bird&bear

Congratulations! This a fantastic news, and I'm so jealous lol! Best of luck on your next steps! ♥

Looking at Texas, it says 8 to 10 months for the spouse of a USC but 5 to 7 months for the spouse of an LPR? That's... weird. I'm not sure I trust these numbers...

As others have stated, you can always keep a bit of money in your Canadian savings accounts. This can be especially handy when/if you go back to visit. For transferring money over (for both the initial move and for paying off debt), as missileman has said, bank to bank wire transfer may be the most straightforward option, depending on your bank. When I moved back to the US from New Zealand last year, I used a service called TransferWise, as they had the best rates I could find at the time (better than my bank). There are other services that do transfers, like CurrencyFair and Curexe, but I haven't used them and so can't vouch for them. I'd check out a few different options, figure out which has the best conversion rate AND transfer fees, and go with whatever is simplest for you. (Alas, more research!)

Hi @SSorensen! I was just wondering what you and your partner ended up doing and what your result was? We are still waiting for our NOA2, but my husband has a similar case (category 1 of fence and Clean Slate Act), and I'd love to know what your solution was! Thank you!

You and I got married on the same day and sent the i-130 package in the same week! I love it. Hopefully by our one-year anniversaries we'll be reunited with our husbands? Maybe? Welcome to the thread--and to the long wait!

It's annoying hahaha. I just printed it out and wrote it in. I'm not sure what more you can do, and honestly it's probably easiest. 😊

Welcome to the thread! We're all going through this together and it's great to have people to talk to about this. I'm sorry to hear your petition ended up in Nebraska, but you never know what could happen! The processing time estimates seem to be changing all the time (Texas went from "6-8 months" to "7-9 months" recently... >_>) so the most we can all do is kick up our boots and wait it out... Good luck, and it's good to have you here!

My husband is coming to visit this year as well. This will be his 3rd visit in less than a year, so I'm a little nervous he's going to get asked questions. New Zealand is VWP country though (and I believe Finland is too!), so I don't think you or he will get much trouble from CBP. I think he is planning to bring a letter from his employer, some recent paystubs, and a copy of the NOA1 (once I receive the mailed version). I think a letter from your prof wouldn't hurt! When I was at uni, I had an advisor who would help me plan out my entire academic career and make sure I met all the requirements for my major--does your uni have someone like that who'd be able to vouch for you as well? That might help show that you've got long term plans back home...

omg are you me? I'm exactly the same--checking VJ all the time, adding to my notes constantly... In other news, you were totally right--it's been a day since they charged my card, and I just got the text! Yay! Texas Service Center, if this place is right. Now to settle in for the long wait.

Thank you so much! It sounds like we have the same set-up for our package, so fingers crossed I receive a text today or Monday! Logically I know it's a whole lot of waiting either way, but I'm dying to know which service center we'll be processed at... I'm a naturally anxious person and this process is my worst nightmare lol (I've got spreadsheets and spreadsheets of checklists, timelines, etc... They both help and worsen my anxiety hahaha). I know it sucks for all of us, but at the same time it's so comforting to know that I'm not alone and we're along for the same ride! Thank you both for your kind words. ❤️ I'll do my best to breathe and be patient!

Looking at the guides again, you're absolutely right! Agh, I'm a doofus (the g1145 itself said it should be placed on top of "the first page of your immigration forms" which I presumed to mean the i-130 form itself!). Definitely going to ask the community here to check all my next steps, as I could have sworn I had the order right... It's such a shame that a tiny switch makes such a huge difference. 😣 Wellp, the wait continues!

They finally charged my credit card at about 6am PDT on 3/14, but who knows how much time actually elapsed between them having our petition in hand and then charging the card. Still no notification, though... Maybe it's because I put my cover letter on top of my enotification form? 😭

Hi @Desbaez! I'm in the same boat--just sent the i-130 off last week. We've both got a long wait ahead of us (as adil-rafa said, a year or more probably) so lots of time to prepare. I've been studying/prepping using the NVC guides here and here. They appear to pretty much list everything you will likely need, including tax transcripts for the past 3 years, info about the DS-260 and DS-261, and info about the i-864. They are super super comprehensive! I would start by figuring out which version of the i-864 you will need, and review/pre-fill it out so you know what information and documents you will need at the NVC stage. Same goes for the DS-260, since the guide says it can take up to an hour to complete. At least look at them, so you can gather any info you will need later, now. Use the above guides to at least start making a list of what you need and when you should request for it. I put together a spreadsheet for myself, so I know what I need, what I already have, and when I should request other things. I have a poor memory, so things like these help me stay organized over the looooong months ahead. Good luck!

I need to stay away from this thread--it's killing me waiting for our NOA1! UPS delivered on the 8th... so it should be soon, right? Hah! It's only been like 3 days... How am I going to survive the next 8+ months? 😅 Good luck, everybody!

I'm not a tax expert, full disclosure. But the way I see it, tax deductions are there to allow you to reduce the amount of income that you are taxed on. This is not necessarily applicable to immigration, because immigration isn't interested in how much you're eligible to be taxed on. All they are interested in is what your (or in this case, your partner's) income is, in order to determine if they make enough to support you. So that's why deductions aren't really a part of the i-864, I believe.