dsldesch

Will share me and my wife's story...
Wife and I was engaged and everything was fine. I filed the K1 petition and was approved. Soon after receiving the NOA2 several compounding life events from both our lives and families occurred; medical diagnosis of sickness of loved ones, deaths, job loss, fear of immigration, etc, etc. It seems like any tragic event that could happen, happened.
We decided to call of the engagement and marriage to focus on taking care of things in our lives. But we remained in contact.
And for some reason I never cancelled the K1 application. I don't know why and I can't explain it. I just felt that it didn't feel right for me to cancel it. maybe I was just relying on it to die on it's own.
Anyway,Less than three months later we were back together.
We decided that despite enduring tragic events in our lives and families we wanted to continue being together. I investigated if the K1 petition can be extended when it is pass the 4 month validity. I discovered that the CO can extend it if it is not too expired. We restarted the process and by the time she had her interview it was 15 months AFTER the NOA2.
She arrived in January of this year. We just had wonder Mother's Day dinner this past weekend.
My point is that sometimes when you take a step back, you can still move forward. If your loved one needs time then it may be for the best. And who knows, you may still end up together stronger than ever.
I wish you two the very best of luck.

We received approval on Ap 26, mailing date Ap 29. Card not received yet. Sooooo happy :-)

My fiance and I are up to the point where we can schedule an interview for the K1 visa. However, his parents have just separated, and he's concerned to leave his mom alone during this time. I know the visa is only valid for six months, so if we proceed with scheduling the interview and get the visa, if his mom still needs his support after the six months and he feels the need to stay a little longer before moving to the US, would we be able to extend the validity of the visa without starting the process over?
Neither one of us is sure how this will affect us going forward, but it's better to know all our options before we make decisions we can't reverse.

Hello Everyone. Congratulation to everyone who received NOA2, has interview date scheduled and got visa approved! I had my interview March first and visa was granted. Everything went pretty easy. Today my passport was ready for pick up! Exactly one year after the case was filed.
For those who are still waiting: be patience. And thank you all for your support. We learn from each other. I'll keep you all posted.

My visa was issued today! Woohoo! Best Christmas present by far! Hopefully the big move will occur by mid-January and we will finally be together for good.
We will have to travel to the next county over to get married since we want a simple courthouse wedding and Duval county has stopped offering wedding ceremonies altogether after same-sex marriage was legalized in FL last January.
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate it!

The USEM uses the Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) as their standard operating procedures (SOPs). Section 9 is all about how they handle different kinds of visas. Right now, that part is under construction (online), but the PDF can be found here: http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/87391.pdf
It says:
9 FAM 41.81 N6.2 Validity of a K-1 Petition
An approved K-1 visa petition is valid for a period of four months from the date of USCIS action and may be revalidated by the consular officer any number of times for additional periods of four months from the date of revalidation, provided the officer concludes that the petitioner and the beneficiary remain legally free to marry and continue to intend to marry each other within 90 days after the beneficiary's admission into the United States. However, the longer the period of time since the filing of the petition, the more the consular officer must be concerned about the intentions of the couple, particularly the intentions of the petitioner in the United States. If the officer is not convinced that the U.S. citizen petitioner continues to intend to marry the beneficiary, including instances where no action has been taken on the application for a year (while refused under INA 221(g)), the petition should be returned to the approving office of USCIS with an explanatory memorandum. (See 9 FAM 41.81 PN5 for revalidation procedure.) Here are a few other posts:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/574726-noa-2-expiring-soonwhile-im-still-on-ap/#entry7888884
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/574754-help-i-need-help/

The post above in this thread has links to the instructions and websites, but ...
From Juarez consulate site instructions > http://ciudadjuarez.usconsulate.gov/instructionsk1k4.html
More instructions for Juarez, from travel.state.gov > http://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/K1/CDJ%20-%20Ciudad%20Juarez.pdf

Tom, thank you so much for your informative replies. I cannot express how gracious I am for all your kindness and support.
I have the sour feeling that TSC updates their "normal processing times" with the oldest date such that all petitions prior to that date have been approved, so that all outstanding petitions fall within their listed normal processing times. It's infuriating and borderline unethical, but it limits their accountability and almost entirely strips us of any recourse regarding our petitions, so it makes sense why they would do it if we're not a priority for them.
However, with that being said, it seems random how they're approving cases, so while I suspect most everyone here will be approved within the next month or two (seriously, how could they drag it out onger than that? though I don't really want to know), the order in which people will be approved appears at best random.

I just got an update from USCIS and I felt a strike of panic--what update could possibly come at midnight? Turns out it was letting us know our petition has been sent to the Department of State. Seeing that made me realize how unprepared I've become in staying ahead of the game--grad school in math has taken up all my time, but thankfully fall break starts tomorrow night. Other than the guides and FAQs, are there threads on the forum of particular interest in preparing for the next step of the journey? Especially for couples working through the Mexican consulate?
It's perfectly understandable that USCIS can't acknowledge the cases spoken about here, because for any number of political and common sense reasons, it's irrational for them to do so. However, as others have pointed out, the VJ data is not without errors, and it's only a small sample of the larger number of cases USCIS is working on, and we have no reason to conclude it's a representative sample either (it very well might be, but we have no way to show this).
In any case, trying to point out other approvals on VJ is probably not the best approach while talking with anybody, whether a member of Congress or VJ; rather, it's better to highlight the extreme number of people waiting for extreme amounts of time, and hoping some sly but sincere wording might strike some heartstrings and play a tune that gets them to care, or at least acknowledge, what we're all going through.
Also, for all those who just hit or passed Day 200, 210, etc...our petition was approved on Day 205, so I certainly understand your pain. To be honest, I don't think I realized how much continual stress I was under not knowing anything, stress that I've not felt nearly as strongly since we were approved. Your day is coming. Until then, the best thing you can do is either take the time to focus on mindfulness and accepting the situation for what it is, or putting your stress into contacting representatives and senators to try to put pressure on the USCIS to ask--especially contact newly elected members of Congress, as they stand the most to gain from helping constituents--or do both. Take action, but also take solace in the fact that your days of waiting are numbered, and rather than staring off into an unknown future, focus on all the wonderful things you have right now--something worth fighting for, someone worth fighting for.
It's much easier said than done, but it is possible, and it'll help ease the burden until all of us have been approved.

Hello all, let me clarify Tom's posting as I am the practice dummy that learned a lesson the hard way what happens when you change the appointment too many times.
After you schedule your appointment on USTRAVELDOCS.com, you are permitted two changes thereafter. If you cancel your second change your visa fee is cancelled and you have to pay it again. I screwed myself because I wasn't paying attention when I modified the appointment the second time. It was a mistake that I made, but no matter how much I pleaded with the embassy, they said "we regret to inform you." Mind you this screw up happened within a 30 minute window, but still no sympathy and no help. When I asked, 'well if i can't afford to pay this again, does this mean I cannot bring my beneficiary here? Over a mistake, the government is telling me sorry?" Response "we regret to inform you". I hung up.
So the sage advice is this. When you go to schedule your appointment, think the date through very carefully with your beneficiary. Each country is different of course, but don't just run to take the earliest date only to find out you can't make it.
Today's lesson cost me $265 times two beneficiaries, all to end up taking the same appointment date I had started the morning with.
A very costly lesson indeed.

To everyone here:
Please try to make time to join the DHS ombudsman public teleconference on Tuesday, September 29, 2015; 2:00 - 3:00 P.M. Eastern Time. HOWEVER Please RSVP by Friday, September 25, 2015 to CISOmbudsman.PublicAffairs@hq.dhs.gov.
I'm sorry for the short notice, I just saw this today.
http://www.dhs.gov/ombudsmans-public-teleconference-series
http://www.dhs.gov/case-assistance

Some of these replies are a bit lengthy, so I'm going to refrain from quoting them directly.
CatherineA --
I definitely believe it's a cultural difference. In the US, we tend to prioritize business over pleasure (speciflcally, personal relationships, such as friendships, etc.) and place a significant amount of emphasis on being timely to the second, but in many (if not all) Latin American countries, this is reversed: being "on time" isn't important (the number of times we've had a close call at the airport has made this perfectly clear), while personal relationships have much greater priority over business issues--including, it appears, immigration paperwork.
Harel was practically the same as your fiance with the G-325A. I had to pry all the information out of him, and with his parents in the room, make him confirm their birthdates and places of birth. Even then, we still had to approximate his beginning and ending dates for almost all of his jobs (unfortunately, he's had a lot), and almost all of them lack specific street addresses, because he just couldn't remember (and apparently Google wouldn't help him? *sigh*). He started a new job in April, and it literally wasn't until I sat down with him last week and begged him to give me the employer information that I finally got it, despite asking as soon as he started.
Definitely a cultural issue.
I also understand the Level 5 Meltdowns. We've had a few of those, but they've not been in regards to immigration issues (although, at our worst in arguments, bringing up immigration issues tends to be the most hurtful things we say to each other... *sigh*). I was also frustrated with Skype when things started, but after experiencing the weak internet connections firsthand when we met in person, I gained a touch of compassion for what he's going through. We've also developed excellent communication skills, and while they don't always sidestep arguments, they have allowed us to discuss things calmly afterwards, which has been very helpful. But even so, he still can't fathom the sense of urgency I have about visa issues, that quite frankly, he needs, too. So if I'm able to figure out how to get through to him about this, I'll let you know. Hell, I'll even write a manual that can be added to VJ's FAQ section! "How To Overcome US-Latin Cultural Differences!" Hahaha!
yuna628 --
In our case the passport issue was a complete oversight on my part and (ignorance? lack of focus? insufficient knowledge?) on his. He had previously visited the US in 2012 or 2013 (I'm being too lazy to look it up), so I knew he had a passport, but what I didn't know is that in Mexico passports have varying lengths of validity, at 3, 5, or 10 years, so I thought, hey, I got my passport in 2008, and it's valid until 2018, so this mustn't be an issue. Then we filed and he told me his passport had expired. If I had known it sooner, I would've insisted it was renewed before filing, but we missed the mark, and now we're waiting. He's told me he's going to get it renewed on the fourteenth when he visits his parents next (apparently passports are processed fasted in Queretaro, his hometown, than in Mexico City), and trust me, if it's not done, it won't be pretty.
After hearing about the birth certificate...fiasco you went through, I think I'm going to make a list of things he needs to do, in addition to the passport, when he's at home. There's just too much at stake, and I really wish he'll finally realize this, but I honestly can't say if he'll ever realize how intense this is on us, the petitioners!
This. OMG. THIS.
Every time I'm down here, I go through this, and he knows it bothers me, he knows I'm really introverted and I have social anxieties and it drives me freaking crazy every time I'm like, "What's the plan, so I can mentally prepare myself?" and he's just like "Well...there isn't a plan." For goodness sake, half the arguments we've had--and I mean those Level 5 Meltdowns--have been because we're out with his friends and it pushes me to my limits, and he just can't understand why I'm not comfortable--because I needed a plan to psych myself out.
Thankfully, after this last time when we were literally arguing for three hours outside his friend's apartment, I think it finally sunk in how serious I am when I say I need to know what's happening or I can't handle it. He even voluntarily turned down an offer to go out so it wouldn't be two nights in a row, and after the next time he even checked in to make sure I was comfortable out with his friends. That is genuinely important progress. (=

I pulled the timelines of 100 petitioners who were Approved in the months of July and August, then peeked at their timelines one by one.
Snapshot:
a majority of files leave TSC for NVC in about 7 days after approval.
a majority of files arrive at NVC (from NOA2) in about 14 days, ( so 7 days of travel)
a majority of files are given their new NVC number 3 days after arrival
a majority of files leave NVC for their respective consulate 3 days after getting their number
Summary:
all files have different sequencing, but on the whole, the best guess is NOA2+14+3+3
or if there is a delay in a file leaving TSC, NOA3 (sent to DOS) +7+3+3
That should give you some idea of when to mark your calendar to begin calling for your number, if that is what you wish to do.

Hey everyone came back to this thread to pass along some advice for after NOA2.
1) Calling the NVC to get your case number is a pain. You have to call many times just to get in the line as there phone system can only handle so many active calls at one time. Once you do get in (took about 10 to 15 continues tries in my case) be prepared to wait about an hour to get to a live operator. They are open until midnight eastern which is nice. I just called and put it on speaker once I got through and it wasn't that bad.
2) When you're scheduling an interview, if there is a date open, take it! My partner and I had to continually refresh the page for several days until a block of appointments opened up. We were lucky and got the first appointment on Dec 1st but the appointments were half gone after only the first day. Each embassy only has a certain number of appointments per day and in our case they went quickly. The Ankara Embassy is VERY busy because it deals with Turkey, Iran and a lot of Syrian Refugees so maybe you'll have better luck than me.
Good luck everyone!

Wishing you and Harel an approval very soon, and a smooth journey onwards. I'm hoping that several March filers will get their NOA2 notice tonight, it's been so quiet since the middle of last week. There had to have been some approvals since then that just haven't made it to the system yet due to the IT issue that they seemed to have.We were lucky to be approved at the end of August, and got our case number from NVC today. Very grateful to have made it this far, but getting more impatient than ever. Montreal is notoriously slow at doling out interviews... by the time we can schedule, I suspect November will be fully booked, pushing ours to December. I expect that some of those who are still waiting for their NOA2 may get interviewed before I do, as things move much quicker at other embassies. I can't wait for this entire process to be over!

After the past week...
Unlikely
Source of
Correct
Information
Suckers….!!!
'nuff said...
Wow! I feel better.

Because you have received two differing answers from two different Customer Service Representatives, I am of the opinion that you should request that they look for duplicate files for the separate dates of March 17th and March 23rd.
Taking their job title at face value:
Customer ~ You Have Paid Them Money. Why? (next title word...).
Service ~ You paid for a service, and they cashed the check. They Owe You.
Representative ~ When they speak to you, they are representing the entire organization. Well, .... It Stinks.
Demand Better. Demand Results.
Politeness Always, but not to the point of rolling over and playing dead.
Differing answers is Completely Unacceptable.
Someone should physically put their hands into both 'boxes' and either pull out the file, (or files if there are two) and not give you a 'Go-Away' answer.

I felt the same way shortly after the transfer began, in late April when people with NOA1 dates a month after mine were being approved. I realized it wasn't worth my energy to keep up with those at CSC, or my mental well-being. That's why I left the general March filers thread and moved to this one. It's probably best you do the same and just ignore CSC for the time being... Probably, we all only have a month or two until we receive approvals or RFEs, so it's best, I think, to just keep that in mind and look ahead to preparing for the next steps. You know, putting our power where we can make a difference, rather than squandering it on what can only bring us down.

Some of these replies are a bit lengthy, so I'm going to refrain from quoting them directly.
CatherineA --
I definitely believe it's a cultural difference. In the US, we tend to prioritize business over pleasure (speciflcally, personal relationships, such as friendships, etc.) and place a significant amount of emphasis on being timely to the second, but in many (if not all) Latin American countries, this is reversed: being "on time" isn't important (the number of times we've had a close call at the airport has made this perfectly clear), while personal relationships have much greater priority over business issues--including, it appears, immigration paperwork.
Harel was practically the same as your fiance with the G-325A. I had to pry all the information out of him, and with his parents in the room, make him confirm their birthdates and places of birth. Even then, we still had to approximate his beginning and ending dates for almost all of his jobs (unfortunately, he's had a lot), and almost all of them lack specific street addresses, because he just couldn't remember (and apparently Google wouldn't help him? *sigh*). He started a new job in April, and it literally wasn't until I sat down with him last week and begged him to give me the employer information that I finally got it, despite asking as soon as he started.
Definitely a cultural issue.
I also understand the Level 5 Meltdowns. We've had a few of those, but they've not been in regards to immigration issues (although, at our worst in arguments, bringing up immigration issues tends to be the most hurtful things we say to each other... *sigh*). I was also frustrated with Skype when things started, but after experiencing the weak internet connections firsthand when we met in person, I gained a touch of compassion for what he's going through. We've also developed excellent communication skills, and while they don't always sidestep arguments, they have allowed us to discuss things calmly afterwards, which has been very helpful. But even so, he still can't fathom the sense of urgency I have about visa issues, that quite frankly, he needs, too. So if I'm able to figure out how to get through to him about this, I'll let you know. Hell, I'll even write a manual that can be added to VJ's FAQ section! "How To Overcome US-Latin Cultural Differences!" Hahaha!
yuna628 --
In our case the passport issue was a complete oversight on my part and (ignorance? lack of focus? insufficient knowledge?) on his. He had previously visited the US in 2012 or 2013 (I'm being too lazy to look it up), so I knew he had a passport, but what I didn't know is that in Mexico passports have varying lengths of validity, at 3, 5, or 10 years, so I thought, hey, I got my passport in 2008, and it's valid until 2018, so this mustn't be an issue. Then we filed and he told me his passport had expired. If I had known it sooner, I would've insisted it was renewed before filing, but we missed the mark, and now we're waiting. He's told me he's going to get it renewed on the fourteenth when he visits his parents next (apparently passports are processed fasted in Queretaro, his hometown, than in Mexico City), and trust me, if it's not done, it won't be pretty.
After hearing about the birth certificate...fiasco you went through, I think I'm going to make a list of things he needs to do, in addition to the passport, when he's at home. There's just too much at stake, and I really wish he'll finally realize this, but I honestly can't say if he'll ever realize how intense this is on us, the petitioners!
This. OMG. THIS.
Every time I'm down here, I go through this, and he knows it bothers me, he knows I'm really introverted and I have social anxieties and it drives me freaking crazy every time I'm like, "What's the plan, so I can mentally prepare myself?" and he's just like "Well...there isn't a plan." For goodness sake, half the arguments we've had--and I mean those Level 5 Meltdowns--have been because we're out with his friends and it pushes me to my limits, and he just can't understand why I'm not comfortable--because I needed a plan to psych myself out.
Thankfully, after this last time when we were literally arguing for three hours outside his friend's apartment, I think it finally sunk in how serious I am when I say I need to know what's happening or I can't handle it. He even voluntarily turned down an offer to go out so it wouldn't be two nights in a row, and after the next time he even checked in to make sure I was comfortable out with his friends. That is genuinely important progress. (=

I felt the same way shortly after the transfer began, in late April when people with NOA1 dates a month after mine were being approved. I realized it wasn't worth my energy to keep up with those at CSC, or my mental well-being. That's why I left the general March filers thread and moved to this one. It's probably best you do the same and just ignore CSC for the time being... Probably, we all only have a month or two until we receive approvals or RFEs, so it's best, I think, to just keep that in mind and look ahead to preparing for the next steps. You know, putting our power where we can make a difference, rather than squandering it on what can only bring us down.

I should have been a bit more clear. I meant cultural between US/Canada and Latin America--the person I was replying to has a Mexican fiance and I have a Costa Rican fiance. It's just a really different approach to life in many/most of those countries. I have been reading a bit about adjustment to life in the US for people from Latin American countries, and apparently one of the biggies is our rigidity for processes and procedures that don't seem to make much sense at first. And for me from experience spending a huge amount of time in Central America, the #1 thing that drives me batsh!t crazy is that things are just too laid back. There's never really a plan, for anything, and when there is, just about no one adheres to it. It's not chaos, and it's not lazy, it's just a bit more of a letting life unfold naturally...which certainly has its strong points in theory. But in practice, for me, it's a difficult thing to get used to. I'm really, sincerely not sure that when I was pestering him every day for a month, warning him of this growing backlog, telling him that we'd regret delaying later....I'm not 100% positive that he was picturing life 6 months later and how a one month delay now means an extra month (or more) on the other end. Seriously. And that, in my experience, would be fairly typical of the more laid back "pura vida" thing they've got going on down there.
Luckily, (hopefully), he's learned about how this is very much No Joke, and I definitely know what I'm talking about, so we already have a plan in place to get through all of the stuff he'll need to do for consular phase. I just hope that the plan is stuck to...

Thanks for letting me know. Always glad to learn new things. (:
Apparently I was mistaken (see the quoted response above yours in this post), so you should have nothing to worry about. Sorry to have caused you any concern.

We are a community here, whether Texas or California. If we have friends on this journey who have erroneously marked their processing centers with Texas, it probably is not asking too much for someone to send a gentle email to them and request they update their profiles. I'm happy to do so with direction from someone, but we can work with each other to scrub the data so it helps all of us get to a happy place - The Land of NOA2.
R

Thanks! As far as the request for affidavits goes, I don't think it's an uncommon request. The request was part of the form letter that we received scheduling the interview. It also occurred to me that this request could be a problem for some same-sex couples in cases when there are real acceptance issues on one or both sides of the family. Our interviewer was not particularly "warm and fuzzy," so I did not raise this issue with her as I had no idea what her views on same-sex marriage were and it wasn't relevant to our situation. If this situation were to arise, however, I would alert USCIS in advance of the interview and be prepared to provide affidavits from close friends, witnesses to your wedding, etc. who can make the same statements.

Excuse me what? End of Jan to May 1 isn't fast to you!?!?? Even taking into consideration a mistake that you made (RFE?). Looking at your timeline, you were 9 weeks from NOA1 to your RFE. If you hadn't made a mistake in your petition, you'd have been 9 weeks from NOA1 to NOA2. TSC is averaging 30 weeks. 3.5 times longer. For the same fees and everything. And you think that 9 weeks "isn't fast". What do you think about 30?
No, it's not crazy "did they even read the file" 4 to 10 day turnover, but 9 weeks is WELL within what you were told to expect when you signed up. In fact, it's less than half the time you were told. And 30 weeks is 50% longer than we were told.
Holy heck, I only wish I could have such problems. Seriously,