K1 AOS adjustment many years later

[thecanadianmrs 2]

Hello all, 

 

I will try to compress this as much as possible. I am the immigrant spouse from Canada. I got my K1 back in 2015 and came to the US, we married within our 90 days and all was fine. Then life went nuts. My husbands family had a massive breakdown and things got crazy so we put off filing our AOS. (I've seen the story of the traffic stop, I get it, I have been lucky) Anyway. We've had years of craziness of so much going on, we've both lost our fathers, and 5.5 years ago, we had our daughter who started school this year. I haven't worked and have raised our daughter all has been great with that. Got her into school, no issues there either. However, our life is finally calm again and I know I need to get the AOS done. However, there are a few little snags in it all. 

 

1. My original passport both expired and got damaged, plus my Canadian ID expired because I didn't renew it before moving, because none of the crazy stuff was supposed to happen. Again, my fault, I should have just thought ahead to any issues, not just looking to happily ever after. So getting my passport renewed was an issue, and when I had to send it back to them, because it was damaged, despite me saying I had to have it back, and sending a note with it, I did not indeed get it back. So my Visa is missing now. I do of course have copies of it from my K1 stuff, but still. Is this going to be an issue? I have no ID that is not expired because the Canadian government only gave me a passport that didn't have the normal expiration. Good times. 

 

2. The affidavit of support. My husband, when you calculate his salary from that, is more than enough for the 3 of us. However, this adjusted gross stuff changes that. Because of the insane cost of health insurance, it drops his gross by like 15k bringing us just under the poverty threshold. Is this going to be an issue, or if we send paystubs/get a letter from his employer stating he's a fulltime employee with his hourly wage, will that work? (I miss the Canadian health care system, but that's another story)

 

3. Will I get the 10 year green card? Will the years I've been here count towards anything, or will everything begin once I get approved? If I go for citizenship, that I assume is after I get the green card for some years? I also assume this means I will get to skip the ROC stage of things? 

 

4. Any unexpected things I'm missing? Really I just want some form of ID in this country now that life is good and you know, be able to get a background check and volunteer at my daughters school. Also, not get deported and removed from my kid, you know? :)

 

And again, yes, I understand I should have done it sooner, but life sucks sometimes. I read years back that as long as you're married in 90 days, you're good, so I didn't really think much of it and just went on with life. Anyway, I truly appreciate any advice/answers. Thanks! 

[Mike E 11,741]

1.   Should be fine.  Do you have your online I-94

 

2. This might tax the intellect of the ISO refining your case. Give it a try and if you have an RFE, then hire a professional. Current gross income is what matters and that isn’t reduced by ACA
 

3. You are legally  entitled to a 10 year gc
 

4. File as soon as you can. The longer this goes on the more likely a random encounter with BP, ICE, or local law enforcement leads to ICE custody. Once that happens it will complicate your process.  

[OldUser 6,999]

Hi @thecanadianmrs

 

Please promise yourself to always stay on top of your immigration process from now on, as it may be long and painful. It would have been a breeze back in 2015 compared to nowadays.

 

1. Can you renew your Canadian passport now? You should be able to do it without leaving the US -> https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/renew-adult-passport/renew-us.html

You ARE a Canadian citizen, despite passport expiration. It's not an issue. Your old passport with visa MAY be returned to you if you request it (research it more, ask Canadian officials and your fellow Canadian friends)

 

2. You can always get a co-sponsor. Your husband will be a primary sponsor regardless.

 

3. If you're still married to the same person or different person for over 2 years at the time your I-485 is approved, you will get a 10 year green card. The time you lived out of status won't help with getting green card or naturalizing sooner.

Your unlawful presence will be forgiven if your spouse is a US citizen. Any unathorized work will be forgiven, but you need to be honest about it.

 

4. Do NOT leave the US anytime before you get green card in hand, otherwise you will get 10 year bar!

Also, you will be in big trouble if you ever said you were a US citizen to get a job or some other benefit. That WON'T be forgiven.

 

As for the timelines, you can check processing times on USCIS website, it can easily take over a year to get your case approved.

 

Good luck!

Edited December 30, 2022 by OldUser

[Boiler 45,743]

Do not forget your daughters Canadian citizenship 

[thecanadianmrs 2]

Oh you all are amazing. I so appreciate everyone's replies. 

 

I don't have my I-94 - but I found online where I can get it. So I will make sure I have that. Truthfully, I probably have it in my initial K1 paperwork as well. I'm generally very meticulous and organized, so I'll be sure to print it out if I don't have it. 

 

I can't renew my Canadian passport, because my ID expired and I only one piece left instead of 2. It was a whole issue. It caused a few months of stress and many tears and many, many hours on the phone with the passport people in Canada. I will get it renewed once I get my GC in hand and get a DL or even state ID. I won't ever let something like this happen again. I am making the biggest promise to myself not to let this happen. I truly thought all will be well. I want to say Rapid Visa or another site like that said it didn't matter how long you waited. That is clearly incorrect. I'm lucky that I'm a really unassuming 5'0 girl who stays under the radar and am not near a border. 

 

Can we talk about how it's sort of trash that adjusted income counts when you lose so much to insurance? I don't really want to talk about it, but it sucks. My husband loses like $9 an hour from this. That's ridiculous. I'm hoping for the best because I don't know if I have a sponsor. But failing that, I will reach out to a professional and do what I can. 

 

10 year GC is about what I expected, which is nice, skips a step and makes things a bit easier I suppose. Not overly concerned with being a US citizen yet anyway, just wasn't sure what happened there. It is the same person, so no issues anyway. I have not worked though. So that'll be easy to be honest with. I spent my first year here helping my in-laws out with their lives because they are trainwrecks, then spent the next 5 raising a tiny human. I am a bad liar anyway. 

 

I will not leave the US before I get a GC in hand, though I have no plans to anyway. Most I've done is go to a few surrounding states and it's the most I have planned too. I have definitely never lied about being a US citizen either. 

 

And yes! Our daughter will for SURE be getting Canadian citizenship too once I'm sorted out. I want to open up her options for when she's older too. She already proudly tells people she's half Canadian despite knowing nothing about it. Lol. 

[Boiler 45,743]

There is no need to wait for your situation to be sorted out, that will take some time anyway.

[thecanadianmrs 2]

I had no idea I could do it without ID myself. I just checked and it's a pretty simple process, and her being 5 and no photo ID is easy to get past too. Thank you! 

[Crazy Cat 41,985]

34 minutes ago, thecanadianmrs said:

I don't have my I-94 - but I found online where I can get it.

Do you have NOA2 from the I-129f?   You'll need a basis for the Adjustment.  Since you married within 90 days, you don't have to send an I-130. 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Crazy Cat

[Crazy Cat 41,985]

38 minutes ago, thecanadianmrs said:

Can we talk about how it's sort of trash that adjusted income counts when you lose so much to insurance?

It's gross income for calculating Current annual income. 

Gross income from last pay period multiplied by the number of pay periods per year (12 months) = current annual income.

 

ADJUSTED Gross income is only for these boxes below:

 

 

Edited December 30, 2022 by Crazy Cat

[thecanadianmrs 2]

2 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

Do you have NOA2 from the I-129f?   You'll need a basis for the Adjustment.  Since you married within 90 days, you have to send an I-130. 

I do have the NOA2 from the K1 process. Do I need to do an I-130 as well? I thought because I got married in the time I had to, that I only needed the I-485. Ugh.

[Crazy Cat 41,985]

2 minutes ago, thecanadianmrs said:

I do have the NOA2 from the K1 process. Do I need to do an I-130 as well? I thought because I got married in the time I had to, that I only needed the I-485. Ugh.

No.  If you married within 90 days, you don't need an I-130.

 

Sorry, typo in earlier comment.  my fingers meant type you don't have to have an I-130..

Edited December 30, 2022 by Crazy Cat

[thecanadianmrs 2]

3 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

It's gross income for calculating Current annual income. 

Gross income from last pay period multiplied by the number of pay periods per year (12 months) = current annual income.

 

I'm hoping with the overtime he worked it will just work out. It was close either way. I guess I probably need to be patient for a couple weeks until we get his W2 to panic over this one. It would have been a lot easier if we had done it before having a child. Lol. Regrets. Many regrets. 

[OldUser 6,999]

2 minutes ago, thecanadianmrs said:

I'm hoping with the overtime he worked it will just work out. It was close either way.

My suggestion is to look into finding a co-sponsor. Close calls is always tricky to pull off. May lose time by getting RFE for I-864.

Edited December 30, 2022 by OldUser

[Crazy Cat 41,985]

1 minute ago, thecanadianmrs said:

I'm hoping with the overtime he worked it will just work out. It was close either way. I guess I probably need to be patient for a couple weeks until we get his W2 to panic over this one. It would have been a lot easier if we had done it before having a child. Lol. Regrets. Many regrets. 

W2s are not used to calculate current annual income or ability to support a new immigrant.  They are only supporting documents for tax forms.  GROSS income is used for determining current annual income.

[thecanadianmrs 2]

No, but once we get our W2, I can do our taxes and find our current adjusted gross which might be higher than I think. I guess I'll have to start looking for a sponsor just in case. I'm not sure who, we don't really have much family left, and what's left of his... well, not overly helpful. Ugh. This is why I'm glad I came here instead of just sending stuff in without checking first.