UsFin

Arrived at JFK on CR-1 visa on June 18th, received social security card on June 28th, and green card on July 8th. Timelines seem to vary a lot..

Im moving to the US in a few weeks and selected a SSN to be issued in my DS-260.

To my understanding, I should be receiving the card within three weeks after being admitted to the country. Is that somewhat likely or will it take longer? Anyone with recent experience?

Ended up emailing the embassy and their response was "a copy is fine as we can see the one you submitted to the NVC."

20 hours ago, Kaemouzy said:

It doesn't hurt to bring the original

I know and might still ask husband to send the original just to be safe..

Hi,

apologies if this is a repeated question, but there seems to be a lot of conflicting info.

Do I need to bring my husband's (petitioner) divorce decree to the interview? If so, does it need to be an original or would a photocopy be enough (i.e. the same one we submitted online to USCIS and NVC - I would just print it out)?

Then again, it says under "U.S embassy Helsinki, Finland" that only if I, the applicant, was previously married, a divorce decree should be brought to the interview.

I know Helsinki embassy is processing IR1/CR1 cases but does anyone have an idea of how long until you can expect to have an interview date scheduled / which DQ dates are they currently scheduling? 
 

We've only been DQ'd since last month and would like some estimate, but seems like there's hardly any people here interviewing for IR1/CR1 in Helsinki.

23 hours ago, Annem95 said:

How long does it usually take from uploading documents to DQ? Just came back from a trip to the states, it’s heartbreaking leaving my love... 

We submitted everything on Jan 18th and got DQ'd already today 🙏🏼

1 hour ago, KP0515 said:

Hi UsFin.

 

I was looking at the averages and it looks like Vermont caught up somehow and is now ahead of the other two locations. So maybe this is not a bad thing?

 

This process is so hard. Praying the best for you and your loved ones!

Thank you - just wondering why VJ member data shows such fast processing times for Vermont versus USCIS official processing times.

Hi guys,

just found out our case has been transferred to Vermont (without any notice). Feeling defeated to say the least.. My hysband called USCIS tier 2 representative but was basically given no info as to why. They told him to login and send online message for more details from an officer.

Has anyone else had their I-130 transferred to Vermont? Or does this mean our case is put under extra scrutiny - hence transfer to a more back-logged SC?

Hi,

I recently traveled on a valid ESTA to the US from the Schengen area and experienced no issues at all!

Before boarding I was asked to show both my husband's passport and our marriage certificate (I was carrying, among other documents, a color copy of his passport biopage as well as certified copy of our marriage certificate) and once those were checked, was let to board. So, as far as airlines go (KLM and Delta), I had no problems.

At port of entry, the only documention the officer wanted to see was my return ticket. Other than that, I was asked same questions as always without any mention of the pending i-130.

From experience, dont bother calling the airlines for guidance; staff on the phone are clueless and know no more than you do. 

Im a spouse of a USC with a pending i-130 and scheduled to fly to JFK from Helsinki, Finland via Amsterdam in a couple of weeks to visit my husband with a valid ESTA permit. Are ESTAs categorically being revoked or only in cases where youve checked yourself in online? In case my ESTA gets canceled just before my departure, how have you guys managed to get it approved again? At the check-in desk after presenting appropriate documention (marriage certificate, spouse passport copy)? Im flying first with KLM, then Delta. KLM call center was clueless and had no answers for me on this matter.

Thanks for the replies!

We did add screen shots of WhatsApp chat log (that showed the amount of sent messages, photos etc) and some individual shots of messages over the years.

On 4/11/2020 at 5:34 PM, HelsinkiFi said:

We also did some screenshots of messages plus a whole bunch of vacation selfies and flight itinerary’s to prove we’ve been going back and forth a long time. We’ve also never lived together but we’ve visited each other’s countries regularly.
 

Logically speaking you’d think that that is very strong proof, better than messages. 
 

Nice to find another Finn on this forum!  
 

 

 Yea not too many Finns here Ive noticed. Joten totta puhut

Thank you for the replies!

On 3/29/2020 at 4:51 PM, NikLR said:

High fraud countries often include things like this. Is your husband Finnish? Is his family from a high fraud country? If not then Finland is low fraud and the quantity of evidence is lower. Evidence of time spent together is best. 

• Im the beneficiary and Im Finnish. My parents are Finnish too, born and raised.

3 hours ago, millefleur said:

Depends on how much other evidence you have and if your case has red flags. Are you submitting a lot of other evidence? If yes, the chat logs are probably not necessary.

 

I agree with @Duke & Marie that evidence of travel together and other time spent together in person carries more weight than chat logs. Sounds like you have that already from your list. Also, you could just include a couple pages of chats just to show you kept in touch from month to month, absolutely no reason to include pages and pages of it unless it is a high fraud/red flag case.

• Maybe we'll add some screen shots just to be on the safe side.

Hi guys,

we are in the process of submitting the i-130 online and doing the consular processing since my husband lives in the States and I'm still in Finland. I've read a lot of posts about couples including WhatsApp/Facebook/Skype/email messages as supporting evidence in their i-130s. How necessary is this? My husband and I first met back in 2014 and basically we've been talking daily on WhatsApp ever since. So, you can imagine the amount of conversation/msgs and there is no way we can start putting that into PDFs.

Since we've never lived together we obviously have no joint leases, joint bank accounts, credit cards or any of that yet. What we have, on the other hand, is lots of selfies/photos of us over the course of five to six years (planning on using phone screen shots so the time stamp of each photo is visible), affidavits, passport stamps of visits, a few hotel reservation bills, wedding pics and life insurance policies, where we are marked as each other's beneficiaries.

Would you still try to add some online conversations (it would be hard  though due to the massive amount...) or do you think we are good without?

Hi everyone,

this is probably a dumb question, but can you file i-130 online even if the petitioner, my husband in this case, resides in the US?  Im asking because in the USCIS page it states that the filing location for a form I-130 depends on where the petitioner lives:

• "If you reside in the United States, file at the Chicago, Dallas, or Phoenix Lockbox, depending on where you live and whether your relative is also concurrently filing Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. For a complete list of addresses, visit our Direct Filing Addresses for Form I-130 webpage;
• If you reside outside of the United States, you may:
  • File at the USCIS Dallas Lockbox facility;
  • File online using the USCIS website; or ...." 

Based on the above it would seem online filing for petitioners in the US would not be available, but surely that is not the case, right?