SantyAndAllie

Hi, fellow TSC-ers!!! I commented on the NOA2 thread but realized some may not be on there.  plusss this is where the action was hahaha! how is everyone?! It’s been so long!! I’d love to hear how you guys are and would love to keep in touch w you all! If ya have Instagram, send me a message! @alliepisarro  <3 

Of course! that's great to hear about the aunt going with her daughter! That's perfect! We were glad Santys brothers could go together, too. It definitely saves money!
And yeah - we scheduled everything as early as we could. Like I said, we had a strict timeline. We had already planned our September wedding (not knowing about fiancé visas when we did a year and a half earlier lol), so we needed to do everything ASAP, hence our quick marriage. So we took the earliest date which was actually almost a month or so out.
Then we ALSO bought the tix ahead of time to save money, but I can tell you this - we did nottt save money. We ended up paying double what we normally pay just to get him here quickly without paying a ton. We really wanted him to be here the 4th of July, too, so we had bought tickets thinking we'd have the visa by then (based on past timelines). It was really not worth it, and immigration offices even tells you they don't recommend you make any solid plans (ie: buying plane tickets) without the visa in your hand. No one could've predicted the DOS issues last year that delayed our visa in multiple stages (the NOA2 delay AND the visa printing delay because of DOS issues). So we were screwed out of hundreds of dollars in plane ticket fees because of it, thinking we would save money buying ahead of time just so he could be here ASAP. We just didn't want to wait anymore! Lol. And we bought the tix AFTER the visa was approved, too.
So that's just why I personally don't recommend getting tickets without having the visa unless they're reallyyy far in advance OR you get them after you've finished the interview and are waiting the visa (again, having a few weeks out to buy you time). As much as visa timelines are helpful, they can also be dangerous because you just can't predict those kinds of things from case to case.
I can tell you that average waiting time isn't very long, and the postal service sends them very quickly, so if you've already bought them you should be OK. mine is just a cautionary tale - but one that can very well happen to anyone. Of course we would be the ones it happens to, hahaha. Sigh. Murphy's law!

Congratulations! Hubby & I are almost at one year since our civil ceremony & green card filing. Time goes soooo slow when you're awaiting the visa and then once you're married it goes so quickly!

At least twice people have given you questions that they needed you to answer in order to better help you. Without your answers, what this looks like is that you care more about dealing with a green card, rather than help dealing with your marriage. Your responses have only been more questions about the green card.
Can you please answer the appropriate questions and give more detail/information so that people can better help you? I know there could be a language barrier, but if you don't answer, it sounds fishy, and we don't condone fraud.

davidloveasarson, you definitely do not need to and probably should not wait for the packet. You can now find the packet online. It's basically instructions whereas before you had to physically receive and submit it. Most people now don't receive it until after they're already in the states like my husband!
My signature below has information on next steps, interview tips, etc, though you may have already seen it! If not, check it out! Make sure you're viewing the full VJ page rather than mobile, as the mobile mode cuts out our signatures on here.
Welcome & congratulations!

Nope! Remember from the whole K1 stuff that you can't rely too much on VJ timelines for a totally accurate estimate, so don't let others' timelines worry you too much. They give you the estimate of 90 days, but it usually takes a little less. It's not necessarily about the biometrics, though.. That has more to do with the GC application. We got our EAD/AP approval early because of emergency, but it took us about 2 months to get the actual NOA2 in the mail, which is what it says on here is average. Typically people receive NOA2s for AP/EAD about 60-80 days after filing. You aren't there yet! Give it 3 months, and then if you still haven't gotten it, you can contact your local office and make an info pass appt, but passing 90 days isn't very common (at least that I've seen from user data on here!).
Santy is working odd jobs now and is going to start somewhere full time in January. He really wanted to do carpentry/construction, but he needs a license first, and that won't happen til March BUT he just got his permit and is driving!!!

Senior Analysts from the PI - likely very few....and she has a travel history....many more pluses than the average produce seller living 120 miles from any big city in the PI....I've never said that everyone from developing countries should be denied B2 visas....I have stated that my wish would be for Congress to disallow AOS's from B2's, for example....which might mean other folks get a chance to visit or study or whatever....I've never said, 'close the borders and refuse everyone!'....but, since our current state of affairs regarding the use (or abuse) of B2 visas leaves a lot to be desired (from my perspective, perhaps not yours), it is no wonder that many COs are 'hard nosed'...because history has proven them right. The challenge for a CO is to identify the probable bona fide B2 visa holder in an ocean of applicants who almost all have the same stated reasons for returning (and a large percentage of their countrymen have proven how fragile those reasons have been)...

Yes that's us, our photographer was a joy to work with, and that's one of our favorites. We're staying with my parents for now, until we can begin saving for our own place. We've been passing the time by going on small trips, hiking, and making the upstairs of the house more like our area instead of my area. He has his gaming rig here, so we do that a lot. He's handy around the house and has fixed a lot of stuff. I think it's mostly just about finally enjoying being a couple without having to worry about saying goodbye that has given us a lot of peace and passes the time. This will be his second American Thanksgiving.. and he's trying to convince me to make Yorkshire Pudding for it

Congrats on the wedding, what beautiful pics, beautiful bride Allie! Thanks for sharing your special day. Im very happy for you both!
I must be one of the last ones not married yet, as my interview approval was just around 4 weeks ago...but will be leaving next week and married a week after that, then starting the AOS and my new life.
Its so nice to see all the october filers sticking together as a group still and getting on with their lives with their loved ones.
Congrats to ALL that are now wed!

Hello all - it is so fun to read how you are all doing :-)
I made it here just over a week ago - last weekend Saturday - after being able to pick up my visa October 21. Then I had to finish out my work contract and get rid of two more wisdom teeth and recover before being able to fly!
So I entered November 14 and we got married yesterday, November 21. It is so good to be back! As soon as I arrived it felt like I had never been gone.
We had a super small wedding with only closest family - parents, parent stand-ins, my hostparents, their kids, their new aupair and the grandfather.
My family wasnt able to come, but we knew that all along, and we are planning on doing an Austria wedding sometime next summer, so they will be a part of that.
On Monday we will be able to pick up our marriage certificate and then it is on to the AOS process, changing my name on everything - bank account, SSN... and hopefully I will be able to get my driver's licence. I have heard so many horror stories, but according to the Mass RMV K1 is eligible, I am curious to see what my experience will be like. But we will wait for after Thanksgiving... I am def printing that page where it says so and bring that along!
Other than that, I havent really had time to get bored or restless and since I have live here before we have both our mutual friends and each our own, so that is kind of nice.
Looking forward to joining the AOS thread sometime soon!

Allie! Your pictures are gorgeous! Such a beautiful bride. I love the wedding pictures. We are still waiting on ours. They said around Thanksgiving... Yay!
Yuna, you look so lovely as well!
It is so amazing to see all of the wedding pictures, and happy stories now that the wait is behind us. I feel like I'm part of the trend. We are also staying with parents while saving. This process was crazy expensive, then throw on a wedding and stuff... Ugh. Does anyone else seriously miss the countdowns and wedding planning? For a year, almost to the day, I had a countdown, then a wedding to plan. Now?... It's a little depressing. Lol.

Great wedding pictures, girls!
We got married on Halloween. No ceremony or anything. It was just us, my parents, and his Mom. We used a self-uniting license. Pennsylvania has these licenses because of the Quakers. You don't need an officiant. You just sign the license, have two witnesses sign it, drop it off at the courthouse, and you're done!
We're planning on having a Halloween/1st Anniversary/Reception party next year.

Quick update, we had our interview with our attorney present in Chicago. The questions were very basic and we were verbially approved on the spot. Our attorney warned us that sometimes we can be approved and then the officer will forget to put it in the system and just place our file to the side. Well that appears to be what happened, almost two weeks later our status states interview scheduled. Our attorney told us this isn't a big deal and she will email after two weeks for an update. We are excited that all of this is past us but anxiously awaiting the status change.

Hi, Congrats on your weddings!
I've heard it is just random whether or not they waive or schedule an interview...
My update says we will have our interview scheduled. We have been together for 5 years, married for 3 months.

I am officially in the US now, and we were married on October 25th. It was a perfect day, and worth the wait for sure. It was a long almost year of waiting, but am blissfully happy now! We are waiting on our marriage certificates to do our AOS paperwork. We haven't been in a massive rush. Now that we finally have forever!
Glad to hear that your weddings went well, Allie!! Santy must be so happy to finally be able to do all of this, said you said before not being able to was getting to him.
I hope everyone else is finally settled in, married and happy!!

Just my rant on this- Sometimes people are just plain nasty. There's no excuse for it, and it bothers me to see. No need to sugarcoat, but there's also no reason to be rude to people over the internet. That's what I find irritating about this site. Even when you're nice, you get people replying snidely to your comments. So I feel you! I was definitely more excited here until I noticed that people's tones starting changing. I get being angry about the waiting and the whole process, but don't take it out on other people. Otherwise, yes, there's good and bad to everything, of course.
I do very much appreciate the people who have been genuine and helpful (like a lot of people who posted on this thread!) I just hope anyone reading this thread will realize to not take their anger for the process out on other people (I know, easier said than done- I've taken it out on people I love a lot, so strangers are easier, I'm sure). Otherwise they need to take their judgments and arrogant remarks elsewhere!
Thanks for giving us a thread to let our thoughts out, LOL!

¡Fuimos Aprobados!
We just wrote a long review of the embassy: http://www.visajourney.com/reviews/view-dos-cis-reviews.php?entry=17589
While we had a good experience there, I would say that this is still a "tough" consulate - I (Mark) went there because I was able to. We seldom saw the CO smile until he started talking to us.

Important!
There seem to be several versions of the PK4 PDF floating around. These two versions seem to appear everywhere - on the consulate's website as well as in this thread!
When browsing the packet 4 document, you will see a date on the bottom right corner of each page.
The older version says "February 2014"
The newer version says "May 2015"
They are substantially different, and probably the biggest difference is that the older one mentions sending documents via DHL, but the newer one does not. The older version appears in multiple places, even linked to within the consulate's presentation (which is otherwise quite helpful)

Just received my visa.
I'm at work, and now I'm overly concerned with not letting any of it get damaged.
Can't wait to be home and put it somewhere safe (cat-proof and dry).

Congratulations walrusbaby!!!

Ahh! I had to call CBP myself and they helped. We had the wrong number. So we DO have an i94. We already sent in our AOS, too. Great! Now to yell at these people... Lol.
Thanks guys! I appreciate it

Ahh! I had to call CBP myself and they helped. We had the wrong number. So we DO have an i94. We already sent in our AOS, too. Great! Now to yell at these people... Lol.
Thanks guys! I appreciate it

Hi! Congratulations on the noa2!
I'm responding here since you sent me the link and this can help others like us who are reading this remember you can always message us and ask any questions since we've recently finished! I can't promise to be able to answer, but we're always willing to help! Have you seen my post on post noa2 steps so you guys are ready?? It's in my signature.
My personal opinion, though? Don't book your flight or make any plans without knowing. Otherwise you may be in for disappointment. I know thats probably not what you want to hear, but take it from me. We JUST finished our k1 process (literally we're getting married today lol), as you know, and spent hundreds of dollars (a good $250 fee for each change) changing our ticket.. And we had insurance on it. I know this is a typical answer that you've heard before, but you can absolutely 100% never ever be sure. Others around us got their interviews and visas right before us, and even the consulate gave us dates. Yet it took us more time. But trust me when I tell you that you cannot ever rely on the timelines or 'estimates' of others. I know you would like to in order to prepare, but this process is awful for planning in advance. It's nearly impossible to know. We definitely did not think we would hit July without the visa. At all. But things happen. We had someone tell us it would take 2 weeks. VJ said on average 2 weeks for an interview. They had nothing open for at least a month. We called literally every single day of that month to get a cancelation, since the consulate said they usually have at least one. They had none! Then we were told we could get it the same day or a few days later. We got it almost 4 weeks after the interview. Granted, there was a technical issue for a while, but it was fixed shortly after our interview. It didn't take some others as long as it took us. but ecuador is STILL clearing the backlog because we were part of the backlog, and it took them weeks to clear ours.
Again, historically it could take a month to get an interview or visa, but for you it could take less. Or it could take more. But do I think you should take the chance and book things without knowing for sure? I don't recommend it. It's up to you, but like I said, take it from us! We knew we had a risk in booking, but we were desperate for dates. We ended up paying for it big time. Listen to the cautions of others here because we only want to help prevent you losing time and money over this!
I could tell you that august would be a reasonable estimate for an interview, but I don't want to steer you wrong if that doesn't happen. The consulate, our lawyers, and other members here gave us estimates that didn't end up happening. We also checked recent ecuamerican couples' timelines. They didn't happen like ours. Check out our timeline to see how long things took for us. That can give you a rough idea!
Good luck to you two and don't hesitate to let us know if you need any help!! keep us posted on your progress!

One more.. TBone mentioned something that others told us.. That we could request pick up to save time. That was a no go. They don't allow it. Someone said to me that they did that recently, but when we asked multiple times, they said no. They only send via dhl. They ship them in big shipments at the end of the day. It's an expedited 24 hr service, so it's usually quick to ship to somewhere far like Quito (that was ours). But it's long to print. Once CEAC said issued, it took them over a week to print ours.

Ps you can't schedule medical without the interview. See my post in my signature about post noa2 to see "average" times it takes to and from NVC, etc. we scheduled our dr appt (Quito) the day before, so that part was fairly quick.