WeekendPizzaiolo

If the child does not have a CBRA, a certificate of naturalization, or a certificate of citizenship to prove their status, it is a good idea to file an N-600 ($1385). This could be used to prove citizenship for whatever purpose (e.g. a US passport). Otherwise, the evidence needed for a US passport is more involved.

As long as her original intent upon entry into the US was just tourism, she can file AOS while living with you in the US. Otherwise, she will need to leave the US after marriage to you and you both would file for a CR1 visa through a consulate abroad. Then, if successful, she would be able to enter the US as a permanent resident. This process generally takes much longer than adjusting from the US. If she adjusts from US, she will not be able to visit family overseas until she receives her AP or green card. Florida does not allow the AOS receipt notice to be used to get a license or state ID (see here) - only AP, EAD, or GC. Her tourist visa would be invalidated. Immigration paperwork should be typo-free. Re-read and re-check over everything multiple times (on multiple days if possible)! Even minor errors can lead to denial. USCIS rarely refunds fees.

As long as you have some other kind of proof of her full name in some other document, I do not see a big issue that your passport only has her first name.

You're welcome. Bear in mind, this level of travel ease is not always the case outside EU even with a US passport. UK and Canada are anecdotally more interrogative to US passport holders than EU, especially for young, college-aged travelers who may not have strong ties yet to the US.

Congratulations. Regarding your questions, in my answers, I will assume you don't have qualifying citizenship (EU, Schengen, EFTA), which would give you access to member countries like Italy as a non-visitor (and you'd be required to enter on such passport if you had one). In 2025, US citizens don't need a visa for tourism in Europe (see #5): US citizens generally don't need a visa for EU tourism or business for 90 days within the previous 180 days. Schengen requires a US passport have 6 months of validity. Proof of financial condition in EU: Generally, US citizens are not asked in Europe. If one is very young and gives off a suspicion of overstaying, I suppose it's theoretically possible that the officer may ask for ties to the US. I've never been asked for financial proof even when I was very young. Letter from sister: I've never been asked for such letters in the EU even when visiting residents. Sometimes, the officer does not even make eye contact and stamps my passport without even a hello back. Insurance is required for Schengen: They don't check but insurance is required for visitors. Be on the safe side and always travel with travel insurance even for EU countries that in practice don't always bill visitors. One time, my friend needed antibiotics in Rome and the doctor asked for him to go to an ATM and take out some cash. Each EU nation has a different healthcare system so there is not uniformity in rules. To be safe, US citizens should always expect billing for any care received even if a bill is not provided when discharged. Most travel insurance policies only covers emergency and catastrophic healthcare, medical transport (very expensive), and repatriation of remains (I hope not!) Since I travel a lot, I buy an annual policy of GeoBlue Trekker Choice international travel insurance, which can also be used for non-emergency care (e.g. an ear infection). Bad news: in 2026, US citizens will need an ETIAS authorization to visit most of Europe. The European Union will adopt an ESTA-like system for visitors called ETIAS in 2026. Once implemented, Americans must apply for a ETIAS authorization and pay 20 Euros via a website. An ETIAS authorization will be valid for 3 years or the expiration of the passport, whichever comes first. Good news: in October 2025, EU will allow US citizens to use e-gates at passport control: According to this EU press release, EU will allow visitors to use e-gates but American visitors must see an officer on their first entry. Some passengers may be pulled aside for manual inspection. Where do US citizens need a visa? Wikipedia has a great resource to show you what the visa requirements are for US citizens throughout the world. It's generally a good idea to verify the requirements on each country's official immigration website. Enjoy seeing the world on your new US passport.

For each their own. I am not a fan of paper.

US citizen by birth here. I keep a Google spreadsheet. I also forward all of my ticket bookings to TripIt. I also archive all my ticket e-mails. One time, I needed an exact record, so I FOIA'ed it from CBP but it took 6 months to get a response. I received my entries and exits going back to the 1990s. It even includes the lane number and sometimes even the baggage scan details. Different countries share different amounts of information, but the minimum info included is the date and time of inspection. The PDF CBP sent did not include inter-Schengen international crossings for obvious reasons. Sometimes the departure or arrival airport is blacked out. The redaction reason given is usually that the information sharing agreement is not public information, but the date is there so I can work out where I was. I used to ask for an exit stamp in some countries where it mattered, e.g. leaving a country for which I previously had a work visa. Stamping is becoming less common as the years go on. Officers often politely refuse posterity stamps. Traveling around Asia, I am noticing even the e-visa gates do not involve talking to an officer. Some say paper passports are becoming a thing of the past (see this article) and eventually they will be replaced by cards.

Ah, yes -- you're right. I would then print this and show the rep, perhaps highlighting the appropriate item. Printed webpages that have .gov hyperlink can also help. They may need to call a supervisor to verify. People in bureaucratic roles often prefer to handle the most common cases where they have the most efficiency and the least chance of making a mistake. The less common one's case is, the more a clerk will need to actually leave their comfort zone and do something that imposes risk on them (making a mistake) so they may refuse service. In these cases, I either ask them what doubt they have, talk to a peer of theirs, talk to a supervisor, or try a different office. My spouse's I-485 was approved in 8 months but their I-765 was not adjudicated until 14 months after receipt notice so it was moot. This was in 2023 so it may have sped up. You're welcome.

Thank you for reporting back to VJ! Every now and again, someone is brave enough to try something new and we all learn something from it. Now, to wait for a brave person to repeat the experiment. 🍻

Virginia DMV has a list of acceptable documents to prove of legal status. A H-1B extension application receipt notice is not listed on Virginia DMV's list. You can use a receipt notice from I-485 Adjustment of Status according to that same list (page 2, second to last row "pending application for adjustment of status"). If you get married to a US citizen, you would file an I-130 instead of an I-140. According to this page, one may file both I-130 and I-140 petitions concurrently, but I cannot confirm from first-hand experience. According to the Virginia DMV document list, the AOS receipt is on the list of acceptable documents. I would print this list with the virginia.gov hyperlink in the header. If that still doesn't do it, I would try someone else, a different office, or ask them to ask a supervisor. I-765s are taking a long time and a I-765 receipt notice will not work according to this Virginia government FAQ, but you should receive your I-485 receipt notice about the same time so the I-765 receipt notice is moot for the proof you need at the DMV.

That's right. Bear in mind that any sponsor (including the US citizen spouse or their joint sponsor) who moves must file a Sponsor Change of Address (I-865 form) by mail (postmark and preferably certified with return receipt if possible) within 30 days of their move until they are released from their responsibilities as a sponsor. For anyone who is willing to take on the liabilities of a joint sponsor, they are probably in regular contact enough to tell you of their moves. The noncitizen spouse must file an Alien's Change of Address (AR-11) within 10 days of moving until they naturalize. The AR-11 is a much tighter deadline but unlike the I-865, it can be filed online. Yes. Caveat: they are eligible provided that they meet the other eligibility requirements (e.g. physical presence requirement, 3 months of residence in the district of residence at the time the citizenship application is filed, marital union of at least 3 years at time of application if filed under the 3 year rule). Thanks to a post by @OldUser, this means that if one's green card was approved the same week as marriage (or approved less than 90 days after the marriage), 3 year rule applicants would need to wait a bit longer than the usual 3 years minus 90 days. Some green card holders have a fondness for very long multi-month stays outside the US, so they must also be careful of the physical presence test.

In theory you are correct, it's 3x for sponsor a spouse or 5x otherwise as per USCIS instructions. However, in practice, as others have mentioned, people are rarely successful fulfilling the income requirement with assets. $100K-$200K is on the borderline given your household size. People very far from the borderline with millions in US-based liquid assets get RFEs when using assets to demonstrate income. A joint sponsor who is duly employed with the required income will simplify matters significantly.

1. Yes. 2. Yes, the DS-260 instructions say to list social media handles used in the past five years. 3. The guidance for requiring social media posts to be public has only be issued for F, M, and J visas -- see here. Pay attention to news updates as rules can change at any time. 4. Yes, she should list it if it was used in the past five years and the videos were public. If it's deleted, then there is nothing you can do except provide the youtube handle.

CBP officers are assuaged by seeing short visits in one's record. When I was dating my spouse long ago, the visits to the US were never longer than 2 weeks. This may be too short of a visit for most people, however, it resulted in very short questioning after the first few visits. One's record forms a pattern that can lead to more or less questioning depending on the circumstances. Extensions to previous trips longer than a few days (to account for flight cancellations or acute emergencies) may be a yellow flag. Many people on these forums successfully "almost max out" their allowed stay periods. You want to be careful to always leave wiggle room for flight cancellations/acute emergencies (e.g. broken ankles). I trust that you both intend to be truthful as you said. I would have reframed your question to be something along the lines "what are limitations of an ESTA on VWP?" First and foremost, the noncitizen traveler entering on VWP/B1/B2 fully intends to return to their country, they do not work while in US (see definition of work here), and they never violate the duration conditions for VWP/B1/B2. Bear in mind the terms of B1/B2 vs VWP are not equivalent. VWP allows stays up to 90 days. B1/B2 duration can vary -- the general guidance for Japan is a 10 year B1/B2 with visits up to 180 days. According to the Foreign Affairs Manual, the CO has the discretion to issue a B1/B2 with less duration than what is standard for the country or to limit the number of entries. This is probably less common for a low fraud country like Japan. As always, the CBP officer has final discretion to deny admission or admit a person for a shorter duration than what is allowed by their visa or VWP. I expect the most common questioning your wife might be subject to would be her ties to Japan, especially given that there is an I-130 pending in which she is the beneficiary, she has kids in the US, and her intending visits are on the longer side. Does she have a job in Japan, property there, or proof of the urgency of her return? I understand what you mean. Robert Frost's "Two Roads" comes to mind. That said, once your wife enters on a CR-1/IR-1, you both will need to set down deeper roots in the US -- years. Permanent residency can be abandoned if a PR holder spends too much time outside the US in any given period. Also, if OP spends too much time outside the US, there may be greater scrutiny in the future due to cohabitation requirements of marriage PR. Regular business trips are fine.

My spouse and I have Global Entry, but I did not know about the Global Entry app until now. Last time we entered the US, the Global Entry kiosk scanned our faces and the officer immediately said from afar "Welcome <name>". From a Google search about the app, it allows you to skip the kiosk step and just wait for the officer checkpoint after the kiosks. If there is a long line or the kiosks are having issues, one can also speed up their arrival. Are those the main benefits of the app?

A contract is not null and void because of a name change. Otherwise, people would change their names to get out of an onerous contract. I cannot imagine the right to change one's name could be waived by contract. Perhaps a court could bar someone from a name change, but not a private party. If so, it would be the first I have heard of it. An Au Pair contract may have a clause that a visa may only be sponsored if the au pair remains unmarried. Marriage may or may not trigger termination of participation in the agency's program. It depends on the agency. What kind of visa was the au pair on? VisaJourney has an Adjustment of Status guide for couples in the US. Is there a pressing reason why having a driver's license with the new name before AOS is so important? The expiration date of a DL is often the expiration of her visa or sooner. In some states, you can get a REAL ID driver's license with an AOS NOA1. Brazil is very bureaucratic, especially with name changes. A US marriage certificate must be registered with Brazil for it to be recognized by any Brazilian authority, which can be done at a Brazilian consulate (Itamaraty). Any Brazilian consular process must use the consulate assigned to your US state. If you change a name in the US but not in Brazil, this can make round trip air travel to Brazil difficult in the future since she must use a Brazilian passport with her former name to enter Brazil. A name change may be easier at the naturalization stage.

This is very useful information! I did not know this.

Sorry to hear that happened to you. What bad luck! In the future, as long as you have a travel booking outside the country within 14 days, you can apply for a new passport in person at a passport agency. There is a passport agency in Miami and 33 across the US. The DOS rep. at the passport agency returns your documents on the spot after verifying them. I recognize that some people do not travel often or frequently enough for this to be an option.

Digital is primarily for clerical convenience for applications that must be submitted by snail mail (AOS, I-751). By digitizing and storing docs in the cloud, I can more easily find documents when they're needed and forget about them otherwise. I hate paper so I have a high-speed wireless scanner to turn my mail into PDFs, but I keep anything important in paper form (official USCIS notices, titles, certificates) in a safe. There is no one size fits all relationship -- some people get married sooner than others. Different relationships will need to weight evidence differently. All chats seems excessive. We submitted zero chats. Some people submit a sample of chats that demonstrates continuity of the relationship over time. We submitted a video call log of date, time, duration, which we kept in Google Spreadsheets. We also kept a visit log in a different spreadsheet with another cloud storage folder of travel bookings. We submitted copies of all of our bookings (~150 pages). Some would say that's excessive. We had about five years of relationship photos and showed one per month (~10 pages total) including with friends and family. You can use Google Presentations/Powerpoint/Keynote to arrange the photos on standard 8.5x11" paper and print using the highest quality color at your local copy shop or FedEx Office. Almost all other documents we submitted were black & white photocopies.

Sorry that your wife's family is not very good. Some people get a raw deal when it comes to family. Without a joint sponsor, your wife really needs to increase her income so that your case meets the minimum requirements. Can you take some of the child rearing responsibilities while she works until the adjustment of status is approved? Without knowing where you live, it is really hard to assess what short and medium term employment opportunities might be. In Oakland CA, where I live, a hotel housekeeper makes on average $48K/year without overtime, and likely a bit more with overtime. To compute her income, simply multiply her pay check by the number of pay periods per year (e.g. x52 for weekly pay checks, x26 for biweekly, x12 for monthly). It's not ideal but I only saw my mother one day per week (if I was lucky) because she was working all the time, but there was always food to eat and a roof over our heads. Of course, I would have loved to have seen my mom much more during my childhood, but then we wouldn't have had anything to eat nor would we have had an apartment to live in. In your case, you either need to find a suitable joint sponsor or your wife needs to find a source of income that meets the minimum requirements. It's good to get this ready, however, it is not sufficient on its own to have an approvable case. From the government's perspective, without a suitable sponsor that meets requirements, the government cannot eliminate the doubt that a person would need public assistance, so the case is denied. As @Lemonslice wrote, joint sponsorship is a huge responsibility. It is possible for a sponsor to be liable for reimbursing the government for public charges incurred by the beneficiary for life. This would happen if the beneficiary never becomes a US citizen nor does the beneficiary work at least 40 quarters (10 years) as defined by the SSA. Sponsorship is not a pro forma act. This is why the most appropriate sponsor usually has a strong relationship with the US citizen spouse. A hypothetical sponsor would need to understand the severity of what they are agreeing to. If neither spouse has job prospects, joint sponsorship would be an act of extreme generosity. It's on the level of leaving a significant sum to someone in their will & testament IMHO, ie not something to take lightly.

We used USPS Priority Mail for AOS and FedEx for I-751. USPS Priority Mail is historically cheaper than FedEx but FedEx has new options that are competitive with USPS called FedEx OneRate. Anecdotally, FedEx was a bit faster in terms of getting a case number and receipt sent back. Here is the standard FedEx pricing from my zip code (Oakland) to Phoenix lockbox: This standard pricing allows you to use almost any packaging, which is not particularly useful if you're sending documents. You can save a bundle by clicking on the "One Rate" tab (see below). And then the rates go down from $66 down to $23 for 2-day service using a medium box. OneRate only allows a subset of FedEx boxes and envelopes (small, medium, large, envelope). We chose Deliver by 5 PM FedEx 2Day OneRate Medium Box but the package was delivered in 2 days at 9:30am anyway so there was no need to pay extra for the 10:30am guarantee. We affixed our own label with the ATTN I-751 (BOX 21200) in addition to the FedEx label. We received a receipt number a week after the package arrived at which point our check was also cashed.

As a US citizen who used to work in the UK on a visa, I remember those lengthy notice periods -- mine was 3 months! My understanding is that "resignation with immediate effect" is often a breach of contract and that a UK employer could sue for damages from the financial effects that results from one's sudden departure. The flipside is all UK employees get 5.6 weeks mandatory paid vacation regardless of the job and one could sue for burnout. Some UK employment contracts allow employers to give "garden leave" after an employee's resignation, which could be served in the US, but then the employer would be giving "free money" to the resigning employee.

It is by no means necessary to travel with your fiancé. Many people travel alone on a K-1 with success but entry is never guaranteed even with one's fiancé present. Make sure he remembers to bring the yellow packet. After admission and customs inspection (including inspection of checked bags), remember that he must physically put his checked bag(s) on the transfer belt if he is connecting on a domestic US flight. At some airports, it's easy to miss this step due to a lack of strong visual cues so some people accidentally exit the transfer area and must wait in line at a check-in counter. At Houston (IAH), the transfer baggage area is huge so it's almost impossible to miss. This step is often not intuitive for people who have never travelled internationally before. As others have mentioned, being serious and answering everything truthfully goes a long way with CBP. Have him dispose of any banana peels, apple cores, or unconsumed meal service items before landing. Even an undeclared banana peel can result in denied admission. Those delicious bags of dried Indonesian shrimp chips -- it's a very good idea to not bring them. Declare any and all food items always even if a declaration is not required because the rules can be so fine-grained that the declarability can be borderline. When I traveled to Indonesia, the officer asked if I had anything to declare; I said "coffee and chocolate", and he thanked me, and let me on my way. There is always a chance that any declared food is confiscated (& destroyed), but one removes significant exposure to penalties, fines, and denied admission by declaring as long as said declared items are not illegal! One's initial entry is a terrible time to try to import fish though it is allowed under very specific circumstances. By not bringing any (borderline) declarable items, one greatly reduces the complexity of CBP handling their admission into the US. It's entirely up to you whether to join them, but it would not necessarily be a waste of a trip. Indonesia is a very enjoyable and affordable place (~$70/night 4-star hotels, ~$15 for a fancy meal, and ~$5 for a normal meal). Flights between US and Indonesia are not cheap (~$1K on the low end). However, traveling back with your fiancé is not a requirement of the K-1. It's a good practice to take photos regularly as you live your lives together in the US. Good luck on the rest of your journey. Best wishes to both of you.

We used WorldNomads 2017-2019 for visits before the K-1. See https://www.worldnomads.com/usa/travel-insurance. They provide emergency, non-routine medical coverage up to $5m. This gave us peace of mind when biking, hiking, and kayaking. We now use them for family members who visit. They have 12 month plans that cover multiple trips across multiple countries, if desired. For US residents with US health insurance traveling outside the US, the GeoBlue by BlueCross BlueShield plan covers non-emergency medical expenses in almost every country outside the US. A GeoBlue policy is void without US health insurance. For more serious ailments, GeoBlue reserves the right to require you to travel back to the US for follow-on treatment. I have been subscribed to it for over a decade. I later put my spouse on it after the green card was received. We have never had to use either of these insurances.

It's interesting that it was denied and not rejected, as the USCIS Manual Volume 1 Chapter 2 says that signature errors usually result in a rejection ("USCIS rejects any benefit request with an improper signature and returns it to the requestor"). Usually a denial is the result of an adjudication (see USCIS Volume 1 Chapter 9 -- "If, after evaluating all evidence submitted (including in response to a Request for Evidence (RFE) or Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID), if applicable), the officer determines the requestor is ineligible for the benefit sought, the officer denies the benefit request."). As others have mentioned, I would refile. Filling immigration forms is one area that requires the utmost care to ensure accuracy. Mistakes just increase your exposure (and need to be corrected when noticed!) Just save yourself future headaches by looking over everything multiple times, preferably on multiple days. Assuming your spouse is not stateside, it's probably good to start being careful earlier in the process as the stakes may be higher with later stages of the process. Certain filing errors will lead to a rejection without your application being considered further (as opposed to denial): using the wrong version of a form missing biographic data for the petitioner or beneficiary missing a required signature (see USCIS Manual Volume 1 Chapter 2) not dating your signature lacking a handwritten (ink) signature (e.g. wrongly using an e-signature) At each phase, make sure you read over the instructions very carefully. Personally, I highlight with one color those instructions that don't apply to our case and another color those instructions that do. Then I can focus my attention on the ~20% of the instructions that apply to my case. I then make out a draft form in pencil and then once the data is complete, I start a typewritten PDF in Acrobat. With my spouse, I look over every response on the form 3 times on 3 different days. We check the form versions. We check the signatures and dates. We then go through the document checklist. We look over the cover letter to make sure the documents are ordered according to the list in the cover letter. It may seem a bit overkill, but I personally sleep better this way. It's worth pointing out this excerpt from the I-130 instructions that you will also see in instructions for almost every form. So, for example, if an applicant had no children, and the response to the number of children was omitted, the application can be considered incomplete. Conditional instructions (e.g. "if X, answer Question Y" or "if any") may allow answers to be omitted. In my draft form, I highlight required responses based on instructions, which helps for reviewing the form for omission errors later. VisaJourney has examples of I-130s here, but bear in mind that the form versions in the example are outdated.