Scandi

There isn't a ton of paperwork to get married. You simply go get a marriage license and get married, afterwards you receive your marriage certificate as proof that you're married. All of us who came on a K-1 went through the exact same process - used our foreign passports to get the license as we had no US govt. issued IDs at the time, naturally. In CA you can apply for the marriage license online, takes a minute - I assume a lot of other places in this country have it online too. Then both parties go in person to pick it up. Then they get married and receive the certificate. No idea why you feel that you had to do a ton of paperwork to get married, there isn't a ton of paperwork at all.

You are always the primary sponsor and will have to fill out an affidavit of support of your own - no matter if you also have a co-sponsor or not, no matter if you have an income or not. So yes, even if your dad fills out his i-134, you still need to fill one out yourself as well. This will also be the case once your fiance (by then your spouse) files for AOS in the US.

When I had to file for ROC we lived kind of like you guys do, never had a rental agreement written up as the house was owned by my USC husband's mother and we paid a crazy low "rent". But we made up a rental agreement anyway, just printed one from the net, filled it out and just asked her to sign it. I obviously have no idea if it made a difference or not, but that was all we could do. I totally get that you don't want to bother your landlord, it's not the same as a close family member like in our case. He might even find it weird and become suspicious, who knows.

Why would you attempt to travel with an expired stamp? That's your only proof of residency - since you don't have a physical greencard the extension letter means nothing. To use the stamp, it needs to be valid, not expired. Always get a new stamp every time the other expires, I believe you can get a new stamp within 30 days before the current stamp's expiry date.

Correct, that's why it's better to take FREE advice from VJ than pay an attorney who doesn't know how how immigration works. The email from the embassy is in most cases generic, ie everyone gets the same letter despite having completely different circumstances. Such an email may therefore not go into detail in each person's case but only list the standard documents needed for everyone - for instance many people don't have any divorces in the past and therefore no divorce decrees, many don't have any criminal backgrounds and therefore won't have to show court documents related to their crimes etc. So most emails won't mention it because it's not something generic that everyone has to bring.

Divorce decree and a signed affidavit of support is needed at the interview stage, no matter if you sent it previously. I'm surprised your fiance didn't bring that. We sent a certified copy of the divorce decree with our initial petition and also had to bring a new certified copy to the interview at the embassy, it's the normal and not just something the CO asked for "out of spite" or anything like that. Certified/original is not needed for the actual petition (hence why they were fine with just your PDF), but is needed for the interview.

Now I'm wondering too, because OP has another thread about "renewing 10 year greencard", but he talks about how they cant file until 90 days before the greencard expires - which sounds more like ROC (i-751). For a regular renewal (i-90) you can file 6 months before the expiration date.

2. Varies greatly between field offices, and another thing that can change how quickly she gets to take the oath is if she will have a name change or not. For me in Los Angeles, including a name change, it was only 3-4 business days between interview and oath in the middle of the pandemic. 3. No advice really, the N-400 was by FAR the easiest step out of all the immigration related processes I have ever been through. If there's something I wish I would've known beforehand, it would be just that - that it was a lot easier than I had anticipated, less worries.

Personally I kept every form I have ever sent to USCIS, just in case I want to petition for a family member in the future and might need the info on those forms (it can be hard to remember every date and info), those are only 2-8 pages each, so not a big deal to keep at all. I also kept every single document I have received from USCIS (NOA1, NOA2, Interview notices etc), NVC and the embassy. Same as above, not many pages at all. Everything else I got rid of, like 95% of my immigration pile was "evidence of a bonafide marriage", so all that went into the shredder. Hardly anything left in my immigration binder now.

You should always expect to get a biometrics appointment with EVERY petition you send in. It's only in recent time that it has become a little more common that they reuse biometrics, but the normal is still to have your biometrics taken for every single petition. Sometimes even more than once per petition.

If you read the oath letter you received it says: Please bring the following with you: -This notice with the reverse side completed. Please refer to instructions below. -All Permanent Resident Cards ("green card") that you may have, valid or expired. -All Reentry Permits or Refugee Travel Documents that you may have, valid or expired -Any other documents USCIS issued to you that you may have, such as employment authorization cards, valid or expired. Yes they want you to hand in EAD, AP, all greencards etc. You can obviously not hand in something you don't have. I didn't have my conditional greencard and was specifically asked why I didn't hand it in and had to explain myself at the oath.

It's normal to get that message and yet later get a biometrics appointment anyway. In some cases they reuse biometrics, definitely, but most of the time they will have you go through it at a later date even if you already got the message it's not needed. Just wait and see what happens. With the biometrics they also take your photo, which is the photo used on your naturalization certificate. For people who actually had their biometrics reused during the pandemic, USCIS either used an old photo, or they had the applicant either bring photos to the interview or had photos taken at the interview. I know of at least one other Swede who had to go take photos at a local CVS after his interview, and bring them back to USCIS so they could use them for his certificate. But yeah, those were pandemic times.

Yup, during covid a lot of SSA office didn't allow in-person appointments, so you had to send your documents via mail. And they returned them via mail to you. I didn't go for that so I waited until my local office allowed in-person appointments again. It was about 8 months after the oath. The covid restrictions haven't been a thing for a long time now, like Mike said, you go there with your documents and you leave with them too.

AFAIK, DCF isn't a thing for Sweden anymore.

It differs a lot, you will see everyone has had very different experiences. I was the beneficiary and traveled to the US on my K-1 visa together with my then USC fiance (now husband) and it was super smooth. No secondary, we were "interviewed" at the regular desk everyone goes to (we got to go together, didn't have to go one by one up to that desk). Again, it was a K-1 so maybe it's a different process than with a CR-1/IR-1. The officer opened my sealed envelope right in front of me and I believe he read a little bit of it because he proceeded to ask me two questions - "What kind of work did you do in Sweden?" and "How many times have you been to the US?", two of the same questions that were asked on the DS-160 and on the embassy during the K-1 interview. Maybe he just wanted to verify that my answers were the same as what he saw in those papers? He asked my USC fiance what he did for a living and what date we had set for the wedding (we didn't have a date at that point). And that was it, just two questions each and then a "Welcome home". Very easy, and the same amount of questions that I used to get when I arrived on an ESTA.

It just means that everything the US petitioner sent to USCIS (original petition and any potential RFEs), the foreign beneficiary should have copies of as well. So the beneficiary knows exactly what documents were sent and what information was put on the forms etc, this helps the beneficiary being prepared for the interview as he/she knows exactly what documents and info the Consular Officer has in front him/her. Sometimes it can be difficult to remember exact dates for instance, so it's good for the beneficiary to know what dates the petition wrote down on the forms and photos and other documents, so you are both on the same side. The petitioner could also add photos that the CO might ask about at the interview, then it's good that the beneficiary is well aware of the photo and can explain it if needed. In my case for instance, my then fiance had sent a ridiculous Christmas photo of our stockings on the fireplace, they had both me and my then fiance's names, but also the DOGS names! So the IO was suspicious and asking questions thinking it was our children, and on the forms we had obviously not mentioned any children since we didn't have any. So good to be prepared to answer such questions! 😁

In most DMVs in Los Angeles county you can't even get an appointment for a driving test in 10 days. When I got my license there was a 2 month wait in almost all DMVs, had to drive down to O.C. for an earlier appointment. That said, I drove on my Swedish license for almost a year, I was only stopped twice for a "routine check" and my license wasn't an issue any of those times. As with everything, I guess it depends on who you end up talking to.

Yup, you're very likely to get an interview for ROC, so expect it. There's a very slim chance it won't happen, but definitely prepare for one.

Pretty much, yes. NBC is the service center that prepares cases for interviews, so. The majority of the cases that go to NBC are the ones that didn't have an interview for AOS - usually you get an interview for AOS or ROC.

The whole interview, even the parts that don't come across as an interview, is used to determine your English skills etc. So don't be scared to small-talk! They love to do that and it shows how good your English is. If they feel that you can barely understand them, they may ask for definitions off of the N-400 form (usually the yes/no questions) to make sure you understand the questions you answered on the form. Small-talk also helps taking some of the nervousness out of it, especially if you get a friendly IO. But this won't be an issue in your case if your spoken English is even 1/8 as good as your written English! I wouldn't worry for a second, it's so easy and a very smooth process. Some IOs are grumpy but don't let that affect you.

I agree. I had a similar experience when we sent in our i-129f and were approved even though we only stated that we "met online", no specifics. This was when a lot of other applicants got RFEs for not being specific about what site they met on and if it was an IMBRA site etc. It went great in our case but not in many others', so I would obviously tell anybody to be more specific if it can save them from an RFE. Same goes for evidence - send EVERYTHING, let the IO decide what's good enough and what isn't. With that said, this particular case doesn't appear to be about evidence from the posts I have read, so it's a mute point. There appears to be something else that is a big red flag for the IO, maybe they'll get an answer soon. I'd like to know too, so hopefully the thread is updated with any new info.

So, you say they have a "joint" credit card. Since that's all you mention, is that it? That's the only evidence they have of a bonafide marriage?

You specifically said "I find it frustrating that they gave me the non-real ID", something you never applied for and yet is frustrated you never got. That's what my reply was about. You don't get something you don't apply for, so no idea why it was so frustrating for you to not receive a Real-ID.

And even if you have a receipt number and insert it, you still only get to talk to a robot. There's no point for them to even have a phone number or customer service, since they clearly don't take any calls anyway.

Two weeks between medical and interview in Sweden, that's how long it takes for the results to be done and for the embassy to receive the medical report. So 2-3 weeks before the interview could be a good time to have the medical. Personally I had my medical on a Thursday and had my interview the following Monday, so only a couple of business days in between.