hctiwsblade13

Just got our interview date in Melbourne during the first week of December.

5 minutes ago, Daniella Reina said:

Does someone have idea when the consulate is going to open? This process has been so frustrating 

There have been some developments. Looks like they’ll be transferring services to Melbourne while construction is finishing at the Sydney Consulate. 
 

See Consulate’s most recent post yesterday afternoon.
 

Would encourage anyone following this thread to follow the Sydney Consulate’s social media pages. 

I (30M) am the USC and spouse(27M) and I live in Australia together (I'm a dual citizen). We're shortly to have our CR1 interview, and our joint sponsor fell through. We don't have an option for another one because I actually don't have family in the US because my mom moved back here after she and USC stepdad split up.

I'm an actor (so is spouse), and I work consistently, and I work internationally, including several tours in the US over the past few years. I have an American CPA going through my tax returns, US and foreign, from the past ten years–which includes time before I moved to Australia–to write an attestation letter to establish that my current international self-employed income as a performer is USD$XX,XXX and that it should reasonably be expected to continue when we relocate to the US. We also have modest cash savings to include as well. This is all to satisfy the income requirement.

Then, we're including evidence to build our case in the statutory factors for consideration (age, health, skills/education, financial resources, family status). We're including pay stubs from very lucrative projects when spouse worked in the US under the OPT and O1 visas, letters from both my talent manager and his commercial talent agent speaking to our employability, transcripts from spouse's and my degrees both earned in the US that correspond to our career paths, perhaps including an opinion letter from spouse's labor union in the United States. We're trying to put together an absolutely rock solid case that we're both employable.

We know it's nontraditional. I don't expect anyone reading this to really understand an acting career. An immigration lawyer that we had a consultation with said we're on the right track, and that he'd be giving the same legal advice to someone else in our position, and that we also present very well. We know we're going to be playing hard to the consular officer's discretion.

I'd love to hear if there were any other interesting, unique, nontraditional I-864 success stories out there?

Tweet from @USConGenSydney today:

Quote

"We are moving to a new location and our move has been delayed by Covid-19. Our new location is not yet ready to open for public services, including visa appointments. We apologize if your plans have been affected."

Might be a bit more tedious, guys. Wish they would just give us a date.

30 minutes ago, Taylor K said:

My husband (in Aus) and I (in US) had our DQ in July, and finally received an expedite approval in September.

How did you go about your expedite request, if you don't mind my asking? We sent one through my Congressman at the beginning of last week, but have yet to hear.

I am USC. My spouse and I live together in Australia. We've been DQ'd and interview to be scheduled soon.

Spouse's father just won a significant, high-profile settlement, and has gifted us a sizeable sum for our relocation fund. That sum pushes our savings to over 3x the Federal Poverty Guidelines. We initially had a joint sponsor, but would like to relinquish the shared burden of joint sponsorship. However, I understand the suspicion that such a windfall might arouse in a Consular Officer adjudicating spouse's visa application.

Is there any way to signify the legitimacy of our savings to use as assets? Or are we stuck with having to use a joint sponsor?

Surely the Consulate is reopening in line with everything else, right? Hoping October 11? This has gone on forever!

We just got our DQ for CR1 visa. Do we know if the Sydney Consulate is even accepting cases from the NVC right now given the lockdown? We're working on scheduling spouse's medical exam, and then as soon as that is done, emailing the consulate to say we could fly to Sydney at a moment's notice. And then planning on flying to LAX the moment we receive his passport back. Any clues on what the NVC to Consulate process is like right now?

I am a US-Australian dual citizen. My spouse and I live together in Australia. Spouse is due to receive CR1 visa shortly. The plan was simply for us to move together after he acquired his visa.

There is now a chance that I might get a really good job that keeps me in Australia for a little bit longer (it's a contract, so not an open engagement). I can't, in good conscience, ask my spouse to stay here in Australia and bumble around waiting for me to finish up, when our intention has been for him to start his career in the US.

What I'd love to do is for us to go over to the US together, set up our apartment, and then come back for the job. But unfortunately, Australia's closed borders mean it isn't quite so easy. Can my spouse go over in advance of me to set up our domicile? If I get this job, I intend for the company to list the US city we're moving to as my home base. And the job will be partially produced by an American company. Any ideas on this?

I am the USC petitioner for my spouse's CR1 visa. In mid-May, everything except my spouse's police certificate was accepted by the NVC, and within their document processing timeframe. We got the new police certificate, and submitted June 7. Now the NVC processing timeframe is saying that, as of this Monday, they're reviewing documents submitted on June 8, but this police certificate still hasn't been approved. This is literally the last thing to complete our case.

But also, I'm suspecting it hasto do with something strange that happened on our CEAC (red box is redacted name).

Before submitting the replacement police certificate, these strange entries appeared regarding "1st Marriage"--obviously a police certificate, passport bio page, or photographs don't change with a different marriage--so I spoke to an agent at the NVC. She said to add in the comments, "Approved below." I feel like now some other agent has seen this and is thoroughly confused.

Is it worth calling the NVC about this? I want to get this police certificate approved so we can move forward before my work contract ends next month.

So, given the lockdown in Sydney, do immigrant visa interviews just cease until it's lifted? We're about to get our Case Complete in the next couple days, and were planning to depart for LAX at the end of August. Travel exemptions from Australia already granted. I'm on a contract that ends 22 Aug. Are we kinda screwed at the moment?

Hello all!

I am USC. My spouse and I live in Australia. I have lived here for the past 4 years. Our petition has advanced to NVC. I am a performer, and my primary income in Australia comes from performing. NVC websites says the following: "If you completed Form I-864, I-864A, or I-864EZ and the income reported on this form or your tax transcript reflects income below the poverty guidelines for the year the form was submitted, submit evidence of your income. If you are currently self-employed in any of the following ways, you do not need to obtain submit evidence of income:
Babysitter, elderly caretaker, construction worker, handyperson, housekeeper, landlord, musician, nanny, seamstress, tailor, artist, or writer."

So obviously because I don't have employment in the US, my income will appear insufficient, but according to this wording, I don't need to show evidence of income. Can someone explain to me how this makes sense? The one person we can approach about being a joint sponsor is a bit of a stretch, so if we don't need to have one, then that's ideal.

OTHER QUESTION

My spouse is previously married. His "Licence and Certificate of Marriage" from the State of California has "CUSTOMER COPY" watermarked on it, and does not have a State File Number nor a Local Registration Number, and it has not been signed by the Local Registrar. However, it does have the original signatures from all of the parties involved. Will this be suitable for NVC or should I order an authorised copy through VitalChek?

Thanks for your help!

39 minutes ago, Stein said:

Why don't you go to they US to work?  Many people are separated from spouses during the application time so that they can support the family financially.  At least you can still work this way.

But then my spouse will still be unable to work (when he also has better prospects in the US in his industry). I also cannot guarantee that I will immediately find a job and I don't have family to stay with, so I will incur immense financial hardship trying to support him.

Also, Australia has enacted a strict ban on people leaving the country. You have to have specific grounds for an exemption. It will be very bureaucratically cumbersome for us to leave the country separately.

Hey guys, first of all, completely acknowledge that this is a frequent topic, and I appreciate whatever advice you're able to offer.

I recently applied for an expedite for I-130 based on financial loss through my congressperson and was denied. I am the USC living in Australia with my Australian spouse beneficiary. I'm an actor, and I lost two lucrative jobs here due to COVID. My partner and I both are lucky in that we're receiving unemployment assistance, but that is shortly due to be reduced by the Government to below the national poverty line. The industry in the United States has not been shut down as drastically as it has here, so I have no prospects here but more in the US. (Less relevant, but my spouse is also an actor and started his career in the US on OPT and O-1s. He has an extremely high calibre American manager, so his prospects of work are better in the US as well.)

The response I received was the following: 'Please note that the separation of family members is a common circumstance for cases of this type which generally does not meet the USCIS expedite criteria.' ALSO, 'expedited processing requests based solely on loss of employment or future employment will not be granted.' Perfectly clear why my expedite, as presented, was not accepted.

They've invited me to resubmit, and I'm just curious if anyone has any advice on how to present this more substantively? My spouse and I cannot get jobs here, but we can in the US. Our unemployment benefits are soon to expire. We will soon be under severe financial duress. Our city currently has 5 more weeks of severe stage 4 lockdown with a curfew, so absolutely no job prospects any time soon.