IfoemaUS

What country did he stay at?

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I do have pics of me with the family and he has some too for his interview. Hoping for speedy RFE replies for us both!

Thank you. It was not the U.S. or a U.S. territory so that's promising! We are discussing interview questions to be best prepared...and that's what I told him...just be honest.

The RFE was for his letter of intent and proof of meeting within 2 years. I found VJ after submitting my k1 app so by the time RFE came I realized we both needed the letter of intent so I knew it was coming. The proof...I initially put copies of my passport stamps in the app but not my ID page so that's what was missing there. I made color copies this time.

I did search for this topic but didn't find many answers.

My fiance overstayed in another country (about 9 months). Will it affect his ability to get a k-1 visa here?

Happy to report...although we didn't get NOA2; we did get an RFE late last night via text. At least now I feel like we weren't forgotten. I have an idea of what the RFE may be for. I found VJ shortly after sending K1 app and at the time thought the intent to marry letter only needed to come from the petitioner (me) so that was the only one I sent. I did include one for my fiance to sign for when he has his interview but not for USCIS. Aside from that I hope there won't be an issue with how we met (online via video messenger app) as I saw another petitioner met that way as well and has to prove it was not an IMB (which the site we met on is not also). What I do want to ask though is...can the RFE also be an opportunity to send more evidence outside of what is asked if one did not "front load" as much as possible initially? I sent pics of me and my fiance to USCIS...but again, sent phone records and pics of my trip and with his family members to him for his interview. Can I include those additional items now with RFE to be included when sent to his consulate (Lagos) which I heard can be difficult.

Well, after exactly 111 days and thanks God, I am happy to update that our case has been approved as of yesterday May 31th!!! I just called my fiancée with the most awaited news and she is ecstatic, poor thing broke up crying. OMG what a good feeling!

I like to remind everyone else also waiting, yours approvals will come, remain positive and it will happen soon, never, never,never lose hope.

Congrats! This is great news and gives me a little hope. Still waiting for NOA2...NOA1 was 2/29/16.

I love this thread! Can't wait to be able to join the club and post here.

This is such a wonderful and encouraging post. Thank you! I have a lot of similarity in the way my relationship has developed to yours so I'm grateful for the confirmations.

CSC is really slowing down all of the sudden. You still didn't hear anything?

Nope, I haven't...my receive date on the site is February 29...my hard copy says March 3. Either way...nothing yet.

Congrats! I live in Florida...what part of FLA is the attorney in?

What do you mean proper mailing system? Send it through DHL, FEDEX and let him have the tracking numbers and he will get it as soon as it gets there. The CO want to see everything without alterations which stands to render it invalid.Goodluck

What I mean is, here in the US it costs a few dollars to mail through our local post office and where he lives does not mail to your door. That's what I mean. I don't want to pay that much for those services. Yes I will make sure not to alter anything based on all of the answers prior. Thanks!

If I was in your shoes, I would put it in a double sealed envelope that you know by a certain "sticker" if it was tampered with. Explain to the family member of the importance of discretion and that you have sealed it and your fiancee knows how it is sealed. (this is how I would do it!)

In my case, I had to print my documents from an internet cafe and stand behind them as they clean the history and trash can it! :-)

That's exactly what I planned to do...I have 2 envelopes ready to go. Thanks for the confirmation!

Ya. Better safe than sorry. Just print out the terms of service and send it in. Easy peasy.

Thanks...I'll do that. I also emailed them so I'll see if they add more documentation. Already submitted the K-1 and just waiting on NOA2. Hopefully there is no RFE for this and I'll still send documentation to my fiance for the interview.

Question....I met my fiance on a video messenger app...not a website or dating app/site at all. Do you think I should still try to get a letter/email about the marriage broker issue?

You're welcome, and good luck!

Thank you!

Got it...thanks to you both.

If it was there then lol...I just didn't remember. Thank you.

Don't black out the SSN; the CO needs to be able to verify that it's the same number when referencing your other documentation. These documents will be rejected if they can't read that number.

Ok thanks but I'm curious, which other docs have SSN on them? I don't remember having it on anythings else.

Hello all,

I requested and received my tax transcripts the other day and will be sending them to my fiance to prepare for his interview...my question is, does it matter to the consulate if I black out the SSNs or not? I prefer to black them out because there are 3 there and obviously it's a security concern should the docs be lost or otherwise. My fiance lives in Nigeria and because of the lack of adequate mailing system there, I am having them hand delivered by family members that are traveling next week for a burial. Thanks for your feedback.

As a disclaimer, I did search the forums before posting and couldn't find any previous posts on the topic.

77°F in Florida

LionessDeon would it be appropriate to say that we shouldn't even consider the estimated adjudication date for now since USCIS has stopped processing end of Feb and gone back to Nov.?

Thanks for pointing that out. It explains the sudden halt. A couple days ago it still said "5 months".

Well, to the OP, if you hadn't any patience when you started, you will have by the time you get to the end

Certainly, I am just another 'old-timer'. I was 113 days to NOA2, which wasn't bad, seeing that VSC was the slowest then. November, should have got me here by Christmas, seeing the Consulate I was heading to wasn't one of the busiest there is.

Wrong. Nearly two months, in AP, at NVC, on a K1, before our case was even sent to NZ. No one here could really tell me what was going on, they had just started subjecting K1's to extra scrutiny and there really wasn't any info to be found on VJ about it. The misinformation line first told us they didn't have it, then they did have it, and it was going out right away, then they said they lost it. Then they told us it was in AP. There were others that starting popping up with the same problem, and it was great to find out we weren't the only ones. 189 days until interview, and it was March before I finally arrived here, and that was at a fairly easy consulate.

What I am saying is anything can happen. Nigeria is a very tough consulate to go through. Up at the top right hand side of this forum, you will see a box where it says Google custom search, and it's very useful. Have a hunt for other people going through your consulate, have a look at the frequency of AP after interview, have a look at what they had to accomplish to satisfy the requirements how they addressed the red flags they had to contend with.

VJ is a great resource, and I valued it for many reasons. In particular, I appreciated the straight up approach. There's little point in painting a rosy picture where there is none. A truthful answer to a question isn't always appreciated, and it's very easy to get testy and annoyed with people who are telling you things you do not want to hear.

You have a long way to go. Try and be patient, pace yourself, and get your ducks lined up for the parts of the process to come. All the best.

Thanks for the insight! I appreciate direct and truthful answers and had received the same in prior posts so that wasn't the issue...the approach was; directing personal frustration was unnecessary. I'm grateful for all the help here otherwise.

Maybe I can shed some background light:

Back when TSC handled cases, people there could be waiting up to a year or beyond, and that was even after the USCIS attempted a small fix of transferring a few thousand cases initially to CSC. All their fix did (which they would often routinely deny) was see everyone that got transferred breeze through the process just as fast as new cases that came into CSC. Seriously, back then you could find people claiming they were in and out within 7 days.

It's rough when you wait so long you're well over the USCIS processing time, and are directly lied to on the phone by USCIS representatives, given the run around in the investigative process to find out what is taking so long, be turned away by elected officials, or have those officials who actually want to help you routinely be lied to by the USCIS staff. What? You waited 300+ days. You liar. And even if you aren't lying there's something wrong with your case then. Or the routine.. awww you're just unlucky.

So people started taking action.. pushing buttons. Ran statistics with hard data and a comprehensive report that couldn't be denied. Making a stink where it counts. If one person doesn't budge then you keep going until you get to the top. And that's what happened. The person at the top is pretty reasonable if you can get their attention.. and that was always a big unknown if.

After watching the Sessions senate committee hearing it was pretty disgusting to see what a pony show it was.. things really truly seem inept with the USCIS a good deal of the time. It's self funded, and they can pretty much do as they please, unless pressed from the top. And that's all it took. TSC would finally stop handling any new cases, no more transfers, if you were still there waiting, you'd still be there waiting. It was bittersweet. There were no solutions or end to the wait in sight for those who had worked hard to change things. They remained trapped there for as long as it took. CSC still pushed new cases out as fast as possible, but statistically you could see eventually a slowdown would come for them.. just not for a while. That ''for a while'' has now come.

Meanwhile you had people on this forum every day literally mocking those trapped there. Sometimes sure, they didn't understand what was going on.. they'd make statements like ''oh you're unlucky.. your case is just an outlier mine was sooo fast at CSC'', or ''my congressman told me...'', or ''well your fiancé must be up to something bad to be taking so long on a background check''. Or you had people bragging their case was done and out of CSC in a week or two. We even had someone claim to be from a service center threatening to destroy/give a hard time for our applications for complaining about the poor job they were doing! The reality was it had nothing to do with background checks (a favored lie from the misinformation telephone line along with fuzzy math, generous helpings of condescension, and one that was repeated to me by a representative that made me want to toss the phone out the window). Fun times.

My goodness it stands to wonder if all the people at TSC were being investigated so thoroughly, what was CSC doing? Which you start wondering about, when you review the SB shooting case. The first of it's kind for a K1. There was certainly a lapse in judgment on whomever handled that case on CSC. You can imagine the top was pretty angry. I'm sure there's extra checking going on for what it's worth. But even still, don't worry too much. All of you at CSC right now, won't have too long of a hellish wait. We all want to be with our loved ones, that's why we filed the paperwork. It can be hard, and it's not easy. But I promise if you can get through everything you have been through already in a ldr, you can get through this with flying colors. You'll be with your loved ones before you know it. Some embassies are seriously more difficult to get through though, so during the wait there's plenty of resources here to read up on in the meantime and time to prepare. Before, CSC left persons not a lot of time to prepare, now you've got that opportunity. A wait can never be fast enough when you're waiting for someone you love... but like it or lump it, that's the situation the government purposefully puts us in.

Thank you so much for that! It really did shed some light for me on multiple levels. I appreciate the time you took to explain what happened. I have definitely been preparing, reading, and continue to prepare because I know the consulate we'll be at is difficult. I wasn't being impatient in my initial post as many assumed, but rather was trying to reconcile what I read and followed here (posts and timelines) versus what I was told on the phone but somehow that didn't translate.

Nobody can make they move faster. Be patient. There are over 300 million in America and if 15% are petitioning for a loved one, then just know it's not going to get to your turn overnight. Too bad most people don't understand.

Yes, I understand that. I wasn't looking for it to be overnight or to make it move faster. I was asking a question, which somehow got lost as the threat went on. But I appreciate all of the encouragement, thank you.