I have some questions about the I-130, help?

[RebeccaAndPhil 5]

Hello everyone, just to give a brief background of my situation...my husband is a Canadian citizen and I am a U.S. citizen. He entered on a J1 visa on September 21, 2008. We got married August 15th and I've been filling out the I-130 on paper and gathering documents. I wrote down some questions I have while filling it out and was hoping for some answers/clarification!

I have a lot of questions, so here goes!

- For family name, should I use my married name or my maiden name?

-#8 on the form asks for place of marriage; does this mean the name of the church we married in or the city & state...or both (although I tried putting both and it didn't fit!)

-Where do I find my husband's alien registration number? I'm not too sure what this is

- Under #14 on his side of the information it asks for "date authorized stay will expire as shown on form I-94." There is no date such as this anywhere on his I-94 because his I-94 is a small piece of paper stapled into his passport that only has his arrival record number and arrival date on it. He does have another form (DS-2019) that says the form covers period 10-1-2008 to 3-31-2010. Is this 3-31-2010 the date I should put or would it be April 30, 2010 (which would include his 30 day grace period)?

-For #17, do I need to list myself as his wife where it says "list husband/wife and all children of your relative." I would think this is self explanatory that I am his wife since I am the one petitioning but I thought I'd check.

-For #19 where it asks for relative's address abroad should I list the address where he lived before he arrived on his J1 visa, as in, his permanent home address in Canada?

-Lastly, for #22, how do I find out what city & state my husband will be applying for adjustment of status? We live in Pennsylvania if that makes a difference

I really appreciate any and all help!

[rahulv 4]

You can read the guides for I-130 and I-485 here for more info but in short,

Answers

- For family name, should I use my married name or my maiden name?

You can use either (if you have started using married name use married), then look in section B question 7 other names used you have to put your maiden name there.

-#8 on the form asks for place of marriage; does this mean the name of the church we married in or the city & state...or both (although I tried putting both and it didn't fit!)

Place of Marriage is City, State, Country... only.

Also if there is something (other than place of marriage) that doesn't fit on the form you can attach an extra sheet (read the instructions of Form I-130).

-Where do I find my husband's alien registration number? I'm not too sure what this is

write "none", he doesn't have any yet. Once he files I-485 he would get one.

- Under #14 on his side of the information it asks for "date authorized stay will expire as shown on form I-94." There is no date such as this anywhere on his I-94 because his I-94 is a small piece of paper stapled into his passport that only has his arrival record number and arrival date on it. He does have another form (DS-2019) that says the form covers period 10-1-2008 to 3-31-2010. Is this 3-31-2010 the date I should put or would it be April 30, 2010 (which would include his 30 day grace period)?

if I-94 or I-95 does not have a date you can use DS-2019 date put 3-31-2010 (grace period is after stay expires). Or you can just put N/A there.

You should get more information about this.

-For #17, do I need to list myself as his wife where it says "list husband/wife and all children of your relative." I would think this is self explanatory that I am his wife since I am the one petitioning but I thought I'd check.

Still list yourself as his wife. This form is used for all relative based immigration so...

-For #19 where it asks for relative's address abroad should I list the address where he lived before he arrived on his J1 visa, as in, his permanent home address in Canada?

Yeah that would be fine.

-Lastly, for #22, how do I find out what city & state my husband will be applying for adjustment of status? We live in Pennsylvania if that makes a difference

Since he is already in US, he would be applying for AOS here, find the nearest USCIS Local Office and put that City and State, you can find this information on the USCIS web site. https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=of....office_type=LO

Hope all this helps, good luck...

Also make sure you file for I-485, and I-765 at least with I-130. Read the FAQs and Guides they would clear all your doubts.

[RebeccaAndPhil 5]

You can read the guides for I-130 and I-485 here for more info but in short,

Answers

- For family name, should I use my married name or my maiden name?

You can use either (if you have started using married name use married), then look in section B question 7 other names used you have to put your maiden name there.

-#8 on the form asks for place of marriage; does this mean the name of the church we married in or the city & state...or both (although I tried putting both and it didn't fit!)

Place of Marriage is City, State, Country... only.

Also if there is something (other than place of marriage) that doesn't fit on the form you can attach an extra sheet (read the instructions of Form I-130).

-Where do I find my husband's alien registration number? I'm not too sure what this is

write "none", he doesn't have any yet. Once he files I-485 he would get one.

- Under #14 on his side of the information it asks for "date authorized stay will expire as shown on form I-94." There is no date such as this anywhere on his I-94 because his I-94 is a small piece of paper stapled into his passport that only has his arrival record number and arrival date on it. He does have another form (DS-2019) that says the form covers period 10-1-2008 to 3-31-2010. Is this 3-31-2010 the date I should put or would it be April 30, 2010 (which would include his 30 day grace period)?

if I-94 or I-95 does not have a date you can use DS-2019 date put 3-31-2010 (grace period is after stay expires). Or you can just put N/A there.

You should get more information about this.

-For #17, do I need to list myself as his wife where it says "list husband/wife and all children of your relative." I would think this is self explanatory that I am his wife since I am the one petitioning but I thought I'd check.

Still list yourself as his wife. This form is used for all relative based immigration so...

-For #19 where it asks for relative's address abroad should I list the address where he lived before he arrived on his J1 visa, as in, his permanent home address in Canada?

Yeah that would be fine.

-Lastly, for #22, how do I find out what city & state my husband will be applying for adjustment of status? We live in Pennsylvania if that makes a difference

Since he is already in US, he would be applying for AOS here, find the nearest USCIS Local Office and put that City and State, you can find this information on the USCIS web site. https://egov.uscis.gov/crisgwi/go?action=of....office_type=LO

Hope all this helps, good luck...

Also make sure you file for I-485, and I-765 at least with I-130. Read the FAQs and Guides they would clear all your doubts.

Thanks much for your reply! I looked on that link for a local office and ours is Philadelphia, PA. I'm confused though b/c I thought we were sending in our finished packet with the I-130 & I-485 to Chicago, IL since we live in PA? Would this be the office to put or Philadelphia? If it's Philadelphia, are we sending our packet there then?

[BigBubble 1]

Hello everyone, just to give a brief background of my situation...my husband is a Canadian citizen and I am a U.S. citizen. He entered on a J1 visa on September 21, 2008. We got married August 15th and I've been filling out the I-130 on paper and gathering documents. I wrote down some questions I have while filling it out and was hoping for some answers/clarification!

I have a lot of questions, so here goes!

- For family name, should I use my married name or my maiden name?

I called USCIS about that and they told me I could use either one. I still used my maiden name since that´s how appears in my passport, SS card, ID, etc...I will have time to change it later if i want to.