Waiting for our interview to be scheduled, getting nervous like everyone else.

[DevinB 5]

My wife is currently waiting for her interview to be scheduled on an IR1. I got it expedited in early January for medical and humanitarian reasons, and hoping to get in before any extra hurdles were thrown in the way. It was accepted and we got an email telling us to finish an additional questionnaire and get our medical exam done. We got that done and we submitted our request for an interview on the 5th, finsihed the questionnaire and got it in on the 12th just for their records, it didnt ask us to upload it, only have it for the interview. Got an email back saying we have been "registered in the waiting list". 

 

I've seen other people say they got their interview scheduled days after but it's been 2 weeks and we haven't heard anything. Getting concerned about it, worried that I might be doing something wrong that's slowing it down. I understand it's a different timeline for everyone, I just worry like everyone else. 

 

Embassy is Rangoon in Burma(myanmar) and we have emailed trying to check in on it and gotten no reply. We also haven't been able to get a single call to connect to contact them about it either, seemingly their phones are disconnected. 

 

I'm worried that a ban will come down that will affect Burma again like it did in 2020 and we will be denied. We've been waiting for 2 years now and me and our kids are hoping for an end to the nightmare soon. 

 

Anyone who has been through something similar? Any hope to give or words of encouragement? I'm sure we are all feeling similar worries and stressing the uncertainty. 

[Kadawt 0]

Hi DevinB,

 

Would you be able to share more detail on how you expedited your petition? 

 

I am thinking on doing the same and was wondering if you will be able to point me to the right information.

 

Thank you

[DevinB 5]

15 minutes ago, Kadawt said:

Hi DevinB,

 

Would you be able to share more detail on how you expedited your petition? 

 

I am thinking on doing the same and was wondering if you will be able to point me to the right information.

 

Thank you

Yeah of course. First thing I did was look up the expedite process. There are things like financial hardship, humanitarian reasons and so on. When you find the reason that best fits your situation, that's when you start the process. A very important aspect is that you must show how the situation is affecting the US citizen. If the person immigrating is in danger or having issues, its much more difficult to get approved sadly. You can still do it, its just harder. So write the expedite request from the point of view that it will help the US citizen petitioner if you can.

 

First you gotta get evidence, being thorough as possible pays off here. For example, when I wrote my expedite request it was on the basis of humanitarian need, financial need and medical need.

 

I wrote about how my wife's absence made it difficult for me to make money by showing how I had to spend extra for childcare and how It made further education impossible until she returned. The evidence I used was bank account statements, receipts for services for my children and the schedule of the services they received to showcase the magnitude of cost and prove that there was significant cost to my wife being away. 

 

My humanitarian section focused on Myanmar and my wife specifically. I talked about how much danger she was in everyday she remained. I used her ethnic minority id as evidence of danger, sent pictures showing bombings that had happened at her apartment complex, news articles and the US travel advisory pdf as evidence here. 

 

For the medical need, I focused on how my disabled kids were being affected by her absence. I used their medical diagnoses, service calendar, schedule, and letters from all of their providers affirming that their mother returning would make accessing care easier for them and that they would benefit from her return. 

 

I looked up successful expedite petitions and used their letters as templates for it. I would have sentences like "My wife's absence represents hardship for my family, we cant access necessary services very easily (exhibit a, b)." I then put the evidence in a table of contents on the final page and made sure that they were marked correctly, if I called it exhibit a, id mark it as " exhibit a (receipts of service)." 

 

When I was finished writing it I contacted my representative to ask for help. Their office thankfully agreed to help after I explained the situation. I then sent them a copy of my expedite request and had them help me submit it alongside anything they could send to help me as well. I saved the evidence as combined pdfs since you cant upload more than 5 files on the immigration website. I then called the representatives office every few days to ask if they'd heard anything. My thought was that I had to be persistently annoying to get anyone to help me so I just bugged them all the time. 

You can also submit it yourself by using the inquiry form on the USCIS site but getting all the extra help I could was important for me.

 

My expedite was approved after about a month of waiting. It sped the process up considerably despite me screwing up at the last hurdle when my lawyer didnt inform us that we were missing an important document to submit before our interview could take place (it ended up taking 3 weeks to get it and i uploaded it but didnt click submit at the bottom of the immigration site, waited 2 weeks with them telling me they didnt have it until i checked and realized i didnt click submit). I hope this helps. If it didnt, feel free to ask specifics and ill do my best to point you towards the right direction.

[Kadawt 0]

Thank you so much DevinB. You don't know how much I appreciate for your detailed information and as well as your quick response. 

 

If you don't mind me asking for your opinion, we don't have children but my wife live in earthquake affected area ( Mandalay ) and she is ethnic minority as well. With the amount of prosecution of ethnic minority and the recent earthquake, she can't go anywhere for fear of the Junta. The stress has overwhelm both of us, it's affecting my work and my health. Do you think this will warrant as expedite request?

 

 

Thank you so much again 

[appleblossom 4,309]

2 hours ago, Kadawt said:

Thank you so much DevinB. You don't know how much I appreciate for your detailed information and as well as your quick response. 

 

If you don't mind me asking for your opinion, we don't have children but my wife live in earthquake affected area ( Mandalay ) and she is ethnic minority as well. With the amount of prosecution of ethnic minority and the recent earthquake, she can't go anywhere for fear of the Junta. The stress has overwhelm both of us, it's affecting my work and my health. Do you think this will warrant as expedite request?

 

 

Thank you so much again 

Is your wife the beneficiary or petitioner? As said above, it’s only the USC that is relevant to the expedite request. 
 

I doubt those would be valid reasons (look at how many choose to live in California at risk of major earthquake!) but it’s free to ask so you might as well give it a try. 

Edited June 5 by appleblossom

[DevinB 5]

11 hours ago, Kadawt said:

Thank you so much DevinB. You don't know how much I appreciate for your detailed information and as well as your quick response. 

 

If you don't mind me asking for your opinion, we don't have children but my wife live in earthquake affected area ( Mandalay ) and she is ethnic minority as well. With the amount of prosecution of ethnic minority and the recent earthquake, she can't go anywhere for fear of the Junta. The stress has overwhelm both of us, it's affecting my work and my health. Do you think this will warrant as expedite request?

 

 

Thank you so much again 

I would go for any angle you have available to you.

 

If you are going through financial hardship and her coming home would alleviate that, use that. Get all the evidence you can for whatever reasons you use to justify your expedite request. 

 

If you have health conditions and need help with them, get them documented and show that her returning would make them better. 

 

I assume you are the US citizen in this circumstance. The important part of this whole process is proving that her being away is causing you hardship and that her return makes that better. For the stress, I would suggest going to a dr you trust, a therapist, a psych. Basically showcase that you have multiple medical professionals confirming that your wife's absence is causing you issues that her returning can resolve. 

 

Look for things big and small that are being affected. As someone else said, there isnt a harm in trying either way but it would be best for you to take a deep look at how her being away is affecting you, medically, financially, and in basically every way. You can also get additional evidence that can help supplement your case but wouldn't prove it by themselves. Letters by members of your community, family and friends about how deeply this is affecting you. If youre religious, get your equivalent of a pastor to write in support. 

 

Lastly, im really sorry you are both going through this. My wife was in yangon during the earthquake and she called me in the middle of the night to say goodbye because she thought her apartment was going to collapse on top of her. I understand the worry. For my wife, it took a little over 2 years from start to finish to get here. When we got the expedite, it took from the end of October to the beginning of March to finish up. And if you're worried about the travel ban and everything going on, spouses of us citizens were exempt last time. If somehow they aren't, you can apply for a waiver to try to get her in despite the ban.

[Mwin 0]

On 6/5/2025 at 11:15 PM, DevinB said:

I would go for any angle you have available to you.

 

If you are going through financial hardship and her coming home would alleviate that, use that. Get all the evidence you can for whatever reasons you use to justify your expedite request. 

 

If you have health conditions and need help with them, get them documented and show that her returning would make them better. 

 

I assume you are the US citizen in this circumstance. The important part of this whole process is proving that her being away is causing you hardship and that her return makes that better. For the stress, I would suggest going to a dr you trust, a therapist, a psych. Basically showcase that you have multiple medical professionals confirming that your wife's absence is causing you issues that her returning can resolve. 

 

Look for things big and small that are being affected. As someone else said, there isnt a harm in trying either way but it would be best for you to take a deep look at how her being away is affecting you, medically, financially, and in basically every way. You can also get additional evidence that can help supplement your case but wouldn't prove it by themselves. Letters by members of your community, family and friends about how deeply this is affecting you. If youre religious, get your equivalent of a pastor to write in support. 

 

Lastly, im really sorry you are both going through this. My wife was in yangon during the earthquake and she called me in the middle of the night to say goodbye because she thought her apartment was going to collapse on top of her. I understand the worry. For my wife, it took a little over 2 years from start to finish to get here. When we got the expedite, it took from the end of October to the beginning of March to finish up. And if you're worried about the travel ban and everything going on, spouses of us citizens were exempt last time. If somehow they aren't, you can apply for a waiver to try to get her in despite the ban.

Hi DevinB, I'm currently also going through this right now where we had a prescreening appointment and we forgot to "submit" the documents (unfortunately we only uploaded it). So now we're waiting for a new prescreening appointment and interview date. Just wanted to ask how long did it take for a new appointment and interview after submitting the documents? Did you have to consistently email and pester them to move things along? 

[DevinB 5]

1 minute ago, Mwin said:

Hi DevinB, I'm currently also going through this right now where we had a prescreening appointment and we forgot to "submit" the documents (unfortunately we only uploaded it). So now we're waiting for a new prescreening appointment and interview date. Just wanted to ask how long did it take for a new appointment and interview after submitting the documents? Did you have to consistently email and pester them to move things along? 

To be honest, I pestered them every other day at that point in the process. After we submitted it took 2 days for them to reply with the new date, about 2 weeks out from the reply. Then my wife went to the appointment, dropped off her passport and we waited and a week and a half later we got our approval. I emailed every other day when we were wating for the last bit. After all that, got my wife on her flight 2 weeks later and shes been home since April. Hope this helps, if not, feel free to ask clarifying questions.