K-9 Visa

My beautiful fiancee heard from a friend who heard from her mother who heard from an immigration attorney that the USCIS has stopped issuing Advance Travel Authorizations until after the election. Is this true? Almost two months ago the USCIS said that we would receive our ATA within three weeks.

The USCIS approved our I-134A July 26. Three and a half weeks ago they notified us that they would approve our ATA in three weeks, at most. Is there anything we can do to get them to issue the ATA?

The USCIS approved our I-134A July 26 and says that they will issue my fiancee's ATA soon. I'll book her flight on American Airlines from Santiago de Cuba to Miami, she says there's no need for me to fly to Cuba to get her. Where do I meet her in the Miami airport? Does she go through the immigration line like everyone else and come out with everyone else, or does she go to the immigration office and come out someplace else? How much time should I plan between flights?

Thanks, I just updated my timeline.

We met in 2019 and filed for a K-1. We've been waiting more than four years. I filed the 134a on January 17.

We filed our K-1 application August 9, 2022. The CSC is now processing August 17, 2022. When should we start to panic if we don't hear anything from the CSC?

To ask a stupid question, why can't the USCIS take all the K-1 applications filed before January 6 and grant them as Paroles? Nah, that would be too easy and quick. 🙂

I flew to Holguin (via Toronto) in July. I was super excited about visiting el Parque Nacional La Mensura. You can stay at an eco-resort, hike to Cuba's highest waterfall, hire a guide for the best birdwatching on the island, etc. Only 100 km from Holguin. But there was no transportation. No gas for taxis. No 4WD to get up the mountain. Holguin is a lovely city and I enjoyed being with my fiancee and I even did some birdwatching from the terraza of the casa particular but, yes, Cuba is a mess to get anywhere. I'll attach a picture of Gray Kingbirds.

You can read the four reasons you make an expedite request at https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-1-part-a-chapter-5. "Country in crisis" isn't one of the five reasons.

Yes, question 18 confused me too.

Are you talking about question 23? I didn't fill that out until I reviewed my application and saw that it wasn't filled in.

When did you file for your K-1 visa?

That took four days. My suggestions: 1. I talked to an appraiser, he said to upload your county tax assessment instead of paying $650 and waiting two weeks for a home appraisal. He said that your tax assessment is a legal document providing a value for your home. In addition, upload the county assessor's page showing a picture of your house with your name listed as owner, in addition to the deed. My deed is hard to read, a bad photocopy of a lot of legal stuff. The county assessor's page looks nice. 2. In addition to your tax return (I uploaded ten forms!) go to the Social Security website. You'll see a nice document with a table showing your lifetime earnings by year. This gives a better picture of your income than a single year's tax return, especially for a business owner in a pandemic year. 3. The "Bank official's statement" will waste an hour of your branch manager's time if the bank doesn't have this as a pre-programmed letter. If you have multiple accounts and transfers funds between accounts the letter signed by the bank official will mean nothing. (Confusing account transfers and income is how Enron got in trouble.) 4. Question 18 stumped me, and it's not explained in the instructions. It asks what percent of your income will you spend on the beneficiary. I'll pay my mortgage and she'll live in my house. I'll put her on my health insurance and pay the bill each month. We'll go to the supermarket and I'll pay at the checkout. I put down 100% of my income will go to support my beautiful fiancee.

Wells Fargo doesn't have annual deposits as a pre-programmed letter. The branch manager spent an hour going through my monthly statements for three accounts, writing the totals on a pad of paper, totaling these, and then filling out a letter. I did this for him but he said that he couldn't accept my numbers. He said that he was required to include my business savings account, which I use to receive revenue but then I transfer it all to my business checking account to spend. In other words, transfers between accounts are counted as deposits, which is how Enron got in trouble. All that work for meaningless numbers.

You are so right. Elizabeth Warren says that people who 1) own a business; 2) owns securities; 3) own a house build wealth without paying taxes, while the people who work for salaries and wages pay all the taxes. It's amazing how much the IRS lets me write off. The problem is that in 2020 and 2021 my business lost money so the USCIS could judge me unable to support my lovely fiancee. I'm going to the IRS website now and see if I can print out the last five years of tax data. And I just got a call from a real estate appraiser. He looked at I-134A and said that in his opinion the USCIS should allow tax assessments or appraisals. He said that the county tax assessment is a legal document that shows the value of the home, and that's what the USCIS is looking for. He said that paying $650 and waiting two weeks for an appraisal shouldn't be required. Appraisals are usually more accurate but the USCIS doesn't need accuracy.

Caribbean Airlines should have a flight that changes in Trinidad.

No way you got a letter from a bank officer and a home appraisal in one day! I just spent two days getting the paperwork together. I can't submit I-134A until the banks open on Tuesday, to get the letter from a bank officer.

Well that's a good question. 🙂 I'm self-employed so I don't have a salary and my taxes are complicated. The house is 90% of my wealth so I want to list it. You can attach notes to questions so I attached this note to the assessment: This is after another note suggesting that the bank statement listing deposits be changed to "deposits minus transfers between accounts." I provided both. The former is bad accounting practices, it's how Enron got in trouble.

I'm filling out I-134A. Under evidence of assets it asks for "a recent appraisal by a licensed appraiser" of my home. Can I use the county tax assessment instead? The assessment is free and on the county website. An appraisal takes weeks and costs hundreds of dollars.

The USCIS policy on expedite requests doesn't say that green cards or EADs are needed for these urgently needed vital services. Making these beneficiaries wait to start performing their vital services would defeat the purpose of expediting their visas.

Thanks for playing the devil's advocate, in case a USCIS officer challenges our expedite request. How confident are you about your translators? I've looked at webpages about eye diseases and I can't understand them, and I speak English. I can't that imagine a translator who isn't trained in optometry could translate for an optometrist.

The nonprofit wants her to do outreach to Spanish-speaking communities about low vision and other eye diseases. She would then refer patients to the clinic. She speaks Spanish and is trained in Community Medicine and completed a three-year mission to Venezuela where she provided vision services to all income categories. Outreach is one of the foundations of Cuban medicine. Doctors are responsible for the health of a village or barrio and talk to their patients about their relatives who need a house call. Cuban healthcare is a different model that better fits this nonprofit's needs than American optometrists.

That's a long document! Everything looks good: It looks like my beautiful fiancee, if she's approved for parole, would have two years to wait for her K-1 visa, or apply for adjustment of status under the 1966 Act (a year and a day after arrival in US, if I remember correctly), or another policy. The beneficiary section doesn't say that you can't apply if you've applied for a visa. I'll go ahead and apply today.

Thanks, I heard this message when I called the USCIS yesterday for the expedite request (you can't get an expedite request by phone but Ask Emma worked). I found this press release: https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/alerts/dhs-implements-new-processes-for-cubans-haitians-and-nicaraguans-and-eliminates-cap-for-venezuelans My question is, can I apply for Parole when I have a K-1 pending? The press release says, That doesn't say that you can't apply for Parole if you have another visa pending. I'll try to file I-134A today and see if it asks about pending visas.

"DHS strongly encourages Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans seeking entry in the U.S. who do not have and are not eligible for a visa to instead seek entry via this process..." Is the USCIS saying that if you've filed for a K-1 visa you can't or shouldn't apply with the new process?