Eric&Jenny

That is exaclty what my wife and I just did back in December 2015. I would definitely suggest getting married in the U.S., pretty easy process. If you have any question about the immigration process or steps feel free to PM me as I just went through the process for my wife from Germany. Good lucky!

~~One post along with those quoting removed for advocating visa fraud. -Condone or instruct, either directly or indirectly, others on how to commit fraudulent or illegal immigration activities in any way, shape, manner or method.~~

Ah ok Ontarkie. I thought that sounded too good to be true. Thank you for pointing that out!

This question is for anyone that got approved recently. How long did it take for Potomac to send your case to NVC?

My USCIS case status switched from "approved" to "Sent to NVC" exactly a week after it changed to "approved"

You'll get another text update if you signed up for it, when that happens. I also got the letter in the mail about 3 days later.

That's not true minions2. I just got approved April 12 through potomac and it took exactly 81 days. It really seems like there were some issues with the transfers they did from other centers. Hopefully they are getting that sorted out now and will get back on track to normal processing. I could imagine what it was like to start working at a new Service Center and you got tons of transfers from other Service centers while new requests continue to pour in. It must be a lot of work going through all this paperwork...

I am going to follow up to my post with some additional information as I have received a few request now.

Hi All,

I just wanted to give an update on my case pending for my wife, because our case got approved yesterday from the Potomac Service Center.

I-130: Filing for my German Spouse. I am living in the U.S. and I filed from inside the U.S. to the Chicago Lock Box. My wife is residing in Germany, and she won't be able to live with me until we get her Visa. However, she has been visiting during this process with no issues.

Married: 12/31/2015

Sent: January 18, 2016

NOA1: January 22, 2016

NOA2 (Approved): April 12, 2016

Total Time to Approval: 81 Days

What I submitted with I-130 (I only submitted the basics) and in the following order, don't know if that matters at all:

Form G-1145 (the eNotification form)

A check for the fee

I-130

A copy of our marriage certificate

A copy of my passport

A copy of my birth certificate

A document from the company I use for my 401k and Life Insurance stating that my wife is the beneficiary of both

G325a for her and I included passport photos of each of us

No staples or clips or anything just placed it all in a express mail envelope and sent it out. I did not put any additional requests in or do anything to expedite. I only called the USCIS 1 time because it took forever for the website to recognize my CASE ID/receipt number. They told me to wait 45 days for the website to recognize my case ID. And I believe it took about 30-40 days from when I received an email about my case being received, to when it showed up on their website. Then I got a text yesterday saying my case changed. I checked my case online and it said approved and that I will get an email (which I did) and that I will receive the official approval notice in the mail in a few days.

Now we wait for the NVC to receive our documents. Does anyone have experience with how long it will take between NOA2 and contact from the NVC?

Also on a side note. My wife is from Germany and she recently visited me for 2 weeks in the U.S. She arrived on March 25, 2016. She came in during her green card pending. She had ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM in the airport. The board control folks didn't even ask her a single question about being my wife or anything like that. It was the same procedure as every other time she visited the U.S. We read so many stories about awful things that happened. But she was only staying here for 1 week actually, then we flew to Jamaica together. While she was her she was able to get approved for Global Entry so now we will never have to deal with boarder control and we can just go to the electronic kiosk and not deal with any people when entering the U.S. The whole process was incredibly easy and no problems what so ever.

I also have some information about getting an ITIN for spouse and how to file taxes in this way for a non-resident alien. Everything was super easy, and I did it all filing myself. So if anyone has questions, please PM me.

Hopefully this information is helpful. Good luck to everyone! Wish us luck too for the rest of our steps

Thanks Everyone!

I should have made that clarification elhourney. My wife traveled here on the ESTA (Visa Waiver program). So I am not sure if a regular travel visa would get approved during pending greencard. But honestly, I don't think it would hurt to try. However, I am not a lawyer so I am only making a guess at that. But we applied for Global Entry after our case was pending and that involved going through research of her past and documents from the German Federal Police and whatnot, and we had no problems. So anyway, don't know if that is helpful, but just wanted to clarify.

Hi All,

I just wanted to give an update on my case pending for my wife, because our case got approved yesterday from the Potomac Service Center.

I-130: Filing for my German Spouse.

Sent: January 18, 2016

NOA1: January 22, 2016

NOA2 (Approved): April 12, 2016

Total Time to Approval: 81 Days

Now we wait for the NVC to receive our documents. Does anyone have experience with how long it will take between NOA2 and contact from the NVC?

Also on a side note. My wife is from Germany and she recently visited me for 2 weeks in the U.S. She arrived on March 25, 2016. She came in during her green card pending. She had ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM in the airport. The board control folks didn't even ask her a single question about being my wife or anything like that. It was the same procedure as every other time she visited the U.S. We read so many stories about awful things that happened. But she was only staying here for 1 week actually, then we flew to Jamaica together. While she was her she was able to get approved for Global Entry so now we will never have to deal with boarder control and we can just go to the electronic kiosk and not deal with any people when entering the U.S. The whole process was incredibly easy and no problems what so ever.

I also have some information about getting an ITIN for spouse and how to file taxes in this way for a non-resident alien. Everything was super easy, and I did it all filing myself. So if anyone has questions, please PM me.

Hopefully this information is helpful. Good luck to everyone! Wish us luck too for the rest of our steps

Thanks Everyone!