AOS Receipt Confirmation

By Victoria

Today we received confirmation in the mail from USCIS that they've received Colin's Adjustment of Status application, as well as a separate mail confirmation that they've received his Employment Authorization application. The received date is October 9, 2015 and the notice date is October 13, 2015.

Colin included a G-1145 form with the mailed packet to receive electronic notification of receipt, but he says he never got any emails or text messages. So much for that.

The notices came from the USCIS National Benefits Center in Missouri, even though the paperwork was sent to Illinois.

Permanent Residence Application: Requirements and Organization

By Victoria

Buckle up...this will be a long post. And complicated.

REQUIREMENTS

To jump right in, here is the full list of all the forms and documents we submitted with Colin's I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status -- Adjustment of Status (AOS) for short.

1. E-Notification Form G-1145
2. Adjustment of Status Form I-485
1. Copy of Foreign Birth Certificate
2. Copy of Passport Page with Nonimmigrant Visa
3. Vaccination Supplement (Letter)
4. Biographic Form G-325A
5. Two (2) Passport-Style Photos
6. Copy of Fiancé(e) Petition Approval
7. Certified Copy of Marriage Certificate
8. Arrival/Departure Form I-94
3. Affidavit of Support Form I-864
1. Proof of Sponsor's Citizenship (Letter)
2. Letter from Current Employer
3. Copy of IRS Individual Income Tax Return for Tax Year 2014
1. Copy of Form W-2
2. Copy of Form 1099-Misc 
4. Employment Authorization Form I-765
1. Government-Issued Identity Document (Passport Page with Nonimmigrant Visa)
2. (2) Passport-Style Photos

+ $985 Filing Fee

+ $  85 Biometrics Services Fee

Despite what appears to be an overwhelming list of required documentation, most of these files were easy to obtain or track down for the purposes of including in the application packet. Aided by the fact we had most of these already gathered, since we already anticipated needing them down the road, overall it took about 5 or 6 days to put the whole application together (which includes plenty of buffer time for me to obsessively review everything about 10 times).

ORGANIZATION

I still had two clear report covers left over from when I submitted the original petition application, so I used those to organize the AOS application. I divided the forms and documents into two packets: 1) Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status and 2) Additional Forms.

Packet 1: Main Application

This packet included main items 1 and 2 in the list I provided above -- so Form G-1145, Form I-485 (AOS), and the required evidence documents for AOS.

1. E-Notification Form G-1145
2. Adjustment of Status Form I-485
1. Copy of Foreign Birth Certificate
2. Copy of Passport Page with Nonimmigrant Visa
3. Vaccination Supplement (Letter)
4. Biographic Form G-325A
5. Two (2) Passport-Style Photos
6. Copy of Fiancé(e) Petition Approval
7. Certified Copy of Marriage Certificate
8. Arrival/Departure Form I-94

The AOS form itself wasn't too hard. Colin is the applicant, of course, so he had to fill it all in. There were questions about some biographical information and under what status he's registering for permanent residence (Box C, "I entered as a K-1 fiancé(e) of a U.S. citizen whom I married within 90 days of entry ..."). After that was a lot of yes/no questions about having ever participated in terrorism, drug trafficking, and other things that were obvious "no"s!

As you can see in the list, there are a lot of supporting documents that need to be submitted with the AOS. Our only big hiccup was the requirement to provide evidence of vaccinations that are required to be a resident of the United States. Colin had a medical exam completed within the past year as part of the K-1 requirements, so he didn't have to do another one in the US to meet the AOS requirements. However, the AOS says you still need to prove you received all the vaccinations...the thing that we got worried about interpreting is the instruction in a different form, Form I-693 Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record, that states:

If the vaccination record (DS 3025) was not properly completed and included aspart of the original overseas medical examination report, you will have to have the Part 7. Vaccination Record completed by a designated civil surgeon.

Colin's DS 3025 was completed at the time of his medical exam in London and was submitted to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as part of his visa packet when he was checked at his US Point of Entry...so we interpreted that statement to mean he doesn't need to fill out the Vaccination Record for the AOS. If we interpreted it incorrectly, though, this will result in a Request for Evidence (RFE) from USCIS and we'll have to find a civil surgeon to fill out that form and submit it. This would delay the overall AOS approval process, so...we'll see what happens.

Anyway -- the evidence requirements for the AOS also include Form I-864 Affidavit of Support, but I moved that into the second packet because there were already too many sub-components in the first packet, and I was struggling to include everything in there without it getting messy.

Packet 2: Additional Forms

This packet included main items 3 and 4 in the list I provided above -- so Form I-864, Form I-765, and the required evidence documents for both.

1. Affidavit of Support Form I-864
1. Proof of Sponsor's Citizenship (Letter)
2. Letter from Current Employer
3. Copy of IRS Individual Income Tax Return for Tax Year 2014
1. Copy of Form W-2
2. Copy of Form 1099-Misc 
2. Employment Authorization Form I-765
1. Government-Issued Identity Document (Passport Page with Nonimmigrant Visa)
2. (2) Passport-Style Photos

Form I-864 Affidavit of Support is a form the US sponsor has to fill out. I basically needed to provide employment and income information to prove I'm financially capable of supporting Colin so he doesn't become a burden on the country. The income requirement is 125% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines for your household size. I had to fill out a similar affidavit when Colin was filing forms for his London visa interview, but apparently the US sponsor has to do it again...so there you go. Nothing was too complicated with this one except digging up my old IRS tax return files (always save your tax returns going back three years!!) to copy numbers off of them and also submit a copy of my 2014 return with W-2s and 1099s.

Form I-765 is only one page long, so that's no problem. The only particularly complicated part of it is flipping through pages and pages of category references and explanations to find the one that applies to you, which you then write down on the form. For K-1 fiancé(e)s, the category is (a)(6).

So that's the rundown! You'll notice the sub-tabs are on the bottom of the pages instead of the sides -- I found a guidelines page by USCIS that stated they prefer tabs on the bottom due to the way they file the documents.

We also wrote up a cover letter to go in the mailing packet, just to introduce the purpose of the mailing and everything that's included. We have tracking confirmation from the postal service that the packet already arrived in the Chicago lockbox, but we're waiting for USCIS' confirmation that it's in their hands.

APPLICATION FOR PERMANENT RESIDENCE SUBMITTED

By Victoria

Colin's application to register permanent residence is now in the mail!

This application is headed off to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services lockbox in Chicago, Illinois. It also includes Colin's request for permission to work in the U.S. More details on the contents and requirements of this packet to come!

For anyone keeping track, it is now exactly one year and five months since we submitted the initial Petition for Alien Fiance(e) application. I didn't even realize until now that we also sent that one on day 7 of a month!

MARRIED

By Victoria

Sorry this post is so late -- we've been married nearly a month now! Whoops!

As mentioned before, we got married on August 7, 2015. We had a small, simple ring exchange ceremony in our apartment with just 3 friends and the officiant.

The following day, we drove down to Charleston where most of my family lives. We had a family get-together over the weekend to celebrate, plus took a moment to take some photos.

 

After that, we headed off to Lake Michigan for our honeymoon! It was a road trip -- we drove from SC up to MI, then over the next several days, we drove up the west coast to the top of the Michigan mitten. The big spots we hit were Grand Haven, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Old Mission Peninsula / Traverse City, and Mackinac Island.

We're settled in back at home and enjoying married life so far! On the paperwork side of things, we've sent to the courthouse the request to get copies our certified married license. Pretty soon we'll need to buckle down on submitting the application for Colin's green card, which requires quite a lot of evidence/documentation; although we've already met the 90-day requirement to get legally married, I'd still like to submit the paperwork around the time that 90 limit arrives on September 26. The sooner, the better.

Marriage Date!

By Victoria

We have a date: August 7, 2015!

We've booked an officiant to come to our apartment and conduct a short and sweet vow ceremony, including a ring exchange. She'll then fill out the rest of our marriage license and be responsible for mailing it back to the courthouse. After 10 days, we can write in to get certified copies from the courthouse.

The next day (Saturday), we're going to drive down to my hometown of Charleston, SC and spend the weekend with my family to celebrate. This will also be pretty low-key. I'll more than likely take that whole following week off of work as well, but we haven't decided what we want to do with that time (or where we might go!).

Marriage License Received

By Victoria

Today we went over to the Fairfax County Courthouse and got our marriage license! This is only part 1 of being officially recognized as a married couple...next is finding an officiant/celebrant who will fill out the bottom half of the form (the marriage certificate) and mail it back to the courthouse for final processing.

The process of getting the license was actually very simple. Fairfax County has a pre-application option online that allows you to fill out the paperwork before even going to the courthouse, which saves everyone some time. For both spouses, this paperwork is just basic information like your full name, level of education, parents' full names, birth state (or other country), etc. It's only about a page in total. Once that's submitted, you receive an email confirmation and instructions to bring a valid photo ID and Social Security Number with you to the courthouse. (The pre-application expires in 60 days.)

We were a little worried by the fact that Colin obviously doesn't have a SSN since he isn't a U.S. citizen, so to be safe, we collected pretty much every form of ID he brought over with him -- passport, birth certificate, driver's license, old voter registration -- and the official K-1 petition approval from the NVC in case we needed supporting evidence in lieu of the SSN.

Our visit to the courthouse was probably 15-20 minutes total...no problem. We went through security and got to the office we needed, where the wait wasn't long because there weren't many people. When it was our turn, we handed over our pre-application confirmation for the woman to scan, along with my driver's license and Colin's passport. There's also a $30 fee to get a marriage license.

After that she looked at Colin and asked him if he had a Social Security Number; he said "no," to which she just nodded and kept typing things on her computer. So we didn't need any of his other ID information! It turns out she just left that field blank. She didn't even ask for my SSN either and used my VA driver's license number in its place. Oh well.

The last part was just reviewing the information we'd submitted to make sure it was accurate, then she had us raise our right hands and take an oath that we were truthful with our information and intentions...then there was an explanation of the next steps, she handed over our packet of papers, and we were off!

Accepted through Immigration

By Victoria

Colin is flying out of Dublin, Ireland directly to the Dulles International Airport in Washington, DC (technically northern Virginia) at about 7:35 a.m. EST (in a few minutes). Dublin actually serves as a Point of Entry (POE) for immigration into the United States, which means they check your visa papers over there instead of having to wait until you land on U.S. soil. I got to talk to Colin this morning, and he's been accepted to immigrate to the United States!

Reportedly, it was very easy. All he had to do was hand his sealed visa packet envelope -- which he received after being approved at his London interview -- to the immigration officer. The officer opened it, looked through the papers, took a photo of Colin, and reminded him that we have to get married within 3 months. That was it! So once Colin lands in the Dulles airport, all he has to do is go through regular international customs/security.

His plane is scheduled to land at 3:35 p.m. EST!