I-130 Online Filers

[TedBrosby 26]

7 hours ago, iamexcited3021 said:

that's awesome!

Congrats!

I have this

 

May 31, 2021 Case Was Received and A Receipt Notice Was Sent

 

on case history on Uscis website. 

and got a letter in the mail says nebraska

anything else to do or just wait?
 

That's NOA1. If you have a receipt number then you're at NOA1 and now you just need to wait.  

It seems that everyone was correct that Nebraska was fast, because my NOA1 to NOA2 was only 143 days and most people say it takes 180-210 days for that. 

[iamexcited3021 4]

On 8/19/2021 at 5:54 PM, TedBrosby said:

That's NOA1. If you have a receipt number then you're at NOA1 and now you just need to wait.  

It seems that everyone was correct that Nebraska was fast, because my NOA1 to NOA2 was only 143 days and most people say it takes 180-210 days for that. 

damn that's awesome, thank you. 

best of luck going forward. 

 

so now does your significant other get a package in the mail in her home country? and you do affidavit of support now right? 

[TedsGirl 190]

On 8/19/2021 at 9:15 AM, TedBrosby said:

Got our approval notice!  

Hang in there everyone.  

I've updated my timeline if you're curious. 

Congratulations to you and your wife🥳

 

All the very best to you as you move to the NVC stage🙏🏿

[TedBrosby 26]

On 8/22/2021 at 12:04 AM, iamexcited3021 said:

damn that's awesome, thank you. 

best of luck going forward. 

 

so now does your significant other get a package in the mail in her home country? and you do affidavit of support now right? 

Since we filed online, we do the entire NVC process online. We live together. I have a US employer but I can work from anywhere, so we stay together and I'm with her in Japan for the immigration process, makes it easier for me to handle documentation for her.  

  

We just got our NVC email to start uploading documents and after that I think we wait for an interview invitation.  

According to the email:  

We should not send documents to NVC directly, but rather upload them to the Department of State visa processing website.  

We also pay fees directly to the Department of State there.  

Once all our documents are uploaded, NVC will do a readiness check for us before notifying the US Consulate in Japan that we're ready for an interview.  

We need to bring physical copies of all the documents we uploaded when we go for our interview.  

  

It sounds like how long the next step takes (before Visa interview) depends on a combination of how thorough our documentation is, how fast we pay fees and submit requirements and the business of the consulate in the country we are applying from.  

  

Because Japan's borders are closed, and have been for the most part since Spring 2020 (they opened briefly for new entries in Fall 2021 but closed quickly after), I think the consulate in Japan isn't that busy since most Americans who wanted to return home did so already, and there aren't a lot of new Americans entering the country and getting married. That's entirely an assumption, but we shall find out soon.  

  

Why I think our NOA2 came quickly  

We didn't submit more than we needed to, but everything I needed to submit for NOA1 was thorough and complete.  

I especially included a detailed account of our time together with matching addresses, pay stubs for my job in Japan, and my addresses in the United States even back to when I was a college student.  

For the proof of our relationship, I included photos for major events in our relationship such as first date, moving in together, our engagement photos and wedding photos, plane tickets from when she came with me to the United States to meet my family and for our honeymoon.  

For the proof of our financial commitments, I included the title to our home that we bought together where it has my name and her name in the title.  

And I included documentation about our daughter: birth certificate, her Japanese family registrar that shows me and my wife as parents.  

I found a spreadsheet online for the list of I130 requirements and triple checked it.  

[iamexcited3021 4]

lol what? what's this about?

I was asking about my 130 online for my wife, I applied end of may 2021

[Troy B 223]

1 hour ago, iamexcited3021 said:

lol what? what's this about?

I was asking about my 130 online for my wife, I applied end of may 2021

Means you are probably being handled by the Potomac Service Center, which shows a 13 to 17 month time range for US Citizen's filing for their U.S. citizen filing for a spouse, parent, or child under 21.   And you have a while before you can submit an outside of normal processing request.

 

you can see the times at USCIS Processing times, and be glad you aren't at Vermont Service Center.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Troy B
added details

[iamexcited3021 4]

4 hours ago, Troy B said:

Means you are probably being handled by the Potomac Service Center, which shows a 13 to 17 month time range for US Citizen's filing for their U.S. citizen filing for a spouse, parent, or child under 21.   And you have a while before you can submit an outside of normal processing request.

 

you can see the times at USCIS Processing times, and be glad you aren't at Vermont Service Center.

you are right. she did say I was transferred to Potomac. 

but how come people from earlier this year already got their NOA 2 and such? or just depends?

My wife is from India if that makes a difference. 

[iamexcited3021 4]

5 hours ago, Troy B said:

Means you are probably being handled by the Potomac Service Center, which shows a 13 to 17 month time range for US Citizen's filing for their U.S. citizen filing for a spouse, parent, or child under 21.   And you have a while before you can submit an outside of normal processing request.

 

you can see the times at USCIS Processing times, and be glad you aren't at Vermont Service Center.

I was at Nebraska at first which is fast from what I hear. wonder why it transferred to a slower one. 

[Troy B 223]

2 minutes ago, iamexcited3021 said:

I was at Nebraska at first which is fast from what I hear. wonder why it transferred to a slower one. 

 

Yea, Nebraska is the fastest per the processing times.  It's not clear at all why they move them around.

It's suppose to be so the centers are more balanced,  but obviously that is not happening when you have some

center's at 1.5 months, others 9 months, 13 months, another 21 months, and another at 31 months.

[TWISTIE 30]

On 5/6/2021 at 7:46 PM, JKLSemicolon said:

I submitted 80 photos, 4 to a page. Ours covered a period of 10 years together. Most people probably submit fewer than I did, so keep that in mind.

What was the size of pics so that 4 of them could fit to a page? Also, did you label each of those pics to mention location and who are in those pics? How to label them? Is there any online app to label pics?

[TWISTIE 30]

On 4/20/2021 at 12:59 PM, Dasf said:

Done

Can you send that one to me too, if you are still around? Tnx

[top_secret 2,126]

1 hour ago, TWISTIE said:

What was the size of pics so that 4 of them could fit to a page? Also, did you label each of those pics to mention location and who are in those pics? How to label them? Is there any online app to label pics?

I used LibreOffice Writer since it's free and worked well https://www.libreoffice.org/ . Microsoft Word would work too. I just made like photo collages dragging photos onto the page and resizing them and moving them around to where they looked nice.  Then typing comments.  In some cases, overlapping pictures in contrasting colored fonts.  Then just export the whole thing as a pdf.  I think I had 5 pages but probably like 60 or more pictures of all different sizes laid out in photo collages overlapping in places.  I tried to get artistic about it to where a stranger could briefly thumb through 5 pages and still get a very in-depth visual impression of our relationship over a very broad range of times, places and activities.

[JKLSemicolon 333]

3 hours ago, TWISTIE said:

What was the size of pics so that 4 of them could fit to a page? Also, did you label each of those pics to mention location and who are in those pics? How to label them? Is there any online app to label pics?

I made all of the pictures fit into cells that measured 3.75 inches by 3.75 inches. This meant that there was a little bit of each photo cropped regardless of whether it had been taken in portrait or landscape orientation, but it made for a cleaner presentation overall.

 

The program that I used was Adobe Lightroom, but most people would be better off taking @top_secret's advice and using Word or LibreOffice to make a basic table and insert the photos there. Google Docs also works for this sort of thing but I have found it pretty poor when it comes to formatting documents with images. There may be other tools out there that could help you label photos, including various photo apps, but you would have to search yourself.

 

In my petition, each picture had a caption below it with the date and location (city, state for photos taken in the US and city, country for photos taken elsewhere). I used Lightroom because I was able to pull this information from the photo metadata, but otherwise you could just type that in below each picture.

[TWISTIE 30]

2 hours ago, top_secret said:

I used LibreOffice Writer since it's free and worked well https://www.libreoffice.org/ . Microsoft Word would work too. I just made like photo collages dragging photos onto the page and resizing them and moving them around to where they looked nice.  Then typing comments.  In some cases, overlapping pictures in contrasting colored fonts.  Then just export the whole thing as a pdf.  I think I had 5 pages but probably like 60 or more pictures of all different sizes laid out in photo collages overlapping in places.  I tried to get artistic about it to where a stranger could briefly thumb through 5 pages and still get a very in-depth visual impression of our relationship over a very broad range of times, places and activities.

Nothing wrong in being a bit of artistic, I guess....it brings the best out of you....

[iamexcited3021 4]

On 8/31/2021 at 9:34 PM, Troy B said:

 

Yea, Nebraska is the fastest per the processing times.  It's not clear at all why they move them around.

It's suppose to be so the centers are more balanced,  but obviously that is not happening when you have some

center's at 1.5 months, others 9 months, 13 months, another 21 months, and another at 31 months.

yeah, doesn't really make sense. oh well guess just gotta  wait then.

thank you

On 8/19/2021 at 5:54 PM, TedBrosby said:

That's NOA1. If you have a receipt number then you're at NOA1 and now you just need to wait.  

It seems that everyone was correct that Nebraska was fast, because my NOA1 to NOA2 was only 143 days and most people say it takes 180-210 days for that. 

thanks so much for your reply.  

 

best of luck ahead!