JasonTrue

Actually, I'm not so thrilled with the August 18 interview date because it's on my wife's birthday, which means I need to find a way to budget for a trip so we can both fly back to Tokyo together... Spending the last two weeks of August in Japan is not my ideal (I usually prefer fall or spring).

If there was any thought at all, the week earlier may be because we already have done medical with the K-3. But I doubt that there's much logic behind it.

There's not much rhyme or reason in general to either NVC or USCIS dates. My K-3 was held up at NVC for about 4 or 5 weeks before they pushed it to the embassy; others were done in 48 hours. The CR-1 case completion was done faster than we expected (I think it was 2 weeks after our documents were in). There were people who applied to USCIS months after me who are done with everything already.

The form instructions attached to the I-864 pdf explicitly say that the I-864 does not need to be notarized.

The IRS has your originals, you don't, so copies are not only fine, they're your only option, other than waiting many weeks for tax transcripts.

I didn't send the optional transcripts of prior years at all, but I did send a copy of the certified mail receipt from my 2007 return. The instructions for the I-130, as well as the I-864/I-864-A, hint some form of evidence that you actually filed your return may be required. You probably don't need proof of mailing, but it can't hurt.

Our case was completed on June 19, and the interview scheduled for August 18. They said mail confirming the details will come within 10-15 days.

The two month delay is pretty consistent with timelines on VJ, though it I seem to recall it once being closer to 45 days.

I hope they all aren't two months after for the interview. :/

I will be sending in our DS-230 in a couple of days and we were hoping for an interview date in August but from your timeline that doesn't look very likely.

Our case was completed two days after yours. Just called NVC today, interview date is on August 25th 2008.

Goodluck...

You can send the DS-230i and I-864 together, or separately, as long as the bar codes are enclosed in each envelope.

However, if they don't arrive at NVC on the same day, you may later get a spurious notification that some of your documents are incomplete. The notification is sent automatically to your agent.

If you've already scheduled the interview for the K-3/K-4, there's no reason to cancel it.

If you've received the fee bill for Affidavit of Support and the Immigrant Visa Application, and you don't mind the interview being scheduled at the embassy, rather than in the US, just go ahead and pay the fees (online if possible) and quickly file the I-864/DS-230I with NVC.

Then you'll at least have the flexibility of them entering on K-3/K-4, and you'll get the speed of consular processing over adjustment of status. It will still take a couple of months to process the CR-1. (Our I-130 was "completed" at NVC June 19, but the interview is scheduled for mid-August. They received the DS-230I on June 13, and we paid fess in early June, just to give you an idea of processing times). The main advantage of adjustment of status is that your family won't need to leave the US to complete the process. The downside is that you have to wait until they enter the US to start the adjustment of status process.

If, however, it would cause unusual financial hardship for your spouse and child to return to the country for the interview, you can just tell the NVC that you plan to do adjustment of status.

The I-130 documents won't be forwarded to the embassy/consulate until you've paid the Affidavit of Support and Immigrant Visa bill, AND subsequently sent the Affadavit of Support and DS-230 to the NVC.

My wife was approved March 25, NVC forwarded the K-3 to the embassy on April 29, and the K-3 interview was scheduled for May 27. She has her K-3 visa, but we continued on with the CR-1 to avoid the adjustment of status processing time, even though it requires going to the embassy for the interview. The K-3 will be forwarded to the embassy/consulate automatically, so your spouse will get a packet of information within a week or so of it being forwarded over.

We paid the NVC bills for the AOS/IV once our attorney received notification that the I-130 was processed at NVC, at the beginning of June. The documents were processed by NVC by June 19, and we got an interview date for the CR-1 in Tokyo scheduled for August 18.

So, even if both petitions are sent to the NVC, you'll likely find that the CR-1 still takes a bit longer to process than the K-3. But you'll definitely know the I-130 has been touched before it goes off to the embassy; you have to either give them money and the applications, or inform NVC that you want to go the adjustment of status route.

I have one follow-up question. I am in the same boat - petitions just got approved today and Pushbrk has made me think about the two choices. Let's say that the I-130 gets left behind at the NVC, and the I-129F gets sent to the Consulate, and if that happens can I request NVC to send the I-130 over or is decision really not mine at that point?

Second question I have is regarding the notification - will the consulate send me the notification that will let me know what petition(s) is being forwarded to the consulate or will the consulate notify me of the petition they actually received from NVC?

Replies, will be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks!

-Fahad

It's also worth pointing out that, once you are moving along in the process, you can stop using the attorney for paperwork and just call them if you have a question; then you'll just be billed for 6-12 minutes typically.

For example, we didn't ask for assistance on the DS-230 application, I-130 or I-864 affidavits of support.

It's not so much a question of "afford" for us; arguably, we can afford the attorney, but more importantly, errors that cause unnecessary delays are much more expensive in terms of the stress on our relationship.

Of course, not all attorneys are great, and even ours, who is with a fairly major firm, had some trouble keeping up with changes in family-based immigration procedures that have been going on in the last year; my attorney is primarily focused on employment-based immigration and international business law. So it's worth finding a GOOD attorney, and also managing your own expectations, so that you don't expect them to just magically solve all of your problems.

I recommend using an attorney if you find anything about the I-130 or I-129F petitions confusing.

I used an attorney, which prevented at least 12 fairly serious mistakes on the forms. I might have found the correct information online, but it's hard to find reliable and credible information. (VJ is helpful, but not always the source of reliably correct information; many people are just as confused as you, and pass on folklore as fact).

We had no RFEs because everything was filled out as USCIS expected, and all the right supporting documentation was there. The attorney didn't speed anything along, but we didn't lose any time to tracking down missing paperwork, which was, for me at least, worth the money.

Another colleague of mine who is going through the process feels much the same way, as he nearly made a couple of serious errors himself.

There's a lot of do-it-yourself spirit on this website, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it depends on how much value you place on avoiding potential complications. For me, it was worth it.

As I recall, ours took a little over a month at NVC (34 days or so), and others were being processed much faster than ours, so I also became more than a little concerned and frustrated. They aren't very helpful on the phone, and only said I could continue to wait or contact USCIS.

I couldn't find someone at USCIS who would verify that the documents were, in fact, sent. USCIS offered only the option of spending another $400 filing a petition for action on an existing case, which basically is an expensive way of asking them to investigate themselves. These petitions are subject to the same delays as every other category of petition (months).

My understanding is that the delay you are seeing is related to relatively mundane data entry... there's a big pile of things in their mailroom, and they move rather slowly. However, it didn't take very long to get the packet once NVC sent the documents to the embassy.

My wife is in Tokyo and we decided to continue with the CR-1 process in Tokyo rather than doing Adjustment of Status. The case is associated with the Tokyo Embassy.

After I've paid the Immigrant Visa bill, does the DS-230 go to my spouse, the CR-1 applicant, in Tokyo? Or will I receive it at my address?

It was obvious in the K-3 case, but a little unclear to me now.

I paid the Affidavit of Support fee online along with the Immigrant Visa bill yesterday. It shows up as "paid" today. I presume this means I can go ahead and file the I-864 with the cover sheet that the online payment system generates, yes?

By the way, for us, it took a bit longer for the I-130 status to be updated on the NVC phone lookup system than the I-129F; I think it was about two weeks longer than the I-129F. However, near as I can tell, the NVC processed the I-130 documents just about one week after the I-129F.

Our attorney received the fee bill for the I-130 on Monday, about 2 weeks after the date of the letter.

It looks like we'll delay sending off the fees until she's had a chance to discuss it with the consulate at her interview next week. Assuming they think it's a sane idea, and my attorney isn't terribly confused by this, we'll go that way. I'll update here when we've heard from the embassy.

I'd do it in a heart beat. You might want to talk to the consulate in Japan first to verify that there would be no unanticipated problems, but I can't see why there would be.

When you say "Since one month's pay in our field (software) would more than pay for " .....Are you saying that she will work when she comes here on the K3?

No, I'm saying she'd work shortly after getting the CR-1, and having that a month or two earlier due not having to wait until she enters the US to start the adjustment of status process, would be paid for by having permission to work earlier. Even if it means flying back to Japan to make it work.

My wife has a K-3 interview next week, and we expect to have no problems with the interview, so she'll likely have a visa within a couple of weeks.

However, due to some personal and work commitments, she's planning to delay entry to the US for a couple of months to mid-July. Coincidentally, we just got the Affidavit of Support Bill and Immigrant Visa Bill for the CR-1 process, because both were sent to NVC (lucky, I guess).

If we went ahead and started paid the CR-1 fees now, there's a possibility that she could get an interview scheduled at the Tokyo Embassy by mid-July anyway, and if not, it still seems that it would be faster than adjustment of status. If we went the Adjustment-of-Status route, the Employment Authorization Document wouldn't likely be processed until mid-October if she enters mid-July.

Even if it took longer than mid-July for the CR-1 interview to be arranged, she could travel to Seattle at that time and return to Japan for the interview. Since one month's pay in our field (software) would more than pay for an airline ticket back to Japan, it would seem financially advantageous to proceed with this route, even if it took until, say, September to get an interview.

Does it make sense to go this route? Are there any hiccups, legal or logistical, that might complicate this, rather than doing the conventional adjustment of status?

Just found out that I finally have a case number, as of today. (I called yesterday and there was still nothing). 34 days from CIS to NVC... grr.

I've been waiting for 32 days or so for NVC to assign a case number, since NOA2. No luck so far.

I'm an October filer. I filed as a K-3 sending the I-130 in October and the I-129F in January after receipt of the NOA1. I just rec'd NOA2 for the I-130 and it has been sent to the NVC. I just called the NVC number and got the case #.

So I guess this means we are on the CR1 track, which is fine since my wife needs to finish graduate school and I have been able to visit her. I prefer the CR1 since its a better visa and cost less. It seems to be working out for the best.

hi there i have the same timeline as u have. we received our NOA1 janaury and our NOA2 last week...but they did say to call NVC 2-3 weeks after to get the case number.....how many days did u say u waited to get ur case number???

I was able to get case number from NVC about 10 days after rec'd NOA2.

My I-129F case was approved on 3/25/2008, along with the I-130. Both were, according to USCIS, forwarded to NVC.

So far, more than a month later, the NVC has no record, and isn't willing to investigate until 90 days have passed. That seems absolutely insane, as there are clearly mid-April cases which they have processed.

Are there any other approved-in-March cases that haven't been acknowledged by NVC? Is there any way of investigating whether the petitions were really forwarded? USCIS and NVC have both been supremely unhelpful in this regard.

Our case was approved on 3/25, and both the I-130 and I-129F were supposedly forwarded to NVC, but NVC still hasn't acknowledged it.

NVC says I have to wait "2-4 weeks, up to 90 days" every time I call, which is an utterly useless response. It takes 3 days for mail to go from California, and even with a backlog, it's clear that several people on VJ who were approved well after us, even I-129F cases, have already been processed by NVC and forwarded on.

USCIS's customer service droids say they aren't able to provide evidence that our paperwork was mailed to NVC. Is it only possible to get real evidence of the date mailed by using the RFE line?

I was told that my only remedy is to file another $340 form, I believe the I-824, a request for action on an approved case. More money to reward incompetence, apparently.

I don't think you need to wait for transcripts, which don't provide any further evidence of income than you are providing with your tax forms; you just need to prove you filed.

When I filed this year, I got the mail certified so that I can use the receipt to prove that I sent the mail to the IRS.

I think you can include transcripts for previous years, but just photocopy of the current year's tax forms including schedule C/D. You can probably include a bank transaction history if you think it will help prove consistency with reported income.

Except in some states with additional requirements, most schools aren't terribly concerned with immigration status, but they don't typically allow students to enroll under the Visa Waiver Pilot Program, and may balk at B visitor visas. A K-category visa is perfectly fine to become a student.

For work permission, you'll need the I-765 to be approved.

Hi Guys,

So I have a question. We believe that our I130 will come in very soon. She will be able to stay in the U.S. and we will then file for her temp. work visa. My question is this, she is a nurse who is an RPN in Canada (Registered Practical Nurse) BUT she is only 10 CREDITS away from her RN (Registered Nurse) in the states, see the states don't have RPN's. Okay, so, when will she be able to go to college? Community college in our area is what she is looking at. She doesn't even know if she can get into the program until a year from Sept. but if she can get in THIS Sept. she would rather do it sooner then later. Does anybody know about working and which visa you need? Are we going to have to wait until we do our final visa (the perminent resident one?)!

Thanks guys!

Love in our Shared Experieces,

Casey

You should contact a tax professional to be absolutely sure.

However, I am filing the W-7 with an embassy-notarized copy of my wife's passport. For a non-resident spouse, you have the option of a "married filing separately" or "married filing jointly", but you shouldn't file as single. There are some cases where you can file as unmarried or married/separate+head of household, according to some very convoluted wording in the IRS pubs.

I am enclosing a statement signed and dated by both of us:

We, the undersigned, qualify to elect resident alien status for YYYY on the grounds that we married on August 6, 2007. YYYY is expected to enter the United States as a resident alien in 2008.

XXXX is a US-Born U.S. Citizen. YYYY was a non-resident alien as of December 31, 2007, pending immigration approval.

Worldwide income has been declared on our 1040 per the conditions of this election.

This statement is enclosed per the instructions in IRS Publication 519, 2007 edition, page 10, section, “Nonresident Spouse Treated as a Resident.”

In this case, I filed a form 2555ez and declared all non-US income, which was exempt because of my wife's non-resident status in 2007 and because it was under $85,700.

You'll probably get a more financially advantageous tax result by filing jointly, but if you don't have time to get her signature on your 1040 and the signed statement, you can file married filing separately.

It's very simple. She should make an appointment with the consulate in her area (or the embassy in Tokyo), and they will make a photocopy and notarize it, marking it "for US IRS purposes only."

They charge 3000-4000 yen for this, I think.

Someone elsewhere on this forum said a foreign notary wasn't accepted in their case, so I asked my wife to go to the consulate, which is accustomed to this process.

The W7 instructions say a "certified copy" is acceptable... My only guess is that a "certified" copy means issued by the government, which would mean the citizen doesn't make the copy (making it legal). So, maybe this form is what is required in japan... I don't know. My wife just said that it was illegal to copy it and that the government would issue her something to be used in it's place, but she couldn't explain to me what it was she was getting.

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According to the I-864 instructions, your income or assets are all that matters; there's no information that suggests US sourced income is a requirement for non-resident citizens. However, you should continue filing your US taxes (keeping in mind the foreign income exemption), voting by absentee, and so on, to demonstrate that "You intend in good faith to reestablish your domicile inthe United States no later than the date of the intending immigrant's admission or adjustment of status."

Just make sure you retain proof of your Japanese income.

If you and your spouse have a good relationship with your family in the US, you could certainly file with a co-sponsor if your income and assets don't meet the bar.

My use of an attorney has been mostly positive. I already knew the attorney I'm using due to some business-related things, but since he practices immigration law and has an experienced immigration paralegal, we avoided many small, potentially delay-inducing mistakes in the paperwork. The attorney also pointed out that Japanese "passport photos" Hiromi had prepared were too small for US immigration authorities, so I was able to correct this without having to find out through a Request For Evidence several months later.

I did my own research, and immigration laws and forms have been changing rapidly enough that I was aware of a few things the immigration paralegal hadn't encountered yet, but having a professional definitely has advantages. In retrospect, I might have preferred an attorney who does a higher volume of family immigration cases, as mine focuses more on employment immigration and other non-immigration business/international law.

If you have an attorney who is adequate to excellent, it's worth it.

However, if you get a bad attorney you'll be paying for their mistakes. It's important to use an immigration attorney with strong credentials and/or testimonials.