dustyrah

This is a difficult question to answer but please chime in with your comments. So how long would it take from the time the plane lands to get out of immigration and customs and head to baggage claims? I have heard people saying they had to sit around to get their passport stamped etc. So would 1 hour be at minimum required to get out to baggage claims or?

Hey Everybody!!

I was preparing docs for my hubby's interview, which is in less than 3 weeks and I have read somewhere that the CO asks for W2s at the interview. I am currently unemployed and my father is my joint sponsor. He is self employed and files taxes every year. I was wondering if my husband needs W2s for the year 2014 as the deadline for filing 2014 taxes is in april? Do people who are self- employed have W2s?? OR can my husband just take IRS transcripts for the year 2013 and show that as my father's current income??.. Please help!! I am so lost!!

As someone else mentioned, tax returns are most important. The tax returns are based on the W2 anyways. People who are self-employed don't have W2 unless they own a fancy company and actually employ themselves along with other employees.

BTW, the NVC stage has already case completed you so don't worry and be confident. The process will be over soon~

I would just add, check Police Record for the Embassy it's good for a year but make sure you have at least 6 months on it before the year expires if not you need to get a new one or at least start the process now, also Skype screen shots if you talk on Skype. Good luck to you both.

Sounds good to me and yes as long as the Embassy has our files that's all that matters so phewwwwwwww feeling better thank you very much.

WOW ten days how thrilling! Woooooooooooooo Hooooooooooooooooooooo you go girl!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hummm the passport one I'm unsure of unless they give your Visa right there and then, can you plan to stay a couple of days after your interview? I'm just curious why you didn't have your interview in Lisboa? I would think they (God willing) have it all planned out but you can e-mail them and ask what to do and how long does it take to get the Visa.

If you sent the originals I have read they want you to take copies just in case the copies you sent or the originals have been lost. Someone correct me if I'm wrong please. ty and good luck to you but don't think you'll need it.

Ok, why do you need the passport to return back to Lisbon? Its Euro anyway so you can just go back by using some other ID besides your passport such as driver license to get on the plane.

You have to provide the US consulate with prepaid envelope and they will mail you back the passport. Go to usvisa-info.com website and signup there and they will advice you regarding the same. Its pretty expensive to hang around in Paris if you plan to pick up the visa so you may want to consider just going back home and letting the passport come back by mail in about a week to 10 days time.

that's not for immigrant visas. That is for non-immigrant visas. You don't need to do anything With that

We had the case in France and had to create a profile on usvisa-info.com to get the delivery of passport after interview. Had to take the confirmation of registration to interview.

We received the P4 e-mail yesterday our Case Number from NVC is still the same and when I try to check CEAC it says to check with NVC for next step. Would rather not but I guess I have to call them tomorrow. Me no likey talking to them.

You just need to have the interview and get back your passport with visa to end this process. Let them figure out the case number etc.

Greetings!!!Picked up my visa yesterday from the collection center, very excited but have some concerns I wanna share. My visa status says CR1, if I make plans to leave after out anniversary and I get to the US will they give me a 2yrs or 10yrs green card? Anniversary date is 14th Feb and my flight is 16th.

Remember that it is the law and they are not doing you a favor so feel free to shove the marriage certificate into their face and mention this point clearly.

Welcome to United States!

In our case, the interview was the 6th of Jan and the Visa was received by mail on the 13th of Jan.

If you ceac website, it will say issued a day or two after visa is printed off and then they hand it off to the usvisa-info.com clowns who have it delivered.

Well, give it an extra day or two to update but soon the status should change to 'ISSUED'.

If he has not lived in USA, he can just file the 2555 along with 1040 for the past 3 years. He will not owe any taxes up to $95,000 earned outside the country as long as he has been out of the country 330 days out of 365 days. Saying he has NO tax returns to INS is not a good idea because regardless of income earned, all US citizens MUST file a tax return because its the law.

Your father can certainly be the co-sponsor as long as he is filing the tax return as US resident.

I'm honestly praying for all of us. 5 months should be the max. My husband has been so supportive but now he's even growing impatient. We both keep checking. I filed a service inquiry when I couldn't view my case and I received an email back stating it is currently taking 4 month's to process this type of visa and if I don't hear by the fourth month to file an additional inquiry. I was surprised they put 4 month's turn time in writing. Jan 5th will be 4 month's. Keep hope alive!

Consider yourself lucky if the whole process takes less than a year leave alone 5 months. But yeah just I-130 approval should take just 5 months. The NVC process thereafter takes another 4 and then the wait for interview.

Hello everyone,

I am in need of your advice. My P4 says that NVC has submitted or sent all required documents to the Montreal consulate; does this mean I do not need to bring any photocopies except for the P4 letter???

Even for the passport photos the code says NVC sent them to the US Embassy/Consulate.

You want to bring copies or originals of EVERYTHING and the reason for this is because if they lose something, that may delay the process. Instead if you have a copy of something which is lost by them, you can use the copy and wrap up the process.

Hi,

Our co-sponsor does not want to get a letter of employment confirming his job, title and annual pay.

But he can provide his latest tax return, 4 recent pay stubs and other requirements. Just not the letter of employment.

I wonder how most of you get your letter of employment. He thinks it is hard to get it that is why he do not bother of getting one.

Is it easy to get this letter?

Thank you!

I work as a contractor and it was a pain getting this letter. The company I worked through even contacted their lawyer and stuff before they finally issued an electronic version of employment letter. They may be concerned about legal issues and they also may ask why one needs it.

In most cases though, it should be a simple matter of making a request and getting one without no hassles at all.

I personally received a letter from the consulate asking me scan and email my residency status in Canada and to bring the original + copy on interview day.

My friend was denied a tourist visa in Sydney where she applied being a tourist in Australia. She was told that she was supposed to apply in her country of residence.

In my home country the embassy does not schedule interviews for any kind of visa for non-residents except one neighboring country where they do not have a US embassy.

I realize that some embassies are more flexible, but I would not say "they do not care".

Thanks for giving example about yourself in Canada which would be quite useful to those applying in Canada.

In case of France, the staff specifically mentioned that they cannot deny interview based on residency once it has been scheduled already. I hope all of this helps the next person who is in the situation and is looking for info on this website.

BTW, US embassy in France also does not allow those who are non-residents to apply for visa to USA. In case of my wife, she was a resident but the residency expired after case was completed. Her home country strongly suggesting interviewing in France itself and US embassy in France only raised the concern that the passport may be retained for days or weeks. I am stating a very specific case where one was a resident in the country through the entire I-130 and NVC process and scheduled for interview and then gave up residency because of no intent to continue staying further due to the move to USA.

Congratulations to you both!!

I only want to ask to be very careful when making such a statement.

It does matter and it depends greatly on the particular embassy. But i am happy that embassy in France has been flexible in this matter.

Would you know of a case where one was prevented from taking the interview while on a tourist visa or not having residency at the time of interview? I was unable to find one. If you could point to any threads verifying where it did matter, that would help a lot for others in the same situation.

After the interview, one of the staff mentioned to my wife that residency etc comes into play during the I-130 and NVC process and is unrelated to interview. They cannot restrict one from taking an interview which is scheduled at the consulate but they may hold on to the passport for many days etc which should be taken into consideration while handing over the passport while being on a short tourist visa because the visa itself may expire causing troubles with the host country.

My wife had her interview today in France while on a tourist visa and it was approved. She will get her passport back in about a week or 10 days.

The important point to note here is that it does not matter what visa you are on in the country where you take the interview. The US embassy does not care about it. The residency requirement only comes into play while actually applying for the I-130 and NVC process.

Here are the questions asked during the interview:

Who is the petitioner?

How long have you been married?

Where did you meet?

What was he doing in XXX?

When did he go back to USA?

Is he a citizen?

What does he do?

My wife had her interview in France today while on a tourist visa and she was approved. They did not care about her residency in France in order to attend the interview or anything of that sort.

It seems the residency is only during the actual I-130 and NVC process. Once the interview is scheduled, it does not matter anymore.

My wife had her interview today in France while on a tourist visa and it was approved. She will get her passport back in about a week or 10 days.

The important point to note here is that it does not matter what visa you are on in the country where you take the interview. The US embassy does not care about it. The residency requirement only comes into play while actually applying for the I-130 and NVC process.

This is a follow up about my wife taking the interview in France while on a tourist visa. They did not check any residency requirements and the interview was successful.

So the bottom line being, the US embassy does not care if you are a resident or what visa you are on when you go to take your interview. So if you do move to another country, it may be actually better to just fly back to the country of interview rather than try to change the case file over to the new country which may take months.

Do this apply only to the embassy in India. I am going to Embessy in Armenia. Can you please tell me if I need to do that?

They should generally mention this on the embassy website but its not clearly mentioned for Armenia: http://armenia.usembassy.gov/immigrant_visas.html

Please note that registration on usvisa-info.com for delivery of passport is for various countries and not only India. You should shoot off an email to US consulate in Armenia to get clarification regarding this from them.

hi does anybody know what's the process in changing your interview location? and how long it takes for the new consulate to accomodate that reuqest? thanks

How long it takes depends on from which consulate to which consulate you want to move your case file. Are you intending to move it from one city to another in Canada? If so, it should take about a month or so and you simply need to contact the consulate which currently has your file and provide them with proof that the beneficiary has moved to another location. Then after that you will have to nag them to actually get them to schedule an interview date at the new location and send the file etc over to their end.

If the location is changing between two countries, it could turn into a pretty time consuming issue. Please post the locations so others with experience can respond accordingly.

Hi,

I'm already preparing everything for the interview and I came across with this website:

https://usvisa-info.com/static/iv-landing.html

I'm under the impression that not every embassy requests to register the appointment and when you try to do so you can read the following, at least for Madrid one:

I have received a Consular interview appointment date from the National Visa Center (NVC), Kentucky Consular Center (KCC), or the Consular Section and I have been instructed to register my appointment on this site.

I am curious about how they instruct you to register your appointment. I have read Madrid Embassy website and my P4 and I can't find instructions to do so but I don't want to mess this up. Anybody knows how and when they tell you to register your appointment?

Thanks!

Go to usvisa-info.com and choose SPAIN as your country and see if it requires you to register. If so register for an account and drop in your interview date in there along with your case number and confirmation number(same as DS-260 confirmation number). This website is used just to deliver your passport back to you so its no big deal and you can change the information on this website at any time before your interview date.

Hello VJ,

I have a question about creating an account on the UStraveldocs.com website. If my intent is to pick up my passport/visa the same day of my interview, because I have no choice but to travel back to my home country after my interview (and I did confirm it is possible), do I still need to create an account on USTravelocs.com? Are there other reasons for creating an account on UStraveldocs.com?

Thanks,

I would highly recommend that you create an account on that usvisa-info.com website because they may hassle you on the day of the interview if you did not create one and maybe even prevent you from interviewing(some of the staff there may be naive about your particular situation). But then on the day of the interview, you can always pick your passport up so that you may go back to your country that same day.

BTW, congratulations on being able to pick up the passport same day and avoiding the inconvenient stay outside your home country! I am glad the US embassy is being pragmatic about it and accommodating.

Ok no one answered me so I'll ask one more time. I found the confirmation for the DS-260 but can't find how to get the confirmation page for the DS-261 can anyone help? Or is the confirmation page for DS-261 the receipt?

Also if not mistaken the Biometrics (Finger printing and pictures) are done at the Embassy the day of and before the interview correct? Thank you in advance.

Click on the "Review" link on the top. Then on the left side click the last section at the bottom which is "Preparer Information". Ok, now click the "Next: Confirmation" red button on bottom right. Now at this point, you have the option to print the entire DS-260 including confirmation number and all that stuff.

Biometrics are done on the day of interview but it may not be so in some countries. I hope someone can correct me if I am wrong.

Hi everyone. Just a quick clarifying question... My husband (A Canadian citizen) the beneficiary has a scheduled interview at the embassy in Montreal to get his IR-1 Permanent Resident Visa. Can he travel to the US for a few days before the interview?

This might be a silly question. I think the answer is Yes, it should be fine for him to travel but not completely sure. Thoughts?

Should be perfectly ok to travel to and from usa. Just need to be on time for medical and interview.

after writing, and thinking after,

I suddenly realized that there might be some issue with the TYPE of visa she holds, on interview day, that allows for her legal presence in France.

Prior, she had a student visa, and that's allowed.

With a tourist visa, I am unsure about it. But is possible the Vice-Consul will waive that, as she had legal presence 3 years prior. Hard to say, hard to be certain about it - I just mention it here 'cause it may be a sticky point on interview day. Or not ! I've read of other folk with the same issues here, for London Interviews (not Paris) where they had this same issue, and I don't recall the outcomes on them for interview day.

Thanks for your feedback! Yes, it certainly is an uncertainly at this time. She will be bring along her resident card, student ID as well as letter of successful completion of the degree(the actual coronation ceremony is in May of 2015) etc to show that she has been residing in France for several years and hopefully they will waive any particular requirements regarding the TYPE of visa she holds. She will do her best to convince them that she has more than enough time allowed to be in France to attend the interview and follow up on any further proceedings to obtain the immigrant VISA.

I will be sure to post the outcome because it seems to be very hard to find any clear outcomes on the internet about such a situation.