SimplyComplex

Hi everyone! Looking up the 2021 poverty guidelines for a family of my size, which is 5, we'd need to have an income of $38,800. My husband is currently on $36,600 from his base salary, so $2,000 below. But with his bonus work checks because of covid that is added on from his job every week, he is on $43,800 which would be more than enough. My question is, when it asks for income does his covid job bonus get included in this, or just his base pay? We aren't sure as the covid bonus will probably get stopped eventually. But for now, does it count? 

22 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

Yes you have enough from her. London has approved many on just one proof. I don’t know what you are describing as “printouts of her current 2019 yearly salary“.  

Oh I mean printouts from her work showing her hourly pay, how many hours she works, and yearly total salary. Just figured that shows a good overview of her income as of currently. 

Thanks for the help! I'm glad that it sounds like I will have enough to take with me for the interview. 

13 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

You have more than enough. It’s the Mum’s form and documents they will be interested in. If he doesn’t make enough, then he isn’t the sponsor on a K1. Mum is the sponsor.  If he makes 100% of the poverty level, then they may approve him. Does he?

He's unfortunately about $200 short of the 100% aswell. His mum is well over the 125%. So I shouldn't need anything else from her? What we have from her should be enough? 

Hiya, I was just wondering if anyone who has already had an interview using a co-sponsor could share what documents they were asked for?

Or if anyone else could advise me on what I should take and if what I already have should be sufficient? I have my interview booked for the 7th Feb, so getting nervous now. 

From my fiance I have his signed i-134 form, last 3 years of tax transcripts, last 6 months of pay stubbs, employer letter.

However, he doesn't earn quite enough so I realise his mother's documents will be more important.

From his mother we have her signed i-134 form, 2018 tax transcript (showing enough income), printouts of her current 2019 yearly salary and last 4 months of pay stubbs (which are both even higher than 2018) 

Will these documents be enough from her or are they likely to want anything else? 

Our NOA2 was Nov 14th, and after calling today was told our case was received at the NVC and assigned our case number on Dec 5th  

I'm not sure if that means we'll miss out on the shipment on the 10th? Will there be a shipment on the 24th?

Yes if the petitioners are on Medicaid, it means that the beneficiaries will need to be on some kind of private insurance instead when it comes time for adjustment of status. That's my understanding, unless I have that wrong

Yep we have always gone by the 125% so that we are prepared for the higher threshold once adjusting status. I suppose it is more worrying when it comes to that part, as that might be when all of our circumstances look more negative overall, even if it isn't an issue during the K1 process. 

Thanks for the advice, it does help to put our minds at rest a little. We did not know that the health insurance part had been blocked for the time being. And we do absolutely plan on using a joint sponsor. It was just the worry of them putting all those negatives together that we were worried might lead to them being more inclined to refusing us

Hi everyone, just wondering if anyone has any thoughts or advice on a concern my fiancé and I have over the public charge side of things.

We sent off our petition in August, so are hoping to maybe hear something about our case this month (looking at average timelines lately). However our situation is causing us worries since all the new press about public charge and insurance etc.

Our current situation is this:

1. My fiancé (the petitioner) works full time but is short of the 125% poverty salary for the household. He is currently looking for better work or a second job, but at the moment we were going to use his mother as a joint sponsor.

2. He does not have health insurance with his job, and is on Medicaid right now.

3. I have no employment history up to this point, however have every intention of working as soon as I would be permitted to once over there.

With these things working against us, we are getting highly worried and upset that we won't even get past an interview. We have been getting so disheartened that we even considered if we should just withdraw our petition for now, but it is the very last thing we actually want to do.

Does anyone have any thoughts on whether it is still worth going through with it as far as we can? And any advice on what we could do to increase our chances in such a short amount of time? I don't think he is going to be able to increase his salary enough any time soon. I could try find a job before we get to the interview stage but i'm not sure a short period of work like that would satisfy them enough. The only thing we could manage is to have me on some kind of insurance once I got there. To be so close to finally being together after our 4 year relationship, we're heartbroken at the prospect of a denial.

Our packet was delivered 9th Aug and my fiance received our NOA1 text today 13th Aug 🙂

Also, my fiance just asked whether when filling in about our visits with each other, is there any point me mentioning how we had organised and paid for another visit and i'd got as far as touching down in the US only to be denired entry? So that they see we had attempted to spend another visit with each other, or leave that part out on the initial application?

Thank you all for the help and suggestions! I have done months of research about this but there were just those few things we wanted to be sure of and so apologies if some seemed redundant. It's easy to get overwhelmed.

The only part i'm still unsure of is where it says Family Name for people like my mother. Would this be her maiden name on her birth certificate or the married name she officially goes by now and is on her passport etc?

Hey everyone, sorry if these seem really dumb, but i have some questions regarding things to do with the form. I don't want to risk making any mistakes, so i'd rather be safe than sorry! Any help would be very much appreciated!

1. Parts of the pdf form are not open to electronically fill in. Should we fill in what we can electronically and fill the rest in by hand?

2. Do you put N/A in parts that need no answer, or do you leave them blank?

3. Where it says 'Family Name' for yourself/parents etc, do we use current last names or maiden names of people?

4. I am from England, UK.. Wherever it asks for country, do we put England, UK? Or just UK? Or Great Britain?

5. As my father died, in his residence field what do we put? Do we write 'deceased'?

6. When we had organised a holiday for me to the US earlier this year, i was not given admission and sent back home (details on another of my past posts). On the question that asks if i have ever been to the US, do i tick yes or no? Having been sent right back home, do i tick no? I have no i-94 entry after looking that up

7. In the phone number parts, do you need to put country codes in?

8. What do you actually write in the part about actual circumstances of in person meeting? Do we just put the dates and where in this box and then elaborate in the declaration of meeting? Or do we need to put a lot of details about it on the form?

9. What do you put on the money order for where the fee is being paid to?

10. What address do we put at the top of the cover letter and the letters of intent?

Sorry for all the questions! Just want to be thorough  

Thanks for the advice so far 🙂 I did figure I was over-analysing, so I'll stress a little less over it! I think I will just grab a very small handful of snippets just to add a few even if they aren't completely necessary. But still, what would you think would be the best place to take the screenshots from? Fb messenger app, fb website from my pc browser, or a third party export? 

Hi everyone, i wonder if some of you could put my mind at rest. I know i might be overthinking this but i don't want to risk anything going wrong and making a silly mistake anywhere. I've read that you shouldn't need to add a lot of proof of your relationship in terms of chat logs in the initial stage of the K1 packet, as they are more interested in seeing that you have met in person and the proof regarding that, but i would still like to add a few chat snippets in from over the years as something in addition and as peace of mind.

So my questions are:

1. As we have been together for 3 years now and have literally thousands and thousands of messages on facebook messenger, how often should i take snippets from? A conversation every 2 months? 3 months?

   Are there any conversational subjects that would be better than others to show? Like talking about the future, lovey dovey stuff, generic conversations of us talking about our lives?

2. I am not sure where i should take the screenshots from. I could take screenshots of past chats on my phone using the messenger app, but using the conversation search on the messenger app to go back in the chat history seems to leave out pics and emotes etc within the conversations. Or i have found a browser extension that saved our entire chat history, including all pics and emotes within conversations but is not from the official fb app or fb site. Or i could use facebook website itself, but fb messenger on the browser is so large and full of other distracting things on each side. So which of these options would be best?

Again, i know i'm making a mountain out of a molehill by stressing over it so much lol, but the K1 process is a little overwhelming and starting to put together our packet is daunting. So i'd rather ask and stop stressing about it, plus then i will be getting it ready a whole lot sooner! 😃

I'm sorry to hear everyone else's experiences too.

I just didn't realise how much would be frowned upon until it was too late. As I said, it was my first time travelling abroad and I naively thought that with the approved ESTA allowing upto 90 days, it would allow upto 90 days. I'm on a gap year after my degree and put my job hunting on hold so that I would have the time to spend over there. As you know, with long distance you don't get the time that other couples do, so we simply were excited to make the most of as much time as we could. We knew that we'd have all expenses covered between us and didn't intend to do any harm. Just wish I'd known what it would cause so I could have made the trip shorter. Also even though I didn't have as much funds in my debit account as they wanted, I did try and tell them that I had access to more to transfer over if i needed (it was my mum that worries about cards being lost or stolen so she'd told me not to have too much in my main account at a time), to which they didn't take any notice. I could go over and over it in my head, as I have been, and forever kick myself for things we could have done differently so I would have been able to have my holiday, but it is what it is now I suppose. Just not something I will get over quickly. 

I am just relieved that it sounds like it shouldn't affect a K1 application. 

Okay well i will have to hope that's the case and that it won't affect my K1. Just always worried that anything will work against you when trying to apply.

My ESTA application did get an instant approval at the time i applied, and continued to say approved. But after i got denied entry it has been changed to "travel not authorized" now. And says "You are not authorized to travel to the United States under the Visa Waiver Program. You may be able to obtain a visa from the Department of State for your travel. Please visit the United States Department of State website at www.travel.state.gov for additional information about applying for a visa." 

So it seems they just denied me under ESTA and that there is no ban or disallowance to try with any other visa?

Yes that's right, he'd always been the one travelling over to the UK to visit me but only for a couple of weeks at a time. This was going to be my first time travelling to him and to the US and with my situation not working, we were excited to have more time. 

We figured we'd make the most of the opportunity for the visit and have the full allowed time on ESTA, but obviously it's frowned upon and I didn't realise. Just frustrating that it allows upto 90 days but technically it really doesn't as the US won't let you. There is so much to see over there so you'd think they might understand talking the full allotted time if you have the chance, so as to experience as much as you can. In no way was I trying to misuse the ESTA or overstay or do anything wrong. I'm trying to not hold onto being hurt and angry about it all, and to look forward instead. Just obviously very worried it will affect the future and our K1. 

I realise they have a job to do and how they need to do it. And people do break the law and stay illegally so it ruins it for the rest of us. Just very upset by the whole ordeal. I do feel I was not given much of a chance to convince them though by how rushed they did it and didn't let me elaborate on short answers or explain anything to me. But what is done is done I guess. 

I wasn't told anything about withdrawing my attempt to enter though, so does that mean I wasn't offered it? From googling this, it sounds like that is discretionary by the officer? And as I said they just took me straight on a plane home, so I don't know. They did tell me that I can always go for a visa from the embassy instead, and nothing about being banned, so I'm hoping that means no affect towards a K1? But I don't know for sure and don't know how I'd find it for sure. I'm just very overwhelmed and confused. 

And yes, this was my very first trip anywhere. 

No, it was the very first time I'd ever travelled abroad with my new first passport and first time I'd ever used the visa waiver program. So I had no previous issues under my name. It was just all the circumstances all put together it seems. And I feel it was one particular officer that had it out for me from the start. The one that processed me was on the fence I think, but that other officer was the one that shook his head when asked about what he thought (I could hear them discussing it at the front desk while I was in a back room) 

It's hard to make out all the numbers and symbols and I'm not sure what some of the characters actually are but it looks like:

VWR TAI A#216556313 #29231 SPM

I'll try add a picture 

The only paperwork i received was an I-877 form and it only had a copy of the questions they asked me and my answers and then on the last page it says:

"You have been found inadmissible to the United States today. You are being refused admission to the United States under section 217 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. You may never again use the visa waiver program. You must obtain a United States visa to enter the United States in the future".

The same was stamped in the back of my passport about refused under section 217, with some handwritten numbers along with it.

So even though they put me right back on a plane, this was a simply denial of entry?

It does seem that they red flagged me as soon as i said i was coming for 89 days and to see my boyfriend while i was visiting as a tourist. But i was just being honest so i didn't realise. I can somewhat understand why my circumstances caused suspicion, but it's just so frustrating when i know, and everyone else that knows me, knows my intentions were completely not to do anything wrong. I suppose i was naive in the ESTA allowing you to stay for upto 90 days, i was trying to make the most of my trip by staying as long as was allowed. But the whole process was horrible, it was all so fast, i did not get time or opportunity to go into depth for my answers and to try and convince them with my proof. I also got no explanation after being told i was being refused entry other than very briefly being told a sentence about 'ties' even though i kept asking and saying i didn't understand. I don't even know what kind of removal i got, as i was put on a plane right after they gave me the decision and paperwork. However, they did tell me, and it's written on my paperwork, that i can not enter the US on an ESTA ever again, but that i must obtain a visa to enter the US in the future. Nothing is written about being banned or anything. So i don't know what it means? Does it seem like a regular denial? I am so upset by everything and now scared to start the process of the K1 incase. Just incredibly devastating, a stark reminder of how painful and difficult long distance is even when you are trying to do everything legally!

Hi, i'm hoping someone might have some advice or information about my recent experience.

My fiance and I have been together for 3 years now and he is from the US and i am from the UK. We booked a holiday for me to visit him in the US this past week and I was denied entry at the first US airport i landed at (Minneapolis). I had a pre-approved ESTA visa waiver program and was due to come home on the 89th day. However once i landed, customs did not like that i didn't have as much funds on me as they wanted, and they did not feel i had enough 'ties to home' due to i do not currently have a job. Even though i had return tickets, travel insurance, and they looked through my luggage and phone where i had numerous conversations with people talking about my return that showed my intention to leave. Safe to say, it was awful. I was denied entry to the US and told i could not enter again using ESTA, that i would have to get a tourist visa from the embassy and put straight back on a plane home. Completely traumatizing and emotionally devastating. 

Because I still do not have different circumstances, i believe a tourist visa would be denied for the same reasons if i applied any time soon. We started researching the K1 last year and were trying not to rush it by taking our time. At this point we feel that is going to be our focus and we want to push forward with it. So my question is, will my denial to enter the US make any difference to a K1 application? Also will my circumstances ie. no job cause any issues for us during the process?