W199

21 hours ago, ATCSUSNRET said:

I was able to see the RFE online.  It referenced tax transcripts (last 3 years provided), joint sponsor reqs( not necessary) and proof of my citizenship via passport/birth cert.  I can only assume it is the citizenship part.  It is in the block 11 instructions on the 864 to provide, I just overlooked it.  

But the pdf instructions for form I-864 in section 11a which instructs you to provide proof of your USA citizenship says that if you have already provided proof of your status when filing form I-129F then there is no need to prove your status. 

Therefore, unless I am misinterpreting those instructions, I don’t think you or I overlooked it.  It seems to me the mail room contractor just issues the RFE automatically without even checking if the above exclusion applies in order to save time.

3 hours ago, ATCSUSNRET said:

I did not.  That did not occur to me.  That seems like a strange requirement given that we already had the K1 approved.  I am hoping it is something simple like that.  Thanks for the response.  

As far as I could see from the instructions, if you are adjusting status from a K-1 and hence are the sponsor of the I-864 then you do NOT need to prove you are a USA citizen, as you’d expect. 

My guess is that the contractors receiving and doing the initial basic checks need some additional training. I just uploaded a copy of my passport to the online account they created for me back in JanuaryZ 

We actually just got the approval too, so it took about 4.5 months.

2 hours ago, ATCSUSNRET said:

Hello everyone,

Woke up to an RFE notification on our case status this morning.  Our timeline is:  I-797 May 16, Scheduled Biometrics May 24, RFE sent May 28.  I am a bit confused, as we have only received the 797 in the mail, which was Sat the 25th.  I had assumed we were at a standstill until biometrics are complete.  We did not submit for EAD or AP, just the 485 and 864.  I make 7x the poverty level cutoff, submitted last 3 years of tax transcripts, employment verification, etc.  Can anyone shine some light on this?  I know I have to wait to actually receive the RFE, just wondering if anyone has heard of one being issued prior to biometrics.  

 

Thanks

 

Seth

As the I-864 sponsor, did you include proof of being a USA citizen? That is what caused us to get an immediate RFE.

On 5/16/2024 at 11:14 PM, J.M. said:

For both of these name changes, you provided valid documentation that allowed the name change.   The OP wants to drop his "first" first name.  That will be difficult if the identity document he provides lists that as his first name.

True, good point. My marriage certificate showed my first name change already. Hence, SSA accepted that as a first name change. But I never technically never made a legal name change. The passport agency allowed me to swap my first and last name as shown on my BC as a well as the RMV.  Only the SSA didn’t allow that until I showed them

the marriage certificate which had less strict name change standards. Seems like a loop hole.

21 hours ago, top_secret said:

After you marry you can take your spouse's last name if you choose to.  Some states would also allow you to change your middle name according to Philippine customs.  Some states would not allow you to change your middle name.  So it depends on the state for middle names.  I don't think there are any circumstances where you can change your first name by marriage.  It would require a legal name change by the laws of whatever state you are living in.

Nope, I waa able to do it.

First, the SSA allowed my Wife to change her middle and last name per the Philippines custom. Though, they didn’t seem to care what we chose for a name.

I then asked them to swap my first and middle last name to match my passport, DL, etc… Previously they told me I needed a court ordered name change for this.  But now they agreed to do it based on the marriage certificate which had my first name swapped just like my passport. I then received a new SSN card with my first name changed

54 minutes ago, rodrigomarie said:

Hi folks, I have had bad experience with mailing my taxes last year because I could not e-file. I'm filing married filing separately and I'm trying to avoid mailing my taxes.

 

i'm getting so many mixed reviews about the subject.

Some people say, they did e-file.

Some people say, they could only file by mail.

Some people say, even if I try to e-file, my return can be rejected.

 

I live outside of the country so I cannot afford rejection(its hard to track mail, and time lose)

 

Is there a method/software/company(like hrblock) that I can e-file my taxes when my spouse is aborad, non resident alien, has no ssn or income)?

 

Turbotax doesn't work. It is forcing me to mail again this year. Does HRBLOCK handle this if I visit their office?

Does anyone successfully E-FILE tax return with NRA spouse? 

 

If your spouse has no income, why would you want to file as married filing seperately, instead of jointly? You'll end up paying a lot more taxes in most cases if you do that

On 3/23/2024 at 3:25 AM, scaredCat said:

Hello, I'm researching this issue but always get mixed answers. can someone please answer my questions?

 

1 - my spose is aboard and has no SSN. I will file MARRIED FILING SEPARTELY. I have to mail my taxes and write NRA to my spose SSN. Cannot e-file in this case, is this correct?

2 - they say it would take 6 months for IRS to process if we mail taxes. so if i mail it today, will i not have proof of tax return until IRS processes our taxes(which can take 6 months) ?

3 - has anyone used H&R block for this process?

 

thank you in advance.

Why don't you file as married jointly, it is usually less total taxes that way unless your spouse that is abroad has a high income and a low tax rate in her country

You could:

- Ask court for a certified letter simply saying "there are no court documents available for this case".  Then hope for the best and wait for an RFE before sending any other info. 

- Or ask your lawyer to file a motion to dismiss the case due to lack of prosecution and pray they don't decide to prosecute.

- Or file for a CR1 instead of a K-1.

17 hours ago, top_secret said:

If you are in a US city that has a LBC office then that is by far the best option.  It costs us like $12 and gets delivered in like 4 or 5 days with full tracking.  If you are not in a US city that has a LBC office, I would probably go with DHL.  I previously had a poor experience with UPS in the Philippines and probably won't try them again.  I haven't personally tried FedEx there so no real opinion good or bad.

You can also ship it to the local LBC office for forwarding to the Philippines. 

2 hours ago, dnavinnie said:

My wife has the same issue. She travels with our marriage certificate with no problems. US and Philippines understands the difference in documents.

Please clarify exactly what your Wife does. For example, does she buy the plane ticket in her maiden name and use a passport in her maiden name? Or for example, does she buy the plane ticket in her married name, and use the marriage certificate in along with her maiden name passport when flying?  etc..??

5 hours ago, EatBulaga said:

The regional Philippines embassy for Atlanta is Washington D.C. so it's no more convenient than just update while back in the Philippines. The other option is just not update the passport till expiration or repatriation after US naturalization. 

True, you can get the passport very quickly if you pay the fee for expedited service.

Yeah, you can just buy the plane tickets in her maiden name and fly with the current passport.

Actually, I wonder if you would have a problem flying back since the new passport name would not match the name in the round-trip ticket, or vice versa. For myself, I wouldn't risk it, I will just book the ticket in her maiden name and fly with her old passport. 

1 hour ago, EatBulaga said:

Hello everyone, my Filipina national wife's marriage name on her green card (unexpired) is different from her Philippines passport name (maiden name). And she will travel to the Philippines with both the US marriage certificate (marriage name change) and the Philippines Report Of Marriage while traveling to the Philippines.

 

If she updates to a new Philippines passport with her marriage name in the Philippines, will she have problems (with the airline or US immigration) traveling back to the US? Keep in mind that her original K1 visa and the I-485 AOS were filed with the maiden name Philippines passport. Should she at least travel with both the old passport (maiden name) and the new passport (marriage name)?

 

Thanks in advance for any response.

Why don't you update the passport before she goes back to the Philippines? I would imagine that would be a lot safer and avoid delays.

3 hours ago, Rick2022 said:

Thank you so much for your clear and concise answer. That helped a lot. 

Be careful, London's rules are probably very different from Vietnam.

On 2/19/2024 at 10:01 PM, SalishSea said:

There is no "harm."  It will not be approved, so the OP will be out $185 or whatever the fee currently is.  It will not impact future visa applications, but she will have to disclose the denial on any future application.

Good point about the forever disclosure. Note, even when applying for a visa to other Countries, not just USA, for example Canada, you will need to disclose the USA visa denial and explain why (we had to do that with the F-1 denial we got

Your best bet, or really your only bet, will be either for him to meet you in the Philippines or meet in a 3rd Country such as Canada (that;s what we did), or Costa Rica, Mexico, etc..

On 2/17/2024 at 5:12 PM, E&G said:

We are in our AOS process right now.

Is it possible for the immigrant (greencard application) to sign up for a credit card? 

 

What are the processes? Does she need to establish credit and sign up for creditkarma or something first? Because she has no credit history in the US.

The day after my Wife got her SSN, we got her an unsecured credit card in her own name, without any credit score.  This was done by applying for a student Discover card.  You just need to submit some sort of "proof", such as an admission letter within the past year from a school. 

We tried adding her SSN to my Amex (she is an authorized user), but they refused without a State ID because they said they couldn't verify the SSN ...  Note: Amex will accept a foreign passport in lieu of an SSN for an authorized user. Will try again now that we updated her SSN after getting the EAD last week,

Note, I know that Discover did an automatic SSN validation as it initially failed with married name, had to change it to the maiden name, same as her SSN, it then passed the validation test. I don't know why it failed with AMEX

18 hours ago, Bonao2013 said:

No i did not respond to it. Because our relationship did not last long after the interview.

Sounds like the consular's decision was a good call .... Sometimes they can see things that "love is blind to."  For your 2nd Wife, they are going to read through the lines and judge it the same way ... If all is legit as you say, and your 2nd Wife can answer all the details about you, etc then you should not have any issues.  

22 hours ago, SalishSea said:

Ooh, I wanna request mine.  It will say "SalishSea ran a red light in 2006 in Seattle, WA."   

 

Does it show inquiries from other agencies?  Husband is in law enforcement, and I know they did background checks on me when he was going through the very thorough hiring process.

If you do it the cheap way, directly through the FBI, it does take some time.  But if you do it with the FBI's affiliated agencies, then it only takes about a day for a small fee. All the info on how to do that is on the FBI's webpage.  I did mine on the weekend with the affiliated agency, and I think it came the same or the next day.

It basically just runs your fingerprints and shows you any arrest record you had,, the charges, and the disposition.  It's won't be worth it if you never have been arrested and had fingerprints taken.  But you could do it for fun, just don't expect much.

1 hour ago, lightxpillar said:

He has the almost every piece of documentation, he is only missing the final disposition and expungement document. He still has the discovery after all these years. 

 

I will tell him to find the original version of the law that it was expunged under so he can explain it. 

Unfortunately, it is the final disposition that is mandatory, if you continue with the K-1 approach.  But as we've said above, a document from the court certifying that the records are not available, and even better that were expunged and no longer available if you can not produce the final disposition.  At least the latter is true for a normal criminal case, I can't be sure for an AWA case. 

This does seem a bit ridiculous because USCIS will see from the FBI check that there is an expunged record, and they should be able to see the disposition as well.  

Oh, by the way, USCIS also wants certified copies of the court papers ....

4 hours ago, lightxpillar said:

Long story short:

 

12 years ago my fiance was arrested, charged, and found NOT GUILTY of a charge that falls under the AWA. It was a jury trial. At the trial, the judge recommended that he file an expungement because of how serious it was,  and he did, and it was granted. He currently works for the state government and had an FBI Background run on him in 2021 that said there was no record of any arrests (he still has the FBI Report).

 

We are looking to file the I129F with a child added on,  and we want to know if this will cause any issues. He is considering having a new FBI background report ran and a State Police one and attaching it as supporting evidence. Any advice, information, or direction to people in similar situations would be really appreciated. He contacted his former public defender and was told that getting a copy of that record was next to impossible.

 

- Sounds like it shouldn't be a problem, but it has some small risks, or even risk of delays, since you said you can't get the documentation. 

- If the court records are not available, you will need to provide a letter from the court as such.

- Providing your own FBI background reports will be useless and not helpful. Just wait if they send you an RFE for any additional info.

- The FBI keeps a database of all expunged cases, and USCIS has full access to it. I think you will need the court records to prove the disposition of the case is not guilty.

You could file for a CR1 instead and avoid the I-129F questions,.  

On 2/8/2024 at 7:54 AM, madmanmike said:

I’ll give it a like. That’s freaking awesome. 

Thanks!  And as you see in the December 2023 AOS thread, there are a whole slew of reports of people getting their EAD, AP,  and AOS in a similar extremely fast timeframe.  USCIS apparently have done an amazing job in speeding this all up.

12 hours ago, K1visaHopeful said:

That's great although I won't believe, typical. 

I won't give it a "like" either so when others come crying to this post because theirs didn't take 3 weeks, they don't think I endorsed it as grail. 

Future "looks" bright for others. 

yeah, it was ~1 month faster than even the USCIS online account was estimating.  And in one of our Philippine's K1 FB group, others have reported about 3 months. 

Apparently it was so fast, they didn't even have time to update the online status, it still says "being reviewed" 

I did use an agency to prepare all the paperwork. Despite it not being very difficult, they really did do a great professional job, better than I would have done, along with many little details, for example, like how to prepare, label, and assemble all the photos and supporting docs.  Maybe this had something to do with it? I also included PSA (certified) birth certificates and certified marriage certificates because I had ordered plenty of extras to bullet proof everything.  I can see USCIS even scanned in seperatly the writing we did on the plastic photo bags,  So I don't know if we just got lucky, or if it had something to do with the way we prepared it. But for sure, having them scan in the paperwork and convert it to an online application was the key (the receipts had an IOE prefix indicating it is being electronicaly scanned and processed), and I can see those scans.   Do they do that to everyone?

BTW, oday, the actual approval noticed arrived  in the mail. Apparently USCIS wants to share the good news with everyone because you can clearly read "We have approved your application for employment authorization" right below the address field in the envelope's address window. 

4 minutes ago, W199 said:

Update, today, Feb 7, my online account timeline for my Wife's  EAD has now changed to 4 weeks. Note, USCIS had received it on Jan 8.

Hahaha ... Correction!!!  The case status still says "actively being reviewed" and 4 weeks to a decision..  BUT I checked the documents tab in the online account and there was the approval notice, issued on Feb 1!

Therefore, it took less than 1 month to get approved for the EAD and AP !!!!!   So .. yeah .. not 7.5 months!

Here is an extract of the approval notice

We have approved your application for employment authorization and advance parole based on your pending Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. We will send your Employment Authorization Document (also known as an EAD card or Form I-766) to you separately. The EAD card will have an I-512 endorsement on it, which indicates that you have been approved for advance parole. Your EAD card should be produced within one to two weeks. Your EAD card will be mailed via U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation to the address you designated. The time frame in which you will receive your EAD card may vary, depending on USPS delivery times. Please allow a total of 30 days from approval before inquiring with USCIS. We encourage you to use Case Status Online https://egov.uscis.gov/ to find your USPS tracking number for EAD card delivery. If you have not received your EAD card within this time frame, please visit https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/Intro.do for instructions on how to submit an inquiry