Vickys_Mom

I am not an attorney or a financial advisor. https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-407instr.pdf > Include all Permanent Resident Cards, reentry permits, and/ or refugee travel documents in your possession when submitting your Form I-407. If you give them your PR card, you won't have anything on you to prove your status here in the United States. That seems like a Bad Idea. You do that, something happens before you leave, and you have no easy way to prove you're here legally. You might very well be legal, but why take a chance? > Form I-407 is used by lawful permanent residents who are outside the United States or at a Port of Entry who want to abandon their LPR status. That suggests you wouldn't file it while still here in the United States. As an alternative: > You may also submit Form I-407 to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer at a U.S. port of entry. I have no idea what the practicality is of handing it to them on the way out of the country. (The stories I hear on this board are from people who are trying to enter the U.S. with an out-of-status PR card.) I'd argue that if you submitted the form, your PR card, and anything else "in your possession" as soon as practical *after* you left the United States, you are legal for whatever reasons you need to be. I might try the port of "entry" that you're departing from just because they'd know what an I-407 is and what to do with it. Keep copies of everything just in case. Stuff gets lost. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Brand new user. @vladar Which embassy are you going through? That can help in determining how long it will be. Some embassies take longer than others. Are you a US Citizen or a Legal Permanent Resident? Did you petition her as your daughter (family-based) or in some other category? Is she married? Sometimes someone can be documentarily qualified (DQed) and still be waiting for a visa. You haven't filled out your timeline, so I'm trying to ask you the questions that will help everyone answer your questions. Regards, Vicky's Mom

From another thread >> They may have updated things on the form, but I definitely just ignored the warnings when it came to the Date Marriage Ended and left it blank. Instead of clicking next, can you click around to another section using the >> navigation menu on the top instead? > Thank you! It worked! Regards, Vicky's Mom

If the ones he has are certified/original/etc., they'll be accepted. They don't compare serial numbers or wrinkles-on-the-page between the uploaded version and the version he brings. For those of you who don't know...in the U.S. I can request new "certified" copies of my birth certificate and my marriage license from the appropriate agencies. The new copies have the same legal standing as the old, worn-out, aged ones I have in my safe deposit box. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Take lots of pictures and bring some of them (printed out) with you to your USCIS appointments. Our interview officer spent more time looking at our Vegas wedding photos than the rest of our documentation. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Your household is just your husband and yourself. Don't include the roommates. And yes, the only annual income your household has right now is your husband's. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Lockboxes are unusual. Mail goes to places you didn't address it to because the customer (USCIS) or USPS has different rules about routing. Don't worry about it stopping at an interim address. Give it a day or three. Regards, Vicky's Mom

I don't think I ever got a written letter for my mother-in-law's application. We were DQed and about a week later they sent an email with the embassy appointment. All of our communication with NVC has been through email and the CEAC site. The only written letters I've received so far regarding her applications was the I-130 Received and the I-130 Approved, and they were both from USCIS. Regards, Vicky's Mom

On mine the raised seal was only on the first page. Provide them the entire document. Regards, Vicky's Mom

"...will be 18 soon..." suggests that your son is 17. 17 is not under 14. A personal interview will be required based on what you just said. If that is the rule you're applying under, then your 17-year-old son is not "underage". Regards, Vicky's Mom

You can do a free seven-day trial of the paid version of Adobe Acrobat. It's tied to an email address so I did it more than once. Do *not* forget to go and cancel your subscription before the seven days are up. Regards, Vicky's Mom

I have one data point, and it's an old one. My wife's J-1 visa ran from 2004 to 2009, and was extended once before we got married and filed for AOS in 2011. There is no A-number on her J-1 visa. We didn't have it when we filed her Adjustment of Status in April of 2011. We did have it for an address change in July of 2011, so I *assume* it came in on the NOA1 receipt for AOS. Regards, Vicky's Mom

I would suggest you're reading too much into it. But I will happily be corrected by someone else if they have better information. I don't know enough about the Warsaw Embassy. (And I can't translate Russian/Belarussian to save my life...smile.) Regards, Vicky's Mom

Write out, on a piece of paper, a "Certificate of Translation". State your name and that you are competent in translating Russian/Belarussian to English and vice versa. Give them a point of contact in case someone wants to ask you about it. Sign it. You are now a "certified translator". I can see your "Certificate of Translation" right there. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Make sure they stamp your visa when you enter the U.S. What they stamp should be some variant of CR-1. With that, you're good for 12 months. They understand that you have to go home and get things packed up and closed out. I can't see someone complaining about one trip. Don't make a bunch of them in the next year. You need to start paying attention to how many days you are in the United States. You'll want to be ready for Naturalization when the time comes. Regards, Vicky's Mom

My understanding is that if you are ever denied ESTA you have to get a visitor's visa from then on. It's not like they deny you ESTA and then you can have it back later. One and done. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. I think the fact that you have one right now is to your advantage because you were able to "convince" them you were a good risk back in 2014...and you haven't screwed up since. (smile) I'm a firm believer in telling the truth as you understand it and giving them enough information to make a decision. You will see plenty of examples on here where people thought X "might" be a problem but didn't disclose it...and it came to be a problem later. As a part of your disclosure you can point out what happened in the last interview...just like you explained above. But don't try to make a decision for them. If it's bothering you, disclose it and let them decide. Regards, Vicky's Mom

I am in the process of doing this now with my mother-in-law's IR5 application in Jakarta. Here's what I did. 1) My wife and I are both sponsors. They didn't want my passport at all. They did want the image of my wife's passport to prove she could sponsor her mother. As my wife was here in the US for the interview, they did not require her original passport. We provided copies of our joint returns and my MIL took copies to the interview with her. I know they reviewed them because we got a 221(g) that included a request for our 2022 information (it wasn't ready when we applied). They specified tax transcripts and W-2s. I sent them copies of both and the tax return itself. None of those were "originals". 2) Yes. I think they mainly look at the tax transcripts, but on the 221(g) they asked for the tax transcripts and W-2s for 2022. I hate giving them so much paperwork, but I also don't want to fight them again if I missed something. I provided copies of the tax transcript, the return, all W-2s and 1099s. 3) I can't help with that one. Indonesia doesn't require police certificates. 4) The embassy (Jakarta) scheduled an interview within two weeks of DQ. I think that was way too fast, but I didn't complain. Regards, Vicky's Mom

My initial thought is: if you are "very anxious about the situation", then disclose what happened and provide documentation. It's a case where you give them enough information to make a decision and let them decide. This way no one can come back and say that you were misrepresenting your situation. If you thought it was trivial and in no way would be an issue, I'd tell you to leave it out because it's something else that the embassy officer will need to review. We try not to give them extra work to do because it makes it easier for them to stamp it and go on. You can still say "I can honestly say..." on the application. But if it bothers you, disclose it. Regards, Vicky's Mom

I have no evidence either way for you. Here's my opinion: Think about the person with a big pile of applications in front of them. They are being interrupted once a day by queries from you about your file. If I was that person, I would pull your file, staple the update to it, and put it at the bottom of the pile as "additional information received". And every time you did it, I'd do that again. Again, this is my opinion. I don't know anything for sure. But everyone is in a line to get processed. I don't see you helping your case by "nagging" them. Regards, Vicky's Mom

If they are already U.S. citizens, their father's failure to report or pay taxes in the United States should have no effect on their ability to enter the United States. They are not responsible for their father's actions. Regards, Vicky's Mom

You *can* do it yourself. We chose not to. I know that I'm paying just over $100 a page to have someone translate Indonesian to English (my wife could do it for free), and I probably put way too much faith in the "certification" document they send me and I forward to the embassy. But it makes me feel better to have someone do it that does it "for a living". By comparison we did all of the USCIS paperwork ourselves including an RFE for my wife and a 221(g) for my mother-in-law. Never talked to an attorney and never felt uncomfortable about sending the paperwork in. (The people here on VJ helped.) There's a running joke in the movie Tommy Boy about what a guarantee is worth. It's probably the same thing with a translation certification from a third-party. But our comfort level was worth the money. Regards, Vicky's Mom

I'm just lucky, then. I've been fingerprinted by USCIS twice...one in 1999 (first wife) and again in 2011 (second wife). No background issues that I'm aware of. Regards, Vicky's Mom

There's a blast from the past...my ex-wife was a general practice doctor from Moscow and her medical training was done in Moscow. I remember purchasing the ECFMG materials on Amazon and shipping them to her. ECFMG = Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates IMG = International Medical Graduate FMG = Foreign Medical Graduate (For what it's worth, Wikipedia thinks that IMG and FMG are the same thing.) For the OP: my ex-wife came to the U.S. under the Fulbright Scholars program as a J-1 Exchange Visitor student. She completed her U.S. degree program and returned home to do her two year home-country requirement...at which time our marriage fell apart. That would have been circa 1998-2001. I don't think she ever returned to the U.S. Regards, Vicky's Mom

USCIS wants everyone's fingerprints during this process. If that's all they said, your lawyer is making a leap of judgment. (Does the lawyer want more money?) Go do your fingerprints. Don't worry about other things until they come up. Continue to be honest about what happened in the past. Regards, Vicky's Mom

Part 6, Lines 24.a. through 24.c. specify "...adjusted gross income..." (and then say "...Form 1040EZ..." which should confuse people who don't understand the different forms that the IRS uses). I'd use whatever your AGI was for those three years. On the IRS Form 1040 for 2022, the Adjusted Gross Income is in Line 11, *not* Line 9. (They don't ask for Total Income...they ask for Adjusted Gross Income.) You're going to have to provide documentation to go along with that. In my case, I provided three years worth of Tax Return Transcripts. Most of my income was from WAGES, SALARIES, TIPS, ETC., but it appears that your "Schedule 1 Income" would also show up somewhere on the Tax Return Transcript. If you choose to provide photocopies of your tax return, that income will be visible on the forms. Regards, Vicky's Mom