Edward and Jaycel

We scheduled ours without the appointment letter. When she checks in, they will just have your wife sign a waiver saying that she understands that the medical exam is only good for 6 months and if it expires before she is issued or can use the visa, that SLEC is not responsible, etc. Unless something has changed since August.

If your interview is scheduled for after the validity date on the NOA2, the consular officer conducting the interview, if they approve the visa, will automatically extend the validity date for you. You do not need to do anything. My only suggestion is that you bring updated letters of intent to marry to the interview with you and proof of ongoing relationship.

I just realized that the cover letter I pasted for the I-864, I still had the line listing that I was including my W-2s for the past 3 years. As I am including Tax Transcripts downloaded from IRS.gov, per the instructions for the I-864, if you are sending them transcripts (instead of copies of your tax returns) you do not send in the W-2s or 1099s. So in my updated copy of that cover letter I have removed that line item from the list.

No worries... Just trying to pay it forward as I have received so much guidance from the amazing people here on VJ. They were a Godsend after I had filed the I-129F for Jaycel. I only wish I had found this site sooner. May have saved us from that RFE we got during the I-129F processing! LOL My best advice? Become "A" students at this process. Study the application forms and their instructions that are provided on the USCIS website, also look at all the drop downs on each Form page on USCIS.gov for things like filing tips, checklists of initial evidence, etc. And read, read, read through all the posts involving AOS here on VJ. I feel like I got a Master's level education on AOS here 😁 Feel free to send me a message on any questions on the screen shots or whatever. I will do my best to help with whatever I know.

Yes... If you are filing an I-485 concurrently with I-131 and I-765, you file them all in the same package together, with each form, its own cover letter, payment and supporting documents separated from each other. We are going to do it with a separate clip holding together the cover letter and each form and its documents so that they see that (for us) there are 2 separate submissions (we are only doing the I-485 & I-765 and not the I-131). Also don't forget that the US Citizen has to fill out the I-864 Affidavit of Support and provide supporting documents and that goes in with the I-485. Here's what we are using for cover letters for the other forms. Hope this helps. (P.S. - I put "Applicant's Married Name" in the letters because we are putting that as her "Legal Name" in the Form I-485 as she is taking my last name and we are filing with that as her new "Legal Name". (Legal name change based on marriage)

If you are filing the Employment Authorization application concurrently with the I-485 it needs to be in paper form mailed in along with the I-485 (Separated) with its own filing fee attached ($260 when filing concurrently)

Correct.... If you are filing concurrently, you do not have a receipt for the I-485 yet. Just make sure you include cover letters for each filing (I-485, I765, I-131) with the applicant's name, address, phone number and email AND most Importantly the applicant's A-Number. In the "RE:" of that letter, say "Original Submission, FORM NUMBER FORM DESCRIPTION Filing Concurrently with Form I-485" I'll pop a screen shot below of the one we are sending for the I-765 with all the identifying info changed

I got that same response on my first inquiry to them and submitted another inquiry about a week later and they gave me my case number.

Jaycel and I are getting married a week from tomorrow in front of a magistrate at the courthouse and then we will be having a bigger celebration next year for family/friends. As long as you have an official marriage certificate as a result, that's what USCIS requires.

I got an RFE for not sending the proper documentation along with my I-129F petition for a charge that I had 30+ years ago. I had to write to the county clerk and formally request a certified copy of the court disposition. USCIS will not accept anything other than a certified copy from the court.

All of this is 100% correct... Jaycel's I-94 was available to view and print on the website 2 days after her POE in LAX. This is the website: https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/#/home And this is what you select:

You're welcome and congratulations on getting to this stage! Wish all the best to you both!

Yes when it goes “In Transit” you should both get the K1-FTP email from NVC

Jaycel did her CFO in Cebu in August and they only required her passport and one other form of ID

Congratulations!!

Ours went from "Ready" to "Approved" then to "Issued". Ours took a couple of extra days longer to get to issued than a couple of the other Filipinas that Jaycel met there in the embassy and it caused her a lot of stress those extra 2 days so I can sympathize. Every single case is different, different folks in the Admin. Processing section of the visa unit taking different amounts of time to go through all of the paperwork, assemble the yellow packet, might be new and need a supervisor to review all of their work, etc. The list is endless for differences in how long it takes. One Filipina that Jaycel met there didn't get hers issued for like 2 weeks. And yes, the TikTok army is relentless and decidedly un-helpful. Jaycel says she wishes she never watched any videos about the embassy process because they are all drama just trying to get views and did not represent at all the experience she had. Sending good thoughts your way and hope they issue it soon for you guys!

Nothing to do until it shows “In Transit” and then a couple of days later “Ready”. At that point your actions will depend on the embassy. Good luck!

Interesting... The verbiage in my RFE said, "Please submit certified copies of all court and police records, showing the charges and dispositions for every offense. This is required even if your records were sealed or otherwise cleared or if anyone, including a judge, law enforcement officer, or attorney told you that you no longer have a record." Fortunately the court still had the record available for me and I had a certified copy of it returned within 5 days. The state police said that my arrest record was so old that it met their document destruction criteria and no longer existed. I included this response from them with the official court record and my RFE was cleared within 3 days of their receipt of it and I got the approval notice online that day and the NOA2 in the mail 7 days later. Hope all goes well with yours!

Official copy of the court transcript/disposition of a criminal case I had 30 years ago. I thought I just had to give them the info (dates, case number, disposition, etc) in the I-129F, I did not realize that I had to submit an official copy from the court

Forgot to include a required document

I would recommend doing it yourself.... Most "Services" are just people following a set of instructions on what to ask from you and then how to assemble it. They have no idea about your case, i.e.- how complex or simple it is and just follow a cookie-cutter process that I have see cause others on this site undue stress and heartache. I'm no brain surgeon and I was able to do the I-129F for my fiancee and now she is here and we are about to get married and do our AOS ourselves. Granted we did have an RFE for a missing document but that was because I assumed something I shouldn't have. I wish I had found VJ before we filed because I would have asked and been told to send the document with the original submission. That really did not hold us up much, I sent the missing document in the RFE response and we had our approval like 3 or 4 days later. You just have to be willing to become a student of the process and come here and ask questions. Best of luck to you and we are all here willing to help if you decide to DIY.

The problem, as I see it, would be that your total income from the transcript will not match what you have in the form. That's what they look at is the total income on the tax transcript. I think as long as you report both the W-2 and the 1099, it will not complicate anything as the 1099 is just additional to the W-2 income. When it comes to USCIS, my default position is to not hide anything from them. Especially since you have to provide the tax transcripts and they will see it reported in there.

I would think that if it shows up in your transcripts, that the best policy is to check both boxes so that the form matches what's on the transcripts or they may question it. I don't know for sure, that's just my gut instinct. I'm about to do this myself and this I-864 is such a counterintuitive form... I wish they made it more common sense

FYI.... My USCIS case status said they sent my approved petition to the State Department on June 11th (the same day my NOA2 arrived in the mail and 10 days after the approved date on the NOA2.) However, that change in status did not appear on my USCIS online account until June 28th. It will do no harm to fill out a public inquiry with the NVC. The link is: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/ask-nvc.html This is how I worded our inquiry: Our I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancée, was recently approved (June 1, 2024) and we received our I-797 (NOA2) from USCIS. We haven't received any further communication via mail or email and we were hoping we could obtain our NVC Case Number in order to progress with our application. I have attached our I-797 (NOA2) to this request for your reference. Thank you for any help you could provide. Also requesting if you could verify that our email addresses are correct as listed below: petitioneremail@email.com beneficiaryemail@email.com This addendum at the end of the inquiry about your emails will ensure that the NVC and later the embassy have your correct emails. I did this in my second inquiry to NVC and after that my fiancee and I both received all the emails from that point forward all the way to the email that the embassy sent after the visa was issued with instructions on how to handle the yellow packet that was returned with her passport/visa. Do not worry about the validity date of your Approval Notice. If it is expired at the time of your interview, the Consular Officer will extend its validity for 4 months. They know there are delays all over the place and do this as a matter of routine. Just be sure to bring updated letters of intent to marry to the interview.

FYI.... My USCIS case status said they sent my approved petition to the State Department on June 11th (4 days after my NOA2 arrived in the mail and 10 days after the approved date on the NOA2. However, that change in status did not appear on my USCIS online account until June 28th. So if you wait a week to 10 days between inquiries to the NVC it will be fine. I did my first one on June 21st and my second one on July 1st which is the one where they gave me our case number.