W199

The USA embassy knows very well that a young 22 year old female with no assets, no house, no previous international travel, and so forth would easily give up their job in the Philippines (can make a much higher salary in the USA), and not return back to the Philippines if their bf in usa asked them to get married and stay. Therefore, you have an extremely low to zero chance of getting approved. The ticket price an all your expenses will be a large part of your salary too. That is a lot of money just for a quick visit without intent to marry or stay if asked. But of course, if you are honest, then it is harmless to try, except for the fee's and time involved. But don't expect success. And your bf's bank statement is useless for this, they won't even look at it. You will need to somehow prove in 2 minutes with your words and status, after they ask you a few simple questions, and convince them you will return to the Philippines. As soon as they hear you have a bf who will be sharing your expenses and staying with him, I am sure they will say "sorry, you are not eligible" .. I hope you can prove me wrong ..

The day after my Wife got her SSN, we got her an unsecured credit card in her own name, without any credit score. This was done by applying for a student Discover card. You just need to submit some sort of "proof", such as an admission letter within the past year from a school. We tried adding her SSN to my Amex (she is an authorized user), but they refused without a State ID because they said they couldn't verify the SSN ... Note: Amex will accept a foreign passport in lieu of an SSN for an authorized user. Will try again now that we updated her SSN after getting the EAD last week, Note, I know that Discover did an automatic SSN validation as it initially failed with married name, had to change it to the maiden name, same as her SSN, it then passed the validation test. I don't know why it failed with AMEX

Sounds like the consular's decision was a good call .... Sometimes they can see things that "love is blind to." For your 2nd Wife, they are going to read through the lines and judge it the same way ... If all is legit as you say, and your 2nd Wife can answer all the details about you, etc then you should not have any issues.

If you do it the cheap way, directly through the FBI, it does take some time. But if you do it with the FBI's affiliated agencies, then it only takes about a day for a small fee. All the info on how to do that is on the FBI's webpage. I did mine on the weekend with the affiliated agency, and I think it came the same or the next day. It basically just runs your fingerprints and shows you any arrest record you had,, the charges, and the disposition. It's won't be worth it if you never have been arrested and had fingerprints taken. But you could do it for fun, just don't expect much.

Unfortunately, it is the final disposition that is mandatory, if you continue with the K-1 approach. But as we've said above, a document from the court certifying that the records are not available, and even better that were expunged and no longer available if you can not produce the final disposition. At least the latter is true for a normal criminal case, I can't be sure for an AWA case. This does seem a bit ridiculous because USCIS will see from the FBI check that there is an expunged record, and they should be able to see the disposition as well. Oh, by the way, USCIS also wants certified copies of the court papers ....

- Sounds like it shouldn't be a problem, but it has some small risks, or even risk of delays, since you said you can't get the documentation. - If the court records are not available, you will need to provide a letter from the court as such. - Providing your own FBI background reports will be useless and not helpful. Just wait if they send you an RFE for any additional info. - The FBI keeps a database of all expunged cases, and USCIS has full access to it. I think you will need the court records to prove the disposition of the case is not guilty. You could file for a CR1 instead and avoid the I-129F questions,.

Thanks! And as you see in the December 2023 AOS thread, there are a whole slew of reports of people getting their EAD, AP, and AOS in a similar extremely fast timeframe. USCIS apparently have done an amazing job in speeding this all up.

yeah, it was ~1 month faster than even the USCIS online account was estimating. And in one of our Philippine's K1 FB group, others have reported about 3 months. Apparently it was so fast, they didn't even have time to update the online status, it still says "being reviewed" I did use an agency to prepare all the paperwork. Despite it not being very difficult, they really did do a great professional job, better than I would have done, along with many little details, for example, like how to prepare, label, and assemble all the photos and supporting docs. Maybe this had something to do with it? I also included PSA (certified) birth certificates and certified marriage certificates because I had ordered plenty of extras to bullet proof everything. I can see USCIS even scanned in seperatly the writing we did on the plastic photo bags, So I don't know if we just got lucky, or if it had something to do with the way we prepared it. But for sure, having them scan in the paperwork and convert it to an online application was the key (the receipts had an IOE prefix indicating it is being electronicaly scanned and processed), and I can see those scans. Do they do that to everyone? BTW, oday, the actual approval noticed arrived in the mail. Apparently USCIS wants to share the good news with everyone because you can clearly read "We have approved your application for employment authorization" right below the address field in the envelope's address window.

Hahaha ... Correction!!! The case status still says "actively being reviewed" and 4 weeks to a decision.. BUT I checked the documents tab in the online account and there was the approval notice, issued on Feb 1! Therefore, it took less than 1 month to get approved for the EAD and AP !!!!! So .. yeah .. not 7.5 months! Here is an extract of the approval notice We have approved your application for employment authorization and advance parole based on your pending Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status. We will send your Employment Authorization Document (also known as an EAD card or Form I-766) to you separately. The EAD card will have an I-512 endorsement on it, which indicates that you have been approved for advance parole. Your EAD card should be produced within one to two weeks. Your EAD card will be mailed via U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation to the address you designated. The time frame in which you will receive your EAD card may vary, depending on USPS delivery times. Please allow a total of 30 days from approval before inquiring with USCIS. We encourage you to use Case Status Online https://egov.uscis.gov/ to find your USPS tracking number for EAD card delivery. If you have not received your EAD card within this time frame, please visit https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/Intro.do for instructions on how to submit an inquiry

Update, today, Feb 7, my online account timeline for my Wife's EAD has now changed to 4 weeks. Note, USCIS had received it on Jan 8.

I don't see how that would expedite it. In fact, I could see how that could slow it down as they need to verify there were no violations.

I didn't bother checking, but I would imagine it would not be as accurate as to what my online case specifies. Plus others have reported their EAD came within a few months recently too, so it all makes sense. However, my AOS, EAD, and AP packet were scanned in at the Chicago lockbox and I got IOExxxx receipts accordingly, and an online account and access code to go with it. I hear some packages do not get scanned in, so are processed the more slowly manual way by moving the paperwork around. I don't know if I got lucky or if that is the normal way of processsing.

So does this mean that, for now, the K-1 is much faster than a CR-1 for the Philippines? My fiancee got her K-1 interview in Manila very quickly after her NOA2

The registry of motor vehicles in your State will have a list of acceptable and required documents to get the drivers license. And for sure, a greencard will be fine. If you plan to got for the RealID, you need to carefully prepare for the additional docs needed to prove residency. For example, my registery did not accept the USCIS receipts for proof of address because they said it is part of her visa used to prove her status. They didn't accept the mailing from the social security office, because that was part of the social security card used to prove her SSN. They didn't accept a bill from the gas company, because their stupid system could only add her as "c/o" on the bill.

In the USCIS online account, you can check the status of your case, the history, and the next steps and their projected timelines. When we first applied and got the online account access, the timeframe reported was 2 months. Now, a month later, and having completed the biometrics, it is now projecting 5 mores weeks to the case decision. The is inline with what others have reported for how long it took for the EAD after applying for AOS for the K-1 Likewise, the USCIS account is projecting 5 more months for the AOS. However, its still on the interview, if needed, stage. If they waive that, I would expect it to be only 3 more months

We sent our AOS at nearly the exact same time as you to the Chicago lockbox. It arrived Jan 8. A few days later we got the text messages from USCIS ack the receipt of the AOS, EAD, and AP. About 7 days later we received 4 paper notices in the mail, including one with an activation code for an online account, as a well as an RFE as I forgot to send in my proof of US citizenship for the i-864. I just needed to upload it to the online account. About 1-2 days later from the date of text messages, we got a notice that a biometrics appointment was made for us. A week later we got that notice in the mail. The appointment was for the following week. She did that and now we are waiting. The online account says the AOS and EAD are activiely being processed. And it says the EAD should be complete within 5 more weeks, and the AOS will be complete within 5 months. We did use an agency to do the 52 papers of paperwork ... so I know it was done perfectly, with all the exact instructions on how to include enclose the photos in bags, and many other details. the $600 was well worht it for them to do all the paperwork and provide exact instructions on how to finish it up. USCIS scanned them in and converted all 3 to an online application, hence the online account. The online filing is faster since they don't need to move the paperwork around. In the online account, I even saw the scan of the plastic bags we did with the photos, I suspect you got something wrong and its going to be rejected and sent back to you.

That is correct, you now need to wait for either your EAD, employment authorization, or greencard in order to update your SSA for anything. Then you can go back to the SSA with your marriage certificate, and the EAD or GC, and change the name and remove the restrictions. I'm pretty sure there will be no issue to change the middle name too as long as you did that on your greencard and EAD. The latter is what we did, and I plan to go back to the SSA to change the middle and last name. You also need proof of identity at the SSA office. If her passport is expired, I'm not sure, but I think that could be a problem unless you have another government ID such as a driver's license.

Good point! In my State, you can choose anyone to marry you. All they need to do is to go register for a "1 time officiant" license at the town clerk's office. That license only costs about $25. Then they can sign your marriage license and you are now married! As a side note, I don't know why, but my ex didn't want to do that for me 🤣 But as a bonus the justice of the peace was only $150 (not $300), the prices are regulated by the State. It was well worth it as he also helped craft vows for each of us, and he even recorded the wedding and gave us a copy of the video for free.

The tax savings for filing jointly for me was $30K alone (it was a good year)

Does your fiancee have any income too? If not, then if you do a CR1, you would save a lot of money by filing joint taxes a year earlier. For K-1 vs CR-1, you should also factor in what really matters, The wedding itself and family is very important. Hence, deciding where do you want to get married, USA or Canada, could also be a deciding factor that will be more important in the long run. Not to mention since you haven't know each other long, a longer engagement may be very beneficial to the relationship.

Why didn't you just pay the $300 for an officiant and get married by Dec 31? You would have saved thousands of dollars by being able to file joint taxes together. $300 is nothing compared to the cost for the AOS and everything else you will need. And this all delays getting your employment authorization which is going to be a few thousands at least in lost wages. So the lost savings from joint taxes and employment is huge compared to $300

on the fbi webpage, they provide a link or a list to all the 3rd party agencies that fan take your fingerprints and submit it for the fbi identity record check. Just read all the info on the FBI website to get your record

You can run a FBI "rap sheet" aka identity histoy check ... It only takes about 1 day if you use an agency to run it ... You will need to send the court records showing the disposition of each case.

Just a few months ago or so, after my fiancee got her K-1 visa in hand, she went to the CFO office to re-register her previous "tourist" CFO certificate with QR code to meet in Montreal, to a "K-1" CFO to USA. They took away her online cfo certificate with QR code and issued a very official and impressive looking CFO certificate as well as a similarly official certificate on a sticker, like her K-1 Visa, applied in her passport. Unless this has changed in the few months, they had resumed giving stickers after they canceled the online classes ... Maybe they stopped it again?

At the CFO, there is potentially a long list of documents they may require at their discretion too. Make sure she brings all of them. Then on Monday first thing, if there is no appointment online to go to the CFO, be both of you be properly dressed (check their FB page for their their dress code they just published), and be extremely polite and professional at all times, not rude or raise your voice, but yet beg, plead, cry, and stand firm for an appointment that same day explaining the VISA will expire, non-refundable plane tickets, ... maybe bring a friend from the Manila times or have higher up contacts as a backup plan to further encourage them ... You want to do everything you can not to let that VISA expire ... Good luck, let us know what happens ...