lvriesling

In Sweden it is legally possible to marry your half-sibling. Although I don't know of any cases in which such a couple then applied for a US immigration visa, if the couple is opposite-sex then the marriage might be fine for USCIS purposes (because it was legal in the country in which it was performed). However, a same-sex marriage of any type may run into DOMA ("Defense Of Marriage Act") problems. DOMA is currently under legal attack by civil rights organizations, though, and it may well collapse completely prior to the conclusion of your visa processing. If it doesn't, then you can contact the local ACLU and other interested organizations to add your newly filed federal lawsuit to the existing series of legal attacks on DOMA in federal court.

Also, there may well be state law to the effect that your out-of-state marriage will be recognized even if it could not be legally performed in that state. Example - New York state case law (from its Supreme Court) legally recognizes uncle-niece marriages performed outside the state, even though such a marriage could not be legally done inside the state.

However, if there is case law to the contrary - for example, a state Supreme Court ruling that half-sibling marriages legally performed elsewhere are not recognized by that state, then the marriage would "offend the laws" of that state and thus USCIS would not accept it.

It is also possible that the case law is murky on this point. In that situation, if USCIS gives you trouble, contact civil rights organizations (ACLU, etc.) and file suit in state court.

We were married in Texas so no problems with it being a legal marriage. I've just heard that big age differences are considered a fraud indicator, so I am a little worried. I guess though I shouldn't - ours is a genuine marriage.

There is a leaked USCIS document on the Internet, a checklist for use during visa interviews, which lists all kinds of things as being POSSIBLE fraud indicators. They are so broad and so general that pretty much every couple is going to violate at least one of them. If you violate a checklist item, they will ask you questions about the topic at the visa interview. In general, every application is going to be scrutinized for fraud anyway, so even in the very unlikely event that you escaped all of the POSSIBLE fraud indicators on their checklist, they would still find some way to harass you. However, as a loyal VJer you now have an advantage over USCIS - you already know (in part) what it is they are going to harass you about, and thus you can prepare your perfect response well in advance of the visa interview.

Seems I can't link my email address to our case on USCIS.

It's easy to do. Go to the home page http://www.uscis.gov, at the lower left corner under "After I File" it says "Sign-up for Case Updates". Then click "Register as an applicant customer". Click "Accept". Fill in all the requested personal information and click "Submit". This is step one - creating your account. Now you need to do Step 2, which is linking your account to your case. To do that, go to "My Account", "My Portfolio", and click on "Add a case to your Portfolio".

KLS2010 - I feel you. We have a 10-year difference (this year i'll be 31 and hubby 41) and I also don't know how THEY will react.

It's over a 13-year age difference for us. The embassy may ask about it during the visa interview (they often ask about lots of stuff) but in the end it is no big deal - the important question for them is whether or not you are LEGALLY married. If the law where you married says it's OK to marry with an age difference, then it's OK to have an age difference. If the law where you married says it's OK to marry your half-sibling (and this is legal in Sweden), then it's OK to marry your half-sibling.

Generally, USCIS can't impose social biases unless it has a legal basis for doing so - it has that, for example, with people who marry prostitutes. A federal law prohibits the prostitute from immigrating even as the spouse of a US citizen. That law is almost certainly unconstitutional - prostitution is legal in Nevada - but as yet nobody has taken the time and effort to seriously challenge this law in federal court.

croa01 - I noticed the other affidavit of support on my consulate's website as well. I'm not quite positive but I think someone said only I864 is needed, though....

For CR-1/IR-1 visas, it's I-864, as explained here:

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1

And to everyone else: My husband is coming a week from now! I am beyond excited! We'll be getting married in church on March 5th, this time with a big reception to follow (our November civil wedding was very modest, no one there except us and his mom).

Congratulations & best wishes!

how come the processing dates moving backwards for CSC in Imigration Timeline for I130 (NAO1 TO NAO2)? THIS IS GETTING ME WORRIED.... FEW DAYS AGO THEY WERE SHOWING OCT 7TH 2010 AND TODAY SEP 24TH !!!! DID ANY ONE TAKES A LOOK AT THIS?

They just received a big batch of cases from the Texas processing center, so their formerly speedy pipeline is obviously going to slow down a bit. Completely expected, nothing to worry about.

Since our case arrived December 6th and Daria8885's case arrived December 19th, it's a good bet that ALL the December cases are being loaded into the website at once, and that basically all of us should have our cases visible now. Is anyone still NOT seeing their case? If not, what was your filing date?

One more thing - I never called or emailed USCIS, I just waited. The wheels of bureaucracy grind slowly, but surely - I knew that if we waited patiently, our case would show up!

Hooray, the website FINALLY recognizes our case number!!!

A USCIS Customer account has been created, our case has been linked into it, and Email Alert for that case is turned ON!!!

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Initial Review

On December 6, 2010, we received this I130 IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE, FIANCE(E), OR ORPHAN, and mailed you a notice describing how we will process your case. Please follow any instructions on this notice. You will be notified by mail when a decision is made, or if the office needs something from you. If you move while this case is pending, please use our Change of Address online tool to update your case with your new address or contact our customer service center at 1-800-375-5283.

During this step, USCIS initiates the background checks of the applicant/petitioner and identifies issues that may need to be addressed either during an interview or by asking the applicant/petitioner to submit additional information or documentation. USCIS reviews the applicant's/petitioner's criminal history, determines if there are national security concerns that need to be addressed, and reviews the application/petition for fraud indicators

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I don't really see it as a bad news... It means that USCIS people are aware of their target time of processing petitions. That gives me the impression that they want to clean their image and stick to their target (processing of petition for 5 months). I will be more worried if they did not do that because it means that they are just accepting applications without resolving the prior ones. I am still optimistic about getting our approval in a timely manner

Yhang's analysis is exactly correct. California now has extra processing capacity, so it is pulling in additional petitions to start working on. California's existing petitions should be zipping right along!

Go to USAA.com to sign up for thier online banking.

USAA.com is ONLY for people who have served or are serving in the US military. If you have no military service, they won't let you open an account.

Our case was visible only a few after they received our petition. From what I can gather from VJ, some people's case is never visible and that the USCIS website is very unreliable.

You are showing a filing location of N/A. Which filing location are you at? Maybe you are at Vermont or Texas, and those locations are faster to create visibility than California?

i was curious about the age of my fellow December filers... i'm 22 and so is my hubby from Wisconsin and he is from Medellin Colombia... I hope to get to know more of you as we go on this journey together

We have about a 13.1 or 13.2 year age difference... she's the younger partner.

We are planning to start making babies immediately upon her arrival in Florida!

our case is STILL not found on USCIS website

Ours isn't there either... our priority date is 12/6/10, so it's been over five weeks now... but still no worries, it will get there!

So what type of evidence are you all gathering up?

* Customs forms and mailing receipts for gifts mailed to each other

* Scanned copies of birthday cards, etc. mailed to each other

* Purchase receipts for wedding rings & other gifts given to each other

* Document confirming her designation as my spouse in employer's personnel file

* Document confirming her designation as my spouse in employer's retirement system

* Document confirming she has been added as an authorized user on my credit card, & that a credit card on my account but in her name has been issued

* Phone call records from phone company

(Note: she WAS going to use a phone card here, but Bangkok U.S. Embassy website says phone card call records are NOT acceptable as evidence!)

In addition, we are currently working on:

* Married Filing Jointly Tax Return for 2010, which will have the effect of forcing the US Government to issue her a TIN (Tax Id Number) which in turn will be extremely useful for opening bank accounts and such, and which will itself also serve as evidence of our ongoing marital relationship and as evidence of financial interdependence.

Air China -- At the time did not have in seat entertainment -- I have not flown with them since. I will pay the extra $100 or $200 for in flight entertainment on long flights. Wish some of the US carries would get a clue on this.

Delta does have in-flight entertainment - they showed me 3 Hollywood movies on the long hop from Detroit to Tokyo (and back) this past November. Some of the Delta planes also had the in-seat screens, even in economy class, and other Delta planes did not. The Bangkok-Tokyo Delta plane did have the in-seat screens even in economy class, flying in both directions.

Hip, hip, horray! My NOA1 receipt number is finally working on the USCIS website! It was "touched" on Jan 7th.

Our NOA1 number still isn't working - but it'll get there eventually...

Question to my fellow December filers:

What preparations - if any - have you ungergone for the NVC process/ interview? Are you collecting data, filling out DS230 and i864 and whatever else? I'm thinking of getting myself ready for the further steps but I haven't really started yet.

Collecting data - absolutely everything we do is evaluated as potential "proof of relationship" evidence. If it generates (or can be made to generate) a document with both of our names on it, or with one of our names plus some kind of link to the other spouse, then it's being pulled into the "proof of relationship" folder, awaiting an RFE and/or the final visa interview.

The Bangkok US embassy has the instructions online for the final stages of visa processing, and these have been evaluated for anything that can be done now (vs. later). For example, the embassy instructions say that police clearance reports in Thailand are normally good for one year - that means we can actually get that done right now and get it out of the way.

Regarding Narita - to explain it for those who have never been, international travelers who change planes in Narita (Tokyo) get treated as if they were never screened in the first place, thus you have to stand in one of three incredibly long queues for passenger screening. On top of that, if you survive the wait and eventually make it to the screening area, you are then greeted by an official sign explaining that Narita prohibits ALL LIQUIDS, right above a trash can which is to be used for, among other things, those very expensive bottles of wine that you thought you could safely keep in your carry-on. I'm betting that Narita gate agents have, far & away, the best office parties in Japan!

The Thai economy is growing at a very healthy pace - it's expanding at a 7.8% annual rate as of the first two months of 2010's fourth quarter (see generally http://www2.mof.go.th/index.php and specifically http://www2.mof.go.th/economic_report_detail.php?id=55). And Thailand's unemployment rate is currently 0.9%, according to the current issue of The Economist magazine (www.economist.com). The Thai economy is booming and jobs are quite plentiful.

Oh and I also got sent to CSC maybe I should have read everyone's posts jeje *sigh* I'm not worried about RFE's i'm worried about being the only single poor mom(I think) to every try and take this journey.....so the AOS is what worries me *sigh* I hope one of my family members steps forward to help me sponsor ....income shouldnt matter when your in love...sad....anyways!!! I don't wanna be a downer jeje I hope we all get approved in 3-4 months woot!

If you are filing CR-1 for your husband (as you indicated in the previous post: "it's been 8 months since I have seen my hubby") then there is no I-485 ADJUSTMENT OF STATUS (which is what AOS normally refers to). It looks like you really mean "I-864, Affidavit of Support" here. The AOS is associated with the K-1 route - CR-1 avoids it completely.

IMO, the time to talk to your family members and get a sponsorship committment (if you need one) is BEFORE you file. If your income is insufficient and you file anyway, you stand to lose the very expensive filing fees - money you probably cannot afford to lose. I'd suggest approaching them right away to either find out that you have their economic support, or find out that you need a higher income pronto, so that you can concentrate on that goal immediately if it turns out that this is what you need to do (or else lose 100% of your already-invested and very hard-earned filing fees!).

Our case isn't showing up online either, but no worries - it usually takes a few weeks for the USCIS website to catch up with the paperwork.

Just wanted to share (as I can't focus on anything else nowadays anyway), our check has just been cashed by USCIS. Yaaaay! I am so thrilled! It's moving along. Woo-hoo!

Still super worried if our application will be accepted without RFE. We never thought that proving our whole relationship is bona fide is needed as early as when filing I-130. So my hubby only attached a few things like a couple pictures of us, pic of our engagement ring with his credit card statement showing he'd bought it, some print screens of FB comments from our friends after engagement, sad lonely picture of just the two of us at the courhouse getting married plus his mother's affidavit.

I hope that will be enough. I sure don't want to see any RFE from them. I want to be with my husband A-S-A-P.

Happy New Year and a quick jump across the "puddle" to all of us!

I'm in a very similar situation. I filed her I-130 about a week after getting married. The basic strategy we have is that while the I-130 is processing, we are building up a new stack of additional evidence. Should we receive an RFE, the additional evidence will be immediately at hand and we can respond instantly. Should we not receive an RFE, this additional evidence will be taken in person to the CR-1 visa interview.

It's a bureaucracy. Do exactly what they tell you to do, and do it quickly and 100% correctly. Find somebody who is very detail-oriented to double-check your work. Then keep copies of everything & use certified mail to send it all to exactly the place they want it sent.

What is the difference, if any, between:

1) getting a document "legalized" at the Foreign Ministry in Bangkok, and

2) getting a document notarized (in a way that USCIS will accept)?

I would suggest that you are right to be concerned about this. If you filed as "Single" even though you are married, you could have difficulties with the IRS. If you filed as "Married filing separately" you may or may not be OK - your spouse would need to have filed a return under this category as well.

My recommendation would be that you immediately file an AMENDED return - see http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc308.html

Your amended return would then serve as proof that you have straightened the situation out as far as USCIS is concerned.

File the amended return with a Form W-7: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw7.pdf

and mail that whole package (the amended return with Form W-7 included) to this address:

Internal Revenue Service

Austin Service Center

ITIN Operation

P.O. Box 149342

Austin, TX 78714-9342

I would suggest that you are right to be concerned about this. If you filed as "Single" even though you are married, you could have difficulties with the IRS. If you filed as "Married filing separately" you may or may not be OK - your spouse would need to have filed a return under this category as well.

My recommendation would be that you immediately file an AMENDED return - see http://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc308.html

Your amended return would then serve as proof that you have straightened the situation out as far as USCIS is concerned.