Matt & Rocio

Dear VJ Memebers,

This is my first post and my first questions…I’m sorry my timeline in not fully up to date, will work on it…

I really hope that someone can help me out with my question.

After waiting for week, today when I called National Visa Centre to inquire about my wife case status, they said her case is completed and approved. However, interview date is not issued yet, because they waiting on the embassy to send a date. The person at NVC said they only issue interview date at the end of each month, is that correct or do they issue interview date throughout the month? By the way my wife interview will be in Pakistan (Islamabad).

Can you some please advise on this issue, so I can be at peace and know her date will come soon?? All or any help is highly appreciated

Thanks

Ali

Based on recent trends you may find out your interview date the first or second week of June and the interview will likely be in July. Good luck!

Yesterday morning at approximately 6:30AM EDT my wife and step-daughter entered the USA and became legal permanent residents. I still can't believe it! When I woke up this morning with my wife in bed next to me I was so happy.

We entered the US at the Atlanta airport. It was a very smooth process. I wasn't sure which line to wait in so I picked the US Citizen/Permanent Resident line. Once we made it to an officer he immediately re-directed us to another line nearby which fortunately didn't have anyone standing in it. This line was for K-packet holders and immigrant visas. We were called up right away and the visa officer first processed my entry and then asked how long we had been married. I told him 11 months and then he proceeded to open both visa packets and looked through the documents. The only other question he asked was if our address was correct. We then signed a form that stated that we understood that the visas were only good for 2 years and that we would have to renew 90-days or less before the expiration date. He then stamped both visas told us that the stamped visa would be valid for up to one year and that we should receive the green cards in the mail in 6 months or less and that we could file for a SSN the next day. I would estimate it took about 10 minutes from the time he called us up to completion.

Question to those that have recently immigrated to the US. Did you select yes on question 43 on the DS-230 regarding issuing a Social Security Card? If so, did you get a social security card eventually or did you just go to the office and request one in person? We aren't in a rush to get Social Security Numbers, but I also don't want to wait too long to get one.

Thanks all for the info, an yeah I know I shouldnt have brought the tickets about 20 mins after I already brought.

Tell them at the interview that you have already made travel plans to fly back and give them the date. In our case they told us 1-2 weeks to receive the visa. When we told them that we had a flight 8 days away they said they would rush it and we could pick up the packet with the visa a few days later.

I'm not saying this will always work, but if you give them this information at the interview they will probably be able to get you the visa in time for the flight.

Good luck!

Yes, all immigrants arriving for the first time have to go through secondary inspection. That's where you hand over the sealed envelope from the Embassy and they go through all the paperwork.

Also, the officer was trying to tell me that we had to remove conditions in a year. Another officer came in and said it was 2 years and they actually started yelling at each other! It was ridiculous. Then the second officer took our file and completed everything in about 10 minutes.

If there aren't a lot of people waiting and you have a competent CBP officer you should get through pretty quickly. 5 hours should be plenty of time.

That's good to know. I haven't really studied up much on the POE step so I didn't know what to expect. Hopefully we get a competent officer

I just went to uscis.gov's website and entired the search criteria to find the estimated processing times for I-130 petition for marriage/spouse and it says estimated time is 13.9 months!!!

Then I entered search criteria for 129-F petition for fiance and it says 5mos! Why the enormous discrepancy here???? This seems to me to be grossly unfair. They receive more petitions for 129-F and yet the processing time is faster? Really?

Can someone give me some insight as to why this would be? Because that's just ridiculous in my opinion.

Can you provide a link to where you found this information?

According to this USCIS Processing time site the wait is 5 months for an I-130 petition for spouse or child under 21 if the petitioner is a US Citizen:

https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplayInit.do

Also, while there may be more I-129f visa petitions on VJ there are a lot more I-130 petitions submitted each month to USCIS.

We are in the last stages of NVC, just paid the IV fee today, and hopefully will then be able to email out the DS-260 document packets Monday/Tuesday and should hope to have an interview scheduled by the end of May.

How early can my spouse schedule the Medical Exam? We're expecting the interview to probably be scheduled sometime in July, however my wife has a really busy late June schedule, and so she wanted to know if she can schedule the medical now in early June. Is it ok if her medical is 4-6 weeks (estimating here) before the Interview date?

I would suggest posting this question in the May 2012 NVC thread. One of the moderators of that thread is from Canada. In our case we had to wait until we had the interview letter before my wife could attend her medical interview.

If the NVC continues to follow recent trends you will probably find out your interview date during the first two weeks of June (assuming you have a case complete by then). The interview will likely be in July.

Our layover was 3.5 hours. We were the only ones waiting in the secondary inspection area so we should have had plenty of time. The officer took the folder from my husband and was looking through it. She asked me all kinds of questions about our relationship, it was like our Embassy interview all over again except she only spoke to me because she didn't speak Spanish and my husband doesn't speak English yet. First she couldn't find his A-number, which was the first thing listed on the outside of his packet. I pointed it out to her and then she said it didn't show up in the computer. She said she could see our case at USCIS but not the A-number, which for some reason was a problem. So she got really frantic and kept repeating herself. She just didn't seem very professional and wasted a lot of time by not going to ask for help from another officer.

Is it common for IR-1/CR-1 visa holders to go through secondary inspection during POE?

We arrive early in the morning in Atlanta. Based on my previous experiences there are flights arriving at the same time from Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Lagos, Johannesburg, and other southern hemisphere locations. Sometimes the wait just to get through passport control can be 30 minutes or more especially if the flights from Africa get in first because so many of the passengers are LPRs and they take extra time to process as compared to a USC.

I could see us waiting for hours if we were to be called into secondary screening just due to the sheer volume at that airport.

We did POE yesterday and SURPRISE, it was in the Bahamas! Thanks to the ignorance of one CPB officer we missed our flight but the American Airlines staff were awesome and put us on another flight immediately and we were still able to meet our next connection and get to Kansas City on time (but one bag short). 5 flights and 22 hours later we are HOME!!

Congratulations! Can you elaborate on the ignorance of the CPB officer? Did you have a short layover? We will have a 5 hour layover in Atlanta which is way more than we will need, but it just worked out that way for the cheapest flight.

Hello friends,

We just got a Checklist from NVC that the IV bill has not been paid inspite of it being shown PAID on the website. On calling them up, they said it was a mistake. Will this take a long time to complete our case at NVC?

Another question is We filed jointly this year and our tax returns has my name misspelled (one alphabet misspelled). Can this cause a problem at any step?

Thanks

Nearly everyone gets this false checklist and it can be ignored and will not affect your case at the NVC.

I don't have experience with name errors on a tax return. Have you contacted the IRS to see if it can be corrected and a new transcript issued? In my opinion I don't think this would cause an issue with the NVC accepting your AOS.

I didn't know it would expedite my case. I thought that only worked for DCF which the embassy rejected. The woman looked through my papers, said everything was perfect but she wasn't accepting it because I got married here. It didn't seem to matter I lived here for a year after marriage, had the power bills and such to prove it. It's just craziness.

DCF was terminated in August 2011 unless there is a local USCIS office. It appears there is a USCIS office in New Delhi and one of the services they offer is I-130 petitions. Is this where you attempted to file your I-130?

http://newdelhi.usembassy.gov/uscis.html

Hello! Jambo!

I live in USA and will be traveling to Kenya this summer to marry my fiance, a Kenyan. (1) I was wondering if it is EASIER or FASTER to file all the paperwork while I am in Kenya after we get married, OR would it be better to go back to the US and file all the papers?

(2) Does anyone know what is the shortest amount of time it could take from marriage to visa in hand?

Thanks!

Samantha

Direct Consular filling is no longer offered as of August of 2011 unless there is a local USCIS office. Back when it was offered most consulates required that you be a legally residing in the country for a minimum of 6 months before filing.

If you get married during your visit to Kenya this summer you will be filing an I-130 petition for a CR-1 visa. This process typically takes 8 months or more from the time you file the I-130 petition to the time the visa is approved an issued.

As others have pointed out you also have the option to file for a K-1 fiance visa. The main requirement is that you have met in person at least once in the last 2 years and that you are both free to marry. The main advantage of the K-1 visa is that it usually takes less time from filing to receiving the visa. The main disadvantage is that it is only a temporary visa and ultimately costs more when you include the step to file for adjustment of status after you are married.

If your goal is to get your spouse to the US as soon as possible and you have previously met in person within the last 2 years I would suggest the K-1 fiance visa option. If you do go this route you will file an I-129f petition for your spouse.

Good luck on your journey and remember that you will both need to be patient because this is not a fast process by any means.

HI!

I'm now waiting for my hard copy NOA2.

Once I receive it should I call NVC to get my case number?

And after they give it to me do I hunt down the forms I need myself? The info out there is very confliting... Some says not to send any forms until they have sent them to you first...others say not to wait on the NVC. I need someone who got from NVC to consulate of Haiti very quickly (or other consulates) to tell me exactly what they did.

Please help! :blink: :wacko: :wacko: :wacko:

I would suggest you join the May 2012 NVC thread. There is a FAQ in the first post that is very helpful. Lately it has been taking about 3-4 weeks between NOA2 and the NVC assigning a case number. I would suggest you read through that FAQ and work on collecting the required documents for the AOS and the IV packets.

Lately it has been taking about 3-4 weeks from NOA2 to the NVC assigning a case number. I would suggest joining the May 2012 NVC thread if you haven't already. It is a very active thread and you can track others with similar timelines to find out when you might get your case number. Good luck!

Thanks man, that is very good to know.

btw does any one know if the G-1145 e-notificitions are used in later stages, such as when decision was made at the NOA2 time? Thanks.

You can sign up for updates to your case at this website:

https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/jsps/selectusertype.jsp

You can also provide email address and/or mobile phone number that can receive text messages.

I hope someone can advise me on this. I file I 130 for my wife dated 10/6/2011. After 7 months I contacted USCIS thru senator's office and got following reply:

"A check of USCIS records indicates that this case is currently under extensive background check review and it should be processed within 180 days. We apologize for the delay and inconvenience caused. Thank you and have a wonderful day."

Neither me or my wife ever broke any law (except speeding tickets). She never been to USA. We have wedding videos, pictures.....anything they can ask for to proof that we are married. They didnt ask for RFE.

I got my citizenship thru prior marriage which lasted over 5 years. We got divorce in good term, wasn't a massy divorce.

My questis are:

1. Did any one of you had similar situation? If yes how long it took you to go thru the process?

2. Do you advise that I should file I 129f?

3. I contacted Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman today. Will it help?

Hope someone can help me.

Thanks

Seems to me that your case has been put into Administrative Processing. This can happen at the USCIS phase when a more thorough background check is required for the petitioner. What country are you from originally?

I'm not aware of a way to speed up this process unfortunately.

I sent real pictures, I just made copies of recent pix, marriage photos and pre-wedding shots, and sent a little old pix from college, bcos i wasn't sure they will return it, i didn't want to loose my old pictures with my spouse.

Luckily for me, they returned all after my I-130 was approved.

But since am on the NVC Stage now, i just want to know, if my real pictures will also be returned to mii or my spouse. Bcos am sending more old pix now and same recent pix sent previously.

The only photos you will send to the NVC are the passport photos of the beneficiary.

Just back from the US Embassy in Santiago with both Visas in hand. We are all set to fly out of Santiago next Tuesday night and complete POE in Atlanta early on Wednesday.

We had our interview today. It was nice and smooth. The CO asked us many questions mostly addressed to me (USC). Unfortunately, we were placed in AP (I knew this since I was already told by few members, luckily they didn't give us the 221g paper, only a letter saying that my husband has to go through mandatory administrative processing(he's muslim) they kept his passport. Hopefully, he'll get his visa soon.

Good Luck to all of you!

I hope the AP goes quickly and good luck on the rest of your journey!

APPROVED. God has been indeed very kind. I'm going home on the 24th :-)

Congratulations!

We just got a call from the Embassy letting us know the visas were ready to be picked up. We will be picking them up in a couple of hours.

I understand what you are trying to say now because a POE could be at any country in the world (to enter that Country of course!). Obviously, we are referring to entering the "US" as we are all here deailing with immigration into the United States. I still think that "POE into the US" must occur in US Soil or otherwise is not POE.

On the other hand, yes I agree you can "POE into the Bahamas" but you are not physically entering the US by landing in the Bahamas.

There are a number of foreign airports that have US Customs and Border Patrol agents that are setup so that passengers clear passport control and customs before they depart. When they arrive at the airport in the US they deplane directly into the passenger terminal. I know this is the case with some airports in Canada as well as Ireland. I didn't know that the Bahamas was included, but it doesn't surprise me. When VJers talk about POE they are referring to the location where their visas are stamped by an Immigration Officer and their visa packets are taken. After they complete this process they are considered admitted to the USA even though they aren't physically in the USA yet.

What is the main cause if a " Check list" ? been looking at ppl timelines n it seems like nvc hands them out like freshly baked cookies.

I was given a check list because they didn't accept the marriage termination document I sent in with the IV packet. Turns out that I sent the right one and after some further investigation on their end they accepted it and my case was closed.

Check lists are to the NVC what RFEs are to the USCIS. It basically means something is missing from your case that is preventing it from being closed.

Just got back from the US Embassy in Santiago. My wife and step-daughter's visas were approved!

I plan to submit a full review of the interview later, but the short version is that it was one of the easiest steps in the process and took just under an hour.

I told them we have our flights booked for next Tuesday and they said they should have the visas ready to be picked up Wednesday or Thursday of this week!

Good luck to those that have interviews coming up!

visa fiancé my friend

K-1 visas only spend a few days at the NVC, just long enough for them to assign a case number. From there they send your case to the Embassy. The amount of time it can take for the NVC to receive the case and then forward it to the embassy can vary.

Please note that you will not be required to submit any documents to the NVC, this is only required when you are requesting an IR-1/CR-1 spouse visa.

Good luck on the rest of your journey!

I'm at the airport waiting to board my flight to Chicago. Another stop in Atlanta and then i'm off to Santiago. Very excited to see my wife and step-daughter tomorrow morning. Interview is on Monday and we're feeling good about it.

Good luck to those that have an interview coming up and congratulations to those that have already had their interviews and passed.

OK guys, am just preparing myself. Yesterday I prepared documentations my 3 packages (DS- 3032: Choice of Agent; AOS and IV), though no NVC Case number yet.

I know I can email the DS-3032 choice of agent - question? who mails it. USC or Beneficiary?

AOS - I know the USC will mail this - but to what address? Is the address on the forms?

DS- 230: Application for IV? Same Question - To what Address?

please share links to the web page also. Thanks so much for your replies.

When you pay the AOS and IV bills you will need to print out a cover sheet. This will have the address where you need to send each packet and is required for processing.

People here is the message i just got from my email :"An immigrant visa interview has been scheduled for the applicant at the U.S. Embassy/Consulate in

PORT AU PRINCE on June 12, 2012 at 08:00 am.

Congratulations!

This means you will be with your wife when she gives birth, right?