tamago

Finally crossing the finish line.  We have been getting a bunch of alerts about updates to our move to the IR-1 from CR-1.  Looking at myaccount.uscis.gov, it says that the card was being produced on 10/22 and then on 10/23, it said that it was approved.  So now just waiting to get it.  This was a LIN (Nebraska) processed form... they received it on 12/7/2018 and we did the biometrics on 7/30/2019.. no interview needed.  

1 hour ago, timmons said:

Bio Appt went smooth was in and out in under 5 minutes. Aggravating part was the 2 hour drive there and back....ugh. Anyway, off to the waiting games again. Will keep you guys updated.

Same here.  We had our Bio appointment yesterday.  I live in Chicago but this place was on the south side and took 1.5 hours each way.  The place was absolutely empty.  There appeared to only be 3-4 people working there and no other customers.  We checked in at the front, turned off our phones, and immediately had a picture and fingerprints taken.  Like you, only around 5 mins to take care of all that.  I'm just glad that it was done quickly and we didn't have to wait around like you do with most federal government facilities.

We received our NOA1 today with an 18 month extension.  Finally!

We did the normal call on the day that the status page mentioned (Jan 3) because we hadn't received it yet (originally submitted on Dec 4, 2018).  Although I didn't escalate to a tier 2 person, she put in a service request like others have spoken about and on Jan 15, we received an email saying they had processed the request (it also said this on the status page).  So not bad that we received it on Jan 22.  

So, we received a very interesting email today.

They receive our package on Dec 4, 2018 and we called them on Jan 3, 2018 because we hadn't received our NOA1. They told us they filled out a service request to get us the NOA1, so we waited.  The status page also said that the request was in, but nobody was assigned to it.  Today, they sent us an email (and the status page said the service request was "completed").  The email said the following. I just don't understand how only this one letter from USCIS was somehow undeliverable out of the 100's that we've received in the last 2 years I've been at this address (and we never had anything undeliverable from USPS).  It's a letter that they would put in our mailbox, I would assume .  It's the same address that we used when we filed and we haven't moved.  Good times...

U.S. Department of Homeland Security
P.O. BOX 82521
NEBRASKA SERVICE CENTER
LINCOLN,NE 68501

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Emailed to xxx@xxx.com

Dear (Applicant):

On 01/03/2019, you or the designated representative shown below, contacted us about your case.  Some of the key information given to us at that time was the following:

Person who contacted us:
 -- Petitioner/US citizen (aka me, but we were both on the line)

Caller indicated they are:
 -- Translator for Applicant or Petitioner

Attorney Name:
 -- Information not available

Case type:
 -- I751

Filing date:
 -- 12/04/2018

Receipt #:
 -- LIN-xx-xxx-xxxxxx

Referral ID:
T1xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Beneficiary (if you filed for someone else):
 -- Information not available

Your USCIS Account Number (A-number):
 -- Information not available

Type of service requested:
 -- Non-Delivery of Other Notice


The status of this service request is:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) records indicate your Receipt Notice was mailed to the address on file and the notice was returned as undeliverable by the United States Postal Service (USPS).  We have requested the notice be resent to the address listed in our systems. You should receive it within 10-14 business days.

NOTE: Please be sure you are registered to receive mail at the address listed in our systems.  Your name must be physically placed on the mailbox.  Keep the USPS informed as to who resides at your address, especially when individuals with different last names receive mail at a specified address.  This and failure to submit address changes are the two main reasons mail is returned to us as undeliverable.

We hope this information is helpful to you.

-----------------------------------
Online Services
We offer many online services and tools to help you find the information you need.
Please visit our Web site at www.uscis.gov for information about:
*Using our Case Status Online tool;
*Signing up for case status updates;
*Checking processing times;
*Submitting and e-Request to inquire about certain applications and petitions;
*Using our Office Locator;
*Using InfoPass to schedule an appointment; and
*Downloading forms.

Address Changes
If you move, please provide us with an updated address. For more information about address changes, please visit our Web site at www.uscis.gov/ar-11, and click on Change Your Address Online.

For More Information
If you do not find the information you need through our online services and need further assistance, you may contact our USCIS Contact Center at 1-800-375-5283 or 1-800-767-1833 (TDD for the hearing impaired).  

So the other night I called USCIS again to get an appointment to have my wife's passport stamped.  We actually spoke to a very nice, friendly, and surprisingly helpful person who took my wife's phone number and said that someone would call her back to setup an appointment.  Someone called her the next day and told her that she could not get an appointment to get her passport stamped because her expiration date was too far out (Feb 19).  They claim that we will get the letter by then (which I obviously don't believe since I sent our stuff in on Dec 3 and others who filed in Oct still haven't received anything).  They said that if it's a week before the expiration date and we still haven't received the letter, they will stamp it.  To me this is unacceptable.  If we need to leave the country because of an emergency, I really doubt that they could get it in that quick to stamp her passport.  If I don't see this by the end of Jan, I will call back and demand to get an appointment.  

Yeah.  Luckily I had the case number because I filled out the G-1145 and got the SMS alert soon after they received the packet.

I'm calling back now because we will get her passport stamped because I have no confidence that they will be able to get us the NOA1 by the time her green card expires.  I went on their site and it seems that Chicago is not taking appointments currently.  It says to call the 1-800 number so I have to talk to those people again.  The first person I spoke to should have suggested that and set us up for an interview.  

I really wish they were helpful, but I think we are in some very strange times these days.

I just called them too and it was very much not useful.  She (G11603304) played dumb and seemed confused that we didn't receive our NOA1.  She was also very rude and not helpful at all and it almost felt like she was intentionally trying to slow our process down.  I can imagine that many many calls they receive is about this very thing.  There was also tons of confusion because my wife didn't have all the answers and heaven forbid that I help answer the questions.  I had to "certify" to be a translator for my wife.  So I translated from English to English while we were both on the phone.  Insane.  I thought this was a JOINT petition but I guess not.. and would have thought that I had some rights given that I'm the US citizen who started this entire process with "my" government.  And when we went through the CR-1 #######, they had no problem talking to me alone and giving me answers to my questions.  

Anyway, they didn't say that we could go to get her passport stamped.  The person we talked to filled out some service request to have the NOA1 sent to us and gave us a 16-digit number for the request.  I asked her why it wasn't sent in the first place and how can I be assured that this process would allow us to receive the NOA1.  She had absolutely no answers and again, was very rude.  Then she said that we had to wait 30 days for the NOA1 to be sent out with this process.  That puts us way too close to her expiration date which is not cool and very unacceptable

Anyways , very frustrating for sure.

Yeah.. You may be right.  Ours was also Nebraska for the I-130. 

Blah... Our case went to Nebraska too.   Looking at processing times, it looks to be the slowest at the moment.

Just received the SMS from USCIS today (Dec 10) at 10:20am CST...  It let me know they received the case and gave me a receipt number.  

Sorry all.. doing too many renewals.  I sent my packet to Phoenix... not Texas... my passport renewal went to Texas.  🙂

Just noticed that they cashed the check (Friday, Dec 7) but I haven't received anything yet via SMS or email even though I did fill out the G-1145 form.  At least things are progressing a bit.  My packet arrived in TX on Tuesday, Dec 4 at 10:33am.

Need to update my wife's status from a CR-1 to an IR-1... Sent our packet of fun on Dec 3, 2018 and it arrived the next day on Dec 4@10:33am via USPS Priority Express mail to Phoenix.   Now we wait... 

Good luck go all!

My wife's interview was on 10-Jan-2017 and everything went well.  See my review of the Singapore consulate for more info.  They didn't tell her she was approved once it was done, but the interview went well and she had a good feeling about it.  They didn't ask for anything additional besides the original/copies of the birth/marriage/divorce.   Here's the timeline:

Tuesday, 10-Jan-2017 – interview complete and still “Ready”
Wednesday, 11-Jan-2017 – A little after 9:00am it changed to “Administrative Processing”
Thursday, 12-Jan-2017 – updated to “Issued” around 12:30pm

We looked tonight (12-Jan)  and found that her passport was being processed for delivery.  Found this website that gives that status in Singapore.  I assume that other embassies have a similar page.  

http://www.ustraveldocs.com/sg/sg-niv-passporttrack.asp

Hope to get her passport in the next few days! 

I see. Okay cool, i'll give them a call and hopefully they will be able to send them to me.. we should have some time before the interview but don't know for sure because we don't have that date yet. And yeah, I sent the tax returns to the NVC without W2s because I haven't had any for 6+ years. I have the IR8A as well as my paystubs and will give them to my wife for the interview so I don't think it will be an issue.. just want to be absolutely sure.

I did the Affidavit of Support for myself and it worked just fine so far. If he's making a salary above the poverty level, I would guess you guys will be fine. However, I do have a job waiting for me with my current company in the states. We included a letter of employment confirmation that my company composed that includes my title and what my annual salary will be in the US.

Hope all goes smooth for you!!

So, I called the IRS's International Services Call Center - https://www.irs.gov/uac/contact-my-local-office-internationally

They were able to fax me my 2015 transcript and i have it in my hand now!

Congratulations! That's the third VJ member I've seen with a January 10 interview. That's going to be a busy day at the embassies. Safe travels to see him!

I found out about an hour ago by calling the NVC that my wife's interview date is also January 10! So excited for everyone... It's going to be a great day!

I just called the NVC to see if an interview date had been scheduled yet. He said that it was scheduled (yesterday 11/29) and will be Jan 10! My CC date was Nov 25. It's been a very long process starting in March.. finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

Good luck to everyone else!

Hi there!

Actually, my husband called IRS and requested that they mail the tax transcripts to Singapore. That wasn't a problem at all, they already had our Singapore address on file (since that's the address he used when filling taxes). So we didn't have to submit W2s.

So just sent tax returns to NVC, correct? Without W2s? I know Singapore has the equivalent of W2 which is called IR8A. Request that from your employer. Also, if you still have time before your wife's interview, I would suggest giving IRS a call to request the tax returns. Ours took about 3 weeks to arrive at our address in Singapore. That may add some credibility because you need to submit either Tax Transcripts OR Tax returns + W2s - seems like in your case W2s were missing and that's why they asked for it.

Mind if I ask you if you just sent an Affidavit of Support for yourself or did you also need a joint sponsor? I'm freaking out of my mind because we sent all the docs to NVC but with only my husband as a sponsor. Now I keep reading that if the income is from overseas, then you need a joint sponsor. Any thoughts on that?

I see. Okay cool, i'll give them a call and hopefully they will be able to send them to me.. we should have some time before the interview but don't know for sure because we don't have that date yet. And yeah, I sent the tax returns to the NVC without W2s because I haven't had any for 6+ years. I have the IR8A as well as my paystubs and will give them to my wife for the interview so I don't think it will be an issue.. just want to be absolutely sure.

I did the Affidavit of Support for myself and it worked just fine so far. If he's making a salary above the poverty level, I would guess you guys will be fine. However, I do have a job waiting for me with my current company in the states. We included a letter of employment confirmation that my company composed that includes my title and what my annual salary will be in the US.

Hope all goes smooth for you!!

Correct. I also read in the Affidavit of Support that returns and W2 can be submitted in lieu of tax transcripts . I was mostly wondering if, in the case that the sponsor lives and works overseas, will NVC accept another country's equivalent of a W2 instead of the actual US version. So if anyone has experience with this I'm interested to find out.

Regarding your second point. I haven't read or heard before about the need to prove there will be no lapse in employment or income once the sponsor returns to the US. Do you know firsthand about that happening, and can you point me in a direction where I can find out more about it?

Thanks.

Hi Jeniafrench,

Did you find anymore information about the W2 stuff? I also live in Singapore and almost done with the process as I received a case complete from the NVC. However, I received a checklist after the case complete asking for my wife to bring my 2015 W2 to the interview with her. I don't have a W2 because I work locally in Singapore. My tax returns I sent to them allowed them to complete the case and schedule an interview, but i'm obvously worried about the interview.

After reading a bunch of posts, it seems that maybe I do need tax transcripts even though it gives limited information compared to the tax forms. I attempted to get tax transcripts when I started the process in March of 2016, but never received anything. I requested them again but like you, I fear that they won't be able to send them to a foreign address. I heard that the IRS did have some issues with identity fraud earlier this year, so it's possible that they didn't send it last time because of that.

Thanks

I finally saw 3 N/A's on Friday and talked to someone who said my case was complete, so they definitely worked on Friday!! Here are the details of my "fun" at the NVC:

July 18 - Received welcome letter from the NVC

July 20 - Paid AOS and IV fees

July 23 - Submitted DS-260

Aug 2 - Scan date for the initial submission

Sept 9 - NVC sent a checklist - 5 weeks + 2 days from scan

Sept 20 - Our case was sent to Supervisor review at 7 weeks after scan.. not sure why they did that given they were waiting on a checklist

Sept 28 - Scan date from our response to checklist

Nov 10 - Put on Supervisor review - 6 weeks + 1 day from scan (I called them to ask them to put me in Supervisor review)

Nov 25 - Saw 3 N/As so called the NVC. They said case complete and to wait for the email with directions for the interview, etc - 2 weeks + 1 day after supervisor review which is 8 weeks + 2 days after checklist scan date

18 weeks + 4 days from welcome letter to case complete... wow... 4+ months.

Hope everyone gets a CC soon too!!

I received a checklist requesting a document which I have already submitted. The horrible part is that all the checklist is in English except when it come to the last paragraphs in the last page it come in strange language.

Anyone has something similar???

Same thing happened to me... I had a checklist for the police clearances which I knew was going to happen, but they also asked for "5 -marriage certificate" and "6 -marriage termination" which we had sent to the NVC initially (they are the same docs that the USCIS accepted and approved). The text describing what was needed for the police clearances were normal and readable. The marriage documents looked to be in Greek letters but appears to be the Symbol font. If I import the PDF into Word, the only way i get the text that they originally sent is to change the font to Symbol. The lawywer called the NVC and they confirmed it was only a font problem. They asked us to re-send the marriage/divorce docs and explain why we were sending them again.

l did a symbol to roman character conversion by hand and figured out what the symbol fonts translated to... It basically said that they couldn't accept the documents we sent and directed us to go to https://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/fees/reciprocity-by-country.html for more information. It also mentioned that if the docs were not in English, they needed to be tranlated with a statement saying that the translation was accurate and the translator was competent to translate.

We had waited 5 weeks plus 4 days from the original scan date to get the checklist. A couple weeks after that, we sent them the police clearances and the marriage/divorce info again. The scan date for that info was Sept 28.. It's been in supervsor review since Nov 10 which they put me in after I called them when it hit 6 weeks. I called yesterday (Nov 22) and nothing had been reviewed yet. Really hoping to get the CC soon and not another checklist...