S2N

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.

An I-130 is your request to the U.S. government for permission to sponsor her. Where she lives and what she does with visas or asylum from third countries doesn’t impact your ability as a US citizen to file that. Once it’s approved she will fill out a visa application and you can ask them to route it to the consulate that handles immigrant visas for the country she resides in.

It was 11 months when my husband and I started dating a few years ago, and had crept up to 14 when we seriously started thinking about getting married and him immigrating 12 months ago. By the time we got married and filed in January it was at 17 months. The one silver lining is that they are processing more I-130s than at any point in the last two years, and every month since January has seen an increase since the previous month. It could be on average 11 months again if they keep up this pace. But you don’t know. You’ll only really have a guess about 2 months before because you’ll start seeing approvals near your priority date, and since they go in order you can guesstimate. But again, these are averages, and nationals of African countries tend to take longer even before the travel ban.

It’s Sudan. On the ban list. IR-1/CR-1 is essentially the only option here. OP — your best bet is to get married as soon as possible either online (Utah Zoom) or in-person, meet in person if online, and immediately file an I-130. Current processing times are averaging 14-15 months, but it was at 17 in January, and I’m just going to assume that cases from a Sudanese national might take longer even outside the ban consideration. That’s why we usually advise people who have decided they’re getting married to do it sooner rather than later and file quickly. My suggestion would be Utah Zoom since you wouldn’t have to worry about translations or any of the other complications that can come up with foreign marriage certificates, but that’s up to you and your fiance.

Going off pushbrk, I would recommend calling your CPA and telling them taxes need to be done ASAP and you’re willing to pay for rush. If it’s due to lack of final financial results from your business, see if you can get the internal accounting team to finalize numbers ASAP. Easier said than done, I know, but accountants are used to fire drills. Just be nice to them after

If you got verbal tentative approval and they have his passport I’d make a congressional inquiry since they have his passport and they gave you nothing explaining what you were missing. Timeline isn’t necessarily outside the norm but the lack of documentation on what’s going on is. Add on it’s DCF for a job, having your senator ask what’s going on could be useful in case it fell through the cracks. Worst that can happen is your senator tells you it’s in AP.

And this is the norm for many immigrant groups within the U.S. where that’s the custom.

I think what they’re trying to say is that while multiple spousal petitions isn’t necessarily uncommon — I have a family member who IR-1’d his first wife from a country he was deployed to as a service member and then got a K-1 for his second wife from the same country 15 years later after being divorced five years — what would be unexpected is that you divorce someone you sponsored and then immediately file to sponsor another intending immigrant. Do the current wife and future wife know each other? If so, when did they meet? How did you meet both women? How long after your current wife naturalized did you start a relationship with your future wife? Did you and your current wife maintain a family life in the U.S. while you were visiting your other family overseas? How did you manage to maintain two families in two countries? You don’t need to answer all those here, but those are questions you should have in mind when filing the petition/writing a cover letter and your future wife should have in mind when getting interviewed. Those aren’t questions of judgement — the situation you’re describing is just very abnormal and the government might want to know the answers. Trying to commit immigration fraud for friends and relatives via one USC sponsor is a thing and depending on the country can be common. USCIS normally doesn’t flag things for fraud and just lets the consulate sort it out, but there might be red flags here even for them. This is a case where a lawyer who is both competent and familiar with the region of the world your future/current spouse is from might be useful.

How complex is your tax situation? An extension isn’t a requirement to file in October and if you’re paying a CPA to do it you should be able to tell them you need it done quickly if you’ve provided all the information they need. If that’s not feasible I’d recommend downloading your IRS account transcript (different than your return transcript) so the beneficiary can at least show there’s an extension in the system at the interview. There are reports here about COs not responding favorably to extensions, which is why I’d suggest if at all possible trying to file quickly.

Consular officer won’t be able to ask OP questions unless he goes to the consulate, and while that’s something that isn’t advised anymore, it would 100% be something not to do in this case. OP’s future wife will likely have to explain it, but I suspect they’d be less harsh to her than if he was also there.

Its also worth noting that OP can document these visits as unsolicited evidence while the I-130 is pending with USCIS so it is bundled with the I-130 and sent to the Department of State with the rest of the I-130 package. It will also (likely) be considered by USCIS for bona fides, but that’s less of a concern than the consulate which is where the more thorough vetting of bona fides occurs. Once it gets to NVC it can be uploaded as evidence as well, but I think it’s easier to do it on a rolling basis than have to search for boarding passes, photos, passport stamps, etc. all at once.

Your question seems to be related to the memo about potentially adding new countries (including Nigeria) to the entrance ban. If Nigeria gets hit with an full entrance ban, a pre-existing B1/B2 wouldn’t be any help. An IR-1/CR-1 would be exempt assuming it follows the format of the existing one. A visa is just permission to get on the plane and ask CBP to admit you under a specific class. If someone has a B1/B2 and they’re from a country with an entrance ban, CBP will not permit them to enter.

If the consulate has a phone number could be worth a call. Worst they can do is say they don’t do phone calls.

While I get wanting to ask for reassurance online, if you have a competent attorney who has experience with this topic do what they say exactly and don’t differ from it. Yes, we get a lot of people who have incompetent attorneys here, but if you have a good one who has experience with Adam Walsh and can thus tell you whether this falls under it based on the specifics of your situation, which when you share with them is legally privileged, unlike here, trust them. They are also licensed to provide you professional judgment you can rely upon in other legal proceedings and sue them if it is negligent. I can’t understate this: you should really, really, really trust your attorney. If you don’t, ask why, and if there’s a reason why not, find a new attorney you do trust and follow their advice 100%