Edward and Jaycel

AOS gets theirs under filing category (c)(9) and it's valid for 5 years when issued. If you are in a spot where you are facing renewing that EAD, you have much bigger issues to worry about, like why has your I-485 not been approved yet

The underlying petition would be the receipt number for the I-129F since your filing category is "Person admitted to the United States as a fiancé(e) or child of a fiancé(e) of a U.S. citizen (K-1/K-2 Nonimmigrant)", but yes there is no priority date.

Nothing has changed.... I know 5 different same sex couples who had their interviews within the last 3 months and all have been approved with no difficulty. Bring updated bonafides of your marriage to the interview (Co-mingled finances, evidence you both live at the same address, joint utility bills, photos of you both with friends/family, wills/medical power of attorney, etc.) Also, scan and upload this evidence to the "Unsolicited Evidence" tab in the portal. The interview notice will tell you the documents to bring but what I listed is a good description. Do not give yourself extra stress by falling into the trap of being afraid of all the "Trump Admin Boogeyman" fear mongering out there. Is this administration enforcing policies and laws that were previously left unenforced? Yes. Are they changing the INA and denying same sex couples adjustment of status that have followed the rules and have no bars to adjustment? Absolutely not. Dedicate your energies to gathering the aforementioned evidence, live your lives and you will be fine.

This 👆 You have to send it to the lockbox physical address not the P.O. Box

Congrats!!! 🎉

I sent those with my original filing. I think those would help for sure!

Congrats! Next step is "Issued"

This is how we did the one we sent for our friend.... Note that we forgot to put the Suite number. Don't do that

While waivers for the in-person meeting requirement are technically on the books (and they are almost exclusively for cultural/religious reasons), in practice they are almost never granted. I have never even read about a successful case of an in-person meeting waiver being granted. I'm sure there are a few unicorns out there but in all of my 3 years of heavily researching these topics, I have never seen one.

The best advice I can give you is that no matter what visa you intend to pursue, time together in person is most important. As much as you can. I understand the issues with your disorder and I pray you can find some treatment that works because with him being from a high-fraud country, time together in person is the thing that will convince the Consular Officer that your relationship is legit. I know that this is going to sound cold, but they will not give a care in the world about your disorder. If you do not have significant time in person together, even a spousal visa will be a severe battle for you. If you do the Utah Online Marriage route and go to "consummate" the marriage, file the I-130 and don't return for more visits while it is pending, your likelihood of getting the visa approved there is somewhere between slim & none. I'm sorry if this all sounds doom & gloom but I want you to be aware of the realities of your situation so that you know what you must do if this is how you want to proceed. The consular officers in these high-fraud countries have never been known to be lenient, even in the most permissive of immigration environments and in the current climate, I imagine that they have an even wider latitude to deny cases on suspicion of fraud. You are going to have to prove to them that your relationship is legit and unfortunately there is really only one way do do this - by getting on a plane, a few different times, and spending time together.

Yes this is what we did because we filed in November 2024 with the tax return transcripts for 2021. 2022 & 2023. Interview was in July 2025 and by then we had our tax return transcript for the 2024 Tax Year. So we uploaded them onto the portal about 5 days before the interview, along with all our other new marital bona-fides since filing. We also printed out and brought a hard copy of all that new evidence with us to the interview as well, just in case. When the interview started, I told the officer we had uploaded all our new evidence including the 2024 tax return transcript and she said, "Yes I saw all of that when I reviewed your case and thank you for doing that. You made my job today much easier." But an updated I-864 is not needed.

Anecdotal evidence from me and Jaycel.... We helped someone with their I-129F petition, sent it to the Texas location via FedEx and our friend got the text with their receipt number less than 24 hours after the package was delivered.

Do everything in your power to avoid comparing yourself to others during this process... it will drive you crazy and will do you absolutely no good. Every case is unique and goes through its own process. At this point all you can really do is wait. USEM Manila will not give you any concrete details. I hope it comes through quickly for you!

She is exempt from having to file the I-693 because she had her immigrant medical exam overseas... as long as you file the I-485 within 1 year of that medical taking place. I would also include a copy of the DS-3025 with your I-485 filing as a friendly reminder to the intake folks at the lockbox and the USCIS adjudicator that she is exempt from that requirement.

WOW!! Congratulations!!! 🎉🎉 Thank you for sharing your update

After reading this post from MalloryCat on 10/16, our friends did an request with their congressional representative's office and received a response that they have opened a formal inquiry with USCIS on their behalf

It is not the same date.... And you would be hard pressed to find the date that NVC actually receives it as they do not give out that information that I have ever seen. Usually it takes a few weeks after USCIS says they have sent it for NVC to intake it and assign it a case number. In our case it was about 3 and a half weeks from the time USCIS changed the status to the time NVC gave us the case number via public inquiry request. YMMV as things have slowed down a bit since we did it in 2024.

Thank you for sharing your experience!!

If you have been living in the Philippines more than 6 months, you should have an ACR-I card. I would have her take that, plus a photo copy and get an NBI clearance done there on yourself and have her bring that.

All she will need to give CFO is the FBI History Check

Denver is one of the slowest Field Offices in the country. (I know from first hand experience ) Currently for Denver, USCIS is saying 80% of cases are completed in 8.5 months.

That's great news for those of us that have this coming up! Thank you for sharing!!

"Application Received" is good news.... This means that the Immigrant Visa section has completed their review and sent it to the Non-Immigrant Visa section for visa issuance. The Non-Immigrant Visa section are the ones who changed the status to "Application Received" when they got the case transferred to them. This happened in Jaycel's K-1 case and a day or two later it changed to "Approved" and then "Issued" right after.

How long have you been living in the Philippines? Your best bet, if you've been living there for more than 6 months is to get an NBI clearance for yourself and have your fiancée bring it with her to the CFO.

You should not wait to get a new place if you need to accommodate yours and your fiancé’s dog. Once the status on your I-129F changes to, “Case Has Been Transferred To The Department Of State”, give it 3 weeks or so and use their online public inquiry form to request your case number. They likely will not have it available yet but that’s fine because the real purpose will be to give them your new address. After asking for the case number, say something like, “Please also update my address to:”. Give them your new address and also take this opportunity to give them yours and your fiancé’s email addresses as well. This will ensure that the NVC and the embassy has both your email addresses and that you both get all future communications as they will exclusively use email from that point on in most cases.