I-130 with a nomadic lifestyle?

[NikLR 13,230]

Quote

Police Certificates

If you are 16 years of age or older, you must submit a photocopy of a police certificate from all countries you have lived in using below criteria:

If you ...			AND you...			THEN submit a police certificate from...
Are 16 years old or older			Lived in your country of nationality for more than 6 months at any time in your life			Your country of nationality
Are 16 years old or older			Have lived in your country of current residence (if different from nationality) for more than 6 months			Your country of current residence
Have ever lived in another country for 12 months or more			Were 16 years or older at the time you lived there			The country where you used to live.
Were arrested for any reason, regardless of how long you lived in that city or country, and no matter what age you were						The city and/or country where you were arrested.

• Send a photocopy of your police certificate(s) to NVC.
• Bring the original police certificate(s) plus a photocopy to your visa interview at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

Note: Present and former residents of the United States do NOT need to submit any U.S. police certificates.

Important: Police certificates expire after one year, unless the certificate was issued from your country of previous residence and you have not returned there since the police certificate was issued. If at the time of your interview the following three items are all true, you must bring a new police certificate to your visa interview:

• You are more than 16 years old;
• The police certificate submitted to NVC was obtained more than one year ago; and
• You still live in the country that issued the certificate.

For country-specific guidelines on how to obtain acceptable police certificates, use the Document Finder above.

 

[jesserz 73]

Well, when we leave here, he will have technically lived here for 12 months. I think almost exactly if not one or two days short. He has a one year contract with his work. I clicked on the links provided (thank you very much!) but nothing told me exactly where I get the police report. From a police station? From the Czech Embassy in Russia? From the Russian embassy in Prague? From the US Embassy in Prague? I had to get a criminal records check from the US embassy when I got my visa to stay here, is it the same thing? And do I need one?

[millefleur 5,047]

1 hour ago, jesserz said:

Well, when we leave here, he will have technically lived here for 12 months. I think almost exactly if not one or two days short. He has a one year contract with his work. I clicked on the links provided (thank you very much!) but nothing told me exactly where I get the police report. From a police station? From the Czech Embassy in Russia? From the Russian embassy in Prague? From the US Embassy in Prague? I had to get a criminal records check from the US embassy when I got my visa to stay here, is it the same thing? And do I need one?

No, it's not the same as a criminal records check from the States. It's just a local police certificate that you get from the police station there.

 

Even if it's two days short, I would get it if I were you. It should be extremely easy to obtain and cheap.

Edited June 18, 2017 by millefleur

[lacolinab13 86]

14 hours ago, jesserz said:

I could completely trust my mother but is there ever a need to sign anything that comes in the mail? That's my only concern. Otherwise, my mom would love to help. 

No one would have to sign to receive a piece of mail from USCIS, if that's what you mean. 

 

Responding to an RFE from overseas could be tricky as you likely don't have access to many documents (if say, they need a copy of birth certificate, or marriage certificate, or criminal records, documents you may have at home that show proof of relationship like a lease, boarding passes, etc ...) and it can be difficult to print and assemble a package if you don't have easy access to an office/printer. Most of this can be made much easier if you have a person in the US with access to your documents who is willing to help you. If you filled out a page of the I-130 incorrectly and were asked to correct and resubmit and had to sign with an original signature, you could mail a response from overseas. 

 

Of course you will make things a lot smoother if you are extremely careful when filling out your paperwork on the first go around and can avoid an RFE (although sometimes USCIS just seems to lose documents or ask for paperwork that has already been submitted so it's not a guarantee). 

 

I think it could be tricky to be out of the country during the NVC stage as you likely won't be traveling with all of the documents required for the I-864 and it could be hard to obtain them overseas, but again I think this can be done with some planning and someone in the US helping you. Or you could go home and wait for the end of processing after your I-130 is approved and has reached NVC, since usually by then you're at least halfway through the process. 

[jesserz 73]

6 hours ago, lacolinab13 said:

No one would have to sign to receive a piece of mail from USCIS, if that's what you mean. 

 

Responding to an RFE from overseas could be tricky as you likely don't have access to many documents (if say, they need a copy of birth certificate, or marriage certificate, or criminal records, documents you may have at home that show proof of relationship like a lease, boarding passes, etc ...) and it can be difficult to print and assemble a package if you don't have easy access to an office/printer. Most of this can be made much easier if you have a person in the US with access to your documents who is willing to help you. If you filled out a page of the I-130 incorrectly and were asked to correct and resubmit and had to sign with an original signature, you could mail a response from overseas. 

 

Of course you will make things a lot smoother if you are extremely careful when filling out your paperwork on the first go around and can avoid an RFE (although sometimes USCIS just seems to lose documents or ask for paperwork that has already been submitted so it's not a guarantee). 

 

I think it could be tricky to be out of the country during the NVC stage as you likely won't be traveling with all of the documents required for the I-864 and it could be hard to obtain them overseas, but again I think this can be done with some planning and someone in the US helping you. Or you could go home and wait for the end of processing after your I-130 is approved and has reached NVC, since usually by then you're at least halfway through the process. 

Oh this is exactly what my worry was. That I would have to sign some new form that would come in the mail. But we would definitely have willing and able hands on the US side to help us through the whole thing if that's allowed. So I'd put her as my mailing address, but my physical address as where I'm living now.

 

Does anyone know if I'd have to update them every time I physically went somewhere new?

[Dianalorena 1,153]

I feel ya girl!

 

these immigration processes are definitely not for the nomadic lifestyle.

I've lived in numerous cities in my country and i'm also looking at it, if I need to bring one for every city or just the federal records.

You'd think it'd be slightly easier considering we are paying a lot of money and waiting forever for them to ''investigate us''  

I hope everything works out for you and your husband <3 

 

[NikLR 13,230]

1 hour ago, jesserz said:

Oh this is exactly what my worry was. That I would have to sign some new form that would come in the mail. But we would definitely have willing and able hands on the US side to help us through the whole thing if that's allowed. So I'd put her as my mailing address, but my physical address as where I'm living now.

 

Does anyone know if I'd have to update them every time I physically went somewhere new?

You won't be able to update an address outside the USA, however your spouse will need a country of residence for the NVC process. 

[jesserz 73]

11 hours ago, Dilorena said:

I feel ya girl!

 

these immigration processes are definitely not for the nomadic lifestyle.

I've lived in numerous cities in my country and i'm also looking at it, if I need to bring one for every city or just the federal records.

You'd think it'd be slightly easier considering we are paying a lot of money and waiting forever for them to ''investigate us''  

I hope everything works out for you and your husband <3 

 

Oh man at least we're not the only ones! And you'd think that, but of course we must be special circumstances because we like to move around. Thank you! I hope everything goes really quickly for you as well.

[jesserz 73]

10 hours ago, NikLR said:

You won't be able to update an address outside the USA, however your spouse will need a country of residence for the NVC process. 

Oh, well alright then. And he always has that permanent Russian address and we can always return there fairly simply so I hope that that is what we need.

[jesserz 73]

Moscow said we cannot file at the field office so here we are filing outside the US! I have more questions now. And they are all about addresses. The only thing I'm sure of is that my mailing address is in the US and my current physical address is in Prague.

 

Past physical addresses:

In the past 5 years I've lived:

USA address 1 

USA address 2 (current mailing address)

Russia address (May as well call this a hotel address) Do I put this one? I stayed for 3 months.

Serbian address 1 (hotel) (1 week, not a big deal, but it exists)

Serbian address 2 (hotel again) (1 month)

Czech address

 

I mean, I didn't physically go directly from USA address 2 to Czech address, but USA address 2 is my license address and Czech address was the next place I was on a lease. Do those others count? It's the word "physical" that has really got me confused.

Edited June 19, 2017 by jesserz

[millefleur 5,047]

Just don't leave any time gaps in your address history and you should be fine. You don't need to submit any evidence for your addresses/places you lived, so just list everything in chronological order and don't leave any gaps in time. It shouldn't be a problem.

[lacolinab13 86]

Personally, I wouldn't list the address of a hotel where I stayed, or the address of any place where I was on vacation. The form asks for addresses of residences, and just staying at a hotel or even a rental home while on vacation does not make you a resident. 

 

I traveled for a full year in South America - on the I-129F, I put my address during that time as my permanent address in the US, from where I had left, where I was getting my mail, and where I was planning to return. 

 

If you took up residence somewhere, intending to stay for an extended period of time to live and work (and not just visit), then I would put that down. If you were just traveling, I wouldn't. 

[jesserz 73]

21 hours ago, lacolinab13 said:

Personally, I wouldn't list the address of a hotel where I stayed, or the address of any place where I was on vacation. The form asks for addresses of residences, and just staying at a hotel or even a rental home while on vacation does not make you a resident. 

 

I traveled for a full year in South America - on the I-129F, I put my address during that time as my permanent address in the US, from where I had left, where I was getting my mail, and where I was planning to return. 

 

If you took up residence somewhere, intending to stay for an extended period of time to live and work (and not just visit), then I would put that down. If you were just traveling, I wouldn't. 

 

On 2017-6-19 at 3:12 PM, millefleur said:

Just don't leave any time gaps in your address history and you should be fine. You don't need to submit any evidence for your addresses/places you lived, so just list everything in chronological order and don't leave any gaps in time. It shouldn't be a problem.

You're both right, I don't know why I was getting so confused. The US is my permanent residence, so it's not like it just disappears when I travel outside the US. I'm just overwhelmed I guess.

 

Does anyone know of a current I-130 packet checklist since the February 2017 change? Some places say I need his birth certificate, others say I don't; and some say that translations can be done by anyone and others say that it has to be notarised. Because we can both translate Czech and Russian to English and that would be much easier.

 

Thanks a million for everyone's continued help, you are all so wonderful!

[millefleur 5,047]

Just now, jesserz said:

 

You're both right, I don't know why I was getting so confused. The US is my permanent residence, so it's not like it just disappears when I travel outside the US. I'm just overwhelmed I guess.

 

Does anyone know of a current I-130 packet checklist since the February 2017 change? Some places say I need his birth certificate, others say I don't; and some say that translations can be done by anyone and others say that it has to be notarised. Because we can both translate Czech and Russian to English and that would be much easier.

You can translate it yourself. You just need to add a note that you are competent in both languages and are able to translate and then sign it. It won't matter if you translate it your husband translates, just be sure to add the note and a signature to each translation.

 

If you have any huge docs with tons of legalese and jargon, you can have those professionally translated. It's fine to have a combo of translators as long as it carries a note that the person who translated is competent and qualified to do so. We did not get any of our translations notarized. But since I did DCF, maybe it's slightly different from lockbox filing.