ghostinthemachine

Thought I'd check in on our little thread... anyone with any updates? Been absolute crickets for me since January. Since we're fast approaching a year of waiting at this point it naturally poses the question of whether to apply for naturalisation or not. Since Germany did away with the huge bureaucratic hurdles to keep citizenship earlier this year, I have been umming and ahhing about filing next year. The thought of never having to deal with USCIS is quite lovely, but having to deal with the IRS for the rest of my life certainly isn't 😅 still not quite sure what to do at this point c.10 weeks out from potential early filing so if anyone has any interesting reading on the topic please do share.

I would not consider going to Cuba until you are at minimum a citizen if that is your final goal in terms of immigration. Travelling on any of the usual waivers will likely lead to longer background checks for any future USCIS petitions, Global Entry, government jobs etc from my research.

When you get your social go to a local credit union and open your own bank account and a secured card that can graduate to an unsecured credit card a few months down the line. It'll give you access to your own money, helps establish a credit score in the US with time and can be used as proof of address when you need it. In terms of credit/charge cards - if you had a relationship with Amex in the UK you can use that to open a card here in the US right away even with no prior credit history (I did that second to the bank account and secured card a couple years ago and it worked perfectly). In terms of DL - make use of the official document checker to see what you need and what would be accepted. https://realid.ilsos.gov/checklist.html

Oh gott der spass steht mir naechstes jahr auch noch bevor... mein reisepass laeuft ende august 2025 ab und ich werde mich wohl nach weihnachten irgendwann auch drum kuemmern muessen. blutdruck geht direkt hoch wenn ich nur dran denke 🫠

Yup...

It was actually someone else's GC (or EAD maybe?) so that was all very annoying and anticlimactic...

Ummmm... so I have letter from "USCIS- LEES SUMMIT PRODUCTION FACILITY" coming on Monday 👀 I'm so confused. There hasn't been any update/upload/anything on my account whatsoever.

But where was it processed? Phoenix is just the lockbox location

Jel! And congrats! Assume your case was processed at the NBC? Probably the fastest approvals I've seen recently so just curious where it came from

I've just done the same the other day - same with a bunch of updated lease/insurance/bills from our recent move. I don't see how any of this could cause a delay quite frankly, especially since most recent cases are handled electronically.

I-751 instructions specifically say from the start of your marriage so that's what we did. Definitely covers quite a bit of the evidence we've also sent in for the I-130/I-485, but I feel like you can't go wrong following direct instructions from USCIS to a T.

We only filled out what was needed for our AOS and had no issues - no RFEs, no delays, nothing. Did the same with the I-751 and I don't expect there to be any issues with it either.

Just filed the change of address and can see in the portal that it says "Request changed" and the new address in my profile... anyone have any first hand experience of whether that means the change has definitely gone through? I know there's been issues in the past with it not reflecting correctly for people 🙃

I'm not even carrying my physical GC unless I'm travelling abroad so I'd hope not 😂 I just have scanned copies of both on my phone just in case.

Ich habe meine physical GC grundsaetzlich nicht dabei, es sei denn ich reise international. Allerdings habe ich eine scanned copy auf meinem Handy. Die bloede Karte ist viel zu teuer und nervig zu ersetzen im Zweifelsfall. 😂 Waere vielleicht ne andere Geschichte wenn wir in der Naehe der border wohnen wuerden mit regelmaessigen Checkpoints etc. Ansonsten bezweifel ich dass irgendjemand im tagtaeglichen Leben jemals wirklich meine GC sehen moechte oder muss. Nee, aber sobald dein case im Online Account landet und die dort entweder die receipt notice oder den bio re-use letter hochladen siehst du wo es hingegangen ist.

Oh I didn't know yours ended up at CSC also. As if all 1/22 receipts went there for some reason 😂 also you were totally right about the receipt notice/extension in the mail... ended up showing up yesterday (although oddly not on Informed Delivery)

Yep, should be at the bottom of your documents tab for the I-751 once it's been accepted. Figured it can't really hurt uploading it there once we have the return transcript from the IRS. Either someone will look at it there and decide that's enough in combination with the paper submission or we'll bring it to a potential interview.

Personally I wouldn't wait and just send everything out when your window opens. We're not quite decided on what to do with the 2023 return at this point, but might just upload it as unsolicited evidence once it has processed.

It says right above that section to select all that apply if you're not filing jointly with your spouse or parent's spouse. I genuinely think it got rejected because she selected that she's applying jointly and then also selected all the applicable extra boxes in the waiver section. Admittedly I've never looked at any of the waivers, but that's how the form reads imo. in other news, my bio re-use letter came in the mail today. No sign of the receipt notice with extension yet though.

Personally think you should be good re-sending everything and just correcting the issues with the form and re-printing that. I'd just go over the whole form again and make sure you're using the latest version and that there's nothing else missing for your own sanity. And maybe check they haven't rearranged any of your evidence? Also sorry you had to wait a few weeks to get it back, but at least it's an easy fix and your petition didn't just fall into some black hole at the lockbox 🙂

You also ticked 1a saying that you're filing a joint petition with your spouse when in the waiver section you're indicating that you are in fact NOT filing jointly. Has to be one or the other.

Hi everyone, I figured there might be some people who are also in the process of putting their package together already ahead of the holidays. Hopefully it’ll be smooth sailing for all of us. Please share any timelines, thoughts, prayers… as we navigate this extremely joyous process. 😅 ————— Our 90 day window opens 01/19/2024 and plan is to have everything ready to go before this weekend, so we will only need to add latest bills/statements in January and print out some pictures pretty much. We are planning on mailing the whole thing out the very day the window opens. We'll be moving states at the end of February so I'm kinda anxious about receiving all the important letters from USCIS in those 6 weeks ahead of us leaving here. 🙃 Out of curiosity, is there anyone who’s travelled somewhat extensively in the last two years? How have you organised (or are planning on organising) evidence in relation to this - i. e. boarding passes, hotel resis, booking confirmations etc. pp. We have 17 trips we took together since getting married so really it is quite a lot. Still going back and forth on this as we’re not trying to overwhelm USCIS with potentially unnecessary information. Looking forward to getting this out of the way though honestly. It’s going to be a busy few months for us in between USCIS stuff, a last little on-island holiday, shipping all our belongings and cars, some extended hotel stays and a 15hr journey with a very hyper kitten.