Seeking NVC to Kyiv Interview Advice

[Zaichik&Miska 44]

Hello everyone! Congratulations to fellow K-1 visa petitioners for Ukraine. I am excited and a bit overwhelmed by this whole experience. 

 

I've been soaking up as much info as I can, so I've been reading threads at the forum and the Greenbaum PDF for advice regarding NOA2 > NVC > Local Embassy. I think I am getting information overload/analysis paralysis. So, I thought to bring this forward to the regional forums to ask for advice from the Ukraine K-1 veterans. 

 

Brief summary of my situation:

• NOA2: Jan 15
• NVC Received: Jan 27
• NVC Case Num Assigned: Jan 31

 

I've only retrieved the Case Number by calling the US number listed in the Greenbaum PDF. Do I need the IIN as well? No mail or emails from NVC as of yet. I assume one or the other should appear soon... do I need that hard copy for Kyiv? 

 

We just missed the Feb 4 shipping date, which kind of sucks, so hopefully the documents get sent to Kyiv on the next shipping date which is Feb 18. I want to accompany my fiancee to the interview as much as possible but I have a very narrow window to schedule the interview due to my job/work schedule restrictions. Basically, I can only make time to be in Kyiv between Mar 8-21. So it's a bit of a gamble to try to schedule an interview (if available and if possible) within that time frame. 

 

Please correct me if I am wrong in any of my assumptions...

• Since I have a case number from NVC (KEV XXX XXX XXX) she and I can begin filling out DS-160
• After submitting DS-160, we go to the US Travel Docs website to print a form and take it to her local Aval Bank to pay
• After 24 hours or so, we can call or go online to actually secure an interview schedule between Mar 8-21 as well as the medical appointment a few days before that.

 

I do realize the gamble that if there are process delays at NVC etc, I would have to reschedule the interview, etc. 

 

So, is my plan viable? What am I missing or overlooking? Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

 

[Shiran 1,134]

11 hours ago, Zaichik&Miska said:

• Since I have a case number from NVC (KEV XXX XXX XXX) she and I can begin filling out DS-160
• After submitting DS-160, we go to the US Travel Docs website to print a form and take it to her local Aval Bank to pay
• After 24 hours or so, we can call or go online to actually secure an interview schedule between Mar 8-21 as well as the medical appointment a few days before that.

These basically correct. And no, you do not need invoice numbers from NVC. The big gotcha is since case hasn't even shipped yet, they have no information of it, I would NOT pay to Aval until it ships. 
You can schedule medial now most likely, I recommend medicom location. Do not have experience  with Mom, and as far as I heard pretty much goes to Medicom,. Just make sure during medical they mark her DS-3025 as complete. 

[Zaichik&Miska 44]

10 hours ago, Shiran said:

These basically correct. And no, you do not need invoice numbers from NVC. The big gotcha is since case hasn't even shipped yet, they have no information of it, I would NOT pay to Aval until it ships. 
You can schedule medial now most likely, I recommend medicom location. Do not have experience  with Mom, and as far as I heard pretty much goes to Medicom,. Just make sure during medical they mark her DS-3025 as complete. 

Thank you Shiran, much appreciated! 

 

Out of curiosity... what happens if the Aval payment is completed before the case ships? What is the risk here?

[Shiran 1,134]

1 hour ago, Zaichik&Miska said:

Thank you Shiran, much appreciated! 

 

Out of curiosity... what happens if the Aval payment is completed before the case ships? What is the risk here?

You are paying to US and they have no idea what you are paying for because case was not transferred to them yet. And all you have for trouble is world's tiniest piece of paper with long number on it.  I don't know WHAT will happen, and I am not a scientist enough to risk $265 to find out. It will not speed up anything, they will not interview until they have the case. Kyiv, is really simple, and really fast compared with what I read about other Embassies, I would just wait. 

There was a user who had to eat airline cancellation fee from being a little bit too eager to schedule things there. 
I will outline what I think your schedule should be:

• Feb 18 shipment to Kyiv
• Feb 19 schedule your medical if you haven't yet
• Feb 19 Finish your DS-160 might take you more than one day depending on phase of the moon and how cooperative browsers and DHS website it
• Feb 20 Pay Avail, create usdocs account if you haven't yet
• Feb 21 verify that payment cleared to US Embassy, and see if you can schedule appointment for Tue 25 or later

[Prizm123 1,084]

you can also help your fiance with the ds 160 by using a program like teamviewer

 

https://www.teamviewer.com/en/info/free-remote-access-software/

 

it worked like a charm for filling it out

 

but pretty much what Shiran said was our experience also

[Zaichik&Miska 44]

On 2/7/2020 at 11:37 AM, Shiran said:

I will outline what I think your schedule should be:

• Feb 18 shipment to Kyiv
• Feb 19 schedule your medical if you haven't yet
• Feb 19 Finish your DS-160 might take you more than one day depending on phase of the moon and how cooperative browsers and DHS website it
• Feb 20 Pay Avail, create usdocs account if you haven't yet
• Feb 21 verify that payment cleared to US Embassy, and see if you can schedule appointment for Tue 25 or later

Thanks again Shiran! This really helps. We completed DS-160 last Friday, but I don't think that should be an issue, right?

 

On 2/8/2020 at 4:54 PM, Prizm123 said:

you can also help your fiance with the ds 160 by using a program like teamviewer

 

https://www.teamviewer.com/en/info/free-remote-access-software/

 

it worked like a charm for filling it out

 

but pretty much what Shiran said was our experience also

Thank you Prizm123, yeah, I saw the teamviewer on the PDF and that things is so awesome! Made the whole process a lot less complicated. 

 

For everyone else looking at doing DS-160, for some reason, on her laptop on the Ukrainian side, the US Embassy website was being blocked by her Internet Service Provider. So we downloaded a free VPN tool called TunnelBear to get around the web blocks. You can find the tool here: https://www.tunnelbear.com/ After downloading and installation, you get free 500 MB of data per month. It allows you to make it seem like you are connecting from the US or other places in the world where such blocks do not exist. This allowed us to access the Embassy website easily. Using TunnelBear to complete the application used up maybe around 50 MB, so plenty of bandwidth for the purposes of filling in DS-160.

[Zaichik&Miska 44]

Does anyone have access to the interview calendar by any chance? Just curious to see how soon the most available open dates are. 

[Zaichik&Miska 44]

As predicted: In Transit!!! 😊

[Shiran 1,134]

11 hours ago, Zaichik&Miska said:

As predicted: In Transit!!! 😊

Glad to see all is going well with the plan.

[Shiran 1,134]

On 2/18/2020 at 11:36 PM, Zaichik&Miska said:

As predicted: In Transit!!! 😊

Expect it to show "Ready" today.

[Zaichik&Miska 44]

Thank you Shiran! It hit ready a little sooner than expected and we booked our interview, medical and flights. Our medical is on a Wednesday and interview the following Monday. 
 

My Zaichik (fiancée) lives in Krivoy Rog/Kryvyi Rih. I’m wondering from the interview, how long does it take to receive the passport with visa back. Does anyone know how many days the Embassy takes to process and send out? Trying to plan next steps. 

[Shiran 1,134]

1 hour ago, Zaichik&Miska said:

Thank you Shiran! It hit ready a little sooner than expected and we booked our interview, medical and flights. Our medical is on a Wednesday and interview the following Monday. 
 

My Zaichik (fiancée) lives in Krivoy Rog/Kryvyi Rih. I’m wondering from the interview, how long does it take to receive the passport with visa back. Does anyone know how many days the Embassy takes to process and send out? Trying to plan next steps. 

Unless things changes, about a week. You can have them hold for pick up at the "HUB" location in Kyiv, she Rabbit can stay for extra few days in the Capital before going home to pack. 

 

[DonnieOlena 74]

My wife lived in Kropyvnytskyi and she got hers the third morning after interview. 

Edited February 23, 2020 by DonnieOlena

[Prizm123 1,084]

it took about a week for my wife to have hers ready for pickup in Zaporozhye

[Zaichik&Miska 44]

On 2/21/2020 at 4:30 PM, Shiran said:

Unless things changes, about a week. You can have them hold for pick up at the "HUB" location in Kyiv, she Rabbit can stay for extra few days in the Capital before going home to pack. 

Krolik is Rabbit  Zaichik is actually more like Bunny haha  And yeah, I am thinking about this option. Thank you Shiran! You have a heart of gold! 

 

On 2/23/2020 at 7:08 AM, DonnieOlena said:

My wife lived in Kropyvnytskyi and she got hers the third morning after interview. 

 

On 2/23/2020 at 7:29 AM, Prizm123 said:

it took about a week for my wife to have hers ready for pickup in Zaporozhye

 

Thank you DonnieOlena and Prizm123, looks like my Zaichik lives between your wives' cities. So probably somewhere between 3-7 days then. Much appreciated fellas!