ssk2331

Congratulations. I have added you to the spreadsheet. Come on over to the Interview thread now.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/577168-january-2016-interviews/page-30#entry7925129

Depends on the service center but verage time is betwen 5 and 6 months. Ours took 7 cuz of busy center. California is fastest seems like...have seen people get approved in a couple months.

For Canada, they ask for photocopies/scans of civil documents at NVC stage and you have to bring your original documents with you to the interview. I'm not sure if that's the case for you?

For my mom's case I sent non-certified photocopies. That was enough, her case was complete with no checklists.

They m arried in 1998, and are still together now, 17 years later? Nope, that is not immigration fraud.

Read the OP's other thread to see his motivation for accusing these folks of fraud; http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/571371-will-i-lose-my-temporary-green-card-if-my-us-citizen-wife-divorce-me-or-withdraw-i-130/
He wasn't worry about "fraud" when he was trying to get his green card through marriage to "Nusrat." Fraud only became an issue when he couldn't get his green card.

and by "under one" i meant under one clip per section or related group of papers

They should be in separate packages, i didnt paperclip anything in the IV packages as there's only a few things, just made a cover letter. For AOS i paper clipped the AOS papers, paystubs, transcripts, etc under one and then again for my joint sponsor and i used the school binder separators with the tabs and cover sheet to divide everything easily for whoever is reviewing it

The OP's original question asked what are the chances of visa approval, and how can they make the case stronger.
Proving ties isn't the only thing that is need for approval. FUNDING aka finances aka money is something that is required, something that needs to be proven, and something that will be brought up by the CO. The advice wasn't they can't afford it - the advice was to make sure they CAN afford it to improve their chances of approval and prove that to the CO. Because quite frankly on paper, it doesn't seem like they can. That's just an objective outlook on the situation and I'm sure the COs are only looking for facts and figures, not about coddling others feelings.
How does asking if they can afford the trip equate to calling them poor? Get real.

A discussion about the applicant's finances is likely to surface during an interview in which the entire family is seeking visas, whether some third party brings up the topic or not.
The proposed trip must make sense....relative to the applicant's current situation.

Based on the limited information given, we can use the powers of reading comprehension to infer a few things.
1) The OP mentions the wife works as a housekeeper. The husband is a veggie seller AND a taxi driver. We can infer someone who owns a sizeable farm would not need to be working a second job as a taxi driver.
2) Family and cars are the only ties mentioned. Nothing about owning a house, owning property, owning a business.
3) The OP stated they actually told the family they need to show more ties to Jamaica - we can infer this means the ties listed (family and cars) are the only ones worth mentioning.
These are things that were deduced based on the info provided by the OP. If they are not true, OP is free to ignore the advice given. Don't understand the need for people to get defensive over general observations and sidetrack the entire thread.

Based on the limited information given, we can use the powers of reading comprehension to infer a few things.
1) The OP mentions the wife works as a housekeeper. The husband is a veggie seller AND a taxi driver. We can infer someone who owns a sizeable farm would not need to be working a second job as a taxi driver.
2) Family and cars are the only ties mentioned. Nothing about owning a house, owning property, owning a business.
3) The OP stated they actually told the family they need to show more ties to Jamaica - we can infer this means the ties listed (family and cars) are the only ones worth mentioning.
These are things that were deduced based on the info provided by the OP. If they are not true, OP is free to ignore the advice given. Don't understand the need for people to get defensive over general observations and sidetrack the entire thread.

OP said the family has no other ties except family and cars. One would reason owning a sizable farm would be mentioned an example of an additional tie.

They can apply and see, though entry is not guaranteed even when they arrive.
One of the things they need to show is that they have funds to support themselves while visiting. Doing a quick search shows a round trip ticket from Kingston to Miami is ~$400, so $1600 for 4 people. the current exchange rate is 1 JMD=.0084 USD, so $1600 is roughly 190,000 JMD. This is not including place to stay, other traveling expenses, food, etc.
Based on the limited info provided, I'm not sure what your friends resources are but it's one thing they have to keep in mind and prove.
I believe Jamaica is also considered high risk country in terms of immigration fraud, so that may be another obstacle. Not sure about its risk rating though.
I recently had a cousin try to get a visitor visa from another high risk country and he was denied even though he has strong ties to his home country (has a family he was traveling without, owns a lot of property, owns a large business making 6 figures when converted to UsD, etc)

You might not care if you committed visa fraud or not, but people committing such fraud is one of the reasons the process takes so long for those doing it the legal way.
And yeah, it is your God given right to be with your wife. So if you can't be with her in U.S., go be with her somewhere else. It's not a God given right to be given automatic immigration passage ya know? Lol, I really do love the Anti-US rants by people who are trying to have someone immigrated into US at same time.

You might not care if you committed visa fraud or not, but people committing such fraud is one of the reasons the process takes so long for those doing it the legal way.
And yeah, it is your God given right to be with your wife. So if you can't be with her in U.S., go be with her somewhere else. It's not a God given right to be given automatic immigration passage ya know? Lol, I really do love the Anti-US rants by people who are trying to have someone immigrated into US at same time.

You might not care if you committed visa fraud or not, but people committing such fraud is one of the reasons the process takes so long for those doing it the legal way.
And yeah, it is your God given right to be with your wife. So if you can't be with her in U.S., go be with her somewhere else. It's not a God given right to be given automatic immigration passage ya know? Lol, I really do love the Anti-US rants by people who are trying to have someone immigrated into US at same time.

Case Transfers
Current as of July 2013.

Many posts are being made about transfers, and what these emails/notifications mean.
(I dropped a post in the K1 Forum but it has to do with Service Centers, so I'll post one here too)

If you filed a K-1 petition received a notice that looked like one of the following, your case has been transferred to another Service Center.... NOT your local office. Local offices do not process I-129F petitions. The method of transfers applies to all case types, however whether it was transferred to your local office depends on your case type. You should receive an Notice Of Action Transfer (NoA-T) in the mail telling you where your file was transferred within two weeks of the electronic notification or case update on the USCIS website.
This transfer is usually a good thing. A transfer will occur when a Service Center is backlogged and cannot keep up with the influx of petitions, so they transfer the backlogged cases to another service center so those people can be processed in a timely manner. If you were told you have to wait another 180 days -- this is incorrect. Many Tier 1 Immigration Officers (the first people you talk to when you call the customer service number) are given a script to read from, which more often than not contains misinformation. They do not have access to any information that you, yourself cannot find online by either checking your case status or what is available on the USCIS website. Your case will be processed by receipt date, at the speed of the adjudicator processing it, and influenced by the complexity of the case.
In many cases there will be three notifications when a case is transferred.


The first notification will contain something like this:

This means that USCIS has sent your electronic file to the other office. Every time your file is handled by someone they have to scan it (to track where it is and who last handled it so they know who is responsible if anything come back with an issue), when they scan it if there are updates regarding your case (transfer, RFE, typographical error, inquiry, etc) there will be an accompanying message.


The second notification will typically be a few hours after and will contain something like this:

This means that USCIS has mailed your physical file to the Service Center that will be processing your case moving forward.


The third notification will be about a week later and will contain something like this:

This means the Service Center that is processing your file has received the physical file and will begin processing once the adjudicator picks up the batch (based on received date).

Within a week you should receive an NoA-T in the mail, which will look like this (private information has been supplemented by sample info):



What does this mean for me?
This means that for most straight forward cases you may see your NoA2 or an RFE within a month or two. If your case is not straight forward or your case got flagged, it may take longer. Keep in mind every case is different. If you are outside the standard processing times you should contact the USCIS Customer Service line and ask to speak to a Tier 2 Immigration Officer. You should make sure your case wasn't lost in the shuffle, and that it is being worked on. Find out if you missed any notifications or if there is something that you can do to help move it along. Some immigration officers can be quite rude, so always remember to be as polite as possible. These people are overloaded with work and they're just people too. Be clear, concise, and to the point. They are busy people and their time is valuable.

So I can expect to get approved in a month or two?
This is the United States Government. Nothing is a guarantee. You might hear back in a month or two... You might not. It might be an approval, it might be an RFE, it might even be a denial. A lot of cases which were transferred in the past from the VSC to the TSC were adjudicated within 4-6 weeks. Follow the forum posts stay alert, and watch the progress of people within your Service Center to get an idea of what is going on. The speed of who is getting their cases adjudicated has to do with the complexity of the case, whether you're beneficiary is in a high fraud risk country, and the speed in which the adjudicator themselves work.

I am a <Month> filer from that Service Center and I didn't get transferred, should I be worried?
No. The Service centers tend to transfer people in batches. Your case may have already been assigned to someone, or they transferred files between X date and X date, and your file was not within that range. Many times when the files are transferred approvals from both service centers are soon to follow. Don't worry until you're outside of the standard processing time. You can see when your case was last touched, and if it was touched prior to the transfers, chances are you were already assigned.

How do I check to see if my case was "touched"?
If you haven't created an account on the USCIS website you can do so here. If you have you can log into your profile from here (make sure you choose "Customer" for the user type). Once you're logged in you'll see a page that resembles the image below. The "last updated" date shown below is the last time your file has been "touched".



How do you know what the messages mean regarding the electronic and physical files? Nothing in the messages indicates this.
I called a Tier 2 Officer and asked him to explain the transfer process. He explained that for transfers the first email you get is the electronic notification, the second was the actual mailing of the physical files and the third was when the Service Center your files are being transferred to has received the physical files.

Someone with a PD of feb 3 got approved, so we are getting closer

Does your wife work? I think she may need ways to keep herself busy. You seem to be keeping busy with work, so doing relatively okay.
Long distance is never easy and people have different ways of taking out their frustration. Try being patient with her, give her more attention, encourage her to go out with family and friends. She might be feeling neglected, even if that's not the case, so try giving her more attention and let her know how much it sucks for you as well.
Try explaining the situation to her from a practical point of view but also let her know if you had your way, you would be there with her. And that you miss her as much as she does. I think she might just need to hear these reassurances from you and feel that she's not in it alone.
Sometimes the other spouse needs to step in and be the mature one when the other is being unreasonable..just be patient and gentle with her. I'm sure she'll come around. Wishing you guys a speedy journey.

Does your wife work? I think she may need ways to keep herself busy. You seem to be keeping busy with work, so doing relatively okay.
Long distance is never easy and people have different ways of taking out their frustration. Try being patient with her, give her more attention, encourage her to go out with family and friends. She might be feeling neglected, even if that's not the case, so try giving her more attention and let her know how much it sucks for you as well.
Try explaining the situation to her from a practical point of view but also let her know if you had your way, you would be there with her. And that you miss her as much as she does. I think she might just need to hear these reassurances from you and feel that she's not in it alone.
Sometimes the other spouse needs to step in and be the mature one when the other is being unreasonable..just be patient and gentle with her. I'm sure she'll come around. Wishing you guys a speedy journey.

No

Once you're at NVC, you, the beneficiary, just give your address there when you fill out the DS-260. No need to do anything now.

It sounds a bit like your wife might be very young. You're going to have to just stop getting upset and present her with a loving, gentle, but rational wall: "No, honey, we can't do that. Here's why."
Just because one partner wants something that's such an obvious bad idea both financially and reasonably doesn't mean that the other one has to cave in and do what they want just to keep the peace.
Be the grownup, if she won't. This separation is hard on everyone, for sure.

Does your wife work? I think she may need ways to keep herself busy. You seem to be keeping busy with work, so doing relatively okay.
Long distance is never easy and people have different ways of taking out their frustration. Try being patient with her, give her more attention, encourage her to go out with family and friends. She might be feeling neglected, even if that's not the case, so try giving her more attention and let her know how much it sucks for you as well.
Try explaining the situation to her from a practical point of view but also let her know if you had your way, you would be there with her. And that you miss her as much as she does. I think she might just need to hear these reassurances from you and feel that she's not in it alone.
Sometimes the other spouse needs to step in and be the mature one when the other is being unreasonable..just be patient and gentle with her. I'm sure she'll come around. Wishing you guys a speedy journey.