GeraltOfRivia

Fortunately both of my parents are willing to be joint sponsors. As for domicile, I just bought a condo where we will live in Oregon and I'll also use it for my assets because it's worth $265k. I am hoping it will be great proof of intent to reestablish domicile and if the visa fails for whatever reason I can still use it for rental income, though the plan is for us to live in the condo since it's so close to my parents' house. I also plan to fly to the US as soon as my wife gets her interview letter because I've seen a number of people on Facebook say their visa was refused until the husband flew out to the US and then sent proof they were in the US. So my plan is to do an affidavit with all my plans during the DQ phase and then after DQ we will get our house in the Philippines appraised to show intent to sell. Once she has her interview letter we'll post the Philippines house online to sell, I'll fly to America, get health insurance there, and mail my wife a second affidavit that I will get notarized in Oregon. I'm hoping that's enough.

That sounds great! We have a strong case, I think. Been married for 7 years (probably 9 by the time we interview), I (the USC) have a immigrant visa by marriage in the Philippines (their version of the IR1), we have a joint bank account, car registered in both our names, etc. I guess I should be more worried about domicile than anything. From what I've seen people post on Facebook, the Manila embassy has some officers that are very strict about expats like myself reestablishing domicile, but I already have a plan to put together a strong case on that front.

Thanks for the reassurance 😅 If they google the employer they'll see it's very obviously an online school, so hopefully there won't be an RFE. I guess I'm just stressing and looking for reassurance lol. It seems RFEs are acted on relatively quickly anyways so worst case scenario it won't add too much to the overall application time.

I wrote on my I-130 petition in my job history that I was an "English Teacher" for a Korean company and put the company's Seoul address. The thing is, I taught remotely for them from my house in the Philippines. I am kicking myself for not saying "Online English Teacher" to make that more clear. Will USCIS find issue with the fact I worked for a company with a Koren address but my personal address history doesn't have a Korean address (I've never even visited Korea as a tourist)?

I've seen that CR1 visas allegedly have about a 9% denial rate and I'm wondering how it is for IR1 visas.

Thanks for the responses! Yeah, I don't think our case has any exceptional circumstance. I think we just gotta wait it out. It seems based on current timelines we'll be in the US in early 2027 so we are just trying to enjoy the cheap life as much as possible until then. That said I'm still really hoping wait times will get shorter and I want to move ASAP!

I am a USC petitioning for my Filipina wife from overseas. We got an I-130 petition approved through direct consular filing back in 2018 but I decided to stay in the Philippines for a few years and enjoy the cheap life, so we let it expire. Now we are petitioning again from overseas (direct filing is no longer an option in the Philippines) and I'm wondering how a former approval looks in the application. Does it make the case stronger that USCIS has already deemed us to be a bonafide couple (we also have tons of strong evidence) or do they not like that we let the approval lapse?

I'm an expat in the Philippines and I've been living here with my wife of 7 years since 2018. I saw that people in my position typically have trouble proving intent to reestablish domicile. In order to prepare concrete evidence of intent to reestablish domicile, I am considering buying a condo in the US where we intend to settle and to also valuate our house here in the Philippines and post it for sale. The thing is, I am reluctant to spend a bunch of money on a condo (or fly out ahead of my wife and sign a long term lease) unless I feel like there's a really good shot at the IR1 being approved. We have joint sponsors so that won't be the issue, and I intend to do an affidavit outlining my plans to reestablish domicile for the NVC, but I read people say the offers in he Manila embassy want the American spouse to be IN America during the interview. So my question is this: at what point can I consider that IR1 visa is a 99% sure thing? After I-130 approval? After DQ? Literally the only weak spot in our application is my domicile. We are super obviously a legitimately married couple for love and we meet the financial requirements.