may5

My spouse and I were married for two years and a few days when we arrived at POE w/ approved visa page in passport. POE officer said the visa was going to be a CR1 and after a weak protest from myself that my wife and I were married longer than two years, the officer simply said that the visa said it was CR1 so she was stamping CR1. It was a long flight and I didn't want to add to my wife's anxiety by arguing with someone who held the keys to the kingdom. Long story short, can I contact USCIS somehow to get the future greencard, which hasn't been mailed yet, to be under the IR1 category (or checked that it is in fact not a CR1) or do I have to wait for what is most likely an incorrect 2 year conditional greencard before submitting a N-90 form online, doing a biometrics, paying postage, waiting more, etc?

That's what I thought initially, but I've seen a lot of talk online about issues with not first downgrading to 9A (tourist) and turning in your probationary ACR I-card, coupled with compiled annual "late" fees ranging into the hundreds of dollars when returning to the Philippines for a vacation. As usual, BI has been spectacularly unuseful. Here are my results so far: Emails resulted in no actual response to the question. Calling (a half a dozen times because they'll just forward you to a blank number) resulted in the instructions to just do an ECC-A and no downgrading. Facebook resulted in instructions to downgrade or face penalties (for permanent 13A, but no info on probationary)

THIS IS ABOUT A PROBATIONARY 13A, NOT A PERMANENT 13A VISA. I obtained a Philippines probationary (1 year) 13A visa last year to facilitate my stay in the Philippines with my spousal until her US visa process was completed. It has been many months, but we are finally approved and now are looking to cross our i's and dot our t's before leaving the Philippines for the US. I do not intend to continue with my probationary 13A -> permanent 13A. The probationary 13A expires in 2/3 months by which time I will already been in the States. Does anyone know what happens at that point? Do I have to do something before going to the airport or is the ECC-A exit clearance enough? If I have to go somewhere before the airport, do I have to convert it to a 9A? Does anyone have any success stories or info?

Having filed my I-864 last year, 2024, and not having made any additional income at the time of filing, I just used what was reported on my last paystub cumulative-annum. I did not update it for 2025 and the CO did not seem to mind or care. Since it is an estimate, and I have never heard of them asking you to verify _or_ circling back to it if it seems fishy, nor have I seen explicit instructions from a verified source on defining how the calculation is made, AND them seeming to really only look at recent paystubs/tax transcripts, any number that looks about right would be okay IN MY HUMBLE OPINION. If you took two weeks unpaid for a medical visit or something, for example, I'd be hard-pressed to be convinced that my annual income should be $0 * 26 weeks. Just make sure the beneficiary is able to back up whatever number is listed with currently submitted documents (paystubs, tax transcripts, letter of explanation, etc)

As a boon, you can get married now amd start the process later when you have met in person (USCIS' definition of consummated) to qualify for IR-1 instead of CR-1 and skip over renewing a conditional greencard. Although, as an aside, LDRs are super hard—long-term LDRs are even harder. Far be it from me to say you shouldn't pursue this, but you better be darn sure, eh?

The Manila embassy requires an additional, separate "Biometrics" or VAC interview as of a few months ago. As far as I know and have experienced, NVC does not schedule the VAC interview for you. I suspect the question pertains to scheduling the VAC interview with the children listed as dependents since, being under 14, they do not have to do the VAC interview at all.

For those still looking for info: I can confirm that the embassy did not ask for a new version of the I-864 for our interview. I suspect the same for others—provided that the form was initially submitted before the new form took into effect.

As an aside, isn't it Total Income and not Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) that is the determining factor for income calculations at NVC? Old source, see below:

Per https://www.uscis.gov/i-864, "Starting Feb. 10, 2025, we will accept only the 10/17/24 edition. Until then, you can also use the 12/08/21 E and 12/08/21 editions." My wife and I are at the NVC->Embassy stage and have submitted a I-864 before 10/17, which was approved at NVC late last year before in November. Now that the case is in-transit to the Embassy, we are worried that the I-864 we have will no longer be valid (despite it having an expiration date of 1/31/2026 on it) because our visa interview date is in March. Summary timeline: * October 2024: submitted I-864, rev 12/08/21, to NVC. * October 17, 2024: I-864 announcement that current rev expires February 2025. * November 2024: NVC DQed. * January 2025: Case in transit to Embassy * February 2025: We found a post about I-864 revs being expired and to watch out, now we don't know if we need to submit a new I-864 or just take a deep breath * March 2025: We have our interview date set, will also have medical a few weeks before. Should we forget about it and not worry? Do we need to reopen anything? We only found out about it today because of a stray facebook post. What are the next steps?

The term "liquid" seems to depend on the CO's judgement, but I have the following (with the anonymity of the internet, I don't mind sharing the rough numbers) that I hope will cover: ~$10k in bank accounts ~$80k in a stock brokerage account (low cost index mutual fund, $60k is basis) ~$150k in a 5-plus-year-old Roth IRA (~$100k is basis, which can be withdrawn without 10% penalty) ~$300k in a 401(k) (mostly pretax, some Roth) which can be rolled over to a Roth IRA and act as "distibution income" if needed.

I miss my wife. I've tried the one-month-at-a-time thing. It doesn't work for us.

I (USC) would like to, and am able to, take an unpaid leave of absence from my workplace to be with my wife (beneficiary of CR-1) overseas until the visa proceedings are complete. As the leave of absence is unpaid, and I plan to stay through the CR-1 process until my spouse has her visa in hand, how will this affect the I-864, affadavit of support, portion of the process during the NVC stage? Some other facts: I (USC) will have a few months of earnings in the beginning of this year which are above the poverty line requirement. I (USC) have more than double enough assets to cover the assets portion. I will not be earning salaried money while I am overseas for several months, though I will technically still be employed and receiving a $0 paycheck and statement. I will still have a permanent domicile in the US for mail/etc. Questions: Will a $0 most recent paystub be grounds for refusal if the annual earnings are still well above the minimum threshold? If so, can I use USC assets to cover everything instead or will that still spark trouble? Will a letter from my employer stating that I am still employed and intend to return to work after the visa is approved be accepted in lieu? Are there any foreseeable issues with my multi-month/possibly a year+ vacation overseas with my wife (maybe not considered permanent US domicile)?