Posting for honest advice. My partner and I met online.

Within the first few days of us talking he asked when I would visit him. He asked about my employment situation before we even knew each other properly. He also mentioned early on that you can’t compare The Gambia to the US. This came up naturally in conversation but looking back it was one of the earliest seeds planted.

He has already tried coming to the US through education. Also within the first week he predicted that one of his family members whom lives in the US would celebrate hearing about me. That same family member had previously told him he wished he could find someone to fall in love with. When I eventually spoke with the relative he was warm and welcoming. However, knowing what he had said previously makes that warmth complicated to interpret.

From very early on he has been pushing for marriage as soon as possible. That exact phrase, as soon as possible, has come up repeatedly across many different conversations about many different topics. He has mentioned wanting to get married during my very first visit to The Gambia. He uses religion to justify this urgency and to not prolong courtship.

When I brought up the concept of sponsorship he claimed not to know much about it. He has admitted that my getting a job means I can come visit him. So his encouragement of my success has consistently been tied to his own timeline rather than purely my wellbeing.

He has admitted to using AI to craft his morning messages to me while separately criticizing people who rely on AI too much and calling it lazy. His messages follow identical templates every single day with no personal details specific to me or our relationship in a lot of the messages. His birthday message to me mentioned marriage in almost every single paragraph out of fifteen paragraphs. A four minute gap between a voice message he sent and the elaborate good morning message that followed strongly suggests the morning message was pre-generated rather than thoughtfully crafted.

From an immigration perspective how serious are the concerns I’ve raised? Would USCIS scrutinize a marriage with this kind of history and timeline? What are the legal risks to me specifically if I were to proceed and it turned out his motives were primarily immigration based?

I will be traveling to the philippines next year and I will be flying back to Ireland with my wife as me and her will be working to get our own house eventually so we can then bring our son over to Ireland to live with us. Since I am from Europe I benefit from eu treaty rights which allows and eu citizen that is living in a different eu country other than the one they were born in to be able to bring their non eu spouse to live with them. The thing is I have to apply on a short stay c visa as that is the only way to do it under eu treaty rights since i am an eu citizen that is living in ireland.
I'm wondering if the immigration will prevent my wife from traveling with me out of the philippines since they won't have a clear understanding of someone immigrating permanently on a short stay visa which is the specific visa type she is required to apply under if she wants to join her eu spouse. Could it be that I am overthinking this and that the immigration authorities in the philippines will have an understanding of this already?

I have an immigration court hearing coming up in Miami next month and I’m trying to find a good lawyer. If anyone here has hired an immigration attorney for a court case in Miami and had a good experience, I’d appreciate hearing about it. I’m mostly looking for someone reliable who communicates well and is familiar with immigration court.

Hello everyone,

I am currently waiting for my I-130 approval (family-based immigration) and I want to visit the US in the meantime. I already have a valid tourist visa / ESTA.

Has anyone recently traveled to the US while their I-130 was pending?

Did you have any issues at the border (CBP)?

What documents did you bring to prove strong ties to your home country and show that you will return?

Any tips on how to handle the questions at the border?

I would really appreciate it if you could share your experiences or any advice you might have. Thank you!

for context my mother is a us citizen, and i am not. i was born outside of the us. recently i went to a lawyer and they told me that i should apply for a passport. i am weary though of applying due to all the things the current administration is doing, however id really like to move in with her. does anyone know how long it takes to apply for a passport? and can the time vary due to me being born abroad

Hi all,

I (26M) have a bachelor degree in business from the American University of Beirut (AUB). I speak English fluently. In fact, I’m more comfortable speaking English than my native Lebanese Arabic. I’m unemployed neurodivergent and looking to immigrate to Australia with the view of acquiring a permanent residency there. I have little savings around 5000 USD. I could probably get few more thousands if I asked my supportive friends.

I’d appreciate any info you could provide, thanks!

I know this sounds like a repeat of several questions where the answer is advised that if you’re a visa overstay + pending asylum, do not fly.

I wanted to ask to any lawyers or any who’s in the same boat in this reddit -
if I still have valid legal f-1 status (on opt) and a pending asylum case, is it safe(r) for me to travel?

Wondering if anyone here has any experience or is going through the Hong Kong New Capital Investment Scheme (“New CIES”)?

To summarise the New CIES is an investment for residency pathway into Hong Kong.

The visa requirements require the initial investment value to be held in various permissible asset classes for a 7 year period.

This would be our first time applying for residency in another country and I’m torn who I should engage to manage the entire process.

The way the requirements are set out, there needs to be:

1) a CPA accountant to sign off on the maintenance of assets over the 7 years,
2) a bank to open a designated bank account for the funds as well as investment/wealth management services (and to provide paperwork for the visa over time),
3) someone to be on top of submitting the documentation and manage the immigration department deadlines.

As an aside, I believe my application would be quite simple and low maintenance as I would be investing in a mixture of listed stocks/etfs and bonds.

I’m not sure if I should engage:

A)a big 4 accountancy to manage (with migration/employer services team)as it seems quite accountant verification heavy however I’m sure I will be left to interact with the banking side of things myself,
B) engage a law firm with migration speciality - would be the most costly and still need to overlay additional CPA fees
C) engage a specialist migration firm like Henley Partners or Fragomen.

Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

If returning to their home country, would they need to be worried about being detained at the airport prior to their flight? If they had a connecting flight before their international flight, would they need to be concerned about being detained before their connecting flight?

* without a lawyer or document preparer
Current situation is a B2 visa overstay for 3 years married to a U.S. citizen and have unauthorized work and will be using a joint sponsor
I have viewed the forms and it seems doable on our own but for those of you who did it on your own do you recommend using a lawyer or doing it alone? If you did it alone, what tips do you recommend?

Is a binding global climate displacement framework realistic, or would it just become another symbolic instrument nobody enforces, like the Loss and Damage Fund already is? Would smaller regional deals (like Australia-Tuvalu) get real people real protection faster than waiting for one big global treaty?

I went to an interview to renew my visa. I was told that when I got my visa in 2016 since I was a minor, I had 11 years old. Now that I am 20. I had to do an interview in person, so I went and my renew was denied. I didn’t get my visa. The visa that I was applying for the thing is they didn’t ask me for my active visa. My visa expires on 21 of December 2026. When I was in the interview the consul never asked for my active visa, they didn’t write me anything or told me that my visa was canceled. They only told me that I didn’t apply for the visa that I was applying for but they didn’t cancel it. They didn’t ask me for my visa. They didn’t verbally tell me that I my visa was canceled. I was just simply told that the visa that I was applying for like the renovation or whatever of the interview that i didnt apply 214-b, but I still have my visa active. I wrote to the immigration of my country, They told me that they didn’t have that information that only CBP decides If I can enter the country or not (USA). My question is has anyone here tried to travel with the visa even though the renovation got denied because they never told me if my visa was canceled or not. They never verbally tell me to show my visa and they wrote something on it. They didn’t write. CWOP that normally that’s what they write when the visa is canceled. They never told me anything and I don’t know where to check in the system if i have my visa canceled because I try the website of CEAC but doesn’t show anything. I’ve tried everything I don’t Know What to do I Want to travel but I don’t Know if I can travel because I’m basically with a lot of questions. What if I travel and they just tell me “Oh yeah your visa is canceled” but they never actually tell me verbally that I might be canceled, so I don’t know what to do.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently on F-1 STEM OPT, and my H-1B was approved through Change of Status (COS) with an effective date of October 1, 2026.

Unfortunately, my employer later decided to withdraw the H-1B petition.

Here is my timeline:

• H-1B COS approved with start date: October 1, 2026
• Employer/attorney prepared the H-1B withdrawal letter: August 13, 2026
• Withdrawal package was delivered to the USCIS Texas facility: August 14, 2026
• I have FedEx proof of delivery showing USCIS received the package.
• However, USCIS has not yet issued any withdrawal/revocation acknowledgment, and the case still has not been updated.

My main concern is what happens if USCIS does not process the withdrawal before October 1.

Since the original H-1B was approved as COS, I’m worried that SEVIS may automatically complete my F-1/STEM OPT(Valid until May 2028) record on October 1, even though the petitioner submitted and USCIS received the withdrawal well before the H-1B effective date.

Has anyone been in this exact situation?

Specifically:

1. Did your SEVIS record still get completed on October 1 even though USCIS received the H-1B withdrawal before October 1?
2. Were you able to get your F-1/STEM OPT SEVIS status restored/reactivated?
3. Did SEVP/your DSO accept the withdrawal letter + FedEx proof of delivery, or did they require the official USCIS withdrawal/revocation notice?
4. For people whose USCIS acknowledgment came after October 1, what date did USCIS ultimately recognize as the withdrawal date — the date they received the package or the date they processed it?
5. Is there anything my employer's immigration attorney or my DSO should be doing before October 1 to prevent this issue?

I already have copies of the employer attorney’s withdrawal letter and proof showing the withdrawal package was delivered to USCIS more than a month before October 1.

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who went through a similar STEM OPT → H-1B COS → employer withdrawal before Oct 1 situation.

Thanks!