I-130 Online Filers

[riiiiiiiii 1]

Hi everyone! I needed some help regarding our petition.

 

My husband(USC) filed an I130 petition online for me. He made a mistake and I’ve been extremely worried about it. He accidentally checked Single/Not married and hence the entire section of his current marriage with me is empty!! Can anyone tell me if this is a big mistake and if so, what should be do about it? I’ve been extremely worried. Thank you.

[LilyJ 1,258]

10 hours ago, RiSam said:

Hi everyone! I needed some help regarding our petition.

 

My husband(USC) filed an I130 petition online for me. He made a mistake and I’ve been extremely worried about it. He accidentally checked Single/Not married and hence the entire section of his current marriage with me is empty!! Can anyone tell me if this is a big mistake and if so, what should be do about it? I’ve been extremely worried. Thank you.

He already filed/sent it?

[riiiiiiiii 1]

Just now, LilyJ said:

He already filed/sent it?

Yes 

[phoenyxx 30]

On 3/6/2020 at 6:25 PM, Quarknase said:

I think the form gives you an error if you leave blank (if I remember correct). We have all put the current (today's) date.

Not correct, but it's a fairly new tool and for the convenience of online filing we can accept some minor flaws Good luck!

Tool is very weird, lol! 

I did one last run thru before submitting, in the employment section, it does give you an option for 'currently employed here', but in marriage or where you live, it doesn't.

[Babu Frik 1,162]

Filed yesterday, NOA was in my account today.

Texas Service Center

[Babu Frik 1,162]

On 1/31/2020 at 1:45 AM, Quarknase said:

Hello house.

i finally gained access to the RFIE document after there was this error 500 since January 9th.

The RFIE is 5 pages long which on first sight is very discouraging.

 

What I found confusing is, that the first request is to sign the petition. Not the 130A, but page 9 of the I-130. I thought our online submission covered that part. 
 

Next request is the divorce decree from my previous marriage because they state the provided copy (Scan) is not legible. I’m tending towards just sending the original and to request a new one from vital records.

 

The last request is for proof of bonafide marital relationship and that list is looooong. Meeting, Courtship, Relationship, Travel, Photos, Wedding, Marriage after divorce explanation, Children born in Marriage, Other Children, Other Evidence.

Anyone here familiar with this? Is the list the default? We don’t have children and for now only a court wedding (we want the celebration to take place here or in my home country) so I wouldn’t know how to produce this evidence. For the other topics I can surely provide more text messages (maybe 1 screenshot per week?), more tickets from most recent visit, much more photos of us, and with friends and family.

 

How would you guys organize the last part? Chronologically with affidavit split out over multiple pages, each detail supported by hrs evidence such as tickets, photos, passport stamps and visas?

 

My hubby is from MENA region so I surely anticipated scrunity after reading a lot in this forum. But I feel under pressure now to organize everything in the most convincing way
 

 

How did you submit your response, were you able to upload on the portal or you had to mail it in?

 

 

[Quarknase 1,072]

15 hours ago, Babu Frik said:

How did you submit your response, were you able to upload on the portal or you had to mail it in?

 

 

I didn't try the portal. Mailed them 7lbs of what was asked for

[Bill Hamze 89]

I just filed my I-130 petition online. Overall, the process was pretty smooth, but with a few kinks that you need to keep in mind. 

 

1. It complained that I didn't provide proof of legal name change. Our names never changed, so I ignored it and skipped that step anyway.

 

2. In the additional evidence tab with the census, school, religious, etc. stuff, I only uploaded my affidavits of knowledge of our marriage from mom and sister. Ignored the rest even when it complained that I need to provide more evidence, because I had already uploaded all of primary and secondary evidence on the previous tab: "Evidence to support your petition".

 

3. On the review page, it found no warnings or alerts, meaning I have completed all required fields and responses. This means it's okay to leave some blanks such as "Address 2" fields, and "Other names used" if you already put "Not Applicable" in either the first or last name. 

 

4. It lets you review everything and print out a copy of the whole application before you submit. I like this.

 

5. I got a DNS error when trying to pay. I was using a Mac, so I switched to my wife's Windows laptop and tried again, it went through just fine. Chrome browser will work.

 

6. Got a "In Process - Your benefit request has been accepted and is under review" message after submitting. I got a receipt number as well.

 

7. However, in a couple of posts above, someone got an RFIE for not including a wet signature even though a digital signature was submitted. So I printed out a copy of page 9 of I-130, signed it, scanned it, and submitted it with the file name: "Petitioner Signature I-130 page 9.pdf". 

 

8. For the end dates of marriage and current address, just put in the latest possible date and explain that you wanted to put "PRESENT" in the additional information (the online form allows you to do this and it works very nicely - no need to submit your own Additional Information PDF).

 

If they are going to be fussy about RFIEs and RFEs, then you have to be super fussy about your own paperwork, even moreso than them!

 

Overall, I give USCIS online filing a B grade. It would be an A if:

 

- they accepted digital signatures

- allowed "PRESENT" for the end dates.

- the payment worked on all machines and OS, not just Windows

 

P.S. I updated my timeline. So it begins.

 

Edited March 14, 2020 by Bill Hamze

[Bill Hamze 89]

I forgot to mention that the instructions about the beneficiary's passport photos are slightly different between the I-130 instructions PDF and the online instructions during the submission process itself. 

 

The PDF suggests you don't need to submit their passport photos if they have never been to the U.S. and don't live there. However, the online instructions suggests no such thing. So, following the latest / online instructions, I submitted my wife's passport pics (front and back with printed name) anyway.

 

[Babu Frik 1,162]

5 hours ago, Bill Hamze said:

I forgot to mention that the instructions about the beneficiary's passport photos are slightly different between the I-130 instructions PDF and the online instructions during the submission process itself. 

 

The PDF suggests you don't need to submit their passport photos if they have never been to the U.S. and don't live there. However, the online instructions suggests no such thing. So, following the latest / online instructions, I submitted my wife's passport pics (front and back with printed name) anyway.

 

There's only 1 set of instructions not 2.

 

That field is the same as the others you mentioned, if that was the case then you should have provided census records etc as well.

 

[Babu Frik 1,162]

5 hours ago, Bill Hamze said:

I just filed my I-130 petition online. Overall, the process was pretty smooth, but with a few kinks that you need to keep in mind. 

 

1. It complained that I didn't provide proof of legal name change. Our names never changed, so I ignored it and skipped that step anyway.

 

2. In the additional evidence tab with the census, school, religious, etc. stuff, I only uploaded my affidavits of knowledge of our marriage from mom and sister. Ignored the rest even when it complained that I need to provide more evidence, because I had already uploaded all of primary and secondary evidence on the previous tab: "Evidence to support your petition".

 

3. On the review page, it found no warnings or alerts, meaning I have completed all required fields and responses. This means it's okay to leave some blanks such as "Address 2" fields, and "Other names used" if you already put "Not Applicable" in either the first or last name. 

 

4. It lets you review everything and print out a copy of the whole application before you submit. I like this.

 

5. I got a DNS error when trying to pay. I was using a Mac, so I switched to my wife's Windows laptop and tried again, it went through just fine. Chrome browser will work.

 

6. Got a "In Process - Your benefit request has been accepted and is under review" message after submitting. I got a receipt number as well.

 

7. However, in a couple of posts above, someone got an RFIE for not including a wet signature even though a digital signature was submitted. So I printed out a copy of page 9 of I-130, signed it, scanned it, and submitted it with the file name: "Petitioner Signature I-130 page 9.pdf". 

 

8. For the end dates of marriage and current address, just put in the latest possible date and explain that you wanted to put "PRESENT" in the additional information (the online form allows you to do this and it works very nicely - no need to submit your own Additional Information PDF).

 

If they are going to be fussy about RFIEs and RFEs, then you have to be super fussy about your own paperwork, even moreso than them!

 

Overall, I give USCIS online filing a B grade. It would be an A if:

 

- they accepted digital signatures

- allowed "PRESENT" for the end dates.

- the payment worked on all machines and OS, not just Windows

 

P.S. I updated my timeline. So it begins.

 

I also noticed that when reviewing the draft, there's an option for hair color of "bald no hair" but in the drop down there's no option for that.

 

It only showed 3 letters for the issuing country for the passport "MEX" that makes me nervous.

 

Because of the quirks I may have felt better filing on paper, some of the things they could've done some easy like a checkbox to skip sections.

[Babu Frik 1,162]

9 hours ago, Quarknase said:

I didn't try the portal. Mailed them 7lbs of what was asked for

Mailing is probably the only option, although I guess you can probably do both.

 

I'm afraid I will get asked the same about the divorce, not sure if uploading something now will make any difference.

[Babu Frik 1,162]

@Bill Hamze

Forgot to mention, I paid on a Mac with chrome with no problem, but people seem to have had issues in general in the past.

[Quarknase 1,072]

11 hours ago, Babu Frik said:

Mailing is probably the only option, although I guess you can probably do both.

 

I'm afraid I will get asked the same about the divorce, not sure if uploading something now will make any difference.

Did you obtain your status in the US through marriage? If you could fill out your timeline that will helps folks a lot :)

 

[Babu Frik 1,162]

25 minutes ago, Quarknase said:

Did you obtain your status in the US through marriage? If you could fill out your timeline that will helps folks a lot

 

I'm a US citizen but I've been married before to a foreigner.

I do have a timeline, are you not seeing it?