Kristen & Ben

Hello,

I have a quick question and need somebody's assistance. I paid the AOS fee for $120 on July 30, 2015. As of today i.e. August 23, 2015 I do not see an option to pay IV fees on the ceac.state.gov website. I have not submitted AOS and IV documents yet. Is this normal? Should I call NVC and inquire about IV fees? Can I send the AOS and IV documents before paying for IV fees?

I will appreciate your help.

Thanks

Give them a call on Monday. That's what happened to me and I've heard that's pretty normal. For whatever reason they forget to charge the other fee or some nonsense. What the person on the phone told me was that the agent was only assigned to the AOS fee and not the IV one so until that happened the IV fee wouldn't be available. I have no idea how to assign an agent to only one fee. Anyway, she told me the fee would be available within a few days after I called but it showed up by the next day.

When submitting the IV packet to NVC, do we need to include Receipts of AOS and IV payment ? Can the AOS + IV packet to NVC be submitted on line OR via e-mail with the attached Bar Code Cover Sheet, instead of mailing it it ?

You can submit the fees online, but you need to have a U.S. bank account to do it. From what I understand you can include receipts, however it's not required.

Thanks everyone for the explanation. That's the worst possible glitch I can think of! It's good to know however that it's not nearly as bad as it sounds.

Try logging on to CEAC now and see if you can complete your DS 261 and pay the AOS fee. Sometimes it takes a few days to work.

Hey Kastrs. I was able to log on that afternoon and select my agent. I was at work so I didn't pay the fee, figured I would do it over the weekend. I just tried to log in and got a message saying my case is in the process of being terminated and to contact NVC immediately if I believe it's a mistake. I'm going to start calling first thing Monday morning because it's obviously a mistake and I'm freaking out.

Our case was just received by NVC this past week and I went online Thursday to select as agent. When the form asked "Have you already legally immigrated to the U.S. and no longer need a visa application?" I selected no. At the time I was at work and wasn't able to pay the fees right away.

I just tried to log in now to pay them and got this message :

"This case is in the process of termination. Fee payments and online forms can no longer be accepted. If you believe you have received this message in error, or to resume processing of the case, please contact the NVC immediately."

I tried calling to listen to the AVR but it said the usual we're closed and hung up. I'm freaking out now and have no idea why this happened. I spoke to an agent earlier this week and he was walking me through the process, but I don't know why this message would have come up now.

Anyone seen this before or have any advice? I'm going to start calling at 7am ET Monday to try to get a hold of someone since they don't seem to respond to emails.

Oh boy, so I got through and got my case number and IID. Woo! But the guy said it can take up to 42 days for them to process it and send out the welcome letter. Urg.

Thanks Kastrs and Urvashi!

Funny enough as soon as I posted that I got though and spoke with an initial person who said I had a case there and transferred me to an agent before I could say anything. It's great, but now I'm on hold again. The system said 20 minutes and it's been about 10. I'm happy they've received it though!

I just need to vent. The notice date for the NOA2 was June 27, 2015 and USCIS' website says it was mailed to NVC on July 7. We still haven't heard anything. I've tried calling every so often but have never been able to get through. This morning I started calling right as they opened, about 20 minutes ago and it already says all reps are busy. It reminds me of one time when I called USCIS and got a recording saying to call back after 8am...it was 8:30am. It's hard being on Central Time because I'm asleep when NVC is closed. I wish it was like most places that at least gave options when you were on hold, like you could at least get the AVR. Soon enough I'll hear something.

USCIS allows I140 filers to pay an additional $1000 to get premium processing and approval within 15 days. It would certainly be nice if they also allowed this for the i130 petitions.

Often times the people applying for I-140s like I-129s are currently in the US and their status is expiring soon. Therefore they need really fast processing in order to make sure that they are still here legally.

It would be great to have something like that but premium processing isn't without it's flaws. If an RFE gets issue that stops the clock. Also there isn't really a guarantee. If they don't get your case done within 15 days (not including RFEs) then they just reimburse you the $1225. In general though, if they're too busy, don't have the time, or just want to slow it down they'll find a way to do it so that you're still paying the additional processing fees.

My wife filed form i130 on Jan 1 and received receipt on Jan 11 2015 from texas service centre .... how long will it take to get the form i 130 approval?

If you fill in your timeline it will give you an estimate based on other Visa Journey members. You can also Google USCIS processing times and check the USCIS website (for some reason I can't paste it). Right now it says they are processing I-130s for spouses of U.S. citizen's (I'm assuming that's your case) in about 6 months.

The timeline is nice to see what is happening for others, but the USCIS dates give you an idea of when you can start calling them. For example, if after 6 months passes (and the website still says that) then you can put in a request because it's outside of normal processing times. Generally if you call too early they wont help you because you haven't waited long enough.

Had a quick question about the medical. Are the vaccination requirement based on age. so you don't need to get all of those vaccinations as on one of the approved medical docs in toronto he had US immigration requirements based on age and it was

Tdap

MMR

Varicella (chickenpox)

Flu Shot

can anyone please confirm? As Im a dual national brit and canadian but I moved to canada so I was closer to my husband and my doc back in the UK cannot find my immunisation records. So I got a Titer test done for the above vaccinations and I've started an adult dose of Tdap here in canada.

Just wondering if I should play it safe and just get all the vaccines that they stated?

any advice? thanks in advance.

Congrats on making it to the next stage!

There might be another thread that can be more helpful but I'd say to push your old doc to keep looking and redo whichever vaccines you can.

I have seen USCIS give out RFE's for adults missing childhood vaccines, like tdap, on employment-based green card petitions. It might be a little different because that's USCIS, but I think it's better to play it safe so you don't have to worry about what could happen.

For some reason I thought that the flu vaccine requirement was only during certain times of the year (probably flu season), but maybe someone else can confirm that.

I think it's important to remember that processing times fluctuate. In regards to USCIS processing times in Vermont and California, the H-1B cap opens April 1 and ALL of those cases go to those two processing centers, which means they'll be getting tens if not hundreds of thousands of petitions that more than likely will have priority over family cases. Anyone applying for an H-1B through the cap can start working Oct 1 so the processing centers need to get those done quickly.

On top that there's still NVC. I read on an approval notice for another visa that family cases are based on the availability of visa numbers. Some processing centers just process even though there are no visa numbers meaning that people can be waiting at NVC longer. Other processing centers (maybe those than seem slower) wait until they know there are visa numbers available before processing petitions so NVC potentially goes quicker. Not sure how true that is in practice, but that's what USCIS says.

Hi everyone, I'm looking for the February IR-1 / CR - 1 group for petitions sent in February. Please can someone give me a link if possible???

Not sue if there is a February group, but you can always create one. That's what I had to do since there was no January group.

Hello everyone. I checked my case status online and it shows that it cannot recognize my receipt number. I called USCIS and the customer service rep asked me to schedule an infopass appointment because she cannot help me. Is there anyone else facing the same issue?

Thanks!!

I recently started working at an immigration firm and was told that it's normal for it to take 30 days or more for something to show up, so I'd wait a little longer. But, like CJKylie said, it doesn't say much. Ultimately it wont tell you much more than that your case was received and eventually whether it's approved or not. Basically the emails/texts and your mailed NOAs will tell you same thing. What I've gathered is that it's mean more for other types of visas, like H-1Bs, that have different processing levels.

friends,since wife send our application on 2rd of jan,we have not gotten any reply from USIC confirming application receive.we bought money order and use post office with priority mail delivery .what can i do ?

Depending on where you got the money order you may be able to check whether it was cashed or not. If it was a post office one you can submit a claim to see if it was lost or stollen somewhere along the way.

i will wait for the 30days to know if the check ve been cash.i will be contacting them after the 30days period if there is no message or email from them

Did you submit a G-1145 with the petition? It's an optional form, but without it they wont send texts or email updates and you're just have to wait for the mailed NOA1.

Have you tried checking your case online yet using your receipt number? I know maybe its too soon but when i try to check I get an error msg

I haven't tried yet. I figured I'd wait a few weeks since there's nothing really to do.

Maybe they haven't put it into the system yet.

Im just thankful we didn't get sent to the National Benefit Center since that one seems even slower. Hopefully we both get through Nebraska quickly!!

Progress is progress but hopefully your I-130 gets approved quickly !! good luck

Have you heard anything yet?

Got a text and email saying the petition is being sent to Nebraska Service Center. Little bummed about that, but it's not unexpected since I'm in Chicago. I've been having a pretty stressful day, so I'm really glad to get the message. I'm also surprised how quickly I got it. According to the post office it was delivered on Saturday, but realistically no one checked the lockbox until yesterday (Monday).

It's nice to see someone else here

It has only been one business day and I'm already anxious to get the NOA1. I want to know there the petition is going next!

I would assume your NOA would arrive within the next week since you got the email.

As far as I know USCIS will not transfer petitions at your request, only if they get really backlogged and think it's necessary. I know someone who applied for a IR-1/CR-1 years ago when CSC was super backlogged and one day they sent it to Vermont, but it doesn't seem like that is a usual thing. If they let us request our petitions to be sent somewhere faster we'd all be doing it.

What they would care about is the legal ceremony, but I don't think it hurts to say you later had a traditional ceremony.

I don't have answers for most of your questions.

Her priority date should be listed on the NOA1 you should receive any day now since you got an email. Basically it's the date USCIS received your petition. While there's no way to know for sure how long it will take, based on the processing time you memtioned the 15 months are just USCIS. If what you looked at is just for the I-130 then that's USCIS. After that your application goes to NVC then the embassy so she probably wont have her green card for a while.

It means just that, that Vermont will be processing your application. Chicago lockbox doesn't do the processing, it's only the place where you mail you things to. In terms of the processing times, Vermont is currently working on applications sent to them in September 2013. It would seem that you have about 15 months before getting through the USCIS stage of the process. Visas based on marriage to a permanent resident take a lot longer than ones for US Citizens.