arax

Hi guys!

Just passed my interview today in Moscow, Russia. Visa has been approved!

As you guys might be interested in questions I was asked, I will share. But it was really easy and short interview.

The questions:

1. Do you speak English?

2. Where have you met your wife - in Russia or in US?

3. Was she in US when you planned your wedding?

4. How did she obtained her permanent residency?

5. Was she already awaiting for immigration visa when you've met?

6. Have you been in US?

7. Did you come to US to visit your wife?

And that's it. Visa approved!

The consulate officer was really nice and friendly.

Cannot say the same about another consulate employee who gathered all my documents together before the interview. That was really mean.

But who cares, I've got my approval after almost two years of waiting in line to go to US to my wife.

I wish you all good luck for your interview!

Has anybody received email

Confirmation regarding interview?

Yup, I've just got my interview confirmation email yesterday. PD is Nov 17 2014, interview date Oct 05, Russian embassy

Do you guys/gals know which date of the month they usually publish new Visa Bulletin?

Best Wishes.

Hi TrauCon,

according to the document Operation of the Numerical Control Process

VO (Visa Office) attempts to establish the cut-off dates for the following month on or about the 8th of each month

My husband just call nvc for interview date but sadly they told us to wait for your priority date...my priority date is 18 nov.....i hope this doesnt means retrogession...m so worried

wow. then there is a good chance that the vb will not move.. my pd is feb 2015

Hi everyone!

My wife have called NVC yesterday and they told her the same thing someone has posted here few posts ago: they are working on November 8th cases. But I'm sure there will be no retrogression because November 8th is the cut-off date of June bulletin, which means they are on the schedule or even a little bit faster if they finish November 8th or 9th by the end of June. During July they will have to process all cases up to July's cut-off - November 15th.

This is slow, but stable progress.

Unfortunately, it seems there will be no early interview schedule letters, but we'll see...

Whats happening next week?!

Relax, nothing is happening next week. They will publish a new visa bulletin after July 4th

So base on what I am reading here the vb cut off date for July month will be November 15, 2014? Oh well I suppose its better the bulletin crawls like a snail than to go in retrogression

You never know until you see it

It can be 15th or 22nd. I agree that this slacking is better than retrogression, but I hope for the best.

Hi everyone.

My PD is Nov 17, still waiting for IL.

By the way, I wanted to let you know guys that NVC cannot move the cut-off date just for 1 or 2 days. The next PD can be only 1st, 8th, 15th, or 22nd of a month.

Hi there,

dwheels76 is doing a great job clarifying your situation!

I want add something regarding this

Do you know if he has to spend the whole time in the US while the petition is over? I was thinking (since he is hopefully going to spend the whole rest of the year there) to bring him back for Christmas - Baby's BD - New Year.

Your husband don't have to stay in US waiting for the whole process to be completed. He just should maintain his permanent residency status. Actually, if you will sponsor yourself, he don't even have to stay a lot in US.

But since he was actually living abroad for a long time, I agree with you that he should stay mainly in US and visit you briefly.

Hi!

D. Other information

1. If separate petitions are also being submitted for other relatives, give names of each and relationship.

My questions: does the "petitions" here only stand for the I-130 petition or any applications for immigration (i.e., I-140, I-485)? As I am only applying my current wife via I-130 for green card, should my answer be "NO" to this questions? [please refer to my background and current status below]

This question in I-130 is about petitions you file alongside with the current document. So if you apply only your wife, then then the answer should be NO.

2. Have you ever before filed a petition for this or any other alien?

if "Yes,", give name, place and date of filing and result.

My questions: does the "petitions" here only stand for the I-130 petition or any applications for immigration (i.e., I-140, I-485)? should my answer be "NO" to this questions? [please refer to my background and current status below]

This one is a little bit tougher. To be 100% sure you might want to contact USCIS, but I believe you should answer YES and provide information for both I-140 and I-485 you filed for your ex-wife.

As I read somewhere on immigration forums, the purpose of this question may be to check if you are "serial marrier" who helps people to get immigration status for money.

Anyway, even if they don't care and if they are just asking about I-130, I think the fact that you have provided information about other previous petitions should not be a problem.

Hi Kiko,

Your income of $27000 should be fine. According to the 2015 Povertry Guideline $25112 is the minumum for 3 persons.

And it doesn't matter how much did you earn in 2014 - only the last year matters.

Sorry, can't tell anything about confirmation time... We haven't sent the package yet.

Wow, there is a lot of questions!

But I'll try to sort things out for you. The family immigration topic might be confusing, as well as a new visa bulletin.

First of all, I see you got the new 'date of filing' part of VB wrong. As you can see, there are actually two 'date of filing' tables in the builletin and both has visa categories in a first column. These are the same categories as in respective 'APPLICATION FINAL ACTION DATES' tables. So, basically, these 'date of filing' tables don't add any new immigration options for anyone. These dates are telling people that they can submit documentation for their existing immigration cases with one of listed categories, that's it.

If you will understand that the new visa bulletin doesn't introduce new immigration options with this 'date of filing' table, some of your questions might became resolved.

Also I think you need to check this cool workflow diagram for family-based immigration process. There are a lot of hyperlinks to pages with explanations for each step you and your spouse have to take.

- Getting a green card for spouse, who lives in India is roughly a 2 year process.

- I130 document needs to be filed to start the process.

- Monitor the visa bulletin and wait for the priority date for F2A category to be current. In Dec 2015 visa bulletin, the date is June 2014. This means that people who filed the I130 petition before June 2014 are getting interview calls.

- The new "date of filing" table, that started coming out in the visa bulletin since Sept 2015 does not help if the spouse is in India. This table only expedites the process if the spouse is already in the US on a H1B visa.

- In the Dec 2015 visa bulletin, "date of filing" table, the priority date is Mar 2015. This means that if the spouse is already in the US on a H1B visa, she/he will get the EAD card if the green card process was started before Mar 2015.

- Can the "date of filing" rule help if the spouse is on visitor (B1 or B2) visa or lives outside the US without any visa?

When you read the info from the workflow diagram and related pages, you'll understand that there are some major steps you didn't mentioned here. It's not simply waiting for an interview. You must file additional documents after your I-130 petition will be approved and pay some bucks.

And forget about date of filing, it shouldn't matter for now.

- Before starting the green card process, if the spouse already has a visitor visa

- She/he may or may not be allowed to enter the US.

- She/he might be denied entry to the US if immigration officers see that she has been staying in the US for long periods (6months etc).

- In some cases, some people were lucky and were able to visit the US while waiting for the green card. Some people were unlucky and had to stay out of the country and wait for the green card to be approved.

- Can the green card process be started once the spouse is already living in the US on visitor's visa?

This is mostly true.

I would add that there is a relatively long period after you filed I-130 petition, but it still pending approval. In this period chances that your spouse will be denied entry to US are slightly lower. I have visited my wife (she is a petitioner for me) in this period with no problems on the border. I just told officer that I'm going to visit my wife, plain and simple.

People say that after your petition is approved, the applicant may be denied to enter. Also the applicant probably will not get a new tourist visa, because immigration intentions are clear.

But I think there is no public document with prohibition to issue tourist visa or deny entrance to US for people waiting for family-based immigration. Actually, I believe that visiting your spouse is very natural and is not violating the law by itself. So I guess it is a matter of luck and a depends on personality and mood of a person who decide to let your spouse in or not.

However, your spouse may be suspected in violating the non-immigration visa rules. So I wouldn't reccomend you to start the process when your spouse is actually in US.

- If the spouse does not have any US visas, lives in India and the green card process starts

- Can she/he apply for a student, H1 or visitor's visa after the green card process has already started?

Your spouse can apply to whatever he or she desires. But will this application be fulfilled? I don't know.

I think that H1 visa may be approved, because it is for dual intent. But I'm not sure.

- What are other options to get the spouse to stay with me in the US?

- Are there any predictions on the process getting worse/better in future?

- Are there any predictions on the priority date movement in the US visa bulletin for F2A category?

Your spouse cannot stay with you and wait for green card. Your spouse may visit you if he/she has legal means for that (i.e. open tourist visa) and if immigration officer on the border will be kind.

Your spouse may try to apply for H1 visa, but it is not instantly issued too, even if approved. And I've heard it's not easy to get an employer who will bother himself to sponsor H1 visa.

I've heard rumors regarding new laws to let illegal immigrants stay in US, but I wouldn't go that way. Do anything wrong and your spouse will be denied from entrance for a very long time or even forever. No, this is not a good option.

Speaking of prediction on PD movement, I've been waiting for my immigration visa for a year, and it was moving aproximately for a month per month. In the lower part of each visa bulletin you may find a prediction for next month. Currently it says "three to six weeks". I don't think you'll find more accurate prediction.

I am just trying to figure out a way to live with my spouse legally and spend as much time together while we wait for the green card. Is there a way to edit my original post and fix the questions?

I have a few more questions:

- Can I use the "date of filing" to adjust status for someone who is on F1/student visa?

- Once the green card process has started, can my spouse still apply for F1 or H1 visa? Can her visa be rejected based on the grounds that she/he is trying to immigrate to the US?

No, you can't use 'date of filing' for anything except filing documents for your existing immigration case.

Yes, she can apply and yes, the application may be (and probably will be) rejected. I think I have answered this already.

As I said, I'm waiting for immigration visa for more than a year. I know it is hard to live separated from your loved one. We visit each other 2-3 times per year and thanks to modern technologies we are able to talk with each other every day.

If your spouse already have open tourist visa, she may visit you. And you may visit her too! Just remember that you have to 1) maintain your permanent residency and 2) earn enough money (and pay taxes in US) to file Affidavit of Support or have a joint sponsor who will help you with that.

Anyway, I recommend you to file I-130 petition for your spouse as soon as possible! You can think about visiting options later when you have priority date.

And good luck!

My question is this.. My sister in law is a permanent resident and she petitioned her daughter (priority date 03/2015) will the new visa bulletin work for her as well or just people that are already on the USA wanting to Adjust status?

Thank you in advance for yiour response

Hi idaliris,

A new visa bulletin (just as every previous bulletin) is for people who falls under one of immigration visa categories.

They just added some additional info starting from October 2015, so it hasn't changed a lot.

I guess you are talking about "01MAR15" date for F2A category in the table "B" of FAMILY-SPONSORED PREFERENCES part. This means that anyone who has priority date earlier than 03/01/2015 can submit the documents to NVC, nothing more.

But to get a proper asnwer you should ask a proper question. Please provide more details if my answer doesn't have what you looked for.

got the case number and invoice number yesterday and completed the choice of agent today . however when I was reviewing it I didn't include my middle name will that cause any problems?

The instructions tell you that all names must be the same as in passport. So if you have the middle name in your passport, theoretically it should be in the form.

But as far as I remember there is no separate field for middle name in DS-261 (Choice of agent) form not in the part with your name, nor in the other part with agents` name.

Anyway, I don't think that DS-261 (Choice of agent) form is too important. So I wouldn't bother myself with that. Also on this forum I read about a case of a person who was asked to file DS-261 again AFTER all documents were already sent, so it looks like NVC will tell you if something wrong.

But you may ask NVC by email or call them to be sure. Remember that advices on this forum may be wrong, we are not NVC staff here, not even immigration lawyers.

got approval on September 16 2015

Hmm... This is earlier than mine was approved. If you are impatient call NVC to confirm if they recieved your case.

hey guys I'm nov 7 2014 haven't received welcome letter as yet

Hey Mck_D, what is your I-130 petition status? Has it been approved?

Thanks.As i have not income,i know we need sponsor,as we have kids,sponsor's income must be sufficient for all? (me,my husband and 2 kids?)

Ok, I understand that you don't have income, but your husband may have. You also may take in account your property and savings.

But if you both don't have enough income then yes, you have to find a sponsor, and yes, you have to count all your family members for minimal income calculation.

But I'm not sure how to calculate required sponsor's income for affidavit of support. As I understand a sponsor has to cover both his family and yours.

my priority date is November 2014, my case got approved on 10/14/2015 after been transferred from VSC to CSC. please update any one who has same pd.

Hi!

My PD is in November too, and my case was also transferred from VSC to CSC followed by approval in the end of September. Recently we've recieved a Welcome Letter from NVC.

So I guess we are to gather documents soon

I got my husbands approve... I know this question was,but i wonder what is next? who long does NVS take?

Hi shorena!

I assume you have field I-130 petition for your husband. So let me congratulate you both with approval of that petion.

Actually I'm in the same position as your husband. My wife (btw, she lives in New Jersey too) filed a petition and we've got an approval in the end of September. And yesterday she have recieved a mail from NVC - a Welcome Letter with our Case number. So it took about 1.5 months for NVC to recieve our case and send a letter to us.

I don't know if it matters which USCIS service center worked with your petition, but our case was approved in California service center.

When you'll get your Welcome Letter you will be able to select an agent (yourself, basically) and pay fees in order to continue the immigration process.