The White Fiance

The government website is what drove me to look for other sources! I wonder how people who don't have good English skills manage to deal with it. I'm a lawyer, and it confused me. The main thing is that I want to be sure my wife will not be thrown out of the airport when she shows up on Friday with the passport visa. She has the visa, we paid the immigrant fee, and we want to be sure that will get her into the US. Looks like we are all set. We are a little traumatized because of repeated visa denials from other countries. We ate a huge loss when the Italian Embassy told us she could get a tourist visa only if we paid for tickets before applying. They would not accept "dummy" tickets, as every other embassy and consulate does. They assured us she would get the visa, and then they turned her down.

Thanks for the help. I finally found a site that lists the info I needed in a comprehensible way without tons of errors. In case anyone else has this problem, here is what I learned: once you pay the fee, you can travel. 1. Many sites conflate the passport visa with the IR-1 and the green card. Different things. It looks like the passport visa and the IR-1 are distinct, or maybe it's more correct to say the one they put in the passport is extended when the green card is issued. Not sure. The passport visa is just to get the applicant into the US, and ours lasts about 120 days. An IR-1 or CR-1 visa is what you get with your green card. The IR-1 visa lasts 10 years. A CR-1 lasts two years, because "CR" means "Conditional Resident." "IR" means "Immediate Relative." 2. A green card is proof you have the right to enter the US and live and work here. A spouse with a green card can get a bank account, SS number, and driver's license, and of course, it permits employment. A green card recipient with an IR-1 can apply for naturalization in 3 years. 3. The immigrant fee goes to pay for the green card, and it has to be paid before the applicant travels to the US, so the passport visa is not sufficient. You do not need to possess the physical green card in order to enter the US. After you pay, the green card automatically goes to your US address. The fee can be paid with a credit card at the USCIS site. If I find out I've been handed any more misinformation, I will update the thread accordingly.

After I paid the fee, the USCIS site presented a lot of stuff about giving them information needed to get a green card. We are both very excited at the time, so I figured I would get back to the process later in the day. Now the information is not popping up. We have an IR1 visa, and a site I checked says the green card will come to my house without further effort, since we have paid the $220.00 fee. If so, I don't understand why USCIS would ask me for additional input after paying, but the government is not known for well-constructed websites.

Sorry if I am bringing up an old topic, but I could use a little help. My wife will be arriving in the US this week. She has her spousal visa. I paid the $220 immigrant fee. The USCIS site had some confusing instructions about getting her a green card. I have been Googling, looking for a better explanation. Can anyone point me to some quick answers? I'm trying to figure out whether there is anything I should do online today. One sentence or a link should do it.

Has anyone here used a digitally certified marriage certificate copy at an embassy interview? The NVC's boilerplate says they want the original, but before I risk shipping to a country where things often get lost, I want to know if they really have to have it. I can understand how they would want the originals of certificates from countries where fraud is a problem, but ours is from Utah. I sent an inquiry to the US embassy in Zambia. Hope they respond.