I-130 warning

[dphyled 0]

Ok, soooo, i just got my NOA2 (Approval letter) for I-130 in the mail, which is of course a very good thing... However, on the bottom it says

"The above petition has been approved. The petition indicates that the person for whom you are petitioning is in the United States and will apply for Adjustment of Status," then talks about going to USCIS to get the AOS form... Of course we didn't say she was going to be applying for adjustment of status, that is why we were doing this whole I-130 process. However, when filling out the form, she WAS in the US on the 90-day tourist visa (visa waiver program) because she had come in early September so we could get married on September 28th, then she was going back in early December before the 90-days were up... So, for the question about "is the beneficiary in the US" and "when does the visa expire", we wrote that stuff. Since it clearly stated that the visa would expire in December, i don't know why they assumed that she was going to stick around in the US for the immigration stuff (isn't that illegal to stay over the expiration date?), plus she can't do AOS now (since she is outside the country) and couldn't even have done it back when she was here because she entered the US while we were planning to get married (intent to immigrate) so if she stayed and tried to adjust status, it would've been "immigration fraud", right??

Anyway... i dunno. I called the customer service number and explained to the lady and she said to fax a letter to the CSC. Hopefully it works out, but the lady said it might take a few extra days for them to sort it out before it gets sent (hopefully) to NVC.

Just wanted to let peeps know though... For anyone that happens to read this that is in the same situation while they are filling out I-130, be extra careful to be clear about the situation.

Kel

[Mononoke28 134]

It sounds like a mistake on their part. Even if the USCIS is thinking you applied for a K3 visa, your wife will not be receiving it since the NVC will process the I-130 as a CR1, not a K3. So you're fine.

Diana

[JustWaiting 0]

I don't think USCIS is confused about what type because he applied for the I-130 and not the I-129.

The problem is that she entered on a tourist visa with the intent to marry, which is immigration fraud in the eyes of USCIS. You need a K-1 or Fiance visa to enter the US with the intent to marry. The fact that she only entered to marry is going to be hard to fight because she did leave right after that. I honestly don't know how the USCIS handles this.

By the way, did she state she was only going to visit when she entered the US? I believe she wouldn't have stated she intended to marry because she would have been denied entry.

[dphyled 0]

oh, nah, all that stuff is fine... I researched all of this back in September before she came back to the US, when we were still planning and trying to figure out what to do (deciding whether to wait 6 months for K-1 then get married, or get married then wait for K-3 and do AOS, or get married and wait for CR-1). It is totally fine for foreigners to come to the country to get married, as long as they leave afterward. The issue is the "intent to immigrate" at POE, meaning coming in and staying. It is ok that we got married here, and only would've needed the K-1 if she was going to try to stay after we got married. But we decided that it would be better to just get married (here or in Japan), then both go back to our home countries to wait through the I-130 process. So it ended up that she came here on the 90-day visa (they didn't even ask her any questions at POE... there are so many Japanese tourists coming in every single day, so they barely check, even though she had all her paperwork showing that she was returning to Japan in December ready just in case), then we got married, got all the paperwork together for the I-130 and sent it, then had some time to wait together before she had to go back in December without staying past the 90-day expiration date.

Hrmmm, anyway... I think the problem was just that they saw the "beneficiary is in the US" part and thought she was still here (even though the visa expiration date was passed) so they thought we needed to do AOS. However, we never had the option of her doing AOS because we followed the legal route in order to avoid the immigration fraud problem.

[kelzm 0]

Yup, no problem with entering the US with the intent to marry, if you intend to leave again.

I did it in August, flew in, told them I was getting married, got married, flew out a week later.