Bogota Rocks

Hey guys,

My wife's POE was January 18th. We called the USCIS and a supervisor called us back to say there has been a printing problem with the green cards and there will be a delay in receiving it due to that.

Is anyone else getting the same answer?

Also, I saw in passing that there is a timeline on this site of when people receive their physical green cards, but I couldn't find it. Anyone got a link?

Hey JustBreathe,

Was your dog in quarantine at all? Everybody keeps warning me that my dog has to be quarantined for several weeks when she enters the US, but I see nothing about that in the guidelines, and even the people I asked at the airport in Colombia didn't say anything about it. When are dogs quarantined in the US after entry? Is it an urban legend?

I live in Bogota but my wife had a schedule almost similar to Russ and Caro's

Laboratory appt - Friday

Fingerprints & photos appt - Saturday morning

Medical appt - Monday afternoon

Consulate interview - Wednesday morning

My wife was not referred to a specialist or anything like that. The process went pretty smoothly.

Yes, I used their address on the DS260 because we didn't have one of our own yet.

OK, I will try changing the address when we have one, but it's fine if my parents get it too. A good chance to go for a visit!

Hey everyone,

My spouse and I are planning to move to the US now that her visa has been issued, but since I have lived in Colombia for the past few years, we do not have an address yet. I am transferring to an office that company has in the US in a city I have never lived in before, and we are going to look for a place to live when we get there. For now, I have been using my parents' address in another city when asked for a US address. When we get to the POE, we will still not have an address of our own. Should we give my parents' address as the mailing address, say that we don't have an address of our own yet, and retrieve the green card from my parents when the time comes? Or is the address change just a matter of calling up USCIS and getting it changed over the phone when we have one?

My wife was just approved for her visa, and we are planning to bring our dog to the US with us.

Where can I find updated info about what procedures to follow so that we take her to the US? Vaccines, steps to follow, etc. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thankfully, my wife was approved for her IR-1 visa, and we picked it up yesterday. Thanks to all of you at Visajourney who helped us to make this process so much smoother.

So I know we have to pay the visa fee before we go, and then do the whole Port of Entry thing. Then we wait for the green card and SS card to arrive in the US.

Is that all that happens until she is eligible to become a US citizen? Is there anything else we need to keep in mind?

Sorry TBone, I was trying to anticipate any request that might come along, and didn't think my question was only applicable to the Bogota embassy.

Frank, a petitioner on another thread from Colombia was asked for the joint sponsor's birth certificate at the interview and they didn't have it. I sent in the joint sponsor's passport copy to the NVC, but not the birth certificate. As far as I can tell, that document was not requested anywhere, not by the NVC nor by the embassy. I am bringing a copy of each to my wife's interview just in case, but I wanted to see if anyone who has already been interviewed got any other non-listed requests for documents so I can bring those as well just in case.

Hey Kristinaa,

Could you shed some light on what you had to do for the 221g process? It seems like it didn't really delay your case very much. Was it just sending an email with attachments and that's it?

I have been reading the embassy interview reviews from around the world as they come in on Visa Journey, and I have noticed that more than a few people have gotten 221g letters in response to documents that are nowhere to be found in any instructions from USCIS, the NVC or the embassies themselves.

In response, I am trying to be proactive and bring some docs to my wife's interview even if they have never been asked for at any point in the immigration visa process, just to make sure I have it and avoid delaying this process any further. DId anyone here get a 221g for a particular document that they didn't bring to the interview even though it was never listed as something you had to bring or send?

Hey everyone,

My wife's interview is coming up at the Bogota embassy next week, and we want to make sure we are covering all our bases.

We are bringing copies, and where possible originals, of all documents we sent to USCIS and the NVC. This includes all AOS docs, all IV docs, everything related to our joint sponsor, our child's birth cert and citizenship papers, all docs related to reestablishing domicile, my tax returns, you name it. We are bringing all the pictures we sent to USCIS of our relationship as well as other evidence that we are bona fide, and bringing some more pics along and our wedding album too just in case they ask. We are also bringing Facebook chats. Her medical exam is coming up and we will have those papers too, along with all receipts from the CEAC website for the visa fees and forms we filled out, the full prinout of our DS260, the interview letter, and all the papers they requested in the interview letter. I am checking and rechecking everything twice and thrice.

Nevertheless, I saw a fellow Colombia-based petitioner on the forum say that they got asked for a copy of the joint sponsor's birth certificate. I sent a copy of the joint sponsor's passport to the NVC, but I am going to bring the birth certificate copy too in case they ask for it. And that got me thinking. What other documents have people been asked for at the interview that they didn't think to bring with them? I mean docs that are not to be found anywhere in the instructions for which docs to send or bring at any point in the process. I am just trying to see what they might ask for, anything at all, and make sure I have it just in case. I have everything they asked for, but I want to see if there are any other docs I should bring that they may ask for. Anything to avoid a 221g.

Let me know your stories, and thanks in advance. You guys at Visa Journey have been invaluable in this arduous process!

Anyone got any recent medical stories to share? My wife is a little nervous about the appointment after reading some of the complaints on this forum.

Hey Galeano Gomez,

Just updated my timeline. My NOA2 was mid-April, and my interview will be mid-October. So a little over six months for me. I don't think Bogota is the problem. The NVC's computer system was down for over a month while I was going through the process there, which delayed things considerably for many applicants. I got a case complete in August and received an interview date a little less than two months after that.

Hey JXPM,

Thanks for your input. I did the same thing and they got back to us pretty quick. We set up the visa pickup location and the biometric appointment last night.

My joint sponsor sent me a copy of her birth certificate yesterday too. Moving right along!

Now I just gotta get all the rest of our papers organized for the interview and medical appointment.

Kristinaa, is that your baby in the photo? She's adorable! So happy for you!

Emailing CSC support helped me to resolve this problem. It only took a business day for them to respond. I now have my biometric appointment scheduled, along with the visa pickup location organized. Whew!

You're Kristina from [redacted] in 2012? Wow, that's amazing. Are you still working there? What a coincidence that we are in the same phase of our lives at the same moment. So great that your husband got a visa!

Tiko, I think you may have misunderstood me. The copy I have of my marriage license is from the notaria itself. They make a certified copy for you when you ask for one of the original license, which is kept on premises and can't be taken out of the notaria. It has the official stamp and everything. Looking over the Bogota embassy's website, it seems that it is acceptable to bring this version to the interview, since there is no way to obtain an original. I sent the same version to the NVC, and in my P4 letter it says to bring an original copy, but I suppose the NVC can't tailor its responses to reflect the different systems in every country.

My joint sponsor is going to scan her birth certificate and send it to me by email. I had already sent the NVC a copy of her passport, and I am bringing a copy or original version of everything I sent to the NVC to the interview as well.

One other question for anyone here with a Bogota interview. I am registering my wife's interview appointment in the Official US Department of State Visa Appointment Service site, and the site said that her case is not ready to register an appointment yet. We have an interview at the Bogota embassy on October 21st, and already received the P4 letter on September 11th. We double-checked that all the info we entered was correct. We sent an email to CSC support to see if there is a problem, but they haven't responded y. Should I be worried or is this normal?

I hate to be the guy that bumps a thread that nobody responded to, but has nobody else encountered this issue? That makes me worry even more!

In my P4 letter, it says that I need to bring an original copy of the marriage license to the interview.

However, in Colombia the notaria never gives you an original. It is always a certified copy. I went to the notaria and asked, and they said there was no way to obtain an original, since it is in a bound volume full of marriage licenses and can't be removed.

Is this a case of the NVC not knowing the rules in each individual country? Because there is no way to obtain an original marriage license in Colombia.

Has anyone else run into this issue?

Congrats Kristinaa!

When you say they wanted to see the passport and birth certificate of your joint sponsor, do you mean that they wanted to see a copy?

I had sent a copy of my joint sponsor's passport, but not her birth certificate. Should I get my joint sponsor to send a copy before my interview?

I am registering my wife's interview appointment in the Official US Department of State Visa Appointment Service site, and the site said that her case is not ready to register an appointment yet. We have an interview at the Bogota embassy on October 21st, and already received the P4 letter on September 11th. We double-checked that all the info we entered was correct.

We sent an email to CSC support to see if there is a problem. Should I be worried or is this normal?

Hey DWheels76

Update that spreadsheet! I called the NVC this morning and my wife's interview is scheduled for October 21st in Bogota, Colombia.

Case Complete was August 20th.

Is there an updated wiki about interview preparation?

Looks like I got worried for no reason. Called NVC this morning and have my interview date on October 21st!

Hey Kristinaa

You got news of your interview in less than 2 weeks.

My case closed August 20th and I haven't heard bupkes.

Anyone from Colombia heard about an October interview date yet?

Hey Mallafri

No, the supervisor didn't call me back. I saw the 3 N/As the next day after asked for a supervisor to call me back, and then I called and confirmed the case complete.

Your case is ridiculous. There's no earthly reason why you should still be waiting for the case complete. Just confirms to me that all of this is totally random.

Case Complete: August 20th

Scan Date (Checklist): July 27th

Add me to the scan date to CC spreadsheet, if anyone is still taking care of it. And the CC to Interview spreadsheet.

Some other info about my case that might be of interest to anyone still waiting on a case complete. I had asked for supervisor review on August 18th because it had been more than 30 days and my DS260 hadn't been reviewed, and then called and asked to speak to a supervisor on August 20th. One wasn't available, and they took down my information to call me back. Later that day, two days after being put on supervisor review, my case was completed. So in my case, supervisor review didn't lead to being put in a separate queue that took a longer time, it actually made things go that much faster, or maybe it didn't change anything and they finally just got around to reviewing my case anyway. Checklist was reviewed in under thirty days.

I feel a great sense of relief. If anything, I probably stressed out more than I should have about the NVC, but we were there since April and with all the website delays things got really nerve-wracking. Even though it seems like it might be forever til I get an interview, I am going to try to be more patient. Easier said than done though. My wife and I went out to celebrate the CC this weekend, and her family acted like we were nuts. They didn't understand how draining this all has been, but I know all of you at VJ do!

Good luck to everyone waiting on the next step. We need all the luck we can get!

So if that data from CC to interview spreadsheet is based on averages for petitioners from each country over the past three years, almost every country is much further behind right now than they usually are.

It would be interesting to know why that is. It doesn't seem like the NVC or the embassies are acknowledging that the time from Case Complete to Interview is increasing. What's really going on?