US Immigration from Australia

Hi all,

I came on ESTA from Australia on June 20 to meet my boyfriend from the USA for the first time. We have been friends for about 4 years but started dating more recently than that, but this was the first time we ever met in person.

We planned a 3 week road trip which we did and it was awesome, but after that I changed my flight to stay the remainder of the 3 months on my ESTA. Anyway we then decided after that to get married and do AOS. We know it isnt a simple process or a light decision, and we are definitely not rushing our marriage, but when I arrived in the USA my country (Australia) recently locked down again due to covid (not allowing citizens back home) so that was a contributing factor to the case as well and why we decided now is the best time (who knows when we would see each other again if I went home, it would be too hard for both of us).

I just have some questions about the whole process:

1) We are not married yet but we are wondering when would be the best time to do so? We are thinking about getting married close to the date of my ESTA expiry (september 17). When would be best?

2) We want to have a wedding/elopment with just the two of us first and then a bigger wedding later (when my family can come from Australia to visit too - it would be hard for me to do the wedding with none of my family or friends there) but we don't want that to look weird to USCIS? What do you think?

3) Once we get married, what do I do then? I heard that I will need to file the i130 and another form at the same time? Is that correct?

4) How long is AOS taking for people in our situation? And can someone walk me through the process?

5) We want the AOS process to be as smooth as possible. We are already talking about opening a joint bank account together once we are married to help establish our marriage for USCIS, but we are worried its going to be hard because we are both young and we live with his parents, his brother, and our two dogs. This means we dont have any joint bills or joint lease agreements ect. What else can we be doing now to make the process easier later on?

Thanks to whoever read this post and replied

if anyone is in or has been in a similar situation, please send me a message !

Hi all! I have my interview scheduled for Sept 18 (a Saturday!) at 7.30am at the USCIS field office in Centennial.

We will be between apartment leases at that time (Murphy s law!) and had been figuring on staying with family out of state for the few weeks interim

- Is there the ability to reschedule interview appointments?! Obviously I will make it as scheduled if needed/alternate is a long wait, but can t find much info on it beyond for COVID reasons.

- Does anyone know if this office does same-day oath ceremonies? That would be a huge relief to get it all done at once and not have to refigure all plans on the fly again!

Many thanks for any help!

Hey guys,

Just wanted to get some feedback and thoughts about what my wife and I should regarding the situation we're in right now... She arrived in the states on her K1 on May 21st. We got married in early June and waited until late July to start the AoS process because I was in between jobs and my new position would be a much higher salary to use on the affidavit of support. I felt more comfortable waiting until after I started my new job to send the AoS package out with the offer letter+recent paystubs. We mailed the completed forms via USPS 2 Day Priority Mail (with tracking and insurance) on 8/4 with the delivery date set for 8/7. It is now 8/13 and the package has been stuck in Chicago with an "in transit, arriving late) status since 8/9. I've opened a case with USPS but haven't heard anything... My question is twofold:

1. If I just wait it out and the package arrives after our 90 days is up (which is 8/19) would the postmarked date/date of signing the forms be enough for USCIS to consider us in good standing with the K1 and AoS? I genuinely don't know if the forms MUST be submitted prior to the 90 days being up and whether my wife would be in violation of her K1 (i.e. overstaying) if USCIS hasn't received the forms by the 19th.

2. Should I just suck it up and re-print the entire package (including getting her passport style headshots done again) and send it via FedEx or UPS with overnight delivery to be sure? And if I do that, will we have issues when ANOTHER package from us shows up via USPS when they finally decide to mail it out?

Sorry for the long post, but I want to make sure we're compliant and doing everything we can to get these documents submitted on time. I never even thought USPS 2 day priority mail (which I used for the K1) would even be CLOSE to our 90 day expiration date (mailed 2+ weeks in advance), but here we are... Thanks for your help!

I'm trying to change my address online although with the link provided i am unable to change it to an Australian address. My NOA1 was approved 3rd of Feb and have been actively reviewing since the 5th of March. Can anyone suggest another way of changing my address other than contacting the USCIS?

Thanks

Hi, first time post and we're pretty new to a lot of these issues, so apologies if I make any poor assumptions, etc.

My Aussie bf and I have been living together in Thailand for the past 6 years. Currently I'm on a work permit (which I can renew for another 12 months next June, if necessary). He left his job a few months ago and switched from a work permit to the Covid Emergency Extension. We would like to get married and live together in the US. We are not officially engaged at this moment, but we are looking at our options.

We are considering the K-1 or the CR-1, but we're concerned because maybe they aren't processing applications for these visas in Thailand at the moment? We CAN handle another 6-12 months here, if necessary, but if it's more realistically 24+ months, then that is starting to feel unreasonable. We aren't terribly bothered about whether the marriage takes place in Thailand or the US, we're open to whatever is more practical.

If it matters, we're scheduled to receive our second AZ vaccine around the end of September, but we're worried that the US will soon require full vaccination and they may not recognize the AZ produced by Thailand's Siam Bioscience (similar to how they aren't recognizing the Indian AZ vaccine). I know that as a citizen, I would still be able to return to the US, but he would not.

Additionally, he can't physically return to Australia at the moment due to the over-inflated cost of flights right now and the fact that many flights to Aus get cancelled anyway - and even if he could, I couldn't join him due to their heavy restrictions.

We are also open to relocating to Mexico temporarily (either on a 6 month tourist visa or applying for temporary residency, as I hear it isn't too difficult to get) and submitting the application from Mexico if that would be more possible/advisable/easier/faster. I work online, so my job can really be done from anywhere (so if there's a better country than Mexico, please feel free to suggest it). He's currently unemployed but looking for online remote work. But I'm also worried that it may look bad on us if we're applying for temporary residency in Mexico immediately before applying for a K-1 or Cr-1?

Our priorities (in order) are:

1) Not to be separated from each other

2) Him to receive green card ASAP

If anyone has any advice or had a similar experience, we'd appreciate your input very, very much.

Thanks!