JKLSemicolon

Joining the thread. Package was delivered via USPS to the Phoenix lockbox on 9/11. No other updates yet.

Have you read this page? https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/uscis-announces-additional-mail-delivery-process-for-receiving-adit-stamp @mindthegap and others will have more experience with the ADIT stamp process, but if you spoke to a Tier 1 officer on the phone they likely did not give you accurate information. Edit: did you receive an extension letter for the new filing?

I believe @BaiBlueberry may have written AOS when they actually meant ROC.

Sounds like you are doing Adjustment of Status and not Removal of Conditions (which is where you posted this)?

Was the green card that has the maiden name issued after marriage? If that’s the case (and someone else can correct me if I’m wrong), my understanding was that you would need to go through the court-ordered name change process in order to use the married name on a permanent resident card. The reason is that the proof of name change has to be from after the original GC was issued, so the marriage certificate would not count. The other option is to wait until citizenship to do the name change.

Can you elaborate on what you see as the part requiring legal advice? I have read the USCIS chapter related to continuous residence as it relates to naturalization (https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-d-chapter-3) and, as mentioned, we will take that into account when the time comes. As far as conditional permanent residence, the USCIS policy manual (https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-g-chapter-5) states: In order for USCIS to approve the petition to remove conditions, the CPR must establish that: The marriage upon which the CPR admitted to the United States was valid; The marriage has not been terminated; and The marriage was not entered into for purposes of evading the immigration laws of the United States None of those points explicitly has to do with the question of time spent outside of the country, although if anyone has another reference to look through I will gladly do it.

Thanks. For our purposes right now we are planning to count 3 years from last month when considering citizenship to avoid any grey areas.

About 7 months.

Hi all, We are getting ready to file for removal of conditions and I would like others' opinions on the best way to answer Part 2, Question 22 on Form I-751. The question reads: My wife got her conditional permanent residency in September 2021. However, during the past two years she has spent a significant amount of time in her home country due to a complicated situation that was only finally resolved last month (July 2023). The situation had to do with being able to leave her former employer (a university) without them clawing back a large sum of money that was given in financial aid during an arrangement made years earlier. We of course did not anticipate this taking as long as it did, otherwise we might have opted to let the case sit at NVC for longer during the spousal visa process. So for much of the time since she became a permanent resident, she was still working in Ecuador and returning to the U.S. as frequently as possible until coming back full-time in July. Throughout, she has maintained significant ties to the U.S. including being on our shared lease, shared insurance plans, shared bank and credit card accounts, joint tax returns, etc. Given all this, my inclination in answering the question above is to say "Yes", list the family address in Ecuador in the Additional Information section along with a brief explanation, and find ways in the rest of the package to put this into greater context. That could be through a cover letter, timeline, and perhaps even relevant translated documents/correspondence related to the employer situation. From this group I am trying to get a sense of whether this sounds like a good approach and how much of this information is truly relevant for USCIS. We have been together for 13 years now and I don't doubt our ability to demonstrate that this is a bona fide marriage, but at the same time these circumstances are different from a lot of cases out there and I want to be able to present them in an appropriate way.

Congratulations! If you could take a few minutes to fill out your VisaJourney timeline, that will help many other users on this site.

I would add that I-751 interviews are often waived if the beneficiary previously completed an interview with USCIS - for example, during the AOS process as would have happened with the OP of this thread. By contrast, those who enter on a CR1 after having done only a consular interview will most likely have to complete an interview with USCIS during the ROC process (unless things have changed?).

If the ITIN is issued, that is a positive sign since the return can be filed by the IRS after that. In my experience we got no further notification after receiving the ITIN letter and returned original documents in the mail. Although we were owed a refund, the "Where's my Refund?" page did not show anything until right before the refund arrived, ˜9 months after getting the ITIN. However, the IRS was working through a significant backlog at the time that may (?) be slightly better now. There may be a way to call to check the status of the return, but the only call I made at the time was to check the status of the ITIN once it was past the published processing time from the IRS website (currently 7 weeks).

For your first question, when submitting the paper 1040 with form W-7, I left my wife's SSN blank as the IRS will fill in the ITIN once assigned. Edited to add: I would certainly not put "NRA" instead of her first name. Remember that you are also required to submit a statement indicating the choice be considered a U.S. resident for tax purposes, so putting NRA (=Non-Resident Alien) anywhere does not make sense in this case. For the second question, in 2021 I sent the return and W-7 to Austin before the filing deadline and without filing an extension, and had no problems in spite of the rest of the process taking over a year. Not sure about your third question.

This thread is over two years old. I explained what I did back in 2021 and don't have anything else to add at this point.

We used the taxpayer ID from her return in Ecuador. Edited to add: this was the number from box 6b of Form W-7. However, you may consider using the identification number from the document in part 6d of the W-7 instead? The format for the document I sent is below (slightly updated after looking at the current IRS language): Note that I actually did include the parentheses after the identification numbers specifying what each one was. Hope that helps.

My wife did this twice. The second time there was some confusion when checking in at the airline counter for the return trip to the US because the airline officials were not familiar with the use of the endorsed visa as I-551 evidence. This caused a slight delay while the airline officials made some phone calls to figure things out, but in the end she was able to board. So if anything I would just make sure to arrive to the airport with plenty of time. If the current stamp were close to expiration, you could get another (before traveling) by calling and getting an appointment at the local USCIS office.

We were in a similar situation in that my wife had to leave the US for personal reasons before adjusting status from a K1 visa. We started over with an I-130 petition, which took about 9 months from start to finish. Processing times vary greatly and can be much longer, so I echo the advice of sending in a well-prepared petition ASAP. I emphasize well-prepared because I believe that this can help officers adjudicate the case more efficiently. After sending in the I-130 petition, we considered having my wife apply for a new B visa (the previous one was voided upon being issued a K1). We planned on being transparent about her only wanting to visit temporarily while the I-130 petition was in process. It probably would have been denied but we never found out since B visa appointments at the time were impossible to find due to pandemic-related backlogs. In your wife’s case she could try for the ESTA, which for reasons of transparency I would recommend doing after the new petition has been filed (others may disagree). Expect it to be denied but if granted it should only be used for temporary, short, and infrequent visits until she is able to get an immigrant visa in Australia through the I-130 process.

If you have a birth certificate, I would bring that as well; technically you can use other documents as proof of age but in my experience the SSA employees we talked to (both on the phone and in person) mentioned needing a birth certificate even though my wife already had a passport and I-551.

I'm confused as to why you were living overseas when submitting an AOS package...but that aside, if you are now able to receive mail at the address on file with USCIS without any mail forwarding, then filing a change of address should not be needed. Did you confirm that the correct address was on file when you spoke to someone on the phone? I wouldn't split hairs about the specific USPS service that is being used - the key is that certain documents from USCIS will not be forwarded. Ideally your mailing address would be one that is eligible for Informed Delivery, which would help answer the most relevant questions you have above. For what it's worth, I signed up for a mailbox at the UPS Store so that in order to have a consistent mailing address even if moving. However, in the end USCIS sent my wife's green card to our physical address. Although this was from an immigrant visa and not an adjustment of status, the point is that it is important to keep all addresses up to date.

I was able to successfully e-file the returns this morning. It turns out that in TaxAct, since we filed a paper return last year when requesting the ITIN, I was supposed to mark that we didn't file a prior year return: https://www.taxact.com/support/16091/2021/correcting-agi-prior-year-pin-rejection No doubt that varies based on the e-file provider, but posting here in case someone else runs into the same issue.

We are trying to e-file now (after filing an extension and waiting for my wife to get an SSN) and are having issues with the return being rejected. Here is what I am trying although it hasn't worked so far in TaxAct: - For myself, enter the prior year AGI as reported on the 2020 return - For my wife, select that I have her 2020 tax return; enter the AGI as 0 The other options for my wife (saying she didn't file a 2020 return or saying I don't have her 2020 return) don't seem to make sense in this case. Interested to hear what you did to e-file successfully. For what it's worth, I notified the IRS when we got the SSN but they said it would take 30 days for the records to be merged with the ITIN, and those 30 days haven't passed yet.

When we took our marriage certificate to the County Clerk’s office to have it recorded, I was able to get certified copies made and in hand that same day. This was during the pandemic. So it really depends on where one lives.

Just to add another data point: For the K-1 petition, I documented a total of 20 separate visits or periods when we were living in the same town, totaling 486 days. At the time of the petition, 7 of those visits (86 days) had been during the previous two years. Between the filing and interview, we had an additional 3 visits totaling 30 days together. Obviously not everyone is going to be spending as much time together but if there is still an opportunity for additional visits before the interview, I would say that first and foremost it's good for the relationship and it certainly can't hurt when it comes to the petition. I documented all of our visits on a table with the following headings, and provided an updated version for the interview: The supporting documents included flight itineraries, boarding passes and/or passport stamps, and photos with dates/locations in the captions.

Final update: Finally received our 2020 refund today (5/11/2022), just over a year after mailing the return.