FeelingYoung66

Filed our N-400 online on July 31, 2024. The usual receipt acknowledgment and biometrics reuse letters were immediate. Like many others we were a bit lazy about filing as we could have done so as early as June 24th (GC anniversary date) or even up to 90 days earlier than that I suppose. The initial time estimate given was 7 months but dropped to 6 the next day. Our field office is Dallas which from all evidence is perhaps the busiest one in the country, so 6 months is probably about right. We envy those who are getting interviews much sooner than that. Btw.. I am a naturalized citizen myself and still remember my citizenship "interview" in downtown Dallas in February 1978. It was at about 3:00pm on a cold Friday afternoon in an old decrepit government building and it seemed like the interviewer and I were just about the only ones there. He looked like he had been doing this for a long time and was nearing retirement. His questions about government were basic at first but got progressively more difficult. Since I had lived in and was educated in the US from an early age, I was pretty much acing the test. He got a little frustrated that he couldn't stump me and finally asked me to name as many members of Jimmy Carter's cabinet as I could. (Carter was president at the time.) After I had named five or six of them he finally waved his arms and asked me to stop. He then chuckled and started signing things in front of him on his desk. Then he suddenly looked up at me and said "Son, you're more American than most American's!" We laughed (mine was more a sigh of relief) and I took the oath of allegiance the next month. I'm 70 years old now and that interview has always been a favorite memory of mine. I will be so proud of my K-1 wife (from Canada) when she gets to vote for the first time in an American election.

I used FedEx 2nd day air for our I-751. They delivered it in Tempe the next morning, a full day early. Hard to complain about that.

Even before sending the 751 to Phoenix I wondered if that might be the case. But is this an educated guess on your part or do you know this for certain.

Return transcripts and a copy of the front and back of the 1040 for that year.

I forgot to mention that we also included the usual miscellaneous items like copies of driver's licenses and W-2's from work that show us both living (headquartered?) at the same address. A nicely written cover letter was included as well.

Sure. 1) Three years of Federal Tax transcripts - Married filing jointly 2) A six-month apartment lease in both names. 3) My wife's car lease that I co-signed. (A BMW. I spoil her.) 4) Auto insurance policy in both names. 5) Homeowner's insurance policy in both names. 6) Three credit card statements showing joint use of one credit card account. One monthly statement chosen from each year, 2020,2021,2022. 7) Four well-written affidavit letters from friends and relatives. 8) Several photos of my wife and I traveling together and at a family get-together. Of note is that my wife and I do not have any joint bank, credit union, or investment accounts, so no evidence was included that we did.

In my opinion completely not necessary. Our I-751 submission was this month (May 2023) and was less than 100 pages. The 48-month extension and waived biometrics letters were received less than two weeks later.

Yes. Probably in today's mail. A fatter envelope than the other two.

Relax, nothing out of the ordinary here. According to your timeline you filed on May 8th, so it's only been just over a week. You'll probably get some mail around the 20th - 23rd.

We received our I-797 NOA (48-month extension) in today's mail. A separate mailing also arrived with the notification that the biometrics are to be re-used, and a third envelope with the online access code. We never did receive a text message, but that was no biggie since this whole thing from start to finish took less than two weeks. Some comments. 1) Our I-751 submission was well under a hundred pages long, and that included 4 sworn affidavits and several pages of photos. 2) The only financial ties evidence presented were three consecutive years of Federal tax returns (Married filing jointly), one joint car lease, and one shared credit card. That was it. 2) We saved $2,500 by doing this ourselves. The immigration attorney we used for the original K-1 Visa and the AOS wanted that sum to fill-out the I-751 and send it in with all the evidence paperwork that we would have had to supply her with anyway. I'm not saying that using an attorney is a bad idea, but if you're reasonably diligent and have the time you can easily do this yourself and save a wad of money.

Does anyone have any guesses as to why some petitioners get a text message at this stage and some don"t?

Regardless of opinions as to their worth, at the present time the official I-751 instructions say you should include at least two affidavits. I included four.

No. Location means Arizona or Illinois. Simple. Where did I say there was a choice?

May I humbly suggest that everyone be specific about which location they are sending their I-751 to. Most don't mention it, and I think it would help in determining if one location is any faster (or slower) than another. Thanks.

My wife and I FedEx'd our joint I-751 to the Tempe AZ address today (05-02). In the end we were a little light on financial ties, but fairly strong otherwise. Feeling pretty good about it overall.

Proof? On that subject, what really is proof? In my view, a downloaded page from a financial company's website that you print from your printer doesn't mean much. Beneficiaries can be changed or even omitted entirely with a few clicks of a mouse just seconds after you print the page.

Health insurance. No common ground. I'm Medicare. My wife's health insurance is from her workplace. Will. I have none at this time. TOD's only. Living wills. I know, I know. Gotta get these done. My bad that we don't already have them in place. Won't be able to accomplish this before sending in the I-751 this coming week.

Yes, Fido's CMA. Since 1981. They also offer a TOD (Transfer-on-death) feature that completely avoids probate. Yes, my wife is the beneficiary.

Simple really. We each have our own investment account with Fidelity from which we pay our bills. Utilities, mortgage, car leases, even taxes. There is never a paper check of any kind.

My wife and I will be filing our joint I-751 this coming week. For whatever reason, our financial ties evidence isn't as strong as some would suggest that it be. For instance, the house is in my name only, and we don't have a joint bank account or investment account. But there is at least some reason for this. When we bought our house in November 2020, she did not yet have a SSN due to the Covid shutdown of the SSA that year. So.. with my wife having no SSN or credit history in the U.S., I had to apply for the mortgage loan singly. Somehow that ended up with the house deed being in my name only. Admittedly, we could have changed that by now, but I just never got around to it. When she did finally get her SSN she opened her own investment account. She works as a Registered Nurse. Neither of us even has a bank account because we don't really need one. The evidence for our financial ties is as follows. 1) IRS tax transcripts. Three years (2020-2022) of Married filing jointly. 2) The joint lease of an automobile dated October 2022. 3) She is the beneficiary of my life-insurance policy from work. 4) Her name has always been included on our shared Automobile insurance and homeowners' insurance. 5) Monthly statements from one shared credit card that is frequently used by us both. It would seem to me that this would be enough financial tie evidence to establish that my wife and I have a strong committed relationship and marriage. Thoughtful opinions on this?

My K-1 spouse and I are finalizing our I-751 submission and will hopefully mail it tomorrow. We had used the services of a professional immigration lawyer for the original K-1 process with mixed results. It was surprising how many things were overlooked by them. In any case, we're doing the I-751 ourselves and saving the $2,500 fee the lawyer wanted for it. Before sending things in tomorrow I just wanted to ask my fellow Visa Journey members a couple of questions that should be (hopefully) easy to answer. 1) Just to be sure.. the "Petitioner" on the I-751 form is the K-1 immigrant fiancée.. correct? Not me, the U.S. citizen. This is (I believe) a reversal of how things were on the K-1. 2) The I-751 filing fee is $595.00 and the Biometric fee is $85.00. My question is.. are they both to be sent in at this time with the I-751 submission?.. or just the $595 filing fee only. And if the answer is that both are sent now, should it be separate checks or just one check for $680.00. Thanks in advance for all replies. JM