Calculus

Now it's less than a week until I move over to my husband, yayyyy. And for some stupid reason, I still worry that I'm gonna get to the border and CBP is gonna tell me "sorry, they made a mistake so your visa's cancelled". Who knew POE would feel worse than the actual interview?!

You will be just fine ? I've never heard of anyone who has been denied entrance in your situation. I understand you though, because I was nervous for the same reason. It took literally 5 minutes for the immigration officer/customs person(whatever they are...) to look over my papers. I arrived in the evening so no one else was in line for green card stamps. Have a great trip, sooo happy for you ?

I realised I didn't join this forum (thanks for the ping, @SoerenHelmer)! I'm in the facebook group, but with everything up in the air I completely forgot about this one.

We are currently in the process of sending stuff into NVC - we paid the IV fee on Friday so the DS-260 will hopefully open Monday or Tuesday. Around that time the packet with all my parents-in-law's documents (joint sponsor stuff, my husband's tax transcripts) should also be arriving so we can send it all off. Though of course we are off travelling Monday-Thursday, so we won't be able to send it off the moment it arrives! As I said in the NVC forum, we are now figuring out the domicile aspect. UGH so many things. We currently have my husband's TX drivers license, bank + credit card statements, voters registration, a letter of intent for moving and I'm drafting a letter for his parents to sign that we will live with them when we move there. Surely it must be OK if they sign it and scan it and we print it off here? I don't really want to wait around for yet another letter being sent, in transit, delivered. (Of course we'd get them to send the original so I'll have it for the interview.)

If you put his parents' address on there it shouldn't be a problem. That's what we did. What is the Facebook group, by the way?

Hello everybody!

Quick question, where do you get your photos taken to get the exact US passport size dimension in Stockholm?

The one at the train station only does 50 x 50 when the specifications says 51 x 51. Is there any studio in Stockholm that do the right size?

I took my photos at the airport(Arlanda). They had a photo booth there, and that was no problem for the interview. I actually just arrived in the US and will write my poe experience in a longer post when I have time. I hope everyone hangs in there, because it is amazing to finally be done! Our visa journey lasted 14 months.....

Yeah, that's so weird because it was never asked for in the email or brought up when I went in for the interview ?

So, I'm getting everything ready for my interview, and then I realize that my instruction email says this:

BIRTH CERTIFICATE: Your original birth certificate from Norway issued in English. The certificate must state the date and place of birth of both parents and must be from the country where you were born.

Does it really have to state date/place of my parents birth? Doesn't look like Skattetaten offer that. Any Norwegians with any input?

The birth certificate in English was all I needed at the interview(for i130 visa) They never asked for anything about my parents in connection to that.

Hi all

I contacted embassy for status of my visa and they quickly replied that teh AP is over and I can expect my visa next week. but in the website I am still under AP and it is not issued or something. Is it normal? how long before receiving your visa, did your status change?

can I trust that and reserve my flight ebfore it gets more expensive

thanks

I would strongly advice against buying plane tickets before you have the papers in hand. What if it gets held up at the embassy or post office?

Hi, all

So i´m now ready to share what happen at the Embassy and my Interview.

I was there 08:00 and got it 15 min after.

I was the first in line and only in line at the time.

I went to all the security stuff. WOW it´s a big Embassy!!

I came inside and went to the window, at that time i was thinking "all is fine, i have all my papers"

I was then asked for:

Passport

MC

BC his and her (And there was the problem.)

Chat log

Pictures

JS AOS and financial papers

Military Papers

Waiver of old GC

As i said, BC (My bc) was the problem, i somehow left it at home, with some other papers in a "backup" folder.

So i was told to sit back down, they looked over my papers and called me back to another window.

Here i got my fingerprints taken and was asked:

Where did you meet your wife?

Why was she in Denmark?

What does she do for living?

What will you do for living?

What about your kids?

That was it.

I was then put in AP - the 221(g) and was told they need to have the BC for them to approve my case.

The last thing i was told was that i had to mail it to them and when they got my paper, they will do my passport and mail it to my in the Envelop that i addressed to my self as the first thing after handing in papers.

Today i mailed the my BC and they will have it in hand Friday or Monday.

So that´s where i´m with the case so fare.

Thank you for sharing your embassy story ?

You had to send in a proof of name change? Didn't all your supporting documents come in your new name?

No, you can pay the immigration fee before or after entering the US. But if you wait to pay the fee until you've entered the US, it might slow it down a bit. It says the green card will be issued within 60 days of entering the US, unless you wait to pay the green card fee, in which case the 60 days start once you've paid the fee so...

Yes, I had to get my name change document translated. I bet it wouldn't have been an issue had I left out that it even existed(the proof of name change) . So yes, sometimes even if you bring everything they ask for, you might have to send in supporting documents ?

It's no problem getting back to Norway without a passport ? I still can't get over how much money we've spent on this visa though......

I will also bring the originals of all the copies we sent in with the i-129f, even if it's not required. All the tickets, boarding passes, photos and so on - we only sent in copies of all that, so I will bring all the originals if they want to look at it.

I'll rather bring too much to be on the safe side.

I agree. Better to be safe than sorry. I actually had to send in a document later that they didn't mention on the interview check list(proof of name change).

Just paid the immigration fee to USCIS. Now it's getting real.

Do we have to pay that before we enter the us?

Totally! I'm so excited ?

Thank you!!! I love this forum, and without it I would be pretty lost ???

I have another stupid question: do we need to pay the esta thing when traveling to the us with the visa package???

I actually had to wait around 30 minutes outside the embassy, so if it is cold, bundle up!

I know what you mean, we have spent so much money on this visa! First we had to fly to Oslo to get the medical done, then we had to fly to Stockholm for the interview. Since the interview was early spending the night in a hotel was necessary.......

Here's a stupid question: what is AP?

Ok, I thought it would be weird if they still expedited them when there are countries in far more need.... Still, I don't think Scandinavians have any advantage over others.

It´s just one of them days, where you want to forget it all and wish it never happen.

The waiting for a CC was not as stuff, in my mind that the wait for interview and for the Embassy to decide if they will move it.

I don´t even have the imagination to think, what people go through when they have to wait years.

So glad that i live in a place that is "loved" by USA so it goes faster.

I hope you hear from them soon! I don't, however, think our visa process is any quicker than other countries. The Philipines, for instance, get expedited automatically.....

In about 2 weeks! So excited ?

Alaska2012 is probably right. Either way it is a heartbreaking situation for you ?

It's ridiculous, but you have to travel to Oslo. They have a unilabs in Bergen as well, but that is not approved(I called and checked)

Gc&dl, did you say that his police records would be clean in a year? I would wait a year to apply then......

Around 3 weeks.....

We have finally been issued a visa! We applied January 2015, and it has been a long road. I hope the rest of the Scandinavians waiting will be done soon ???

Send in the documents they asked for ASAP. This happened to us, but we were issued the visa once the documents were in