Matt & Rocio

She has to go to the Court to get the divorce decree.My Country use to issue the certificate document with an addendum stating the date of separation and also the date of final divorce, but this addendum is just made after the individual or Court send to the Registro Civil de Divorce Decree.

According to the Country Reciprocity Schedule on the travel.state.gov website the Divorce Decree is obtained from the Registro Civil in Chile:

"Divorce certificates in Chile do exist, therefore Divorce Decrees are also available at the Civil Registry. There may be a fee for this service."

http://travel.state.gov/visa/fees/fees_5455.html?cid=9018

I submitted the same document as the OP to the USCIS and my petition for my wife was approved. I'm now at the NVC phase and they rejected the exact same document. A little over a month ago I sent an email to the IV Unit at the Santiago Embassy with a scanned copy of the divorce certificate and asked them if it was the correct document. They replied back within a day or two and confirmed that it was the correct document.

I think the confusion is caused by a few different factors. First, the Country Reciprocity Schedule on the travel.state.gov website does not show an example of the divorce decree, but it does show the marriage, birth and police certificates. Next, the document does say Certificado de Matrimonio as the title which would make one think it is not a divorce certificate, but if you continue to read through the document there is an addendum that says divorce and then provides the details of the divorce. In my opinion this is a good way to do it, because if anyone were to ever request that marriage certificate they would know right away that the marriage was ended in divorce.

I have sent another email to the IV unit at the Santiago Embassy to ask them to once again confirm if the document is correct or not. They are going to have a lot more experience with this than the USCIS or NVC since they only deal with Chilean documents. I sent the email on Thursday and have yet to hear back from them, but they were closed on Friday due to Good Friday being a national holiday in Chile. I'm hoping to hear back from them tomorrow or the next day. I will let you know what comes of it.

I had two separate messages yesterday from other VJ members who had their Chilean Divorce certificate rejected by USCIS. They both sent the same certificate I sent which is the only one the Civil Registry in Chile will issue. The fact that USCIS accepted mine and now NVC is rejecting it shows that there is definitely some confusion surrounding this document. It doesn't help that the Reciprocity List for Chilean documents on travel.state.gov does not include an example of the divorce certificate while it does show an example for all the other required documents. I'm hoping to get the IV Unit at the Santiago Embassy involved in this so they can settle this issue for good. I've already been told by them that the divorce document is the correct one for Chile. I just want to get this straightened out before they fill up all the interview slots for May.

I ended up calling the NVC 3 times today. I spoke with Riley just a few minutes ago. She seemed annoyed that I was calling again. I told her that I just wanted to confirm that the divorce certificate is under review by a supervisor. She confirmed that was the case. I then asked if we could request to bring the document to the interview if they reject the one we already sent. She told me that I would have to send them a letter explaining why the document was unobtainable. If it comes to that I will point out that they cannot provide me an example of the document they are looking for so how can I provide the document they want?

I'm wondering if they are contacting the embassy in Santiago to get confirmation on the document. If that is the case that would explain why nothing happened today because the embassy is closed due to Good Friday being a national holiday in Chile.

Right now my biggest concern is that the NVC will start assigning interview dates for Chile for the month of May and that by the time we get this straightened out it will be too late for May interviews and then we will have to wait another month.

Our petition finally got approved. Thank God...

Congratulations! You have a similar timeline to ours, just shifted back a month. We waited over 7 months between NOA1 and NOA2. Now your case is off to the NVC were things will move a lot faster. The longest part of the wait is for them to receive the case from USCIS and manually input the information into their systems. This has been taking about 3 weeks. If you are well prepared you can get through the remaining steps in 2 weeks or less. Study up on the NVC process if you haven't already. There is a very active forum for April 2012 NVC, but the first post contains all the valuable information you will need.

Hello All - this forum has been WONDERFUL in helping us navigate this visa process - Thank you all so far!!

My husband and I have had a HELL of a time getting through this visa process - everyone here said doing DCF through Germany was easy as pie but we seem to have had terrible luck. Things have been screwed up every step of the way - by the consulate/immigration offices. Ugh.

But we finally made it! Husband arrived finally in the US a little over a week ago. But now we realized he might have the wrong visa! I hope that we are just mistaken here, though I'm not putting another screw-up past immigration.

We had been married 2 years by the time of his interview. He corrected the interviewer once when he mentioned the CR1 visa (2-years) and he said "oh yeah IR1" and then again confirmed later than he would be receiving the IR1.

Well he got his visa and we immediately booked his trip (thank god for frequent flyer miles) to the US (after having to change it 3 times due to aforementioned screw-ups). I'm looking at it now and it is a CR1!!! I can't believe this!!

Who should we contact about this? We had a miserable time with the Frankfurt Consulate before because you can only call 2-4pm (German time) Tues and Thurs and they rarely answered our emails. Should we contact them again anyway or contact someone in the US? Does this mean it is going to cost us another $1000+ plus all other expenses and rigamarole?

I'm really sick over this. I don't know if I can trust anyone's word at the Frankfurt Consulate at least after all we were put through.

Thanks everyone!

It is my understanding that the POE is where the final decision is made as to whether it will be an IR-1 or CR-1 visa. I've read of other members who are close to their 2-year anniversary once they complete the process and they chose to wait to enter the US until the 2-year anniversary has passed so they can obtain an IR-1 visa. They made sure to point out to the officer during POE that they had been married 2-years or more at the time of entry and should be issued an IR-1 visa.

Just called NVC to see if there was any update on my case. Took 17 minutes to get through. I wonder if they have a lot of people out on vacation today getting an early start on the holiday weekend. Very little hope at this point that we will get case closed by the end of this week. My biggest concern is that we will miss the party when they start issuing interview dates next week

If the review of the divorce document results in another checklist would it be possible to request that we provide the document at the time of the interview? I read of one member who was waiting on their PCC from Turkey and requested to bring it to the interview instead of waiting to get it and then send it to NVC. My concern is that it could take weeks to figure out the document they are looking for. The document we sent was accepted by USCIS and was confirmed by the Santiago Immigration Visa unit to be the correct document.

Hello all,

I recently sent my I-130 packet out last month. I received a request for evidence notice a few weeks later wanting some documents in their original languages (which I already sent yesterday). Strangely here in Egypt, DHL, UPS, or FedEx would not ship to the PO Box number they gave at the bottom of the blue page. I had to call USCIS and they gave me a full address to send the documents to. I would like to know if this is any good sign they are processing our application? It's just been a month but I hurried and sent the requested info back. I am not planning on hearing any answer yet as I know it takes time but just curious if at least it's being processed.

Thanks for any advice.

Jenny

DHL, UPS and FedEx will not ship to a US PO Box regardless of what country you are shipping from. Post Office Boxes are managed by the United States Postal Service.

Care to explain what in the world is an "UPPER FORUM"? Do you mean because something is not in English then it is of a LOWER category? Uhum! Aren't we all dealing here with potential US immigrants and possibly human beings whose primary language is not English?

I believe she meant the forums that are literally at the top of the forums page as opposed to the forums that are lower down on the page that include regional forums where foreign languages are more common. Considering she answered the question in Spanish shows she has compassion for people who don't speak her native language. Just my opinion.

I'll give my opinion though I know nothing of Chile's laws and someone with specific knowledge in this are will be much better qualified to answer this. That being said I will say that an addendum of divorce on a marriage certificate does not constitute a Judgement of Divorce that would be recognized by a US Court or USCIS. My experience on advice from consulates and embassies is that sometimes that advise is not correct as the workers there are not US embassy officials but rather workers who are citizens of the host nation and who are not knowledgeable in all area of immigration law. You must get a decree from the entity the granted the divorce.

The Country Reciprocity Schedule for Chile on the travel.state.gov website states the following:

Divorce certificates in Chile do exist, therefore Divorce Decrees are also available at the Civil Registry. There may be a fee for this service.

Unfortunately they do not show an example of this document, whereas they do show an example of the marriage, birth, and police certificates.

My wife has been to the Civil Registry on 3 separate occasions to request documents and each time she asks for a divorce certificate from her previous marriage, she is always given the same document. If I did indeed provide the wrong document why did USCIS accept it? So far two different agencies has said it is the correct document and a third has said it is not.

I just received a checklist from the NVC stating that I did not include a proper divorce certificate to show the termination of my wife's previous marriage. I provided the Certificado de Matrimonio with the Divorcio addendum. I had previously comfirmed with the IV Unit in the Santiago Embassy that this was indeed the proper document for a divorce certificate in Chile. I have already submitted a request to have the document reviewed by a supervisor, but in the meantime I thought I would post here to see if there are any other members who had to submit a divorce decree from Chile. If so, what did you submit?

My wife has been to the registro civil on 3 separate occasions and each time they insist that the marriage certificate with the divorce addendum serves as the official divorce certificate and that there is no other certificate that they can issue.

Thanks in advance.

Just received the checklist in the email and as the NVC operator told me yesterday they are looking for a valid divorce certificate. I know this was issued yesterday, but why it takes a whole day is beyond me. I'm guessing the NVC uses a batch process that only runs once or twice a day.

It's now the magic 4:30pm EDT, so I will be calling NVC to see if they had a chance to review the divorce certificate I originally submitted. Wish me luck!

I spoke with Max, he informed me that it was still under review. I'll check back again tonight before closing time and then again tomorrow. Max told me that they won't schedule my step-daughters interview until my wife's case is closed.

Just received the checklist in the email and as the NVC operator told me yesterday they are looking for a valid divorce certificate. I know this was issued yesterday, but why it takes a whole day is beyond me. I'm guessing the NVC uses a batch process that only runs once or twice a day.

It's now the magic 4:30pm EDT, so I will be calling NVC to see if they had a chance to review the divorce certificate I originally submitted. Wish me luck!

Saylin now has one of the fanciest signatures around!

Lawyers for this process are useless. Mine set me back $1800 and delayed the process by 3 months thanks to is incompetence. He had no clue about the NVC process. If it wasn't for this website, my wife would still be sitting in Thailand.

I couldn't agree more with you. VisaJourney.com is a much better resource and it is free. When we first started this journey I consulted an Immigration Attorney who was a relative of a friend. The consult was free, but he offered me some advice that turned out to be wrong. The only advantage you get with a lawyer is at the NVC phase because they invoice the AOS and IV bill at the same time since the lawyer is already designated as the choice of agent. This can save about a week of wait time at the NVC, but in my opinion this is not worth the money that an attorney will charge for the service.

Good morning VJ,

My wife's CR-1 visa is approved. And now we're thinking of finding a job for her to pay back to Uncle Sam.

Since it's a CR-1 visa (which will grant her a 2-year conditional permanent resident status), will she need to file USCIS I-765 Application for Employment Authorization before she could work full time?

Any help would greatly appreciated.

Thank you all.

She will not need to file for employment authorization. On the DS-230 was the box for requesting a Social Security number checked? If so one should be issued a few weeks after point of entry. Otherwise you can go to your local social security office and request a SSN once she arrives in the US.

hi my friends , i am really pissed off and i need your help , my lowyer send me email and send they refuse my marriage contract and clerence police record and my birth certificate because they are not original , how that can be ? the original are in arabic launguage , the copie i send them translated by sworen translater and stpbed by the goverment , before i send them i want to the amrican embassy at tunis and they said they paper are ok and they will accept them there at the NVC

PLEAZ I need help , what i can do now? do i have to send them my arabic document or what?

I would be pissed at your lawyer for not knowing that NVC requires the original document plus a photocopy for the IV package. NVC only requires a translation of a document if it is not in the same language as the foreign embassy where the interview will take place. Many VJ members have sent translations just to be safe. Sounds like the only thing you sent was the translation.

hi everyone,

knew the forum from friend of mine. 1st post and looking for the solution....

I filled I -130 for my wife as US citizen on Jan 5 and Got Notice of action on 18 jan. my case is with Vermont. the letter does not indicate any error. But it looks like I did great mistake when I filled the petition.

On Section C. ( Information about your relative) no. 17 List Husband / wife and all children of your relative : N/A ( what i put on petition)

but it seems I was supposed to put my name and relation as husband....... I know its dumb.... :(

If i am right, what is the best option to resolve the issue...

thanks in advance for all help

I didn't list myself on question number 17 and my petition was approved.

I'm calling NVC at 4:35pm est. eastern standard time and see if we get a CC today, hopefully Kellys gone home by then ! Also for the record, NVC updates there files at 4:30pm est.

I would agree with this. I looked back at the emails I've received from the NVC the past month and nearly all of them came within an hour of 4:30pm est.

I never got one.

Your email is the the standard cut and paste email when you send in EP documents.

I had to call and see when my AOS was reviewed, which was the next business day after I got the standard email.

Thanks again for sharing your experience. I will plan on calling this afternoon and every day after that until they tell me case closed.

Well, at least they responded quickly and are going over it. You can still call and try to speak with a supervisor, but they may see that you got this email and tell you to wait until it's been reviewed.

I will call this afternoon to see if any progress is made. Do they normally reply again via email once they make a decision in situations like these?

It means Molly got your email and she's looking it over. Give it a day and call back.

I hope they get it figured out!

Thanks for your quick reply. I just hope Molly or whoever reviews it is able to resolve this quickly. I would really like to have case closed for my wife before they start assigning interview dates next week.

I am so ready for this to be over with!

I woke up this morning ready to call NVC and get a supervisor on the line regarding the false checklist for my wife's divorce certificate and this was in my email from NVC Inquiry as a reply to the email I sent yesterday:

Dear Sir/Madam:

Your inquiry has been received at the National Visa Center (NVC).

We received documentation for this case. Please allow at least 20 business days for the documents to be reviewed.

IMPORTANT:

Do not let more than one year pass without contacting the NVC concerning this visa petition. If a period of one year passes from the last date of contact (by telephone, mail, or e-mail) with the NVC, all submitted fees and documents expire. If this occurs, the fees must be paid again and documents must be resubmitted in order to continue the immigration process.

Case Number: SNT2012XXXXXX

Molly

National Visa Center

Written Inquiry Unit

Serco Inc, Support Contractor

What do you all think? Should I let this run it's course for a day or two or should I push to speak with an operator?

Just got back from an Major League Soccer match between my hometown Real Salt Lake and the Montreal Impact. My team managed a 1-0 victory, but I was distracted the entire match due to the news I received this afternoon about a checklist being issued for my wife's divorce certificate. I plan to call the NVC first thing in the morning and insist the review the document again. There is no way they haven't come across this before with Chilean divorce documents. If they insist I submitted the wrong document I will insist that they provide an example of the correct certificate. I went back to the DOS website that lists examples of documents from specific countries and they don't have an example of a divorce certificate, just that it can be obtained from the Registro Civil which is where we obtained ours. Back in February when the USCIS issued an RFE for a handful of documents that they somehow managed to lose I sent an email to the Santiago Embassy with scanned copies of each of the documents to make sure they were the correct documents. I was told by the Santiago Embassy that they were indeed the correct documents. Obviously the USCIS agreed because they accepted the same exact divorce decree when I resubmitted it as part of the RFE.

So, what if I can't get this issue resolved before next week when they start assigning interview dates? My step-daughters case is complete so they will schedule an interview for her from what the NVC operator told me this afternoon. Will they be able to add my wife to that same interview date? My step-daughter is 5 years old so it would be pointless to have an interview just for her.

Thanks again to all those who have provided guidance on this. It is very reassuring to know that there are so many knowledgeable, helpful people on this website who freely offer their advice. I will have to pay it forward by continuing to be active in these forums even after our visa journey is complete.

I put "ATTENTION: SUPERVISOR SUE", then my case number. That's it.

Thanks for Sharing!

I did, yesterday. Agent Kira replied today at about 1 PM central time. Not Sue...

What did you put in the subject line, if you don't mind sharing?