Sarah89

Fiancé and I broke up yesterday, so our application will be out of the "waiting pile" soon - but the effect of speeding things up for the rest of you might be rather small I'm afraid

Here's something I had wanted to post earlier, to cheer you up a little bit: http://trolledbot.net/pix/5954.jpg

Good luck to all of you!

Thanks, dmaven!

Signed up for it today. But I can't find my case in the list. I assumed that my "Unique ID" would be the last 4 digits of my case number, but those digits do not appear in combination with the rest of my case number there. Am I wrong about the unique ID? Where can I find mine?

Not exactly a like button, but on the right side there's a green arrow to upvote a post.

Thanks TabeaK, that answers all my questions!

Hi NPM,

thanks for the advice The address change form is confusing me though. There are 5 rows for forms / case numbers and I can't remove the ones I don't need, plus once I select I129F the language switches to Italian (and the popup messages are in Spanish).. very odd What do I select under "In the US as a" (just below the citizenship information)? "This form is completed by the Application or Petitioner" - is that me or my fiancé?

When we filed the I129F I had entered my parents' address as my mailing address, knowing that it is not going to change in years to come, and now this is also my new address, so the USCIS already has my new address as my mailing address - the answers my fiancé got from them make it sound like the actual address of residence is not important, only the mailing address. Or am I wrong?

Hi @tm11216, sorry for the long silence, it was a rough and busy week. Here's what my fiancé replied when I asked him:

"I don't know the name of the TSC rep who answered, but tm's post sounds very similar to what the guy told me. He said October 8th, and when I specifically asked for an estimate of how long it would take, he said the 4 month answer."

The number he called was 1-800-375-5283 (as stated here (without the first hyphen): www.immi-help.com/directory/texas-service-center.jsp).We had prepared a list of questions that he was going to ask:

1. I’m about to change my address in Boston, and this new apartment is where we will be living when she arrives on the K1. This will make the address used on the form (when we applied for the K1 back in February) outdated. Do I have to update this information now, or when she arrives in the next few months? What is the exact procedure to update this information?

2. My spouse is changing her address in Germany in a week. Does she have to update this information? What is the exact procedure to update this information?

3. Is there any way to estimate how long this whole process would take? What is a reasonable estimate?

4. She would like to visit me in either September or October, for 3 weeks or so. The K1 almost certainly will not be granted by then. Is this acceptable, or are we putting ourselves at risk?

And this is how they answered them last Monday (I'm quoting my fiancé again):

"As for questions #1 and #2, as long as the new address is not the mailing address, there is no need to update the address. As for #3, the guy told me they are processing applications from the 8th of October, not September. Could he have read this information wrong? I don't know where you saw the information. In any event, he estimated that our file would be processed by them in 4 months or so...

As for #4, he didn't have an answer, but said they typically do not advise people to come in when they have a pending file, but that if exact days are spelled out it might be possible. For a more definitive answer, he told me to contact these folks: http://www.cbp.gov/contact"

I will chance my address tomorrow, I'm moving back to my parents' house - to save money and to have a little more emotional support in these tough (waiting) times

I wish all of you a great Sunday and the strength to endure this useless, arbitrary waiting - let's keep our spirits up!

What you say makes a lot of sense - thank you

I don't own a car so that's not gonna help. I'm also thinking of starting a part time job or internship to cover the waiting time and arranging it so that this job will begin after my visit. I could show them the contract then. But this of course depends on whether I'll find such a job in time - has to be something that I can easily quit without a long period of notice

Ice cave wedding, I kind of like the idea

We were actually going back and forth between getting married in Boston, which is where we will live together, or getting married in CT where all of his family live. He has what seems like a dozen cousins - plus their spouses and kids, plus all aunts and uncles and their spouses it makes a huge number of people we'd had to invite over to those places, so we thought it makes the most sense to have the celebration at the house he grew up in From my side of the family only three people will be attending - due to traveling costs

Now we are considering having the celebration on a different date than the actual wedding (next Spring or Summer), because December is not very nice in both Boston and that area in CT

Back to the topic: my fiance would really like me to visit him in September or October, and since with all the conflicting information now there is no way of telling if the TSC will touch our application in July, August, or even October or later, I am hesitant to make plans. Also I am awfully scared of going through customs/immigration at the airport while the file is still pending. I know it is officially allowed to enter the US in that case, but in the end it is all in the hands of the officer you are talking to that day... As I wrote in another thread here, I had to quit my job here recently and my last day there will be approx. 25th August. Not having a job contract to show as a "strong tie to my home country" this makes me even more scared. I also quit my own apartment and moved back to my parents (to be more flexible when the big day comes), so that's another tie that no longer applies.

What do you guys think, does it make sense to plan a visit around this time? (earlier is not possible due to lack of remaining vacation days) Or should I wait in case I'm approved soon enough - and avoid dying of a heart attac before the officer even speaks to me

My fiance called them yesterday and he was told that our file would be processed by them "in 4 months or so"... not sure how reliable this information is, but it is definitely depressing.

I started reading this entire thread today and it feels good to know that one is not alone with all this misery - although at the same time it makes me feel sorry to know that so many people in fact are in just that misery... ;-)

Any suggestions for a wedding dress suitable for 0 degrees and the mountains of snow that will be around in MA when we'll finally get married? I remember we had been thinking of a nice (late) summer wedding in the beginning... then came Texas, woohoo! ;-)

I've heard and read different opinions on this. Officially it is allowed. But when my boyfriend asked them yesterday they said they "typically do not advise people to come in when they have a pending file". Plus I had to quit my job here for reasons not connected to the visa process, so by the time I could visit my fiance I will be unemployed and I am scared that they will take this as a reason to think I am trying to overstay. But I will read through the sticky thread again, thanks :-)

Once I start a new job here (I will have to since it will still take ages) I won't get vacation days and then I definitely cannot visit.

My fiance lives in MA and our application (K1) was also sent to TSC (the night I got the news I was crying until I was close to a mental breakdown..) We had been hoping for Vermont since that's where we thought K1s from MA would go (I also believe they are assigned randomly now). We received the NOA1 on Feb. 12th this year. Yesterday my fiance called them and he was told that our file would be processed by them "in 4 months or so"

Originally we had hoped to get married in late summer or early fall and have a nice BBQ with all the family. Now we can consider ourselves lucky if it will happen this year at all. We are seriously considering to just sign the papers when we get married and have our celebration *next* summer

The worst thing is not being able to see each other all those months. My fiance's vacation days are almost used up and I can't enter the US while my file is pending (that's a risk I don't want to take since it could make all the months spent waiting wasted). It really helps reading this forum and realizing that one is not alone with this suffering