Any advice please! Ir1 visa

[James1998 17]

Hi so my husband and myself are finally at the interview stage after 3 long years of waiting and also having to file the i824 as our lawyer made a mistake on our paperwork! Anyway brings me to my question, I requested a FOIA with uscis for my entire A file as I wanted to see what they had. I was reading through the original i130 sent to USCIS back in 2022 and they had ticked NO to “has the beneficiary ever been in the United States”. This is completely incorrect and my husband gave them all the information! Now I’m extremely worried that this is going to cause an issue at my interview. At NvC I obviously filled out the ds260 myself and entered all the times I had traveled to the states. Is this mistake on the i130 going to cause issues or shall I just bring it up when I first sit down for my interview ? I’m so worried now…

[WoodlandsFamily 14]

1 hour ago, James1998 said:

Hi so my husband and myself are finally at the interview stage after 3 long years of waiting and also having to file the i824 as our lawyer made a mistake on our paperwork! Anyway brings me to my question, I requested a FOIA with uscis for my entire A file as I wanted to see what they had. I was reading through the original i130 sent to USCIS back in 2022 and they had ticked NO to “has the beneficiary ever been in the United States”. This is completely incorrect and my husband gave them all the information! Now I’m extremely worried that this is going to cause an issue at my interview. At NvC I obviously filled out the ds260 myself and entered all the times I had traveled to the states. Is this mistake on the i130 going to cause issues or shall I just bring it up when I first sit down for my interview ? I’m so worried now…

Good luck with your interview, sorry I can't really help with your query but I am sure someone will. Can I ask why has it taken so long?? Purely due to the lawyers mistake on the i-864 and waiting for a FOIA? That's an awful amount of time to wait. Could I kindly ask you how long it was from NVC DQ to London Interview date? Trying to guess a timeline here in the UK... Thanks

[James1998 17]

24 minutes ago, WoodlandsFamily said:

Good luck with your interview, sorry I can't really help with your query but I am sure someone will. Can I ask why has it taken so long?? Purely due to the lawyers mistake on the i-864 and waiting for a FOIA? That's an awful amount of time to wait. Could I kindly ask you how long it was from NVC DQ to London Interview date? Trying to guess a timeline here in the UK... Thanks

1 year exactly for the i130 approval then our lawyer made a mistake on the original paperwork regarding whether I was inside the us or outside the us so we had to file the i824 which took another year and then we finally reached NvC in March 2024 but took a while to gather a couple of documents and only got DQ in November! Good luck!

[James1998 17]

2 minutes ago, James1998 said:

1 year exactly for the i130 approval then our lawyer made a mistake on the original paperwork regarding whether I was inside the us or outside the us so we had to file the i824 which took another year and then we finally reached NvC in March 2024 but took a while to gather a couple of documents and only got DQ in November! Good luck!

I received my interview letter in December for January. I had to reschedule the interview though! Hope that helps

[WoodlandsFamily 14]

3 hours ago, James1998 said:

I received my interview letter in December for January. I had to reschedule the interview though! Hope that helps

Oh wow that is very quick for the embassy stage. I'm sure you will be fine if you have all the info with you on the day. Thanks for commenting back that's great 👍 

[Dashinka 24,751]

5 hours ago, James1998 said:

Hi so my husband and myself are finally at the interview stage after 3 long years of waiting and also having to file the i824 as our lawyer made a mistake on our paperwork! Anyway brings me to my question, I requested a FOIA with uscis for my entire A file as I wanted to see what they had. I was reading through the original i130 sent to USCIS back in 2022 and they had ticked NO to “has the beneficiary ever been in the United States”. This is completely incorrect and my husband gave them all the information! Now I’m extremely worried that this is going to cause an issue at my interview. At NvC I obviously filled out the ds260 myself and entered all the times I had traveled to the states. Is this mistake on the i130 going to cause issues or shall I just bring it up when I first sit down for my interview ? I’m so worried now…

You properly corrected the error with the properly filled out DS260.  If the CO brings up the discrepancy, answer truthfully that you did not know about the mistake on the I130 (not really a defense as even with a lawyer, the petitioner should double and triple check what is being submitted on their behalf), but when you found it, you set the record straight (the CO probably already has your travel history).

 

Lastly, fire your lawyer.

 

Good Luck!

[James1998 17]

3 hours ago, Dashinka said:

You properly corrected the error with the properly filled out DS260.  If the CO brings up the discrepancy, answer truthfully that you did not know about the mistake on the I130 (not really a defense as even with a lawyer, the petitioner should double and triple check what is being submitted on their behalf), but when you found it, you set the record straight (the CO probably already has your travel history).

 

Lastly, fire your lawyer.

 

Good Luck!

Thankyou I was worried they will try and say it’s misrep! But like I said I only just read through our original i130 yesterday and realised the error. We did fire him as soon as he messed up and we had to file the i824! Never again. He didn’t even let my husband read the i130 before it was submitted (my husband just wrote down all the information he needed). That should’ve been a red flag from the start really but I find we were quite naive 3 years ago. 
Thankyou for your response 

[JD2 100]

23 hours ago, James1998 said:

having to file the i824 as our lawyer made a mistake on our paperwork!

 

23 hours ago, James1998 said:

and they had ticked NO to “has the beneficiary ever been in the United States”

You need to press your attorney for a refund for their mistakes and leave public reviews so others are aware.  This is unacceptable.

[Ryan H 3,828]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[James1998 17]

21 hours ago, JD2 said:

 

You need to press your attorney for a refund for their mistakes and leave public reviews so others are aware.  This is unacceptable.

It was 3 years ago now so I think we are far past that. We stopped using them as soon as we had to file i824. I wish we just did it all ourselves but back then we really thought you had to have a lawyer. I just hope it’s not going to be an issue. Hopefully rectifying the mistake at NVC will be enough. 

[S2N 4]

On 1/16/2025 at 12:18 PM, James1998 said:

Thankyou I was worried they will try and say it’s misrep!

The general rule of thumb with government agencies is if you’re upfront with them and clearly explain mistakes when asked about them, they’ll assume it was an error and move on rather than assuming you’re lying.

 

Immigration officers, consular officers, and investigators for background checks read thousand of forms. They’re pretty good at distinguishing between “checked the wrong box, needs to clarify, issue RFE” and “is lying to us, return to USCIS for revocation and ban from the U.S.”

[James1998 17]

3 hours ago, S2N said:

The general rule of thumb with government agencies is if you’re upfront with them and clearly explain mistakes when asked about them, they’ll assume it was an error and move on rather than assuming you’re lying.

 

Immigration officers, consular officers, and investigators for background checks read thousand of forms. They’re pretty good at distinguishing between “checked the wrong box, needs to clarify, issue RFE” and “is lying to us, return to USCIS for revocation and ban from the U.S.”

We never received an RFE for it, just got approved and had to file i824 due to them not knowing if I was applying from inside or outside the states. I will definitely explain that it was an honest error, just hope it does not cause any issues!

[pushbrk 13,087]

I would consider this a non-issue, but be prepared to explain, if asked.  Misrepresentations that matter would be on the DS260, so misrepresentations by the visa applicant.  This is a petitioner mistake.

[James1998 17]

11 minutes ago, pushbrk said:

I would consider this a non-issue, but be prepared to explain, if asked.  Misrepresentations that matter would be on the DS260, so misrepresentations by the visa applicant.  This is a petitioner mistake.

Thankyou! I needed this. 
I made sure to fill out the ds260 correctly with every trip to the US. I will explain anything asked! Thankyou!