C&AH

I apologize beforehand I posted this question in the wrong forum...

My wife is a permanent resident. We moved and reported the change of address by completing an AR-11 the day that we moved. That was over two weeks ago to date. We did receive a confirmation # that the request was submitted but we have yet to receive confirmation that the address was changed. I'm only concerned because we did receive an email confirming the petitioner address change for our stepkid petitions (pending cases) but not anything that my wife's (a legal resident) address changed.

I called UCSIS and waited over an hour. He told me that he does not have access to the address since it isn't a pending case and that I will have to call back in the morning to be transferred to a higher up. UCSIS reps do not have address information for legal residents? I know it going to be a wait forever in the morning and I'm trying to work. Is there another way to confirm that the address was changed? Thanks for your help.

Our kids have been documentarily qualified at NVC since May 21. IR-2 visas. Still patiently waiting for an interview date in SDO.

Any word on the embassy in Santo Domingo,  Dominican Republic? IR-2 visas. Scheduling interviews or still closed?

Petitions for stepkids have been accepted marked documentarly qualified since March 30. In queue for an interview. We are moving this week and submitted the change of address for all petions online through UCSIS, we input the receipt numbers. https://egov.uscis.gov/coa/addressChange.do

Since NVC has it, do we need to submit another change through them with case numbers or is it handled through one system? We received a confirmation email that the request was submitted. Thanks.

Yes,the closure is frustrating. Our stepchildren petitions are now documentarily qualified through NVC and in line for the interview. Now it is a waiting game as to when the interview is scheduled in Santo Domingo, DR. The Dominican president just extended the state of emergency for 25 more days. The immigration process is certainty not for the faint of heart. One has to have lots of patience. As a German philosopher said, "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

Our stepchildren petitions are now documentarily approved and en queue for an interview. Now it a waiting game as to when the embassies reopen.  Ours is in Santo Domingo, DR.

On 5/5/2020 at 11:39 PM, SDNOMAD said:

Hi there can you please tell me how to obtain a police certificate from the DR I’m a Canadian who owns a vacation property there and I’m thinking they might request a police cert in my interview so I want to be prepared! Although I have never spent any longer than a few months at a time there....

 

thanks 

Police certificates in the DR are obtained through Banco Popular (a national bank) and can be requested online. I'm not sure if you will need one from the DR, however since you are immigrating from Canada. Please double check on that as I do not want to give you erroneous information.

As an update, we submitted the paperwork to NVC without the police certificate from my 17 yo stepdaughter and wrote a note saying that they do not issue police certificates in the DR for minors under 18. She is now documentarily qualified and now awaiting the interview at the embassy.

Hello. My wife is here on a CR-1 and we hope her conditions will be removed this year. With all the talk surrounding the EO and other issues, e do not want to spend the rest of our lives stressing over things like this. The solution is that she apply for citizenship as soon as she becomes eligible- which is about 2 years out from this date. The major concern is that her English is very limited but we do have 2 years to prepare.

I'm a Spanish teacher and so we speak Spanish in the home (which is not benefiting her, I admit). I also understand how languages work and English is incredibly difficult to learn).

I'm willing to do whatever possible; however, for her to learn the language. She does have English speaking friends and works in an English speaking environment, and we are now watching TV and movies in English, which helps.

My question is this: what is the level of English that one has to know in order to pass the exam? Could someone share some experiences that might help? Is the interview conducted orally?

We are new to this process but now is the time to prepare!!!!

My stepdaughter has an expired passport from another country. The passport is expired and she has never been to that country. I answered the question truthfully on the DS260 and wrote the expired passport number of the second country. My question is should we included a biographic page of that passport in other documents (it says "optional") even though it is expired? Her first passport in her country of birth is valid and we included the scan of the biographic page in the required documents of CEAC. Hope this question make sense. Have a great day!

1 hour ago, Jorgedig said:

Can't her legal parent or guardian request one?  

No. I don't think so. It has to do with conflicting information. The DR says they don't issue police certificates to minors under 18.

Question. My step-daughter is 17. In the Dominican Republic,  one must have an ID to get a police report and one must be 18 to receive an ID. We looked it up and a document from the US Embassy in Santo Domingo said that one must be 18 to obtain a police report but Travelstate.gov  (official info for NVC) says a police report is required for everyone 16 and older. 

Has anyone run into this problem? What did you do. We need am answer quickly since we are submitting docs into CEAC. 

Hello again!

We are trying to scan passport photos into CEAC and we are trying to make sure they meet standards. We have the passport photos in hand. When we scan them, they come out a little blurry and we don't think that will be up to standards. We then took the pictures with my Smartphone but we cannot get the sizing correct. We tried the digital photo tool on the Travel.state.gov website: https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/passports/content-page-resources/FIG_cropper.swf

and it will not save the photos on the desktop. We tried everything and do not know if there are other alternatives. We cannot get new photos taken because our kids are in the Dominican Republic and the ones we have are recent enough to meet the requirements.

Please help because we are trying to get the uploads completed. Anyone have suggestions.

Does the passport biographic page for NVC have to be in color? We are uploading docs and want to make sure into CEAC. Thanks!

Hello. Forgive me in advance if I posted this question in the wrong forum as I wasn't sure where to post.

My wife has a CR-1 visa, resident ID card, a SSN card, a state issued ID and has been working since February. We are traveling for the first time to her home country (Dominican Republic) since her arrival in the USA in December 2018.  Our stay will be one week to visit family. What documents does she need for a smooth entry back into the USA next week? I also understand that she and I can go through the same line? (I'm a US citizen). Thanks for any tips and advice. We are also celebrating our 2 year wedding anniversary in few days.

My wife immigrated with a CR 1 visa in December. We moved last month for a new job. Two days before moving,  we submitted the AR 11 online and mailed the signed copy 2 days later. I haven't heard anything and I called USCIS today just to see if her address was changed.  The agent said that he could not find anything and filed a change by phone and gave me a confirmation number at the end of the call. I was able to pull up the AR 11 with the confirmation number on the form online, it is still in the system with 08/08/2019.

So I called back and the second agent told me that the first agent wasn't supposed to file a change by phone because that is for pending cases only.  She said all we can do is wait because she cannot look up non pending cases. 

I don't know what to do. We are trying to follow the rules by filing within 10 days of a move. We did what we are supposed to and the AR 11 is still showing in the system.

All we wanted to do was confirm that the address was changed. Now this.  Any advice? Please help.  

1 minute ago, USS_Voyager said:

Good deal. Do update later. 

Will do! If it is something new, I'll do a general posting for information for others that might get something similar. 

4 minutes ago, USS_Voyager said:

So did they call back in five hours?

I just spoke with them this morning.  Last night they said it was too late to be transferred.  I'm waiting now.

13 hours ago, USS_Voyager said:

I read somewhere in this forum that there is a USCIS pilot program where you get this IOE and it’s supposed to be faster time to approval and the data is transferred electronically to the NVC, make it a well, modern”-ish”process, vs the good ol’ all paper-based process like in the 1920s when the Irish came over.

 

I have absolutely no idea. If you call USCIS and give them the receipt number and ask them to tell you the beneficiary’s name, what would they say?

The agent is saying that she cannot see a beneficiary's name from her end and transferred me to a higher department for a call back in five hours.

Correction on my last post: it is an I-797C listing my name as "applicant" with an Online Access Code. Notice Type: USCIS  Account Access Notice.

We really need your help tonight.  I, the US. citizen petitioner, sent I-130 petitions for my three stepchildren to the Chicago Lockbox. I placed each petition in a separate manila envelope clearly marked on the outside Petitioner: my name, Beneficiary: name. The three separate envelopes were sent in one larger envelope to ensure that case numbers are sequenced. I sent paper petitions with money orders attached to each petition.  The forms were completed correctly.

We received the I-797 for each case (three separate case numbers sequenced, like we hoped). The crazy thing is that all of the I-797 notifications do not have beneficiary names but my name (the petitioner) as the "applicant" and addressed to my name in care of my name.

Also, I don't understand why they were assigned IOE numbers since I  paid with a money order/paper filed not electronic files. 

I called USCIS and she said it is strange that beneficiary names aren't on the receipts and said the error was on the part of USCIS because if it was on our part then the petition would have been rejected. She said I need to call back tomorrow when I can be transferred to a higher department. 

I am calling tomorrow but I am totally confused about this. I am also worried that she wasn't informed enough to answer. The receipts are dates July 8 and the USCIS case tracker says the cases are at the Integrates Env Operating location. Please help.

IOE? (when I paper filed)

My name as "applicant" on the I-797? (On all three receipts?)

Hello. I am sending separate petitions for each of my three stepkids. I plan to separate them into three manila envelopes. However,  can the three envelopes all be sent together into one large envelope? Or should they be sent separately?

My wife is worried that the three cases won't get sent from Chicago to the same service center for processing thus causing one case to delay behind the another.  

I hope this question makes sense. Please help. 

We are beginning I-130 separate petitions for my 3 stepkids. I'm the US citizen petitioner.  We were married before their 18th birthday. So they qualify. One of the three recently turned 18. Here is my question.

Does the 18 year old need to complete Form I 130a and do we need to complete the same form for the other 2 minor children? My thinking is the I 130a is only for spouses but we want to be sure to get it right the first time. Thanks for your help. 

Okay I know we need permission forms from the other parent or a court order but do we need it at the USCIS phase or is that documentation submitted to NVC? 

I'm a US citizen getting ready to start petitions for my stepkids. My wife has been here since December on a CR-1 visa. Is there a comprehensive checklist? If so, do you have a link? What should we include? 

We want to make sure to get everything right the first time. Thanks for your help.

10 minutes ago, arken said:

My question to that so called tax professional would be “if one can file a joint filing with the spouse abroad with ITIN number, why can’t one amend it for same thing just with the SSN?”

 

Anyway if it helps, i did even mention in the “Reason for amends” box of 1040X that my wife was abroad for entire year (2015 in my case)and was never present in the US for that whole year so i don’t need to pay healthcare penalty for not having my wife’s insurance for that year. 4 months later, my face was sparking for the refund i got.

Just to clarify, you DID or DID NOT mention that your wife was abroad for that entire year? Making sure it wasn't a typo.  I hope to be sparking too because it would be a much better feeling to actually get a refund rather than owing them!

I plan to follow your advice to a tee. The "tax professional" turned around and said that if she has been here even one day in 2018, then we can file joint after saying she had to be here 6 months in 2017. He is an immigrant himself running a tax office, which is why I thought he might know something about this.

10 minutes ago, arken said:

 

You can amend ur 2017 return to joint filing using ur wife’s SSN once she gets o e. If your wife has no 2017 income from the foreign country, you would get a bunch of refund.

 

I did the same. Rather than going thru ITIN, i filed MFS and then amended to MFJ once my wife came to US and got her SSN.

Thanks for your help.  I talked with a "tax professional" at a local office who said that of she did not reside in the USA during any part of the 2017 tax year, then an amended return isn't possible. He further said thar she wpuld have had to reside with me for 6 months. Not I'm utterly confused!