halfwing

RM 10212.001 Defining the Legal Name for an SSN:

http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0110212001

This was so awesome today!

We were able to help the clerk at the social security office understand the process and Lucia has her Social Security number in her married name!

He kept telling us that she had to get the number in her maiden name then change it once her residence card was issued. I kept telling him that I couldn't see how he was getting that from the document I printed form the Social Security Administration website and he finally agreed. He had been trained to do it a different way than what was stated on the SSA website but once he was given the opportunity to read the instructions for himself, he agreed and Lucia has her SS# in her married name!

Now we can get her driver's license and we won't have to go back through a bunch of name changed later.

Thanks again to VisaJourney, all the active members and in this instance, Paul H. for posting this useful information.

Okay,

I emailed the embassy today to see if I was missing something.

Here is the response:

On Mon, Dec 10, 2012 at 12:05 PM, IV, Guayaquil <IVguayaquil@state.gov> wrote:

Thank you for your message. You are welcome to come on your fiancée interview date. In order to know what to bring for the interview we invite you to visit our web page: http://guayaquil.usconsulate.gov for K1 or fiancée visa.

Sincerely,

Immigrant Visa Unit

American Consulate

Guayaquil, Ecuador

So I guess I'll just show up with Lucia, our dead trees and my passport. I'm going to print the email response and have it with me just in case.............

Hello,

I've searched and I'm not finding this bit of information.

We have finally made it to the interview stage and Lucia has her appointment on the 9th of January in Guayaquil.

When I lived in Quito, I had to visit the embassy there and I needed an appointment slip to get through security.

Anticipating the same in Guayaquil, I called the stateside consulate number and the person I spoke with told me I only need to show my passport to prove I am the fiance on the petition and I will be allowed into the consulate.

Has anyone had any experience with this?

Thanks,

John

Hello,

Lucia and I have our appointment for Guayaquil!

I kept track of when our information left the NVC, called the NVC, asked for and received our GYQ case number.

Using that number, we followed the instructions here: CLICKY

We followed these instructions exactly, "Appointment: Once you have all the required documents......................"

We have everything we are supposed to have so we didn't wait for the embassy to contact us nor did we wait to see if the information from the NVC has reached the embassy. The soonest date available for our interview appointment is 33 days out so the embassy has plenty of time to receive our information and we've already started the clock ticking towards our appointment!

Here is the website Lucia registered on, printed the deposit slip to pay the $240 and made the appointment: CLICKY

I don't know if this has already been shared but if not, I hope it helps someone shave a few weeks off their wait.

Thank you for your input and warnings. I've gained a lot of useful information here at VisaJourney and I've discovered many other interesting things elsewhere on the Internet. I've picked up information I would not have gotten from the attorney and as you suggested, I'm taking a boatload of information documenting our relationship. A lot of what I do for a living depends on documentation and if I know what I need, I can document something to death!

It's funny that you mentioned the attorney telling me to be at the interview because the guy in his office actually told me I did NOT have to be there. I know better but that's the kind of knowledge his office brings to the project.

Before our case left USCIS, we didn't have an approximate date for our interview so I bought tickets and scheduled time away from work for Christmas. Now we know our interview will be in January. As soon as we have our interview date, I am going to change my flight for the interview. The attorney's office told me not to bother. Just go for Christmas and let Lucia attend the interview alone.

I'm basically finished with the attorney at this point. I'm going to get through the interview then ask for a refund of the additional money I paid to help with the post-entry stuff.

I don't want to be a burden to the law firm of Michael S. Soloman. I understand how busy they are so I want to help them make time for their paying clients.................

C'mon January!

An update..............

Our information is finally on the way to the embassy in Guayaquil from the National Visa Center and I have been trying to contact our attorney on the phone. In the process of exchanging emails, my contact in the attorney's office told me they are too busy to talk on the phone and I should limit my communications to email........

Seriously? I would never tell a customer I'm too busy to talk to them.

I wish I had done a little more research and avoided the law firm of Michael S. Solomon http://www.k1-fiancee-visa-law.com/

Through this entire process I've been made to feel like I'm being a pest, the attorney's office has continually made mistakes on the forms and I've had to make the phone calls in order to keep up with our K-1 process. For some reason I didn't receive the NOA2 from USCIS and I have to wonder if our attorney made the change of address with them when I moved to California. Seriously, I've notified the attorney's office of status changes related to our case before they knew of them!

I've learned more about the K-1 process from this website than I have from the attorney I paid to help us. I wish I had discovered VisaJourney.com and saved the $2,000 and the headache of working with these people.

Live and learn..............

Awesome!

Well done!

Our NOA1 is 10 May. I just used that trick for checking case numbers concurrent with mine and there are six of us. Four are in Post Decision and two of us are still in Initial Review.

Crosses fingers................

Congratulations to you that have been successful.

Does anyone know if there are special issues with the Vermont Processing Center?

For months the Vermont location was showing K-1 visas running at 5 months then suddenly it changed to 5.6 months.

5.6 came and went and our K-1 seems to be late.......

Wow!

After my first reading here, I asked about the I-797C.

Subject: Status Update?

Good morning *********,

I'm checking in to see if you have any questions on the material ******** and I sent.

Is there something called a I-797C I should be looking for? How long does it take to receive that?

Please let me know if there are any problems with the information we sent and if there is anything else I can do to help you with our work.

Sincerely,

John

And the reply.............

Sure I will be getting back to you this afternoon.

Yeah............. I'm going to have to stay on this.

Good stuff from all.

A & B. I meant that my attorney has received the package. My fiance and I worked our butts off to get this information gathered up and in the attorney's office so I don't want it sitting around.

When I get some more time, I'll create a "timeline" with updates as they occur.

Thanks again for the information and I'll be in touch.

Chao

Are your at the petition stage or visa stage?

Does your petition have been sent to USCIS yet?

I will assume you're at the petition stage and that it had been sent already... If you have a copy of your NOA1 (form I-797C, Notice of Action=petition received), you can check status of your I-129F petition on the USCIS website using your receipt number. Usually, the status of your petition doesn't change for 4-6 months and appears as in "Initial Review" (meaning your case is just sitting somewhere, waiting 4-6 months until an adjudicator looks at it).

Just curious, you said "an expeditious manner". Did you have a reason to expedite and your attorney asked for an expedite at the USCIS or do you just think your case will be handle faster because you use an attorney?

PS: Please create a timeline, enter your NOA1 date and you'll have an interval date estimate of when to expect your petition approval (NOA2), based on VJ members data.

Hello,

Thanks for your response.

When I say "expeditious manner", I mean that I don't want any self-inflicted delays caused through ignorance on my part. Because of the long waiting periods in between periods of activity, I want to be sure that everything is correct the FIRST time.

At this time, I don't have ANYTHING back from the attorney's office. Last week they received my initial package with the GA-325A forms, the I-129F forms and many other pieces of information documenting our lives and our relationship.

From what you said above, should I ask about my NOA1 date? That is part of my problem, I don't even know what to ask.

As I mentioned, I think I need to stay on top of this because my impression is that my case will sit around unless I stay involved.

Do I understand it correctly when I say I should ask the attorney's office about my NOA1 Date?

Thanks again,

John

Hello,

First, let me say thank you for making all this information available and for providing a way for those of us going through this process to communicate. Sometimes this vast intellectual wasteland we call the Internet surprises me with something useful.................

Okay. My question.

Rather than try to figure out this K-1 Visa process on my own, I retained an attorney to handle the process for my fiance and I. It seems like I have had to push and prod to make things happen and I've lost confidence that my case is going to be handled in an expeditious manner.

Is there a way I can check on my application/document status independent of the attorney's office?

Thanks in advance,

John