StrawberryKiss

20 hours ago, Duffield said:

I already submitted my I-130 4 months ago and I have been reading that people have been getting denied due to lack of evidence. Can I somehow continue to add more evidence as it becomes available? All I had in there was 4 memorandoms from people that know the both of us. I did not add any pictures, or health insurance information. It is currently actively being reviewed. Thanks in advance for any information.

We added our child’s birth certificate as a strong piece of evidence while our case was being actively reviewed. Just uploaded it under “additional documents” if I remember correctly. Wasn’t a problem at all, but still took almost another 4 months until we got NOA 2. Not sure if it mattered because we had been married for 8 years and living together stateside and abroad.
Just add the additional evidence now. You got nothing to lose. Good luck! 

3 hours ago, Moondaze said:

Niiice, when did you submit btw ?

 

i resubmitted July 13

July 30. So still some time to go 😕

4 hours ago, Moondaze said:

Any July out there recently DQed?

I’ve seen a July 8 date get reviewed last week 

Sometimes there’s a glitch in the USCIS system and it says “invalid date”. Just keep checking on it in the following days. 
Which processing center did your case get assigned to? That could explain the long wait. 
 

edit: so we can help you better. 

11 minutes ago, Moondaze said:

 
 

hope you get DQ’d soon!!! I’m hoping they update today the timeframes!

Indeed. I hope they’re not using Labor Day as an excuse to not update the page this week. 

6 hours ago, Marcelo & Ciara said:

We are about to file the I-130/130A forms online but I have a couple questions if anyone is able to answer them - I would greatly appreciate any help in advance!

1.  I'm curious to know how the signing of both documents work? I've read previously that you e-sign is this still an available feature? 

2. Also read that someone who uploaded their supporting pictures uploaded them t off of a word doc (PDF) is this also still a good way to submit the photos? (OG post was from 2020)

3. And third how do I go about submitting my passport photos that are required?

4. For my husband who is currently living abroad - does he have to e-sign the I-130A and does he have to submit passport photos - if so how?

 

Again thank you so much in advance! Any help is greatly appreciated!

1. I’ve seen people on here having issues with electronic signatures. Sometimes they’re accepted, sometimes they’re not (e.g. at NVC). I’d actually sign the form myself (that’s what we did).

2. yes, that’s the most practical way since you wanna have your photo evidence in one place and the PDF can also be compressed to fit the max. size of 2 MB.

3. Either take digital pictures and cut them to 2”x2” or scan actual physical passport pictures and upload them. 
 

4. if the spouse is abroad, he doesn’t have to sign the I-130A. He needs to submit passport photos too (see #3).  

59 minutes ago, RuthJo said:

thank you for replying, will it take 2 months for them to review the new uploaded documents?

Sorry, usually, it will. Maybe even longer depending on how bad the backlog at nvc is since you enter the queue again as if you were submitting documents for the first time on that day. You can look up the processing time on here: 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/nvc-timeframes.html

It says NVC is currently working on June 23 submissions as of last Monday. I’ve seen a July 8 submission already get reviewed though. 

12 hours ago, Aquilina said:

I'm sorry but why mentioning she doesn't shave? 😐

Good point. I found that very inappropriate as well!!!

3 hours ago, Saqib-s said:

We had our documents reviewed today, our submission date was 8th July.

 

We have been asked to provide additional documents:

-2020 W2s for petitioner (non available as foreign earned) and joint sponsor (retired) 

-divorce decree for Petitioner previous marriage  

Thank you for letting us know! I hope NVC will pick up its speed from the spring/early summer time again, so you won’t have to wait so long. 

I’m sorry you’re going through this. At this point it’s merely a marriage issue, but not an immigration issue anymore. You had proof and convinced USCIS and the consular officer that it was a bona fide relationship/marriage. Therefore, and in general, it’s hard to get an annulment. 
Does your wife get proper medication for being bipolar? Maybe her issues have to do with that. I can’t judge it, nobody can, but if you feel like it’s not worth fighting anymore, get a good divorce lawyer, protect yourself from any false accusations (e.g. domestic violence) and move on with your life. I wish you all the best. 

Save your time and money because we (German beneficiary, Texan petitioner) never did that. A marriage is a marriage and counts worldwide. I got my first green card without any problems, now we’re both living in Germany wanting to move back to TX and my petition got approved again. I’d just make sure to get enough international (= multilingual or English) marriage certificates for future purposes. But we really never registered our marriage anywhere in Texas (we got married in Germany). 

9 hours ago, adventures said:

so do you know if everyone who gets approved gets an "actively reviewed" notification before receiving NOA2? because if I take your guys' notifications as a guideline, it would take at least another 6 months for us even if I got that notification tomorrow...

 

ohh man..  that doesn't sound like good news to me...  Also we did my last childs CRBA interview right after sending in the I-130 in April but nothing happened.

From what I’ve seen, the status always changes from “case received” to “case is being actively reviewed” before it finally gets approved, denied or you receive an RFE. For some people, the date of this status apparently never changed (or they didn’t notice). In our case, the date (“As of X, we are actively reviewing your case…”) got updated twice (January, then July). 

10 minutes ago, adventures said:

sadly, that doesn't seem to work anymore :(.  https://old.reddit.com/r/USCIS/comments/jrq3q4/as_of_today_you_can_no_longer_get_through_to_a/

But @StrawberryKiss. Your timeline seems to suggest that you asked Emma later than the above reddit thread was created?(I tried with Emma  and it didn't work, at least today...). maybe I should contact them by phone....

What a bummer! Give it another try! I definitely asked Emma in April and May and it worked! The live agent couldn’t (wasn’t allowed to?) tell me why or when exactly our case got transferred, but could confirm the transfer itself. And on the bottom of our NOA 2 it did say CSC, and not NSC anymore. 
If asking Emma doesn’t work, then I’d call. But sometimes you have to wait for over an hour to get ahold of someone. 
 

edit: Follow Strawberrymermaid’s advice. You first have to select the category “case status”, then type in “speak to live agent”, then ask about the transfer or service center. Ask Emma only works during the operating hours of USCIS and not on weekends. Just be persistent. 
Our case stats “being reviewed” got updated twice as well. Somehow, our case magically got pushed by our child’s CRBA interview in Frankfurt. I’ve seen that happen to a few people on VJ. 

Hi, fellow German here  

It does sound like your case got transferred.
We were in the same situation. Filed online, got assigned to Nebraska (per online status and NOA 1), got a super-safe case (married over 8 years, 1 child, lived together both in the US and Germany for several years), saw other people get approved after 4 months and started wondering. So we started investigating and found out that our case got transferred to California without any notice. You can try finding out by “asking Emma” on the USCIS website and keep typing that you want to speak to a representative/live agent (or that you need technical assistance - worked for some at least). We were crushed due to the processing times (23.5 - 30.5 months), but got approved after 7 months eventually, which is technically still within the processing times of Nebraska (1 - 7 months) when compared. 
Btw, the only change in status we got between NOA 1 and 2 was that our case was being “actively reviewed”. However, it kept saying that for 6.5 months, so it’s not always a safe indicator that NOA 2 is going to come around soon. 
Good luck on your visa journey!

39 minutes ago, KKOS said:

sorry I mean at the ceac account. Is currently showing submitted for me. Does it usually change to in review or something?

From what I’ve seen, “submitted” will change to “accepted” for all your documents and you’ll have a new message from NVC on CEAC saying that everything has been accepted and that you’re now documentarily qualified. 

7 hours ago, Joe Kano said:

The OP asked about sending money from USA to Philippines.

 

Even doing the math sending 20K to the USA from Germany your looking at $82 fee from Wise still about double what it would cost to a international wire transfer from Germany to USA.  Again your math doesn't add up

 

Wise, Formerly TransferWise: Online Money Transfers | International Banking Features

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok. Thanks for doing the math again I guess 😄

2 hours ago, Joe Kano said:

I am doing the math what am I missing.

 

I sent 20K USD couple years ago through Bank Of America,  Wise is saying it $63 so double that your looking at $126 for $18K.  Bank of America charges  $35 since I sent the money in Philipines peso.  I am sure they had to pay a small amount in Philippines or incoming fee say around $15 USD. 

 

So I can go to my Bank and and send $20K USD and it gonna cost $40 USD, versus having to use Wire and do two different transactions since they only allow $9,000 + USD per transfer, I will be paying at least $126 going thru wire.

 

$40 vs $126 means Wire is 3x more expensive, and if you sending larger amounts then it really stupid expensive

Different situation. I sent money from Germany to the US. Can’t compare to Bank of America because I used Deutsche Bank at that time. Sorry I made you do the math 😄 I guess it depends on which bank you’re using because each one has different transfer fees. 

42 minutes ago, Adventine said:

We've been using Wise (formerly TransferWise) for some years now and are satisfied with the service.

I agree. Can really recommend Wise and saved a lot of money by not using my bank‘s regular wire transfer and having to pay for their transfer fees. 

Those old posts refer to the ancient times when you still had to submit everything to NVC in paper form. I don’t see how they could lose docs now as you upload everything digitally in your personal CEAC account where it’s saved.
We didn’t do it, but if you choose to label your docs, the NVC case number should be sufficient. 

I just saw someone on here with a July 2 date get DQ’d, which gives me some hope 

edit: Kide was a few seconds faster  but that’s the post I was referring to 

Our case got “actively” 🙄 reviewed for 6.5 months until it was finally approved. Watch for the date though. If it’s updated, you’ll probably get approved within the next two days. 

5 minutes ago, VinnyH said:

Naive question, but still asking as I might be concerned at some point.

 

OP indicated that she has been living in China for the last 3 years or so, and then Tunisia recently.

 

Doesn't the CR-1 visa require that the U.S. citizen spouse/sponsor be resident of the U.S. (having a domicile in the U.S.)? I just looked at the Dept. of State webpage and am confused (see screenshots below). The fact that the OP paid her taxes in the U.S. is not necessarily a proof of being a resident of the U.S. since filing taxes with the IRS is an obligation of every U.S. citizens worldwide regardless of where they live.

 

I am asking because we are considering moving back to France at some point to raise our kids, but should we decide to come back to the U.S., I don't know whether I need to move back first to the U.S. in order to be a resident physically, before sponsoring my hubby for the IR-1 (we have been married for 7-yrs now, so more than the 2-yrs threshold separating the CR-1 from the IR-1).

 

Thanks

VinnyH

 

No, you don’t have to be a current resident in order to petition. The USC needs to show intent to re-establish his/her domicile in the US when filing the I-130 from abroad (at the NVC stage when submitting AOS). 

2 hours ago, Villanelle said:

Again do not file the 130 stateside. First attempt to get permission for DCF. If denied you then would file the 130 to the lockbox.

Luckily, you can even file the I-130 online now and don’t have to send all the documents to the lockbox via snail mail anymore in case your request for DCF gets denied. 

On 8/22/2021 at 2:25 AM, top_secret said:

Well this last week there was certainly more chatter then we have seen in a while from people whos document were being reviewed.  It kind of feels like there may have been some meaningful progress this week compared to the last couple of months.  I saw reported quite a few June 15 through June 17.  A handful of June 18 through June 20.  I think one June 21, one June 23, and one June 27.  But then I also know of a fair number  of June 21+ cases that remain unreviewed, of course including our June 25 resubmission so I will  count those as outliers.  So given what information I have managed to scrape up, for wagering purposes, I'm placing my bet on this Mondays posted "reviewing date" being,,,, June 21.  Which would put our case within striking distance next week.

I wish you were right  but Maryn’s docs got reviewed and her submission date was June 20. So who knows how accurate the dates on the website are…

6 hours ago, Lee1303 said:

I’m using a computer and Mozilla . Also the sample has have you attended any educational institution a secondary school level or above mine does not. Please which browser is the best?

No, neither previous work nor secondary/college education appeared in my DS-260 online on CEAC. I filled it out about 4 weeks ago. I only had to provide previous work places on form I-130A (spousal visa petitioned by a US citizen).