Brent and Vika

Just got this update. This is after we got notice of case transferred back in February 26th Kirk a lot of people.  We're now confused even more.  Note we have applied for citizenship. 

Good afternoon everyone, i finally found this topic after filing back in October 2016 and just waiting and waiting.  We finally decided to start seeing what the holdup was.  We got the stamp for passports after the greencard expired in December.  Our NOA date is 10/28/16 so i guess we will be one of the last in October to get worked on.  We did see the "transferred to local office" and thought it had to do with her N-400 filing, but we never received a letter saying it was moved so maybe we will get the 10 year card soon enough.  Anyway we tried to be patient but finally decided to get on it to see what is going on.  Ill follow and post when and if we hear anything.   Thanks for all the good information i've read on this topic thread.

No full custody. The issue we run into is a bit strange and complicated. They are from Ukraine. If you follow the news you will know there are "troubles" there. His biological father is behind the lines and lives in the breakaway republic. We are having a difficult time with getting him to sign necessary papers just for them to visit and to be able to return to the states. That is a Ukriane rule on leaving the country nothing from USA. I have no idea how we would even begin to get him to sign a form (and get it notarized) for my stepson to get a passport. Luckily his father isn't a bad guy, just stuck in a war zone that doesn't recognize Ukraine as their country anymore. Any thoughts? I swear, you couldn't write a story like this.

Quick question and any insight would be appreciated. We are thinking ahead here so bear with me. In a couple years my wife will apply for citizenship. Do we need anything from my stepsons father back in Ukraine to allow him to get it as well. My stepson will only be 12 or so when this happens. We just want to work ahead to have his biological father sign anything on their trip home this summer. Thanks for any help with this!

Still waiting!

We were really starting to stress here then all of a sudden got the emails we were waiting for. Try doing a case inquiry If you hadn't already. We got approved about 2 weeks after the one we submitted. best of luck, its coming your way soon.

Yesterday we received emails saying decision was made and card sent to production. Should arrive by January 28th!! Excited we finally got some movement and didnt have to do the interview. If you are still waiting, know you are probably right around the corner too. So glad we can get this part done and have a couple year break before ROC. Happy new year everyone!

Has been a while since I checked in as well. We also got a letter saying 6 months and possibly no interview needed. We are still sitting at NBC (case number starts with MSC) It hasn't been touched since February. We are in the New Orleans district and when we called the rep 45 days ago she said we are out of normal processing time frame. She put in a service ticket or something but haven't heard back. Called again this morning and it seems that still has had no movement. Anyone get this letter and seen their case actually move along to either an interview, approval and or card production? Thanks for any insight.

We have our interview coming up on 9/20/2013 in Kiev. We are making tentative plans (no purchases of tickets of course) so we wanted to see how long those who recently got approved have had to wait to receive their visa from TNT. She is going to stay in Kiev and pick it up from that location so it will not have to travel far. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

From what I was told by the congressmans aid and from what I have learned on my own is that it is more of a quality control check than anything else. It seems they randomly select cases to have someone go through the case file instead of the rubber stamp and being sent off to the embassy. There has been no confirmed evidence that they do additional background checks. Anything is possible though but I believe it was pulled, set on a desk, then looked through for accuracy then sent off to the embassy.

Good news checked today and the case was sent out to Kiev yesterday. Just a few days after the call to my congressmans office. Maybe it's coincidence but none the less glad the AP is over.

Thanks for sharing and keep us updated. We are stuck at NVC as well. NOA2 from August 13th...we just keep calling every day and still no news. How could it take 3.5+ weeks for delivery from CSC to NVC?... It's unfair to make us wait even longer.

Good luck to everybody!

Have you been assigned an NVC case number yet? It starts with KEV2013xxxxxx. If not at least you aren't in AP, that is an entirely different beast to deal with. It took about 3 weeks to go from TSC to NVC but once they received the case we were assigned a number pretty quickly.

Honestly no... they do not move any case based on call from congressman.

All congressman and their office can do is inquire about the case and maybe escalate it to supervisor if ones case has been not worked on in reasonable time.

well whatever they did I am glad to have a better answer out of NVC then I was getting from the telephone reps. Just even getting an estimated date is more reassuring than the standard answer.

Just got off the phone with a Constituent Affairs rep at my Congressman's office. She called NVC and spoke to a supervisor. The following is what she was told.

A certain amount of cases are selected for random checks. They started this to make sure that USCIS is doing their job correctly. It is completely random (in our case anyway) and she was told the case should be reviewed and sent to the embassy by the middle of next week. If it does play out that way it means that AP will have taken about 3 1/2 weeks for us. Which seems about standard from what I have noticed recently. I don't know if the call will make them do it quicker or not but it is nice to have some information besides "it is in AP and we do not have a time frame of when it will be finished"

Best of luck to anyone else who is going through this, and if you hit the 2 weeks mark it might be worth the time to make a call to get information.

Ours got received and processed quick, but then we got selected for AP (additional/administrative processing) been waiting 2 1/2 weeks since our case number was assigned by NVC. Don't get too excited until you know case is on its way to the embassy.

Just an update. They both passed the medical exam and picked up all the paperwork and are headed back to Lugansk for the start of Kirills school on Sunday. Yep that's right, it is always starts Septemebr 1st no matter what day of the week. Anyway she didn't need anything with the KEV number on it to pick up the completed medical. Still I would suggest having something with the KEV number. We did medical as soon as we got a case number because of the start of school approaching. We are still stuck in AP at NVC Hoping to move out soon, get to interview, and get them over here. Prayers and crossed fingers it moves fast.

Just made my last call to NVC before the holiday weekends. Actually had a really nice operator who have me more info that anyone so far. We shot the bull a bit, I figured kill them with kindness. He told me from what he has been able to tell that AP for k1 is completely random. Now he could be wrong but who knows. Ill take that over the normal

Answer I've been getting of blah blah blah. If they were just honest and told us what was up they wouldnt be getting so many calls. Again im just venting. Has anyone had any luck calling a Senator or representative? I've got a friend who is John Boehners niece. Thinking about reaching out to her if this keeps going. The speaker of the house (ie his staff) may be able to get a better answer than I can.

Doing some research on this TSC TO NVC problem. Turns out that there is a recurring Robles with TSC sending the approved petition to the NRC instead of the NVC. And no one bothers to check, they just gve you the canned response. NRC is NATIONAL RECORDS CENTER. People, that is a holding pattern. If you don't keep emailing, calling, it may just sit there forever.

If I got an case number but was told it was in AP is it possible my case was sent to NRC too? Just trying to figure out why i got put into AP. btw I am a TSC case as well.

Wow... i like your game, but to me is very frustrating... I have been playing with it too seeing people from the same day and even one single digit away shipped away to the embassy, and mine stays the same, and whenever I call all they can say is "your file ma'am is in administrative processing and we do not have a time-frame for when it can or could be sent to the embassy". That has been the story all week long, no matter if I e-mail them or call them... I guess I need to be patient and wait until they come back to it from their vacation.

Excuse me for complaining so much, I am just tired of playing the waiting game. It really does not go with me.

Oh trust me it is annoying the heck out of me too. some operators are nice others are matter of fact and could not care less. A guy today was sympathetic and said to me " trust me it will move pinto them soon. I can't tell you when because I don't know but I'm going off experience". For some reason he sensed the anguish in my voice from being told the same thing yet again. There are quite a few from my day that still show "at NVC" but it truely angers me to see others sent in a week after mine already "in transit". All I can do is pray and wait. I guess maybe I'm a control freak and problem solver because all I want to do is find the solution to what's holding it up and direct them how to fix it and send it on to Kiev. But you will not get any answers as to why it is AP at this stage of the game.

Ok I am filling out the DS-230, the packet 3 form the Ukrainian embassy has online says fill out part 1, but on the form its specifically says...

"This form (DS-230 Part II), together with Form DS-230 Part I, constitutes the complete Application for Immigrant Visa and Alien Registration"

So did they maybe change the form and not the letter for packet 3? Any help would be appreciated. I was thinking of sending her with a blank section 2 and a completed section 2, that way she is covered either way.

Again, thanks for any help or insight.

Joining this thread unfortunately. NVC received and assigned a case number on 8/19. So I call every day on the drive to work and on the drive home from work. All the operators can tell me is that it is in AP. sometimes they says additional processing other times administrative processing. From what I read its the same thing. They are all pretty useless individuals actually. Reading off a screen and spouting the same verbage every time I call. Just hope that one day soon one of them tells me it is on its way to Kiev.

I played a game the other day. As some may know the case number is 3 letters the year then the day of the year plus 500 (so aigust 19th is day 231 so 500 plus 231 gie me my 3 numbers after the year)and the last 3 numbers are the order in which they are assigned a case number. So bored at work I start looking for patterns by changing the last 3 digits. It seems those assigned later in the day are more like to still be "at NVC". I've done this for multiple days by raising and lowering the the 3 numbers after the year. It is not always the case but most seem to be stuck when you have a later issued number on each day. So my question is do they do what they can in a day, leave the rest in a pile, then process the next days, and if they can comeback and work the ones they did t get to? I'm just looking for answers and nobody will give them of course. Anyway my Rant is over. Just needed to vent since I thought we were so close. Now I see people a week later moving in to NVC and out to the Kiev embassy. Guess that's government for you!

I need to add that after some back and forth and checking for 25 minutes they finally allowed her to proceed for medical checks. Vika can be very persuasive when she needs to be. She said between her and Kirill that the exam took no more than 3 hours.

Vika and Kirill went for their exam today, She passed hers, results for him will be available Friday. The one thing that was a problem was they wanted to have her have the case number written somewhere, not just able to give to them verbally. I had read where you could just go with the case number but the woman was insistent that she needed a paper with the case number written on it. Our case number is assigned but still at NVC in additional processing. I don't know what she would even get from the embassy with a case number. Maybe an email? We had to do this while both her and Kirill were both in Kiev before they return to Lugansk next week. Just a friendly FYI, be prepared in case this comes up for anyone going for the interview. Maybe the woman was just having a bad day or something as others have done exactly what we did and not had a problem.

Anywhere from a day to 8 weeks or more. Some cases have been in AP at NVC for a matter of years...but not likely. Depends on why it is in Ap and what they need to clear it out of AP. If they need something from Ukraine, and Ukraine takes their sweet time about delivering, then you wait longer.

Can be because of some reason or for no reason. They will not tell you why and will not tell anyone else why. When the case is completed they will send you a notice that the case has been forwarded to Kiev and from then it usually takes 2-3 weeks before you can schedule your appointment.

I wish I could tell you something else, but that is how it is.

There are going to be numerous delays and snafus in this process, this process lasts 4 years or more and you are still in the "easy part" and it is not just USCIS and NVC and DOS that you have trouble with. Prepare for problems with insurance, banks, SS, DMV, schools and everyone else that is going to look at you like deer in the headlights when you answer the question "Are you a US citizen?" with a "NO".

And NEVER claim to be a US citizen until the oath of citizenship is taken. It would seem to be the "easy way" sometimes, but even one claim to citizenship is a deportable offense.

Don't worry...she's worth it!

Thanks Gary. I appreciate your Information. I did find this while searching around the web.

http://blogs.usembassy.gov/malaysia/2012/12/27/check-the-status-of-your-visa-online-ceac-status-check/

I'm currently showing "at NVC" so maybe it's not administrative processing. Something tells me sometimes the paperwork from USCIS isn't correct or in correct order. But who knows.

Yeah I know she is worth the wait but for a year and a half we've been waiting in some way or another. Typing words on iMessage and Facebook just don't cut it anymore. Ha!

How did you find out? Does it say on the website status?

No, it won't say on the website. Only say "at NVC". I had been calling the DOS number but on the 5th day ( most have been moving in 3 or 4 business days) I called the NVC number and the gentleman said "it hasn't been shipped yet it requires some additional processing" I didn't think anything about it until I saw the pinned post about Aap at NVC.

I have 2 thoughts. They randomly do this to cases or there was an error from TSC when they sent over the packet. Who knows. I'll keep this tread updated In case any others get this. It is possible others have gone through it and weren't as impatient as I am. From research on VJ it used to be a long process but seems considerably shorter these days.

Got case number, but found out Friday that we are in AP at NVC. Been there since Monday the 19th Seems from what I read could be a few weeks before its shipped. Not a great way to start the weekend!