.

A heads up on a possible phishing scam email my wife (currently applying for AOS), received today:

The email went something like (paraphrased, the email had some more grammar mistakes, and names were redacted):
 
 
The website was 
https://theimmigrationenterprise.com/ On a quick browse, it actually looked pretty legitimate. Some further investigation revealed a lack of an easily identifiable address, and on further investigation I found the IP address is suspected to have come from Germany. Furthermore, the only people with my wife's email that know she is currently doing AOS is USCIS.

I suspect it was attempting to phish for personal information such as phone number (and more if she had actually responded).

NOTE: I'm not positive if it is or is not legitimate, feel free to comment if you know they are legitimate, but the email seemed really suspicious considering the circumstances, and I thought it would be good for people here to be aware of it.

@K1visaHopeful 's advice is good, if they take your money, then it should show up in the system eventually, and there are numbers that you can call I think if you haven't received a paper notice by a certain date.

Once you have the paper notice, then you can use the case number(s) to sign up for notifications from the government websites such as:
myuscis (newer) or egov (older), which I often found more helpful anyway.

The time can vary quite a bit as well, we got a notice around 4-5 days after the post office said the package was received, but as was mentioned, it can easily take up to a few weeks.

We had the same issue coming in to LAX.  I could see her record in the "travel history" on the CBP website but no I-94.  Try sending an email to the CBP deferred inspection office in Los Angeles and they'll autorespond with a form to correct the I-94.  Fill out the form and attach a scan of the passport pages.  I did that and the I-94 appeared online in 4 business days.   If you live in LA you can also go to their office downtown with the passport and they'll fix the I-94 for you on the spot.

Maybe they were having an off day that day...we just got an RFIE for something equally as frustrating on March 14 as well (for something we definitely sent, but they said was not sent).

Found that right after posting as well.

I decided to just include a printout of the new regulations from the IRS website, just in case we get someone who doesn't understand the new regulations yet (it went into effect less than a month ago I think).

My fiance went through the Japanese embassy for her K1 in November, there is some communication by mail, and some by email. 

I believe the initial instructions from the embassy (I think most people here call it 'Packet 3'), and the Final Packet that included her passport + K1 visa were mailed to her.
Some things were communicated by email, such as some information about the interview date, but this was after the visa application (DS-160) was already submitted.

I guess it might depend on the address and how you filled it out, and how common the address is. If it's the Japanese equivalent of Main Street that might confuse the post office more than something uncommon.
Did you also write the English-letter version on there anywhere? That could clear up any confusion more quickly.

You could maybe try calling the embassy when you get to that stage, and let them know of the issue, so that maybe they can look out for it...and maybe you can set up some sort of mail-forwarding for the bad address at the post office so they can look for it as well.

Separately, but somewhat relatedly, one thing to keep in mind that I've noticed in our process, for forms going forward, is to make sure that they fill out the names on the forms in the right order. Some countries like to fill things out like First Middle Last names, while others prefer Last Middle First, and I would assume that Japan/Japanese people tend to fill things out /have documents (such as passports) filled out like Last First names. You want to make sure that on the K1 visa and the I-94 when your fiance enters the country, that the Last Name is properly entered into the Last Name spot, and the First Name is properly entered in the First Name spot, something that the embassy/CBP can mess up from time to time due to differences in how different countries print their official documents (which would make it more difficult for you to find your I-94 in the future in the system, if the names were switched).

I'd probably wait, for the pay stubs and employment letters at least.

That stuff probably shouldn't take too long to gather if your employer keeps good records/can use a computer, for the pay stubs you might even be able to print it.


The only things I might consider are things that aren't likely to change in 4-6 months anyway. 
Past years' tax returns are one good example, you can gather those/request a tax transcript from the IRS.
Other assets that you might decide to list like house, car, etc. are other options. You could probably due your bank balance now if you wanted, but since that's likely to change anyway, it's probably not as helpful.

My guess (others may confirm), is that it would be best to put your expected address there, for where you expect you will be by the time they are looking at the application. This may also be the address that certain correspondence will ultimately be sent to, such as documents from the Consulate once you get to that stage. 

You may wish to put something in the Additional Information page about how you are living in America at the time of your application, but expect to be at your abroad address at the time the application is adjudicated, so that they don't get confused.


Although, there might be some other options you haven't considered. A lot of people will tell you that the CR1/IR visa is a better deal (I generally agree), since if you can get married beforehand, as you get a Green Card on arrival. And I believe the Financial Support affidavit is not needed until the Consulate stage (same as K1).
 
Adjustment of Status from when the fiance is within the country would definitely be the best deal if possible, but as you said if you can't get the money together in time, then that probably won't work.

There are also the rare few that have the opportunity of remote work for foreign companies (ones not associated with USA/USCIS).

There are some interesting threads on the forum debating the grey areas of the law around remote work and work authorization.

I guess the the immigration process really slows down for the holidays 

But not the first time I've seen weird data, like some negative numbers I saw for what I believe was AOS at the Chicago office at one point 😆

why not just get an IRS transcript
 

Indeed...I'm a hiring manager at my company.  Really they're asking if you need some sort of sponsorship as that can be long and expensive depending on the case.  You should just say you're authorized to work without needing any sponsorship and leave it at that.  It's inappropriate for a recruiter to ask too much more.

Did they even input your application into the system? Or flat out denied you when you went to apply? Just curious as my information & documents were taken yet im getting conflicting information from two workers
I will message you

Also curious about this topic.

I've noticed a lot of people tend to post about the money "going into a non USA bank" when talking about this topic. 

Is that because of how it might affect taxes, or is it mostly about following a philosophy of 'if the job doesn't affect U.S. workers, and the money doesn't flow into a U.S. bank, then USCIS has no reason to care about it.' 
Although I guess even if the money is going into a non-US bank, if it's income I assume you still have to report/pay taxes on it.

Or that 😮
Although I guess it would be a bit more work to validate that 'dateB' comes after 'dateA for all the forms.

Did they take his blood or something like that? If there was no evidence of past vaccinations, they would probably have done some thing like a titer test where they can potentially determine past vaccinations.

My fiance also didn't have any vaccination records, but they did the test when she went for her medical in Japan. It delayed the results by a few days, but in the end they said she didn't need any more vaccines.