ExtraTerrestrial

Does anyone have any recent experience or tips from using a co-sponsor at a K-1 interview in Sydney? I have read recent reviews, and only a few seem to be in the same scenario.

Fiancee had been living in Australia with me for 12 months, up until she returned to America 2 weeks ago. As a result, her father is also filling out an Affidavit of Support for us, because she earned no money in the US last year. I am a little worried that her income, and his, may fall quite close to (or pretty much right on) the poverty line +25% that is generally suggested. The only support being provided is a room from her father when I first arrive - I will be covering other costs with my own funds.

Has anyone used a co-sponsor recently, or do you have experience with how strictly they have enforced these guidelines in the past? Some people seem to have had trouble, others state that the consulate barely even looked at their paperwork. I am not worried about being denied in terms of our legitimacy, or for any other reason, and am confident that we will be approved. But the last thing I want is to be approved on the condition that I file an affidavit from another relative with a higher income, or something similar. I have gotten myself unnecessarily nervous over this, and would love some feedback to help calm my worrying.

As a sidenote, I have my medical exam in Sydney tomorrow! I will make a post afterwards to let you all know how it goes and what to expect.

So you got your interview about 30 days after Sydney got your paperwork?

1 month-ish. I heard from the consulate on 8th October, responded promptly, got my interview for 20th November. Worked out fine though - the soonest medical I could get in Sydney was November 6th.

I received the same email as you did from the consulate, once I replied I got my interview date.

Yep, got my interview date today! Our NOA2 date is the same, but my interview is one month later, Nov. 20th. Looks like NVC processing times can make a big difference. It's no big deal though, not leaving til Jan and I could do with the extra prep time. Will book my medical tomorrow!

P.S - another Eric going to PA. Small world, huh?!

"Your case is in transit to the Consular Section. Your interview date was provided to you by the National Visa Center."

Did anyone else get this message one CEAC Website? I have not gotten any notification of an interview date. Do I need to call the Sydney consulate and see when the interview is scheduled for. Or do I get to schedule the interview after I submit the DS160?

Thanks!

How strange. I didn't get anything like that. My fiancée (petitioner) got an email last Thursday requesting that I send them an email with case number, DS-160 confirmation number and some personal details, saying they would then get back to me in 1-2 business days. I have met heard anything since Thursday night when I responded - 2 business days ago. I will give them two more before sending another email or calling.

If there's anything I've learned from this website, it seems as if the way Sydney operates doesn't seem to be 100% consistent. I often end up confused trying to work out some sort of process. When I run my case number on the CEAC website it just tells me to wait for contact from my consulate with an interview date.

Just got off the phone with NVC and they received our case on September 25th from California Our NOA2 date was September 8th. The representative gave us our case # and our invoice #. On to the next step <3

Nice one. Today marked a month since our NOA2, so I called and was told our case was sent to our consulate yesterday. We updated some details and added an extra email address. Of course, I totally forgot to ask for a case number, but I'll know in the next week or so once the consulate contacts us. I really don't want to spend another half hour on hold for it!!

Hi guys, also a current K1 member! Can I ask what your NOA2 dates were? Ours was exactly one month ago, and we're yet to hear anything. I will call NVC if I haven't heard anything by the end of this week. It's been difficult so far because we haven't been able to make international calls at the necessary times. We're both in Australia at the moment.

Does packet 3 require much from you at this stage? From what I have read, a lot of information nowadays is taken to the interview rather than posted. I have already done my police check and we are working on our Affidavit of Support right now. Good to have some other people on this journey with us!

I booked the medical on the 22nd of July, i'm very organised . LOL. The receptionists try and slot you in about 2 weeks before your interview. When you get your immunisation records check that you have had a tetanus in the last 10 years, the doctor was really strict bout that.

Good Luck

That's excellent, thanks again for your help. I'll probably need to get tetanus done, will do that beforehand to make things easier. I'm assuming you had your interview date when you called to make the appointment? I'd like to call and make it as soon as I get my case number, but I understand I won't have an interview date until I reply to packet 3? Or were you assigned an interview date right from the start? I've seen so many mixed stories from Sydney…

Awesome, thank you! Very helpful. I've been wondering what to do between NOA2 and hearing from the consulate. I'm going to get my AFP check done, and now I'll try and hunt down my vaccination records too. I plan to book my medical as soon as possible - what was the wait time between when you booked and when you had the appointment? Hoping to hear from the consulate in the next week or two.

Anyone had trouble receiving their NOA2 hardcopy? We're in Australia, so it takes a little bit longer, but when I thought it arrived late last week I opened the envelope to find a second copy of our NOA1, which had already come weeks before? Very strange. Hopefully hardcopy shows up by the end of this week.

I-129F Approved 08/28/15! Two weeks from when we received NOA1. Very excited. Still planning on spending Christmas in Australia before the move, but nice to know that the visa could well be sorted by then and I could leave right after. Fiancee/petitioner will be leaving Australia in late October, hopefully I'll have an interview date set by then and we can say goodbye with an idea of when we'll be back together! I'm sure you all know how bad a goodbye is when you don't know when you'll next be together.

Off for a relaxing week in the tropics, will start navigating the next lot of paperwork when I return!

We've been together about a year and a half. I put a lot of evidence in my file, so maybe that has some truth to it.

Nice - your post made me think, and I've just realised that today marks two and a half years for us. Fingers crossed, I guess!

Hi TL and Extraterrestrial!

From the July 2015 forum, with almost the same timeline as ours, some were approved in 9days (4 working days)! Those were the ones sent on July 29&30!!!!!

Crazy right?

Well here's mine again:

Sent I-129F: July 31

NOA 1: August 3 (website) August 6 (email)

NOA 2 : ???

Wow, that's crazy fast. I've been assuming it'll take around a month, but I'll take it as a pleasant surprise if things move faster than that!

Hi all! Technically I'm a July filer, but my NOA1 came on the 3rd. I just received my NOA2 via email confirmation last night - just waiting for the hard copy. Only 11 days! That's crazy how fast it's going!

This was great to read. How long have the two of you been together for? I don't know how credible the claims are, but I've read some people saying that longer relationships with more evidence are generally approved faster. Like I said above, I'm assuming it'll take a month but anything quicker would be a great surprise!

I ask, because I've been living in Australia on a WHV since before we even filed the I-129f, so I'm pretty sure my income in another country doesn't even count as sufficient income as a sponsor. And also because I have an account at a credit union back home who won't supply total amount deposited in the last year as well as some of the other things it suggests on the USCIS website. And to top it off all of my income in (just about) the past year has been here in Australia. While I will still get statements from my employer here just in case, I'm wondering if it even matters. Thanks in advance.

Just filed this week, fiancée has also been in Australia since last year on a working holiday. Curious to see the answer here. Assuming you probably won't need to provide much evidence for yourself, but statements from Australian employer sound like a good idea just in case.

Woke up to NOA1 today 8/15, 2 weeks from sending, 2 or 3 days after delivery. Sent to California Service Center. Starting to feel pretty real now, very exciting!

Hows everyone else's process going so far?

Ours has just been delivered! Now just waiting for our NOA1. Hopefully by the end of the week.

It probably depends on where you are, but our Australian bank was able to provide us with a check drawn on a U.S. Bank. There was a fee of $20-30, and they made it up for us on the spot. I'm still waiting for NOA1, but this was going off the advice of other Australian filers and it seemed to work for them without a problem. See what your bank has to say!

Waiting for NOA1 ! When do you guys hope to be their and plan the wedding?

Im basically going to go as soon as I can after Christmas. Even if the visa comes before then , I'd like to spend it here with my family before heading off. Plus it's going to be hard giving up the warm Australian summer on the beach for winter in the northeast!

We're hoping we'll get approved no later than January as that's when we would like for me to arrive! So I'm assuming we'll be going to be getting married in February? We're not set on a specific date, we just hope the process will go as fast and smooth as possible Either way we won't be having a ceremonial wedding until Summer of 2017

What about you guys?

Our petition arrived today at 11am in Texas. Exciting stuff! Let's see when we will get our NOA1.

And ExtraTerrestrial, did your petition get there yet? I hope more August filers will join us soon in here.

Mine is in LA at the moment! Journey from Sydney has taken a while... Assuming it'll be delivered in the next day or two.

Hi all,

We sent our I-129F from Australia on July 31st, which I'd say counts us as August filers. Anyone else joined the club yet? Feeling pretty positive here, I know the whole process felt very daunting at first but I'm feeling much more confident and relaxed now that we've got our head around everything and started the process! We're both in Australia right now, but my fiancée will be heading back to America in October and I'll follow once this visa stuff is sorted. Stay in touch and let's see how our applications go!

Hi all,

I am new to the forum. I just filed my I 129f for my fiance on July 30th, I live in Ohio so it was sent to Dallas, Texas so that would mean that the TSC has teh application. As of July are cases from TSC still being tranfered to CSC? Also any other information would help because I am really stressed out about this since we are looking to marry in November here in the states.

Thanks in advance.

Sending to Dallas does not mean that TSC has your application - the address you sent to is just the lockbox where all applications are unpackaged and then sent on to a service centre. From here, they will send it to a SC. Your NOA1 will specify which service centre has the application. I sent mine 31st July, hoping for CSC like everybody else recently!

Thanks for the advice! You're certainly right about the American address helping in avoiding any confusion. I also see you're in Connecticut - my fiancée and I met while studying at UConn! The world isn't so big after all.

In reference to the cover letter etc, I was just referring to what address we would put for her, as you tend to write the authors address towards the top on formal letters... Just in keeping with the examples I have found on here.

Thanks again!

Hi all,

My fiancée and I have been engaged for around a fortnight now. It's been an exciting time and we're ready to get on with paperwork. I am an Australia, and she is currently living here with me, until October (arrived October 2014).

Filing from here seems to be fairly straight forward, but we're a bit stuck on her mailing address for the I-129F, cover letter, and letter of intent. Given that she is returning home in 3ish months, would we better off using her home address in Philadelphia? Her family will be there to receive any mail. Legal-type things get a little scary sometimes and we don't want to use her American address and have it taken as 'lying' given that she is currently here with me. If we do fill it out using our Australian mailing address, is she able to update this at a later stage once she returns? I'll still be here, so it's no big deal if things for her are sent here.

I'm leaning towards using our current Australian address (especially in the case that we get lucky and things go quicker than expected), but I just want to run this last some people with experience first! We really want to do this right and avoid any RFEs.

Thanks!!