US Immigration from Netherlands

Greetings people of VJ,

I have my visa interview at the consulate tomorrow. I received a reminder e-mail from the consulate today that contained the following statement (emphasis mine):

"Validity: The visa is valid for one entry during its validity period (6 months, from the date of the medical exam).

You can enter the United States any time within the validity of the visa.

Do not leave the U.S. until you are granted Legal Permanent Resident Status and have received your Green Card. Failure to follow the above instructions will delay your immigrant visa process."

Our lawyer replied as follows: "I ve never seen this. Traditionally, after a person enters the US with an embassy/consular LPR grant, we schedule an info pass to receive a separate stamp in your passport that would confirm your LPR status. Recently, the process has changed. I have a separate case where the client wanted to travel home for Christmas. I argued with three separate Officers who refused the infopass and insisted that my client simply travel on the embassy stamp. You can leave either way but I would still try and secure an infopass and stamp.

You shouldn t have any issues. I ve had multiple clients leave this year. I would suggest you make the trip as quick as possible."

Our plan was as follows:

1. Enter U.S. ASAP after receiving visa, take a 4-5 week vacation.
2. Travel back to sell house, car, arrange shipping of belongings, end employment, etc. Would be out of the U.S. for about 3-5 months.
3. Enter U.S. and permanently move in with my wife.

I was under the impression that advance parole was not required for me for the CR-1 and that I would have no problems leaving and re-entering before issuance of Green Card. Lawyer informed us that it can take up to 12 months to actually receive Green Card and SSN, and it seems that leaving for an extended period of time (under 6 months though) could create issues.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Also, anyone any idea what is meant by the infopass and the LPR grant stamp? Lawyer's reply to that question was simply that it's "a USCIS appointment".

Cheers,

T

Hi!

I got to the US on a student visa, I met my fianc e and we got engaged recently. I d like to travel with her to my home country in January. We do not have a date set for getting married yet.

Is it safe to travel with her?

I applied in-person for an SSN card two weeks ago and have since received my SSN. However; when I try using it, for example with my bank; I keep getting on my SSN. I have an established credit history through my EIN (sole proprietor), so the lack of history isn't the issue. Am I missing something here, or when can I expect to be able to actually *use* my new SSN?

Hello all,

This post has three questions, so thank you in advance for your time! Just received an email from NVC stating that an interview has been scheduled with the consulate (Amsterdam). It is one calendar week from today, but my husband (the applicant) is currently visiting in the US on ESTA. We want to try to reschedule but the case is not showing up in the system yet. It states "Immigrant visa case number provided is not ready to schedule an appointment." The system tells us to wait 5 business days to see if the case shows up, but the interview is is 5 business days away. Does anyone know how long it usually takes for it to show online? We called (and actually got a hold of) NVC, but they said they can no longer reschedule interviews, and the Amsterdam consulate only provides an email address to contact them at.

The second question is, should we allot for any significant time between the medical exam and the interview? How long before the interview should the medical exam take place?

Third and final question, how long does it usually take between the interview and the passport to come back? (Assuming we do not have to go through administrative processing.)

Thank you all!

Is it possible to work for my European employer while visiting the US on ESTA (so not staying longer than 90 days)?