joanne3010

Nick thanks so much, your replies are always so helpful and thorough, I really appreciate it. I think I will ask.

I can't believe I'm really posting this, after all the struggles we have had getting to this stage in my visa application process, but here go..

Brief background: My husband is US Military, stationed here in the UK where we met and married 5 years ago. He is due to be reassigned to the States in October, we plan to leave the 5th October so he can report to his new duty station.

I had my medical in London yesterday and all went great. I was shocked to get my interview letter this morning in the post, as I didn't expect to get it for another few days. As soon as I saw the date my heart sank... the same day as my brothers wedding, a date which was specifically picked so that we could attend the wedding before we left. The wedding is in Yorkshire, so nowhere near London.

It does say on the letter that we can request to change the date in writing. But we already need to have the visa in hand if I am successful by Oct 5th... am I just tempting fate if we ask to change it? Part of me wants to ask to change it, but part of me thinks we'd be stupid at this point to bother and we should just be glad we've gotten to this point.

Good luck with everything!

I'm no expert on this, but we are living in the UK and I am the one requiring the visa/beneficiary, my husband is the American national/petitioner. We filed the I-130, paid the AOS fee, submitted the DS260 and then paid the IV fee. It is at that point after paying the fees and then filing the DS260 that you gather and submit the documents, one of which is proof of domicile. I found this a nice easy flow chart of the process by step. http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/petition.html

Thank you all so much for the replies, and Nich-Nick that info was brilliant, I'm so grateful. I'll wait a week or so for my ready status and take it from there! Of course I am obsessively refreshing the status login page and my email all day now

Good point Shauneg, I'll try edit it.

Just a quick question, whereabouts will it updated to say "ready" - on the Visa status check link frias1983 provided, or on my own Immigrant Visa sign in page that the NVC gave me, the one where we logged in to pay our fees, submit our DS-260 etc.

Yeah I didn't think they scheduled it for me, I just wasn't sure if the case had to have reached a certain stage before I was allowed to schedule it. So I'd need to wait for my interview letter?

Thank you! I feel so relieved! So I don't need to wait for any contact from anybody to schedule my medical? I'll email the embassy tonight and see what they say too.

Thanks for the reply, but all the case update says is I need to follow the instructions sent to me by NVC. I was more looking for what would happen next, eg will I be contacted by the embassy about when to book my medical. I understand these questions can probably get a bit tedious for people to reply to!

Thank you so much to hose who replied to my previous thread, just got the email the NVC have accepted our request and are going to expedite our case at this particular stage. The email says:

"Dear Sir/Madam:

The National Visa Center (NVC) received your inquiry regarding the immigrant visa petition: LNDXXXXXX filed by A XXXXX on behalf of J YYYYYY.

The U.S. Embassy/Consulate General has accepted this case for expedited processing. This file will be immediately forwarded to the U.S. Embassy/Consulate General. Any further questions concerning processing or the interview appointment date should be directed to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate General.

Please note that the U.S. Embassy or Consulate General may still request additional forms or fees at the time of your interview. Please be prepared to submit any missing forms and pay any required fees at the time of your interview."

The stage we are at right now is we submitted our supporting anf financial docs on May 20th and were waiting for them to be looked at and processed, then sent to the Embassy in London so I can then arrange my medical and interview. I read this to say that they wont even be looking at my docs, they will just be packing it all off to the Embassy in London and it will all then be processed there. Does that sound about right? So do I now wait for the Embassy to contact me and tell me I can schedule my medical?

Hi Isafella! We are at Lakenheath too I don't know much about the fiancee visa, but I do not that if you guys get married here in England when he gets back from deployment, like RIGHT away, you have a decent chance. I filed our visa incorrectly, I filed it directly to the States which is a MUCH longer route, however spouses of military members overseas can file their petitions and all the visa stuff directly to the embassy of the country, and it is all expedited. My friend filed her last September and had a visa in her hand by Jan. I know someone else who filed in Feb this year, had the visa by April and left for the States in May. You may not get to leave EXACTLY when he does but very close to.

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to Military Immigration-Related Discussion.

But does my question actually belong here? My questions is about the NVC processes, their forms, and whether or not I actually have a chance of getting my visa are all related to IR1 discussions. Our situation may be connected to the military, but my questions are not.

Thanks Ryan, I didn't realise there was a military sub forum.

Yeah I really do try to take what they say lightly, but so far the deadlines they've given me have been fairly accurate. They emailed to say they had my docs within a day of them arriving too. But they said my I-130 would take about a month, it did, my checklist was supposed to arrive within 30 days and it came within about 40 days. I'm just so nervous, if I wern't pregnant I wouldn't mind too much, we can do a few weeks or couple of months apart. But to have to have a baby alone all because of paperwork... that would be very hard to stomach.

Yeah I figured once thiis stage has been expedited and my case is with the embassy I'll need to then contact the embassy for further expedition. However if they do things properly (haaaaaaaah) our case would then be treated as a military case and should deal with faster anyway. We also *should* have an assignment and may be able to even get his chain of command involved too... right now I just need to get everything where it needed to be in the first place and at the embassy.

Thank you so much for the reply! You've eased my mind a lot about the form! Oooh when did they tell you they;re only taking 30 days or where did you hear that? They emailed us on 20th May to say it was 60 day turn around. I can live with 30 days!

I'll try outline the situation as best I can, just hoping for some advice/reassurance/anything! I'm sorry this is so long, but we are desperate.

My husband is US military, I am a British national. He came to the Uk on military orders in 2009 and has been stationed here since. During this time we met, got married had a daughter, and I am now 3 months pregnant with our second child due in December. His time serving the USAF overseas is up in October 2015, so we are due to leave in 4 months time for a new assignment.

We really had no idea what to do to file my visa, apparently military members overseas filing a petition for a visa for a foreign national spouse are supposed to send their I-130 directly to the embassy of the country they live in, so we should have filed ours at the London Embassy. We didn't know this, and simply followed the instructions on the travel.state.gov website and filed at the Chicago Lockbox address, as advised on the I-130 instructions. Somewhere between filing and it being approved we realised our mistake, but it was too late and we were advised we had to stick with the process we had begun, and we could still get my visa this way but it would take longer. So. I-130 was approved in Jan, I got my checklist from the NVC end of Feb along with an Immigrant Visa login. I paid my fees, I filled in the DS-260 online (this took a month because it kept taking a long time for the fees to become payable) and then mid April we send our supporting and financial documents to the NVC. I paid for 3 day tracked shipping with USPS, they never arrived. USPS told me to wait 21 days, I did, they never arrived and no trace was found. So once again we gathered the docs, had our visa pictures done again, and resent them. They arrived at the NVC 21st May.

Then the NVC emails us and tells us it will be at LEAST 60 days before our documents are even looked at. This would be the end of July, about 8 weeks before we leave. Not enough time for the NVC to send our case to London, me have my medical and then interview unless they are really on the ball. TheNVC said they could potentially expedite our case if my husband had a military assignment, As yet we are waiting for one (a whole other disaster - leaving in 16 weeks and no idea where in the States we are going!) instead we wrote an email outlining the situation above, as well as the fact I am pregnant and if my visa doesn't come by the end of Oct I will be too pregnant to fly, I will have the stay in the UK (with nowhere to live, our rent is covered by his military benefits) and have the baby alone, as well as have our 2 year old who will not be able to go with him as he won't have any childcare for her when he goes to work. Not to mention that the military will have shipped out all our belongings, so I will have no home, no belongings, my husband will be gone. We also attached two military documents which say his overseas tour is over in october 2015 and he will be returning to the States on military orders. They emailed back to say the expedite request is under review.

NOW we have come to realise that the I-864 Affidavit of Support we sent in May has an expiry date on it of 31/03/2015. As if I wasn't in a panic before to discover our documents may not be accepted now. This version of the I-864 is still showing as active on the website, so I can only assume that despite the expiry date it is still valid? I have emailed the NVC but no reply yet... can anyone shed any light on this? Do I have any chance in hell of having the case expedited with what we've provided? If they don't and my case doesn't get to London by July/August is there really any way I will actually have a visa by October? I can't even stomach the possibility of not getting it in time but it;s looking more and more likely as time goes by.