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i have a friend who is a turkish citizen and a permanent resident to USA(greencard holder) she filed papers for her husband and they told her it would take about 5 years for her to bring him to the US. which is same as she waits to become a US citizen (5 years) and then apply for greencard for him (another year or less)

CR1 interview approved!!! waiting for my passport on the mail. got airplane ticket ready to fly to the US with my wife on the 29th.

good luck to everyone!!

My wife was born in Turkey, her parents immigrated to the US when she was little and they spoke Turkish at home. So both of them are her mother language. I was also born in Turkey, I went to the US for school at very young age. So both English and Turkish are my mother tongues as well(well with a very slight accent for english). So we are both 100% with both languages. We speak Turkish when with the family(because they are all Turkish) and we speak English when with friends. When we are alone, we speak Turkish in daily chat, English when we argue:) I never curse in English(not at her, I am talking about curse upon things like losing your wallet) on the other hand she never curse in Turkish. She says she doesnt know any swear. I used to speak German(used to be fluent) and now trying to get it back, I am trying to teach her some words and phrases so we can have private conversations when with the family lol but actually we kinda created our own language, some certain words for certain things that no one else could understand. For example when we needed to head to bed and such situations;)

Citibank is the way....

I have had my citicard(citi account) for 8 years. No fees at all!!!!!! Instant transfer!!!

open an account at citibank. and send your citicard(citibank atm card for your account) to your fiance/wife. She can pull money from any atm in the world with that card. The fee varies on what the atm charges for each transaction usually 1-2 dollars. Some banks dont even charge you anything and there are citibank atms in most countries.

I deposit money to my account and at the same time my wife can pull the money from any atm in the US. there is no citibank in massachusetts but she uses soverign banks atms and those dont charge anything. completely free instant transaction.

when i was studying in the US , my mom used it to send me money from Turkey. We had a joint account at Citibank Turkey. She could deposit money with her card in turkey and i could withdraw it in the US with my card at any ATM. You can withdraw upto 1450 dollars a day(600 each transaction)

if you want direct deposit to bank accounts.....citibank charges 8 dollars to citibank to citibank account transfer(international)........and 15.75 for citibank to anyother bank(international. these are flat rates whatever the amount is.

but I strongly suggest , call citibank and open an account. mail your citicard to your fiance /wife. she can use that card in her country to pull money from your account.

Thanks for the answers.

I am sure your answer will help people understand the reason of this thread. The questions on visa will go on new threads.

Not all Turks eat that much bread. not all Turks gain no fat from bread either. You are just lucky your spouse has relatively faster methabolsm. Yes I have heard the AC thing, most Turks order cars with AC but they never use it, keep the windows open. When ask to turn on the AC, they say it makes them sick. btw who doesnt like getting massages? lol

what about this bread and A/C muscle thing? i dont get it lol

can someone explain it to me?

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should we start a new thread to tell more about us? like where are we now? where are we going to live once the visa is in hand? for how long have you known each other? the first impressions on your spouses city/village/town/home? and his/her impressions on USA?

I have read some interesting stories of people here. it would be nice to keep them in 1 thread. this thread is kinda like visa help topics. the new one would be just sharing experiences , advices , suggestions more on culture and living.

I am waiting for your responces

hey Dayna? are you Turkish-American? or you just studied Turkish for a reason. I have never seen an American(not the ones living/lived in Turkey) who speaks Turkish. If he doesnt speak english, your turkish should be fluent. Can you tell us more about your story if you dont mind? it sounds interesting:)

my wife is Turkish - American from Turkish parents. thats how she speaks Turkish fluently but I went to the US for school at young age and lived there long I have 2 tongues(Turkish & English) as well. We speak English when with people , not to be rude but we speak Turkish when we need privacy lol you will enjoy this once he learns english too lol

good luck with the process

Immigration people could pay less attention to DY (lottery) guys and give piority to family based visas. About 55 000 people get greencards through lottery, that means about over 100 000 people in immigration process each year. then the INS narrow that number down, eleminating half of them through the process. That is a big number. And guess what? they have the piority. I know many people who won the lottery and they got their interview in less than 1 year. I can tell you the numbers for my embassy. Last year about 5000 people got greencard from Ankara and 1200 of them were DV guys. If there was no lottery or at least they had the least piority, things would be faster by 30 % or so. I am not saying they should stop the DV. but they should reconsider who got to get the visa first.

well someone above said they deal with 100s of paperwork everyday...Ok we all know that... They can ask for higher fees and hire more people to get things going. and i am sure no one would mind high fees if they knew they could get the visa in matter of weeks , not months.

as someone else above states, for Uk it takes couple days. Yes it is correct. The Us immigration is the slowest, takes months . the second slowest country it takes weeks. My wifes brother works in administrative business. he says all this work takes about 1 hour. well the thread starter said the papers sit on the desk half the time.....she is wrong. they sit on the desk all the time......this complete process is no longer than half day of work, everything included. thats how UK guys handle immigrations matters in 2 days.

there was thread about this and there was some serious facts. It was announced that US goverment will not pay a penny for the immigration. So that the fees we pay should cover our expenses. and when you do the math......170 dollars for I 130......350 IV bill....70 dollars AOS bill.....total of 590 dollars. in this kind of business and their hourly wages.....how many hours do you think 590 dollars can buy? the answer is how much work they put in to your case in all this 10+ process... that simple!!!

its definitely discouraging US people from marrying foreign people. Longer it takes, less people will do it.

My wifes both parents are Turkish, just like me. They immigrated to the US years ago when she was still a baby. They speak Turkish at home so speaks both English and Turkish perfectly. I met my wife in the US while I was going to University there. It was 1 year after we started dating that I met her parents. Her father was happier than anyone else in the world. He asked me 2 questions. Where were you born? I said Istanbul. What soccer team do you support? I said of course Galatasaray. And that moment he started calling me " son" . We dated 1 more year then we got married.

Her dad admited they wouldnt be against it if she wanted to marry a none-turkish person but they now feel so much better because they have a Turkish son in-law. Well the same thing doesnt apply to none galatasaray fans though. If I was a fenerbahce guy he would not have allowed her lol.

We have a perfect relation with her mom and dad and brother and my mom get alongs with them really well too. I am still so much in suprise how great a match we are. We speak Turk-lish(english turkish mixed) we know everything about USA and Turkey. Since I went to the US for school at really young age, I am as Americanised as she is.

Well I was going to university, and I could easly find a job and get a work visa, I didnt really have visa issues. Thats probably why they never suspected of any fraud marriage issue.

I think everyone is happy about this marriage.

OK I re-read your past posts. you are confusing K3 process and CR1/IR1. Yes you are right when you do send in the last paperworks for K3, the interview will mostlikely be in 1-2 months from that day. On K3 process, once your I129F got approved, they send your file to NVC, NVC only assigns a case number(and nothing else) which takes only couple weeks and send your case to Ankara. Then Ankara ask you for final paperwork which are similar to ds230 and I864. As I said this happens between you and the embassy in Ankara. and Ankara is lightning fast comparing to NVC , they review your paperwork in 2-3 days and you get the letter that tells you the interview date in the same week(mostly) and you are right its 1 and half month or 2 months ahead from you last send in final papers. Most people on this forum do K3 , thats why you see such timings.

CR1/IR1 however is completely different. After your I130 got appoved, you case is forwarded to NVC and NVC does all the work. You send in the final papers. It takes about 3-4 weeks for NVC to review them . When your case is complete. You case has to wait till the second week of next month to get scheduled for an interview date. And the interview date is 1 and half month or 2 months from this day(the second week of next month).

I assuming you mean sending in the final paper work to NVC as last step. Mine took exactly 3 months from that moment. When you replied to my message and predicted Jan15th, it had already been 45-50 days since I submited and NVC pronounced on its system that they have my final paperwork.

I hope I am mistaken and you are right but if you check for CR1/IR1 applicants you will see that these are very common time frames.

to Michelle and Omer..........

how long did it take for you to recieve Omer's passport in the mail? The Ankara website says 2-3 business days. My interview is on January 23rd and I am planing booking my flight for Jan 28th. the 23rd being tuesday.......wednesday , thursday, friday(3 business days) and i believe ups delivers on satudays too and my flight will be on sunday. I really have to make sure I wil get the passport within 3 days.

thanks

thats rude to ask if the age difference will be a problem for you later on....its not their business. when you decided to marry you probably considered all pros and cons and ended up getting married you know.

well i dont know if you read my previous posts but i had lived in the US for 6 years and I met my wife the last 2 years of it. So we have plenty of pictures of us together in the US as well as with her parents...BBQ parties and all. And of course she lived with me here for long time while we were waiting for the visa. and many pics from her moms and dads visit as well. Well we didnt have a wedding ceremony since we found it stupid to have a big wedding and she leaves for USA and I stay here for 1 year. SO ours going to happen this summer. We can have a big wedding by bosphorus and then trip to Fiji then live together in our new home.

I dont think i will have any problems with the questions. and the pictures , mails, emails, phone calls, plane tickets, hotel reciepts for our trips will help as well. We both seem like great match.. about the same age , same height:) both college student, both turkish (she is turkish american from turkish parents)

but still , its never 100% chance you know....

they can ask question about each other to test if its a fraud marriage but giving their own opinion about age and stuff is rude......they are not the ones to tell us who to marry. just ask your questions to see if this is a real marriage or not.

thanks for the responce

i would suggest wait till your second anniversy for your CR1/IR1 interview. by the time of the interview if its been 2 years since you got married, he will directly get IR1(10 year GC) but if its less than 2 years , he will get CR1(2 year GC) and 2 years after the entry to US you will have to deal with getting IR1 again. so better to wait or make it take longer by responcing the mails late to have your interview after your second anniversary.

IR1 = Marrired more than 2 years at time of interview and gets 10 years greencard....

CR1 = Married less than 2 years at time of interview and gets a 2 year conditional Greencard.... conditions have to be removed before the expiration date of the Greencard approx. 1 year and 9 months from the date of issue... if approved at removal of conditions a 10 year Greencard is then issued...

Both a CR1 and a IR1 have the same rights as all Greencard holders...

Kez

I have a question about this. its a bit confusing. My Cr1 interview is about 1 monht ahead. exactly 1 year 3 days from the day we got married. So i will be getting CR1 i understand that but will I have to get IR1 2 years after the interview or 1 year since it has already been 1 year from the marriage? I am guessing from your writing its 2 years after probably but it doesnt sound fair. one can apply fo K3 which takes about 6-8 months to get, then go to the US act slow and get the interview date about after second anniversary and directly get IR1 , on other hand people who first got CR1 should wait 2 more years. its 2 years vs 3 years total. you know what i mean?

I dont really care for IR1 as long as i have some sort of visa that i can stay with my wife is fine but i was just curious because it sounded unfair.

I think police document and medical are good for 6 months. I remember i read a post of someone who didnt have papers for the interview but just went to the interview and he had no problems. his name was on the list there. but you should double check this.

It usually take 1 hour maybe little longer. but your embassy might be different.

probably not......if you are carefull enough.

good news, she had no trouble and you are together. She got her B1/B2 probably before you filed I130. Because my wife and I tried for B1/b2(as well as F-1) and they said we must wait for our immigrant visa. If I could get the visa, I would have stayed with her in the States for 6 months(thats how long visa allows me). but it didnt happen. she had to come here and live with me instead.

well. my interview date is not so bad however it would be great if it was 1 weak earlier to fit my wifes school schedule. so we emailed Ankara for that purpose. They replied today, they cant give us a sooner date as Ankara embassy is already overloaded.

for you guesstimation of your wifes visa......february is a bit too soon.....assuming you are going to submit DS230. from your writing , your lawyer mostlikely submit it next week someday. That is between 18-22th of december. Give 3+ week for NVC to review them. (usually 4 weeks). your case will be complete on January 18-24th. You will have to wait till february 7th for NVC to schedule your interview(NVC schedules interviews only on the second week of each month.) and now we have the info that Ankara embassy is overloaded mostlikely give appointmants for 2 months ahead. I say her interview will be around march 15-20th.

You are too late for Jan 7th scheduling. if you submit you ds 230 today 15 december....and you are too lucky they review it in record time 2+weeks and be complete by jan 7th. her interview , still slim to none chance for late feb (but possible) but probably early march.. .but there are too many " if" s in this case.

I dont like to say this but I believe mid to late march is most realistic one.

hope you dont hate me now....but I explained my points as I have been through all of this.

have a good time with your wife in the US.......you are almost done...dont worry

its all good then no one really thought of uncivilised ways:)

after a very long and painfull visajourney, the officer at the embassy rejects your visa application and furthermore puts a 3 year ban on your passport. and say some weeks after this, in a nice satuday afternoon you see the very same guy having a coffee at the coffee shop you are passing by. What would you do? lol

Congrats donquijote !!

This is so not fair.. everyone is getting approved.. Look at me.. I am stuck in the middle.. somebody pray for me..

You and me both

Me too

Hey come on:)

Look at mine how long it took!!!!

I am kinda jealous here people get approved in 3 months mine took 4 months. And the NVC process was slower than anyone else's I guess. I started my journey on feb 2nd 06'(filing I-130) and got my interview date for January 23rd 07'. Just a few days less than 1 year!!!! Have I ever complained? ...hmmm ..yea i have lol....

Hope you guys will do better than me and get your visas soon.

thanks a lot

if everything goes well, i will be in the US on 28th of Jan.

I have my interview date available!!! I called NVC yesterday the lady told me they have the date. It was scheduled on the 7th of this month(what a long time to update the system). Its in mid january exactly 2 months and a couple days from when my case was complete. I am sorry for the wrong info above(i told you december 15th) but that was what I really was told.

I think its all different for each nationality and visa type but Canada might be little longer than Ankara as much more applicants from there.

Its really crazy for Abu Dhabi. I guess there are too many applicants from there or the quota is too low. There was about 4800 people which of 1800 were family based got greed card from Ankara embassy last year. I dont have the exact numbers but I believe there were about 7-8 Cr1, 70-80 K1 and 70-80 K3 applicants. DV (lottery people was the majority of these numbers above)

I hope this info helps you to figure out how much longer it may take for you

Substance -------------- 02/10/06 (VSC) ----- 06/02/06 ------------- 11/22/06 ------------- 01/23/07

Interview date now available(updated above)

Medical Exam next.

Hopefully my journey will be over on the 23rd next month. which will make it 365-18=347 days journey(add 3 days for from the marriage)

Good luck everyone!!!

I have my interview date. NVC scheduled it on the 7th of December(they told me they would do it on 15th) Its not as close as I wanted but too bad either. Its in Mid january. My case was completed on November 22nd. The interview is about 2 months and couple days from that date.

unfortunately they dont update their systems instanly, I called them everyday from the 10th trough 24th. My case was complete on the 22nd however 24th was the date I was told the case was complete. The automated system takes couple more days to update.

You are right they dont usually say much. But calling 4-5 times is really nothing if you want to get some info. I called NVC everyday and most times they told me nothing other than you have to allow 2-4 weeks or 4-8 weeks blah blah. But for a couple of times I had happened to happen some nice people who gave me some more info than usuall.

While I was talking to these NVC people , I noticed some of them were really experienced and knew everything. Those probably work on cases and sometimes answer phones I guess. but some of them were nothing more than me, they said they just answer phones and give info from the system, they dont know anything on how process goes. If you have questions , email NVC. Maybe they didnt want to say much. Who knows...

I am also waiting to be scheduled for an interview. I have called NVC several times. The officer told me they schedule interviews on the 15th of december. I know its not the second week of the month but that is the responce I got from her and I asked couple more times to double check if I got it right. Friday is the 15th, call NVC Friday night or Monday, I think we should allow a day or two for NVC to update their systems. Here is how they line up cases. My case was completed on the 22nd of novermber, so people whose cases were complete between 16th and 21st will get an earlier date however my interview should be sooner than the ones compelete at or after 23rd. NVC says they will try to schedule the interviews for the following month which is january in this case, however the number of interviews available limited . NVC does not guarantee a date in january. My embassy is Ankara , the officer said Ankara gives them plenty of date available , mostlikely my interview will be in january or early Feb. But I dont really want to keep my hopes high, during this long visa process I have learnt not to be dissapointed:)

Call back on friday or monday, hopefully you will hear a date.

i was going to say that.....Bluetooth is an industrial specification for wireless personal area networks (PANs). Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras and video game consoles via a secure, globally unlicensed short-range radio frequency.

You are talking about Bluetooth headsets for cell phones(there are such for computers as well). and yes it is very usefull but very shortrange.