All Japan Filers

[Greenbaum 12,258]

4 hours ago, MJ&YY said:

They sent it by mail to the beneficiary's address that appeared on the I-129F (my fiancee's was then forwarded to her new address since she had updated the post office of her move).

 

Here's a copy of the English pages in the packet 3 (I removed the cover page with my fiancee's info).  The document had Japanese translations as well, but we did not scan them.

 

@Greenbaum - in case you want a more legible version of packet 3 for Japan.

packet3_japan_english.pdf 3.31 MB · 2 downloads

You are the bomb! Thanks for the new P3. Yes, mine was in bad shape but you were the first to step up after receiving a better copy and helping the community. I thank you!!!  

[Takami 30]

5 hours ago, MJ&YY said:

They sent it by mail to the beneficiary's address that appeared on the I-129F (my fiancee's was then forwarded to her new address since she had updated the post office of her move).

 

Here's a copy of the English pages in the packet 3 (I removed the cover page with my fiancee's info).  The document had Japanese translations as well, but we did not scan them.

 

@Greenbaum - in case you want a more legible version of packet 3 for Japan.

packet3_japan_english.pdf 3.31 MB · 3 downloads

Hi 😊, thank you for the information I feel so relieved😉. I have submitted a mail forwarding thing to my local post office, but I was worried that some important mail has the word on the envelope said "No forwarding required" will not be forwarded to the new address and may be sent back to mailer. 

[Greenbaum 12,258]

3 hours ago, Takami said:

Hi 😊, thank you for the information I feel so relieved😉. I have submitted a mail forwarding thing to my local post office, but I was worried that some important mail has the word on the envelope said "No forwarding required" will not be forwarded to the new address and may be sent back to mailer. 

 

Here us what the envelope will look like. It will allow the forwarding this letter. 

[exitlizard 1]

My wife's IR-1 visa finally arrived on December 23rd.

What a long and frustrating trip. The coronavirus added at least a month to the process due to delays in obtaining some documents, but there was also a month wasted at NVC while they were trying to determine my US income, despite having 3 years of tax returns to go through - all of which was irrelevant because I satisfied economic ability to support my wife by other means (amount of assets). This information they also had, since it is part of my tax returns.

I also wasted time by trying to resolve this over the phone, when I should have used the online inquiry form. I imagined it would be easier to resolve by talking with a real person rather than submitting a form, when the opposite is true. The staff answering the phone were unable to help me, gave me inaccurate advice, and gave me assurances it would be taken care of when actually there was nothing being done.  

Lastly, the medical data that was sent directly from the hospital here in Japan (Seibo) was somehow missing on the day of our interview, and so the agent at the embassy could not approve our visa on that day. We were instead given a piece of paper telling us that our visa was rejected until they could resolve the technical issue that was holding up my wife's medical data. 

Things I would do differently

1. Obtain documents and hard copies as early as possible. Police certificates, birth certificates, housing deeds, translations of any documents. Japan certificate can only be obtained after you get your NVC case number, but other counties' certificates can be obtained without this. 

2. Translate and submit wage statements (gensenchōshūhyo). I thought these would not be necessary since I submitted completed tax returns in English. All my tax returns clearly state my Japanese wage income. In the end, the NVC asked to see them, so I wasted a couple of days here.

3. Ask any questions using the "ASK NVC" online form. I imagined any question submitted via this form would get sent into oblivion, so I avoided it. In reality, questions submitted here are answered by an outsource provider of the NVC, and they answered promptly (usually a day), with generally helpful information. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/ask-nvc.html

4. Be clearer about how I intended to support our life in America. My income situation is complicated, and this for sure caused a delay of about a month. I have some US income, but not enough to break over the poverty guidelines. I have some assets, but I was unsure about the validity of using assets to demonstrate ability to support my wife. The instructions from NVC are unclear, and slightly ambiguous about the amount of assets required, and how to prove those assets to the embassy. There seems to be a clear bias at the NVC for showing income rather than assets. However, on the day of the interview, the embassy staff accepted my asset documents without any comment, and so this hurdle was finally cleared. This was one of the biggest causes of stress. 

5. Consider bringing hard copies of medical results to the embassy rather than using "emedical". As I said before, the "emedical" results went missing, and so this added a few more days, and a few more stressful nights, to the process. 

6. Don't bother printing out hard copies of absolutely everything submitted to the NVC. This I can only recommend in hindsight, because the instructions clearly state that applicants must bring to their interviews copies of EVERYTHING submitted to the NVC. So I printed out and brought everything, including printouts of the NVC application, all my tax documents, my birth certificate, etc... In the end, the embassy only wanted to see my proof of assets (bank statement), my wife's birth certificate (with translation), police reports, and vaccination reports. (We actually got an email from the embassy about a week before the interview, telling us to bring these documents. However there were also other instructions which said we should bring copies of everything, so in the end we erred on the side of caution and brought hard copies of everything... which was a waste of time, paper, and was a slight cause of stress. As I say, in the end we weren't required to submit any of it, but other embassies may be different. 

I stressed slightly over the "public charge" issue, but in the end it wasn't an issue at all for us. Apparently it only applies to applicants from inside the US. 

I also wasted a lot of brain cells stressing over the coronavirus and possible closing of the embassy again. The numbers of new cases in Tokyo climbed daily, and I was fearful that the embassy would announce another closure until things calmed down, which would have been a massive inconvenience for us. Luckily we avoided that. However we still keep a fearful watch on the number of cases, and the possible response from airlines and ports of entry. 

The entire process took a year and 3 months and well over a thousand dollars, after all of the fees, and the costs of getting documents. We've been married for decades. Everyone around me assumed my wife could automatically get a visa since we've been married for so long, but they don't realize there is nothing automatic about the process.

[CS_Bradshaw 55]

Hi guys.... Just want to give an update. I flew to the US from Japan with the POE Seattle airport on Dec 23, 2020. Which I see in the forums here that it takes a while to get the SSN card and the physical Green card. I have gotten mine on Jan 5th for my SSN card and Jan 8th for my Green card. Maybe it might depends on the state, idk, but just want to share this news to you guys.

[Takami 30]

On 12/16/2020 at 11:05 AM, Greenbaum said:

 

Here us what the envelope will look like. It will allow the forwarding this letter. 

Hi All,

@Michigan Boy

Hope everything goes well. Here is the Instruction (P3) in Japanese.

Stay safe.

 

 

Instructions_(P3)-_JN.pdf

[Takami 30]

@Greenbaum

Here is P3 in JAPANESE from U.S.Embassy TOKYO.

Instructions_(P3)-_JN.pdf

[Greenbaum 12,258]

13 hours ago, Takami said:

@Greenbaum

Here is P3 in JAPANESE from U.S.Embassy TOKYO.

Instructions_(P3)-_JN.pdf 2 MB · 0 downloads

 

 

Thank you. I will replace my copy with this new and fresh rendition. 

[NataliaM 5]

Just decided to share some information for foreigners, applying from Japan. I am not sure if it will be useful for Japanese people.

 

We received the notification from NVC that our documents were sent to the consulate on January 5th. We were patient ant waited three weeks before contact consulate (as it says on their web-site).

 

After three weeks we didn’t receive any instructions, so eventually through the inquiry form and direct call from the consulate I figured out that they sent documents to the wrong address (their mistake) and they will resend it again. Though they offered to send them by e-mail first. I was happy to see the e-mail with the instructions the same day, I had all documents ready already, so I made an appointment for the interview for the closest day.

One day before my appointment I finally received instructions by mail and there was some extra information which was not in the e-mail. 
 

They’ve asked to send them by mail originals of my birth certificate, divorce certificate,previous passports and resident card.

 

So I had to cancel my appointment.

my point is wait till you receive instructions by mail. I’ve checked the packet3 on this forum, and have not seen this notice as I received, so decided to share it. 

[MJ&YY 127]

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Edited February 1, 2021 by MJ&YY
Nevermind

[NataliaM 5]

5 minutes ago, MJ&YY said:

Interesting that you got a separate list for that, but those documents are also found by following packet3 to the ustraveldocs site. Except maybe the resident card.. I didn’t see that previously listed. 
 

https://ustraveldocs.com/jp/jp-niv-typek.asp

 

List of documents:

https://jp.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/fiancee/fiancee-visa-checklist/

You are right. The documents are not the new information.

But they are for the interview.

 

In my case they’ve asked to send it by post  first(Letterpack).

 

[MJ&YY 127]

1 minute ago, NataliaM said:

You are right. The documents are not the new information.

But they are for the interview.

 

In my case they’ve asked to send it by post  first(Letterpack).

 

Yeah, probably just an additional requirement for foreigners in Japan, as you noted.

[NataliaM 5]

9 minutes ago, MJ&YY said:

Yeah, probably just an additional requirement for foreigners in Japan, as you noted.

You didn’t have to send anything by post first? 
 

[MJ&YY 127]

10 minutes ago, NataliaM said:

You didn’t have to send anything by post first? 
 

No. Nothing by post. My fiancée emailed a confirmation of the DS-160 and a copy of the bio page of her passport + previous passports & visas. I forget where the instruction for that may have been. 

[MJ&YY 127]

@NataliaM were you able to schedule a new appointment relatively soon? Our interview was originally scheduled for 1/28 and got cancelled around the 20th (they emailed us saying they cancelled certain interviews on the 22nd and 28th). My fiancée was able to reschedule for the 3rd, fortunately, but that was like the only date in February available when she logged in.