Lanu

Had the interview today. Approved =)

Hey Everyone, just an update, Crossed the border at Sweetgrass on Nov, 2nd and it was a easy as pie. Gave them the sealed envelope, waited a few moments while they went through it. The boarder guard seemed a bit confused as to what I had to do on the dates on my Visa, but It is all good. We went downtown last week, got the marriage license and we get married this coming Saturday. There was really nothing to the crossing, they never looked in the truck, and I had a numbered list of everything in the truck so we were good.

As for the length of time to get married, You have 6 months to cross the border, and another 90 days to get married once you cross.

Congratulations =) Hope you have a wonderful marriage. My finacee will be coming in by air. I wonder if the admission process is more stringent for people coming in by air.

that's true I just think there are ways around it. she can show if she has assets that can be liquidated within one year she can sponsor him that way. the government only cares that he can prove that he will not use public services.

But petitioning through the UK is different than India... Plus you made a over poverty level, the petitioner is not working and thus does not have any current income to,show... Different situation. Without income or co-sponsor (due to fact he is not USC or LPR) the petitioner will need to show assets in HER name and account... Glad it was easy for you but many others have been tripped up by income issues...

Ok but still, I don't think it's that serious. Everyone stresses about this money part. Before my husband and I decided to marry, I had never had a full time "real" job in my life and I still sponsored him on my own. I just had started my own business as a sole proprieter that january 1 of 2012 and I petitioned for him that april. on that 1-134 form I literally just put 0 in savings and I think 1000 or so dollars in the amount that I had in my account. I sent them bank statements and paypal statements and that was it. when it came time to file taxes for 2012 I did so and made just a smidgen above the poverty line. I did not submit my last three years taxes either. Just that one. The IO did not even bat one single eyelash. I can only speak for myself but I found it easy.

she does receive unemployment cheques. Do unemployment checks count as income? If so, she clears the poverty line.

Only US citizens or LPR can be co-sponsors so I believe your father won't be able to help. You need to find a new co-sponsor or the petition will be denied. That's the point of the Affidavit of Support, is to guarantee that you will not become a public charge by having your fiancee/co-sponsor prove that they will be able to support you.

It might be possible to use your savings, but I do not know the details on how that cane be done. I do believe the beneficiary's income/assets can't be used, but you may be able to transfer them and have your fiancee use that? Hopefully other members will help with this issue.

I hope they let me use my savings. How does it make a difference if I have the money vs my fiancee having the money. It's going to be 'our' money soon enough anyway. I can transfer over 1/2 my wealth to her bank account, and we'll be okay in terms of meeting the poverty guideline...but me having the money vs her havin the money is the same thing right? or no?

Not true. You can use your income/assets to sponsor yourself. Or to at least put them in for consideration.

http://www.visajourney.com/examples/INS-Form-I-864.pdf This is an example form of the Affidavit. Part 7 is pertinint to your case.

thanks! maybe I can make a spreadsheet and list out my financial assets and take it to the interview.

this is the only grey area for me =/ I hope everyting works out

My fiancee filed a petition for me back in april, however she lost her job in May. Now my father is going to sponsor me since he resides in the US. The problem is that he is not a US citizen or a permanent resident. He is on a non-immigrant visa. Can he still fill out an affidavit of support for me?

I have my interview coming up in 3 weeks. I don't know what to do here. What're the chances of us getting approved/rejected?

Does the interviewing officer only look at petitioners income? I myself have savings in excess of well over the minimum poverty guidelines given.

Appreciate the help!

I started this forum way back in April! And today I can finally say that the interview is complete and approved. See you all in AOS! Good luck to anyone still waiting on their interview.

Congrats!! we're hoping to join you soon =)

Our visa application was approved. WHat happens next? We changed our wedding date from December to August because the visa process was taking longer than anticipated. Will our approval be valid until then?

I am not sure how long he has to travel to the US, but once he lands on American soil you have 90 days to get married.

Interview date is set and we're trying to change it because they set it for a date that the embassy is closed ¬¬ fail.

but we're working on the medical exam appointment (waiting for a call back)

got our official letter

got our RDJ#

and now we've got another bit of a wait.

Good luck ! Hopefully you wont have to wait for long for the new date!

Holy carp! Our case is already in Rio and we already have an interview date and they didnt notify us at all after USCIS sent out our NOA2! I had to call DOS and they told me all of this just now!

Yes! I was just going to tell you to call DOS! I tried calling the NVC as well, and they never picked up, the people at DOS are so nice and very helpful.

That's awesome that your case was finally moved to Rio

Best of luck!

Do we have many still wating for NOA2? or interviews? we need an update.

We're waiting for our interview. It's scheduled for Nov 29th. we don't receive a packet 3 or packet 4... my fiancee just goes to the interview. I guess the process differs from country to country.

For those of you who've had their interview already, anything to share? what questions they asked....what proof they asked for etc?

Hello !

Anyone else had their interview yet?

hey guys...i think i may one of the last people, but i got the noa2 a few hrs ago.

About time...

so...what's next?

how long does it take to hear back once CSC receives my RFE response? they received it 8/27. this is ridiculous

usually you should hear back in in 3-4 weeks especially since you're at CSC

WE ARE APPROVED!!! In fact, I don't know if the guy was purposely flashing it at me, but the papers were stamped approved before he even interviewed me. I will post my review right away here but.. Damn, what a morning. I left Surrey at 830 and didn't get to the consulate till 11. An hour after my appointment time. Thanks to an accident on the Fraser bridge that took over an hour to get past, then an additional half hour to get to the consulate from there, but they were really good, said that they were waiting for me upstairs, they waved me through, went through security and it was less than an hour in and out. I was so stressed about being late that I almost cried when the guard said go through. then the woman at counter B asked why I was so late and as soon as I mentioned accident and Fraser bridge she held up her hand and said ,"Say no more". Everyone was so friendly, questions were easy. They never even asked for any further evidence!

Good luck to everyone still to go.

holy #######!!! congrats buddy!

So I am sitting in a hotel not far from the doctors office, my medical is tomorrow, my Interview on Thursday. I am in shock that this is all happening. I didn't even expect to see NOA2 before October when we first filed.

I wish you all best thoughts for speedy processing soon and I will post a review as soon as everything is done.

wow! that's so fast! best of luck to you!

Case Transfers

Current as of July 2013.

Many posts are being made about transfers, and what these emails/notifications mean.

(I dropped a post in the K1 Forum but it has to do with Service Centers, so I'll post one here too)

If you filed a K-1 petition received a notice that looked like one of the following, your case has been transferred to another Service Center.... NOT your local office. Local offices do not process I-129F petitions. The method of transfers applies to all case types, however whether it was transferred to your local office depends on your case type. You should receive an Notice Of Action Transfer (NoA-T) in the mail telling you where your file was transferred within two weeks of the electronic notification or case update on the USCIS website.

This transfer is usually a good thing. A transfer will occur when a Service Center is backlogged and cannot keep up with the influx of petitions, so they transfer the backlogged cases to another service center so those people can be processed in a timely manner. If you were told you have to wait another 180 days -- this is incorrect. Many Tier 1 Immigration Officers (the first people you talk to when you call the customer service number) are given a script to read from, which more often than not contains misinformation. They do not have access to any information that you, yourself cannot find online by either checking your case status or what is available on the USCIS website. Your case will be processed by receipt date, at the speed of the adjudicator processing it, and influenced by the complexity of the case.

In many cases there will be three notifications when a case is transferred.

The first notification will contain something like this:

This means that USCIS has sent your electronic file to the other office. Every time your file is handled by someone they have to scan it (to track where it is and who last handled it so they know who is responsible if anything come back with an issue), when they scan it if there are updates regarding your case (transfer, RFE, typographical error, inquiry, etc) there will be an accompanying message.

The second notification will typically be a few hours after and will contain something like this:

This means that USCIS has mailed your physical file to the Service Center that will be processing your case moving forward.

The third notification will be about a week later and will contain something like this:

This means the Service Center that is processing your file has received the physical file and will begin processing once the adjudicator picks up the batch (based on received date).

Within a week you should receive an NoA-T in the mail, which will look like this (private information has been supplemented by sample info):

What does this mean for me?

This means that for most straight forward cases you may see your NoA2 or an RFE within a month or two. If your case is not straight forward or your case got flagged, it may take longer. Keep in mind every case is different. If you are outside the standard processing times you should contact the USCIS Customer Service line and ask to speak to a Tier 2 Immigration Officer. You should make sure your case wasn't lost in the shuffle, and that it is being worked on. Find out if you missed any notifications or if there is something that you can do to help move it along. Some immigration officers can be quite rude, so always remember to be as polite as possible. These people are overloaded with work and they're just people too. Be clear, concise, and to the point. They are busy people and their time is valuable.

So I can expect to get approved in a month or two?

This is the United States Government. Nothing is a guarantee. You might hear back in a month or two... You might not. It might be an approval, it might be an RFE, it might even be a denial. A lot of cases which were transferred in the past from the VSC to the TSC were adjudicated within 4-6 weeks. Follow the forum posts stay alert, and watch the progress of people within your Service Center to get an idea of what is going on. The speed of who is getting their cases adjudicated has to do with the complexity of the case, whether you're beneficiary is in a high fraud risk country, and the speed in which the adjudicator themselves work.

I am a <Month> filer from that Service Center and I didn't get transferred, should I be worried?

No. The Service centers tend to transfer people in batches. Your case may have already been assigned to someone, or they transferred files between X date and X date, and your file was not within that range. Many times when the files are transferred approvals from both service centers are soon to follow. Don't worry until you're outside of the standard processing time. You can see when your case was last touched, and if it was touched prior to the transfers, chances are you were already assigned.

How do I check to see if my case was "touched"?

If you haven't created an account on the USCIS website you can do so here. If you have you can log into your profile from here (make sure you choose "Customer" for the user type). Once you're logged in you'll see a page that resembles the image below. The "last updated" date shown below is the last time your file has been "touched".

How do you know what the messages mean regarding the electronic and physical files? Nothing in the messages indicates this.

I called a Tier 2 Officer and asked him to explain the transfer process. He explained that for transfers the first email you get is the electronic notification, the second was the actual mailing of the physical files and the third was when the Service Center your files are being transferred to has received the physical files.

thanks! this helped

It is BS! Is it getting transferred to Texas? Hopefully it won't be a longer wait then it already has been When mine got transferred, it took about 3 weeks to get the approval. I'm still waiting for my "local" embassy to receive my file. (that has been a month and I'm still waiting on that)

I don't know if it's getting transferred to TX, I just got an email saying my case has been passed out to another jurisdiction. I'm assuming its texas. God knows how long it will them to "adjudicate" our file at texas. My fiancee is thinking of reaching out to the senator, if we don't hear back by next week.

how long does it take from the point you're approved - to the file going to the NVC - to the file reaching the local office in foreign country? Is there a general timeframe?

I've linked several disgruntled people to this thread, so if I've already done so with you my apologies.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/441796-faq-case-transfers-to-another-service-center/

But the TSC transfer is not a bad thing, as much as people would think it is. Most cases which are transferred are adjudicated much faster than they would be if they remained at VSC. You do not go at the bottom of the pile, you will not lose your place "in line" and your case will be picked up and should be adjudicated within the 5 month time-frame of your initial filing. Have some patience the process is frustrating for everyone. I haven't seen my man since January. :C

my 5 month time-frame from initial filing comes up in 4 days >.<

I've linked several disgruntled people to this thread, so if I've already done so with you my apologies.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/441796-faq-case-transfers-to-another-service-center/

But the TSC transfer is not a bad thing, as much as people would think it is. Most cases which are transferred are adjudicated much faster than they would be if they remained at VSC. You do not go at the bottom of the pile, you will not lose your place "in line" and your case will be picked up and should be adjudicated within the 5 month time-frame of your initial filing. Have some patience the process is frustrating for everyone. I haven't seen my man since January. :C

my 5 month time-frame from initial filing comes up in 4 days >.<

so....my fiancee and I have waited THIS long, only to have our case transferred to another jurisdiction.

Such BS!

Doesn't look like we'll be together until 2014

where did you see that India k-1s are getting denied? what stage are they getting denied at?

each case is unique. I applied for mine back in april, I've yet to hear back though.

I there any1 beside me that STILL hasn't received their NOA2 approval or RFE?

Shortly after posting the above, I logged into the USCIS website and saw that we were APPROVED!

Keep the faith and just know that your time will come soon ?

haha... congratulations =)

i feel like im the only one left now

my fiancee was on hold for 116 mins for a tier 2 officer, and he turned out to be rude and of NO help. All he said was "your file is still well within the processing time limit, and we'll have an update for you regarding your case before august 12"

my fiancee told him how every who filed with me/after me are getting approvals, and RFEs, and we're the only ones that are stuck, but the officer made some lame excuse about how there center is still processing 129F's from Feb.

idk what to do here...I'm running out of patience

how do u search those?

i think ours were among the fastest... got NOA1 May 3 (the day after i left to see her for the 2nd time!!) and guess what, JULY 29, not even 3 months later NOA2 came! but for those waiting i agree just be patient... i had no idea i'd get NOA2 this quick but sometimes u get lucky!

Every case has a number, and it starts off with "EAC....". You should have one on your NOA1.

For example - EAC1390253701. you can replace the last 3 digits and get the status of the next case. EAC1390253702, EAC1390253703, EAC1390253704...and so on....just keep in mind that not all cases are k-1s so you'll have to read through.

congratulations on your noa2!

totally jealous of all those getting approved. God knows how long my fiancee and I have to wait

OMG I am so excited, My fiancé just called to say he has our NOA2 in his hand, It was dated July 24th and I never got a text or e-mail because the site isn't updated!!! I am just floating

that is just FANTASTIC!!!!! congrats =)