S2N

It was at 11 months a few years ago so not out of the question necessarily. They’ve been processing approximately one month every 2-3 weeks since the change in administrations in January until you hit March 2024. They’re about to finish March 2024 and move to April. 26 weeks left in the year/2.5 weeks per month =10.4 months processed by 12/31. That’d put January as having December approvals. At 3 weeks/month that would put us as being processed in January 2026. I think it’s overly optimistic, but there’s a mathematical basis for it if they keep up the pace.

Your son is entering the U.S. to live with you, correct? If so the second CBP endorses the visa he’s a U.S. citizen and you can apply for his US passport. You would follow the travel.state.gov instructions for child citizens. A US passport is definitive proof of U.S. citizenship and you do not need to file any other form or deal with USCIS ever again unless you want a citizenship certificate (form N-600) I see no benefit to the N-600 other than unlike a passport it doesn’t expire. A passport is quicker and cheaper and the State Department has explicit statutory authority to definitively determine citizenship status. Applying for a passport is all you need to do. Others prefer a citizenship certificate to have proof they never need to renew. End of the day it’s up to you. AOS would not be applicable because he would gain citizenship automatically as an action of the law itself.

If there’s any errors you spot you can upload the additional answers sheet with your correction (part 9 of I-130; page 12 of the PDF) as unsolicited evidence making a correction. You’d select “Additional Information” or whatever is closest to that in the drop down. Worst case they ignore it and you get an RFE. Best case they review it and skip the RFE. Immigration officers have done AMAs on Reddit that they usually review all unsolicited evidence before deciding to issue an RFE. Sometimes they will reject early if there’s an error. Other times it’s an RFE more than a year later.

The only service center where there’s even anecdotal evidence of K-3 working to speed up is Texas, fwiw. Even there I’m not entirely convinced.

Current last name. Peoples’ last names change because of previous marriage or adoption so it’s common to have this question on marriage applications.

January 2024 is on the late end of average processing at this point. They’re approving late March 2024 on average and they’re about to move to April. The ones from before that are typically the more complex cases. OP — what is the country and are there any anticipated red flags?

You would just request NVC schedule for Naples. You can send them the message yourself.

@TBoneTX was graciously telling me to stop before I stuck too many feet into my mouth. Best of luck and keep us updated.

Have you filed yet? USCIS generally doesn’t concern itself too much with bona fides in consular cases beyond an initial review to see if it passes the smell test. The deep dive there is mainly handled by the consulate. AOS they do look a lot closer. That being said that’s very fast and might even raise questions from them. If you’ve already filed I would recommend uploading a lot of unsolicited evidence since filing showing that you have a real marriage and it’s ongoing. Time together is most important. If you haven’t filed include that evidence in the initial filing. It will definitely be brought up at the consulate so you should have a lot of high quality evidence to counteract the possibility for fraud. What country is this?

A felony would add jail time to that and potentially require repayment, which for me is bigger than just the lifetime ban alone, but yes, agreed on that count as well.

Reddit says that there is an office in the ministry of interior (مكتب العلاقات مع المواطن بوزارة الداخلية) that handles same day passports for emergencies. Might be worth contacting them and seeing if they could issue a new passport in the week leading up to the interview if it’ll have less than six months validity. (Edit: mods, sorry for the Arabic but figured giving the specific name in a foreign script would be useful in this case.)

To be honest none of this is even the biggest concern. It’s that welfare fraud is usually a felony and there’s a decent chance they’ve committed it already. That’s the biggest red flag for why they need a lawyer. Even the false documents stuff is lesser, and that’s a huge deal in immigration.

No. I was saying once you meet in person you can immediately file. After filing, you can continue adding evidence — it’s pretty common in cases where the petition is being filed without ever having lived together to add additional evidence such as trips to visit the other person. As an example, my husband and I married in-perdón in the U.S. in December and he returned to Chile in January. I uploaded all our evidence until that point. On 1/1/25 when I filed the I-130. We go back and forth a decent amount to visit, so every visit since then I upload proof of the visit (plane tickets entering and leaving Chile for me. I-94 and CBP travel history for him) with 1-2 pictures as unsolicited evidence to aid what was (imo) an already strong case since it helps with USCIS if needed, and will get sent to NVC and the consulate automatically. The consulate is where having strong evidence matters most. Also see the comment above on DCF — if you’re eligible for it, that’s definitely the way to go, but you’d need to meet in-person even for that. Maybe use leave to meet in a third country at some point? Would help you either do DCF or start your petition to USCIS earlier.

My understanding is that SSA gets immigrant’s information from CBP and not USCIS, so the USCIS address change probably wouldn’t have an impact on this. Still good to check and update if needed, though.

If you meet in person after the online wedding you can file after that. No need to wait for the deployment to end. You’re allowed to continue adding evidence after the initial I-130. So long as you have a prima facie case for bona fides at filing, strengthening it along the way via unsolicited evidence doesn’t hurt. The true test of bona fides is at the consular interview; and between filing and the interview you have time to accumulate more evidence.

This is what it’s saying — it’s what USCIS uses to get around BIA’s binding ruling that pre-conceived intent isn’t sufficient to deny spousal AOS. Claim it as misrepresentation to CBP and they don’t have to worry about following a binding legal interpretation they don’t like. It’s irrelevant for people doing consular processing.

My read of the situation was that money wasn’t a huge concern here as OP mentioned moving up the marriage wasn’t a concern if needed, the ability to travel to third countries, the father working for a significant amount of time in the UAE, and the family engaging a solicitor in the UK to help with the asylum claim. All of that points to a stable economic situation on at least his future wife’s part. It also sounds like he knows the family as well, which is usually a good sign. I agree it will be expensive and OP will need to continue to accumulate evidence, but a lot of us do that. Immigration is quicker and easier if you have the money to visit your spouse on the other side of the globe regularly. I also get that the cost of travel is a burden for a lot of people here, but that’s also usually one of the first things they say in a post. OP — apologies if my read of this is wrong, and what everyone else is saying is correct re: time together. Assuming you have evidence of bona fides now (trips with passport stamps/boarding passes, pictures, etc.) you should be good to file once there’s a marriage (and having met in person if online.) But it would be in your best interest to visit frequently after that and upload the proof of travel as unsolicited evidence for USCIS while the petition is pending.

She’s in the UAE currently. It’s not on the ban list, not hard to fly there, and it’s not exactly a dangerous country. OP will have plenty of time to develop more evidence of bona fides between filing and the interview date at the consulate. There’s really no disadvantage to filing the I-130 once married (and having met in person after if online.) USCIS usually doesn’t dig deep into consular bona fides so long as there is some proof, preferring to leave it to the consular officer, but if that is a concern they can certainly do more visits while the I-130 is pending and upload them as unsolicited evidence. There obviously needs to be evidence at the time of filing, but with the timeline they have it shouldn’t be hard to accumulate additional evidence after filing the petition. If you wait on the UK asylum claim and it gets rejected you’re looking at 6-7 years from today when they could be together. Most people don’t want to risk adding 2-3 years to an already long process, and OP’s is probably already going to be longer than most even if the future wife ends up in London.

It usually means another service center has capacity and you’re being transferred there for active review. They’re finishing up March now, so this tracks with your timeline. I’d expect either approval or RFE soon, but obviously can’t guarantee it.

It sounds like they have a solicitor in the UK based on the first post. They can advise on the UK bit. Bottom line is that OP can get married and file an I-130 and it doesn’t matter where his future wife is residing. She will be able to interview at Cairo (or whatever post handles Sudan in 3-5 years) or the post that handles he country of legal residence. All he can really do from a U.S. immigration standpoint right now is get married and file an I-130 assuming that his wife’s residence status will be clearer once it hits NVC. He can list Cairo for now on the I-130 and then update at NVC as needed.

To clarify: the consulate will issue the visa as CR-1 if it is issued prior to the second anniversary. USCIS will then review the admission class and underlying support when issuing the green card and issue a 10-year green card if you enter after 2 years. If they don’t, you can request them reissue it for 10 years for free. I would also suggest asking CBP to input IR-1 as the class of admission if it’s been more than 2 years. They default to what’s on the visa, and most of the cases where USCIS have screwed up is when CBP notes admission as CR-1 but it’s more than 2 years. They don’t have to note you as IR-1 at the port of entry, but it doesn’t hurt to ask nicely. Sometimes they will oblige, sometimes not. Doesn’t impact your legal rights either way; just removes a potential point of confusion for USCIS if they do it. I wouldn’t push to hard on this point though if CBP is hesitant.

It has to be the consulate where you are a legal resident or citizen ( @pushbrk answered a question on this earlier today if you want to search the forum.) Currently Cairo handles IV’s for Sudanese nationals. As a UAE resident her options would be Abu Dhabi or Cairo. If she moves elsewhere legally her options would be the consular post handling immigrant visas for that country or Cairo. Between Abu Dhabi and Cairo, State shows Cairo as about a year faster, but it’s an 18 month wait to get scheduled after approval at NVC vs. 30 months. Plus I’m going to go ahead and bet there will be delays in the process after the interview for background checks in Sudan. You’re looking at about 4 years minimum after the I-130 is filed before she can move to the U.S. in the current situation. Probably closer to 5 years. If she is legally able to move to a European country the time to schedule will be faster, but there could still be pending background check or other delays after the interview. This is why I initially said to get married and file ASAP if you’re sure you will get married. This is going to be a longer process for you all than for many of us.

The best advice you will get here is to talk to a lawyer. Ideally one familiar with social security law and immigration. Not sure if the welfare was social security, but lawyers familiar with that area federally are the most likely to be familiar with other welfare programs.

Correct, that’s what I meant when I said meet in person if online. Sorry if it wasn’t clear.

There are three parts: —I-130: you, the USC spouse, establish with the government that you are a USC and that you are legally married in a bona fide relationship. Some background checks are run here, but the things above are the two main things. USCIS usually doesn’t dig deep on fraud/will usually accept most evidences of bona fides so long as all the documentation is there. This stage more or less just establishes that you have the right to sign the I-864 (Affidavit of Support) and that your spouse is eligible to submit a DS-260 (Immigrant Visa Application). The current average is 14.5 months (so 14-15), but that average has been as high as 17. And again, that’s for the straightforward cases. About 40% take longer than the average if you look at the data, and ~20% linger longer than two years. African cases tend to be less straightforward and you’ll somewhat frequently see people with African nationality here and elsewhere on the immigration internet asking why it’s taking so long. —National Visa Center: your spouse fills out the DS-260 and you fill out the I-864 and you both upload any relevant supporting documentation listed. This process can take 1-2 months if you do it quickly and correctly. —Consulate interview: your interview is scheduled, you do the medical exam, and you have an interview where the consular official is charged with determining if the application is fraudulent. It takes on average 1-6 months to schedule the interview, which occurs usually 1-6 months after scheduling. Some embassies and consulates taking much longer. Lagos is more than a year. Abu Dhabi is currently scheduling cases that NVC approved in November 2022, and then you have to wait for the interview date. Cairo is scheduling January 2024. As a Sudanese national I believe she could be processed by Cairo if living in the UAE. If she stays in the UAE for asylum you are looking at 40-50 months from the date you file an I-130 to the date she would get a visa. If she moved to Sudan it’d be in this time frame as well. London would be something like 16-20 months if she can in fact move there legally. This is best case and it could take longer as a third-country national even in London.