addocap

On 1/14/2022 at 10:28 PM, Wuozopo said:

 @addocap

 Note the interview on Jan 13, 2022 (quoted above). No medical received, but interview still happened like I explained to you before.  They don’t send people away, but pause the case until the medical is in their hands. I hope you got something sorted. 

Yes, they said they would have the interview without them having been "received", but that you had to have least had went to the medical first. I.e., if you went but docs were "in route", it was fine. If you simply hadn't attended the appointment, there were adamant you would not be allowed entry. For us, to much risk to go cross-country for a "just-in-case."

We did try to get a cancellation medical slot every day, but none opened. 

As such, medical is tomorrow (18th) and interview is rescheduled for the 1st of February now.

3 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

I’ve seen that posted but people have still been interviewed without a medical despite what that says. I don’t think they will turn you away. 

I'd like to think so, but it's a long and expensive trip across the country to chance it when both the embassy and medical provider are categorically saying "no." 😕 

37 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

@addocap

 

The embassy Immigrant Visa unit does not take phone calls and has not for quite a few years now. Email allows them to deal with issues in order of contact and urgency. You don’t need to contact them. Plenty of people attend their interview before their medical results reach the embassy. You do not need to inform them in advance. Your visa approval will only be “paused” until the medical results arrive and are reviewed.
 

Also, the medical clinic typically gets your lab results back within 3 days so they can complete the medical report and transmit it digitally to the embassy. It normally takes no more than 4 days for the clinic to have your report sent if you do your part and go in with everything they need. Hopefully you prepared all that whil waiting on NVC. Check their list https://visamedicals.co.uk/united-states/

 

Unfortunately the timing of your interview letter comes when many businesses slow down because so many people take days off between Christmas and New Years. Also the Omicron covid variant has lots of employees infected and home isolating. 
 

Go to your interview as scheduled and let the other pieces fall into place. Be happy that you got an interview and hope the embassy is able to stay open. These are uncertain times and being flexible is important. It will all work out.

Yes, I do agree patience is important during these times. Unfortunately this is no longer accurate info, sadly. The embassy has decided to categorically refuse to see any interviewee who does not have their medical complete and received; as such, they have inadvertently created an impossible cycle for many. Visa Medicals is also now insisting that there is 0% chance their paperwork will reach the embassy prior to a 2-week period. Both of these seem to be new items that are contrary to what has been normal through the pandemic so far. 😕 

Whelp. 

We received our visa appointment notification today, followed by disappointment and continued frustration with this process.

I-130 Submitted: April 9, 2020

Petition Approved: June 2, 2020

Final NVC Submissions: Sept 8, 2021

NVC DQ: December 8, 2021

Appointment Announced: December 30, 2021

Appointment Date: Jan 13, 2022

CAVEAT TIME

Here's the catch and a mini rant....

Upon ringing Visa Medicals, a surely lady on the phone informed that medical appointments are not available until the 18th of January and that it then takes 2 weeks for them to get the info to the embassy (quick rant: in what world does it take 2 weeks to send a single file across the same city...). 

The embassy, of course, has informed us that they won't discuss this over the phone and referred us to their email....which is closed until the 4th of January.

You literally couldn't make up the bureaucratic inefficiency if you tried. 

Shaking our heads....

4 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

The six months is based on the date if your medical exam because it expires at 6 months. You’re on the right track, but it’s not the interview date that dictates your timeline.  For example if your medical was October 1, 2021, and you interviewed December 1,  2021, your visa would be issued to expire April 1, 2022 only 4 months after your interview because they count the six months from your medical date. 
 

Thanks for this - this is something we definitely had misunderstood - much appreciated! On this note, can you see any reason why, if one intended to miss the given interview date for a reason, that the medical could not be taken until right before the desired interview date? 

Greetings!

I've been reading through so many of your stories today - it is all so overwhelming and astonishing how many folks are dedicated to achieving these dreams! :) 

We had confirmation of I-130 receipt from NVC exactly a year ago (NOA2?) and purposefully have delayed submitting further documents as to not get approved too early. (Yes, we kept the application active and have written confirmation of its continuation.) 

In terms of timelines, we are really stuck as to the best path forward.

Here's our catch: we need to immigrate precisely on May 31, 2022. 

In a normal time, it would have been easy enough to guess through this all, but in this current situation? Definitely need some advice.

We are hyper-aware of the fact that to be able to immigrate with the above date, we need to have the interview no sooner than 30 November 2021 (6 month rule). 

As such, our concern is that if we complete the application and documents (we have paid) on the NVC portal soon, that we'll be assigned an interview date prior to that earliest November date. Conversely, we worry that if we wait too long and the COVID backlog is substantial, that we might blow a good thing. 

So, here's the questions from this:

1) In terms of the term "DQ", does this refer to the point of receiving confirmation of document review from the application and AOS on the NVC portal? If so, how long is this expected to take (from submitting all NVC requirements to having this confirmation)?

2) It seems that London has a substantial backlog at the moment and as such, I wonder about how long it will take from receiving that DQ above to an interview assignment. While I know this is a guessing game, do any of you have a good guess as to when would be a good time to submit at the NVC phase to maximize our chances of an interview between November and, say, March? 

3) If we did submit all of this soon and received an interview date before November, how many times can you re-request the interview date and is there somewhere to view stipulations on this? The only thing I have found is regarding the "wait until your date passes" portion. 

I thank you in advance for anyone willing to read and comment; I've read across this forum substantially, but find it all a little overwhelming and thought I'd just ask these questions in a straightforward way.

Thanks a million! 

It has been very eye-opening reading about everyone's journeys! It is great to see the overall optimistic mindsets during this time. 

I'd love to toss in a relevant question if that is alright?

I started the IR-1 process for my wife earlier this yer and was stunned to have my I-130 approved within 45 days! The only catch? We need to move precisely in June 2022 and the last thing I want is for that 6-month "must-move" clock after the visa interview to begin soon. 

As we are at the NVC phase, I know that I can delay the DS-260 for up to a year which we intend to do. However, this still puts us a bit further out then would acceptable for the interview. 

So, in terms of the visa interview at the London consulate, can someone simply explain what are options would be for rescheduling a visa appointment? I know that for IR-1 visas, the applicant is auto-assigned a visa date; if this is cancelled/allowed to expire, is there an option to select a date or must it be another randomly-assigned date?

If anyone has the slightest insight on this, it would be greatly appreciated!

(P.S. - If anyone has any tricks for demonstrating petitioner domicile (as I live in the UK as the petitioner), I'd be eternally grateful!) 

Thank you everyone!

Last question - could I still return to the UK on a student visa even after marriage to a British citizen? (with no intend to settle in the UK)

In this case, is it acceptable for her to visit the US with the INTENT to get married (and return to the UK), or would she need to enter just as a "visitor" and just "happen to get married, while there?"

This is what I was hoping to do... However...

Isn't this easily misconstrued as visa fraud?

Thank you to everyone who is answering, by the way!

Whoops - I meant getting married in the summer of 2016.

I am in a tricky situation and need some help regarding which visas to apply for and how.

I will be proposing to my girlfriend in the next few months. We want to get married sometime during the summer of 2016. Here's the tricky part.

Me: American Citizen
Her: British Citizen

She wants to get married in --> America <-- during the summer of 2015.

After we get married, we will both go back to the United Kingdom, as a married couple, for university - her, nursing student and I am a PhD student.

After 1 year, we will return to the United States, where we plan on staying.

Here is my timeline:


Summer 2016 - Marriage in America (K-1 visa, I'm guessing?)
Fall 2016-Fall 2017 - Married, living in UK for university
November/December 2017 - Return to live in America together.

Soooo....

Can you help me regarding which visas we will need to apply for, respectively? Also, what timeline should we begin to apply for these?

Also, any information such as how much they will cost and how long they take, would be appreciated.

We are ready to get this started and I look forward to any help! I know some of the general visa processes, but I don't really understand what we need to do since we will be jumping back and forth as shown above.

Thanks in advance!