rbv_shard

When you replied to the RFE, did you follow all the instructions such as including the RFE in your response?

Calling your fiancee's baby daddy "husband" is not compatible with successfully getting a K1 visa. They are not married at this time, are they?

For making an appointment before the immigrant fiancee arrives, do you recommend scheduling by phone or online? There doesn't appear to be a way to simply request an appointment online, only after completing the entire application which I suspect isn't possible prior to issuance of I-94 at point of entry. Alternatively, anywhere that has statistics on how long far in advance the scheduling calendar is booked at various offices?

Based on the question, I assumed that you knew it was possible to apply before marriage, but wanted to avoid having to go a second time.

Weird that they just acknowledged your public inquiry and didn't say anything about seeing the attachment. Hopefully your next attempt gets seen by a different person and looked at more closely.

Surely people in New Hampshire aren't scared by a little snow. Even the government employees. And I'm confident the Norwegian can handle it fine too, maybe even enjoy it.

They may not process it with less than 30 days remaining on the I-94. For a lot of people, that means it has to be done before marriage, but with your schedule you should be getting married and applying for SSN within 60 days of arrival, which is fine. Make sure to allow time to get your certified marriage record back from your county clerk -- SSA wants evidence of filing not just the signed license. (They need to know about the marriage for two reasons: (1) if your bride is taking your last name, the marriage certificate serves as the name change document and (2) to establish her eligibility for future spousal benefits based on your work record) Congratulations on getting through the process! Please complete your timeline so that others can know what to expect / the VisaJourney system can use your dates in its statistical analysis of how long different steps are taking.

A lot of people do public inquiry based on the NOA2 saying it's been transmitted to NVC (which isn't true), so they send this form letter back if it's not in the computers yet. You correctly waited until after the online status changed to "Sent to Department of State", but NVC doesn't know that. They told you to inquire at 60 days past your NOA2 date, so you should. But this time you should attach a copy of your NOA2 to the inquiry. This will trigger them to actually check whether they have your file. If they don't, the forthcoming response will say they've initiated an investigation with USCIS to see where it got delayed.

The information I can find about EBE ("Enumeration Beyond Entry") is that it should still be issuing SSN along with green card, only stopped giving them along with EAD or naturalization. But there could be a difference between the public statements and the actual practice.

You may run into trouble with the Polio, it's marked "not age appropriate" which is not correct. Per the 2025-03-11 chart from CDC the inactivated polio vaccine is appropriate for anyone 2 months of age or older. https://www.cdc.gov/immigrant-refugee-health/hcp/panel-physicians/vaccination.html However, there are additional instructions for polio for immigrants from "at-risk" countries. https://www.cdc.gov/immigrant-refugee-health/hcp/panel-physicians/polio-addendum.html Philippines isn't on that list. For comparison, my fiancée DID receive a polio dose from SLEC Manila this month. The general rule for filings with USCIS is to only send ordinary copies and bring the originals/certified copies to your interview, or if specifically instructed by an RFE to send originals.

My fiancee's interview is next week so it was concerning to find out about a whole new topic. Sending her with copies of the health insurance and "qualifying life event" pages from my employer's benefits book, hopefully that should satisfy any similar question.

From the description given, the certificate isn't noting the end of a **previous** marriage, but the subsequent end of the marriage corresponding to the certificate. Previous to the marriage documented on the certificate, not previous to the contemplated marriage in the US. But it doesn't matter in OP's case because the marriage and divorce didn't occur in Poland.

Did your embassy give any advanced notice that this information was required or did they surprise you with it at the interview?

For K-1 visa in Manila, the results are hand-carried by the applicant (beneficiary) to the embassy. If up against medical exam expiration, consider proactively doing a new one (giving a fresh 6 months). If you complete the process with the old medical, get the visa with almost no time left, and the visa expires, you likely have to start at the very beginning (new I-129F, USCIS processing, NVC processing, DS-160). If the medical expires before the visa issues, you just rewind to getting the medical. New medical shouldn't be a new suspicion-of-TB fiasco because either (a) she was treated and they have that record of TB history or (b) the x-rays caused false positives, but now SLEC is doing the IGRA test.

This times 1000. RFE is far better than fighting deportation proceedings.

Tip for getting mail at address: Wells Fargo will add an authorized user to a credit card without requiring an SSN. The card will be mailed in an envelope addressed to the authorized user with the primary account holder's address... tada, proof of address. In fact you can even do this before the fiancée moves to the US, but that might incorrectly be considered evidence of having been in the USA before being authorized, so may be better to wait at least for entry and possibly for marriage.

It takes about 8 months for them to process an I-129F. Apart from checking that you weren't missing the payment, most of that time is just waiting your turn, they have a large backlog. You won't hear anything until you get to the head of the line and they look at it closely. I recommend filling in your timeline here on VJ, it will give you a pretty accurate estimate of when your petition will be processed. Other steps of the process give you more frequent feedback. VJ tracks statistics and trends on processing time of each stage, which you can see here:

Awesome!

Did your petition get transferred to Vermont or is California Service Center still the one processing it?

Well my fiancee just finished her medical and she was given the Polio vaccine, but Hep B is marked "Code D" meaning "not available in-country". It is available at many clinics in Philippines, now I have to see if SLEC has a reasonable explanation why they couldn't give it. Grrrrr.

My fiancee just finished her medical at SLEC. Her DS-3025 shows the same vaccinations I expected based on the "instructions to panel physicians" except for two: influenza has code F "Flu vaccine not available" which I understand is acceptable, and hepatitis B has code D "Not available in country". Is it true that in Manila they have no access to Hepatitis B vaccines? I feel like SLEC is just trying to increase profit by not giving the required shots, the cost of which was included in the visa medical package. I have very good health insurance and Hep B is required for insurance companies to cover, so it's easy for us to pick up the missing shot after marriage. But that won't get it onto the official government form. Has anyone gotten RFE for Manila using code D inappropriately?

Apparently SLEC has an FAQ about this, proving that they have no clue about law. US Embassy Manila seriously needs to accredit a different clinic. Having worked on a medical research team before, I can say with confidence that "it's on government forms" is not considered by any USA law or policy to be an excuse for denying anyone a copy of their own medical records, and in the USA that would be a HIPAA lawsuit. Still advising my fiancée to be insistent in asking for a copy. And if SLEC stands by their improper policy, to ask at the conclusion of the interview to have a copy made.

To keep this simple, no the money doesn't disappear (until she spends it). The income does. If the money was saved/invested, those funds can be listed in the asset category. Funds from past employment cannot be listed in the income category. Even salary from a job that's still active but anticipated to end can only be included "pro rata" in annual income.

Yes, I mean leave and stay out long enough to trigger abandonment of US permanent residency.

Time in your origin country, or any country other than the US, doesn't count as overstay.