Hocnos

I did follow all the requirements, I had all the right documents, i94 was not on the checklist, but she insisted that she cannot proceed without it. Edit: To be specific, she said she cannot proceed without the Admission ID, which was previously written under the stamps when entering as non-LPR (ie ESTA). My i551 endorsement stamp has only the date of admission, but no Admission ID. Yes to the ds260, however I already have SSN (from my previous stay on work visa). I even have expired Read ID, so I was just "renewing".

Hi, I recently entered on IR1 visa for the first time, which activated it and I got my passport stamped for the i551 endorsement. 5 days later, I went to DMV to get my DL, but was told I need to bring printed i94 form. From my understanding, however, i94 is not issued to LPRs, and was therefore confused about this requirement - and indeed, my i94 record doesn't show my last entry on IR1 visa, but shows my almost 1 year old entry on ESTA. After printing it out, the DMV employee said she cannot accept that i94, as it doesn't show the correct status, and that she won't be able to issue me DL without the "Admission number". She said to wait a week for my i94 to update. What is the correct procedure here? I believe the DMV employee was wrong, as the i94 won't be updated with my entry on LPR status. I can also see my last entry correctly listed under 'Travel History', but that is not part of the i94 form.

Adding data entry - from petition to visa in hand, ±14 months total. Good luck everyone!

Thanks, but the tax situation is more complicated with foreign assets and investment accounts. Just considering the strategies. That's an interesting idea! Perhaps explaining to CBP the intent to just visit for holidays and postponing the final IV move to later due to timing/logistic reasons could work, but relies on CBP's understanding and discretion. I wish there would be an official guidance on this.

Thanks for the link to the old post, that was an interesting read. But seems the takeaway is that it won't be realistically possible. I would still be interested in knowing whether there are any official rules/guidance for CBP, or if its all just up to their interpretation.

For example: taxes. If you can postpone the start of your residency to the next year, your tax obligations would start in the next year, which might have significant financial implications.

Hi all. I know this might sound like a very strange question, but theoretically, if one is issued CR1 visa, could that person still travel to the US on ESTA for a visit, and not activate the residency (i551)? I know there are certain rules for multiple visa holders, but I can't find anything about this particular situation. In this scenario, the CR1 visa would be still valid. Any ideas?

Another take - shipping personal/household items to the US will cost thousands of euros (personal experience). It will be cheaper to just buy the items new in the US.

OP is USC, overstay is automatically waived.

Certainly sounds rehearsed and over-prepared, which could be a red flag so they might want to doublecheck his/your documents and claims.

As a side, and to avoid future confusion OP - when you become US resident (GC holder), you will have the same requirement as her - you will need report your taxes to IRS no matter where your income is from or where you live. So be prepared to be filing in both UK and US after you move. Good luck.

Agreed 100%. As others have said, these are not immigration questions. OP, you are already married - meaning you already are financially responsible for your wife, whether you like it or not. If I was your wife, this right here would be a huge red flag for me, potentially a deal breaker.

ROK2USA explained it well in his reply, so I will just add to it. What you are describing is called Direct Consular Filing, which is allowed only in exceptional circumstances: Source: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition/filing-petitions-outside-the-us.html So unless you qualify for that, you will be filing in the US, into the USCIS mailbox (even if you live outside of US), or online. You will file form i130. That will take 6 months to 1 year to process, and then it will move to the NVC stage. Since your spouse lives outside of the US, once it is approved by NVC, it will be forwarded to one of the embassies listed here already: Turkey, UAE or Armenia. And then it will/can take another 250-470 days to process there for the Embassy to call your spouse for an interview.

Just FYI, don't look at the US based processing centers (since you are going through Consular Process), but look here: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/irstats.php Processing times are therefore from around 250 days to 470 days for time from when the embassy receives the application to the interview.

As others have said, this won't work. Green Card is just colloquial name for "Permanent Resident Card", meaning it is intended for people permanently residing in the US. Not only you won't qualify for it due to non-existent US domicile of your spouse, it is also about your intentions - if you interview, and claim to intent to reside in the US, but then you don't, that could be considered material misinterpretation (meaning a fraud). Avoid these legal pitfalls and apply when you are ready to move to the US to live there permanently. Will save you a lot of headache.