US Immigration from Belarus

This might sound weird but I'm sure someone has run into this before.

So, I lived outside the US for the past 10 years. My US driver's license has expired a long time ago. I had a driver's license from Belarus which expired on June 20th, 2023. My wife has an active Belarus driver's license which is international and is accepted in the state we're moving to.

I have a credit card from Chase but no driver's license (I'll have to get a permit/license/test once we move) while my wife does have an international driver's license but no credit card...

I saw that Budget for instance has a non-licensed renter form, where you add another driver as a driver to the car you're renting while not driving it yourself using your credit card.

Has anyone had any experience with something like this??

This will put us in quiet a bind to be stuck without a car when we just arrive...

Hello everyone!!

25 months have flown by and today my wife and my daughter went in for the IR1/IR2 interviews at Warsaw, Poland. They were approved!!!

I want to share some tips and general helpful information for people going through this embassy in particular or other embassies as some things are similar.

1. Get your tax transcripts vs tax return copies. At the Warsaw embassy in particular, you will be asked to provide transcripts. My wife didn't even have to show the I-864 or any tax forms or bank stubs because I uploaded 2 transcripts to NVC and they saw this. This was enough. While 3 people were turned away because they only had their tax copies but no transcripts!!
2. For Warsaw in particular, you cannot self-certify a translation. Thankfully I saw this bullet point on the Warsaw embassy's website last week and we got all our translations signed and stamped at a translator. Embassy does not need a notarized translation; they just want to see a nice stamp and signature and that this is a valid business.
3. My wife was only asked these questions:
   1. Who filed your I-130?
   2. Where did you and your husband meet?
   3. What do you do for a living and what is your employment history?
   4. Where will you live and where does your husband live? Keep in mind I lived for 10 years outside the US and have my sister's address and my mailing address. This was enough. Even though we've had our kids enrolled at a US online school in Florida, I transferred large sums of money to the US and provided this info, I have an active US bank account and a US job. They didn't ask for any of this.
4. The translators do a great job of helping people. In general, everyone was very friendly and assistive.
5. Don't mumble and don't lie, this is something they watch for. Give straight and honest answers.

Hi everyone,

Going nuts trying to figure out what to do in my situation.

My wife is scheduled for an interview in Warsaw, PL next week on Friday, the 21st.

I sent in a e-copy of my taxes for years 2020,2021,2022 to CEAC and it was approved a long time ago.

However, embassies have their own interpretation of rules from what I read.

The E-copy which is stamped as a watermark on my tax return copies, does not have my signature on them. Should I perhaps sign it (i don't see the harm since it is my tax return and my signature) and upload it to CEAC just in case it comes up during the interview?

Regarding tax transcripts. I of course ordered a copy a long time ago and my sister in the US got it. I don't have the best relations with her to put it mildly, but she made photos of the 3 envelopes, but 2 years are repeating, she says they sent 2020 twice and 2021. It's missing the most important transcript for 2022...

I had a feeling this would happen and ordered another copy of all 3 about a week and a half ago, praying it might get there in time.

I have all my 1040-NEC letters, bank statements for 12 months and a contract for the company I work for.

Greetings,

I have a burning question regarding the type of translation we need for my wife and daughter's IR1/IR2 visa interview...

This is becoming VERY confusing, any help from people who went through this would be appreciated.

I have done translations for the USCIS and NVC stages myself, certifying at the bottom that i'm competent to translate from Russian/Belarusian into English.

This has worked just fine, both the USCIS and NVC accepted and approved all of my translations.

However on the Warsaw Embassy's website on the Family-based immigrant visa page it says:

Quote

Translations
Documents in Polish, except for court records, do not have to be translated. All documents that are not written in English or Polish must be translated into English by a certified translator.

Here they're mentioning a certified translator, this means the translator has to have certification?! How would they even check this?

Has anyone had experience with this?

Why is it ok to submit own "certified" translations for USCIS and NVC, but not ok for the embassy?!

Please advise. Thank you!

Hi all - sorry for another question. A bit of a weird one here, but does each family member attending the interview require their own UID / TravelDocs account? Basically, when I scheduled the appointment for my wife's family, I made them each a TravelDocs account before scheduling them for a family appointment on one of those accounts (the "leader"). The problem, however, was that because they are citizens of Belarus and not Poland (where the TravelDocs accounts were made, as Belarus directs to Poland and they are Polish permanent residents anyway), the system thought they were Polish citizens. I called TravelDocs and they noted that somehow these family members had their accounts "duplicated" (unsure how this happened), and deleted the ones that erroneously listed citizenship as Poland. Out of curiosity, I just attempted to log into those family member's accounts today as their UIDs are still listed on the appointment confirmation under the leader's - but both of their accounts are deleted.

Provided (a) all applicable DS-160s were properly submitted and (b) the leader's TravelDocs account is accessible and has all the correct / updated information, is the fact the family members' accounts are deleted a problem? Or are they considered 'derivatives' or something like that for the appointment and never needed a separate account to begin with? TIA.