MrCosgrove

Hi,

I recently entered USA on a IR1, I have not received my green card in the mail yet. 

I am about to move to a new house from where I told the agent at the airport I was going to be. 

How do I go about letting them know I have moved?

Is this all handled by USCIS still, even though my visa application is finished? or do i contact someone else?

I have now used Wise for the transfer and had very little issue, they did hold a payment while I provided some indentity information , but thats all, I did also try a telegraphic transfer via my bank and that that payment lost a chunk of money getting there, so Wise would be how i would suggest others look at as well. Of course, anyone moving money across the world should do their own research and I would high recommend doing small test transfers  (I did $250 transfers) to make sure it all works before doing a large transfer.

Hi

we have just finished our visa process and have finally arrived in USA .

I am looking to transfer funds from my Australian bank to my us bank.

what happens in cases like this when the amount is over $10,000?

does the irs add taxes for transfers when it’s a transfer to accounts in the same name like this will be?

I was talking to someone about intermediate banks and wondered what sort of fees I can expect in making the transfer? 

Hi,

My IR-1 visa was approved recently, We will soon be heading over to USA.

When we get to the airport, the immigration person will process the green card I assume so that the temporary green card will be a a permanent green card.

My question here is, how long should I expect the process that gets done at the airport  upon arrival to take. It is just a few minutes, or should I expect an hour to two for it to be processed?

Hi,

I have an embassy interview for a IR-1. I have to fly to the interview.

My question is , is my wife who is the partitioner required to attend the interview as well as me ( the beneficiary) or is she able to not go? Will all go if need be, but would prefer to keep Covid exposure by minimizing who is traveling to the interview.. 

2 minutes ago, kunnu1910 said:

Hi @MrCosgrove did you got the permit?

 

I called the given number they said we cant have the permit for the interview in Sydney embassy. There is no category for this.

Im not in Victoria so I don't need a permit. 

Unfortunately, You may have to choose option 2 from the email I think, maybe call the consulate to discuss it with them before replying to the email?

2 minutes ago, kunnu1910 said:

Hi Guys,

 

I got the same Email. I am currently living in Victoria.

Please tell me what should we do in this case because we cannot the permit to cross the border.

Or does anyone got the permit?

 

Thanks.

here is the link to the travel permit page: 

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-covid-19-nsw-border-entry-permit

however do read up on the requirements, and also you can call the covid line for information on 1800 020 080

I would suggest calling them to ensure you are getting the most up to date information. 

1 hour ago, ClaireH93 said:

Just got an email from Sydney....

 

Dear Visa Applicant(s),

 

Our office is reaching out to you as we have received your petition from the National Visa Center (NVC) and can now schedule an appointment for your interview.

 

Please reply to indicate either of the following:

 

1 – Please schedule the next available appointment.

2 – I am unable to attend an interview due to COVID-19 restrictions in my State or Territory. I will contact you for an appointment as soon as I can attend.

3 – I am not yet ready to attend an interview, I will contact your office 2 months prior to when I hope to have an interview scheduled. I understand this may be longer due to the effect of COVID -19 on scheduling availability.

 

When responding please indicate which of the above options (1, 2 or 3) applies. Please also include in your response the following information:

 

Case Number:   SYD0000000000

Name: SURNAME, GIVEN NAME

 

We look forward to your soonest response.

 

Thank you,

 

Immigrant Visa Unit (cc)

U.S. Consulate General, Sydney

General: https://au.usembassy.gov/ Visas: www.ustraveldocs.com  

yep! me too! happening all very fast haha. very happy. 

Hi,

I am trying to prepare for visa interview. The DS5540 form is one that i am confused about.

Is it currently required ? when i go to the travel.state.gov website it tells me the DS5540 is currently unavailable. So I cannot download it to fill it out.

Is this because it's not currently required? 

here is the link i went to:

https://eforms.state.gov/Forms/ds5540.pdf

5 hours ago, ClaireH93 said:

Potentially because Sydney is only open for emergency interviews, not routine? If they've run out of normal interviews perhaps they're expediting in order so they can hold the interviews?

Who knows really, but I am STOKED!

could be why , glad they did it, looking forward to all this being behind us! see you in Sydney  

24 minutes ago, ClaireH93 said:

So got another email about 30 minutes ago.

Expedite approved. I never applied for an expedite, but its approved 🤷‍♀️

 

Anyone else?

yes me too, not complaining about it thats for sure, but no didnt ask them to expedite. 

I guess since its  well outside their 60 days from NVC to interview they are now experditing the over due ones?? maybe, just guessing 

5 hours ago, ClaireH93 said:

Oh wow, well thanks for sitting on hold!! 

This is good news at least. Ive been logging in probably once a month (DQ was 2nd June) and its always said "at NVC". I checked this morning and it stills there, but that's wonderful news if they're working towards moving them to Sydney. Then I guess it just depends how long the line is 🤞

yeah hoping it means something will happen soon, this has been a long journey, (started April 2019)  so very ready to be done with it and get on with our life. 

Mine says At NVC still at the moment. (DQ May 27th). so not far away from yours. 

hoping the line isnt too long!

1 hour ago, ClaireH93 said:

I got this very same email this morning! 

 

I know a few other people who have got this, though they were all expedites.

They had their expedite approved, then received this email, then about a week later received their interview info.

 

I have emailed our lawyer (no lawyer hate please, our case is not straightforward by any means) for his input.

Interestingly, he has had a lot of his clients interviewed and approved during COVID so hopefully he can shed some light 

 

Edit: have you expedited?

So I did call NVC and after an hour on hold finally got an answer 

Apparently this is like a default email they send out when they start actively working towards your interview.

They person told that right now NVC are performing (and I quote here) "Boring administrative work" on the case before sending it to Sydney consulate for an interview . no idea what that "boring administrative work " entails. I actually thought my case must have already been in sydney since NVC approved it in May, but its just been sitting in NVC for months. 

Good news is, it means they are actively working on the case again, so that may mean at least its close to being finished. 

23 minutes ago, ClaireH93 said:

I got this very same email this morning! 

 

I know a few other people who have got this, though they were all expedites.

They had their expedite approved, then received this email, then about a week later received their interview info.

 

I have emailed our lawyer (no lawyer hate please, our case is not straightforward by any means) for his input.

Interestingly, he has had a lot of his clients interviewed and approved during COVID so hopefully he can shed some light 

 

Edit: have you expedited?

thanks for the response, no i haven't expedited.  trying to call them to get some clarification on whats going on with it. see what light they can shed on it!

when an interview in scheduled, should that show up in the messages on the CEAC website. I can see in there that an interview has been cancelled, but there is no message in there of an interview ever being scheduled, Does the interview schedule show in the messages on the CEAC website normally?

Hi,

received an email today from NVC which said :

"

We previously notified you of the date and time of your immigrant visa interview at the U.S.Embassy/Consulate General in SYDNEY, ASTL.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have to cancel this interview. We will schedule a new interview appointment as soon as possible and notify you of the date and time. There is no need for you to take action at this time."

The only thing that is concerning here is the fact that neither me nor my wife received any previous emails about an interview date. 

Im not sure if I should be emailing NVC to clarify this or not. 

We previously notified you of the date and time of your immigrant visa interview at the U.S.Embassy/Consulate General in SYDNEY, ASTL.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have to cancel this interview. We will schedule a new interview appointment as soon as possible and notify you of the date and time. There is no need for you to take action at this time.

Hi,

I emailed the consulate in Sydney to get an idea on how long they were expecting it to take before interview for i-130 which was Document Qualified by NVC in May. 

What I got back was a link to a website https://cgifederal.secure.force.com/ and a log in username and password. 

Once I got in there the only options for immigrant visa was K1 to K4, now of which are correct. So I dont really understand what the website is for or what option they were expecting me to use. 

Has anyone used this website? 

Anything you can add to help me understand what they are expecting me to do here would be appreciated.

Hi, 

Are embassies open for interviews ? or are they still closed due to Covis-19?

Kind of taken off guard with the speed of our Document Qualification with NVC, was not expecting it so soon. So now I am wondering how long it will be to get an interview with the embassy. Are we just in a holding pattern now until they reopen?

Thanks!

i have received some messages from nvc in ceac, but it seems impossible to read the messages, every time i click on the message, a grey box appears, but the text never shows, i have managed t get the message to show once on one of the messages, but the other one never shows, 

has anyone else had this problem?

What does it mean when the status has changed to accepted , but when you click in to the details, it shows one item is rejected, is that normal?

ok thanks very much,

so there is no acknowledgment that i have done all i need to do? the "submitted" is it? and now we just wait. 

I have just completed uploading all the documents I needed to. 

Both the affidavit of support and applicant information lines say "submitted"

My question is what happens now, is it now in the queue to be looked at, how do I know that it is in the queue to be reviewed? Other than "submitted" there isnt a lot of feedback to know that I have done all I can do and I am waiting for them to do their part.

Thanks!

I am in a situation where I have w2 and 1099 for the sponsor, but not a tax transcript . 

In ceac, under the sponsors documents, , should the income tax return be set to "not available" and the w2 and 1099s uploaded as additional files?

Or how should the files be uploaded?

Thanks!

When uploading Affidavit of support, are they expecting a signed copy ? if so, do I scan the whole document in , or do I upload the unsigned version and upload a scan of the signature page separately, its hard to keep it under the 2mb limit when scanning the whole document in.

Hi,

I am trying to determine if I qualify for the 40 quarters of work exemption.

I am the beneficiary and my wife is the partitioner of our i-130

According to the SSA website , I have earned 31 credits. My wife has earned more than 9 credits. 

I am trying to understand the requirement for the 40 credits. I seem to be finding conflicting stories on the requirement. 

I have read that as long as the total between my credits and my wife credit exceed 40 , we should be eligible.

My understanding is that for my wifes credits to count , they would have to be calculated from the time we were married. Is this correct? not her total credits earned?

Also the info I see refers to form i-864W  if we do qualify. However that form does not appear to exist anymore, the USCIS website redirects to i-485 now for the i-864W, so I Am not quite sure how that works when we are filing the i-130 from outside of the USA. 

Thanks for the help!