Paying For The I-130 Application

[Mari Yagami]

Hi all,

As the title suggests, hubby and I are about to start the Green Card application process. We are fairly sure we understand all the steps we need to follow, but we are stuck when figuring out how to pay the USD$420 fee.

We have the money (in either the pesos equivalent or actual physical dollars), but that is all we have figured out. We do not have a US bank account tho, and we have no idea if there is a way to pay by debit/credit card, or a way to get a money order in Argentina?

If anybody here has done this process and has any tips/ideas, it would be awesome.

Thanks!

 

[DontMindMe]

We went through the I-130 process in April of this year.

The payment must be made in U.S. dollars from an American bank account-- checks and money orders are accepted. Can you get a friend or family member in the U.S. to write the check from their account? You can FedEx/DHL the I-130 package to them, they put in the check and then send the package on to the right place. Then you can pay them back. There is no USCIS domestic field office in Argentina, so paying with a card is not an option.

Just a heads up-- Once the I-130 petition is approved and your case is forwarded to the National Visa Center, the U.S. citizen member of the couple, if that person is living abroad, will need to prove intent to reestablish domicile in the United States. It's going to be hard to do that if you don't have so much as a bank account there. The USC will also need a joint financial sponsor if he/she doesn't have sufficient income that will continue upon moving back to the U.S.

Here are some helpful links (be sure to also read the official government instructions online; they are easy to find with Google):

http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1
http://www.visajourney.com/content/paying-immigration-fees
http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/NVC_Process

 

[Girino]

The payment must be made in U.S. dollars from an American bank account-- checks and money orders are accepted. Can you get a friend or family member in the U.S. to write the check from their account?

If you don't have nobody and can't find nobody (I am sure somebody on this board would happily write a check for you in exchange of cash), you can always ask help to an Immigration attorney, but for a fee. You just need to find one that accept credit cards payment - you can find plenty on the Internet.

 

[Mari Yagami]

We went through the I-130 process in April of this year.

The payment must be made in U.S. dollars from an American bank account-- checks and money orders are accepted. Can you get a friend or family member in the U.S. to write the check from their account? You can FedEx/DHL the I-130 package to them, they put in the check and then send the package on to the right place. Then you can pay them back. There is no USCIS domestic field office in Argentina, so paying with a card is not an option.

Just a heads up-- Once the I-130 petition is approved and your case is forwarded to the National Visa Center, the U.S. citizen member of the couple, if that person is living abroad, will need to prove intent to reestablish domicile in the United States. It's going to be hard to do that if you don't have so much as a bank account there. The USC will also need a joint financial sponsor if he/she doesn't have sufficient income that will continue upon moving back to the U.S.

Here are some helpful links (be sure to also read the official government instructions online; they are easy to find with Google):

http://www.visajourn...tent/i130guide1
http://www.visajourn...mmigration-fees
http://www.visajourn...php/NVC_Process

Fortunately, we have someone who is willing to be the co-sponsor for the AoS, but were hoping to inconvenience the least amount of people possible in the process of getting the Green Card going. We have read a lot but never heard about having to prove the intent to reestablish domicile in the US - which is what we want, yes, but did not know we would need any extra things other then the place where we intend to live initially + the co-sponsor. Going to check out those links you pasted for sure.

Thank you so much for the information! I am extremely nervous about this whole thing.

If you don't have nobody and can't find nobody (I am sure somebody on this board would happily write a check for you in exchange of cash), you can always ask help to an Immigration attorney, but for a fee. You just need to find one that accept credit cards payment - you can find plenty on the Internet.

Thanks for the tip, Ron! We actually talked to a few - first suggestion one of them had was "lie on your tax papers", so we kind of decided not to go with him... And the rest charge a fortune, to be honest. Our only concern is that since he does not have a job in the US, we absolutely need a co-sponsor, but it looks like we have that covered (unless things go wrong, that is).

Once again, thank you both for the help!

 

[Girino]

Try Gary Chodorow, he keeps a wonderful blogs where he answer to your questions and seems very knowledgeable and professional. He is not my attorney, just a blog I follow because I will have to go through an I-130 myself later this year (I have a green card and would like to sponsor my soon to be husband).

The intent to live and reside is something I usually read for Permanent Resident application, but I don't know if it applies to application through a US citizen, as well. Sure they will ask for proof of financial support from someone in the US for you.

 

[Mari Yagami]

Going to follow him as well! The process seems "simple" and "straightforward" when followed properly, but getting all the information in the same place can be daunting. >_<; Good luck with yours!

My husband tried calling USCIS saying he wanted to sponsor me and he needed to know how to pay for it in this country and he was flat out told "no idea" and then told he probably could use the same methods as when applying from USA. Thank god for the internet.

 

[Girino]

USCIS is not always very collaborative.

Anyway, since you have to mail your application together with the check, either you need to have the check sent here, or you send your applications to someone in the US who can attach a check to it and forward it to USCIS.

You could send your US friend money through PayPal, Western Union, Xoom or by wire.
But the simplest option is always to look for someone with a US account here who can write a check, so that you can deal with cash and send the application by yourself directly from Argentina.

 

[DontMindMe]

The intent to live and reside is something I usually read for Permanent Resident application, but I don't know if it applies to application through a US citizen, as well. Sure they will ask for proof of financial support from someone in the US for you.

Clearly it applies as I am a U.S. citizen and I wouldn't have written about it if I didn't have to prove domicile myself. I'm not just making things up here. They want to make sure any American living abroad will be moving back with or before the foreign spouse. The foreign spouse cannot enter the U.S. before the American, but they can enter at the same time.

Mari Yagami, if you want my opinion, don't bother with an immigration attorney. They are quite expensive and you'll be spending enough money on fees and FedEx already. A lawyer can only fill out the paperwork for you; they do not have connections that make the process go any faster. Plus, you never know when they just let that paperwork sit on their desk. If you do it yourself, you are aware of what's happening at all times because all correspondence goes directly to you, and you can take action immediately, making the process go faster. The number of people I've seen on the forum I linked you to crying about bad legal advice and wasting time and money on even well-recommended lawyers who made stupid mistakes is truly shocking. Our I-130 petition was approved without any mistakes or requests for further evidence, and neither my husband nor I have a legal background. We just used that forum, mainly the search feature. Not to mention our case is a bit complicated. We sent the petition before making an international move, then had to change our address, my husband needs more documents than usual for the NVC stage because he's lived in multiple countries, etc. I was made aware of some of these issues and able to get help for all of them for free, thanks to Visa Journey. Can't recommend that community enough. It has not failed me yet. Thank God for the internet indeed!

Another thing-- When you call USCIS, the initial person who answers is an operator who has no authority and next to no knowledge of anything except your current case status. If you have future problems with your petition once you send it, call and immediately ask to speak to a Tier 2 representative. This is not something that is publicized, but it's a trick I learned on the forum. Best of luck!

 

[Mari Yagami]

DontMindMe, yep, after talking to a couple lawyers it became evident that there was not going to be a lot they would do for us that we could not do ourselves - and there was the one willing to cut corners since he would not be the one dealing with the backlash later on if anything failed, obviously.

I am already reading the links you provided as they are really comprehensive. Basically waiting on having our co-sponsor secured before we start the process right now (we have a place in the States where we would live until my company relocated me to their US branch and we have to rent our own apartment).

I really appreciate all the advice and am following up with the links provided to make sure we don't screw this up!

Thank you.

 

[DontMindMe]

Basically waiting on having our co-sponsor secured before we start the process right now (we have a place in the States where we would live until my company relocated me to their US branch and we have to rent our own apartment).

Just FYI, there's no need to wait to get started unless you really want to! The I-130 petition is step 1, with USCIS. That step doesn't involve the financial sponsorship at all. Once the petition is approved, your case gets sent to the National Visa Center. Then step 2 begins and that's the part where you send the Affidavit of Support documents (sponsor/tax stuff), among other things. Once your case arrives to NVC, you can take as much time as you need as long as you contact them minimum once a year to keep your case active. So if your case gets to NVC and you don't have a joint sponsor yet, it's not a problem if you need more time to figure things out.

If you ever want to send me a private message, feel free. I've gotten so much great help from strangers online that I try to pay it forward when I can.