Zakalwe

1 minute ago, LilyJ said:

Yes, it's not really much of an alias, just an alternate anglicization of her last name. We didn't put the alternate anglicization on ours, our petition was approved with no issues. If you feel the need you can explain under additional information as you said, but no need to put it under other names, that's just so they can run a background check if there is another name that you are known by or have been known by, ie a maiden name

Okay, thank you! Ue it is

1 minute ago, LilyJ said:

Yep pretty much just preference. No need to put the alternative Anglicization under "other names" either, that's just for previous legal names, just put down whichever you prefer whether u or ue and then put the name with the umlaut under the section made for native alphabet

Are you sure? It says aliases as well. I think we'll go with ue just because everything is with ue other than the certificate. I can just leave an explanation for that in the additional information section I suppose.

32 minutes ago, Quarknase said:

I would ask your spouse how they’d like the name to be spelled in English as it will appear that way on all documents, email addresses from future employers, etc. In German the official way to spell “ü” in absence of the actual umlaut is “ue”. At least all Germans will know how to pronounce Müller correctly when seeing Mueller. Muller would be pronounced differently.

I am German too and decided to go with the ue instead of u only, for the above reason. I too have documents (like marriage certificate, some visas for other countries etc) written with u only, but my official US IDs all have the ue.

24 minutes ago, LilyJ said:

However you choose to right it is how it will appear on the green card and SSN, and subsequently, other IDs. Either works. Write it however your spouse would like to have on her IDs. My husband has an ø in his name, and we chose to write it as oe instead of o as we felt oe is more accurate, and because oe is what he would prefer to show on his IDs. Then we wrote his name with the ø in the space where it asks for name in native alphabet. Everywhere else we used oe

Thank you guys! That clears it up. So really it's just personal preference then? It doesn't matter to either of us, we just don't want to cause problems or delays because of this fairly minor difference in spelling. 

13 hours ago, Sparkle Sparkle said:

I would leave it as Muller in the name field ...there is also another field that ask for name in native alphabet then you put in Müller' .....then use the additional information addendum to explain that she was once in the USA and the used the name Mueller . I believe you also asked to enter another name that you have used on the form too....the problem is I am not sure if you will need a change of name certificate of not because to my understanding it does not qualify as a change of name....good luck anyway and sorry if my answer left you more confused.

Thank you, I did put something in the additional info field and I'll upload her passport to the section you're talking about which is supposed to be for "languages that don't use latin characters".

12 hours ago, kendelle said:

I would keep Muller and  add Mueller in the field that says other name/alias used.

 

Thanks, do you think that will confuse them? My understanding is that this section is for if you ever used a different legal name, but I don't know...

Hi everyone,

I'm currently filling out an i130 for my German spouse and am running into some trouble determining which spelling of her last name should go on the petition. Muller in Germany is written as 'Müller' with the umlaut(two dots) and there isn't any guideline or rule as to how this should translate into English, not from the government at least. Normally I would just use 'Muller', but she has been in the US 3 times, the first time on a J visa followed twice with ESTA and the spelling of her name on both the J visa and her ESTAs is 'Mueller'. The reason for this is not at all official. The application for the J visa was filed and accepted this way on the advice of whoever was running her exchange program at the time and was also accepted that way by whichever agency issued the visa.

The main problem with this is that our marriage certificate shows 'Muller', not 'Mueller' and I don't know if it's going to cause problems down the line if I use 'Muller' on her i-130. The only name on her official documentation including her German passport and government issued ID is 'Müller', there is no anglicized form of the spelling at all. So it's left to her or us to decide, and it seems that 'Muller' would make the most sense as it most closely matches her passport. However if we look up her i94, we have to enter 'Mueller' in order to get any results as that is what the government has on file.

If anyone has had this experience of having to change the spelling of their names, or if you know anyone who has had to deal with a similar predicament, please share your thoughts. I've talked to USCIS and the best they can tell me is to stick to whatever is shown on the passport.

Thank you

13 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

Wow, I would never have guessed that nurses from South Africa would be considered more qualified than Germany, interesting indeed.

Yeah, I think it's more a naming thing. The responsibilities of a nurse in Germany are different from those in the US in that they don't do as much.

On 12/18/2019 at 6:22 PM, Boiler said:

I know there are a couple of courses a UK qualified Norse has to do but never got the impression is was a major issue.

We're just gonna do it the normal way and now we have to deal with different uncertainties. In in the interests of not wasting anyone's time, do you by any chance know where questions about filling the i130 and the spelling of names might go? I don't want to start an entirely new post if I don't have to, but I don't see another person in the exact same situation I'm in right now

On 12/18/2019 at 3:14 PM, SusieQQQ said:

I have known people get nursing credentials elsewhere, write the US exams, and bang! Not only are they qualified but they’re qualified enough to have employers sponsoring them for green cards. What I’m saying is, your girlfriend’s credentials may not be as hard to transfer as you think. 

I'm not sure where those people came from, but we looked into it thoroughly to be sure. In Germany, nurses are just not anywhere close to the same on the hierarchy in the US. That said, she is not currently a nurse right now anyway so it's pointless I guess. We are going to err on the side of caution and just file the paperwork through the normal process with her abroad. Thank you guys for trying to help!

1 hour ago, carmel34 said:

If she applies for an F1 she will have to show strong ties to return home when her studies in the US are completed, also that she has financial support of her own or from her parents in Germany, not from a US love interest.  If you provide financial support the chance of an F1 approval is very low since it shows stronger ties to the US and immigrant intent. So be prepared for denial if she applies for an F1 with your financial support.  Have a backup plan.

Would it work if I gave her parents or family the money as an "unrelated" thing or do they look into it enough that it becomes a non-option?

It's not that an EU country has the exact same position, rather that the credentials easily carry over whether you want to be a doctor, or whatever else is in that area.

I'll just be more specific. The 2+2 program is to become a nursing practitioner which is something that doesn't exist in Germany, but could certainly qualify you for similar positions elsewhere in the EU. Nursing in Germany is not anywhere close to the same as in the US, they are a much lower rung on the ladder which is why you can't study to become a nurse there and immediately work as one here. You would have to start all over again. Her educational history is consistent with the direction she wants to take, add to that relevant work history and the fact that her mom is a nurse. Getting an F1 for anyone who has the funds isn't the issue right, it's the relation she has to me. 

I'm actually slightly concerned even if I wasn't sponsoring her financially at all, because she is coming for the holidays which means she had to fill out an Esta on which there is my mom's address listed. If they see that she came to visit me, that in itself might make the F1 first option impracticable.

She is actually 20, I am the older one. 2+2 between community colleges and regular universities is extremely common especially because of how much it saves you financially. In this particular case the best option is to go through this dual program regardless of finances. It's necessary because there is nothing in Germany that will transfer over in this area. In fact there is nothing equivalent at all. On the other hand, US credentials will transfer to almost any other country on earth so that part isnt really hard to get over.That said, what she currently studies will transfer over to the prerequisites for the intended dual program very well. So that is certainly not an issue. Even if she were mid twenties or older, it wouldn't be uncommon to start new programs from scratch. Plenty of Americans do that now, not to speak of other countries

Right, the only reason it makes sense is that I believe they make more than enough to make it seem plausible that they would just sponsor someones tuition. Also the first two years would be at a community college so the tuition for international students is actually not very high relatively speaking.

Speaking of the bulletin, what does it really mean that everyone is current? It seems crazy to me that just a few months ago it appeared to be really backed up, but now every category for every country even is current, how is that possible?

There is the immediate "harm" of tacking on an extra 6 months for no benefit if it doesn't work out, but beyond that I don't know if that might cause problems when I file an I-130 and they see that she was denied an F1. 

I also thought of giving someone else the money and them sponsoring her financially because she was in the US previously as an exchange student and she has a good relationship with them. That I'm sure is legally ambiguous though.

Last I checked, if I read the visa bulletin correctly it seems that the line has actually shortened in the F2A category so maybe going the normal route isn't too bad.

Hi everyone, I recently became a permanent resident and would like to begin the process of bringing my long time girlfriend over from Germany. We are both in our early-mid twenties and she is currently studying in Germany. If we proceed with the normal route, I believe it will take at least a year to two years, possibly longer and this is where things get a little complicated. For what my girlfriend wants to do in the States that is in the medical field, she has to study in the US and so the main issue here is being able to get her over as an international student while under sponsorship to immigrate. There are really only two ways I can think of to go about this.

1. We get married ASAP and proceed with the normal method i.e file the I-130 and simply wait while I am here and she is still in Germany. The main issue with this is that it will set her back at least a few years in terms of education as she cannot transfer her German credentials to the US for working in that field. In addition to this, even if we had no problem waiting for 3+ years, the chances are high that the visa would be complete before she is actually finished with her current program in Germany which would prevent her from finishing when she is already at the very end. 

2. We don't get married now, but instead have her get an F1 visa later in 2020, then once she is here we follow the 90 day rule, get married and begin sponsorship this way. There are a few problems with this. First is that adjustment of status is not possible when sponsoring as an LPR. The only reason I still have this route listed is because I consulted with an immigration service who said that while adjustment of status is not possible, it is still possible to sponsor her while she is in the country on an F1 and the only difference is that she will have to go to her home country for the interview. Second, she has about half the funds needed to show USCIS as a student and if I want to give her the other half, they will inevitably find out where the funds are coming from and therefore may very well deny her F1 visa for not meeting the non-immigrant intent requirement.

3. We get married now, file the I-130 and she applies for her F1 later in 2020. I'm pretty sure this is impossible, but perhaps some people have managed to make this work anecdotally. It is quite logical that people who are under sponsorship to immigrate may still want to use their time waiting to study in the US.

Thank you for reading and anyone who has their own experiences with sponsoring a spouse as an LPR, please do provide any information you think may be relevant.

The US consulate is in charge of all the immigration cases and I have contacted them multiple times. The issue is that the consulate doesn't even get the case until very close to the interview date. So they have nothing and the embassy has no purview unless it's asylum related I think. It's entirely with the NVC still and they are extremely difficult to correspond with. I grew up in the US on an F2 because my mom was going to college and thought it would be good to put me in an American school, but I had to leave when I was 16 as everything related to her education was finally done. For all intents and purposes other than paperwork, I am essentially American. I just wanna go home. I see you're in LA, I hope you appreciate SoCal! It's a wonderful place

Hi everyone, I'm currently 22 years old and my sponsorship process started at the end of 2016 with a priority date in November 2016. My permanent resident mother sponsored me and I am an international student in Germany. In December of 2018 I submitted my DS-260 and all of my documents were accepted, however because I had aged out, the system automatically pushed me into the F2B category. Then I found out about CSPA, and contacted the NVC, as well as the congressman's office of my mother's district in order to make them aware of my situation. My priority date in the F2A category became current in Feb 2018 so that wasn't an issue, nonetheless it still took a few months for me to be returned to the F2A category. The last information I received was from the NVC on May 20th, 2019 saying that I am now in the interview queue awaiting an interview at the consulate in Frankfurt. 

I would like to hear from other people who have been in similar situations, how long it should take from this point on. I am honestly astonished that it has taken so long to even get into the interview queue given that my date was current in February and that I have been ahead of the deadlines by quite a large margin, and on top of this, my congressman submitted a form for expedition to the NVC. Waiting itself would not be a major issue apart from the fact that I am an international student in Germany, so I can't wait here forever, but I also risk pushing myself back even further if I try and change my address from this point onward and that is assuming it's even possible to do so. If anyone can provide their anecdotal experiences regarding how long it should take from this point on, I would really appreciate it. Thank you