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Sharks Below
May 23, 2011

ty hc <3
Ashcans did you knows that you are a treasure and a gem?

e: both those places are within 2 hours so that is p sweet, and near places we love to visit :3

Sharks Below fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Feb 17, 2017

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Powerlurker
Oct 21, 2010

Ashcans posted:

They try to have these things as close to your residence as they can, but its limited by the actual number of offices they operate. You can generally reschedule a Biometrics Apointment easily if its set for a bad time, and I believe its possible for interviews as well, but less common. So if they are placed on a really bad day you can try to have them moved.

So you would think, but when my wife got her green card we had to go to a field office three hours away instead of one only an hour and a half away (we were just far enough west that we got dumped into San Antonio instead of Houston)

ltr
Oct 29, 2004

Ashcans posted:

With a house and a kid I expect you'll be fine, unless there is something else weird thrown into the mix (like if you're not actually living together right now or something like that). I think that USCIS has decided that if you are willing to have kids and buy a house to keep up your deception, you're as jointly committed to it as most people are to their real marriage :v: You can always keep the photos to bring to an interview or send if you get an RFE.

When we interviewed for my wife's green card we had our two month old baby with us, it didn't feel like an interview at all. The interviewer was literally, "I was stationed in Japan with the Navy, what city in Japan did you get married?" Every other question was, handing him birth and marriage certificates, etc.. For bonafide proof of marriage, all we had was a single bank statement, three pages of photos and our baby's birth certificate. I think babies born to a US citizen and a foreign partner is not questioned that much unless there are some red flags in the application.

RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS
Dec 21, 2010
We got a letter saying my wife was going to receive her green card with conditions removed finally. Hell yeah.

awesome-express
Dec 30, 2008

My EB-1 got approved (with no RFEs!) and I have filed my DS-260 and submitted my civil docs to the NVC. Fedex shows that the NVC received the civil documents on Jan 25th. I presume the next stage, if everything checks out, is to get an email with a scheduled interview?

If so, how long does it take for the NVC to review stuff? As it's been 4+ weeks now since they got everything without a single peep.

Edit: I'm based in London if that helps with anything.

Edit 2: Found this on my DS-260 confirmation page, I guess I should hear back from them in the next 2 weeks? It's already been 30 days, but do they mean working days?

awesome-express fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Feb 27, 2017

spacetoaster
Feb 10, 2014

My wife and I want one of our cousins (she's 13) to come spend a year with us in the US and attend school with our kids during that time.

I'm aware that I'd have to pay the local school system for her to attend, but I have no idea what kind of visa we need. I don't think she could get an exchange student visa because we aren't going through some program.

Ashcans
Jan 2, 2006

Let's do the space-time warp again!

Not really my area of expertise, but... you wouldn't be able to use the J-1 programs, because I believe you need to be 15 and I think there are restrictions on staying with family - the point of the J-1 programs is international exchange.

I think that you would be able to use an F-1 to do this, but you would need to do so through a school that participates in the SEVP program, and would have to be 9-12 for a public school because they don't participate younger than that. A private school would be fine lower than that (I forget how old people are in different grades, I'm old) but would also need to be SEVP approved.

Here is a link about it that includes some links to their search tool to find schools in your region that would be able to issue the proper documents for an F-1. I assume at a private school you would need to apply as normal and get in before the process - I am not sure how it works for a public school, given that there is no admission or anything. I assume anywhere that actually does this has a mechanism for it though. You can see if your school participates in it, at least.

spacetoaster
Feb 10, 2014

Ashcans posted:

Not really my area of expertise, but... you wouldn't be able to use the J-1 programs, because I believe you need to be 15 and I think there are restrictions on staying with family - the point of the J-1 programs is international exchange.

I think that you would be able to use an F-1 to do this, but you would need to do so through a school that participates in the SEVP program, and would have to be 9-12 for a public school because they don't participate younger than that. A private school would be fine lower than that (I forget how old people are in different grades, I'm old) but would also need to be SEVP approved.

Here is a link about it that includes some links to their search tool to find schools in your region that would be able to issue the proper documents for an F-1. I assume at a private school you would need to apply as normal and get in before the process - I am not sure how it works for a public school, given that there is no admission or anything. I assume anywhere that actually does this has a mechanism for it though. You can see if your school participates in it, at least.

Thanks! That's more of a start than I had!

Jeremor
Jun 1, 2009

Drop Your Nuts



Maybe somebody could help me out with just knowing where to start with all this stuff?

My fiancee is currently living in South Africa, I live in the US in South Carolina. I'm planning on buying her a ticket to come live here, permanently. What do we need to take care of before she comes to live here? If we plan to get married immediately once she gets here, does that still mean we have to apply for visas or anything else? I've read something about how I could apply on her behalf to get her a greencard, if we are married within 30 days of her arriving in the US. It was a little vague though and I'm not sure exactly what that would require me to do.

I just really have no clue what the proper, but also most expedient, way to do all this is. Guess I'm just pretty clueless about the whole process. Any tips on where to get started? Any help would be appreciated.

Groda
Mar 17, 2005

Hair Elf
Do you know which citizenship she has?

Groda fucked around with this message at 12:34 on Apr 14, 2017

Ashcans
Jan 2, 2006

Let's do the space-time warp again!

The above is a good start. There are a lot of other things to unpack though.

If you are living in the US and your fiancee is overseas, then officially what you should do is file an I-129F (fiancee petition) with USCIS - they will process this, eventually approve it, and then your fiancee would apply at the consulate for a fiancee visa (K-1). Then she could come to the US using that visa, you would need to get married within 90 days, and she could apply for permanent residence. This keeps all your intentions above board and ensures that you are following all the rules and intent to the letter.

The bad part is that it is taking USCIS about 6-8 months to process the I-129F, after which you have to do the visa application, so you are looking at as much as a year before she would actually be able to join you in the US.


The other option some people recommend is for her to enter on a different visa class, often a visitor, and then get married and file for the green card when she is here. The processing time is roughly as long, but she would be able to be in the US while everything is working its way along rather than waiting in South Africa. Sounds great, why shouldn't you do this? Well, applying for and entering the US as a visitor requires you to have 'non-immigrant intent' - which means that at the time you do so, you need to actually intend to visit the US and then return to your own country afterward. This is something that they will explicitly ask, and if she says 'Actually I'm going to get married here', she will be denied entry. Now, it's technically ok if you change your mind while you are here. The reason people say to wait 30 days (or whatever) is because this is an approximate benchmark for when its reasonable to say 'I changed my mind, when I entered I really intended to just visit, but then I found I could not bear to leave the embrace of my beloved so we got married'. But if you set this up in advance, what you are basically doing is misrepresenting your intent and if that becomes obvious she could get skewered for fraudulent intent. Lots of people get away with this just fine, but if you don't then getting nailed for fraud is a huge problem for any future applications - you can't just say 'oh haha you got me' and try the proper route, because now they have you flagged as someone who lies on applications. Maybe you'll be fine - many people are - but you should understand you're playing with fire.

There is a lot of stuff you consider beyond this - is your income sufficient to support her? That's one of the steps in any of these applications, so you need to make sure you have enough income before you fire all this off.

I would recommend reading the USCIS pages on the K-1 process and applying for a spouse to give you some overview. There are also forums where lots of people have navigated these steps. I also strongly recommend you at least consult with an attorney because I need to get paid they can highlight any specific concerns for you in a way that friendly forums can't or shouldn't.

RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS
Dec 21, 2010
Visa Journey has a ton of really helpful information organized in a way that is probably more approachable than the USCIS page. I leaned on it pretty heavily and our petition was successful for whatever that is worth.

Jeremor
Jun 1, 2009

Drop Your Nuts



She is a natural born citizen of South Africa, both parents go back generations in the country. Hope that answers the question well enough. I am also a natural born American citizen, going back generations, if it matters.

Thank you so much for the help, everybody. Been researching like mad today, and it kind of goes from scary to hopeful to scary again with every thing I read. I'm not going to get all melodramatic, but it's hard to understate how important this is to us.

I think the visitor visa is our only real option here, and not because I'm trying to play with fire or anything like that. Honestly, that is what we need. She has never visited me in America before. I want her to see my country, my home, etc, and make sure she's happy here, if that makes sense? Anyway, I'm trying to research into pursuing a visitor's visa. From what I've read, it seems like I would need to be her Sponsor? She doesn't have the income for the trip on her own right now, I'd be supplying the plane ticket and everything. I wouldn't say I'm well off, but I have a steady full-time job that provides me enough income to get by. I am worried about that though, proving I have the income to support her. My credit isn't great or anything. I don't have the best job or the most in savings, but I'm not drowning in debt or anything. I read somewhere that $5000 in your bank account is recommended, and I don't have that right now.

sorry guys, I'm kind of rambling. I just want to figure this out and do it right. Thank you for that Visa Journey site, I'll definitely make use of that. Thanks for any help. I do plan to contact an immigration lawyer, but any other advice is greatly appreciated.

Ashcans
Jan 2, 2006

Let's do the space-time warp again!

If she applied for a visitor visa, they'll want to know she has resources while she's here. It's fine for you to lay for stuff and host her, they're basically trying to prevent people flying to the US without a way to get by - and they'll guess people will try to work without authorization. You might need to provide a letter.

For the residence process you only need to show something like 125% of poverty. For two people I think it's something like $19k a year. It's in the instructions of the I-864, I'll check the real number when I get the chance.

I don't use visajourney but a lot of people filing on their own lean on it and it is generally on target

Ms Adequate
Oct 30, 2011

Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling



Well, we got an RFE in the mail today. Apparently they want more proof of a relationship? I honestly thought that was the one base we had absolutely covered. Here's what we sent, I've been going through my copy just now to see if we missed something;

Copies of my passport pages stamped on my arrival for visiting
Copies of several ticket stubs for same (not all, threw some out before I ever knew I'd need them again years ago)
Copies of two different travel itineraries, one from 2014, one from 2016, showing travel to and from visiting her
Two different printed pictures of us together (Both taken during the same visit, however. Wouldn't have expected that to bring everything tumbling down?)
Printout of Skype records taken from several different points in time
(Plus letters of intent etc.)

Anyone have any ideas on what more we could send?

e; This is for a K-1 Fiance visa.

Ms Adequate fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Apr 16, 2017

Sharks Below
May 23, 2011

ty hc <3
Ashcans may correct me if I'm wrong but it doesn't seem like you have much concrete evidence, like co-mingling of assets etc? Idk. Affidavits?

I got my biometrics appointment letter a couple of weeks ago, for an 8am appointment somewhere that's over 2 hours drive from me and I have a 3 month old. Yeah, nah. I asked for a reschedule closer to the middle of the day, any time except between May 7 and 14 as my husband will be away.

It's May 8 at midday :lol: Ok whatever hope you enjoy fussy infants you big dummies

Ms Adequate
Oct 30, 2011

Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling



Should clarify this is for the K-1 Fiance visa, so we don't have stuff like joint accounts yet. Will edit this into post. Also :lol: Great job bureaucrats!

Ashcans
Jan 2, 2006

Let's do the space-time warp again!

Sharks Below posted:

It's May 8 at midday :lol: Ok whatever hope you enjoy fussy infants you big dummies
My experience is that the people who do scheduling give no shits and will generally just ignore whatever you ask and give you the next available date. It used to be that you would reschedule through the local office and then they'd actually pay attention, but now its centralized and those guys don't care because it's not them that have to deal with your kid fussing in the waiting area.

This is basically a summary of how processing has changed across the board in the last ten years. I used to know a guy at one of the process centers and if something seemed truly hosed up we would call him and ask him to just shake it lose, and he'd be able to walk down the hall and at least let us know what was going on. It basically impossible now, you can't even get through to the same officer any more. :(

Mister Adequate posted:

Anyone have any ideas on what more we could send?
Once they've issued an RFE, my advice is 'throw everything at the wall'. A cross-section is usually fine but if they're asking, you may as well give them both barrels now.

So, things to look for...
- Do you have more pictures together? It sounds like you have made two trips to see each other, so hopefully you can pull together a dozen or so pictures. Yea, they'll all be from those trips but that's ok. If you took any pictures with family or friends that would be a good thing to include, you're less likely to introduce your fraud bride to grandma.
- Do you communicate any way beside skype? You can include emails, cards, cellphone records, even copies of your facebook pages if you're posting on each other's walls or whatever. This stuff is very mainstream now so its not at all weird to provide. Feel free to go to town, it doesn't need to be Shakespeare.
- You haven't combined finances, but were you both paying for stuff during the visits? If you can get credit card statements or something for both of you during the 2016 trip, showing you were in the same place/paying for things together, that could be useful.
- Have you done any planning for the wedding? It's fair if you haven't, because its hard to plan without a solid timeline, but if you have done anything at all try to include it. Or if you did an engagement announcement in any way, even just on facebook or emailing your family, get that.
- You said letters of intent, did you include any affidavits? If not, go ahead and get your friends/family to do this. Even if you did, see if you can get a couple more. These don't have to be complicated, it an be your friend saying 'I know X and they were talking about this trip for weeks, they were so excited, and when they came home they were really bummed to have left and they've been talking about this marriage nonstop, please approve this so they can get married and shut up'. If it's someone who was there for the visits and has seen you together, that would be best, but affidavits from family that know about you and the relationship in general is still helpful.

Ms Adequate
Oct 30, 2011

Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling



Oh awesome, thanks for that advice :) We should be able to put together most/all of that stuff without trouble.

joepinetree
Apr 5, 2012
So I got a letter for my interview scheduling it for May 18th. The reason I am concerned is because I have an international trip scheduled for June 24th. So is there anything I can do to get an oath before that date, or, barring that letting them know that I will be out of the country for about 3 weeks starting on June 24th? I know I can still travel with my green card while I wait for the oath, and I know that I can get an expedited passport in case my oath is shortly before my trip, but my concern is getting a notice while I am out of the country.

Solis
Feb 2, 2011

Now you can take this knowledge and turn it into part of yourself.
So I'm currently in the process of petitioning for an H1B visa this year through a job I'll be taking in July (working at a school so thankfully no concern about the cap) and I have a pending petition for OPT on an F-1 visa to cover me in the interim since I know premium processing is suspended at the moment. My school tells me that travelling on F-1 OPT is generally more difficult due to basically needing to prove that you've had a job the whole time and you're coming back to the same job, so I was thinking of travelling back to Canada for a trip beforehand (ie before I graduate) to save myself that headache. To your knowledge, is there any issue with travelling that would be relevant to the H1B or OPT petition? Am I probably just better off waiting until the H1B goes through?

Mandalay
Mar 16, 2007

WoW Forums Refugee
How long is a medical exam I-693 good for? My wife got it done about two months ago but we decided to put off applying while we had some travels to Europe.

I'm a USC recently married to a Canadian who is on TN. We live together and will be adjusting her status.

big shtick energy
May 27, 2004


I'm a Canadian citizen applying for jobs in the US that would be eligible for a TN visa. I have a common law spouse who is also a Canadian citizen who probably wouldn't be eligible for a TN visa.

Is there any type of visa an employer could sponsor me for that would also allow her to work in the US? It seems like she would be able to enter on a TD visa if I had a TN, but that wouldn't allow her to work in the US.

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Ashcans
Jan 2, 2006

Let's do the space-time warp again!

You are correct that she couldn't work while she is in TD status. Unfortunately the statuses that give spouses the ability to work are pretty thin and I don't think a lot of them would work for you. L-1 status allows dependents to apply for an EAD, but this is an intra-company transfer, so likely doesn't work for you. J-1 allows dependents to request an EAD, but that is a trainee/visiting scholer category that probably doesn't work unless you're recently out of school and doing something like a post-doc. It's also much more time-limited so its not a long-term situation. If your employer is willing, you can try to port to an H-1B from TN and she can apply for an EAD when you are along the green card process.

The other option would be to try and find a work status she qualifies for directly, but if the TN doesn't work then you're stuck with something like the H-1B (hard to get due to the lottery) or possibly a J-1 situation.

Maybe someone else can think of something I am forgetting =\

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