Inscrutable Notes from NVC: DS-260 and I-864

[SeanC]

Situation:

My wife is a Chinese national living in China with our infant daughter, who last year received her CRBA cert and a US passport.

My wife's I-130 was approved in September.

I submitted all the visa application files yesterday.

I received these notes from the NVC today (fast, right?):

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Question 1:  DS-260: The petition you have filed does not allow derivative status for family members. This means that any spouse, unmarried child under age 21, or parent will require his or her own petition to immigrate.

This seems to imply that I should submit an I-130 for our daughter. But this doesn't make sense to me because she is a US citizen. The only thing I can guess triggered this response is that on the DS-260 application, where it asks whether our daughter will immigrate with her mother, I chose "Yes." I have tried to change it to "No," but it won't let me change the response now. I contacted the NVC to clarify the problem, but as of now, I am not certain, and don't know how to remedy it.

 

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Question 2: I-864: Sean does not qualify to use Form I-864EZ. Please visit https://www.uscis.gov/i-864 to complete a Form I-864 to replace this. FINANCIAL SPONSORSHIP RESPONSIBILITIES: Financial sponsors, joint sponsors, and applicants should be aware of responsibilities when signing an I-864 and the consequences for a sponsored immigrant's acceptance of federal means-tested public benefits. For more information visit https://nvc.state.gov/aos.

The review note says I am not eligible for the I-864EZ. However, from answering these three questions, the EZ form should be sufficient.

The possible reasons for this rejection that I can guess may be the DS-260 answers detailed above, or possibly the way I answer the household question:

I list a dependent with a household size of three, despite our daughter not technically being an immigrant. Maybe that is triggering the ineligibility?

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I hope someone has some knowledge they can offer. Thank you very much.

[Randy W]

The word "immigrant" is used by the DHS to refer to someone applying for a green card - an unfortunate confusion factor running contrary to the dictionary definition. So, no, your daughter is not eligible for a green card and is not considered an "immigrant". The I-864EZ is not allowed for someone whose "child is immigrating to the US" with them.

It probably is in your best interest to get that "Yes, my child is immigrating to the US" answer changed to a "No", if you can reasonably do so.

But you might consider filing the I-864 anyway just for expediency in getting beyond this little roadblock.

[SeanC]

Thanks. I'm moving forward on the 864 long form, but it won't let me change anything on the DS-260, so I'm trying to contact them to get it changed. I'm probably not the only one that wishes they would state their questions more clearly.

[SeanC]

Update: Turns out there was nothing wrong with my DS-260 form, they said over the phone that it was just a strangely worded note that did not require any changes to the form. The only problem was that I was ineligible for the 864EZ form. I have no idea why, because I meet all the stated criteria, but I've filled out the long form and submitted it, so I hope I am on my way to scheduling an interview for my wife.

[Martin B]

42 minutes ago, SeanC said:

Update: Turns out there was nothing wrong with my DS-260 form, they said over the phone that it was just a strangely worded note that did not require any changes to the form. The only problem was that I was ineligible for the 864EZ form. I have no idea why, because I meet all the stated criteria, but I've filled out the long form and submitted it, so I hope I am on my way to scheduling an interview for my wife.

Good luck! Guangzhou used to be pretty fast for scheduling interviews. I wonder what the wait is now with the large backlog from Covid...

[Randy W]

1 hour ago, SeanC said:

Update: Turns out there was nothing wrong with my DS-260 form, they said over the phone that it was just a strangely worded note that did not require any changes to the form. The only problem was that I was ineligible for the 864EZ form. I have no idea why, because I meet all the stated criteria, but I've filled out the long form and submitted it, so I hope I am on my way to scheduling an interview for my wife.

Yes - the meaning of the word "immigrate" seems to have the largest discrepancy between the USCIS meaning (apply for a green card) and the way the rest of us use it.

But they ARE consistent with it. 

Just a minor glitch/"gotcha" in your process - but the I-864 should be the only downside, even if the question pops up again.

[SeanC]

On 3/9/2021 at 9:12 PM, Barfus said:

Good luck! Guangzhou used to be pretty fast for scheduling interviews. I wonder what the wait is now with the large backlog from Covid...

How'd you know she will interview in Guangzhou?

They scheduled my daughter's CRBA really fast. I heard back in a few days after my request, they scheduled it for the following week, and the passport and cert came two weeks later. Covid doesn't seem to have slowed it down much, but maybe that has changed since last summer. We shall see.

[Martin B]

3 hours ago, SeanC said:

How'd you know she will interview in Guangzhou?

They scheduled my daughter's CRBA really fast. I heard back in a few days after my request, they scheduled it for the following week, and the passport and cert came two weeks later. Covid doesn't seem to have slowed it down much, but maybe that has changed since last summer. We shall see.

AFAIK all immigrant visas are processed at the US consulate in Guangzhou.