phirephly

We gave the CO probably about 250 or so pics. They were in flexible plastic sheets (bought at Target) so they can bend under the glass and we used binder rings (bought at Office Depot) to hold all the pages together. We sorted them first in these categories: pics of wedding, pics of us, pics with family and friends, solo pics. Then within those categories, we sorted by trip. So there were all the pics of us from the first trip. Then all the pics of us from the second trip, etc.

We then marked each page that started the new (sub)category with a stick-on tab (bought at Office Depot) on the side so that it would be easy to see, say, pics of us with fam/friends during the birthday trip. I believe we also color coded the trips, so all the pics from the first trip in each category were like yellow, and all the pics from the second trip were white. These were very similar to the tabs that we used on our I-130 and I-129f to designate the different documents.

On the back of each picture was the place it was taken, the event or reason we were somewhere, the date, and a list of all the people in the photo from left to right.

I think that the CO liked this very much and I'm pretty sure he spent more time flipping through the tabs and looking at the pics than he did looking at everything else (emails, postal letters, IM convos, etc). The interview went a bit quicker than I thought 'cause he didn't really ask much. He commented that we had a "well-documented case" and we both felt he seemed to be searching for questions to ask. But them again, we knew that we deserved to be approved without a lot of hassle. Hope this helps. ttyl,

mich

the embassy was closed again on friday in the aftermath of the typhoon, so it was finally open Monday when she got there. well, um, ok. turns out we didn't make a mistake after all. The brown envelope has just a corner cut off diagonally, but the rest of the envelope is sealed, so it was ok that she took the plastic off of it (or if there's no plastic at all, i guess). the guy at the info desk told her that it was just fine, but that she was missing some sort of document inventory and to go to window 34. the girl at window 34 (when she finally answered her window) didn't know what the guy was talking about and said that my wife didn't need whatever it was. however, she did go ahead and reseal the envelope (apparently just for the fun of it) in the plastic. so everything was ok after all. what i thought looked like a folder in the pic she sent was really the envelope. i thought it was open at the top, but it's just a corner that's cut off the envelope where the papers are visible and sticking out. hope this makes sense and helps anyone else that's at this final stage. ttyl,

mich

What my wife told me (or at least how i understood it?) was that there was a clear plastic bag that had the passport and the envelope in it. The delbros guy opened this one 'cause it also had some sort of form that my wife had to sign about the delivery or something. The only plastic that was left unopened when he gave it to her was that around the brown envelope/folder, which was supposed to stay sealed. She didn't say anything about instructions, but at that point it may not have been important. The only instructions that she noted to me were the ones printed on the brown envelope/folder. It sounds like this may not be much help, but hopefully maybe it's a little more clear. It seems unlikely that there are two envelope configurations, but the description you received sounds slightly different than the one I received.

I know what you mean about feeling helpless all the way over here. I know my wife will be able to do everything herself and doesn't need my help or anything, but I still would like to be there anyways. It's important to us both. I can pretend to be useful or something.

Unfortunately, I don't have an update for the results. Typhoon Xangsane started beating down on Manila today and the embassy was closed when she arrived. They (guards, probably) told her to return tomorrow. I hope that this is an in-and-out sort of thing, our time is getting short too and I don't want to wait for delbros again. ttyl,

mich

Howdy...

We passed our interview (yay!) and the visa was delivered today. However, my wife misunderstood the instructions for not opening the envelope. She received a clear envelope that contained both her passport and another clear envelope that had the brown folder. She opened the clear envelope to get the passport, then thought that she could also open the clear envelope around the brown folder. She thought the brown folder itself just needed to stay sealed. Apparently, the brown folder is open on the top, and this clear envelope was the one that she wasn't supposed to open.

Needless to say, we're both very very concerned about this, including the big warning that says opening it might delay her POE. What do we do now? Can we go back to the embassy and get it reissued? Can we just go to the POE and explain the confusion and what happened? Like everyone here, we've done quite a bit to try to get things done (right) and we don't want it all to blow up at the last moment. Thanks for any help you can give us. ttyl,

mich

I don't understand. I explained to my wife about the two clear envelopes and she says there are not two, only one and the brown envelope and passport within it. I told her to take pictures of it. She has not opened anything yet. She said there were written instructions and also Delbros gave instructions about what to open and what not to open. I hate this confusion. Are there two configurations of envelopes?? If she makes a mistake, no time to fix before her flight out I'm afraid. I'm confident she will figure it out. I just hate being here not able to help or see directly what's going on. I feel helpless over here :-)

Thanks simple_male, girl37. We kinda went MIA for a bit while pressing hard into this, but fortunately everythnig came out great as the result of our work. Our evidence was definitely the result of our teamwork, and the CO complimented us that we had a "well-documented case". He didn't even look at half the stuff we had ready. No news yet on how the resealing went; she'll probably get there in about an hour and then have to wait inside the embassy forever. Fortunately, she's comparably close to the embassy too.

pendelton_boy - You have to file both a I130 and an I129f for a K3. Check out the guide which will get you going. You can see what we've done and when we've done it in my VJ timeline and I have all the details for pretty much everything in my profile, as Dylan'sWife noted. If you haven't done your I129f yet, it sounds like you're probably too late to bring her here before the birth.

ttyl,

mich

Here's where we are now. My wife called the USE and they told her to go there and report to Window X. She'll do that first thing tomorrow morning since it's already fairly late in the afternoon there. Thanks everyone for your help. I hope they can just reseal it and call it a day.

Regarding what's in the envelope, she didn't look through the whole thing, just noticed some of the paperwork since it's open at the top. She said that what she did notice was our DS forms (the 156 and 157, I assume), the copies of my taxes that I gave them with the I-134, and my paystubs from work. I would venture that the I-134 is in there too.

Wish us luck! I'll keep this thread posted with what we discover from the embassy. ttyl,

mich

Well, the trick that caught her was that we'd heard over and over that there's a brown envelope that you're not supposed to open. We hadn't read anything about the clear plastic that was around the brown envelope (maybe we didn't read enough). So yeah... tell her not to open *that* one.

We're thinking that we'll need to go to the embassy too, just weren't too sure if there was anything that they'd actually do. I'm also going to call the cbp for her POE in the morning and ask them what they think about it and if she's really going to have a difficult time with having opened the folder. Thanks Joel. ttyl,

mich

Howdy...

We passed our interview (yay!) and the visa was delivered today. However, my wife misunderstood the instructions for not opening the envelope. She received a clear envelope that contained both her passport and another clear envelope that had the brown folder. She opened the clear envelope to get the passport, then thought that she could also open the clear envelope around the brown folder. She thought the brown folder itself just needed to stay sealed. Apparently, the brown folder is open on the top, and this clear envelope was the one that she wasn't supposed to open.

Needless to say, we're both very very concerned about this, including the big warning that says opening it might delay her POE. What do we do now? Can we go back to the embassy and get it reissued? Can we just go to the POE and explain the confusion and what happened? Like everyone here, we've done quite a bit to try to get things done (right) and we don't want it all to blow up at the last moment. Thanks for any help you can give us. ttyl,

mich

I told my wife about 5 times not to open that darn thing My opinion would be to go back to the embassy. Just my opinion. If you're in a hurry, wander over to Mag-Anak yahoo group and ask Ray.

Howdy...

We passed our interview (yay!) and the visa was delivered today. However, my wife misunderstood the instructions for not opening the envelope. She received a clear envelope that contained both her passport and another clear envelope that had the brown folder. She opened the clear envelope to get the passport, then thought that she could also open the clear envelope around the brown folder. She thought the brown folder itself just needed to stay sealed. Apparently, the brown folder is open on the top, and this clear envelope was the one that she wasn't supposed to open.

Needless to say, we're both very very concerned about this, including the big warning that says opening it might delay her POE. What do we do now? Can we go back to the embassy and get it reissued? Can we just go to the POE and explain the confusion and what happened? Like everyone here, we've done quite a bit to try to get things done (right) and we don't want it all to blow up at the last moment. Thanks for any help you can give us. ttyl,

mich

Also, you might consider soon getting your passport, et al. changed over to your married name and making sure that you're using that *everywhere*. You'll get to have your CFO done a bit early, and it looks like according to this post, they'll only issue your greencard with the "standard" filipino naming convention: <first name> <father's last name> <husband's last name>. Hopefully this won't cause you any issues and that you'll be able to fix anything promptly if they don't like it. ttyl,

mich

Just adding another concur with the "St. Luke's gets your passport" theme. My wife called St. Luke's last week and personally confirmed it with them.

As a side note, for ID, we're planning to use her last work ID and she just got a postal ID, along with all the documents and such that we'll already have. I've never even heard of a postal ID before, so it's a good thing she knows how things work over there. ttyl,

mich

Thank you for the information PW. We were under the impression that it was not even possible to get official copies of the same clearance. If we can, that would be great! Our whole case is pretty straightforward and this would have been my only real concern for AR if they refused to look up the nbi that we'd already submitted while we were already there and decided they'll just do it in their own (eternally slow) time. She'll have no problem with the interview, and I'll be there for help/moral support.

We were going to do pretty much just what you said regarding the personal copy. She has made a photocopy of the entire nbi document and we will just send the official use half of it to the NVC for our CR1. Then for the K3 interview, we would take the photocopy, her personal half, and tell them that they should have the official half in their files already and give them our CR1 case number. Hopefully the satelite office will be helpful. Thanks again and ttyl,

mich

x x x Note that if you read the instructions, they say that you have to submit a whole bunch of docs, *including* your nbi. These documents are forwarded to the embassy by the NVC. Ok, now the supplement says it's from the Embassy. x x x The next line says "Please have all documents at the time of your interview to avoid processing delays." This list is a subset of the other one, but that's no problem until.... nbi again?

We can only get one nbi per year. How are we supposed to send it to the NVC *and* have it at the interview?

We're already concerned how we'll handle the nbi for our K3 (since we'll submit it to the NVC before the interview and it should already be at the embassy by then). We're assuming that it's ok at the K3 to just tell them that they already have the NBI there at the embassy and give them the case number so they can look it up.

I'm not CR1 but I would assume that since NBI clearance has been submitted to NVC, the embassy would not ask for another one during interview since NVC forwards the entire case folder to Manila. The embassy people should see that the clearance is there in the file alright.

At any rate, the NBI issues two copies of clearance. The other one is for personal file. Perhaps your wife can give the embassy her personal copy if embassy insists on another clearance. Before she surrenders her copy, make sure she keeps a photocopy on file.

Another thing that your wife can do is to go to an NBI satellite office and bring with her a copy of her NBI clearance and ask if she can have another copy issued. It's not as if your wife is applying for a new clearance. She will only be asking for a copy of her current clearance. Just tell NBI that the embassy needs another one. If the satellite office agrees, it only needs to scan the bar code in her clearance and she'll have another clearance in less than 10 minutes (if line is short).

this is really confusing to my poor little brain, so maybe someone that's already been here can clear this up for me.

We got the DS-230 packet today (yay!) for our CR1 petition from the NVC. It had the instructions that we expected, but also had a supplement. Now this is weird. Note that if you read the instructions, they say that you have to submit a whole bunch of docs, *including* your nbi. These documents are forwarded to the embassy by the NVC. Ok, now the supplement says it's from the Embassy. It's called "Supplement to instructions for immigrant visa applicants (OF-169) in the philippines". The next line says "Please have all documents at the time of your interview to avoid processing delays." This list is a subset of the other one, but that's no problem until.... nbi again?

huh?

We can only get one nbi per year. How are we supposed to send it to the NVC *and* have it at the interview?

We're already concerned how we'll handle the nbi for our K3 (since we'll submit it to the NVC before the interview and it should already be at the embassy by then). We're assuming that it's ok at the K3 to just tell them that they already have the NBI there at the embassy and give them the case number so they can look it up.

How did the rest of y'all CR1/IR1 people (or anyone else that's had to do this?) handle this? Thanks and ttyl,

mich

Adding us to the list for CR1 and K3 My ticket for the trip for our K3 interview should be arriving by the end of the week ttyl,

mich

Legend:

OK - Visa approved

AR - Admin Review/Add'l Docs Required

ME - Military Expedite

Name-------------NOA2-----MNL REC’D--PACKET--INTERVIEW--MNL CASE#--STATUS

K1 LIST

PatientlyWait---07-27-05--08-22-05--01-06-06--02-13-06--2005-723xxx--AR

Windchaser------08-29-05--09-27-05--xx-xx-xx--09-01-06--2005-756xxx--

ryecatcher25----12-16-05--01-11-06--04-03-06--05-16-06--2005-xxxxxx--OK

spunky66--------12-16-05--01-11-06--03-30-06--05-16-06--2005-86xxxx--OK

djcess----------03-10-06--03-24-06--xx-xx-xx--08-09-06--2006-579xxx

Rustyash--------03-07-06--03-29-06--xx-xx-xx--08-09-06--2006-580xxx

davidg----------04-20-06--05-13-06--xx-xx-xx--xx-xx-xx--2006-625xxx

Audrey&Romy-----05-01-06--05-22-06--07-13-06--09-22-06--2006-635xxx

randyandrechie--05-01-06--06-05-06--07-13-06--09-20-06--2006-635xxx

mychelle--------05-03-06--05-31-06--07-06-06--09-14-06--2006-639xxx

sillygirl-------05-17-06--06-14-06--06-29-06--09-28-06--2006-657xxx

Brittaniquec----05-25-06--06-20-06--07-10-06--08-08-06--2006-660xxx

K3 LIST

Rommelandrea----12-19-05--01-03-06--04-04-06--05-12-06--2005-861xxx--OK

sweety_33-------xx-xx-06--04-25-06--05-25-06--08-24-06--2006-xxxxxx--

phirephly-------05-08-06--05-23-06--07-01-06--09-21-06-2006-635-xxx

IR-1/CR-1

jpg-------------08-15-05--xx-xx-xx--xx-xx-xx--07-17-06--2005-xxxxxx

JoelAndAnalyn---12-29-05--xx-xx-xx--xx-xx-xx--xx-xx-xx--2006-510xxx

Shortie81-------02-03-06--05-16-06--05-28-06--06-07-06--2006-544xxx--OK-ME

Biancashey------03-09-06--xx-xx-xx--xx-xx-xx--xx-xx-xx--2006-576xxx

phirephly-------05-02-06--xx-xx-xx--xx-xx-xx--xx-xx-xx--2006-642-xxx

I agree with the sentiment here, but I'm not sure if I'd actually do this (as a matter of fact, we are not). They're asking for specific information on the form. If you start giving them things that they didn't request in an effort to "help" them, you might slow down your own process while they have to dig out the information that they actually need from all the cruft that you added to it. Be careful. Follow instructions. ttyl,

mich

I would get as much accurate information as you can and just use continuation sheets. That is what I had to do with our case. It was a pain to get all the information--but better have the info and have the visa approved than receive a denial for lack of information.

Working on the DS-156 form for our K3 visa. Question 36 asks if anyone has filed an immigrant visa petition on your behalf. So ... since the K3 is an extension of the CR1, does that mean that we don't count the CR1? Or since the K3 is processed separately from the CR1, do we indeed need to note that there is "another" immigrant petition floating around out there? I'm leaning towards the latter, but wanted to get some verification. Thanks folks. ttyl,

mich

PS - why doesn't the search turn up anything for DS-156 ? I always get no results. I have to go to yahoo! and put in "DS-156 site:visajourney.com" which gives me strange results, but still results.

Always a good place to check first: the guide. It talks about how to handle the medical. Hopefully someone will be able to comment on if these have been used lately and are still accurate. ttyl,

mich

My attorney was saying that another medical examination may be required in the US. Is this true? My spouse already had a medical exam for her K-3 visa and I was reading in the Federal Register that this is not required if the I-485 application (AOS) is filed within one year of the exam. For those of you who filed the I-485 did you have to do another medical exam?

Also, did you have to file for the I-765 to obtain the employment authorization card and how long did it take?

There's a good thread about this topic here. Hope this helps! ttyl,

mich

1. wait for operator at NVC to say that the package has been shipped off to the embassy (they might tell me what day they sent it too?)

2. go to the DHL website

3. select track

4. track by reference

** what is the "reference"?

many many thanks to all who've helped me along the way

pharmacist

I've done this through the shipping department here at work and it's been fine so far:

Send a fedex envelope. Inside (folded in half), is another fedex envelope that's already preaddressed and has the account number, etc. on it already. So basically, all she had to do was put the docs that needed to be returned into the envelope that was already prepaid and already addressed, seal it, and drop it off at the the closest fedex.

Maybe there are a couple details that I'm missing since the shipping guy filled out some things, but apparently it's possible. He said that there's even a way to make a return label (that could have just been enclosed in the envelope and affixed to an envelope that she'd get there), but he didn't know how to do it since he's never really had to do it. ttyl,

mich

Yesterday I sent off some documents to my sweetheart in Barranquilla, Colombia, using Fedex.

Common sense would dictate to me that I should be able to pay upfront for BOTH:

1. Me sending the documents to her, and

2. Her sending the documents back to me

Unfortunately, it was apparent that the people working at the FedexKinkos knew much more about making photocopies than they did about international mail... understandably so.

Has anyone tried to send documents roundtrip using Fedex, DHL, etc. to Colombia, or another foreign destination???

I've scanned through the forum and don't see anyone that's asked the same thing as my question. It seems there should be a simple answer, but I'm not sure where to find it or how to search for it. I was poking around my embassy site and the NVC site and didn't see anything that looked relevant.

ok, so we have a K3 that's at the embassy. as of yesterday, it didn't have an interview date. By the time next month rolls around, it just might. However, I'm also hoping that next month we'll make it out of the NVC. When that happens and our CR1 is shipped out, it will knock our K3 out of the interview list. Hooray for progress. Now, apparently for *some* embassies a new date is scheduled. This sucks. I guess for others, the interview for the IR1/CR1 replaces the K3 interview timeslot. This would be a good thing.

But alas! How do I know which is which? Is there a list somewhere? Is there a term for this that I could have used in a search? Thanks for whatever pointers you might have. ttyl,

mich

Mich,

It is possible that you may get your K-3 interview sooner than IR1/CR1 interview. But, if both paperwork happen to arrive at the embassy around at the same time, the Embassy may schedule the IR1/CR1 interview only. You can email the Embassy and they can hopefully answer how they would handle the situation.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the K3 will be first. Other case numbers right near our K3 number are already getting dates around Sept 21. I'm pretty confident that ours should be about then too - maybe even our packet 3 has been sent, if we'll see results similar to those listed in the manila interview thread. So our interview should be published in the next couple weeks (in the midJuly list). We were going to call to find out if we already had an interview, but decided that it wasn't worth the $18 fee to find out something we'll know for free in two more weeks.

Since we're still in the NVC, I'm not expecting our CR1 paperwork to be case complete until the end of July, or even August, based on delivery times and case complete estimates. At which time our K3 interview date will have long been set and published. So it looks like they will be sequential, as I suspected before. How these affect each other (if at all) is still the huge question here.

I guess I may need to figure out how to contact the embassy since the NVC doesn't seem to know. They ignored that question in my email, haven't replied to my follow up, and the human operator didn't seem to really know. I'm a bit hesitant to try emailing the embassy again, though, since they've ignored the last two emails I sent (20 May 2006 and 15 June 2006). kainis sobra! ttyl,

mich

Yeah, unless you have a full (expensive) version of adobe acrobat, you'll have to go low tech with the DS-3032 (you didn't make me cringe girl37 nya nya nya) and physically cut and paste the barcode. All the rest of the docs are .doc files, so you will be able to just edit them directly.

However, as girl pointed out, email is a much better way to go. You'll have a faster response and it's much easier. Quite a few people lately have enjoyed a 1 or 2 day turnaround for a response and you don't even have to worry about if the forms look right, etc. ttyl,

mich

I'm totally serious. I think that's what James meant for the DS-2030 at least, when he said to print it out.

Print out the result from the resulting pop-up window, cut out the barcode and case number below it, and paste it in the horizontal box on the DS-3032.

Anyway, I agree, emailing is easier. You don't have to worry about finding the tape, scissors, or glue. It saves a stamp or an Express envelope, and it's fast.

Well, since you're already halfway through the NVC, it would seem like there's a fair chance that even if your K3 hadn't been killed, it may not have been of much help Mine survived but I'm not sure if it's going to make any difference at all (but if it does, you'll know).

Yup, i'm sitting right around the same dates... though you're trying to close that gap, aren't you? I know that DORMANTROOT is staying right on top of things too ttyl,

mich

Too bad we didn't get the I-129F in a few days sooner, eh?

phirephly & DORMANTROOT are right with us with the I-130 too.

Interesting news, shortcutters!

It looks like the new I-864 form has been published.The date on the page says it was just modified 22 June 2006. The page lists which of the old forms are still acceptable that they all expire this October. It looks a bit more straightforward, but also looks like there's a lot more info that you have to fill out (or maybe it's been too long since I did mine ). If you haven't started with one of the old ones, this will be the way to go. This new form also has the new requirement of only the latest tax year, instead of the last three years. If I'm skimming the instructions correctly, it also appears that all the other evidence (employment letter, pay stubs, etc) are now *optional* and only need to be submitted if you think they'll help your case. So it looks like the only other thing you need to submit with this now is a single IRS tax transcript (which you can get pretty easily, and for free - see my sig). Note that while the checklist says you need W2s, 1099s, etc, the instructions state these are not needed if you're using an IRS tax transcript. Hopefully I didn't miss the announcement about this that someone else made in another forum ttyl,

mich

Check out the thread in my sig. There appear to be two different phone menus, but it seems that you can quickly determine which you are in. I believe both are documented there now. ttyl,

mich

Ok So my fiance is gathering the documents to send me for I-134 and my interview, and as of last week he can't find his tax return. Has anyone else had experience like this? Where can he go to get another one or a copy of it? Now I'm worried that if I dont have this at the interview it's going to be a problem. Is there a government website you can request to get a copy of it? How long does it take to get one?

Thanks for any advice.

I can understand how this would happen and why it would make sense, but you can't just go there and say "you'll interview me for my CR1, not my K3", right? Doesn't the CO have forms and paperwork (such as your petitions) there to examine during the interview? If you're scheduled for a K3, that's the paperwork that the CO will have sitting there, correct? When you go there, you just need to make sure that the CO has the right paperwork and if not, send that person to fetch the right documents? And how would this work with your medical and such? Apparently, in Manila, you submit the passport with the medical, but these are tagged with the case number, correct? So again, these wouldn't be with the other paperwork.

I emailed the NVC to ask for clarification on this process, if Manila was an embassy where this happens, and if this information (ie a list) was somewhere available on their website and it was completely ignored. Instead the person answered my other question about the status of my I-864 (since the NVC number kept dropping me), four days later. So I shall have to reply with my wording phrased a little more aggressively. When I talked to an operator on the phone, she didn't have any idea what I was talking about either. She was telling me that they don't have information from the embassy regarding my other interview... so it seems that she was trying to indicate to me that it's never substituted.

This seems to be getting even more confusing than clear ttyl,

mich

what happens is if you have date for k-3 visa and the Cr1 make it to the embassy- the embassy

can interview you for the CR1. if you already interviewed for the k-3 and the CR1

happens to make it in the nick of time. then the k-3 will still cancell even if you interviewed on it.

It seems like in the philippines, surrendering your passport for processing or whatever is normal. My wife has had to do it a couple of times for different things so far, and i also was surprised how nonchalant she was about it - especially since she doesn't have any other government-issued ID (like a driver's license).

However, I wouldn't necessarily consider this mindset strange - the passports are property of the government, aren't they? Even our US ones say that they have to be surrendered immediately if so ordered, if i remember correctly. Then, of course, US driver licenses can also be confiscated as well. The US mentality of "mine mine" isn't necessarily the most accurate here. The government has simply requested that its property is returned.

So it doesn't necessarily seem so unusual to me that a filipino would trust an agent of the government (St. Lukes, the only hospital allowed to do medical exams) to handle government documents. One would have the same issue if the medical exam info didn't get to the embassy as well, right? The applicant would get there and the CO would take issue with no medical exam on record.

Curious, though, what they use for identification to grant access to the US Embassy... I guess we'll find out.

Just a little different angle on your observations... Maybe right... maybe wrong. ttyl,

mich

Well, I just searched the ASAWA website and seems like this is the situation. St. Lukes does keep your passport and sends it with the medical. I wish the U.S. Embassy would clarify this in their K4 packet. I can see situations where the Fiance would not want to give the passport. Very very tricky.

So if for some reason St. Lukes does not send the medical results and your passport - Then you are on automatic A/R. Oh well, guess we just have to cross our fingers and wish that they do their job and deliver on time.

With everything that's going on (including this wacky IMBRA stuff), it seems that now more than ever seems like a time for patience. This (from USCIS site) might also have something to do with it (their bold):

NOTE: Due to an unusually large volume of receipts at the Service Centers, it is taking longer than expected to enter cases into the system. Depending on the type of case and service requested, it may take approximately 14 days to generate and mail receipt notices. Once the receipt notice has been generated, it may take an additional 2 to 3 days for customers to receive their receipt notices in the mail. Per existing policies and procedures, requests for Premium Processing Service will continue to be processed within 15 days. USCIS wishes to assure all customers that the original received date will be honored and recorded on the receipt notice. This date will appear in the "Received Date" box on Form I-797, Notice of Action. The received date is different from the "Notice Date", which also appears on Form I-797. The Notice Date is the date the receipt notice was actually generated. USCIS has taken appropriate measures to address this situation.

My CR1 check posted the day before my NOA1 was issued and the K3 check posted 2 days before the NOA1. I would guess that you'll get to sit back and relax for a bit now. Good luck! ttyl,

mich

I sent my I-129F package to the Texas Service Center on June 10th. They received the package on June 13th. I have been monitoring my account online and to date my check has not been cashed. Anyone have any idea how long these people normally take before the check is cashed?

My lady