hollywood79

Hi,

I sent my I-90 in Dec 2007. June 2008 we had nothing, no card and no details from USCIS. We made an infopass appoinment straight away. They told us that they had sent the new card in Jan 2008. Well we never recieved it. USCIS said we will have to pay a fee to get a new card. We have contacted our congressman about this and his office is helping us out. We should hopefully get a new card without the fee soon. Hopefully one without errors. But that is a whole other can of worms.

Contact your congressman. Give them 1-2 weeks to respond. If they can't help contact another. I contacted one congressman and 2 Senators. Only the congressman has made an effort in helping.

I know I am butting in here at the Kiwi thread but congrats on a quick interview!!

Mine was the same, about 3 mins and no questions asked about our marriage!! Seems as though our countries don't raise red flags.

20 days to go!!

had my consulate interview for the visa the other day... OH MY GOD what a ridiculous waste of my time. really. i had to take a day off work, fly to auckland, arrange to stay with a friend, get said friend to chaffeur me around... and all for a TWO AND A HALF MINUTE interview. i kid you not.

the preceding friday i suddenly realised, after leafing through a stack of papers, that i actually needed to provide 'evidence of ties to nz' for the interview. i panicked, but the examples listed seemed okay: bank statements, student loan contract, or a letter from my parents. it was too late to get the latter, but i thought i had the two former things. so just hours before i fly out to auckland, i begin looking for my student loan contract. then i realise i don't have it - my sis was down for a visit the other week and i gave her everything i'm storing to take back home to my parents place, including all paperwork such as loan contracts! i went into a huge panic. luckily i had a recent letter from IRD giving me my loan balance, and that was sufficient.

the pre-departure orientation i had to attend in auckland was better than i expected: quite informative.

still have a ton of stuff to organise, but i'm almost there!!

Goodluck Aussielad!!

I emailed 2 Senator's and one congressman yesterday. Hoping they will be able to fix Sydney's mistake. I am still trying to correct their error a year later!

I sent my I-90 in Dec last year and they claimed they sent my new card in Jan, so it took no more than 6 weeks for them to produce a new card. I never got it though, they sent it to our old mailing address and the corrections weren't made. Lot of good it has done us.

Firstly, I would like to apologize to those I have offended. I am truly sorry, and believe or not, I would like to support other military wives. I have been with husband for 5 years now and have been exposed to the military life and it is tough!

My objective to those wanting a military expedite is this -

I do not believe it is right that a couple files for this expedite just because the US spouse is serving his country. My husband is serving, has been active duty for 5 years and spent 4 years at the Academy before that. He lived, breathed and slept Air Force for nearly 9 years. He is military through and through. When he had deployment orders we considered the expedite option. But I decided against it. If he didn't come back I no longer had a reason to be in the US, even wih my son you is a US citizen. Thankfully the deployment was canceled.

It upsets me to know that there are couples out there taking advantage of a luxury that is the expedite option. While an immigration officer is looking into your file he is taking his focus away from someone elses file who is deployed or is about to be. You will never know if that person doesn't come home and if that case was ever approved but there is that small chance because of your file someone else has lost their opportunity to be in the US. The resources available to military is limited don't over use it. And the government doesn't owe you anything just because you are serving. Serving is an honor, your spouse chose to serve. He chose to wear his uniform with pride. And he is doing a wonderful job. By you being upset about minute things willl only upset him. This will result in his productivity and qaulity of work to diminsh. Affecting everyone else he works with. Overall having an indirect affect in their entire mission. Just because you were upset. I may be harsh but that is the reality. Being a military wife is tough! There are bigger things to worry about!

On another note, no you did not choose to fall in love with your husband. It was that last thing I was expecting or needed! But it happened and I changed all my short term plans for him. But I chose this life. As you did yours. You chose to spend the rest of your life with your spouse. You could have said no. But you said yes. So if you can't handle the political BS that is the US government, how are going to deal with the BS when you live on base or near the base and mingle with other wives and hear about he problems your spouse faces at work? Or the extension of deployments or cutting of retirement benefits?

I am only suggesting that you prepare yourself, it most like will be very different from what you are used to. And the last thing your husband needs is to be concerned about your problems. He needs to stay focused

Yesterday was our most recent fight, after our unsuccessful info pass appointment. But that was because we had been up since 3am, drove 4 hours to get down to LA and have them tell us bad news.

But apart from that, maybe once a month. Mainly USCIS and Air Force issues.

My green card/I-90 update -

I had my info pass appointment yesterday and was told that it took about 6 weeks after I sent the I-90 to them producing a new card.

It also had the same incorrect info on it. USCIS sent the new card to our old address even though I had already completed an AR-11 last year and put the new address on the I-90. Because it was sent to the old address it was returned and it may now have been destroyed because it has been just over 6 months and I didn't claim it. Even though the USCIS said you have to wait 6 months to do anything about the I-90. AGHHH!! I had also called them after they produced the new card asking for updates, they told me nothing, just wait 6 months!!

And if we do get the card it will have errors on it still. USCIS said we have to talk to the Dept. of State to correct it as it was their fault. If the card has been destroyed we have to file another I-90 and pay $370 for a new card. They could've have called us to let us know the card had been returned. Why do we even bother with providing personal contact details on every from if they don't use them??

Now the Dept. of State claims that the issue lies with USCIS beause I am now in the US and fall under their jurisdiction. What am I supposed to do? They keep blaming each other and not getting off their fat butts and actually do some productive work!!

So I have now contacted 2 Senators here in Califonia, one Congressman, the Dept. of State and the Consulate in Sydney asking for their help.

You think it will work?

Update again...

I called the military hotline at USCIS and they said the same thing " you need to talk to Dep. of State". Now I will call the Department of State in the morning and my husband will send an email to their Inspector General. Hopefully this will be all fixed soon!

So, I called the USCIS military hot line to see what they would say...they said the same thing because it was an error made by the Consulate I had to contact the Department of State

The one good thing abut that phone call is that military hot line is much more helpful than the ordinary one, wish I knew about it sooner!!

Now I have to wait till the morning to once again try to fix this.

Wish me luck!!

Congrats to all of you getting approvals!!

I laugh at the stories about the mean lady at the consulate!! I think I had her too, mine was Maori if it is the same as your mean lady! She told me I was missing docs when I wasn't and said my visa would be denied. It wasn't but they still gave me the wrong type of visa, idiot's!

I have to agree with Matt about military expedites.

To all of you who are complaining that you cannot be with a loved one sooner because an expedite does not apply to your situation - deal with, suck it up and move forward with life.

You fell in love with soldier, not matter what service he is, it his job to be away from you. You cannot change that. So deal with it!! I am a USAF wife and I have dealt with it. My husband hasn't been delpoyed and will soon be getting out as there are so many wonderful opportunites in the real world. We have spent some time apart. And my husband even missed the birth of our first child because we didn't know the exact day he was to be born and he couldn't get leave right away. He has missed a total of3 months of the 18 months of our son's life because I had to leave the US after 90 days. And he wasn't even deployed and he still missed a lot.

Yes it was difficult but deal with it. You will soon see him again. Sorry, if I sound harsh but you chose this life, so accept it or move onto the next guy.

Ok, my update. We had an infopass appointment this morning.

It turns out my new card was mailed back in Jan, about 4-6 weeks after we first sent the I-90. But it was sent to our old address even though I had completed a AR-11 (change of address back in Aug/Sep 2007). The post office sent the card back to USCIS. I don't why the UsCIS didn't try to make contact with me that it had been returned or why they couldn't tell me over the phone when I called the hotline twice after Jan. I had to wait 6 months, drive down 4 hours to LA to have them say that they will send it to our current address but it will probably still have CR-1 on it!!!!

WHY???? I have proof that we were married ofr more than 2 years at our interview. The anser to my WHY??? was the mistake had been made by th US Consulate, which falls under the State Department not USCIS. So USCIS cannot correct an error they made. So what are my options now? PLEASE HELP?? I will wait until they resend my card to make sure it does have incorret info on it before I do anything about it, but the officer was pretty certain that they couldn't change it as it wasn't their fault.

Ok, my update. We had an infopass appointment this morning.

It turns out my new card was mailed back in Jan, about 4-6 weeks after we first sent the I-90. But it was sent to our old address even though I had completed a Ar-11 (change of address back in Aug/sep 2007). The post office sent the card back to USCIS. I don't why the USCIS didn't try to make contact with me that it had been returned or why they couldn't tell me over the phone when I called the hotline twice after Jan. I had to wait 6 months, drive down 4 hours to LA to have them say that they will send it to our current address but it will probably still have CR-1 on it!!!!

WHY???? I have proof that we were married for more than 2 years at our interview. The anwser to my WHY??? was the mistake had been made by th US Consulate, which falls under the State Department not USCIS. So USCIS cannot correct an error they made. So what are my options now? PLEASE HELP?? I will wait until they resend my card, but the officer was pretty certain that they couldn't change it as it wasn't their fault. oh, and I also got a 6 month stamp. What good is that going to do me if I have to send another I-90??

Pusbrk, My husband was originally from Seattle, we could have put that as his address as his in the military. We thought it would be easier to go via CA as we live here at the moment. But it is taking too long!!!

Bernie and Bien, I will post again later when we return from our infopass appointment. I have a feeling that they never received it, then we will show them that we sent it certified mail, then they will change their story and say they sent it, and we say we never received it, then they say we have to pay a huge fee to replace it!!! And it is their screw up!!!

I hate them, they are the dumbest people in the country!!!

Hi there, Have you recieved any info on your I-90?

We sent ours to CA Dec 10 2007. It will be 6 months next week and still have not received anything!!! We have made an info pass appoinment for next week, hopefully they will have a decent answer!!

Hi there, Have you recieved any info on your I-90?

We sent ours to CA Dec 10 2007. It will be 6 months next week and still have not received anything!!! We have made an info pass appoinment for next week, hopefully they will have a decent answer!!

Milimelo,

I would like to know how you contacted your congressman and what you wrote in your letters to get a new card. I am in a similar situation waiting for a new card, but my card had errors on it. It has been 5 months since we filed an I-90, so we do have another month to wait before we can take it further. The USCIS were of no help. We really don't want to drive 4 hours to LA to talk with some uneducated person about this. They were of no help last time. I am fed up with them all!! The US consulate started the errors, the immigration officer at our POE continued the errors and then the stupid person at USCIS kept giving us the wrong info at our infopass appointment. Only idiots work for the State dept!!

Any advice would help!!!

Hi,

Has anyone received their new correct green card yet?

It's been nearly 4 mths since we sent ours and confirmation that USCIS received it. I have called their useless customer service line and was told not to do anything until 6 mths had passed from when they first received it. That's another 2 mths!! If it takes that long to get a new card produced I should've just gone home and gone through the whole journey again. It only took 7mths from start to finish!! LOL

Thanks for the advice guys!

The Consulate told me that I could only go as a tourist for 30 days. So we now have lots to think about.

Hi all,

My husband will be applying for a student X visa for China. Will he be allowed to take dependents with him? It will just be myself and our small son. I won't need a visa to work or study, just one that allows me to stay in China for about 11 months.

Also, as a perm resident how will this affect my status here in the US. I understand if I am gone for more than a year then I require a reentry permit. On the USCIS web site it states that they could decide that I abandoned my status upon arrival back even if I was gone for less than a year. Has this happened to anyone?

And, does anyone know a good real estate agent in Dalian who speaks english? We will need a 2 bedroom apartment down town.

We will be going to the Chinese Consulate this week to get some answers but any info you can give before then would be helpful!!!

THANKS!

Hi all,

It's been a while since I've been here and it is good to see so many visa's being granted!!

Anway, here is a site that may be of use to you. If you have excess luggage or have items you need to ship to the US from OZ this may be helpful..

www.xsbagsandboxes.com.au

I haven't used it just saw an ad for it today.

Hi all,

It's good to see some people also have errors on their cards and that I am not the only cursed one here!! I feel your frustration with USCIS!!

How long is the current process for issuing new cards? A few months ago it seemed to take 3 months.

I have not sent my card back yet even though I have had it since July and want to fly overseas early Jan 2008. I do have a temp stamp in my passport as I entered as a perm resident. However, I would feel more comfortable having the actually card back by then.

thanks.

Don't enter through San Fransisco. They won't change it there even though they should!

You and I are not having any luck with these people!!!!!!

I had my infopass appoinment 2 days ago. They weren't alot of help. The Officer kept explaining what a CR-1 is and how to adust my status. I just kept trying to explain we had been married more than 2 years. He didn't get it until a Superviser stepped in and said "oh, you just need to complete a I-90 and mail it." I knew that!!! I just wanted to submit my form to them there and make sure no more mistakes would be made!! I have come to the conclusion that if you are so dumb and stupid and can't get a job anywhere else just apply to the US government and you will find yourself a job!!

So, I will eventually mail off my I-90, my green card ( will keep a copy for myself), and a copy of the visa and CR-1 stamp in my passport. This will all be sent via registered mail.

Hope you have better luck at your appointment!!!

Kym,

I had 30 days from when I arrived to drive on an my Aussie license here in CA. Just check with your local DMV it may be different if you're one a K-1.