mitch612

Hello,

Probably a dumb question, but still want to make sure I'm doing it right.

We're filing for AOS. When I look at our NOA2 (i797), there is a petitioner and a beneficiary A Number. Which one should we use on these forms? I'm guessing the beneficiary number since it's located next to her name. Just want to confirm. Thanks!

This happened to us too. The name hadn't changed in "the system" or some such nonsense. We went back a day or two later, spoke to a supervisor (I think--it was over three years ago) and somehow the proper name appeared and we got Joan's new card before her EAD. (Now, DMV was a different story!) FWIW The second day we went we got to SSA at 8:00 in the morning and had only a short wait.

What happened at the DMV? Shouldn't it be easier with passport/i94 for primary, social security card for secondary, NOA2 for immigration proof, and marriage certificate for name change?

Thank you both. I think I'll see if we can do state ID and bank with what we have. If that's fine for now, then there's no urgency to the ssn update and we'll just do that when the ead arrives/gc arrive.

Hi Everybody,

My wife came to the US on a k1 visa, i94 valid until November 13th.

We applied for SSN pretty quickly and received the card under her maiden name. We were married on September 24th and received certified marriage certificate that includes her new married name.

Today she went in to the social security office to request name change. She brought i94, passport w/ k1 visa, social security card (maiden name), and the certified marriage certificate (original).

After waiting in line for a few hours, the employee denied her the name change, stating that she needs to wait for the green card. I was not there (she went with a family member).

Is this true? Or was this employee misinformed?

Related, should I return to try again with her? Is it worth trying again? I'd love to get her a state ID, open a bank account for her, let her start studying for the drivers exam. But I don't know how that all works if the card is under her maiden name.

I appreciate your advice..

Well good news, my fiance interviewed and was approved on Monday! We had a scare the night before because she had forgotten the original police certificate back in her home city, but luckily they let her bring it in later that afternoon and all was well. Officer only asked her three questions (how/when we met, say 3 things about your fiances personality, how many times has your fiance visited Honduras). Now we just wait for the visa to be issued and she should come over sometime in August.

I sure hope it moved quickly. Italy is terrible when it comes to getting the interview date. They have to receive the petition from NVC, then my fiancee has to email them a statement saying she has all required documents, then they make the appointment. I am going to try and skip them sending me the packet 3, since I received it on the consulate website. Our medical is easy though (and much cheaper then yours from the looks). They schedule it a day before the interview for you, and you pay 180 euro and up to 150 euro for immunizations if they make her take them all.

Medical cost has been brutal in Honduras. They milked us for every penny they could, made us do all vaccinations since she had no records and charged extra because she has a couple small tattoos; this occurs over 2 days. But whatever it takes to get her here.

So maybe you wait longer, but at least it sounds like they set it up nicely for you and are organized at that point. NVC mailed our case super quickly, hopefully it's similar for you.

NVC received today, July 8!

Yaay, I told you it was close. It'll move through NVC quickly now, almost time for medical and interview

One other question, for interview, did any of you bring i129f packet and/or more recent evidence for trips and correspondence since application? or do you only need to bring the requested forms?

So somebody a couple thread pages back or so said that people often buy tickets when CEAC status changes to issued. How far out do you recommend purchasing ticket? How long does it usually take visa to arrive?

Just looking ahead. Fiancee is in medical exam today, interview on the 18th.

It should be there later today or tomorrow. My guess. It took 5 mail days for our case to arrive, counting the day sent (sent fri 6-24, received wed 6-29 // no mail on sunday). If yours was the same, and assuming no mail on sunday or mon july 4th, today would be your 5th mail day. They actually told me they didn't have it when I called on mail day 5, but when I called on mail day 6, they told me it had been received the day before.

Call NVC but they still haven't receive anything I'm getting impatient since I see people with the same NOA2 approval date getting their case number but I don't get mines, I was told the same thing 6 weeks by NVC and when I call USCIS to see when it was sent they told me to wait 90 days for approval to be sent but by then my approval will be expire -.- not sure what to do or think..

Call USCIS and ask for tier 2 officer. If first person denies it, call again and ask somebody new. I got a call back back when the rep was willing to take down my basic information (i.e. name, address, email, phone) and told me the officer would call back in the next day or two. That officer who called back was happy to check to see when it was sent to nvc. NVC is actually very quick when they receive it...find out date sent from USCIS. I used the following site to estimate ground shipping of 5 days from USCIS zip code to New Hampshire (https://www.ups.com/maps). That was very accurate for my case.

Ok heres my update. Sorry for delay, i was abroad visiting my fiancee.

June 2 noa2 approved

June 24 uscis mailed it (had to speak to t2 officer to learn this)

June 27 case was received at noa2

7-1 nvc number was received

7-6 case reached embassy

Our medical is tomorrow, interview on the 18th. Good luck everybody!

"Callback will be in approximately 40 minutes..." 2 hours later still waiting.

Mine took a day

I called USCIS and got a call back from T2 officer earlier this week. Although our case was approved June 2nd, they didn't mail it out until June 24th (22 days after approval). I looked up ground mail estimates, and the postal site estimates 5 business days from service center zip code to new hampshire, so I figure it should be there today or tomorrow. I'm hoping they scan it in as received pretty quick, we'll see.

I think this illustrates which department is generally responsible for longer waits at this stage. Haha. I know other people with my approval date got the nvc case number around 3 weeks, so no idea how they do it over at csc.

We just did the DS-160. I am trying to pay the fee at NVC and it asks for our case number and IIN. It didn't for you? Your embassy may be different then Italy in regards to making the appointment as well. Naples does the medical a day prior, and they schedule it for you. They want me to email or fax them a statement of understanding before I can make the appointment.

No, it never asked for that at our embassy. Interview scheduling skipped all of that, but they do require medical of course. We have to set up our own medical through the list of qualified doctors, and the doctors require the case number.

You call the regular USCIS number and you ask the level 1 officer to be transferred to a tier 2 officer. It's not a different number.

Has your case reached NVC yet ? I see your approval was June 2nd but no dates on your timeline for when NVC received it and sent it out to your embassy but you have an interview... How did you get an interview? Just curious thanks

thanks for the info!

regarding the (potential) interview date..when noa2 was approved, we were able to submit ds-160 right away. then we went into the portal to pay fee & schedule interview and it didn't ask for nvc number, so we were able to reserve a time at honduran embassy - received confirmation email and everything. however, we do need nvc case number in order to schedule medical exam, so we might end up having to write embassy to push back interview date. we had set it for over a month out, but it's getting close and nvc didnt have our case as of yesterday.

What number do you call to speak with the t2 rep?

Hi Folks, Just a quick question - after a long wait of 107 days on June 8th we received a text for RFE but till date we have not received any letter etc.

Any idea, generally how long does this take?

Can I ask for an email, calling USCIS?

Please advice...

Thanks

For us, RFE arrived in mail 6 days after the notice date. We sent it back the same day, and 4 days later they updated that it was received.

It took 12 business days for them to approve us after RFE response was received back at service center. Approval text came at night around 10pm.

It's a bummer it took so long, but at least you know things will be moving quicker now.

Follow up question, how quickly did they receive it for most of you? I know it seems like most people have been getting case number in 3 weeks, but was it received sooner?

When calling NVC, should we use the number ending in 0700 (immigrant visa) or 7643 (non immigrant)? The difference is getting a bit confusing now haha

Our embassy let us schedule interview before we even have nvc case number...no complaints here. We built in a cushion since medical exam office isn't as lenient.

Congrats to everybody clearing or preparing for the final steps.

By circumstances of meeting, I believe they mean for you to state where you met, when you traveled there, how long you stayed, etc. Not so much proving you were there. For me, I sent in a letter that pretty much went, To whom it may concern: I Meg LeAnne visited and met Andrew for the first time on 1/2/16 in the city of Bahrain and stayed for the total of 3 weeks, then I had my second trip to see him on 5/12/16, and so on and so forth. Just describing how we met, when and where, and the duration of my trips. As far as more evidence, the only thing I sent that was different from yours is the visa receipts I received from Bahrain. They would give me a receipt every time. Good luck guys!

I second this. I included a statement just like what is described as a second paragraph in my letter of intent (i.e. we met on OKC, discussed marriage in october, I bought ring in november, met in costa rica in january, engaged on.., etc).

I also agree on including some hard receipts from your activities together, if possible. For example, we toured a zoo on my first meeting trip. I sent in hard copy receipt attached to highlighted bank statement screenshot, email reservation from the tour guide, and photocopy of the wrist band we wore at the zoo (it contained the name of the location). If not all 4 items were available for the evidence buckets, I tried to attach at least the highlighted bank statement and receipt. I tried to make it easy for them. Then we separated the activities into the two trips, which you are already doing.

One additional thing I can think of that we did was include notarized affidavits from my mom and my fiancee's sister where our family members list off the timeline of our relationship based on what they experienced/know. Perhaps this could be further testimony from third parties as to the validity of your relationship and circumstances of meeting. Maybe they helped you plan the trips, helped with plane tickets, talked to you both on skype while away and/or met you, etc. Could be overkill, but it was nice to read what they wrote. While we did get an RFE, it was only for OKC, and you have everything you need for that.

For OKC, our lawyer also added in an exception from 8 U.S. Code 1375a(e)(4)(b)(ii):

-"an entity that provides dating services if its principal business is not to provide international dating services between United States citizens or United States residents and foreign nationals and it charges comparable rates and offers comparable services to all individuals it serves regardless of the individual’s gender or country of citizenship"

-At the following site (or similar), they printed the first page to highlight the title, and they also printed/highlighted section (e) Definitions in this section through the second bullet point in section 4 beginning "an entity that provides dating services"

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/8/1375a

-extra: OKC's "about us" page has a line where they state "we're always free" as one of their 3 principles

-extra: I wrote a one paragraph letter for the OKC RFE where I stated and signed: "I, [x] do hereby state that I met my fiancé, [y] on the free online dating website OK Cupid on [date]. OK Cupid is a popular online dating website not affiliated with any marriage brokers."

Good luck, you'll get that NOA2 soon.

I know a fair amount of you have your NVC numbers now. When do you recommend starting to call? Is that how you find out the nvc received date? any tips?

Our NOA2 was also approved yesterday. On to NVC!

Hi Scandi,

I have you in my thoughts because today marks your 5th month. Have you heard anything so far? If not, you are now able to call. Please update me with your case so that I know how to handle mine when it comes to that point. I'm currently at day 96.

Definitely hope we all get our NOA2s this week. Day 97 for me (incl. RFE I sent back to them same day received - still annoyed I had to prove OK Cupid's legitimacy).

Stay strong. It's hopefully our week.