marahm18

2 hours ago, Hawk Riders said:

!

So you had it in hand 2 days later, 3?

2 days

6 hours ago, Hawk Riders said:

got your passport back? 

Yup, it was issued and shipped the same day as my interview. 

Any special instructions for POE? I know some people have made inventory lists of what they’re bringing in etc. Is this required?

Im hoping it’ll be quick and painless. We’re bringing our newborn across with us so hoping she stays asleep in the car with my husband  and I can be in and out quickly! 

2 hours ago, Tofu said:

Sounds a lot more like an interview than POE !  At least that part is over and you are now together  Congratulations and thank you for sharing!

Agreed. Not sure why they asked you so many questions - wasn’t that the point of the interview? 
 

I’m surprised because we cross through the Sarnia border almost every 2 weeks and no one has ever asked anything out of the ordinary. 

Hi All, 

My US Citizen spouse is filing his tax return and we were wondering if it would be possible to claim me (his Canadian spouse) as a dependent. I didn't work at all in 2019 and don't have any taxable income. Claiming me as a dependent would likely give him a larger return. Does anyone know how to go about this? The previous year he just filed "Married filing separately".

I don't have an ITIN number so I assume we'd have to get that but does anyone have any information or experience on the matter? 

I'm pregnant and it's likely that I'll deliver our child right around our interview time. Has anyone experienced delivering in Canada and then moving to the states? I'm not worried about having my own green card but I'm wondering how long it would take for the baby to be able to travel... It's all dependent on how fast we can get the baby's birth certificate and passport. Our plan is to register it as a foreign birth abroad at the US consulate but we can't do that until we have the birth certificate in hand. Has anyone been in this situation?

1 minute ago, Paul & Mary said:

You file for a CBRA for the baby if citizenship can be passed, then a passport.  In most countries it is pretty fast.

Citizenship can be passed so we figured that would be the best route. Just worried about how long it would take to get the birth certificate as you can't file for a CBRA until you have the birth certificate in hand... from my understanding

I'm pregnant and it's likely that I'll deliver our child right around our interview time. Has anyone experienced delivering in Canada and then moving to the states? I'm not worried about having my own green card but I'm wondering how long it would take for the baby to be able to travel... It's all dependent on how fast we can get the baby's birth certificate and passport. Has anyone been in this situation?

Try right at 7 AM. That's when they open and I've usually been able to get through pretty quickly. 

We submitted outbound documents on CEAC and they were “accepted” really quick. Within a couple business days. I called the NVC to ask when we should expect to receive our DQ letter and I was told that my case was put under administrative processing. 

Has as anyone heard of AP at the NVC stage? I’m curious to know how far this sets us back in terms of our timeline. Here I was, all excited that we had gotten our documents accepted so quickly. 

I got an email today saying that the NVC updated the status of my immigrant visa application. When I logged in it showed our documents as “accepted”. Does this mean I’m documentarily qualified? I didn’t get any type of email or letter saying so. 

On 10/26/2019 at 2:02 PM, DGF said:

I’m sorry if this is in the wrong place!

 

For the past year and a half I have been traveling to the US to visit my husband every other weekend or so and staying for 4 nights each time. We are about 6 months out from my interview (CR1) but that is assuming everything goes smoothly and existing backlogs don’t get worse. 

 

On Thursday I made my usual trip to cross the border. When I got to customs, they knew who I was and said that they were expecting me. It turns out that I have been flagged for frequent travel. The guy warned me that now that I have been flagged the chances of me being denied entry are very high. He said that visiting your spouse isn’t allowed while there is a pending visa, and that if I were denied entry we’d have to start the process from the beginning (I know neither of these are true). He spent a while questioning me and looking at my NOA1 and NOA2, before showing them to his coworker who told him to let me through, which he did. 

 

I am now trying to decide if I should extend my trip until either my interview or I get close to 6 months, whichever comes first. However there are three things that I’m wary about that are preventing me from making a decision:

 

1. If I extend my trip I will be considered a resident for tax purposes under the substantial presence rule. This means I will have to file taxes, possibly before my interview. Will this be a problem either for our application or at my interview? Also, since I don’t have any income, could filing US taxes cause any problems under the new public charge rules? I hope that my husbands income and the fact that I intend on working once I get my green card will be enough to prove otherwise. Lastly, will filing US taxes cause any issues when I file my final Canadian taxes once I have my green card?

 

2. Since I crossed using my NEXUS, I don’t have a stamp in my passport saying when I was admitted until. I checked my i94 online, but since I cross by land the last one I was issued was from the last time crossed via air and expired in June. When I use the site to check my compliance it says I am not eligible to check online. The guy at the border didn’t say anything about giving me a shortened admittance, but is it possible that he did and didn’t tell me? Is there any way I can check my compliance other than online, perhaps by calling CBP?

 

3. We are planning to submit our DS-260 this week. Is it possible to do so while I am in the US? If so, would I include this trip under the section about previous US travel and what would I put as the duration of stay since it is unknown?

 

If I knew that I had a good chance of being able to cross again, especially with the holidays coming up and wanting to spend them with my husband, I would absolutely go back because it’s pretty jarring to have a 5 day trip unexpectedly turn into a ~6 month one. The problem is my ties to Canada are weak (my job is a remote unpaid internship and I live with my parents) so I’m leaning towards extending. I just want to be sure that extending won’t jeopardize our application because it’s absolutely not worth it if it will. Any thoughts?

What border do you typically cross at?

3 minutes ago, DylanandLaura said:

So my timeline says 5/30 paid fees, 6/05 submitted IV and AOS docs. If I remember right, I submitted docs the same day they became available to upload. I think another 1 to 2 days and you will be able to access the upload portal on CEAC and it will show paid. 

Okay, great. Thanks so much!

5 minutes ago, DylanandLaura said:

It took me 3 business days. So, made the payment on a Thursday night and it was debited by next Tuesday... 

Ours was similar. We made the payment Monday and it was debited today. How long did it take until it said "paid" on CEAC? Our payment was taken but it still says "in process" 

The NVC payment has already been taken from our account but is still "in process" on CEAC. 

Does anyone know how long it takes to change from "in process" to "paid" after the money has been taken from your account? It has already been 3 business days. 

On 10/19/2019 at 11:32 PM, Jaret&Rachael said:

Are you apart of our Montreal Consulate Chat? 

I'm not either but can I be added? 

1 hour ago, swoned said:

Emre

TSC sent our approved I130's on Aug26. NVC confirmed rece3ipt on Sept4.  Case#'s were created today. Oct 1.

 

Hope that helps.

Wow, that’s a great timeline. Our I130 was approved on August 23rd. Said it was said to the department of state on September 12th. I called the NVC yesterday and they said they received it on the September 20th and we’re still processing cases received on Aug 28th. The wait is killer! 

5 minutes ago, JMPM said:

I got my case number already but that's what I am letting others know. No Ring, Hang up. And the emails don't come in instantly. 

Do you know what date your case was sent to the department of state? 

Anyone who has called the NVC knows you won't get through very quickly. I've read that it's easier to get through first thing in the morning. 

I've been calling repeatedly and have to listen to the entire pre-recorded message before hearing "all of our customer service representatives are busy at this time, please try back later". 

Is there something different you hear when your call has actually gone through? That way I can just hang up if I know I'm about to get the "please try back later" 

Edit: Solved - not sure how to delete this forum but in case anyone is wondering, you do in fact get a different intro message so just hang up and keep trying back!