elvenshadow

OK, hopefully that will cover everything that I need to know once I am able to actually fill out the 260. Thanks for the help!

Visa approved! Everything went very well! Thank you to everyone on this forum that has answered my questions and gave advice. I wish you all the best. If anyone ever has a question, feel free to PM me and I will do my best to help out. I will write more details on my timeline about the interview later.

I think for USCIS, if you both are married and live abroad, you have a very high chance of getting an expedite. For NVC stage to embassy, I think some embassies are just less busy than others. Since NVC is so backed up right now, it actually probably speeds things up for everyone if some embassies can take some cases early to lessen the burden on NVC, resulting in NVC hopefully being able to process things more quickly.

I just thought I would let you all know what happened in case anyone is curious.
I called NVC. Got a really nice operator but forgot her name. She told me that she actually wasn't sure about my questions regarding IV and DS-260 so she put me on hold for a couple of minutes and confirmed with her supervisor. It turns out that I had to pay the IV online. I have now paid the fee and it says IN PROCESS but I am still unable to do DS-260. Most likely I have to wait for the payment to clear which will probably take a couple of days.
Here's the part that makes things complicated. My AoS packet physically arrived at the NVC in early July but they still haven't actually even looked at it. They are have no information on any checklists or anything. So, they will just be sending that entire packet directly back to us and we have to bring it to the interview along with the IV packet. The crazy part is that since they are so backed up, they won't even be able to physically ship it out to me until September 10th. So, the operator told me that it would most likely be best to simply remake the entire AoS packet to bring to the interview. Luckily it contained no original documents that I can't get again but I will need to print and sign all forms and everything again. Judging by another user's timeline who recently also was expedited to Tokyo embassy, the interview will probably be roughly a month from the date they approved the expedite which was 3 days ago... so I think I will have to be on the safe side and re-gather all of the AoS documents. It is kind of a pain but I honestly would rather do that again 10 times than have to wait several more months.
Regarding the other questions I asked:
She said if ESTA visitors get temporary Alien Numbers that are later deleted, she said say yes to the question and then mark "do not know" next the number
She also said to put the cell phone number in rather than check "does not apply"
Knowing all that, I think we are pretty much good to go other than gathering everything again. Hopefully we don't make any mistakes.

The DS-261 is completely pointless anyway. I bet 99.9% of the people who don't use a lawyer just have the petitioner as the main representative / person who needs to be contacted (aside from the beneficiary) anyway. You already give them your email when you call to get the case number so what's even the point? It was obviously just created in the first place so that they can buy themselves time to process cases when things get too backed up (like right now.) If they are so backed up, why don't they just hire more people? There are enough people out there looking for jobs right now and processing a case can't honestly be that hard. Any of us who had to go through this process seems to know more than some of the operators at NVC even! It's insane.

The DS-261 is completely pointless anyway. I bet 99.9% of the people who don't use a lawyer just have the petitioner as the main representative / person who needs to be contacted (aside from the beneficiary) anyway. You already give them your email when you call to get the case number so what's even the point? It was obviously just created in the first place so that they can buy themselves time to process cases when things get too backed up (like right now.) If they are so backed up, why don't they just hire more people? There are enough people out there looking for jobs right now and processing a case can't honestly be that hard. Any of us who had to go through this process seems to know more than some of the operators at NVC even! It's insane.

OK, I will do my best to be patient. I know everyone has been waiting a very long time.
Quick question. My father is the joint sponsor for AoS. He was born in Poland. To prove US citizenship, we are sending a copy of his naturalization papers and a copy of the biographical pages of his passport. Do you think only the biographical pages are enough or should we send copies of EVERY page?

Called and got our case number today! I tried to fill out the DS-261 but it says that further processing on our case is not available at this time. I read in the wiki that it can take up to a week until you can do DS-261. How long has it been taking for people lately?

Called and got our case number today! I tried to fill out the DS-261 but it says that further processing on our case is not available at this time. I read in the wiki that it can take up to a week until you can do DS-261. How long has it been taking for people lately?

Ah so there's a June thread now. 2 days and already on page 15? I don't know if I have the time to keep up with this thread lol

Ah so there's a June thread now. 2 days and already on page 15? I don't know if I have the time to keep up with this thread lol

I am in the same situation as you. I am living abroad and my job will end when I move back to the US. You have to write your current annual income as $0. I will be doing the same and using a joint sponsor and showing assets. I suggest you do the same.
From the NVC website:
“Can a credible offer of employment for the visa applicant replace or supplement an insufficient Affidavit of Support?
No, the law does not recognize offers of employment in place of the I-864.
A job offer may show ability of the applicant to overcome ineligibility as a public charge, but does not meet any I-864 requirement.”

Yea, honestly I am just lucky as hell. I did a bit of research on the process just a little less than a year ago and read that I can do DCF and the process takes like 5 months or so total and so I sorta put it off not realizing how brutal this whole thing really is. Then when I decided to start the process in late March, I got a harsh wake up call when I realized the info I read was out dated and that DCF in Japan was killed off sometime in 2011 and that I was stuck filing to the lockbox. I promised my whole family at our US wedding last August that we would return in one year after living in Japan for 7 years, and when I realized that I probably would need to stay in Japan one more year, I was pretty shocked. It was kind of an emotional roller coaster not knowing what is going on but things ended up working out that they are now expediting overseas filers and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Granted, things are still not gong to plan 100% and I may need to be unemployed for 2 months but it's better than leaving my wife behind. We have enough saved up so we will live. It's just that she really wants a baby soon but we would rather have it in the US because it will just be easier and she doesn't wanna fly while she is pregnant, so we will do what we have to to make it back this year.
I truly do feel for the people who are forced to take the long way though. If I had read up properly when I first started researching and applied nearly a year ago, I may not have even gotten NoA2 yet due to the way this unbalanced system seems to work. So, in other words, I just got lucky. Sorry to be "that guy". I will do my best to help answer other people's questions on here though. I'm far from an expert but it's the least I can do.

Yea, honestly I am just lucky as hell. I did a bit of research on the process just a little less than a year ago and read that I can do DCF and the process takes like 5 months or so total and so I sorta put it off not realizing how brutal this whole thing really is. Then when I decided to start the process in late March, I got a harsh wake up call when I realized the info I read was out dated and that DCF in Japan was killed off sometime in 2011 and that I was stuck filing to the lockbox. I promised my whole family at our US wedding last August that we would return in one year after living in Japan for 7 years, and when I realized that I probably would need to stay in Japan one more year, I was pretty shocked. It was kind of an emotional roller coaster not knowing what is going on but things ended up working out that they are now expediting overseas filers and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Granted, things are still not gong to plan 100% and I may need to be unemployed for 2 months but it's better than leaving my wife behind. We have enough saved up so we will live. It's just that she really wants a baby soon but we would rather have it in the US because it will just be easier and she doesn't wanna fly while she is pregnant, so we will do what we have to to make it back this year.
I truly do feel for the people who are forced to take the long way though. If I had read up properly when I first started researching and applied nearly a year ago, I may not have even gotten NoA2 yet due to the way this unbalanced system seems to work. So, in other words, I just got lucky. Sorry to be "that guy". I will do my best to help answer other people's questions on here though. I'm far from an expert but it's the least I can do.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to derail this thread with the 22 days thing. The only reason I posted it was because it was relevant to my question about providing extra proof of marriage to NVC. I thought this was common knowledge now but I guess many people were still not aware.
I think those of you who filed in 2013 just got really unlucky since things were really backed up around that time. The government shutdown at the end of last year also surely delayed things a bit.
Anyway, I certainly wasn’t trying to brag. I can understand your frustration and I certainly am very grateful that I do not need to wait much longer since I need to leave Japan by the end of October since I will not re-contract on my job here which ends on July 31st.
I honestly hope things go smoothly for all of your from here on out. Sorry to be one of “those guys”.

Oh, of course I plan to go to the interview equipped to max capacity. I'm going to bring just about everything I can think of just in case. There's no consequence for bringing tons of extra stuff to the interview. If they don't need it, then I bring it home and that's that. As long as we walk out of the embassy with an approval, then I am doing whatever it takes to get it.

Pushbrk, thank you. So I guess we can just leave it as is with the roman alphabet signature. It doesn't look much like a signature but I guess it works. Maybe we just have to be consistent from this point on and make sure that she keeps signing any future documents the same way.
mrsgi65on, to answer your questions
yes, we got married here in Japan and live here together. I have lived here for nearly 7 years. I am on her koseki. Yes, she took my surname which is why her signature would differ from what is in her passport.
At this point, it seems like getting a new passport would just be pointless. More paperwork, money and time. The one she has now is perfectly legal and valid. I would rather not risk having the processing of a new passport slow down the I-130 process.
We did type her name on the form in the section that asks for how it is written in her native language in Japanese, so at least that is there.
Yes, I guess we are going for a CR-1 (been legally married about 1 year and 9 months) since everyone says K3 is futile. So, I don't really think there is any better option.

I just thought I would follow up and mention that my father called USCIS and asked what to do about the signature in this case on the G-325A. They said that my wife should sign in both English and Japanese. So, I think we will do that to be safe.

Hi. When my Japanese wife signs her G-325A, I figured that she should sign her name using English. She has no English "signature" so she just wrote her name in pen using English letters. Since pretty much every other legal document that she has ever signed has her signature written in Japanese, would it be a good or bad idea to also write her usual signature in Japanese under or next to the English one?
Has anyone else from countries where the primary language is not English dealt with this before? Thank you.