Department of State told me last week that Packet 3 had been mailed out on December 11th, last Tuesday.

As of today, my beneficiary has still not received it.

Part of me kinda has to wonder if it has been caught in the backlog of all sorts of holiday mail, since Christmas is mere days away now. But at the same time I've seen a couple other timelines of people who got their Packet 3 in 4-5 days.

Is there any way we can try and find out where it's at? I mean, I'd like to think that something as important as this wouldn't get, say, lost in the mail...but yeah.

I don't immediately imagine there's anything the embassy could actually tell us other than 'it's on the way' but if anyone knows of any way to check on the status of one's materials, that would be great to know...

i think you might just have to sit tight til after christmas. Mail has been shocking recently, even regular first class post is taking well over a week!

My fiance's P3 was also sent on Dec 11, and he hasn't received his either, so it really just must be the holiday mail. We're just sitting tight waiting for it, hoping it will arrive before the end of the week.

You can try phoning the DOS on 1-800-375-5283 or the benificiary can try phoning the London embassy on 09042-450100 (this costs £1.20 a min).
Either number should be able to tell you if your packet 3 has been entered in the system, but I do agree with ddkm, just sit tight a few days. It should be there any time now.

Hi there.

Based on a very non scientific survey of Christmas cards received, the problem would seem to be post out of the London area.

I am another posted on Tuesday 11 December member.

I have everything I need to return for Packet 3 (all downloaded from the London Embassy web site). Could I just mail them in anyway? If do, does anyone have the address?

Finally, a very merry Christmas to all who have stayed on this train to hell! A long and arduous journey but we will soon be walking (well flying) into our own heaven! Sorry if I have mixed my metaphors/similes here!).

Here is a link to a scanned Packet 3 http://www.visajourney.com/gallery/thumbna...y&uid=30186 . You can find the address on there. I used this scan to return my Packet 3 before I received it during the postal strike.

my packet 3 landed on doormat this morning. I just have a wee and possibly stupid question.....been looking through the forms and i noticed one asks for national identification number....only thing I can think of that we have is NI or do we just leave that bit blank....sorry if it's a silly question.

I wrote 'none' in that bit and my forms have 'passed muster' ok.

Gillian

I put 'None' in that box too.
No doubt when the UK citizens have to carry an ID card then we will have a number to put in there, but for now we dont have NIN's

thanks folk!

My packet 3 was sent in the mail on Dec 5th...
I havent received it yet

F. Debbie

Bumping this, because according to julezabelle, her beneficiary never got packet 3, and had to call, then email, the embassy to get another one =\

Has anyone else who was waiting on theirs gotten it yet? Or are you still waiting?

Not counting the poster right above me, who has now been waiting going on damn near a month for it..

Hey thejoz, tell your fiance to call the embassy! Here's our story of what happened due to the lost Packet 3:

Despite the fact that the Packet 3 mailed from London on Dec. 11th never reached my fiance, it didn't deter us from mailing the docs back to the Embassy on Dec. 21. However, with the Jan. 7th medical looming and not having those docs, yesterday Griff bit the bullet and called the extortion line. They gave him a special code to email the embassy to ask for a duplicate packet 3. He received the standard auto-reply that they'll act on his email in 3 - 4 days.

Fast forward to this morning. Griff is at work, the phone rings. Its the Embassy calling. They asked him since he's coming to London on Jan. 7th for the medical at 2:30, would he mind popping into the embassy at 07:30 for his interview that same day? OMG!!!! YES!!!! I can't believe it!!!! We are both so excited since this means we can get married on Feb. 16th as planned!!!

Time to take some action thejoz! Good luck!

OMG!!! Julez -- that is amazing news! I bet you and Griff are ecstatic. What a great way to start the new year -- I bet you're both in a tizz trying to get things ready, what with only 10 days to go!

Well I did talk to Amy, and she told me if it doesn't show up tomorrow, she's going to call them Monday.

Something else I was wondering though, could we simply download the packet 3 that's been posted on here, have her print them out and send them in? Or is that like, illegal/not feasible? Just something I thought of, heh.

Secondly, should she go ahead and try and schedule her medical now, even though she may not actually have her packet 3 in hand? I mean I don't know that she'd get the same lucky break you did, probably not, but if we can speed this process up any, I'm all for it!

As long as you have the LND # you can schedule the medical. So, go for it! Although, I'm pretty certain they are closed until next Wednesday.

As far as sending P3 docs back to the embassy, that is exactly what we did last Friday. Used all the stuff posted here on VJ, as have several others. We were tired of waiting and knew that it had actually been sent, so took the bull by the horns, so to speak! I'd get the medical scheduled and send off P3, but still call to let them know you never rec'd P3 sent Dec. 11th. Sending the P3 docs & checklist back to them shows them you're ready for the interview, so that definitely speeds things up, while sitting back and waiting doesn't.

Good luck!!!!!!!

I'll share all this with her and see if she can't get on the ball. Thanks!

I returned my Packet 3 before I received it using the scans, as you can see from my timeline, and had no problems at all.

Juleza or Rosemarie, can either of you point me to where you got the forms from online?

I couldn't seem to find them on here, at least not the ones that actually need to be filled out...

You can get the forms downloaded from The London Embassy site. You will need the checklist from VJ as you can't get it from the embassy site!

Okay, so forms from embassy, checklist from VJ...

So she's sending in a grand total of what, like 4 forms?

The 3 forms (she doesn't fill out one cause she's female) and the checklist? Is that correct?

Does she need any sort of cover letter or anything that should state what she's sending in and why? Or is all that assumed by what she's sending in?

She will complete the following:

DS-230 Part I
DS-156 - 2 unsigned copies
DS-156K
Checklist

Griff didn't put anything else when he returned the packet.

I got them from here http://www.state.gov/m/a/dir/forms/

Ya - better to get them directly from the DOS website, London can be slow to update their forms.

Yes! Cannot agree more -- the I-130 we downloaded from their website (back in my pre-VJ days) was out of date. Although the Embassy accepted it, we didn't get the vital bit of info that they now needed proof of a bona fide marriage beyond just the marriage certificate and then it was helllloooooo, RFE City.

Oh, and Happy New Year, UK VJ peeps!

Happy new year to you all

I have to say that i am literally in the same situation, I should have received my pack 3 by now, still waiting. I will call London embassy tomorrow to check things out.

If it was sent Dec. 11th, like mine and thejoz's I don't think you'll ever get it! They seem to be inexplicably lost! Definitely call the embassy so you can get the special code to email the embassy ans ask for a new Packet 3!

Um, how did you all actually do the DS-156?

It can only be filled out online from what we've seen =\

he filled it out online cos that generates the barcode and then printed 2 copies...are you having a problem filling it out online?

Well she had told me that she didn't wanna fill it out online, and then said that she read stuff that said, in her own words, "Don't print this out dumbass" or something.

She must fill it out online!!!! look it over yourself and walk her through it. Griff and I worked on all the forms together over the internet to make sure we were both comfortable with what he was entering on the forms. Its always good to double check eachother so you don't end up with silly mistakes!

Has she called to ask for a new Packet 3 yet?

She is concerned about it being submitted somewhere online, IE: How is she able to print it out without hitting a button that says "Submit" somewhere and it whisks it electronically away to London or somewhere else?

It doesn't submit it electronically as far as I know. I even did a sample one as I went through the form with Griff and just printed it out at the end so we could review it ad naseum!

Okay, that's cool, but now she is wondering why VJ says not to sign some of these forms.

...And the US Embassy site isn't really all that helpful, as it has this line of information.

"Print the form after it is returned to you and date and sign it."

Huh?

Okay, and now, form DS-156K says that 'evidence of engagement' must be attached to the form...

I thought all that stuff was not only sent in as part of I-129F, but would be taken to the interview? How is she supposed to attach all sorts of stuff to the DS-156K?

Just send the 3 forms in along with the checklist, dont attach any "evidence". all evidence should be taken to the interview.

On the first page of the packet 3 it says and I quote
"We do not want you to send any of your personal documents at this stage because you will be bringing them with you to your interview. So please, do not send any documents with these forms"

Yeah, right after I asked that, I read that on the scans of the packet...I should've read before asking, hahaha

BUT!

I would like some anecdotal evidence on another part.

On parts 26 and 27 of the DS-156, it asks "How long are you planning to stay in the US" and then "What is the purpose of your trip?"

Can someone, particularly someone who's past this stage, tell me what you all put down there?

OK, I still have my interview to go through but when I filled in the forms I referenced the example forms here on VJ.
For Question 26 I put "Permanently"
Question 27 I put "Marriage and relocation to the USA"

I assume that the examples are the correct way to fill the forms in. I'm sure that many people have referenced the examples when filling in these forms.

One of the forms has to be signed at the consulate so it can be witnessed. I took spare copies of my forms with me as I had heard of one instance where a form was mislaid by them and the person had to fill out the form again.

From what I remember of going through the process (I'd have to dig out the copies I made) there are some parts of the forms that even tell you "do not attach evidence as you will need this at the interview" and do not sign this until told to do so by an Embassy official. I kind of remember a form being sent to the Embassy and coming back again stamped or something.

The other thing that I had done was make copies of everything from the evidence to the actual forms that my wife had sent over to me for the embassy, I played it safe when I went to the embassy and had one section of my folder was a reprint of everything, and the other half was what I was told to bring with me.

Regarding packet 3, i have just called the 09042450100 number and i was equally told that my packet 3 was sent out on the 11th December 2007. I was given an email address plus my code to write to.

Fingers crossed, i hope to get the duplicate within days as i have already my medical date for next week.

Can someone please direct me to where to find the checklist on VJ? I should follow Julzes example and send them the pack 3 taken from the DOS.

Thanks

http://www.visajourney.com/gallery/thumbna...y&uid=30186