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Has it been empty for the whole of 2024? If not, then you may still need to file FBAR - do double check.

Which lawyers? Ours certainly didn’t say we couldn’t travel on ESTA with a pending petition, and we did so with no issues.

That’s my point, each doctor is different - we had no document but booked our medicals with no issues.

Not necessarily, some doctors are happy to schedule medicals without the interview letter (ours was). But booking it too early definitely wouldn’t be a good idea as then the visa validity period would be reduced.

As Crazy Cat said, it will depend on the visa category. If it’s an immediate relative (spouse, dependent child or parent) then about 16 months is the current processing time, you can check it here - https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/ Then the timescale for the second stage of the process will depend on which consulate, it can vary a lot depending on that.

Are his other kids US citizens already too? Just that you only mention him and his wife being USC’s, but as she’d need to be away from Pakistan for at least a couple of months probably, I’m assuming she won’t want to leave the kids behind so just wanted to check they’ll be ok to enter the US. And how’s her health insurance? If it’s good then I concur with the above, if possible I’d go with her giving birth in the US. Good luck to them.

Could you not finish your degree where you are now? Even if you had to repeat a year but get credit for the other years? As Boiler said, finding an employer to petition you with only 3 years experience and no degree is going to be very difficult. You’d usually need more specialist experience to justify the cost/time/hassle for them, and the job must still require a degree. Where are you now if not in your home country, are you in the US on another visa status?

Follow the instructions on the usual website - the consulate specific instructions can be found there. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-10-prepare-for-the-interview.html Because Islamabad has such a big backlog and the visa will only be valid for 6 months from the date of the medical, I agree with the above - don’t schedule it until just before a confirmed interview date.

Ah, really sorry to hear that, I was hoping that wasn’t going to be the case.

If you want him to be able to move and work straight away, then it may be that your best option is to get married and then apply for his spousal visa. There is also the fiance visa (K1), but he wouldn’t be able to work straight away with that and it costs quite a bit more overall so probably not ideal if you’re aiming to save to pay off debts. Start with the Visa Guides at the top of the page, which set all of the options out in laymans speak so you can compare them. https://www.visajourney.com/guides/ @Crazy Cat also has a fabulous comparison chart of the two visa routes which would be brilliant if he doesn’t mind posting that again. But the whole process for a spouse visa is going to be at least 18 months - so you might be better off doing it the other way around and living in Ireland first as I think it’s much quicker. Best of luck.

June might just be ok, luckily London is one of the the quickest consulates. So once the I-130 is approved, the case will be sent to NVC, and you’ll wait for the Welcome Letter to start that stage. That’s pretty quick (only 10 days at the moment), timelines are updated here weekly - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/nvc-timeframes.html Once you’ve paid the fees, completed the DS-260 and submitted the docs (that timescale is really down to you, it could be as quick as a few days, or much longer if you take longer to do it all), then it’s only currently a couple of weeks to get (hopefully) Documentarily Qualified. The timeline for that is also updated weekly on the link above. You can start by gathering your documents now so that you’re ready to sort all of that asap. Once you’re DQ’ed, you should get an interview letter in the next month or two for a date about 4-6 weeks in advance, so maybe 2-3 months from when you were DQ’ed overall. What I would say though, is don’t count on the above! Hopefully it will all go smoothly but don’t book any non-refundable travel just in case. You never know what may happen, particularly if your husband is from Azerbaijan so has a higher chance of being put in to extended AP. Best of luck.

Ah, yes you will need that. Do you have a photo of it anywhere maybe if you don’t still have the original passport? In the UK our old passports are returned to us when we renew them, so we can keep them but I’m not sure what other countries do.

No, most recent I-94 is just the most recent entry. It’s ‘View Travel History’ that you want if you’re looking at details for 20 years ago.

Mine went from AP to issued, AP is standard for after approval, basically last minute checks before the visa is printed. Mine was only in AP for about 2 hours before it changed to issued, it is usually pretty quick. Good luck.

Yes, there is. Issued means the visa has actually been printed and is in the passport ready to be returned.

Just to be clear for the OP though, if his girlfriend leaves the US as planned on 28th January, she can’t then return to the US as a visitor to get married and intend to stay, as that would be immigration fraud.

Please give more details so we can help - which document, what consulate, what have you provided? If you could fill in your timeline that would be great, thanks.

From Monday’s Executive Order - "(b) Within 60 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence shall jointly submit to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, a report: (i) identifying countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries pursuant to section 212(f) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1182(f)); and" We just don’t know which countries will be on it yet.

If the passport was only received on 16th January it’s probably still sitting in a pile of mail waiting to be opened, they’ll be working their way through after the long weekend and I’m sure it will change to issued soon. What does does it show for your case last being updated? The only thing to check is that Trump hasn’t made any changes to H1B’s? I’ve seen some of his immigration orders but not sure I’ve seen a H1B one, but just double check that - your company’s lawyers will know.

Both. Uploaded at NVC and originals taken to the interview. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-5-collect-financial-evidence-and-other-supporting-documents/step-7-collect-civil-documents.html

Election year though, those times are creeping up considerably already. I still don’t think it would save any time in the long run though and probably not worth it if the OP would lose his/her home country citizenship, unless as you say they change it like Germany has!

But point is that now it’s back on any trips there will potentially be subject to extra scrutiny, just as if you’d visited North Korea for example…except probably a few more cocktails and a bit more sunshine. 😂

It had been taken off by Biden, Trump revoked that yesterday - https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/initial-rescissions-of-harmful-executive-orders-and-actions/

As Cuba was put back on the ‘state sponsored terrorism’ list yesterday it may delay things whilst additional checks are done, just as it would if you’d visited any other country on that list (Iran, Syria etc). But it shouldn’t cause bigger issues. Good luck.

You don’t need to provide evidence at all unless asked for it, just keep hold of it ready to go if needed. Family obviously isn’t proof of her intending to return, as she is leaving them to move to the US anyway, return flight can be cancelled or amended so that’s not helpful either. Job may be helpful as long as she can’t work remotely, and can show evidence of giving her employer notice if she decides to stay in the US. What about her property in the UK? If you can show that she owns/rents a house that is now sitting empty.