Free US immigration self-help guides, example forms, community discussion, case tracking & estimated approval dates!

Here is the timeline for my husband s case (he s Mexican, entered the USA in 1999 from MEX, without being seen by a immigration officer):

August 2, 2019 = I-130 Receipt Date

March 26, 2020 = I-130 Approved

August 28, 2020 = I-601A Application Received at USCIS

September 8, 2020 = Fingerprint fee accepted

June 2, 2021 = Fingerprints were taken

July 17, 2023 = Application transferred to another office

February 1, 2024 = I-601A approved

+++ Lawyer wanted us to submit a FOIA request to ensure record was clear before he submitted paperwork to NVC. +++

April 3, 2024 = FOIA request submitted

May 28, 2024 = FOIA result received

July 5, 2024 = Applicant's documents/Sponsor's I-864 submitted to NVC

July 12, 2024 = NVC indicates Documentarily Qualified

Aug 14, 2025 = Notice of interview in Ciudad Juarez / CDJ

October 17, 2025 = Interview date in Ciudad Juarez / CDJ

We chose to have my husband travel to Ciudad Juarez to take care of all of the required prelim visits and appointments, and then I flew there and joined him the day before his final interview.

Once we got notice that his interview would be on 10/17, we registered him for his biometrics appointment the closest one to his interview was 1 full week beforehand, on 10/10. We then scheduled his medical appointment on 10/13. He also had to get his police certificate in CDJ. After we started scheduling appointments, we got e-mails with instructions from each one. We chose to take all those instructions and checklists, + print out the checklists from the NVC and US consulate website and create a "master document" that listed all our appointment dates, locations and times, and a list of what to bring to each one. We found this helpful, and the staff appeared to appreciate it as well, as many people showed up either unprepared, without required paperwork, or with a stack of unorganized papers that they had to shuffle through. It should be noted that none of the places asked for all the documents that were listed on their checklists but it was good that he had them in case. He heard other people being asked for documents they didn't request from him, and he was asked to produce paperwork that some others weren't.

General notes: We took a taxi to the Centro area of CDJ, and during his time here my husband took a taxi to Walmart. From what we saw and experienced, the area around the US Consulate is really the nicest in the city with the largest variety of restaurants, a very solid shopping mall with a large gym, and it never felt dangerous or unsafe in any way to us. Another note is that, my husband's taxi driver told him that one does not need an appointment to do the biometrics and medical appointments, or to get the police certificate and that many people just show up and do all 3 in the same day. My husband chose to stick to his scheduled appointment times, but the taxi guy's comments may be worth noting. I ve seen other people say that when they spoke in Spanish at their interviews, they didn t feel the same level of ease and respect as when they spoke English. My husband didn t have this experience and in fact, most places just spoke to him in Spanish from the start.

• He flew with Aeromexico from the USA to Mexico City and then to CDJ. Not the cheapest option, but it flew him to into Mexico, he didn t need to worry about a border crossing, and was able to use his Mexican passport to get through TSA and onto the flight.

• We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express. Hubby was there for 13 nights and I joined him for the last 3. They provide a shuttle to the airport, but not a shuttle from the airport to the hotel so he used a taxi. This hotel was not expensive, is relatively newly remodeled and updated, and is located about 2 blocks from the consulate, medical and biometrics appointments, directly across from a large shopping mall and adjacent to a decent Mexican (more like Tex-Mex) restaurant and within walking distance to many other restaurants, both chain and higher-end. This hotel offers a free breakfast every morning and the staff were friendly and helpful. No safe, refrigerator or microwave in the room, but each room did have a coffee maker, the TV had lots of channels and WiFi was fast, though this entire area of the city was having regular internet outages on our last 2 days here which was a struggle as I was planning to work from the hotel.

• For the police certificate, my husband just took the hotel shuttle, as they offer free transport within 10km of the hotel. They required a copy of his passport and DS-260 confirmation with barcode. They asked for his US address, but didn t ask where he was born/lived in Mexico or where he was staying as we've seen mentioned elsewhere. This process was quick; they printed out the certificate while he waited.

• Biometrics was also fast. They wanted his DS-260 confirmation with barcode, and his passport.

• For his medical exam (he used SMF, and has he was walking there, other medical facilities had staff trying to get him to go to their offices instead), they needed his DS-260 with barcode, and proof of previous vaccinations. The actual medical exam didn t take long, and the physical exam was very general and wasn t very thorough they just quickly looked under the front and back of the gown he was given to wear, but no hernia check, etc. He has no tattoos, but when they asked, he told them of a previous interaction with law enforcement (a minor misdemeanor that was dismissed before going to court). He was then sent to a psychologist who really interrogated him on lots of things, including facts about the police interaction and asked lots of other personal and legal questions, and took a fair amount of notes. This part of the appointment made him feel uneasy and he really wasn t expecting the line of questioning, so some of his answers probably could ve been better, but he was really caught of guard by some things they were asking. He had to get a total of 4 vaccines.

• Interview appointment Note that the interview appointment date listed on the e-mail notice you receive is NOT the actual interview with the officer. At this appointment they only collect documents, then if all those are complete, they assign you an interview for the following business day. While my husband heard them asking for different documents from different people, in his case he had to give them the DS-260 forms which were marked proving he d done the earlier appointments, marriage certificate, the police certificate from Mexico, and documents about his minor misdemeanor and the dismissal of his case in the USA. They also asked him for a copy of his I-601A approval, which is something I d not seen listed on any checklist, but he had it. Note that they did not ask for any copies of the I-864 or my W2 or income tax records; we had previously uploaded all those into CEAC, so maybe that's why? Most of the documents that were listed on various checklists were never requested here at the appointment, but again, he had them if needed. They asked him about his misdemeanor and the dismissal, who his sponsor was and where I was at that moment.

• 2^nd interview appointment Scheduled at 8:00 a.m. the morning after his documents were collected. He got in line at around 7, and he didn t get inside, get interviewed and finally emerge until about 11:20. He waited in line for a very long time, and once inside he could hear and see others being interviewed and approved or denied. He could also see that some officials were denying many while others denied very few, and some were kind and personable, while others were strictly business. I and most everyone waiting for their spouses or family members had to wait outside, just down the street from the consulate in front of the convenience store and on the pedestrian bridge. Cell phones weren t allowed inside so there was no way for me to ask where he was in line or if he was close to being interviewed, etc. He was asked who his sponsor was, where he and his sponsor lived, when he entered the USA, if he remained in the USA the entire time after that entry, he was asked about his misdemeanor and they already knew the case had been dismissed as when he explained that, the officer said "I know" and approved him. We had read that you should take originals and copies of all legal documents like passports, birth certificates and marriage license, that they keep the copies and give the originals back but in our case they handed all documents back to him along with a green slip, detailing what would happen next. Also, he wasn t given a packet to give to CBP when he first entered the USA as we d seen elsewhere they told him everything is now done electronically.

• The officer who approved his case told him it might take 3 days before he got the e-mail that his passport with the LPR sticker was ready, but in our case, on the 2^nd morning after his appointment, he got an e-mail at 7:15 telling him his passport would be ready in an hour. He picked it up at the same place where his biometrics were collecgted. We then grabbed a taxi that could take us across the bridge, through immigration and to the airport in El Paso. He took us across the bridge and let us both out at the CBP station. Hubby had to go in and briefly meet with officers there since it was his first entry following his approval. There was no one in line ahead of him, and I had no line when I went through the standard CBP checkpoint and had my luggage scanned. In all, a painless and somewhat (thankfully) uneventful process. We then went to El Paso airport and flew home.

• Once back in the States, we went online and paid the green card fee as per the instructions in his passport, and he visited the local social security office to ensure the process of getting his SSN and card had been started.

• Huge thanks to @Josh B K for tracking all of us who are working through IR-1 approvals, so everyone can see how long it's generally been taking between the time we've all been DQ'd until our appointments are scheduled. Seeing the average wait times of everyone who was scheduled ahead of us, was a huge help for sure!