ultrasoul

I am aware of that thank you. USCIS April adjustment of status increase now basically means from a financial perspective consulate processing route requires much lower financial cost. That until DoS increases the immigrant fee schedule (DoS increased non-immigrant fee schedule last year in 2023)

Don’t see anything regarding NVC fees increasing for immigrant visa IV consular processing. Anyone knows?

Thanks everyone! MNL terminal fee has been bundled as part of the ticket price (but some reason it looks lower than the 750 PHP). As for the travel tax- immigrant visa holders because they aren't considered permanent residents of other countries just yet have to pay the TEIZA Travel tax which can be paid online (plus a credit card convenience fee as usual). The New York Philippine Consulate webpage also confirms this- https://newyorkpcg.org/pcgny/other-services/travel-tax-exemption/

Appreciate a fellow VJ'er chiming in on the N400 earliest filing date calculation for an IR0 LPR (5 year normal requirement) based on several absences out of the US. LPR Status Granted - 04/13/2020 2020- 202 days outside US due to having to care of family overseas & COVID travel restrictions (Apr 2020 departure, Oct 2020 US re-entry no issues) 2021- 354 days outside US on overseas job posting with non-US company (Jan 2021 departure, Dec 2021 US re-entry no issues) 2022- 0 days outside US 2023- 0 days outside US 2024- 0 days outside US 2025- 0 days outside US For additional context- The LPR purchased and maintained a US house and US bank account statements since April 2020 continuously and filed US taxes continuously since 2020 tax year. Had the LPR not been outside the US in 2020 and 2021, the earliest filing date would have been 01/13/2025 taking advantage of the 90 calendar days early filing. Questions- Given the greater than 6 months but less than 1 year absences, is it correct to say that the earliest filing date should be calculated as plus 4 years 1 day from his Dec 2021 latest US re-entry date (and not the full 5 years from the latest re-entry date)? The LPR cannot take advantage of the 90 day early filing anymore correct i.e. Dec 2021 latest re-entry date plus 4 years 1 day minus 90 days for early filing? Thanks a million!

Did a search but couldn’t find a recent post here on this topic- thanks for the patience! Trying to see if we need to provide cash for our immigrating brother and sister in law for NAIA travel tax and terminal fee. Doesn’t NAIA no longer collects cash terminal fees as this is now bundled in airline ticket price? As for the travel tax- will they get an exemption since they are holding a US immigrant visa and CFO certificate? Thanks a mil

@W199 Can I ask once you made that payment was a temporary email digital certificate emailed to you? I'm wondering what's stopping someone from choosing the 30php pickup option for sometime in the future and not actually going to retrieve that sticker if the email digital cert is auto-emailed upon the 30 php payment? i.e. why bother choosing the more expensive delivery when it won't even be delivered until many months after you leave the country when payment of either option triggers the email digital certificate. thanks for sharing!

Correct that seems to be the current way right now - you need to pay for 120php++ delivery or 30php pickup of the sticker but the second pickup option is not possible since there isn't any stickers in stock lol. We will be emailing and sending a DM to the CFO FB account to see if they can just generate the digital certificate using the PDOS completion registration number without any payment. If not- we'll just email them back on May 1 since flights are in June anyway.

@RO_AH My brother in law just completed the CFO seminar but now they want him to pay 30 php + 90-200 php shipping for the sticker even though the email cert with QR code should be free. Am I missing something here?

Also if you file N-400 now you pay $725. USCIS released their 2023 fee hike proposal to increase that to $760 earlier this year in Jan. The final actual fee increase will be finalized in the coming months to take in effect Q3 or later in 2023. Get on it now and save some $$$

Wanted to circle back and provide an update. Earlier today on April 17 Monday, my brother got an update on his N400 confirming the quality checks were completed, N400 is fully approved, and the oath ceremony is scheduled for next month. Interesting, there was still no status updates on his I-751 which still shows waiting to be scheduled a ROC interview but an L1 chat agent was able to confirm that the Field office touched his I-751 last Saturday when the officer was doing the quality checks on the N400 approval and scheduling the oath before so it definitely feels like the I-751 approval status change should happen any day now. Many thanks everyone for allaying this concern cheers!

We tested the theory that Queens FO officer who approved the N400 must surely know that an I-751 approval is a prequisite- so my bro chatted with a L1 chat rep via Emma to see when was the last time someone touched the I-751 hoping the FO would have approved the I-751 today at the same time they accessed the N400 case to approve it but it does not look to be the case. Yes combo interviews should be the standard as confirmed in the DHS 2020 public webinar given by USCIS leader https://www.dhs.gov/publication/uscis-processing-concurrently-pending-forms-n-400-and-forms-i-751 judging from the site where people ask immigration lawyers questions- the reason why a combo interview is not done is because the N400 officer is new and does not know how to handle I-765 lol

Thanks @Mike E and @Misscloud. Already my brother had an L2 call back in Jan after his N400 interview but was given the precanned wait for your I-751 scheduling reply. Opened several escalation out of timelines processing tickets that went straight to the Queens FO on both N400 and I-751 cases and same responses as well. N400 status change thanks to congressional inquiry was the only way things changed lol

That’s what I thought. Better to go back to congressional liason to mention this to get movement in the i-751. Do local FO still waive I-751 interviews these days in 2023?

Not yet. Status shows N400 is approved and in line for scheduling

Sharing what I thought was a total impossibility but just happened- my brother’s N400 case status changed to approved and scheduled for naturalization ceremony even though his I-751 interview has yet to be scheduled much less even approved. On August 2021, my brother filed his I-751 to remove conditions on his 3 year conditional PR status. On July 2022, he was eligible to file for N400. On October 2022, due to the N400 USCIS transferred his I-751 case file to the Queens local field office (to prepare for what I was assuming a combo interview). On Jan 2023, he was scheduled and attended his N400 interview. Anticipating a combo interview, he brought all I-751 evidence (photos, bank records of married life) but officer shockingly did not do a combo interview- recommending his N400 for approval pending a future scheduled I-751 interview decision. On March 2023, he reached out to congressman to assist with moving his I-751 along since it was filled over 18 months ago and the paperwork has been sitting in the local FO at the time of his N400 interview and still remains there for 6 months now. Today April 2023, USCIS Queens FO reviews the congressional inquiry and changes status of N400 case to “recommended for approval in line for ceremony scheduling” with no update/ waiver approval to the i-751. Chatted with level 1 USCIS chat agent via Emma and agent states adamantly that N400 can be approved and naturalization can take place before I-751 approval which doesn’t sound right. I’m going to advice my brother to ask the congressional liaison to send a followup message to the local Queens FO to approval the I-751 or schedule the I-751 if they require an interview because I’m pretty sure my brother will be turned away at the N400 ceremony if the system hasn’t have record of a i-751 approval. Baffles me that a conditional resident can be scheduled for naturalization with 2 different USCIS staffers (field office plus chat agent level 1) not seeing this as a paradox?

@vajaster sharing what I mentioned on a different thread on the F2A retrogression. Since 2020, the F2A DQ’ed backlog has steadily increased. Even though F2A has always been “Current” final action date on the Visa bulletin, the reality is the embassy consular posts did not process most F2A’s that were DQ’ed and sent over to them for processing due to prioritizing immediate preference IV’s and employment IV’s instead to clear out the COVID backlogs. You can see this reflected in the “Annual Report of Immigrant Visa Applicants in the Family-sponsored and Employment-based preferences Registered at the NVC” Despite F2A final action dates being “Current” since July 2019, the number of F2A cases waiting for an embassy interview jumped 91% from 182K in 2019 to 348K in 2020 and again to 391K in 2021. My in-laws have under 21 F2A children were in the same situation - the kids were DQ’ed in July 2020 but were never scheduled by US Manila for an interview the past 3 years as DOS guidance to all processing posts to focus only on immediate preference and employment IV’s- thus continuing to neglect F2A the past 3 years. There were a number of petitions to the government to treat F2A the same as immediate USC preference categories but the went no where. Personally, we were not in any rush for processing as the kids were still doing schooling so we did not pursue an expedite avenue. 2 months ago however, NVC started sending expedite messages to all posts for F2A cases that were more than DQ’ed more than 2 years ago. I’m assuming this action was meant to work down the F2A CP backlog since posts were still not actively scheduling F2A interviews even in late 2022/ early 2023. I know this the case as CEAC shows an “expedite request” created by NVC to USEM (again this is not a petitioner requested expedite request). Given this sharp increase in the number of F2A cases being pushed protectively to consular posts by NVC in recent months, this is why F2A visa uptake has dramatically increased overseas and hence the intentional retrogression in F2A final action dates (thus having the immediate effect of limiting F2A issuance at overseas posts) as this fiscal year’s F2A annual limit quota is projected to be fully used up.

@vajaster Chancy is correct but you are misinterpreting his reply. He was responding to my original post about both are F2A cases which have a PD of July 2020 and therefore were not affected when F2A retrogressed from Current to Sept 2020 What is your F2A case priority date? If it is on or after 8 September 2020, your F2A case is basically now frozen and the US embassy post will no longer complete the case and will not issue any immigrant visa until your PD in Table A final action date becomes current again. If you had seen the F2A retrogression back in mid-March when they published the April bulletin preview- you could have reached out to the embassy post multiple times to see if they can issue the IV before March 31 when it was current. The May visa bulletin will being published in the coming days. If there is further retrogression and if your PD is too far away from the F2A Final Action Date in the May bulletin- the US embassy will likely return your passport if they have no reason to believe F2A will ever become current again this year. You can also see this YouTube video which explains this (your situation is explained in 5:50 of the video)- https://youtu.be/PmFG_g4Xjw8 Best of luck to you- as mentioned in the OP both our F2A’s with PD of July 2020 were sitting DQ’ed since Nov 2020 for the last 18 months at NVC unscheduled for any interviews even though F2A was current that whole time.

My guess based on the current situation is that future visa bulletin F2A final action dates will jump cautiously a few months at a time for DOS to gauge the trend uptake of many of the previously DQ’ed F2A cases since 2020. It took us 2 months to prepare at the updated police clearances and affidavit of support documentation as the original ones approved by NVC at DQ were outdated. I can imagine there is a sizable F2A DQ’ed population who aren’t as VJ sophisticated/ monitoring their cases and know how to manually schedule their expedite approvals, know to regather updated docs to avoid 221g delays, thus leading to a protracted period of time where F2A approvals and usage remain elevated at the consular level meaning that F2A final action dates will unlikely ever return to being “Current” again

@Mike E agreed that it is interesting the April visa bulletin for F2A still shows a current date of filing but retrogressed the final action dates by 3 years and 5 months. My guess is that this strategy is intentional due to F2A consular demand increasing at a much sharper rate in the past month versus AOS F2A demand. I’ll give you a possible reason why this is the case. Since 2020, the F2A DQ’ed backlog has steadily increased. Even though F2A has always been “Current” final action date on the Visa bulletin, the reality is the embassy consular posts did not process most F2A’s that were DQ’ed and sent over to them for processing due to prioritizing immediate preference IV’s and employment IV’s instead to clear out the COVID backlogs. You can see this reflected in the “Annual Report of Immigrant Visa Applicants in the Family-sponsored and Employment-based preferences Registered at the NVC” Despite F2A final action dates being “Current” since July 2019, the number of F2A cases waiting for an embassy interview jumped 91% from 182K in 2019 to 348K in 2020 and again to 391K in 2021. My in-laws have under 21 F2A children were in the same situation - the kids were DQ’ed in July 2020 but were never scheduled by US Manila for an interview the past 3 years as DOS guidance to all processing posts to focus only on immediate preference and employment IV’s- thus continuing to neglect F2A the past 3 years. There were a number of petitions to the government to treat F2A the same as immediate USC preference categories but the went no where. Personally, we were not in any rush for processing as the kids were still doing schooling so we did not pursue an expedite avenue. 2 months ago however, NVC started sending expedite messages to all posts for F2A cases that were more than DQ’ed more than 2 years ago. I’m assuming this action was meant to work down the F2A CP backlog since posts were still not actively scheduling F2A interviews even in late 2022/ early 2023. I know this the case as CEAC shows an “expedite request” created by NVC to USEM (again this is not a petitioner requested expedite request). Given this sharp increase in the number of F2A cases being pushed protectively to consular posts by NVC in recent months, I would assume this is why F2A visa uptake has dramatically increased overseas and hence the intentional retrogression in F2A final action dates (thus having the immediate effect of limiting bulk of F2A issuance at overseas posts) but not F2A filing dates (still allowing domestic AOS filers some relief for EAD/AP benefits).

@Lin2016 I-485 can’t be filed online. In order to take advantage of free I-765 / I-131 concurrent filing with I-485- everything needs to be done by mail in ONE package even the I-130. There’s a bunch of existing threads on VJ on the process to ensure preparing your combo I-130/ I-485/ I-765/ I-131 package to avoid RFE’s

No worries - it was a good thing the department of state created that second distinction of dates which helps to provide relief while beneficiaries have to wait thru backlogs caused by the much higher demand outstripped the finite supply offered by the limited cap limits created by Congress. If OP's spouse becomes eligible for naturalization this beomces a non-issue as he/she now is eligible for the immediate family of USC preference

That’s not correct. Table A Final action dates applicable for all applicants- outside via consular processing or inside in the US via adjustment of status you aren’t any better privileged just because you are filing an AoS However if you are in the US doing an AoS- you can benefit from table b allowing you to file your application earlier and get EAD/ AP benefits while you wait out the adjudication backlog time listed in the final action dates table A. Copying this from an immigration law website … What Is the Difference Between “Final Action Dates” & “Dates for Filing”? The “Final Action Dates” indicate the dates an immigrant visa number will be available for a foreign national with a current priority date that month. This is an important date because once the immigrant visa number is available, the foreign national’s physical green card can be issued. A green card cannot be issued unless the applicant’s priority date is earlier that the Final Action Date listed on the visa bulletin. If USCIS determines there are more immigrant visas available for a fiscal year than there are known applicants for such visas, it will allow foreign nationals to use the “Dates for Filing” chart. The Dates for Filing are the earliest dates green card applicants may apply for a green card. These are the dates the National Visa Center (NVC) uses to notify green card applicants that they can start getting documentarily qualified. These dates are typically eight to 12 months prior to the expected Final Action Dates and allow applicants to submit their application for permanent residence and relevant documents before it is time for the government to approve it. This is beneficial because it can allow foreign nationals who are stuck in the backlog to apply for and obtain work authorization much sooner than if they had to wait for the priority date to be current under the relevant Final Action Date.

Yes - so OP is still eligible to file for AOS In April as it is still showing “current” in table b dates of filing in the current visa bulletin. But since table A final action dates is no longer current for F2A, the I-485 interview will not be scheduled or the case approved until F2A becomes current to the OP’s priority date This isn’t a big impact for OP as OP will still be able to work in the US or travel while waiting for the final action dates to become current with a combo EAD/ AP

@linnguyen2016 forget to add that I’m assuming your spouse is an LPR not USC which means you are looking at a F2A priority green card which is currently not going to be adjudicated for at least 2-3 years based on the current final action date of Sep 2020 date in the April visa bulletin. This makes your inclusion of the I-765 and I-131 in your I-130/ I-485 package even more important

@linnguyen2016 don’t forget to also do a concurrent filing for I-765 EAD and I-131 advance parole in that same i-130/ I-485 package. There is no extra cost when filing at the EAD/AP combo card at the same time as when you file your I130/I485 combo card You will need the EAD/ AP combo card to continue working in the US and to travel in and out of the US while you wait for your I-485 to adjudicate