Demise

No, USCIS has no rule for that case, to the point that even a citizen who got their citizenship via marriage and divorced isn't subject to the 5 year rule. INA 204(a)(2)(A), though that is only for LPRs who got their green card via marriage, there's a few ways to go around it: 1. Establish by clear and convincing evidence that that prior marriage was not entered with the purpose of evading immigration laws. 2. Prior spouse died. 3. Naturalize. 4. Wait out the 5 years.

Been seeing those a lot with DACA applications. My guess is that they have to do something with an application they took out of a queue to put it back and updated name/address is the least intrusive of the options given if confusing to the applicant.

There is, the issue is that it's via military service, though it also bypasses removal of conditions (or even the need to be an LPR, though enlistment like that is only possible via MAVNI).

Most concerning thing a doctor can say during a colonoscopy is "look, no hands".

Has the father in law served in the military or otherwise worked for the US government or some kind of an international organization (NATO, WHO, etc) while your husband was a minor? Your husband definitely doesn't have the required physical presence in US to pass citizenship onto the kids (at least 5 years, at least 2 after turning 14). This is an unlikely scenario so you might most likely have to do the N-600k and travel to US is mandatory in that case.

For sponsoring you need proof of citizenship or permanent residency. Green card is it. After you naturalize it'll be your naturalization certificate or a US passport. Birth certificate is not required from the sponsor unless it's used to establish relationship (i.e. you are sponsoring a parent or a sibling). That being said, F2A (spouses of permanent residents) can't adjust after entry on ESTA/VWP. You'd need to naturalize first before she'd be eligible to adjust. I also don't recommend entering with the intent to adjust (as that's immigration fraud) or overstaying (as that's another issue runs awry of the law and this site's TOS). Get married, file I-130 for her, when you naturalize let the service center know to upgrade her to IR and have her do consular interview for an immigrant visa. Don't try to be more clever than you are, thousands before you got burnt like this and thousands after you will as well.

USCIS is prohibited by law to take anything you say into account. You can spend the stamp and have them toss it into the trash can for you.

Adobe Reader is free.

Download most recent version of adobe reader. Install it. Download the pdf and open it in adobe reader. Some of these forms are a bit messed up and won't let you fill out a given field, where you've got two options: pen it in, or break the security on it. Breaking security is a bit legally gray but you won't be using the form for anything it wasn't meant for so nobody would care.

@Karman Do you need a prima facie determination in the first place? Like are you using that stuff for college financial aid or can't file I-485 right now and have to rely on deferred action for an EAD (C14)? If not then I wouldn't stress over that. If yes, message your senator or congressman and have them poke USCIS on your behalf.

Biggest problem with her seeking it in Georgia is lack of personal jurisdiction over the father. While the Uniform Child Support laws mandate enforcement, the biggest issue is whether the court is legally allowed to order the defendant to do anything. There is a list of rules for personal jurisdiction (live in that state, get personally served while in the state, lived with the child in that state, provided pre-natal expenses while in that state, voluntarily allowed the case to proceed, and some others). It's similar to alimony, any court can grant divorce, but you need personal jurisdiction over the defendant to get money out of them. So if served for a lawsuit in Georgia it'll likely be up to the father whether to proceed and accept jurisdiction or motion to dismiss. https://www.lsnjlaw.org/legal-topics/family-relationships/child-support/general-information/pages/child-support-issues-for-parents-living-in-different-states-aspx

Finally some good news: Today, 50 days after they got my I-485, I finally got a notification that they charged my credit card. Now just begins the long wait to get my I-485 approved, but hey, never thought I'd make it here.

No, that's not a visa violation. You did everything right, left the country and dropped out. You never fell out of status or anything. As an aside that's not relevant to your case, even if you were to overstay, drop out, or otherwise violate your F-1 by for example working, it still wouldn't be a factor. F-1s are weird when it comes to calculating unlawful presence for re-entry bars and for the most part it that doesn't kick in until you get ordered removed or apply for something with USCIS and get denied. We've had a few people here who overstayed by years and left to do consular processing for an immigrant visa, or overstayed, did I-485, were denied, left within 180 days of the denial, and could do consular just fine.

My point was more that people get too hung up on CRBA when it is not the be-all-end-all document for children born abroad, nor does the proof have to be obtained before turning 18, only the legitimization needs to happen before then. Still, you're right, baby mama can't make the kid a US Citizen without cooperation from the father. I even went digging into the USCIS policy manual and DOS foreign affairs manual, and conferring citizenship onto a foreign out of wedlock child requires US Father to agree to financially support said child. Now we can argue that agreement means, out of court settlement would likely tick that box, being outright ordered to pay would not. You want my take on it all? Get the matters of custody and child support get sorted by a court. Give the mother the stuff to get the kid their citizenship or get the kid a US passport while they're in US. No point in punishing the kid due to mother being a dumbo. I definitely do agree that she's asking for King's Ransom there, child support payment of $1500 would require one to be making over $150k a year, and I think that's the only thing worth fighting against.

This one is just out right hilarious because it looks like they moved VAWA over to Nebraska in order to exactly that, now it turns out that Nebraska can't handle it. Doubly stupid because in a case like mine with an approved I-360 all they need to do is process the payment and pass it onward to the NBC. Yeah I'll wait and then keep harassing them. Bit annoying that I can't get an answer if they even got my mail or not. Definite yes would be wait, definite no would be refile, but this is just wait and hope they get their affairs in order.

Yeah, that is literally the "We received it" status for I-360. If they'd RFE you it'd say that they RFE'd you. If they'd approve it, it'd say that they mailed you the card. Anyways, looks like it's still a ways away before when you can inquire what's the hold up. The humanitarian section of USCIS kinda sucks:

The only thing missing for the kid to become a US Citizen is some kind of acknowledgement of paternity and the father voluntarily agreeing to financially support the kid (whether he actually does or not). Getting a CRBA makes everything easier but isn't a must and there's other ways to get documentary proof (apply for a US passport or file N-600) but the support requirement can't be bypassed (aside death) or coerced. Still, Colombia isn't the right venue for child support here. US doesn't have reciprocity with it and a court in Colombia has no personal jurisdiction over a US Citizen living in US. Similarly a court in Georgia would lack personal jurisdiction over the father unless he has significant ties to Georgia, so only court that could order child support would be one in the state where he lives. The others could really only resolve the matters of custody and that's about that. Then finally, if there is a dispute regarding custody matters that's a whole another can of worms that would need a good international family lawyer. So it all really depends on what OP's friend wants. Does he want the kid? If not then do nothing. If yes then wait until he gets sued in a US court and counter-sue for custody. He could likely also sue in Colombia but I feel like courts there probably wouldn't be too keen on giving the kid to a foreigner.

Yeah this is pretty much the only reason why I'm just still anxiously waiting. Someone else mentioned it takes them like 6-8 weeks to issue a receipt notice which is completely ridiculous.

Why does he need a re-entry permit? That's a document to take a trip that's between 1 and 2 years long without abandoning your permanent residency. If he needs to travel in the meantime he'd file I-131 but for advance parole, not a re-entry permit.

Yeah I'm sure, I have email and text alerts set up for declined/blocked transactions and they should appear in the logs too. Moreover, USCIS does a tiny amount of processing on a rejected application since they will give you a rejection notice with a number on it (not sure if it's a receipt number or some other internal control number). The fact that it just went fully poof after USPS delivered it to their PO Box makes me suspect that that it's just laying somewhere on some stack somewhere. Online filing for I-485s can't come fast enough. Have to do something extraordinary to lose a digital application but I'm sure they'd still manage.

Credit card, I've been looking at my statements daily to see if they finally charged it. So right now I'm just wondering if I should wait, or if I should just refile, the issue is that I don't want to get double charged because you know, $1225 is a decent chunk of money.

I-824 to pass the case to DOS so your kid can follow to join. Include the following: Copy of Birth certificate of the kid with translation if not in English Copy of your green card Copy of your kid's passport (if available) Copy of I-360 approval notice Then it's going to be a DS-260, I-864W, and whatever form they do their medicals on. Filing I-824 satisfies the "sought to acquire" requirement in CSPA, so as long as they don't marry they should be able to tag along as an IB2 without issue.

Welp. I'm kinda at a loss here. I followed up with my senator to see what the hell is going on with my I-485. Got a response that "we have no record of a receipt being issued, I'll tell the mailroom to try to look for it, check back in 60 days".

Well here's the thing, if you were petitioned on I-130, the death would automatically turn that into a widow I-360 and USCIS would at most want an I-864W from you. But since you were petitioned as a fiance (i.e. on an I-129F) there's no real procedure for turning an I-129F into an I-360. Yes, K-1/2 visas are weird. So you've got two options: 1. Find someone else to sign an I-864 for you, that can be any US Citizen or Permanent Resident over the age of 18 who makes enough to be at or above 125% of US Poverty Line. Got an uncle, friend, friend/relative of your late spouse, anyone? Ask them, worst they'll do is say no. 2. File I-360 as a widow, include a copy of your marriage certificate, proof of your late spouse's citizenship, and proof of death. Then once you get the I-360 receipt notice, write to the service center that has your I-485 asking to transfer the underlying basis for adjustment from I-129F to I-360 and include copy of the I-360 receipt notice and form I-864W. If you have an interview coming up, go there, and give it those to them in person. If you don't have it yet, ask them to hold it for 30 days so you can get these. For those that need it: Transfer of Underlying Basis Since you're looking to switch from one category where any overstay issues aren't a factor to another, and both the I-129F and I-360 originate from the same person that got you the K-1 there'd be no issues with switching it over, provided it doesn't get denied by then.

I would wait until October before panicking to see what the bulletin does for real. I can definitely imagine scenarios where USCIS and DOS issued too many in one go (keep in mind that we're still working through the bottleneck from the pandemic) and had to retrogress to stay under the statutory cap.