carly+anton

1 hour ago, MaxP22 said:

Nothing to do with luck, he was rightly denied.

 

If he can't afford a holiday then his job is not much of a tie.

I never said he couldn't afford the trip. My husband offered to pay because it was his idea and he is the older brother so he tends to try to pay for things in general with his brother. Since their father died unexpectedly, he just feels a little fatherly towards him. Not really understanding this process, we thought if anything it would show that we were offering the trip as a gift, not as a chance to somehow leave his life behind. I appreciate the help and feedback but I also feel like many assume a person should realize how this works even when its the first time, or that an average person understands/anticipates the fraud angle. We were just trying to plan a visit and we naive on how this works. But being naive is not the same as ill intentioned. Even with my own sister (also a US citizen), if I suggest a visit somewhere, I will often offer to pay for a hotel because it was my idea. I feel like thats common. It doesn't imply my sister can't pay, its just a nice gesture. I mean, in regular life. I am learning everything regarding the visa applications is under a very different level of scrutiny. And I do understand everyones point that on paper, his application looks bad on several aspects. Some could be easily remedied, like having him pay for the trip but obviously some of the others would take time. 

16 minutes ago, Boiler said:

I have lost count of the number of people who applied married and then came to the US divorced or got divorced here.

 

I do not know if they pay any attention, I would not.

Kind of blows my mind to think that people would knowingly plan to overstay a tourist visa but I guess its a big concern. Not something that ever occured to me. We will probably wait a bit before reapplying based on the advice given, does seem to be much we can do unless he changes jobs/gets married and even then may be just luck too. 

Understand as far as the situation with my husband. My research had shown there is more understanding for a long time H2A worker to find a partner after spending significant time in the US working and they don't judge that as harshly but you could be right. I thought having family here would help prove why he wants to visit versus just coming here for no reason but sounds like that is not the case. Is there a big part of this that is just luck on which officer you are assigned to? 

Thanks for the replies. Here is some additional info based on the feedback. My husband was working on a farm on an H2A visa when we met and started dating so he did not adjust from a travel visa. His H2A visa was still current when we got married so he didn't overstay it either. Of course I have no idea if my brother in law mentioned any of that, I will have to ask.

From everything I had researched, I thought it is better for my husband to pay for the trip showing it is a gift and not something intiated by his brother as a way to get to the US. If he needs to pay, he can. I have read on other forums where people were advised to pay for the visa on behalf of the visitor so I may need some more info on this as we could go either way on that. 

Regarding the DS 160, there seems to be so little information there, especially compared to the AOS paperwork so it seems like there are just a few things they consider, like employment. All of the questions regarding illegal activities/intentions are things he is able to answer 'No' to so I not sure what else would be a red flag. He has a clean record, we listed just 3 weeks for the trip. 

I have some medical considerations that would prohibit me from traveling for awhile so trying a 3rd country would only be a future option unfortunately. Feels very sad to me to think that he may never be able to see our home and visit our favorite restuarants. Just stuff we take for granted already being a citizen I guess. You don't always realize how hard it is to visit. 

Hello! This forum was a big help while working on my husbands change of status application. He has had his green card for 2 years (we are pending on his removal of restrictions application) and in the time we have been together we have had a son.

Here is where we need help, his brother would like to come visit us for 2-4 weeks and meet myself, our son, and just generally have some time with his brother. We did the application for a B1/B2 visit for a 3 week visit, we listed my husband as the person who would be paying for everything and that he would be staying with us for the visit. His interview was yesterday and it was very short, not many questions asked and they denied him based on not having strong ties to his home country. We were so surprised by this and plan to reapply but trying to do research on what to do to boost the odds of an approval. My brother in law brought papers they didn't even check with things like, his son's birth certificate (he has a 3 year old son) and inheritance paperwork showing that he will inherit his fathers home. He works for himself doing IT support (some remote but also in person, physically wiring servers/computers at company offices), is not married but is engaged to the mother of his son, he is the only source of income for his family so they rely on him returning back to his work in order to support them. He rents an apartment and mostly just works/spends time at home. He is not part of any organizations or clubs that would help prove ties.

What should we do? I have considered having his fiance write a letter explaining that they rely on his income, bringing copies of his rent agreement, but not sure what else we can do. He felt like partly it was bad luck with the person who did the interview seeming uninterested in reviewing the papers he did bring to this interview. He was also just told the denial reason after the interview, he was never asked about that during where he would have had a better chance to provide reasons he has to return. I would have thought having a fiance and young child would be strong enough evidence but would love any feedback. We truly just want him to be able to visit 🥺

We recently filed the 751 packet for my husband around the first of August. We received the notice of action and the 2 year extension letter and then today the online status checker shows a biometrics appointment was set up. We originally filed for change of status Nov 2020 and it was approved in Oct 2021 so he did biometrics already fairly recently. I was excited to see a status change but now I am worried. In the time of our original change of status interview, we had gotten pregnant on our honeymoon, had our son in August 2021 so we brought him at 6 weeks old to our interview and they approved us instantly. Even with a child together, and 2 miscarriages since (which I did include records of, since it does show we are still trying to grow our family), I put together a thorough packet with as much evidence as I could think to include BUT still a little nervous if its a bad sign that they wanted another biometric appointment. I had read alot about those being waived when I did my initial research but that was also during the height of covid and seems like may have been something they were doing more in previous years. Anyone have any insight? Thank you!

Anyone?

Hello all! For those that have replied to my posts in the past, thanks so much! We have come so far and have our interview next week! A few things I was wondering about...

1) I am pulling together our copies of all of the forms submitted and all of the supplemental information. We originally filed in Dec 2020 so some of the financials we included are now outdated, ie, my tax return/W2s were from 2019, pay stubs and bank statements are from that time frame as well. I have those copies but do I also pull more recent info? My 2020 tax return, W2s, recent pay stubs and bank statements, etc?

2) We included a ton of evidence with the initial filing and we have since had a son together, born just in August and who will have to come with us to the interview...I will also bring some new things since our filing like our family Christmas card, a maternity photo book, our son's birth announcement card (and of course, his birth certificate!). In the original filing I included tons of receipts and photos from vacations, our wedding, things we did with friends and family...Is there anything else I am forgetting that I should bring as well?

3) Should we anticipate getting our answer during the interview or will we likely need to wait to receive it via the portal or a notice of action letter after? I believe I read some stories here where the interview was basically them being told everything was approved but not sure if that is the norm. I would say in our case we have an overwhelming amount of evidence, especially with having just had a son together, but not sure what is the 'norm', if such a thing exists.

4) Any other advice? Left field questions we should be ready for? Anything that tends to trip people up? I am not too worried since I know we are a legitimate couple and have built a life together but I still want to be prepared. Any help is appreciated!

19 hours ago, mushroomspore said:

I wouldn't think too much about the biometrics. COVID has made everything weird. There is no way to know exactly when you will get your interview. You will only know when the letter comes to say that your interview has been scheduled for such-and-such date and time.

 

As for AP/EAD, they generally arrive before your interview. AP/EAD are considered "interim benefits", as in "temporary and only meant to last during the in-between stages". They do not have the same power or grant any immigration status as the green card does. They are only meant to support the immigrant while the immigrant waits for the green card. So you're supposed to get them before the green card interview but some people get lucky and have the interview before AP/EAD are ever approved. In that case, they simply get the GC and the AP/EAD forms are closed. But as stated, there is no way to predict or know when AP/EAD are approved until you get that notification. Such is the way of USCIS.

Thank you for the reply! Definitely makes me feel better, I mean as good as you can when you have so much riding on all of this  But sometimes it is nice to know that it doesn't follow an exact equation. 

17 hours ago, Letspaintcookies said:

What is your Local Field Office? The times vary a lot between the different offices. Did your status already changed to ready for interview? That's usually an indication that your AOS file moved from NBC to your local office but even after that it can take a long time depending on your office.

 

Many people experienced getting their EAD/ AP shortly after they had their biometrics when biometrics took so long. 

Thanks for your reply! Our local office is the Dallas location, which I would guess is one of the busier ones since it's such a large metroplex area. As far as the status changing to 'ready to interview', where could I check that? When I go to uscis.gov to check status, all I ever really see is pretty generic like the NOA, or after the RFE it said they had received that back...We also submitted forms for email/text updates but have only ever gotten 1 update via text. Everything has 99% come via paper mail. Would love to know if there is a better/more detailed place to check status. Thanks for any help on this!

Hello! We filed for my husband's AOS on 12/3/20 and received our NOAs for everything on 12/10/20. We had one RFE related to him having a short form birth certificate instead of long form, so we had to request that from the government and submit it...We were able to get that completed and mailed overnight about 2 weeks before the June deadline they had given us. We received a NOA for that as well, again, before the deadline. So far so good I was thinking on everything. We received a notice that he would need to do his medical forms and bring them to our interview since we did not submit with the original packet...again fine, because I expected that and we purposely didn't do it in combination bc covid delays seemed like it could render it 'expired' anyway...

All that being said, we recently got the notice for his biometrics appointment, which was yesterday. He completed that appointment with no issues so I believe at this point, we are just waiting for our interview date and will need to ensure he does the medical forms beforehand so that they are sealed/ready for us to bring with to the interview.

My question/concern is, looking at timelines and reading up on where the biometrics appointment falls in the overall timeline, it seems like we should have had that appointment a lonnnnnnng time ago already based on when we got our NOAs. And most of the timelines show a significant length of time (like, a year) between biometrics and the interview. I am nervous if that will be the case for us but was curious if anyone else had experienced this where you had a long wait for your bio appointment, but then it was followed with a shorter wait for the interview? Just feels like with the RFE, they definitely had a chance to review most of our paperwork by now so we were really hoping our interview timing would be coming soon.

Also - do anyone know if it is possible to get the advanced parole and EAD documents approved before the interview or does the interview have to be completed first? My husband already lost his father back in Feb and was unable to leave to attend services...now his grandmother is doing badly and he is having a very hard time at the idea of not being able to see her one last time. We are expecting a baby end of this month so he doesn't want to leave at the moment anyway due to the baby but I know once baby is here and settled he will really have a difficult time. His father passed suddenly so he couldn't have known to get there in time, but his grandmother is more of a slower decline. Sorry for all the details, some days I forget about all of the paperwork and some days it is really tough waiting on everything. Any advice is much appreciated!

Update...The company we hired just replied back on my last request and confirmed that home affairs in SA will NOT under any circumstances issue letters stating that a BC cannot be located. He says they were sued in 2017 for this reason so they stopped 'admitting fault'. He is aware that USCIS asks for these letters but said he has not seen home affairs issue even 1 in the 4 years he has been doing this job.

I can print all the email correspondence between this BC company and myself but does anyone have other ideas of documents I can try to include if the BC is not located in time? I don't have the notice in front of me but I think the last resort if no BC and no government letter was something else showing the parent child relationship. My husband's father passed away March 1st and nothing could be found in his files that would support this (his brother tried looking for the long form BC in case his dad had it and we just didn't know) but possibly his mom could supply something?

Just wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and had success...thanks

Understand and I mean, we can only do what we can do. It's just that there are several statements about the signature required on that letter, it must include certain titles like judge and must include a seal...Things like that, I don't remember all of the things it outlined but it's incredibly specific about what that 'lost' letter would need to include. So just hoping the letter we get satisfies those requirements...I would assume there is a standard type of letter that office would issue for a lost BC but also, it's SA and they don't necessarily do things the way we do in the US. 

Yes, we plan to provide everything and anything we can and will submit a response before the deadline for sure! I am just nervous that if it's lost, the letter we get stating it is lost may not tick all the boxes they are asking for and we may not have an easy way to go back and forth with the government trying to get a 'better' letter. I guess that is my main worry. 

Hello, my husband is in change of status from an H2A visa, he is originally from South Africa. We submitted his AOS packet back in December 2020 and we received a requested late March for his unabridged/long form birth certificate. We realized after receiving the notice that we had an older form of BC for him that is very basic. After a certain point in time, they began including more info on them and you can request that longer version from the Dept of Home Affairs. We hired a company based in SA to submit the request on his behalf the first week of April. They have just given an update that his long form BC appears to be misfiled aka lost. They are still working with someone at the Dept of Home Affairs to try to put more people on researching to find his, but we were warned that it might be deemed lost. There is a process for basically having the government create a brand new one but it can take 3 months.

The request for evidence gave a due date of 6/21. We still have some time but not 3 months for sure...The letter does state that there is an alternative option if the BC cannot be produced, but it requires a government letter stating the reason, i.e., that is it lost. There are some requirements listed as to what all needs to be part of that letter to be considered acceptable. 

I am very nervous because it does state that on 6/21 based on whatever information we provide back, they will make a decision on his case. If we do nothing, they will deny his case so the version we provided is clearly not going to be acceptable. We do have email communication and receipts with the company we hired to procure the BC and I would certainly include printed copies of all of that showing the responses back and our efforts to provide the requested information but I am just really worried if they cannot locate it. I am 23 weeks pregnant so the extra stress is very hard on me. Any advice or past experience on something similar would be appreciated. 

Yes, looks like the I-797 will work. Thanks all!!

Ah sorry, this is for Texas

Is there anything that can be done to renew an expired US driver's license while AOS is pending? 

Hello! Hoping for some extra tips and advice here. We submitted my husband's packet for AOS late November 2020. We got our receipts and our fees were taken 12/3/20. We hadn't heard anything since until we got a letter over the weekend for his I-485 case that additional evidence was needed. They are requesting his proper long form birth certificate from South Africa that includes his parents information, I didn't know this existed as we had his original birth certificate and that is what we submitted. At some point, South Africa started issuing a different version and if you were born before then, you can request this long form version from the Dept of Home Affairs. However - the turnaround is estimated at 6-8 weeks and we were given a deadline of June 21 to get our additional evidence submitted. Here are my questions -

1) Does anyone know the best way to submit the request since my husband is here in the US and not in SA? He has a brother that could assist but there are also online services that say they do these requests efficiently? Can the embassy in the US be of any assistance or not really?

2) If the BC is delayed, it also says we can submit other forms of evidence showing his parents relationship to him. His father passed away last month so we have his will which states the father/son relationship between him and my husband, would that be worth trying to include?

3) If we cannot get sufficient evidence in time, it says the case will be denied. Would that mean once we get the correct BC we could re-file his I-485? If so, is it possible his EAC would still come in or will everything from his packet go on hold or get denied?

4) LASTLY - Since we submitted our paperwork, we found out in early January of this year that we are expecting a baby, I am almost 5 months along. I feel like this could help our case since it validates how serious our relationship is but haven't been sure how to provide this update. When we submit our response back on this BC issue, should we include in the letter the additional information about the baby news? I have several medical appointment documents proving the pregnancy that I could include. Just thought it might be a good chance to get that added in for consideration even though I know it has nothing to do with the BC request.

I am trying to be positive, this was the only request for additional evidence so I am hoping that means the rest of our paperwork was in order but I did have a full out panic over this when we first got the note. I know our marriage is real and he is my best friend and partner and I can't stand the thought of losing him due to paperwork issues. Especially now being pregnant, I just felt so scared...We just want to get all of the paperwork taken care of correctly so that he gets to stay with me and our son.

Hello! My husband and I got married 10/24/2020, filed his AOS packet the beginning of December 2020 and it was received notice on 10/10/20 that the paperwork had been received on 10/03/20. Sometime shortly after, my credit card was charged the expected fees. We received the receipt notice for each file via mail and text, but that is the latest update we have. I think the next step is supposed to be the Notice of Action? I know the process is not quick on turnaround, especially with covid, but just wanted to hear other's experience. I tried to fill in my timeline to help keep track of dates and I will try looking more around the forum for other's experiences but just thought I would add a post as well. Thanks in advance!

We are filing I-485 and I-130 concurrently, along with the I-944, I-765, I-131 and I-864...and the G--1145 and G--1150. Several forms require passport photos. Both my husband and I went to CVS and got a set, if we include the originals with one of the forms (assuming the I-130?) are color copies sufficient for the other forms? I am trying to make each form stand alone and have been repeating copies of things like visa info, birth certificates, but it was $14.99 per set on these so I made color copies but we are almost ready to submit our paperwork and I am nervous about the photos. Do we need to go back somewhere and have enough sets to include actual 2x2 photos with each form?

Hello! I am getting ready to file I-130 in conjunction with I-485 for my husband who is a non citizen here on an H2A visa (I am a natural born citizen). The forms themselves I am pretty good on at this point and we have all of the paperwork very neatly organized. My last questions are around supplemental documents and the best way to provide some of them. For example, SS card and passport, can I just scan those? Should I separate each item on it's own page? For our marriage certificate, we have the original from the courthouse...Can I make a copy of that? Do I need a new copy from the courthouse directly to mail? If a copy is okay then the certificate is longer than standard paper...would a photo printed out work? Because then I can shrink it to fit a standard page...Or do I need to scan it?

For the evidence of our bona fide marriage, I have made a powerpoint and each page is a different time frame or event leading up to our engagement photos, our wedding, our honeymoon but also including other holidays, vacations. I have 2 kids from a previous marriage and made sure photo's with them and with my family are included. Everything is labeled as well. I will also include receipts from all of our wedding costs, vacation and travel costs throughout our relationship as well. The photo deck is about 15 pages so far, will be more once I add in more wedding photos. Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance all!

This is so helpful! Thank you all so much!

2 more questions - If he is estranged from his mother, are we able to leave most of the parent information blank? We do have all of his father's information filled in. Also, if his work visa expires before his green card is granted, my understanding was that as long as his application is pending, he can overstay the visa since he will be in the process of change of status, however, can he seek work? Does the work permit come before the official green card? Or will he need to stop working at the point that his visa expires and await his green card?

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Thanks for the replies! Yes, I meant to say I know we don't need to apply for a K1 since he already has a valid visa, I just meant that some of the adjustment of status paperwork says you need it if you had a K1 visa and so there is some stuff where I wasn't sure if we needed it with him having the H2A visa. I will look at the information Ayrton provided! I believe the I-130 can be submitted online...is there any advantage to doing it that way? Once the paperwork is submitted, how do we follow up on the status of everything? I know there is a biometric appointment, do we get something in the mail for that? All of the help is super appreciated!

Hello! My husband and I just got married and need to file an adjustment of status for him. He is here on an H2A visa currently working on a farm. Initially we had planned to research and file the paperwork ourselves, and maybe use a lawyer just on a consultation basis to review everything before we sent it all off, however, we are having trouble finding an immigration lawyer that will do this...They want to do all or nothing and we were hoping to spend as little as possible on the process, but obviously don't want to risk making any mistakes. Is everyone here filing on their own? Do most people end up hiring a lawyer? Has anyone had lucky doing a combo of 'mostly on their own' but with some assistance from a lawyer?

I am a natural born citizen and based on my research so far, we know we need to file the i-485, which has to be physically filled out and sent it (I believe) and then not sure if we also need to do the i-130 as well or not. Looking online so far, it has been difficult sometimes for me to differentiate between paperwork required for a K1 vs just the adjustment of status since he already has a valid work visa. 

Thank you in advance for any advice others can offer us! We just want to go about this in the best way possible. I am usually fairly paperwork savvy, but I found this site and want to learn from others who are going through this. Thank you!!