jan22

Why are you dealing with NVC if you are adjusting status? NVC is involved only for those applying for immigrant visas. The reason NVC labeled the determination as “preliminary” is because they have no authority to make a final, legal decision in a case. It means that they looked at the dates in your case and, to them, it appears that you benefit from the CSPA protection, but it is the interviewing officer that will make the final determination at the interview.

Has this call occurred yet? I hope not, as I believe this is a scam. There is no NVC “Outreach Team” that will phone people to pursue their case — they have plenty of work without doing that! There are also several typos/non-standard English errors in the short e-mail. I would be very cautious about providing the information that they say you will need to provide for the call. With that info, they can be “you” and contact NVC and get other info about your family that they could use for fraudulent purposes. At a minimum, I would ask them for a number you could call back to confirm it is actually from NVC before talking to them.

Even if she applies tomorrow, the current wait time for an appointment for a tourist visa interview in Quito is 365 days and Guayaquil is 268 days.

YES. To qualify, you had to be unmarried until the visa was issued and you entered the US.

As everyone who responded here has said — there is nothing that can be done to make you eligible for a visa based on this petition. Again, it was dead the moment you got married. Without an approved, valid petition, you do not qualify for an immigrant visa.

Not at all possible. Even if you divorced your spouse, you wouldn’t qualify. The petition died the moment you got married. There is no legal way to resurrect it.

NVC has no authority to determine you no longer qualify for the visa (which you don’t). As long as you proceed with the case, pay the fees, and submit the documents, they will process your submissions and, ultimately, schedule the case for a visa interview at the Embassy — where it will then be denied, since you no longer qualify for a visa as an unmarried child of an LPR.. The baby’s case cannot be continued as a derivative — if the principal applicant doesn’t qualify, neither does the derivative.

If both parents were US citizens at the time the child was born, you will be filing under 301(c) of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1401(c)). Unlike other applications under sections of the law that require physical presence for a number of years, the 301(c) requirement is merely that at least one of the two US citizen parents resided in the US at any point prior to the birth of the child — for any length of time at all. So, your documentation is more than enough to meet that.

Under Section 222(f) of the INA, visa records are “inviolable” (confidential) and are protected from disclosure. Section (b)(3) of the FOIA exempts information from disclosure when it is protected by other federal statutes — which visa records are. (Scroll down to the “Please note” paragraph in item 7 on the State Dept FOIA site: https://foia.state.gov/Request/Guide.aspx#FreedomofInformationActFOIAFOIAExemptions.) The only response to a visa FOIA request will be a copy of what you submitted and a copy of anything that was provided to the applicant at the interview. You will not get a copy of the officer’s case notes. BTW, the exemption from release also would apply if the officer’s notes are based on another agency’s information (e.g., information from law enforcement sources). That information would be exempt from release by the State Dept even without the confidentiality of the visa record. They do not “own” the information and cannot determine if it should be released or not — that decision rests with the agency/entity that created the information.

Generally, there is no time limit for follow-to-join, unless a child involved will turn 21. See 9 FAM 502.1-1(C)(2): https://fam.state.gov/fam/09FAM/09FAM050201.html. Unless you can still access the cases for spouse and children on the NVC website and submit documents, etc., you will need to get an answer from the consulate in how to proceed.

Even though the leaflet is 2013 doesn’t mean it isn’t accurate information. This has been an established part of the re-entry permit process since at least the early 1990’s and is still a part of the process. If, however unlikely it would be, the re-entry permit is denied, the individual would go through the same process discussed here many times — return to the US, be interviewed at the POE, explain the absence (and, in this case, show the I-131 receipt), and get admitted to the US. The worst case scenario would be a referral to an immigration judge.

This is not accurate. There is an established process where, after biometrics, you can leave the US and, on your application form, request to pick up the issued permit at the Embassy/Consulate nearest you. This process would not exist if you weren’t supposed to leave until the permit is issued. It is described in USCIS literature at: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/guides/B5en.pdf.

Not mentioning your name achieves nothing — except raising doubt with the interviewing officer. The officer has access to, and will likely review, the previous recent application. If you suddenly disappear from the application, the officer will assume she is trying to conceal information (which, of course, is exactly right). And, a return ticket is not proof that she will leave the US at all. It’s only proof that a ticket was purchased. For example, many (most?) immigrant visa recipients purchase round-trip tickets when moving to the US to live — its cheaper. She will not be asked about or have a chance to to show her ticket. What the officer will be looking for is whatever aspect of her life she has that will ensure she has to leave the US and return to it — family, job, education, culture, etc.

He’s applying for a non-immigrant visa, so there’s no place on the application asking specifics about financing. Financial resources might be asked about in the interview — where you’re right about telling the truth! — but maybe not even then.

A major reason for requiring paper versions of some of the required documentation — birth, death, divorce, arrest records, etc — especially at the interview, is to ensure they have the proper security features and have not been altered. It’s become way too easy to create high quality fake documentation.

Based on your previous posts — which were posted as I was posting this — I am going to assume she was removed after being fingerprinted on the first entry and there was no visa for either entry. If that is not correct, the following probably doesn’t apply! As Boiler indicated, the I-601a waiver is for the 23-year overstay only. If she has any other ineligibilities, she would be found ineligible at the visa interview and need to apply for a waiver. Alien smuggling could be one that would result in a visa denial and require a waiver. (BTW, it would also then require another waiver of the overstay, since it was good only if there were no other ineligibilities). More serious, however, is that she may also be ineligible under INA 212(A)(9)(C), which applies to someone who has been removed from the US and who the enters (or attempts to enter) again without being admitted or without inspection. It isn’t clear exactly what happened at the time of the first entry, so there’s no way to know for sure whether it would apply to her or not without additional information. While there is a waiver for the 9C ineligibility, it can only be applied for after the individual has been out of the US for 10 years and submits an I-212 seeking permission to reapply for admission to the US. It would the still require the waiver for other ineligibilities (if there is a finding if alien smuggling, for example).

Did she have a visa for her entries? Was she admitted to the US at the first entry when she was fingerprinted? The answers to these questions are needed before it can be determined if there may be a problem or not.

The airport code and the CBP Port of Entry codes are not the same. “EWR” is the airport code. As others have correctly stated, however, “NEW” is the Newark Port of Entry code.

The “not routinely available” vaccination waiver is not one that the applicant applies for or asks to invoke. It is a decision of the panel physician that the particular vaccine is not usually available in the country (I.e., a particular vaccine is not routinely administered in the normal vaccine regimen of a country and, therefore, providers do not stock it). It is not used when there is a vaccine available in the country, but is not necessarily easy to get. I think it extremely unlikely that a panel physician in Japan would say that a COVID vaccine was not routinely available in Japan (assuming that’s where you are from your profile).

Department of State has nothing to do with ESTA or anything dealing with a Port if Entry, so there would be no records there to be FOIA-ed. CBP would be the agency with records. Didn’t you get a document when they denied you entry (like an I-877)?

The two-year custody applies when a child is adopted outside the US and the adopting parents are applying for an IR-2 visa when the adoption does not qualify for an IR-3/IR-3H. (It basically serves to prove there is a legal, legitimate parent/child relationship.) In this case, the child qualified for an IR-2 visa as the step-daughter of the petitioning US citizen. She was admitted as an IR-2 and received a green card on that basis. Once there was a final, legal, adoption decree in the US, she met all of the requirements of the Child Citizenship Act and should be able to get a US passport.

What evidence did you submit with the passport application? If all you submitted was the UT birth certificate issued after the adoption, that was not enough, as it should be clear she was not actually born in UT (it should still list her actual place of birth). Instead of returning the form requested — which doesn’t apply in your case, since she is not your biological daughter — you should write a cover letter stating that your daughter acquired US citizenship under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 (CCA) at the time of her adoption. Then include evidence that she meets all the requirements of the Act: She was under the age of 18 when she met the requirements (can easily be documented since she is still under 18); She is the adopted daughter of a US citizen (adoption papers and your proof of citizenship); She was admitted to the US as a legal permanent resident (green card, even though it’s expired); She is living in your legal and physical custody. See the question “How does my child get a passport…” under the FAQs section on the CCA https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/us-citizenship/child-citizenship-act-of-2000.html#:~:text=The Child Citizenship Act of,acquire U.S. citizenship at birth.

My answer stands.

If she is resident in Belfast, yes — according to the website. It says UK citizens or residents of the UK. Regardless of what you put on the petition, It would likely be assigned to London, based on the address of her residence. If she would prefer Dublin, she could request a transfer and likely get it moved.

Per the US Consulate General Belfast website (https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/) immigrant visas for citizens/residents of the United Kingdom (that includes Northern Ireland) are processed at the US Embassy in London.