A Lost Iguana

An interview here as well possibly after I pestered with a service request (letter was dated the same as the request -- might just be a coincidence though).

Well, just had the interview and everything seemed to go OK. Got the stamp in my passport and the website says that a new card has been ordered.

Good luck to those still waiting!

We finally received our AOS interview date (NYC) for next month! We applied in November 2014, adjusting from K1, no interview waiver letter, and finally almost a year later we have an interview for October 2015. I guess I can't be surprised it took this long, considering it is NYC, but I was seriously going crazy waiting.

Good luck to those stIll waiting to hear something!

An interview here as well possibly after I pestered with a service request (letter was dated the same as the request -- might just be a coincidence though).

I submitted my package back in November 2014 and received a NPIW letter in February. I sent off a service request earlier in the month (my wife's family lives at a border town in Texas and I wanted some kind of formal update before I brave one of the checkpoints) and lo and behold, I get a letter from my local office dated the same as the service request asking me to come in for an interview and asking for a new medical.

Just to give some people in NPIW limbo a little bit of encouragement.

(Apart from needing a new medical but I was pretty much expecting that.)

I believe that the I-94 is electronic now and that you do not fill it out out as you enter the country. (Many years ago when I held a J-1, I would have to fill one out and have it stapled into my passport every time I returned to the US.)

Edit: here's the link to request your I-94 number: https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/request.html (If my memory serves me right, the visa is just to allow immigration to let you to enter, the I-94 was the document that captured your legal status.)

I thank the pair of you for the advice and warning.

I appreciate that hard decisions must sometimes be made but both my fiancee and I want to attend the wedding. A revised plan would be to try to schedule the medical for late January or early February (the I-129F is valid until 8th Feb so it will just need a new letter of intent from the US) and to leave the the UK for the US a few days after my sibling's wedding. At least I would be able to fly with my fiancee to the US.

I hope that there has not been trouble with entering the US having used up most of the time limit on the K-1. I read on some document that the chest X-ray from the medical is only valid for six months (the rest, a year) so I suspect that the time limit on entry arises from this. Would discussing the desire to delay entry to attend the wedding at the interview help?

Hopefully searching POE reviews/experiences will be illuminating.

It seems that fate has not been kind because expected timescales would imply that I would be unable to attend my younger brother's wedding as it would be too soon after mine in order to expect an AP back or the AOS filing. If I am correct, the time limit on the visa is set by the medical interview so this would be the crucial date to delay. However, the petition approval is only supposed to have a limited period for which it is valid.

My NOA2 was two weeks ago but I think I would need to push back my medical interview to May in order to be able to attend my brother's June wedding in London and also allow for my fiancee to have a wedding that is not in the middle of the Texan summer.

Do anyone have an insight about whether the embassy can keep a case open for this period of time?

We've only received our NOA2 last week but I am known worrier and like to consider all eventualities. As it stands, my fiancee (the petitioner) is in the process of switching careers: from a childcare to certified teacher. At the moment she is working as a substitute teacher and may not be able to cover the 125% poverty threshold for our household size until she get gets fully certified and a more permanent position. In the past couple of years she would have been able to meet the 125% limit herself and I believe that she should be able to get tax returns to show that she could.

I am not particularly concerned about the I-134 in London as I have about $20k in savings split between a US bank account and my UK account (the vast majority is held in the UK account and I need to speak to my bank about efficiently moving it into dollars). I also have a science PhD which I hope would count in my favour when it comes to convincing an official in London that I should be able to get a job with a reasonable timescale and not be a public charge when coupled with an affidavit from my fiancee to provide accommodation and suchlike.

My worry is that we are going to come unstuck when it comes to filing the I-864 and her immediate income for the current year is not enough. Does income from previous years factor into the filing or is it only the most recent tax return? Neither of us really want to have to consider a co-sponser (her parents are not an option).

Many thanks!

Hi all,

I am sure that many people ask silly questions about the K-1 process but I am unsure about a couple of things related to the I-129F. I am the alien fiance and my fiancee is the petitioning US citizen. We decided to start the K-1 application route during my last trip to see her (which was last week). When we talked over procedure we convinced ourselves that the first step was for her to file the I-129F without any supporting documentation. Having a quick read of the site I see that this would be a pretty poor decision. There are many pictures of us together and we have plane tickets but all the pictures are digital rather than old school photographs. Would a printout of the photographs be sufficient or should we go to the expense of having some master copies printed on photographic paper and mailing copies of these?

Another question is relating to a Social Security Number (stating that I was not eligible to work) I once held as I was residing in the US on a J-1 visa as (I was at grad school in the UK and I spent just under two years as a visiting researcher on site at my experiment). There is an option for an alien fiance SSN on the I-129F but I cannot remember the number and I think the card has been misplaced in the years after I left the US. The official guidance about replacing a SSN as a non-citizen suggests that I would not be able to apply for a replacement as I cannot prove my work eligibility or J-1 status as that has long expired. Is this missing number going to be a problem? My fiancee is nervous about leaving it blank on the form when the number does exist.

I also are unsure about when finances are checked. My fiancee recently decided to change her career and become certified as a teacher so is currently not employed. She was previously earning above the threshold. She has an income thanks to payments from a share in the sale of her grandparents company but if she is required to get her finances checked now. My current job in the UK is easily above the threshold and while that income would cease when I move, I am saving as much as I can (I would hope that I could find a similar job in the US).

One last question is about the medical examination. What medical concerns would be grounds for a denial? I was diagnosed with high blood pressure a year ago and am taking medication to reduce it but I do not know whether it would be problematic.

Thanks in advance. Does the petitioner have any say in the processing center because the Texas center has a very long wait time for I-129F processing and my fiancee lives in San Antonio.