CBCB

VISA APPROVED!

It took 2 hours, everyone was friendly. I got really worried when they told me I might have to come back in a week because there was a computer system problem and that they couldn't access my ds260... right before she was going to give up, it got unlocked!

I'll write a review of the embassy.

PS: when the PO told me congrats and that we were approved, I just left. I had nothing to sign before leaving right? I got so surprised the interview itself took only 3 minutes I was confused and just left without asking...

Congratulations! You must have been so worried with "the computer problem"... Glad everything turned out well.

Enjoy your last weeks in France! I just arrived yesterday in the States! Such a long journey!... All over!

Approved yesterday (July 2nd) at the Paris embassy! Yay! Finally! After almost 14 months of process.

It went very well. The consulate officer really asked me only one question (how did we meet?). I was expectating a few questions about the wedding, our families or about our jobs but no. Just one question. I won't complain!

And now it's over! And my husband and I will be reunited July 24th, finally!

Good luck to every one still waiting!

Dear Ladies and Gents waiting:

CALL NVC NOW

My interview for Paris is on July 17th!

And I can't stop crying!!!!!

YEAH!!! So happy for you

Congratulations, happy for you, it's about time!. It appears Paris embassy does not follow any particular logic. I will be calling later to find out about our case (CC May 27)

Thank you! Yes, Paris seems to just do whatever they want. Especially when it involves being on holidays every other day. I hope you get good news soon.

This is great news! Thanks for the response. I am still a bit pessimistic on a July interview for our case, but huh who knows? Was it easy to book for the medical? Did the doctor have many slots available (worrying about this too - amongst many other things - as I don't live in Paris). So happy for you, you waited a long time and now you finally know when you will be with your loved one! :-)

Thank you! Crossing fingers for you to get an interview in July. We really hoped for June so I know how you must feel...

It was quite easy to book the medical, except that I had to call twice to go through the voicemail. The lady was a bit worried there would not be appointment slots available for the day I asked for (I am not in Paris neither so I needed the day before or max the two days before) but she came back to me saying it was all good for the 1st early in the morning and that all will be done by the end of the day so ready for the interview.

Congrats! Finally! Did you call to find out or you've received the interview letter?

Let us know what they say! Good luck! :-)

I did have to call to find out! And the lady, Olivia, told me I should receive the confirmation letter within a week!

Just booked the medical too! Boy, seems like things are suddenly moving so fast!

Good luck to you all

FINALLY! Paris Embassy has decided to move their butt!

Interview scheduled July 2nd!!!

If they invited you there would be less for them!

I'm confused did you call the Embassy in France or NVC? If NVC obtuse or is it the Embassy? I would call not e-mail and if you received a response that quickly then it must have been the Embassy and they are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. You really need to call unfortunately.

Wow wow wow! Sorry! I must have been pretty tired when I wrote that message! I did email the embassy this morning, not NVC ( I already call NVC every day...). As you said, to get an answer to an inquiry THAT fast, it can't be the NVC!!

PRS joke of the day : two different answers from the embassy about the same subject / question. The first one told me it's up to the NVC to schedule the appointment and then the NVC will forward them our files. The second one told me that they need to receive the files from NVC and then they will schedule an interview date for us.

Good thing the NVC is not AT ALL "waiting for the embassy to schedule the interview" so they can send them out files, right?!

They are having a wine and cheese festival and they will be back as soon as it's over.

Seriously I think it might be a glitch of some kind, no way they aren't scheduling for July. Can call NVC or the Embassy to find out.

Haha! That must be it! They could at least invite us over so we could cheer all together to our never-ending journey!

I don't know if it is a glitch but it seems like nobody who is assigned to the Paris embassy has received an interview date for July yet. I emailed NVC this morning and here is their reply :

"We should like to inform you that we did not yet receive your spouse’s immigrant visa file. You may contact the National Visa Center for its current status as they will schedule the appointment. We only receive the files once they have been processed and the interview scheduled."

Great. It does not make sense at all.

This is ridiculous!! You have been waiting forever. And why so many darn days off? Don't they just get American holidays off? Or do they get the French ones too? Because if that is the case, then I clearly need to work there.

I'm going to track your status and see if you here anything from them. Have you considered calling the embassy themselves?

Haha! They actually get both. I saw that the other day on their website! They have a total of 18 holidays a year... (see attached image!) We should all work there!

SO! In other news, I have been following your advice and I sent an email to the embassy this morning. Are you seated? Because you may be surprised by the answer I received...

"Dear Madam,

We should like to inform you that we did not yet receive your spouse’s immigrant visa file. You may contact the National Visa Center for its current status as they will schedule the appointment. We only receive the files once they have been processed and the interview scheduled"

Ummm....?????

Looking at the spreadsheet at there are about 5 of us starting in early May until now still waiting on Paris, France interview dates. Makes me nervous. Please check back when you get a date so that the rest of us are aware.

Hello again,

(Posting here too so other people can see my comment! )

We had a case complete last May 14th, and we are still waiting for an interview to be scheduled at the Paris embassy. We have been calling everyday since last Wednesday, but no much luck. I was hoping that the delay was "just" due to the holidays / long weekend (embassy was close last Thursday may 28th - and will be close again this upcoming Monday, by the way) and that they would start this week but... nothing yet. I am guessing that we are all looking at the spreadsheet wondering if we are all screwed by PRS or just nobody is "checking back". Pretty sure it is just the immigration process who feels like messing with us a little more. Bad luck from start to the end.

There are several people who are waiting on Paris, France interviews since early May. (I was looking at Dwheels spreadsheet in the interview thread) This doesn't make me hopeful for July at all. I hope people are checking back and letting us know that they have interview dates. It sure does help the rest of us.

Hi,

At least for us, mid May case complete, no interview scheduled yet... I would love "to check in and let you know good news".... unfortunately it seems like the Paris Embassy has decided to take a few extra holidays-day off. Nobody seems to have been scheduled for July so far. So depressing...

Any info about what is going on?

Hello!
Our case was received at NVC 02/18 and the case number was assigned last Friday, 03/21.
Yesterday (03/25) we were able to submit the payment online for the AOS and the IV. @Saylin, could you please update our info on the NVC Processing Time Spreadsheet? Thank you

Also, yesterday, our lawyer has dissolved our legal partnership (because we called NVC to get some updates without asking him first...). So we are on our own now! As we officially had a lawyer when the AOS and IV fees were invoiced, we did not complete the DS-261. We emailed NVC to remove our lawyer's name and declare my husband as the agent. No news yet from NVC.

Do you think we could have mess things up by paying already without official agent? Will we have to complete a DS261 and, if yes, should we wait for it to be accepted to send our packages?

Finally, random question : our "lawyer" once told us we should send more relationship proofs with the IV package. During our final call yesterday, he told me the contrary. I am confused..! So : no more proofs or more proofs??

Thank you all.

Hello Saylin,

Please add us to the NVC processing time spreadsheet! We have been approved

NOA2 Feburary 5th

NCV received the case Feburary 18th

No Case # yet!

thank you for all your great advices!

Yes, we did. We put our MSC## case number in the first paragraph, as well as our PD date. The Senator office needs it to inquiry on your behalf.

i am really happy for you can you explain to us how to write a message to the senator maybe the way you did it helped a lot

Our letter was pretty basic, although we tried to make it more "human" than a formal letter to a Senator should be. Here was the main content of each paragraph :

1st paragraph : presentation , reasons why we were writing

2nd par. : sum up of the situation (waiting time, backlog, expectations)

3rd par. : personal lines about our situation and how the USCIS process affect us on our day to day lives (nb/ we do not match any expedite criteria)

4th par. : inquiry - we were pretty straightforward; we told them we were not interested in receiving another update of the status of our case... but wanted for them to take action. We told them we believed they were our best chance in order to make sure our application got looked at in a timely manner.

Last paragraph : thanks and contact infos.

We just got approved today from NSC! Saying it is a relief is an euphemism !!!

PD : May 14th
Transfer to NSC : December 11th

NOA2 : February 5th !!

We talked to two senators who made inquiries on our behalf. One was pretty helpless... Just giving us informations we already knew.

The other one got back to us yesterday explaining that she talked to someone at USCIS NSC and that our case "was recently assigned to an officer ". But the lady at the Senator's office also said that, since we just got assigned, we should expect a decision or RFE in 30-45 days.

After receiving the USCIS "post decision activity", we also received another email from the Senator office! She wrote that USCIS got back to her stating "after I spoke to them yesterday, the officer was actually able to complete work on your I130 (...) the officer was able to complete things faster than they had estimated yesterday".

Another proof that the whole USCIS process is a joke and that they really do whatever they want, the day they want!

Hello!

My husband and I received our first transfer notice yesterday stating that we were send to "our local USCIS office". Our PD is May 14th.

I thought we would first received the message "transfer to another office". I did some researches and saw that other members skipped that email too.

Does anyone has an explanation about why some people don't received what seems to be the official first email?

Same boat here, NOA1 was received May 14th, we really hope for the NOA2 soon. We also hired a lawyer thinking it would help a little bit but I guess we were mistaking.

To answer your question, here is an interesting facts that our lawyer told us yesterday:

"I can no longer venture a guess as to when the I-130 will be approved. With that said, over the past 35+ years I've been doing this, I regularly see immigration (and the Consulates) slow down tremendously between November 15 & January 15. From what I've heard, this is when the Senior Officers take vacation/leave time and the Junior Officers are afraid to 'touch' the files that are sitting on the Senior Officer's desk.

Thus, if we don't hear something in the next few weeks, we probably won't hear something before next year."

So... Fingers crossed for an update within the next few weeks... ?

Hi there!

We are May 2013 CR1 applicants too! Posted on May 10th, first NOA set on May 15th!

Fingers crossed for a fast process!

Good luck to everyone and warm thoughts to those who, like us, are apart during the process!..