Edward and Jaycel

If you are filing the Employment Authorization application concurrently with the I-485 it needs to be in paper form mailed in along with the I-485 (Separated) with its own filing fee attached ($260 when filing concurrently)

Correct.... If you are filing concurrently, you do not have a receipt for the I-485 yet. Just make sure you include cover letters for each filing (I-485, I765, I-131) with the applicant's name, address, phone number and email AND most Importantly the applicant's A-Number. In the "RE:" of that letter, say "Original Submission, FORM NUMBER FORM DESCRIPTION Filing Concurrently with Form I-485" I'll pop a screen shot below of the one we are sending for the I-765 with all the identifying info changed

I got that same response on my first inquiry to them and submitted another inquiry about a week later and they gave me my case number.

Jaycel and I are getting married a week from tomorrow in front of a magistrate at the courthouse and then we will be having a bigger celebration next year for family/friends. As long as you have an official marriage certificate as a result, that's what USCIS requires.

I got an RFE for not sending the proper documentation along with my I-129F petition for a charge that I had 30+ years ago. I had to write to the county clerk and formally request a certified copy of the court disposition. USCIS will not accept anything other than a certified copy from the court.

All of this is 100% correct... Jaycel's I-94 was available to view and print on the website 2 days after her POE in LAX. This is the website: https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home And this is what you select:

You're welcome and congratulations on getting to this stage! Wish all the best to you both!

Yes when it goes “In Transit” you should both get the K1-FTP email from NVC

Jaycel did her CFO in Cebu in August and they only required her passport and one other form of ID

Congratulations!!

Ours went from "Ready" to "Approved" then to "Issued". Ours took a couple of extra days longer to get to issued than a couple of the other Filipinas that Jaycel met there in the embassy and it caused her a lot of stress those extra 2 days so I can sympathize. Every single case is different, different folks in the Admin. Processing section of the visa unit taking different amounts of time to go through all of the paperwork, assemble the yellow packet, might be new and need a supervisor to review all of their work, etc. The list is endless for differences in how long it takes. One Filipina that Jaycel met there didn't get hers issued for like 2 weeks. And yes, the TikTok army is relentless and decidedly un-helpful. Jaycel says she wishes she never watched any videos about the embassy process because they are all drama just trying to get views and did not represent at all the experience she had. Sending good thoughts your way and hope they issue it soon for you guys!

Nothing to do until it shows “In Transit” and then a couple of days later “Ready”. At that point your actions will depend on the embassy. Good luck!

Interesting... The verbiage in my RFE said, "Please submit certified copies of all court and police records, showing the charges and dispositions for every offense. This is required even if your records were sealed or otherwise cleared or if anyone, including a judge, law enforcement officer, or attorney told you that you no longer have a record." Fortunately the court still had the record available for me and I had a certified copy of it returned within 5 days. The state police said that my arrest record was so old that it met their document destruction criteria and no longer existed. I included this response from them with the official court record and my RFE was cleared within 3 days of their receipt of it and I got the approval notice online that day and the NOA2 in the mail 7 days later. Hope all goes well with yours!

Official copy of the court transcript/disposition of a criminal case I had 30 years ago. I thought I just had to give them the info (dates, case number, disposition, etc) in the I-129F, I did not realize that I had to submit an official copy from the court

Forgot to include a required document

I would recommend doing it yourself.... Most "Services" are just people following a set of instructions on what to ask from you and then how to assemble it. They have no idea about your case, i.e.- how complex or simple it is and just follow a cookie-cutter process that I have see cause others on this site undue stress and heartache. I'm no brain surgeon and I was able to do the I-129F for my fiancee and now she is here and we are about to get married and do our AOS ourselves. Granted we did have an RFE for a missing document but that was because I assumed something I shouldn't have. I wish I had found VJ before we filed because I would have asked and been told to send the document with the original submission. That really did not hold us up much, I sent the missing document in the RFE response and we had our approval like 3 or 4 days later. You just have to be willing to become a student of the process and come here and ask questions. Best of luck to you and we are all here willing to help if you decide to DIY.

The problem, as I see it, would be that your total income from the transcript will not match what you have in the form. That's what they look at is the total income on the tax transcript. I think as long as you report both the W-2 and the 1099, it will not complicate anything as the 1099 is just additional to the W-2 income. When it comes to USCIS, my default position is to not hide anything from them. Especially since you have to provide the tax transcripts and they will see it reported in there.

I would think that if it shows up in your transcripts, that the best policy is to check both boxes so that the form matches what's on the transcripts or they may question it. I don't know for sure, that's just my gut instinct. I'm about to do this myself and this I-864 is such a counterintuitive form... I wish they made it more common sense

FYI.... My USCIS case status said they sent my approved petition to the State Department on June 11th (the same day my NOA2 arrived in the mail and 10 days after the approved date on the NOA2.) However, that change in status did not appear on my USCIS online account until June 28th. It will do no harm to fill out a public inquiry with the NVC. The link is: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/ask-nvc.html This is how I worded our inquiry: Our I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancée, was recently approved (June 1, 2024) and we received our I-797 (NOA2) from USCIS. We haven't received any further communication via mail or email and we were hoping we could obtain our NVC Case Number in order to progress with our application. I have attached our I-797 (NOA2) to this request for your reference. Thank you for any help you could provide. Also requesting if you could verify that our email addresses are correct as listed below: petitioneremail@email.com beneficiaryemail@email.com This addendum at the end of the inquiry about your emails will ensure that the NVC and later the embassy have your correct emails. I did this in my second inquiry to NVC and after that my fiancee and I both received all the emails from that point forward all the way to the email that the embassy sent after the visa was issued with instructions on how to handle the yellow packet that was returned with her passport/visa. Do not worry about the validity date of your Approval Notice. If it is expired at the time of your interview, the Consular Officer will extend its validity for 4 months. They know there are delays all over the place and do this as a matter of routine. Just be sure to bring updated letters of intent to marry to the interview.

FYI.... My USCIS case status said they sent my approved petition to the State Department on June 11th (4 days after my NOA2 arrived in the mail and 10 days after the approved date on the NOA2. However, that change in status did not appear on my USCIS online account until June 28th. So if you wait a week to 10 days between inquiries to the NVC it will be fine. I did my first one on June 21st and my second one on July 1st which is the one where they gave me our case number.

I would send that on your next inquiry in the attachment section of the inquiry form. I would inquire again on Monday Oct 7th. I would also recommend stating in the inquiry something like this, "Also, please confirm that you have the correct email addresses for myself and my beneficiary. The correct email addresses are (then give them both of your email addresses)" This will ensure that the NVC and later the embassy have your correct emails. I did this in my second inquiry to NVC and after that my fiancee and I both received all the emails from that point forward all the way to the email that the embassy sent after the visa was issued with instructions on how to handle the yellow packet that was returned with her passport/visa.

That will appear on your USCIS Case Status... When did you send the inquiry to NVC?

Hehe I get it.... I really do. Jaycel and I have a large age gap and that triggered all the same feelings you are experiencing about having a relationship that people in your life considered weird, abnormal, etc. Jaycel (much younger AND wiser than me as it turns out 🙂) after we had filed our I-129F said to me one day, "No one has to approve of our relationship besides you and I. Not even USCIS or the Embassy, they only have to be shown that it is real. You did your part with the petition, I'll do my part with the Embassy." (God did I ever find the right woman!) The packet I sent into USCIS for our I-129F was 110 pages LOL Do what makes you feel comfortable when submitting it and then let the process play out. You guys will be fine. Like I said in a previous post, we had only known each other for 7 months when we got engaged so don't let it stress you too much. And for God's sake, I don't care how much you have invested in Boundless, I beg you to dump them. They are only going to cause you stress and heartaches.

Thank you for this explanation! We plan to hand deliver our signed and completed marriage certificate to the County Clerk's office here. We can request as many official copies at that time as we want for like $1.25 ea. so we are going to get like 10 of them so that we can send in a certified copy to not risk a possible RFE. As far as evidence of a bona-fide marriage, we also decided to send whatever we have available at the time that we submit the AOS. We are hoping to avoid any possible RFE AND in the hopes that this will help our chances of getting approved without having an interview. We have a pretty significant age gap and we know that can sometimes be seen as a "red-flag" for some adjudicating officers, so hopefully we can get enough evidence put in front of them that they don't feel the need for an interview. As far as the DS-3025, yes we will send a copy of it and not the original. We are also planning to include a cover letter over the DS-3025 copy and mention it in the I-485 cover letter (see screenshots below) hoping this will grab the adjudicating officer's attention.

My fiancee and I knew each other only 7 months when we got engaged and had an RFE only for a missing document not for proof of relationship. I would not sweat it too much! 🙂 We were approved within days of responding to the RFE with the missing document and the embassy interview brought forth no questions about the "legitimacy" of our relationship. Most of the pictures we submitted as part of our I-129F were just the two of us. They are most concerned with proof that you have been together in person within the previous 2 years, that you are both legally eligible to marry each other and that you have the intent to marry within 90 days of your entry into the US (Covered by you both including letters of intent to marry in the application).