Stein

They are pretty rare. I think they only used them for about two weeks! I have two, could sell you one. LOL What I can't figure out is why us, with freshly minted 36 month letters, got new ones literally a month later yet there are people with 24 month letters that are expiring soon that don't have a new one.

So after getting one of the few 36 month extension letters on January 20 we received new 48 month letters yesterday.

No, it's just an extension to cover the expired two year green card for 48 months from the expriation date of the two year green card while the I-751 is processed. You need both the expired green card and the extension letter together to travel outside of the US.

Photographs of the two of you together at various places and significant events or holidays such as birthdays, etc. I would suggest 3-4 pages with 3-4 pictures each with captions under each listing who, where and when. Otherwise your documentation looks pretty solid. Even with a short time together you should be fine. You could also add afidavits, especially from members of his family that have knowledge of the two of you being together. Normally afidavits don't hold a lot of water but in this case I would add them if you can get them from his family.

My wife is also taking English classes at the local community college. They have a full ESL course, five semesters. She had to do a three hour placement test and started in Level 3 of the 5. Best part is our classes are completely free. Three hour classes, twice a week. Beyond this set of courses they have English for college prep and one other class for business English. Those we need to pay for.

Unlikely there will be a large difference filing separately. On another note you will probably end up with a decent sized underpayment penalty on top of the tax if you are $11,000 under. They sure don't give you any benefit you if you have a $11,000 return but they do like to hit you for owing too much.

Think about every single monthly bill that you had - electricity, gas, phone, internet, cable, car insurance. Most places you can log into your online account and review, download and print past statements. Do it for everything that you can, assuming either you or your ex still have those accounts. Even if you don't still have those specific accounts maybe a call to or more likely a personal visit to the payment office for each can probably get you copies once you tell them the urgent reason to get them after the fact. Make sure you take identification with you. This will take some legwork on your part but your ROC depends on it. You can't just say " I sent everything I had". They have already said it is not enough with the RFE. It is on you now to find more evidence.

I am confused about this. How can someone get a SSN when they have no status in the US? I mean if you don't marry within 90 days they have to leave the country but they still have a SSN? Maybe I just don't understand the rules because my wife came in on a CR-1 visa so she was given immediate LPR status. A K1 visitor is just a visitor until they marry and adjust status, right?

Yeah, wish I would have done that. Would have only needed a month. Oh, well. Wife is now pregnant so I don't see us moving back to Vietnam any time soon so whenever it comes, it comes. That was my original reason for pushing the citizenship/ROC. Now it doesn't matter much other than my wife's daughter will probably age out of citizenship under my wife's N-400 as she may turn 19 before we get the interview and then I understand she will have to make her own filing under the 5 year rule.

We were 33 days from the two year anniversary. Actually the last date of travel by the visa expiration date would have been 9 days. If I would have known what it meant I would have found a way to delay it. As it was ours was during COVID after the consulate was closed for the better part of six months. So once the appointment was made I didn't risk cancelling the appointment. Someone had mentioned after the fact to have just gone to the interview without the medical done and just delay that for a bit after the RFE for medical. I figured that they would just turn us away from the interview without it and I really sweated getting another interview date with the huge backlog from the shutdown so I went for it. At that time I didn't even know what ROC entailed and how long they took and to be honest, after being in Vietnam for 15 months without my normal "culture break" trips back to the US every three months I really wanted to get home.

It wasn't listed to be sent in the instructions so I didn't send it. You will want to bring ALL of your information when you go to the interview or combo interview.

Over the last couple of years I have used TransferWise and later Wise to send over $100,000 to Vietnam and have never had an issue. I know it's not China but it's a testament to Wise over many transactions. The most disappointing thing is that they have a $10,000 limit per transaction so I've had to send five transactions the same day which resulted in five wire transfer fees for my bank. Otherwise it's been great.

Probably too late on this if you have already filed but in case someone reads this thread later, when I was still living in Vietnam with my wife I just filed single then when we got to the US and she got her SSN I filed an ammended return as married-joint and got a big refund. It's way easier but will cost you some money temporarily but you get it back after the ammended filing.

If you bought 82 Powerball tickets you would actually have a better chance because you at least have a chance at winning the powerball and at worst you will have one dollar more than if you waste $165 on a tourist visa application. You have no chance at a tourist visa. Just telling you the truth.

I only submitted from arrival in the US to date. My thinking is that they want to see that we are still together. Sending things from before don't show that. Showing that we are CURRENTLY together should carry more weight in my mind. I could be wrong, though.

We did a wedding photographer for the one month before wedding photos and then used the same photographer for the wedding itself. It's very inexpensive. When we did our one month prior photos The phototgrapher who was tied with a wedding dress supplier brought us in. We picked three outfits each with three wedding dresses for her. They then transported everything to Da Lat for photos. We were up on the mountain at sunrise for the fog lifting off the mountains photos that Da Lat is famous for, then we went to four other beautiful spots for photos with outfit changes for almost each one. They had nine people to support us. One makeup, one hair, two assistants and four photographers and the coordinator. Even with them transporting everything to Da Lat plus all nine of them for the whole day it was only $600 total. For that we also got the high res digital for about 2,000 photos, plus a hardbound printed book with probably 80 pages, all laid out very well. To that add a lot of print photos including two 36x24 sized framed photos. Amazingly cheap.

Oh gawd no. I'm already sweating one at 55. I gave her what she wanted and I'm getting snipped.!

So reading through the link above https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10085.pdf the child can receive 50% of the max benefit. Would that be 50% of my max Age 67 benefit? That would be an extra $2200? And my wife could get the same as the caregiver? I think that's where the benefits could be capped at 150-180% of the benefit. Well, I have seven years to figure that one out.

Glad I popped into the Phillipines section out of boredom today. I'm 55 and just found out my wife is pregnant. So, the child get benefits if I start drawing at 62? I'm at the max cap of $4400 or so on SS at age 67 so not bad at all if I start drawing early. We are in the US now so any child born will already be USC without having to file CRBA.

An earlier post said they were to start issuing them either the 23rd or 25th of January.

yes

It updated five days after shipping the packet. Letter arrived today, 11 days after shipping packet. Extension letter arrrived five days after shipping packet.

I agreed I'd rather not go. I was just curious how many actually had to go to biometrics for ROC after biometrics at POE.

It just occurred to me when I got another letter today about biometrics. It stated that they are re-using the fingerprints. I knew that already but reading the letter further it stated that they will not refund the biometrics fee. So another $170 (two people) for the cash grab. It does make sense to re-use something that was just taken less than two years ago but knowingly charging an extra $85 each is just robbery. Has ANYONE had to take biometrics again for ROC in the last few years?

I was born a US citizen. I've never been called. "They" say that the jury duty pool isn't tied to voter registration records. I've not registered to vote for almost 30 years. I've never been called. You decide based on those two points.