JUNE 2023 K1 to NOA2 to NVC to EMBASSY

[JojoandTomas 205]

On 6/14/2023 at 5:03 PM, Sha-Lee88 said:

Hold your horses, kiddos.

 

I got my NOA2 on March 14th, and STILL don't have an NVC case number. The reality is that you are still in for a wait.

Did you send an inquiry? What did they say

[Sha-Lee88 26]

1 hour ago, JojoandTomas said:

Did you send an inquiry? What did they say

Every week for 3 months.  Finally got my case number today.  Took 93 days from NOA2.

[jgray808 15]

Even though the increase is relatively trivial, have your beneficiaries completed the DS-160 to pay the lower rate ahead of the increase tomorrow or what is the guidance that everyone has seen?  Not sure if it is worth doing now or if we should just wait until we have confirmation that the NVC has received our case?  From what I'm seeing and learning, the completed DS-160 is valid for 1 year?

[susan@birdsandpup 0]

I'm helping a friend (naturalized US citizen) bring his fiancee from Pakistan on a K1 visa. His NOA was 3/18 and NVC didn't get his file (which we found out after 2 inquiries, first at 30 days and then at 60 days). It took a two-week search after the second inquiry and then on 6/7 he was notified that NVC had received the case. Today, he got the NVC letter with the Case Number (yay!!!).  However, there is no NVC invoice number on this letter, so he is unable to take next steps. 

 

Can anyone inform us if the NVC letter with the case number should already have had the invoice number?  Or is that assigned by the Embassy once they receive the petition? We submitted inquiry #3 to NVC about it but any information would be helpful.

 

Thank you!!

 

Susan 

[JojoandTomas 205]

16 hours ago, jgray808 said:

Even though the increase is relatively trivial, have your beneficiaries completed the DS-160 to pay the lower rate ahead of the increase tomorrow or what is the guidance that everyone has seen?  Not sure if it is worth doing now or if we should just wait until we have confirmation that the NVC has received our case?  From what I'm seeing and learning, the completed DS-160 is valid for 1 year?

Hello. My embassy is Dominican Republic too . You cannot pay your visa fee if your case is not in the Dominican Republic embassy. It will give you an error message because it is not in their system yet. And you DEFINITELY cannot pay the fee unless you have your NVC case number. You need that number in order to pay the fee (the form will ask you for it) and your case also needs to have been forwarded to the embassy for processing . 

On 6/15/2023 at 10:45 PM, Sha-Lee88 said:

Every week for 3 months.  Finally got my case number today.  Took 93 days from NOA2.

Wow. I know it can take upwards of 90 days at NVC but in some cases apparently in can go over. Thank you for sharing that

[JojoandTomas 205]

14 hours ago, susan@birdsandpup said:

I'm helping a friend (naturalized US citizen) bring his fiancee from Pakistan on a K1 visa. His NOA was 3/18 and NVC didn't get his file (which we found out after 2 inquiries, first at 30 days and then at 60 days). It took a two-week search after the second inquiry and then on 6/7 he was notified that NVC had received the case. Today, he got the NVC letter with the Case Number (yay!!!).  However, there is no NVC invoice number on this letter, so he is unable to take next steps. 

 

Can anyone inform us if the NVC letter with the case number should already have had the invoice number?  Or is that assigned by the Embassy once they receive the petition? We submitted inquiry #3 to NVC about it but any information would be helpful.

 

Thank you!!

 

Susan 

Invoice number is not needed for the k1 process to my knowledge.  The only thing you need is the NVC case number.

the invoice number is used primarily for spousal visa.
 

Did he say why he was waiting for the invoice number specifically? Maybe there is something i am unaware of

[susan@birdsandpup 0]

He has no knowledge of this process and no money for an immigration lawyer so I'm doing everything for him. I thought the invoice number was needed because when I went to CEAC to check status, it required it. But I think I went to CEAC when I should have gone to the visa fee payment site instead. I'm guessing the visa fee site won't require the invoice number, just the case number. 

 

Your answer has been so helpful to me and I truly appreciate it! 

[JojoandTomas 205]

13 hours ago, susan@birdsandpup said:

He has no knowledge of this process and no money for an immigration lawyer so I'm doing everything for him. I thought the invoice number was needed because when I went to CEAC to check status, it required it. But I think I went to CEAC when I should have gone to the visa fee payment site instead. I'm guessing the visa fee site won't require the invoice number, just the case number. 

 

Your answer has been so helpful to me and I truly appreciate it! 

Remember to select IMMIGRANT visa not “non immigrant” visa when checking the status. The page only asks you to provide the nvc case number

 

I’ve provided the link below:

 

https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx?App=IV

[meladee 160]

Hey all, joining the club here (NOA2: June 16). I've taken a lot of notes from other people going through this process and have consolidated a some of the important stuff in this sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qn4cZKrdGyr1_H_gUUvx0Bc9g_Ee-Gnb7ruKE_o0N_o/edit#gid=1771646838

[madmanmike 191]

13 hours ago, meladee said:

Hey all, joining the club here (NOA2: June 16). I've taken a lot of notes from other people going through this process and have consolidated a some of the important stuff in this sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qn4cZKrdGyr1_H_gUUvx0Bc9g_Ee-Gnb7ruKE_o0N_o/edit#gid=1771646838

Great info. Thank you for making this. 

[ss & mj 42]

On 6/18/2023 at 7:55 AM, meladee said:

Hey all, joining the club here (NOA2: June 16). I've taken a lot of notes from other people going through this process and have consolidated a some of the important stuff in this sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qn4cZKrdGyr1_H_gUUvx0Bc9g_Ee-Gnb7ruKE_o0N_o/edit#gid=1771646838

This is amazing! Thank you. 
How do you get the DHL tracking numbers? I’ve been trying the DHL « hack » all morning but can’t get any results. Would be good to be able to track when our packet goes to the consulate 😅😅🙏🏽. 

[meladee 160]

16 minutes ago, ss & mj said:

How do you get the DHL tracking numbers? I’ve been trying the DHL « hack » all morning but can’t get any results.

DHL hack will usually only work once you're notified that your case is In Transit. Most cases are sent every-other Tue/Wed, with the next send being tomorrow & this Wednesday. They use sequential tracking numbers, so I just log every tracking number.

Case creation is taking 12 days, so if you were just received at NVC last week, I think you'll miss this week's send and will more likely be in the July 5 batch, but distribution depends on your embassy.

Edited June 19, 2023 by meladee

[ss & mj 42]

31 minutes ago, meladee said:

DHL hack will usually only work once you're notified that your case is In Transit. Most cases are sent every-other Tue/Wed, with the next send being tomorrow & this Wednesday. They use sequential tracking numbers, so I just log every tracking number.

Case creation is taking 12 days, so if you were just received at NVC last week, I think you'll miss this week's send and will more likely be in the July 5 batch, but distribution depends on your embassy.

Thanks for the quick response. I only tried it today because I saw one went « off cycle » on 14 June to our consulate. Otherwise I expect us to be in this week’s batch as we already have a case number. Thanks again🙏🏾

[meladee 160]

18 minutes ago, ss & mj said:

Thanks for the quick response. I only tried it today because I saw one went « off cycle » on 14 June to our consulate. Otherwise I expect us to be in this week’s batch as we already have a case number. Thanks again🙏🏾

Ah, got it -- so exciting! Fingers crossed for you this week then 🙂

[Gary Rich 203]

On 6/15/2023 at 2:13 PM, fellaamazing said:

Eventhough I got NOA2 on 6/5, I did fill out my congressman's immigration form to ask them to increase staffing at NVC to reduce backlog.

 

The congressman is republican though. His staff member was trying to keep giving me generic answers about covid backlogs and what not. I explained to her about the data and how USCIS backlog is finally getting better based on case approvals and how someone from May NOA1 got approved right after mine, when I had March NOA1. She kept giving me excuses that every case is different, and the others might have got escalation, and since my data is not based off of .gov site, it can't be reliable. I educated her, that all the escalated cases were resolved within first few months. They didn't need to take a whole year to resolve. Anyways she did finally understood. She kept telling me that congressman keep reminding people need to get back to work, including immigration. I told her, that's super generic statement and I want him to speak about NVC now since USCIS already have the staff now.

So she finally agreed to ask the congressman to include NVC in his statement.

 

Anyways, she said she won't try to expedite my NVC case since 30 days haven't passed since NOA2.  So I have to call again on 30 day mark.

 

I encourage you and everyone whose 30 day marks are passed, to start calling their congressmen. The more cases congress has, we might get some better results.

I agree!  call them