Ciudad Juarez Questions

[monyfer 27]

On August 8th, NVC sent our petition to Juarez. I used the "tracking number" trick that someone else suggested on the forum, and I believe I found ours and that our petition was received by the consulate yesterday.

Today, I called the #703 number, which I thought was a direct link to the consulate. Apparently, it is not - it is just a more general help line. Is this correct? The young man on the phone told me that there was no information showing under our case number (The # that starts CDJ...) and it can take up to 15 days for the consulate to upload that information. Is this correct? Would it be better to call the consulate directly?

How long, in general, from when NVC sent your petition to Juarez were you able to confirm receipt at it by the consulate? We are really antsy to know if they got it and sent out our invitation yet.

Another question: Does the consulate use any sort of tracking system when it sends out the letters? The mail in Mexico is notoriously bad but my fiance told me yesterday that you can use tracking through the Mexican postal service. Just wondered if the consulate offers this...otherwise who knows if/when he will receive the letter. I have read many posts and am still unclear if a copy is sent to the US as well - some say yes and some say no.

I have a few other questions:

- How should we proceed next? Sit tight until we get the official letter? Or start filling out forms in the meantime? My concern is that if we will out forms too early (like potentially 1-2 months before our interview) they will be invalid by interview time. Does anyone know if that is ok? We would like to fill out the 260 and DS156 now, but I don't know if it is too early. Do you have to pay the fee for the 260? I didn't go through the whole process online.

- Is it ok if I fill them out, with fiance on the phone with me? I mean, I just feel I have researched a lot more about the process and can answer some things better. I noticed on one form there is a section for if someone other than the applicant filled it out. Can I just pretend I am him filling him out since I will have him on the line? I will print the forms and bring them to him because I am going to CDJ with him.

- Is it too early to get bank statements and income verification letters from my job? I did this before thinking we were going to get our NOA2 sooner and now have outdated ones. I hate to get them again and then things taking forever and them being outdated again. Is it ok if I have a bank statement from August and our interview is in October? Not sure if they even check bank statements - seems not too from the reviews but better safe than sorry, right.

- Is it too risky to schedule the interview before receiving the letter? Like, if we scheduled it for mid-September. We can change it, right? I just don't want things to book up. It looks like so many people schedule their interview like over a month after receiving the letter but we don't want to wait that long, the sooner the better. Not sure how far ahead things book up.

- Has anyone tried going to the appointment without the letter in the last six months or so?

- Is it safe to do ASC late in the afternoon the very day before the interview? I read on another post that someone was told to wait 24-48 hours between ASC appointment! But then I read others who do do it the day before. I just don't want to have problems but also don't want to be in CDJ any longer than necessary. If we do ASC at 3pm on a Monday and interview 7am on a Tuesday is that enough time? How long does it take, isn't it all electronic?

- Is it safe for a woman alone to cross from El Paso to Juarez and vice versa? It is much cheaper to fly to El Paso than CDJ directly. I have read posts about shuttle services and private taxi drivers....but am still concerned. Also, does it take very long to cross through customs/immigration either way?

- Has anyone stayed at the Quality Inn? It looks nice and has a gym and pool. Ibis looks good too but no gym and we need something to do for those days.

SORRY for all the questions, I really tried to look up as much as possible already but couldn't find a lot of these exact answers, so I appreciate responses.

[Inky 1,111]

Most embassys do not take direct calls. You can though call DOS and ask them. They can tell you if the embassy has the packet and if its logged as well as if the embassy has sent anything out to the beneficiary like P3 etc.

[nikolacolada 21]

OK you could try calling the consulate directly, but when I wanted to know about my case I called the 703 number.

I'm not sure when NVC sent our petition to Juarez but it shouldn't take very long for Juarez to get it once the NVC does send it.

The consulate does not use any kind of tracking system. We never received the invitation letter here in Mexico, it was received at my US address. I've read of others who have only received it in Mexico and not the US and a few who got it at both places. I was really nervous it wouldn't show up either, but somehow it did. Also, if you call the 703 number and ask them if they send a copy of the invitation letter to the US petitioner, they will probably say no. They are wrong though. Many times the people at the 703 number are misinformed.\

I think it would be fine for you to start filling out some forms. My mom sent us her I-134 (she was our co sponsor) at the beginning of June and we didn't have our interview until July 6th. So her forms were filled out more than a month before the interview and they said nothing. I can't remember the exact order of things but in order to schedule your appointment you need to have paid the visa fee (which it is NOT too early to do, the fee is good for 1 year) and have filled out the DS-260, the nice thing about the DS-260 is that you can come back and finish filling it out later. So you could start it, just to see what it was like and what info they want and then come back later to finish the rest.

It is absolutely fine for you to fill them out for your fiance. I filled them out for mine, at the end of the DS-260 it asks if someone prepared the form for the beneficiary. You can just write that you prepared it and you are his fiance. That's what I did.

I think once you know when you're going to have your interview you can get your financial info together. They do look at the financial stuff so it's important to have it all in order.

You can schedule your interview before you have your invitation letter. We scheduled ours before we got the letter, but I gave ourselves a buffer of 2 months from the time that NVC got it. You don't need to worry about scheduling ahead. Appointments dont book up, typically you can make an appointment a week ahead of time.

My fiance did his ASC appointment at 3:20 on July 5th and had his interview at 7:15am on July 6th. There were no issues.

I can't help you with the last two.. we stayed at Holiday Inn and we came from Cancun so we never crossed the border! Good luck

[ateneaalexander 10]

you can go ahead and fill the DS-260 i did that before paying the fee lol. The other forms can be fill out too just DONT sign them. The only thing i wouldnt do its schedule the interview untill you get the invitation letter(packet 3) the person in the u.s will get it in the mail wich is you right? so just wait untill you get it and good luck .

[bekam 0]

K-1 Visa Journey

i actually have a question about yall's RFE. what was the issue with the passport photo?? how many did yall send, what did you put on the back of it?? i just sent out our I-129f yesterday morning.. and now im thinking about our photo and everything else that could be wrong!!

[monyfer 27]

K-1 Visa Journey

i actually have a question about yall's RFE. what was the issue with the passport photo?? how many did yall send, what did you put on the back of it?? i just sent out our I-129f yesterday morning.. and now im thinking about our photo and everything else that could be wrong!!

With our original application I sent two passport photos of myself, and two passport photos of my fiance. I wrote my name on the back of mine, and his name on the back of his. I put each set of photos in a plastic bag and stapled the bag to a piece of paper that said "PASSPORT PHOTOS"

The RFE I received requested ONE passport photo of myself. The only thing I can think of is that the person adjudicating my case somehow lost one of my photos. Otherwise it makes no sense why they would just request one of me and not two, or why not request any more of my fiance if there was something wrong with them? I think that was a mistake on their end. Or else it was just an excuse to buy more time on their end. If I have learned anything in this process, it is that you can do everything perfect, check and recheck everything fifty times, and something will still go wrong, even if it isn't your fault.

Edited August 13, 2011 by monyfer

[needhelp2 0]

Hey everyone, does anyone know where to make an appt for the biometrics?? I already have my interview appt but i dont know whats next anyhelp?

[shaester 0]

bumping for any updates as I just rec'd a leter stating "embassy/consulate will contact your fiance when ready to begin processing his/her application. Your fiance will soon receive a packet with instructions from the consular section on how to apply for the K-1 visa at that post and what documents will be required."

At this moment, just waiting on "packet 3 letter".