Rich Nason

Just to add, everyone is partly correctly... Local congressmen or senators will generally not get involved until you are outside of the normal processing time, however, in the event of an emergency or some sort of extreme situation, they will in fact get involved and it can help to speed up the process. I am a May filer, processed through the VSC and we did have an emergent situation come up that did not necessarily qualify for any of the pre-canned expedite criteria. Not to get into personal details, but our situation involved my fiance's general lack of safety to the extent where she was physically harmed once. I was able to get assistance from one of my local congressmen's office in re-evaluating a failed attempt for expedited processing and they were able to get it approved. We received our NOA2 roughly 5 days after the congressional inquiry was sent. Long story short in some cases contacting the local electorally office can cut through some of the red tape and speed things along. However unless there is some sort of dire emergency or situation, or you are outside of your processing centers normal processing time, then generally they will not aid you, and you have to wait like everyone else.

I have a question for you that recently scheduled your interview... Are you required to wait to be notified by the Embassy before you can pay the VISA Fees and schedule the interview?

Our paperwork has been sent to Moscow and we have a case number, but have not been notified by the Embassy in any way. My Fiancee is already registered on ustraveldocs, and that was done by a representative over the phone. I can see where we can log in, pay the fees by CC and it says you can schedule afterwards, but I have also seen where some people have received email notifications or letters from the Embassy with instructions. We have not received anything and its kinda soon, but we are both going to be in Moscow in 3 weeks and would like to interview together if we can get everything going and get an appointment for that week.

Thanks for any information about this part of the process and the notifications from the Embassy...

How did this end up working out for you, I am in the same boat right now. Our packet is on the way to the consolate, should be delivered on Monday, and I have already paid the consulate fee. We are trying to figure out if we need to wait for the packet 3 or if we can go ahead and schedule the interview now.

Thanks,

Rich

I would have guessed having an open K-1 would really stack the odds against you with regard to intent. I'm very glad to hear it worked out well for you two. 22 months is ridiculous. I can say based on my research that I'm very disappointed with this whole system. But of course this is not a hot-topic issue so reform would seem unlikely to me. So sad.

Anyway, when you say you provided evidence, you mean concerning a bonafide relationship and not about about proving there was no intent to marry before entering the US, correct? I'm probably too hung up on the whole intent thing, but I just have to be sure

Evidence of validity of the relationship. I also would say not to worry about it to much. My friend also went this route, met a girl one summer while she was here on a work and travel visa, went back to Russia for 3 or 4 months. She got a B-2 visa, came back with the intent on only visiting, but then they decided they could not be apart and she stayed. They got married and filed the AOS before her visa expired. Went to the interview, brought photo albums of photos together and other evidence to support the relationship was valid. Explained that she did not intend to stay on her B-2 but after she was here 5 months they could not be apart. 2 years later they are living happily ever after, she has her greencard, is working and going to school for nursing. That all being said.. I wouldn't worry about anything, however I would strongly strongly advise that you file the AOS prior to her visa date expiring and take tons of photos together so that you have visual proof validating your relationship.

Thanks for the info.. I will have to give that a go, and see if it's possible to set the interview date once the NVC has assigned us a case number. Luckily for us, it is actually a law in Russia that such an inquiry for a police check must be completed in 30 days. She did have to go to a major city in order to advert postal time pile ups on top of that month. But again thank you for the information. We were worried we would be waiting a month for this document before we can even schedule the interview.

Rich

I apologize if this is in the wrong spot. My fiance is in Russia, and we just received our NOA2 notification on Aug 30th. She has gone to Nizhny to apply for the police certificate of which they told her it would take about 1 month to obtain. I know we have a little time, as it will take a few weeks for our package to get to the consulate. My question for those that have gone through this process, is do we need this certificate before we can schedule the interview, or do we need it to be able to schedule the interview. I am trying to avert having to wait on any documents once she receives her packet 3. My hope is that we will be able to actually schedule the interview when she gets the packet, and then ensure that we have collected supporting documents such as the police certificate while we are waiting for the interview date, much like we will do with the medical exam. Any information on what will be needed in order to actually schedule the interview once she receives her paperwork would be greatly appreciated as I am trying to collect financial support docs, along with anything else that will need to be collected on my end and sent to her.

Thanks,

Rich