Still waiting for NVC to receive our application.

[meesu 1]

Hello! I'm a bit confused about what the current situation of our K-1 Visa is. On USCIS Case Status page, we were told our form was approved on 4th of November, 2025. We also received our confirmation via physical mail, and on the letter, it states "We have sent the original visa petition to the Department of State National Visa Center (NVC.)" The physical letter also states our approval is valid from 3rd of November, 2025 to 3rd of February, 2026.

 

On December 9th, we sent an inquiry to NVC to check if they got our case. They responded and said they did not receive it, and that it could take up to 6 weeks. On the USCIS Case Status page, it still says "Case Was Approved." No status change on the page. Are they still holding our application in USCIS? It's been almost 60 days, and I'm afraid of our case getting lost. Is anyone else experiencing this long of a delay? To be clear; I'm not worried about NVC processing our case, I'm worried about the application leaving the USCIS at all.

 

Please let me know! Thank you!

[JeanneAdil 7,423]

keep checking with inquiry to NVC for your New (embassy/country) ID  ANK for Ankara for the Turkey embassy

NVC does not process the K1 visa / it only assigns the case # 

you will then fill out the ds 160 and follow the ankara rules for paying the fee,  collecting needed documents and scheduling the interview

BTW when i look up Turkey US K1 visa ,  it says fill out ds 260 and that is not correct / it will be ds 160

260 is for spouse visa

 

It appears USCIS has not (this is only my guess) the case as you said the USCIS site still shows it / you should not be able to see a status on that site when the case has left the USCIS office (as they no longer have access to your packet and the info)

[rbv_shard 57]

Yeah.... the NOA2 is a form letter and does not accurately reflect the status of your case.

 

Ours took two months (Dec 3rd) after the NOA2 date (Oct 2nd) for the online status to change from "Approved" to "Sent to Department of State", then another couple weeks until NVC was able to give us the case number, and that shows "At NVC" and may be weeks more before they approve it and send onward to the embassy.

 

There's no point in checking with NVC until at least a week after your USCIS status changes to "Sent to Department of State" -- online, not in the NOA2.

 

On the processing times page you can see that it is taking an average of 70 days between NOA2 and reaching NVC.

And yes, this means the validity of the USCIS approval will expire.  (Why we got four months and you got only three, no idea.  Or perhaps yours is March 2nd not Feb 3rd.)  This primarily means we'll all need to provide updated evidence for "intent to marry" and "proof of relationship" (at the interview), the original ones are considered too old.

Edited Saturday at 05:45 AM by rbv_shard

[meesu 1]

On 1/2/2026 at 5:38 PM, JeanneAdil said:

you will then fill out the ds 160 and follow the ankara rules for paying the fee,  collecting needed documents and scheduling the interview

BTW when i look up Turkey US K1 visa ,  it says fill out ds 260 and that is not correct / it will be ds 160

260 is for spouse visa

 

Thank you! I was actually worried about the DS-160 form part, I was wondering if that was a mistake on the page.

 

10 hours ago, rbv_shard said:

Yeah.... the NOA2 is a form letter and does not accurately reflect the status of your case.

 

Ours took two months (Dec 3rd) after the NOA2 date (Oct 2nd) for the online status to change from "Approved" to "Sent to Department of State", then another couple weeks until NVC was able to give us the case number, and that shows "At NVC" and may be weeks more before they approve it and send onward to the embassy.

 

There's no point in checking with NVC until at least a week after your USCIS status changes to "Sent to Department of State" -- online, not in the NOA2.

 

On the processing times page you can see that it is taking an average of 70 days between NOA2 and reaching NVC.

And yes, this means the validity of the USCIS approval will expire.  (Why we got four months and you got only three, no idea.  Or perhaps yours is March 2nd not Feb 3rd.)  This primarily means we'll all need to provide updated evidence for "intent to marry" and "proof of relationship" (at the interview), the original ones are considered too old.

 

Thank you so much, this has cleared up stuff for me. I was wondering if the page was simply not updated, but now I'll keep a closer look on it. I've also checked the dates, and it was March 2nd indeed! (Still getting used to reading the dates Americanized...) 

 

I'm hoping we'll get our status changed to "Sent to Department of State" this Monday, since it'll be over 60 days, then. We'll see from there; thank you so much for taking the time to respond!