ezmiller

Does the driver's license need to be a so-called "enhanced" driver's license?

My wife just received her citizenship/naturalization after a successful final ceremony and oath ceremony. She is now a citizen but does not yet have a passport. She needs to take a domestic flight, however, before receiving her passport. We are wondering what kind of evidence she needs to present at security to fly. 

Has anyone been in this particular situation?

Presumably, it would no longer make sense to fly using her Israeli passport since her permanent resident status no longer applies. 

3 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

It’s mainly to get around people living one place and filing another because the second has faster processing time (or people who effectively live overseas but “intend” to have residence in the US, but that’s more an issue for continuous residence than this particular aspect). Particularly if an address has changed fairly shortly before filing, they will usually ask to see DL or state ID with the claimed address, you could present other evidence I guess. Kids at school, local employer, etc. People can pay leases/utilities in holiday homes where they do not actually reside so that’s not always sufficient in and of itself.

And I'm guessing they aren't very understanding of the way in which COVID has caused people to make temporary location adjustments? Or?

Regarding the definition of "residence", I see that Chapter 6 says:

Quote

The applicant’s “residence” refers to the applicant’s principal, actual dwelling place in fact, without regard to intent.

I do find this a bit vague. I'm guessing what it means is that a person's residence is the place that they are actually living, presuming they've lived there by three years. But how does one demonstrate that a given address is in fact one's "actual dwelling place"? Is it just things like a lease or utility bills and the like?

Thank you again for pointing me to the relevant USCIS documents. It looks like the USCIS has a more extensive idea of what it means to "live in a marital union." For tax purposes, it's normal to file as "married, filing jointly" with different tax addresses. Think of a couple that are married but live in different places. Maybe they work in different cities or something like that. But the USCIS documents add some other idea it looks like, namely they say:

Quote

 

An applicant does not meet the married and “living in marital union” requirements if:

• The applicant is not residing with his or her U.S. citizen spouse at the time of filing or during the time in which the applicant is required to be living in marital union with the U.S. citizen spouse

 

In our case, we reside together, but our tax addresses could end up being different. I could see how that could cause some confusion for USCIS. I wonder if anyone here has any experience filing in this kind of situation, and whether it has caused a problem.

Hmm @SusieQQQ, that was actually not my question, but the information you provided is useful and may begin to answer my question. Sorry for not being clear. I'm struggling to be clear because I am not totally sure of the question.

I think my question is more along the lines of: Will the citizenship application be weakened if for some technical/tax reason my wife and I have separate legal addresses, although we are married?

With regards to the rules you shared about residence: the document states: "The duration of an applicant’s residence in a particular location is measured from the moment the applicant first establishes residence in that location." I'm curious what it means to "establish residence"? So for example if someone has not changed their legal residence for tax purposes, but has resided in a different state for 3+ months, and has paid utilities at that other location? Are they then a resident in that other states, or both states, from the point of view of USCIS?

My wife is eligible to apply for citizenship after receiving her (temporary) green card on a marriage based visa (forgot the form names). Because of COVID we've had to move from our permanent residence address for the moment, and yet our move is as far as we know long-term but not permanent. We are waiting to see what happens with the virus later this year. I am considering moving my official address for tax purposes, but my wife's company is less amenable to that kind of a shift, and so she may keep hers the same. For tax purposes, it is legal to file "married, filing jointly" with separate addresses. But are there any limitations, hard or otherwise, that would make that a bad idea? 

Thanks @milimelo! 

Hi, this is not technically an immigration-related question but I suspect people here may have some insight. We hope to bring my wife's mother over to visit early next year. She would be entering (NY area) on a tourist Visa, but she does not speak English and we are concerned about her experience getting from the gate through immigration. Has anyone here gone through a similar process with a family member? Suggestions about how to do this most effectively? Are there services available to help a person like this through border control? 

Thanks in advance for any information or advice that you all may be able to offer.

Does anyone here have any information about acquiring a SS# for a new CR-1 immigrant? When we filed the DS-260, we indicated that we did want a SS#, but are unsure when we should expect to receive it. I've also read a few forum posts on here that indicate that the system is less than reliable and that in some cases people just end up going directly to the SSA office. Has anyone here gone through this process, or just received their card upon requesting it in the DS-260? If so, how long did it take?

Thanks!

Hi All,

We had our interview on April 24th, and were approved, so just waiting for the entry visa. Very exciting!

One useful thing we discovered is this link through which we were able to look at the status of our application after the interview. This was useful because we needed to submit a few additional documents.

Best of luck to everyone still working on this

Does anyone know at what stage in the process an ITIN number is issued for the beneficiary?

On 3/2/2017 at 3:34 AM, misshepburn said:

2) Tricky question, given the current political climate. You have all the same rights (theoretically) as a US citizen to travel and come back. You have after all, been vetted to become a permanent resident and work in the United States. You can basically do everything a citizen does except vote as a GC holder. For travel, the only difference is that a US citizen can never be denied entry (I believe we can be detained) ... but a green card holder can be denied, under very specific, and what used to be rare circumstances. Obviously the recent Trump executive order that targeted specific countries and was interpreted by some border officials to apply to green card holders as well -- has a lot of GC holders very concerned -- regardless of where you are from. As I'm sure you are aware, the Trump ban was ultimately struck down in court... yet out of caution, I know a lot of people who are not planning to travel on their green cards depending on where they were originally from. 

@misshepburn is there a place on VisaJourney where there are ongoing discussions regarding the experiences of GC holders? I've been trying to watch the news about people's unofficial experiences with CBP officers. Most of what's out there is anecdotal at this point, but there are a number of stores of CBP officers using the great latitude that they do evidently enjoy to make people's lives hard. What I don't have a sense of is who they are targeting. Perhaps it is random. Still, it would be nice if there were a thread on VisaJourney looking at this, even collecting stats. In fact, that could be an important resource in general.

14 hours ago, Wanda G said:

Its Been over 30 days i haven't heard back from department of state should i email them or wait a few more days?

What stage in the process are you @Wanda G?

@Spencerburgess: thank you for your helpful response. As it turned out, I didn't need a supervisor when I called again, as they told me that finally the application had completed. So that's good news. Yay!

Two other question:

1) How quickly after an interview is a visa granted -- if the visa is granted?

2) What rights to does a permanent resident have to travel in/out of the country?

On 2/27/2017 at 4:33 PM, Spencerburgess said:

Have you spoken with a supervisor?

 

Do you have any suggestions for a non-confrontational way of asking to speak with a supervisor?

On 2/10/2017 at 3:22 AM, harpmi02 said:

Is anyone in May still waiting to be approved?  Our priority date is May 13th and I am pretty much giving up hope... I tried to get my local legislator involved and they were able to get us a bit more information as to why it is taking so long... "extensive background checks"... But come on... We both have clean records and my husband is coming from Sweden... What could there possibly be to check?

My wife and I are also still waiting to be approved. We have a priority date of May 23, 2016. The NVC received our application in October, and we filed a bunch of documents then through a lawyer. Unfortunately, when we heard back from the NVC in early December they incorrectly stated that we hadn't provided a Birth Certificate. What we'd done is provide an affidavit of birth since my wife doesn't have a birth certificate. So our lawyer responded with an explanation, stating that we believe the application to be complete. And since then we've just been waiting for them to correct what seems to be their mistake. That wait has been now three months. I called the NVC once and the person I spoke with said that couldn't see what was going on, but would elevate it to "supervisory status," and said it could take up to another 6 weeks. So a lot of waiting for us as well! 

Thank you for the prompt response.

Hi, I am a US citizen and am petitioning for a green card for my wife. We have a lawyer whom I trust that is helping us, but I would like to participate a bit here so that I can understand the process more for myself, and have a wider sense of other peoples' experience.

I'm trying, in particular, to set up a VJ Timeline, but I am unsure what pathway we are following, and wondered if people here could help me out. At the moment, we've filed:

1. I-130.

2. Petitioner's birth certificate.

3. Petitioner's Passport.

4. Marriage Certificate.

5. G-325A for petitioner and beneficiary.

We were married outside of the United States, and for some time I have been living outside of the United States myself. We are living together in Israel at the moment, and she is an Israeli Citizen. Can anyone help me out in understanding which track I should setup on the VJ Timeline?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Hi --

I've heard some mixed information about whether or not the US Citizen petition for their fiance to come to the US is, in every case, requested to come for fingerprinting? Does anyone know whether they do this in every case, or just in some instances when they find a criminal record?

Hi --

I've heard some mixed information about whether or not the US Citizen petition for their fiance to come to the US is, in every case, requested to come for fingerprinting? Does anyone know whether they do this in every case, or just in some instances when they find a criminal record?

My question is does the K-1 (Fiance) Visa need to be used immediately after it is issued? Or is it possible to wait some months before actually using the Visa to travel to the US?

ezmiller

Does anyone know how quickly after a fiance visa is issued the holder of the visa must use the it to enter the country? Once the visa is issued, must it be used immediately?

ezmiller

The question is simple. Perhaps the answer is too. Say that at the AOS stage the government judges a sponsor's income insufficient and there is not co-sponsor. What does the government do at that point? Do they require that the immigrant returns to their home country?

If sponsor's income is insufficient, and RFE will be issued requesting a joint-sponsor. The RFE will have a certain time-frame within which to respond. If by the deadline, there is no response, or if the response is "I couldn't find a joint-sponsory, sorry!" the AOS petition will be denied and if the intending immigrant exhaust all other elibilities, eventually 'removal' proceedings will begin against said 'intending immigrant'.

What is the "certain time-frame" usually?

The question is simple. Perhaps the answer is too. Say that at the AOS stage the government judges a sponsor's income insufficient and there is not co-sponsor. What does the government do at that point? Do they require that the immigrant returns to their home country?