Hello from Ohio, and The Netherlands!

[britty9 0]

Hi everyone! I just wanted to introduce myself because now that my packet is sent off, I'm sure I'll be turning into a stalker of these forums. Anyways, I'm Brittany and I'm 23 years old, I grew up in amish country, Ohio. I met my fiance online talking about the fox hit tv show Prison Break in January 2007. We talked on the phone, instant messenger, email, etc. for 9 months until I flew to Amsterdam to meet him for the first time. We knew we loved each other before we met, but not wanting to be naive, we waited to say so until we had spent about a week or so together. My fiance's name is Michiel and he just turned 31 years old on August 4. His birthday present was sending in the I-129F packet the day after his birthday.

We did the long distance stuff back and forth for almost a year. I moved to The Hague, The Netherlands on July 1, 2008 and we lived together, with my dogs who I brought with me, for 2.5 years. I was a nanny during my time in The Netherlands and I really enjoyed my stay there, after the culture shock!

We've been working on getting everything together for the I-129F packet for a few months now and it feels amazing to have it on it's way, according to Fed-Ex it will arrive tomorrow in Lewisville, TX. I nearly had a nervous break down in the Fed-Ex shipping store, my hands were shaking and everything. As it is relieving to have it sent off, I also can't obsess over checking it anymore, so now I'm just double guessing myself and wondering if I did everything correctly. We want this process to go as quickly as possible, being apart after living together for so long is definitely taking it's toll. Now we just have to play the waiting game and begin Phase 2 as I call it (gathering the financial stuff).

I do have a quick question, if anybody could help- I see that some people on here with their timelines get the NOA1 very quickly, within a week or so (does this mean that the packet has been checked over and everything?). What happens after that? And can I expect the same? I know every case is different, and after the NOA1 where does the packet go? I'm just a little confused on that.

So that's our story, I'm so thankful I found this website, I used it A LOT when going through the steps to prepare the packet. I will be stunned if we receive a RFE, I went above and beyond everything they requested so, fingers crossed that this process goes smoothly and that I'll have my dutchie here very soon!!

Thank you all, you're wonderful.

[krautlaus 7]

I do have a quick question, if anybody could help- I see that some people on here with their timelines get the NOA1 very quickly, within a week or so (does this mean that the packet has been checked over and everything?). What happens after that? And can I expect the same? I know every case is different, and after the NOA1 where does the packet go? I'm just a little confused on that.

So that's our story, I'm so thankful I found this website, I used it A LOT when going through the steps to prepare the packet. I will be stunned if we receive a RFE, I went above and beyond everything they requested so, fingers crossed that this process goes smoothly and that I'll have my dutchie here very soon!!

Thank you all, you're wonderful.

Hi there, very cute story - congrats on your engagement and sending off the first round of paperwork - be prepared for lots and lots of paperwork to follow

Anyways, most people receive their NOAI after roughly a week. In our case, it was precisely 7 days - a pretty average timeframe I would say.

Check out this flowchart for the K-1 visa. It'll give you a little bit of an idea what's going to happen with your petition in the following 5 to 12 months http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1flow

Also check the VJ Wiki page on the top for any questions around VJ's funky little abbreviations - an NOA1 is really just a receipt. It states that USCIS has received your petition and that you have paid the fee for the papers. More importantly, it gives both of you a case number with which you can check the status of your petition later on and it'll state your fiance's Alien number.

The petition will stay with USCIS in your location (TX right) until they make a decision whether to approve or deny your petition. Then, after the NOA2, they send it out to NVC which sends it to his consulate etc. etc. - please refer to the k-1 flowchart mentioned above

I hope this helped. All the best for your journey

[britty9 0]

Thanks for your quick response! I checked out the flow chart, it is indeed very helpful, I printed it out as a reference. I'll be happy when I hear something from them, that's for sure! We're just excited to have it sent out finally. Thanks again!

[Sirdaniel42 86]

When you come prepared you should be just fine, we used all the information that we could find on VJ and I picked up the Visa at the post office last week

GOOD LUCK with your Journey

[britty9 0]

Congrats on your visa!!! That's AWESOME! I'm still excited about my NOA1.