mam521

Far East Asia...it's kind of all over I think. Kuala Lumpur in rush hour was...special. Interestingly, Paris, when the police suddenly shut everything down in a blink of an eye and you're in an uber - not much different! The instantaneousness of the gridlock was impressive as much as it was infuriating. How many arks are we up to because it's getting a bit ridiculous! Had a friend arrive into town yesterday just before the rounds started. Warned him when he was working on his pretrip packing to pack an umbrella! Currently looking at skies that are clouding over...weather app says 100% chance of rain in about 2 hours 👎

Your Indian sibling has probably 20 years until a visa would become available, so after you spouse's citizenship is obtained, file for the sibling, keep calm and carry on. Working while on a correct visa should continue to be fine. If they do decide they want to move to the US more quickly, that L work visa, being dual intent, and with their employer sponsorship, will be a much shorter timeline.

If you'd fill out your timeline, it would be helpful to the rest of the community here: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=489507 As @MalloryCat said, over the phone is extremely rare and not the norm. For now, leave it blank. In this instance, it's better to get the paperwork filed. The SSN is really more important for getting a bank account and doing income taxes.

🙂 So then my next question is, why do a K1? You guys could do a spousal visa, which would mean your partner enters the US with a greencard in hand, ready to work, play and enjoy life with you? You guys could either meet somewhere and get married or do an online Utah marriage and then meet somewhere and file (requirement is to meet in person after the online). It saves adjusting status, filing for a work permit and travel permit on top of the green card. Just food for thought!

Are you willing to toss away $625? If it's not a big deal, you could gamble. I just tend to agree with the others that the likelihood of it being approved in time is low.

I'm chuckling...where was your tax transcript that you'd have needed for the I-864? Credit though - you gotta do what you gotta do! @VNMH I believe PA has a 3 day waiting period after you apply for your official marriage license that you have to wait before you can actually get married. It's definitely worth it to look into.

Quick one: have you actually met your fiance in person?

I would wait the extra couple of weeks. Honestly, it's so not worth the headache when you're THAT CLOSE to your 2 year anniversary. Believe me, I get it. I had to pack up my kids and move out of the States (I met my husband when I was on a work visa), leaving our family home, the kids' schools, my "regular" job, still paying a mortgage back in the US and looking after rent and bills in Canada for 18 months. Hubs and I had discussed and decided anything within a 3 month window of our 2 year anniversary - we'd wait. Happy we did, even though we had to move in the middle of covid when the border was technically closed and school, work, logistics were all a giant cluster of uncertainty.

We got married March 31, 2018. We had an interview March 9, 2020. We waited until April 1, 2020 to enter the US after heeding warnings from people here. Best thing we could have ever done. We didn't have to remove conditions, we didn't have to request joint ROC & naturalization interviews, no carrying around extension letters, no ridiculous, inflated fees...none of it. With the current state of affairs, a couple of extra weeks to have that permanent, 10 year card is worth it. Considering how long the process has taken, what's another couple of weeks? Marriage is supposed to be forever. This is just a blip in that timeline.

Good lord...Monstersaurus has the zoomies something fierce...mini elephant doing burnouts upstairs. Just heard a crash and went to investigate. One of Kid1's Lego Botanicals projects has been relocated. This cat really needs some cat furniture besides a simple cat tree!

Sorry, one other question - appointment or walk in?

Absolutely this. Texas DPS will absolutely do a SAVE verification and ask you for EVERYTHING. I got screwed over during covid because our vehicle insurance cards didn't list both of our names on them (they were separate cards..I don't get it). Anyway, the DPS agent was unwilling to even look in the system to see that I was a named person on the insurance and sent me away. I was so defeated but there was a really nice State Trooper standing outside who told me not to worry about it - yeah, I was supposed to change it within the 90 days but considering the circumstances, it would be ok since I still had a valid driver's license from Alberta. A few weeks later, I managed to get an appointment at the Spring Supercenter and the lady helping me was really great. She shook her head in disbelief when I told what happened in Conroe. She got into the system, fixed some issue in my file and got me sorted. I was issued an 8 year license. @Crazy Cat how did you guys let them know when your wife got her citizenship? I have updated with the SSA but I haven't even given it a second thought for my license!

The only consulate in Canada that does immigrant visas is in Montreal. The Montreal consulate is a challenging consulate and irrespective of DCF, are likely going to require proof of domicile. Having an address only is unlikely to cut it. I'd also get those taxes filed because just because the kids' cases may be exempt from the I-864, it certainly doesn't mean the Consulate won't ask for it. You really, really don't want an RFE from Montreal because it will take forever. Yes, Dr. Cheema is in Vancouver and does immigration medicals.

As @OldUser pointed out, each case is unique. Every person who gets a verbal approval still has to go through AP (administrative processing) where further checks are done. If your record is squeaky clean and your name is not common, it's typically pretty quick. If you have lived many places, have multiple citizenships or permanent residencies, if you have a common name...all takes longer. This is precisely why the DoS advises one NOT to make travel plans until the passport with visa is in hand.

You are married to an American and have a greencard. Nothing to worry about. Also remember, there's 3 sides to every story and pretty much every one that hits a headline leaves out some important information, when you dig into them further. That news article about the Canuck - yep, she'd been POE shopping and had been told by a CBP officer to go through consular processing. Furthermore, she been advised by her legal counsel to listen to CBP and not attempt to go to Mexico. She didn't listen...play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Go and enjoy Japan! It's an amazing country! Tokyo's Shibuya crossing was straight out of Lost in Translation. We also explored in Kyoto and I dragged my travel partners to the primary Ippodo Tea house. We definitely plan to go back and explore further

There's only one facility in Kentucky that is printing greencards. Remember, it's not just new greencards that require printing - all the renewals (2yr ROC's and 10yr renewals) plus whatever lost cards, in error cards, etc come from that facility.

The biometrics appointments take about 5 minutes, if your fingerprints cooperate. They retake fingerprints and take your photo. That's it. Mine took about 10 minutes when I did it because I had 2 fingers that didn't want to reveal their identity and scan nicely.

As @Crazy Cat said, get prepared. Make sure you take your spouse with you to the interview. I suggest the US Citizenship Test 2025 app to cover off the N-400 knowledge requirement.

In addition to the marriage certificate, has your wife updated her information with the SSA to reflect her new last name?

You can always try Ask Emma too. If you do call, you may have to escalate from a Tier 1 agent to a Tier 2 agent. Good Luck!

I submitted through my myUSCIS account. I sent an inquiry, creating an auditable communication chain there. They essentially have until midnight to still say it was the 27th, so just keep that in mind. And they do sometimes wait until the 11th hour to move on something, so don't be shocked.

Saw this and thought you may want to consider adding it to the ever so lucrative POTS ventures... Kid2 was grossed out by the accidental purchase of Dr. Pepper Zero. Yeah, hard pass he says. Don't blame him. I can't stand Coke Zero myself, so I pretty much attribute all of the "Zero" beverages to be a hard pass. I was chuckling at the cotton ball comment 😄

I'm with you on that. It's about as clear as light reflections on vanta black paint. 🤷‍♀️

The petitions aren't linked. The only time they are linked is when a child is a derivative on a fiancé or family preference case. Now that both mom and daughter have CR-1 and CR-2 greencards, respectively, the cases are managed individually. The wife's naturalization case is hers and hers alone. It's confusing because the child automatically obtains derivative citizenship, irrespective of a case being filed. Filing the N-600 isn't actually a request to obtain citizenship; it's a request for a certificate of proof of citizenship. The daughter is a citizen as soon as mom naturalizes, as long as the daughter is younger than 18 years old at the time of mom's naturalization. Again, it's one of these weird and wonderfully confusing nuances of USCIS. Based on the following, I'd wager a guess that once mom naturalizes, daughter can get her US passport and her N-600 and not waste the money on ROC, especially considering how expensive the N-600 is. https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-12-part-h-chapter-4 If curiosity prevails, chuck it at Hacking's show and see what he has to say.

I'm not an ice in beverages fan. My kids are. Ice is good for pina coladas and margaritas...I don't like it in regular beverages or water. I have a smashed front tooth from playing lacrosse years ago so it's sensitive to cold. Ice is such a North American thing! You can probably guess the brand of junk refrigerator we have. Korean brand. Absolute favorite of @Ontarkie (yes, insert dripping sarcasm! 🤭). We use a high volume of filtered water because Texas...kids, pets, lots of filtered water. I used to have a water cooler in Canada that took the big 5gal bottles, which was great, but everything eventually wears out and it took up space. We're going to go out later and take a peruse at what's available. Very likely to be the well regarded Bosch 800 series since it's a dual compressor model that is $500 off for Memorial Day sales. I'm just annoyed because I recently purchased a new, overhead garage door as a "big ticket home improvement" item, not anticipating having to consider whether I want to be continually inconvenienced or just replace the misbehaving refrigerator. Definite first world problems, I know. BTW, your kitten is beautiful! 😍