NinjaChicken

On 12/24/2020 at 6:04 PM, Lucky Cat said:

The package with the stopped check will be rejected.   The package which arrives with a valid payment will be processed. You can call USCIS, ask for "technical assistance" at all prompts.  That should get you to a live person.

We were finally able to confirm exactly what you said with USCIS. Stopping the check on the package that is still in transit solves the problem. Thank you so much!

I will be avoid USPS like the plague at all costs in the future for anything that is important and go with UPS instead. Lesson learned! 🙄

The USPS absolutely screwed us over and recommended we send our i-485 as registered mail with priority shipping back on Nov 25th. After it still hadn't arrived at USCIS in mid December we opened a case at USPS and they informed us that it was our fault for sending it registered and recommended we put an intercept on it and ship out a new set of paperwork at priority express, so we did that. Our second i-485 sent via priority express has arrived already, but we have received an email that the intercepted original package can't be delivered to our address and it is now headed back to USCIS. The useless USPS is claiming they can't see where the package is and can't even tell us why the intercept failed. We also can't even get USCIS to talk to us to advise us what to do because we don't have a case number yet.

What will happen if both sets of paperwork reach the USCIS? I already put a stop on the check in the original i-485 paperwork, so at least I won't be out that $1200+ hopefully, but we're worried it will get both sets of documents rejected and further delay her work permit. Does anyone know how we can contact USCIS without a case number to tell them to destroy the second set of documents if we can't get USPS to actually do their job and intercept it in time?

29 minutes ago, jess.y said:

I have a question. If someone earns a living outside of the US, not in USD, in no way connected to the US, how will the IRS or whatever government unit know?

And another question, is it illegal to travel to the US and work from home there? Like working for a foreign company? This is so confusing to me. Thank you!

I agree it is very confusing. That said, even if other governments don't talk to each other or have access to income tax information, is it worth risking yours or your significant other's status as an immigrant? It's not worth it to me, personally. My poor fiance will just have to accept being a trophy wife for 5-6 months until Uncle Sam allows her to work

Thank you for the great information, everyone! I guess she'll just have to provide fitness training on zoom for free to keep her skills up until she gets her work permit   I assume selling handmade crafts on Etsy is not a good idea either, even if the amount earned is below the threshold required to be reported to IRS?

My fiance is actually capable of still working in Australia via zoom (more of a side hustle than fulltime job), but I'm worried that might upset the US gov and hurt us later on in this process. Everything I've read online is that she can't work in the US, but I can't find any information whether or not she can still earn Australian income while in the US before the work permit comes through. Anyone know? If she can't earn income by working, is passive income from renting out her former home ok?  Surely they can't tell her she's not allowed to have gains from an investment property...?

On Aug 31st we received an email stating K1 visa interviews were commencing again at the Sydney consulate and asking if we were ready (they have no idea how ready we are...). Then a day later we got our interview date for less than a week later. Looks like all us K1 folks that have been waiting for what has felt like forever are finally going to get our visas soon  

10 hours ago, Babaloo said:

You don't have to do medical before you schedule your interview.

You need to complete DS160 online  before you schedule your interview.

Ok, thanks. That's what I thought. That post had me wondering if we had made a mistake holding off on getting the passport photos, police report and medical done. The DS-160 has been completed for quite some time.

On 8/19/2020 at 11:32 PM, Jorgedig said:

When everything on your fiancee's end is completed (medical, DS-160, etc), the consulate will contact you for an interview.

You have to have done your medical before they will schedule you? Doesn't the medical expire very quickly?

28 minutes ago, Botoole said:

Just got DQ'd today -next step interview scheduling so keen to hear how guys go. I live in Sydney which makes it a bit easier (from a Covid travel-restricted perspective) but I'm still quite pessimistic regarding timing and fully anticipating a major backlog that they'll schedule before getting around to me! Haven't heard of anyone DQ'd and scheduled other that end of Nov interview date someone shared! 😕

We've been waiting to be scheduled since early March, so unfortunately it's going to be quite a back log, I'm afraid   I suspect they will be under-staffed as well.

On 7/17/2020 at 6:11 AM, Gii said:

Hi,

 

Thought I would start this thread for those who are now able to book in appointments at Sydney embassy. If you have been able to, could you please put down the earliest date that you have been able to book in with? Just to give everyone an idea of how big the backlog is/ expected timeline. 

 

Thanks 🐨🇦🇺

Was there an announcement or something? I'm not seeing anything on the embassy website about resuming normal activities. 

2 hours ago, Jorgedig said:

"Priority date" is not typically used for K-1s.

That would explain why I've never come across this term before in all my K1 research...

1 minute ago, Paul & Mary said:

It should be the date the NOA1 was issued.

Which would be the received date on the I-797C form, right? I don’t know where Support@ustraveldocs.com came up with March 3rd 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

Why is this process so convoluted? Lol

8 minutes ago, haiderzaidi said:

When is your interview ?

Sorry mine is EB3 , my priority date is when my labour Certificate was lodged. It seems like your is a marriage stream.

We can’t schedule our interview until we get this last bit of information confirmed and can pay the interview fee.

I suspect your process is quite different than the one we go through. We don’t have a labor certificate.

Hello all! My fiancé and I are trying to pay for our interview at the Sydney consulate and one of the pieces of data they require is our “priority date”, but we’re having trouble determining what it should be. According to the interwebs it should be on our I-797C form, but nothing there says “Priority date”. We only have a received date of Nov 18th and a notice date of Nov 22nd on that form.

We contacted the consulate support and they’re telling us our priority date is March 3rd, which is very confusing. On the website to pay the interview fee it states that any incorrect information may result in delays or the forfeiting of the fee, so we’re trying to make sure it’s correct before paying 🤦‍♂️

Anyone able to add some clarity? Thanks so much!