Well all I have to say my tummy has been a bucket of nerves the closer (HOPEFULLY) it gets to our approval! I am just so worried Gareth's failed attempt at a visit in December doesn't hold us up any! They said it doesn't even count that he was in the US though since he did not get through customs sooo here's hoping it is like he never even flew over ya know? And if anything just should prove more how much we want to be together!

Anyway here's hoping to a week FULL of January approvals!!!!!! Good luck ALL!

I second that!!! HERE HERE! Let's wrap up the January's CSC!

And sunny, I hear you on that tummy full o' nerves. I can't even count all the gray hairs this process has given me. I'm also hoping the Costa Rican government can get the downed public phones up and running this week, so I can FINALLY tell my man we are approved and that I'm coming down for our interview in like two weeks! He still doesn't know! GRRR!

Your wish is my command

Here is the current list to start off the new week. I'm thinking that this is going to be a good week for January filers, and perhaps a couple of February folk. Regardless, I know it's been a long journey for all of us, but at the end of the day, I hope we'll each realize that this is a small price to pay for what is really valuable in our lives - Love. Good Luck All

Remaining 49.4%......... Approved 50.6%

Name……………. Filing Date
Remaining
1 Ayako & Nathan 01-01
2 Belen & Tim 01-02
3 Thanh & Cao 01-04
4 Ajay & Komal 01-07
5 Matt & Robin 01-08
6 Judee Anne & Reynaldo 01-09
7 Irina & Zubzare 01-10
8 Hazel & Ben 01-10
9 Sarah & Rudi 01-12
10 jj & sh 01-15
11 Liberty & Phillip 01-15
12 Mitchell & Joy 01-16
13 Steph & Gareth 01-17
14 Myriam & Gary 01-17
15 Marina & Eugene 01-17
16 Agatha & Robert 01-17
17 VRP & SK 01-18
18 Levi & Heather 01-19
19 Alet & Cesar 01-21
20 Busch & Eric 01-22
21 nr123 & nm123 01-23
22 Joanna & Dale 01-23
23 Lean & Emil 01-23
24 Nick & Sarah 01-23
25 yan & isa 01-24
26 R & M 01-24
27 a & o 01-24
28 Jeroen & Michelle 01-24
29 Lucie & Damon 01-24
30 Olga & Blake 01-25
31 jennie & matthew 01-25
32 Paul & Joanna 01-25
33 Rymma & Vadim 01-25
34 WE & CE 01-25
35 Supida & Supida 01-25
36 Thomas & Michelle 01-29
37 Lena & Val 01-29
38 Susan & Chris 01-30
39 Ersila & Ilir 01-30
40 Mary & Carl 01-30
41 Ge & Haibo 01-31
42 Richel & Michael 01-31
*Mailed in Dec.
Approved
1 Gerald & Vinera___________01-04----04-22
2 Bing & John______________01-12----05-02
3 Shirley & Steven___________01-07----05-02
4 J & Paulie________________01-04----05-02
5 Rosi & Chuck_____________01-04----05-02
6 Hesham & Tanya__________01-14----05-02
7 Pamela & Joshua___________01-11----05-05
8 Eliciana & Benjamin________01-11----05-05
9 Robe & Victoria___________01-09----05-06
10 Wayne & Nueng*_________01-01----05-06
11 Yuliya & Brian___________01-03----05-10
12 Rachel & Alex____________01-11----05-07
13 Relyn & Patrick*__________01-01----05-06
14 Plami & Krasi____________01-01----05-07
15 WW & MM______________01-12----05-07
16 Paola & Chris____________01-04----05-06
17 Zrinka & Eric____________01-05----05-07
18 Badr & Aimee*___________01-01----05-08
19 Stacy & Jonathan*________01-01----05-09
20 Erica & Scott_____________01-12----05-12
21 Cecile & Bryan___________01-02----05-13
22 Portia & Tony*___________01-01----05-14
23 Bryant & Aliona*_________01-01----05-14
24 Stephan & Alissa_________01-04----05-13
25 Raghu & Swathi*_________01-01----05-12
26 Shaun & Angie___________01-15----05-19
27 Ali & Natalie_____________01-09----05-15
28 Ten & DJ________________01-03----05-07
29 Russell & Dakotah________01-14----05-22
30 Laura & Scott____________01-23----05-27
31 Lili & Matt_______________01-05----05-27
32 Bruno & Carol____________01-12----05-27
33 Elena & Sergey____________01-15----05-28
34 Greivin & Courtney________01-24----05-28
35 M&J____________________01-16----05-27
36 Maria Ameliza & Eric_______01-09----05-29
37 Hilda & Chris_____________01-16----05-27
38 Oscar & Joselyn___________01-17----05-29
39 Benny & Cassi____________01-31----05-29
40 Chris & Therese___________01-23----05-29
41 PT & J___________________01-07----05-30
42 jen & jay_________________01-16----05-30
43 Lea & Ron_______________01-25----05-30
44 gabbie & erv______________01-22----05-31

Congratulations!

Cecile, did it really take 9 days for the NVC to receive your packet??? SHEESH! Have you called to see if they've forwarded it on yet? I was hoping to be talking to the embassy in two weeks, but I wonder if that's too optimistic. grrr.

I didn't call them, so I don't know exactly when they received it and when/if they forwarded it to the embassy.
The date I put on my signature (05/22/08) is the date that they wrote on the letter they sent.

And I tried to track the package on DHL (a little hard without knowing the exact day it left NVC). There forwarded 2 packages to Paris, France between May 22nd and today. I suppose our file is in one of them. The first one was delivered a week ago, the second one is "with delivery courier".

Well, I had my MMR today, free on the NHS! The nurse was really nice, said to return next week and she'd have had a thorough look over my records (she couldn't believe I'd only had 3 shots since I was born) and inquired about the HPV vaccine for me (which I have to have done privately, £80 a shot). She also said that the NHS doesn't cover medical advice for immigration purposes and that technically they're supposed to charge me, but that they're fairly liberal and usually waive the fees.

HPV vaccine? I would assume you are still 26yrs old and or younger then? (i know we might have talked about ages but it seemed like eons ago already.. must be sign of me getting older)

I would have wanted to have the HPV vaccine but they put in "not age appropriate" for HPV on my vaccination record... they said I am already over age for it.

of course the private OB-GYN disagrees and said 30 is not yet overage for HPV vaccine (she charges $175 per shot for HPV)... the thing is, here in the Philippines, the USEM accredited center included all vaccines in our medical exam fee which means I included HPV on what i paid for.

I am indeed under the age of 27 - I am 24, will be 25 when I emigrate!

That is strange about the medical fees. We pay a rate here for the medical, blood results and x-ray and any injections on top of that are extra. That's why I am getting them done beforehand, as even if I have to pay privately they will be cheaper than at the medical (for example, £80 for one HPV injection with my doctor compared to £115 for one HPV injection with the London medical people). So you paid for it but couldn't have it done?

Yeah, paid for it but they couldn't give it to me coz of age... and strange is actually the surname of USEM Philippines. .. some here gets 6 shots, others gets 1 or 2 vaccine shots and we all pay the same medical fee. But at least medical and interview has been done and over with. now I am just waiting when I would get out of the AR black hole so we could really finalize planning.

I wish you and cecile will have interview schedules soon.

Well I guess it's good for those people who have to get 5 or 6 shots! It's a shame that you couldn't get the HPV vaccine included, though! 27 years of age seems such an arbitrary cut-off point.

And thank you for the well-wishes! There are filers approved before us who I also hope get their interview date very soon. Really, any January CSC filer receiving an interview date will be a milestone for this thread!

Ugh...my period just started and I only had one two weeks ago. I'm used to 5-6 weeks between periods; it's often late, but never early. Never been less than 4 weeks. Plus I feel a little woozy. I've checked and neither of those things is listed as a side effect of the MMR so, uh, maybe I'll blame the visa process on playing havoc with my hormones.

Thanks dbears!


That's very strange... Do you take the pill? if you do, then that is strange that your hormones are all upside down. Unless the MMR could reduce the effect of the pill? some medications do that, but I doubt vaccines do.

No, I've been off the pill since January. I'll probably put it down to stress, but usually when I'm stressed it ends up being late!

yes maybe it's stress. Between waiting and not knowing when the next steps will be and preparing everything, going to the medical, etc. the MMR shot might have put created more reason to stress.

Good morning all and congrats to the latest approvals!!! Still nothing but bills in my mail box Hope everyone had a great weekend

Hey Heather, did you ever take a look into your siggy thingy?

Hi Andrea Not yet... I'll do that today. How was your weekend?

Hi all, I have some good vibes about this week. I think CSC will finally open the floodgates for us January filers, yayyy

Hope, hope, hope

Yes, I would also say it is the stress!
I realised a couple of days ago that the wait for the papers from the embassy is getting me really anxious!
I started to have some stomach aches, and I also had my periods in advance, twice in May!!
As if once in a month is not enough...

I wanna say that I've been really disapointed about the us embassy in France!!
I called them today, wondering if they received my petition.
Twice, I had some ladies, I explained my situation, and without saying anything, they put an automated message redirecting me to a phone line with a fee charged.
I, then, called the other line, and had a guy who was saying there were nothing I could do. At the beginning, he thought I was wondering if I wasn't approved by USCIS yet, and started to be like I was stupid and didn't know anything about the K1 visa!That I still had to wait 3 more months! I told him I got my NOA2, and my paper from NVC, with my new case number.
He told me I just needed to wait for my interview date. I was like, not I didn't receive my packet3 yet! did you received my petition, I have the case number. That guy didn't seem to know what I was saying, he almost told me they were no packet 3,and there were no more informations I could get from calling!!!
I was really pissed off, and then really sad!! That process is getting me crazy...it is like it is never ending. As if, not being with your fiancé is not hard enough, people make you pay to get no informations, and make you feel like you're the stupidest person ever! I am getting tired with all of that, I just thought nice persons could just give more informations about my case...

Well, I will stop venting now!! That, at least, made me feel a little bet better.
I hope nobody is taking bad my post about me complaining even if I am lucky that I have been approved.
I am still hoping more January filers will get approved this week!!
Come on CSC!!! Evedrybody wants to be with their love, and finally start their lives together.

Poor Pam! And that seems to be the problem with most things these days - bureaucracy. Reminds me of when my boss accidentally cancelled our internet/fax line. My boss was sent back and forth between companies, then between different departments in the same company, each time having to explain the situation all over again, and it was only six months and many, many expensive bills later that he finally managed to sort everything out. Argh!

I am so sorry no one could help you. I think we'll just have to give our embassies another week or so; I don't think anyone else has received Packet 3 yet, either. It is just one long wait after another!

At least it's not just me whose hormones are all screwy, then.

I had a good feeling - now I have a bad feeling. All this invisibility to the process is driving me crazy. With all the millions of dollars they are supposedly spending on this you'd think that there would be a better way of keeping informed.

To pass the time, I did some math (I know, I'm a geek): According to the stats, there are about 35000 K1s processed a year. Over a 200 work day year that means processing 175 a day. Over two centers (CSC and VSC) that means each center needs to process about 88 petitions a day. Therefore, in an eight hour day, they only need to process 10 or so an hour. If it takes 15 minutes to process each petition, then one adjudicator can process 32 a day. Therefore, each center should be able to process in a timely matter with only 2.75 adjudicators. I find it hard to believe that there are only 3 people in each office processing all the incoming K1s. And even if there were 3 there would no backlog.

This tells me that there are even less than 3 people in each center working on these. Even if they added one more person, they'd be able to rip through 30 additional a day.

If they added 10 people for a month, they'd be through 6400 petitions in a month. The last press release said they hired over 1300 people. How can none of these people be assigned to K1 duty???? The math, just like in Hillary's case, doesn't work out. They should not be going this slowly.

I really need to stop checking my email! Its like the watched pot that never boils

It was mostly fun.

Don't stress now! you've been able to wait 5 months, you can probably manage to stay sane for 2 or 3 more! Too bad they couldn't give you any information.
Maybe it's because they don't name things the same way you do. We say packet 3, but maybe they have a completely different name to it, and that's why he told you there wasn't such thing.


I read that they are not assigned on one type of visa. they will work on K1, K3, B1 visas and even citizenship applications. So, in order to represent the entire system, you would have to add every visa application, no matter what kind, into the equation. But even like that, I'm not sure the math would work out...

Yes, you might be right Cécile!
I was just looking into the FAQ that embassies give different names for packet 3 ("Instruction packet") and to packet 4("Appointment packet").That might be one of the reasons he said that, but still that guy had a ton to me that I didn't like!!
I guess, I just need to be more patient! Rachel was saying she didn't received anything either.
I know I was doing "pretty" good since last january! I am stressing because it is still a big thing for me to realise I am leaving France for good this time.
I cannot wait to be with my sweet love, but it is also hard to be leaving my country. It is just the "transition" period who is stressing me out!!
Over that, we have our wedding date fixed to the 7th of September, and I want to be able to organize things in America, instead of having to do things through my fiancé and mother in law ( even if they are a big help for me now!!).
I am an anxious person but I will do my best to feel better, and to relaaaax

TA DA

Woo-hoo!

LOL! I wanted green text but it did something weird when I tried that...... I'm getting so anxious! Hope we hear something soon!


LOL! I wanted green text but it did something weird when I tried that...... I'm getting so anxious! Hope we hear something soon!

Hellooooo? CSC? It's Monday...time to get up.

Have you seen any new approvals today? I think the ones I saw were from the weekend.....

I haven't seen anything yet...I suppose that's pretty normal for Mondays...I'm just impatient!

UGHH nothing yet! Just got in from work so need to catch up and all but dammit I was hoping to see some approvals when I got home!

OK its just because most people haven't checked the mail yet............. Yeah thats it.............

Well...back in the olden days when on-line notification was working before this most recent break...they rarely put anything out on Monday. It was usually Tuesday before we saw anything. I wonder if the on-line system takes like 24-48 hours to update once an approval is logged in the system or something like that...that would explain why we rarely see anything on Monday, but we see Saturday and Sunday stuff. So I wouldn't worry too much about the lack of approvals today. However...I still want them to wake up!

Have a great evening Maybe we'll see approvals tomorrow!

Hey WaitForever, from one math nerd to another, I understand the logic behind getting to the root of the numbers as a way to feel better. Check out one of my posts from awhile ago that describes some of my number crunching. Might be interesting to consider in relation to your numbers.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...p;#entry1662320

Ya I can see it. However something still doesn't add up - if we assume that your numbers are correct, and the VJ numbers represent 5%, and a typical 50 approval weeks nets over 1000 "full" approvals, then they should be able to process 50000 a year, and easily never getting behind, as the K1 numbers remain fairly static at around 35k a year. If they are processing a 1000 a week, thats 200 a day, 100 per center. My original estimate was about 32 per person per day. So it works out, each center has maybe 3 at most people working full time on K1s. sure it may not be the same 3 people all the time, but it means that at least 3 people need to work on the K1s every day. So these delays tell me that they can't even spare 3 people to concentrate on the K1s. If they did, they would be processed on time. As Cecile and Bryan said, they probably took these 3 people off doing K1s in order to handle the other visas. Pretty sad that they cant leave at least 3 people on our stuff at all times. I mean, 35k K1s are a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of thousands of N-400s they must have got. Just drives home the point that its all political. 35k petitioners are not enough to sway an election one way or another. We aren't enough of a voting block to matter. So even at a measly workload of 3 adjudicators per center, we get shafted

The fundamental error in your math is the baseline assumption that the visa center has people working on K-1 visas full time - They do not have anyone working on K-1's full time, and never have. Nor does the processing center segregate K--1 applications from other applications to make this even possible. I suggest you read the post made by an adjudicator where he discusses in some detail the process used by the adjudicators. Additionally, you should know that not all visas are of the same priority level, work visas are processed at a higher priority level than K-1 or asylum requests(I read that in a Nebraska Processing Center forum). (there were over 268,000 H1-B visas alone this last year). There are also student visas that reach peak volume timeframes and are time sensitive that must be dealt with. Some applications are complex and require substantial work, others tend to be much easier. The bottom line is that the number of visas handled and processed is well over a million (RebecaJo has better information on total applications processed- but the number is substantial and the service center is not transparent enough to provide the data to extrapolate any reasonable analysis. All types of visa applications arrive, every day, they are logged in, they are boxed. They are not sorted and boxed by visa type - they are all just boxed as they arrive.

It's frustrating, I agree, and I wish that the center had twice as many processors as they do; however, as much as I would like this to be the case, it is not. Moreover, who am I to put myself in front of someone seperated from their family, or someone having fled in fear of their lives from another country, or any other story out there. What makes us more deserving of special treatment - which is what I think your saying. I went through the same calculations myself a few months back and I found it to be more on par with a dog chasing his tail - any conclusions are illusionary. Just my opinion.

Blake: Of course. What I'm saying is that all they need is 3 full time K1 adjudicators in each center in order to effectively process the number of applications that come through. They obviously place a higher priority on some of the ones you mentioned, but by the same token, considering that there is a US citizen petitioner involved in our specific visa type, then I would hope that we don't get last priority behind non-citizens, assuming that they are not fleeing for their lives or anything like that.

Question is: why don't they have 3 people working on K1 visas for 8 hours each workday? There can't be that many super-expedites as above. What I'm saying is that politically, we don't rate as high as I think we should.

Additionally, as you said, employment visas are processed faster - meaning its fine to expedite a potential foreign employee, but not a potential foreign spouse? I often joke that the US government is OK with US businesses hiring Canadians, but not so OK with its citizens marrying one.

Also, just my opinion...

On another topic - does anyone know what the chances are that there will be issues at the border for my fiance? Shes got 4 copies of everything with her, including the original NOA1. I know that there is an info page on this somewhere, which we are following, but I was just wondering percentage wise (there goes my math side again), what the chances are that there will be an issue ?

Actually I don't think you'll have a problem, being neighbors, Canadians tend to be treated a little less harshly as those from across either pond or down south. I would say that is it is obvious that she must return (letter from employer, apartment lease, bank account, etc.) your chances are probably close to 100%

To get back to your point, I have often thought that they should have a specific group of people trained in specific types of visas. There is usually some efficiencies to be gained by specialization. So I agree with you on that. But as I thought more about it, I figured there are numerous other checkpoints and bottlenecks that have to be gone through before the visa actually can be processed - FBI or other database checks - so even if there were specialized K-1 adjudicators that does not necesarily mean delays might not occur elsewhere in the system. If I remember correctly, and forgive me if I'm off a little, the total number of visa applications of all types came out to something like 2.6 million. That's a lot of paper to sort, organize, store, and adjudicate. The only way they could get a specialized team together is to sort all the applications by type on the receiving end. I guess to agree with you in part, 35,000 vs. 2.6 million is not "significant" enough in their eyes to re-engineer their entire process. It sucks to be a miniscule minority, but we have to deal with what we are given.

Dennis came to visit in the beginning of April and will be coming again at the end of this month. When he crossed in April they barely asked him for anything...just asked what he was doing, where he was going, who he was visiting, then waved him on his way. However, I have heard of Canadians being denied at the border, so she needs to be prepared just in case! Do they pre-clear at the airport she'll be flying out of? That makes life a bit easier because she doesn't get stuck somewhere halfway. There were some things I never would have thought were useful but folks on the Canadian forum said they had been asked for them. Dennis brought with him:

A copy of his mortgage agreement
Recent paycheck stubs
credit card bills (proves financial ties to Canada)
his most recent utility bills
A copy of the entire petition
A letter from his boss stating that he was employed and was expected back

Like I said...he wasn't asked for any of it, but I've heard of people needing to show those things...better safe, than sorry. The border seems to have been cracking down a bit on Canadians over the last year. Just have her be completely honest and answer all of their questions truthfully, but no extra information. I've heard varying answers on how you should answer when they ask who you're going to see. Someone said that they said "friends" and the officer continued to narrow it down, then seemed suspicious when she said "fiance" because it seemed like she had been trying to lie. Dennis just said "friends" and they didn't ask anymore details. I think it's probably best to say "friends" and then if they ask any additional questions immediately explain that it's a fiance and that the petition is pending.

Don't stress...just have her be prepared and everything should be fine.

On a side note...it seems really dumb to me that pending visa petitions are considered suspicious activity...shouldn't it just prove that we're doing our best to do it lawfully and just want a visit while we're waiting? Seriously...WTF?

Agreed!

Started the new job today and everyone looked on me to walk on water....hate to disappoint but......

I'm very tired and a bit cranky so I appologize if I came off that way at all. Rachel, I hope you feel better, Pam, I hope the embassy gets thier heads out of thier butts, and to everyone else, a good night's sleep and a successful tomorrow. G'night.

G'night Blake!

And P.S. You're allowed to be cranky every now and then. I think you have been one of the most consistently positive folks on this thread, so in my book, you deserve a poopy day every now and then. Take full advantage! Hope tomorrow is better.

Good luck at the new job, I'm sure you'll do nothing but exceed all their expectations! That's what Moses does, afterall...

I agree, now that we got NOA2, things look more "real". We are really going to leave our country, start a new life with our fiance (soon to be husband/wife). This can be quite stressing. So many things to take care before leaving, so many things to organize! but I'm sure we will all be fine


On another note, I just realized that Bryan's new intent of letter is probably still addressed to the USCIS (or whoever it was supposed to be addressed the first time) and not to the embassy... do you think I should ask him to send me another one?

You are soo right about the stress of leaving your home country and your family and friends... I still have 3 months here and I am starting to have mix feelings.. I am happy that I will be with the man I love and be with him for the rest of my life and yet I am sad to be leaving my family and friends here.. I also have the fear that once I leave, I won't be able to see my father alive ever again which add to my torn feelings. Well, at least he is showing health progress since his last hospitalization compared to a few months back. I just have to think that my father is a fighter, always been a fighter so I guess he still have years and decades to live.

Re new letter of intent, I do not know if it is a requirement in the US embassy in your country but in the Philippines it is not, though I did bring a new letter of intent from Ricky addressed to the US embassy in Manila during my interview but they never asked for it.. i have not encountered anybody who was asked for a letter of intent here.. but of course it might be different in your home country.

If the new letter of intent will make you feel more comfortable and confident for the interview then I would say, go ask for a new one specifically addressed to the USembssy in france.

Loads of luck and God's blessings always.

Thanks dbears. I've posted the question about the letter of intent in the French/America couples thread, I'll see what people who already went through the interview say.

Regarding leaving my country, I haven't started stressing on the emotional issues. Of course I will miss my family and my life here, but I know I will see them again (unless something bad happens). I really hope your father's health is going to improve and that he will be there when you go back to the Philippines next time And don't forget that even if he may think, like you, that he won't see you again, he is probably very happy that you fulfill your dream and marry the man you love.

HOOORAY woke to two approvals from yesterday!!! Go CSC!!!! Gareth and I finally hit 39!