onbeachtime

11 hours ago, Hypnos said:

You're giving CA far too much credit. 

 

Enter how long you have considered yourself to be a resident of the US (and note that it says resident, not legal resident) so you can move on and disqualify yourself as a juror, which is the most important part of this transaction right now.

 

Right now you're trying to explain the concept of chartered accounting to an ant: there's so many intervening steps as to make it meaningless. 

 

You aren't qualified to serve on a jury, and that's all the state of California cares about. 

You're right. My husband, who was born and raised in CA, said the same thing - and emphasized that he's certain that CA is not capable of having their sh*t together well enough for any trouble to come of this. 

I went ahead and filled out the form honestly and submitted it. It went through automatically, and I don't think a human will even look at it, after all. Apparently since Canada is considered a "major" country for these purposes, they just let the system push it through without any further scrutiny.

So as of now, looks like things are problem-free - thank goodness! Thanks again to everyone for your time, input, and patience!

2 hours ago, aaa2zzz said:

yes pretty soon you will get a sample ballot for the next election. 

 

Hopefully not, since I very specifically did NOT fill out the voter related fields on the driver's license application form. I didn't receive anything (while my husband did) for the most recent elections, so I guess we'll see. I should have my AOS in progress before anything more happens, at least! 

1 minute ago, jjbandero said:

Just a thought, how smart is this online form? Do you have to insert a number or will it accept letters as well? If so, could you just put "na" and let it take you to the page where you state "not a US citizen"?

Thanks for the suggestion! Since it's not a drop-down menu, I'll give it a go and let you know! Just waiting on my husband to get back from work so he can give his opinion as well. 

3 minutes ago, broppy said:

You're overthinking things! Right now, the court knows nothing about your immigration status. They just got your name and address from the DMV. Once you fill in their form and put 1 or 2 years (or whatever) and say you're Canadian, they don't know much more. They'll have no reason to be suspicious about anything and won't be reporting anything to anyone. Don't worry about it and just finish the form and be done with it.

Thank you for calling me out. I'm sorry for that. I do tend to obsess and stress over things, and this whole process has brought out the worst in me with regards to that type of behavior. I'm really grateful for the patience of the people here (and my poor husband!).

You're right - I'm making a bit of a leap in assuming that saying I'm not a citizen and I've been here x years means that they'll immediately assume the worst and report me. In any case, I have to respond to this or potential issues become certain issues. So I'll just answer everything truthfully and deal with whatever (if anything) comes. Hopefully if anything does come of it, it will at least be clear that I've acted in good faith.

Thanks again everyone! I'll update this if any issues do come up, and I'll be sure to fill out my timeline/profile and participate when I can add something meaningful.

15 minutes ago, f f said:

just file the aos before you fill out the form so if they do go after you.you will have status while the aos is pending. and student visa and work visa people get liscenses without being lpr so there are cases where they are legally here but not residents but still get liscenses. also the resident since question is asking how long you have lived there not how long you have legally been there.

We'll try to file before. I don't know if we'll manage it since I need to respond to the jury summons this week and we've got a few things to go over before actually mailing it off, but we'll try. Thank you.

Yeah, I've been wondering how that works, since like you said there are students and people here for work who have driver's licenses (and presumably automatically get put onto a list for potential jury duty) - but of course, they're not eligible for jury duty. The woman on the phone at the court seemed to think it's a very regular occurrence for non-eligible people to get a summons, but I chickened out of telling her that I'm technically out of status at the moment.

If we're going with how long I've lived in the US, legally or not, what date should I assume is the start date? I entered as a visitor with the intention of returning back to Canada, so there were a couple of months when I was visiting with no plans for staying. Would it be from when we decided I'd take up residence here and was added to the lease? I suppose since they say to enter it in years, a lack of specificity would be forgiven (interpreting it as asking for FULL years instead of rounding up, for example)? 

I'm sorry if I'm overthinking things. I just really don't want to accidentally cause myself problems!

I'll check in with the DMV to make sure my license was entered into the system correctly and wait on hearing back from the lawyer. I may try the court again as well, to see if I can get a bit more information out of them. Or ask my husband to do it for a bit more anonymity. I'll update here with how it goes, so the information will be available in case anyone else is faced with the same issue. 

7 minutes ago, talile said:

Did you get your driving license through the special permissions for undocumented aliens?

I think you should start by going to the DMV because something is wrong with your records there. You would have not received that jury duty if they had you under the special license.

 

As for the jury, were you asked about residency in the US or in CA ?

 

Yes, I got it under the AB 60 bill, which allows people without proof of legal US residency to get a California driver's license. I had to show them my marriage certificate, passport, and a copy of our lease showing that I reside in California. They spent quite a bit of time at the DMV going over everything, but ultimately it went through without any issue. I then had to take the written exam and a road test last year, which I passed and have had the license since.

I don't have nor have I ever tried to apply for a SSN or made any claims about having been here "legally" - all I have are the driver's license through AB 60, and an ITIN which I applied for and received on the basis of being the spouse of a US citizen (so that he could file taxes as married per the advice of our tax preparer, and so that I could be added to his bank accounts and get a debit card).

That's part of what has me extra stressed - I don't understand why I even received the summons. In looking around online, it seems like it has happened to other people as well.. so maybe the CA DMV has just been lazy? But you're right that I should probably check in with them, since I don't want to get scr*wed because someone else did the data entry wrong or something.

I double checked just now, and they've asked for the US, not CA as I had thought. My fault for not being sure before asking about it on here; my apologies. So that means that I can't just claim as of when I got my driver's license or something similar.

The question on the form is as follows: "Years of residency in the US: __" I get to enter in a number of my choosing; it is not a drop-down menu. It's a required question in order to be able to click through to the next page, where per the person I spoke to on the phone, I'll get to click on an option to say I am not a citizen, and then enter in the country I am a citizen of. If it is a "commonly known" country (which I assume Canada would be), they will automatically allow the disqualification to be processed.

I'm not sure that reporting me will be a huge priority for the OC court, but I don't want to inadvertently lie or claim something that isn't technically true and that could cause problems down the line. For example: since they're asking about US residency, technically do I say when I entered, when we decided that I'd stay (and I guess "decided" that I'd be a resident), or can I not say any time at all since I've never *legally* been a resident? I have no idea how to honestly answer the question without making what could be tantamount to false claims.

I'm waiting on a call back from one of the few lawyers that seemed to be more helpful, so hopefully they'll have some guidance to offer; I'll update here if they do. We are about to submit the AOS package by the end of the month, and I don't want to somehow mess it up.

Thanks for the input, everyone. I really appreciate it. My stress levels have skyrocketed because of this.

2 minutes ago, broppy said:

Yeah, everyone in CA with a driver's license is considered a potential juror. There should be a section somewhere on the summons where you can check a box to state that you're not qualified as you're not a citizen and then just mail it back to them. If you do it online - just fill it in as if you've been a resident since you got your license - even with overstay, you've been effectively resident since at least that date. The court doesn't really care - the fact you're not a citizen is all that matters.

Thank you!

I would have thought they would have created a system to automatically disqualify certain people, but I suppose that's probably giving them too much credit. 

Orange County seems to have moved away from paper methods and require everything to be done online, unfortunately. I've been leaning toward doing what you've suggested, so hopefully that'll be good enough. I've been told that it's unlikely that the court will "report" me to anyone, especially being in California, but I figure that I can't be too careful. Seems like one seemingly innocent mistake can really mess things up.

But yes, what you've said makes sense. Thanks so much!

I'll fill in my timeline and everything once I've got the package submitted, so hopefully I can be of help to others as well.

1 minute ago, f f said:

the card you get in the mail should have an option to check that you are not qualified to be a juror. I would also check that you are not on any voter rolls since that can really get bad quick, just google while not a citizen to see how badly that can mess up your life.  I would recommend fixing your status ASAP since any traffic incident with law enforcement can get bad with the executive orders now in effect.

 

good luck

Thanks for the response.

It looks like Orange County has changed things - they no longer have options on the card or any provisions for mailing it back. They have moved everything online and won't even let you do anything over the phone (I tried). Unfortunately, that includes making you fill out a form with various bits of personal information - including the length of residency - before they even let you get to the page where you can select "not a citizen" and get disqualified. 

I hadn't even thought of voter rolls... I have no idea how I would have ended up on there, since I've been careful to do everything exactly how I was "supposed to" given my situation. But yeah, since I got the jury summons, I suppose I should check! I do understand how any impression of falsifying status etc can be devastating and have been trying to be extremely careful. 

Everything is 99% ready to send; we're just in the final stages of checking it all over again and again, lol. I just have to figure out how to handle the jury summons thing now so that I don't run afoul of the "failure to respond" laws.

Hi everyone!

Thanks for all the help everyone has provided even though I've only been a lurker 

I have a bit of an urgent question, and thus far a morning spent on the phone has yielded no real answers in terms of what I should do. Hopefully I've put this in the correct section.

I am currently married to my US citizen husband, who asked me to marry him and stay when I was here in the US to visit him. We intended to file all the proper paperwork right away, but financial issues prevented this from happening and I have ended up overstaying (I am Canadian, and entered normally as a visitor). As I understand it, this isn't likely to cause a huge issue now that we're finally prepared to send everything in - although it sure has been nerve wracking.

In the meantime, I took advantage of California allowing non-legal residents to get a driver's license. However, I'm assuming because of that, I've just received a Jury Summons. I called to tell them I'm not a citizen and hopefully get disqualified, but they informed me that I MUST fill out the online questionnaire in order to accomplish this. One of the required questions on the form is asking how long I have been a resident of the US, and I don't know what I should put or what is at risk now that I need to answer this. Obviously I have only a limited amount of time to respond to the summons.

I've tried calling several lawyers, and they have thus far been of no help at all ("Just tell them you're not a citizen" or "You shouldn't have received that"... gee thanks). I was hoping that perhaps some people here would be willing to take a stab at guessing what I should do. I don't know if putting "zero" amount of time is best, since as I understand it, technically none of my time here has been legal, if I should say how long I've been here in total... or if I'm going to end up flagging myself for trouble no matter what I do. We're just about to file the entire AOS package (thanks to all of the fantastic information on here), and I'm really hoping that it's not all going to be put into jeopardy at the last second.

Thank you!

Thanks so much for all the help guys! I'm going to go over all the forms again (and again and again!) before I ask more questions. We've been really busy trying to get everything together, so I'll let you know how it's going as it happens.

Thank you all very much for your help.

I'm going to keep going over everything and just make sure I can get as much as possible. It does look pretty straight forward, although I have a tendency to overcomplicate things I'm stressed about.

I have a certified (with the embossed stamp and everything) copy of my long birth certificate as well as my little card one, is that good enough? My Mom has the original somewhere, but she told me she can't find it right now. Should I try to have that ordered, or is the certified copy good enough if they decide they want to see the long birth certificate? I suppose I should send copies of both?

I have my yellow Ontario pamphlet/card thing stating some of the shots I've gotten and signed by my doctor, but it's only what I got right before going to university so I will have to call and see if I can get my hands on records of immunization and everything. Thank you trailmix for the links to more information about what I'll need.

I think I read that the hpv vaccine isn't needed anymore? I'm 21, I'll be 22 in July. My doctor back in Ontario wanted me to get the Gardasil one, but I never had the time to make it back repeatedly to my hometown and I hated the university healthcare system so I never got it there. I will definitely look into the titer test to make sure we don't pay for anything I don't need, and we're going to check out a civil surgeon who was recommended on VJ for the area we're in.

Starburst, thank you for the help and the invitation for me to ask you privately for more advice!

I'm going to be asking my parents and friends for letters talking about how they've spent time with us, how boring I was in university because I spent all my time talking to my partner on the computer , that I stayed with my parents and most of my stuff is still back there, etc.

When it comes to other evidence, my partner and I will just give it a shot and see what I can have my name added to while I only have my passport. Can't hurt (right? lol)!

Another quick question: Is it better to send everything in as quickly as possible and just gather the rest for the interview, or should I risk overstaying a week or two before submitting the package but have lots of evidence included? I'm just not sure how long everything is going to take (I've got a month or so before my time here is up), and I'm wondering where to place the emphasis if this is an issue that comes up for us.. would an overstay of that long while we're gathering papers cause problems?

Thanks again everyone! We're both really grateful for the positive support on here!

MacTO, I cannot thank you enough for such a thorough and supportive reply!

I have downloaded all the forms and looked them over, and I am putting together a checklist of everything we need. I obsess quite a bit over details (as was probably evident in my giant post!), so I've already started getting a lot of things together. I definitely agree that going overboard is better than not having enough!

I did think the suggestion that interracial couples raise a red flag was strange, but I'm sure you understand that being in this stressful situation makes me prone to anything I hear that could go wrong.

My partner is involved and excited as well, he just has a bit of the "But you're Canadian! What's the big deal?" attitude that I've noticed many people here in the US seem to have. Flattering, but not always accurate.

Is it alright to use "evidence" like the lease and utility bills from when we lived together in Canada, then? The only real confusion I have with this is the importance placed on proof of our relationship from when we were dating, not married.

Otherwise, we can get pictures, MSN/Skype conversation records, letters and emails we sent to each other, plane e-tickets with boarding passes, letters sent to us at the same address (in Canada and where we are now in California), receipts from travel together and gifts to each other, records of money orders sent to each other, screencaps from talking on the webcam, cellphone/texting bills, vet bills, calling cards we used to call each other, etc... Not that all that would be sent in with the package.

About the pictures, we don't have a huge amount of them with us together because I'm very camera-shy (he has managed to get several pictures of me trying to block the lens to prove it.. should we include those? haha). Is that a huge problem? I have some of him with my family (ie helping my Mom set up her new computer, things like that) and such, but do they expect to see dozens and dozens of pictures of us together? We've always been the take-pictures-of-what's-around-us-but-not-ourselves type of people.

Once we're married, my husband-to-be (fuzzies ) will see if I can be put on as an authorized user for things like his gas card and Costco membership, and we'll see if I can be added in any way to his bank account even though I don't have an SSN. I think I've read about some people on here who were successful in trying to do that, but I'll have to look into it more. We'll ask friends and family for the affidavits, and just gather as much as we can to give to USCIS. Whatever we can't get to show our joint finances and lives now, we'll get if I have the opportunity to get an SSN before our interview. Should one or two affidavits each to be included in the package itself be enough, with the possibility of more for the interview later?

About my partner's finances, since he was in Canada until recently, he hasn't been working in the last year and a half (he never got a work permit there). He has been doing some freelance work while getting back on his feet here, and he should have a "proper" job within a week or two from now. While he should make enough money to meet the requirements, since he doesn't have job history we're going to use the support of his Dad. I have assets as well, but we just want to be on the safe side.

Okay, so this is my basic understanding of the process:

1. Get marriage license, get married, get certificate.

2. Fill out the forms, gather evidence.

3. Get medical done, get passport-type pictures taken.

4. Put it all together, get money orders, and send it off.

5. Wait/pray and follow instructions as they come.

I'm stressed but so excited! I never imagined I would end up in the US, but I guess crazy things happen when you follow where loves takes you.

Thanks again! I'll update my profile as we go along and ask many more questions, I'm sure. I hope my future husband and I have as much success as many people on here have had, and that our story can help someone out!

Hey everybody, new member here!

I want to first apologize if questions like mine have already been answered, but I've gone through quite a lot of former posts and haven't really seen anything mentioned that quite fits my situation. I also wrote this up once and it was waaaay too long, so please ask me for more details if you need them! It's probably still too long, I'm sorry! I'd like the most informed opinions possible, but I don't want to make you read the novel of mine and my partner's relationship. I'd rather save that to overwhelm the immigrations people with

I'm Canadian, and my partner is a US citizen. We met online nearly 4 years ago and hit it off pretty quickly . We started alternating flying back and forth to visit each other. He was in college in the US, and I was in university in Canada. He had prior interest in coming to the school I was at, but didn't have the guts to try to apply or transfer until we started talking. So, he decided to give it a shot and got in! We had also talked about what we would do in the future, and agreed that we both wanted to settle down in Canada and eventually get married once we were out of school and with stable jobs and everything.

We signed a lease together, since for two people we needed a bigger place than the one I usually stayed at for school. Unfortunately, his educational funding went down the drain with the economy. He couldn't stay anymore, so we had to plan his move back down and deal with being long distance again.

Soon before he was about to leave, my partner and I got into a big car accident (we're okay, his car wasn't). Then my Grandmother succumbed to cancer (we got the call literally the night after the accident while we were staying with my Mom). I felt that I wouldn't be able to maintain a high enough level of academic success with all the stress and decided to take time off from school. My Grandma also was paying for my education, and while she left money so I could finish, there isn't quite enough and I don't want to go into debt so I wanted to work and save up before finishing.

We had to wait before my partner could leave because his car was in the shop for a long time, but finally it was fixed and time for him to leave. We had decided that I would go down with him in the car (yay road trip!) so we could spend that time together before being separated, and so I could help him make the drive safely (sorry, I'm from Ontario and he's from California... so it's a long drive!). We loaded up his stuff, said bye to my parents and family and set off.

At the border (Detroit), we did get stopped because they wanted to make sure that all the stuff in the back was his and that there wasn't anything illegal in there. They were a bit concerned that I didn't have my plane ticket back purchased yet (because we weren't sure how long the drive would take and I wanted to make sure I could get a good vacation in haha), but after we explained and they saw things like my Student ID they didn't give us very much trouble and we went on our way. I have no stamp in my passport or anything of that sort.

We made the drive safely thank God, and stayed with my partner's family for a while before he went out looking for a place of his own, which is where we are now. I've ended up staying a lot longer than I planned to (I guess it just seems to happen like that), but I don't have an overstay yet.

Last week I was looking at plane tickets to go back and my partner was really unhappy about it. When I was making my final decision about which flight to take, he told me that he was planning on giving me a ring so we'd be engaged before I left, but that he doesn't want me to leave and he wants to just get married RIGHT NOW!

I NEVER in my life thought I would elope, but I said yes!!

So, we're looking at having a civil ceremony as soon as possible and then filing an AOS for me. While his family is supportive, we're only going to have a friend to both of us there as a witness because I want to wait to have people involved until all my family can be there for a big ceremony. That's really important for me, because with how quickly this is all happening my family and friends just wouldn't be able to make it down in time.

After all that, here is my main question: will the fact that we lived together in Canada cause any kind of problems with the AOS process? Or that we crossed the border together? We've both been scouring these forums and the USCIS website in the past couple of days, and while he's not too worried I would just like somebody else's opinion. As I'm sure all of you intimately understand, we really don't want to be separated from each other or prevented from seeing each other.

I have no lease and no job tying me back to Canada (I stay with my parents when I'm not in school and I don't work except during the Summer), but I have savings, stocks, my share of an education fund, my student ID, not to mention most of my stuff is still there!

Is it unwise to proceed with getting married in light of this (even though I'm sooo excited)? We have quite a bit of proof that we've been dating for the past several years, and can get affidavits for both the legitimacy of our relationship and to back up my partner's finances. I'm just worried that the timing of things with me coming down here and getting married will look too "convenient" in terms of intent and I really don't want to jeopardize anything. We're also an interracial couple, which I've seen some people mention can be a red flag..

I'm sorry again that this is so long, I just wanted to try to paint a picture of our story. If we do go through with this, I will of course put up a timeline and try to contribute as much as possible to the community here. While I'll definitely have more questions and details to ask about, I promise I'll try to keep the posts shorter from now on!

Thanks guys.