Possible to delay interview at Embassy?

[Lingzy12 1]

Hi all

 

My husband and I were married in Jan 2019 and filed for I130 visa abroad.

The I130 has been approved at NVC stage and waiting to be sent to local Embassy. 

I know that a 10 years validity of Green Card will only be issued if we have been married for more than two years at the time our permanent residency is approved. 

 

Can I ask, when would the exact approval date be? Is it the date when I have completed the interview or when the Green card is being issued to me or when I travel to the US with my visa?

 

Can we delay our interview nearer to our anniversary so that we can get a 10 years Green Card?

 

Any help is appreciated!

[Russ&Caro 1,548]

Your visa becomes an IR visa qualifying for a 10 year green card if you have been married for 2 years from the date of your entrance into the United States. Once the visa is issued, you have 6 months from the date of your medical examination to travel to the US. Attempting to delay the interview is your decision but if she has already had her medical examination it might not make any difference.

 

Most of the time the medical examination occurs near the date of the interview, although in some instances it can occur significantly prior to the interview.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Russ&Caro

[Lingzy12 1]

Thanks for replying. 

So just to clarify,  the date you mean is the date I (beneficiary) first enter USA with an immigration visa right?

 

 Quote

 2 years from the date of your entrance into the United States.

[arken 4,197]

Depending on the potential interview date and your 2 year anniversary date, you may not even need to delay the interview.

 

Even if you get the CR1 visa, you will get the 10 year GC if you enter the US after your 2 year anniversary within the visa validity period.

[Lingzy12 1]

In that case I just have to ensure that I travel after my 2nd year anniversary date (which is 14 Jan 2020) but still within the 6 months validity period of the immigrant visa. 

 

No issue for me to travel to USA for 2 weeks under ESTA while the interview is being scheduled right?

[JeanneAdil 6,201]

38 minutes ago, Lingzy12 said:

In that case I just have to ensure that I travel after my 2nd year anniversary date (which is 14 Jan 2020) but still within the 6 months validity period of the immigrant visa. 

 

No issue for me to travel to USA for 2 weeks under ESTA while the interview is being scheduled right?

No,  you were married in 2019, so 2 years is 2021

[Lingzy12 1]

My bad, yes you are right. So I have to make sure AFTER receiving immigrant visa, I only arrive USA on 14 Jan 2021 or later. 

[JeanneAdil 6,201]

2 hours ago, Lingzy12 said:

My bad, yes you are right. So I have to make sure AFTER receiving immigrant visa, I only arrive USA on 14 Jan 2021 or later. 

seriously,,  why not just come if you get the visa approval?

you never know about the EO's that could come out or a renewal of the virus later this year (drs talk about it coming hard again in the fall)

come and be together 

[SteveInBostonI130 3,319]

7 hours ago, Lingzy12 said:

In that case I just have to ensure that I travel after my 2nd year anniversary date (which is 14 Jan 2020) but still within the 6 months validity period of the immigrant visa. 

 

No issue for me to travel to USA for 2 weeks under ESTA while the interview is being scheduled right?

 

There should not be an issue with you travelling to the US on ESTA before you get your visa.  After you get the visa, I believe you have to use that instead of ESTA, which means entering after Jan 14 2021 for your plans.

 

But, as someone else pointed out, there is a risk of covid 19 again in the winter, and possible travel restrictions.  

[Punisher 40]

22 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

seriously,,  why not just come if you get the visa approval?

you never know about the EO's that could come out or a renewal of the virus later this year (drs talk about it coming hard again in the fall)

come and be together 

Seriously, waiting extra 3 months or so by postponing entry (in order to get IR) is the best decision they can do. Not only they will save $ by not having to pay app fee for removal of CR, they also forgo the "privalge" of seeing uscis office for the same reason. On top of that, should the relationship not work out for them, immigrant's LPR will not be in jeopardy.

 

Don't worry about what drs talk about, by the end of year there should be pretty good herd immunity. And they will not do the mistake (worldwide) of shutting down economy or travel again.

[Punisher 40]

18 hours ago, SteveInBostonI130 said:

But, as someone else pointed out, there is a risk of covid 19 again in the winter, and possible travel restrictions.  

Again? It would have to be "gone" first before coming back "again". 
 

covid is everywhere and not going away anywhere for years or decades. Get used to it like flu etc. No worries, once economies open up, they are not going to close down for a very loooong time. 

[SteveInBostonI130 3,319]

27 minutes ago, Punisher said:

Seriously, waiting extra 3 months or so by postponing entry (in order to get IR) is the best decision they can do. Not only they will save $ by not having to pay app fee for removal of CR, they also forgo the "privalge" of seeing uscis office for the same reason. On top of that, should the relationship not work out for them, immigrant's LPR will not be in jeopardy.

 

Don't worry about what drs talk about, by the end of year there should be pretty good herd immunity. And they will not do the mistake (worldwide) of shutting down economy or travel again.

 

There are posters here who had their fiance visa and delayed travel, due to many reasons, and got caught by the lockdown.  They are now worried about their fiance visa expiring before travel opens up again.  I believe those posters wished they did not delay and traveled sooner.

 

What I am cautioning against is not taking the opportunity to immigrate as soon as it is available and risking another lockdown or other restriction.  Even if what you assume is likely, let's say 99.9% likely, that still carries a 0.1% risk.  And I don't have high confidence on your assumptions over "what doctors talk about".

 

Your opinions are your opinions.  But I am not sure it is the "best decision they can do".

 

 

[Punisher 40]

3 hours ago, SteveInBostonI130 said:

 

There are posters here who had their fiance visa and delayed travel, due to many reasons, and got caught by the lockdown.  They are now worried about their fiance visa expiring before travel opens up again.  I believe those posters wished they did not delay and traveled sooner.

 

What I am cautioning against is not taking the opportunity to immigrate as soon as it is available and risking another lockdown or other restriction.  Even if what you assume is likely, let's say 99.9% likely, that still carries a 0.1% risk.  And I don't have high confidence on your assumptions over "what doctors talk about".

 

Your opinions are your opinions.  But I am not sure it is the "best decision they can do".

 

 

It's called "best decision based on current available set of information/data".

 

You are confusing "past" with the "future" like majority of people that extrapolate past into the future. There are millions of people that were delayed, caught up, stuck, fired, bankrupted, got sick etc etc. But we are not talking about what has already happened but what is the best possible action for OP given the circumstances. OP is not going to travel 2 months "ago", she is going to travel in 3-6 months time. In 3-6 months travel situation is going to be much different than it was or is now. Covid is here to stay like flu does yet there will be no more closures. Doctors don't "run" the world. The people that do run world affairs have learned painful lesson of the shutdowns and these are not coming back anytime in the near future unless something more serious and new comes up. The masks and other stuff are here to stay and will be the reminder of covid, until everyone gets over it one day.

 

Therefore objectively, Covid is non factor for OP unless embassies do not reopen for a long time (which would be a moot point for this discussion anyway). Granted, nobody knows if something else than Covid comes up later but you can't live and plan your life around "unknown unknowns". 

 

What we do know is following: Having to pay for CR removal is a cost. Having to deal with local USCIS is a pain. There is a risk that one might forget to file for removal of CR in timely manner (or due to personal circumstances) which would put immigrant in removal. If that (risk) is not enough, any relationship might turn out to be unsuccessful, even more so the one where the couple had to spend significant time apart (like most likely with foreign filed i-130s). So there is an additional risk factor to the intending immigrant should the relationship fail prior to removal of CR. 

 

There will be barely any extra waiting for OP if any, and if she is not in some immediate danger (guns, violence, drugs, gangs, wars, etc) then it's a no brainer to wait so she enters as IR. You don't want to be burdened by CR if there is so little that you have to do to go around this.

Edited June 3, 2020 by Punisher
typo

[JeanneAdil 6,201]

21 hours ago, Punisher said:

Seriously, waiting extra 3 months or so by postponing entry (in order to get IR) is the best decision they can do. Not only they will save $ by not having to pay app fee for removal of CR, they also forgo the "privalge" of seeing uscis office for the same reason. On top of that, should the relationship not work out for them, immigrant's LPR will not be in jeopardy.

 

Don't worry about what drs talk about, by the end of year there should be pretty good herd immunity. And they will not do the mistake (worldwide) of shutting down economy or travel again.

Our visa took so long in coming we got the 10 year card but the application here was beginning of 2019 and is approved now at NVC / they are ready to interview as soon as it can be scheduled /if the interview is scheduled any sooner than August (and if  the visa is issued)  the person is waiting a lot more than 6 months to January 14th to travel and may have to do medical to renew the visa 

 

The interview is scheduled between NVC and the embassy and at this stage the date can not be controlled by the applicant /  only way to do that was to delay the i 864 and ds260 when the packet went to NVC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2020 by JeanneAdil

[Punisher 40]

1 hour ago, JeanneAdil said:

Our visa took so long in coming we got the 10 year card but the application here was beginning of 2019 and is approved now at NVC / they are ready to interview as soon as it can be scheduled /if the interview is scheduled any sooner than August (and if  the visa is issued)  the person is waiting a lot more than 6 months to January 14th to travel and may have to do medical to renew the visa 

 

The interview is scheduled between NVC and the embassy and at this stage the date can not be controlled by the applicant /  only way to do that was to delay the i 864 and ds260 when the packet went to NVC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's incorrect. The interview is only initially scheduled by NVC, but the Embassy will easily work with applicant regarding rescheduling it for a later date. Once NVC schedules interview then decision needs to be made if it is better to postpone it or not (to achieve particular outcome) and then decide when to do medical accordingly.

 

BTW, any "delay" in processing at any stage can not last more than 12 months. 

Edited June 4, 2020 by Punisher