G325a - residence and occupation questions

[cardinal 1]

Hi,

I am new here. I apologize if this question has been answered previously - I did try to search but couldn't find it. My fiance is from Burkina Faso - currently living in France getting his masters. We met while I was living there doing dissertation research.

1. We are having trouble with the G325a questions regarding residence in the past 5 years. While in Burkina, neither of us had a street address (many of the streets there have neither names nor house numbers - including some expat neighborhoods. There's no mail delivery to home addresses - people just have PO boxes). I had a building name and neighborhood name, he just has the name of his neighborhood. Neither of us had a PO Box - we just got mail at work (and I had my US mail forwarded to my parents). I was thinking to provide what information we have and attach a google map with our residences marked on it...Has anyone dealt with this before and what did you do?

2. Again in the G325a, my fiance had something like 10 short term contracts over a period of 4 years from the same research institute in Ouaga. However, he was not continuously employed by them (ie, there were a few months here and there when he was not working for them) and his position titles differed a bit (research assistant, assistant, supervisor, interviewer, etc). Does he need to list each contract separately, or can he list it on a single line and just put research assistant/supervisor/interviewer as the position?

thanks!!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hi,

I am new here. I apologize if this question has been answered previously - I did try to search but couldn't find it. My fiance is from Burkina Faso - currently living in France getting his masters. We met while I was living there doing dissertation research.

1. We are having trouble with the G325a questions regarding residence in the past 5 years. While in Burkina, neither of us had a street address (many of the streets there have neither names nor house numbers - including some expat neighborhoods. There's no mail delivery to home addresses - people just have PO boxes). I had a building name and neighborhood name, he just has the name of his neighborhood. Neither of us had a PO Box - we just got mail at work (and I had my US mail forwarded to my parents). I was thinking to provide what information we have and attach a google map with our residences marked on it...Has anyone dealt with this before and what did you do?

2. Again in the G325a, my fiance had something like 10 short term contracts over a period of 4 years from the same research institute in Ouaga. However, he was not continuously employed by them (ie, there were a few months here and there when he was not working for them) and his position titles differed a bit (research assistant, assistant, supervisor, interviewer, etc). Does he need to list each contract separately, or can he list it on a single line and just put research assistant/supervisor/interviewer as the position?

thanks!!

1. List your address as best you can. USCIS knows that not everywhere uses "123 Main St., Anytown, USA" Just enter what it is. There are no "right or wrong" answers, just the truth.

2. If they were contracts, was he "self employed" . If so, enter "self employed" to cover the period. Otherwise add a detail sheet and list each employment period separately. If he was in the same general category of work, list that "Research Scientist" or something such as that. If someone is with the same company for a while and holds various positions you can either generalize (I my case I would just say "construction" or "engineering") OR you can list the LAST position held.

In general none of this is material information, meaning it has no affect on the visa or petition. They use this information, if needed, in background checks and such to sort you out from a bad guy with the same name for example. Just answer as clearly and completely as possible.

[cardinal 1]

1. List your address as best you can. USCIS knows that not everywhere uses "123 Main St., Anytown, USA" Just enter what it is. There are no "right or wrong" answers, just the truth.

2. If they were contracts, was he "self employed" . If so, enter "self employed" to cover the period. Otherwise add a detail sheet and list each employment period separately. If he was in the same general category of work, list that "Research Scientist" or something such as that. If someone is with the same company for a while and holds various positions you can either generalize (I my case I would just say "construction" or "engineering") OR you can list the LAST position held.

In general none of this is material information, meaning it has no affect on the visa or petition. They use this information, if needed, in background checks and such to sort you out from a bad guy with the same name for example. Just answer as clearly and completely as possible.

Thanks! He is a researcher (geographer) and was working on various studies at a research institute. So I don't think he would be self-employed - we will add a sheet with all the details!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Thanks! He is a researcher (geographer) and was working on various studies at a research institute. So I don't think he would be self-employed - we will add a sheet with all the details!

I am sure he can answer that question. Determining whether someone is self employed or not is fairly easy here, do they send you a W-2 or a 1099? But in another country, maybe not so easy. At any rate, he could list his occupation as "Geographer" and leave it at that.

Edited February 27, 2011 by Gary and Alla