Al and Cherry

Does anybody have information on how fast a visa can be ready after k1 interview. I understand it can be picked up at the Mall a few business days later. Thank you for your time!

Our Status at NVC is 'Ready" and we have a case number from Manila Embassy... We do not have a confirmation paper. Will St Lukes still perform the medical exam? It states we must bring confirmation letter, but many post they tell them they have case number verbal. Thank you very much for your assistance.

Hi Everybody, Hoping you can help me. My finance and I have finally gotten our paperwork to the Manila embassy and the online system indicates that the status is "Ready". I have encouraged my fiancé to pay her k1 fee and get an interview date, but she indicates that she MUST wait for a confirmation letter. Does anybody have any information about this confirmation letter that she is talking about? I see to pay the fee she must print out a receipt to take to the bank....but Confirmation letter... She also indicated that the fee is only good for 2 weeks and that it should be paid just before interview which seems crazy. We have received nothing in writing, we have a case # verbally after I called NVS, and checked online to verify our case is READY status... Any help on now what? Many thanks!

In Oct of 2014 I received an RFE for a passport photo of myself (I am the petitioner). I knew that that I had included the correct photos from the beginning as I'm using an attorney for the process, but with that said the next day I had two more passport photos taken and went to my lawyers office. he was waiting for me and we put the photos inside an express mail envelop and together dropped it in the mail box. A week later I was notified they received my package. Two weeks later my petition was denied because according to them the photo was not sent in the package. My attorney contacted USCIS (CSC) and they then reopened our case. Just like the author on this thread they send me a message that they will get back to me by the end of December.

My option was to file a letter of withdraw an start over... I have chosen to see what will happen with the reopening. Yes I got my congressman to get involved and its funny but USCIS would give them any new information as well.

We are stuck and waiting each day for a new letter to be sent.

Has anybody else been down this road? I've read a few times here on this post to withdrawal and then get married and fine a new petition for a spouse. I'm not giving up yet...

I'm pretty upset about this issue when twice I made sure and my lawyer made sure all documents were sent.

Any hope at there? Any others been here?

Hank from all those months i was waiting i called and email USICS 3 times a month ..and also emailed n wrote a letters to the contacts below.. they gave me the same answer..so thats why my case was stuck in background check but why so long i ask them but they couldn't give me an answer. im just so glad the background check is over n they are moving forward on my case...

donald.W.neufeld@uscis.dhs.gov (Director of USCIS operation )

susan.k.arroyo@uscis.dhs.gov (Chief of Staff, Department of Homeland Security)

SCOPSSCATA

CSC NCSC Follow Up1KM2TD3NC

Office of the Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman Homeland Security

From all does that i contact above all there answers to me where the same: read below

Thank you for your inquiry. The processing time for your case is delayed because required background checks remain pending. Until we receive the results of these background checks, we cannot move forward on your case. Please be assured that we will make every effort to make a decision on your case as soon as the background checks are complete .....

Background checks.... FBI responds within a day, airlines have terrorist watch list at the counter.. This is just gov employee's over staying their breaks..

Gosh I so hope this get cleared up for you soon. A least one other poster indicates to NOT use a lawyer, however I have read n... amount of other postings whereas missing documents, wrong documents and a other issues suggests to me to use a good lawyer. I used one and even after going through the check off sheet with him, I received an RFE for "one photograph" that was checked off on the sheet. USCIS looses things all the time. They make tons of mistakes. When my congressman inquired into my case they responded with the wrong name for my fiancé...

Fact is folks USCIS is full of people doing nothing more than data entry with very few exceptions... checking forms. They could all be replaced with a good website.

More and more and more of us are just caught in limbo, a brick wall for information and no help other than a person on the phone reading to us what we can read on their website hiding behind phony timelines that they themselves develop. WRITE and complain to your congressman. If we all write and complain complain complain then as a whole we will have an impact. Don't be sheepel and do not just accept the gov employee B.S. demand service... you paid your fees, you paid your taxes, you turned in your qualifications... this is just unacceptable. Call your congressmans office and complain (2 minutes of time) do it weekly.

I hope you get this cleared up and you are with your finance soon... I get it... I feel bad as I complain after only a few months I can't even think of over a year before they tell me the wrong form was submitted. WoW.

These folks at USCIS are little more than glorified data entry, they could be replaced by a postal clerk or a smart website. Background checks, that would be on you.

The hold up is that they are gov workers who could truly care less...

I would encourage you to write write write write your congressman(woman), senator, president and let them know as a taxpayer this is crazy. Keeping families apart is un-American.

The more of us (and our families and friends) that will raise a voice the better the chance we can get this crazy system changed....

Received an RFE for one photo that I provided the next day. CSC has acknowledge the receipt of the RFE. Does anybody have any idea how much additional time this will add to the review? Seem to be getting passed by for our NOA2. Thanks in advance wishing everybody together for the holiday!

I think there has been a lot of very good business council provided here. To show discrimination you are going to need to show that it has happened on more than one occasion and maybe you'll need to attached a protected class as well. Not an easy task.

Might be best to consider a new position at another firm where you wife will be much more appreciated for her skills.

Wishing you the very best! Please encourage your wife that not all Americans are nasty folks... there are many good employers out there

God Bless

...and it's only been 2 months. Sorry if this is a silly post (or if it is in the wrong place - is there a "Waiting Forever" forum?), but what have others done to pass the time between K1 NOA1 and NOA2?

Vin and I live about 30 minutes from each other (Niagara Falls ON/Buffalo NY) so we can see each other every day, but man it would be nice to just live together.

We all are in the same boat and miss our loved ones very much. I am happy for you that you can see and spend time with them. I would guess that 99% of us cannot, so to hear that you can makes me happy ... at least one of us can enjoy some normalcy. Most of live in a world of Skype and email... I write my fiancé an email everyday as part of a journal. I think the hard part is not being able to share the little things in life on a daily basis..

Personally, I find this wait to be very tragic. I encourage everybody to write their congressman/woman a letter in a very polite way. Our country should be supporting marriage and family isn't that 1/2 of their pitch to us. It's obvious that they need more people in these centers to keep up with the demand. Our nation always has cash on hand to bomb or build the newest space vehicle. The world has gone global and I doubt that your representative would like to be away from their spouse for 9 months to a year. The NOA1 to NOA2 is the most frustrating and it looks to me as an educated person that the work that ultimately done is checking to make sure your documents are correct... This could be done at the post office. Postal employees already do passport work, why cannot they be cross trained for initial work here? This is my message to our congress.

So encourage you to write a polite letter.

In closing, wishing you the very best... I hope you are truly and forever reunited with your loved one very soon.

God bless..

I did look at Texas and I can truly understand the thoughts and concerns of those who are processing at this facility. I cannot explain why Philippines is obviously being processed there more so than others. I don't have any inside information. I do know that a few months back here in the Southwest (I am in Arizona) the boarder states found themselves with thousands of refuges from Latin America all of them it seems to be minors. There is a special clause in the immigration laws that does something to provide them the ability to stay. Again I'm not a lawyer. Those children MUST be getting documented somewhere? Knowing our government somebody is creating paperwork for them and I'll "###/u/me" that Texas has picked up a lot of that work as most of them did cross into Texas. This is only an educated guess.

Once again wishing everybody the very best and that you are reunited with your loved ones very soon!!!

Hi Glenn, I was just looking at the posting and thinking about changing only because VJ is taking some formatting liberties here.

Column 1...... Number of couples

Column 2...... Total days for these couples to achieve NOA1 to NOA2 example... Bob & Sue 10 days, Jack & Jill 20 days... Col 1 = 2 and col 2 = 30

column 3 is the average (dividing col 2 by col 1)

No magic in the figures... very simple things.

I also want to note that my study was conduct only on CSC...

Hope this helps you and everybody else understand the positing....

God bless and hope you and your loved one have a speedy reunion!!!

Al

I really didn't apply any magic here. I screen scrapped 150 entries form VJ. Yes you are correct ... my data is limited to those in CSC. I then computed the days between NOA1 and NOA2. I removed countries that have only one couple processing. The I did a simple average. There seems to be the feeling that the Philippines processes faster than other countries, but I can't find that in the numbers. I went back and did a similar study from data from a year ago and found about the same figures. I also looked at the countries over all and the Philippines represents on a consistent basis about 19-20% of entries in VJ. I think many people see couples representing there popping up for interviews etc and assume they are moving faster when the numbers are just not showing that when the data is checked. I am so happy to send you my excel sheets if you want to go through them yourself. As far as assigning priorities because of hurricanes or other things... I have NO data on that and there does not seem to be anything published about such other than speculation. I cannot incorporate speculation into the figures. I would also state that there are things in the process that I have no idea about ... there is not much information describing what is happening at the service centers. The short here is that I wish you and your partner a speedy reunion! God bless.

I can only tell you what the numbers are... I didn't make any of this up Looks like yours is taking longer than average... Have no idea what to tell you except that I feel your pain and I'm sorry that we are both going through these long waits. I truly hope that your NOA2 comes through very soon. God Bless..

Hi Everybody,

last week I grabbed 150 entries from VJ whereas the couples had both NOA1 and NOA2 (all are at CSC). I computed the days it took and created averages by country. I did eliminate countries where there was only one entry. Here is what I came up with.... VJ is just a sample, but for those who took statistics then a good sample is a reasonable example of the overall time.

Count Total Days Average Days Country 3 68 23 Cuba 2 86 43 Australia 3 131 44 Romania 2 90 45 Haiti 2 94 47 Laos 5 290 58 Russia 2 118 59 Brazil 3 177 59 Germany 2 119 60 Japan 6 361 60 Ukraine 4 254 64 India 2 128 64 Pakistan 5 336 67 Netherlands 7 491 70 China 3 211 70 Spain 16 1132 71 United Kingdom 3 216 72 Sweden 30 2195 73 Philippines 2 152 76 Poland 2 154 77 Nigeria 8 642 80 Canada 4 329 82 Mexico 2 182 91 Jamaica 2 208 104 Colombia

God Bless and I hope you are reunited very soon! It's hard on all of us. Please write to your representative in congress. Much of this paperwork could be done at the post office... They are processing less letter and just like handing them the passport business no reason they could not do the work getting the documents ready for NVC. Just my opinion.

I'm sure it's been asked before, I am just curious.

TIA

I recently (last week) grabbed 150 entries from VJ whereas they had posted both NOA1 and NOA2's. I then removed the countries that only had one entry. Finally I computed the average wait time by country. Here is what EXCEL came up with... as you will see the rumor that the Philippines is faster actually does not pan out. I would truly happy if that was the case! But the facts are the facts.... Hope this helps

Count Total Days Average Days Country 3 68 23 Cuba 2 86 43 Australia 3 131 44 Romania 2 90 45 Haiti 2 94 47 Laos 5 290 58 Russia 2 118 59 Brazil 3 177 59 Germany 2 119 60 Japan 6 361 60 Ukraine 4 254 64 India 2 128 64 Pakistan 5 336 67 Netherlands 7 491 70 China 3 211 70 Spain 16 1132 71 United Kingdom 3 216 72 Sweden 30 2195 73 Philippines 2 152 76 Poland 2 154 77 Nigeria 8 642 80 Canada 4 329 82 Mexico 2 182 91 Jamaica 2 208 104 Colombia

As you will see the Philippines is nearer the bottom in terms of length of time. The best is Cuba for some reason. I wish you and your loved one the very best and hope you and all readers are reunited as soon as possible. I encourage you and everybody else to write a polite letter to their representative from congress... The separation time for families is just terrible on all of us and for the most part the time is used to check to see if paperwork is in order. That could be done at the post office. Grrrrrrr Very best to all of you.... God Bless

Its been 40 days since NVC received our IV Package. I know we're not at the 60 business day standard statement that NVC tells us ever week we call, but regardless, 60 days business days for each document (2.5 months) has been a tough wait. I know a lot of you are in the same boat, but I just needed to vent a bit. Been trying to be as patient as possible, trying to distract myself as much as possible from not being with my wife.

Best of luck to everyone on this forum going through the process. The support and advice I've gotten from here has been great, and I'm glad I could be part of this community.

I always encourage everybody to write a very polite letter to their congressman/woman. Most all of this checking could be done by a post office worker. Considering the amount of downturn in USPS work and the increase in immigration why not send most of this to your local post office. Today the USPS does the bulk of the work for a passport and from what I can see 90% of the immigration work is making sure you have your documents in correct order and most likely entering a few things into a computer. There are many ways this situation could be accelerated, however congress really is not looking here. We are ALL in the same position ALL of us and as individuals we are a small voice, but together we are a large noise. Many of live for Skype and email and that is not family oriented as most of our congress claims to be so lets help them get motivated. Lets get on their radar and part of the upcoming immigration reform is to speed this process once and for all. While it might not help US who are here today, think of those that follow us in months and years to come.

God bless everybody and I wish all of you to be with your loved ones as soon as possible.

You make some good points but I think immigration spending is already at an all time high, as are numbers of immigrants, (9.6 million in 1970 to 40.8 million in 2012). The problem is volume vs budget, I don't think they are likely to increase spending on a relativlely low priority area (for govt) such as immigration visas. This is not to say the system couldn't be simplified and improved. TSC seems to be a continual problem. I'm not saying don't write, but we have to be realistic. So wording of any letter is of paramount importance as some have stated already. We will write, can't do any harm eh.

Good luck once again to everyone! (especially those stuck at TSC!)

Very good points and I agree this is a low priority and what is worse we are all over the map... sorry for the pun... The only way this will change is if we raise the priority and the only way to do that is to voice dissatisfaction and that means our congressman/woman. Am I writing YES, have I waited 5 months NO, do I expect to gain favor or jump the LINE and have not asked for such. What I have done is express my dissatisfaction and feelings of being stuck in a line that is only good for separation of families and loved ones. The only way this will get changed for all of us (most likely speaking in the future for others to come) is to cause noise... noise translates into issues to over come at election time... So I encourage to get the chatter up... They will respond or get tired of sending out replies... Just my two cents... being quiet never changed anything, accepting 6,5,7,8 months of separations so a postal clerk can check my paperwork is ridicules.

Once again, best of wishes to you....

I truly appreciate your thoughts and wants. I recommend EVERYBODY on this board and their friends and relatives to write to their congressman/woman about this situation. The Gov seems to find ways to make things happen very rapidly when it has to do with commerce, or war but when it comes to family they seem not to care. We are in a global environment these days and all of us have found our love outside of the U.S. For the most part this paperwork could be check by a post office worker, just being honest. Forcing families to be separated for unreasonable amounts of time is just mean. Yes we all must wait in line I'm good, but we all should also make our congress people know that this is just unacceptable. The more family, friends, associates that you can get interested in writing a note and chewing up their time the more likely they are to provide funding to hire additional staff for this process. Always money to buy new battleships, tons of money to pass around in countries that we conquer and billions have been spent on nation building.... time to spend a few of these dollars here at home helping people with loved ones trapped across oceans. Especially when we are the ones paying the taxes.

Writing to your representative is easy. Find out who your congress person is... search google. Go to their website (they will have one) and write them a note. Use straightforward language, remind them you are a voter, Encourage them in peaceful and respectful language to assist you as a voter in their district to fund, and encourage our immigrations professional to increase staff and or reduce requirements (that NOBODY in the STATES would ever have to comply with...). We pay GOOD money to submit these petitions and waiting for months up end to be reunited is just unacceptable. The more pressure that all of us, our families, friends and associates bring to them the more they will act upon this issue. If you are not fighting for yourself then think of others in the future.

Always be polite and respectful, but be clear that you want them to do something. Even if they cannot, if they get enough contact they might actually do something besides have lunch with large contributors.

Just my humble opinion.

Wishing everybody here God speed and my you all be reunited with your loved ones very soon!

^{Prevet, I have never seen a business or tourist visa that limits a person to a particular city. Might be, I've just never seen one. There "should (I'm not an attorney) be an issue of flying from Florida to LA, especially if she returns to Florida for her return trip. The important issue of course is to no overstay the visa. Ochin preatna and very best to you!}

How is everyone of you doing ? Hope well

My RFE is asking for passport photos ,beneficiary intent to marry , two yr meeting requirement (I sent that with the i129 app) I am so stressed please help I don't wanna do this alone and get another RFE here are my questions ...

Photos : can he take a pic of them and send me I will do them in cvs or Walgreens 2x2 ??

Beneficiarys intent to marry here's the prob HE DOESNT SPEAK ENGLISH so he needs it translated and notiriezed ???can he fax that to me ???

Two year meeting requirement in the latter it says EVIDENCE SHOULD INCLUDE BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO does that mean I don't have to send allll like a friend or family member writing a letter of a meeting ?? .. All I have is my eticket for the flight , passport stamped and pictures of us together how many do they want ? Can I just send them the ticket my letter to marry him and pics ??

Am to confused I DONT WANT TO MAKE A MISTAKE PLEASE HELPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!

I think that I could answer most of your questions, however since you have already had one RFE and don't want another I would recommend that you get some council. This is just the first step and seems like you are going to need a guide. I would recommend Yasser Sanchez Attorney.. He is in Arizona, but this is federal stuff and might be able to take the case... Don't know you should inquire. www.sanchezimmigration.com I encourage you to speak with an attorney only because your questions are actually pretty basic.. the hard parts are coming including sensitive timeframes etc. Very best of luck to you and wish you a quick reunion with your loved one!

Hello!

Please remain calm and try to go with official USCIS estimates. I know CSC has been faster, but posted time is 5 months. If you get your hopes up by expecting it will be approved faster than that chances are you will be disappointed , better to plan for 5 months and be gladly surprised if you get approved faster.

These are only visa journey estimates based on what other users enter in VJ, we are only a small percentage of all the cases going thru the USCIS Service Centers.

In my case, we went thru TSC which at the time was processing expedites for the Philippines, those cases were getting approved in days so the processing times for TSC average went down, I got over excited thinking I was going to get approved in a month or two... well surprise surprise, we waited 178days for NOA2.

The day will come

Having been a student of statistics I would tell you that based on the counts of people in VJ it is a very good sample size. Typically for an educated prediction you need a sample of 5-7% +/- with the higher the percentage the more accurate the estimate. While I cannot get a true picture of VJ's count v the total in process it is very good size so. If you think of election results whereas they have 5% reporting many news stations start forecasting the winner. . if we want to look on the positive side then VJ is showing a rough overall projection of time and many cases less than 5 grueling months.. Yes I concur and agree that we should set our sights on the 5 month +/-, but it does look like at least with CSC that they are moving faster. Could also be that more people from CSC are in VJ, but I doubt that is the case. A boy in love must have hope here While all this is interesting, but the bottom-line is it will happen when it happens and near nothing can change it. I wish SweetOpossum and everybody else a speedy journey and a reunite with your loved one as soon as possible!

I'm guessing an algorithm that is looking at when NOA2 are being approved or something similar. There is no official link between www.visajourney.com and any of the processing centers unless their is a mole inside giving info and I doubt that is the case. I too have noted the backward motion in dates of processing, so as an old programmer I'm assuming that the trigger (most likely NOA2) is causing it to digress. Just my guess.

Wishing you the very best and I hope you are reunited with your love soon....

I know i was surprised. I thought it would be another month or so.

Congrats!!!!! Wishing you a wonderful life!

I am a U.S. citizen who returned to America after living abroad for a few years in Israel with my son (also a U.S. citizen) and my husband, who is a citizen of Israel and the UK. We returned to the U.S. because my father, who has suffered quadruple bypass, diabetes, and lymphoma, began having mysterious seizures earlier this year. I came to the U.S. to help him get well, find a plan of treatment, and get a proper diagnosis.

Because we were planning on being in the U.S. for several years, we began the process of getting a green card in April 2014. My husband’s i-130 was approved quickly, and when we moved to the U.S. at the end of April, we put his i-485/i-765/i-131 in motion.

In the meantime, I have been working full-time while my husband takes care of our 9-month-old son Asher at home. He is, ultimately, our son's primary care giver.

On Monday, September 29, 2014, I lost my primary job. On the same day, my husband found out that his grandmother back in the UK was sick and likely would die within the week.

We immediately called USCIS to find a solution so he could legally travel to the UK, as he is the family rabbi. We were told by the USCIS agent that the only option was to file an expedite on his i-131 travel document and hope for the best. She said we should hear back within 5 days. I went ahead and made an appointment to go into the local USCIS office on Thursday, October 2, just in case there was more they could do. It was the earliest available appointment.

On Wednesday, October 1, we got word that my husband’s grandmother had died. The funeral was slated for Friday, October 3, just before Yom Kippur.

We immediately called USCIS to check on the status of the expedite and find out if there was anything else we could do. Again, we were told that the only option was to wait. We explained that in the Jewish religion, burial happens quickly, and waiting was not an option. The USCIS agent told us, again, we had to wait.

Unfortunately, that was not an option. We had to immediately book a ticket and I drove my husband to the airport where he took a redeye to Washington DC. He left the U.S. for England at 9:15 a.m. on Thursday, October 2, 2014.

Around the same time, I went in for our appointment at USCIS. They told me that there was absolutely nothing that could be done.

In fact, they said, I should have come into the office on Wednesday to get an advanced parole document from the office. I expressed shock that this was an option, as the USCIS agent had told us on Monday, and again on Wednesday, that our only option was to wait on the paperwork.

The USCIS agent in the local Denver office added, however, “I mean, we were closed yesterday (Wednesday), but I bet if you had banged on the door someone might have helped you.”

Basically, we were set up to fail. The fact that my husband and I are Jewish and burial rites happen very quickly in our faith meant that we could either let his grandmother z”l be buried without the family rabbi or we could be met with the present situation where my husband is unable to return to the U.S. without fear of being A) removed and B) his immigration paperwork being canceled.

Two lawyers I have spoken with have told me that the best case scenario is for him to stay in the UK for 8-12 months while USCIS transfers his immigration case to the London consulate.

Of course, this would mean that

• I can’t look for work because the primary care giver is no longer in this country.

• I am unable to see my husband for a year or more.

• My son will be unable to see his father for up to a year, causing my husband to miss major milestones and for a child to be without a father figure.

I cannot live without my husband for a year, and I cannot raise our child alone. I do not want to be forced to move to the UK or back to Israel because of a failure of USCIS to provide us with the correct information. I want my husband's paperwork to be finalized, for him to be able to return to us immediately, and for us to continue living our lives.

What do you suggest? Please help us!

Sorry for your troubles... I pray for you. Everybody here on this board is separated from a loved one with our hands being tied while our paperwork is examined and determined if we are ok to be married or in your case to be given a status to stay. It is a terrible position, but not the first I have come across whereas a death, illness from a family member etc. presents itself. I hope you find a way though this mess. You are more than likely going to be told you are free to move to the U.K. Peace be your journey!

You will be fine, just be patient...