SteveCinHou

12 hours ago, ajay007 said:

Hi All,

 

Mine is delivered on November 27th still didn't receive anything. Any idea how long it takes to receive notification from uscis. 

Mine was delivered 11/24 and checking account showed check was cashed this morning.

Thanks to all for the feedback.  Got all the docs printed out this morning, and ended up sending with just a check and put it all in one of those big flexible USPS Priority envelopes.  Hopefully it all makes it there OK and we didn't miss anything.  One thing I forgot to ask is whether you all are printing single-sided or OK to print double-sided.  Seems like in previous submissions it was recommended to just to single-sided.  So that's what I ended up doing.  But just ends up being some many pages, especially along with all the bank statements.  Seems like they really just need page 1, and a huge waste, but I sent all pages just to be safe.

My wife's and step-daughter's GCs expire next month.  I had the form filled out last year and just procrastinated getting the rest of it together to send.  So scrambling a little bit to get it all sent off tomorrow.  A couple quesitons:

1. I've seen a few folks mention using a credit card instead of sending a check.  But I haven't seen anywhere how that can be done.  Is there a special form for that?  Any advantage over check from a processing/speed perspective?

2. I see options to mail to one of 2 different addresses depending on whether you send via USPS or other service.  Any advantage of one over the other?  How are most folks sending theirs?

3. How are you physically mailing this massive wad of paperwork?  Putting it in some kind of binder and mailing in a box?  Just putting the stack of loose paperwork in a big padded envelope?  Other?

Thanks for all the help here.  The folks and forums here have been invaluable over the years.

Rules apparently changed last November.  It's very unlikely you need a new medical.  My wife had her interview earlier this month and didn't need a new medical.

Yes, in Houston.  We went to the office on Gears Rd.

Had our interview this morning.  Went very smoothly and didn't ask for many of the things I had brought along (attaching our interview letter here).  Asked for our IDs, marriage certificate, wife's passport, birth certificate, divorce decree from previous marriage, tax return, apartment lease.  And asked the series of canned questions about illegal activities, etc.  Didn't require a new medical (luckily, since we weren't able to get it done due to a number of circumstances).  Turns out the medical exam rule changes 11/1 this year and there's now a 2-year windows instead of the previous 1-year window of validity.  It's a little more complicated than that, and I didn't catch all the nuances to the rule.  But net result is that most people probably won't require a new exam from now on.  Didn't really ask anything about our relationship, didn't ask for pictures (which I had prepared), didn't ask for previous immigration documents or I-94, or anything regarding other children not living with us, or bank account statements, etc... none of that.   Most of the documents requested had been previously submitted, and were just checked against what was already on file and he already had there in his paperwork.  I think the only 2 documents he kept were the apartment lease and 2017 tax return.  Interviewer was very patient (my wife needed an interpreter), courteous, and professional.  We didn't get approval on the spot.  The interviewer had only been on the job 4 weeks and said his supervisor would need to review for final approval.  But he said he saw no reason we wouldn't be approved and should expect a letter within 30 days, with physical card to follow 5-7 days later. All-in-all a very smooth experience - better than expected.

We're in Houston and just got the interview letter yesterday - scheduled for 12/20.  Finally!  But wow! that's a huge list of documents they say to bring, most of which were needed for the initial filing.  And what about the medical?  That is now coming up on 2 years old.  Need to do it again?

On 11/27/2017 at 4:58 PM, Klee said:

Sorry to hear that! Have you tried contacting your congressman?

I haven't done that yet.  Looks like that's what I'll need to do.

Getting back to the original question....  We had exactly the same problem.  K1 visa, married, my wife got SSN on maiden name, OAS and EAD filed with married name.  We've gone to the SS office (Houston, TX) and they claim she has to have her green card or EAD in her married name to get her name changed on the SS card.  Don't know if this is really the law, or employees who don't understand.  These are government employees after all... their ability to use common sense or think on their own is not a valued ability.  But I couldn't point to anything saying anything different.  If anyone has anything official that states how this should work I would appreciate it.  In the meantime we're coming up on 5 months still waiting on EAD.

I'm in the same boat.  Now coming up on 5 months since NOA and nothing.  The bureaucracy is ridiculous.

I have seen various answers on this, but does anyone know for sure, or have experience they can share?

My fiance will be coming from Chile and passing through Toronto, Canada on her way to the US.  Her baggage is checked all the way through, so she won't have to exit and go through check-in again.  But she will have to change planes.

What can she expect in Toronto?

She also received 2 packets from the embassy, one of which the embassy said she hands over at her first airport of departure (Santiago, Chile in this case).  Is that true?  I never heard you had to do something special at departure.

Any experience here would be appreciated.

1 hour ago, AfricanOhemaa said:

Hey everyone I have a question for the affidavit of support do i use my tax info for 2015 or 2016?

You'll want the tax return for 2015 tax year, unless your interview is sometime after April 15.  It also doesn't hurt to have your tax returns for the previous 2 years on hand just in case - for tax years 2015, 2014, 2013 (advice I got elsewhere).

btw - my fiance had her interview last Friday.  Very smooth.  No problems.

There seems to be a lot of confusion around this... What exactly does an NVC status of "Ready" really mean?

I just had my status change to "Ready" this afternoon. But I'm not sure what that really means for me.

I haven't been able to find much info on the Chilean consulate or process in Chile, and haven't gotten a response from any of the other members here going through the process in Chile. The Chilean embassy web page is almost useless, and there's no way I've found to reach a live person there. fyi - I don't see any way to schedule an interview or pay a fee like other have indicated for other countries.

Thanks.

For those of you saying you can pay and schedule the interview once status shows "ready" on CEAC, I assume that's specific to your country. Or is that generally true for all countries? I though each had specific instructions for scheduling the medical and interview that were sent to visa candidate. I haven't been able to find any recent info on the Chilean consulate so I'm kind of flying blind here. I tried to call the Chilean consulate today and it doesn't appear there's any way to get through to a live person with the number I was able to find. :-( So I'm not too sure on process or timeline to expect.

Thanks, Merrytooth. I appreciate your help.

My NVC case number was assigned on 11/3. Last night I checked my status on the ceac.state.gov web site. The status came back as:

"Your case is in transit to the Consular Section. Your interview data was provide to you by the National Visa Center."

So I called the NVC this afternoon. They told me the paperwork was sent to the embassy in Chile on 11/7, but that all the NVC does is assign the case number and send it to the consulate/embassy, and that further instructions will come from them.

I'm happy it got sent from the NVC that fast, but wondering if anyone else gets this same status from the ceac web site. And if the NVC ever schedules interviews like the status says.

Thanks.

Thank you Merrytooth. But on the I-134 the only place I see to add them to my household size is on question 8 that is "The following persons are dependent upon me for support:". And an indication of "Wholly Dependent" or "Partially Dependent". Is that where I list them? And indicate partially dependent?

Thanks in advance.

On Form I-134, Affidavit of Support, do I need to comprehend child support payments I am responsible for? In particular, I have children who are not in my custody, so they are not claimed as dependents on my tax returns. But since I am responsible for ongoing child support, do I claim on this form that they are dependent on me for support?

Thanks.

I called the NVC yesterday at about 4pm Central,was on hold for about 15 minutes. They told me my case # had been assigned earlier that day!! Yeah! So I'm not sure when they actually recieved it (didn't think to ask). But they said I could expect it to be sent out the consulate by the end of next week.

--------------------------------

2016/09/01 - I-129f mailed

2016/09/09 - NOA1

2016/10/13 - NOA2

2016/10/17 - NOA2 hard-copy received

2016/11/03 - NVC case # assigned