Nick&Diane

[quote name="Kernderg" post="7338161" timestamp=

== Nurse (Medical) ==

I followed her in and she said "Okay, first I need all of your documentation", so I handed her my forms and photo. She said I was missing my case number, and that although they have it, they need me to confirm it. She said it's something I can email them after my appointment. Not a great way to start.

I was then told to fill out a form, and do so while sitting in their pretty small (but nice) waiting room. There was only one other person there and as soon as I sat down he was seen to.

Upon filling out my form (please be aware the columns are opposite to the form they initially ask you to bring!) I handed it back to the receptionist and was told to sit back and wait.

Literally five minutes later, the nurse came out and told me to follow her. She was incredibly friendly and immediately put me at ease.

The first thing she showed me was the check-list she has to abide by. She pointed out that she is required to do a genital check and if I was okay that she did it. I told her I didn't care and the main medical began.

First she checks your weight and height. Then she got me to stand on a mark on the floor (which I couldn't see) and read off a chart for an eye test. Next she sat me on the bed and I had my blood taken in addition to an ear, eye, blood pressure and mouth check. Finally she asks you to strip off (so I was just in my boxers) and she taps around and checks downstairs.

After all of that she goes through the forms with you, making sure you answered correctly. I forgot that I had my tonsils removed at a young age, so she added that for me.

All in all, she was the friendliest part of my experience and she is exactly what you need on such a nerve racking day.

.

This was a doctor, not a nurse. Just so you know.

Keep yourselves busy and work on strengthening your relationships. The wait will test your patience and pledge as a couple . Learn patien and your relationship will be unbreakable

I second this.

We have chosen our partners for life. This is the person we have decided to face every one of life's adversities alongside. Sure it is hard to build a relationship when we are physically separated, but this is not wasted time, this is a proving ground for our partnerships.

In our relationship this is the second time my husband and I have lived distant to each other. Each of these separations has been difficult and frustrating but each has developed and strengthened our relationship. We are also less fearful of time spent apart which frees us to pursue personal career goals, knowing that our marriage can expand to allow two separate and equally important careers. Of course our marriage comes first, but we are more open to seizing life's opportunities as they arise.

It is easy to view the time only negatively, especially on the bad days, but that isn't the whole picture. My husband and I have grown in confidence as a couple because of adversity.

And I am speaking from over a year into our immigration process. Each process is different, it is better not to compare because we cannot know what other immigration difficulties a couple faces. Sure someone may get their NOA2 in 2 weeks, but they also might be at an embassy which routinely applies AP, or they may have grounds for inadmissibility. I agree that the differences in processing times are unfair. My best advice is to avoid reading the posts of people who are flying through the process unless you can congratulate them with an unburdened heart. On my bad days, I just don't read happy posts, ha ha!

Hang in there OP - the time will pass.

No! She's still my fiancee - not my wife yet. You tried to trick me didn't you!!

But yes, she is an absolute rock, such an amazing woman. I'm so blessed that God brought us together. Thanks so much for your best wishes.

Oh NOOOOOOOO!!!!

I am so sorry! It was a slip of the keyboard - I'm not one of the officers I swear!

Of course she is your fiancé, After reading your post as well, I am such a klutz. Really hope I haven't offended you.

Oh, now I've written fiancé instead of fiancée.

I give up.

Sorry OP

My congratulations again to you and your fiancée xx

Wow - what a review and what an interview. Your wife is an absolute rock - I bet you can't wait to see her in person, you guys deserve such a celebration!

Congratulations on your approval and all the very best for your future. Wishing you a long and happy marriage.

So sorry to read your post Darnell. Our thoughts and hopes are with you.

Thanks for such a positive post.

Well done for your visa journey accomplishments, especially with an uncertain and difficult case. Congratulations on your new life, may you continue to cherish it and revel.

Your hope and positivity comes to us at a good time as our case has just taken a very uncertain turn and we are having a dark few days. So thank you for sharing.

Like Schulley said, use Skype, it's very reasonably priced for international calling. I use Skype for all my international calls.

Once you are a green card holder (lawful permanent resident) you can travel outside of the US for business/vacation but you must maintain your primary residence as the US (or you will be considered to have abandoned your green card). You will only have absolute freedom to travel out of the US for extended periods once you are a citizen.

No problem with getting married on a tourist visa, you just have to convince the POE guard that you intend to leave after the wedding as per your visitor visa.

It is fraudulent to enter on a visitor visa if you intend to change residential status, for example, enter, get married, then apply for adjustment of status as a spouse,

The UK prices this year are:

Visa medical: £245 + vaccinations if required + any additional tests required

Police certificate: £40 + £6 per copy ( you need at least one copy)

Birth certificate: ~£12 per copy

FYI we shipped 80 square feet of belongings which cost us approx £800.

Our most significant costs have been flights to visit one another. At the moment the spouse visa process is slow, from first petition to interview has been 14 months for us, so our visits have totalled six transatlantic return flights .... Thousands of pounds! By the time you apply the spousal visa process may be quicker, who knows.

Right now fiancé visas are much quicker to get so although the fiancé visa is more expensive (I think), since it is much quicker, you can factor out the high costs of visiting each other over a longer process.

Swings and roundabouts!

Good luck. It's a long and difficult process but it does pass and it is totally worth it!

Hi guys,

I have just received my NoA1 and am looking ahead a bit. After I receive NoA2, I see a lot of the advice is to call NVC to receive a case number before they send it to you and to give them an email address for future correspondence. My concern is that I cannot call NVC from my country (Namibia in Africa) and if they send us anything via snail mail, it will surely not get to us as our postal system is 100% unreliable. So how will I get my case number without calling (can my father in the US call on my behalf) and also how do I give them my email address for future correspondence without having to call? Will they have my email address on record and use it from the e-mail notification form I sent in with my I-130 to USCIS???

USCIS will forward your email address to NVC.

NVC will email you your welcome letter when your case is activated on the CEAC portal. Although the advice on here is to ring every day to get your case number, this will not speed up your case. Yes you might know your case number a couple of weeks early, but your case isn't activated on the portal so you can't do anything with it.

Though if you do keep regular contact with NVC, you can have peace of mind that nothing has gone awry.

We never called NVC until we were expecting a case complete and interview date - 60 days after our AOS and IV packets had been received.

Congratulations!!

Ours took 6 weeks from NOA2 to NVC case number. Be glad you don't have to go through the rigmarole of NVC processing like the CR1/IR1s - most of us were stuck in NVC for 4 months+ after the case number was assigned.

Take heart, you're not far off completion now.

Apologies!! You are an IR1/CR1.

Sorry, NVC is not quick.

Now is a good time to make sure you have all your documents ready to go, taxes in order. If possible, I'd recommend that you get duplicate originals where possible, we had our entire AOS and IV packets lost by USPS. Review people's posts on what they got checklists for - make sure your AOS form is perfect with absolutely no blank spaces.

Good luck - really hope you are not terribly delayed.

Ours took 6 weeks from NOA2 to NVC case number. Be glad you don't have to go through the rigmarole of NVC processing like the CR1/IR1s - most of us were stuck in NVC for 4 months+ after the case number was assigned.

Take heart, you're not far off completion now.

Congrats on the all clear. My medical is in a week, I'm nervous.

Good luck at the interview.

Waiting is hard, yes definitely...but the hardest part? Nah. I think the hardest part is knowing that someone else gets to decide if you're allowed to remain together legally in the same country, because nothing is certain with this process. Even if you're the perfect model citizen, nothing is certain. The hardest part is knowing that your future is in someone else's hands. Lucky for you OP, you can literally go through this process together, and I mean that with no ill will. Good luck!

I agree!!

by the way, what I can relate to regarding what you are feeling is the status of limbo, as if the next months or so don't seem real. Under no circumstances would you be living the life of going back and forth every other day if you had a choice. I feel the next few months are just pretty much lost in our relationship and will never be recovered thanks to the US Govt and the slow USCIS, NVC or whatever you call it.

Although this process is unbelievably hard, the next few months aren't just lost. Everything that happens in your relationship is important. How you support each other and long for each other now is important.

This is the second time in our relationship that we've lived apart for more than a year and I truly believe that our relationship is much stronger for the difficult times. Our relationship has been tested and found to be strong enough to overcome the obstacles that we have encountered. This gives us a great deal of confidence for the decades to come.

Congratulations!! Fingers crossed for a November interview then you can be in your new home for Christmas!

APPROVED.....................................

That was the longest 4 days of my life and very upsetting.

Just had a call from the Embassy to forward my passport via DX as my case was approved.

What a relief! Congratulations!! And a new home for Christmas

Hey

Just got off the phone with the NVC and we have a case complete!!!

It was completed yesterday (8th October), and our last scan date was August 20th (which was because of being checklisted for the stupid military question).

Anyways, it is a big relief!!

Big thanks to Saylin for her wiki, and also for all of the people who post here regularly to let people know where the NVC are up to in regard to processing scan dates - I made a calculation about 4 weeks ago in regard to when we could expect a CC, and I estimated it would be either the 9th or the 10th. I am amazed as to how accurate I was!

Now for the next stage. From what I have read the Sydney consulate moves things fairly quickly, so I imagine I will be scheduled for a November interview and then moving early in the new year, with our POE being Hawaii.

Honolulu here I come!!!

Congratulations!! Very exciting

Hi guys!

First time poster although our case arrived at the NVC at the end of June. Just got email notification NVC received our IV package today and they should receive our RFE for AOS package today or tomorrow. I was really bummed about receiving the RFE but now figure that since we had to wait so long to pay the IV fee and send in that package that they'll both take about the same time to process now...

Here's to hoping CC before Christmas! We were originally hoping DH would be in the States by then

Welcome. Good luck - hope you get good news soon.

Normally, how long it takes from the time AOS being changed from PAID to N/A to receiving CC e-mail?

I don't know which date our AOS fee status changed from paid to N/A but we had a case compete on 30th Sept and received our email last night (7th Oct) - 1 week.

Incidentally the 7th was our 60th day from NVC receipt of our IV and AOS packets.

Congratulations! Now you can look forward to your medical

Thanks Hotter Otter!

Just phoned NVC and got really good news

CASE COMPLETE - 30th September (day 53)

Interview - 17th November

YEEE HAW !!

(IV and AOS packets rec'd by NVC - 8th August.)

(False AOS checklist - 11th August.)

(60 day wait email - 20th September.)

I got over excited and phoned NVC, so glad I did ...

CASE COMPLETE - 30th September

Interview - 17th November

YEEE HAW !!

A difference in K1 London and CR1--

K1 (and DCF)-- the embassy hands out the interview date. They want to see the medical results before they will assign the date.

CR1-- the NVC hands out the interview date before the embassy even gets the file.

It's kinda odd because the embassy has to take the word of a K1 that they will show up with all their supporting documents on interview day. Yet they have to have those medical results in hand.

And the NVC must see every CR1 supporting document first, and take your word that you will get the medical done before the interview.

Thanks for the clarification. I had read about medical before interview without realising this was K1/DCF specific.

It does not make sense!!