LizzieBee

Yep, expect several months. We finished everything the end of January and had our interview the last day of May. Good luck to you.

I joined the Interview Waiver Letter club today. I thought it was good news! Until I got on here and saw the reality of the situation. Sigh.

FYI, we're a K-1 AOS. Spouse from the middle east.

Wow, so strange. The processing times link shows that they're processing cases from people who got NOA in June. What makes the difference? Can you link the other thread for me please? Or tell me which forum?

My husband and I had pretty much ALL the red flags (almost 12 years age difference, different religions, I'm divorced, etc. etc.), and our visa process went off pretty much perfectly. Although the interviewer was really, REALLY hard on him, it was approved and issued the same day, and received a few days later. Here is what I did to prove that our relationship was legitimate. I provided as much evidence as I could at every step of the process, even at times when they didn't ask for it. Basically any time I had to send anything, I also included UPDATED proof of our relationship. Here's a list of the things I remember off the top of my head:

1. A letter describing how we met, how we fell in love, when we got engaged, the time we spent together, etc. I addressed some of the red flags directly in my letter.

2. Letters from ALL FOUR of our parents, supporting our relationship.

3. Letters from three coworkers stating that they had spent time together with us in Egypt and would attest to our relationship being real. This included a doctor, the head of police in his city, and his boss (who also had UK citizenship.)

4. A letter from his uncle who had visited me in the US and helped us work out the details of our engagement

5. Photos of us together at each and every one of my visits to Egypt, at lots of different locations and with lots of different people: coworkers, his boss, his parents, his cousins, etc.

6. Letter from my religious leader agreeing to perform the wedding ceremony

7. Letter confirming the location of our wedding

8. Contract for a wedding photographer (a friend of mine)

9. Receipts from gifts and restaurants we visited together

10. Photos of our engagement rings

11. Skype-to-mobile receipts showing my phone calls to him in Egypt

12. A full history of our Facebook "friendship" showing the day we met, everything we had ever posted on each other's timelines, and the announcement of our engagement. (I made sure to click "see more" until everything was shown, including my friends comments about how excited they were about our engagement and their wishes for a happy marriage.)

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. I'm sure there was more. The point is: if you can think of something that proves your relationship, SEND IT IN any time they request anything. I sent proof with our initial package and with his medical and stuff that they requested before his interview. They didn't ask for proof of relationship at that time, but I wanted it included with our file so I sent it. I feel like that is the only reason we were approved. I hope this gives you some ideas.

We got a letter this weekend from USCIS that said two important things:

(1) We have been flagged as a potential interview waiver case. (No interview needed.)

(2) Due to a workload problem, there may be a significant delay in processing the case. The anticipated delay is six months from the date of letter.

Wow! Six MORE months? We filed in July. Anybody else get this letter about the workload delays?

Above poster was talking about me. We submitted the first week of February and his interview was the end of May. About 3.5 months. It's frustrating and disappointing to wait that long, but if you can come to terms with it, you'll enjoy the wait a lot more. Good luck to you.

You can try my trick of copying/pasting the case numbers from the currently posted interview schedule on the embassy website (after the interview date) to see how many get denied/issued/AP. It should reassure you somewhat.

Okay, thank you. I just need to learn to ignore the nasty ones and take the nice advice!

Report the nasty ones and they'll be removed immediately by the moderators. The more we report things, the sooner this website will become a place that is open for real conversation instead of judgment. I've had to do that a lot here but it's already getting better.

Keep in mind that if there is anything missing at the interview, they will tell her what they need then and await those materials before the visa is issued. But having the interview is the most important thing--the torture is over! Can I ask when your petition was approved through NVC?

My husband arrived from Egypt on a K-1 visa last month and we got married a few weeks later. We're not preparing his AOS paperwork--the marriage certificate still hasn't arrived but should come next week. We would like to change both of our last names to his middle name because his "last name" that is shown on his passport is actually his 7th name and not one he feels attached to at all. He identifies with his second and third name as family names. I can legally change my name after marriage, and I plan to. Can he also change his last name before filing for AOS? Or is the system sexist and assume that only women would ever want to change their name after marriage? Any ideas?

I'm glad I read this! I was going to put (a) (6) for K-1 fiance, but © (9) is what I really want since we're married now and filing with his AOS package! Thanks again, VJ!

Emailing them does exactly nothing. The people who answer emails are like a call center where they answer basic questions but rarely tell you anything useful.

My husband (then fiance) received word of his interview via a DHL delivery five weeks before his interview. They seem to schedule all of them the last week of the month, notify everybody via DHL, and then update the website. So it's unlikely that you'll have an interview in July if you haven't received the letter yet.

Ramadan kareem. My husband arrived exactly one month ago today and we're working out all the adjustments for his first Ramadan away from his Egyptian family. So far, we're actually enjoying it a lot even though I'm not Muslim.

We got lucky in everything in reality. Total wait time from file to visa in hand: 7.5 months

So happy for all of you as my fiance and I go through pure HELL!!! lol I know you guys have already endured this. I am SO looking forward to feeling what you all feel right now. I just want to start our lives together!!

Every day is eternity, but the months will fly by.

It is Hell for two reasons lol We miss each other and I can't get anything done because he wants to be on Skype EVERY chance I am awake or not working otherwise he gets sad and upset ahhhhhhhhhh lol I just want him HEREEEE for the love of God. I can't wait to feel what you do, to forget how bad this wait is. hehe Thank you!

YES! One of the really hard things about long-distance relationships is that you want to be together on Skype, which means you have to be TOTALLY INACTIVE in order to be together. You can't go out together or play together or anything else. You're forced into total physical inactivity to be with the person you love. That's SUPER HARD!

Yeah, 865 - 500 = 365. So NVC created our file on the 365th day of 2014, which is the last day of the year, December 31st.

Waiting on Cairo Embassy is torture especially when you see how fast Phillipines interviews are schedule. BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Thank you

Yes. Working with the Cairo Embassy is a nightmare. They are good at what they do, but they are overworked and understaffed from what I can tell. Waiting for our interview was hell. There's now way around it. My fiance has been here about 10 days now and we called his family on Skype for the first time yesterday. (Of course we stay in touch other ways every day!) When we heard the sound of Skype trying to connect the call, we both looked at each other in horror. That sound is absolutely traumatizing now. Good luck to you because this process is just torture. You'll survive and you'll forget how bad it was, but that doesn't make it easier right now!

Thanks to everyone here who helped me.

He's been here for almost four days and HE WAS WORTH EVERY MINUTE OF THE WAIT! I'm so happy. The kids are so happy. Everything is perfect.

So for those of you still waiting: IT'S WORTH IT! Don't give up.

If the consulate officer told my fiancé at the interview that there was "no problem issuing the visa" and we are in "final review" (which is apparently the hell after the AP hell), is it safe to assume we have been approved and it's just a matter of time? Or are we still where we started... having no idea if we will be denied?

I'm sure you're okay. This process is maddening.

I'm so sorry, elchelle. That is horrible. You must be so frustrated to hear stories like mine where the visa status was changed to "issued" within a few hours of the interview and in his hand after four days. I wish it was like that for everybody. I have no idea why we had such good luck. I think part of it is maybe that my fiance has a very simple, clean past: no past travel, no history of any sort really other than living with his family, going to college, and having jobs. So maybe when they ran background checks and everything, it was all very straightforward? I don't know! Really best of luck to you. It makes me sick for you to imagine how hard that must be.

karam I think we are in same boat

first it said in transit, now it says ready yet consulate has not sent any interview date

doesn't ready mean ahhhhhhhhhhhh READY!!! lol would be good to have some time to buy tickets for interview LOL

It will say READY until after the interview and then it will change only after there is some update. For example, if you are approved, it will continue to say READY until it says ISSUED or ADMINISTRATIVE PROCESSING or REFUSED. Here is the link of possibilities direct from an embassy website. Also interesting to note that the wording below the status will be different depending on what type of visa it is. My fiance's status says "YOUR VISA IS IN FINAL PROCESSING" below ISSUED because it's technically a non-immigrant visa. But an immigrant visa would say "YOUR VISA HAS BEEN PRINTED."

Isn't it funny how we obsess over every little tiny detail during this process? I thought it would change from FINAL PROCESSING to PRINTED at some point, but then I found that link and realized it's just a different message but means the same thing.

I wish I could laugh, ok, I will lol!!!! I am already sick of waiting for the interview date! This is Jamie, by the way. Karam isn't on here

Please be patient. My fiance sent his papers to the Cairo embassy at the beginning of February and the current wait time was five months. (Meaning they were scheduling interviews for cases that had returned the Packet 3 five months before.) That would have put our interview in the middle of Ramadan in July. We were thrilled that it was the end of May instead. Cairo is working hard to catch up and make the wait time shorter, but I doubt the wait time has gone from 3.5 months to ONE month somehow in the last month. You're likely looking at August for your interview unless the embassy continues to work hard to reduce the case load. For your sake, I hope that's true! But it's really best to plan for the worst and live your life... I hate to say that because I know you're in HELL right now with the waiting! Trust me, the wait after he receives his interview date but before the interview will be the hardest days/weeks of your life if you're anything like us!

Also, from my experience, they seem to schedule a whole month at a time. For example, they'll schedule all of July's appointments the last week or so of June. So if you don't hear anything by July 1st, that means you're likely not on the calendar until August at the earliest. That's what I noticed from the VJ timelines. People were only receiving their "packet 4" letters the last week or so of every month and then nothing new until the last week of the next month. Does that make sense? My fiance received his interview letter April 22nd and his interview was May 29th. Hands down the worst five weeks of my life! Please PM me if you want to know any more of my OCD ramblings about the Cairo embassy. I was absolutely going crazy!

Thank you! I feel like I've been living in a nightmare for months and woke up this morning in a wonderful dream. (Although I've been with the man of my dreams the whole time, so I can't complain too much...)

And now it says ISSUED ... I'm having a heart attack here, but a VERY GOOD ONE! <3