Indicating "N/A" on the electronic I-864 forms that don't allow "/"

[otta 7]

I'm filling out the I-864EZ and instructions state "If a question does not apply to you (for example, if you have never been married and the question asks “Provide the name of your current spouse”), type or print “N/A,” unless otherwise directed." There's a bunch of N/As are entered in the I-130 previously, like middle names, in care of, interpreter & preparer info, and so on. But the electronic form I-864EZ does not allow to enter the "/" symbol. So I can either leave these blank, type in something like "N-A" or manually write in the "N/As" when I print the thing out to sign.

 

Any advice, esp. from folks who recently successfully got through NVC processing? What did you do? If I had to guess, NVC is more likely to cause issues over scans than a question like this, but I don't want to technically fail to comply with instructions... Thank you!

Edited February 14, 2020 by otta

[otta 7]

Btw, this is potentially an important question. USCIS, for example, has a new policy of rejecting forms that have any fields left blank for some visa types (see this article in the Washington Post a couple of days ago). It's worth being careful and keeping an eye on how the Dept of State / NVC is handling such frankly minor / irrelevant aspects of applications.

 

I'm planning to manually write in "N/A" everywhere on the I864EZ form when I print it to sign, but would love to hear if others have had any experiences or received any advice related to this. This would all really be much easier if the I864EZ form allowed one to enter "/" and comply with instructions...

 

From the WaPo column:

Quote

(...) Over the past few months, the Trump administration has quietly been rolling out a Kafkaesque new processing policy for select categories of visas: If any fields on a form are left blank, it will automatically be rejected. Even if it makes no sense for the applicant to fill out that field. For example, if “Apt. Number” is left blank because the immigrant lives in a house: rejected. Or if the field for a middle name is left blank because no middle name exists: rejected, too.

 

It’s not clear what problem this new policy was intended to solve. In response to a detailed list of questions about the purpose behind the processing change, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) sent only a vague statement saying applicants “must provide the specific information requested and answer all the questions asked.” (...)

 

The policy change, at first affecting just asylum applicants, was announced without fanfare on the USCIS website sometime in the fall. “We will not accept your [application] if you leave any fields blank,” reads a note you wouldn’t know existed unless someone told you where to find it. “You must provide a response to all questions on the form, even if the response is ‘none,’ ‘unknown’ or ‘n/a.’ ”

 

Then, days before the New Year, USCIS added a similar notice for U-visa applications. In both cases the processing changes were effective immediately — even if documents had been mailed in before the policy was announced. (...)

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by otta

[sonicview 3]

I did write N/A by hand or where allowed i wrote N A and then later added "/" in between by hand.

For the numeric part which are blank i wrote NONE by hand, for example SSN.

 

I did the same for I-130 and it went through with no issue.

For the I864 i did the same, and uploaded it few days ago.

[Zin-Zin 21]

On 2/15/2020 at 11:10 PM, otta said:

Btw, this is potentially an important question. USCIS, for example, has a new policy of rejecting forms that have any fields left blank for some visa types (see this article in the Washington Post a couple of days ago). It's worth being careful and keeping an eye on how the Dept of State / NVC is handling such frankly minor / irrelevant aspects of applications.

 

I'm planning to manually write in "N/A" everywhere on the I864EZ form when I print it to sign, but would love to hear if others have had any experiences or received any advice related to this. This would all really be much easier if the I864EZ form allowed one to enter "/" and comply with instructions...

 

From the WaPo column:

 

Any updates on how this went? Did you write N/A or NONE in every blank space?