Gary and Alla

Hello All
I had a great opportunity Saturday evening to have dinner with and spend several hours with a director at the VSC. He is currently in charge of the department that handles I-751s among other things. His wife is an adjusicator that handles YOUR petition (if it went through VSC). His wife is Russian, arrived on a K-1 and is now a citizen. This man has worked for USCIS for many years and was at several local offices before being assigned to the VSC. His wife is a friend of Alla's and we were all at a dinner party for several American/Russian/Ukrainian couples Saturday. We had a long chat, he was very open and helpful. We talked about a lot of the things we see here on VJ and I was trying to remember all the "usual questions" I read about and pin him down for some answers. I also have asked him if he will give an "official interview" for VJ. He said he will check out the site and I will call him later this week. So, anyway I will try to cover what we discussed, he was quite frank and direct in his answers, not rude, not at all, but he knows his stuff and answers without hesitation. It turned into an impromtu and fun "interview" with me trying to remember all the hot button issues I see on VJ
I told him that the number ONE and number TWO "complaints" I see are Why is the VSC taking so long and why can't we get through to you guys?
Why is VSC taking so long, what happened? I was approved in 58 days!: We had problem with labor last year and lost many workers, we hired more last November and it took some time to get them trained. Some of the petitions were sent to California and we also assign people to different tyopes of visas. They will concentrate on one tyoe, get behind on another and then shift many people back to the other type. Lately we have shifted many, almost all, adjudicators to I-129fs, so that should make people happy. They will do that until they get caught up. Summer is a busy time for I-129fs, usually about June we get slammed with them. The winter or early spring is the slowest time for I-129fs, but then it depends what they have everyone working on also.
OK, why can't we get through to you? The 1-800 line is useless. Those are contract employees and they are trained to select answers from a menu of 14 answers. They pick which one is best for your question. There are thousands of visas being processed at any time and everyone is special and everyone has special circumstances and if we had direct lines we weould do nothing but field requests by petitioners to give them priority, we just can't do it. How would you feel if your petition got bumped because some woman called and cried on the phone and then her petition got moved up ahead of yours. We simply have to operate in a way that avoids any chance of fraud, corruption or unfairness.
So what about some people get approved ahead of others? Sme petitions have problems or delays, we do not hold back others for this. If an adjudicator has problems, he puts that one aside or sends an RFE and goes on to the next. The next one may be clean and gets approved right away, in just a few minutes, they adjudicate 15-20 petitions a day per person, and the ones with problems may wait weeks for the petitioner to respond to the RFE, or maybe it is a name check they are waiting for. Petitions are assigned as they arrive, when we are working on those petitions, but they do not go out the door in the same order they came in.
G-325a, Signed or Unsigned? Unsigned.
WHAT? Ok I have seen the memo but lots of VJ members got RFEs for unsigned G-325s, what gives? They do not have to be signed,they can be signed at the consualte interview. Some adjusicators haven't read all the memos, we get hundreds of the things, and maybe they make a mistake. If you want to be sure there is no mistake, sign it. Or send a letter expalining why it is not signed and request it be signed at the interview. Do you have that memo?
It is on the VJ website somewhere You can print a copy of that and send it with the I-129f and G-325a.
Fiancee intent letter? Signed or unsigned? Signed.
What about a faxed or emailed signature? When I was adjudicating, if I could see a signature, I accepted it, but many adjusicators will not. Signed is better.
Lawyer or no lawyer? For what?
Enough said. Now a hot issue, a very controversial one. There seems to be a trend in some countries of foreign men marrying American women and the women are considerably older. There is always a question if this is a problem. It never seems to be a problem for older men/younger women (My wife is 13 years younger, his wife is also considerable younger than him) Is it a problem? For us, USCIS, no. "Free to marry".
What about the consulates or for AOS or I-751? Consulates do what they do, it is not USCIS, some of them are bastards. Kiev is easy, they approve everyone (laughs), they used to be bastards but they got easier since they first started doing those in 2005, before then you would have had to go to Warsaw, you know. For AOS if they can prove they are legitimate we do not care about age but anything that is "not normal" for the culture will draw suspicion. They probably will not get a no questions asked interview (I had told him our AOS was "no questions asked")
What about birth certificates, some people have trouble getting them? This is a problem for us also. Some people, especially our younger staff, think all the world is like the USA. I remember one, when I was in the Kansas City office, the beneficiary was from Viet Nam, she was born in 1954 there was no birth certificate. The CO asked me about this and I looked at the file. I said "Do you know what was going on in Viet Nam in 1954?" She looked at me, straight faced and said "What, their computers were down?" If a birth certificate cannot be obtained they can usually get something from a church, a village official, something, and send that with a letter of explanation. Or just their passport and a letter explaining the situation (this applies to AOS more than I-129f as beneficiary birth certificate is not required for the petition, but I wanted to ask anyway, it seems a common question here)
What about extra documents? Proof of relationship? We don't need it, only that they have met for the fiancee visa.
What about the consulates? Consulates do what they do, as I said, some are bastards. They get whatever we get when it is sent on. I can't tell you what NVC and consulates do, I know some are terrible and some are really easy, but I do not know all the details of each. Kiev is easy, western Europe is easy, Nigeria is horrible, but you would not believe the scams from Nigeria, I get jaded. I am surprised a lot of them get visas and then we have to deal with them.
I have to ask for a collegue, Ecuador? Bastards.

What about changes? Are there any in the works? Is Obama ouching you guys to work faster? I am not sure Obama knows we exist. There have been no changes and no pressure other than the usual workload and shifting things around. I do not expect any immigration changes in the next year or two, at kleat not in rules or amnesty or anything like that. I do expect FEE INCREASES within the next year...across the board.
How much more? I cannot say, that is not my area, I just hear talk.
He added, "We try not to deny petitions, people really get angry and make lots of trouble. Denials usually come at the consulate or maybe AOS or sometimes even with the I-751. If we deny someone we need good reason, if they meet the criteria, we will approve it, they just have to give us what we need to approve them."
So how can I speed up my petition? You can't really. If it gets to be too long and if you can get a congressman or senator to call, that will get some action, but half the time those guys dont'' call or they do and the petition has only been there 3 months. Sometimes one falls through the cracks, gets overlooked, we are human. A congressman can get through and get them to dig it out if it has been too long, but I wouldn't call that "speeding it up". That's a fix for whn it is too slow.
we talked for some time more, about 5 hours altogether, briefly interrupted by Alla every now and again who had her own questions about the I-751 procedure which I posted in that forum, about VJ and other topics (his Navy days) He said he will check the site and gave me his home number. He said "call anytime but not 3 in the morning" I asked about an interview or answering prepared questions, he said possibly, he will check the site. He said many internet sites are advertisement for immigration attorneys or instructing people on how to pull scams, I assured him he would be very pleased with VJ and he thinks it is great that there is a good site for information and advice. (he never heard of VJ before this)
I can also say, that speaking to him, I heard so many of the same buzzwords or advice that I have seen right here, this is really a great site with some great folks giving some really great info.

Hello All
I had a great opportunity Saturday evening to have dinner with and spend several hours with a director at the VSC. He is currently in charge of the department that handles I-751s among other things. His wife is an adjusicator that handles YOUR petition (if it went through VSC). His wife is Russian, arrived on a K-1 and is now a citizen. This man has worked for USCIS for many years and was at several local offices before being assigned to the VSC. His wife is a friend of Alla's and we were all at a dinner party for several American/Russian/Ukrainian couples Saturday. We had a long chat, he was very open and helpful. We talked about a lot of the things we see here on VJ and I was trying to remember all the "usual questions" I read about and pin him down for some answers. I also have asked him if he will give an "official interview" for VJ. He said he will check out the site and I will call him later this week. So, anyway I will try to cover what we discussed, he was quite frank and direct in his answers, not rude, not at all, but he knows his stuff and answers without hesitation. It turned into an impromtu and fun "interview" with me trying to remember all the hot button issues I see on VJ
I told him that the number ONE and number TWO "complaints" I see are Why is the VSC taking so long and why can't we get through to you guys?
Why is VSC taking so long, what happened? I was approved in 58 days!: We had problem with labor last year and lost many workers, we hired more last November and it took some time to get them trained. Some of the petitions were sent to California and we also assign people to different tyopes of visas. They will concentrate on one tyoe, get behind on another and then shift many people back to the other type. Lately we have shifted many, almost all, adjudicators to I-129fs, so that should make people happy. They will do that until they get caught up. Summer is a busy time for I-129fs, usually about June we get slammed with them. The winter or early spring is the slowest time for I-129fs, but then it depends what they have everyone working on also.
OK, why can't we get through to you? The 1-800 line is useless. Those are contract employees and they are trained to select answers from a menu of 14 answers. They pick which one is best for your question. There are thousands of visas being processed at any time and everyone is special and everyone has special circumstances and if we had direct lines we weould do nothing but field requests by petitioners to give them priority, we just can't do it. How would you feel if your petition got bumped because some woman called and cried on the phone and then her petition got moved up ahead of yours. We simply have to operate in a way that avoids any chance of fraud, corruption or unfairness.
So what about some people get approved ahead of others? Sme petitions have problems or delays, we do not hold back others for this. If an adjudicator has problems, he puts that one aside or sends an RFE and goes on to the next. The next one may be clean and gets approved right away, in just a few minutes, they adjudicate 15-20 petitions a day per person, and the ones with problems may wait weeks for the petitioner to respond to the RFE, or maybe it is a name check they are waiting for. Petitions are assigned as they arrive, when we are working on those petitions, but they do not go out the door in the same order they came in.
G-325a, Signed or Unsigned? Unsigned.
WHAT? Ok I have seen the memo but lots of VJ members got RFEs for unsigned G-325s, what gives? They do not have to be signed,they can be signed at the consualte interview. Some adjusicators haven't read all the memos, we get hundreds of the things, and maybe they make a mistake. If you want to be sure there is no mistake, sign it. Or send a letter expalining why it is not signed and request it be signed at the interview. Do you have that memo?
It is on the VJ website somewhere You can print a copy of that and send it with the I-129f and G-325a.
Fiancee intent letter? Signed or unsigned? Signed.
What about a faxed or emailed signature? When I was adjudicating, if I could see a signature, I accepted it, but many adjusicators will not. Signed is better.
Lawyer or no lawyer? For what?
Enough said. Now a hot issue, a very controversial one. There seems to be a trend in some countries of foreign men marrying American women and the women are considerably older. There is always a question if this is a problem. It never seems to be a problem for older men/younger women (My wife is 13 years younger, his wife is also considerable younger than him) Is it a problem? For us, USCIS, no. "Free to marry".
What about the consulates or for AOS or I-751? Consulates do what they do, it is not USCIS, some of them are bastards. Kiev is easy, they approve everyone (laughs), they used to be bastards but they got easier since they first started doing those in 2005, before then you would have had to go to Warsaw, you know. For AOS if they can prove they are legitimate we do not care about age but anything that is "not normal" for the culture will draw suspicion. They probably will not get a no questions asked interview (I had told him our AOS was "no questions asked")
What about birth certificates, some people have trouble getting them? This is a problem for us also. Some people, especially our younger staff, think all the world is like the USA. I remember one, when I was in the Kansas City office, the beneficiary was from Viet Nam, she was born in 1954 there was no birth certificate. The CO asked me about this and I looked at the file. I said "Do you know what was going on in Viet Nam in 1954?" She looked at me, straight faced and said "What, their computers were down?" If a birth certificate cannot be obtained they can usually get something from a church, a village official, something, and send that with a letter of explanation. Or just their passport and a letter explaining the situation (this applies to AOS more than I-129f as beneficiary birth certificate is not required for the petition, but I wanted to ask anyway, it seems a common question here)
What about extra documents? Proof of relationship? We don't need it, only that they have met for the fiancee visa.
What about the consulates? Consulates do what they do, as I said, some are bastards. They get whatever we get when it is sent on. I can't tell you what NVC and consulates do, I know some are terrible and some are really easy, but I do not know all the details of each. Kiev is easy, western Europe is easy, Nigeria is horrible, but you would not believe the scams from Nigeria, I get jaded. I am surprised a lot of them get visas and then we have to deal with them.
I have to ask for a collegue, Ecuador? Bastards.

What about changes? Are there any in the works? Is Obama ouching you guys to work faster? I am not sure Obama knows we exist. There have been no changes and no pressure other than the usual workload and shifting things around. I do not expect any immigration changes in the next year or two, at kleat not in rules or amnesty or anything like that. I do expect FEE INCREASES within the next year...across the board.
How much more? I cannot say, that is not my area, I just hear talk.
He added, "We try not to deny petitions, people really get angry and make lots of trouble. Denials usually come at the consulate or maybe AOS or sometimes even with the I-751. If we deny someone we need good reason, if they meet the criteria, we will approve it, they just have to give us what we need to approve them."
So how can I speed up my petition? You can't really. If it gets to be too long and if you can get a congressman or senator to call, that will get some action, but half the time those guys dont'' call or they do and the petition has only been there 3 months. Sometimes one falls through the cracks, gets overlooked, we are human. A congressman can get through and get them to dig it out if it has been too long, but I wouldn't call that "speeding it up". That's a fix for whn it is too slow.
we talked for some time more, about 5 hours altogether, briefly interrupted by Alla every now and again who had her own questions about the I-751 procedure which I posted in that forum, about VJ and other topics (his Navy days) He said he will check the site and gave me his home number. He said "call anytime but not 3 in the morning" I asked about an interview or answering prepared questions, he said possibly, he will check the site. He said many internet sites are advertisement for immigration attorneys or instructing people on how to pull scams, I assured him he would be very pleased with VJ and he thinks it is great that there is a good site for information and advice. (he never heard of VJ before this)
I can also say, that speaking to him, I heard so many of the same buzzwords or advice that I have seen right here, this is really a great site with some great folks giving some really great info.

To be honest I am always a bit dismayed, yet amused to see these topics especially at this site. Those of us here have foreign spouses which already enough people think is stupid and should not be allowed. Some of you met by internet, we did not. Are we better? Should internet meetings of K-1s be disallowed? Many people think so. What about K-1s at all? I have read right here at this site, simialr posts that K-1s shoould be eliminated!
It all involves children, eventually, whether it is the two children that came to me with my foreign wife or babies we made ourselves. We had TWO children during the process, but they were not BORN during the process. Is it any less stressful on us? Other than diapers and potty training, no. You thin I can just "do it" with my wife 24/7 and ignore that two children are involved also? Maybe we should only allow spouses with NO children already?
If the two adults in a relationship are willing to be adults and do what adults should do for their family and make their family number 1...everything will be OK. If you wake up today and say "I am going to be the best father and husband I can be today" and you do it every day and you get great pleasure from it, your spouse will defend you forever with a flamethrower! No way they are going to give that up!
If the adults are not willing to do that, the marriage will fail and it will suck for the kids and it doesn't matter what nationality your wife/spouse is, whether they came from 8000 miles away or 8000 feet away
we all choose what we think is best for ourselves but we cannot and should not choose that for others.

This is from an immigration attorney not a US government site. Specifically the initial USCIS background check is a computer check which is completed in less than 1 minute IF there are no "hits". If there are "hits" a manual background check is required, up to and including an FBI manual check. The FBI has a presence in each service center. It is very rare for a petitioner to be contacted during this. Other checks are done at the NVC and consulate levels.

I am not going to write the letter for you but will tell you what it must contain
1. Name, address and date of birth of father
2. Same for mother
3. Same for child
4. MUST state he agrees (or is aware of the mother's plans and does not object to) to PERMANENT RELOCATION to the UNITED STATES.
5. state that the purpose is to obtain a K-2 visa and that the letter is valid until..........(child's 18th birthdate) for all travel to and from Canada (or whatever country) and the USA (we need this letter for our youngest son whenever we visit Ukraine, you will need it even after he has a green card
Anything else it says is fine and what ever format you want to use really shouldn't matter as long as all the information is included therein. The letter should be notarized and you need a copy of the photo and signature page of the father's passport (or other government ID) to attach to it.
Give the consulate the ORIGNAL and a COPY. DO NOT leave without being returned the original, or if you must send it, then get TWO original signature letters as you will need it in the future also.

I had the great opportunity to have dinner with a director of the VSC Saturday evening. A sit turns out his wife is Russian, came here on a K-1 and is now an aquaintance of Alla. So we had some great conversation. Our next step will be the I-751 and he has worked in his career as an IO who conducted AOS and lifting of conditions interviews and gave me lots of good information on evidence. Here are some things he likes to see and others which are "useless" in his words
Good stuff
Joint bank accounts, joint tax returns, joint ownership of property, cars. Joint leases. Joint insurance. Named as beneficiaries on life insurance and medical insurance. Joint credit cards. Any other joining of financial interests (the theory is that if one is willing to risk your property and money the relationship is more likely valid) Government documents showing common address, drivers lisence, etc. Photos are good, kind of expected, but NOT primary evidence.
Children?
Yes and no. If you just had a child together and the man is nothing more than a sperm donor...no. IF you have children, whether "together" or with a blended family and there is evidence that BOTH participate in the child's development and education, and care that is great! I told him I am listed on all of our son's school papers as parent, I am an emergency contact and I sign all the permission slips, etc. He is covered by my medical insurance. All good stuff. A birth certificate in itself ("Look we have a kid") does not prove a legitmate relationship. It is especially important that the school (an objective 3rd party) recognizes both people as "parents" and accepts this. Medical records for the child showing both people as parents. same reasoning. If a doctor will recognize and treat a child based on their knowledge of both being parents, that is pretty darn good evidence.
Useless or not so useful stuff
Magazine subscriptions together (WHAT??? "Yes, you would be surprised how many couples present a Sports Illustrated subscription as proof") Utilities, cards and letters from relatives, emails, chats etc. Theory? all of these can be easily faked and in themselves prove nothing. Utilities do not verify information before adding someone to an account and hey, it's the electric bill, you are going to pay the electric bill anyway. There is no financial risk involved, no commitment as in joint ownership. Affidavits from friends or family do not have a lot of weight. None of these things are BAD and in conjunction with other evidence are fine, but not enough to prove anything themselves.
This is probably not news to a lot of people, but it was good to hear it from the "horse's mouth" anyway.
Incidentally, I mentioned that we never had a question at any of our interviews and never were asked for any evidence and he said "Sometimes we can just tell. Whatever you did, whatever your body language or how you acted, the IO was immediately convinced you were legitimate" I cannot say what that was, unfortunately.
Another question I asked, actually Alla did since she did not change her name
Does it matter if the woman changes her name?: NO, not at all.
About citizenship (Alla also asked)
Can I be a dual citizen? Answer..."The United States does not recognize other citizenships. You are a US citizen or you are not a US citizen. Once you become a US citizen the United States does not consider you anything else. We will not take your passport from Ukraine and we will not tell Ukraine you are now a citizen of the US. If you want to keep your Ukraine passport and renew it in Ukraine when you are visiting, it is none of our concern"
So the US has no policy and does not recognize any such thing as "dual citizenship" per se, but has no prohibitions from a person being a citizen of another country also, for the US you will always be considered a US citizen
Can I use a Ukraine passport to enter Ukraine and a US passport to enter the US? Yes, no problem.
What about stamps in the passport from the US or Ukraine?: The officers at the POE will ask where you have been, they rarely will look through all your exit stamps and really don't care. They are admitting you to the US, they really don't care if the country you LEFT stamped your passport, the US does not stamp passports on exit.
I ask this because Ukraine does not allow dual citizenship and I do want to keep my Ukraine passport for ease of travel to Russia, etc, and also if we ever decided to return, we have property there, I could easily work, etc. I do not want to do anything wrong and get in trouble here. The US does not care about Ukrainian law regarding citizenship, that's between you and Ukraine, but WE won't tell. Unless there is some order from a court or something, we don't give out that information.

I want to make clear you can LEAVE and go back AT ANY TIME. You will have no way to RETURN and adjust status to permanent resident. That said...
1. Come to the US
2, Get married
3. File for AOS with I-131 added
4. Two months later you will get an AP and can travel back to your home country.
So when you can travel depends on how quick you get married and file for the AP. Then add two months.
IF there is an emergency, you can make an info pass appointment and get an emergency AP

Hello All
I had a great opportunity Saturday evening to have dinner with and spend several hours with a director at the VSC. He is currently in charge of the department that handles I-751s among other things. His wife is an adjusicator that handles YOUR petition (if it went through VSC). His wife is Russian, arrived on a K-1 and is now a citizen. This man has worked for USCIS for many years and was at several local offices before being assigned to the VSC. His wife is a friend of Alla's and we were all at a dinner party for several American/Russian/Ukrainian couples Saturday. We had a long chat, he was very open and helpful. We talked about a lot of the things we see here on VJ and I was trying to remember all the "usual questions" I read about and pin him down for some answers. I also have asked him if he will give an "official interview" for VJ. He said he will check out the site and I will call him later this week. So, anyway I will try to cover what we discussed, he was quite frank and direct in his answers, not rude, not at all, but he knows his stuff and answers without hesitation. It turned into an impromtu and fun "interview" with me trying to remember all the hot button issues I see on VJ
I told him that the number ONE and number TWO "complaints" I see are Why is the VSC taking so long and why can't we get through to you guys?
Why is VSC taking so long, what happened? I was approved in 58 days!: We had problem with labor last year and lost many workers, we hired more last November and it took some time to get them trained. Some of the petitions were sent to California and we also assign people to different tyopes of visas. They will concentrate on one tyoe, get behind on another and then shift many people back to the other type. Lately we have shifted many, almost all, adjudicators to I-129fs, so that should make people happy. They will do that until they get caught up. Summer is a busy time for I-129fs, usually about June we get slammed with them. The winter or early spring is the slowest time for I-129fs, but then it depends what they have everyone working on also.
OK, why can't we get through to you? The 1-800 line is useless. Those are contract employees and they are trained to select answers from a menu of 14 answers. They pick which one is best for your question. There are thousands of visas being processed at any time and everyone is special and everyone has special circumstances and if we had direct lines we weould do nothing but field requests by petitioners to give them priority, we just can't do it. How would you feel if your petition got bumped because some woman called and cried on the phone and then her petition got moved up ahead of yours. We simply have to operate in a way that avoids any chance of fraud, corruption or unfairness.
So what about some people get approved ahead of others? Sme petitions have problems or delays, we do not hold back others for this. If an adjudicator has problems, he puts that one aside or sends an RFE and goes on to the next. The next one may be clean and gets approved right away, in just a few minutes, they adjudicate 15-20 petitions a day per person, and the ones with problems may wait weeks for the petitioner to respond to the RFE, or maybe it is a name check they are waiting for. Petitions are assigned as they arrive, when we are working on those petitions, but they do not go out the door in the same order they came in.
G-325a, Signed or Unsigned? Unsigned.
WHAT? Ok I have seen the memo but lots of VJ members got RFEs for unsigned G-325s, what gives? They do not have to be signed,they can be signed at the consualte interview. Some adjusicators haven't read all the memos, we get hundreds of the things, and maybe they make a mistake. If you want to be sure there is no mistake, sign it. Or send a letter expalining why it is not signed and request it be signed at the interview. Do you have that memo?
It is on the VJ website somewhere You can print a copy of that and send it with the I-129f and G-325a.
Fiancee intent letter? Signed or unsigned? Signed.
What about a faxed or emailed signature? When I was adjudicating, if I could see a signature, I accepted it, but many adjusicators will not. Signed is better.
Lawyer or no lawyer? For what?
Enough said. Now a hot issue, a very controversial one. There seems to be a trend in some countries of foreign men marrying American women and the women are considerably older. There is always a question if this is a problem. It never seems to be a problem for older men/younger women (My wife is 13 years younger, his wife is also considerable younger than him) Is it a problem? For us, USCIS, no. "Free to marry".
What about the consulates or for AOS or I-751? Consulates do what they do, it is not USCIS, some of them are bastards. Kiev is easy, they approve everyone (laughs), they used to be bastards but they got easier since they first started doing those in 2005, before then you would have had to go to Warsaw, you know. For AOS if they can prove they are legitimate we do not care about age but anything that is "not normal" for the culture will draw suspicion. They probably will not get a no questions asked interview (I had told him our AOS was "no questions asked")
What about birth certificates, some people have trouble getting them? This is a problem for us also. Some people, especially our younger staff, think all the world is like the USA. I remember one, when I was in the Kansas City office, the beneficiary was from Viet Nam, she was born in 1954 there was no birth certificate. The CO asked me about this and I looked at the file. I said "Do you know what was going on in Viet Nam in 1954?" She looked at me, straight faced and said "What, their computers were down?" If a birth certificate cannot be obtained they can usually get something from a church, a village official, something, and send that with a letter of explanation. Or just their passport and a letter explaining the situation (this applies to AOS more than I-129f as beneficiary birth certificate is not required for the petition, but I wanted to ask anyway, it seems a common question here)
What about extra documents? Proof of relationship? We don't need it, only that they have met for the fiancee visa.
What about the consulates? Consulates do what they do, as I said, some are bastards. They get whatever we get when it is sent on. I can't tell you what NVC and consulates do, I know some are terrible and some are really easy, but I do not know all the details of each. Kiev is easy, western Europe is easy, Nigeria is horrible, but you would not believe the scams from Nigeria, I get jaded. I am surprised a lot of them get visas and then we have to deal with them.
I have to ask for a collegue, Ecuador? Bastards.

What about changes? Are there any in the works? Is Obama ouching you guys to work faster? I am not sure Obama knows we exist. There have been no changes and no pressure other than the usual workload and shifting things around. I do not expect any immigration changes in the next year or two, at kleat not in rules or amnesty or anything like that. I do expect FEE INCREASES within the next year...across the board.
How much more? I cannot say, that is not my area, I just hear talk.
He added, "We try not to deny petitions, people really get angry and make lots of trouble. Denials usually come at the consulate or maybe AOS or sometimes even with the I-751. If we deny someone we need good reason, if they meet the criteria, we will approve it, they just have to give us what we need to approve them."
So how can I speed up my petition? You can't really. If it gets to be too long and if you can get a congressman or senator to call, that will get some action, but half the time those guys dont'' call or they do and the petition has only been there 3 months. Sometimes one falls through the cracks, gets overlooked, we are human. A congressman can get through and get them to dig it out if it has been too long, but I wouldn't call that "speeding it up". That's a fix for whn it is too slow.
we talked for some time more, about 5 hours altogether, briefly interrupted by Alla every now and again who had her own questions about the I-751 procedure which I posted in that forum, about VJ and other topics (his Navy days) He said he will check the site and gave me his home number. He said "call anytime but not 3 in the morning" I asked about an interview or answering prepared questions, he said possibly, he will check the site. He said many internet sites are advertisement for immigration attorneys or instructing people on how to pull scams, I assured him he would be very pleased with VJ and he thinks it is great that there is a good site for information and advice. (he never heard of VJ before this)
I can also say, that speaking to him, I heard so many of the same buzzwords or advice that I have seen right here, this is really a great site with some great folks giving some really great info.

Hello All
I had a great opportunity Saturday evening to have dinner with and spend several hours with a director at the VSC. He is currently in charge of the department that handles I-751s among other things. His wife is an adjusicator that handles YOUR petition (if it went through VSC). His wife is Russian, arrived on a K-1 and is now a citizen. This man has worked for USCIS for many years and was at several local offices before being assigned to the VSC. His wife is a friend of Alla's and we were all at a dinner party for several American/Russian/Ukrainian couples Saturday. We had a long chat, he was very open and helpful. We talked about a lot of the things we see here on VJ and I was trying to remember all the "usual questions" I read about and pin him down for some answers. I also have asked him if he will give an "official interview" for VJ. He said he will check out the site and I will call him later this week. So, anyway I will try to cover what we discussed, he was quite frank and direct in his answers, not rude, not at all, but he knows his stuff and answers without hesitation. It turned into an impromtu and fun "interview" with me trying to remember all the hot button issues I see on VJ
I told him that the number ONE and number TWO "complaints" I see are Why is the VSC taking so long and why can't we get through to you guys?
Why is VSC taking so long, what happened? I was approved in 58 days!: We had problem with labor last year and lost many workers, we hired more last November and it took some time to get them trained. Some of the petitions were sent to California and we also assign people to different tyopes of visas. They will concentrate on one tyoe, get behind on another and then shift many people back to the other type. Lately we have shifted many, almost all, adjudicators to I-129fs, so that should make people happy. They will do that until they get caught up. Summer is a busy time for I-129fs, usually about June we get slammed with them. The winter or early spring is the slowest time for I-129fs, but then it depends what they have everyone working on also.
OK, why can't we get through to you? The 1-800 line is useless. Those are contract employees and they are trained to select answers from a menu of 14 answers. They pick which one is best for your question. There are thousands of visas being processed at any time and everyone is special and everyone has special circumstances and if we had direct lines we weould do nothing but field requests by petitioners to give them priority, we just can't do it. How would you feel if your petition got bumped because some woman called and cried on the phone and then her petition got moved up ahead of yours. We simply have to operate in a way that avoids any chance of fraud, corruption or unfairness.
So what about some people get approved ahead of others? Sme petitions have problems or delays, we do not hold back others for this. If an adjudicator has problems, he puts that one aside or sends an RFE and goes on to the next. The next one may be clean and gets approved right away, in just a few minutes, they adjudicate 15-20 petitions a day per person, and the ones with problems may wait weeks for the petitioner to respond to the RFE, or maybe it is a name check they are waiting for. Petitions are assigned as they arrive, when we are working on those petitions, but they do not go out the door in the same order they came in.
G-325a, Signed or Unsigned? Unsigned.
WHAT? Ok I have seen the memo but lots of VJ members got RFEs for unsigned G-325s, what gives? They do not have to be signed,they can be signed at the consualte interview. Some adjusicators haven't read all the memos, we get hundreds of the things, and maybe they make a mistake. If you want to be sure there is no mistake, sign it. Or send a letter expalining why it is not signed and request it be signed at the interview. Do you have that memo?
It is on the VJ website somewhere You can print a copy of that and send it with the I-129f and G-325a.
Fiancee intent letter? Signed or unsigned? Signed.
What about a faxed or emailed signature? When I was adjudicating, if I could see a signature, I accepted it, but many adjusicators will not. Signed is better.
Lawyer or no lawyer? For what?
Enough said. Now a hot issue, a very controversial one. There seems to be a trend in some countries of foreign men marrying American women and the women are considerably older. There is always a question if this is a problem. It never seems to be a problem for older men/younger women (My wife is 13 years younger, his wife is also considerable younger than him) Is it a problem? For us, USCIS, no. "Free to marry".
What about the consulates or for AOS or I-751? Consulates do what they do, it is not USCIS, some of them are bastards. Kiev is easy, they approve everyone (laughs), they used to be bastards but they got easier since they first started doing those in 2005, before then you would have had to go to Warsaw, you know. For AOS if they can prove they are legitimate we do not care about age but anything that is "not normal" for the culture will draw suspicion. They probably will not get a no questions asked interview (I had told him our AOS was "no questions asked")
What about birth certificates, some people have trouble getting them? This is a problem for us also. Some people, especially our younger staff, think all the world is like the USA. I remember one, when I was in the Kansas City office, the beneficiary was from Viet Nam, she was born in 1954 there was no birth certificate. The CO asked me about this and I looked at the file. I said "Do you know what was going on in Viet Nam in 1954?" She looked at me, straight faced and said "What, their computers were down?" If a birth certificate cannot be obtained they can usually get something from a church, a village official, something, and send that with a letter of explanation. Or just their passport and a letter explaining the situation (this applies to AOS more than I-129f as beneficiary birth certificate is not required for the petition, but I wanted to ask anyway, it seems a common question here)
What about extra documents? Proof of relationship? We don't need it, only that they have met for the fiancee visa.
What about the consulates? Consulates do what they do, as I said, some are bastards. They get whatever we get when it is sent on. I can't tell you what NVC and consulates do, I know some are terrible and some are really easy, but I do not know all the details of each. Kiev is easy, western Europe is easy, Nigeria is horrible, but you would not believe the scams from Nigeria, I get jaded. I am surprised a lot of them get visas and then we have to deal with them.
I have to ask for a collegue, Ecuador? Bastards.

What about changes? Are there any in the works? Is Obama ouching you guys to work faster? I am not sure Obama knows we exist. There have been no changes and no pressure other than the usual workload and shifting things around. I do not expect any immigration changes in the next year or two, at kleat not in rules or amnesty or anything like that. I do expect FEE INCREASES within the next year...across the board.
How much more? I cannot say, that is not my area, I just hear talk.
He added, "We try not to deny petitions, people really get angry and make lots of trouble. Denials usually come at the consulate or maybe AOS or sometimes even with the I-751. If we deny someone we need good reason, if they meet the criteria, we will approve it, they just have to give us what we need to approve them."
So how can I speed up my petition? You can't really. If it gets to be too long and if you can get a congressman or senator to call, that will get some action, but half the time those guys dont'' call or they do and the petition has only been there 3 months. Sometimes one falls through the cracks, gets overlooked, we are human. A congressman can get through and get them to dig it out if it has been too long, but I wouldn't call that "speeding it up". That's a fix for whn it is too slow.
we talked for some time more, about 5 hours altogether, briefly interrupted by Alla every now and again who had her own questions about the I-751 procedure which I posted in that forum, about VJ and other topics (his Navy days) He said he will check the site and gave me his home number. He said "call anytime but not 3 in the morning" I asked about an interview or answering prepared questions, he said possibly, he will check the site. He said many internet sites are advertisement for immigration attorneys or instructing people on how to pull scams, I assured him he would be very pleased with VJ and he thinks it is great that there is a good site for information and advice. (he never heard of VJ before this)
I can also say, that speaking to him, I heard so many of the same buzzwords or advice that I have seen right here, this is really a great site with some great folks giving some really great info.

The court order of sole custody would also have to specifically allow her to relocate the children to the USA, permanently. That ain't happening unless the father is some sort of dangerous criminal. Ukraine is very protective of father's rights. Until a few years ago your fiancee would have needed a letter of permission fromhim to enroll them in school, go to the doctor, or any other parental duty. Alla has a letter her mother obtained which is a "certificate of no father" as her father was not listed on her birth certificate and her mother needed this to do anything for her own daughter. (USSR) They stil lhave such a letter, though the need is not the same.
Be aware that in Ukraine, like here, there are attorneys that will TELL you they can get the court order, for a fee of course. They can't. Better to give the money to the father and pay him off.
These rules are not set by the Kiev consulate, they are Ukrainian (or international) laws and the US is not going to be involved in "kidnapping" so you have to do what is required by Ukraine law and it is a pretty strict one.

Hello All
I had a great opportunity Saturday evening to have dinner with and spend several hours with a director at the VSC. He is currently in charge of the department that handles I-751s among other things. His wife is an adjusicator that handles YOUR petition (if it went through VSC). His wife is Russian, arrived on a K-1 and is now a citizen. This man has worked for USCIS for many years and was at several local offices before being assigned to the VSC. His wife is a friend of Alla's and we were all at a dinner party for several American/Russian/Ukrainian couples Saturday. We had a long chat, he was very open and helpful. We talked about a lot of the things we see here on VJ and I was trying to remember all the "usual questions" I read about and pin him down for some answers. I also have asked him if he will give an "official interview" for VJ. He said he will check out the site and I will call him later this week. So, anyway I will try to cover what we discussed, he was quite frank and direct in his answers, not rude, not at all, but he knows his stuff and answers without hesitation. It turned into an impromtu and fun "interview" with me trying to remember all the hot button issues I see on VJ
I told him that the number ONE and number TWO "complaints" I see are Why is the VSC taking so long and why can't we get through to you guys?
Why is VSC taking so long, what happened? I was approved in 58 days!: We had problem with labor last year and lost many workers, we hired more last November and it took some time to get them trained. Some of the petitions were sent to California and we also assign people to different tyopes of visas. They will concentrate on one tyoe, get behind on another and then shift many people back to the other type. Lately we have shifted many, almost all, adjudicators to I-129fs, so that should make people happy. They will do that until they get caught up. Summer is a busy time for I-129fs, usually about June we get slammed with them. The winter or early spring is the slowest time for I-129fs, but then it depends what they have everyone working on also.
OK, why can't we get through to you? The 1-800 line is useless. Those are contract employees and they are trained to select answers from a menu of 14 answers. They pick which one is best for your question. There are thousands of visas being processed at any time and everyone is special and everyone has special circumstances and if we had direct lines we weould do nothing but field requests by petitioners to give them priority, we just can't do it. How would you feel if your petition got bumped because some woman called and cried on the phone and then her petition got moved up ahead of yours. We simply have to operate in a way that avoids any chance of fraud, corruption or unfairness.
So what about some people get approved ahead of others? Sme petitions have problems or delays, we do not hold back others for this. If an adjudicator has problems, he puts that one aside or sends an RFE and goes on to the next. The next one may be clean and gets approved right away, in just a few minutes, they adjudicate 15-20 petitions a day per person, and the ones with problems may wait weeks for the petitioner to respond to the RFE, or maybe it is a name check they are waiting for. Petitions are assigned as they arrive, when we are working on those petitions, but they do not go out the door in the same order they came in.
G-325a, Signed or Unsigned? Unsigned.
WHAT? Ok I have seen the memo but lots of VJ members got RFEs for unsigned G-325s, what gives? They do not have to be signed,they can be signed at the consualte interview. Some adjusicators haven't read all the memos, we get hundreds of the things, and maybe they make a mistake. If you want to be sure there is no mistake, sign it. Or send a letter expalining why it is not signed and request it be signed at the interview. Do you have that memo?
It is on the VJ website somewhere You can print a copy of that and send it with the I-129f and G-325a.
Fiancee intent letter? Signed or unsigned? Signed.
What about a faxed or emailed signature? When I was adjudicating, if I could see a signature, I accepted it, but many adjusicators will not. Signed is better.
Lawyer or no lawyer? For what?
Enough said. Now a hot issue, a very controversial one. There seems to be a trend in some countries of foreign men marrying American women and the women are considerably older. There is always a question if this is a problem. It never seems to be a problem for older men/younger women (My wife is 13 years younger, his wife is also considerable younger than him) Is it a problem? For us, USCIS, no. "Free to marry".
What about the consulates or for AOS or I-751? Consulates do what they do, it is not USCIS, some of them are bastards. Kiev is easy, they approve everyone (laughs), they used to be bastards but they got easier since they first started doing those in 2005, before then you would have had to go to Warsaw, you know. For AOS if they can prove they are legitimate we do not care about age but anything that is "not normal" for the culture will draw suspicion. They probably will not get a no questions asked interview (I had told him our AOS was "no questions asked")
What about birth certificates, some people have trouble getting them? This is a problem for us also. Some people, especially our younger staff, think all the world is like the USA. I remember one, when I was in the Kansas City office, the beneficiary was from Viet Nam, she was born in 1954 there was no birth certificate. The CO asked me about this and I looked at the file. I said "Do you know what was going on in Viet Nam in 1954?" She looked at me, straight faced and said "What, their computers were down?" If a birth certificate cannot be obtained they can usually get something from a church, a village official, something, and send that with a letter of explanation. Or just their passport and a letter explaining the situation (this applies to AOS more than I-129f as beneficiary birth certificate is not required for the petition, but I wanted to ask anyway, it seems a common question here)
What about extra documents? Proof of relationship? We don't need it, only that they have met for the fiancee visa.
What about the consulates? Consulates do what they do, as I said, some are bastards. They get whatever we get when it is sent on. I can't tell you what NVC and consulates do, I know some are terrible and some are really easy, but I do not know all the details of each. Kiev is easy, western Europe is easy, Nigeria is horrible, but you would not believe the scams from Nigeria, I get jaded. I am surprised a lot of them get visas and then we have to deal with them.
I have to ask for a collegue, Ecuador? Bastards.

What about changes? Are there any in the works? Is Obama ouching you guys to work faster? I am not sure Obama knows we exist. There have been no changes and no pressure other than the usual workload and shifting things around. I do not expect any immigration changes in the next year or two, at kleat not in rules or amnesty or anything like that. I do expect FEE INCREASES within the next year...across the board.
How much more? I cannot say, that is not my area, I just hear talk.
He added, "We try not to deny petitions, people really get angry and make lots of trouble. Denials usually come at the consulate or maybe AOS or sometimes even with the I-751. If we deny someone we need good reason, if they meet the criteria, we will approve it, they just have to give us what we need to approve them."
So how can I speed up my petition? You can't really. If it gets to be too long and if you can get a congressman or senator to call, that will get some action, but half the time those guys dont'' call or they do and the petition has only been there 3 months. Sometimes one falls through the cracks, gets overlooked, we are human. A congressman can get through and get them to dig it out if it has been too long, but I wouldn't call that "speeding it up". That's a fix for whn it is too slow.
we talked for some time more, about 5 hours altogether, briefly interrupted by Alla every now and again who had her own questions about the I-751 procedure which I posted in that forum, about VJ and other topics (his Navy days) He said he will check the site and gave me his home number. He said "call anytime but not 3 in the morning" I asked about an interview or answering prepared questions, he said possibly, he will check the site. He said many internet sites are advertisement for immigration attorneys or instructing people on how to pull scams, I assured him he would be very pleased with VJ and he thinks it is great that there is a good site for information and advice. (he never heard of VJ before this)
I can also say, that speaking to him, I heard so many of the same buzzwords or advice that I have seen right here, this is really a great site with some great folks giving some really great info.

Get a green card or EAD. The SS card does not authorize work for anyone, not even a citizen. It is not necessary to show a SS card for employment. Your card also says "not valid for employment without DHS autorization", please be complete in your question. The green card or EAD IS the DHS authorization. VOILA! It is not ever necessary to change the SS card. Memorize the number put it in a safe palce and forget about it.
FWIW Alla is a citizen now, gainfully employed, and her card says the same thing. I lost my card in 1973 and have not had a use for it yet.
The SS card ranks among theworld's most useless documents. The NUMBER is all that matters.

Make sure everything gets in the envelope and that the correct address is on the outside.
When your envelope arrives at USCIS it will be disassembled and placed into one of their folders in the order they prefer. No matter what you do, it will look exactly the same as everyone else's a few minutes after being opened.
I suggest paper clips on the relevent documents and a binder clip on the whole thing. Thye do not like if you use staples, but there is no particular penalty for doing so. Clips are better.
ALWAYS send it by some verifiable method. USPS with delivery confirmation is good enough, you do not need the extra cost of the return receipt, just delivery confirmation. ALWAYS use some form of delivery confirmation. ALWAYS make at least one copy of EVERYTHING you ever send to anyone in this process.
Use a personal check for payment, it is easier to find out it has been deposited and you can get your case number off the back of the check. The case number and the delivery confirmation = everything you will learn on the NOA1.

Hello All
I had a great opportunity Saturday evening to have dinner with and spend several hours with a director at the VSC. He is currently in charge of the department that handles I-751s among other things. His wife is an adjusicator that handles YOUR petition (if it went through VSC). His wife is Russian, arrived on a K-1 and is now a citizen. This man has worked for USCIS for many years and was at several local offices before being assigned to the VSC. His wife is a friend of Alla's and we were all at a dinner party for several American/Russian/Ukrainian couples Saturday. We had a long chat, he was very open and helpful. We talked about a lot of the things we see here on VJ and I was trying to remember all the "usual questions" I read about and pin him down for some answers. I also have asked him if he will give an "official interview" for VJ. He said he will check out the site and I will call him later this week. So, anyway I will try to cover what we discussed, he was quite frank and direct in his answers, not rude, not at all, but he knows his stuff and answers without hesitation. It turned into an impromtu and fun "interview" with me trying to remember all the hot button issues I see on VJ
I told him that the number ONE and number TWO "complaints" I see are Why is the VSC taking so long and why can't we get through to you guys?
Why is VSC taking so long, what happened? I was approved in 58 days!: We had problem with labor last year and lost many workers, we hired more last November and it took some time to get them trained. Some of the petitions were sent to California and we also assign people to different tyopes of visas. They will concentrate on one tyoe, get behind on another and then shift many people back to the other type. Lately we have shifted many, almost all, adjudicators to I-129fs, so that should make people happy. They will do that until they get caught up. Summer is a busy time for I-129fs, usually about June we get slammed with them. The winter or early spring is the slowest time for I-129fs, but then it depends what they have everyone working on also.
OK, why can't we get through to you? The 1-800 line is useless. Those are contract employees and they are trained to select answers from a menu of 14 answers. They pick which one is best for your question. There are thousands of visas being processed at any time and everyone is special and everyone has special circumstances and if we had direct lines we weould do nothing but field requests by petitioners to give them priority, we just can't do it. How would you feel if your petition got bumped because some woman called and cried on the phone and then her petition got moved up ahead of yours. We simply have to operate in a way that avoids any chance of fraud, corruption or unfairness.
So what about some people get approved ahead of others? Sme petitions have problems or delays, we do not hold back others for this. If an adjudicator has problems, he puts that one aside or sends an RFE and goes on to the next. The next one may be clean and gets approved right away, in just a few minutes, they adjudicate 15-20 petitions a day per person, and the ones with problems may wait weeks for the petitioner to respond to the RFE, or maybe it is a name check they are waiting for. Petitions are assigned as they arrive, when we are working on those petitions, but they do not go out the door in the same order they came in.
G-325a, Signed or Unsigned? Unsigned.
WHAT? Ok I have seen the memo but lots of VJ members got RFEs for unsigned G-325s, what gives? They do not have to be signed,they can be signed at the consualte interview. Some adjusicators haven't read all the memos, we get hundreds of the things, and maybe they make a mistake. If you want to be sure there is no mistake, sign it. Or send a letter expalining why it is not signed and request it be signed at the interview. Do you have that memo?
It is on the VJ website somewhere You can print a copy of that and send it with the I-129f and G-325a.
Fiancee intent letter? Signed or unsigned? Signed.
What about a faxed or emailed signature? When I was adjudicating, if I could see a signature, I accepted it, but many adjusicators will not. Signed is better.
Lawyer or no lawyer? For what?
Enough said. Now a hot issue, a very controversial one. There seems to be a trend in some countries of foreign men marrying American women and the women are considerably older. There is always a question if this is a problem. It never seems to be a problem for older men/younger women (My wife is 13 years younger, his wife is also considerable younger than him) Is it a problem? For us, USCIS, no. "Free to marry".
What about the consulates or for AOS or I-751? Consulates do what they do, it is not USCIS, some of them are bastards. Kiev is easy, they approve everyone (laughs), they used to be bastards but they got easier since they first started doing those in 2005, before then you would have had to go to Warsaw, you know. For AOS if they can prove they are legitimate we do not care about age but anything that is "not normal" for the culture will draw suspicion. They probably will not get a no questions asked interview (I had told him our AOS was "no questions asked")
What about birth certificates, some people have trouble getting them? This is a problem for us also. Some people, especially our younger staff, think all the world is like the USA. I remember one, when I was in the Kansas City office, the beneficiary was from Viet Nam, she was born in 1954 there was no birth certificate. The CO asked me about this and I looked at the file. I said "Do you know what was going on in Viet Nam in 1954?" She looked at me, straight faced and said "What, their computers were down?" If a birth certificate cannot be obtained they can usually get something from a church, a village official, something, and send that with a letter of explanation. Or just their passport and a letter explaining the situation (this applies to AOS more than I-129f as beneficiary birth certificate is not required for the petition, but I wanted to ask anyway, it seems a common question here)
What about extra documents? Proof of relationship? We don't need it, only that they have met for the fiancee visa.
What about the consulates? Consulates do what they do, as I said, some are bastards. They get whatever we get when it is sent on. I can't tell you what NVC and consulates do, I know some are terrible and some are really easy, but I do not know all the details of each. Kiev is easy, western Europe is easy, Nigeria is horrible, but you would not believe the scams from Nigeria, I get jaded. I am surprised a lot of them get visas and then we have to deal with them.
I have to ask for a collegue, Ecuador? Bastards.

What about changes? Are there any in the works? Is Obama ouching you guys to work faster? I am not sure Obama knows we exist. There have been no changes and no pressure other than the usual workload and shifting things around. I do not expect any immigration changes in the next year or two, at kleat not in rules or amnesty or anything like that. I do expect FEE INCREASES within the next year...across the board.
How much more? I cannot say, that is not my area, I just hear talk.
He added, "We try not to deny petitions, people really get angry and make lots of trouble. Denials usually come at the consulate or maybe AOS or sometimes even with the I-751. If we deny someone we need good reason, if they meet the criteria, we will approve it, they just have to give us what we need to approve them."
So how can I speed up my petition? You can't really. If it gets to be too long and if you can get a congressman or senator to call, that will get some action, but half the time those guys dont'' call or they do and the petition has only been there 3 months. Sometimes one falls through the cracks, gets overlooked, we are human. A congressman can get through and get them to dig it out if it has been too long, but I wouldn't call that "speeding it up". That's a fix for whn it is too slow.
we talked for some time more, about 5 hours altogether, briefly interrupted by Alla every now and again who had her own questions about the I-751 procedure which I posted in that forum, about VJ and other topics (his Navy days) He said he will check the site and gave me his home number. He said "call anytime but not 3 in the morning" I asked about an interview or answering prepared questions, he said possibly, he will check the site. He said many internet sites are advertisement for immigration attorneys or instructing people on how to pull scams, I assured him he would be very pleased with VJ and he thinks it is great that there is a good site for information and advice. (he never heard of VJ before this)
I can also say, that speaking to him, I heard so many of the same buzzwords or advice that I have seen right here, this is really a great site with some great folks giving some really great info.

No true Inky. Our son will successfully complete a 5 year program for a masters in Russia this year and has done so as a permanent resident with several stays outside the US of 10 months. He never had ANY questions asked.
He carried with him upon entry proof he was a student, proof he registered at his Russian school as a US resident, US drivers lisence, US draft card, US bank issued debit card, 3 months bank statements from his US bank, copy of most recent year tax return, copies of his w-2s. He was never asked for any of this. He could have been.
When Alla just got her citizenship we further asked if these absences will affect his citizenship timing. The answer? NO! He can be outside the US for more than 6 months IF he can demonstrate he maintained US residency and it was for "cause". Education is an accepted cause.
You must be careful but you CAN do it. We did.
Personally I am relieved he will be doing his doctorate here and will be staying in the US the next time he returns and will be a citizen before he completes the doctorate.
Read the instructions at "Maintaining US residency" and also the instructions for the N-400 application for citizenship.

Hello All
I had a great opportunity Saturday evening to have dinner with and spend several hours with a director at the VSC. He is currently in charge of the department that handles I-751s among other things. His wife is an adjusicator that handles YOUR petition (if it went through VSC). His wife is Russian, arrived on a K-1 and is now a citizen. This man has worked for USCIS for many years and was at several local offices before being assigned to the VSC. His wife is a friend of Alla's and we were all at a dinner party for several American/Russian/Ukrainian couples Saturday. We had a long chat, he was very open and helpful. We talked about a lot of the things we see here on VJ and I was trying to remember all the "usual questions" I read about and pin him down for some answers. I also have asked him if he will give an "official interview" for VJ. He said he will check out the site and I will call him later this week. So, anyway I will try to cover what we discussed, he was quite frank and direct in his answers, not rude, not at all, but he knows his stuff and answers without hesitation. It turned into an impromtu and fun "interview" with me trying to remember all the hot button issues I see on VJ
I told him that the number ONE and number TWO "complaints" I see are Why is the VSC taking so long and why can't we get through to you guys?
Why is VSC taking so long, what happened? I was approved in 58 days!: We had problem with labor last year and lost many workers, we hired more last November and it took some time to get them trained. Some of the petitions were sent to California and we also assign people to different tyopes of visas. They will concentrate on one tyoe, get behind on another and then shift many people back to the other type. Lately we have shifted many, almost all, adjudicators to I-129fs, so that should make people happy. They will do that until they get caught up. Summer is a busy time for I-129fs, usually about June we get slammed with them. The winter or early spring is the slowest time for I-129fs, but then it depends what they have everyone working on also.
OK, why can't we get through to you? The 1-800 line is useless. Those are contract employees and they are trained to select answers from a menu of 14 answers. They pick which one is best for your question. There are thousands of visas being processed at any time and everyone is special and everyone has special circumstances and if we had direct lines we weould do nothing but field requests by petitioners to give them priority, we just can't do it. How would you feel if your petition got bumped because some woman called and cried on the phone and then her petition got moved up ahead of yours. We simply have to operate in a way that avoids any chance of fraud, corruption or unfairness.
So what about some people get approved ahead of others? Sme petitions have problems or delays, we do not hold back others for this. If an adjudicator has problems, he puts that one aside or sends an RFE and goes on to the next. The next one may be clean and gets approved right away, in just a few minutes, they adjudicate 15-20 petitions a day per person, and the ones with problems may wait weeks for the petitioner to respond to the RFE, or maybe it is a name check they are waiting for. Petitions are assigned as they arrive, when we are working on those petitions, but they do not go out the door in the same order they came in.
G-325a, Signed or Unsigned? Unsigned.
WHAT? Ok I have seen the memo but lots of VJ members got RFEs for unsigned G-325s, what gives? They do not have to be signed,they can be signed at the consualte interview. Some adjusicators haven't read all the memos, we get hundreds of the things, and maybe they make a mistake. If you want to be sure there is no mistake, sign it. Or send a letter expalining why it is not signed and request it be signed at the interview. Do you have that memo?
It is on the VJ website somewhere You can print a copy of that and send it with the I-129f and G-325a.
Fiancee intent letter? Signed or unsigned? Signed.
What about a faxed or emailed signature? When I was adjudicating, if I could see a signature, I accepted it, but many adjusicators will not. Signed is better.
Lawyer or no lawyer? For what?
Enough said. Now a hot issue, a very controversial one. There seems to be a trend in some countries of foreign men marrying American women and the women are considerably older. There is always a question if this is a problem. It never seems to be a problem for older men/younger women (My wife is 13 years younger, his wife is also considerable younger than him) Is it a problem? For us, USCIS, no. "Free to marry".
What about the consulates or for AOS or I-751? Consulates do what they do, it is not USCIS, some of them are bastards. Kiev is easy, they approve everyone (laughs), they used to be bastards but they got easier since they first started doing those in 2005, before then you would have had to go to Warsaw, you know. For AOS if they can prove they are legitimate we do not care about age but anything that is "not normal" for the culture will draw suspicion. They probably will not get a no questions asked interview (I had told him our AOS was "no questions asked")
What about birth certificates, some people have trouble getting them? This is a problem for us also. Some people, especially our younger staff, think all the world is like the USA. I remember one, when I was in the Kansas City office, the beneficiary was from Viet Nam, she was born in 1954 there was no birth certificate. The CO asked me about this and I looked at the file. I said "Do you know what was going on in Viet Nam in 1954?" She looked at me, straight faced and said "What, their computers were down?" If a birth certificate cannot be obtained they can usually get something from a church, a village official, something, and send that with a letter of explanation. Or just their passport and a letter explaining the situation (this applies to AOS more than I-129f as beneficiary birth certificate is not required for the petition, but I wanted to ask anyway, it seems a common question here)
What about extra documents? Proof of relationship? We don't need it, only that they have met for the fiancee visa.
What about the consulates? Consulates do what they do, as I said, some are bastards. They get whatever we get when it is sent on. I can't tell you what NVC and consulates do, I know some are terrible and some are really easy, but I do not know all the details of each. Kiev is easy, western Europe is easy, Nigeria is horrible, but you would not believe the scams from Nigeria, I get jaded. I am surprised a lot of them get visas and then we have to deal with them.
I have to ask for a collegue, Ecuador? Bastards.

What about changes? Are there any in the works? Is Obama ouching you guys to work faster? I am not sure Obama knows we exist. There have been no changes and no pressure other than the usual workload and shifting things around. I do not expect any immigration changes in the next year or two, at kleat not in rules or amnesty or anything like that. I do expect FEE INCREASES within the next year...across the board.
How much more? I cannot say, that is not my area, I just hear talk.
He added, "We try not to deny petitions, people really get angry and make lots of trouble. Denials usually come at the consulate or maybe AOS or sometimes even with the I-751. If we deny someone we need good reason, if they meet the criteria, we will approve it, they just have to give us what we need to approve them."
So how can I speed up my petition? You can't really. If it gets to be too long and if you can get a congressman or senator to call, that will get some action, but half the time those guys dont'' call or they do and the petition has only been there 3 months. Sometimes one falls through the cracks, gets overlooked, we are human. A congressman can get through and get them to dig it out if it has been too long, but I wouldn't call that "speeding it up". That's a fix for whn it is too slow.
we talked for some time more, about 5 hours altogether, briefly interrupted by Alla every now and again who had her own questions about the I-751 procedure which I posted in that forum, about VJ and other topics (his Navy days) He said he will check the site and gave me his home number. He said "call anytime but not 3 in the morning" I asked about an interview or answering prepared questions, he said possibly, he will check the site. He said many internet sites are advertisement for immigration attorneys or instructing people on how to pull scams, I assured him he would be very pleased with VJ and he thinks it is great that there is a good site for information and advice. (he never heard of VJ before this)
I can also say, that speaking to him, I heard so many of the same buzzwords or advice that I have seen right here, this is really a great site with some great folks giving some really great info.

Hello All
I had a great opportunity Saturday evening to have dinner with and spend several hours with a director at the VSC. He is currently in charge of the department that handles I-751s among other things. His wife is an adjusicator that handles YOUR petition (if it went through VSC). His wife is Russian, arrived on a K-1 and is now a citizen. This man has worked for USCIS for many years and was at several local offices before being assigned to the VSC. His wife is a friend of Alla's and we were all at a dinner party for several American/Russian/Ukrainian couples Saturday. We had a long chat, he was very open and helpful. We talked about a lot of the things we see here on VJ and I was trying to remember all the "usual questions" I read about and pin him down for some answers. I also have asked him if he will give an "official interview" for VJ. He said he will check out the site and I will call him later this week. So, anyway I will try to cover what we discussed, he was quite frank and direct in his answers, not rude, not at all, but he knows his stuff and answers without hesitation. It turned into an impromtu and fun "interview" with me trying to remember all the hot button issues I see on VJ
I told him that the number ONE and number TWO "complaints" I see are Why is the VSC taking so long and why can't we get through to you guys?
Why is VSC taking so long, what happened? I was approved in 58 days!: We had problem with labor last year and lost many workers, we hired more last November and it took some time to get them trained. Some of the petitions were sent to California and we also assign people to different tyopes of visas. They will concentrate on one tyoe, get behind on another and then shift many people back to the other type. Lately we have shifted many, almost all, adjudicators to I-129fs, so that should make people happy. They will do that until they get caught up. Summer is a busy time for I-129fs, usually about June we get slammed with them. The winter or early spring is the slowest time for I-129fs, but then it depends what they have everyone working on also.
OK, why can't we get through to you? The 1-800 line is useless. Those are contract employees and they are trained to select answers from a menu of 14 answers. They pick which one is best for your question. There are thousands of visas being processed at any time and everyone is special and everyone has special circumstances and if we had direct lines we weould do nothing but field requests by petitioners to give them priority, we just can't do it. How would you feel if your petition got bumped because some woman called and cried on the phone and then her petition got moved up ahead of yours. We simply have to operate in a way that avoids any chance of fraud, corruption or unfairness.
So what about some people get approved ahead of others? Sme petitions have problems or delays, we do not hold back others for this. If an adjudicator has problems, he puts that one aside or sends an RFE and goes on to the next. The next one may be clean and gets approved right away, in just a few minutes, they adjudicate 15-20 petitions a day per person, and the ones with problems may wait weeks for the petitioner to respond to the RFE, or maybe it is a name check they are waiting for. Petitions are assigned as they arrive, when we are working on those petitions, but they do not go out the door in the same order they came in.
G-325a, Signed or Unsigned? Unsigned.
WHAT? Ok I have seen the memo but lots of VJ members got RFEs for unsigned G-325s, what gives? They do not have to be signed,they can be signed at the consualte interview. Some adjusicators haven't read all the memos, we get hundreds of the things, and maybe they make a mistake. If you want to be sure there is no mistake, sign it. Or send a letter expalining why it is not signed and request it be signed at the interview. Do you have that memo?
It is on the VJ website somewhere You can print a copy of that and send it with the I-129f and G-325a.
Fiancee intent letter? Signed or unsigned? Signed.
What about a faxed or emailed signature? When I was adjudicating, if I could see a signature, I accepted it, but many adjusicators will not. Signed is better.
Lawyer or no lawyer? For what?
Enough said. Now a hot issue, a very controversial one. There seems to be a trend in some countries of foreign men marrying American women and the women are considerably older. There is always a question if this is a problem. It never seems to be a problem for older men/younger women (My wife is 13 years younger, his wife is also considerable younger than him) Is it a problem? For us, USCIS, no. "Free to marry".
What about the consulates or for AOS or I-751? Consulates do what they do, it is not USCIS, some of them are bastards. Kiev is easy, they approve everyone (laughs), they used to be bastards but they got easier since they first started doing those in 2005, before then you would have had to go to Warsaw, you know. For AOS if they can prove they are legitimate we do not care about age but anything that is "not normal" for the culture will draw suspicion. They probably will not get a no questions asked interview (I had told him our AOS was "no questions asked")
What about birth certificates, some people have trouble getting them? This is a problem for us also. Some people, especially our younger staff, think all the world is like the USA. I remember one, when I was in the Kansas City office, the beneficiary was from Viet Nam, she was born in 1954 there was no birth certificate. The CO asked me about this and I looked at the file. I said "Do you know what was going on in Viet Nam in 1954?" She looked at me, straight faced and said "What, their computers were down?" If a birth certificate cannot be obtained they can usually get something from a church, a village official, something, and send that with a letter of explanation. Or just their passport and a letter explaining the situation (this applies to AOS more than I-129f as beneficiary birth certificate is not required for the petition, but I wanted to ask anyway, it seems a common question here)
What about extra documents? Proof of relationship? We don't need it, only that they have met for the fiancee visa.
What about the consulates? Consulates do what they do, as I said, some are bastards. They get whatever we get when it is sent on. I can't tell you what NVC and consulates do, I know some are terrible and some are really easy, but I do not know all the details of each. Kiev is easy, western Europe is easy, Nigeria is horrible, but you would not believe the scams from Nigeria, I get jaded. I am surprised a lot of them get visas and then we have to deal with them.
I have to ask for a collegue, Ecuador? Bastards.

What about changes? Are there any in the works? Is Obama ouching you guys to work faster? I am not sure Obama knows we exist. There have been no changes and no pressure other than the usual workload and shifting things around. I do not expect any immigration changes in the next year or two, at kleat not in rules or amnesty or anything like that. I do expect FEE INCREASES within the next year...across the board.
How much more? I cannot say, that is not my area, I just hear talk.
He added, "We try not to deny petitions, people really get angry and make lots of trouble. Denials usually come at the consulate or maybe AOS or sometimes even with the I-751. If we deny someone we need good reason, if they meet the criteria, we will approve it, they just have to give us what we need to approve them."
So how can I speed up my petition? You can't really. If it gets to be too long and if you can get a congressman or senator to call, that will get some action, but half the time those guys dont'' call or they do and the petition has only been there 3 months. Sometimes one falls through the cracks, gets overlooked, we are human. A congressman can get through and get them to dig it out if it has been too long, but I wouldn't call that "speeding it up". That's a fix for whn it is too slow.
we talked for some time more, about 5 hours altogether, briefly interrupted by Alla every now and again who had her own questions about the I-751 procedure which I posted in that forum, about VJ and other topics (his Navy days) He said he will check the site and gave me his home number. He said "call anytime but not 3 in the morning" I asked about an interview or answering prepared questions, he said possibly, he will check the site. He said many internet sites are advertisement for immigration attorneys or instructing people on how to pull scams, I assured him he would be very pleased with VJ and he thinks it is great that there is a good site for information and advice. (he never heard of VJ before this)
I can also say, that speaking to him, I heard so many of the same buzzwords or advice that I have seen right here, this is really a great site with some great folks giving some really great info.

I had the great opportunity to have dinner with a director of the VSC Saturday evening. A sit turns out his wife is Russian, came here on a K-1 and is now an aquaintance of Alla. So we had some great conversation. Our next step will be the I-751 and he has worked in his career as an IO who conducted AOS and lifting of conditions interviews and gave me lots of good information on evidence. Here are some things he likes to see and others which are "useless" in his words
Good stuff
Joint bank accounts, joint tax returns, joint ownership of property, cars. Joint leases. Joint insurance. Named as beneficiaries on life insurance and medical insurance. Joint credit cards. Any other joining of financial interests (the theory is that if one is willing to risk your property and money the relationship is more likely valid) Government documents showing common address, drivers lisence, etc. Photos are good, kind of expected, but NOT primary evidence.
Children?
Yes and no. If you just had a child together and the man is nothing more than a sperm donor...no. IF you have children, whether "together" or with a blended family and there is evidence that BOTH participate in the child's development and education, and care that is great! I told him I am listed on all of our son's school papers as parent, I am an emergency contact and I sign all the permission slips, etc. He is covered by my medical insurance. All good stuff. A birth certificate in itself ("Look we have a kid") does not prove a legitmate relationship. It is especially important that the school (an objective 3rd party) recognizes both people as "parents" and accepts this. Medical records for the child showing both people as parents. same reasoning. If a doctor will recognize and treat a child based on their knowledge of both being parents, that is pretty darn good evidence.
Useless or not so useful stuff
Magazine subscriptions together (WHAT??? "Yes, you would be surprised how many couples present a Sports Illustrated subscription as proof") Utilities, cards and letters from relatives, emails, chats etc. Theory? all of these can be easily faked and in themselves prove nothing. Utilities do not verify information before adding someone to an account and hey, it's the electric bill, you are going to pay the electric bill anyway. There is no financial risk involved, no commitment as in joint ownership. Affidavits from friends or family do not have a lot of weight. None of these things are BAD and in conjunction with other evidence are fine, but not enough to prove anything themselves.
This is probably not news to a lot of people, but it was good to hear it from the "horse's mouth" anyway.
Incidentally, I mentioned that we never had a question at any of our interviews and never were asked for any evidence and he said "Sometimes we can just tell. Whatever you did, whatever your body language or how you acted, the IO was immediately convinced you were legitimate" I cannot say what that was, unfortunately.
Another question I asked, actually Alla did since she did not change her name
Does it matter if the woman changes her name?: NO, not at all.
About citizenship (Alla also asked)
Can I be a dual citizen? Answer..."The United States does not recognize other citizenships. You are a US citizen or you are not a US citizen. Once you become a US citizen the United States does not consider you anything else. We will not take your passport from Ukraine and we will not tell Ukraine you are now a citizen of the US. If you want to keep your Ukraine passport and renew it in Ukraine when you are visiting, it is none of our concern"
So the US has no policy and does not recognize any such thing as "dual citizenship" per se, but has no prohibitions from a person being a citizen of another country also, for the US you will always be considered a US citizen
Can I use a Ukraine passport to enter Ukraine and a US passport to enter the US? Yes, no problem.
What about stamps in the passport from the US or Ukraine?: The officers at the POE will ask where you have been, they rarely will look through all your exit stamps and really don't care. They are admitting you to the US, they really don't care if the country you LEFT stamped your passport, the US does not stamp passports on exit.
I ask this because Ukraine does not allow dual citizenship and I do want to keep my Ukraine passport for ease of travel to Russia, etc, and also if we ever decided to return, we have property there, I could easily work, etc. I do not want to do anything wrong and get in trouble here. The US does not care about Ukrainian law regarding citizenship, that's between you and Ukraine, but WE won't tell. Unless there is some order from a court or something, we don't give out that information.

You did not get a denial, you got an RFE. You did not go to an interview, you went to a biometrics appointment.
You do not understand the process and have no clue what you are doing so it is no surprise you have not submitted what they need. Stop now and read the guides here and the instructions before answering the RFE because that will be very important. If you are not capable of understanding this, then I suggest you pay someone who does.
Children are not a requirement in any way. That is a suggested type of evidence. Read, study, or get help.

Each signs their own
There is NO debate on if they actually NEED ot be signed. They DO NOT need to signed (text of USCIS internal memo below) The PROBLEM is that all the adjudicators do not read memos and SOME people have received RFEs for the signature and then you are pretty well stuck.
Now since you also have to get her signature on the Letter of Intent and that MUSt be an original signature, why not get them both and sleep well? If you insist on risking an RFE then I suggest you write on the beneficiary's "Will sign at interview" And attach a copy of the memo (official memo is available here at this site, that's where I got it)
__________________________________________________________
Interoffice Memorandum
To: SERVICE CENTER DIRECTORS
From: Michael Aytes /S/
Acting Associate Director for Operations
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
Department of Homeland Security
Date: November 1, 2005
Re: Guidance for Processing Pending Form I-129F Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) when
G-325A for Petitioner and/or Beneficiary is not Signed and/or Photos not Submitted.
Purpose
To provide field offices with guidance on processing Form I-129F petitions when the accompanying G-325A is missing signatures and/or photographs.
A properly executed Form G-325A is required for all I-129F petitions. Previously it was standard practice to issue an RFE when the beneficiary failed to sign the G-325A and/or failed to submit photographs. From the date of this memorandum, an RFE should not be issued in instances where the beneficiary failed to sign the G-325A and/or failed to include photographs provided that the beneficiary is residing abroad. The beneficiary will be required to sign the Form G-325A and/or submit photographs at the time of visa issuance abroad. It is also not necessary to RFE for the petitioner’s signature on the G-325A, if the petitioner failed to sign it. The signature of the petitioner on the Form I-129F should be deemed sufficient for purposes of adjudicating the petition. Finally, it is important to note that the petitioner’s photograph is still required for the adjudication of the I-129F, so if it is missing, it must be requested prior to adjudication.
Questions regarding this memorandum may be directed through appropriate channels to Mica Pilz of Service Center Operations.
To each their own.

Make sure everything gets in the envelope and that the correct address is on the outside.
When your envelope arrives at USCIS it will be disassembled and placed into one of their folders in the order they prefer. No matter what you do, it will look exactly the same as everyone else's a few minutes after being opened.
I suggest paper clips on the relevent documents and a binder clip on the whole thing. Thye do not like if you use staples, but there is no particular penalty for doing so. Clips are better.
ALWAYS send it by some verifiable method. USPS with delivery confirmation is good enough, you do not need the extra cost of the return receipt, just delivery confirmation. ALWAYS use some form of delivery confirmation. ALWAYS make at least one copy of EVERYTHING you ever send to anyone in this process.
Use a personal check for payment, it is easier to find out it has been deposited and you can get your case number off the back of the check. The case number and the delivery confirmation = everything you will learn on the NOA1.

I printed them out and read them to Alla every opportunity. Going to the rifle range...she drove I read questions. Before bed...no fairy tale for you tonight dear. (Yes I read Russian Fairy Tales to her which are actually like horror stories, you should try them)
In a couple weeks she had them all down.
Good Luck Ms TB!!!!

I agree that no one has it out for the OP. On the other hand no one has to change the rules, and won't, because someone is in love. The OP fell in love with a person that is inadmissible to the United States. This means the OP will be moving to some other country if she wants to be with the person she loves...fortunately since we are a free country, she is free to do this and therefore NO ONE is preventing her/his happiness.
One of the things I have tried to stress to my children is that if you make STUPID mistakes in life, it WILL come back to haunt you. It isn't that you manage to dodge a bullet one time or another, the bullet turns around and comes back and hits you in the back of the head 20 years later...or 30 years later. Actions have consequences. His actions have consequences. The US does not grant visas to people with a criminal history of possession of cocaine. Which congressman or woman wants to be the one that works to make exceptions to THAT rule? Oh, that will play big at election time! People also mistake the fact that congress somehow has some magic power over USCIS, they do not. They are not even in the same BRANCH of government. Congress oversees their funding and that is about it, which is something, to be sure, but no one in congress has the ability to make orders or demands of the USCIS, except by legislation. Phone calls won't get it.
Now if one of those bumbling beaureucrats at USCIS makes an error, and they do, THEN a congressman or Senator can bring this to their attention and note that "Hey, you effed up, fix it or you will be the topic of discussion at our next budget sub-committee meeting" THAT gets a response. In this case, they did NOT make an error. They would be exactly correct.
You, being from a free country, are free to soend as much of your time and money fighting this as you like. There are lots of attorneys that will line up to empty your bank account knowing full well there isn't a damn thing they can do, but they can make $200 per hour trying. OR you can discuss this with your fiance and decide what you two will do to solve the problem. YOU have the ability to solve the problem TODAY for a lot less money. Decide where you will live (South Africa or another country that does grant visas to cocaine users) and pack up and go. Problem solved.

Me too. My taxes were reduced more than $11,000 PLUS the first $2600 of two of our family's educational expenses were paid with tax credits. That's more than the entire family could collect in food stamps, but we make too much money to get food stamps so we get tax deductions and credits instead. So do you. When someone comes forth and says "I pay taxes and do not take any credits or deductions I am entitled to", then they will have some grounds to criticize someone else.

He didn't ask for their opinons of people who get food stamps or analysis of his personal situation. He asked specific information and thiose that criticized him fail to answer the question.
She can use her passport as ID to fly to Hawaii, and YES he can get food stamps. Those are the answers the rest is pompous BS. We have a system to help people that need it, if someone does not like thaqt there are avenues to pursue that do not include ridicule of people using the system we have. I will note that those "taxpayers" will gladly take any sort of tax credit or deduction they can which is also part of our system and is in no way different than any other subsidy given by the government. Gripe about someone getting $3500 in food stamps but gladly take a $5200 education credit, $1000 per child credit, chiold care credit and ad nauseum until in fact they really pay no income tax at all. 47% of Americans pay NO income tax after deductions and credits.
People need to have a little more thought in their process.
The other problem, and main problem here is this ridiculous Affidavot of Support which should no teven exist. Eliminate and simply make family based visa recipients ineleigible for public aid until they are citizens. Period. Job done. This process of trying to determine HOW they will get the money BACK if your spouse becomes a public charge is STUPID. Why not just NOT give the money to begin with?