mrsB

I will get into more detail on our case a bit later (as I'm at work atm), but a thought just occurred to me...

When we originally filed the I-130, we also filed I-129F, which is on my timeline... However, the USCIS immediately messed up the I-129F, writing our names wrong on that one. We spent the whole processing time battling to get them to discard the I-129F, which THEY suggested would be the best thing to do in December 2008 when they said the I-129F had only been slowing our process down. We then agreed to discard the I-129F, but it resurfaced in April 2009. My husband went to see the USCIS people by appointment, in which he AGAIN asked for the I-129F to be dropped as it hadn't been yet. And again, the USCIS promised to take care of it. Yet, the I-129F resurfaced AGAIN in September 2009 when we got our intent to deny with both the I-130 and I-129F. We were instructed to NOT send evidence in regards of the I-129F, to make sure it'd die away. We also sent a specific letter (for the 2nd time) to ask again for the USCIS to discard it as it was not neccessary. But now that I got the e-mail about the denial decision... it's for both the I-130 and the I-129F... so wth, they NEVER discarded it? Could it be that the I-129F and the fact that we didn't send evidence for it messed up the whole case? I know this is kind of speculation as it'll probably a few more days yet before we receive the actual paperwork.

But I am going to whip up the money from somewhere to sue their asses for all the time and money wasted and to be in the American spirit, I'll sue them for emotional suffering or what not... I don't know, I'm just furious, to put it simply. 2 years of fighting to even get them to spell our names right... and then denied!

I have probably around 2000 dollars worth of stuff in the USA, friends and my husband's family who are like my own family... and I'm suddenly not allowed to enter the country? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIHHHHIIII...

Wait... I can't even travel to SEE my husband anymore? I already only saw him maybe twice a year as it was... FOR 5,5 YEARS.

Is it possible to enter the U.S. through the visa waiver program and immediately apply for adjustment of status to become a lawful permanent resident? Can they/will they kick you out of the country? I am the wife of an US citizen and I just got the e-mail today saying that the papers have been sent (to my husband) stating that our visa application has been denied (after over 2 years of processing).

If adjustment of status to LPR is possible, how long will it take?

I read about the adjustment from http://www.usafa.edu/superintendent/ja/Imm...?catname=JA#lpr

and it says:

"Foreign Spouses Already In the United States Can “Adjust Their Status” to LPR

A foreign spouse who is already in the United States in some status, e.g., as a non-immigrant visitor, or through admission under the Visa Waiver Program, can apply to adjust his or her status to lawful permanent residence by first having the U.S. citizen or LPR spouse file a Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, on his or her behalf, at the appropriate Service Center address, above. Once the I-130 is approved, the foreign spouse must file a Form I-485, Application for Adjustment of Status. This is also filed at the appropriate Service Center, at the address, above. However, if the sponsoring spouse is a U.S. citizen, both applications can be filed at the same time at the local USCIS office in the district in which the couple resides. To find the address for the local USCIS district office, please refer to the USCIS website, www.uscis.gov."

I guess we should've just done that the first time I visited the US... but it has now also been more than 2 years since we were married, so there shouldn't be any questions about the marriage being real. Well, there shouldn't have been to begin with, the amount of evidence we've been sending in.

Could use some help/advice/info ASAP, thanks.

Thanks Gwen!

I looked into the link you provided... it seems a lot of the same troubles we've already been facing trying to get my behind to US... I'm not entirely looking forward to proving our marriage's existance for the 3rd time >_> However, I'm keeping the options open... but how slow is "it's not fast"? Because we've already spent 2 years of our marriage fighting to get into the same country... if we're looking into spending yet another anniversary apart, I think we'll just settle for Finland...

So many times we've been banging our heads against a wall wishing we would've just both been European or something and wouldn't have needed all this hassle... I have been poorly informed in the past about the "ease" of moving to another European country as most "info" I've got so far (from people) has just been "oh you can just go there with your husband". Not very specific! Hehe... Anyway yes, thank you! I also looked into that other forum English Muffin provided a link for. Thanks for the help :]

Okay, then I'm sort of in the right place as I wouldn't be the only one moving to UK, but my US citizen husband might be as well. I'm a citizen of Finland, which is part of the EU and EEA, making it pretty simple for me to just go to UK ans settle down. No hassle really, as far as I know. However... for my husband to move to UK... I'm not really certain how that'll happen. Some sources say that being married to me, makes him pretty much equivalent to EU citizen, meaning he could just come with me, no visa needed or anything. Other sources say all US citizens must obtain certain visas to get to go to UK and most likely it'd even have to be a work visa, meaning he'd also have to acquire a job from the UK before coming. So it's obvious that I'm faaairly confused as to what to do and how to proceed should we go for this idea. I've been waiting for a visa to get to US for about 2 years and regardless of constant pushing we haven't received a decision or update in quite some time (posted about this on the K3-forums several times). I'm personally really fed up having my life on hold, waiting around, doing temporary jobs, living on my parents' couch with no privacy and the other fun stuff I've had to do while I just sit about and wait. So I'm ready to move on. I have a bachelor's degree from college, but the jobs for this industry (culture, arts & media) are pretty hard to come by in Finland... as is pretty much any other job I could be able to do. The original plan for me to move to US came from the fact that I already spoke English pretty much as well as I spoke Finnish and I was done with my education. My husband on the other hand doesn't speak Finnish and he started working straight out of High School and has been making decent money in the US, where as the odds of getting a job with just high school education in Finland are... pretty much non-existant. So! After quite a bit of thought and my friend's successful move to the UK, I started to think that UK might be a good "compromise". They speak English there, so that's half of the win... I'd imagine it'd be easier even for my husband to find a job there - or get education. Obviously there are also more jobs available to me there than here in Finland. UK also seems attractive to me since the flight from here to there is only about 4 hours, and the flights aren't that expensive, so I could visit my family in Finland easily... and of course the flight to USA wouldn't be that long either.

Of course I've heard the stories about insanely cold houses in UK and the country being in a state of panic when it gets snowy but... I'm from Finland and my husband is from Wisconsin, we can handle cold and snow I don't even mind the rain. Plus, we probably wouldn't be heading into the London area, I'd like to move to a smaller town, if possible, for the sake of living expenses and all.

Anyway so, my question is... what documents does an American (married to a European) have to bring with them... and do they need a visa and such..?

And then I noticed that the word This contained a link... Aaaahhh fail...

Is moving TO UK discussed on this forum as well or just moving from UK? I'd have quite a few questions I can't seem to find answers to just by browsing the internet...

Hai!

I seem to have trouble tearing myself away from the forums hehe...

Anyway, yes, we are indeed looking into moving to UK/Ireland, it'd be half a win, at least they speak my husband's language there. I could work at any job from advertizing to horses and everything in between and I personally don't care where in the world I am, as long as there are seasons! For me, the move to UK/Ireland is no problem as I'm an EU citizen and all I need is to go there. We're currently looking into what it might take to get my hubby to move there as well... I'm sure that him being married to an EU citizen is a huge help. We'll see. If all else fails, we'll just try to settle in Finland since everyone seems to be welcome here hehe...

One has to remember that we already did this long-distance relationship for about 3,5 years before we even got married. We're very independent, but also very much in love. Of course we never expected it to take this long to get to be together but well... we've been managing. :]

Oh poop, I forgot to type in here too that I'll be going byebyes Our case still hasn't advanced anywhere and we've pulled all the strings possible and grasped the last straws remaining. We've left numerous service requests with the USCIS, contacted them by letters, got the state's senior senator involved, called the Ombudsman, I mailed the White House & President & Mrs. Obama, got some help from a lawyer and what not... Since we just want to get to be together, we're going to start making arrangements for my husband to move to Europe instead, possibly even Finland. It's going to be a bit difficult relocating our belongings (some of which I dragged from Finland to USA to begin with) and getting my husband a job, especially if we'll be in Finland. Without language skills in Finnish and education past high school, it'll be mostly on me to try to support us. Buuuut we're sort of past caring about comfort. We just want to get to spend our 3rd wedding anniversary together. Doesn't matter where.

But, best of luck to those still struggling with their visas and congrats to those who've already found their way to USA. Usa is not going to be the country for me to live in by the looks of it, but I might still visit it with my husband (if they let me into the country haha) every now and then.

Oh by the way, it turned out the senator we've been contacting IS the senior senator of the state. Husband called USCIS, got no answers, as usual, they put in another service request that'll probably join the other 6-7 that were previously passed on as "dealt with" without being physically touched. So, with that said, my husband's been organizing his finances lately to prepare for the move to Finland so I think we're going to start to go forward with that as we're both stressed out and tired of f*cking around with USCIS and being treated like dirt.

I'm thinking about applying to study nursing, as nurses never run out of jobs anywhere and the degree is very sought after everywhere in the world. I have a bachelor degree from culture & media, but there's no job openings for anyone with that sort of a degree in this country. So I have to find something that'll actually provide me with a proper income, as I'm going to be the sole provider in the family for at least a few years.

Anyway, thanks all for your input and help (not just in this post but my other one that has gone of for ages), too bad USA wasn't the destination for me after all. But best of luck to those who have managed to relocate to USA or are planning on doing so!

Over and out.

Ah, thank you. I'll dig out this senior senator person and try that way. I was previously instructed to just go with the closest one, like the one in your immediate area. I'm pretty clueless about the senators as we have nothing like it here in Finland. :]

Hey all,

So to sum things up, we were originally going for the K3 and started by filing the I-130 in February 2008. We received the information (NOA1) from the USCIS that it had been received in April 2008. We immediately filed the I-129F and received the info that it had been received the information (NOA1) that it had been received in June 2008. Unfortunately, the USCIS had for some reason mispelled our last name in the I-129F and we immediately contacted them (by phone) to get this sorted out. We were under the assumption that it was indeed sorted out, until we started wondering why our case was way past processing dates in December 2008. After contacting the USCIS (by phone) we learned that our name was still spelled incorrectly in the I-129F. The USCIS officer suggested dropping the I-129F as it was no longer useful to us anyway and we agreed that it would be a good way to go. At the same time we inquired about the status of our case and heard that it had just been sent off to be processed (why it took so many months, we don't know). We waited and waited until in February 2009 we got the tip to get the congressman/senator involved in our case, since it was now WAY past processing times. The senator's assistant inquired about our case and 30 days later we received a written update from the USCIS saying that our case was in the FBI security checks. They estimated that we had been in the security checks since January 2009.

Suddenly in April my husband got the request from USCIS to go give his biometrics at the local USCIS office in June. He got 2 requests, one for the I-130 and one for the I-129F - with a different name. He went to give his fingerprints and stuff in hopes of clearing up the problem with the names. And again we waited. In September 2009 my husband got a letter from the USCIS requesting additional evidence. I was visiting him in USA (for the first time during our 2-year-marriage) at the time and we both went to the INFOPASS-appointment we got in hopes of finding out WHAT exactly the USCIS wanted from us. The lady at the USCIS wasn't entirely sure herself, but suggested we'd write letters to the USCIS in regards of our relationship and ask for my husband's relatives to do the same thing. She also suggested we'd seek legal and political help in the matter, even though they're apparently not supposed to advice you to seek political help. We had already had the senator involved in our case and since the meeting, we also consulted a lawyer who helped us a bit pro bono. Interestingly, we had also received the request for evidence with both I-130 and I-129F mentioned... AGAIN. We also wrote a written request (since multiple phone calls & senator's involvement didn't do it) to abandon our I-129F once and for all. Now, when I check our case status online, I can see that with the I-130 it says they've received our additional evidence in the end of October 2008, but the I-129F is still there and says that additional evidence has been requested (but not received as we didn't send anything regarding that form, as previosly mentioned).

USCIS was supposed to provide us with a written decision or update within 60 days of receiving our additional evidence. Of course we haven't received anything. My husband is planning on calling them today, as we're anxiously waiting to see if our I-129F is still dragging along.

Any ideas as to why the USCIS is so unwilling to let go of our I-129F? Could it be that we haven't received an update because we're STILL trying to disregard the I-129F? Is there any way to make absolutely sure that we'll just move on with the I-130 since calling won't help and letters are a bit so-so.

I should probably also mention that we contacted the Ombudsman last year as well and never got any kind of a reply. I assumed there'd at least be reply saying they've received our case? This was before the whole request for additional evidence even.

So besides hiring a lawyer at such a (supposedly) late state of processing, is there anything we could do to make sure the I-129F dies for good and that we start getting some updates/decisions from the USCIS? How long will it take before I can say that our case is unreasonably outside processing times at it has soon been 2 years since we started this all...?

I guess this must depend on the senator, as in my case, writing to the senator did nothing. They said that all they can do is to send an inquiry every 30 days. They did this a couple of times, but it hasn't sped up our process in any way. Plus we only got the first reply after a month from contacting the senator. In fact, the senator didn't do anything himself, he sent his assistant to the job, who I guess didn't have the authority to do anything other than inquire case status. *shrug*

I wonder if we could've contacted a senator NOT from my husband's state...

Been 60+ days since USCIS had received our "additional evidence" and in the automatic update e-mail I got from them, they said that we'd be given a written decision or update within 60 days from October 28th, 2009. Of course we haven't received a damn thing from them, as always and I haven't received any updates on our case via e-mail. USCIS website shows no updates either. Will calling the usual USCIS number help any or will they (at most) again pretend to put in a service request (like so many times before)? Is there any way to FORCE the decision out of them?

Oh and I sent that letter on Monday (Dec 28th), it'll probably reach California late next week (early January).

Hey Inky,

I got an address for the letter, using the same one we used to send in our "additional evidence", I was just kinda trying to decide how to catch their attention just with the envelope... Maybe I should do a pink one? I don't know.

thongd4me,

Yeah it's a long thread... I guess I should start a new one when this case receives some kind of an update? The USCIS has however been done with the security checks at least since summer. As far as we know. The senator's assistant who was "helping" us out, said that the security checks were done late in the spring. Why did they ponder up to the end of September before sending us the request for evidence, I don't know. As far as my husband's name goes... yes, it is quite common I'd imagine. After all, his first name alone is the most common male name in USA, so I wouldn't have a hard time imagining there to be several people with his name. He gave his prints and everything last spring at the USCIS office near his home and I guess that helped finish the security checks. Part of the problem was (in case you hadn't read) the typo USCIS made in the very beginning of our case, due to which I guess at some point they thought there were 2 Mikes and 2 Jennis (they typoed our last name) and in fact he got 2 requests to go give his fingerprints - under both names. I guess giving them prints made them convinced there was in fact just one of him... Also, my husband hasn't committed any crimes that'd somehow stand in the way of me getting a visa to the U.S. So, as far as we know security checks are long done, they should have all the evidence we can possibly give them... but they're just not making a decision. I know there's no way really to speed up the decision making process but come on, it's been a year and 10 months since we started this... I think we deserve some kind of a decision by now, even if it's a denial (at which point he'll just move here).

I've decided to write a letter to the USCIS California Service center. Any tips on how I could make sure someone actually reads it and notes it? I could do with a glimmer of hope right now, as I just learned my sister is getting divorced (which wasn't the surprise), and her husband did the shitty thing and decided to drop the papers to her right before christmas, even though it was all supposed to wait until next year. He also had demanded to keep the kids to avoid paying alamony and he's basically kicking her out of their home. And as if that wasn't enough yet, my dad just ended up hospitalized a couple of days before his birthday and we so far have no idea what's wrong with him. They suspect it might be partially due to this stress. ARGH. Merry freaking Christmas.

Hey btw, can I somehow put on my timeline the request for additional evidence etc..? They seemed to have changed the thing around a bit too.

I'm just curious if you and your husband have decided after how many years apart you would consider retaining a competent immigration attorney to find out what the obstacle in your case is?

First of all, I've said this before, but I'll say it again. I have an income of about 300 euros a month. I cannot afford any kind of a lawyer. My parents are retired and have very small pension, they can't really help with this. My husband has usually only a couple of hundred left from all his payments on a monthly basis, he can't really afford it. His mom is a lunch lady at school, not exactly rolling in big bucks and he hasn't seen his dad since he was about 7 years old. So, we can't just whip up a few thousand for a competent lawyer as much as we'd like to. We've consulted a lawyer who was willing to help us out a bit for free, as mentioned, but we can't afford to hire her. She looked into our case and said there should be no obstacle for my visa, but the USCIS just wants more evidence. We also heard tht now it'd be kind of pointless to hire a lawyer because all the USCIS has to do is to make a decision, on way or another.

I've discussed the visa with my husband a lot and we've decided that if I can get a decent job here and a proper apartment to go with it, he'll move to Finland with me as it is pretty simple. A couple of hundred euros for the paperwork, about 4 months until you get the papers that give you permission to stay a year. For 4 years you have to resend the paperwork, but after that you can (as far as I've understood) stay as long as you like. Of course, I need quite the income here, since I would have to support both me and my husband while he goes to school here. He only has high school diploma (which I've probably mentioned) which means pretty much nothing here. Here you need degrees. He also doesn't speak the language, so he would also need to learn that before he can really start working here. But it's the plan B, which be a tough one, but we do want to be together and not spend our 3rd anniversary apart too.

It'd be awesome if we could just hire a lawyer (even though it supposedly is too late now) and get this sorted out once and for all, but sadly we're not rolling in money. Personally, I'd be willing to just give up already. If everything in USA "works" this slowly, I'm not too sure I want to be there.

Oh by the way, odds are that the cat wasn't my main cause of allergies, but the mold that was found in the apartment that certainly did no good to my asthma. Husband also bought all sorts of anti-allergy treatments for the cat to make him less allergenic, which I think helped.

Hello, I've been so tired of the whole visa procedure that I haven't been checking the forums in ages. I've been back in Finland for a bit over a month now, I came in early November. I've been looking for jobs, but haven't been lucky yet, though I've considered about starting my own business here instead. It's an idea I've had since I was a teen and since the employment situation in Finland is so poor, I might as well start now.

As far as our visa is concerned... well, we got an intent to deny finally in late September, with less than a month to reply. The USCIS wanted more evidence, but on what, was rather confusing. We contacted the USCIS who instructed us to make an appointment with the local office in the nearest town and we also called a lawyer who has helped us some for free, from the goodness of her heart. The appointment with USCIS didn't really provide us with much. They were confused as to why we had gotten the intent to deny in the first place and why we were given so little time. The lady we talked to suggested we might want to look for legal or political help. She suggested this several times, which we found odd, considering that we were later told they're not allowed to hint that we should get politicians involved. However, since we didn't exactly know how to provide the USCIS with more evidence regarding our marriage, we resorted to writing letters. Previously my family, relatives and friends from Finland had written letters regarding our relationship, so now my husband's family wrote some. I also wrote one since I was in USA at the time of this. So we sent off our letters and I got an automatic e-mail from the USCIS in late October saying they had received the "additional information". No news since this.

I told myself that I'm waiting until the end of the year and then going forward with the idea of my own business. At the same time the little voice inside my head is holding me back, because I somehow still keep expecting to receive some kind of a decision from USCIS the next week... We'll see. There's still a couple of weeks of this year left.

Hello all,

so far my trip has been going pretty good, I've been taking some extra doses of my asthma medicine and antihistamine as well. Been training the cat to not be in the bedroom and my husband has ordered some sprays and stuff that should help with the allergy problems. One product is intended for the house, to get rid of allergens and one is for the cat, to make him... I guess anti-allergenic? is that even a word... Anyway, he's trying his best without having to give up the cat, and I know how much the cat means to him (being his only companion for years now), so I don't want to just ask him to give him up. He's trying to make it possible for us to live together, but has said that if this stuff won't help... then the cat will be the one to leave.

Other than that, I've had fun, I've been hanging out with him and his friends (though all male, hehe) and we've had a good time. I wish my husband wouldn't have to work SO MUCH, but he has some vacation coming so we can celebrate my b-day together. Whee.

Thanks LGG,

I was suspecting something of the like. Sadly, that might mean that I'm not going to move to USA after all, because I don't think I could live in the same home with my husband for the time being. I think I mentioned somewhere in my posts, but I've always had a lot of allergies and last year I was diagnosed with asthma. The doctor suspected that the reason why it suddenly erupted was the fact that my husband got a kitten during my last stay in the USA. I've always been the MOST allergic to cats, though not all cats have caused me problems. Then again, I've never lived with one yet, only visited households with cats. At the time, we agreed that if the cat would cause problems with my allergies, we'd find him a new home... But now he has lived here with my husband for 2 years and of course my husband is very fond of him. I've however had to increase the amount of asthma medicine I take since I got here and even had to use my airway opening medicine a lot - something I never had to do before. I am also taking antihistamin on a daily basis. The humid air is only adding to my problems, but my health has been poor since I got here. I do always feel better after a day spent outside or shopping or whatever, but then at night when it's bed time I find it very hard to breathe again. So basically, me and the cat... we don't mix. My husband loves the cat, he's used to the cat and so far he hasn't even considered about finding him a new home. And if I indeed can't just move to USA to my own place (somewhere near his), I will probably have to scrap the idea. I wouldn't want to ask him to give the cat away anyway, because I can see how much he means to him.

Well, one day at a time, but I do think my trip will turn out to be much shorter than the 90 days I could stay, since battling with my health might turn out to be a problem. I only had a certain amount of medicines with me, just enough for the trip. Since I've had to use so much extra, I'm not sure how long my medicine lasts. Or how long I last for that matter

Anyway, that's all for now. Still no news what so ever on the visa front anyway.

Oh also, I'm not sure what kind of a visa I would now be ending up with, since the USCIS was supposed to toss our I-129F away, but as far as we know, they haven't done this. So I don't know if it'll be a K3 or CR1. Last time we talked with them, we got the impression it'd be CR1, but with the I-129F still lingering about... who knows?

Just wanted you guys to know that I did get to enter the USA for the 90 or so days. It wasn't easy breezy, but after about 1,5 hours at the airport talking to people and having them go through all my possessions I was finally allowed to enter. I didn't have to show them any papers other than my passport and the forms you need for customs. So I'm in the USA now, visiting. No news on the visa or the ombudsman or anything like it.

Also, off-topic... when you get a spouse visa to USA, are you required to live in the same apartment/house/address as your spouse or can you live in another address? Does it matter?

It's August. We still haven't heard one word from the Ombudsman. It's starting to get pretty weird. No words from the USCIS since they wanted my husband's biometrics, nothing from the senator and nothing from the Ombudsman. Haven't even received a letter saying they got our papers. MYSTERIOUS, I would say. However, in a few days, I'm flying to USA and hopefully I will get to see my husband, instead of just wasting over 700 dollars.

Oh wow, NotworkSte... You've been to some adventures I'm glad everything has worked out for you, I hope everything works out for me too. I don't mind them asking me tons of questions, as long as that results in me being able to stay. I think that if they would just use their brain, they'd realize that I'm not staying. After all, I've filed all the neccessary paperwork in order to go for the visa and I could've just stayed in the USA years ago, married there and waited. But I wanted to do everything the legal way - no matter how painful it is now... I'm going to bring copies of documents... ones that I can. Sadly I won't be having a job here waiting for me, my internship ends at the end of July. I do plan on going for another job once I get back, but that's just my word against theirs.