US Immigration from United Kingdom

I was wondering if anyone had come across this?

I had my medical in early march for an IR-1(via DCF) interview originally booked for March 17th. Thanks to COVID, that was cancelled of course and after a couple of rebookings and cancellations, I finally had the interview on August 10th. My visa was approved, and the final packet arrived yesterday with my passport and the Big White Envelope. Cue celebration and much quaffing of ale (well, G&T...)

So, today, I was scanning the visa page in my passport to send to a potential employer. And read the small print for the first time. The issue date is August 12 and the expiry date is September 9th. I had gone through the whole process on the understanding that the visa would be valid for six months. It turns out we have less than a month to move our household (me, wife, daughter, 2 large dogs and a bunch of stuff) and I have no idea why.

1. Has this happened to anyone else?

2. Does anyone know if there's a phone number for the immigrant visa unit? (I have of course already asked this question via the online contact form, but have no confidence in getting a quick reply).

For those that have already left the U.K. and arrived on a spouse visa

Did you buy one way travel insurance?

Who did you purchase with?

How long did you arrange cover for? (I was thinking 1 month to give enough time for my husband to get us added to his medical insurance etc...)

I did a quick google search and there were so many companies and random names of insurers I d never come across so I thought I d ask here if anyone had experience of using anyone in particular?

Thanks

Hi all. I am hoping to start a thread to see the various responses embassies/consulates have given you when inquiring about scheduling K1 visa interview and when it would resume. As many have noticed, there seems to be a lot on inconsistency in the responses given from embassy to embassy, consulate to consulate.

If you have contacted your consulate in the past month to inquire about or schedule your K1 interview, can you quote or send a screenshot of their response?

Thank you

I will be having my oath ceremony on Monday (hurrah), but I have a slight issue that I don t know how to address. Turns out since my middle name wasn t on my birth certificate, and because I didn t want to wait for a court ceremony in the middle of a pandemic, I will be losing this middle name on naturalization. I don t have an issue about this but it s on most of my documentation. Drivers license, ss card most credit cards etc. etc. The most important thing for me to do personally is register to vote and I don t think that will be an issue. But after that? My license doesn t expire until next year, I m not planning to change my job so I m unlikely to need to display my social security card and while I m going to apply for a passport, I m not getting on a plane in the near future.

So basically - what would you do first?

I ve even considered actually applying to the local court for a name change to get my middle name back. Fees etc will be a thing and of course time, but as I say - being naturalized in time to vote in November was my primary considerations. And really I m not as attached to my middle name as much as it seems to be attached to me.

So what order would you do this?

For this post my wife with be Miss Doe and i will be Mr Smith.

In 2013, i got married to my US wife in Arlington, VA. I then returned home to the UK and started the CR-1 Visa process.

We filed the I-130 and everything else needed to get the CR1 Visa, early on in the process we decided between the two of us that i would be taking my wife's surname, i would no longer be Mr Smith but become Mr Doe and we filed accordingly, putting my name down as Mr Doe on the DS230. I sent our marriage certificate to the UK passport office, the UK DMV and the UK tax office and received my new passport and drivers license back under the name Mr Doe.

In Feb 2014 i moved to the USA, My visa was under the name Mr Doe in my passport that was in the name of Mr Doe, I've been in the US 7 years, my name is Mr Doe, my state driving license, my passport, my mortgage, my bank accounts, insurance and everything else is as Mr Doe, i AM and have been for the past 7 years Mr Doe after legally changing my name through marriage.

My interview at the DC field office (Fairfax, VA) was yesterday at 12:15pm, at 12:45pm a lady (Who we will call Karen 1) came out to the waiting room and called my name. She was polite, asked how i was and led me to an interview rooms. We sat down, she explained she would be conducting the interview and doing my civics test, she said the process shouldn't be more than 30 minutes. She started with the civics test which i passed by answering the first 6 questions correctly. She then asked me to read a sentence on the iPad screen and then to write a short sentence on the screen, which i did correctly. She then opened what looked like my immigration file, a thick brown folder full of paper documents. She started to go through my N400 application, asking several questions like was my address correct, how long i had lived at that address, confirming my wife's name etc etc She then asked when i got married and i said Jan 2013. She looked at the papers and then looked at me and said " So you returned to England for 12 months after you got married ?" I said " yes, i did the CR-1 visa process, that's the correct process to go through after being married in the US, the petition was then filed from the UK" to which she replied, "mmmm that's unusual, most people come over and get married then apply for their Visa here" i told her i didn't do a K1 but a CR-1. It was at this time that i realized i maybe knew more than she did about the process! She said she had never heard of the CR1 process!!!

She kept looking through my file and reading out aloud, " ok, your I-130 is here, you marriage certificate, your divorce certificate (from previous marriage in the UK) and as she was doing this I'm thinking, what has this to do with things? all this has been checked out and was part of the Visa application process not my N400.

She then stopped at my birth certificate and flipped backwards and forwards between that and my marriage certificate. She then said to me " why is your name now different to your birth certificate?" I said because after we married i took my wife's surname. She immediately said back to me, "oh, you cant just do that, that's not allowed, where is the official paperwork that you changed your name?" She then said "you should have filled in a DS30" to which i replied, " i did fill in a DS230 and you should have a copy of that in your file" after looking through the file for several minutes she said there was no DS230 in my file. I said "well the process is the same for the Husband taking the wife's name as it is vice versa, the marriage certificate is proof enough of my name change". she then started rambling on how DC, Maryland and VA and all the other states have different rules about surnames!! She said " its fine though, she could fill a few forms in on her computer and all i would have to do was get an appointment at the Arlington courthouse, get the papers signed and stamped and then return them in the mail to USCIS and we'll give you another interview!! i KNEW this wasn't correct and i said " I'm sorry but this is not needed, my name has already been changed legally already" She then said she would go speak to her supervisor.

She returned 15 minutes later and said "yes, its as i thought you will have to do a name change through the courts" by this time my palms were sweating and i was becoming frustrated trying to explain that she had it wrong, i was polite but firm. I then asked to speak to her supervisor (whom we'll call Karen 2), she said "certainly, I'll go get her". Karen 1 disappeared for 5 minutes and came back saying Karen 2 would be in in 10 minutes. We both sat there in silence until Karen 2 arrived about 15 minutes later.

Karen 2 said she had spoke to one of her colleagues and that no one knew exactly what the situation was and should be, i said " there is one person that knows, me!!" between Karen 1 and 2 they agreed that i had to do a name change. I then started to show Karen 2 a copy of my DS230 from 7 years ago on my cell phone, she would not look at it and snapped back at me " I'm not interested in your DS230, that's a Department of State form, nothing to do with this and they have been known to make mistakes" I was like #######!!! i told her that Karen 1 had mentioned that there was no DS230 in my file and she had been looking for it but Karen 2 was not having anything to do with it! I then asked what if my wife had taken my name would she have had to go through the courts? She said "no that's normal when 2 people get married, what you have done is not normal and is not really allowed" At this point i was still very calm but inside i was fuming and i thought F**k it, I'm gonna fight my corner and if i piss them off then so be it. She then said, "you will have to change your name through the court", i said " so what name am i changing it from? Mr Smith does not exist anymore, he hasn't done for 7 years, my passport, green card, bank accounts, mortgage state ID are all in the name Mr Doe and it was changed to that legally in the UK and on the DS230, so how can i change my name and what do i change it to?" she just stood there looking confused and didn't know how or what to say. I then asked her how my Visa and all the correspondence from USCIS was issued and addressed to Mr Doe, where had they got that name from ? again, she couldn't answer and didn't know how to respond.

My questions to Karen 2 went on for over 15 minutes but what seemed like an hour! she was very arrogant and ignorant and didn't want to talk to me, just to Karen 1.

Then Karen 1 turned to Karen 2 and said ( and this is verbatim i kid you not) "I've just googled it and it says its OK" Karen 2 said, "what website does it say that on ? is it the courthouse website?" Karen 1 said " no it just says it on google that a man can take the wife's name" Karen 2 then said to Karen 1, ' OK put it through" and walked off!!!!

I was in there just over 2 hours, LOTS of questions and conversations between me and both Karens that I've forgotten and I cant even remember the amount of times i asked things and they didn't know what to say. I left the office happy but totally frustrated and shaking!

if i had just left it and taken their word for it or not stood up for myself i would have not been approved!!

So my Oath is next Tuesday and I'm looking forward to it but the whole things left a real bad taste in my mouth:( My wife says i should write a letter of complaint, im just gonna move on but i wanted to vent through this forum that has been a great wealth of information over the past 7 or 8 years,

Thanks

K & S DOE!!!