Jmah89

How long does that take to get processed and sent?

gotcha. yes we submitted some convincing evidence on the ROC i would say- Title to the house we purchased, my son's birth certificate who was born a year after we bought the house, all our tax records, the car we purchased together, more pictures of vacations we've been on, more evidence of our joint bank account + credit cards. all that stuff. of course, that was last year, so we do have pretty much the same evidence, although more recent bank records and credit card payments? also more pictures from the trips we've been on. not sure how much more convincing you can get of a bonafid marriage besides buying property and having a baby together and being sole benefactors of life insurance policies lol.

well i listed some of the reasons in this thread lol, main reason being the ROC is still not approved, and just overall general anxiety and being super risk adverse when it comes to immigration stuff with my wife and our family. You should have seen my mental state when we were traveling to ecuador with my wife's extension letter. i worried so much, ended up worrying for no reason at all it seems. Also, it seems like my lawyer might have been fear mongering me to try and justify her increase retainment fee.

haha yeah, thankfully i've known to track those departures and arrivals for international travels. THanks for your input Crazy Cat.

Thanks Crazy cat. when did you guys do the citizenship? Did the GMC proclamation last august really make a big difference in citizenship cases? and yes, i understand that the 5 year rule would require less evidence than the 3 year rule which my wife is currently eligible to apply under. I agree, i was the one who gathered all of the evidence. the lawyer just pointed me in the right direction.....

ive looked at the form, doesnt look too difficult to complete. i just have never prepared the packet, and i'm not exactly sure what all evidence would be sufficient to submit. i suppose that information is here on VJ. i guess because ive used a lawyer the first two times, my risk adverse, anxious mind, is telling me i should do everything i can to protect my family. Also, my lawyer was saying, not sure if anyone else can confirm, but she is saying that denied n400 are getting NTA. The thought of that also makes me very anxious...

well, i'm not entirely sure if i need a lawyer. I believe our case is pretty straight forward. One thing that makes me worry a little worried is that we were never interviewed for the greencard, so I am expecting an interview for removal of conditions (possible combo n400 someting?) but when i talked to the lawyer last time, she made it seem like this new good moral character thing on citizenship is really a deal now. The only thing i could think that might be some sort weird thing is that we got a letter from the IRS (CP 14) saying that we owed money. as soon as i got the letter, i paid it right away. Besides that, no other issues with taxes, or and sort of traffic violations or anything.

Yeah think i'm going to have to request my lawyer to send me a copy of all the cases we have submitted. good idea.

yeah, with regards to that, it was the consulate in my wife's home country who made the mistake. they marked on her visa form that she was required to have the 2 year rule. But the advisory opionion to the department of state determined she was not required to, and her adjustment of status went smoothly. If i were to switch lawyers, would the new lawyer need to have access to the first to submissions (484 + 751)? My first lawyer has all the completed packets...i sent her the documents and she was the one whole compiled and sent everything......

Hello everyone, My wife is now eligible to apply for citizenship after having her green card and living with me in the USA for 5 years. When we first started the immigration process, we went with a laywer because she was here in the USA on a J-1 visa, and the visa said she had a two year residency rule. Turns out, after submitting an advisory opinion to the department of state, it was determined that she actually did not have a 2 year residency rule and she was eligible to adjust her status here in the united States (She was here as an Au-Pair, and received no funding from her government to be here on here J1 visa, hence the rule does not apply. au pair is not even on the exhange vistors skills list). So we applied for her adjustment of status using the lawyer (fee was 5k!). Thankfully, she was approved fairly quickly. Then almost 2 years later, we applied to remove her conditions on her green card (went with the lawyer again and it was 2.5k!) Now she has had her green card for almost 3 years, living in the USA with me the whole time we have been married (for nearly 4 years!) We bought a house together over 2 years ago. We have a son who is a year and a half. Joint bank accounts. bought a car together. on each others benefits and life insurance. all that. Anyways, at the beginning of the process, i always was told by the lawyer that the legal fee for citizenship would be the cheapest (1.5K) but apparently she raised her prices by 2k! (3.5k total) for the citizenship case because of some presidential proclamation last august about good moral character. I know this forum is pro-DIY, but i am wondering what people's recent experiences are? How much are your lawyers, if you have them, charging for citizenships. What would it be like to change lawyers if i did choose to go with a different one, considering the fact i used the same lawyer for the first two cases? Thanks in advance!

Happy to share my update and thank you for helping me feel better about it all before our travels. Sorry you had that bad experience. It’s already stressful traveling and then adding in the immigration aspect just magnifies everything. I’ll definitely remember your tip for next time.

We just made it back from Ecuador. No troubles at all! The copa airlines agent in Guayaquil took all the paperwork and green card and passport and gave us our boarding pass. in Houston, residents have to go in the same line as visitors, so I went in that line with my wife and our son. No problems at all with the CBP agent. He took my wife’s fingerprints and sent us through. I have this feeling that traveling with our one year old son helped us gain some credibility or sympathy. Who knows but I was stressing out for nothing it seems!

yes we are flying to Guayaquil. We booked the whole flight through united. I do remember seeing that route with avianca to bogota but i think we got a better deal through united. I'll keep that in mind for next time! how is CBP coming back in through IAH? Think we will run into any issues with our extension letter or they will let us through no problem? its 10 day trip to ecuador just to visit family.

Luis thank you SO Much! I've been having such bad anxiety about this trip just thinking about the airline not wanting to give my wife a boarding pass. We would be flying back up to California, so COPA airlines was our best bet. We have to stop in Panama (which i'm pretty sure is HQ for COPA) on our way to Houston TX, and then finally to California. Going to be a long day of travel for us with our toddler. Wife's ecuadorian passport does not expire until 2030, thankfully. Hopefully she will be a US citizen before that! we will be applying for n400 once we return from our trip.

Thank you for sharing Luis. My wife also has an extension letter and we are going to visit ecuador (her home country) in a week. Did you fly Copa airlines?