Marrienne's US Immigration Timeline

Petitioner's Name: J Beneficiary's Name: Lizzie VJ Member: Marrienne Country: Greece Last Updated: 2023-09-13 Add Comment to Timeline Register or log in to follow this timeline

Immigration Checklist for J & Lizzie:

USCIS DCF I-130 Petition:       Dept of State IR-1/CR-1 Visa:     USCIS I-751 Petition:   USCIS N-400 Petition:

IR-1/CR-1 Visa Event Date Service Center : Texas Service Center Transferred? No Consulate : Athens, Greece Marriage (if applicable): 2015-12-04 I-130 Sent : 2016-01-28 I-130 NOA1 : 2016-01-29 I-130 RFE : 2016-02-23 I-130 RFE Sent : 2016-03-24 I-130 Approved : 2016-04-05 NVC Received : Received DS-261 / AOS Bill : Pay AOS Bill : Receive I-864 Package : Send AOS Package : Submit DS-261 : Receive IV Bill : Pay IV Bill : Send IV Package : Receive Instruction and Interview appointment letter : 2016-06-06 Case Completed at NVC : 2016-06-06 NVC Left : Consulate Received : 2016-01-28 Packet 3 Received : 2016-04-28 Packet 3 Sent : 2016-04-28 Packet 4 Received : Interview Date : 2016-06-15 Interview Result : Approved Second Interview (If Required): Second Interview Result: Visa Received : 2016-06-29 US Entry : 2016-07-19 Comments : Processing Estimates/Stats : Your I-130 was approved in 67 days from your NOA1 date. Your interview took 138 days from your I-130 NOA1 date.

Port of Entry Review Event Date Port of Entry : Detroit POE Date : 2016-07-19 Got EAD Stamp : Yes,Passport Stamp Biometrics Taken : Yes Harassment Level : 0 Comments :

Lifting Conditions Event Date CIS Office : California Service Center Date Filed : 2018-07-13 NOA Date : 2018-08-10 RFE(s) : Bio. Appt. : 2019-03-28 Interview Date : Approval / Denial Date : 2019-08-08 Approved : Yes Got I551 Stamp : No Green Card Received : Comments :

Member Reviews:

Consulate Review: Athens, Greece Review Topic: Direct Consular Filing Event Description Review Date : February 10, 2016 Embassy Review : ** Update 15th June 2016 ** Scroll to the end We are doing DCF in Athens, Greece. I am Greek and live in Athens, my husband the USC who has been living here (LPR) since 2013. I want to make a few notes on translations: In the US Embassy Athens website, it states that documents not in Greek or English should be translated. This is repeated in form DS-2001. ** This is NOT true ** You need to translate ALL Greek documents and they will ONLY accept the translation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (10 Arionos str, Thissio). In order for THEM to accept your original copies, you MUST have an Apostille (Sfragida tis Hagis) on each. The US Embassy does not require one BUT the Ministry will NOT accept them at all without it. They are actually quite rude and the waiting time is VERY long. Their translations are of very poor quality. Syntax and grammar is terrible and some sentences don't even make sense. Loads of spelling errors as well!! Corrections are free but take 2 working days. They also almost always overcharge you saying that a 6 page document will actually end up being a 7 page document. Check to see if your translation was indeed an extra page, mine weren't and it took me an hour of fighting and two managers to get my money back! Horrible experience all around I'm afraid. However since they are the ONLY ones the Embassy accepts, you MUST go through them. You can obtain Apostilles for birth certificates and simple documents like that from the ground floor for free, but if you are submitting a divorce decree for instance or any other judicial paperwork, you need to go to the Court (Protodikio Euelpidon) and each Apostille is 13 Euros. The Embassy themselves are very nice so far!! Very eager to help, they all speak fluent Greek and English. I will update you on the next steps as I take them!! ** Update 1st May 2016 ** We submitted three I-130 petitions, one for me and one for each of my 10 year old sons on the 28th January 2016. 6 days later we get a call they are about to approve them but it seems there is something wrong with my husband's divorce translation. After a little back and forth, we have to re-translate the divorce as a paragraph (non-essential) was missing. Fast forward a little and on February 26th we get a RFE. Turns out the divorce paper we turned in, didn't have the words "absolute and final" on it. Problem was my husband got divorced in Germany. We finally submitted the correct document on March 24th and FINALLY got our I-130s approved on the 5th April 2016. My husband is very ill with a chronic life threatening condition that we cannot treat in Greece so we several times asked them how to expedite the case as he is getting worse and worse by the day. We got no response to that but we were assigned our case numbers on the 28th April 2016 and we were able to fill out DS-260 online on the same day. Don't forget to send them the confirmation pages and also print them out and include them in your file just in case!!! The info on the Embassy website is a little out of date. You no longer can use DHL for free like you could. YOU need to either hand deliver OR ship your package of papers to them yourself. You will be notified of this change when you get your Packet 3 information. And this is where we are now. We are about to return the package 3 documents to them. Good news is with pck 3 you do NOT need to translate things as long as they are either in Greek or English. Will update you as we move further along!! (updated on May 1, 2016) We returned the pck 3 docus to them and they kept asking for an I-864a, which our joint sponsor was reluctant to give but after about a month, we did get them what they wanted and they immediately gave us the medical info. Medical: After reading reviews here, I picked Iaso and Dr. Doumazos. He is a very jovial fellow, made us all feel very welcome. He checked all our vaccinations and we were all up to date. One note: I have had Chickenpox as a child and Rubella so I was not vaccinated for these. I was asked to bring a blood test that proves I have antibodies to Chickenpox, Rubella, Measles and Mumps (I did). If you do not, you get the MMR again and the Chickenpox vax. The vaccines necessary are: MMR, Chickenpox, TdaP (tetanus and diptheria). If your medical is in the winter and early Spring, a flu shot is also needed. Pay attention to the size of photographs required for the medical. They should be 3x4cm (tiny!). You pay CASH ONLY to the doctor but the X-ray and blood lab do accept debit and credit cards. Interview: Originally our interview was scheduled for the 28th June. Just follow the instructions in the relevant email they will send you to sign up for DHL and their Yatri scheduling system. Note: If you are a family of more than 2, their system will not book you an interview, you need to talk to a representative. Two days after they booked our interviews, they called us to let us know, our interview is re-scheduled for the 15th! We arrived 30 minutes early and we were told we shouldn't have come so early We were the only ones there. My USC husband came with us. Our sons (aged 10) were not fingerprinted BUT they had to appear in person. They were only asked if they were excited!! They took our passports and went through all our files. They gave us back our originals and anything they didn't need (most of the file really!). Then came a little issue, we had only one I-864a!!! Our joint sponsor had put all 3 names in ONE I-864a instead of one for EACH (total 3). The first agent we spoke to, was a very polite Greek lady. She asked me if I had applied for a Visa before. Had I traveled to the US before? When was my divorce final? When was HIS divorce final? Did the boys bio father agree with the move? (Note: I had a written consent with me and handed that to her) Do I have any family in the US? Then they told us to wait outside (she put all the passports in our files btw at this time) The consul is a very sweet young woman, who basically asked us the same questions. I was fingerprinted there and swore everything I say is the truth. She asked me when and how we met. I told her we met online. Then asked me when we met in person for the first time. If our baby is a boy or girl. They did insist a little bit on the family in the US part. I do have a distant uncle I haven't seen in like, 30 something years. They did ask my husband some questions. They asked him when his divorce became final (he got the year wrong!!) lol. I corrected him and he laughed and said he is terrible with dates and I chimed in "That is why you have me dear". They asked him how many years he has been in Greece. They asked the boys again if they are excited and who is who (they are twins). I was fingerprinted FOR them, as they are only 10. They made jokes with the consul. They did not ask to see any relationship proof but I had family and wedding photos with me and also our wedding invitation. They did give us a 221(g) for the missing I-864a's. When we were done, we were not told if we were approved or not. They just said they cannot guarantee the visas but the rest of our file "looks good". We were put in AP until we got the papers. Two weeks after the interview we got "ISSUED" on all 3 cases. Good luck to all those going through Athens, and you can PM me any time to ask me anything!! (updated on June 30, 2016) Rating : Very Good

POE Review: Detroit Event Description Entry Date : 2016-07-19 Embassy Review : We were fhe only flight arriving at the time which I thought was strange since it was 6 in the afternoon. Our flight wasn't even full. We went through the US citizen line and gave the lady the passports. She took my picture and fingerprints and took our envelopes and passports, then led us to a room. There were about 10 people of various ethnicities waiting there. Some were being detained or deported! We overheard one was a drug mule! We waited about 20 minutes during which my 2 year old almost brought the place down! I didn't get asked anything other than when we got married and where to mail the green card/ssn. Got stamp and went on my way. Took maybe 10 minutes just because there were 3 of us. Collected bags (nobody checked them out the cat!) And move to catch our connecting flight to GRR. Btw they weren't amused about my little one being so naughty but she was just in a plane sitting for 10 hours can you blame her? Harassment Level : Low

Timeline Comments: 3



*Notice about estimates: The estimates are based off averages of other members recent experiences
(documented in their timelines) for the same benefit/petition/application at the same filing location.
Individual results may vary as every case is not always 'average'. Past performance does not necessarily
predict future results. The 'as early as date' may change over time based on current reported processing
times from members. There have historically been cases where a benefit/petition/application processing
briefly slows down or stops and this can not be predicted. Use these dates as reference only and do not
rely on them for planning. As always you should check the USCIS processing times to see if your application
is past due.

** Not all cases are transfered

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