Siddsgal

39 minutes ago, Koko bongo said:

Is this the end of K1 visa in the affected countries. A friend is just putting her application together to file for her Fiancée in Nigeria, Infact the fiancée in Nigeria just saw her parents yesterday and will come with his parents to see her parents who are vacationing in Nigeria currently. So what becomes the right of US citizens who find love in these affected countries and wish their partners immigrate to join them. 

3 hours ago, JAC&MEH said:

I have a dumb question which I'm sure has been asked before but how do they decide what service center you're going to be assigned to?  I assumed it was based on my physical address but there's so many people on here that seem to be surprised as to which service center they have been assigned.  Just curious...

Nope, it’s totally random. Some People in Texas have their application go to Nebraska and people in Nebraska have their application go to Potomac, no rhyme or reason to it. 

Filed online January 21st which is also our PD. Got online NOA Jan 22 and the NOA in mail today, January 27th. 
We got Nebraska😢. 
I know there’s no way to choose which center you get and I’m so happy for those that got Texas or Potomac,  it’s still pretty tough tho knowing that lotta people filing this month will be starting their lives together here in the US before our initial application even gets looked at for the first time.

1 hour ago, OhWow said:

 

I'm sorry to hear. But you never know, maybe Nebraska becomes the fastest location in a couple of months. Things change! Everything will be alright

Thanks! We’re getting over the initial shock of getting an estimated NOA2 approval date of Next year & coming to terms with knowing that it could be 2 more years before my husband will be able

to get here. 
We will work on getting as much solid evidence in the mean time since we do have a few red flags. 
 

24 minutes ago, darth vader said:

Is Nebraska taking more than a year currently or about an year? I saw someone say it is taking 19-25 months!!!!

We just filed online last week and got an estimated NOA2 date of Jan 8th, 2021 

I am so sorry if I’m posting this in wrong spot! 
Ok, so I have had nothing but problems with getting my last name changed to my Indian husband’s last name since returning to the US. 
My first trip to Social Security office was November 11,2019 and I’m still without  husbands last name because of my small SS office never dealing with an Indian marriage certificate before. 
They have denied my name change application, requested more proof in the form of wedding pictures and written statements from witnesses to our marriage and they have now required me to fill out another application and submit everything once again before determining if they can process my name change based off of my “proof” (quotation marks are theirs). 
So tomorrow, my mom and I are making another trip to SS office to submit everything again since last time I mailed everything to them, our original marriage certificate got lost in the mail🤦‍♀️. We are hoping that my mom can help convince them that our marriage is 100% legit. 
So this is what I am planning on presenting  to them tomorrow and I just want to see if anyone has any other ideas of things I should show them so I can get my husbands last name. The items with a * are items they have requested from me.

Our Original Indian Special Marriage Certificate* 

My passport *
My original birth certificate*

New name change application *
My drivers license*
The 5 pages of printed wedding pictures* 

3 signed and dated witness statements with witnesses complete names and addresses*
Any other proof that can prove we were married*
And I’m also bringing printed pages of what the Social Security handbook states is accepted proof of a legal name change & what documents they accept as proof for a name change & also what the government says it accepts as legal proof of a marriage from India. 
 

Am I missing anything that anyone can think of? 
Social Security isn’t questioning the legitimacy of our marriage being a love marriage, they are questioning that it actually happened and don’t think that our marriage certificate is enough proof of our marriage happening to be able to issue me a new SS card with my husbands last name. 
I can also show them dozens of before, during and after wedding pictures, messages between family and friends that day and we also had a lawyer in Mumbai that helped us get all our documents together for our wedding so I can show them the lawyer fee payment bank transfers and communication we’ve had with her and her legal assistant that was at our wedding himself to make sure we had no problems. 

 

58 minutes ago, CGs_Mother said:

Thanks very much! I just want to confirm that you can pay online using a credit card or debit card. Also, does it have to be a US credit card or debit card or can I pay using my foreign credit/debit card? 

I used my US MasterCard debit card which I’m able to use internationally and it went through immediately with no problems. When comes to visa problems I’m thinking they have made sure that the taking of our money is gonna not be problem at all😂

On 1/3/2020 at 9:20 PM, dleen said:

3 month wait for interview letter. Interview after 1 month of interview letter. 
 

join here for Mumbai:

 

https://t.me/joinchat/OaLX-UtgOtPNusrwNeHWlg

Hi! Is this the link to the India visa WhatsApp group?

5 hours ago, Lizzie and Zach said:

Congratulations on filing and thank you for pointing out where we could find our service center! I had been waiting anxiously by the mailbox for weeks! We submitted our paperwork online on the 7th January and got Potomac.

 

Congratulations on getting Potomac!!! How exciting that musta been to see😁!

35 minutes ago, Jess_Cah said:

Oh noooo. I don't know how I missed that. Mine says Nebraska too  whaaaaaaaaa!

I’m soooo sorry!!!!!😢😞 

When did you file? 

Just now, Paul & Mary said:

You are certainly focusing on the wrong thing. . .  Workloads get shifted, service centers add employees.

 

Be happy that you got it filed and it in the queue and you have something to add to your timeline!

Oh yes, we will definitely be back to our happy selves in a few days, we both have said we just need a day or two to feel sorry for ourselves lol. 
I tried updating our timeline but it says I have multiple timelines🤷‍♀️ and asked me to contact an admin to fix. I contacted an admin this morning; soon as we’re able to update timeline we definitely will! 😁

29 minutes ago, Jess_Cah said:

Where did it say what service centre on your 'Receipt Action'. I'm so confused where to find my service centre..

We applied early yesterday morning and got our receipt with service center this morning. With the dreaded Nebraska service center address on lower left corner. See picture 
Been a pretty sad day for my husband and I after finding out our service center😢😞

13 hours ago, Cpanio said:

Holy crow, that's a lot of work! I just assumed my husband's last name by going to service ontario the other day and showing my marriage certificate. My new ID is supposed to come in about 3 weeks. 

That’s wonderful!! I’m so happy for you!! There’s something pretty great about being able to have your hubby’s last name, especially if you’re not able to have him physically with you☺️

I just found a simple trick if your documents are too large to upload on the online application and you’re doing it on your phone....just take a screenshot of the page or document....can upload it then no problem 😂 I used Adobe Spark and Photo Quilt to make our bona fida documents, the quality is great but even individually they are way too big to upload. 
I am starting to really think that my hubby & I have over complicated this 130 application lol.
For reference, we made scrapbook pages of our bona fida proof so this is why this solution works for us, they’re individual pages and not a large file. 

Hey y’all! So since we haven’t filed our 130 yet to get an official timeline (almost ready to submit application), I thought I’d post the timeline to getting my married last name cuz it’s pretty funny! 
 

Nov 19, 2019- I went to Social Security office with our Indian marriage certificate and all necessary documents for getting my last name changed to my hubby’s last name.  Nice lady did my application and warned me it would take a few months to be able to change my last name with Indian marriage certificate. 
 

Dec 3, 2019- I called Social Security about status of my application and was told it was at homeland security being scrutinized 

Dec 13, 2019- received following letter from SS, photo #1

Jan 6, 2020- mailed them the proof they asked for plus our original marriage certificate they told me they also wanted from a post office 

Jan 8, 2020- received my envelope in my mailbox requesting more postage 🤷‍♀️
 

Jan 9, 2020- mailed envelope again with the extra required $3.40

Jan 13, 2020- learned my envelope with Indian marriage certificate was lost in mail and called SS office to make sure they hadn’t received it (they said they hadn’t)

Jan 14, 2020- filed a missing mail request

Jan 16, 2020- USPS notified me that I had certified mail I needed to sign for

Jan 17, 2020- picked up certified envelope from post office. The envelope was from SS and included our marriage certificate and the following letter......image #2 notice the parentheses they used around “proof”

Jan 18, 2020- created the timeline of the ridiculous process of trying to get my hubby’s last name

On 1/3/2020 at 2:28 PM, arken said:

As said, SS offices do make mistakes. At this time i believe its worth giving them what they are asking for.  Can you provide a written statement from your husband regarding the marriage to them? That shouldn’t be a lot to provide. They aren’t saying your marriage has to be registered in the US, they are simply saying provide either of those requested. I guess providing that would be the fastest way to resolve the issue.

Just a follow up to my posts, mailed all the proof my Social Security office that’s only an hour away from me asked for, including our original marriage certificate which they also requested before I mailed package, first class and insured. And...... our package has now been lost in the mail system, USPS has searched for it twice with no luck. So as of now we don’t have our original Indian marriage certificate anymore. It’s one problem after another with our documents. 

7 minutes ago, Cg2008 said:

@Siddsgal so i changed my last name after I submitted the application because I didn’t know I could legally change my name here. I went into the social security office and took our marriage certificate, application for name change, driver’s license and birth certificate (just Incase). She only asked for the application, ID, and certificate. She then talked about the wedding and asked if I had pics and I showed her from my phone (but I think that was just to see our Indian wedding not a process). And that was it. Since it’s giving you an option of an interview, I would physically go in with all the documents you have. Trust me, when you go through this process there are going to be a lot of no’s because a lot of people do not know the immigration system. After I got my social I went to the DMV and they told me my marriage did not count as real because they didn’t recognize my certificate and the Mumbai stamp. Took me 3 times going in and talking to the manager to get my name changed on my drivers license. Finally they realized after calling people who knew. Even now my husband is in the US and everything we are doing like social security, DMV...has to all be double verified because they can’t find him in the system at first (and the Yes box on the ds260 on whether you want the social to arrive without paper work doesn’t work..we waited a month and nothing came so we had to go in the office) ....so ya it’s a continuous struggle, but since everything is legit ..they can’t say no ..it’s just frustrating.

 

but back to your question ,   apply under your current name on your social and ID and then once it’s changed , you submit copies to USCIS through mail to show them the name changes and they update it. Try to do it before it moves to the NVC stage. Sorry for writing so much. Let me know if you have any questions through message also...my husband was approved in November ...good luck

It will probably take me a few mins to write out my response to your AWESOME message so I wanna quick tell you thank you so much for all the info!!!!! And please don’t ever apologize for long answers, mine are usually always long too lol. I’ll go back and respond to your message now hehehe

22 hours ago, geowrian said:

is this the document you presented? This is the one they are looking for, per the reciprocity website (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/India.html)

If they refused to accept that, then they made a mistake. SSA is known to do so with immigration fairly regularly.

 

 

Your "real" wedding was in India. I believe you are referring to a celebration.

You can use your married name at any time. The SSA has no control over that. They control the name associated with an SSN, and sometimes that is also used for a state ID or DL, but they don't control somebody's legal name.

Hi! I had a question about using my married name. So can I submit our CR1 application with my married name or should I still use the name that’s on my social security card and all my other documents? 

4 minutes ago, Cg2008 said:

@Siddsgal no worries ! We all have questions with processes ! It seems never ending haha something always happens 🥴

I can’t wait till we finally can have a timeline and officially start this process, making bona fida documents is overwhelming me lol. 

27 minutes ago, arken said:

As said, SS offices do make mistakes. At this time i believe its worth giving them what they are asking for.  Can you provide a written statement from your husband regarding the marriage to them? That shouldn’t be a lot to provide. They aren’t saying your marriage has to be registered in the US, they are simply saying provide either of those requested. I guess providing that would be the fastest way to resolve the issue.

Yep! I have all 3 of our official wedding witness’s sworn statements ( their names and signatures are on our marriage certificate) and we had lotta pictures taken too cuz my hubby’s family was there and those people sure do like taking pictures lol. 
I just need to get to a printer to print everything off before mailing to SS again. 
I appreciate your responses! Feel like I’ve highjacked this thread so I’m gonna be quiet now lol. Thanks again!!

11 minutes ago, geowrian said:

is this the document you presented? This is the one they are looking for, per the reciprocity website (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/India.html)

If they refused to accept that, then they made a mistake. SSA is known to do so with immigration fairly regularly.

 

 

Your "real" wedding was in India. I believe you are referring to a celebration.

You can use your married name at any time. The SSA has no control over that. They control the name associated with an SSN, and sometimes that is also used for a state ID or DL, but they don't control somebody's legal name.

Thank you for such a helpful response!! 
I submitted our original Marriage Certificate, the exact one we received from marriage register where we got married,  to SS office right after getting back from India, still had my luggage with me cuz it’s really important to me to be able to have my hubby’s last name, one small way I can feel like I have a part of him with me here I guess. 
I called SS after a month cuz I started receiving my insurance documents with my married last name but hadn’t received my SS card. I was told my application was at homeland security cuz it’s their job to validate the marriage and my spouse. Few weeks later I received this in the mail. 

4 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Agreed - no reason - or means - to register a marriage that happened elsewhere. Married is married.

If read my comment you will see that for some of us, social security isn’t accepting our Indian marriage license to change last name. So there’s a reason for a few of us lol

I sure wish there was a way! My name change application, ( im the USC ) for social security was denied because Homeland Security didn’t like or couldn’t prove the legitimacy of our Indian marriage certificate. We were married under the Special Marriage Act.  
We now are having to submit witness statements and photos of our wedding to try to prove our wedding actually really happened and that my husband is legit. Otherwise we will have to wait till my hubby gets here and we have our “real” wedding before I can legally use my married name. 
If you find out any sorta way to register it here I’d love to know! 

Hey there! Thank you for this thread as I have so many questions about online filing or application in general. 

1. Our marriage certificate is in English and Hindi, both languages say the say thing. Do we need to have our certificate translated to all English even though the Hindi text is just saying what English text says? 
 

2. Do you still upload your bona fida proof with a cover letter saying what sorta info is being included? Do you upload your proof documents in same organized way you would submit a paper application packet? 
 

We have been working on our proof documents for over a month and I’m feeling so overwhelmed. I’m so jealous of all of you that are so organized, computer smart and finding this easy, it takes me a day just to try to make one document with photos on it lol.  

20 minutes ago, rashopranu said:

@Siddsgal can you please confirm if you hand typed the phone number of the beneficiary like + 91788798982 ?

Are you talking about the 130 or 130A? And are you talking about the online application you can do now or are you gonna mail it in? 
We are still working on getting our application together as we are submitting it online but for us, it wouldn’t let me put a + in front of my hubby’s phone number. He filled out the paper form of the 130A the last time I was there and he wrote his number with a + 91. I scanned that into the  online application and it accepted it so I think it’s totally fine to write + on application because that’s how you guys write your number over there. Online it doesn’t let you use anything but numbers so that’s the only reason I didn’t type his number as +. So if your doing it online don’t worry about the plus, if your typing it out on a form that your gonna mail in than go ahead and use the +. 😁