Bee91

Hello Everyone~ My husband and I have now made it to the U.S. I'm now looking into changing my last name (hypenating my maiden with my husband's last name). Searching on the process in my state (FL) they basically say you bring a copy of the marriage license and the name on there has to be what you're changing it to. However, as we got married in South Korea, the women their keep their last names even after marriage. Therefore, on our marriage certificate, it still has my original name.

Does anyone know if there is something specific I would have to do or have any experience with this kind of situation? Thank in advance~

On 2/23/2020 at 5:26 PM, Dante2019 said:

Did anyone use the official English translation for the South Korean House Register?

I did for proof of relationship for the I-130 packet. 

DQ'd August 11th. We had to say we will bring the New Zealand background check to interview, but otherwise everything was accepted. Now waiting for an interview to be scheduled at the Seoul Embassy. 

Received a message from NVC about our case but couldn't read the message about my husband's New Zealand police report. Trier everything mentioned to open it, but ended up just calling NVC. After a 30 minute wait, they read the message to me. I asked him to clarify something and he legit just repeated the message to me. Very unhelpful. Anyways, an option was to put the document was unavailable and submit again, so that's what I did. He said we can bring the original with us to interview and we are going to get another background check from NZ if possible, even though we don't know what was wrong with the original.

Anyone have a similar problem with background checks for other countries? Any news of the embassies waiving the background checks? (he hasn't been back to NZ for last almost 5 years. 

Hmmm...not many DQd this past week? It's been 2 weeks for us since submission and hope to hear something soon. 

Do we need to upload the evidence of domicile to the NVC portal or just bring it to the interview?

Hey all, filling out the I864 and couldn't find an answer to my question. I only have foreign income, so I have to get a joint sponsor. That's all good. On I-864 part 7 is assets, it says if you're income doesn't meet the requirements you can fill it out. Well, my assets don't quite make it either, hence the joint sponsor. So, do I need to fill part 7 out? It says optional if you meet the guidelines so I'm not sure in my case. Thanks~ 

At NVC stage and trying to upload all my AOS documents. The past few years I have worked overseas, so I know my income doesn't count and I have a joint sponsor, no problem. I'm using my past tax returns since the IRS is not mailing out tax transcripts to overseas addresses right now. NVC instructions say if you use the tax returns, to also upload the W2s. Since I'm overseas though, I don't have W2s. Do you think they want me to also upload the forms that are like year-end statements? It's all in Korean, but I guess they could still read the numbers. Anyone have experience with this?

7 minutes ago, Quarknase said:

According to NVC instructions the most recent tax transcript. That currently can be 2019, or 2018 since tax day was postponed to July 15.

If you submit after July 15 and don’t have 2019 taxes filed, you’ll need to show that you have an approved extension from IRS.

Thank you for the helpful information. Cheers!

9 minutes ago, Quarknase said:

You are only supposed to upload one tax return under tax return. Each document has it’s own line - I-864 goes under I-864, tax transcript under tax transcript, all additional documents you’ll manually add under “add document” under additional line.

Oh, thanks. I'm now seeing that and that makes sense haha For the one tax return/transcript that is there, does it matter which one it is? Or should we put the latest one? Thanks for your quick response Quarknase~

OK, I don't know if I'm losing my mind or missing something. I'm starting to upload my documents for AOS and I uploaded the first tax return and hit upload. It's showing it, but now it's only showing me the option to 'edit/add comment' and I don't see where I can add the rest of my files. Am I missing something?

On 6/4/2020 at 11:26 PM, cbro said:

Approved today... on to the next step.  Too bad they sent the notice to themselves... I told them my address was a mistake they made recently and had an open ticket, but i guess they approved it before fixing my address:

 

Yay! Congrats on the approval finally. I was on vacation the other week so just saw this. I still think the address thing is quite funny. 

Has any overseas filers been able to get IRS tax transcripts? The online is not working and it says they are not doing them through mail right now. I was just going to do the tax returns, but I don't even have the W2 for when I worked in the states 3 years ago (when I filed taxes, my company allowed me to electronically import it, so I never downloaded it.)

Do you think it will be OK to just submit in the copy of my returns and my equivalent of a W2 from South Korea where I've been working? I already have a joint sponsor as my overseas income will not count. 

13 hours ago, B&C2017 said:

Wow, that is awesome! Congratulations! That was sooo quick 😃😃😃

We’re currently stuck with the AOS fee. There seems to be a system error and our payment was processed but only the IV fee shows as paid 😩 Supposedly it’s a common issue and can take up to two weeks or more to be resolved! I just hope they fix this soon - else I can’t upload AOS docs 😔

Yeah, I'm wondering if mine are doing the same. Both say processing but were already taken out of my account. It's been 3 days now, so hoping in the next few days it will be sorted out. 

16 hours ago, cbro said:

The tier 2 who called me back couldn't fix it himself so opened up some other service request and said I should receive an email... LOL?

Wow. I know it might not be their fault, but not very helpful. Maybe they'll be like "look, it's just easier to approve this guy's case than keep on trying to fix this error" haha One can hope.

Our case got transferred to Texas from Nebraska and we finally just got approved. Filed I-129F back in Oct/Nov but no movement on it. Pretty sure it had no effect on our case filing it. 

5 hours ago, cbro said:

haha thank you!  Yes was thinking about that - im also a bit annoyed they replaced my real address with the Texas Service Center address - still haven't heard back on that inquiry from last week.  I might try and chat with someone on the Ask Emma thing tonight (I'm in HK).  When is your plan to relocate to US - as soon as ?

Yeah, having to stay up to do the live chat can be rough. I would definitely try to get something from them on the chat.

Not sure exactly. I don't know when the embassy will open and we'll be able to get an appointment, but our lease is up here in January so hoping it all works out before then. 

3 minutes ago, cbro said:

Nice, happy for you guys, hope I am next 😉

I hope so! It wouldn't hurt to maybe send another email through the inbox asking about following up? Maybe then they will look at your case again? *fingers crossed*

Just got the NVC welcome letter and I'm currently waiting for the fees to process so I can start the process. As I have been living overseas, I have to use a joint sponsor (my father). He is going to request his IRS tax trancripts and looks like they are sent online and then you can download them. For all forms he has to do as joint sponsor, will I need to have not only the electronic, but also the original copies? Simply, he will have to mail the originals overseas to me?

Finally approved!  242 days total~

PD Sept. 30, 2019 orignially at Nebraska, transferred to Texas Feb 25 or 26th. 

I had sent a past normal processing times thing through the inbox and got a response saying they were forwarding it to Texas on May 13th. I still hadn't recieved anything else and emailed yet again. Finally, on the 26th got a message saying they'd make a decision within 60 days and then woke up this morning (28th in Korea) to see we were approved! 

Already received NVC email and waiting for fees to process. Good luck to everyone else, hope you get approved soon. Hoping the embassy here opens soon. 

9 hours ago, Paul & Mary said:

Filed at the stateside lockbox means it gets to one of a few different service centers.   The USCIS only determines that the petition is valid and does a background review on the petitioner.  If the petitioner is not been residing in the US then those checks can take longer.

 

That could be true, it would make some sense. But I also had 2 friends (US citizen and South African citizen) who were teachers here in South Korea for 2 years and before that lived abroad in Spain. They applied in Feb and already approved early May. So, there's also exceptions to that.

I feel like USCIS blindfolds their workers and makes them throw a dart at random dates on the wall to process that day. 

1 hour ago, Jessandmargarito said:

There are things that make some cases more complicated than others. In one of my other groups, a person mentioned that the Tier 2 told them that it sometimes has to do with background checks on the petitioner. Someone with a previous divorce, a criminal record, or someone who has lived in many different states/countries may need more time and be less straightforward than other cases. It is possible that the country of the beneficiary may have something to do with it too, especially in countries with high fraud rates. 
 

We had a pretty early approval (April 7) and I’ve lived in 4 states, but only two within the last 5 years. good luck to everyone! 
 

 

Yeah, some of that would make sense for certain countries. But then you have my husband and I in South Korea, a very developed nation, both never been married, no record of any kind. He's only lived in NZ and SK in his life. Yet here we are 8 months waiting. 

I put in inquiry they said they were forwarding to Texas, but still haven't received a reply (and sent it May 13th).