Vickys_Mom

It would not be a bad idea to give her a couple of the pay stubs for the new job especially if the amounts are larger. Embassies like to see you're doing better as you "add" to your family. Make sure the stubs have information in case they want to follow up with your new employer. (My pay stub includes my employer's address and phone number.) If you have some sort of job offer letter or contract, you could sent that too. If your income had decreased, then I'd be worried about the Affidavit. I'd leave it alone. Don't confuse the Embassy if you don't have to. If you haven't already, start thinking about health insurance for your mother in law. We had to go to the Marketplace since mine wasn't eligible for Medicare or Medicaid, and neither one of our employers recognize her as a dependent. That extra $1,000 per month is tough on a budget, though better than a sudden ER visit or hospital stay without it. Regards, Vicky's Mom

They print this out and take it with them. If an actual physically printed letter shows up between now and then, they don't need the email. It'd be nice if there was a mailed letter, but don't let them miss the appointment waiting for one. Not showing up for an appointment will shut the application down. Regards, Vicky's Mom

You're starting in a hole: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-7-part-b-chapter-7 A noncitizen admitted as a nonimmigrant without a visa under a Visa Waiver Program is barred from adjustment of status. But keep reading. I'm sure there are examples here of people who have worked around this. And you want to remember that "...we don't want to be separated again..." isn't a valid excuse to bypass the rules. There are a *lot* of people here who are separated from their loved ones. It's the mechanism in place. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Start it now. Get the clock going. She can be honest when she enters. She's here to see her husband, y'all have started the paperwork, it's an IR-1 so it will take a while to process, and she plans to return after her visit. Make sure she has her return paperwork. You guys are married. CBP knows that already from your past efforts. Any time she enters the U.S., CBP will assume she intends to stay. She'll have to convince them she won't. It sounds like she's been fine so far visiting while being married to you. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Mine was probably overkill, but you are correct. We got through it smoothly. If they had asked for anything, back to our marriage license, I had it. There's a theory of compliance with USCIS. They have all of that stuff online, and they don't need to see your printed copies, but bringing in a 2-inch binder all indexed and ready to go shows them that you 1) read the instructions and 2) actually care about what was said. You are correct. Once they see the compliance, it's all softball questions and let's-get-you-on-your-way. They got a lot of case files on their desk. Regards, Vicky's Mom

If you had it, attach it. I know you can get the I-94 records online, and perhaps look hers up and print it out since it'll have the dates she left and came back. It does not sound like her residency was affected. I'm at an extreme. By the time my wife did her N-400 I had a two-inch binder of evidence I brought with us to each appointment. No one needs 2 inches of evidence. I think they looked at our Vegas wedding pictures to make sure Elvis didn't do the ceremony. But we could have done the separate-interview-compare-the-notes (I can't remember what they call that) if we had to. We had practiced. Regards, Vicky's Mom

I can't answer the first part. I married my first wife in the U.S. in May of 2000. My divorce was finalized in the U.S. in March of 2004. (She was already back in Russia and to my knowledge never entered the country again.) Even though I sent them a copy, INS/CIS (that's how long ago this was) still sat on the form another four years before sending me a note that my application was cancelled because we were no longer married. I married my second wife in April of 2011. She got her naturalization in October of 2014. The only time my first wife came up during my second wife's paperwork was for me to prove that my marriage had been properly ended by divorce. I still had a copy of my first marriage license and I submitted both it and the divorce decree. If it was five days after you divorced the first wife, they might scrutinize it. It sounds like your first marriage was terminated properly and you're not just marrying people for green cards. I think you're okay. Again, I can't speak to the first part. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Yes to one, No to two. If the ticket was received and paid, she pled guilty to speeding. If she was never in custody, the second doesn't apply. A good rule of thumb...if she wore handcuffs, even briefly, she was detained and it will show up if someone looks at the report. A speeding ticket is generally not a criminal charge, it's a civil offense. If you pay it, you're done. Attach information about the traffic ticket. Prove it was paid. Consider pulling a driver's record proving it was paid (or at least no one has a bench warrant out for her arrest). $500 seems like a lot so make sure it doesn't include anything like reckless driving that *would* constitute a misdemeanor. I'm still not going to post the attorney's firm that did the research, but search "N-400 speeding ticket" and you'll find it. *Do Not* skip it. You've gotten this far, and you almost have the naturalization certificate in your hand. Don't drop the ball before you score. I have no advice about the child support question. Regards, Vicky's Mom

If it's a pure speeding ticket you should be able to answer that question "no". *Make sure* it was just a speeding ticket and that's how it was recorded. Your state should be able to provide a copy of your record including any traffic offenses. Either way you should report it. USCIS can pull your driving record. I searched "N-400 speeding ticket" and found a law firm that wrote an opinion that you should answer Yes to Part 9, Item Number 16, and disclose it there. If you do that, include all the documentation you have on the issue including proof that you paid the fine and that it's "resolved" as far as the police are concerned. Don't decide *not* to report it...it's a stupid reason to fail your N-400 interview. As long as there was no additional charge like "reckless driving", a speeding ticket is a civil offense and is not criminal. You "plead guilty" and you paid your fine. I won't link the law firm here, but you can find it yourself with a Google search. Regards, Vicky's Mom

My mother-in-law is from Indonesia. We submitted scans of her documents with the initial application, but when she went to her IR-5 interview in Jakarta last year they asked to see the originals of her birth certificate, the "name change" document that the government required back in the 1960s, and her marriage certificate with her husband (deceased 10 years). Her original documents are fragile and she's very careful with how she stores them. To my knowledge, there's no way to replace them. Regards, Vicky's Mom

You can declare the $2,000 as Other Income and pay taxes on it, assuming there are any. Note that it's not Other Earned Income, but the Other Income that appears on Schedule 1. I think $33,000 is still too close to $31,075 so you should still find a joint sponsor. Regards, Vicky's Mom

I couldn't find any parking instructions on the Consulate's web site, but another tenant in the building indicated there's a three-story parking garage right next to it. https://norriscenters.com/houston-westchase-map/ What it will cost, I do not know. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Choose the High school diploma, GED, or alternative credential. It's typically 12 years to finish high school in the U.S. The intent of the form is to determine your highest education level. If you tell them "Grades 1 through 11", they will be confused and think you did not graduate high school. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Everyone goes through Administrative Processing. I would think that them keeping your passport is a good sign. If they plan to reject your petition outright they wouldn't have held onto the passport. You must be patient. Administrative Processing can take days, weeks, months, or even years. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Under "A valid, unexpired Record of Arrival and Departure in a valid foreign passport (I-94 or I-94A)", it says "If the I-94 or I-94A is stamped “Refugee” an I-797 may be required. If you have a current I-797 for any I-94 status, you may want to show this to help simplify the process." https://dmv.nebraska.gov/sites/dmv.nebraska.gov/files/doc/dls/verificationdocs.pdf It doesn't say "shall" be required. It say "may" be required. My mother-in-law didn't have a printed I-94, but I can look up her entry and exit from the United States using the online system. You might do that, print the output, and take it with you. I'd take as much paperwork as you can. My experience with the State of Nebraska has been that immigration paperwork confuses them. Regards, Vicky's Mom

My mother-in-law did her IR-5 interview last year in Indonesia. She brought a photocopy of my wife's Indonesian birth certificate, a photocopy of my wife's U.S. naturalization certificate, and a photocopy of the picture page of my wife's U.S. passport. She did not have the originals since they were with us here in the United States. She had no issues with needing those originals. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Unless something in the Embassy documentation says otherwise, they will accept documents in English and whatever the official language is...in your case, Greek. And your birth certificate translation hasn't expired in a year. It's still good. Regards, Vicky's Mom

I'd bring printed copies of anything you submitted electronically. You won't be happy if you get to your interview, they can't find something you submitted, and you didn't bring the printed copy. Regards, Vicky's Mom

The IRS doesn't require the individual income tax returns for 2023 to be filed until (at the earliest) April 15th, 2024...several weeks after your N-400 appointment. Feel free to bring anything you want to provide for the 2023 tax year. If you have already done your taxes, bring copies of your return and supporting documents (W-2, 1099, etc.). If they ask about your 2023 return and you haven't done it yet, you can assure them that you plan to file on schedule. You can certainly look and see if the 2023 transcript is available, but do not count on it. (No one knows the IRS' schedule for such things.) You don't "order" a tax transcript. Once you've logged into the IRS web site, if a given year's transcript is available, you can click on it and download it immediately. For a data point, I filed our federal return earlier this week. The only 2023 transcript currently available to me on the IRS website is the Wage & Income Transcript. If I create it, it says "No return of record filed." It's too soon. Take 2018-2022 with you. You got this. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Appears to be Mumbai based on past postings. Regards, Vicky's Mom

As you already noted, on the paper form it says > If you answer "Yes" to any of these questions, include a typed or printed explanation on additional sheets of paper. That's not optional. So, yes. Based on what you've said, you should write an explanation and upload it as additional evidence. Regards, Vicky's Mom

My mother-in-law did her interview in Jakarta late last year. They did not *keep* her passport at the time of the interview. They wanted to do administrative processing first. When they were ready to issue her visa, they had us send them the passport through the courier service. The courier service included a "bill of lading" that specified what documents were being provided. The first thing was her passport. She had a copy of the courier document that showed where her passport was until she got it back with the visa in it. @Saihtiam why could you not use your Kartu Tanda Penduduk (KTP) for identification purposes while the embassy has your passport? Regards, Vicky's Mom

"You may assume that we have received as such you will not receive the same email once your petition arrives." There's a flaw in the English, editing perhaps, but otherwise...you won't get another email, this is the one you will get, you should take this as "...after you have received instructions via letter or email from the Immigrant Visa unit to do so." and continue to make the appointment. If I was the IV officer, I wouldn't have sent you that until your petition was in the office in Jo-Berg. But it is what it is. The beneficiary should absolutely print out the email from the IV and bring it with them. If your petition gets hung up somewhere along the way, the beneficiary shows up for an appointment and the interviewing officer says "you shouldn't have come before your petition arrives", the beneficiary shows them the email and say "you guys told us to do so". Hopefully it all goes smoothly, but expect delays, errors, and "oopsies" in this entire process. Regards, Vicky's Mom

As already noted the SS-5 doesn't have a marriage question on it at this time. DO NOT misstate/lie about your current marital status to any government official. (You don't have to volunteer everything you know, but if someone asks you a straight question give them an honest answer.) If the Social Security office asks if you are married, tell them you are. She doesn't have to put her married name on that card even if she is married. "We'd rather she have her maiden name on her Social Security card so that it matches the name on her passport." A misstatement in this case is such a small thing, and it will probably never come up later in your effort with USCIS. But if it does it destroys years of work, thousands of dollars, and potentially your relationship. Regards, Vicky's Mom

When she enters the United States, the Customs and Border Patrol person should ask her for her permanent address in the United States. If not, she should volunteer it. (Type it out on a piece of paper so you can just hand it to them.) They will update the online files with the address and that's where the card will be sent. And don't forget to pay the $220 fee. The card won't be sent until you do. Regards, Vicky's Mom