googles

Hi,

I sponsored my wife and she arrived as a conditional permanent well over a year ago. A little over a year ago we moved to another state, but I didn't remember that we were supposed to submit address changes.

We're going to fill out her AR-11 (probably online) and my I-865 (by print/mail) immediately.

On the I-865, they are asking me for my "effective date of change of address". Could I put the current date, implying that the change I'm filing with USCIS is to be effective immediately? Or must I put the old move date from over a year ago?

I'm afraid that if I put an old date from 2009 in that it might be more of a problem (since it's so long ago), but I don't want to appear misleading. I guess it's how "effective date" is meant to be interpreted. Do they mean when I want it to be effective with USCIS, or do they mean when I had it effective with the post office?

Does anyone have any thoughts or experience on this?

Thanks!

Hi,

Well we are familiar with this requirement as it held my Husband's file up for a few weeks at NVC (he needed to submit a copy of his Canadian PR card).

I don't think your situation is common, I have only heard of one slightly similar.

In that case the Husband (Irish) and wife (U.S. citizen) were waiting in Canada together on a tourist visa, they requested their interview in Montreal.

Long story short, they would not accept their tourist status and he returned to Ireland for the interview.

But again, that is only somewhat similar - but does prove, I guess, that they mean what they say.

I would really recommend that you contact the Montreal consulate via email and ask this question and explain the circumstances, if they agree to interview then at least you have it in writing as it may well get caught up at NVC while they wait for you to send a valid 6 month visa.

If that happens at least you can contact a supervisor at NVC and let them know what Montreal has said.

If they say no, well then at least you know you have to wait until September.

Good luck

Thanks for responding. Assuming Montreal will say I must wait for the new permit to come, do you think I'm better off waiting for it before sending the complete DS-230, or should I send the incomplete DS-230 packet now so they'll already have most of it and will just wait for the one piece?

Thanks!

I'm petitioning my wife from Canada through the CR-1 visa. She's from another country but is working in Canada through an open work permit.

Things have been going OK so far, but we have a snag. As I was getting everything ready to include with the DS-230, I noticed that Montreal (where the interview will be) has their own requirements. One of those requirements is that if the beneficiary is not a permanent resident (she's not) then documentation has to be sent to the NVC showing she can legally be in Canada for the next 6 MONTHS.

The snag is that her open work permit expires before 6 months and her new one might not be here until September.

Is anyone familiar with this requirement? Is my only option to wait until her new permit comes in? I'm afraid if I ( a ) send everything else and ignore that little detail or ( b ) include a copy of the current work permit that expires before 6 months, the NVC will realize her passport is not Canadian and request the document or delay the whole process.

Or maybe it would be OK if we include the current permit and note in the cover sheet that it has been renewed and she's just waiting for the new one?

If anyone knows or has been through something similar, could you please share your thoughts?

Thank you so much!

Hi all,

I paid my IV fee bill online, it's all paid and I'm now permitted to print the barcode sheet for the DS-230. All good, it seems.

I'm still waiting for the actual DS-230 packet to come though, for the letter in it that I can use to submit to Hong Kong for the police clearance (they require something from the NVC showing it's official).

My question, for those who have requested police clearances from Hong Kong, is can I use the letter that came with the I-864 request packet? This letter has all the goodies: the beneficiary's name, the petitioner's name, the case number (and thus the Embassy (MTL).

Seems to have the goodies that Hong Kong is requesting, however, the letter doesn't specifically say "you need to get police clearance". It just says "you must submit the AOS I-864 form".

Has anyone used this form to request the police clearance? Or do I have to continue waiting for the DS-230 packet just for the letter that comes with it?

Thanks for your thoughts!!!

Thanks for the suggestion. I hadn't thought of including the Hong Kong instructions, but I think it's a good idea and I'll send it along as a subtle reminder.

I don't have any Hong Kong specific information, however generally this is the letter they will send you regarding the DS-230. All it has is a web address you go to, you then choose your embassy from the drop down list - the next page has information specific to your embassy which includes:

- Information on which documents you must submit with the DS-230 and a link for the DS-230 form you will fill out.

I would imagine you cannot submit your DS-230 without your police clearance, or rather, you can - but they will just send you an RFE (request for evidence) and will wait for you to send it to them.

Thanks for posting the image. It looks like that's the letter I'll be waiting for that HK will require.

Regarding not submitting the DS-230 without the clearance, I cannot do that because Hong Kong insists on sending it to the embassy and not to me. This is where I'm unclear. What does the NVC do after I don't send them what they told me to send (because it is impossible for me to send what I can never receive)?

Ok rd,

Her is my potential problem. If I need to send to clearence to tha NVC for our CR-1,which is on their list of doc to submit to them, do they get it from the embassy or what?

Hi there,

Did you ever get an answer to this one? I've asked similar questions a few times but I'm still unclear. Thanks

Hi all,

I'm going through the CR-1 spouse visa process. I just got my I-864 packet and IV fee bill at the same time. I already paid the IV bill online and it shows paid, so I'll ignore the IV bill forms they mailed me.

All good so far, I think. Now I'm just waiting for the DS-230 packet. Does anyone know how long it should take before I get that? I apparently can't move to request police clearance from Hong Kong until I have something in hand from the NVC showing my name, my spouse's name and the NVC case number.

I'm hoping I'm waiting for a reason and the DS-230 packet will have the letter I will need. I'm assuming this is just a letter with our names that tells us to get the necessary documentation together. Am I thinking correctly?

I'm still worried that when I finally do send my DS-230 packet to the NVC without the clearance from Hong Kong, that they will think my submission is incomplete. Has anyone who needed the Hong Kong clearance had a delay because they didn't send it to the NVC with the DS-230?

I'm probably just worrying for no reason...

Thanks!

Frankfort is an appointment post, so you must submit your docs with the DS-230.

http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3190.html

Quick and easy answer. Thank you very much.

i am also getting confused. my husband sent my original divorced paper (in german) police report (in german) and rest docs in english. website says either in english or the local language where the interview will take place. can anyone help me with this?

thanks a lot

Related to this, I will be sending the DS-230 and all the documents I can get for the beneficiary (birth certificate, Philippines police clearance, etc.). However, there will also be a Hong Kong CNCC police clearance which the NVC has confirmed Hong Kong should send to the Embassy. So I won't get that and won't be able to send that.

So when I send the DS-230 to the NVC without ALL of the information they are requesting (the Hong Kong certificate will be missing), how do I tell them that it's not included because it's going directly to the Embassy? Should I express this in the cover letter? I don't want the case held up because they're waiting for a certificate that will never arrive there. Or since this must be a common routine for them, when they see Hong Kong on the list of places where the beneficiary has lived, they'll know immediately that it *can't* be included, so I won't have to explain anything?

Just curious how others have handled that issue. Thanks for your thoughts!

Hi, Theres no need to get a request letter for Police Clearance in the Embassy, just attach the letter that you received from the NVC and the NOA2 together with the other required documents. I just got my Police clearance in HONGKONG last April and they didnt ask for the letter from the embassy... Hope this would help

Hi, not sure if you're still following this thread. For my wife's CR-1, I'm expecting the DS-230 soon. When you say you "got" your Hong Kong clearance, do you mean Hong Kong actually sent it to you (they say they don't do that)? Or did they send it directly to the NVC or embassy? Thanks!

A few weeks from now NVC will inform you that your application is in process and two weeks later after that NVC will send your documents to Montreal. The mbassy then contact and sends infos to your wife including the Visa Instruction and packets and all those DS forms tht she has to filled-out. Its at that time that she has to request ploice certificates from Hk Police.

This page (http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3194.html) seems to be telling me that the NVC in the USA will send me the DS-230 (not the embassy), and after completing it I need to send it and the supporting documents back to the NVC in the US, not Montreal:

"When complete -

Please send the completed DS-230 forms (Parts 1 and 2) to the NVC along with any other documents requested in this information packet. Please use the envelope supplied by the NVC when returning the information."

Are you saying after I send the DS-230 back to NVC in the US, they won't care that all the police certificates aren't there and will forward the packet to the embassy anyway? We also need a Philippines certificate, which we should be able to get in hand and will probably send that with the DS-230 to the NVC, just not the Hong Kong one.

Thanks!

If your wife got the letter already from the consulate of Montreal, she has to photocopy the Visa instruction and the cover letter where you usually see her name on it, print the request form in the HK police site and send it to the Hongkong Police. usually it takes a month to wait before the Consulate of Montreal will have the police certificate.

We're still working with the NVC, not the Montreal consulate. I thought it's the NVC in the US that will be requesting these certificates to be sent with the DS-230. Perhaps when I send some document with our names on it to Hong Kong with the request, I should tell them to send the certificate to the NVC in US rather than the consulate in MTL? Would they do that? Thanks

Hi all,

I tried a variant on this question on another forum and got some helpful links but I'm still confused.

I'm waiting for the DS-230 and I'm trying to get info together. My wife is the beneficiary, now living in Canada, but she spent >12 months in Hong Kong a few years back.

From what I've read from both the US and Hong Kong, for the CNCC Hong Kong requires something in writing from the US with our names and case number on it showing that this request is official. Then, once Hong Kong creates the certificate, they won't mail it to us, they instead want to mail it to the consulate.

Has anyone gone through this specific scenario? My confusion is:

(1) How do I get the NVC to generate the request letter I will need to give to Hong Kong?

(2) Hong Kong wants an address of where to send the certificate. Our NVC case number starts with MTL so Montreal will be where the interview is. But is that where Hong Kong should send it? Or is it supposed to go to NVC?

(3) If Montreal is where the certificate is supposed to go, when would they be expecting it? Right now, NVC still has my case and I assume the embassy knows nothing about me. So if Hong Kong sent it now to the embassy, wouldn't it just be lost or discarded?

(4) Wouldn't I normally send the police clearance/certificates along with the DS-230 to the NVC? How do I explain why there wouldn't be a Hong Kong clearance included? (Or does Hong Kong need to be instructed to send it to NVC instead of the embassy?)

I hope someone has experience with this and can offer some advice.

Thanks very much!

When you say "a copy of notice" do you mean just a generic notice, like a page from the website, where they say in general what they require? Or does it have to be some statement I request from the NVC or the Embassy that specifically shows our names and specifically mentions Hong Kong? If so, would I just email NVC to try to get this statement/notice that will allow me to request the police certificate?

Also, if I request the police certificate NOW, will the Embassy know what to do with it? I'm still just a month or so into the NVC processing, so I wouldn't think the Embassy would want this yet??

Sorry to be so dumb on this, but everything else on this journey has been clearer and this subject is a little cloudy to me.

Thanks!

Thank you for the response, those links were helpful.

I'm still confused on some of the details. When digging into Hong Kong, they seem to indicate they will send the certificate directly to the consulate. It looks like MTL Montreal will be the one, but Montreal hasn't requested it yet? I haven't even submitted the DS-230 yet.

Would Montreal know what to do with this or where to file it? I was hoping these agencies would just send us the certificates and we would then have or forward them as needed.

The problem is I'd like to process these certificates now so that waiting on them doesn't delay the whole process. The suggestions I've seen were that I should "start gathering" these documents now, but I can't really gather them if they're not sent directly to me.

Thanks for your thoughts on this...

Hi all,

I'm petitioning my spouse. She lives in Canada on a work permit (we were married there). She is from the Philippines originally (but hasn't been there in quite a few years) but has also spent time since (before Canada) working in Hong Kong.

So since she lived in the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Canada each for more than 6 months, I'm assuming she'll need police certificates from each of these.

She seems to think that to request a certificate from these places, she cannot just ask for one. They need to see some sort of document that shows a government agency is actually requesting it. Is this true? For those of you who requested from the Philippines or Hong Kong, how did you do it?

Also, I just sent out the $70 fee bill payment because it said to, but I'm seeing that I could have paid online to process it more quickly? How much do you think that will slow us down?

Thanks!!!

OK, just a little confused on the G-325a and I'm hoping someone can help.

First for my out-of-country spouse who is applying, all info of hers will already be abroad.

Since we're putting unemployment history, we have 6 lines of information.

The top 5 lines of the form say list employment. List present first. So she has to list current job at the top (is it ok to say "present time" in the to section there?)

Then in reverse order, she'll list all the other jobs.

Finally, the one job left from the last five years, can we put that in the "last occupation abroad if not shown above"? Normally I would read last abroad as most current. In this case, if we think of it as oldest abroad can we use that field for the oldest job so we don't need to use the second sheet?

If not, since she shouldn't leave things blank, would she write NONE as last abroad?

Thanks again!

Just an example of what I'm talking about, can I say something like:

Employment last five years:

Current Job #4 - From 01/2007 to Present

None - From 10/2006 to 01/2007

Past Job #3 - From 07/2006 to 09/2006

None - From 12/2005 to 06/2006

Past Job #2 - From 05/2005 to 11/2005

Then, in last occupation abroad if not listed above:

Past Job #1 - From 08/1999 to 05/2005

OK, just a little confused on the G-325a and I'm hoping someone can help.

First for my out-of-country spouse who is applying, all info of hers will already be abroad.

Since we're putting unemployment history, we have 6 lines of information.

The top 5 lines of the form say list employment. List present first. So she has to list current job at the top (is it ok to say "present time" in the to section there?)

Then in reverse order, she'll list all the other jobs.

Finally, the one job left from the last five years, can we put that in the "last occupation abroad if not shown above"? Normally I would read last abroad as most current. In this case, if we think of it as oldest abroad can we use that field for the oldest job so we don't need to use the second sheet?

If not, since she shouldn't leave things blank, would she write NONE as last abroad?

Thanks again!

Like folks have said earlier, a marriage certificate speaks more to the relationship than an affidavit. But if you want to include one, this is what we did.

Call it nitpicking or call it pedantic but a marriage certificate says nothing about the relationship. At just fulfills the requirement for evidence you are legally married. An affidavit from somebody who attended a wedding, can also say little about a bona fide ongoing relationship. I've seen no evidence that newlyweds who have never lived in the same country need any of listed "should include one or more...." items listed in the I-130 instructions.

I continually see people errantly interpreting "having personal knowledge of the bona fides of the marital relationship" as something like "attended our wedding". This is a gross misinterpretation that baffles me at least weekly.

For my I-130 petition (I'm the American), I was having two of my family members who attended the wedding certify that they (1) saw the marriage and that they (2) expected the relationship to last. I don't have much evidence beyond that, other than photos of visits/wedding, travel and lodging receipts (my name only - I have no receipts with my spouse's name), and the wedding certificate, so I thought I really needed to have someone's testimony.

But since the affidavits I'm about to send don't really express much about the ongoing relationship other than the expectation that the relationship will last, I'm assuming now it's better not to send these at all.

Has anyone sent minimal evidence (certificate, photos maybe) but then were asked for more evidence and affidavits? Or is there truly no reason at all to send the affidavits?

Thanks

Hi,

The G-325a doesn't have enough room on the form I have. Even the year in the from/to columns like 2007 or 2006 gets truncated and has the black plus. I'm not sure what's up with that, the font is already pretty small. Do I have a goofy form or something? I can't imagine I'm the only one having this problem.

My spouse has some employment lapses. Some people here have suggested ignoring the lapses because it's asking for employment history not unemployment history. Other people here have said you have to include the lapses. I think I have to list the unemployment though because it says "if none, so state".

So because I will be "so stating", I don't have enough room for all the employment entries. So I'll have an attached page.

For those who have attached, I had a few questions. On the attached page, did you have a title at the top with the name and birthdate of the applicant? Did you date and sign that attached page? Did you only attach a single page or 4 copies corresponding to the 4 G-325a copies? If so, did you sign and date each of the attachment copies?

Sorry to be so specific but I'm trying to be as careful as possible.

Thanks very much!

Hi all,

I'm about to do the I-130 to petition my wife from Philippines who is working in Canada (we were married in Canada just a few months ago).

I'm a little confused. I had always expected that the next step after I-130 would be the I-129F, but from what I'm reading is there any reason I shouldn't just proceed with the normal CR-1 and not bother with the I-129F and adjustments/fees that go with it?

I've read that the CR-1 used to take "significantly longer" than the K3 process, but then I read that the CR-1 as of 2005 was taking even less time than the K3? Now I think I'm reading that the CR-1 is taking "just a little longer".

Does that mean she could be here in the US with me sooner with the CR-1 than the K3 would allow, or maybe just a month or two later than the K3 would have her here? If we're only talking a month or two longer to have her here it seems like CR-1 is the way to go. Am I misunderstanding something?

Thanks!

I'm a US citizen. My wife in Canada is from the Philippines on a work permit. Were were married in Canada. We are about to begin the K3 spouse visa process.

My wife is close to the point where she can also apply for/become a permanent resident of Canada. Even though she's planning on coming to the US and becoming permanent here, she's thinking maybe she should also get the Canadian PR too. Why not?

Has anyone had any experiences where the US permanent residence was lost (considered "abandoned") because there was also permanent residency in Canada? Is there any reason why dual-permanent-residencies can't or shouldn't happen?

I'm afraid that having both PR's might cause her to lose one or both if abandonment is assumed. Is this fear silly?

Thanks!

Sorry, I didn't word it correctly. She's not a Canadian but is in Canada with a caregiver work visa.

I'll start the K3 process after we get the marriage certificate. While we wait however many many months for her to enter the country, is there any problem or danger with her getting the DS-156 for a short/tourist visit here either *before* we're actually married or *just after* we're actually married, rather than later in the process (which seems to be the stage in the process where everyone else files this form)?

Or if we did that would the DS-156 have to be refiled later (do they even allow that?) because the conditions would be different (i.e. for her tourist/visit she won't intend to work in the US, but when she comes the second time she will, or for her tourist/visit if she applies when she's still a fiancee, but when she comes the second time she'll be a wife).

It would be great to have her visit sooner than the 6 to 8 to ? months, but I don't want to complicate anything or mess anything up.

I'm an American citizen marrying a Canadian in a few months. Before we actually get married, my fiancee would like to apply for a visit here using DS-156. When she fills that out, she will not be a spouse but will be a friend.

After we marry, the K3 process says she'll need this DS-156 again. Would her existing pre-spouse one work, even though it doesn't have any spouse references? Or does another one need to be completed? Or is it a really bad idea to actually get a DS-156 just *before* getting married, rather than waiting a few months until the K3 process can be started normally?

I hope that makes sense. It's a little complicated and I'm trying to be careful. Many thanks for your thoughts!