Ellinora

We looked into this a few years back when we first planned on moving back to the U.S. You may be able to apply for a waiver:

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/study-exchange/student/residency-waiver.html

edit. I think it was the no objection statement that we would have needed to get

After USCIS approval , we have to wait 30 days . I tried to call them , but line is always busy . I have sent a message for them . nothing till now

I read from the NVC filers thread (http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/483206-nvc-filers-march-2014/)

that the line is a busy a lot, but you just have to keep on dialing again and again until you get through. Good luck!

On January 29, 2014, we shipped this approved or re-affirmed case to the Department of State for visa processing. For more information, please contact them directly.

Till now , I haven't heard anything from National Visa Center .

what does priority date means and how can I follow my case ??

Priority date : June 10, 2013

Congrats ,

Have you called NVC? I believe you have to call them in order to get your new case number and to know the current status of your case.

See for example http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/LingChe_NVC_ShortCut#At_NVC_.2F_The_Guide_to_Flying_through_NVC

Congrats to those that have been approved!

Just checked case status and it's post decision activity, finally

^ Thank you, hope so too! And I really hope they'll accept our evidence, since we really don't know what else to submit!

We will notify you by mail when we make a decision or if we need something from you. You should expect to receive a written decision or written update within 60 days of the date we received your response unless fingerprint processing or an interview are standard parts of case processing and have not yet been completed, in which case you can use the processing time information on our website to estimate when this case will be done.

Well, at least they have received our RFE response, we can only hope they'll review it soon....

^ yup, the timing is a rather odd coincidence. We called USCIS customer service (tier2) and they were also completely baffled as to why we got a RFE. I suppose the officer in question just doesn't understand foreign marriage certificates...

Anyone that has gotten an RFE what kind of things are they looking for anyone in particular has been asked for some type of proof if so what kind ?

I got asked for marriage certificate(AGAIN)..... apparently.... they weren't happy with the translation I got them...... they said the certificate (in Spanish) wasn't translated fully into English. They also want me to get them a photocopy of my wife's birth certificate and translate it to English as well.

We also got asked again for marriage certificate. Ours was in English, so it's not the language, but USCIS demanded a civil ceremony marriage certificate, which we cannot provide, since we were married in a church. We sent a copy of the marriage certificate to them again with an extract from the population system stamped by the civil registrar's office, showing that we are indeed married. So frustrating, if they don't accept normal and valid Finnish marriage certificates, why not say so on the embassy website? We got married according to the Finnish law and it sucks that USCIS can't respect that. Hoping our cover letter with the explanation and the evidence will do.

We haven't gotten an approval, but we did get a rfe. Both petitioner and beneficiary are abroad.

NSC = Nebraska Service Center

I think someone asked earlier how fast the RFE showed up. We got the email notice on Feb 10th and the paper version was in the in-laws' mailbox on the 14th.

We got the RFE because of our marriage certificate. Apparently it's not good enough, since it was not a civil ceremony. We got married in a church, which is completely normal and legal in Finland. We called USCIS and they told us to mail the marriage certificate again and explain that the said document is valid... If they deny us, we have no idea what to do, since we can't get exactly married again in the civil registrar's office just to please NSC. We have been married for several years already. We did however, get a piece of paper from the civil registrar's that shows we are married, but it's not a marriage certificate. I guess now we wait again...

Well #######...

On February 10, 2014, we mailed a notice requesting additional evidence or information in this case I130 IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE, FIANCE(E), OR ORPHAN. Please follow the instructions on the notice to submit the requested information. This case will be in suspense until we receive the evidence or the opportunity to submit it expires. Once we receive the requested evidence or information and make a decision on the case, you will be notified by mail. If you move while this case is pending, please use our Change of Address online tool to update your case with your new address or call our customer service center at 1-800-375-5283.

A request for evidence is made when an application/petition is lacking required documentation/evidence (initial evidence) or the officer needs more documentation/evidence (additional evidence) to determine an applicant's eligibility for the benefit sought. We may send you a request for evidence at any stage of our review. The request will indicate what evidence or information is needed for us to fully evaluate your application or petition. The notice will explain where to send the evidence and will give the deadline for your response. Your application or petition will be held in suspense during that time. If you receive a request for evidence and have questions about what you need to submit, you may call our National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283.

So we got an RFE for who knows what reason... I know there's a bunch of people now thinking that we should be happy that our case is at least under review, but to be honest I'm not happy, I'm extremely disappointed. It took them almost 9 months to decide we are lacking something. We have no idea what it is that they want and Lord only knows when we'll get the notice to Finland. It's taken several weeks for each notice to show up here.

That in mind, does anyone know how long we have to answer this request?

Congrats to those who got approved, good luck to the rest of us.

^^ I agree, ridiculous is the word. Also it's so frustrating to see people getting approved left and right, people who sent their application way later. But, at the same time I'm happy that they at least have a chance to move on with their lives. The rest of us are stuck.

edit. Needless to say, no news here.

Are there any May files who have not been approved yet ?

Just curious

If you haven't been approved, how many days has it been since you were transferred to NSC/TSC/CSC ??

We have not been approved. Our case was sent to NSC Dec 11th. We filed from abroad.

What service center was your petition transferred to?

Nebraska, so I don't think we'll be getting approved anytime soon

We called USCIS once again to inquire about case, they said our case was touched December 24th and is waiting to be assigned to someone. Also, the person said that our case was transferred to NSC because we made a service request (we did) and are filing from abroad. Bit of a useless call, felt kinda like they were just babbling nonsense at USCIS again, but oh well. Hope we all get approvals soon!

Finally got a copy of the transfer notice to good ol' Finland, dated December 12th. Notice is from NBC Lee's Summit (our case went to Overland Park) and our case is transferred to Nebraska Service Center. The letter has the supplemental 60 day info attached. Nothing new, but thought I'd share. No NOA2 yet.

We're also May filers from abroad, transferred to NSC

We filed from abroad and got transferred to Nebraska

We also received the third transfer email this morning. Don't know yet where we were transferred, the petitioner might call tomorrow and see if we can find out.

Did you guys have to wait for the 3rd transfer notice for a while or did you get one almost right away?

Congratulations to the approvals!

Hi Ellinora,

we also filed from abroad (Netherlands) and yesterday we received a notice that our case was transfered to a local office.

I don't know which one, but I guess they do transfer abroad cases also.

We didn't expedite or DCF.

Good luck to you!

Thank you! We were also transferred today to "your local office." Now we'll just have to wait and see which service center is our "local" office

Thanks, we might give that a try at some point

Nothing here either but I guess they can't transfer us to a local office since we are abroad.

We were transferred as well (PD May 13th). It will take a couple of weeks for the notice to get to Finland, if it ever does get here, so will maybe know more then.