Kat&Abhi

Instead of tourist visa your wife can also go for X visa (entry visa) but she can only do that while you have indian passport, I just got my X visa back today from ckgs and it took 2 weeks exactly from the date i shipped it to NYC to the date I received it back

we got a call from the mumbai consulate about 2 weeks before our interview!

my hubby is from bhopal and we had to go to the municipal and have a new birth cert issued. had to pay some bribe but it was done in a week. showed his school marksheets and his mum had to go to the hospital where he was born for some record but once these things were submitted they issued him a new birth cert in hindi and english with his name and his parents names.

You arrive in the US and wait assuming you ticked the box stating you wanted the SSA and DOS to share information to issue you a SSC on the DS-260 form you submitted at the interview. If after about 3-4 weeks you have yet to receive your SSC, take yourself with passport and Birth certificate (may or may not need this) to your local SSA office and apply. Show them the CR-1 visa stamped at the POE as this is your temporary green card (GC) or I-551.

Good luck,

Dave

Hi Dave,

we did this today (went in person to the SSA office) and they said they can't issue us the ssn?! POE was July 28th (more than 3 weeks now) and the lady at the office said we need to present the passport with visa and the i94? Unfortunately when we look online there is no i94 info listed?!

We had ticked the box that they should automatically do the ssn but since its been 3 weeks and nothing happened we went there and they have no record of hubby in any system and we are lost what to do next.

Thanks for any help or guidance!

Thanks for the reply Kat

Well we live at my Parents house so obviously we don't have any rental proof or legal documents of living together. I came back from Australia on 1st feb and so did she from US. Since then we been living at my parents and got married n such...I only have one account in HDFC bank and will put her name on it too when she returns back next month.

Everything on your part finished yet??

yup everything was approved and visa issued june 18th! Hubby comes to the US on the 28th so 17 more days of waiting!!!

Well my wife is absolutely worth all the pain in the world anyway, Living in india is not the hard part in our life, cause of the love we get from my family but living on my own in Australia is what I do miss. Anyways, any suggestions on what documents I should be prepared with in advance??? I already got the Australian Police Clearance Certificate.

what can I provide as proof of relationship cause we never really email each other, we did talk on facebook and Skype a lot, so giving them messages probably not good idea as they are private conversations anyway. And for all the time we spend together, there wont be anything else then our photographs and documents that show that she is in India.

we were living in india and got joint bank accounts (one at IDBI and one at Citibank) that was a really good proof of our bonafide marriage. Also hubby added me to his LIC policy as beneficiary and I added him as beneficiary to my New York Life policy. Also we showed 4 years of joint rental agreement since we were living together in India all that time.

we did not submit any calls/emails/chats at all as proof and we had no issues.

honestly the bank accounts were the easiest thing to add a spouse, just had to fill a form give a copy of our marriage certificate and my passport. 1 week later it was a joint account.

Nope can't go in, I waited at the Trident cafe in the lobby while hubby was inside

we got approved today at our interview!!! We are so happy, this was a long journey and we are thankful that these wonderful resources were here to guide us!

below is our story from this morning at the interview! hope it makes sense!

our interview was scheduled for 930am but we got there early

1 - walked in at 830am
2 - token at 844am asked for DS260 and interview letter and passport
3 - first indian guy already had our file, asked for the interview letter and looked at passport and asked about our trip to Thailand, asked where is your wife, when did she come to india and when is she flying back. when were you in the US last. were you married before, was your wife married before.
4 - wait from 930am to 1045am.
5 - american guy called his token number and asked him to take oath and give fingerprints again, who is calling you, where did you meet, where does she work, where did you get married, how many people attended the wedding, were your parents there and were her parents there, did your family approve the marraige, did your parents try to get you fixed to any other indian girl before marrying your wife, where does your wife live in US and where was she born, show me your wedding pics, congrats approved you will get it in a week, thank you

Hi Kat&Abhi, Best wishes for your interview this week !!

Thanks so much! we are just waiting around in Mumbai enjoying meeting with friends! Praying everything goes smoothly this week!

Hello Bkghodh, Thanks for ur reply,

I think my husband has no insurance policy but if it is it can be in USA. If it is in USA can he add me my name in? I will asked to him if he has no life insurance to make one and add my name in policy.

Another question: We talk two time on phone daily. What i have no phone record. Because i have a cash card, so no billing. What should I do?

Thanks

Hi! I am the USC and I was able to add my hubby (Indian citizen) as the beneficiary of my US life insurance policy. Your husband can do the same, it was very easy.

Is there any way that if you are calling with cash card but hubby's phone should have records of the call in US maybe you can get that and have the proof from that as well?

Hello all. My friend applied for cr1 for his wife at the mumbai, india consulate, but she was refused. They said the marriage looked fraudulent because they didn't have a "proper" marriage. The refusal letter asked for more pictures. They sent those in and now have to wait 2 weeks for a reply.

Please help. If anyone else has had this experience, please let me know how you remedied this situation. What happens if they don't accept your pics the second time around?

Thank you for any support.

what do they mean by "proper marriage" as in registered court marriage or registered temple marriage or??

I would say that having the marriage registered in India is one of the most important things so prove marriage, then you can get affidavits as someone has already suggested.

Also, if they are married its not too difficult to add spouse in India to the bank accounts, you have to show original marriage certificate and address proof so if that can be done then that also will be a good proof for the marriage as well.

I agree though, that just pictures is not the way to show a proper marriage, need some secondary proof as well.

Hi bkghosh,

Just wanted to know how long biometrics would take?

Regards

Cdss

Hi cdss,

we just did biometrics on friday (13th). Hubby's appointment was for 12 noon. we reached the place at 1140am, I stayed in the car while hubby went in. They took his DS260 copy and stamped it, took all 10 fingerprints and 1 digital photograph and he was done! Back in the car by 1155am, we completed everything before his appointment time even came! This was in the Mumbai VAC which is just down the road from the consulate.

Hubby had an appointment for noon on THursday the 12th, we arrived at 11:40am (directly from the airport as we had just flown in from Bangalore). They took his passport, photograph, interview letter copy. Called him for blood draw, did xray, checked height and weight, then went into room for the doctor. Had to undress completly and had full exam with doctor and then had 4 injections for vaccines (MMR, Dtap, Influenza, Varicella). They said to call back the next day at 11am to see when the reports would be ready.

We were there for 1 hour only for the complete medical check, it was very easy and efficient. The doctor was really nice too! He spoke to me as well as my husband. There were a lot of college kids there for australia visa medical check but we were the only US visa medical check.

Friday we called at 11am they advised to come after 2pm to collect the reports. We arrived around 3pm and collected 1 sealed envelope with the reports, 1 envelope with the xray film, and they gave 1 copy of vaccination records. They advised to carry the sealed report/envelope to the interview, the xray film is for POE only and the vaccine records are for us to keep.

Whole thing cost just under INR 6k so not too bad!

Hello - I have a question. Can the Biometric appointment and the and actual visa Interview be scheduled in 2 different cities, 2 different consulates within the same country. I will be traveling and scheduling it this way will be ideal? Anyone experience this?

We were originally going to do that, we live in Bangalore and there are no VAC centers or consualtes here. We have to travel to Chennai or Mumbai for the VAC and medicals and then interview in Mumbai.

So yes it does happen because I am sure there are lots of people who live in Bangalore like us who don't have an option but to travel!

My wife's passport lists her status as single, and although I told her many months ago that she would need to change it to married with her current address, when she went to change it they demanded her marriage cert, which was and is in America with me. She told me repeatedly that they would not change her passport with the original marriage cert, and further that she could not get another certified copy from the court (!). Now when she's going for the police cert, because her passport says single, the PCC will also say single. Will this be a problem? If so should we try to get her passport changed at all costs? It's just a bit of a pain now because she is moving to Mumbai at the end of the month, and the way things work in India get the police cert and the new passport will be difficult by then.

In bangalore they insisted that hubby update his passport with his current address and to add me as wife. They refused to even consider the PCC until this was done. Then after that was still a hassle. I wrote a whole post about our experience in Bangalore getting the PCC.

I would say fedex her a certified copy of your marriage certificate. in Ohio the court issues them for $5 per copy. once she has that in hand, then it will be easier for her to bribe them to see things her way.

we ended up paying a few bribes for the PCC just because the police wanted something, the PCC wanted something etc....nature of the beast

Sorry for any confusion. Currently, we are just engaged so that is why I filed the k1 fiance visa. However, I am considering another option, which is to move to India and live there for 1-3 years. If I go that option, we would just get married in India.

I just wanted to check and see if there would be any complications if I ended up moving to India, getting married, then decide to move back to the US with my then spouse (assuming I moved to India).

So it sounds like the domicile will not be much of an issue. That was my biggest concern.

From what I've been reading it sounds like if i direct file from India I could get the spouse visa approved in about 30 days, does that sound right?

Thanks again

If you are an American who is not of Indian descent (ie you are white, black, Native American, etc) it is very difficult to get DCF approved. Most cases are denied and then you have to file the i130 the traditional route anyway and it wastes time and money on your part (not to mention you have to travel to Delhi and all to even attempt DCF). I was living and working in India when I met hubby and we met all the requirements for DCF (we actually lived together for 4 years on a joint lease in India before even getting married) and they deemed us not eligible for DCF. They don't have to give any reason for their madness either which is frustrating. I know of 1 other couple (she was white American and he was Punjabi) who were also denied DCF. Just wanted to throw that out there that DCF is not a sure bet.

Otherwise, I think moving to India and living/working there with your fiance (soon to be spouse) is not a problem. I think if you have the assets for the i864 and can show domocile then why not do it? then you won't be separated!

Hey Kat, do they (Rele clinic) give you the report the same day?

Nope they said we have to go back the next day at 5pm to collect report, unless it has an issue in which case they will directly send it to the consulate

Your case is in transit to the Consular Section. Your interview date was provided to you by the National Visa Center

very cool!!!

The CEAC website now shows "In Transit" instead of "At NVC"

Anyone else going to Mumbai show this status? Has anyone been able to track the packgae at DHL.

honestly, I haven't logged into ceac in over a month! not since I filled the DS260 on april 5th! im going to go check it out!

Got my email at midnight on the 14th.

On the mark.

It was.. bizaaaaare

ours came this morning at 2:15am so it was a great way to wake up!!

Actually I am the beneficiary and wife is petitioner. She is not coming to India for this....But sure we will meet. I have been looking at yr posts since USCIS.. (Was too long)

1) Good step. Better to do it early..

2) I will be doing Medicals @ Ahmedabad. I am from Gujarat actually so...And they do work on Saturday

I am working and now really confused when to put resignation....LOL one month notice period, but don't want to wait. Cannot resign now as who knows if things get delayed...(God help. please don't make us see such thing)

Ah so you guys are in similar situation then, I am the petitioner from US and hubby will take interview I only came back for these 2 months to celebrate our anniversary.

yes, resignation is a tough thing, I would say to wait until after interview, we have all waited this long that if you have to serve 30 days notice is not much longer and will give you piece of mind that if something happens you still have income until everything is complete! We are lucky that I used to work for Wipro in Bangalore and Hubby is with IBM so we both took transfer to USA so for us at least it was a non issue

:joy: :joy: :joy: :joy:

Superb Kat,

Good Predictions

Mine is JUNE 18 (9:00) Mumbai

I will be in the same que.... LOL

:joy: :joy: :joy: :joy:

[1] How safe it shall be to schedule biometrics a day before??? I think it would be risky... right....if something goes here or there

[2] I am planning Medicals on 24/05/2014 (Saturday)

[3] Booked passport collection center

[4] Please let me know if I am missing on anything

Whooo Hoooo!!! YAY!

Are both of you going for the interview? Since I am here in India for 2 months I will be going (yes I know I can't go in, but will wait outside) so if you both are going we can wait together!

1 - We changed our biometrics date, we are doing medical on 12th June and biometrics on 13th June. didn't want to leave it too close to the interview

2 - do they have medicals in mumbai on saturdays? I thought the sheet from the consulate page said M-F?

3 - yup we did the same already too!

4 - I don't think so??

We FINALLY got our IL email today and on the last page it lists out what documents the NVC is forwarding to the consulate and what documents you need to carry. I think we are pretty set!

Can we book those appointments without the interview letter? If we can then that would definitely help with getting the ball rolling.

yup! We logged into the us.traveldocs page and booked our biometrics appointment and we called the mumbai rele clinic and booked our medical, they just needed to know what date and time our interview was scheduled. No one asked if we received our IL email.

So very happy for you two. Enjoy your visit to Mumbai and Pune. My parents met and got married in Pune. I have heard it is a very beautiful city. The trip from Mumbai to Pune goes thru' very beautiful hilly terrain (stop at Lonavala and enjoy the views from there).

If I can advise one thing that would be to get the Fingerprinting done a few days sooner. Why wait till the last day? You can always reschedule it online.

We also were married in Pune (just last May), we lived there for 2 years before shifting to Bangalore! Lonavala is a wonderful, been there many times with friends.

Yes its funny actually, just was speaking to Hubby on the phone during his lunch break and he was saying the same thing, I think we are going to change the biometrics to 13th morning and then head out to Pune after.

this is getting to be an exciting time with so many Mumbai interviews scheduled!

Congrats,

I got to know telephonically on 9th June. E-Mail is still pending. What do u say now....??? Should I expect June Interview?

Do you mean to say you got to know on 9th May?

I also only came to know telephonically when I called yesterday at 7am eastern to NVC that my case complete and interview were completed on 9th May for a June 18th interview.

So i would say call back today and ask NVC if they have scheduled your interview.

I am still waiting for an email.......even though Reese at NVC said I should have gotten it yesterday!