Edward and Jaycel

Congrats!! When is your interview? Jaycel and I are still waiting for our interview to be scheduled so I only have advice I have heard from attorneys and other's accounts who have had their interview: 1. Bring the certified true copies AND a copy of any documents you submitted with your application (birth/death certificates, divorce decrees, etc.) from US Citizen spouse petitioner and foreign applicant 2. Bring any correspondence you have received from USCIS and any cards you have received (EAD Card, NOAs) 3. Bring updated evidence of your marital bona fides you have accumulated since filing 4. Updated I-94 5. Your IDs (Both spouses) 6. Bring everything that the appointment letter lists as it applies to you 7. Don't be late - Just read an account of someone checking in 3 minutes late to their appointment and the officer came out and said that they would have to re-schedule them for another day Good luck! Come back and share your experience with us!

This is because for the documents needed, the medical exam and the interview purposes, the embassies treat K-1s as immigrant visas up until the point of visa issuance. Then the case is transferred to the nonimmigrant visa unit for the issuance of the visa. You will likely see the status in CEAC change to "Application Received" before it goes to "Approved" and then "Issued". This is because the NIV unit at the embassy has not seen or touched the application until the IV Unit transfers it to them. The application received means that they have put your DS-160 into their queue for processing and issuing the visa.

Yes... Never give up! I can only imagine the emotions.... The spousal visa IMHO is the superior visa anyway. If you are thinking of getting married while you're over there, start looking at all the requirements now. Jaycel and I started looking into it a bit late when I lived there and it looked like my remote employment was going to end. There are a bunch of requirements (counseling, etc.) that we were not able to get done before I had to move back here (my remote work authorization went from being "100% remote from anywhere I wanted" to "You need to be in one of our offices in the US 4 days a week" in about a month's time) so we went the K-1 route after I returned. You should be able to get it all done if you are going to be there a month and you guys plan ahead. You can even do the Utah online marriage and then when you go there for the month trip that counts as you two "consummating" the marriage and USCIS will accept the marriage certificate from Utah after that for the Spousal Visa Petition. Let us know what happens. So sorry you all have to go through this. 🥹

Oh wow... so they're actually returning it to USCIS. They must have seen something deficient in the application maybe? I would use that link they put at the bottom of the letter to contact the immigrant visa unit to ask why it was refused and being returned to USCIS.

Manila generally doesn't even look at the I-134, did they look at it during the interview? 221g is not a denial, it is a refusal either pending a specific document or for administrative processing. Can you post a pic of the 221g sheet with any personal information obscured?

I second this whole heartedly! You got this

This is where to contact NVC - And another vote from me to do this ASAP before they schedule the interview https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/ask-nvc.html

For correcting things on the I-485 - Type up what is called an "Errata Sheet". You will type out the Part # and Item # you need to correct, what your original answer was and what you want your new answer to be with a short explanation as to why you are correcting it. Like others said above, hand it to the ISO right at the beginning of the interview. I have read lots of reports of interviews and some folks that needed to correct things and almost every one of them reported that the officer said something along the lines of, "Don't worry, part of the interview process is so that you can correct mistakes made in the application." Then afterward they have you sign on a tablet confirming the changes. Don't sweat it too much

A request for expediting for humanitarian reasons being approved is almost always for a medical condition on the US Citizen's part, not the beneficiary. I'm sorry to be blunt about it but I want you to manage your expectations on this. It is very unlikely to be approved.

Honestly the only thing you can do within the short timeframe you have to respond to the RFE, is to go get a new medical exam ASAP and submit it. To try to fight it at this point and risk a denial of the AOS over a few hundred dollars, after all this time and effort, IMHO would be crazy. If USCIS says they don't have her medical, then it got lost somewhere between when she gave the yellow packet to CBP and them shipping to USCIS and USCIS adding it to her A-File. There really is no other option. You had the interview, the only thing they said was lacking is the medical so give them what they want and be done with this AOS part of the journey.

Today's stats: June 2, 2025 23:15 MDT November 2024 Filed I-485 Stats • Approved: 7,877 (+209) • Denied: 1145 • FingerprintScheduled: 86 • InterviewCancelled: 318 • InterviewScheduled: 10,420(-59) • Processing: 21,048 (-154) • Received: 600 • Rejected: 102 • RFE: 422 • Terminated: 182 • Withdrawal: 32 • Others: 36

They tell everyone 1-2 weeks… sometimes it’s a few days, sometimes longer. Jaycel also chose to stay and pick up her visa in Manila and hers took exactly one week from thee day of her interview to be ready for pickup.

The question is clear... Have you EVER previously filed a petition for this beneficiary or any other alien. If your wife filed for her parents then the answer is yes.

I am not a lawyer so my answer will be based on my own opinion which is rooted in my extensive research of the immigration process since starting this journey with Jaycel I would file immediately after submitting the withdrawal and include a short letter with the new filing explaining the situation and that you have requested withdrawal of the original I-130 and are now re-filing because you did not want to fall out of status before filing the I-485. I have found at every stage of this process where we have had a doubt or a questionable situation, we were completely honest with either USCIS or the consular officer and it has worked in our favor.

Yeah they are not playing... which is why my risk tolerance is pretty much zero

What you should do depends on your risk tolerance... If you feel adamant about getting the I-485 filed before your I-94 expires (this would be me because I do not tolerate much risk in this process) and you do not receive the receipt in the mail in the next few days, then I would do the following: 1. Have your husband write a letter to USCIS referencing the receipt number for the I-130 and telling them that he wishes to withdraw the petition and asking them to stop processing it. 2. Upload that letter to the Unsolicited Evidence section of the petition on his my.uscis.gov portal under the category "Withdrawal Request Letter". 3. Also send the letter to the Service Center that is currently processing the request - My assumption would be it's the NBC. He can find out for sure by going to the "Ask Emma" chat on USCIS.gov and selecting the option to chat with a live agent. 4. File a new package with both applications in the same envelope concurrently The downside to this is that you lose the filing fee paid on the original I-130 The Second option is to file an E-Request for Non-Delivery of Notice with USCIS and ask for the receipt notice that was not delivered at https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/ndn Once that is received, then file the I-485 with the replacement letter. Unlawful presence is forgiven from a spouse of a US Citizen when Adjusting Status however.... Downside here is that you are deportable in between the time your I-94 expires and you file the I-485 AND they may or may not get the replacement I-130 Receipt Notice to you expeditiously or even at all and you've wasted time waiting. Those are the two options for you as I see it...

1000% this.... Don't risk everything you have worked for to get to this point. Like @Crazy Cat said, CBP can deny her entry at the Point of Entry. The visa being approved and issued by the embassy simply allows her to "Apply for admission at a Port of Entry". It does not guarantee that entry.

Zero effect

We did the same for Jaycel - She stayed in Manila to pick up the visa and then we scheduled her CFO appointment. She wanted to do hers in Cebu though because the TikTok groupies said it was "Less Strict" and there was no appointments the remainder of that week so we booked it for the following week, two days before her flight here. She went home to Mindanao and packed up what she was going to take with her, flew to Cebu the day before the CFO and had no issues. @top_secret is correct... all she needs is the GCP session. Jaycel did the morning session for the GCP and flew out to Manila later that afternoon, spent the evening with her sister that lives there and flew to the US the following morning. It was a tight enough schedule that it made me nervous but our beautiful Filipinas seem to thrive on this kind of chaos Best of luck and let us know how it all goes!

Today's stats: June 1, 2025 23:15 MDT November 2024 Filed I-485 Stats • Approved: 7,668 (+240) • Denied: 1134 • FingerprintScheduled: 87 • InterviewCancelled: 315 • InterviewScheduled: 10,479(-174) • Processing: 21,202 (-91) • Received: 600 • Rejected: 104 • RFE: 427 • Terminated: 183 • Withdrawal: 31 • Others: 37 Grabbed the stats each day but did not have a chance to post until this morning, so this will be post 2 of 2 from the last two days

Today's stats: May 31, 2025 23:15 MDT November 2024 Filed I-485 Stats • Approved: 7,428 (+177) • Denied: 1123 • FingerprintScheduled: 87 • InterviewCancelled: 300 • InterviewScheduled: 10,653 (-102) • Processing: 21,293 (-82) • Received: 600 • Rejected: 103 • RFE: 430 • Terminated: 180 • Withdrawal: 31 • Others: 38 Grabbed the stats each day but did not have a chance to post until this morning, so this will be post 1 of 2 from the last two days

Don't lose hope 🥹 We know exactly how you feel... Honestly we thought we'd have it by now too but such is life. Des Moines has 16 months listed as their 80% completed by timeline which isn't too bad. Denver is currently running 20.5 months and we found some fellow Denver AOS filers on Reddit that are still waiting also and it looks like for our FO the average wait time between filing and interview is 9-12 months so we have a while to go now. We're hoping that with interviews being the norm now, they can get into a rhythm and streamline that a little. Someone that filed in Sept. 2024 just got their interview notice a couple weeks ago. They are 2 months prior to our file date so hopefully we'll get a notice in the next 4-6 weeks 🤞 Keep the head up and know that it will happen when it's supposed to happen

Her medical from the K-1 would only expire in the middle of July if you didn't file the I-485 before then. The medical is valid as long as you filed within 1 year of her completing it. It doesn't matter how long USCIS takes to process the I-485 at that point. You fulfilled the requirements

Almost done with the hardest part! I just wish Denver field office wasn't one of the slowest in the country We found some fellow Denver AOS filers on Reddit that are still waiting also and it looks like for this FO the average wait time between filing and interview is 9-12 months so we have a while to go now. We're hoping that with interviews being the norm now, they can get into a rhythm and streamline that a little. Someone that filed in Sept. 2024 just got their interview notice a couple weeks ago. They are 2 months prior to our file date so hopefully we'll get a notice in the next 4-6 weeks 🤞

Hey congrats!!! This is great news! 🎉