Julia Hoffman

Hi all,

My husband entered the US on a K1 visa. We've sent in the I-485 together with the I-765 and I-131 and just received the NOA1.

At the same time, my husband was just offered a job (after a rigorous series of interviews, with the knowledge of his visa status). I see here that we can make an Expedite Request for his EAD (work permit), however, we must also submit proof of "severe financial loss" along with the official job offer letter: https://www.uscis.gov/forms/how-make-expedite-request

Our questions is, what evidence should we include to prove financial loss? He owns an apartment in Berlin, DE and pays a higher mortgage than he receives in rent from his tenant (German law prohibits charging more than he does). If we had that payment translated officially, could that work? Or will the USCIS not care because it's a foreign asset? Additionally, we did not mention that same asset in the Affidavit of Support section on his assets (which is optional).  

I owe a few thousand on my credit card as well, for which I could also send proof.  

Please let us know what sort of evidence you've used in EAD expedite requests!

Thanks in advance!

Hi all,

The Consulate in Frankfurt finally received our case (after it was sent to the consulate in Guayaquil, Ecuador by mistake, adding over a month on to our waiting time)! We cannot schedule an interview until we pay the fee (done) and they receive all the necessary documents. The DS-160 has been submitted, we have all the documents, all the forms, everything's ready to go, EXCEPT somehow our certified translation for the police report from when my fiancé lived in Russia seems to have gotten lost in the mail. I'm sure it will show up eventually, but we have a PDF of the certified translation and we just want to get this sent off. Is this enough to send the original police certificate with the scanned certified translation???

The checklist (https://de.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/Instructions-for-IV-and-K-Visa-Applicants.pdf) just says "NOTE: Police certificates not in German or English must be translated by a certified translator. Please note that all police certificate with an entry must be accompanied by a certified English translation." No mention of whether the original certified translation is needed or if a copy is fine. 

Please let me know how your experiences have been.

Thank you,

Julia 

Thanks all,

We've tried the website a few times now, and there's no trace of him. It says his information does not exist in their system. The only other way is to go to Quito in person and request it, lol. Not possible. I'm inclined to go with what Wuozopo said and just forget about it...but it's always a risk. Cross your fingers for us!

Thank you Daniela,

Sadly, his details aren't registered in their system. When we lived there, this sort of thing happened a lot. I'm guessing the embassy is right to say it would take six months or more.

So I guess the real questions in, does he need one if he was there from Feb. 20 - Aug. 14?

Hi all,

My fiancé, a UK citizen, and I are running into some problems preparing for his K-1 interview. As you all know, he is required to bring police reports for all countries he stayed in for 6 months or more. 

Our first issue is that he lived in Ecuador from February 20th, 2018 until August 14th, 2018. At first glance, this is technically just a couple days short of six months. However, it depends whether six months means 6 x 30 days, or 6 x four weeks. Which is it?

Secondly, of course we decided to go ahead and request a police report from Ecuador to be on the safe side, but when he went to the Ecuadorean embassy, they said the request would take more than six months to receive a police report! Additionally, everything we're finding online says that foreigners cannot even obtain police reports from Ecuador:

"No police documents are available for foreigners who reside in or have resided in Ecuador. The Certificade de Antecedentes Personales is available to Ecuadorians who are over the age of 18, who are physically present in Ecuador, who possess a Cedula de Identidad or passport and who apply in person at the Jefaturas y Subjefaturas Provinciales de la Policia Judicial." https://www.wikiprocedure.com/index.php/Ecuador_-_Obtain_police_clearance_certificate_(Criminal_Record_Certificate)

Does anyone have any experience getting Ecuadorean police reports? Or can anyone confirm that he will not need one given that he technically did not stay in the country for six months or more? 

Thank you in advance!

Thanks for all the help. Believe it or not, it was a lawyer who suggested the K-1. She also said a lot of employers will hire the beneficiary once we're married, even if he doesn't yet have his EAD/AP approved. It feels like she gave us terribly wrong information, and we paid quite a bit for her advice. 

But again, we're already seven months into the process for the K-1 and the I-129F was finally approved. We cannot start from scratch with the CR-1. Not an option. We'll make it work for six months until he can work. 

Wow. Okay, thank you all for the information and advice. We were told to go for the K-1 instead of the CR-1 because it's faster...I wasn't told about the rest and didn't realize the part about the 4-6 months of him not being able to work. Now I know, but it's still not worth waiting 1+ years and spending thousands more dollars to start over with the CR-1. I have friend that went that route and it took ages. We'll figure out a way to survive 6 months on my income. 

Again, I appreciate all the help!

Yeah, I accidentally wrote a marriage date, but we haven't been married and won't be until granted the K-1 visa. Yes, I am aware that these timelines are just ideas, but our reality can be much different. We filed the I129F in June and only just received the NOA2 in mid-December...later than the average applicants. Now we have until May, so fingers crossed it all works out. Thanks

Thank you all for your insight. I guess we have a lot to think about, but plenty of time to do so. 

Any idea if it would be okay for my fiancé to work remotely for his current job in Europe while in the US for the first six months after our marriage while he awaits his EAD? Or will he be monitored and double taxed if he does that? Does anyone have any experience with that?  

Thanks. Yeah I figured that would be the case. So if the EAD also takes 4-6 months, what did your partners do about work during that time? They're not legally allowed to work until they have the EAD/AP card, correct?  

What are the average AP/EAD waiting times? Is it possible to expedite the I-131 AP process? Based on our timeline, it looks like my fiancé's K-1 visa could be approved by mid-February or early-March. However, his brother's wedding in England is April 19th. Even if we were married on March 1st and filed all our paperwork right away, it looks quite certain he won't receive his EAD/AP card in time to travel by April 18th. Obviously he cannot miss his brother's wedding, so if there were no guarantee he could leave, we would have to extend the I-129F and K-1 for us to marry after his brother's wedding, meaning more time apart. Heartbreaking. 

Does your partner not speak a word of English? I would personally recommend writing it for him/her to save time and money on the certified translation. However, if your partner speaks no English and therefore cannot conduct the interview in English,  I wonder if they might look back on the letter of intent in distrust.

But I'm also a newbie! Anyone else who can answer based on experience? 

Thank you Kumar!

Thank you all so much for your great advice!

Dear All,

My partner and I have each written a statement detailing the circumstances in which we met and our intent to marry. I also have a more official letter expressing our intent to marry within 90 days of his arrival to the US.

A lawyer recommended that we get these statements notarized, but since we're in Ecuador, we would need to get them translated to Spanish first and then notarized (expensive and a round-about process), or wait three weeks for an appointment at the US Embassy to do so - but our situation is quite urgent as I will be moving back to the US for work, so the more time it takes, the more time we'll be apart.

Would you suggest we notarize them? Or have any of you had your I-129F approved without doing so? I have plenty of additional supporting evidence, more than the recommended items.

Another option would be for my father to write a statement that he met my fiancé years ago and we have been engaged since then, and he can have his statement notarized. Might this be enough? 

Thank you in advance for the support! 

Julia

Also, for some reason the PDF of my form won't allow me to fill in certain parts. Do you think they would be annoyed if I type in certain fields and write in others? Or is it best to keep it homogenous? 

Thank you Arken! Big help!

Part 1, Items 50-51: Petitioner's Past Residence

Must this section be in chronological order? If I have lived in foreign countries, should I leave "State" blank and only include Country?

Thank you!

Julia