DV 2020 AOS Only

[donod]

1. There should be a DS260 also for your spouse as your derivative.
2. Her I-485 will clearly show she’s a derivative and not the main selectee. The FO with jurisdiction over her case will not approve the case until after yours is approved and they’ve received your case file from your FO.
3. In your specific case, the short answer is YES, this should be a major concern for you. The IOs will not have any problem evaluating if your marriage is genuine or not.
4. Have you taken a look at the I-485 to see what is required in terms of a petitioner’s required addres? Where or how do you intend to cross reference addresses?

You previously stated you and your girlfriend share the same address for the past three years or so, and now (after getting married?) you live 3 hours away from each other? IMO, there are serious red flags that may lead to the marriage being viewed as a fraudulent one:

• You already submitted your DS260 as single and right now there’s no DS260 for your spouse.
• You already paid your AOS DV administrative fee - for yourself alone.
• You got married several months after being selected.
• You’re a newly married couple not living together.
• All these demonstrates an after thought marriage

This is very helpful. Thanks @Sm1smom .
My spouse and I lived together for 3 years in the same place (assume city A). My spouse went abroad for a masters for a year and is back to the US and is now attending a university in a different nearby city (city B) while I am still in the same address city A. I has been less than 90 days since my spouse moved to the US and the new city B. We got married in city A. We have enough evidence of being together for a number of years to support the marriage being genuine, though a reasonable argument can be made that immigration benefit was one of the reasons for marrying when we chose to get married.

For another individual with a similar situation, you had recommend: "you can both list the same address as your current address (wherever you both consider ‘home’), the other party can then list where they’re staying as the next physical address and indicate the “residence to” date field as current also."

If we can follow this approach and list city A as the "home address", this will work out perfectly. I looked at the I485 form: there are three addresses: mailing address, alternate/safe mailing address (not relevant here) and current address. Using this approach, my mailing address will be city A and current address will also be city A, while my spouse's mailing will be city B, first current address city A and second current address city B.

The question is under which provision can my spouse claim that her current address is still city A? https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?&node=se8.1.316_15 These are the relevant ones:
1. Students can only do so in his/her college's state or parent's state if they are dependent on the parents. Can this work? Does the dependency only apply to parents? Is there a age limit? I pay my spouse's rent, can she claim city A as home residency being dependent on me?

2. Residence in multiple states: location from which the annual federal income tax returns have been and are being filed. This could work if we assume past federal income tax returns which was filed from city A. But the future one for my spouse will be filed from city B. How to navigate this?

3. Return to the United States: the last resided address. Under this, the last resided address will be city A. But after 90-days her residence will be city B and hence she will be obliged to inform USCIS of change in residence. Is this correct?

4. Do I not need to worry about the applicable exceptions above just do what you had recommended the other individual?

 

[Sm1smom]

This is very helpful. Thanks @Sm1smom .
My spouse and I lived together for 3 years in the same place (assume city A). My spouse went abroad for a masters for a year and is back to the US and is now attending a university in a different nearby city (city B) while I am still in the same address city A. I has been less than 90 days since my spouse moved to the US and the new city B. We got married in city A. We have enough evidence of being together for a number of years to support the marriage being genuine, though a reasonable argument can be made that immigration benefit was one of the reasons for marrying when we chose to get married.

For another individual with a similar situation, you had recommend: "you can both list the same address as your current address (wherever you both consider ‘home’), the other party can then list where they’re staying as the next physical address and indicate the “residence to” date field as current also."

If we can follow this approach and list city A as the "home address", this will work out perfectly. I looked at the I485 form: there are three addresses: mailing address, alternate/safe mailing address (not relevant here) and current address. Using this approach, my mailing address will be city A and current address will also be city A, while my spouse's mailing will be city B, first current address city A and second current address city B.

The question is under which provision can my spouse claim that her current address is still city A? https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?&node=se8.1.316_15 These are the relevant ones:
1. Students can only do so in his/her college's state or parent's state if they are dependent on the parents. Can this work? Does the dependency only apply to parents? Is there a age limit? I pay my spouse's rent, can she claim city A as home residency being dependent on me?

2. Residence in multiple states: location from which the annual federal income tax returns have been and are being filed. This could work if we assume past federal income tax returns which was filed from city A. But the future one for my spouse will be filed from city B. How to navigate this?

3. Return to the United States: the last resided address. Under this, the last resided address will be city A. But after 90-days her residence will be city B and hence she will be obliged to inform USCIS of change in residence. Is this correct?

4. Do I not need to worry about the applicable exceptions above just do what you had recommended the other individual?

Yes you definitely can adopt this approach and simply the processing for yourselves:

“For another individual with a similar situation, you had recommend: "you can both list the same address as your current address (wherever you both consider ‘home’), the other party can then list where they’re staying as the next physical address and indicate the “residence to” date field as current also."

Your spouse however shouldn’t list address B as mailing address - this basically defeats the purpose of making sure both petitions are handled by the same FO. If your spouse lists address B as mailing address, bio notice will be scheduled based on that address and the FO will also be assigned based on that. Keep it simple, as you’ve seen from my recommendation in the past.

 

[AsianLily]

Hello,
I am a DV2020 selectee of case number AS00022XXX. I am currently on O1 visa in US and was planning to do AOS.
I know my number is quite high so I think it won't be current untill later next year.

The other day I was consulting an immigration lawyer and he pointed out that I should do Consular Processing because AOS takes too long, even for green card marriage and other types, and that I won't be able to make it.
I already submitted DS260 (which I should have waited till later) and received an email saying they acknowledge my intention.
So now I am confused if I should unlock DS260 and change it to CP right now.

My question is:
1. Does it really take that long, like 9 months or more, for AOS after numbers being current and they receive documents till interview?
I actually went to the USCIS website and checked the processing time for I485 at New York city office, that is where I live. And it says at least 9 months. They only listed Employment based and family based adjustment cases, so is DV lottery case different?
Because IF it is in all same processing line, most of DV AOS cases cannot make it in one year. So I am confused.
I understand my number is high and AOS usually takes longer than CP.

2. Say if I wait till Visa Builtin of May (announced in March), that is 4 months left till end of year, and still my number is not current and I decide to change to CP. Is it too late like this, to wait till later for decision?
I will have to unlock DS260, change to CP, wait for email of sending copy of documents. I assume it takes a while to do all changes and being ready for interview.
If lucky, in June it will be current and I go back to my country to do interview....

I know I shouldn't have sent DS260 too early. Especially because my case number is high, my number will not be current early enough.
I am sorry if this inquiry was already asked or not proper thread to ask, but any advice will be really appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

 

[Sm1smom]

Hello,
I am a DV2020 selectee of case number AS00022XXX. I am currently on O1 visa in US and was planning to do AOS.
I know my number is quite high so I think it won't be current untill later next year.

The other day I was consulting an immigration lawyer and he pointed out that I should do Consular Processing because AOS takes too long, even for green card marriage and other types, and that I won't be able to make it.
I already submitted DS260 (which I should have waited till later) and received an email saying they acknowledge my intention.
So now I am confused if I should unlock DS260 and change it to CP right now.

My question is:
1. Does it really take that long, like 9 months or more, for AOS after numbers being current and they receive documents till interview?
I actually went to the USCIS website and checked the processing time for I485 at New York city office, that is where I live. And it says at least 9 months. They only listed Employment based and family based adjustment cases, so is DV lottery case different?
Because IF it is in all same processing line, most of DV AOS cases cannot make it in one year. So I am confused.
I understand my number is high and AOS usually takes longer than CP.

2. Say if I wait till Visa Builtin of May (announced in March), that is 4 months left till end of year, and still my number is not current and I decide to change to CP. Is it too late like this, to wait till later for decision?
I will have to unlock DS260, change to CP, wait for email of sending copy of documents. I assume it takes a while to do all changes and being ready for interview.
If lucky, in June it will be current and I go back to my country to do interview....

I know I shouldn't have sent DS260 too early. Especially because my case number is high, my number will not be current early enough.
I am sorry if this inquiry was already asked or not proper thread to ask, but any advice will be really appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

Forget about what the lawyer told you, he/she is not familiar with DV based AOS petitions - so they clearly have no idea of what the processing timeline is.

Go through the AOS process spreadsheet (linked to the first post on page one of this thread). One of the tabs has links to past timeline spreadsheets we’ve been using for the past couple of years to track DV based AOS timelines to get an idea of how long such petitions typically take. USCIS listed AOS processing timeline is not applicable to DV based AOS petitions - the best information you can find is from the sources I referenced above. Go through them to start with.

 

[AsianLily]

Forget about what the lawyer told you, he/she is not familiar with DV based AOS petitions - so they clearly have no idea of what the processing timeline is.

Go through the AOS process spreadsheet (linked to the first post on page one of this thread). One of the tabs has links to past timeline spreadsheets we’ve been using for the past couple of years to track DV based AOS timelines to get an idea of how long such petitions typically take. USCIS listed AOS processing timeline is not applicable to DV based AOS petitions - the best information you can find is from the sources I referenced above. Go through them to start with.

Thank you so much @Sm1smom !!!
I found the timeline. They are very helpful.
So I will see how the numbers move for a while.
Thanks again!!!

 

[afterpoop]

I am on F1 visa and my lottery number is AS6xxx. I used an old photo that is also in my passport for the DV. I have been using the same photo for the last 4 years. The question is 1. are the applications with recurrent photos denied at the selection phase or the interview phase.

I understand that the immigration officer my deny my AOS because of the old photo issue. 2. What is the likelihood of being accepted vs denied? If I have a high probability of being denied, I do not want to file for AOS and show immigrant intent which may jeopardize my future ability to get F1.
Thanks

 

[Sm1smom]

I am on F1 visa and my lottery number is AS6xxx. I used an old photo that is also in my passport for the DV. I have been using the same photo for the last 4 years. The question is 1. are the applications with recurrent photos denied at the selection phase or the interview phase.

I understand that the immigration officer my deny my AOS because of the old photo issue. 2. What is the likelihood of being accepted vs denied? If I have a high probability of being denied, I do not want to file for AOS and show immigrant intent which may jeopardize my future ability to get F1.
Thanks

Post already answered here.

 

[Giovanna]

I am on F1 visa and my lottery number is AS6xxx. I used an old photo that is also in my passport for the DV. I have been using the same photo for the last 4 years. The question is 1. are the applications with recurrent photos denied at the selection phase or the interview phase.

I understand that the immigration officer my deny my AOS because of the old photo issue. 2. What is the likelihood of being accepted vs denied? If I have a high probability of being denied, I do not want to file for AOS and show immigrant intent which may jeopardize my future ability to get F1Thanks

oh my gosh I am in the same situation. I added the same picture that is both in my J1 and F1 visa

 

[Aidyn]

oh my gosh I am in the same situation. I added the same picture that is both in my J1 and F1 visa

its not about if you have used it before, it depends on how old the photo is
Was it less than 6 months at the time of your DV application

 

[Giovanna]

its not about if you have used it before, it depends on how old the photo is
Was it less than 6 months at the time of your DV application

I used for many applications and it is also in my J1 and F1 visa

 

[SusieQQQ]

I used for many applications and it is also in my J1 and F1 visa

You still didn’t address the actual issue.

 

[Giovanna]

You still didn’t address the actual issue.

It is 5 years old

 

[SusieQQQ]

It is 5 years old

And you didn’t follow the instructions because... ?

 

[Giovanna]

@Sm1smom at the interview, aos,
1)do they may have access to the pic uploaded in the entry?
2) have you have read in this forum AOSs with the same issue?
3) did they get denied?

 

[Sm1smom]

@Sm1smom at the interview, aos,
1)do they may have access to the pic uploaded in the entry?
2) have you have read in this forum AOSs with the same issue?
3) did they get denied?

1. Your KCC file, which contains the eDV entry form, DS260 form, all other communications you’ve have with KCC, etc, gets sent to the FO before or after your interview. So yes, USCIS has access to your entry photo.
2&3. I’m not aware of a DV based AOS denial due to old entry photo use.

 

[Giovanna]

1. Your KCC file, which contains the eDV entry form, DS260 form, all other communications you’ve have with KCC, etc, gets sent to the FO before or after your interview. So yes, USCIS has access to your entry photo.
2&3. I’m not aware of a DV based AOS denial due to old entry photo use.

Thank you @Sm1smom. I just have to pray. I will let you know what will happen at the interview.

 

[boobbb]

@Sm1smom at the interview, aos,
1)do they may have access to the pic uploaded in the entry?
2) have you have read in this forum AOSs with the same issue?
3) did they get denied?

The FO has all your previous pictures. A few years ago when I needed to renew my O1 visa on my passport, the FO in my home country made me retake the pictures I submitted for the visa because he noticed that I've used them before. I saw on his monitor all of my 3 previous pictures....

 

[Giovanna]

The FO has all your previous pictures. A few years ago when I needed to renew my O1 visa on my passport, the FO in my home country made me retake the pictures I submitted for the visa because he noticed that I've used them before. I saw on his monitor all of my 3 previous pictures....

i feel negative, honestly

 

[Sm1smom]

The FO has all your previous pictures. A few years ago when I needed to renew my O1 visa on my passport, the FO in my home country made me retake the pictures I submitted for the visa because he noticed that I've used them before. I saw on his monitor all of my 3 previous pictures....

This like comparing apples and oranges, let’s be clear regarding what we’re talking about here please. You’re talking about an embassy experience, which is where visa applications takes place.

USCIS FOs adjudicating AOS petitions are based in the US, embassies adjudicate visa petitions (visa stamps that goes on a passport). FOs and embassies are different agencies/operations. FOs do not have access direct access to visa petitions submitted at an embassy

 

[Sm1smom]

i feel negative, honestly

Don’t feel down or negative. What @boobbb described is not quite accurate.