Spencerburgess

On 4/6/2017 at 3:12 PM, jorgestevison said:

My interview is scheduled for May 12th.

Consulate asks for most recent IRS transcripts. However, my co sponsor most recent is 2015. That will be enough for the interview? I will have an extension letter for 2016 also.

Hey Jorge,

I believe I am in a similar situation as you. For 2015 I did not make enough (I didn't work the whole year) and was required to have a joint sponsor, however for 2016 I did earn over the threshold but filed for an extension, so I haven't filed my taxes this year yet. I emailed the Consult and they said to bring the proof of extension and my 2015 documents. I am asking them a few follow up questions and I can post those answers back here.

Our interview is on April 19th, I will let you know if we have any issues with the taxes!

Best of luck!

4 hours ago, Thesmiths2016 said:

Are you currently living outside the united states? The following on the IRS website says you have an automatic 2 month extension if residing outside the USA. I intend to print this page and bring it to my interview as my husband won't be able to file in time. 

 

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p54/ch01.html

 

I am outside the US with my wife, but I am on the status of a tourist visa for now (To get residency in Brazil is a long process as well!), so I just filed for a regular extension. The consulate that our interview is at finally just answered part of the question we had. Since there is no official confirmation for the tax extension from the IRS (Aside from a phone call confirmation or confirmation through E-File software) we were instructed just to bring the form that we filed out for the extension with us to the interview along with the 2015 tax information. I would imagine that your embassy/consulate would give a similar answer. 

It is helpful to know that you heard someone went through the same situation without any issues, thank you for sharing that! If our interview ends up before yours I will let you know if we had any troubles with it! Best of luck!

Hey all,

My wife(Beneficiary) and I got approved for an expedite request at the Consulate in Rio. We were already CC'd at the NVC, but we needed a sooner date (Hence why we applied for an expedite). Anyways, our interview date is April 19th!

Since we started the NVC process in December they only have our 2015 financial documents along with our joint sponsor's. For 2016 taxes we made more than enough to not require a joint sponsor, however since the tax season is ending and we want to file jointly rather than separate I filed for an extension and we will file jointly after she gets her SSN (So, after the interview and our entry into the US). 

The problem that we have is that our interview date is April 19th, so they are definitely going to prefer to have our 2016 return. My big question is if we are good for the interview with the tax extension form and my w2's and last years tax (2015)/financial documents? If we are good that way, would we need to bring original proof of identity for our joint sponsor or just their financial documents, etc?

Or are we REQUIRED to file and bring our 2016 tax return even though the IRS doesn't require it until October as per the granted extension? Is anyone else in this same situation?

We did electronic processing.

Scan date: December 2016 

CC: 3/3/2017

Hoping that we get our interview date soon! The wife is six months pregnant this week! We are in no condition to have the baby abroad. Fingers crossed.

4 hours ago, ezmiller said:

Do you have any suggestions for a non-confrontational way of asking to speak with a supervisor?

In my situation I just called and upon getting an answer when they asked what they could do for me I just said, "I am calling to see if you can connect me with a supervisor". With the reason being: "To discuss the validity of a checklist that was issued". Each rep has kindly asked me to hold after that as they went to find out if one was available. If one is not available, ask them to take down your phone number to get a call back (It can take them 1-3 days to get back to you). They can be bad about calling back, so I just continued to call until I could connect with one myself.

After you reach a supervisor just tell them what is going on from start to finish and explain how long you have waited without response. I really think that you can get some good answers by connecting with a supervisor! It made a HUGE difference on our case.

6 hours ago, ezmiller said:

My wife and I are also still waiting to be approved. We have a priority date of May 23, 2016. The NVC received our application in October, and we filed a bunch of documents then through a lawyer. Unfortunately, when we heard back from the NVC in early December they incorrectly stated that we hadn't provided a Birth Certificate. What we'd done is provide an affidavit of birth since my wife doesn't have a birth certificate. So our lawyer responded with an explanation, stating that we believe the application to be complete. And since then we've just been waiting for them to correct what seems to be their mistake. That wait has been now three months. I called the NVC once and the person I spoke with said that couldn't see what was going on, but would elevate it to "supervisory status," and said it could take up to another 6 weeks. So a lot of waiting for us as well! 

Have you spoken with a supervisor?

We are doing electronic processinf, we submitted our documentsto the NVC in December, a few days after submitting we received what we were told is a false checklist. 9 weeks later and after waiting for the next review and also a super visor review I decided to reach a supervisor. I had to call 8 times in two days to reach one, but we discovered that the NVC had put our documents basically on a shelf waiting for us to respond to the "fake checklist", apparently they had never received all of our documents in the email we had first sent (Not too sure how an email gets lost, especially when we had sent everything twice...). Everytime we called  representatives told us to keep waiting a few more weeks for a response and we will get a checklist or an approval, but now we know if we kelt waiting we were never going to get a response... The supervisor had us resend the email and he personally watched for it while on the phone with us to confirm he got it, he checked off all he could on the checklist and then told us it that the rest has to go through the review department, but he will make sure it gets done quickly for us. 

If you are filing through mail, it is obviously is slightly a different case, but I am certain that if you can speak with the right supervisor you can have things move forward very soon.

Best of luck! This process is a huge headache, but I feel like we are all almost through it!

Just got off the phone with another representative (A very rude one) who told me that out of all our documents they only have record of three in their email system, the rest have apparently been lost. We submitted our documents twice on December 20th... It took this long for them to tell us that they have lost our emails and don't know where they are... We still have yet to get a hold of a supervisor, we are putting in a new request for a call back everyday, hoping to reach one soon! What a journey this has been!

This is a rather interesting topic that has some controversy. Technically it is a legal thing to do, but it can be a shady subject unless he meets some fairly strong qualifications.The big question to ask is how long since your brother entered the US on a tourist visa did he marry, and did he enter the US on a tourist visa with the intent to marry. If he entered the US very recently and got married then it would likely be best for him to return back to his home country and have his wife file for a CR1 visa on his behalf (It's the same process for the IR1 visa). 

Essentially if the marriage was in good faith and took place a good bit of time beyond his entrance into the US, and his entrance into the US was for actual Tourist/visitor purpose, then he is able to apply for permanent residency in the US while remaining in the US (And he would be required to remain in the US throughout the process or loose residency all together).

I would recommend speaking with an attorney or doing a lot of reading on the subject before moving forward with applying for residency while remaining in the US (Do so before he leaves the US! Once he is outside the US the chance of him returning on the same tourist visa is VERY slim and then his only option is the CR1 visa). Make sure that he is 100% for certain able to qualify for residency while in the US before moving forward with that process, otherwise if he is denied he will have to return home and his chance of getting a CR1 visa also gets a little bit harder as he likely will have to re-explain the whole situation again during a CR1 visa interview. Visa fraud is a BIG offense, if he entered the US on a tourist visa with the prior faith to marry the smart thing to do would be to leave the US and apply for a CR1 visa. Either way, be VERY careful and make sure all of your homework is done!

I hope that all made sense, I am no expert on the subject, but I have done some studying.

Best of luck!

http://thelawdictionary.org/article/how-to-get-married-on-a-tourist-visa/

Did your brother marry in the US while under the status of the Tourist Visa, or he married a US citizen outside the US? 

3 minutes ago, iristan said:

Thanks for the advice! I just got off the phone with NVC rep. I asked to speak to a supervisor but she told me none are available. She said her supervisor told her to put another "supervisor review" flag on my case. Does that mean I have to wait another 6 weeks? o_O"

 

- scan date: Nov 15

- supervisor review: Jan 10

- review department: Jan 12

- 2nd supervisor review: Feb 22

Excellent questions! I just got off the phone with them as well. Our case was already on "Supervisor review" and every-time we call they try to bring up the false checklist we got at the beginning, they put it on second supervisor review to find out what in the world is going on and I was told that because it was already on supervisor review it wouldn't restart the time. During our call today the rep said that because it was put on another supervisor review the time started over for six more weeks. 

They give such conflicting answers I wish they would just update their website with a SET standard and not just make guesses for each call. Our Congressman called today and got the same standard reply we always get. I am going to call back my congressman and speak with him directly to see if he can do anything more. What a mess.

1 minute ago, Zee02 said:

How does this Electronic processing work?

Some of the instructions are found on this page: https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/immigrant-process/documents/Submit_documents.html

If your case number is listed under email processing, you can submit your AOF, IV, and other documents through email to the NVC and it is supposedly quicker, some cases are approved within days, ours is on the 9th week (So far on track for the same timing as most of those who submitted through mail).

35 minutes ago, lawsarcasm said:

I just noticed today that the "Paid" status went to "N/A". After reading on here what that could mean, I called and was told my case completed today.

 

I am a little shocked because we had just submitted everything last week, so it seems like It could be a mistake because I see others here who have been waiting weeks.

 

Is it possible they made a mistake?

I am very confused and frustrated. We are doing EP as well and going through the Rio Embassy and we are now on our 9th week without a word.

Are we doing something wrong? Is anyone else in their 8+ weeks and doing Electronic processing?

Just now, cordoba2015 said:

Electronic processing and it is taking two months? Thought with email it was much faster than that at NVC stage.

We thought so too! Is this common??? I swear I see others getting approved via EP much faster!

1 minute ago, IA0217 said:

Hi,

scan date:12/20

supervisor review: 02/01

Review department : 02/17

Man that's sucks!!!! ? i hope they will complete it by this week. I am so done with this wait?

Thank you and you too good luck with this process what's your scan date?

We have the exact same dates, we are doing electronic processing. With a baby on the way in July this last little stretch has been the most stressful by far!

Today we hit our six weeks mark for electronic processing at the NVC (We sent out our packet the night of December 20th, our  Ds260 was completed prior to that) . I spoke with a representative and they told us that they are putting it in for Supervisor review which can take up to six weeks from today. He also informed me that if we get a checklist that can take an additional six weeks, then after we are good and we will be put in the line for an interview. (Which he said can take anywhere from 1 week to three months) 

We have a baby on the way the first week of July and we have lost all hope of the visa arriving before that, or if it will ever actually happen. We are considering giving up the whole process and just living here in Brazil permanently. This whole process is an absolute joke and we are completely exhausted.

I am very grateful for all of the support, help, and information that you all post. It honestly made a HUGE impact on us. Thank you!

11 minutes ago, AstroCanada said:

The NVC is exhibiting a strong difference based on mail or electronic processing.  Mail is taking 8-12 weeks right now from scan date.  EP is taking 1 day to 1 week in most cases.  You can call the NVC to check on your scan date, but you should budget at least 2 months before approval if you submitted normal processing.  Best to follow this in the NVC thread. 

We submitted our docs through EP to the NVC, we are on our fourth week of waiting now. We call quite often and each time during the call I ask what the representative has seen processing times for EP lately, each time they say for EP it's getting right up against that 6 weeks mark, often a little over that.

@Ehab2190

If you are submitting your documents electronically, every document should be in a separate PDF file and make sure each PDF document is under the size limit of 10 MB (I double checked with the NVC on this, the limit is per PDF file and not the limit for the whole email size).

We got approved today! We found out through the website, we didn't get any email or text.

Our priority date was May 19

Our prayers go out to those still waiting!

Just got off the phone as well with the USCIS and they are still telling people they are still on April 2nd and can give no more information than that. The operator told me that if no update is given by the 20th of this month to call back and they will open an investigation, but as of now we are apparently still within the "normal" processing time-frame

Our case was received May 19th and that is the only status update so far for us on the USCIS website... We still have heard nothing! Is anyone else in the same boat?

We've contacted our senators and our request to them has also been ignored, what a frustrating process! This is so depressing!