HKUSA

So for the stimulus check... Wife is a GC holder but we never bothered removing the "Valid of work only with DHS Auth" when she did her AOS. 

We've both been working, both have income, filed taxes this year. However the IRS website says you much "have a work eligible Social Security number"

Does that mean we need to remove the notation before she'd be eligible?

Thanks!

Mid-July Interview date, just got the notice. Makes it about 4 and a half months from application to interview for our AoS. Think we got lucky. hmm.

So in a weird twist of fate...

filed march 4

ead expedite approved: april 10

AoS: rdy to be interviewed april 7

just moved from nebraska to New jersey. I thought if anything it would extend my wait as NJ has much more backlog.

oddly this happened.

address change completed: june 10

interview scheduled: june 11

so did my address change get it scheduled earlier by a fluke? Maybe someone stuck it on the top of a pile somewhere?

fingers crossed they got the office right. I really hope not to have to fly back to nebraska for this as I saw one or two horror stories about the address not updating correctly.

1 minute ago, michaelwood87 said:

I get pictures of all the mail that I am going to receive for that day - the envelop has USCIS on it. 

 

I am waiting for 2 pieces currently, the interview time and date & the combo card. 

I thought it was a priority mail envelope? They don't scan those, only letter mail.

Question is who is the shipper of record that usps will record? I can watch my informed delivery.

Intresting that you had the new site not update where mine did and the old site didn't. Maybe its in production but since only the old site shows it i don't realize...

Tick tock... 6 days after approval (including a weekend) and still stuck on approved. How long does it take to show in production?

Already got the notices. And weirdly the old site still just shows recieved.

Update per my last post. Now both AP and EAD show as approved. Think the new site updates overnight. Perhaps the day before they only managed to input one before heading home and did the other one the next day. So 41 days from submittal to approval. Side benefit: i think it pushed my AOS a bit ahead faster than normal. About a week after our expedite request it went to rdy to be interviewed, which i assume is the expedite officer glancing over our file and saying it looks ok to move on. Who knows. No other number near mine had gotten that far when i do a number search.

1 hour ago, caparturo said:

Did you receive an approval for your Advanced Parole? it is a combo card EAD an Advance parole

 

DO you have any job offer? K1, F1, B2 entry?

Like I said earlier just the AP, not the EAD strangely.

Yeah, job offer on a K1. A very long and detailed job offer letter I might add.

6 minutes ago, caparturo said:

Under what situation you requested the expedite? can you tell us your timeline?

Mar 1 filed. Bio on march 19. Expedite request same day. Faxed 25th march. No response till now.

The financial hardship cat.

1 minute ago, emmyrose said:

I would think you’ll probably get both, then. My updates only quoted EAD, not AP until I actually received letters. Then it was stated that both had been approved. It should be a combo card, yes. 

Fingers crossed thats the case. Thanks

So confused. 41 days after filing and 3 weeks after expedite request our Travel doc was just approved. Ead hasn't changed status. What does that mean? I thought its a combo card? Got a late night notification on the new site only.

Sent in the fax last monday, so its been a week. Strangely none of my status pages have updated from "received application".

Hmm, sent my AoS in on March 4th and my case is ready to be interviewed as of 3 days ago. I'm in Omaha so fingers crossed they're faster since we're in a low immigrant office.

I was looking at UHC/Golden Rule Short term but one of the questions is have you lived in the US for at least 12 months? It automatically rules you out if you haven't so thats a no-go, plus travel insurance seems to be only for short term visa holders. Regular insurance wouldn't start till the 1st of the month...

Is there no way to cover the less than a month period where my insurance from work kicks in?

Well thx everyone for your input. To update it is a L1B the company can get but I emailed a few embassies to get some different inputs but most said to ask attorney or can't help. One reply though was intresting:

Quote

 

Sir:

She should pursue L1B blanket petition nonetheless.

But, and this is a big but: she must enter on a K-1 or L1 visa. In other words, she cannot, say, enter on L1 and then still hope to adjust status from K-1 to lawful permanent resident.

The benefit of the L1B is of course that she can start working the day after entering the United States.  On a K-1 she cannot work/study, etc. until such time as her adjustment of status application I-130/I-485 is finished, i.e. after you marry her within 90 days.  She can adjust status from L1B too, but it’s a bit risky in my opinion, especially as regulations have changed and USCIS might disapprove an I-130/I-485 filed within 90 days of entering on L1B.

 

Sincerely,

 

Robin Busse

Deputy Consular Section Chief/Visa Chief

U.S. Embassy Kuwait

 

Which is weirdly contradictory, first he says go for it, but then says its too risky. lol. But his input I think holds some weight seeing as he's the Visa Chief. He's got the last say at that embassy.

So I'm leaning toward just finishing the K1. At the end of the day it becomes a grey area and all it takes is one USCIS adjudicator having a bad day and denying the AoS to ruin everything. To top it all off we wouldn't even get that rejection for over a year. Way too late to do anything else except leave and file a 130 and start all over.

Thanks all. Hopefully someone in the future finds this insightful.

2 minutes ago, dnyal said:

I think you risk the consular agents seeing the whole applying for two visas very sketchy, like if one doesn’t work, the other will. If she decides not to attend the fiancée visa interview but rather go with the work visa, they will definitely ask her about her fiancée visa process. You requesting the cancellation of the whole K-1 process so she can go instead with the work visa could raise even more questions. If you get the K-1 visa approved, she could hold to it and go through the work visa process but they’ll notice she already has a fiancée visa and will question her about her intentions of marrying you, which would all look sketchy. See, work visas are always non-immigrant visas while K-1 visas, though technically non-immigrant visas too, denote immigration intent and so are treated as immigrant visas every step of the way. If she gets a K-1 (denoting immigration intent) and then tries to get a work visa (no immigration intent), the consular agent might refuse her the work visa because she’s expressed intent to immigrate to the US. Remember that consular agents adjudicate non-immigrant visas if the applicant has shown sufficient evidence that they have strong ties to their home countries.

 

I was under the impression that the L1B is dual intent? Thus we could just outright state that we intend to marry and Adjust status.

So my fiance and I are in the final stages of a K1. Interview about 2 weeks, medical check, and paperwork all in order. Now out the blue her company HR said they'd like to transfer her the US and claim they can get a visa in under a month. I assume its a L1B and they must have a blanket petition as they are quite a large international firm with offices around the world.

So, now what is my worry. Yes the L1B is preferred since its a dual intent and allows her to work immediately but its not guaranteed. The K1 is hopefully a better shot but with months of not being able to work.

Can she have her HR process the L1B at the same time as we work on the K1 concurrently? I mean it will both go though the same embassy. I've searched and people say you can hold 2 visas but only enter under 1. We have just over 1 month until the flight back. I'm desperately searching for answers. Thanks

Works, very cool. thx op

On 11/7/2018 at 8:09 PM, DaveAndAnastasia said:

That case was a clear error on the part of the people at the POE; lots of people enter on a K-1 after their NOA2 expires, and it's perfectly legal to do so. Don't worry about immigration officials doing something that's clearly incorrect.

 

As far as I know

• The petition doesn't have an expiration date; if it did, we wouldn't have the occasional couple here with a case that's been in limbo for over a year
• The expiration date for NOA2 is when you have to have scheduled an interview by; this can be renewed twice for an additional four months each time at the consulate's discretion (if you didn't get an interview due to lack of spots, this will probably happen automatically, but make sure it does).
• Once she has her visa, she'll have six months from her pre-interview medical exam to come to the US, marry you within 90 days, and adjust status

So even if your fiancée got her visa tomorrow, you could still spend Chinese New Year in HK with her family.

 

Wait but then why do they bother printing "petition expires on" on the bottom of the visa?

Hmm, yeah ok thx. I guess I'm just want to make sure I research every possibility. They don't really give any leeway at POE and the officers are always so serious.

Fingers crossed then.

So I just got done reading through this thread

https://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/567308-k1-denied-at-poe-however-visa-expires-02042016/

and it concerns me still a bit though I know the conclusion was it was on over-reach of power and that its not the norm. However there are a few other threads from the years past about the same problem and I want to figure out a way to head this off at the pass.

Our NOA2 states it expires 2/4/19 but we want to spend Chinese New Year with her family, which is on Feb 5th. We'd leave a few days later. The petition is working it way through the NVC right now and should be sent to the consulate soon. So is it a reasonable thing to do to add a letter to the interview documents asking the consular official to extend the petition length out of an abundance of caution? We'd be flying into a POE (probably Chicago) from across the pacific so we wouldn't have the luxury of running back to the embassy without flying all the way back.

I was a little confused about the petition exp date vs the NOA2 exp date. Aren't they one in the same? Or is there another exp date once the NVC assigns a case No.? Some comments made reference to them separately. I know the visa is supposed to be valid 3 months from date of issue.

Thanks all.

So I-129F was just approved. Now trying to get the paperwork together and the I-134 is the right one right? Not the other?

However the current I-134 on the USCIS site has an expiration of 11/30/18 in the top right corner and I estimate the interview will be in early December. What do I do?

Ok, so after some research the easy solution is changing her name when she fills out the n400 paperwork and getting a judge to sign off. I think. Thx tnj17 for the input.

So working on a K1 and I recently realized that the whole name change when you get married might be a big problem for a bit.

She wants to change her first name to her english name officially from her chinese pinyin name now. We're still undecided if she'll take my family name.

However, this will lead to a different first name on her green card/AP card and not match the British passport and visa she entered on. She can update the passport but that doesn't update the old visa by then. I think that becomes null by the time she gets a green card but until then she'd have to carry some evidence of change of name too if flying in as it might cause problems checking in if the AP card doesn't match the passport and original visa.

To top it off she'd have another hong kong passport and ID card with her old name. Should we even bother updating it all? She'll technically carry both names on them. Its a big mess. Whew.

Hmm, yeah I guess we won't try then. Don't really need to and don't want to get in trouble. thx anyways.