I-129F - Petitioner's temporary addresses in college?

[Portuguese91 3]

Hi all!

 

My name is Francisco and I'm from Lisbon, Portugal. I met my beautiful fiancée back in 2015 while I was studying and working (OPT) in Orlando, FL on a F1 visa. Since then we've kept our long distance relationship and have been travelling back and forth (Portugal and USA). All this travelling was getting costly and we decided to get married and live in the US.

 

We've been filling out the I-129F form and your forum has been very helpful! However, with so many tricky questions, I decided to write this post to try to get your help.

 

My fiancée (petitioner) finished college (JMU) earlier this year. While in college she had at least four different dorms/apartments. She is not sure of the move-in/out dates and the adresses for college dorms can be tricky as well (we usually only have the PO box). 

 

Question 1: Should we list all those college dorms addresses on her Adress History? Her "official" adress was always her parent's house, and that is the one on her ID.

 

This is probably the biggest issue we currently have. Because in order to have no gaps between adresses, if we list her college adresses we would always have to put her parents' adress during the summer... for the past 4 years.

 

I saw a post on VJ about this but it wasn't very helpful:

 

 

Question 2: She also studied abroad for 6 months in Spain. But as far as I know, she would only have to list that one adress is she lived there for more than 1 year, am I correct?

 

Question 3: While in college, my fiancée worked twice as an RA (Residence Assistant). Should we include those jobs on her Employment History?

 

Question 4: My fiancée had some summer jobs for 1 or 2 months, but is unsure about the start/end dates. Would there be a problem if we put approx. dates? Or is it better not to list those? Would we get an RFE?

 

We've been stuck on these questions and can't move on...

 

Thank you so much in advance. You guys have healed many headaches!

 

Kindly,

 

Francisco

 

PS: I'm sorry if I posted this on the wrong topic/sub-topic, I'm new here.

Edited December 2, 2019 by Portuguese91

[Pmta1 39]

Hello Francisco,

 

8 hours ago, Portuguese91 said:

Hi all!

 

My name is Francisco and I'm from Lisbon, Portugal. I met my beautiful fiancée back in 2015 while I was studying and working (OPT) in Orlando, FL on a F1 visa. Since then we've kept our long distance relationship and have been travelling back and forth (Portugal and USA). All this travelling was getting costly and we decided to get married and live in the US.

 

We've been filling out the I-129F form and your forum has been very helpful! However, with so many tricky questions, I decided to write this post to try to get your help.

 

My fiancée (petitioner) finished college (JMU) earlier this year. While in college she had at least four different dorms/apartments. She is not sure of the move-in/out dates and the adresses for college dorms can be tricky as well (we usually only have the PO box). 

 

Question 1: Should we list all those college dorms addresses on her Adress History? Her "official" adress was always her parent's house, and that is the one on her ID.

 

This is probably the biggest issue we currently have. Because in order to have no gaps between adresses, if we list her college adresses we would always have to put her parents' adress during the summer... for the past 4 years.

 

I saw a post on VJ about this but it wasn't very helpful:

 

 

Question 2: She also studied abroad for 6 months in Spain. But as far as I know, she would only have to list that one adress is she lived there for more than 1 year, am I correct?

 

Question 3: While in college, my fiancée worked twice as an RA (Residence Assistant). Should we include those jobs on her Employment History?

 

Question 4: My fiancée had some summer jobs for 1 or 2 months, but is unsure about the start/end dates. Would there be a problem if we put approx. dates? Or is it better not to list those? Would we get an RFE?

 

We've been stuck on these questions and can't move on...

 

Thank you so much in advance. You guys have healed many headaches!

 

Kindly,

 

Francisco

 

PS: I'm sorry if I posted this on the wrong topic/sub-topic, I'm new here.

 

1. to me, a college dorm wouldn't count for an official address unless she shifted over her address to the college. I would still suggest her parent's home is still the address to put in the I-129F.

 

2. This address I would suggest you add to the I-129F because she actually went out of country to live indefinitely for study. Which visa did she go under? that also affects a bit of what the right answer is.

 

3. If she got paid or if she filed taxes on it, then yes, you will list that as employment.

 

4. Put approximate dates and your best guess. 

[Portuguese91 3]

Thank you!

 

1 hour ago, Pmta1 said:

1. to me, a college dorm wouldn't count for an official address unless she shifted over her address to the college. I would still suggest her parent's home is still the address to put in the I-129F.

Awesome, I think that makes the most sense!

 

1 hour ago, Pmta1 said:

2. This address I would suggest you add to the I-129F because she actually went out of country to live indefinitely for study. Which visa did she go under? that also affects a bit of what the right answer is.

 

She studied in Spain with a visa type D (stay up to 6 months). I wasn't sure if I should list it because it was a short stay. I found this online about the visa:

Quote

"There is a visa (type D) for studies that allows you to stay in Spain for a period of up to 180 days (Visado D Estudios hasta 180 días). This type of visa does not allow you to obtain the Residence Card for foreign students (TIE)."

 

1 hour ago, Pmta1 said:

3. If she got paid or if she filed taxes on it, then yes, you will list that as employment.

Yes, she did! This is where I get confused though... Will there be a problem to list the RA jobs at JMU in Harrisonburg while her (only) address is in Ashburn (2 hours away)?

 

 

[KSVJ 216]

10 hours ago, Pmta1 said:

Hello Francisco,

 

 

1. to me, a college dorm wouldn't count for an official address unless she shifted over her address to the college. I would still suggest her parent's home is still the address to put in the I-129F.

 

2. This address I would suggest you add to the I-129F because she actually went out of country to live indefinitely for study. Which visa did she go under? that also affects a bit of what the right answer is.

 

3. If she got paid or if she filed taxes on it, then yes, you will list that as employment.

 

4. Put approximate dates and your best guess. 

I’m hoping to piggyback off of this. I’m still filling out my I-129 and was wondering the same, so thank you! I didn’t put my college addresses in there (graduated more than 10 years ago anyway so it wouldn’t fit in the 5 year address range), however there’s another question on the form asking for other states you’ve lived since you turned 18. Should I still put the state that my college was in even though my official address and the address on my license was my parents’ house in my home state? 
 

I’m hoping this applies to Francisco’s fiancée as well so I’m not hijacking his thread 🙂 

[Pmta1 39]

23 hours ago, Portuguese91 said:

Thank you!

 

Awesome, I think that makes the most sense!

 

 

She studied in Spain with a visa type D (stay up to 6 months). I wasn't sure if I should list it because it was a short stay. I found this online about the visa:

 

Yes, she did! This is where I get confused though... Will there be a problem to list the RA jobs at JMU in Harrisonburg while her (only) address is in Ashburn (2 hours away)?

 

 

-with a student visa I think she wouldn't have been considered "living" there. I think it's appropriate to put her Spain address there.

-For her job, use the main office's address (or wherever the company say is their address). I suggest to look at the address of the company that shows up in the Paystubs.

[Pmta1 39]

14 hours ago, KSVJ said:

I’m hoping to piggyback off of this. I’m still filling out my I-129 and was wondering the same, so thank you! I didn’t put my college addresses in there (graduated more than 10 years ago anyway so it wouldn’t fit in the 5 year address range), however there’s another question on the form asking for other states you’ve lived since you turned 18. Should I still put the state that my college was in even though my official address and the address on my license was my parents’ house in my home state? 
 

I’m hoping this applies to Francisco’s fiancée as well so I’m not hijacking his thread 🙂 

You don't have to put addresses past the 5-year mark. So your college dorm stay wouldn't count. However, that's not to say that the State that you lived in wouldn't count either. That does. So, you should put in the US State in which you "resided" since age 18. If you don't have enough room, put it all on part 8 additional information.

[Portuguese91 3]

On 12/3/2019 at 9:23 PM, Pmta1 said:

-with a student visa I think she wouldn't have been considered "living" there. I think it's appropriate to put her Spain address there.

If it is not considered "living" there (which I agree), how come it is appropriate to list her Spain address? You got me mixed up here 😅

 

On 12/3/2019 at 9:23 PM, Pmta1 said:

-For her job, use the main office's address (or wherever the company say is their address). I suggest to look at the address of the company that shows up in the Paystubs.

Thank you! My question here was more if there would be a problem to have worked a job 2 hours away (Harrisonburg, VA) from her "official" adress (Ashburn, VA).

[Pmta1 39]

6 hours ago, Portuguese91 said:

If it is not considered "living" there (which I agree), how come it is appropriate to list her Spain address? You got me mixed up here 😅

 

Thank you! My question here was more if there would be a problem to have worked a job 2 hours away (Harrisonburg, VA) from her "official" adress (Ashburn, VA).

Apologies for that. It would be considered "living" there because the visa was for temporary study. You should put the Spain address there.

 

Also, regarding the job working 2 hours away from the official address, that's not a problem. The form I-129F doesn't necessarily ask for the physical address of your employer. I doubt you will have any problem with the official address versus a satellite office address.

[Portuguese91 3]

Hi everyone!

 

I created this post because I couldn't find the information anywhere else. After some replies, we ended up following some of the advice provided here but also our instinct.

 

Since we just received our NOA2 on time (our I129-F was approved without any RFE's), I will share what we did just in case someone else has the same questions!

 

On 12/2/2019 at 5:42 PM, Portuguese91 said:

Question 1: Should we list all those college dorms addresses on her Adress History? Her "official" adress was always her parent's house, and that is the one on her ID.

WHAT WE DID:  We ended up ONLY listing her (petitioner) parent's house address. After all that's the only address she only had in her ID.

 

 

On 12/2/2019 at 5:42 PM, Portuguese91 said:

Question 2: She also studied abroad for 6 months in Spain. But as far as I know, she would only have to list that one adress is she lived there for more than 1 year, am I correct?

WHAT WE DID:  Since my fiancée (petitioner) only studied abroad in Spain for 6 months, we decided not to list the spanish housing in her Address History.

 

On 12/2/2019 at 5:42 PM, Portuguese91 said:

Question 3: While in college, my fiancée worked twice as an RA (Residence Assistant). Should we include those jobs on her Employment History?

WHAT WE DID:  This is probably the part that gave us the worst headaches. We wondered if it would be a problem to list her (petitioner) jobs in college while "officially" living at her parent's house, which is 2 hours away. We ended up listing her RA jobs in college and it worked out for us!

 

On 12/2/2019 at 5:42 PM, Portuguese91 said:

Question 4: My fiancée had some summer jobs for 1 or 2 months, but is unsure about the start/end dates. Would there be a problem if we put approx. dates? Or is it better not to list those? Would we get an RFE?

WHAT WE DID:  Since she had received W2 forms from those jobs, we decided to list them with approximate start/end dates. It worked just dine for us!

 

If there is one thing I learned from filling the I129-F is that we often tend to overthink and complicate things that are pretty straightforward! 

 

I sincerely hope this helps someone that has similar questions! 🙂

 

Kindly,

 

Francisco