RaptureSongbird

5 minutes ago, WayneAdoresWendy said:

What we did, though RapidVisa ask us not to submit everything we had, we took a photo everywhere with the receipts. Example: We buy bus tickets, we took a picture with the bus. Had dinner and a receipt with photo for every restaurant. When I submitted the photos and especially the receipts, I arranged them in chronological order with a small explanation of each.

I tried to do the same as well.  We also went to the London Eye on one trip and made a point to buy one of those tourist trap photos that cost way too much because it also had the date printed on the bottom of the photo.  So then it was not just a picture we took but an "official" photo with a date stamp that I could also include with a receipt and credit card statement.

5 minutes ago, TriloByte said:

Haha, you are awesome! I love the newspaper thing. 

Thanks!    I tried my best to think of every excuse they might have to give an RFE and tried to preemptively answer anything that might bring an RFE or cause for concern.  Of course now there's a part of me that wonders if they'll see it as a smartass move, which was not my intention, and just give me an RFE.

I did my best to avoid an RFE but I have a feeling I'll end up with one.  On one of my trips to visit my fiance I even made a point to take a picture of the two of us with a UK newspaper showing the name of the newspaper and the date.  I didn't want USCIS to have any reason to say that I didn't have proof that we were together in the last 2 years.

1 minute ago, Scofield said:

Congrats to all those who got NOA2!!! My priority date is Feb 8 and I just got an email notification saying they mailed me an RFE today. My case status has also been updated online. Does anyone know how long it might take for them to process the response to the RFE after I send them back whatever it is they requested?

I think they say 2-3 weeks but, I think, they usually get processed faster than that once they arrive back.

2 hours ago, SugarLai said:

ohh really? really thanks for your information! I have been waiting for 108 days, I would tell my Fiancé! May I know when will be the proper time I call them? Wait until 120days? Sorry,the question sounds like silly but I concern that .

I know it's difficult, but I would suggest that you continue to wait a few more days.  Many people in January were between the 105-115 day marks for approval.  I understand that it might be frustrating to see others with NOA1 dates after you getting approved but, unfortunately, this process is a hurry up and then wait game.

I'm beginning to wonder if they group the boxes by weeks and individuals/teams are assigned to particular weeks.  That might explain why Feb 6 has had so much movement, while there are plenty of Feb 1-3 still waiting.  Looking at the month of February, we have the last week of January that led into February (January 30-3) and then February 6-10, 13-17, 20-24 and then February 27-March 3.  So maybe the workers/teams are divided into 4 groups that handle different weeks in a month and as they finish the first week of one month, they start the first week of the next month.  So, for instance, team 1 that was doing January 2-6 finished up and moved onto the first full week of February which is Feb 6-10.  Or, I could be totally wrong and I'm trying to find a pattern out of something that is truly chaotic.

Hey Everyone,

Just back from an 8 day visit to the UK for work which had the added benefit of getting to see my fiance as well

It's exciting to come back to see that they have started to push through further into February.  While I still have a few weeks to wait based upon the projection of my timeline, it's a good feeling to know that hopefully it's now only a few weeks wait for NOA2 instead of the few months wait from when I first sent it in.

Saying goodbye to my fiance this time was more difficult than usual.  It's always been hard but this time we knew that we wouldn't see each other again until I come back to the UK after he has his Visa to accompany him back to the states.  I know many members here wait even longer in seeing their fiance and realize I've been very lucky.  Between a vacation trip in November, and traveling to the UK for work in January, March, and May, we've gotten used to the pattern of getting to see each other every other month.  Now, with no work trip coming up any time soon, and needing to put aside money for the flights when he comes and to start the AOS later this year which means no vacation trips either, it stung a bit more to say goodbye this time.  However, it felt good to know that this time was the last time that we would have to say goodbye like this and that, hopefully, in 4 months I'll be back in the UK to bring him to the States permanently.

3 hours ago, Holly♡ said:

Anyone else seen 90 Day Fiancé? I know not everything is 100% legit on reality shows, but I do believe that the beneficiaries do have a really hard time coming to the US and getting really home sick.. I could not imagine packing up and leaving everything and moving to another country. In this case, it's not about any amount of money, but the fact that they are giving up their whole lives to start a new one with the one they love. I have asked my F quite a few times... are you sure you are ok with this (leaving all his friends and family) because I can only imagine how difficult that would be and it just makes me sad for him thinking about it and then I start to feel bad, but at the same time, I just can't wait to have him here with me. It's the worst catch 22 ever 

I've not seen the show but I've heard about it.  I understand your feelings exactly and I've had the same exact conversations with my fiance.  He's been great about reassuring me that his focus is on our future and our life together but still I worry/stress/fret.  While I'm mostly happy living in the states, I've said to him many times "Are you sure you want to live in the States?  It's really not as you think about it/how it's been depicted in pop culture.  Are you sure you are okay leaving your friends/family/life to date an ocean away?  Do you really want to give up the beauty of Europe?"  Okay, yes, I know, the states are beautiful too but there is so much, at least to me, history, culture, amazing and cheap vacation opportunities living in Europe, that I wonder why he would want to give that up.  Time and again, though, he's told me that none of that is important to him and he doesn't care what life will be like living here, the important thing is that we will be together.  I knew there was a reason I fell in love with him

2 minutes ago, eruiz3 said:

My case was received on 2/2/17 and still no change. I wonder if it is because Cuban cases might take longer?

Nope, it's just how this process works.  I believe, including the expedited cases, only 30 of about 3500 cases have been approved.  Plus, there are still many filers from December and January awaiting approval.  We really have no idea how they choose which box gets worked on next, how the boxes are sorted, etc., so I think it's just up to chance that a box with some 2/6 files got pulled first and are being worked on.  My received date is 2/28 and I'm really not expecting an approval until the end of May/beginning of June.  If it comes sooner, it will be a nice surprise, but from watching these forums for awhile I've learned that it's just best to assume this whole process is going to take the longest time possible in each step.  That way, I at least am not watching the days pass as much and constantly checking my status

Thanks @iamdegie!!!  It's exciting to see the first batches of February filers moving forward.  It certainly helps the wait to seem a little easier now that they have started on our month.  They still have a lot of cases to get through before they get to mine (received February 28th) but this brought a smile to my face this morning.

1 minute ago, mkm1993 said:

Also I'm curious if anyone knows how long it takes to receive the Visa after the interview and approval? I'm reading in other places a few days to a week... 

That's what I've seen as well.  It will depend on the embassy and how long it will go through AP.  Your fiancee might have it back the same week she has the interview or it might take 2-3 weeks.

1 minute ago, mkm1993 said:

@TimeI$Money Her family is huge, when I say huge I mean the biggest family I've ever heard off... she has 10-15 aunts and uncles, and almost something like 50-60 cousins I believe. My family is very small, I have 5 brothers and a twin sister, my mother, father, stepmother, and 5 cousins that live near me, plus 1 uncle that's near by. That's it. So I'm anxious to meet the rest of her family. She has shown pictures and let them hear the recordings of my voice and singing on WhatsApp and she says they are all very excited so we shall see. 

And to me, your family sounds big   I have a half-brother and no other siblings.  My mom has 1 brother and my dad has 2 sisters, so my family is pretty small, especially compared to yours and even more so compared to your fiancee's.

13 minutes ago, pattyandvern said:

We got age difference too! Don't worry  it is not my concern at all  we love each other and age is just a number. Our families accepted our relationship so hard part we already got behind us. We got many proofs that our love is real, maybe even too many  I would be worried if it was not true, but at this point, come on, we are together 5 years, didnt meet online but in person, spend together 2 years living with each other. And some people got approved while only saw each other one time  

Wow, I'm super jealous that you got to live together for 2 years but I'm sure that's making this whole process a bit annoying as well.  You've already had so much time together and now you're stuck waiting in limbo for someone to stamp some paperwork and send it along the way.  I'm sure you'll have no problem with your interview or proving your relationship at all.

When I was pulling together evidence to submit with the application, I had Viber send me a full history of our chat logs.  When I saw how many pages it was, there was no way I was going to send all of that and make someone read through all of our ups and downs and love.  So, I ended up just taking a few screenshots and sending those along.  I do feel lucky that I live in a time where technology makes long distance relationships not as difficult as they used to be.  Plus, I feel our communication skills with each other are stronger because of it and we already know how to handle problems and fights that may happen because we've been forced to talk them out via text and distance.

9 minutes ago, pajobra said:

Or as easy as Canadian citizens either as in my case. I feel for you all overseas so much being so much further than I am from my fiance. As I am only 1 hour ahead of him timezone wise and 16 hours by car.

I've trained myself pretty well with the time difference.  Back when my fiance was living in Romania I could easily look at the clock and know what time it was there (8 hour time difference).  Now that he's in London I can look and calculate the time there (6 hour time difference) and still calculate the time in Romania.  I look forward to the day when I don't have to waste brain processing time on that and can just look at him right next to me in the same time and place.

10 minutes ago, Eric&Olya said:

My American fiance's mother is still reluctant to understand why I can't come to visit it's difficult for her to realise that not everyone can travel as easily as US citizens

I'm seriously almost at the point of recording myself on my phone explaining why my fiance can't come to the US to visit so easy and explaining the Visa process. 

7 minutes ago, pajobra said:

Yeah most don't even either when they ask me how old he is. lol I agree it probably won't come up at the interview at all especially since yours is London. I also do not expect mine to come up when I go for the interview in Montreal. I think both Canada and the United Kingdom are probably fairly easy from what I have seen reading various experiences from interviews.

Yeah, I'm sure you won't have a problem with the interview in Canada.  And that's another thing that drives me a little crazy as well.  Since all interviews take place at US Embassies, I feel like they should all be consistent.  I don't think there should be "easy" embassies and others where it's an hour interview process.  I can understand that there may need to be additional paperwork for local laws and customs but I think the embassy interview process should be consistent across all embassies.  Of course this is coming from a person with an HR background who sometimes gets too caught up in consistent processes, policies, and procedures

10 minutes ago, pajobra said:

March filer here but wanted to chime in on the age difference which I don't think matters much as you age. My fiance is 10.5 years older than me. Most of the time the age thing doesn't come up because both of us love the same things. I am what one considers an old soul and probably born in the wrong era. Although sometimes things come up like me DJing online the other week and playing Happy Nation by Ace of Base. He said oh that brings me back to the end of my college years. I coughed and said I was 14 when this came out and in the beginning of Grade 9 in school. But thats the only time it makes a difference is when we think about years ago when I was a kid. lol Now I am 38 almost 39 and he is 49 almost 50. My Stepdad was 10 years older than my Mum and they got married when she was 40 and he was 50. She said to me the other day that she wishes Bill was still around because he would have loved my fiance and they would have had many great talks and its true. My fiance is a lot like my stepdad. My stepdad was a wonderful man. Since I am the one who is moving its not as difficult for me since I do live in Canada and have been to the states many many many times since I was born. We lived in the states til I was 6. I often wish I had dual citizenship already like my siblings but alas I came a month early and my Mum was visiting her parents in Canada at the time so here I am with all of you going through the process but I wouldn't have it any other way. 

 

Good luck to you all and I enjoy seeing February approvals. May the process speed up now!

I'm not really too concerned with the age difference (I'm 38, he's 23) but I do sometimes have those thoughts of "Oh wow, back when I was in high school he was just a toddler".  However, I know how we feel about each other and somehow it just clicks and feels right and perfect.  Plus, there are many ways where it helps both of us to balance each other.  He helps to keep me spontaneous and interested in trying new things while I help him have stability (which he hasn't had much of during his life) and introduce him to the things I have found and loved during my life.  I think we've both shared those moments of sharing something we love with the other person and gaining a new appreciation for it seeing it from their perspective.  I also think that sometimes I am the only one that thinks of the age difference, when I've mentioned it to friends or family or coworkers, they don't even flinch or see any problems.  I don't even think it will come up during his interview, from what I've read on the forums, London is one of the "easier" embassies to interview at so I think we'll be fine.

And, yes, it's certainly exciting to now see some movement on the February cases besides minor changes/expedited cases being processed.  I know we're still a ways off but it's a good feeling to finally see some movement starting to happen with February.

8 hours ago, Lovemycroatianman said:

Fellow February filer here...so nice to see everyones weddings plans...my case is a bit different....he is much younger than me and is scared of being here with no family and relying on me for everything...its kinda a try out for him to come since he was rejected a tourist visa...it can be disheartening to go thru so much for something that could end bad....anyone else having similar issues? We've been talking since Dec 2015 and I've been there 3 times. i wish coming here wasn't such an ordeal.

I'm in a similar situation as well.  We have a fairly significant age difference (15 years) and I am the older one being the USC.  My fiance is from Romania and we knew that the likelihood of him getting a visitor's visa was slim to none.  He now lives in London and I have been lucky to visit him a few times with another trip coming up in about 2 weeks.  Being with someone who is not a US Citizen, going through the Visa process and seeing how difficult it can be to get visa, certainly has made me frustrated with the whole system.  At one point I decided to look at where I could go in the world just having a US Passport in comparison to other passports and, while it was nice to see my all my options, I also found it a bit ridiculous that I can go almost anywhere in the world that I want with just my passport because I was born in the USA.

My fiance is excited to move here to be with me and start our lives together but he's also nervous in coming to a country where he's never been before and where he has no family or friends.  He's also very headstrong and independent so I think he's gong to go a little crazy having to depend on me while we start on the AOS process and wait for him to have the ability to work.  We are just going to have a courthouse wedding with just the two of us.  Our goal is to bring his mother over to the states once my fiance becomes a US Citizen and then, at that point, we'll do a larger ceremony and celebration.

On 4/8/2017 at 5:12 PM, TexasHeartsIndia said:

The thing I never considered about long distance relationships until now is that fun things, beautiful moments, activities I used to love have all lost their excitement. Every time I enjoy something, I think about how much I wish he were here to enjoy it with me. It stings and breaks my heart every time. I've never been one to cry easily but I find myself crying from joy or simply missing him fairly often. I try to get together with friends to distract myself and he is buried in work - but thank God for technology! I don't know what I would do without our daily chats and frequent video chats!

 

I'm so grateful for these blogs. I love hearing others' stories and progress. It's very encouraging!

^^^ - This is exactly how I feel as well and you stated it beautifully.  I try to go out and have fun with friends, and I do, but it's hard to not feel like a piece of me is missing or wondering what my fiance would say or to hear him laugh along with me.  It's a difficult time waiting in this limbo for our lives to begin together, trying to get through the daily grind while keeping focused on the end goal which is so close and so far away at the same time.

On 4/7/2017 at 6:45 AM, Silvia Marie said:

Hello my fellow Feb filers, 

just wanted to push our thread up a little. 

 

How`s everybody doing? What are you all up to? Anybody up to visit or something?

 

We are kinda in the process of gathering documents for our affidavit of support and I am getting my vaccinations done cause unfortunately I have lost my vaccination records. 

I am planning to visit in June as both our bdays are in June but I will wait and see maybe, well hopefully we will have our NOA2 by then and if so I`d rather stay here and wait for consular interview.

 

In patient love

Silvia Marie

Right now I'm just in waiting mode.  I know with this process there is a lot of hurry up and then wait but I'm just ready for my fiance to be here so we can start our lives together.

I just got back from a 12 day visit to the UK, partially for work and partially to see my fiance.  Luckily, I will be going back in a few weeks again, mostly for work this time but I will have some time with my fiance as well.  That trip will likely be our last time together until it's time for him to come here.  While not necessary, I think it will be good for his interview that we will have had 2 more visits together since filing our application.  This will give us a total of 5 visits together in under 2 years.  Once he has his visa, I plan on flying over to the UK, helping him finish up packing and his life there, and then traveling back to the states together.  Hopefully, after my trip in May, that will only be another 4 months but you never know with this process.

5 minutes ago, mkm1993 said:

omg thats crazy but i totally understand the politics behind that. I provided more than enough proof that we had a legit relationship... I think the biggest piece of evidence that I provided was hundreds of pages of our conversations from the app we use to communicate "WhatsApp" and those went all the way back to the first words we said in july to the day leading up to my completion of the packet... screen shots of our times we had talked on the phone and video talked and what seemed like an endless pile of pictures and other things lol... I feel I was detailed and well prepared but I could be wrong... Does it matter if we've only been together since july and only been together for about 2 weeks? Will that have a negative affect on the process... I know the rule is 2 years or less. 

I don't think the amount of time you have been together will impact the paperwork approval process.  However, it might be an issue/question that comes up when your fiancee goes for her interview.  Your CO might wonder if you're "ready" to be married in only knowing each other for about a year (by the time of your interview) with only 1 visit in person with each other.  On the other hand, it might not even be an issue or come up.  I hate sounding wishy-washy on my answers but cases tend to vary based on embassy and, even with some embassies, with the COs that are working that day.  You might want to check out the sub-forum specific to your embassy here for more information:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/96-mexico-latin-south-america/

You can also read reviews related specifically to your fiancee's interview embassy here:

http://www.visajourney.com/reviews/index.php?cnty=Brazil&cty=&dfilter=5

On 3/15/2017 at 8:33 PM, KULtoATL said:

Could be CSC is processing quicker while the other service centers are facing backlog problems?

On 3/15/2017 at 8:18 PM, Mgwlkr said:

Why are all applications being sent to California?   I thought they were supposed to be sent based on the petitioners location?

 

From my understanding, all I-129s are sent to the CSC for processing now.  They used to be split across the service centers but sometime in 2015 (could be totally wrong on the year here), they switched to just the CSC handling I-129s.  There was a point in 2016 where the CSC was so behind and backlogged that they transferred some cases to the TSC to help catch up.  Once we all get approved, married, and start the AOS process then those are routed to regional centers based on location.