Bridget ~ Steven

I'd suggest calling DoS to ask about your case. Many people have been able to get their interview dates that way and not rely on the mail. Also, if you're available on short-term notice let the embassy know! It worked in our case.

My fiance showed photos as well - he took a small album I made of a trip we had together. IMHO it's not a hardship to take some photos with you and makes life easier if they ask for it!

If it helps, it looks like they're processing NOA2s a LOT faster now. We were also part of the VSC bedbug/transfer to Texas mess (2nd batch transferred) and it sucked.. but lots of new filers are zipping through the system!

I agree that you need to know the right phrases. When calling DoS to inquire about paperwork/interview dates I would always get varying answers. I learned that "Chris" seemed to know what he was talking about and the "mmhmm" (patricia?) older woman did not (she mmhmms a lot). She'd just tell me when they sent out packet 3 which wasn't at all what I was asking. So some of them will do more work than others.

When I dealt with USCIS they did sent out a snail mail letter stating that they had checked into my case/etc.

I'd also suggest calling often to up your chances of getting someone who will truly help. At least DoS doesn't have the same horrible waiting time that USCIS does.

I'm sorry to hear about that. I think ours to a little longer to be issued/courier'd than others have. Steven picked it up at Bridgend (which was tricky to find, they said it's somewhat on purpose! ) I have the info in my signature. Now he's finalizing his packing, wrapping up work, and will be over in a couple of weeks.

Press 1 then 0.

My fiance's visa was just issued today, though I know others with his same interview date got their sooner. So ours was ~10days to be issued and it's not ready yet tho to pick up. With Thanksgiving coming up I'd be VERY careful about being optimistic.

Wishing you lots and lots of luck plus QUICK answers!!

Now I'm gonna be obsessive.. case creation date changed to *today*. And the message:

Your case is open and ready for your interview, fingerprints, and required documents. If you have already had your interview, please check your status after two business days. If no interview was required, please check back in two business days for the status of your application.

diamond -- he is planning to pick it up from there. Any tips on finding it?

That's exciting! I'm trying to not be obsessive about it. He has quite a few family members coming from Wales for the wedding so I have lots and lots of distraction due to that planning. We're looking at renting a large home for a week so everyone can be together. My kids are used to Steven's accent, but I think the younger ones are going to be a smidge baffled by his sister's accent/slang! Everything else feels very relaxed compared to getting up to this part of getting Visa in hand.

Steven is hoping to travel on the 12th of Dec. Though we did joke that fares might be cheaper on the Friday due to being the 13th. We figure if he gets here on a Thursday he'll have a quiet Friday to recoup while kiddos are in school. Though it's gonna be a challenge to get them to go.

Another tip is if you can get to the embassy on short notice, let them know that! Steven lives in Cardiff and we both emailed regarding interviews and they called/emailed him the day before his to let him know he had one. Thankfully the journey (by American standards!) between Cardiff and London is pretty short.

For money stuff - it does vary *slightly* if you are self-employed vs. traditional employment. It was a bit of a pain for me to get my tax transcript, so if your sponsor is self-employed make sure they request that soon. I ended up having to request it twice online and once via snail mail.

Its interesting that the process seems to have flipped -- though we had a long NOA2 wait AND NVC part.. Calling DoS to get your case number and interview info is great advice. The wait times are generally quite short (~3 minutes) and they're friendly.. BUT be aware that some are more thorough than others. Chris was always great to talk to and would give the most up to date info. Another woman (She mmhmms a lot, I think her name is Patricia?) always starts with the oldest info. So I'd call to ask about an interview date and she'd say, "Well, they sent packet 3 on 9/11"... and then stop. So I'd have to go through every step with her about how we'd mailed it back (mmhmm.. right.. yeah.. they have those documents..) and such. She's nice, but I think she needs more coffee or maybe she's just close to retiring.

Will the CEAC update change to AP and then Issued.. or does it generally go from Ready to Issued? I'd rather not call DoS so I'm just clicking CEAC randomly. It's a week past his interview date and I'm not expecting much yet.

Thanks!

Bridget

That's pretty amazing they gave you a date pre-medical. However.. I can't help but think some of the interviews are pushed back because their scheduling is so nutty -- like folks who MISSED the date because they didn't get the letter. I do hope they iron out the rest of the wrinkles in the process so future people have it easier. I've seen where folks are getting NOA2s in 30-60 days which is flatout amazing to me. Maybe those of us wrapping it up now are the last of the super-long-waiting K1'ers!

Congrats! There are lots of great lists on here. We've opted to keep all of our immigration stuff together, so I did send my fiance his copy of the 129F and the NOA2 stuff, but most don't take those. He did take pics and was asked for them, but it seems like needing relationship evidence is rare. Oh, he also took my birth certificate because I'd only sent my passport pages with the 129F. Finally.. the financial stuff is different for folks who are self-employed vs. traditional job. I'm self-employed so he did take extra things - tax transcript (not return), plus letters from my banks regarding deposits/savings. He also took my divorce/settlement paperwork since that has financial info in it too.. but obviously not everyone needs that!

You can also email the embassy to let them know if you're available on short notice. I do believe this helped speed up our waiting time.

So glad to hear others have interviews upcoming! That's fantastic. Lemon we have a similar timeline so I know I was stalking yours to get an idea of when we'd get our "packet 4".

He was asked for photos. I think he took the skype record, but it wasn't asked for/used. He also had proof like my boarding passes/rugby tickets/etc, but that was also not used.

I did send in pics with my 129F of the trips he made to see us, including pics of him with kiddos, so they already had that proof but asked for more anyway.

His interview was quite short and the caution on his record (hitting a guy 2 yrs ago) was a total non-issue.

He was asked for them as part of the relationship chat - also, Steven said he was given the impression the guy wasn't happy that he didn't have more. Who knows? Every interviewer probably has their own thing.

Definitely call DoS regularly and also check in via email.

We also emailed the embassy to let them know Steven would be available on short notice. He told them about our wedding plans, I also emailed and let them know about a medical issue with my son and testing coming up in July. Not sure which email did it, but they called/emailed on the 13th and his interview was this morning (14th!) at 9am. I had called DoS on the 12th and was told no interview had been scheduled yet.

When I sent the info over I grouped it into page protectors (then realized our paper isn't the same size..). I didn't have each sheet in a page protector, but had a stack with a paperclip -- like my divorce decree. Then I stuck a sticky note on the first page to make it easy to see what was in it. This made it super easy to flip through and quickly access the info compared to all of it in a folder. It also means it'll all stay together to come back to the US for aos stuff.

I sent photos with that - quite a few of us together, him with the kiddos, etc. He visited first Dec 2011 and then 3 months (March-June 2012).

But he also took photos with him today. One photo of the entire family together (him, me, & my six kids), plus the snapfish album I made of my Nov 2012 trip to Wales. The guy actually went page by page through it and Steven told him what was in various photos. I do wonder if he told them that he PROMISED me I'd get to pet a sheep in Wales.. but the sheep near St. David's were not buying it and eventually we went to a petting zoo in the Cardiff area (only adults there with no kids!).

He also took my birth certificate because I didn't include that in my 129F, I included my passport pages instead.

IMHO we all waited so long to get here and the process isn't cheap, so definitely do a little extra to be sure you've got everything. Steven and I have been best friends for almost six years, so talking about the relationship is pretty easy. We also don't have any odd quirks unless you count him marrying a crunchy American midwife with a half dozen children. We do have an age difference - I'm 37 and he'll be 26 in a couple of weeks.

Oh.. I also used my tax transcript (NOT return, the actual IRS transcript), 2 bank letters, and divorce settlement as my proof of support. I am self-employed so those requirements were a bit different for us. I also included a letter about my business. The alimony and child support was counted in as income, though for AoS my income (minus those things) will be enough due to a great business year. The letters from the banks showed my deposits for the past 12 months and current balances.

I guess I'm mostly mentioning this because I read quite a few times that London doesn't care about proof of relationships and won't want to see any of it.. but for us that wasn't true.

I'm not sure where the best place to add this will be... but I've seen where others have posted you don't need photos/etc and London doesn't care. Well, Steven had his interview today (approved) and they DID go through that as well as our photo album. So just a heads up that it might be better to be safe than sorry. I've also seen where other folks had their papers go missing and had to reprint/etc, so he took copies of that too.

HURRAY!! Waiting is done! Approved and visa in 10 days, so we're not having a delay due to the subject access report thing. Whew. Thank goodness that *we* now get to pick the day he comes over.

It is SO hard to be the person on the OTHER side of the pond and waiting with no news. I keep waiting on him to flash up on google talk/hangouts. I've read lots of reviews about the average time and it seems to range quite a bit! It's now 8:10am and his was scheduled for 4am my time (9am there).

I sent an original of my birth certificate to my fiance because I didn't include it in the 129F. I used my passport pages for that instead. I am not sure if that makes a difference to why some folks are asked for it and others are not. It also seemed easy enough to include in the other heap o' papers that I was sending over!