The US citizen (petitioner) should contact USCIS and ask instructions for filing the I-130 form. By filing a petition at USCIS for bringing your spouse (beneficiary) to the US you will receive an application receipt number that will make you able to check the status online for the approval on I-130. After filing for the I-130 you'll will receive by mail the NOA1 (Notice of Action) and NOA2 which is the approval of your I-130 petition.
As soon as you get approval on your I-130 you may start contacting NVC which will assign a case# to your process and will mail the beneficiary the DS 3032 which is the choice of agent. That means that you're applying for a CR1 visa since NVC only mail the DS 3032 if you don't file for the I-129. The benefeciary may email NVC with the choice of the agent stating either yourself, your spouse or a lawyer as the agent.
If you go for a CR1 visa the beneficiary won't have to file for any adjustment of status after US POE (point of entry) which means that you won't have any other fees to pay.
If by the time of beneficiary's US POE you have not completed 2 years of marriage the beneficiary will receive a temporary I-551 Stamp and then later a Green Card by mail good for only 2 years. Ninety days before the green card expires beneficiary will have to file an I-751 form to remove it's conditional status.
CR1> if you're less than 2 years married
IR1> if you're 2 or more than 2 years married
With NVC new online payment system you will be able to pay the AOF (Affidavit of Support) and IV fee bills online and using this benefit you'll be saving a lot of time in the whole process. The average time frame for a conclusion used to be 10 months and with this new benefit I believe you'll be saving 2-3 months or so.
Below you may find some helpful links that will clear some of your doubts and make your life easier during the whole process at USCIS and NVC.
USCIS links
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD
http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-130instr.pdf
http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/I-130.pdf
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/caseStatusSearchDisplay.do
https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/jsps/index.jsp
NVC links
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/ty...types_1309.html
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3177.html
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3176.html
http://www.travel.state.gov/visa/immigrant.../info_3830.html
http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3734.html
Below you'll find the new NVC web page for online payments:
https://ceac.state.gov/CTRAC/Invoice/signon.aspx
VJ links
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...amp;page=guides
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...page=i130guide1
http://www.visajourney.com/examples/NVC_Pr...wchart_v1-2.pdf
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=91567
Hope it helps some of you who are begining a process at USCIS or NVC. Good Luck!!
Virginia
