Devonian

Title says it all... If my work need me to do two weeks in New York is this visa going to get denied?

I see no reason for it since I can travel on VWP anyway but I obviously haven't told employer about leaving as it is still going to be another year or so till I leave. Thanks!

Presumably your workplace have organised work visa for you or were you not going to bother with a visa and risk getting thrown out of the US for working whilst being there on the VWP?

Getting thrown out would impact your CR-1 process but I can't imagine a genuine work visa having any impact on the process

Hey Guys!

I just thought I'd stop by to tell you... case was received today at NVC

I called like 40 times and finally got through... was told the case got there TODAY and that in 2 weeks time they should have the case added to the system. Lady also told me I could call in 2 weeks and add our email to receive the info that they send to the lawyer.

As you know, I am visiting my husband so I suddenly have no rush in having to go back and complete the process.. but I am happy it is moving forward nonetheless.

Thank you all so much for your good wishes... seems our case is moving along.

Hugs,

UnaMexicana

Must be a relief to finally get out of USCIS!

Did you bring all the relevant docs to the US with you so that you can do all the stages right up to medical and interview before having to return to Mexico?

The clearance times at NVC appear to have reduced to just under 30 days after scan date, which is good news for both of us but I have seen threads about website payment chaos over the last few weeks which may slow you down a bit - appears to me that there always seems to be at least one department in the process that doesn't work properly!!!

Does the Mexican embassy have a fairly fast turnaround? It would appear that there's about a six week wait at the UK embassy from the time that NVC instruct them to interview time meaning that I'm hoping for a mid-September interview

Any witches, ghosts, clergy in the house?

We all badly need you! Do some spell or prayers to fix NVC system now!

Surely you mean 'are there any Republican senators out there willing to accept my Washington's in a brown envelope?'

The Bruce Lee Action Museum (he loves martial arts)

???

Im still waiting for his call..hes at his interview right now i will definitely give an update as soon as he calls me thank you

Good luck.

Can't believe that you only learned of the interview date the day before - hope he didn't have far to travel for it!!!

Awww thank you!!

I am here with my husband spending a much needed vacation in his arms...

Your good wishes and vibes really are helping!!!

I will start calling tomorrow to ask.. is it there yet? is it there yet? is it there yet? LoL

UnaMexicana

A little late but congratulations on the NOA2

Personally I'm not sure about the effectiveness of constant calling and think it does little more than add to an already stressful situation, especially if you've already resigned yourself to a long stint in the US on a tourist visa. I too am in the US at the moment and am having to hold off on sending my docs/AOS stuff in to NVC otherwise my interview will come up long before I get back to the UK.

I need help/advice! The USCIS sent my approved petition to NVC on February 26, 2015. I still have not received a case number. I called twice and miraculously got through and they told me to send an email to nvcresearch which I have three times now. Still nothing and now I can´t get anyone to answer the phone. Any tips/advice?

I emailed USCIS to find out when my petition was sent to NVC. Two emails, one took over 7 weeks and one arrived yesterday having been sent over 9 weeks ago!!!

My advice - emailing USCIS is a waste of time, unless you are happy to wait for them!!!

Aaaw, that's rough.

Are there any figures on here on the times for background checks, as you aren't the first to suffer background checks?

Praying for a speedy resolution to your USCIS hell. x

Ta

I see you received 'that' email the day before me and got to pay your IV fee today - my turn tomorrow mebbe!!

Spoke too soon. IV fee has not long been invoiced and paid

I'm glad it was reviewed!! Hopefully you will be able to pay the IV soon!

Ta

I see you received 'that' email the day before me and got to pay your IV fee today - my turn tomorrow mebbe!! (Bizarrely enough I'm not overly concerned about speeding things along at the moment as I don't want an interview date to come up whilst I'm making the most of the VWP for one last time)

CALL THEM to review your ds261 form. Mine took forever also but when I called they said no one had approved it so the officer just approved it during the call. He was also like "oh wait it must have been overlooked without approval." SO CALL THEM. They were super helpful.

Ta for your reply. If I were in a hurry then I would have called them (as it is, my DS-261 was reviewed the day before I made the above post. My point wasn't so much about the wait for the DS-261 to be reviewed but more that if it takes them that long to review it then how is it possible that they can process a much larger amount of data in just 30 days!

With some judicious packing skills you can pay for one extra checked bag and still manage to bring 200lbs of kit with you (I have done this on every trip I've made to the US.)

It is possible to get 50lb of books in a laptop sized bag, and also to remain within size limits for the carry on bag whilst packing it heavily. Two checked bags of 50lb each are easy with large bags. Remembering not to pack anything remotely questionable in carry on luggage is a different matter though!!

How can it only take them 30 days to process the AOS form, the IV form and the documentation sent when it has just taken them 41 days to review my 'choice of agent' (DS-261) form??? I'm afraid to say that I'll believe them when it happens and not before!!!

Whoop de doo dah!!!

After a mere 41 days NVC have reviewed my 'choice of agent' (DS-261), I may actually receive an IV invoice soon!

When I was calling the NVC to follow up on our case, I was calling about once a week. I was also keeping in mind that our case probably wouldnt get assigned an interview until July or August. I had hardly any expectation of an earlier interview date, and I think that helped a bit as I was surprised we got assigned a May date! I also think that the processing definitely depends on where your spouse is from. I'm assuming that the case workers are assigned per their specialized country. I dont think that the South Pacific countrys have a lot of applicants and thats probably why our case was processed so quickly.

Keep you chin up! 45 days is better than the original 60 days they initially told us it would take.

Take care,

Hala'i

I think that's 45 days between confirming receipt of DS-261 to receiving IV invoice that is being talked about, not the amount of time taken to review the documents!!!

I'm angry because I been calling all past month to check on the status of the form, and they kept telling me all month that it takes "45 days to check it". I hope a real person checks my choice of agent form soon, i wonder how long it takes??

anywhoo, I'm glad you got a date for you interview on the phone!! Good luck!

Thanks for the support ChristinaG & Halai&Tim

Flippin' typical!! - there is I at 38 days thinking 'any day now for IV invoice' and the likelihood is that it's still some weeks away. I may yet have to stoop to pestering them on the phone if it hasn't been billed by the time I touchdown in the US at the end of next month!!

I did read on other threads that NVC are taking 42 days to review the DS-261and that the only way to speed things up is to call them and ask them nicely to review it over the phone... I'm in no particular hurry at the moment so I haven't called, my DS-261 was confirmed as received on 14-03-15 and 29 days later has still not been reviewed (and I, too, am unable to pay the 325$ IV fee).

Just wondering what the rest of you folk did when sending in a copy of your 'long' birth certificate?

Thank to good ol' British imperial sizes the 'long' certificate is somewhat longer than a sheet of A4, about 2" longer

(That's 50mm to all you post-decimilisation whippersnappers)

So did you...

head off to Staples or similar and use an A3 size copier?

just copy each end and send in two parts?

copy each end, reduce, recopy and send in at a reduced size?

Ugh, what a joke! Though I know that some GP's are a lot tighter with that sort of stuff than others. I was charged £10 for a copy of my vaccination records but the shots were free. (I even managed to get the flu jab for free at Asda since no one asked me to pay at any point and I only realised it when I was on the bus home, whoops!)

....But they didn't charge me for a copy of vaccination records

That was the ambiguity of the question I was pointing out. Yes, the first sentence suggest a yes/ no answer, but it's the second sentence that states You must declare ALL convictions, and sections 7.12 - 7.15 can only be completely IF you were convicted in a court, on a particular date and you received a sentence.

Of all the forms and applications I've done in my life, I have to say this whole Visa process has been the most awkward and unclear!

There is no ambiguity, read the first question, then answer yes or no, not forgetting to include all stepped down misdemeanours.

As my youthful misdemeanour occurred almost 30 years ago my alleged 'caution' is long since 'spent'. I'd be curious to know if a record of it still exists anywhere. I guess I will find out once I submit the form!

This is exactly the reason for the second part of the question. If you have an arrest, conviction or formal caution that was stepped down then it helps to mention it. If it has fallen off their records then it's not going to show up anyway.

I do agree that a lot of the paperwork for a visa seems to be nothing more than an exercise to keep a penpusher in a job.

His larger issue, was that if he answers no to this question, and for some ridiculous reason it did show up (which I don't think it will -- what sort of policeman would do that to a little kid?!) would he somehow then be in trouble for lying on the form? He merely wants to be honest, since they could not give him any sort of answer. But I do agree it's probably of no harm to select no to the question.

Well thanks Devonian, I'm not sure you've put his mind at ease entirely lol, but hopefully he can move on from the crisps.

We aren't talking about being interrogated by the Gestapo here, nobody could possibly read a telling off by a copper as a kid as something which would fall under the requirements of this question. As I said earlier I think it no more than method of confirming they are researching the right 'John Smith'.

The British worry a lot and over-analyze. Long thread over a potato chip. I don't remember what I did when I was 12. The potato chip is long forgotten. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Agreed!!!

Just a hint, tell your GP you are travelling and they should give you the shots for free. I'm not sure if they'd do the same if you told them you were leaving!

That was the fee for a 'travelling' request!!! This lot would probably charge for a deep clean if you farted in the waiting room!

Mind you, note this on the application form:

"7.11 *Have you ever been arrested, cautioned, warned or reprimanded or been convicted of a criminal offence in England, Wales, Northern Ireland or Scotland? You must declare ALL convictions, including those you believe to be spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974."

It's a bit of an unclear question until you read the second sentence, because as I have highlighted in black, only there it states that you must declare all convictions. You can be arrested, cautioned, warned or reprimanded but that doesn't mean you will/ have been convicted. If innocent, you will not be convicted with anything. As sections 7.12 - 7.15 also ask for details of courts, dates and sentence details, I suspect you only need to answer these questions IF you were formally charged and convicted, not that you have to declare any time you were arrested, cautioned, warned or reprimanded without charge.

Are the first four words of the first sentence not posing a yes/no question?

Surely the idea of a Police Certificate is that if anything serious is in your past Police history it will show up on the certificate. If nothing shows ("no trace"), for the purpose of the Visa application you have a clean record. No need to bring up anything that is not listed on the formal certificate.

But you don't get a formal certificate until you've filled in the application form for one, hence the discussion in this thread!

Hmm interesting! Well, he does remember the guy taking his name and address. But the officer never came to his home or spoke to his parents, nor was he ever given notice to come to the station. Does that mean he should answer no? Or should he still say yes and be honest?

Or.. like always, are we overthinking it?

Flippin' eck, they apply terms to everything!!! (talking about that link).

Only he can decide what the right course of action is. Personally I found myself in a similar situation to your husband and decided that a 'talking to' did not fall into any of the categories of 'Convictions, arrests or cautions', so I answered 'No'.

My thinking being that they are checking my record, or lack thereof, and if there is anything of note they'll be sure to pick it up!!! (I assume they ask the question to help distinguish between John Smith, the murderer; John Smith, the football hooligan and John Smith, the saint )

Thanks Devonian. Paid the AOS fee now too. How long does it take to get the IV fee ready for payment and to be able to start filling out the DS-260? We send the financial documents, AOS form and the supporting documents all together in one envelope, right? Can we send all this before we have even paid the IV fee and started filling out the DS-260?

It is recommended that you send all your documents in one package - but put your AOS documentation in one envelope and your IV documentation in another then put both envelopes in another and send as one. You'll need a cover sheet with each pack, both my wife and I received paperwork from NVC which has a cover sheet in it. (My wife, the USC, received her package about two weeks before mine arrived).

We are not sending our documents in until later because I'm headed back out to the States for two months and don't want an interview date to be given whilst I'm away visiting! VJers are recommending that you send in your documents as soon as possible, before paying the IV fee as it is taking approximately 60 days for NVC to process it.

IV fee invoice is apparently taking about 42 days to be issued after filing the DS-261 (choice of agent) although some VJers are getting a faster time if they call NVC and ask for the DS-261 to be reviewed over the phone. Again not something that is an issue for us as we won't be sending any paperwork until the first or second week of June.

I think he would have signed a form if he was given a "caution". It is a guilty plea that is settled without going to court. It sounds like he was given a reprimand about his behavior, but not a caution.

Agreed. I think 'reprimand' is a much better term to use for a 'talking to' given outside the station, when I was growing up we were 'cautioned' in the sense that 'this is a warning to be more careful, etc, next time you'll be down the station but t was in no way a formal 'Police Caution'!!