KeratNY

2 minutes ago, gm23 said:

Correct it starts with MSC, thanks for the clarification. So in question 15 in form I-765 where it asks Have you ever before applied for employment authorization from USCIS, it asks Which USCIS Office? Do I put NBC or Chicago Lockbox? 

For that you put NBC. Chicago lockbox is just an administrative center, NBC reviews the application and issues EAD

10 hours ago, TNJ17 said:

You’re not allowed to work until EAD. If you say you are, you are misinterpreting yourself and violating the terms of your visa and will definitely get you in trouble with USCIS. They will find out, and they will deny your aos and you’ll most likely get a deportation order. Not really worth it is it?

None of this is correct. 

Yes, you need work authorization in order to work. At the same time, unauthorized employment is forgiven if you adjust status through immediate relative, as OP is doing. This is law by Congress. So it will not be denied on this reason alone and you certainly won't get a deportation order. This is adjusting status 101. 

By federal law all employers are SUPPOSED to ask for work authorization. Many do not, especially the smaller ones. If a company asks for your social security number, but does not give you an I-9 to fill out or run e-Verify with your social security number, they may not know or care about your work authorization. (To be crystal clear you cannot misrepresent anything on an I-9). In that case, you would be working without authorization, until your EAD card comes but it won't affect your status or application. 

Note: nothing here is meant to condone or encourage unauthorized employment, these are all simple facts.

1 hour ago, gm23 said:

Hey there,

So I am renewing EAD 765 and AP 131 combo card for my wife. In 4 1/2 months it expires. I've been told since I am under AOS and am waiting for interview my fee is waived. My question is this; to what address do I send the renewal forms and supporting documents? People keep telling me it's Chicago Lockbox but my documents were send from NBC. I live in Dallas so it would make more sense to me to be Dallas Lockbox. 

 

I know my application is under category c9 and it says Chicago Lockbox but on the uscis website it says the following for c9 Chicago Lockbox: 

"Pending family-based Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Resident or Adjust Status and: You filed your application with the USCIS Chicago Lockbox, AND your receipt number begins with “MSC” OR You filed your Form I-485 with the immigration judge"

 

I didn't file the first EAD application at Chicago Lockbox nor was approved by an immigration judge. It still is Chicago?

Chicago Lockbox is the right address for all adjustment of status, regardless of you living in Dallas. I'm willing to bet you sent the original ones to chicago. The lockbox is just an administrative center before it gets forwarded to the NBC. Just doublechecking your receipt number begins with “MSC"?

10 hours ago, Willallen25 said:

I'll check it out thanks. That would be wonderful. 

Usually it's the same card. Check the bottom right of the card and tell us what it says

7 minutes ago, azblk said:

This is not entirely accurate:

1. You can include evidence of bona fide marriage  with your application does not have to wait for interview. Infact if you read the i-130 instructions - they ask that you do.

2. You can use a copy of your US passport to prove citizenship.

3.You can use personal checks, money orders, cashiers checks or even debit/credit cards to pay your fees.

 

https://www.uscis.gov/system/files_force/files/form/i-130instr.pdf?download=1

 

I disagree with #2. If one were to use only US passport to prove citizenship one would be severely disappointed. This is the USCIS world we live in. 

Getting EAD without bona fides happens every day. 

On 5/3/2016 at 11:08 AM, ylsla said:

Today i had an aos interview with my usc husband. We got the 130 approved but We got a 601 waiver for accruing more than 180days unlawful presence. Does anyone know about this process?how hard Is it to prove the extreme hardship and how hard is it to get approved? The officer At The interview said if our 601 comes back to him, he will approve it. How long will this process take? Thank you in advance.

What was the resolution of this?

10 hours ago, pinkpaws said:

Hi!

 

Is Form G-325A and a passport copy of the US citizen necessary for filing I-485? I don't see them listed on the guidelines, but I may be wrong?

G-325 is obsolete and see my post above on US passport

Is this for adjustment of status when the beneficiary is in the US? If so, a couple of issues. The G-325 is obsolete, what made you do them? Also you should not provide bona fides with the application, that is for the interview stage. The petitioner should only include his birth cerificate as that proves US citizenship, believe it or not a US passport does not prove it and should not be included (in short, passports are issued by Department of State and USCIS has jurisdiction here and their policy is that US passport is not definitive proof of citizenship). You should not include your ORIGINAL marriage certificate, just a copy. I notice you included personal checks, please doublecheck that is fine as I was instructed to use cashier's checks. I included I think 8 passport photos of beneficiary you only have 2 or 4? Lastly make sure you sure you apply for advance parole as well as that is free with the filing of the other docs. 

On 5/7/2018 at 12:19 AM, Pauliittaa said:

Hello all I have a couple of questions about obtaining a visa for my mother in law. My mother in law wishes to have a US visa. I am a US citizen and I plan on traveling to El Salvador where she resides. I was hoping while I was over there to accompany her to the US embassy. Im not sure if my presence and proving that I will financially take car of her while she's here and make sure she returns will make a difference. What documents do you guys recommend she takes. 

 

Any advice you guys can provide will be very helpful . Thank you so much.

I don't think the advice in this thread has been blunt enough. So here it is: she has an uphill battle, from a high fraud country, to prove she is going to go back home when her stay expires, instead of overstaying in the US with her child and in-law. Your presence can actually hurt as it shows a significant tie to the US, and it is pretty common sense to see she may prefer a life in the US with her children than her life in El Salvador. 

She will have to go above and beyond to prove her strong ties to her home country.

On 4/24/2018 at 4:34 PM, Dee elle said:

We relinquised our GC after 9 years in the US.. successfully visited the US for the next 25 years using VWP and ESTA before appplying for IR5 visas to immigrate again 

That's a wild story. What made you give up your GC after 9 years rather than naturalizing?

1 hour ago, JackCasillas said:

I have a wife 3 kids 10,9 and 5 a house

Unfortunately emotional issues from seperation is not enough for a hardship waiver

30 minutes ago, little immigrant said:

I chose not to have children with my first husband because I'm chronically ill and I'm not willing to sacrifice my medication and ultimately my health for a baby. Also I wouldn't have the energy to raise a child. And I don't want to pass my defective genes to a human being. Just because I chose not to have a kid doesn't mean my marriage with my first husband wasn't real. 

I said having a child is indicative of having a real relationship, NOT that not having a child is indicative of a sham marriage. Of course lots of people choose not to have children, including me! 

On 5/9/2018 at 11:10 AM, donsun said:

Need some help here.

 

Wife applied for AOS from F-1 status, and we had all SSN fields blank because she did not have one at the time. She recently got an offer to work part-time on-campus which I believe makes her eligible for an SSN since she needs it for her I-9 to work.

 

-Can she apply for an SSN while her AOS is pending?

-Will we have to notify USCIS?

-Could it mess up her EAD since we checked the box saying to apply for SSN if it's approved on the I-765 form?

You have to wait for the SSN that comes from her AoS. You won't be able to get one on your own

Go to this site to find your travel history and use the PoE they list there:

https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/history-search

13 hours ago, JackCasillas said:

In order to earn an approval of the waiver the individual must demonstrate that the conviction in question occurred more than 15 years before the date of the application for adjustment of status, the admission of the individual would not be contrary to the national welfare, safety, or security of the United States, and that the individual has been rehabilitated. Alternatively, if less than fifteen years have elapsed since the date of conviction, the individual will have to prove that the denial of the waiver would result in extreme hardship to the individual’s spouse, parent, son, or daughter. Note that the spouse, parent, son, or daughter in question must be a Lawful Permanent Resident or a U.S. Citizen.

Have you actually applied for K3 visa? I hope not, it is effectively dead, because the the CR-1 visa (or IR-1 if your marriage is more than 2 years old) is similar but once the spouse enters the U.S., s/he enters as a Resident and he does not have to file (or pay for) an I-485 nor have to attend an additional interview. He just gets his green card in the mail a few weeks later.

4 minutes ago, Orangesapples said:

I just don't see why the US would care about it because it doesn't violate the spirit of the law. 

 

But yeah, sorry, early morning. 

They would care about it because they are committed to "US jobs for US workers" and they take the most liberal view of what a US job is - and any job performed within its own borders, regardless of who it ultimately benefits, is a US job. If she is a therapist seeing patients by skype online that takes away from a US therapist who can do that. If she is a web designer, that takes away from 1 US web designer. They can't control what happens in other countries but they can and do control what happens within its own borders.  If OP was applying for employment based green card she would be violating her status and putting the PR in jeopardy. 

Just now, Orangesapples said:

I thought the point of needing work authorization in order to work in the US is so that the immigrant doesn't take a job from a US citizen, undermining wages and changing the labor market. 

Nothing you said contradicts what I said. 

4 minutes ago, geowrian said:

An alien in the US working remotely for a non-US employer (without a matching US company) is not taking a job from anybody else.

Says who? Who is to say that if this action was barred this non-US employer would then need to set up shop in the US in order to have US workers? In other words, if they couldn't have 10 people working from them remotely who then traveled to the US and did that work, they might need to hire 10 people in the US do that work. That is the stance this administration has really hammered home. 

8 minutes ago, geowrian said:

I'd challenge the assumption that the US does have say on who can work for a non-US employer. Specifically, the USCIS policy manual covers unauthorized employment as a bar to AOS here:

https://www.uscis.gov/policymanual/HTML/PolicyManual-Volume7-PartB-Chapter6.html

Specifically:

"A. Definitions

1. Unauthorized Employment

Unauthorized employment is any service or labor performed for an employer within the United States by a foreign national who is not authorized by the INA or USCIS to accept employment or who exceeds the scope or period of the foreign national’s employment authorization. ^[11] "

 

The USCIS definition of unauthorized employment specifically states that it applies to an employer within the US. The employer in this example is not within the US. Additionally, the definitions USCIS uses for employee, employer, and employment back this up:

https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-11261/0-0-0-28757/0-0-0-28770.html#0-0-0-18289

The term employee means an individual who provides services or labor for an employer for wages or other remuneration but does not mean independent contractors as defined in paragraph (j) of this section or those engaged in casual domestic employment as stated in paragraph (h) of this section;

(g) The term employer means a person or entity, including an agent or anyone acting directly or indirectly in the interest thereof, who engages the services or labor of an employee to be performed in the United States for wages or other remuneration. In the case of an independent contractor or contract labor or services, the term employer shall mean the independent contractor or contractor and not the person or entity using the contract labor;

(h) The term employment means any service or labor performed by an employee for an employer within the United States, including service or labor performed on a vessel or aircraft that has arrived in the United States and has been inspected, or otherwise included within the provisions of the Anti-Reflagging Act codified at 46 U.S.C. 8704, but not including duties performed by nonimmigrant crewmen defined in sections 101(a)(10) and (a)(15)(D) of the Act. However, employment does not include casual employment by individuals who provide domestic service in a private home that is sporadic, irregular or intermittent;

 

But alas, there is no case to look at where either of these viewpoints has been tested.

Well, we're getting far removed from OP's question but the key phrase is: "or who exceeds the scope or period of the foreign national’s employment authorization"

So again if they get authorization to be temporarily employed here through a business visa and then do more than the scope allows them to do they have violated their status. Since OP's spouse has no employment authorization to be here on behalf of foreign employer, any work she does for them exceeds the scope of her (non-existent) authorization. 

Your example only works if she had employment authorization from the US on behalf of her work for the foreign employer and she stayed within that scope. For example, say a manager for Toyota in Japan wanted to come to the US to tour factories and give some speeches and training. They get a business visa for this purpose. Can they now do any work they want here on behalf of Toyota in Japan? Clearly, no, that would be exceeding the scope of the visa and is considered unauthorized employment. 

This is very, very well established. 10s of thousands of people every day would like to work here illegally on behalf of a foreign employer without needing to go through all that work/business visa pain. The fact that this does not happen with impunity should be a clue that it is barred in practice and theory. 

25 minutes ago, geowrian said:

That is a valid argument. The common counterargument is that the US has no say on who is eligible to work for a non-US employer. Sure the IRS can (and does) tax you based on its own set of rules, but the IRS taxes you on worldwide income anyway so it doesn't matter if it's for a foreign employer or not. Another argument is that if the US considered this remote work for a foreign employer to be unauthorized employment, then anybody who checks their work email or takes a conference call or something in the US would be violating status unless they had work authorization.

 

Which set of arguments is stronger is something not established in law or court precedent yet.

 

The US has complete say on who does what work within its own borders regardless of who it ultimately benefits. That is why temporary business visitors need specific visas and their work here is highly regulated and limited in scope. The work email thing is beyond the scope of this thread but believe it or not there is an "active vs passive" test and if they can prove you went beyond the normal "responding to emails on vacation" then you could be violating that status. In this online  world, millions would be abuse it by living and working here for a parent employer in another country. 

It is a virtual certainty that the spouse is engaging in unauthorized employment, but luckily that is not an issue in this case and there are no obstacles to doing it. The one thing this changes is that she must be honest and answer "yes" if ever asked if she has engaged in unauthorized employment. Luckily, it is very unlikely anyone would ask her, and she doesn't have to go back and change the I-485 to answer "yes" to that question, and there would be no consequences anyway. 

13 hours ago, geowrian said:

This is a gray area and there simply isn't a definitive answer if it is permitted or not. It's in the crossroads between immigration law and tax law. You will find valid arguments from lawyers on both sides of the issue.

USCIS has not pursued this as unauthorized employment (nor would they as an IR of a USC), but that doesn't mean that they will never push the issue. The laws just haven't kept up with technology.

Not sure I understand the gray area. 

I think it is clearly unauthorized employment (it matters where you do the work from not where the company is based) but UE that doesn't matter for adjustment through spouse though.  This is well established. Otherwise it would be ripe for abuse, everyone working here illegally and saying they were doing it for a parent company or LLC in their home country. 

She will have to pay the taxes here, not in the foreign country. This is also well established and immutable, that's why they call it "death and taxes." She can prove to the foreign country that she paid the taxes here. And no, it will not be an issue that she filed taxes for income received before she got her EAD. 

In short, she is engaging in unauthorized employment, but that is forgiven when adjusting through spouse, as long as that is the only issue (ie not claiming to be a US citizen, false work docs etc)

Finally got you on one @geowrian!

39 minutes ago, aleful said:

no, not possible, the sponsor just like your wife will have to prove to the government that the beneficiary won't become a public charge. he or she has to live here.

 

the green card is for family reunification, to live together in the US. they are responsible for their daughter, not her sister

 

your wife will be responsible for her parents

 

 

 

this only matters if one were to use any public means-tested benefit. OP has not indicated this could be the case

3 hours ago, TiklingGuy said:

My wife who is a citizen now wants to get her little sister here who is under 18. My questions are, what is the best way? File for her parents, bring them here and then they file for her to come? Or does my wife just file directly for her little sister?

 

My biggest question, if we bring her parents here, how long do they have to be here to file for her little sister, which is there daughter? So it would be a permanent residence file for their underage child basically. Is there a time limit? or as soon as they cross the gate, can they file for her?

 

Thanks for any answers you could provide

Take a look at the visa bulletin:

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2018/visa-bulletin-for-may-2018.html

So for siblings (F4), you're looking at 14 year wait (or 20+ year if sibling is from Mexico or Philippines)

So yes you can bring her parents here faster, and then once they are PRs then the wait is another two years if she is still a minor. If not, that's more like 7 years.  

But there are a lot of potholes here. Plan it out with a lawyer if you go this route. 

4 hours ago, A&Vparamo said:

 so I need some advice on what to do and how to help my fiance. we have known each other for five years and have been together for 2 years of that five. He is undocumented he has been here since 2000 and he has  an 11 year old daughter. He has never gone to get any kind of documents, and he has not had any kind of criminal activity in the United States since he's been here. The only thing he has had is tickets for driving with no license but he has paid those fines.  A lot of the deportation that's going on around my town has put a hold on us going through with going to the courthouse to get our marriage license. He is afraid but they may get him if we do so. So question # 1....Is that possible for them to get him at the courthouse for us getting marriage license? #2... what do you recommend for me to do in order to help my fiance become u.s. citizen? And #3...  after we do get married what are the necessary assets that we need to follow through with to have to prove our marriage is real?

They won't arrest him at the courthouse. ICE isn't there, except by coincidence. You don't even need to be lawfully present in the country to get married here. You just need identification and maybe some proof you live in that state. 

However if he entered without inspection, you're in for a long tough road with likely not a good outcome, I'm afraid. If he just overstayed his visa, then you can adjust status fairly easily (assuming you're a US citizen)

2 hours ago, payxibka said:

Obviously you don’t know that undocumented means exactly that.  

Undocumented also refers to people who came here legally and overstayed their lawful stay.