D-R-J

You should look into direct consular filing (DCF). It will be just about the fastest process. The question will be if they will accept your medical issues as an exceptional circumstance. You will need to contact the embassy to see if they will accept your I-130 petition. Do not submit your I-130 online as it will bar you from DCF.

When you say living in the Philippines, do you have a residence permit and how long have you been there? Did you submit the I-130 online?

It would help future people in similar situations if you would fill out your timeline. They are stopped with DQs of 4/23. Haven’t scheduled since February. Facebook tends to have better info on these wait times. Check out the Ghana to America Visa Support Group…

You are right, he is not allowed to work on a B2…and he didn’t.

Did they ask you about work? Seems like you should be ok considering you didn’t work once you found out it wasn’t allowed. Definitely possible someone will check your Reddit posts. I guess the wording in the post would determine how problematic it is.

Here it is if you want to read through it: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/imbra.html

Maybe not required for I-130 approval. In Ghana for DCF they didn’t ask for I-864 until interview either.

I’m sorry DCF didn’t work out for you. It’s frustrating that examples of acceptable circumstances have somehow morphed into hard and fast rules. I wish the embassy would use their discretion more broadly. I was required to have at least 6 months of residency when I did DCF in Ghana.

Could be informative to watch the debate tonight 9e/8c

Oh, this is interesting. They haven’t been putting out interview letters for IR visa either. I wonder if this is all related. Hopefully things get straightened out soon and they start working aggressively through the backlog.

Yep

This is from the I-751 instructions: “If you have dependent children who acquired conditional resident status on the same day as you or within 90 days thereafter, then include the names and Alien Registration Numbers (A-Numbers) of these children in Part 5. of Form I-751 in order to request that the conditions on their status be removed as well.”

I think it would be hard to stabilize the debt with only spending cuts. It would seem to necessitate cuts to Social Security and Medicare. I’m not sure there is the political will for that.

Trump’s tax cuts overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy, but it’s also true that they pay the majority of taxes. They can also afford to pay taxes and still live comfortably. Nondefense discretionary spending is only 14% of the budget. I’m not sure there is a much low hanging fruit as you’d assume.

Not so sure about that. https://www.crfb.org/blogs/2017-tax-cuts-continue-lose-revenue#:~:text=The Congressional Budget Office (CBO,effects of faster economic growth.

You’re not wrong about Chinese misbehavior or that supply chains are moving away from China. But Trumps proposal is for 10% across the board tariffs on all imported products, not just China. This is a recipe for disastrous inflation. I think you are also overstating the case of tariffs on China’s economy. Tariffs are not responsible for all or even most of the deceleration from 8.5% to 5%.

You just pay the $750. Before the fee increase there was a per person biometrics fee, but that’s no longer the case.

US tariffs on Chinese goods are primarily paid by US consumers. If China had imposed retaliatory tariffs on US goods, those would have been paid primarily by Chinese consumers. My point is that tariffs are inflationary when we are trying to bring inflation down. Re: DJT tax cuts, You are comparing a previous year’s tax receipts to a following year’s receipts. That is an apples to oranges comparison. You should be comparing a year’s receipts to those same year’s receipts without the tax cut. We added 1-2 trillion dollars to the national debt due to the tax cuts. I think the EV tariffs are tricky. It would definitely speed adoption to import cheaper Chinese EVs, but I do understand wanting to protect domestic manufacturing. Especially when we’ve seen what China has done in areas like solar panel manufacturing. I don’t have a strong sense which is better for our long term interests.

Yes I read this as well. Unfortunately, this would seem to entail paying fees twice.

So these are instructions from another country, but they are both on usatraveldocs, so I assume the process is the same/similar. Step 1 Complete the non-immigrant Visa Electronic Application (DS-160) form; please see this link for the guidelines Step 2 Log in to our appointment system and create a profile. Once logged in, choose “Schedule Appointment”. As you go through the process you will answer the interview waiver questions which will evaluate your eligibility to renew your visa through interview waiver. Step 3 After you answer the questions, you will be prompted to pay and enter the visa application (MRV) fee. Please see this link for more information on how to pay your MRV fee. If you are eligible to apply for a visa through interview waiver, you will be able to print out the “Interview Waiver Confirmation Letter”

I’m not sure you all are correct about how the interview waiver happens in Pakistan. From the US embassy Pakistan site: “start from ‘New Application’ on the scheduling dashboard, and follow the steps online for submitting through interview waiver.” I think that there will be a place on the ustraveldocs site to indicate you would like to be considered for an interview waiver. Hopefully someone who has applied to renew a B1/B2 visa in Pakistan will chime in.

I’d write the letter and explain your circumstances and hope for the best. It’s at the discretion of the embassy. I think you need a clear concrete reason. I.e. “My spouse’s largest client has a project that requires him to be physically present to oversee implementation. This is a long term project expected to last 5 years.” I wonder if a letter from a client would be better than one he produced himself. I think the further you stray from the examples they provide, the worse your chances. Any chance one of his clients might bring him in house? There was a guy in Germany who was starting an advanced degree program that was denied DCF. It may just be the luck of the draw of whose hands your letter ends up in.

Does your employer offer healthcare? They will often pay at least a portion of your premium. They can also have you pay with pre-tax dollars, which means that these plans are actually less expensive than ACA plans that have a lower premium.

They definitely waive at least some interviews in Pakistan. https://pk.usembassy.gov/expansion-of-interview-waiver-eligibility-for-u-s-visa-holders-from-pakistan-2/

I don’t think it is going to be part of the DS-160 itself. It will be done somewhere in the ustraveldocs portal.