volkditty

Green at last, green at last, thank god almighty, green card at last!!

Just got the e-mail notification this morning that her green card is finally approved and on it's way. Just a week shy of a FULL @#%&*!! YEAR after we filed but hey, who's counting? So happy to be one step closer towards never dealing with USCIS again.

To everyone still waiting, hang in there. I know how terrible it seems at times, but it's worth the wait.

I don't have an answer for you, but this page on the Florida divorce process may be of use. It looks in addition to filing, there may also be a requirement that both parties be present in court to finalize the proceedings.

Early May filer, received the notice on August 13th. Haven't heard or seen anything from them since then, but I know that's the norm.

I am pretty hesitant about posting this here, as I don't want to upset anyone who has been waiting longer than me

But back in early December me and my husband moved house, so I filed the change of address with them and got a letter back saying they acknowledge it, etc. I kinda laughed to myself and put the letter away thinking whatever it's going to be like another 3 months wait anyways

I had actually given up checking my case status because it said the same thing since I applied "your fingerprint fee is received"

One day I was getting really ticked off so I decided to check my case status and lo and behold it said "your welcome notice has been mailed"

I was like, what on earth? Must be some kind of error, I was so used to waiting at this point that i thought it was just an error on there side and they had updated my case instead of someone else's

But no, I did indeed get a welcome notice which said I would receive me GC on March 1st

Thought nothing of it, thinking it was just something you got halfway between being a waiver case or something

Decided to check my case status the next day, and now it shows a USPS tracking number, checked that and it said it was out for delivery

They delivered it to my old house, despite me telling USPS and USCIS that my address had changed a month ago (so if you have/are going to change address, please keep this in mind)

So we drove to our old house, lo and behold there is a USPS priority mail envelope, and inside is a leaflet with some info and stuck to a letter inside also was my GC. I almost just about fainted in shock.

I am of course really happy! But I would have been a lot happier if you guys who had been waiting way longer than me, had gotten yours first. I really wish they would tell us why they seem to work on cases in random orders. The only thing I can think of was my case was laying collecting dust somewhere and when I changed my adfress they had to pull it out to update it and then just went ahead and approved it

Because honestly, our cases should all be easy approvals

Anywho I really hope I didn't upset anyone by posting this. It wasn't my intention to rub it on or brag, on the contrary I am quite upset that they are working on things in a weird order. I really wish those of you who had been waiting a long time could have gotten it yesterday instead of me. But I just wanted to update you guys about this and let you know.

Congrats! Almost makes me want to submit a Change of Address update on our case (even though we haven't moved) just to get them to look at our file again...

Thanks everyone who responded, I've passed the info on to our friend who has the issue. For better or worse, she has decided to go back to the Philippines and process there instead of trying to get the case transfered back to Kuwait.

VJ members can submit reviews for their POE experience. If you've already booked tickets or know where she'll be entering the States at, you can check others' first hand experiences.

We had this same issue. My fiancee had to renew her passport during the application process, so half the paperwork had the old passport number and half had the new one. She explained the issue at her interview and I don't believe it was a problem.

You're free to file outside of the US, and a co-sponsor should be able to cover the financial requirements for you. But you will need to prove that you will be returning to the States within 6 months of the visa being issued...proof of domicile, a letter stating you have a job lined up, something like that.

Another vote for only listing your biological father's information as UNKNOWN. Don't put your step-father on the G-325A. Co-sponsors do not have to be blood relations, he will still be able to co-sponsor you if needed, without being listed on any other forms.

(I'm posting this on behalf of a friend of my fiancee. Thank God we didn't have this problem ourselves!)

I have a friend who is a Filipina working in Kuwait. Her fiance is an American contractor who is also living in Kuwait. Their plan was to process through Kuwait, but they were just informed today that their paperwork had been forwarded from NVC to Manila due to either a misunderstanding or a mistake on her paperwork (they had a lawyer prepare the forms).

I know there is a process to request a case transfer, but does anyone know what the timeline for that is? Their lawyer supposedly told them it would take 5 months to get the case back, but he's proven to be pretty unreliable so far. They're also considering having her just fly back home and process through Manila now if that would be faster. Anyone with advice or experience care to weigh in?

Once you get past the NVC, the process will depend on the individual consulate you're going to. According to the UAE Embassy page, they will email you (the petitioner) with the Packet 3 instructions on how to schedule the interview and medical. You might find someone else processing through UAE on the MENA forum who has first-hand experience.

Glad to hear it went so smoothly. Welcome to America!

Mohamed picked up his visa yesterday and got his plane ticket today!!

He will be arriving in the United States at 7:45AM on Valentines Day

***

Did anyone's fiance buy his/her plane ticket yet??

Or am I the only one?

Just booked it an hour ago, for March 12th. She got an email from the embassy that her passport will be ready for pickup later this week!

Congrats!

I want to echo what PalmTrees said. When I started this thread, I thought if anyone was through the proces before Feb/ March it would be a miracle. If we had done things a little differently, Annie would already be here with me. I hope you all get through the process and are with your loved ones soon.

Cheers,

Jon

CEAC just updated us to Issued this morning, although the embassy hasn't emailed Michelle to actually pickup her passport yet. We're planning on her being here the first week of March, which will be just under a year from the last time we were together. This is far beyond the best-case scenario I expected when we filed. I guess the gov't shutdown in Oct really helped free up time for them to push everyone's cases through.

She finished the interview this morning and had a very stressful day. However, they were really nice to her and asked a few questions and took a few documents I had prepared already. One thing to note. They will not take an Israel police clearance from you, in any case. It has to be mailed from the police station to the embassy. Even if someone tells you something else. We lucked out as I made her go back and request another sent to the embassy as the first was sent to her.

Anyway, Interview is done and they said 3-4 weeks which seems a bit longer than usual. Is there a way to check if it's approved online?

If you go to CEAC and type in your case number it will show you when it is issued. You may see it bounce back and forth between "Ready" and "Administrative Processing" first, that's normal. Congrats!

AlissaCarly... that is what i thought... & makes sense... thank you for your input. hope your process goes smoothly!

PCV, It is totally possible that his interview date would be after he visits in March, which would work out amazingly... but as of now, my i-129F petition expires on February 23rd... so we may get a date before then, if not, then the March trip can happen and i would just send the notorized letter with him to the later interview...

but its all a lil risky to plan... so on to the next plan which may mean that i visit him. ;-)

Good Luck to you too!

The embassy can extend the expiration date of the petition (up to 4 months, I think). It shouldn't be a problem to just schedule his interview for after the trip in March.

APPROVED!!!

She went back to the embassy this morning with some documents that hadn't shown up in time for her interview. They took her passport, told her they would email her in about a week to come pick up the visa. This is a great feeling!!

I'm with the others. It doesn't hurt to try, but it doesn't seem like the situation has changed enough to expect a different outcome.

Our CEAC status changed from READY to ISSUED this morning! So excited!

Hopefully some good news for everyone else waiting too!

Congrats!

The K1 visa is valid for 6 months from the date it was issued, which will usually be the day of your fiancee's interview or shortly thereafter. As soon as she enters the US, the K1 is used up and the 6 month timeline doesn't affect anything else.

Once she arrives, you have 90 days to get married. Your marriage certificate must be dated within 90 days of her arrival. That's 90 calendar days, not business days. You do not need to file for AOS within the 90 days, just to be legally married.

Sounds like you've got more than enough evidence to prove your relationship. The only official requirement is that you've met in person at least once in the last two years, so even ignoring your temporary break-up, you still have that. Passport stamps, pictures, chat logs, the fact that you've met each others' family, that's all more than enough. I don't see any need to mention you split up briefly, but even if it does come up it shouldn't be an issue as far as the visa goes.

The issue with co-sponsors and banktrupcy I don't know about, but it does sound problematic. Someone else will hopefully have more information. Does she have any other friends or family members who might be willing to co-sponsor, just to avoid the issue? It doesn't have to be a direct relative. Any US citizen over the age of 18 who makes the necessary amount of money can sponsor you.

I am probably being paranoid, but it is the fact I had an F1 refusal so soon after my return to the UK.

Thank you very much for all your replies so far.

Won't be a problem. An F1 visa is temporary, they just didn't have enough proof that you would leave at the end of it. With a K1 visa, the whole point is that you are coming to stay, so the earlier refusal won't affect you negatively at all.

You absolutely can apply for a tourist visa. If you can show strong ties to England and that you will return, there's no reason it should be denied.

What do you consider to be the red flags in your case? I don't see any in what you wrote, or any reason why your K1 wouldn't be approved.

You shouldn't finalize any wedding plans until after the visa is issued. There's no telling how long the process will take in any individual case, only some rough estimates. The K1 is only a fiance visa. If you get married before the visa is issued, it will be invalidated and useless to you.

If you have a hard deadline to get married by and don't think the K1 will come through in time, you may look into getting married first and then applying for a CR-1 visa, which is for married couples.