Visiting while waiting for NOA2

[plumsnstrawberry 0]

Hello everybody!

I am waiting for my NOA2 and it should come soon...

However, I would like to visit my fiancé in the US for ~ 2 weeks. Things are crazy at the moment and we need to figure out some things while being together.

What happens if I get the NOA2 while I'm there? Is that a bad thing?

Since I will only stay for a couple of weeks I should be back on time for the consulate notice.

I'd appreciate an answer to my question! You guys are awesome, so glad I found this!

Annika

[Mid-Ocean 0]

Hello everybody!

I am waiting for my NOA2 and it should come soon...

However, I would like to visit my fiancé in the US for ~ 2 weeks. Things are crazy at the moment and we need to figure out some things while being together.

What happens if I get the NOA2 while I'm there? Is that a bad thing?

Since I will only stay for a couple of weeks I should be back on time for the consulate notice.

I'd appreciate an answer to my question! You guys are awesome, so glad I found this!

Annika

Not a bad thing. Just remember the clock is ticking on your 129F approval notice once you get the NOA2. That approval has a 4 month window, but you should be able to get everything done as long as you don't stay too long. And, even if you run into something during the process, you just file for an extension of the petition approval.

My fiancee (the beneficiary) came to visit me for a month about three weeks AFTER I got the NOA2. That happened because we were expecting the time between the NOA1 and NOA2 to be a few months and she bought a plane ticket to visit me right after the NOA1. Much to our surprise, the NOA2 came 19 days after the NOA1! We weren't going to throw away that non-refundable ticket, so she came to visit. We got a little lucky that her packet 3 got to her before she came here, so she filled that out and mailed it to the embassy. While she was here we didn't do anything for the visa process except her online DS-156 and I gave her the financial supporting documents & other relationship original docs. We could have scheduled her interview while she was here, but we waited until she went home and did her medical exam. Her interview is scheduled for Monday and we have 6 weeks left on our approval notice even though we waited a month in there.

To answer what is probably your next question...her experience going through immigration wasn't too bad, but they did give her a little of the "bad dog" look. They let her enter the US after a couple frowns by the immigration agent. The agent asked her twice if she was going to marry during the trip, then said to her, "you should not do this." But, they let her in anyway. It's perfectly legal to visit while you're in the visa process, however it puts the immigration agent in kind of a "you make the call" position and they don't like that. I think it was clear she was late in the process and probably in the system as a K1 applicant with an approved petition because we had an NVC case number.

[plumsnstrawberry 0]

Thank you so much for this answer!

In my case I would fly this coming week, stay for 2 weeks and then come back to Germany.

Even if the NOA2 should get approved in that time, it will take at least 2 weeks until the embassy receives my case. If everything should speed up so much that the embassy receives it while I'm still there (haha, very unlikely) then I can let my dad mail me over the package and I'll fax the DS forms to Frnkfurt. I have them already filled out (with what I could now) and the vaccinations are up to date. The medical exam will be at a walk-in doctor 2 days before the embassy appointment - so what I'm trying to say is that I prepared everything that I could for now.

Thank you for pointing out that the officer when entering the US might be grumpy- I'll make sure to have the return ticket ready and other evidence ( doctor's appointments) that I will return back.

Thanks!