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Filed: EB-2 Visa Country: Brazil
Timeline
Posted

Hi all,

Have been a long time lurker and enjoy the community here a lot. Anyway, situation is as follows (tried to put it as concisely as possible):

1. My wife and I are both LPRs

2. Wife had baby outside of the US - Baby is now two months old

3. Wife has been since Sep 29, 2012 outside of the US, so a little over 6 months

4. I have been going back and forth between the US and our country during those six months

5. I'm in our home country right now with my wife and daughter - have been out of the US for a little over a week

6. We are planning to return to the US next Saturday, April 14th - it will be my wife's first return to the US after our baby was born

My understanding is that at POE our baby will have her passport stamped with a green card, and that a couple of months later the card will arrive on mail.

As my wife's english is limited, she is concerned that at POE she could be taken to secondary inspection without me, and that she could be "grilled" by the immigration officer, get nervous and do or say something wrong that could put our family in a tough situation. We've been in and out of the US quite a bit since we got our green cards, so my wife is concerned that they could pressure her on that.

I am wondering if people that went through that process could cast some light on how things went at POE with as much detail as possible. Did you go through secondary inspection? What docs were requested? What questions were asked by the immigration officer? Any curve balls? How long did it take?

That info would be very helpful for me to help her be prepared and more confident, dramatically reducing the stress level right now.

Many thanks for reading and sharing your experiences.

Filed: EB-2 Visa Country: Brazil
Timeline
Posted

The baby is traveling to the US without a visa?

Contact the US Embassy in your country so you'll know what to expect at POE.

Thanks for your reply apple21!

Yes, according to US immigration law she can travel without a visa. In our country however it is necessary to get a transportation letter, which we will get from the consulate here.

I spoke with the consulate here and they gave me very vague answers about what happens at POE. They didn't really say much about what kinds of questions will be asked, what docs other then the basics are to be provided,etc.

I am looking for the help of folks who went through this process at POE to bring some first-hand accounts on what exactly happened, so that I can prepare my wife for the experience. As I mentioned, her english is very limited and she gets scared of officials very easily. If she knows in advance what to expect she will be much more calm and collected.

Thanks a lot!

Filed: Other Country: Brazil
Timeline
Posted (edited)

She just have to show the transportation letter, her green card and the child birth certificate and respective TRANSLATION!in certain cases because of fraud they can ask her for medical records, then just in case she should bring papers from the hospital showing she gave birth to the child ok. The child will acquire the permanent status at the POE.The CBP officer will stamp the child's passport (the parent's passport if the child has none).They won't give her hard time at all, if they can't understand her well or vice versa they will call an interpreter.

Edited by sandranj
Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Wales
Timeline
Posted

Interesting

Not something I have seen before but I assumed a GC holder would need to sponsor a child.

presumably because the child was born to a GC Holder rather than before the GC was obtained.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

Filed: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Country: Finland
Timeline
Posted

Interesting

Not something I have seen before but I assumed a GC holder would need to sponsor a child.

presumably because the child was born to a GC Holder rather than before the GC was obtained.

We've had this case here a couple of times. If I remember correctly, a permanent resident mother can bring her child to the US without a visa on her first entry after having given birth abroad as long as the child is under two years old.

My F2A/IR-1 journey:

USCIS:
4 August 2011: I-130 sent (while husband permanent resident)
8 August 2011: Priority date
16 April 2013: NOA2

NVC:

7 May 2013: Case number received, DS-3032 sent

15 May 2013: AOS bill received and paid

16 May 2013: AOS package sent

17 May 2013: DS-3032 accepted

20 May 2013: IV bill received and paid

21 May 2013: IV package sent

11 June 2013: response to IV checklist sent

13 June 2013: Case upgraded to CR1

2 July 2013: Case completed

28 August 2013: Interview - approved!

21 September 2013: POE

18 November 2013: Green card received

My husband's citizenship journey:

8 February 2013: N-400 sent
4 March 2013: Biometrics
24 April 2013: Interview
12 June 2013: Oath ceremony

Filed: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Country: Finland
Timeline
Posted

I googled this and here is a link to the first hit - it might be helpful for someone else in the same situation:

http://tirana.usembassy.gov/born_to_lpr.html

My F2A/IR-1 journey:

USCIS:
4 August 2011: I-130 sent (while husband permanent resident)
8 August 2011: Priority date
16 April 2013: NOA2

NVC:

7 May 2013: Case number received, DS-3032 sent

15 May 2013: AOS bill received and paid

16 May 2013: AOS package sent

17 May 2013: DS-3032 accepted

20 May 2013: IV bill received and paid

21 May 2013: IV package sent

11 June 2013: response to IV checklist sent

13 June 2013: Case upgraded to CR1

2 July 2013: Case completed

28 August 2013: Interview - approved!

21 September 2013: POE

18 November 2013: Green card received

My husband's citizenship journey:

8 February 2013: N-400 sent
4 March 2013: Biometrics
24 April 2013: Interview
12 June 2013: Oath ceremony

Filed: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Country: Finland
Timeline
Posted

OP, VJ member -mitch- from the Philippines was in this situation. She hasn't been active on VJ for a while, but you could try and see if you can reach her via a private message.

My F2A/IR-1 journey:

USCIS:
4 August 2011: I-130 sent (while husband permanent resident)
8 August 2011: Priority date
16 April 2013: NOA2

NVC:

7 May 2013: Case number received, DS-3032 sent

15 May 2013: AOS bill received and paid

16 May 2013: AOS package sent

17 May 2013: DS-3032 accepted

20 May 2013: IV bill received and paid

21 May 2013: IV package sent

11 June 2013: response to IV checklist sent

13 June 2013: Case upgraded to CR1

2 July 2013: Case completed

28 August 2013: Interview - approved!

21 September 2013: POE

18 November 2013: Green card received

My husband's citizenship journey:

8 February 2013: N-400 sent
4 March 2013: Biometrics
24 April 2013: Interview
12 June 2013: Oath ceremony

Filed: EB-2 Visa Country: Brazil
Timeline
Posted

OP, VJ member -mitch- from the Philippines was in this situation. She hasn't been active on VJ for a while, but you could try and see if you can reach her via a private message.

Thanks so much Athena. I'll pm mitch and hopefully will get more insights on this.

Filed: EB-2 Visa Country: Brazil
Timeline
Posted

I googled this and here is a link to the first hit - it might be helpful for someone else in the same situation:

Yes, that's exactly the law we are basing our process on. Thanks for posting - it will certainly help other folks in the same situation.

She just have to show the transportation letter, her green card and the child birth certificate and respective TRANSLATION!in certain cases because of fraud they can ask her for medical records, then just in case she should bring papers from the hospital showing she gave birth to the child ok. The child will acquire the permanent status at the POE.The CBP officer will stamp the child's passport (the parent's passport if the child has none).They won't give her hard time at all, if they can't understand her well or vice versa they will call an interpreter.

Thanks Sandra, lots of great info.

If others have more to add I'd be very thankful. I'll also post my experience after we go through it.

  • 7 months later...
Filed: EB-2 Visa Country: Brazil
Timeline
Posted

It's been quite a long time, but I decided to wait until we had our daughter's green card on hand before posting again.

Here's what happened. The day we were supposed to fly to the US with my daughter we could not board the plane because United wanted a transportation letter for my daughter. My company's lawyers had said that it was not necessary to have one, but it turns out that in Brazil it is required. So we had to go back home, schedule and appointment with the US embassy in Sao Paulo to get that document.

The process itself was fairly easy - took a couple of hours and we left the embassy with two sealed envelopes: one for the airline and one for the immigration officer at POE.

After a day we went to the airport and this time United took the transportation letter and allowed us to board. We flew to Chicago in a fairly uneventful flight, despite the fact that we had our 2 month daughter with us.

When we landed we took the US citizens and permanent residents line. The immigration officer looked at our passports and green cards, and the transportation letter from the embassy. He then said that the process for my daughter's paperwork would take a while and that he would take us to secondary inspection.

When we got there an officer greeted us, got our documents and started working on it. We literally answered a couple of questions: how long were you abroad, why did we have our daughter outside of the US, and he asked us to confirm our address. After that short conversation he asked us to wait in a waiting area and went inside an office with our paperwork. It took him 2-3 hours to complete the process, but when we left he gave as our docs back. He gave us a copy of my daughter's process, which included a temp A-number and he also showed that he stamped her passport with that same A-number. I asked how we would get the physical green card and he said that we did not have to do anything, just wait that in 90 days the card should arrive by mail.

We were cleared to go and our daughter was for the first time in the US!

Fast forward 90 days we had not received her green card yet. We started to get nervous, thinking that something might have gone wrong. We then talked to our immigration attorneys and they asked us to give it another 45 days, and if the card did not show up we would have to apply for a replacement card.

45 days later we were applying for the replacement card. About 2 months after we applied we received a biometrics notice for our daughter. We were left wondering what to do because at that point our daughter was 6 months old, and we were not sure how we could get her finger prints or take a good picture. We showed up in the selected day and after waiting for 30 min we were called in. When the lady saw that my daughter was just a little baby she said that she would need to talk to her supervisor. It took her 30 minutes to figure out what to do. They got her fingerprints and we tried our best to get a pic of her looking somewhat straight at the camera. It was quite crazy, I had to sit on the floor and hold her up in front of the camera while my wife called her so that she would look somewhat in the direction of the camera.

30 days later we were starting to get anxious again because we had not heard anything after biometrics. I tried to check USCIS' website but at that very time we had the government shutdown in effect, so I had to wait until that situation was resolved because the website was offline. After that was solved, I was able to check the website and it said that the process had been approved, and that the green card was being made.

2 days later the status changed to shipped and the website also informed a tracking number. We checked and the green card was going to arrive 3 days later. When we got the envelope my wife started to cry, and we opened it to finally get my daughter's green card. It's been quite a roller coaster but it's finally over, roughly 7 months after we landed in the US with our daughter.

This is a very long post but I hope it proves helpful to others in our situation.

Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Wales
Timeline
Posted

Thanks for the update, Biometrics does seem slightly odd, did they take her print when you entered?

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

Filed: K-1 Visa Country: Wales
Timeline
Posted

You have to wonder. Probably not that a regular event

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

Filed: EB-2 Visa Country: Brazil
Timeline
Posted

Well, they seemed like they knew what they were doing, it didn't really feel like they were scrambling to try and figure out what obscure part of the US immigration law would cover our case. Still, probably an officer will see a case like ours a couple times year.

It's been a grueling experience but I'm just glad it's over. Now we have to wait 5 years to apply for her citizenship...reading.gif

 
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