IndominusRex

5 minutes ago, Ayrton said:

They can't apply for ITIN because they are eligible for SSN.

That's the main problem. We will keep trying. If not, I may file for an extension or file as single then file an amended return later in the year. I will consult a tax professional before I do anything. 

8 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

Try calling another SSA office.  You can apply at any SSA office, not just your local one.

 

Did that yesterday. The nearest office, 50 miles away was not issuing appointments due to Covid. 

I'm still waiting for the local office to call me back to schedule the appointment. Only one person taking care of this and seeing people in person so they have very limited availability. 

18 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

you should get a bigger refund with 3 dependents

That's the idea unless I'm unable to claim them. 🤞🏻

46 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

did you not mark the ds 260 for USCIS to do apply for the SS #?  

if not,  make an appointment for May and in the meantime file for an extension for your tax returns  (form 4868)

be completely ready to file them ASAP after you receive the cards

 fili in the returns online or by hand and put them on hold while you wait for the #'s  to fill in those spaces/  this just takes the stress out 

We submitted 765s for all but the kids were wrongly rejected claiming improper fee even though theirs were submitted along with the 485 which would have no fees associated when filled together. The wife's EAD was never approved hence no SSN was received. They all got their GCs approved last week. 

We may have to file for an extension with the IRS. Otherwise, instead of receiving a refund, I may end up paying a lot since I'm claiming married with two dependents. 

We have an issue and was wondering if anyone has any input on this. 

My wife and stepchildren's green cards are in the mail. Hurrah!

Now the issue we may have is that in order to include them in the 2020 tax filing they will need a social security number. The problem is that the local office is scheduling appointments for May which is after the tax filing deadline of April 15. 

We can't apply for ITIN because their GC makes them eligible for SSNs. 

So, that leaves us with no SSN or ITIN when we file our taxes. 

Has anyone encountered this issue? 

Any advice? 

1 minute ago, TBoneTX said:

You must feel on top of the world, and with good reason!  

 

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Thread is moved from the main "AOS from WS&T Visas" forum to the Case Progress subforum.

We do! 😁

7 hours ago, HRQX said:

It's still not in effect since a federal judge paused the change.

As long as the appropriate I-485 fees were submitted then they should have accepted the I-765 forms (and without a fee).

We are not sure what happened but we think they made a mistake. Regardless, we are glad they were approved. Now we need to apply for their SSNs since my wife 765 was never approved and not EAD was sent to her. 

Seems like some people go straight to interview and green card without their EAD. 

Hello all! We are pleased to let you know that our journey through the AOS process has finally come to an end (almost, need to remove conditional status in two years).

Our AOS package was received on June 9th, 2020. After almost 45 days, we received notice that my wife's application had been accepted but not her two kids due to an oversight on our part. We forgot to include a separate 864 per person. 

We resubmitted for the kids and were accepted on August 14 but they rejected their I-765 apparently for lack of a proper fee which was wrong as the new fee schedule was not in effect until October, I believe. 

Biometrics were done on October 23rd and my wife's interview was scheduled on November 17th for December 29th. 

The interview went well. They didn't even talk to me or the kids. They just talked to my wife and after 30 minutes the agent told her she was approved. Today we received an update on USCIS online that the cards were being produced. 

All in all, it took a little over 6 months from start to finish. We are beyond happy. We were pleasantly surprised with how nice we were treated at the USCIS facility and the interviewing agent. 

I must say that this process has been one of the most stressful things I have ever done. My wife feels the same. It was totally worth it. We are already planning a trip as soon as we get the cards in the mail. 

To all of you, hang in there. Your interview will happen soon. 

Good luck! 

9 minutes ago, Ayrton said:

Some offices are pretty fast and not backlogged, so it's not uncommon to have the interview before EAD. Remember that EAD is a parallel benefit. It's not mandatory to have it.

That's what we heard. Would have been nice to have received the EAD a couple of months ago but interview and green card is much better. 😊

Well, our interview is on Tuesday and still no EAD. I hope this isn't a bad sign. 

11 minutes ago, California2020 said:

Hello guys 

Can all the AOS August 2020 fillers in Texas center share your timeline and give us any new updates ?

here is my timeline...

8/18/2020 AOS received date

8/29/2020 Biometric notice 

9/17/2020 Biometric date 

9/27 case status changed to fingerprints were taken

No updates yet till today 

 

Wow! Your case is moving! Ours is from June and we did biometrics in late October. Interview next week. 

$305 x 3 is what I paid for my family. 

4 minutes ago, Lucky Cat said:

This needs to be done by a court to be absolutely safe.  Otherwise, he could claim kidnapping.....

We are considering it. Some of her ex colleagues at the University are attorneys and offered to help. 

Crossing our fingers he comes through though.

14 minutes ago, ColumbusKat said:

This may be helpful, or it may not be....but something I've noticed (and I've been guilty of) is that people worry a lot about if something is "absolutely necessary" or not, when in reality the only thing that can determine what is "absolutely necessary" is the pair of eyes looking at your case in the moment. Nobody (not a lawyer, visajourney poster, or previous USCIS employee) can tell you what will be an absolute dealbreaker.  Some people get RFEs for things that aren't listed on any website, others forget half their needed documents and USCIS doesn't blink an eye.

 

The better question is: what can I do if I don't get this letter?  

 

Is there anything you can do? (I don't know the answer to this).  If not, try your best to get the letter and deal with the consequences if you can't (and one of the consequences may be that it is never even asked for).  You will not be able to convince USCIS that this letter isn't "absolutely necessary" if they ask for it.  They will either want it, or not.  Don't waste your energy on guessing, put it towards trying to get the letter.  It sounds like the ex isn't an absolutely horrible guy that he would risk his children's future and that you and your wife have tried to keep him involved in the process.

 

Just a thought (PS your wife sounds awesome! Congrats!)

 

 

 

You are absolutely right. We will continue to treat him nicely and all for the letter. He agreed on the phone yesterday but later in the day he started telling things to my wife, you this, you that, etc. 

She told him that she didn't want to argue with him and to think about his children and their future. No response from him since. 

Yes, my wife is awesome. 😊

11 minutes ago, Illiria said:

So basically the father of the children gave consent for the children to go on holiday with the expectation they would return and you have now married the mother and the kids aren’t going to go back?

 

Yeah - this could get sticky. 
 

Do the children’s mother and father have a custody arrangement already in place?

 

Could USCIS ask about the biological father of the children - yes. 
 

Could they deny the children’s adjustment of status because there isn’t explicit evidence showing the mother was permitted to permanently (not vacation) keep the children out of their home country - yes because USCIS does not want to get in the middle of an international custody battle. 

 

Could the father seek remedy in the courts because he didn’t agree that their leaving would be permanent - depending on the laws of the fathers country and their custody arrangement - yes. 
 

 

Her initial intention was to visit. They have joint custody. She informed him shortly after the wedding that she had initiated the AOS status and he was obviously not happy but agreed that it was best for the children and their future. We have recorded conversations of him agreeing (not sure they worth anything to USCIS). We do prefer to have a consent letter to be on the safe side. 

The children talk to him every day and we keep him informed of the AOS process as well as any matter pertaining to the children. 

He holds a grudge against her because she broke up the relationship and kicked him out of the house (she had purchased on her own) after she found out he was cheating on her and bringing the woman to her house when she was working. 

For that reason he may not want to give us the letter. Hence the question if it is absolutely necessary. 

Thanks for the replies. 

4 minutes ago, JFH said:

I went to Cancun for a week on vacation in September. Neither of us is a Mexican resident or citizen. 

Are you a US citizen or resident? Yes? Well there is your answer. What I'm talking about is Mexican visitors like tourists coming into the USA. Not USCs or residents going out of the USA.

https://www.mexperience.com/mexico-land-border-restrictions-closure-covid-19/

This is what we found. Regardless, at the time they shut down the border. It was later that they relaxed the restrictions a bit. Still, her family has been turned back at the border with their B1/B2 visas. 

But thanks for your insight and quick responses. But I feel like we are veering off the topic a little. 

13 minutes ago, Boiler said:

US Mexico border is not closed, many on here have used Mexico as a place to quarantine.

 

I have friends who have vacationed in Mexico, one went to see her dentist. 

As far as we know it remains open for citizens and residents and other essential travel. Not visitors for pleasure from what we read online. 

3 minutes ago, Boiler said:

Either way it makes no difference, I read it as 2.

Number two. It was late last night when I replied. They crossed from Mexico to visit me for two weeks. We were going to a cabin in the mountains. Then CBP closed the borders due to covid and I sort of panicked thinking the closure would be indefinite (still closed), so I asked her to marry me. She wasn't expecting that I would ask her that. She sort of panicked too since they only came with a week worth of clothes and a few toys for the kids. She had no intention on staying. She had a house, great job as a college professor in Mexico, etc. I asked her to eventually abandon all that by marrying me. We still thought she would go back and finish her semester and the kids too as we though we had to do a consular processing. Later the lawyer told us for her to stay and do a AOS. 

2 minutes ago, Boiler said:

How did they get here?

They came with their mother from MX to go on vacation with me. A week or so after I asked her to marry me. 

3 minutes ago, HRQX said:

This is an AOS case, so most of the time USCIS doesn't ask about the parent abroad consent.

We heard something along this line. Hopefully we will have the letter. If not, hopefully USCIS won't ask. 

We do wonder what other options we have in case he refuses to sign the letter. Will USCIS 100% ask for the consent letter? 

3 minutes ago, Coco8 said:

For the children to leave the country, you will need a letter of that sort notarized, unless the mother has sole custody. Even if the mother has custody, some countries don't allow for the children to relocate and they need consent of the other parent.

 

You need to consult a lawyer in Mexico. It can backfire and if the father is hard to deal with, he could at any point say that the children were kidnapped. It has happened before. And if the father gives consent, it has to be more formal than signing any letter you write yourself. 

Thanks for the quick reply. My wife contacted him today regarding the letter but he started to get difficult. Hopefully he will sign it and notarize it like she asked. As far as accusing her off kidnapping, we have two recorded conversations where he is in agreement  for them to be in the USA  going through the process. We prefer a letter of course. 

Approval times seem to be all over the map. With covid things are back logged and processing times are anyone's guess. Good luck! 

Question: will my wife need a signed letter from her ex (father of her two children) consenting them to immigrate to the USA? We are in the final stage of their AOS with the interview at the end of this month and all of the sudden this question popped into our heads. 

He is aware of the children being in the USA going through the AOS process but he is a very hard person to deal with and we may not be able to obtain such letter.