Pebbles1989

Right. I am not 100% sure if they see pre-NOA2 stuff. I entered the states on 15th and we got the NOA2 dated on 16th. They did not receive the withdrawal in time, so they already sent a NOA2. So perhaps they dealt with it earlier then the 15th and just sent it on the 16th, which would mean that they perhaps have my NOA2 in their computers...?! I don't know.

I also don't want to frighten anybody. Not at all. What I would recommend is to bring enough proofs, make a folder with all the stuff, sort everything so it makes sense to you and you find your stuff easily... things like that. Don't be afraid. Just wanted to share my experience which was kind of frightening but it went good, even if it was a pain in the ###.

POE Portland was really a pain in the ###.

When it was my turn, I gave the IO my passport and the customs form. He scanned my passport and stared at his computer for about 5 minutes, did not say anything though. He did not ask for the purpose of my visit.

Where are you going to stay during your visit? - At the Mariott Hotel in Salem. You can see the address on the customs form. - Mhm. Who do you know in Salem? - My fiancé lives close to Salem. - What are you doing in Austria? - Jobwise? - Yes. - XXX at company XXX. - What is your fiancé doing? - XXX. - Do you have marriage plans? - Our plans changed as I got a good job offer in Austria. He will move back with me. - Is that possible for him? - Yes. - For how long? - With a visa "D" he is allowed to stay up to 6 month. - He already has a visa? - Yes and no. We are going to pick his visa up at the Austrian consulate on 17th. - Mhm. And he will quit his job and move to Austria? - Tomorrow is his last day at the company, so yes. - Sure? - Yes, sir. I do have proofs if you want to see anything. - Like? - Our both return flight tickets, confirmation of my job and so on. - Let me see the return flight tickets of him. - Here you are. (Showed him the ticket...) - Mhm.

Gave me my passport with the "approved" stamp and the customs for back.

I picked up my luggage and gave the customs form the officer next to the exit. He said that I have to wait a second. He looked something up in the computer and said: Let's see what the problem is. - Problem? - I don't know yet. My computer is pretty slow today. - Oh! (I started getting nervous!) - Let me check your bags first. Do you have any food with you? - 2 chocolates, it's not a whole bar, it's like 1 package with 3 little bars, so 6 bars all together. (I started answering really detailed as I did not want to make any stupid mistakes or get into an awkward situation.) - Any drinks? Alcohol? - An approx. 5 cm high bottle with Mozart Schnaps. It is very small. - Anything else? - No. - Money? How much money do you carry with you? - About XXX in cash and XXX on my bank card. - You have proofs? - Right. (Showed him my folders.) - You said your fiancé is going back with you to Austria? - Right. He is moving to Austria. - I see, you filed for the K1? -Yes, but have withdrawn it as he is moving. - You are not married yet. Is that possible? - With a visa "D" it is possible, yes. - He already has this one? - Yes, it is already approved but you have to pick it up in person in Los Angeles. That's what we will do on the 17th. - Okay. Let me take a closer look to your folders. - Sure! (Showed him every single folder and told him exactly what is inside. He was really interested in the whole papers.) - Well.. I see you are well-prepared, I believe what you say. You can go. Welcome to the States! - Appreciate it, sir. Thank you!

That was mainly what we talked about.

I am pretty sure that they see the petition in the computer as I did not say anything about it and he asked for my K1.

Anyways, after 45 hard minutes I made it through customs. Yay!

The best of all: David and I got married during the trip and are both in Austria. He lives with me now and we start our lives together here! We will visit Ohio and Oregon in September. Let's see how that goes as his wife... and I am pretty sure that we will move to the States on day in future. We want to stay here in Austria for at least 2 years though

So I guess, I'll switch to the VJ spouse group now...

I wish you all lots of luck, patience and love on your ways!! <3

Due to a flight change I am not entering the US via Seattle but Portland. They do not have self service machines. I am a bit worried now how to prepare. We have withdrawn the K1 with a letter to the USCIS telling them that my fiancé is moving to Austria because of the job offer I got. I can bring a copy of this letter with me. Also the flight confirmation of my fiancé. I do have a letter of my new employer (it's in German though)... What do you think do I have to prepare? Do you think it might be a problem that we have withdrawn the K1? If they ask about it, what shall I say? Just the job think and that he'll move with me?

I am a bit worried now..

So even if we wait for the embassy stage we won't have problems with a future I-130 oder K3?

Actually, yes, we are really certain about it. We booked his one way flight, the dogs one way flight, made an appointment for the marriage.. we thought that this is the better way for now. He was quite unsatisfied with his job lately and thought about looking for another one, just stayed there because of our petition but I felt how unhappy he was. So for him it's not a big deal to leave for Austria. Well, he'll miss fire fighting in the US, but other than that he loves Austria and his childhood dream was to live in Europe one day.. So I guess, we give it a try and well, apply for the K3 / I-130 later this year to make sure that we still have this possibility.

Nobody?!

Things have changed.

I got this really good job offer in Europe. My fiancé is flexible so we decided to start our lives together in Austria. We want to get married in April in the USA and travel back to Europe together. As far as I know it is legal to travel there for marriage if you go back to your home country right afterwards, right?

Does anyone know how long it takes to receive the certified copy of the marriage certificate - if you need that information, we are in Marion county, OR. To be officially married in Europe, we need to bring a certified copy of the marriage certificate with us (with an apostille).. that's why we are worried.

Also we have started the K1.. so we want to withdraw the K1 as we do not want to have any negative consequences from not responding after the NOA2. Is there an example letter we can use or what would you recommend us to write?

I think we should write the reason as we one day we perhaps want to file for K3 or I-130 and then we do not want to have any problems or questions coming up.

Do we have to send the letter to USCIS in Texas or to the California Service Center?

Thank you for your help

Yanirose,

thank you so much for sharing your experience.

My PoE for my visit in 2 1/2 weeks is Seattle. I do have a connecting flight to Portland, I have to go through the immigrations in Seattle though. Do you think it will be possible to use the self service machines as well or is it just for final destination passengers?

Can you perhaps let me know where you have found those self service machines. I hope I will find them. It's my first flight via Seattle. I am a bit nervous!

Have a wonderful time together with your fiancé!!!

Hm... We did not ask about other visas.

It is really really annoying. I look up the USCIS website 10 times a day and it does not change. Of course it does not if it really takes up to 45 days. NVC might already have the file while we still try to look it up on the USCIS website. It really bothers me to have NO idea what's going on But well, I don't have a good day... just ignore me...

Agreed!

I can just tell you what the NCVC service line told us... Kind of annoying. I wish I could see our status... It would feel much better to see at least the old one instead of nothing

Well, due to NCVC nothing is going on. It just takes 30-45 days to show the case with all updates in the system again.

My fiance called NCVC yesterday as we also got the same message. They told him that due to a new program the new system does not show the cases right now. It might take 30-45 days until you can see your case online. He told us that if we received NOA1, it is okay though and we should not worry about it at all.

This makes sense but also confuses me. On Igor's List I see that there are people who got their NOA 2 yesterday.. I was wondering if they received an e-mail or saw an update on the USCIS website for that?

Dave just called NCSC and they said that they are transitioning to a new system and it takes 30-45 days for the case number to show up with information. But since we got the NOA1 in the mail it means that it is processing and there is not problem and it's also still in California and not Texas.

Thanks Stephanie!

But where is my case now? California or Texas?

Have no idea why ascertainLovE thinks that it's in Texas?! That confuses me a bit!

NOA 1 and e-mail BOTH say California Service Center.

Well, in our NOA1 it says that we are in the California Service Center. WHY should I have my NOA2 or an RFE by now? According to VJ they work on NOA1 with date of 03/01 right now. Ours is dated 03/11. So why should WE have our NOA2 already while those dated earlier are still waiting? Huh?

I was wondering if you usually get the notification via e-mail first or see it online?

If I look for our number on the USCIS side it says "At this time USCIS cannot provide you with information for your case. Please contact the NCSC 1 (800) 375-5283 for additional information."

So we created an account which shows the last update on 03/16. That's all.

How do we usually find that our petition was approved or not?

So if I change the address, it does not interfere the approved ESTA visa? Sure? Just don't want to cause any problems three weeks before I leave

Hey again...

one thing that bothers me.

My old ESTA is still valid and I want to travel with this one to the USA in three weeks. I found that the address on the ESTA website is wrong though. We filed the ESTA last year when we went to Florida for holiday. So there is the Florida address on the website. Now I am going to visit Oregon. I was wondering if I have to change that? I guess, I do not need a complete new ESTA, right? I mean, it's still valid... I guess I could perhaps change the address or isn't that a big deal?

We got mine at about 7 pm.

Hi all! :-) We are March filers too! We got our NOA1 the 9th of march! We can still not see our case at USCIS though :-( it only says Updated the 16th of March. Therefor a week after they recieved it. Im wondering if its updated cause they are sending an RFE or something? I dont really know why else they would update it a week after they sent our NOA1. I cant see why its updated. The system dont say anything! But anyway we have been together for almost 3 years so we can wait a bit more. I hope all of you who are apart from your loved one will stay strong and believe that your love can overcome anything! Im blessed that my fiance has been able to spend a lot of time in Denmark with me when I have had to leave California and our home every 3 months. I wish you all good luck and to those in Texas Center, I feel for you guys! You are doing some heavy lifting with the processing time!!! :-( Have a good day to you all and stay positive! Virtual hugs from Denmark! Camilla!

Hi Todd and Camilla

David and I got our NOA 1 on 9th of March as well and we also have the update on the 16th of March. Therefore I do not think that it's an RFE - otherwise we both have on. Our idea was... as that USCIS in Texas forwarded the petition to the Service Center, the update might show the receipt of the petition.

As far as I know we will see an update as soon as they hold our case in their hands. When they received it in California, they might have scanned it and that's why we see an update? I have no other explanation for that.

Camilla,

I hope we both go through the process smooth!

And of course everyone else as well. Let's stay positive

Oh, I am a March filer as well. Filed it on 3/6, delivered on 3/9 and receipt date of NOA 1 is 3/11

Now we are waiting for NOA 2 and I am preparing for my trip to visit in middle of April and start wedding preparations (like looking for different locations so depending on the time I get my visa, we can have an indoor or outdoor wedding and visiting all his cousins and great cousins, I do not know yet). Wish me luck that I can visit without troubles.

Well, if you would have looked properly then you would find that there are also threads from 2014 discussing about blanks or no blanks. So it's not just older threads but from end of 2014. So I am not the only one who is thinking about this. Anyways... no one of the petitioners from 2014 who wrote "N/A" or "none" got an RFE, so it should be fine.

You are right. I have read a couple of threads on here. Even if there is this "blank" rule, it seems like many people (also from this board) got confused and some also wrote "N/A" or "None" and did not get an RFE for that. So I guess it still has to be fine. Or on another board there were about 3 cases where they requested information because of a blank field. Well, perhaps they left an important information. I don't know. But I haven't read about an RFE for writing "N/A" or "None" so I hope it's just fine.

I just hope that this is not a main issue. We filled out everything clearly and correct. Just added N/A or none if we were not sure.

We did not leave it blank as so many people got RFEs because they left it blank. So we thought that we just state "None" when they asked for the former spouse.