Jo&Ro

On 7/10/2023 at 3:14 PM, Emmz said:

congrats what state you from? 

Sorry, just saw this. Thanks! Kentucky 

Hello everyone! This process seems to be the same as the rest of the process, SUUUUUUUPER inconsistent from person to person...haha I will say it seems to be moving massively faster than immigration did. We filed for my wife on 5/28, biometrics on 7/6 and interview is scheduled for 8/21. We are super excited it's going so much faster than everything else has. Good luck to everyone on this final step! 

4 hours ago, Boiler said:

Best for the USC to file the I 130 and will take 18 months or so

 

They could of course have been petitioned when their mother was

It took us 750 days for her. Total nightmare of an immigration process...

That wasn't an option for us when we filed for her. She was working overseas and they didn't have passports. Then covid REALLY messed plans up. 

5 hours ago, Mike E said:

Where the kids born out of wedlock?

Yes. Same dad but never married and hasn't been seen in nearly 10 years. 

5 minutes ago, Mike E said:

They will not become USA citizens when she becomes a USA citizen until all of the following happen:

 

* she has 5 years of physical presence in the USA 

* she lives with them abroad in her legal custody 

* she files N-600K for them

* they travel with her to the USA for their citizenship interviews. 
 

If she wants to live with her children in the USA, you should file I-130 for each step child.  When they enter the USA on their immigration visas, they will be come citizens the money their mother is a USA citizen. If she is a USA citizen before they enter the USA they will be USA citizens as soon as they enter the USA and arrive at her home in the USA.  

 

 

Sounds like filing the I-130's is the best option. She is the only parent on their birth certificates and their sole legal guardian. She worked abroad before coming to the U.S 2 years ago and the kids are and have been with her mother and sister and she just went home once or twice a year for a month or so. Since she came here covid prevented us from accomplishing anything to get them here. We just got back from the Philippines 2 weeks ago and got their passports so we can be ready to get them here soon as possible. Immigration is such a difficult and horrible process all the way around! 😥

Thanks for your reply!👍

16 minutes ago, Dashinka said:

She will be able to apply 90 days prior to the third year anniversary of her GC.  So based on the early filing calculator, 5/7/2023.  If filing online, it is recommended to wait 2 or 3 days as there are some funny USCIS system glitches that other members have encountered when filing immediately when the 90 day window opens.

 

 

Good Luck!

 

https://www.uscis.gov/forms/uscis-early-filing-calculator 

Sounds great! Thank you! 

This is a hard subject to find any information on... 

What is the best path for my wife and I to take in getting her kids (9 & 12 years old) to the U.S.? She has been in the U.S. and a 10 year green card permanent resident since 8/5/20 (married in the Philippines 4 years ago) and we finally got a chance to get her kids passports in the Philippines and are now looking to start getting them here to the U.S. Do we need to start the immigration process for them just like we did with her, or would they become citizens when she does next year or is it faster for me (U.S. born citizen) to adopt them (something I plan to do at some point anyway)? 

Thanks ahead for any info...Jo

My filipina wife has been in the US. since 8/5/20 (also her 10 year green card "since date") and we are looking to start gathering information to apply for her citizenship next year (from what we understand). After reading on here we are a little confused on the "90 day rule". Can she actually apply 90 days before 8/5/23 or will she need to wait until at least 8/5/23 to apply for her citizenship test/hearing? Thanks ahead for any information...Jo 

I don't know how much has changed since Aug '20, but we had zero issues bringing my filipina wife from Singapore through S. Korea (on Korean Air) and going through immigration in Atlanta. 

Just from what we ran into, Delta and Korean Air had a lot less canceled and changed flights compared to most of the other airlines we were looking at. Landing on the east coast was high on my list because I wanted to be at the airport where she entered the U.S. She also said her flight was great. Decent food, good service and only one person per row so she flipped up the armrest and could lay down.

Not sure if this is any help to you, but good luck! 

Could you make an ongoing list of U.S. Embassy's in each country that are closed or reopened to the public? 

HUUUUUUGE thank you to everyone on here that provides accurate facts and information for people at all stages and from all countries! 

3 hours ago, isegonza98 said:

Im worried we won’t have enough time or places won’t reopen before May 14th.. that’s when the 90 days are up.. I’m just so stressed 

Take a quick flight to Las Vegas, they are always marrying people there...haha Plus you all can stay a day or two for fun. 

7 minutes ago, Antonio Cavenaghi said:

I think they have a directive to delay processes as much as they can. Congratulations for the approval. Unfortunately, if you are still waiting for the embassy/consulate appointment, it will be delayed because of the pandemic. I have an interview schedule for April 3rd, but now I have no clue when they will resume their work! Good luck to us all!

I agree with that also... Thank you. As of right now, everything is still open in Singapore. Her medical exam and vaccinations are tomorrow morning March 23 and she spoke to the Embassy there Friday and they said no word of closing there, yet...haha We will see. That's all we can do it wait and see... Good luck to you and your spouse/fiance! 

21 minutes ago, Antonio Cavenaghi said:

I think it's case by case. My Visa is the IR1/CR1 and it's different from the K1. If your process is similar to mine, they will send you the letter with instructions to access NVC portal. They you list each document you need to upload, follow their instructions to scan your civil documents and your sponsor's financial affidavit. For some reason, after 2 months wait they requested my spouse's divorce decree (this is a civil document not financial!!!), But this delayed or process for 2 more months and now we got suspended because of the pandemic.

Just a hint: make sure each document you update are not blurry and under the size limit. You can reduce the scan qualify (as long as it does not get blurry).

Most importantly: read all their directions and review each page in the scanned file.

I definitely agree with you 100%. The NVC process has been a HUGE pain in the butt for us. My wife's documents went through with no problems, but my documents as the U.S. Citizen have been crazy! They denied my I864 twice. 1st time the call center couldn't even tell me why. They told me it looked good to resubmit it. I did and they denied again. This time they eventually told me it was because of it being an old document, even though I got it through the instructions link from the USCIS. So I sent the new version (EXACTLY the same other than 1 additional piece of a page that didn't apply to us anyway). And then they approved it but asked for the same tax info they already had and approved months before. At that point we filed for an expedite with help from my congressman because we have been messing with NVC since June of 2019. We were approved last week and things are moving super fast now!

FINALLY after 20 months and 6 days the U.S. Embassy in Singapore decided the NVC had a stick up their bums and approved us for an expedite!🥳🥳🥳  It's moving super fast now and the Embassy has already contacted us a few times in just over 24 hours. In that time our case changed to "in transit" and then to "Ready" and she has already gotten an email on instructions for scheduling her medical and interview (hopefully today in Singapore she'll get her medical scheduled for sometime very soon) so the ball is finally rolling again... Thank the Lord this NIGHTMARE!!!!! of a process is coming to an end and we will be together soon! Good luck and best of wishes to everyone dealing with this nonsense also...✌✌👍👍

On 1/7/2020 at 12:20 PM, Rosie91 said:

Sorry to hear that. What is the reason why its taking so long? Waiting for the packages or any other things?

They declined my original I-864 and it took 2 weeks to reach them because it was one if the times CEAC site was down and everyone was calling I guess and I couldn't get through to them. I was calling 50+ times a day for 2 weeks before I ever even got put on hold to speak to someone. After a nearly 2 hour hold I did and they told me they didn't know why it was denied and to resubmit it and it should be fine. Well, it wasn't, they declined again and this time my congressman found out because it was an old document (even though I got it following the USCIS link) and it was 1 page shorter than the new one. They told him I should just put a blank sheet of paper at the end and resubmit AGAIN. That sounded insane to me so I called and after many calls and an hour + wait again and a talk with another insanely rude a-hole NVC employee found that there is a newer version than I had that was 10pg instead of 9pg so I filled out the newer 10pg I-864 and submitted it for a 3rd time. Everything else of mine and hers is already approved except for this. The first and second tries were 7 weeks wait each. Mon. will be 8 weeks on this try. The really stupid part is the only differences are the last 2 or 3 pages between the old and newer I-864 is the lawyer and legal translators releases that we are not using so they are left blank anyway. No reason this ####### is so ridiculous and absolutely no reason for their employees to be as helpless and rude as they are. Hopefully this week or next we will be done with this nonsense and move on to the medical and interview and be done...

3 minutes ago, Patricia Owuh said:

Wow, that's ridiculous! Sorry for all that. I know everyone is hoping things will pick up now that the holidays are over but I just don't think Nebraska will be any better in 2020. 

Until someone steps in and makes Nebraska office accountable for their AWFUL service it definitely will only get worse. Absolutely zero reason the other 3 offices and taking half or less of the time to do the same thing and Nebraska office not be punished. I've honestly had "worse luck" so to speak with the NVC group for the last 6 months. They have been ridiculous and insanely usless and rude when I've spoken to them. So incredibly frustrating! 

The NVC isn't any better to deal with. We were approved with USCIS June 2019 and STILL being screwed over by NVC over 6 months later. I've never been so sick of dealing with anything in my life! I've always been a very proud American (but still realize like ANY country it has it's problems), but I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO disgusted in how screwed this process is. Mostly how usless, rude and sh;!!y they are to you when you call them. Jan 10th will be 18 months into this nonsense and we still aren't even scheduled for medical or interview. ABSOLUTE BS!!!

On 12/2/2019 at 12:30 AM, Tissa said:

We got our NOA 2. Hope you will soon too!

Thank you. But, our NOA 2 was June of 2019. We are STILL waiting on NVC to approve (or deny so we can fix them) my Affidavit of Support and tax documents. They approved all of her documents months ago now. Sept or Oct I think. Dec 10th will be 17 months and we haven't even started with the medical and interview yet. This whole process has been absolute hell...

On 11/22/2019 at 4:10 AM, Tissa said:

I 130 PD December 10, 2018

I 129F PD July 8, 2019

September 9 - Expedite request of I130 via mail (Status of the expedite request: Transferred for review by an officer)

October 5 - Expedite request of I129 by phone

October 7 - Expedite request of I129F denied (no one asked for any evidence. Just denied)

November 5 - Contacted congressman asking for assistance since I130 expedite request was taking way too long. Congressman contacted Nebraska Service Center. 

November 8 - Status of both I130 and I129F changed back to "Transferred for review by an officer" and the countdown started from 0 (as if they just received our evidence)

November 21 - no changes to the case(s)

Our NOA1 date is July 10 2018 and we are still stuck at NVC. Many many months ago my congressman requested a expedite and they agreed at the next step (that would be where we have been at NVC now since June something of this year and still waiting on them. My congressman has made several attempts to get them to move it along and even with them putting in writing that they would expedite he basically just gets a F you, we can do whatever we want as their answer. He is dumbfounded how bad this process is and how rude the USCIS and NVC employees are. Best of wishes that your congressman has better luck with them than mine has...🤞🙏

9 hours ago, Duke & Marie said:

Many of us in the same boat unfortunately.. all I can say is don’t let it get to you.. make sure you check all documents for correct version, cross all the T’s dot all the I’s in future, then check and double check again before sending, Cant really blame USCIS and NVC for our own errors.. 

 

maybe take some of that annual leave and instead of blowing it, go visit her, it will make you feel a lot better... Philippines is very cheap to visit, so it not much more than the cost of a flight

They literally declined my documents because of a random blank sheet of paper... The I-864 I printed from the NVC link was labeled 1-9 of 9 the newer one that happened after I submitted has 10 pages. NVC worker told me "updates happen. I should have put a blank sheet of paper at the end." But the undate happened between us submitting and them taking their sweet a$$ time reviewing so there really was no mistake on our part according to them. They seriously set us back over a month over a random blank sheet of paper and no mistakes. The person I spoke to there even complimented that I sent the maximum amount info requested and not just the minimum. 

Even though they said just add a blank sheet at the end, i don't trust them now. I went ahead and printed the new 10 page one and filled it out. I'll look one last time before I submit them whenever they ever get around to denying again so I can submitted again. 

She's working long hours in Singapore with only 1 day a week off and no vacation time so visiting isn't an option unfortunately. It will only delay us more if we transfer from Singapore to the Philippines so we are just tuffing it out waiting on medical and interview. 

I've never been so sick of dealing with anything in my whole life as I am dealing with this process. We are 16 months and 1 day in and no chance of her being here by Thanksgiving and very little chance of having her here by Christmas. I've already run the gamut of emotions and just at numb feeling now... I've been pissed beyond words, I've been sad, I've been pissed, I've felt helpless, I've been pissed. Now I don't really even know what to say at this point. I'm just so ready for it to be over. I haven't taken a day off work since June of 2018 because I've been saving them for her arrival. Now I have to burn it all the end of the year for nothing and then likely burn at least half of next years vacation Jan of 2020 when she does finally get to come here.

NVC seriously denied my documents 1st time the 1st time because my Affidavit of Support was a old version because they took so long to approve it they had a new version with an extra page. They denied it because I didn't randomly know this and put a BLANK sheet of paper at the end, nor did they give a specific reason why they denied it. I double checked and resent it because I tried calling for 9 days 38-45 times a day with no luck and got impatient. Got through a few days later and found out why it was denied but I can't fix it until they deny it again. They told me they would deny it. My congressman called and they also told him they would deny it so I could fix it. 3 weeks today after telling us both that they would and STILL not denied! Has me pissed all over again... My wife is taking it even worse than me. It really is taking years off our lives! 

This post serves no purpose other than for me to vent...haha 

Well, for a little purpose in this post...haha  What do you all do to deal with the stress of this #######? 

8 hours ago, canadavisa22 said:

I think it's longer for those at Nebraska.

 

A year minimum to be approved for the 1-130. Then two months to get a case number, probably at least two more months to get CC and then, yes, it depends on how busy your embassy is but let's say it's 4-5 months on average to get an interview. I think you blow past 18 months easily and that's even without any RFEs or other issues. I'd be preparing between 18-24 months now to enter the US if you get saddled with Nebraska.

We are July 10th 2018 Nebraska filers. No RFE's (so far...) and Embassy in Singapore, which is a very fast Embassy. Nebraska times are getting longer and longer times. It's absolutely ridiculous! Projected time when we started this was 5-7 months... Contact your local political figures and blast USCIS Nebraska office every chance you get...

10 hours ago, Niia said:

Ours is January 2019 but no I-129, so yours will probably be approved before ours 

Without the I-129, I'm betting a MINIMUM of 15-18 months before you're cleared to enter the U.S.  My wife and I are at 14.5 months and at least a month out still. And she is at a really fast Embassy in Singapore. NOA1 date of July 10th '18.  I'd highly recommend you file for the I-129 or raise hell with USCIS literally EVERY DAY... Best of luck to you and your spouse! 

7 minutes ago, JMPM said:

Definitely it was fun. We did a side trip to Taiwan Singapore and Thailand we did so much sightseeing that we almost gave up in Thailand we were tired we forgot to include like a beach day or two.  

 

Right now we are waiting for the fees to be process. I wasn't expecting a case number for another two weeks. Maybe Manila needs more work who knows. 

 

Then it's time to upload it all. I can't wait unpaid Friday so maybe Monday it will allow us to upload or Tuesday

 

 

Very cool! My wife is still in Singapore until after medical and interview and then home to PH for a month or so before coming here. She wants to go to Taiwan next time we both go back that way. Neither of us have been there. I think it only took 2-3 days for payment to post so we could upload. Neither of us were ready though unfortunately. We are finally done and waiting now. 

We got a case # very fast also. I guess the only things that have happened fast in this whole BS process...haha

We haven't been very active on here for a couple months, but I see LOTS of new names. My wife and I just needed to step away a little and get our spirits back up. As you probably know, this process sucks the life out of you. I'd like to wish you all good luck and VERY VERY VERY much encourage you all to contact your political representatives (you'll likely get nowhere, but even 1 good contact is awesome!) over and over over! Be polite but firm and direct with as many facts as possible. Also reach out to both parties, you may be surprised by both of them, good and bad surprised... Get out of your comfort zone and don't be afraid to question your own parties lack of help. Push them just like your oposing political party. These clowns are supposed to be working for us... You'll probably be surprised how little EITHER of them care about us that are trying to do the right and legal things in this process. You'll likely be surprised how little facts they know, if they know anything at all. Assuming you find 1 or 2 that will actually entertain you and not just spout off their normal bla bla bla,,,Vote for me cr&p... I've contacted 20+ and have only had one that would even remotely entertain me and he just happened to be my local congressman so I got SUUUUUPER!!!! lucky. I'd highly recommend talking with his office. Even if you don't agree with ANYTHING else he believes politally, he has a good idea of the reality we are dealing with going through this process. He definitely sympathizes with us and seems to be making an effort, but letting his office know your story couldnt hurt. He is congressman Thomas Massie. I also recommend the same with NSC and raise as much he!! as you can there... Even after this nonsense is over, I'm going to continue to a pain in as many a$$es as possible and hopefully the people following us won't continue getting screwed like we are... Good luck to all and don't be afraid to ruffle some feathers! 👍👍🍻🍻