Kevin & Laura

They should take your originals and make copies. Make sure to ask for your originals back if they do not give them back before the end of the interview. My wife failed to do this and now we have no original marriage certificate. It's a such a pain to get them back, we've given up.

We had the visa sent by DHL back Laura's hometown of Guaymas Sonora. The interview was Monday morning and she received the visa packet by DHL in Guaymas on Thursday. Good luck.

Hello, The three shots Laura had were TDAP, MMR(measles,mumps,rubella, and Varicella even though she had had chicken pox before (but of course had no proof so had to take it any way). The Varicella shot was very painful and it hurt for 2 days and gave her fever the first day. She had chicken pox as a kid, but how do you prove that? if it's not on your shot record, you have to take it as far as I know. basically a money thing in my opinion. For more, you can read my Juarez consulate review from July 9th. ANy other specific questions feel free to ask also.

I called every day to see if the interview had been scheduled. Finally I talked to a supervisor and they told me that when Juarez is ready to schedule more interviews, that they send NVC a request with a number of interview time/dates. So if Jurez sends 200 interview times, NVC will then schedule the next 200 people in line. So the timing all depends on when your case was complete and the date that Juarez requests the next interviews to be set up (and how many people are in front of you of course). So..the supervisor at NVC told me I'm wasting my time calling them there's nothing they can do until Juarez asks for more interview dates to be set up. Good luck..hope you get the date soon.

You will be fine. We picked ours up 3 days later.

See my Juarez Consulate review for more info. We stayed at La Quinta which was a great hotel and a good price. they would drive you anywhere you want. But the shuttle service ended around 6 or 7 at night so we had to get a cab back from the shopping mall/movie theatre area a couple of nights. They also have transportation back to the airport 2-3 times per day. There is a Holiday Inn Express that I saw near the consulate. No doubt you could walk to everything (consulate, mall, etc) from that hotel. We were wishing we had stayed there just so we wouldn't have needed the shuttle service.

My wife was pleased with the gray colored medical clinic (can't remember the name). The brown clinic on the corner was full by the time we arrived there. I think since it's the first clinic that you see, that everyone just goes there first. But the gray clinic just up the street still had openings and was nearly empty. We had a good experience there other than the cost for the immunizations.....ouch! We also had a Monday interview like you guys and did the medical on Friday. Friday is not very busy at the clinic. Did the medical friday morning and picked up the results at 2:00. No problems.

Good luck!

You should enter the US address. All mail correspendence that went to my fiance in Mexico took one month. The mail system is slow in Mexico. We had put my address here in the U.S. on our DS-260 so most things came to me. However, for a couple of things, she was mailed a duplicate of what was sent by e-mail and it took one month to arrive at her house in Mexico. i've seen the same with Christmas cards sent to her in Mexico. She got them first week of January.

In our case it took at least 2-3 weeks to get an e-mail saying the case was accepted for electronic processing. I had already sent most of the documents. Don' wait on them to e-mail you.

Check out my timeline. I watched the system and paid everything and completed the forms as soon as possible.

The AOS invoice is available first. So pay the invoice and then send the AOS information. Then the DS-261 invoice will be available later. It seems that there are 5-14 days between every step. For example, pay the DS-261 invoice, then you must wait wait 5-7 days for the invoice to show "paid" before you can complete the DS-261.

In my opinion these processes are too easy to justify hiring a lawyer. There are enough guides on here and other sites to walk you through each stepof the process. Plus, you'll have PLENTY of time between each step to figure out the next step.

We recentley received our IV invoice and it took 13 business days. By looking at other timelines, I saw that 10-15 days turnaround was normal unfortunately. I called NVC several times after business day 5 and had been told that 10 business days is the normal processing time. So when it reached 12 days, I called NVC and asked to speak to a supervisor. She was very rude and told me I'd see the invoice in 3-5 days. The next day the invoice came in my email. So it might pay to call and ask for a supervisor. But I'm not sure that's the reason it came the next day.

CR-1 and I-485 do NOT go together.

If you marry now and file I-130 by itself, she will go home and get interviewed at the embassy, just like a K-1. But she will get an immigrant visa with the I-130 path, and become a legal permanent resident upon her entry to the US with her CR-1 visa. You will never file I-485 that way.

Have you looked at the guides section up top?

If you get married and you get a waiver long enough for her to stay here through the entire CR1 process on her current visa , then the I-130 with I-485 adjustment of status will both be required and both fees paid up front.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=32d80a5659083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=32d80a5659083210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

If you go for the I-130/CR-1 and she goes home and waits, the I-485 will not be required at all.

For the K-1, the I-485 fee is not paid until after she gets back to the USA and you guys are married. After getting married, you send the I-485 and fee..

The I-485 should only be needed with the CR1 if the beneficiary is already in the USA under another temporary visa type.

When I added up all the costs for the CR1 versus the K-1, the CR-1 was less costly ($1,693 for CR-1 versus $2,308 for K-1). The largest difference in the total cost is the cost of the adjustment of status with the K-1 ($1,070) versus the 2 year removal of conditions with the CR-1 ($590). Also, the $590 removal of conditions with the CR-1 is paid 18 months down the road, so your first year cost with CR1 is much lower ($1,103 for CR-1 versus $2,308 with K-1).

As far as being together, for both K-1 or CR1, your significant other is supposed to wait in the other country until the visa is approved. Visiting the USA with exisiting visitor visa is okay as long as they can prove to the agent at port of entry their ties to their home country and that they are going back home.

You should looka t the times it is taking for K-1 visas. When I took an average time from this website for K-1 versus CR-1, both averaged 9 months. I wouldn't be surprised if the K-1 is slower now with the problems I've seen mentioned on this web-site with the service centers. I think the CR1 seemed to be a more simple option, and a good thing for us was that the CR1 allowed her to work almost immediately after arrival in the USA. This was important to us because she is transferring within our company and we wanted her to be able to work immediately. Any way, good luck with your decision.

Congratulations!

March 29th NA02 and I received my case # over the phone today 4/11/13. The lady was very nice and also gave me my my IIN and BIN number. However she told me it was too early to add my wife's e-mail adresss and that it would probably be another 24 hours before they could do that. She said it would be 2 weeks before they e-mailed us the information. I did log onto the payment portal with the case # and IIN but of course nothing has been invoiced yet.

You are telling your story to the USCIS and trying to prove that a bonafide marraige exists. Pictures will definitely support your case Very well. So I would recommend adding them (and I did when I submitted our package).

NA02 March 29th. I've called NVC three times already and every time they tell me that my case arrived from USCIS "yesterday" and that it takes 10-20 business days. So, is the line "Your case arrived in the building yesterday and you'll need to call back in 10-20 days" straight out o their training manual?

Upon further investigation on filing in Cananda, that option doesn't sound promising because of proving the exceptional situation exists. See below from travel.state.gov

U.S. embassies and consulates may only accept I-130 petition filings from petitioners who believe they have exceptional situations that would merit an exception from filing by mail to the USCIS Chicago Lockbox.

Petitioners who believe that their situation merits an exception may contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate to request an exception and explain their circumstances in detail. Each request for an exception will be evaluated individually and must be authorized by the USCIS office that is responsible for that specific U.S. embassy or consulate.

Sounds like you guys made plans, then looked at the immigration options. We ddi the same thing. My fiance and I had a similar issue. We got engaged last September. She had just accepted a big promotion in July at our company's facility in Mexico. She needed to stay in that job one year before she was eligible for transfer within the company (which was one thing we were hoping for). Since July (2013) will be too hot to get married there we decided to marry in October 2013. We decided this before even looking at the immigration options.

After looking at the immigration options, we changed our mind slightly. A very important thing for us was that she could obtain a job transfer within our company and get free trips back home in the future or work in Mexico for a few weeks 2-3 times each year even if we pay for the trip. To get a job transfer, she'd need to be able to work pretty much immediately after her move to the U.S. Looking at the options, the CR1 visa is the only option that lets the immigrating person work almost immediately (it takes 3-6 months before you can work with the K1 visa). The only thing about the CR1 option was that we'd need to get married a lot sooner. When I researched the average times for both visas (K1/CR1), the time from submittal to interview was about 9 months for both. Also, the cost of the CR1 visa was going to be a lot less over the first year than the K1 visa because of less forms and not having to pay the high cost of the adjustment of status. The total cost of the CR1 would be closer to the cost of the K1 after filing to remove the 2 year conditons 18 moths down the road.

So we went over these options in Nov/Dec and we decided that getting married early was no issue. We love each other very much and knew it's what we wanted so why wait, especially if it's best for her immigration and our future. So, we had a civil wedding in Mexico on December 29th with just closest family and friends (we will still have the large wedding in Oct). I filed the I-130 the following week when I returned to the US. We just received our NA02 a couple of weeks ago and could potentially have the visa by Late June or July.

So a potential option for you guys is to get married earlier and go for the CR1 if you want her to be able to work quickly in the US. Although having it by Aug is unlikely. Having either visa is unlikely by August. You need to look closely on here about what is going on with the K1 visas right now and the timing of the approvals from the service centers. We definitely made the right choice i think since we already have our NA02. One option that I've seen mentioned on here is filing for the visa in the country of the immigrant. Then it goes a lot faster from what I've heard. How long will you be in Canada? If you're going to live there a while, can you potentially ge married earlier and apply for the visa in Canada for faster proessing? Just an option for you to look into.

Our case was sent to the National Benefits Center/Charlotte local office and we just got our NA02 in less than 3 months. So there is a possibility things will move faster for you. But it's all uncertain. Where was your case sent?