Sgt. McGee

So, to sum up this thread (or this page, anyway), it's a bunch of Brit ex-pats congratulating each other on the fact that we've taken a step towards being the country that they left?

Got it.

Fair enough, I agree not having the right records makes things more difficult. How did you prove she was not subject to the HRR?

I wrote a brief explanation of our understanding of the situation (why we didn't have the original visa/passport), including the fact that the sponsoring agency (some outfit based in Utah, I don't have the info handy) did not have any of her paperwork. I also got a written statement from the au pair agency that stated that au pairs in their program were entirely sponsored by the host family (and not by the au pair's home government), as this is a key element in the HRR. Just to be safe, I also included a reference to the skills list and the fact that her home country (Czech Republic) was not on the skills list at all.

Between those factors (no government sponsorship, not on the skills list), and the barely-legible copy of the IAP-66 which didn't clearly show either way that she was subject to the HRR, there were no issues. It didn't even come up in the interview...

I am always very surprised when people (1) somehow don't realize they are subject to the HRR, and (2) can't explain under which program they qualified for the J-1.

Not to hijack, but in our case, since my wife had been here for so long (and had replaced an expired passport with a new one, which didn't have her visa in it, since that had long since expired as well), we had to prove definitively that she was not subject to the HRR. That's a little different than not knowing that you're subject. She knew she wasn't subject, but couldn't find paperwork to prove it, and the IAP-66 didn't have either box checked thanks to the carbon copy not being properly aligned (the check was floating between the box for "is subject" and "is not subject" - not very helpful!).

So, knowing of other ways to determine whether the requirement applies can be helpful!

If your J1 was on your own, not your government then no objection waiver is not gonna be issued by them. Sorry but there is no way to go around HHR until you finish it.

I'm not sure about this...

Based on the research I was doing (when we weren't even sure if my wife would be subject to the HRR, since she didn't have her original passport anymore), the HRR mostly applies to people who are in government-sponsored programs, or whose skills are listed on the skills list for their home country (listed here: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_4514.html). I don't see Turkmenistan listed on the skills list, which is a good sign. If, as you say, the OP's visa/original program to come to the US was paid for by non-government means, it is probably a positive sign.

I'd say that the No Objection statement is not a lost cause, and there may be a good chance of not having to fulfill the 2-year HRR, but then again, I'm not a lawyer, etc.

Going a little different direction with this...

There's a "skills list" available here: http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_4514.html

If you look through there, and can determine that you aren't included in the skills list (determined by country of origin and nature of the program that brought you here) for the time period that you were here under the J-1, you should have an easy time stating your case. This is the approach I took with my wife's AOS application (she didn't have her original passport, which had expired and been replaced, and it was hard to read on the original DS-2019, or whatever form we had). We had no issues...

The advisory opinion isn't a bad idea, but it may take a while to get taken care of. This is something you could start on as soon as you click the link above... Good luck!

Good luck! Do you have your date yet?

Ours was there, too. Pretty positive experience (not just because we were approved).

I wrote a bit about it here: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/267366-august-2010-filers/page__p__4398902#entry4398902

Good luck!

That does sound like a great idea, when I was putting my packet together i was not aware that that was even legal. I thought "certified" means by someone with a stamp, like certifying copies. Otherwise the bias would be too great, I can say my certificate says anything... how will they know O.o.... anywho... I wish I would have saved 100$ ... ugh.. better be worth it.

Yeah, I was a little surprised to find out that it was OK, but the "certified" refers to a certifying statement made that says that the translator is proficient in both languages.

From the USCIS site (http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextchannel=fe529c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextoid=ff053d146a7ee010VgnVCM1000000ecd190aRCRD)

Please submit certified translations for all foreign language documents. The translator must certify that s/he is competent to translate and that the translation is accurate.

The certification format should include the certifier's name, signature, address, and date of certification. A suggested format is:

Certification by Translator

I [typed name], certify that I am fluent (conversant) in the English and ________ languages, and that the above/attached document is an accurate translation of the document attached entitled ______________________________.

Signature_________________________________

Date Typed Name

Address

I have seen a number of references around the web (not surprisingly, sometimes on pages for for-fee translation firms) stating that the translation should be performed by a "disinterested third party" (i.e., not the petitioner or applicant), but we had no trouble with my wife's self-translated birth certificate, so it may be an area where they're willing to be a little lenient as long as it complies with the certification guidelines.

I translated birth certificate by myself, and also certified that I am fluent in both languages by myself too.

My wife did the same for hers. Much simpler/cheaper than finding and paying someone else...

My wife included all of her employment (including the unauthorized stuff) on the G325-A, and had no issues. Her authorization basically ended 1 year after she was here, but she had worked consistently since her arrival, until we filed paperwork. At that point, she stopped working for a few months, until she got her work permit.

No it doesn't. My husband overstayed by 7-8 years. We had no problems whatsoever. Good luck!

My wife overstayed by ~10 years. See our timeline below...

I wish I could help you, Sarge. I don't foresee any problem since you have round trip tickets. I imagine someone will be along soon who has tried this, unfortunately I've never heard of this being done which doesn't mean that it won't work.

Thanks... I guess I should add, I'm a US Citizen (born/raised, not naturalized), and we're going to visit my wife's family. Not sure if it would make any difference if I were a green card holder, visa holder, or whatever, but in case it does... ummm... there's the info!

I'm going to travel to Europe twice this summer. Going over, my wife and I will travel together, then I'll return to the US alone, go back to Europe alone, and then return with my wife. In order to make reservations as simply as possible, I'm thinking of buying the "outside" trip (first and last flight) as one round trip ticket, and the "inside" (2nd and 3rd flights) as another. Obviously, one r/t ticket will be US>EU>US, the other will be EU>US>EU. My goal in doing this is to make sure that our outside flights are locked together, so that one of us doesn't get bumped or caught up without the other if there are weather delays, volcano eruptions, etc.

Has anyone used a strategy like this? Is there any problem leaving the country on one r/t ticket and coming back on a different one with a still-unused ticket waiting for me? I don't know quite what the problem would be, but for some reason it feels like it could cause issues, and look like I'm trying to do something illicit.

Yes you can. Some of those do make sense, but at least half of them are partisan pet peeves. I don't see anywhere on that list a suggestion to defund the war, or to cut back on military spending. If they are going to make a symbolic list, they could at least make a good one, not a disingenuous list that will get vetoed. If they had the votes to overturn a veto, then I would give them more credit. But they don't.

Well, you can feel free to run for congress, coerce a majority, then post your own list.

Otherwise, just because they're suggesting things you disagree with doesn't mean they aren't offering options...

I haven't proposed saving "at least $100 billion the first year alone" - the GOP has. Not just proposed but pledged. This is like pledging to run across America in a year's time and taking less than half a step on day one and then resting for the remainder of the week. Do the math: You'd have to add roughly 2,900 such "little somethings" to get to where they pledged to go. And you'd have to do that in the next 260 or so days. That's 11 such "little somethings" each and every day starting today running through September 30 and including every Saturday, Sunday and Holiday. Do you really believe that's going to happen? Do you really think that's realistic?

Man, I hope they come up with these kinds of cuts in spending but I just don't see it happening. They won in early November and had two full months to develop a strategy and present that strategy to the people. And this is all they can come up with after just having helped add some $900 billion to the deficit over the next two years? Who are they kidding?

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/291776-house-gop-lists-25-trillion-in-spending-cuts/

(I don't agree with all of the proposed cuts, but you can't claim they aren't trying...)

You can (we did) just walk in. I don't think they'll reschedule you prior to your assigned date, so that wouldn't work anyway.

Just go, hope it's not too busy, explain to the guy checking the papers that you can't make it/will be out of town/etc on the assigned day, and they'll let you through.

We didn't even have to give a reason, though. Just showed up, he looked, and waved us through. Piece of cake.

We actually ended up being ok without a cleaner copy of the IAP-66. The copy we had was only sort of legible, but I wrote an explanation stating that the program that she came over with didn't receive government support, and that all fees/costs were paid by the sponsoring family.

It sort of depends on why you need the document. We needed it because my wife didn't have her original passport with the visa stamp, so we were worried about proving that there was no 2 year HRR. Our other piece of supporting evidence was that she wasn't part of any category listed on the skills list at http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_4514.html. (Czech Republic is no longer subject to the skills list, and was retroactively removed). If you're trying to prove that you have no HRR, that may be a good starting point.

If you need the document for something else (i.e., they've specifically requested that document), you probably need to work with DOS to get a copy.

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide2

Read it, learn it, love it...

I just received the card production notice. It's so weird how inconsistent these seemingly simple steps are!

Even weirder: the green card arrived today!

(we were out of town over the weekend, and the approval letter and green card were both in the mailbox, but with different postmarks - we can only guess that the approval letter arrived Saturday, and it was dated the same day as our interview)

Now, to start collecting info for the ROC. Our goal is to go through without an interview...

I've got the "other white metal": palladium. It's related to platinum, but much, much lighter, and as a result is closer in cost to white gold on a "per ring" basis. Because it's white like platinum, it doesn't need to be dipped (the deal-breaker for white gold), and it scuffs/scratches like plat, too. I gave a palladium (PD, if you're all periodic table-y about it) engagement ring, and then we got PD wedding bands. The IO at our interview asked me if it was "fake" (when he asked what metal is was, and I told him it was palladium, he asked why - I explained the above and he said "so is it fake? or are you afraid people will think it's fake?") I didn't want to explain that in the early 20th century, it was pretty common, and actually became more expensive that Pt for a while.

Either way, we love them, and they work for us...

the most popular sandwich specials I had were always paninis and always quite simple.

+1

I'll also vote for a BLT, or better yet, a BELT (Bacon, Egg, Lettuce, Tomato), but only when tomatoes are fresh/in-season (i.e. "summer", whenever that happens to be where you are).

I just put city/state, and was approved. My logic was, if it's enough to find it in the phone book, it's enough to put on the form...

...face a shortfall of $2,500 billion...

Not really a comment on the article, but I've seen this notation appearing a lot lately, "2,500 billion", "3,100 trillion," etc. Why didn't they write it as 2.5 trillion? Or 3.1 quadrillion, respectively?

I also received our email late on Friday, January 14, saying that card production has been ordered and the same information is posted on our USCIS website.

Just curious - did you get an "approval" notice, too? Or just a card production notice? I received the former, but not yet the latter, even though the IO told us he was ordering card production while we were sitting there.

Sorry for a potential threadjack, but my situation's a little different... We married in 2010, AOS was approved in 2011. She didn't work in 2010, so will I file as married filing jointly, even though she had no taxable income (actually, there may be a few cents in interest on a bank account) and she didn't have legal resident status during the year?