clearcoated

Yes, we also went through the NVC. We've got the delivery location set up on CGI, and the UID printout CGI told us to bring, and all the rest of the supporting docs are ready. Thanks for confirming this situation with your experience, Wawster!

From the above help, it should be no worries, but I just want to confirm our situation. My spouse has had her interview scheduled for May 16, but the CGI website continually shows: "The Case ID that you have entered cannot be found." On the uploaded photo, CGI says next available interview in May 18. So, we assumed that by now, our Case ID would be found. Nothing to worry about?

UPDATE: I called (671) 642-7611 the Guam POE http://www.cbp.gov/contact/ports/hagatna-guam Spoke to a Customs and Border Protection officer, and he said Guam can process the IR-1 Visa, and my spouse will be issued a temporary Green Card good for 1 year. He said Guam will submit the paperwork which will result in a Green Card arriving within about 5 months.

To answer the question regarding whether Guam POE can process an IR-1 Visa and trigger a Green Card, I attempted to contact the Guam Immigration office, and began to make an appointment through INFOPASS, but I can't call them, it's only an in-person appointment. So I called USCIS 1-800-375-5283 and went through the menu to speak with a customer service representative. The USCIS rep told me to contact my local US Consulate here to verify whether Guam can handle it. So my spouse will ask about it during her upcoming interview at the US Consulate in Guangzhou in 3 weeks. I'll update the results as we learn more. Thanks for all your help.

We're living in China, and my immigrant spouse completed her medical examination last week, and 3 weeks from now she'll have her interview at the US Consulate in Guangzhou. We're expecting that she'll be granted an Immigrant Visa. So, we have a 6 month window to enter a US Port of Entry with her Immigrant Visa. Within 12 months, we're planning to permanently relocate to our US residence because we currently have job obligations in China to finish up. We're unable to relocate to the US within 6 months. So, we're planning a short trip to Guam within 6 months to fulfill her US POE with Immigrant Visa requirement. Guam is only 5 hours away, and a lot less expensive than flying to San Francisco. Questions: Randy, you mentioned in another thread you initially went to the Guam POE in 2011, but needed to be processed again when you entered San Francisco. What did the USCIS require from you in San Francisco? How big of deal was that 2nd processing? Anyone, Does anyone know what Form we fill-out to get the Green Card after we've gone through the US POE? Do we fill this Form out online, or do we make an appointment to get biometrics done? If we need to make an appointment, then I should check to see if this appointment can happen in Guam, too. I'm assuming we should have the Green Card mailed to my permanent US address (my parent's home), and then my family can FedEX it to us in China. Then my spouse can enter the US with it next time.

The Visa expiration date is set for six months after the medical.The hospital staff was correct. Ok, so we have a 6 month window to enter the US after the medical exam. My understanding is any port of entry for our international flight is ok, and the confirmation of her IR1 visa happens at the airport. Later, the green card arrives in the mail. We're thinking of finding the cheapest, quickest flight to the US to handle this part. Just a short stay, and then back to China so we can finish our job contracts. We won't be ready to relocate to the US within 6 months. Within 12 months is probably more likely for the relocation. So, if it happens at the airport and any international airport is ok, then we have lots of options.

I have a medical exam question I'd like to add to this thread. My spouse finished her medical examination in Shanghai on April 22, and will go back next week to pick up her results. Her interview at the US Consulate in Guangzhou is scheduled in May. The Chinese staff at the Shanghai hospital told her that her exam results are only good for 6 months, therefore she must enter the USA within 6 months. I assumed the 6 month expiration meant she must complete her interview in Guangzhou within 6 months, and upon that success, we'd get a 1 year deadline to enter the USA. Can anyone clarify this?

I sent a PDF of the .jpg of the passport photo. Perhaps it wasn't necessary, but I included the .jpg to fulfill the Document Cover Sheet checklist. We recently received our appointment time for the interview in Guangzhou, and the Consulate asked my spouse to bring an original passport photo to the interview. For the I-864 form areas that don't allow enough space for overseas phone numbers, I used Part 11 on page 12 to write in the overseas phone numbers with a short explanation saying 11 digits plus country code couldn't to be entered. Using Part 11 is important because it allows the bar code at the bottom of the PDF page to be updated. I also hand wrote the phone numbers into those areas like Part 2 because eventually you'll need to sign the form and print it, and scan it.

All I can say is I sent everything listed on Document Cover Sheet except I didn't send: IRS transcripts, W-2, Adoption rec., Prison rec., Divorce rec., Military rec., as these were all Not Applicable for me.

I made one PDF with the NVC's Document Cover Sheet and merged my own cover letter behind it which explained what I was sending, and how it was organized. I sent everything listed on Document Cover Sheet except I didn't send: IRS transcripts, W-2, Adoption rec., Prison rec., Divorce rec., Military rec., as these were all Not Applicable. Because of having no W-2, in addition to what you listed, I sent 17 financial documents as evidence for the I-864, page 6, part 7, item 2 'Use of Assets to Supplement Income' and these 17 documents related to property ownership also proved domicile in USA (because I've worked for the past 7 years in China, and will be moving back to the USA upon receiving my spouse's visa, and will be securing a new job at that future time). I sent 3 additional documents such as my Florida driver's license which I obtained during a visit back home while living abroad, the official recording of our Chinese marriage certificate into the records at our county courthouse in FL which we also did during a visit back home, and a couple pages that featured various small photos from our USA visits - all to further prove domicile. I sent 5 documents related to future employment such as examples from my internet job search to show potential local jobs and salaries, my resume, and I was lucky enough to get a letter stating a potential job offer upon my return with a salary range indicated. Regarding getting everything under 5 MB, I spent a lot of time optimizing the sizes of the PDFs to get them as small as possible, but those 17 financial documents added 100's of pages.

So after I sent out the 5 emails within 3 minutes, I immediately received 5 automated confirmation replies saying each email was received at NVC. Then, about 3 hours later a real person from NVC replied to 2 of the 5 emails, and told me I had sent 2 secured or password protected PDFs, and I needed to resubmit them as unsecured. The 'secure' PDFs were 2 property appraisals which were created by the appraiser. So the next day, I printed out those 2 appraisals, and scanned the printouts and created 2 new unsecure PDFs, and emailed both together as a reply to the real person's request. I have not heard anything from NVC after that. I originally emailed everything on February 23rd, so I'm expecting some follow up about the next step pretty soon. I didn't send any tax transcripts. Instead, I sent 3 years of the complete tax returns. The tax transcripts would have taken too long to get from the IRS; especially since I was dealing with paper filed amended tax returns. (I originally filed electronically as single since my spouse doesn't have a SSN, and my accountant had advised electronic filing as most efficient way to deal with it overseas. In order to apply for this Immigrant Visa, I amended 2 years of tax returns to show I was indeed married, and so I needed to do a paper filing to get it done.)

UPDATE: I tried sending 23 MB in one email that contained 41 PDF attachments. Biggest single attachment was 1.9 MB. This 23 MB email immediately bounced back as undelivered due to size limitation (although I was able to send to myself no problem). I then created 5 emails labeled (1 of 5), (2 of 5), etc, and divided up my 41 PDF attachments so each email was under 5 MB in total. I prepared drafts of all 5, and sent all 5 withing 3 minutes of each other. Then, I immediately received 5 automated confirmation emails back from NVC saying they received each one. Now, I'm just waiting for the visa officer to reply.

UPDATE: I tried sending 23 MB in one email that contained 41 PDF attachments. Biggest single attachment was 1.9 MB. This 23 MB email immediately bounced back as undelivered due to size limitation (although I was able to send to myself no problem). I then created 5 emails labeled (1 of 5), (2 of 5), etc, and divided up my 41 PDF attachments so each email was under 5 MB in total. I prepared drafts of all 5, and sent all 5 withing 3 minutes of each other. Then, I immediately received 5 automated confirmation emails back from NVC saying they received each one. Now, I'm just waiting for the visa officer to reply.

Thanks, what was the total size of the email you sent including all the PDFs?

After this whole mess with the email thing i and reading this guote a few more times i realized it was not saying anything about the email it self but the Attachments need to be below 5MB and says nothing about how many you can send at one time. So i took a chance and sent ALL files i had in One email. Each FILE was 5MB or below. I sent one email for the wife and one email for step son. Each email sent had well over 5MB and closer to 40-45MB but EACH FILE sent in one email was below the 5MB rule. 40-45 MB sent in one email.... wow. My total size is currently at 23 MB, and that's from 40 PDF attachments. (My largest PDFs are 1.9 MB in size, and these are documents like property appraisals which are 17 pages long, etc.) I'm hoping to send it all in one email. Yahoo and Gmail allow 25 MB to be sent. (Maybe I still need to get it down to 22 MB to allow for email to work, etc) Anyone else have experience of sending one huge email with the attachments totaling way over 5 MB?