Loren Y

Once you get the case number from the NVC( call on Friday nights is the best, around 10pm eastern time, they are open to midnight, and you can get thru within 30 min. at that time of night. Have your name, fiancees name, and birthdate, and they are pretty helpful and can give you a estimate when the case number will be ready after your first call. But, call once a week until you can find out when it will be ready, you want the case number, and invoice number if they have it, you can track the status, and once it says ready, you can pay the fees, and schedule the medical and interview. Medical is an easy schedule by phone, and the interview isn't too bad if you check a few times a day, you should be able to snag one quickly. You can go to the US embassy Bangkok webpage and download packet 3 and 4 from the website, I have never seen them send them to anyone. Download them now, so you are ready with what you need. They are available in Thai and English. Go to Bumbgad Hospital as it is the cheapest out of your 2 options, and easy to schedule there. I butchered the hospital name, but you will know what one it is. If your fiancee hasn't gotten any of the required vaccines, hit the Snake Farm in Bangkok ( Red Cross). they are cheaper than the hospital.

Try this link you might have to search nvc fed ex hack, or a mixture of those words. Or even search DHL hack, because I think it's DHL that is used .

If you search the forums for the Fed-ex hack, there is a way to watch for your case being transferred to the embassy in Bangkok from the NVC, then you will kinda have an idea when you may hear from the embassy. For Thailand you have to be proactive. You have to schedule your own interview and medical for the K1. But don't wait for the welcome letter from NVC, those are kinda hit and miss. Watch your case status for it to say ready. Then you can download packets 3 and 4 from the US embassy website for Bangkok, it has all the steps and what you need to do and bring. You should be able to pull off an interview within a month of the embassy receiving your packet if you have things ready to go. Go review the steps at the embassy page and be ready to fill out the DS-160, and then you can get into the scheduling system. The tough part is getting the interview scheduled, but if you check a few times a day, you can usually snag a spot pretty easily. And the medical is easy to schedule with a phone call, and they usually have plenty of availability.

They will not release the number to you. We went to the SS office the day after my stepson arrived on his FX2 Visa. They had already processed his SS card, and said it was in the mail. They wouldn't give the number though, but it was there. 1 week later it was in the mailbox. I guess it is all automatic now. Came thru LAX, on Nov 09, 2022, shows issue date on SS card as November 10th, so printed the next day.

If you know the questions, it's easy according to my wife. Passed in March of this year. IO started with the questions, and she said she was " In the Zone". We had studied the questions so much she was cranking out answers faster than he could begin the questions. Before she knew it he said " Congratulations" . She was like congratulations what?, he said you passed the test. She didn't even know she hit the first six right off. Only thing she had a little problem with was on the tablet she had to write out the word "senator" as part of a answer, and she had a little issue with the spelling, but IO was cool about it, and just laughed and said, no worries, your good. She said they spent most of the time talking about her son, and how he is here now, and how does she like it in Las Vegas. I hope you get a good IO like she did. She was nervous also, but said it was not as bad as she thought it would be. And like @Crazy Cat has said, being done with USCIS is worth every minute of the interview. I think I was happier she passed then she was knowing no more forms and waiting. She now has her " Coveted" Blue book, and we actually got her Naturalization certificate back in a reasonable time.

Ok, I called the largest Accredited testing center in Nigeria( listed on the embassy website), They closed at 5, and I just got in before they closed. If you have your case number, you can call and talk to them. they have a person that specializes in the DNA testing for the US embassy, and for USCIS. They do it all the time. You do not have to go to the embassy for collection, they laughed pretty hard when I asked them that. You call and make an appointment with them for your kids, they can get you scheduled within a few days easy they said. You will do testing at a location in the US near you ( They are all over). They said it's a 5 min process for each person, and they will take your results, and the kids results, put them all together, and they have to deliver them to the right department/person at the embassy. They maintain the complete "chain of custody" thru out the whole process, and they have to deliver the results to the embassy. Whole process takes about a week usually, so not 5 years. It's not cheap from my understanding, they told me 200,000 N to 300,000 N per test. Sounds like a lot of cash to me, but I didn't convert it. Here is the website with all the contact information. If your in the US you can contact the closest center to you, and they should be able to help. Get started on Monday, and you can have the results at the embassy by the following Monday. https://www.dnacenternigeria.com/immigration-dna-tests

Hopefully you insured the hell out of it. whenever I use USPS, UPS, DHL, Fed-ex, I insure everything to at least a thousand dollars. I have collected thousands from UPS, and Fed-ex, but believe it or not, have never had anything lost from the USPS. If you insured it, file a claim online, They look really hard before they have to cut that check within 30 days. But if not, the money should help with a replacement passport. I've heard no way you will be able to get a passport in Venezuela, I have heard of people being able to get them at an Venezuelan embassy outside the country with some luck.

My wife traveled more than a few times with just a copy of the letter. A good copy, and I even laminated it to keep it safe. No issues over 3 or 4 trips. The original never left the safe at home.

I agree with this. You are smart to think of the path of least resistance, and probably right about the small sacrifice to make things easier. Just having a few current pay stubs seems to make the CO's happy. I don't think they looked at my Tax returns, but were interested in the few current pay stubs showing I was working.

It will usually say if you are allowed guests on the appointment letter. For my wife's ceremony we were only allowed one guest at the USCIS office, but if it was at the federal building downtown she could have brought as many people as she wanted. Depends a lot on the location they use.

I agree to file the N400 as soon as you are eligible. My wife received her 10 year green card in the mail 19 days after we filed N400, approved without interview, then did the citizenship test 4 months later, and oath 3 weeks later. I believe that filing the N400 will kick start your ROC.

If you are a green card holder it shouldn't matter. My wife and I went thru manila on the way back to the USA a few years ago, had no issues at all. If you hold a valid green card, I cannot see them denying boarding or anything. And they have no authority over the green card as it is issued by the US government. I cannot see them being justified in holding up someone exiting the country without a pretty good reason. I've never had an issue with PH immigration. Maybe post this in the PH forums, and see if anyone has recently been thru there.

I agree with @powerpuff, The I-130 I did last year took about 12-14 months exactly. I-130 was approved a little after 12 months, NVC took another month in a half or so, then interview and visa issue was another month or so. I think from start to finish ( File to visa in hand) was about 16 months total. The estimates went from 9 months to 7 months to 12 months to 10 Minutes LOL, Those estimates are complete garbage and should be ignored. I would say you should have visa in hand by March 2024 or so.

Never asked for my wifes Visa in her passport at Naturalization interview, didn't ask for much of anything really. Bring what you have as other have said, and you will be fine. You have made it this far, and I found the N400 part out of all the other petitions I did was the smoothest and easiest process of all of them.

Definitely wanted to pay before you enter the US. The CBP actually checked and mentioned to us " Oh, good, I see you already paid your Green Card fee, if you don't see it in 90 days, call and check". I'm sure they would have mentioned it at POE if you haven't paid you fee. Pay it right away and keep the receipt, I did it from my phone as we picked up my stepsons passport at the post office, it had the instructions inside the envelope with the passport and visa. You need the number on the form to pay the fee. Took a few min. to do, and we left the next day. So it updates right away when you pay. Green card arrived 45 days after entry in the mailbox.

I hope I'm wrong, but I always think the simplest answer is the right one. Are you and the petitioner on good terms? Just throwing this out there, as I haven't seen it mentioned yet, is it a possibility the petitioner decided to cancel the visa? Maybe petitioner changed their mind and send a letter to the embassy pulling the visa. I honestly thing they would have noticed the wrong name or mix-up long before they issued the visa. I don't have much faith in our " Great" system we have, but a name difference that big ( Were not talking one letter out of place, were talking a whole name wrong) would have been caught. It's pretty rare they ask for the passport back and then cancel the visa without a pretty good reason.

I agree with @Dashinka, I would either do an updated I864 and upload it, or you can upload paystubs in the portal under other documents it may even have paystubs in the drop down box as a document description. That's the only guaranteed way the officer might actually see them.

Takes about 10 weeks now for standard processing. My wifes application was received on April 12th, and it just arrived last week on the 21st of June. I had scheduled the passport appointment 3 weeks ahead of time as soon as she passed the citizenship test. Then had to drive a few hours to the middle of nowhere post office to get an appointment within that 3 weeks. Make the appointment now, not sure where you live, but it takes about a month if your lucky to get a appointment for your first passport out here on the west coast. Unless you want to drop some cash there are agencies that will do if for 400-500 bucks same day.

As @Redro has said, it's doubtful you will be able to get one. I wasn't able to, and I'm pretty good at pulling off the impossible things. They didn't even ask for the police certificate because I assume they knew from the ds160 that she overstayed there, and would not be eligible for one. It didn't seem like too big a deal, but it could be IO specific, but lots of thai citizens seem to overstay all the time in Korea from my experience, I'm surprised they still have the ability of visa on arrival honestly, but it doesn't seem to matter much to the Korean government. Did she have to pay a fine? Maybe proof of that is available?. I wouldn't sweat it too much. Mention it on the ds160, and see if it even comes up interview and cross that bridge when it is in front of you. You should be fine.

My Thai wife did the same thing. she worked in Korea because the money was obviously better. The smart thing she did was leave when they had an amnesty window, they do it about 2 times a year to give people that overstayed a chance to leave without consequences. This was noted in her passport when she left it had a stamp with some letters and numbers you could look up and see she left under amnesty. She had the stamp to show at her K1 interview from her previous passport ( She had like 4 of them because they were only good for 5 years until a few years ago, you can now get a 10 year.) I tried to get a police report from South Korea with no luck because she wasn't there legally, so no love from them, I don't think you will be able to get a police report either, but this was back in 2019, maybe things changed. When she went to the interview the office looked at it, but didn't care too much about the overstay as it was over 5 years ago. They approved her visa no issues. I think it will depend on the IO you get at the interview, but from my experience they didn't hold the overstay against her, but this could be because she left under the amnesty program by turning herself in at the airport during the 2 week window I think it was with a one way ticket back to Thailand, so they processed her out with a stamp in her passport, and no harm no foul it seems. No fine, and no Ban either, but she hasn't been back since. Her US passport just arrived as she got citizenship now, and we are going to go back to Korea this November/ December as she wants to see some old friends that are still there. Hopefully we don't have issues, but I am not too worried, the overstay was over 10 years ago now, so even if there was a ban, it's long past. Try to get what you can, but if nothing is available to you, be honest about it if asked, and I think you will be ok, as it wasn't a US visa she overstayed, and if that is her only red flag, I think you will be ok. At the interview it wasn't even brought up as I recall.

12 year old is no issue, she will be coming with you. The 10 year old has a year to follow it is called on the approval of the K1 visa. The 19 year old may present a problem if she doesn't come now. I will have to check, or I'm sure someone will answer, but she will age out at 21 years old, or if she gets married, and then it becomes a long wait. She may have to come with you and enter the US, then apply for a re-entry permit to go back to Thailand to finish school and be able to return to the US later. Also, if you are doing a K1, they are not your step-kids yet until you get married. hopefully all this can be done before the oldest one ages out. Also, if longer than a year passes for the 10 year old, then yes, you will have to file an I130 for him, but he has a year to follow on the original K1. Another thought is does your fiancee, or the kids mom have full custody of the children? You may need permission from the father to allow them to leave the country, Thailand is weird on the parenting thing depending if the kids were born in wedlock, or out of wedlock, so double check on that.

When my wife and I got married, we didn't bother with the whole name change thing, it doesn't make you more or less married, and we have had no issue with different last names. If it really is a issue, later after you are all done with the immigration process, a quick visit to a judge and you can change your name.

Just send a letter as others have said. reference her name and case number and that she is withdrawing the I485. It's Sunday now, she can write the letter and drop it in the mail on the way to the airport. Better still drop it directly at a post office, and use priority mail so she gets a delivery receipt.

Keep it simple, put " Retail" no need to elaborate, they know if you have been working and where, they have access to IRS records. Welcome to land of no privacy what-so-ever, and it is all to keep you safe.

did that for my wife when she came on her k1 because round trip was cheaper like you said. Just cancel the return, or get a refundable one as mentioned. Airlines won't care, unless you do it multiple times, and even then they just send you a you've been bad email. I've got a bunch of them in my in box. I do whats called " Hidden city ticketing" all the time to save cash, and even though it pisses off the airlines, not much they can do. For now at least. Just booked another one last week. booked to Thailand, but getting off in Taipei for a week, then jumping a cheaper airline onto Thailand.