Laurence+Lauren's US Immigration Timeline
Immigration Checklist for Lauren & Laurence:
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USCIS I-129F Petition:
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Dept of State K1 Visa:
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USCIS I-485 Petition:
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USCIS I-765 Petition:
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USCIS I-131 Petition:
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USCIS I-751 Petition:
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USCIS N-400 Petition:
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K1 Visa
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| Event |
Date |
| Service Center : |
Vermont Service Center |
| Transferred? |
No |
| Consulate : |
London, United Kingdom |
| I-129F Sent : |
2008-05-05 |
| I-129F NOA1 : |
2008-07-31 |
| I-129F RFE(s) : |
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| RFE Reply(s) : |
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| I-129F NOA2 : |
2009-01-12 |
| NVC Received : |
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| Date Case #, IIN, and BIN assigned : |
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| NVC Left : |
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| Consulate Received : |
2009-01-30 |
| Packet 3 Received : |
2009-02-06 |
| Packet 3 Sent : |
2009-02-09 |
| Packet 4 Received : |
2009-03-05 |
| Interview Date : |
2009-03-12 |
| Interview Result : |
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Second Interview
(If Required): |
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| Second Interview Result: |
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| Visa Received : |
2009-03-23 |
| US Entry : |
2009-04-09 |
| Marriage : |
2009-05-02 |
| Comments : |
Touches:
July 29th 2008
We check often, and DO update this whenever something changes. Yes, they sat on our application for three months before admitting they had it. We finally got our NOA2 on 1/12/09.
Called USCIS and spoke to Jean on 12/22/08 and can't get any info about our application as we haven't been waiting long enough (apparently).
Got packet 3 02/06/09, sent it off on 02/09/09. Medical booked for 02/20/09.
Interview went well, only a few extra documents to send up and we're good to go! |
Processing
Estimates/Stats : |
Your I-129f was approved in 165 days from your NOA1 date.
Your interview took 224 days from your I-129F NOA1 date. |
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Adjustment of Status
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| Event |
Date |
| CIS Office : |
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| Date Filed : |
2009-05-05 |
| NOA Date : |
2009-06-10 |
| RFE(s) : |
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| Bio. Appt. : |
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| AOS Transfer** : |
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| Interview Date : |
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| Approval / Denial Date : |
2009-11-12 |
| Approved : |
Yes |
| Got I551 Stamp : |
No |
| Greencard Received: |
2009-11-18 |
| Comments : |
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Member Reviews:
Consulate Review: London, United Kingdom
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
March 12, 2009 |
| Embassy Review : |
I hopped on the tube after paying £7.20 for a day ticket and jumped on the northern Victoria line. It was the same journey I made the last month for my medical. I LOVE the London Underground. It’s London’s most redeeming feature. You can get a tube train every 3 minutes and be virtually anywhere in the city centre in minutes. I’m like an albatross when it comes to navigating by tube. Not that albatrosses are renowned for being good tube navigators. It’s just a silly metaphor that really didn’t need explaining.
I switched over and caught the Jubilee line north to Bond Street. Up at street level, I flipped open the compass Lauren gave me (yes! I actually USED it!) and consulted my mini-map (it was about 3” square) and headed south down Davies Street. Then turned right onto Brook street which led me right to Grosvenor Square.
Ahead of me, I saw the US Embassy. I was disappointed. I’d been expecting some imposing looking building, with high brick walls around the outside and guards at the gate. Instead it looked like a 1960’s architect’s wet-dream. If you give me a couple of egg-boxes, I’ll faithfully recreate a 1/1000th scale replica of the US Embassy in London in about three minutes flat. The best bit about it was the flag, situated right at the centre at the front of the roof. The Star Spangled banner reminded me of driving down the main drag in Hoover with Lauren - these wonderful, impressive looking flags being flown proudly on every corner. It was strange looking up at it in the centre of London. But somehow it was like a beacon of hope, and I found a kind of comfort from the memories it stirred up. Lauren may have been 4000 miles away, but she was also very much with me, as she’d have liked to have been in person.
I walked around the Grosvenor garden, trying to kill time. I looked at the 9/11 memorial, then went over and looked at the Roosevelt memorial and the one for the Eagle Squadron (The RAF fighter squadron composed mainly of US pilots that operated in WW2 before America officially entered the war). Over a hedge I could see a queue beginning to form. After my experiences queuing up for Stephen Lynch’s show, I knew I needed to be IN that queue.
I got in line behind a woman in a wheelchair and her fiancé. They were on the K-1 visa too so we got chatting. We were both unsure as to whether we were too early! Unfortunately for her, her fiancé wasn’t allowed into the Embassy because he didn’t have any photo ID on him. I felt sorry for her but the embassy staff were very helpful and wheeled her inside (as she had two crutches that her fiancé had been carrying for her too). While I waited, I checked out the cops’ weapons. There was constantly one cop on the steps, armed with an MP5A5. The first guy had a basic model with iron sights and a 30-round magazine. He was later relieved by another cop who had a cool scope mounted on the top of his MP5 but only a 15-round mag. I’m guessing the second guy was a sharpshooter and the first guy preferred ‘spray and pray’. Some of the other police officers were armed with Glocks in holsters. All in all, they were pretty well tooled up.
After a bit more waiting, I went to security after showing my appointment letter. The two guys at security were pretty rude and unprofessional. I accidentally left my wallet in my pocket and the chime went off as I stepped through the metal detector. But neither of them noticed or seemed to care. There was no point in them being there unless their job was to knob people off before their interviews.
I found my way (because the signage was awful) to the Visa entrance and presented my appointment letter. I was given a self-adhesive ticket numbered ‘5001’. The Immigrant Visa’s all started with a ‘5’. That made me the second Immigrant Visa applicant through the door. I went up some steps and into a big room with a couple of hundred seats. I went and sat down, then spotted the lady with the wheelchair who I’d seen outside so I went and chatted to her. We weren’t talking long before her number was called. It was probably the furthest window from where we were seated so I offered to push her over to it as she was still holding the crutches. I told her it was my first time pushing a wheelchair but I think I did okay! I wished her good luck and went and sat back down.
Another 15 minutes passed and then I was finally called to window 1 (I got flashbacks from working at the McDonald’s drive-thru). Behind the window was a small Vietnamese-looking woman in her forties. She had quite an accent and that, combined with the noise of all the waiting people and automated window summoning, plus the 3” of bulletproof glass she was behind made it nearly impossible for me to hear her. First she asked me to put my fingers on the fingerprint reader for identification purposes (they always remind me of those things on Men In Black that remove your fingerprints!). Next she asked for different bits of documentation and seemed impressed that I had EVERYTHING photocopied.
Then came the bit I’d been worried about. The I-134. The original for the co-sponsor was still on its way to me, and I explained that I only had faxed copies, although I had the originals that Lauren herself had filled in and had notarised. The woman asked if Lauren was working and I said “yes”, then she shrugged it off and said “don’t worry, you won’t need co-sponsor” (I hope you’re all doing a Vietnamese accent in your heads!). I suspected differently though. They have those poverty guidelines there for a reason!
I was sent to pay my non refundable Visa fee which, under current exchange rates, is £95.00. Then I returned to window 1 and was handed the X-ray from my medical and told to be seated and wait to be called again. By the looks of things they only had 1 or 2 consular officers doing the Immigrant Visas, as I had to wait around 30-45 minutes to be called. Just as I was looking at the display screen that shows all the windows and queuing tickets, and imagining my number being called to window 16, I heard “Ticket 5001, please go to Window 16”. (On Saturday I’m gonna try that with the National Lottery numbers!)
At window 16 I saw a friendly American man who asked for some of my documents and then asked some questions about how Lauren and I met. I froze up when he asked me where she worked! I couldn’t remember the damn name! “Uhm… I know it starts with an ‘M’” I said. He was probably thinking “McDonalds?” until I explained what the business did. It’s amazing how nerves can make you forget stuff that you KNOW. Even if he’d offered me £100 (or a refund for my non-refundable visa fee?) I wouldn’t have been able to give him that name! But he was happy with my answer anyway, because I knew quite a bit about what she did at work. He asked about my work too, and what I’d be hoping to do for work in the US. I didn’t tell him ‘storm-chasing’ - that’s just what I tell my mum.
Finally he reached my I-134 and addressed its deficiencies. My lovely fiancée is JUST under the 125% line for the number of people that will be in our household, so we do need the co-sponsor. I neglected to say “But the Vietnamese lady said- !” Lauren also needed to have sent a copy of her tax return as well. The consulate officer was very helpful though and explained exactly what we needed to do to complete the process. All we needed was either a tax return from Lauren showing an Adjusted Gross Income above the 125% mark, or an original co-sponsor sheet with proof of identity of the co-sponsor (passport or birth certificate), plus a copy of their 2007 or 2008 tax returns.
Once I have assembled all the required documents, I just needed to ring SMS couriers (the Embassy’s contracted courier service) and they arrange to collect them from me and take them to the Embassy. There’s a 5 working day turn-around and then the docs and my passport, complete with Visa are sent back to me. The only limiting factor is how quickly we can get the documents together. The consulate officer answered a few of my questions, then congratulated me (provisionally!) and wished me a good time in the States. We chatted briefly while I packed up my documents, and he told me to “practice speaking reeeeeeal slowwwww dowwwwwn in Aaaaaaalabama!”
I left the Embassy at 09:30, relieved at having had a largely positive experience. My only dismay came from (obviously) not being able to walk away with a Visa just yet, but also that the consular officer hadn’t even asked to see any of the photos of Lauren and I that I’d had printed especially for the interview. In fact, he asked for no evidence whatsoever of an ongoing relationship. But it’s cool. It all went a LOT better than I’d first feared, so I have no reason to grumble!
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| Rating : |
Very Good |
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Timeline Comments: None yet, be the first!
*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
ver 5.0
