STDEV

TY. I just returned to my job from a leave of absence, during which the I-130 had been approved. I-130 took just over 12 months which was a pleasant surprise. Just waiting for the first full paystub to post to move ahead with submitting I-864/financial evidence to NVC, along with tax returns/transcripts of course. That's really the only limiting factor at this point I think. Should be submitting within a couple weeks though.

I cannot echo this enough as a lesson learned. Fortunately we got lucky; one of the auxiliary city offices opened up same-day timeslots today, so this piece of paperwork shouldn't cause any delay for us.

That's encouraging. Will give it a shot if we can't somehow get the certificate sooner.

@pushbrk Thanks for confirming and for the fast reply. My beneficiary partner signed up for an appointment with local NL municipality to get the certificate because it doesn't look like it can be done online in her case. Unfortunately the soonest appointment just to apply for the certificate is about two months away (plus up to four weeks to get it in the mail after), so that certificate will be the main hold up in submitting everything to NVC. Do you know if uploading a proof of that appointment and draft of her application for the certificate of conduct would be a way to proceed with the DS260 (and affidavit of support) stage in parallel while she waits for that appointment? (and then show the certificate and certified translation at the interview). I'm assuming no but figured I'd ask. She does not have a criminal record. We are looking into ways to expedite the appointment or get the certificate sooner but it's not looking promising. Thanks.

Does a certificate of good conduct in Dutch require a certified translation either for the document upload or the interview? Interview will be in Frankfurt, so the certificate won't be in the local language of the interview location. Thanks.

Thanks @pushbrk. I'm going to resume working for the same company I was on leave from very soon, with salary safely above the threshold. I've been employed there for two years including the leave of absence. Based on the instructions, it's OK to include a copy of my mailed 2025 1040 with W2s and 1099s instead of the transcript, right? I had to mail my return slightly late, so it won't be processed as quickly as e-filing. It may be a while before a transcript is available. For proof of current income, I'll have a few paystubs coming in over the next month or so, and ideally I'd like to file the affidavit of support as soon as possible. However since I'm coming back from leave and haven't worked yet in tax year 2026, the paystubs will show year-to-date income totals that would reveal I hadn't had wages until recently resuming work. Is it necessary to mitigate this somehow? For example, should I write an explanation saying I recently returned to work from leave, and include both paystubs for upcoming wages as well as disability paystubs showing I was getting that benefit until I started working? On my company's HR site, I can save PDFs of pages showing the company name/organization that pays me, my name, the length of my tenure at the company, title and position, current compensation, etc. Is this OK instead requesting a letter with the same info from the HR department? Regarding assets, since I'm planning to meet the income requirement, I understand I "do not need to complete Part 7" for assets. Regardless, should I do this anyway if it would bolster the case?

Thanks, I had a feeling this was the case about both, despite being lucky enough to have someone who's offered to joint sponsor. I have an upcoming call to discuss with an attorney...someone who previously stated a while ago that job wages without joint sponsor is strongly favorable to no job wages with joint sponsor. Makes sense that this pattern would be the same for a leave scenario despite disability insurance.

I-130 was approved recently. I am currently on medical leave (employed, but on leave; exhausted FMLA protected leave though). I am getting short-term disability payments and they have been approved for a few more months from now. Unclear whether or not yet I'll have a job to go back to but so far I am still an employee on leave. Disability payments are well above threshold (as is my normal income at this employer). Previous tax return income going back many years is well above threshold. Should I wait until returning to wage (job based) income before submitting the affidavit of support? Or are the short-term disability payments and the fact that I am still (for now) an employee on leave enough to proceed with the affidavit of support? Alternately asked, would it be "safer" to wait until I'm back working full time, or would it not make a difference? Thanks.

@OldUserThanks. We ended up submitting just today.

@OldUserThanks

Hi, I tried searching this but couldn't find specific guidance on this. Does anyone know whether it's preferred to have translated documents and translator's certification in the same upload as the original or not? Thanks in advance.

Hi, we have a few questions on this. I'm writing this post as the USC petitioner. Marriage certificate, translation, and certification should these three all be in one PDF, or three separate PDFs? Is there a preferred format of the translated document? For example, should we make text boxes that replicate the text positioning on the original marriage certificate? Or take the original, and then paste text boxes with English over it? Additional Evidence - financial beneficiary on bank accounts Separate PDFs for each bank's beneficiary confirmation page, or a single combined PDF? Additional Visual Evidence: we are mostly finished with a PowerPoint (for PDF export) containing ~100 chronological pages of (a) pictures of the two of us, with friends/family, etc.; (b) plane tickets, screenshots of hotel bookings, passport stamps; (c) greeting cards (e.g. birthday/valentines); proof of my (USC petitioner's) former residence in the beneficiary's country. Should we also be uploading the screenshotted document-type items (b) as additional PDFs, or is just in the PowerPoint sufficient? Some items here are in Dutch, such as a few greeting cards, my former Dutch residence card, etc. I am providing translations of these within the PowerPoint, but should I also upload these as separate documents so that each translation can be certified separately? Example: on slides with a greeting card, the slide will have [picture of greeting card in Dutch] on the left and [English translation of greeting card] on the right. I did the same thing for my old residence permit/card as well, so far. USC Passport PDF I'll be uploading this as my proof of citizenship. Per above, we took some snippets of my passport stamps for the Visual Evidence document. Should I also be including the full passport stamp pages? (i.e. beyond the ID page) Asking because I have a temporary visa in a foreign language that we'd rather not deal with translating since it doesn't add any benefit to the petition. 2x2 photos of petitioner and beneficiary. The instructions say to write names on the back of the photos. Does this mean we need to (1) get physical passport photos, (2) write names on the back, and then (3) scan fronts/backs and upload as PDF? Rather than just uploading digital originals Many thanks in advance!