Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	follow up letter	What reasons did they give your fiancee in pressuring her to sign a withdrawal for her visa applicationl?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-07-05 16:46:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Why doesn't USCIS tell you about INA 222(g)?	My mother-in-law came here in 2007 for a six month stay. We filed for an extension in May 2008, a month and a half before the expiration of her I-94. Her I-94 expired and she subsequently got an RFE and then was denied in late October of last year. She left within a week of receiving the denial letter. Before she left though, we made an InfoPass with the USCIS Denver office and they told her the denial would have no effect on her 10 year visa. I called the local CBP office and was told that as long as she left ASAP, she had nothing to worry about. Having read some stuff online that made me question what CBP and USCIS had told me, I emailed the US Embassy in Manila last week to inquire about the status of her 10 year visa and this is what they told me. QUOTE In general, one who has overstayed the authorized period of admission may no longer use the visa with which he or she entered the United States under U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act Section 222(g). This section renders void the visas of nonimmigrants who remain in the United States "beyond the period of stay authorized by the Secretary of Homeland Security." In this situation, one needs to reapply for a new nonimmigrant visa in his/her country of nationality. One’s eligibility for a new visa is determined at the time of interview by a consular officer. Rest assured that all applications are given full consideration consistent with United States law and visa regulations. If that's the case, then why didn't the denial notice from USCIS say anything about 222(g) and why didn't CBP know anything about it either? I could see someone just going back home after being denied and then later trying to use their visa again, completely unaware that it was automatically cancelled. If we had known that this would be the consequence of a denied I-539, we would have had my mother-in-law leave for home as soon as it was clear she would not receive a decision prior to the original expiration of her I-94. I don't know why these agencies can't all get on the same page especially on an issue like this where they all have a part to play in it.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-10-01 16:41:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Odds of Manila Embassy granting new B2?	My mother-in-law applied for extension of stay last year and was denied. In hindsight, we should have sent her home when USCIS hadn't decided her case prior to her I-94 expiring. Now she has to apply for a new visa and indicate an overstay on her application. Assuming she brings a copy of her I-539 case file with her to the interview and can prove she left within a week of receiving it, what are the chances she might be able to get a new visa? Based on what I've heard about how hard it is to get a NIV from Manila, I'm a bit pessimistic, but I'm wondering if anyone has had any relatives who might have had a positive experience after this type of overstay.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-11-05 00:30:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Medical expedite request approved by NVC	The NVC informed me today that my wife's request to expedite her mother's immigrant visa case for medical reasons has been granted by US Embassy Manila. Has anyone on VJ have experience with expedited visa processing in Manila? If so, can you share your experience so I can give my mother-in-law some idea of what to expect? All I know is that the NVC is now out of the mix and that the Embassy will handle the case going forward. To give you an idea of where we werein the process, we have an approved petition but haven't paid the Affidavit of Support and Immigrant Visa fee bills yet.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2010-08-10 13:15:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Medical result and interview so soon after sputum test?	Results of the three day sputum smear were negative, but she does have to wait until November 5 for the culture result to come back.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2010-09-16 08:36:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Medical result and interview so soon after sputum test?	Well, I suppose she'll find out one way or the other when she goes there on Wednesday.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2010-09-13 17:10:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Medical result and interview so soon after sputum test?	My mother-in-law didn't pass the TB x-ray three weeks ago so she went to St. Lukes last week for her 3 day sputum test. To our surprise, she was told to go back to St. Lukes this week to get her medical results and that she could have her interview two to three days after that if the results are favorable. I'm not sure she understood them right because she was originally told she would have to wait two months for her TB culture result. Her case is being expedited for medical reasons but I wouldn't think that would affect how long it takes to get the TB test results back since the culture takes time to grow. Any thoughts on this?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2010-09-13 12:43:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Medical Exam Validity - Philippines	I'm assuming the visa is only valid until early February because the medical has limited validity as well.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2010-12-13 13:14:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Medical Exam Validity - Philippines	My mother-in-law's application was approved and her visa was issued on December 1st. It is valid until February 5th.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2010-12-13 09:29:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Medical Exam Validity - Philippines	Her original appointment date was September 1 so by the time she has the interview she will have had to wait more than three months since the medical exam. Oh well... Not much we can do about it. We'll see what happens in a couple weeks. Edited by jsnearline, 13 November 2010 - 08:52 PM.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2010-11-13 20:48:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Medical Exam Validity - Philippines	Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I'm surprised she has to wait until December for the interview. I thought interviews rescheduled because of extended medicals were expedited withint a couple days of getting the medical clearance. St. Lukes told her December 1 is the first available interview date.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2010-11-12 16:27:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Medical Exam Validity - Philippines	My mother-in-law had her medical exam at St. Lukes in Manila in late August for her immigrant visa application. She had to wait for a sputum culture to be done and so she just got her medical clearance. Her interview is set for December 1st. St. Lukes told her that she has to come to the US by late February (six months from when the medical was done) - otherwise her medical would expire and she would not be allowed in. I had thought she had six months from the visa issue date, which would mean she'd have to be here by early June of next year assuming she is approved in December. I would assume that if what St. Lukes told her is correct that the Embassy would move up the expiration date of the visa to match the expiration of the medical but I don't know this for sure. Anyone have experience with this?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2010-11-12 14:27:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Employers and Days Outside US for past five years	Thanks for the responses. What did you put down for 6A and 6B? Just the addresses and employers since arriving in the US?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-03-23 13:51:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Employers and Days Outside US for past five years	Good catch on 6A. I have no problem including my wife's address and employment from the Philippines in my answers to 6A and 6B. 7A is the one that has me stumped. I don't want to answer it incorrectly and have the application denied. Is there anyone who has already applied for naturalization based on marriage to a US Citizen who can share how they answered these questions?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-03-22 20:21:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Employers and Days Outside US for past five years	I'm preparing my wife's citizenship application. The form seems designed for people who are applying after having been permanent residents for five years. In our case, my wife became eligible to apply after 3 years because she's married to me. I'm not sure how to answer the following questions. 6. B. Where have you worked during the past five years? Do we include her employers from before she first arrived in the US? 7. A. How many total days did you spend outside the United States during the past five years? Do my wife's days outside the US before she first got here on the K1 visa count as part of the answer to this question?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-03-22 15:51:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Impact of moving on pending N-400	Yep. We moved twice in 2007, so we're very familiar with the AR-11/I-865 drill.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-03-30 21:46:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Impact of moving on pending N-400	So I guess my question is whether the 90 day residency requirement would apply if you move AFTER filing but before the interview or oath ceremony.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-03-30 19:39:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Impact of moving on pending N-400	My wife and I just sent in her N-400 package. There's a chance we might have to relocate because of work and I'm wondering what that would do to the processing timeline of her application. Any thoughts?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-03-30 13:34:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Did I commit an offense or not?	This is from page 8 of the M-476 A Guide to Naturalization QUOTE Even if you have committed a minor crime, USCIS may deny your application if you do not tell the USCIS officer about the incident. Note that unless a traffic incident was alcohol or drug related, you do not need to submit documentation for traffic fines and incidents that did not involve an actual arrest if the only penalty was a fine less than $500 and/or points on your driver’s license. My interpretation of this is that you should report traffic violations on the application itself but you don't need to submit additional documentation about them as long as the penalty was less than the limit stated and no alcohol or drugs were involved. Edited by jsnearline, 02 April 2009 - 12:15 PM.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-02 12:12:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Did I commit an offense or not?	The thing that jumped out at me in the article was the guy who got denied because he had failed to file an address change, so if they can deny you for that, they certainly could deny you for not failing to declare a traffic violation or parking ticket on your N-400. From what I've read other places,one should not assume that the adjudicating officer has access to your prior I-485 and I-751 cases. They're supposed to make a good faith effort to track down your A-file, but they can make decisions without it.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-01 22:40:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Did I commit an offense or not?	If it were me, I'd report it. They certainly wouldn't deny your application because of a parking ticket. The thing is you don't want to give the adjudicating officer ANYreason to deny your application. Check out this story in the New York Times from last year. Perfectly Legal Immigrants, Until They Applied for Citizenship http://www.nytimes.c...t...ial&st=cse# Edited by jsnearline, 01 April 2009 - 01:35 PM.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-01 13:30:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Did I commit an offense or not?	A minor traffic violation is not a crime, but it is a civil offense. My wife got a speeding ticket, so we answered "yes" to questions 15 - 18, filled out the explanation table that follows and included a copy of her driving record. The driving record indicates the outcome of the citation as a conviction because she chose to pay the fine instead of going to court. The instructions say to report all offenses, even minor one, and even those that have been removed from your record. They also say that if you do not declare something, even if it is minor, your application can be denied if they find out about it. I'd say it's best to err on the side of caution. We'd rather have USCIS decide the citation was not a big deal than for them to deny the application because we didn't report it.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-01 12:54:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Baby (US Citizen) After filing for Citizenship??	Having a baby won't impact how USCIS processes the case. You can't list children on the application that haven't been born yet. Just bring the birth certificate to the interview and they'll update the application there if they feel the need to do so. If you're really worried about it, you can wait to file the N-400 until after the baby is born. Just because your wife is eligible to file at a particular date doesn't mean she has to do it then.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-06 09:34:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400 Check Cashed	I noticed that USCIS cashed the check for my wife's N-400 but there doesn't appear to be a receipt number on it. Are they no longer putting receipt numbers on cashed checks?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-07 09:56:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Can the photos be replaced with new ones at interview?	My wife didn't realize that her picture will be on the Naturalization certificate. She said if she knew this, she would have had her photos retaken. When she goes to her interview, can she bring a new set and ask the officer to replace the ones she originally submitted?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-09 22:07:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Interview Letter	The interview timeline will vary depending on the district office that will review your case. So, hopefully you based your calculations on others who will be interviewing at the same district office you will be. If not, your calculations mighe not be accurate. If you start seeing timelines of people who applied after you getting interview letters for your district office ahead of you, then I might start to worry.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-09 20:18:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	need help with question	We took the question literally and answered for the past five years. We also included a letter stating the number of days outside the US prior to initial arrival on the K1 and the number of days outside the US since the first arrival here. It will be interesting to see how it goes at the interview.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-11 14:16:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Passport - How long does it take?	I just hope that the passport agency is more careful with the naturalization certificate than they were with my son's birth certificate. They sent the birth certificate back folded, and it wasn't even folded evenly. Not such a big deal for a birth cert that only costs a few $, but if they damage the naturalization certificate, my wife would not be happy.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-09 22:29:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Passport - How long does it take?	Is there a chance the State Dept could deny a passport application if you dont't update your citizenship status with SSA first? The passport application states that they verify SSNs against lists of people ineligible to get a passport. My wife will be chanigng her name when she naturalizes. Will that pose any possible problems with SSA or State?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-09 20:55:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Is I-751 a requirement for all US citizens filing I-130 for spouses	What is the category code on the card? (IR1, IR6, IF1...)?	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-12 21:23:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Citizenship Interview Walkin	Sorry, but you won't be able to get past the front door without an appointment letter for the day you go. Even if you could get in, the local office most likely would not even have your immigration file in hand yet. I've been wondering the same thing about the oath schedule (for Denver), but it doesn't seem like they post that anywhere.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-14 09:21:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	SAVE Verifcation System	When my wife tried to remove the restriction from her Social Security card after getting her green card, we had to fight our local SSA office tooth and nail because they said SAVE still showed her maiden name. Never mind the fact that she had applied for her first Social Security card in her MARRIED name and had gotten it with no problem. We had to make an appointment with a supervisor. He was very helpful. He had us bring my wife's passport and our marriage certificate in. Once he checked those, he went ahead and approved the new card despite the outdated information in SAVE. He was quite apologetic about the whole thing. So, sometimes it helps to get someone higher up involved than just the person at the counter.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-13 17:59:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	SAVE Verifcation System	Ask DMV to contact USCIS for a manual verification. If they refuse, then ask for a supervisor. If that doesn't work, then make an InfoPass appointment with USCIS.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-03-30 12:06:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400	QUOTE (KyngSilva @ Apr 16 2009, 01:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Don't forget to send a certified copy to the deed to your soul.... For that, They require the original, I believe.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-16 15:10:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	N-400	We sent copies of my birth certificate, my passport identification and signature pages, our marriage certificate, our son's birth certificate, and our tax returns for the past three years. I'm sure the interview notice will ask us to bring more evidence to the interview, and we'll be happy to do so.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-16 10:52:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	USPS attempted delivery - Notice left	It's possible the post office never updated their records. I've had things delivered with delvery confirmation where they never bothered to update the status. Needless to say, I got refunds for those. Well, at some point, USCIS has to cash your check. Or, if the post office can't deliver it, then at some point they will return it to you.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-13 18:20:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Citizenship Interview question	Most of the exam is given verbally. It is not multiple choice. The only part that is not administered verbally is the English writing test.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-16 21:40:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Walk In For Bio	Four years ago, when my wife did her AOS, they used to let you make your own appointments for fingerprinting. My wife has her fingerprints done two days after we got our receipt notice. It still took almost a year to get her green card. So, I didn't get the impression that having the fingerprints done quickly sped things up overall. In fact, my wife was sent back for a second biometrics appointment after the interview.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-18 10:20:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Walk In For Bio	Some ASCs only handle certain types of applications on certain days. Keep in mind that fingerprinting for N-400 is more time intensive than the biometrics for the I-751. My wife got her notice on Monday for an appointment next Saturday. Two weeks isn't too bad a wait and I doubt doing a walk-in would have that much impact on her interview date.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-18 09:31:00
US Citizenship General Discussion	Number of days outside US	Some people have answered this by crossing out "five" and writing "three" and putting down the number of days for the past three years. Others have answered the question literally (my wife included) and put all the days outside the US in the past five years including days prior to initial arrival. In our case, we included an explanation letter that gave them the numbers both ways.	jsnearline	Not Telling	Philippines	2009-04-20 10:49:00