Orzo

There are several ways to reduce file size. 
There are even some sites where you can upload the document and it will spit out a smaller filesize. (I don't personally recommend these as you are uploading pretty seriously personal information, but that's just me being me.)

You can also use several programs that do the same thing. Adobe has the feature built in if you have the paid version.
I had to watch few YouTube videos before I could find an exact method that worked for me. 
Good luck!

Though the best advice you'll get on this thread, you've already gotten. Go meet your fiancé and spend some time together. You've got a long way to go before you'll be able to provide sufficient evidence. 



Edit because I just noticed: Roll Tide.

2 minutes ago, ceman2020 said:

is there a list of things that are particularly beneficial in my circumstance?

Searching Bonafide evidence in the search bar will pull up hundreds of posts from other folks recommending as well as sharing what they submitted. Here's an example:

I-130 Evidence of Bona Fide Marriage - IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Process & Procedures - VisaJourney

There's no RIGHT evidence, you just have to prove your relationship to the person working on your case. You can get creative, but my case was fairly cut and dry so I can't provide too much help.  

10 minutes ago, ceman2020 said:

i dont think that leases with our names on it will be possible. we can meet and get married. it seems like that might be the better option instead of just meeting and tyring to apply for this k1 im guessing? 

I haven't been around that long, but I very rarely see cases where I think K1 is worth it. ESPECIALLY if you have already decided to get married. 
Regardless, you'll need proof of your relationship, or you'll be hit with scrutiny at just about every turn best case scenario, or worst case scenario you get hit with a never ending chain of RFE's until you can provide substantial evidence.  

You don't HAVE to provide leases, it just fit our situation so we were able to. There are plenty of folks approved on here who hadn't lived together physically. 

I'd focus on meeting her SOMEWHERE and documenting that as well as you can but don't expect that to be ample evidence.
If I were a USCIS agent, just one trip wouldn't be enough for me, but I'm not, so my opinion doesn't matter. 

Just now, ceman2020 said:

any pointing in the right direction will be helpful. I have zero experience with immigration anywhere. the only place ive ever been outside the USA personally is Mexico, and that was in middle school when we would just ride our bikes across the border. was a bit safer then, though still a horrible idea at the time. in any case we're now in the information gathering stage. 

Luckily, you've already found the most helpful site on DIY immigration. 

However, if you haven't met your fiancé yet, that's a much bigger issue in the eyes of USCIS. You have to have proof of a bonafide relationship, to give you an example, I used marriage certs, 3 years of pictures together with my family and my wife's, an apartment lease with both of our names on it, etc. You're going to need stuff like that lined up before you move any further. 

33 minutes ago, Sabster said:

Hi friends,

 

April 2022 filer here reporting.

I am the petitioner, wife is in India.

I-130 standalone.

 

PD 4/4/22

NOA1 4/8/22

 

Nebraska service center.

 

*crickets*

 

Did I do something wrong? My attorney is a broken record and says "when we get it, we can move on to visa processing."

 

I miss my wife very much 😢

 

 

Unfortunately, your attorney is right. There isn't much that can be done while waiting for the I-130, and the wait times depend on service center, complication of your case, if George is working that day instead of Daniel, and most of all just plain luck. I would check out the timelines of folks in your similar situation and see if you can find others who are still waiting. 

If you really feel as though there's an issue, you can reach out to USCIS only AFTER you are outside of normal processing time (normal for Nebraska according to USCIS is 10.5 months, so around the end of February.) In the meantime, I'd recommend familiarizing yourself with the NVC process. Your attorney is being paid to handle it, so it's up to you, but I don't think it would hurt. 

Good luck! Hope you get a response soon!

Hello everyone! 
Everyone hanging in there?

My wife was DQ'd on January 7th and we are waiting on the interview date from Tokyo. 

Anyone else in a similar boat?

 

We were DQ'd this morning! Email from NVC regarding scheduling of the interview (not a date, just what that they are going to be contacting our consulate) recieved as well. 

The i-864 and proof of US citizenship for the joint sponsor section shows "submitted" while everything else shows accepted. 

But with the emails and the DOCUMENTARILY QUALIFIED notification on CEAC, I'd say we are OK. 

Great news for everyone here, really. We were DQ'd in less than 40 days! 

Good luck to you all! ☺️

13:16

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45 minutes ago, snooky said:

Thank you! Any ideas on how I can find others that have gone through the process? I am hoping someone like that responds to this thread but no luck so far 😞

The immigration timelines feature is one of the best features of VJ. You can find it on the top of this page in the menu bar, or by following this link. (I assume you are going for a IR-5? I'm sorry I have ZERO experience in immigration outside of the marriage visas. )

IR-5 Visa US Immigration Timelines - SORT : Interview Date - DESC (visajourney.com)

You can sort this list by your country, and it should give you a decent idea. 

You should fill out your timeline on your profile as well so that you can help others down the line!


Take care and good luck!

 

1 minute ago, Lil bear said:

Not a problem. Automated reply. Submit documents in any order you want.   Until all are submitted the case wont move forward 

Thanks for the peace of mind! I've found various posts about it but no one ever seemed to follow up.
Now I can relax and await my probable RFE Woohooo!

Has anyone that submitted recently gotten a "Ds-260 review note" about an hour after filing? It says this: "NVC cannot review your submitted documents until we have received all of the required document's DS-260, Civil Documents and Financial Documents."

I'm hoping that this is just an automated notice that I may have "tripped" as I THINK I submitted AOS before the Civil Document. Only by a minute or so though... All of my documents show SUBMITTED on upload page.
I'll put in an inquiry just in case...

Any experience with that here? 
 

14 hours ago, shytown said:

I'm kind of in a similar situation. For all years prior to 2022, I only earned income in Germany. Now I have a US based job and uploaded all kinds of evidence of my current income (paystubs, employment offer letter). HOWEVER, all I have for 2021 is my full tax return including schedules + Form 2555 "foreign earned income", and tax transcripts for years 2020 and 2019.... but no W2's or 1040's. Do you think that's enough or are they going to ask me for something else? 

I'm in a similar situation, but no US job yet as I'm living abroad. 

I believe it's best practice to write and sign a statement explaining that you were employed abroad and therefore do not receive a w-2. I myself did this. And just uploaded my IRS transcript for 2021

5 minutes ago, Simplytex said:

ok, that makes a little more sense - I had read it that the only evidence you were providing was that he had Stripe account summaries. As long as he filed taxes, then (imo) you'd want to include the full tax filing with whatever schedules were used to justify/show the taxable income, and not just the tax transcript.  Good luck!

I should have been more clear! My fault! 
I submitted the transcript but didn't include the full tax filing as I was under the impression that if the IRS transcripts were used, the schedules did not need to be included. Plus I figured it was just another place to mess up; for example, including schedule E, but not 1040, then uploading everything with no missing pages, only to get told they don't need the state taxes and that I should re-upload. I suppose I tried to over-simplify our package. Maybe It'll come back to haunt me...


In hindsight, I do wish this process was a little bit more direct on what to do with those earn income being self-employed but not by an actual registered business and all income goes straight into their personal account. This caused my joint sponsor a bit of a headache... 

Thanks for the tips.

26 minutes ago, Simplytex said:

I very much doubt that stripe account summary is going to work. For joint sponsor, they need to have a verifiable income and the only way that can be done is through IRS filings, which means needing a W2 or 1099, or through overall proof of assets, which means bank/investment statements. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/i-864-affidavit-faqs.html#aos14

The issue is that he has never received a 1099. Last year he hardly made any self employed income from the side job (He resells on his own webstore) though it is shown on his IRS transcript, no 1099 that year.
This year, close to 13k. He imagines that he will be getting a 1099 thanks to the new rules surrounding them.

I just received the lovely

"NVC cannot review your submitted documents until we have received all of the required documents DS-260, Civil Documents and Financial Documents." 

Email as well, so that's nice. It's funny that in my first 30 minutes of research no one seems to know what this email actually means when everything has been properly submitted. 
More learning for me...

Hello! 

The timeline between NVC DQ and the Consulate interview completely depends on the Consulate itself. Some have tremendous backlogs that take ages, others are pretty quick. Canada, I believe takes a little bit BUT I have zero experience there. Your best bet is to search for folks with who have completed timelines recently from Canada. That will give you a decent guess as to how long people wait for their interview. If you feel that your case in an outlier based on your research, you can always contact the NVC but be aware that they take nearly a month to respond to inquiries. 

Good luck! I hope it moves quickly for you.

Hello! We are submitting today as well! (Took a bit to get the Japanese police report) but that's life!
I'm a little worried due to my sponsor having income coming from self-employment as a re-seller (not necessary to hit the cut off though.) and only has his stripe account summaries as proof.
Hopefully they don't ask for something silly like a 1099. 

I hope we all get a smooth and quick DQ!

I don't personally have experience calling USCIS (I too am abroad, and it wouldn't be worth the hold time.) 
The consensus here is that USCIS won't even consider helping you out until you have reached a point that is PAST the estimate that they give you on the official site. According to most users here though, sometimes even getting THAT help is dependent on which way the wind is blowing. 
It's a long process, but you are still within "normal" processing time! Stay positive and start getting your NVC submission ready.

Specifically, I've used the Adobe Scan app and was blown away that such technology existed, and I didn't even know. 

4 hours ago, Hmoobphajej said:

Boo! Welp for any form of solace we're at least that much closer to bringing our significant others over. I'm hoping for a January/February date for me. That is still about half a year faster than anticipated when this whole journey started.

True! One day at a time! 

I too was shocked by the speed of my I-130. It's just so hard to stay stagnant when there is something that needs to be done. It's like waiting to wait. 

I'm thankful to be in the position I'm in though.

I wonder if other K-3'ers have had the same success. 

1 minute ago, Hmoobphajej said:

Yep I had to. It was part of my required Civil Documents for my wife.

And just like that, I'm suck waiting to submit until Dec. 5th. 😞😞

13 minutes ago, Jordanian Bride said:

I've seen posts here where the CO has asked for a police certificate at the interview that was originally not requested by the NVC (based on answers filled out in the DS-260) -- once when the applicant lived in a country for 5 months. That might or might not be your case, but I would suggest you do anything to prevent delays. It's ultimately up to you.

 

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/Visa-Reciprocity-and-Civil-Documents-by-Country/australia.html

Thanks for the heads up! 

I'll get on it! 

3 minutes ago, Jordanian Bride said:

I would:

1. Wait to get DQ'd

2. Order the Australian Police Certificate*

3. Wait for the IL (Interview Letter)

4. Upload the Australian PCC to CEAC after receiving the IL

5. Bring the Australian PCC Original to the interview and explain to the consular officer the mistake in the DS-260

 

*To avoid delays, because there's been cases where 5 months got rounded up to 6 months, and the CO asked the applicant to provide a PCC.

Jordanian bride to my rescue again!

Looking over the police requirements it looks like she only needs it if she was there for 12 months, as it's not her current residence nor is it her nationality. (As per the travel (dot) gov site)

Have people had issues with NVC being picky about this too? 

Hello all! 

I'm in the process of organizing all of my documents for NVC (waiting on Japanese police cert to hit submit). 

As I was reviewing our package, I realized that we forgot to mention an address that my wife (beneficiary) had while she studied abroad in Australia (homestay). She maintained her address in Japan the whole time. This is the only address she's ever had outside of her home country (Japan) .

Luckily, she only stayed there for 5 months and 20 days so no police report is needed. 

What's the best course of action? 

Wait for DQ and contact the consulate? 

Tell them at the interview? 

Contact the NVC ASAP? 

I know many ds260 mistakes can be fixed during the interview, but I just want to be sure that spending time in another country 8 years ago isn't one of the "big" mistakes that can't be fixed! 

Thanks for any advice!