Nik+Heather

Personally, I don't think it's worn so badly that it needs to be replaced, provided the ID page is a bit more pristine (ie, no separation of any layers, or anything that could be argued to appear tampered with). Still very legible etc. That's how I would look at it if I were deciding personally on my own documentation - no idea what the consular officer would say, of course.

HOWEVER, that's a requirements perspective. I can see many more compelling preference/convenience reasons to get it done now:

I can tell you that it's a bit of a pain to get the sucker renewed once you are in the States, and you will need to renew anyway (it won't last you until US naturalization). First of all, the photos need to be signed by a "professional" who has known you for a somewhat extended period of time - I think 2 years? 3? I can't remember now. We just barely knew someone for that long when we sent in the paperwork.

Don't think you'll just wait until you get your US passport after Naturalization and end up like us, essentially without the option of attending a grandparent's funeral because you've let the passport expire -- Yes, we could have obtained emergency documents by flying/travelling to Los Angeles and then on to the UK, but the whole idea was a logistical nightmare. Besides, if you're going for dual citizenship you'll need to maintain both anyway.

Also another good reason to get the passport renewed now is that all of your immigration stuff will happen in the one passport. No need to try to remember where you filed the old one to get the I-94 data out of it etc.

I haven't heard of any upcoming changes in fees or rules, but there's some information floating around the net about a revised N-400 application. I posted what little information I've found here: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/467608-new-n-400-application-for-2014/

I hope this helps.

Thanks for your reply.

So, we are maybe getting around to the idea of filing for citizenship. We are coming up on 4 year anniversary of the conditional green card, and starting to see cases of where it could be useful (as insurance) to have Nik be a citizen.

Are there any looming changes or deadlines we should be aware of? I'm thinking of something like trying to avoid an upcoming fee increase or rules change that makes it more difficult...

Buh, this whole imigration thing is boring by the time you get to this stage! - but I looked at the checklist and it seemed to be really similar to the ROC checklist, so we will just have to update some things, latest tax transcripts and we are done! woo. I figure there are some of you who are still all gung-ho who could quickly answer, as I haven't been following any news whatsoever.

-H

The more I think about it, the more doing the immigration process feels like doing taxes to me.

In both cases, some people DIY, and some people pay a "professional" to do the filing.

In taxes as in immigration filing, regardless of if you have a professional doing the filing, YOU have to gather together all of the records and data. YOU still have to know/relay your personal data.

Unlike taxes, the actual forms to fill out for USCIS are a bit more user friendly (not so much "copy line 10b from form xyz, and subtract line 6f" as in taxes, more "Name: Date of Birth:" etc.)

Similarly, the decision about whether or not to use a lawyer depends on your personal situation. My parents use a tax preparer, because they have complex issues that they prefer to have reviewed and filed by someone who knows their stuff. All of my issues are covered in the basic/free TurboTax, so I do it myself. If you have criminal issues on either side, or a failed petition, consider a professional, otherwise there's no real benefit over going it alone in terms of processing time. Paying a lawyer merely to be a second set of eyes to make sure you did everything right seems like a really expensive service that you could do without simply by being meticulous and careful.

What have you got to lose by at least trying to put the package together by yourself? You have to collect all of that evidence anyway, and you might gain confidence as you go. If, before sending it off you are still uncomfortable, then you could go the lawyer route.

Great read (link in first post), as we have started the "what are our long-term thoughts" discussions, and knowing that we would face either 6 months separation while he finds work to earn the required income OR save 62500GBP is quite relevant, as it would have to be a savings goal for a lot of months. Thanks Rebecca.

USCIS stated that a K1 holder is ineligible to adjust status to lawful permanent residence if the marriage ends before the USCIS adjudicates the application for his or her K1 adjustment of status, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals determined that foreign nationals who marry their fiancé after entering the United States on a K-1 fiancé visa, and who subsequently obtain a divorce prior to obtaining permanent resident status, are still entitled to adjust to resident status.(Decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on K1 Adjustment of Status After Divorce in CHOIN VS. MUKASEY, 537 F.3d 116 (9th Cir. 2008) and with base in Freeman vs. Gonzalez, 444 F.3d 1031.This decision is for who lives in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. But her case is different because she left before filling AOS, then this decision does not apply to her case.

Curiosity:

For the quoted case, was the timeline

1. K1 visa Entry, Marriage, File AOS, Divorce while AOS is pending

Or

2. K1visa Entry, Marriage, Divorce, File AOS?

Wow, that really stinks. Waiting for that darn NOA2 is the pits, and then to have mistakes piled on! As if we aren't anxious enough about our OWN mistakes!

Hopefully the supervisor review yields an answer quickly.

Hello Visa Journey friends,

I have a somewhat off-topic question:

The mother of one of my co-workers has passed away, and I would like to do something/bring something to express my condolences. We interact daily on a professional level, and have no personal relationship beyond the usual Friday afternoon shop talk or vacation/travel discussion, which occurs at work. I like him to the extent that I enjoy these conversations, and would like to do something a (very) little more than sign a group/department-wide card.

I was thinking of bringing something like a small vase of flowers and personal card to work when he returns from Turkey, but that's sort of American, and I wondered if there was an equivalent but different tradition for Turkey. Is there something which you could suggest? Things to avoid?

Thanks,

Heather

I remember when Nik went to the Embassy - due to the time difference it was overnight for me, and I couldn't sleep, and when I did sleep, I would wake up in the middle of the night to check my email, or if I'd missed a Skype call etc. Took for freaking ever to hear from him because he'd left his phone at home rather than deal with not being able to bring it in, and so had to wait that much longer to hear how it went.

You'll have news soon. I know it's hard to wait. Once you get to the green card stuff, you at least get to wait together. phew.

OK so our interview on Jan 8th was not so interesting. There was a long wait (over an hour past our interview time), and when we got in there and sworn in, she asked Nik to go through basically the front page of the petition (what's your address, verify your birthday etc) and then asked if we had any pets, who else lived with us, and then she opined for a little while on why cases get sent for interviews, and that she didn't see anything wrong with our initial filing what the heck is up with USCIS always sending us bogus RFEs? Whatever. Most of the time we were there was spent printing out "we are recommending you for approval" letters and stamping them, then correcting them then printing them then stamping them again.

All that heartburn for nothing, now we just wait on the card.

I wish we had stats. We are being called in for an interview for ROC (and also had to do one for AOS), and I'm not sure how worried I should actually be. At least it's relatively fast. They must have transferred us to Phoenix nearly the same day that they got the RFE response, and Phoenix must have scheduled the interview the same day they got the case, because it all happened within 2 weeks (one of the weeks being Thanksgiving!)

I sometimes wonder if it depends on your local office and how busy they are. Maybe we got called in twice because our local office just isn't that busy (but it's Phoenix, surely there's lots of immigration business going on??!)

Hi, I have a quick question and was wondering if anyone knew the answer since I am still not clear on it.

When can you apply for citizenship? By that I mean, when can you send off the papers? AFTER the "resident since" date on your greencard or is it 90days prior to that window like it was for the ROC?

For example, I have been a LPR since May 20, 2010. When can I send off my N400 papers? Will it be only on/after May 20, 2013 or can I mail the package out sometime in February (90 days before)?

Thanks !

Don't forget to delay for any number of days when you have been out of the country. They have annotated Nik's entry stamps with how long he was out of the country (2 weeks and 3 weeks) so we would have to wait 5 weeks or so before filing because of it.

Side story - I got all inquisitive on the border agent, because when doing VW, annotations on the entry stamp can be not-so-good = limitations etc, and that's what she told me it was for, not that she was limiting his permanent resident entry to just "2 weeks" heh.

We went to the UK with Nik's passport, extension letter and expired conditional green card.

There were some raised eyebrows, and almost everyone who checked the GC took at least 5 minutes to read the extension letter carefully (we carried the original of all documents), but otherwise no hassles.

The immigration guys didn't bat an eye - it was mostly the ticket check-in people who obviously don't work with those forms as often.

friends - I started to get very upset about my case. I filed my case early March, until today - no mail, email or text message notification at all. I called their National Services last week and they only told me they are approving January cases (as indicated on their website) and that I need to continue to wait. Is this the right time that I should make an Infopass appointment? I was just wondering even if I went for an Infopass, would I be told the same thing, or they can actually look into my case in their computer system for my case status? there's a possibility that the mail got missing as well.....

When I called to ask about mine, the guy told me that you have to look it up based on the case number on your biometrics letter (not NOA1) it sounded really strange to me, but we had misplaced (now found while looking for our W-2s) it so I wasn't able to confirm.

Update on our case: We have been transferred to our local office who will schedule an interview. I am alternating between confident and worried. Confident because we actually are indeed a married couple. Worried because we had an interview for the first GC, and Nik flubbed some questions ("I'm not good with dates") the first time around. I guess we will have to have a study session on important dates. Looks like almost everyone is being approved without interviews, so now I'm on the worried side. Also, I sort of thought that if they interviewed you for the first card you usually didn't get called in for the removal. Ergh.

Sorry I haven't been around cheering everyone on. Just not as interested in VJ when I'm not channeling my "I miss my guy because he's so far away, how do I get him here sooner" into forums addiction.

OK, so I finally got the RFE in the mail yesterday (and with only like 4 hours to spare to ensure delivery before the holiday!) it's due next Tuesday. We never do anything on time.

Anyway, the specific date was: 09/04/12 and we returned it 11/20/12.

That's it? The RFE specifically asked for W-2s? None of the usual vague language generic language listing a wide variety of additional things you need to submit to make them happy? I am surprised because plenty of people who sent in 1040 copies without W-2s seem to have been approved without an RFE. So, I thought that unless they wanted more stuff than just W-2s they would have approved you. Sorry to hear.

Yes, there were like 2 pages of general "this is what we consider evidence" but there was a separate section which reads:

Why USCIS is Sending You This Notice:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has reviewed your Petition to Remove Conditions on Residence (Form I-751) and your supporting evidence does not establish that you and your spouse entered the marriage in good faith and continue to share a life together.

(1) The tax returns submitted are incomplete. W-2 statements were not attached.

What We Need:

Please submit evidence to show that you and your spouse entered the marriage in good faith and continue to share a life together. The evidence should cover the entire period of your marriage. Please do not send copies of documents already sent. If your marriage has ended, please tell us the reason.

Please provide the following evidence using the attached form I-797 (blue sheet) with the response:

....Long list of evidence - including birth certificates of children, which we haven't claimed to have etc. ....

The formatting and the white space are as was typed in the RFE. Since the thing about W-2's seemed to be specific and the rest of the listing general, I only took the W-2s to be required. To be on the safe side, we sent in both of our W-2s for the year we submitted taxes, and also tax transcripts and also the return and transcript for 2011, since that's available now, but wasn't when we first submitted.

Anyway, if we did wrong I don't really want to know, because I can't take the letter back now. Which reminds me, I should be obsessively tracking that letter. it should be delivered any time now. I paid extra this time for guarantee delivery by 3pm today.

On a lighter note, my friend went with me to the post office, and I was explaining that this was for our "Yes, I still like him, may I please keep him" paperwork.

Hey guys, so shortly after my impatient "When will they ever mail us back!!" post, we actually got a request for evidence. -- They think that we are missing a W2 from some year's taxes. SIGH.

I put off responding (Due Nov 30th - I'd better get on that) because I was going to be out of the country for work for 5 weeks and didn't want any interviews to be scheduled while I was gone.

Now I'm back and we are planning to send them a whole packet of tax data - the returns, the W2s, the tax transcripts (they weren't available for the most current year when we filed) etc.

Kinda ticked off, because I'm sure that we included it all, but I didn't copy every single thing we sent, so I can't be sure. Anyway, I will update with a date (it must have been in August?) sometime later....

Holy ####### you guys, I am so ANTSY for any word on our case! I have just scheduled a long business trip (will be gone for pretty much all of October) and now my nightmare situation is that we'll be scheduled for an interview while I'm gone. We already had one for the first GC, so I'm crossing my fingers for an easy approval this time. I'm checking the mail box every day!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sometimes twice!)

Do any of you know if there's a pattern to the new case number where we can check the progress? When we couldn't find his case online, the CS rep said that it was the "new" number on the biometrics letter (lost!) not the one on the NOA 1.

We sent in the electronic notification coverpage, but never got any messages when the NOA 1 went through, so I'm not counting on that for additional notifications.

OK, Vent over.

We just got back from the UK with Nik's expired green card and the extension letter (ORIGINAL, not photo copy) no problem at all.

Not even a second glance from the immigration officer on our way back.

Hey guys,

Just a quick update (my days of VJ obsession are over, so I don't read/post much anymore):

Nik did biometrics a couple of weeks ago on the assigned date (4/6/12) he tried to go in early, but they wouldn't let him.

We just got back from the UK and his sister's wedding Sunday with no hangups. Nik needed the GC, passport and NOA1. We did get a few odd looks as people (not immigration officers, but like airline agents etc) looked at the GC, saw it was out of date and then you could see their brains turning over with the whole "Huh, this is out of date, I wonder if I should call the border patrol"...Nik had the letter right there, and it was always another 30 seconds of them reading it all the way through before continuing. Sort of interesting to watch. Other than that, no real hitches in international travel going either way. Whew.

Hey guys, final update: NOA arrived in the mail yesterday. No G1145 notifications! Really bummed about that. But would rather have the paper, I guess!

Anyway, I wanted to thank all of you for injecting some reason into my panic. <3

-H

I answered based on the cost of the K-1 visa only, but since our total Fees all the way through ROC (current process) exceed $2000, only the catering bill was larger.

This visa is the single most expensive wedding accessory for probably most of us here.

We should start a challenge - what did you buy for the wedding which was more expensive than your immigration fees? Haha

It may not be American law to require a woman to change her last name to her husband's, but it is the typical, cultural norm here. Both the law and the culture can have strong influences on what people do, so I wouldn't hold it against your husband that he wanted to follow along.

Anyway, your name that you use every day, or even on just about any thing which isn't government related (Want to sign up for a bake sale at the school? Or Sign personal letters? Face book? Email?) All of these can be any name you put in the first and last name boxes on the signup form. You don't need to hide from your family!

My mother's name is Elizabeth, but on 90% of her paperwork and her life, she's just Beth.

If it were me, I would not try to change my name back to maiden at this point in time. Right now, you are trying to show that you are still happily married, and symbolically separating yourself from your husband in such a way would certainly set off alarm bells in my head if I were an immigration officer - alarm bells which would not have sounded if you had just kept the same name all along. I don't think this is the time to make this stand.

The check finally cleared this morning. I think we are on our way!

I (petitioner) was strongly scolded for answering questions at our AOS interview. For the K-1 it is an interview of the beneficiary, so they should answer all questions unless the officer specifically requests the petitioner's input.