US Immigration from Chile

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I got married back in September 2024 in the United States when she last visited from her home country of Chile, and she was here for about two weeks. This time around, she booked a round trip flight for nearly a month and is arriving next week. She had no problems getting into the country the last time around, and we had a lot of paperwork to show the customs agent just in case there were any issues (they weren't necessary, thankfully), but this time around there are a couple of different factors and I wanted to get the opinion of others if there is anything else we can do to be prepared for when she arrives and goes through customs. We submitted our I-130 and are at the NOA1 stage since October, so I know this might suggest more intent for someone to want to stay in the country instead of return home. She has ties to her home country, such as her lease contract agreement for her apartment, but she no longer is working right now so we cannot show that she has a job to come back to in Chile as we did last time, which I know is a strong tie. She also has the return ticket home, and will have a copy of our marriage certificate, and I intend to write a letter explaining our situation and that she intends to go back home, as I saw someone else on a different thread had recommended. The only other difference is she is flying into Atlanta for the first leg of the trip, whereas last time she flew from Chile to Bogota, and then from Bogota directly to Dulles. I have heard Atlanta customs can give a little more of a hard time as well. If anyone has any thoughts or feedback for our plan and what we should anticipate, I would appreciate it!

Starting the thread for those of us starting the New Year by filing an I-130.

Looking forward to hopefully seeing a lot of updates in 2026 or earlier

We re trying to gather all the documents we ll need for the process ahead of time. My fianc was saying that in Chile all documents from the Registro Civil are available in a certified digital format.

As an example: certified birth certificates can be downloaded for free. Would uploading the certified PDF to CEAC be sufficient for the NVC/Consular part or would physical copies be needed at some point.

Realize I m asking early but we re trying to have everything we can ready for the entire process when we file the I-130 so it s a more seamless process.

Hi all,

My fiance and I are planning on getting married in the U.S. on his ESTA over the holidays. We plan on going back to Chile together afterwards for about a month and filing the I-130 there before I d return to the U.S. while he waits the processing out.

If I start working on the draft online now so it s ready to submit the second we land in Santiago, would that be something that flags for CBP when he s entering? Don t want to put his ESTA at risk or delay the marriage.

Hi,

My wife Marcela will be eligible to become a naturalized citizen on April 11th of 2025.

We were planning on filing the n-400 application 90 days early.

I see the period for the process is much shorter than naturalization, which was about 18 months in total.

Can appointments like the bio test, language, and history tests, and the interview all possibly happen within the 90 days before actual eligibility?

We want to make sure Marcela is available and prepared for those events.

Thanks Martin