beloved_dingo

From USCIS: Applicants are required to show that they were: Physically present in the U.S. for thirty months within the five year period before applying, Physically present in the U.S. for eighteen months within the three year period before applying in the case of qualified spouses of U.S. citizens https://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/continuous-residence-and-physical-presence-requirements-for-naturalization

I thought "consummating the marriage" for USCIS purposes is simply "being together in person after marriage". Wouldn't a normal visit in prison qualify? There's no requirement to be alone, spend the night together, etc.

Yes, they are being sent to everyone with a pending I-751. And yes, it is new.

I wouldn't say any of the service centers are "fast" for I-751, but considering we've seen some weird things already with filers that have the IOE receipt number, there's no way to know whether you'll get lucky or not. Processing time for Vermont currently shows "80% of cases completed within 20.5 months". YMMV.

Wonderful! Congrats!!!

The credit card debate has gone on for years. It's up to each individual to decide what is best for them and how risk-averse they are. Personally, I don't think what type of card you have factors in whatsoever. There are internal factors that flag charges as potentially fraudulent and those factors aren't going magically not exist just because you pay an annual fee. After all, we're all quite happy when these systems catch charges that are actually fraudulent. But every once in a blue moon a charge could get flagged even though it is legitimate. Personally, I think these random instances of USCIS charges being flagged as fraudulent could possibly be because the spending doesn't match the cardholder's habits. A $600+ charge is somewhat large, and if you've never purchased anything close to that amount before I could see why it could be caught as unusual activity. We've used credit cards for all USCIS payments (K1, AOS, I-751, N-400) and never had an issue but that doesn't mean someone else won't.

Just FYI for a divorce waiver you do NOT have to wait for the normal ROC window to open to file. You can file as soon as you have the divorce decree in hand. Of course, you also need to make sure you have as much evidence as possible. A few comments/questions: Have you actually talked to your former spouse about providing documents she may have on hand that could be used as evidence of a bona fide marriage, or are you just assuming she won't give you those documents? See if she will be cooperative. @JeanneAdil is right about the tax transcripts. Go to the IRS website and download them yourself. USCIS prefers the transcripts anyway. Pictures are good secondary evidence. I think the best ones are those that include other people (especially family). As someone else mentioned, see if you can get bank statements from the former joint account by going to a bank branch in person. Were you one each other's health insurance? If so, see if you can get proof from your employer and/or directly from the insurance company Any joint property or loans? Cars, a home, etc.? If so, do you have access to any of those accounts and/or paperwork If you rented together, you should be able to get copies of the leases directly from your landlord. Normally affidavits are weak evidence, but in divorce waiver cases I think it's good to include 2-3. Even better if you can get an affidavit from your wife or someone in your wife's family, but friends or your family work too. Check into any and all bills, memberships, etc. that you may have shared to see if there is any documentation of those belonging to both of you. Phone bills, utilities, vet bills, Costco, Amazon, whatever you can think of. Proof of trips you took together - hotel/airbnb receipts, flights, photos that corroborate the trip etc.

They haven't been approved that fast in a very, very long time. We did K-1 in 2018 and it still took 6 months from NOA1 to NOA2. Based on VJ stats, the average amount of days from NOA1 to NOA2 currently is 359 days. And that's not counting the rest of the process that occurs after getting the NOA2.

I don't think filing N-400 has any affect on the 48 month extension letters. I think they are just sent out in batches, and we don't know what determines the order they are sending them out in. For all we know it could be alphabetical, numerical (by A-number), or completely random which tracks with how USCIS seems to operate.

People aren't upset at the mention of a lawyer. It's just that hiring a lawyer regarding a B2 is pointless. Your boyfriend has to apply on his own merits, and there is literally nothing you can do to help his odds of approval. A lawyer would gladly take your money but they will be of no help in this situation. Does your boyfriend have ANY strong ties to his home country? His odds of getting approved are already extremely low. Without any significant ties to his country, his odds are likely 0.

SRC filer here, Nov. 2021. We received the 48 month extension 2 weeks ago.

The ADIT stamp has nothing to do with AOS. @top_secret We have seen reports of this already occurring. See these threads:

1. Absolutely incorrect. That lawyer is wrong and you should disregard what they said. There is no value in waiting to file the paperwork! All you do is lose time on an already lengthy process. 2. How long she has been here is literally irrelevant. And she's already been here 5 months anyway. It is better to file while she is still "in status" though. FILE ASAP AFTER MARRIAGE - that is the only thing you should be listening to as far as timing. 3. It is counted as filed when it is received. Sometimes the date on the receipt notice may be a day or two after it was delivered. Send it with whatever fast, tracked shipping option you are most comfortable with. The receipt notice for the I-485 grants her "authorized stay" while it is pending. Another thing relative to several of your posts: USCIS doesn't expect newlyweds to have a bunch of evidence of marriage. Having the marriage certificate, photos/proof of the wedding/ceremony, etc. are what is expected. There are a few things you may be able to do very quickly though, to bolster or "front load" your petition: Add her as an authorized user on a credit card or two. Send the confirmation/print out showing that she is now an AU. See if you can get your employer to add her to your work health insurance ASAP. They do not need an SSN but some employers push back on that. Add her to you bank account and ask the bank to print out a letter confirming the joint account status + the date she was added. Then, once you get an AOS interview, you bring ALL OTHER EVIDENCE of marriage that you have accumulated since you filed. You should have quite a lot more after a year+ of marriage than when you've only been married a week.

1. Either update the incorrect driver's license so they can be included, or don't include them at all (we didn't send copies of our licenses). But you definitely don't want to send them when they are mismatched. 2. I would include quarterly statements from the 2019 bank account from date of marriage, and send the 2023 statements for the new joint account. You can include a brief statement explaining the situation, if you wish. (As a side note, if your joint accounts don't show both names, you can get a letter from the bank confirming joint account status to include with the statements) 3. If you have bills in different names, that still helps. For example, if the power bill is in your name but water bill is in her name, they still establish that you are both living there so it's worth sending some of those bills. 4. We included some evidence from the date of marriage but tried to not overlap too much with what was in the AOS package. So I'd say our evidence was 80% post-AOS evidence, but 20% was from "date of marriage". Also personally, I am pro-cover letter, but think it is best to keep it short and to the point (fit on one page and basically just be a table of contents). Also agree about leaving out language referring to waiving the interview.

A couple of people in the same boat here: Likely you will get the NOA in a few days, but its not unusual to take 2-3 weeks.

1) Many divorce attorneys offer free consultations, and even paid consultations are usually not very costly ($200 or less). It can be helpful to meet with an attorney just to get an hour+ of cheap or free advice. 2) Some family law attorneys do pro bono work or will take on a client at a reduced rate, in cases like yours 3) Look into local legal aid attorneys, who are often cheaper or offer pro bono assistance for low-income clients (https://guides.sll.texas.gov/legal-assistance-organizations/general-legal-assistance might be a good starting point)

Honestly you can expect quicker than 11 months, period. Many people have been getting interviews within 90 days of filing N-400. USCIS seems to be prioritizing citizenship applications. I don't have any specific knowledge of how 319b affects the timeline, but I doubt it would make it slower.

The CC charge usually goes through between 3-10 days. NOA usually arrives in 1-3 weeks. Of course can be longer but that's not what I'd consider normal.

What does the tracking info say and when was it delivered?

Depends on what you mean by "if you don't hear anything". If you go 2 months without even receiving the extension letter, then you need to reach out to see if you can get your receipt/extension. However if you're referring to receiving an approval/interview/RFE, there's no point in inquiring until you are outside of normal processing times. For many service centers this is 18-24 months.

Personally, I wouldn't risk it just to save ~2 months. Even if you have people comment here that they interviewed in Seattle, had recently moved states, and had no issue passing the N-400, that doesn't mean you would have the same experience.

Wow people age! What a shocker! "I wish we could be how we were before life weathered us." Pointless way of thinking and better to think of "weathering together" as a good thing, rather than bad.

You say that you are "planning to resign from my job to start another job a 2 weeks later". Is the new job set in stone? As in, you have accepted an offer and have a start date, etc.? There's definitely a difference between "planning" to do something and actually doing something. Lying (even by omission) is a non-starter with immigration. You are betting that a) you and/or your fiancé won't be asked directly about your current work situation, b) that if you are asked, that a lie will go unnoticed, and/or c) that the IO won't pick up on any negative body language from you/your fiancé about the work situation. For example, if the IO asked your fiancé "Where does Doggy_11 work?", how do you think she will respond? This is a pretty standard question too btw, because they ask questions to make sure the fiancé knows the basic information any fiancé would about a future spouse. Are you going to coach her to lie in response to this question? I'm not sure about how difficult the consulates are in India. For some (easy) consulates, I would say having proof of your new upcoming employment could be sufficient (on letterhead, showing salary and start date). But many places that simply will not fly.

You can travel without issue as long as you aren't planning to be out of the country for months on end. I think that is the issue you're getting confused with here. From USCIS: Applicants are required to show that they have: Resided continuously in the U.S. for three years in the case of qualified spouses of U.S. citizens. “Continuous residence” means that the applicant has maintained residence within the United States for the required period of time shown above. Extended absences outside of the U.S. may disrupt an applicant’s continuous residence. Absences of more than six months but less than one year may disrupt an applicant’s continuous residence unless the applicant can prove otherwise. Additionally, there's "physical presence": Applicants are required to show that they were: Physically present in the U.S. for eighteen months within the three year period before applying in the case of qualified spouses of U.S. citizens. As long as your travel does not cause issues with either of these requirements, you're golden.

We took a page out of @Crazy Cat's book and added a letter in the evidence section of the N-400 specifically requesting a combo interview. Here's a template of what we used: [NAME] [ADDRESS] [ADDRESS] [DATE] US Citizenship & Immigration Services P.O. Box 25920 Overland, KS 66225 RE: Notice of Pending I-751 & Request for Combo Interview Dear USCIS Officer: This letter is to provide notice that I currently have a pending I-751 Petition for Removal of Conditions, which was accepted on or about [DATE] with the receipt number SRC##########. Please consider this notice as an official request for a combination I-751/N-400 interview (or waiver of the I-751 interview, if applicable) if the I-751 is still pending at the time my Application for Naturalization is adjudicated and processed. Thank you, [NAME] Edit: Just to clarify - we did not mail this, it was uploaded as a pdf with the online N-400 application.