Bad mail service- what address to use?

[lucybelle 453]

So I have a question about the bad mail services. I was going to put my address on the I-130 as my mom's address in the USA because mail here is just awful. There are no actual street addresses, instead they are like "50 meters south of the McDonalds, house on the right". I have a PO box, but even that is horribly unreliable. I know it would probably go faster with my foreign address, but anything they sent me would most likely never arrive. And that definitely worries me.

We plan to file in January 2013 and leave the country by December 2013. So that gives us a full year to be approved. Would it be best to...

a) use my mom's address since we're giving ourselves a full year to get approved

b) use my "street address"

c) use my PO box

[jessicaruizw 9]

So I have a question about the bad mail services.

I think your question would be best posted in another topic or perhaps search and I bet the answer is already out there in the VJ world. We are using this topic to track the expedited/non-expedited cases of USC´s abroad.

Good luck!

[lucybelle 453]

I think your question would be best posted in another topic or perhaps search and I bet the answer is already out there in the VJ world. We are using this topic to track the expedited/non-expedited cases of USC´s abroad.

Good luck!

I understand, but I've already made another post where my question was never really answered. I've tried searching the forum but tons of threads have the word "address" in them and it'll take me forever to sift through all of them. Thought someone might be able to help me here.

[Stacia 0]

So I have a question about the bad mail services. I was going to put my address on the I-130 as my mom's address in the USA because mail here is just awful. There are no actual street addresses, instead they are like "50 meters south of the McDonalds, house on the right". I have a PO box, but even that is horribly unreliable. I know it would probably go faster with my foreign address, but anything they sent me would most likely never arrive. And that definitely worries me.

We plan to file in January 2013 and leave the country by December 2013. So that gives us a full year to be approved. Would it be best to...

a) use my mom's address since we're giving ourselves a full year to get approved

b) use my "street address"

c) use my PO box

The mail here is really bad too. I receive mail at the school that I work at and not at my house. Even getting the mail at school is unreliable. I actually got the hard copy of the NOA2 before I got the hard copy of the NOA1. I put the address where I receive mail (at the school) on the I-130. I think you should put your PO Box. You can check the status of your I-130 online. After it is approved, you can call the NVC and check to see if they have assigned you a case number. Once it is assigned, you can give them your e-mail addresses and they will send the rest of the communication through e-mail. Also, we added a continuation sheet to the I-130 explaining that the address was where we received our mail and that it wasn't where we actually lived. It looked like this:

Continuation Sheet

I-130, Petition for Alien Relative

Petitioner: Name

Beneficiary: Name

Item Numbers B2, C2, C19, C21

We cannot receive mail through the street address of our actual residence. The address shown on the I-130 form is our mailing address. The street address of our actual residence is shown on both G-325a forms.

___________________________________ ____________________

Signature Date

Then, we put our actual street address on both G-324a forms. They accepted it and our I-130 was approved 7 days after our NOA1 e-mail. We are almost done with our NVC stage. All we need to do is mail in the AOS and DS-230 packages. Hope this helps.

Edited June 7, 2012 by Stacia

[lucybelle 453]

The mail here is really bad too. I receive mail at the school that I work at and not at my house. Even getting the mail at school is unreliable. I actually got the hard copy of the NOA2 before I got the hard copy of the NOA1. I put the address where I receive mail (at the school) on the I-130. I think you should put your PO Box. You can check the status of your I-130 online. After it is approved, you can call the NVC and check to see if they have assigned you a case number. Once it is assigned, you can give them your e-mail addresses and they will send the rest of the communication through e-mail. Also, we added a continuation sheet to the I-130 explaining that the address was where we received our mail and that it wasn't where we actually lived. It looked like this:

Continuation Sheet

I-130, Petition for Alien Relative

Petitioner: Name

Beneficiary: Name

Item Numbers B2, C2, C19, C21

We cannot receive mail through the street address of our actual residence. The address shown on the I-130 form is our mailing address. The street address of our actual residence is shown on both G-325a forms.

___________________________________ ____________________

Signature Date

Then, we put our actual street address on both G-324a forms. They accepted it and our I-130 was approved 7 days after our NOA1 e-mail. We are almost done with our NVC stage. All we need to do is mail in the AOS and DS-230 packages. Hope this helps.

Thank you so much!! This is exactly what I needed to know

[AandJ 3]

I agree with Stacia. Not only will it be good to use your foreign address for you to get the mail, but also, if you file from abroad and have a foreign residence with your spouse, you will more than likely get into the 'USC living abroad' fast queue, so use that address for sure! Here is thelink to the forum - check it out!

[lucybelle 453]

One more question- I'm going to fill every address line with our "mailing" address on the I-130 but on the questions B2 and C2 the address doesn't fit. So in those two questions I wrote: "See continuation sheet" and then my continuation sheet says:

Continuation Sheet

I-130, Petition for Alien Relative

Petitioner: Name

Beneficiary: Name

Item Numbers: B2, C2, C19, C21

B2

Complete Mailing Address

C2

Complete Mailing Address

NOTE: We cannot receive mail through the street address of our actual residence. The address shown on the I-130 form in items B2, C2, C19 and C21 is our mailing address. The street address of our actual residence is shown on both G-325a forms.

Signature date

Does this seem okay? Or should I make two continuation sheets? One for writing the full addresses for questions B2 and C2 and one for giving the note that these addresses are our mailing address and not our actual residence? Thanks!

[Darnell 8,478]

4. use mom's address but note where you are in the G-325A for the timeticks listed, and include a cover letter explaining that you are living abroad, then on the outside of the packet that you are sending - write in big letters 'Filed From Abroad'.

[lucybelle 453]

4. use mom's address but note where you are in the G-325A for the timeticks listed, and include a cover letter explaining that you are living abroad, then on the outside of the packet that you are sending - write in big letters 'Filed From Abroad'.

That sounds like a good plan! I hope it works.

I just found out that Costa Rica has zip codes, unbeknownst to both my boyfriend AND the post office (give you an idea of how awful the mail service is here? The post office didn't know there are zip codes) Anyways, I'm having some folks from the USA write me some letters with the zip code included to see if the mail works any better. I haven't received about 90% of what has been sent to my PO box, hoping this helps!

[Darnell 8,478]

boyfriend?

well, as long as yer husband signs the I-130, you can simply ignore what yer boyfriend tells you, for a bit.

[lucybelle 453]

boyfriend?

well, as long as yer husband signs the I-130, you can simply ignore what yer boyfriend tells you, for a bit.

Jaja! We're marrying in January in the USA. I want to get all papers together so that as soon as we marry we can send it off from the USA. We'll only be there for a week so everything needs to be perfect before we get there. Like I said, mail service here blows and I don't want to risk sending from here.

[Darnell 8,478]

well, maybe that's a good time, after january, to lose the boyfriend.

unless, of course, he can cook very well.

Good Luck !