tomatoboy

YAY!!!

From what I've seen with others, a week or so from now you'll get an email confirming they completed the case. Then, some time after that, which will depend on the embassy (weeks to months) the beneficiary will get a call or you'll get an email letter with the interview date.

I can tell you the "case complete" email does not come the day they complete the case. Ours was completed yesterday morning, but NVC has not yet sent an email, and in fact although NVC shows the case as complete in their system over the phone, CEAC still reflects NVC processing of documents. My suspicion is that they don't actually update the status in CEAC or send out the email until the case gets sent to the embassy, hence the delay in the notification.

Did you call to confirm the case is complete?

Actually, I would want them to be different. I would not scan and reuse a photo I previously sent. I had my wife send me new passport photos at each stage in the process photos were requested, even though for some reason she always gets four instead of two.

A quick Google search revealed it isn't a USCIS (federal) policy/law issue, it is because of your state of residence.

Apparently, certain states (New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington) do not allow maiden to middle name changes when changing your name . In these states, you need to petition the court to change your name from your maiden to middle name, you can't do it through normal channels.

http://www.marriagenamechange.com/blog/maiden-name-to-middle-name/

Since many Filipinos use their maiden name as their middle name, I'm sure this comes up a lot.

Our scan date is 21 Sept and its 21 Nov now... 2 months and still no news.. every time we call they say allow 6 weeks for supervisor review... any suggestions what can be done?

Consider contacting your congressperson and having them put in a congressional inquiry, if you haven't already. it won't make NVC move faster, necessarily, but it may get the case some extra attention.

Yes, confirmed. Completed today.

Showing N/As as of 10:36AM on 11/21. Scan date was 10/4. That's 1 month and 17 days, or 6 weeks and 6 days. Woohoo!!! Hope many other people waiting get them today too!!!

Calling now to confirm.

Well, here's hoping for some case completes for this week despite the holiday, I know we've got a lot of people with September and October scan dates still waiting. Hopefully a few people will get some good news today!

Well i guess taking it to interview is a way better than sending it back to NVC , which is good for us

but what transcript you are talking about?

Am sure my lawyer has it or my husband ~ but it's just frustrating as they didn't really mention what's wrong with the submitted one..

Or maybe they lost it????? can this happen?

The best way is to call and ask ..

They're presumably referring to the IRS tax transcript.

We never got an email, or any written response from them. My lawyer told me not to expect anything. Best to call, my husband only just found out our scan date when he called on Monday.

We also never got an email that they received our documents. I discovered the scan date via telephone. They could save themselves a lot of phone calls if their system was sending out emails (or noting in CEAC) that the documents had been received and were awaiting review.

Short answer...generally you will just fly straight to Manila.

Long answer...If your layover is more than a set number of hours (it varies, but usually 8-12ish), or if you are flying to different airlines and they do not have an agreement on baggage, you *may* have to recheck your bags, but in most cases you will fly straight on to Manila via Tokyo, since Japan allows transits. The answer might be different if you were flying through, say Shanghai in China. However, for Tokyo (assuming Narita), you should be fine, as Japan has no issue with transits. So it would just be up to airline baggage arrangements.

Who are you flying with?

It makes sense to go ahead and start a separate thread if it is an underdeveloped topic, that way you might get more information than with it hidden in here. :-)

On supervisor review as of 7AMish today. The representative actually sounded annoyed they hadn't finished it by last night.

You will most likely have to call to get your scan date. I certainly did not get any sort of correspondence to confirm they received our AOS/IV documents. The scan date will probably be a few days after the delivery date. Calling them constantly probably won't accomplish anything, but you do need to keep on top of things with them to get updates.

As for an interview date in a month, that's possibly a bit optimistic. The document review process alone may still take a 6-8 weeks based on what people are experiencing right now.

Ditto, also curious how this was resolved by the embassy.

I've seen one or two, mostly electronic processing countries. Our scan date is October 4th, so we are at six weeks on Wednesday. Some September scan date folks are getting up into the 8-9 week range now. Certainly getting a bit slow at NVC the past few months.

Is your originating flight in Manila, or are you starting somewhere else first? The only reason I ask is because while I know Manila has rolled the Terminal Fee into the tickets, some airports (most notably Mactan Cebu) are still charging it at a kiosk like with the Travel Tax.

Ya that's all they ever told me during the normal review and so far on supervisor review. I've asked a few times if there is like a "queue" and if they could indicate where we are in that queue but they've always said no. I've asked if it's under review or just in line and most of time they just say "We can't say it will be done when it's done" or something like that.

I would imagine there must be some sort of queue in which case I wonder why they can't say "We have 50 cases ahead of yours" or something. I don't know how they decide to review cases in specific orders.

Here is my guess... They assign the work by region or case type to specific teams, then to specific employees. The employees work at different speeds. I get Employee Jim on Team A and my case sits six weeks, but somebody else gets Employee Jane on Team A (or maybe Team C), and their case gets done in six days. And if they're anything like other agencies, work rarely gets reassigned unless someone is going to be out on leave. So the reason they don't tell you is probably because they have absolutely no idea; or at least, the contact rep has no idea, because they just don't know when Employee X is going to finish. And I'm pretty sure they aren't using some form of just-in-time case assignment, where employees get cases automatically when they finish one, since I've yet to see a government agency that didn't have someone actually *assigning* cases to employees.

I just called NVC as my scan date was Sept 27 and file was sent for supervisor review on Monday. I was told to call next week to follow up. Also for those planning to call today, please note the system will be down from 9pm not sure which time zone and Friday is a holiday.

I'm actually on hold with them right now and just heard the message...

Their systems are down for an upgrade starting tonight at 9PM Eastern Standard Time. They indicate they will unable to answer case-specific questions after that time. They will also be closed tomorrow (as expected) for Veterans Day. They reopen at 7AM Monday.

Systems upgrades the night before a holiday are pretty common among government agencies, that way if something breaks it doesn't harm production.

Well who would of known the co would actually check the Facebook to me that seems odd.

FYI when I had my Facebook it was completely private I know a lot of people that do the same.

Too many phychos on fb in my opinion

I'm somewhat surprised as well, for two reasons... First, it seems like an unusual level of effort (which would suggest some other red flag might be present). Second, Facebook is usually blocked on US government computers.

Regardless, my wife and I both set ours to be private and unsearchable for reasons of personal security, due to work. Pretty much every professional I know does the same thing. However, the way OP could have solved this issue proactively would have been to provide printouts from Facebook showing how they met, etc... Much as one would do for a dating website like eHarmony or OKCupid. You establish the foundation of the relationship that way. Hindsight is 20/20, which is why OP could have used an attorney.

Yup, it absolutely is easier to bring the dog from the Philippines to the USA than to bring a dog from the USA to the Philippines, at least in terms of paperwork. The USA actually requires minimal paperwork (some states may vary and have additional requirements).

Sounds like couples/family counseling might be a good idea.

I would immediately contact a reputable immigration attorney. As in this week.

Additional update... Philippine Airlines says they cannot guarantee specific aircraft will or will not be equipped for checked pets, so they recommend flying a day early to Manila if taking a Manila->US flight from somewhere else in the Phils. However, I suspect that they just mean if by some random chance your flight is rebooked to one of their PAL Express propeller aircraft you can't use that, since most airlines have no issues with checked pets in anything the size of an 737/A320 or larger. And for carry on, I've taken a dog on an ERJ-145, which is positively microscopic.

As others have indicated, it seems that the current time for NVC to review documents is around 6 weeks. NVC responds alternatively with 6 weeks, 6 weeks or less, or some variant thereof over the phone. Looking at timelines, people are falling in mostly around 6 weeks, with some outliers that get finished very quickly (two weeks) or very slowly (8-9 weeks).

NVC will basically tell you to call back at 6 weeks (and a day, or sometimes a week) if you contact them for a case status before it is finished.