Stand alone I-130 for stepchild(ren)

[Country Girl 0]

Are the kids in America or their home country. If they are in their home country, they would get their green card automatically when they enter the States. No adjustment of status needed.

Yes, you will need to do the taxes stuff when after their I-130s get approved and get sent to NVC.

Home country...tnx for your reply

[Kazulie 132]

I know the feeling that the kids are aging years in a matter of months It may be they have linked the cases and you won't get a decision on theirs until a decision is made on your husband's. Best case scenario maybe it will force a decision on your husband's case.

That would be worst case scenario (besides getting denied) to link them up with my husband. His case is going to take forever!!! I'm making an info pass next week.

[lucy4 11]

It is one less thing to worry about

When you reach NVC stage your (step) daughter will still be the immediate relative of a USC (you) so your husband's status won't change her visa category which will be IR2. She cannot 'derive' citizenship from your husband while she is outside of the US - your husband would needed to have been a citizen when she was born and met a 5 year residency requirement as a USC prior to that in order for him to pass on his status to her while she is abroad - in other words for her to qualify for CRBA and to get a US passport. In the case of your daughter and my kids they will have a 'claim' to citizenship through parentage only after they have been admitted to the U.S. on a valid (immigrant) visa.

Because of that we still have to go through all the fun stuff of the I-130 process including embassy interview. I have not heard of the medical being waived but because the AOS has to do with making sure an LPR won't become a public charge once in the US and as your daughter will have claim to citizenship once here and therefore eligible for means tested benefits is why the AOS is waived versus the medical which is about being eligible to be admitted to US i.e. prior to her being a USC, which is why I suspect it will not be waived. I would love to be wrong on being able to skip the medical and I will look into it a little bit but I suspect that because they are dealing with two different things that won't be the case.

It should be noted that if you do not get documentation to prove citizenship of your daughter once admitted to the US and prior to her turning 18 (either by filing the N-600 or applying for a passport) then I believe she will have to apply for her own citizenship (N400) after 5 years of residency (time as LPR prior to turning 18 will count).

Hope that explains it Congrats on your husband getting close to citizenship - it is an exciting thing!

Beejay, you are definitely a class act. How wonderful of you to want to research further. You are such a wealth of information.

I know she won't be a citizen til she gets here, it just sucks that they won't allow her to come here. Life would be so much easier. She has been denied a tourist visa more than once, and I suspect it's because her father is a permanent resident. I strongly believe this whole process is about what makes them more money. I'm not complaining about her doing the medical, it's just that there is no embassy in the country and they have to go to another island to have medical etc. done, then wait there two days beforepicking up the results and having interview. It sucks, because we need someone to take her. That's two plane tix, hotel accommodations, and cabfare back and forth from embassy, medical facility twice, food etc. it's such a difficult process.

I just wish she could either come here and I take care of the aos stuff here, medical etc. or she have her medical done in her home country, then just go to Barbados with the results for the interview. We have no choice so we will do whatever it takes. I'm just venting. I really hope her mother is willing to take care of that part without a problem.

On a brighter side, what u taught me about the 864w is priceless. I had issues with providing them with all my financial info for the interview, and now hopefully I won't have to. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge.

Edited July 22, 2012 by lucy4

[beejay 123]

<snip>

I just wish she could either come here and I take care of the aos stuff here, medical etc. or she have her medical done in her home country, then just go to Barbados with the results for the interview. We have no choice so we will do whatever it takes. I'm just venting. I really hope her mother is willing to take care of that part without a problem.

On a brighter side, what u taught me about the 864w is priceless. I had issues with providing them with all my financial info for the interview, and now hopefully I won't have to. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge.

I hear you, AOS and supporting docs is one of my least favorite parts of the process - not that I have a favorite one. Oh, but we will still have to pay the $88 AOS fee at NVC I believe. (Like you said, they love their fees).

We are in a pretty similar situation for the medical (only one place for medical, same country but different island 300+ miles away, etc.) so I get where you are coming from and I'm sure everyone else does to. There are a lot of little details and expenses that need to get worked out to make this process successful. Hopefully you can get things sorted out with the mother or find a relative who would be willing to take your daughter. The mother of my husband's kids was originally going to accompany the kids for their medical and interview but she and her husband are now expecting () and she is due right around when we expect the interview to be so we had to form a plan B.

(I'll let you know if I find anything about the medical but my willingness to research further isn't completely altruistic as I would also benefit from the information )

[beejay 123]

That would be worst case scenario (besides getting denied) to link them up with my husband. His case is going to take forever!!! I'm making an info pass next week.

I was trying to figure out reasons why they would send an I-130 to a local office and I was thinking if it forced them to take action on your husband's case ... but let's hope they don't link them up and just want to call you in for an interview, clarify a few things and then get on with the processing.

If you do a search on here there are some cases of I-130s being sent to local offices and then the petitioner being called in for an interview. The questions varied from casual to slightly interrogative but it looks like the few that were called in most resulted in an approval of the petition.

I hope the infopass is able to provide you with some information. Let us know how it goes.

[Kazulie 132]

I was trying to figure out reasons why they would send an I-130 to a local office and I was thinking if it forced them to take action on your husband's case ... but let's hope they don't link them up and just want to call you in for an interview, clarify a few things and then get on with the processing.

If you do a search on here there are some cases of I-130s being sent to local offices and then the petitioner being called in for an interview. The questions varied from casual to slightly interrogative but it looks like the few that were called in most resulted in an approval of the petition.

I hope the infopass is able to provide you with some information. Let us know how it goes.

I love you beejay! (just incase no one has told you that today!)

Anyway, I'm almost certain it's for an interview. that's mainly why people get sent to their local office. My thing is is that I need the interview NOW!!! I know they are about to send me a letter saying, "your case has been sent to your local USCIS office, if you haven't heard from us in 6 months, feel free to call us." I know this because I already have one of these letters sitting in my file. And it's been over 4 months with that case and I haven't heard a word since.

THIS CAN NOT HAPPEN WITH THE BOYS!!!! So as soon as I know that the case is actually here in Chicago, I'm going to make an InfoPass appointment and go to the USCIS office, with ALLLLLLL off my paperwork, pictures, chats, texts, emails, western unions, blah blah blah, and I'm going to sit my butt down in that office and sit there, and sit there, and sit there, until someone gives me interview after interview after interview and approves my boys!!!

At least that's how I see it in my head. lol we'll see how it really goes down this week!

[lucy4 11]

I love you beejay! (just incase no one has told you that today!)

Anyway, I'm almost certain it's for an interview. that's mainly why people get sent to their local office. My thing is is that I need the interview NOW!!! I know they are about to send me a letter saying, "your case has been sent to your local USCIS office, if you haven't heard from us in 6 months, feel free to call us." I know this because I already have one of these letters sitting in my file. And it's been over 4 months with that case and I haven't heard a word since.

THIS CAN NOT HAPPEN WITH THE BOYS!!!! So as soon as I know that the case is actually here in Chicago, I'm going to make an InfoPass appointment and go to the USCIS office, with ALLLLLLL off my paperwork, pictures, chats, texts, emails, western unions, blah blah blah, and I'm going to sit my butt down in that office and sit there, and sit there, and sit there, until someone gives me interview after interview after interview and approves my boys!!!

At least that's how I see it in my head. lol we'll see how it really goes down this week!

I hope everything goes smoothly for you.

[ArmyMustang 1]

Hi,

I'm new to the group, Kazulie sent me over since I'm starting off with trying to bring my stepson over. My husband entered EWI, has an approved I-130 from 2010 but we haven't taken the second step since he falls under the 10 year ban/waiver eligible and we've been trying to save up money. My stepsons (in Mexico) are 10 and 5 but the youngest is USC so we are just trying to tackle getting the 10yo's visa now. I am just starting today with filling out the paperwork and trying to collect up the information. It sounds like it's better to take my time and not try to rush it and get an RFE. His name is on the birth certificate so I'm hoping we don't get the joy of DNA testing.

My questions on the I-130 are:

Section D:

1. If separate petitions are also being submitted for other relatives, gives names of each and relationship.

2. Have you ever before filed a petition for this or any other alien?

How do I answer these based on my husband's petition from two years ago? Should I include a copy of our NOA2 from my husband's case and his I-130 where we listed the boys names? I wasn't sure if the first questions referred to petitions being submitted simultaneously or not.

I appreciate the heads up about calling Western Union, we use a different service to send money to Mexico but I'm sure they can provide some kind of record too and I kept some receipts. For the last year though, we've just been having my husband's sister deposit money in the mom's account so it saved us the wiring fees (the sister runs a store we opened in Mexico so the bank account is in her name). We use Rebtel for cheap int'l calls so I could print off the monthly bill statement that shows the calls to his son's home. He hasn't been able to see his sons since 2008 so we have almost no photos too.

I'm glad to be here with others who are doing it sans attorney. Ours wanted $1500 for filing the petition and preparing for the consular appointment.

[jimnlena 8]

Sheeeesh now NVC is on slowdown Case still not entered!! If it gets in quick still a slight chance of her here by school!

[beejay 123]

<snip>

THIS CAN NOT HAPPEN WITH THE BOYS!!!! So as soon as I know that the case is actually here in Chicago, I'm going to make an InfoPass appointment and go to the USCIS office, with ALLLLLLL off my paperwork, pictures, chats, texts, emails, western unions, blah blah blah, and I'm going to sit my butt down in that office and sit there, and sit there, and sit there, until someone gives me interview after interview after interview and approves my boys!!!

At least that's how I see it in my head. lol we'll see how it really goes down this week!

I think that is an excellent plan! Your boys have a tough, well-informed and prepared momma fighting for them. You will find a way to get them here.

[beejay 123]

Sheeeesh now NVC is on slowdown Case still not entered!! If it gets in quick still a slight chance of her here by school!

Still no case number here either. The lady I talked to today said it's taking 2-4 weeks from receipt before it's inputted in their system. Our was received July 9th at NVC and she said to try again at the end of the week or Monday.

[lucy4 11]

This is a lil off topic from this thread, but I just wanted to share that my husbands oath has been scheduled. That means my step daughter will be a citizen upon entry, and I will be able to file 864w. Yay! Thanks beejay for informing me about that.

[beejay 123]

Hi,

I'm new to the group, Kazulie sent me over since I'm starting off with trying to bring my stepson over. My husband entered EWI, has an approved I-130 from 2010 but we haven't taken the second step since he falls under the 10 year ban/waiver eligible and we've been trying to save up money. My stepsons (in Mexico) are 10 and 5 but the youngest is USC so we are just trying to tackle getting the 10yo's visa now. I am just starting today with filling out the paperwork and trying to collect up the information. It sounds like it's better to take my time and not try to rush it and get an RFE. His name is on the birth certificate so I'm hoping we don't get the joy of DNA testing.

My questions on the I-130 are:

Section D:

1. If separate petitions are also being submitted for other relatives, gives names of each and relationship.

2. Have you ever before filed a petition for this or any other alien?

How do I answer these based on my husband's petition from two years ago? Should I include a copy of our NOA2 from my husband's case and his I-130 where we listed the boys names? I wasn't sure if the first questions referred to petitions being submitted simultaneously or not.

I appreciate the heads up about calling Western Union, we use a different service to send money to Mexico but I'm sure they can provide some kind of record too and I kept some receipts. For the last year though, we've just been having my husband's sister deposit money in the mom's account so it saved us the wiring fees (the sister runs a store we opened in Mexico so the bank account is in her name). We use Rebtel for cheap int'l calls so I could print off the monthly bill statement that shows the calls to his son's home. He hasn't been able to see his sons since 2008 so we have almost no photos too.

I'm glad to be here with others who are doing it sans attorney. Ours wanted $1500 for filing the petition and preparing for the consular appointment.

Welcome ArmyMustang!

That's great that you are getting the opportunity to bring the boys to live with you and your husband. Let's hope you can avoid the DNA.

1. Yes you are right, I believe this is if you are filing petitions at the same time and would want them to be processed together. I'm filing for a stepson and stepdaughter so I put the sibling's name there. Since you don't need a visa for your youngest you wouldn't put anything there or write NONE.

2. I think you would have to mark yes because you filed a petition for your husband. I even think you would put approved because the petition was approved and NOA2 received just the visa wasn't applied for. I would put your husband's name, the service center it was filed at and approved. I don't know if you need to mention that you did not continue with the process, you might want to wait for another opinion on that one . As reference this is where I put my husband's K-1 info - I wrote the U.S. service center, date of that filing and approved, nothing else about visa application or whether he got that. Don't know if that was a problem but we just got our NOA2 and are waiting on a case number from NVC. I also did not include a copy of the NOA2 of any of our previous filings (K-1, AOS, ROC, N400) even though the kids have been listed on all of them. (I figured if they really want to go and check they can).

I think you should go with your instinct on whether to include pictures or not but one member did receive an RFE and one of the listed items was pictures. Even if you have some that aren't recent I would try to include a few.

Good luck and let us know if you are able to get the receipts from your money transfer place. You could also have your sister write an affidavit stating that for the past year she has been transferring money from the account to the mother or have the mother mention it in her affidavit. (As a back up you could try and get the sister to get print outs of the withdrawals so you have a record of that) We usually transfer money to my mother-in-law who then gives it to the kid's mother so we had her mention that in her statement. It shouldn't be a big deal especially if you can show an established pattern of sending money with the old receipts. Is the store something you actively earn income on or does it all go to your sister-in-law?

This is a lil off topic from this thread, but I just wanted to share that my husbands oath has been scheduled. That means my step daughter will be a citizen upon entry, and I will be able to file 864w. Yay! Thanks beejay for informing me about that.

Wonderful news, congratulations! I hope you and your husband enjoy the oath ceremony

[Kazulie 132]

Still no case number here either. The lady I talked to today said it's taking 2-4 weeks from receipt before it's inputted in their system. Our was received July 9th at NVC and she said to try again at the end of the week or Monday.

Goodness!!!! I'm soooo anxious for you, can't imagine how you feel!!!

[Jamaicagyaldat 1]

Okay everyone I paid Aos on friday.like Nvc said n i mailed package! Yeah