benbu75

I found it was pointless to call NVC for updates. The only thing they will tell you is that your case has been forwarded to the US Embassy in Addis Ababa. You can try a congressional, but that may or may not have a better result. For Lidiya and me, it took approx 3 months from when we were notified our case had been sent until we got the interview date. Then it was nearly 2 months until the actual interview. Lidiya will be here on September 15. (Delay is due to the new year for family and the extra time to prepare berbere and shiro due to the rain)

Congrats to you and Lidia for hanging in there. 18 months process to me is truly along time. 1. My questions did you have to provide more documents which held ur case up for such a long time frame. 2. Can you provide any details(eg. Interview questions). Thank Woody

I'm not sure exactly what they took from her before the interview. She said she gave them her passport and an updated copy of the police certificate (it hadn't been a year yet, but she was nervous about it, so I told her to go ahead and get a new one). I had her go get new passport photos, just in case, and I sent her updated tax/income info for the AoS. For evidence, she took with her ~200 photos of our wedding and honeymoon, about 40 pages of Rebtel call logs, and about 50 receipts of bank/Moneygram transfers. During the interview, the CO didn't ask to see anything she had brought (she had a big photo album and a binder for all of the documents). Perhaps because he could see she was well prepared; I don't know. It sounds like he asked a lot of questions. Most of them expected, I guess. Details about how we met, names and birth dates of my kids, my mom's name and where she lives, information about my ex-wife.

One thing I can say is don't let family/zemed, neighbors, etc get you worked up over what you should take. Some people have experienced it, but most have only heard 2nd/3rd/4th hand stories of the interview process and want to give you "advice" to "help" you. Honestly, it is far more of a hindrance, than a help. Lidiya was so worked up over what she thought she needed from 100 people telling her take this, and take that, that neither one of us were getting any sleep. I kept telling her to tell them "thank you very much" and ignore them.

You are at this point in the process because it is pretty much finished. If there is an update to what you initially sent them to establish bonafides of marriage, civil documents, or AoS, then have that. If you have photos, take them. I think they are far more valuable than the receipt to a hotel (someone tried to tell Lidiya she needed to call all of the hotels we stayed in on our honeymoon and have them sent receipts for our stay. I told her they were crazy and no hotel in Ethiopia is going to have receipts from 2 years ago). Most of all, be honest and genuine, and give simple answers to only the questions they ask. Don't feel the need to make something up. If you don't know, say you don't know. If you don't remember, say you don't remember. Contrary to what some like to tell you, they aren't there to trick you. They also aren't the Ethiopian government, so a lot of the overly complex beureaucratic BS that you might expect from the Ethiopian government won't really apply. No, every document you have doesn't need to be authenticated and stamped by eighteen different offices; no, it doesn't really matter that "your" wareda is Yeka, but now you live in Lafto. Unless you bring it up; so don't. Relax, be friendly and polite, be confident, be honest, remember to breathe, and SMILE!

Hope this helps!

Lidiya and I were notified that our case was complete on March 12, and our interview letter date was June 25, so it was almost 3 1/2 months. I'm not sure, but the timeframe may also be connected to your initial filing date; ours was December 2013. What you won't get from NVC is information. I called several times and they would only tell me it had been sent to the US Embassy in Addis, but they had no other -- and had no way of getting any other -- information. It was very frustrating. Lidiya had her interview yesterday and was approved (!!), so stay strong.

By "application" do you mean I-130? It was submitted in December 2013. We sent in our IV application to NVC in October 2014, I think.

Lidiya's interview is coming up next Tuesday (August 11) and I'm a little confused about the fee situation. I have paid the IV fee and "fee payment" is marked as paid on the interview letter. Is the USCIS Immigrant fee a separate fee from the IV fee I paid to NVC? If so, is this something that Lidiya needs to pay at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, or do I pay it online like I have seen others talking about? Also, I paid $88 for the AoS fee and $230 for the IV fee. Now I am seeing they are $120 and $325, respectively. It seems like the fees went up, but if I paid them under the old amount, am I ok? or will I be required to pay the difference? Sorry, lots of questions and a bundle of nerves with the upcoming interview.