AMAA

if your i751 receipt expire you can make an info pass and take your passport with you and ask the USCIS officer to stamp your passport they will be happy to do that , i did that last month.

Thank you kindly for your response. That is exactly what happened! We scheduled the Infopass appointment and explained the situation. They stamped her passport and extended it an additional 3 months with no fee. She indicated there may be some confusion with the airlines but to be sure to travel with all of her documents (marriage certificate, NOA and extension letter) and all should be fine. We were in and out in less than 20 minutes.

The Officer also indicated that the Vermont Center was a little behind and finishing up October 2015 filers. They will begin processing November 2015 filers shortly.

Good morning all.

We filed the I-751 on 11/20/2015 and received the NOA on 12/8/2015. Based on the activity that I have been seeing recently from others with similar timelines, we should receive the green card fairly soon. We learned this morning that her father in Vietnam is very ill and that she should travel soon to see him. We are aware of the possible consequences if she leaves the US on an expired visa (expires on 11/30/16).

Is there a process to request an emergency visa or extension? From what I can see so far, we can request an emergency Infopass appointment but I am not clear on what is needed for the appointment, the request or the timeline for a decision.

Any guidance would be very much appreciated.

All the best,

Anthony

I used Western Union to send money to my wife's parents. The cost is approximately $50 but it is very reliable and you can send the money in USD or VND. You are notified when the funds are picked up via text or email, if you want.

There are cheaper options with Vietnamese money transfer services in most areas as well.

Not quite the 6 months they implied and a great start to the New Year! Our AOS was approved without an interview on 1/13/14 and the green card was mailed on 1/16/14. Another step in the process complete.

Our wait was right at 2 1/2 months before the interview was scheduled.

While the letter we received from USCIS regarding my wife's AOS is disappointing, there is light at the end of the rainbow. Receiving any type of update is better than just waiting with no information.

In the mail, we received the following:

Form I-485

Notice of Potential Interview Waiver Case

Dear ____:

USCIS has identified your application as a potential interview waiver case. This means that we may not need to interview you to complete your application. However, if we later determine that an interview is required, we will schedule an interview appointment and notify you.

As you know, your case is currently pending. If you have previously inquired with us about your case, this letter serves as the response to your inquiry.

Due to workload factors not related to your case, USCIS anticipates a delay in completing your case. Presently, we anticipate that delay to be approximately 6 months from the date of this letter. If you do not receive a decision or other notice of action from USCIS by that date, please contact our NCSC.

I sincerely regret any inconvenience caused by this situation and appreciate your patience as we work diligently to provide the level of service you should expect.

Center Director

USCIS National Benefits Center

______

Interesting to say the least. Basically you may get a green card without an interview, unless we decide otherwise. Additionally even though it is not your fault, you will need to continue to wait due to our internal issues.

This is after they received our RFE response (we neglected to have her birth certificate translated to English) on June 21st. I suppose without the RFE, we might be done by now.

All we can do is smile at this point. At least things are moving and we have the EAD and AP in hand.........

Congrats! I agree each situation is totally different. We had no Dam Hoi, engagement party, etc. We saw each other on 4 occasions over a year (not all in VN) but no pictures, chat logs or emails were requested. Now we are hoping the AOS process moves just as smoothly.

Congratulations and thank you for the details. Safe travels to America!

Although it does not mention it in the AOS paperwork, it is a good idea to send a copy in my opinion. Better to provide more than required to avoid any unnecessary delays. Here is a post from a friend of mine who currently received an NOID:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/449881-heads-up-for-k1s-applying-for-aos-i-485/

My wife sent our paperwork in April without it as well, since it wasn't noted as a requirement. We are waiting to see what happens next. Good luck!

That's great news! How long did it take NVC to schedule your interview for the HCMC Consulate after they aproved everything? Also, don't forget to write a consulate review about how the interview went. Us guys who will be doing it after you like to hear the latest info on how it went and any tips you have.

Thanks and good luck!

Good luck!

Congratulations!

For anyone who may come across this post in the future.

My fiance was scheduled for a 9:30 am interview. She arrived at the Consulate at 8:15 am and the line was already long. She was the next to last person to be interviewed on that day, after waiting for over 3 hours. Although she was not bothered by the wait (as it gave her an opportunity to hear other interviews going on and relax a bit), she suggests arriving at 7am or no later than 7:30am. Interviews are conducted based on sign-in and arrival order, so the later you are the longer you may have to wait.

Hopefully this is helpful.

Congrats my friend. Thu and I wish you the best going into 2013. If you have any further questions about what to do next, feel free to ask. Now for some friendly advice: Go buy hangers...

Thank you for the kind words and the advice. I'll begin preparing our home for her arrival and hangers are on the list! I'll certainly be in touch in the coming weeks regarding our next steps. Huyen does have a social security number from her previous time in the US, so that is one less thing to do. After the wedding we will focus on her work permit, AOS and getting her involved in some volunteer work to build her network.

Here's to a wonderful 2013....

Thank you very much!

I did not attend the interview. As my fiance graduated from college and worked for a bit in the States (leaving in 2010), her English is very good. She also is comfortable with Western culture. We both were confident she could handle the interview alone.

She did mention that many petitioners were there for the interview and she thought it was helpful. Either the petitioner was asked questions during the interview or there simply for moral support. If it makes sense for someones particular situation, it would be a positive to be there.

From the experiences I have read here on VJ and from what my fiancee says. It apears that once the consolate sets the interview they have an idea if they will aprove deny or request more info. Hoa said is was a short and simple interview even though they offered it in Vietnamese she chose to do it in English to show we could comunicate well together.

We followed the guides here had all our pictures(though we should have had more), skype logs and reciepts for everything. We had the decree of my divorce frome 5 yrs ago and the court docs from my long ago arrest. They asked her a few simple questions and said congrats your approved you will have your visa in about 5 days.

I hope that helps... just if you believe you have any questions in your file be honest, provide all the documentation and dont hide anything. Mark Ellis and Mr Nam looked over and tweeked my files some, then supported Hoa in Ho Chi Minh and everything went perfectly. I only had 1 visit and we have known each other just over a year and I couldnt be happier.

I wish you all the best!!!!!

Thank you so much! We are approved

Happy Holidays.

I wanted to share our wonderful news with VJ. Everyone has been so helpful in answering questions, offering suggestions and sharing their experiences. Because of this, we were approved yesterday!

I'll say there were no surprises. As everyone mentioned, the waiting was the longest part. The interview itself was 15 minutes and that is mainly due to the fact that my fiance loves to talk. We had all of the required documentation, 300 pictures, 800 pages of our communication, receipts from our vacations, etc. The interviewer asked only a few questions:

-Is your petitioner here?

-How did you meet?

-Where did you meet in person for the first time?

-You did not know each long before he proposed. Were you surprised?

-Does your family approve of the relationship? We assume this may have been because I am African-American. We did not have an engagement party and

they did not ask about it at all but we did have lots of pictures of me with her family and friends, if requested.

-Why does he travel so much?

-What do you two have in common?

They chatted briefly about me exercising (one of the things we have in common), her pregnancy (she is 3 months now) and she asked to see a picture from our most recent trip together in India. She then said "you are approved"!

Since my fiance was one of the last to be interviewed, she was able to hear and see a lot of others before her. She noticed that there seemed to be a lot of petitioners there in support. It seemed to help keep everyone calm and she said there were many pink slips this day. While her interview was short, she noticed others went about 30 minutes and they did ask for and look at the evidence provided. Also as some have mentioned, she did feel like an approval had already been decided in advance as the questions were very simple. The interviewer did not seem overly interested in her answers but was very friendly.

Now we will wait for the visa, then plan her travel to the US likely after Tet.

Happy Holidays to all!

Thank you.

Hello all and thank you for the helpful posts and advice. Also congratulations to those who have been approved recently.

My fiance will be interviewing on the 28th at 9:30am. Can anyone provide what is an appropriate time for her to arrive? I have followed many posts and it seems to vary. Of course her appointment suggests she not get there too early, so she was planning on arriving at 9:00am. Is that too late to arrive?

Thanks in advance for your help and I'll be sure to share her experience once complete.

Happy Holidays!

Congratulations! My fiance will be interviewing tomorrow and I am hoping for the same outcome. If there is anything specific about the experience that you can share, I would greatly appreciate it via a message.

Happy Holidays to you both!

Thank you for the kind words. We are beyond excited!

callmekay - The timing is about what we expected in VN. We were told it would be 1-3 months before they scheduled the interview after packet 3 but from the other timelines that I saw, 8 weeks was about average (although I know many are waiting longer). I was also told to expect the entire process to take about 9 months and again that was correct.

Weather Emperor - Scott has already sent me the list as we have been practicing with those questions and some others I have found online. We will keep going over the questons just to be fully prepared.

Happy Holidays to all!

My finance received a call from the Consular in VN today informing her that her visa interview is scheduled for December 28th. They received our packet 3 on 10/3, so it took about 8 weeks for the interview to be scheduled.

All of our paperwork is done, so we are just waiting for the official packet 4 so that there are no surprises.

Happy Friday!

We received our mailed on NOA2 on 8/24 and Packet 3 was received by the Embassy on 10/2. I contacted them on 10/31 for an update and below is the response I received:

-----

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your inquiry.

We have not scheduled the beneficiary for an interview. Please note again that we received the beneficiary's completed DS-230 Part I on October 2, 2012 and our office will schedule an appointment in approximately 2-3 months. You may contact us at the end of each month for further information about the appointment date.

Best regards,

Visa Information Unit

U.S. Consulate General in HCMC

------

I will continue to contact them at the end of each month for an update. I have read the experiences of others and it appears itinterviews are taking 8 weeks to schedule once all paperwork is complete.

Just wanted to say thank you for all posting on this topic. Although I found out about this site well after I submitted my K-1 paperwork, it has been helpful to read the experiences of others on the same journey. I honestly felt like I was more prepared for anything that could happen after reading this site, although thankfully it has not been needed so far. On 8/21 (exactly 6 months and 1 week to the day of receipt), I received the NOA2. Finally! I know there is still more to go on this journey but to have that piece finally complete and moving on is nice.

Good luck to all still waiting and know that it is coming soon......