Mrs. Disney

You are right, it's conditional rather than temporary.

Thank you very much!

So I'm leaving the US for the first time since receiving my GreenCard (the temporary one). I've read these forums a thousand times but just to be sure it wouldn't hurt to have new eyes check my small list of documents. Thank you all so much in advance for taking the time to answer such a simple question. Oh, and I'm going home to Brazil for 40 days.

I won't be traveling with the passport which I used to enter the US with because it expires soon. So I got a new one with my married name on it.

New passport

Greencard (both passport and greencard have my married name on it)

Old passport (just in case they wanna see my old visa and I-94, who knows...)

Marriage Certificate

Other form of ID, probably my driver's license

And of course the tickets with my married name on them.

Did I forget anything?

Thanks guys for the info and link.

Raffy, I checked with the Brazilian consulate and they will issue a new passport within 5 business days so that shouldn't be a problem. Also Brazil does accept the addition of your husband's name, as long as you keep your maiden name, and that can also be done with the consulate here in America.

And yes, I wanted to make it to Carnaval but unfortunately that will not be possible.

So I have my greencard in hands and I want to go travel to Brazil for a month in March/April. My Brazilian passport expires July/2011. Should I get a new passport? As far as I'm concerned, they won't let you back in the US if your passport expires in less than 6 months from the date of arrival but does that also apply to greencard holders?

If I'm supposed to get a new passport, should I take both old and new passports with me on my trip considering I entered the US with the old passport, the one that has the entry visa and stamp? I really want to get a new passport with my married name (since my greencard also has my married name on it) but I wanna make sure I do it right. Should I also take my marriage certificate with me, just in case?

Thank you.

yes great tip. you really add to the discussion and give info that helps. too many folks just like to argue and belittle others here,

haha tell me about it. And thank you.

Can anyone with a recent K1 tell me if the A# was printed on the visa? L's visa had no annotations, including no A#, and most of the K1 visas I've seen online had the A# in the annotations section, and many had the fiancé(e)'s name on it. If it's wrong, we need to get on this soon!

The A# doesn't come on the visa, once you arrive in the US at the airport they will write it down on your I-94 and staple it to your passport, no worries.

Just had my biometrics done and I thought I would share my experience because the same thing might happen to other people. And I'm sorry if someone already posted this but I don't remember ever reading something about this matter. Anyways...

I took my husband's last name, we all know how to do that when filing for AOS. So my name on my appointment letter was my new married name, while the name on my photo ID/passport was my maiden name. I explained that to the officer and he let me in. Problem was, once in, they checked my name on the system and they still had my maiden name on it, even though USCIS mailed my NOA's with the right married name. So they didn't believe I was myself (HA!), and they wouldn't let me in unless I showed them my marriage certificate. I didn't have it because I didn't know I was supposed to take it to the appointment and even though I was 1 hour early, my home was 2 hours away, I couldn't just go pick it up. Lucky me, I had my military ID with me (which is a spouse ID), and I live in a military area, so they knew what it was and it kinda proved that it was indeed my married name and I was the person on that paper, and they let me do the biometrics.

So my point is, take a copy of your marriage certificate with you to the biometrics appointment just in case they haven't updated your name on the system yet. It won't hurt, and you might not have the luck I had.

I don't see any problems with it as long as the ceremony doesn't make it official (I'm not sure how it works in your country). Be safe and do it once you have your visa in hands. And once again, don't make your marriage LEGAL until you are in the US.

I just got the same letter today. We mailed the application a month ago. I was a little confused because my biometric is only next week but now I'm relieved. Yay!

Great, just want to send this thing ASAP. Thank you so much!

So although on Item 7 they ask for a letter explaining why I want an AP, I should just ignore it and not add a letter?

Also, I just came across something: on the I-864 they ask for the petitioner's INDIVIDUAL tax returns, but the last time he filed (2009), he filed for a joint tax return with me, even though I'm unemployed. When he filed for his 2008 taxes he was deployed to Iraq, so his taxed income was only a little over 4000 (even though he made WAY more than that), which doesn't meet the 125% poverty thing. Is it ok to send the last one he filed, the joint tax return?

On the I-131, as for DATE OF INTENDED DEPARTURE and EXPECTED LENGTH OF TRIP, would it be ok if I put "Unknown" or "To be determined"?

Then I guess it won't hurt to look into it.

My husband is in the military so they only use W-2's to file for their tax returns. So that one was easy for us.

Ok, just made a copy of my DS-3025. You're right, it won't hurt to add it.

I was going to file for the AP until I saw that you need to write a letter explaining why you want an AP. Since I don't "need" one, and my only reason to have an AP is for "just in case", I thought I would leave that one alone.

Reading your topic now, thanks for the tips!

So my husband and I are ready to mail our AOS application tomorrow. We are pretty sure our package looks fine but we have gone through it so many times that we are afraid we might have overlooked (or forgotten) something. Any help would be very much appreciated. Here's how it looks now:

- $1010 check (payable to US Department of Homeland Security)

- Two 2" x 2" photos (name and A # printed on back)

- Cover Page

- Form G-1145

- Form I-485

- Copy of non US Citizen Birth Certificate

- Non US Citizen Birth Certificate translation

- Copy of non US Citizen Passport (biographical and visa pages)

- Form I-693 sealed by doctor (only vaccines though since I had my medical done back home less than a year ago)

- Form G-325A

- Copy of I-129F Approval Notice

- Copy of Marriage Certificate

- Copy of I-94 front and back

- Form I-864

- Copy of petitioner's most recent Federal Income Tax Return

- Petitioner's W-2

- Proof of Active Military Status

- Form I-765

- Copy of non US Citizen ID (which is another copy of my passport biographical information with photo)

- Two 2" x 2" photos (name and A # printed on back)

- Copy of I-94 front and back

Missing anything? Thank you!

So I have a AOS question that I think you guys will be able to help me better. My full maiden name is Denise de Araujo Silva. My family would die if I lost one of those names so to avoid upsetting people, I'm adding my husband's last time, Disney, therefore I will have 3 last names: Denise de Araujo Silva Disney. So how should I fill out the form? Should I put de Araujo Silva as my middle name and Disney as my last name? Or should I put de Araujo as my middle name, Disney as my last name and Silva as "other names used"? I'm really confused and I just wanna make sure that I keep all last names. Thanks!

I wasn't sure if the translation needed to be done by a professional translator or not so just to be sure we looked for a professional (which took forever, because there's no translator where we live). So since we were paying for that service, we thought we might as well pay a few bucks extra for it to be notarized. I don't feel like going around and paying for notaries no more. So thank you everyone, I will submit regular copies then.

Also, I thought we were supposed to send the actual I-94? If just a copy is fine, I would rather do that. Can I just send a copy of my I-94 front and back with my AOS?

I couldn't answer MrsPrice's question, but that does bring me to one that I should have asked earlier: does the birth certificate and criminal history need to be translated for AOS? If so, does it need a certified translation, or can anyone do it? For instance, my best friend was at one point worked as a translator (though for hospitals, not the government) - would she be able to do it? We found one in Brazil, and the prices are reasonable, but free's even better

Yes, if the birth certificate isn't in English, then it should be translated and notarized. As for criminal record, I thought you only had to send one for AOS if you have committed any sort of crime? I'm not sure though. Hopefully someone here will know about that one.

So I'm confused. On the AOS instructions it only mentions that translated documents need to be notarized. I know better, so I'm also reading the guides, and the guides say to also notarize a copy of our marriage certificates. So I decided to browse older topics about the same issue and most people say no copies or forms need to be notarized for AOS, to just send in regular copies.

Now, my translated birth certificate is already notarized. Other than that, I only have regular copies of my marriage certificate, passport, taxes, W-2 etc. Do I have to notarize them? If so, which ones? Just trying not to lose time and money. Thanks!

Thank you so much for your replies. We really wanted to do everything before my I-94 expired (hey we even got married 1 day after I arrived here) but the translation thing was really a pain in the butt and we started to freak out, even though somewhere on the instructions it says to file up to 180 days after you got out of status, before you are subject to to the 3 year ban thing. Although it also says that people who overstayed a visa is not eligible. Go figure. We will file ASAP, don't want to be out of status for such a long time.

I arrived in the US on a K-1 Visa on September 20th 2009 and got married the next day. Problem is we haven't filed for AOS yet because we had a very hard time trying to find someone to translate my birth certificate. We finally got that document translated and we are ready to file for AOS. My authorized stay was until December 19th 2009 and my visa expired on February 27th 2010, I understand I have overstayed.

Now, should we just apply for AOS like nothing happened, or do I have to do something else since I overstayed? Is this a case we should consider hiring an attorney? How deep in trouble are we?

Thank you!

Minha sogra pediu o passaporte dela ano passado em meados de março, abril... ela recebeu 3 semanas mais rápido do que um amigo meu que pediu em janeiro. Então, pelo jeito, aqui nos States é que nem no Brasil: é melhor pedir o passaporte nas mid-seasons.

Parabéns pela aprovação!

Faz tanto tempo tempo que eu não passo aqui... desde que cheguei aqui nos States, eu só tenho arrumado casa (mudança) e procurado móveis (a gente não tinha nem um colchão quando eu cheguei aqui haha). Tô com uma preguiiiiça de aplicar pra AOS. Até hoje não achei um tradutor aqui na Georgia pra traduzir minha certidão de nascimento brasileira. Vocês sabem de alguém que faça isso? Nem pra atender as minhas ligações a embaixada do Brasil aqui serve. Espero que todos vocês estejam ok.

Congratulations!

Happy Sunday!