lisabee30

It was successful! He picks up his visa on Monday July 14 th. many thanks to everyone on visa journey! Could not have done it without you! So here is the scoop. My husbands interview was on Monday July 7 th. we went early but there was no need to. There are a lot of people there but they call you in batches. Earliest interviews start at 630 . I could not go in and waited outside until 9 30 in the car park. Quite uncomfortable. No place to sit. Just leaning against cars. My husband said that everything was prescreened. From what he could observe the lady that had his file and a bunch of others seemed to be giving out visas. He said the other interviewers there seemed to be giving people a hard time and requesting more evidence. So on to his interview. We did not frontload other than including affidavits from friends and family and deed to our house showing both names. She did not ask to see pictures, text messages, or emails. They did not ask for update police certificate. So she just asked how we met, what kind of work I did, and if I have been to nigeria after the wedding. But she did not ask for proof . You pick up your visa in one week ( 5 business days). We happened to be close to DHL on Thursday so we stopped in hoping it would be ready early. But the guy there explained that they get shipments twice a week on Tuesday and Friday. And then they take a day to sort them out. So i can imagine the Monday interviews are sent on Friday and ready for pick up on Monday. They also give you a paper with the link at usatraveldoc to check the passport status but that is the timeline. FYI, I was torn about frontloading my husbands cousin had applied with his wife last year with a lawyer and they did not frontload. But I have no advice to offer about that. This is just our story. I thank God and give him the glory! By Gods grace

Hi everyone. My husband has his interview scheduled for July 7. The police certificate he has says expires in 3 months at the end of June. But the instructions that he received when he got the interview notice says that police certificate is good for a year! A bit of a discrepancy. Recent interviewees- did you get a new police certificate?

Ok I get it now! Just wanted to make sure I understood everything Sorry for multiple questions- dwheels76

Dwheels76 or anyone else that knows

Does everyone ( ir1/cr1 married and fiancée visa) pay 240 visa fee at Nigeria consulate? I am looking at info in visa journey under Nigeria embassy and the last line mentions this visa fee. Thanks again

Thanks dwheels and nigeriaorbust. Do you know if that visa processing fee can be paid with credit card in my name? It's says the immigrant should pay the fee but my husband does not have United States credit card or bank account. I guess we can wait until he gets here and then open bank account if we cannot use my credit card

Hi visa journey family. I checked me email this morning and my husband was scheduled for interview in Lagos on July 7! praise God!

But I just looked at embassy info on visa journey and now a little confused. I did not get packet 3 just packet 4. Am I supposed to get packet 3?

Also, it says under embassy info that we will need to pay 36900 naira visa fee to schedule interview but it's already scheduled? I did not see anything in letter about paying fee

Also in this letter it says police certificate is good for a year. I know in the past I read 3 months so this may be a new change??? Just FYI

We have made it thus far, just don't want to mess up now! So if anyone can clarify, thanks very much. And if you have any tips to offer thanks

Hi everyone. I have not mailed IV package yet. My husband will be sending me police certificate next week. I haven't mailed affidavit of support yet- waiting on tax transcripts ( can't order online bc I have been victim of identity theft with irs in the past). I completed online ds 260 today. So with just my case number and no case complete, can my husband schedule interview? How does he go about this???? Thanks everyone

my husband just got a police certificate in Nigeria and he paid 6500. he did not bargain at all though. he also went to alagabon and got it one day. he got his certificate on Monday march 31

i have been to nigeria three times

health precautions; i got all the appropriate vaccines. Refer to the CDC website. I took malaria prophylaxis (doxyxcycline), It is generic and covered by insurance. I had no problems with medicine, Some people do, but not me. Carry basics like tylenol, advil. peptobismol. I did not get any travelers diarrhea there but I had a prescriptioin of ciprofloxacin filled prior to travelling just in case. I did not drink the water. no one did. bottled water for drinking, brushing teeth etc.

your fiancee will have to guide you through Lagos. credit cards not recommended. Always bring cash. or wire money to yourself ahead of time like someone suggested.

its hot.dress appropriately,

on my first visit,, I did not bring gifts for everyone. honestly, I dont go buy out and buy tons of gifts for strangers. whatever my husband ( fiancee) at the time asked me to carry I did and I carried mostly stuff for other people but I didnt buy alot of extra gifts on my own. my last trip I bought stuff for family members and friends/family members . but it wasnt excessive. follow your fiancees guide with this.

For Lagos, you cannot manage on your own. you will need to follow fiancees lead. its not that kind of place, lwhen I travelled to Spain by myself on vacation years ago, I managed just fine. Lagos-NO!

You will probably be on the go alot, stuck in traffic. its good to bring stuff to snack on lara bars, nuts. protein bars. I like and eat most Nigerian food ( except okra soup) but im someone that always eats breakfast early when I got up, so i brought instant oatmeal that I could eat in the morning early so I dont have to wait on everybody else.

also, my last trip one of the airport workers held me up askng for a certificate for yellow fever. she said it was required for Nigeria. Its not ! I acutally had yellow fever as a precaution but its not requited to enter Nigeria from US. so she started saying I was going to have to be quarantined. she did not ask for money, but I think thats where it was going. anyway, anothe airport worker saw our exchange, asked what was going on and talked to her and she let me go after me arguing back and forth with her for 10 minutes.

i went to the beach. I would not recommned it. its not too nice, so not worth it to me. I grew up in Florida, jamaican born, been to beaches in florida and jamaica, - rather spend my time in beaches there. the beach we went to, they charged to get in and it was dirty. maybe we went to the wrong one ????? they may have really nice one but that wast my experience.

Things are finally moving along! thanks to God.

my case was received on feb 12th and I called today I got my nvc case number. it was generated today. .

. So now do I just keep checking at CEAC.state.gov to fill out ds 261 and pay aos fee. She said it would be 20 to 30 business days before I receive an email that will tell me what to do next. but it looks like everyone on visa journey does not wait for the email. So do I keep going to that site to look for aos invoice to be generated ? or is that site just fill fill out ds261 fee. I tried today but could not do anythiing with that case number at the ceac. state. gov website?

Thanks in advance.

Hi My husband and I are planning to filing a joint return. We were married in March 2013. Our case has been forward to NVC this month. He is working in Lagos, NIgeria and is self employed. My understanding is that we file jointly he will be treated as a us resident for tax purposes. We can include his income in our return but he has no proof of income since he is self employed. Is this going to be a problem? Does the IRS require documenation of his income since we are filing jointly. Is it better to just apply as married filing separately if this is going to create headache in the future. I have an accountant that did my taxes when i was single but he is not familiar with the doing returns when foreign spouse and ITIN

Our I-130 was appproved on feb 3, the letter says to wait 30 days for receipt at nvc. i called yesterday and they said 60 days. they said the 30 days had been extended to 60 days!!!!!!

thanks dhweels 76

Hi everyone.

Thanks to God , we were approved for I-30 on February 3 rd.

Should we get police certificate now or wait another week? I read in the past that it expires in 3 months. I dont want to get it too early and have it expire before interview at consulate? At the same time, I want to make sure i have police certificate so there will not be any delay when I have to mail it off to national visa center

No I got the text about the transfer last wednesday. I only check my mail once a week on Saturday so im not sure when it was mailed out. but on saturday i received the notice and found out it was california. I guess the transfer was initiated by NBC---- I was not aware that anyone else could initiate transfer. good luck to you. and i hope california for everyone

Hi everyone. I have great news to report. My I-130 was approved!!!!!! All praises to God.

Everything happened within the las week. Last wed, January 29th I received notice that the case was sent to California service center. It actually said it was a local office but when I got the letter in the mail, it said california. at 410 pm yesterday, I received text that case was updated. I went to USCIS website and it was a message that alien registration number had changed. I didnt know what this meant. I looked on visa journey and it said that it meant somebody was looking at the case. it was on someones desk finally. this morning, I got up and I saw they had sent another text at 1045 pm. I checked USCIS website and it said I-130 had been approved.

so it does look like california service center is faster!!!!! that is what i read. so things are finally moving. now i just need to find out what to do next. need to start look at national visa center threads.

Hi, Congrats on your wedding. I am new to visajourney and I am planning on marrying in Lagos at the end of March. My fiancee told me that I need to get an affidavit of an oath of spinsterhood for our marriage application. I talked to another member here and she told me that she did this 2 days prior to wedding at the courthouse. I was trying to figure out how to do it from the USA, until she pointed me in the right direction. Is that what you did too?

Also, trying to figure out where to go for honeymoon trip in Nigeria? Did you like the places you stayed? hotel recs?

Thanks so much