Case Complete to Interview December 2016

[Sukie 1,440]

Hooray! Got my SSN card this morning. Thanks a lot to those who helped me out

Whew! Glad your wait is over!

Susan

[Alexistara 7]

Folks who changed their addresses with USCIS after receiving their Visas and before their entry to the US. Is okay to not change my wife's address to the new one I just moved in, knowing that I have full access to the old mailbox. Or do I have to change it to the new one. I just moved in and I don't want USCIS to take too long to change it in their system or that it get lost. Please advise.

Thanks

I can't remember how long it is expected to take to get a greencard, but my gut is saying change the address. I needed to change mine toward the beginning of this process and it updated within 24hrs. I am pretty sure they will not forward this document so there is a good chance that it will be returned.

[Alexistara 7]

Hi Everyone ~ I went on to traveldocs to sign up for our document delivery registration per the US Embassy Cairo website. While signing up it gave me the ability to select an appointment time; which I did not do since I am not 100% positive we are suppose to be able to do this and do not want to lose our interview appointment on December 28th. So, I sent the following inquiry on the site.

"Hello, our case number is CR**********; this is for a CR1 Visa. We have received verbal confirmation from the National Visa Center that our interview is scheduled for December 28th, 2016.

Are we able to schedule an earlier appointment using this website once you receive our documentation from the NVC? My husband has his medical exam scheduled for next week and we have all the other necessary documents ready to go.

Thanks for your assistance.

Abdo & Alexis"

This is the response I received....

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your inquiry.

Please note that we didn't receive your case from NVC, so we cannot expedite the appointment.

For more information, please visit our website www.ustraveldocs.com

Sincerely,

U.S. Visa Service Desk.

They did not answer my question, I implied in my original email that I knew they hadn't received the paperwork yet. Are they saying that if they had our paperwork then they could expedite our interview? I am wondering if I should resubmit to CLARIFY my question or wait until after they receive our paperwork. My hopes was to make an appointment at the end of this month.

Has anyone run across this yet? or have any suggestions?

Thanks

edited to removed case number

Edited November 14, 2016 by Ontarkie

[brgz 1]

Hello everyone!!

Just Checking in.. 10 days since Cc, no interview date yet

[Ontarkie 13,979]

~~One post edited to remove case number~~

[Patience2016 1]

So much stress. The final week. I know everything will be fine, but I am so anxious.... Interview is in 3 days.

[Ervie and Rob 34]

So much stress. The final week. I know everything will be fine, but I am so anxious.... Interview is in 3 days.

It would soon be over. Hope you can sleep still.. hugs..

How long did it take for you guys to change from in transit to Ready status at CEAC site? Dhl tracker says deliver Nov 11th.

[Sukie 1,440]

Hi Everyone ~ I went on to traveldocs to sign up for our document delivery registration per the US Embassy Cairo website. While signing up it gave me the ability to select an appointment time; which I did not do since I am not 100% positive we are suppose to be able to do this and do not want to lose our interview appointment on December 28th. So, I sent the following inquiry on the site.

"Hello, our case number is CR**********; this is for a CR1 Visa. We have received verbal confirmation from the National Visa Center that our interview is scheduled for December 28th, 2016.

Are we able to schedule an earlier appointment using this website once you receive our documentation from the NVC? My husband has his medical exam scheduled for next week and we have all the other necessary documents ready to go.

Thanks for your assistance.

Abdo & Alexis"

This is the response I received....

Dear Applicant,

Thank you for your inquiry.

Please note that we didn't receive your case from NVC, so we cannot expedite the appointment.

For more information, please visit our website www.ustraveldocs.com

Sincerely,

U.S. Visa Service Desk.

They did not answer my question, I implied in my original email that I knew they hadn't received the paperwork yet. Are they saying that if they had our paperwork then they could expedite our interview? I am wondering if I should resubmit to CLARIFY my question or wait until after they receive our paperwork. My hopes was to make an appointment at the end of this month.

Has anyone run across this yet? or have any suggestions?

Thanks

edited to removed case number

They cannot even BEGIN to decide on expedite/earlier appointment until they get your file from NVC. You will HAVE to wait until your case status says "READY" before you contact them again. THEN you might be able to get an earlier appointment.

Best of luck.

Sukie in NY

[Gretch 11]

My husband was approved! He was in the embassy more than two hours and was disgusted that the interviewer was chewing gum the whole time. (I assured him that even in the US, it's not really acceptable for people to chew gum in a formal business situation like that.) I thought it was funny that that really stood out for him.

He said the receptionist (an American; I don't know if it was truly a receptionist because when I'd been to the embassy, most or all of the support staff seemed to be local) was very serious and seemed to think it would be a problem that he hadn't brought wedding photos. (I'd sent them ahead.) The interviewer was more casual (well, mostly perceived that way because he was chewing gum, probably) but somewhat intimidating in tone. He asked:

--When did you first meet?

--When did your relationship start?

--Are you divorced? When?

--Is your petitioner divorced? When?

--Does your petitioner have a child?

--Do you have a child?

--Have you applied for him too?

--What were you doing in Kenya and during what period? [He spent 3 years in Kenya for school and had a police certificate]

--What will you do in the USA?

--Did you and the petitioner get married? Where?

--When did you last see each other?

He felt like those were all pretty easy questions compared to some of those we found online--no tricky knowledge questions about my extended family or where I went to school or what color my toothbrush is, no highly personal questions about our life together, and no probing questions about either of our divorces. We're close in age and spent time together almost every day for a year before marrying, nine months of dating, so we felt like we had enough facetime, but we were concerned about our previous divorces. He had been separated from his wife for years (without any legal papers), but didn't begin the divorce process until we were already dating, and the divorce judgment was legalized only four weeks before our wedding. We also expected them to question why we didn't have a traditional wedding and why no one from my family came.

The interviewer didn't ask to see any of the documents my husband brought with him: the originals of the copies I'd sent, photos from my trip there in August, an updated "year to date" pay stub from me, or my corrected tax transcript. I had frontloaded with the usual: pictures of our wedding as well as us together throughout the year we'd known each other and pictures of me with his extended family (about 15 total, I think); a letter my mom wrote to his mom before the wedding; some congratulations cards from the wedding shower my American expat colleagues had for me; receipt for our wedding rings; receipt for our honeymoon suite; a copy of some mail from my college alumni association addressed to both of us. I didn't include any affidavits. I then sideloaded at NVC with: a copy of the flight itinerary for my then-upcoming visit; a small selection of our WhatsApp log (about ten messages from each month we'd been apart); a year-to-date paystub; and a printout showing my husband as the beneficiary of my life insurance.

A note about my taxes: I filed them before I read the NVC process wiki, which explains how to file as "married filing separately" even though your spouse doesn't have a social security number or tax ID number. I tried to do it, but couldn't figure it out, so I gave up and filed as single, figuring maybe it didn't matter because I didn't earn any money that year after we got married, or at least, that's what I would say if questioned. I was only thinking of the IRS, not immigration, and later read here that if the NVC/interviewer/etc saw my tax transcript with "single" on it after we'd married, they can take that as a suggestion the marriage is fake. So I filed an amended return, but it wasn't back in time to send with the other papers, and I decided not to delay (again based on advice here). Later I got the updated tax transcript that shows "married filing separately" and emailed it to my husband, telling him, to explain my mistake if they questioned it and hand over the update. But they didn't question it at all. Still, I don't recommend that course of action for anyone! File taxes correctly the first time.

I was also concerned because there are some places where it says the beneficiary has to provide birth certificates for all of their children, even if they aren't applying for visas at that time. My husband's son doesn't have a birth certificate and it's difficult to get one (we had a long delay getting one for my husband). Some people here said it was necessary and others said it applies only to those who are planning to do "follow to join" which doesn't apply here, so I wrote to the embassy and they repeated that the beneficiary has to bring birth certificates for all children. Since others have told me they didn't do this, and trying to get a birth certificate was going to delay the application far into the future, I decided to go ahead and see what happened; if they said a birth certificate was needed, they would hopefully just put the the visa on hold until it was produced, so we'd be in the same boat anyway. But they didn't ask for a birth certificate, thank goodness.

The one problem we had: my husband had gone for his medical two weeks before the interview (the earliest the clinic would schedule it) and everything was fine, except the clinic said they were out of most of the vaccines and would call him when they came in. He contacted them a couple of times and he got the same answer, and they told him it wouldn't interfere with his visa interview so he shouldn't worry about it. Well, when the interviewer asked why he wasn't vaccinated, he told them exactly that; then the embassy contacted the clinic and they straight up lied, and said it was my husband's fault. (Probably afraid of losing the embassy's business.) He went and got the vaccines after the interview (and showed them that he has a record of text messages from them that support his version of events). He turns in the papers to the embassy today and all should be well; they kept his passport so I'm sure they're going to go ahead and issue the visa.

[Ervie and Rob 34]

Congratulations Gretch!!!

[JFH 12,189]

Congratulations, Gretch!

Sounds like a bit of an uphill struggle dealing with the 'he said, she said' there but I suppose things are done differently there than in western countries.

I agree that chewing gum is not acceptable. But what can we do? If we say anything we worry that we will be denied. I would be extremely disappointed if the officer is chewing gum when I go for my interview in London in 3 weeks.

He's almost home with you. Not much longer to wait now!

[DriDor5116 0]

Blessed Tuesday morning Y'all,

I called NVC last night and I got an interview date...December 13th at 8:40AM

THANK LORD he is GREAT.

The nerves have started kicking in as my wife starts to prepare for the interview. Keep us in your prayers.

GOD BLESS!

[everlasting 0]

Interview approved. God is Awesome and visa issued (Printed) after 48 hours

[Kortex 0]

Thanks Kortex!

Sorry I can't help about the re-delivery time. Hopefully she will have it back soon and she can be on her way to join you.

Found out today that they shipped it back today. Super quick turn around - they received it yesterday and shipped it back today. Just hoping that it comes back without any rips this time. There's always something to worry about, isn't there....

[JFH 12,189]

The rips in the packet are something I am scared about too.

I have bought a large plastic zipper wallet to keep the packet in once I get it and for the flight. But the problem is we cannot collect them from the embassy. Here in the UK they send them by DX couriers and from my past experience they don't care and throw the envelopes around like rugby balls. The UK passport office uses the same company and I had terrible problems last year waiting for my new passport. They eventually admitted that they had lost it.