ducsacrossamerica

On 1/13/2022 at 9:52 PM, idyllic420 said:

Philly is not far from Lancaster....  

He's there today! I guess same ceremony as you, I meant to write earlier. No guests allowed, which was disappointing after all the money and work and stress I've shelled out and endured. Oh well. I'd like to say it's over but they will now want more $$ for passport!

3 hours ago, idyllic420 said:

The oath ceremony will be taking place in the same building!

My husband mentioned that the ceremonies were taking place while he had his interview. I had a friend who was naturalized a couple years ago and she was given a choice of a local courthouse ceremony or one at USCIS. My husband says he was not asked that. I know that our local courthouse has them scheduled for this year, so I guess we'll see where.

3 hours ago, idyllic420 said:

I go an email from USCIS informing me that they took action on my case. I logged into my USCIS account and checked under documents to see the notification letter. It had my oath ceremony scheduled letter and the date of when oath is scheduled for.  

Thank you, we'll take a look at our account! Not looking forward to heading back to the city, but then if he wants a local swearing in we'd have to wait until April. Hopefully they'll just schedule it at USCIS.

19 hours ago, idyllic420 said:

Oath ceremony scheduled for Jan 31st!

My husband had his interview at the same office the day after yours; parked on the street for free. Same experience with remote interviewer.

They told him he would get a letter in about 3 weeks, but it sounds like you already have you oath ceremony scheduled. Is that also in Philly, and how were you informed?

That is seriously so odd that you haven't been approved yet. I'd keep chasing this up because I'm sure it's driving you both a little crazy!

Apparently Philadelphia and Washington are very backed up. Like I said, I think the change of address may have helped. We had our interview on Wednesday (piece of cake) and interviewer said recommended for approval. Received a text today that we are officially approved!

You've been in an unusually long timeline for approval. Did you have a few RFE's that you had to respond to in all this time? I'm glad you have your interview scheduled though, even if it has been a good while! Fingers crossed for you.

No RFEs. We even filed a query after 6 months. They just basically answered that things were slow and nothing to do with our case itself. I confirmed that it was just sitting at NBC when I called about my change of address. I blame the current administration and their push to prioritize illegal immigrants.

We moved to a new state (so a new processing center) at the end of April and submitted our change of address. The online form didn't work, so I had to call in. While I was chatting with the person helping me, they confirmed that the case was still at the NBC. I had always heard that change of address throws you to the bottom of the pile, but we just received our interview date (scheduled June 29). I don't know if the change of address had anything to do with our case finally moving but I'll take it!

My husband walked into Alexandria yesterday afternoon (a week early). The place was deserted and it only took him a few minutes.

ALABAMA
Birmingham, AL - The guard told us it was not our date. I told him that I had to work that date, but was off today. He give us a hard time, but finally agreed to let us through. Funny because there was only one other customer there. Successfu

CALIFORNIA
Buena Park - No reason, just gave security guard my appt letter. YES
Chula Vista - 2 Walk-ins, first was 10 days early and the second was 23 days before the appointment. Successful.
El Monte - 13 days early. Work conflict. Sup wasn't nice about it, but biometrics got done!
Fresno - 07/14/14 - Successful, no questions asked. After 2 pm walk-ins allowed.
Gardena - 5/24/12
Los Angeles - (USCIS Fairfax on W. Pico). Successful with no questions asked.
Los Angeles - (downtown) July 2012. NO
Los Angeles - San Fernando valley (Chatsworth) division: successful walk-in, no questions asked, short wait. 6/11/13.

Modesto - 10 days early. Went in to try our luck for my wife (K-1) and step daughter (K-2) AOS/EAD Biometrics and no questions asked. The process took about 10 minutes. The employees on-site were very friendly.
Oakland - Oct 2013 successful
Pomona - long wait. Successful

Riverside - Nov 10, 2014 - Unsuccessful. Original appt for Nov 17. Told to come back on the scheduled date. Guard was firm and unfriendly. Didn't help that the woman in front of me was arguing with another member of staff about her appt date.
San Francisco - 05/19/2014 - No question asked for three weeks early walk-in. Just showed security guard the letter. Get it done in half hour. Friendly staffs
Santa Ana - Walked in 2 times in June 2012. No questions asked. The friendly security guards even told me I could go inside to fill out the form for my wife but will have to wait outside afterwards.
Santa Ana - early walk-in successful, the day after I recieved the biometrics letter (original appointment date: 03/11)! Really nice staff and security guards.
Santa Ana - 7/30/2014 Early walk-in successful (Original appt date is August 14, 2014). I was in and out in 15 minutes!

Thank you!

DS-160 is the visa application. It's valid. A different form lets them know he has all his documents for interview. The medical results arriving should trigger an interview date likely in January. They seem so booked up with the holidays.

A new letter of intent does not have to be notarized.

Thank you! Depressing that we have to wait some more after being delayed (in our minds) 2 months for no reason. I think he's going to try to call and see if he can get any sympathy for that and get the interview moved up. I notarized the letter of intent just in case, since it was easy to accomplish.

I feel like the cart horse that keeps running after that dangling carrot.

We got the all-clear today!! That's a day short of 7 weeks from the 3rd sputum test.

I'm thinking now my letter of intent and NOA2 have expired. He'd already submitted the DS-160 - does it have to be updated, or will the one he submitted in September still be valid to let them know he has everything he needs? I'm getting a new letter of intent notarized and sending it over today, and scanning updated financial docs to append to the packet of stuff I gave him before. Am I forgetting anything?

FYI Knightsbridge was out of the MMR when my fiance went. There are two of these that have to be done a few weeks apart, so you may need to shop around for that. His GP didn't do them either, he had to find another clinic and call ahead to make sure they had it on hand.

Sorry to hear .. I just got a call from clinic that my xray got shadow like ur fiance ... Now I am very sad, cried all day as I expected I will be able to see my fiance during Xmas.... 3 times sputum tests, wait for another 11 weeks for result that is killing me!!!

Tomorrow I will go to see another doctor, ask him abt my shadow and see if its TB or not .. I am afraid that the shadow maybe sth else ....

I cant believe I have to face this .. I am totally depressed and not able to see my future ....

My fiance went and did his sputum tests last week. I know that now we have to wait the 12 weeks so I've not been logging onto the forums as I've got nothing to report or research until that comes back. We're pretty sure it's not TB though he did spend a couple years in Africa a few years back so who knows? We are also afraid it could be something else. Not sure if they will test for that and my fiance doesn't really want to go to his doctor to see what it might be; he'd rather wait until he gets over here.

I am so sorry you have to deal with this alone. It's the worst kind of news to have to handle without having your fiance with you. I hope it all turns out to be negative!

Thank you.

They called back and said he can re-do the x-ray along with the first sputum test. It's more money, but maybe we won't have the delay as that night they can tell him if he has to go back for the other two sputum tests. I still haven't heard of anything like this (the other Knightsbridge posts say that they had to go get antibiotics or clear up an infection before re-doing the x-ray) so I don't know what's going on. Anyhow, cross fingers.

So the new x-ray, taken from a different angle, still showed something. So he's doing the sputum test next week. We're officially delayed now for the K-1.

Sputum takes 8 weeks even in state of the art labs. Sorry for the bad news.

Thank you.

They called back and said he can re-do the x-ray along with the first sputum test. It's more money, but maybe we won't have the delay as that night they can tell him if he has to go back for the other two sputum tests. I still haven't heard of anything like this (the other Knightsbridge posts say that they had to go get antibiotics or clear up an infection before re-doing the x-ray) so I don't know what's going on. Anyhow, cross fingers.

Thank you so much for the link. It looks like we will definitely be delayed the 8 weeks it takes for the cultures, but the more pressing concern is that as this request seems to be unusual for Knightsbridge, they must think there's something there. Let's hope it's minor (or nothing at all!)

How can an A-2 be non-diplomatic? The person can be part of the support staff and not have full diplomatic immunity, but the A-2 is a diplomatic visa to work for a foreign mission in the US. Adjusting status from an A-2 visa can be difficult and time consuming. You would need to file the appropriate form (I-508?) to waive the diplomatic/consular immunity if he has any -- or convincing the appropriate office that he doesn't need to file this form. Only after that has been accepted, he would need to get approval from the foreign embassy on a special form (I-566?) which then needs to be approved by the Department of State and ultimately by USCIS -- any one of the three entities could not approve and that would end the process. Not sure I would want to take the chance of the time it would take and possibly be denied -- but, you guys need to decide what's best for you, of course.

There is a small subset of A-2 visas known as 'Permanently Resident-In'. These carry NO diplomatic immunity, and are used by consulates/embassies when hiring staff as "locally engaged". Not all embassies and consulates use these (I only know of a handful). The holders are also not eligible for green cards.

You are right, it sounds much too difficult to do since we are so far along in this process. Had I known the K-1 was going to take so long back in February I would have explored this further.

AOS is AOS. If you do it from a work visa it is significantly more expensive (you also need to file the I-130 = $420)

You're pretty much at the end of your K1 process. Why not continue? If he has a job he can get the EAD expedited and it only takes 90 days for the AP.

I didn't know you could get the EAD expedited if you have a job -- good to know.

Congrats - got our NOA2 a month ago, and today London received our file. Everything seems to be moving at a good pace now (actually hard to keep up with after waiting so long, we put off so many things so we didn't get ahead of ourselves!)

Their call center hours are M - F 7 AM - Midnight EST.

http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/nvc/nvc-contact-information.html

Just so you get an idea, I've called twice this week and gotten through. Both times were after 9pm Eastern. I had to redial a dozen times to get through, and after that was on hold for an hour. This happened for both calls.

The first rep was super helpful and happy, the second was polite but bored sounding. They received my case on the 27th and I got the same scripted line about AP, so I'm hoping it just goes through quickly, though I figure there will be even more delay due to the holiday (we all know things slow as folks readjust to school schedules and traffic this time of year).

My fiancé may be getting a job offer which includes a work visa (A-2 non-diplomatic). We are currently in the K-1 process, have gotten our NOA2 and are waiting to hear from the consulate to proceed with the next steps.

We are trying to figure out the pros and cons of abandoning the K-1 and accepting the job with the A-2.

Pros - we'd save some money. Actually, we'd save a good amount of money, for a time anyway. Other pros include his having a job and being able to work right away (though at a pretty low salary) and our being able to get married anywhere (which means his family could attend). We could also travel whenever and wherever we want.

Cons - we may have to wait a little longer for the newer visa to get processed and for him to get over here (and we've already been waiting months for the K-1 petition to get approved from TSC!) That's a really big negative, actually.

I'm also wondering if he takes the job with the work visa, and then we get married, will he have a problem with the AOS when we decide to go for that? Would it be wise to wait past 90 days to get married if we do this? I feel like we'd potentially be putting his green card at risk since he already stated intention to immigrate, and it would look like he was trying to get around the cumbersome family visa system to get to the US.

Does anyone have any advice on this? Is it a bad idea? What else do we need to take into consideration?

I am in the same situation as my company will want to transfer me to the corporate offices in case a vacancy is open before I get my K1, the company lawyer advised me to cancel the k1 process in case I get a job and they will provide me with a L1 visa.... She said I can get marry and adjust my status under the L visa.

Not sure how much trouble this can cause.

I would actually be interested in seeing what folks think about this as my fiance may have the opportunity for an A-2 Visa -- but we shouldn't hijack this thread. I don't have time to start a new thread but if you can't I'll post later.

My petition was approved 12 August, shipped to NVC 19 August, and received today 27 August. They (obviously) haven't assigned a case number yet, but I guess that's just around the corner!

Looks like there's a new thing to add to the list:

New Road Tax Rules From October 2014