Eliandry

9 minutes ago, Meno said:

7 months later and no approval. To think this is how long my lawyer told me the entire process should take. If i had known i would have gone the finance visa way instead...

Your attorney should not have said (perhaps you misinterpreted) that a CR-1 process would take seven months from start to end. It takes that long in many cases just to receive the USCIS approval.  The NVC process can be another 1-3 months before the file is sent to the embassy. 

I went through the K-1 process once before. It is no better, especially depending on which USCIS service center your file is processed.

10 minutes ago, Abeer & jamal said:

Dose the following means it's approved ?

On October 16, 2017, we transferred your Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, Receipt Number YSC1790133681, to another office for processing and sent you a transfer notice. 

The notice explains why we transferred your case. 

Please follow the instructions in the notice. 

If you do not receive your notice by November 15, 2017,

No it does not.  It means your file was pulled from Potomac and sent to another office for review.  That is only strange because usually cases are transferred from offices to ease workloads.  Potomac is the quickest of the offices to approve petitions.

Hoping someone can help me with a few questions as it relates to our CR-1 visa application (and two CR-2s). I've spoken to the embassy and received email responses from ustraveldocs, and no one seems to be able to provide consistent answers.  Interview is in a month so I'm trying to get the administrative noise out of the way.

1. Are my minor step children (ages 3 and 2 years) required to appear in person at the embassy for the interview?

2. The mother and father of these stepchildren were not married. Does the father have to provide any prior permission for the children to be issued visas?  I know with a K-1 the answer is no, but I cannot assume anything with the CR-1/CR-2 process.

3. If you were expedited through this embassy, and thus your petitions skipped NVC processing, would you tell me if there was anything you had to bring to the embassy in addition to packages that would have gone to the NVC?  I am aware we need the originals of documents, passport photos, medical exam results, DS-260s and relationship proof.  What else?

4. Is a certificate of good conduct (police certificate) issued less than 60 days prior to the interview acceptable?  We had one obtained as we were preparing to send our package to the NVC prior t the expedite.

Thank you.

3 minutes ago, NikC said:

I received an RFE. I have 2 questions -

 

They request ORIGINAL marriage certificate..... is this normal / okay ?

 

Bonafied relationship - How do you guys send logs from whatspp ? take screen shots (which is time consuming) or export to text then copy to word and select chats overtime and send ?

How do you send call logs from phone ? send print out of phone bills ? filtered to my spouse's number ?

 

Thanks alot

Strange they want the actual, not copy as copies of originals are acceptable. 

WhatsApp has an export chat function in settings. You can have your conversations sent to you as a txt file to your email. 

Print phone bills and just highlight a few so the officer gets the point.

1 hour ago, Ccscs said:

Yes do u know number

1-800-375-5283

18 minutes ago, Jacky U. said:

Has anyone from Nebraska been approved? 😰😔

If you scan this thread, basically no. 

17 minutes ago, Ccscs said:

Anyone know number to Nebraska 

Are you looking for a direct phone number to the service center in Lincoln, Nebraska? If so, there is no number.  You have to call USCIS only.  If your call is for an expedite request they do that and send it to the service center.

11 minutes ago, Chinegwa25 said:

Should I be worried that it hasn't updated yet?

Okay thank u, can I also call?

Yes, you are the beneficiary, and once the the paperwork is at the NVC, it is the beneficiary who takes the lead on the visa process as at this step it is you that is officially applying for the visa.

12 minutes ago, Chinegwa25 said:

Hi guys, i hope everyone is doing Well so far.... I am a bit worried cause my husband got my approved letter About 2weeks ago... But THE USCIS case status website hasnt been updated since then, an i havent heard anything form NVC Anybody know holang iT takes for THE website to Be updated an gearing form NVC

If it has been two weeks then your husband can call the national visa center to see if a case number has been assigned.  (603) 334-0700.  Have him call in the evening as you won't wait as long online.

1 minute ago, Janis said:

Anyone with march 20 pd in texas sc got approved yet?  

Whats the latest pd in march have gotten approved already in tsc?

Also, after we receive our noa2, how long will the next steps be until we get the visa on hand?

I was not at the TSC, but plan on 3-5 more months depending on where your beneficiary lives.

1 hour ago, Lleandra said:

Hi, my case is not at Nebraska but at TSC. I too filed March 16th and haven't got my approval. I spoke with a tier 2 officer today and was told that the long wait was due to the security check. In fact the FBI is the hold up. So the date that's posted on the website is cases still pending due to that. While they are waiting for the feedback from the FBI they go ahead and process cases from which they do get feedback from which is ahead of us. Reasons for that, the petitioner's country has to give information. Some of which is slow ... also, if the form i129f was filed right after getting the first notice of action, this would have helped the beneficiary to migrate to the US while awaiting the second NOA. So for filers who recently filed, plz send in that I129F form with no charge. 

The tier 2 officer has given you a story.  The FBI isn't involved in matters relating to immigration and customs. These are separate agencies. An adjudication officer feeds your name into a database and if your beneficiary is not on a watchlist here or in his/her country then that is the extent of what is done (perhaps wth the exception of beneficiaries living in countries that the trump administration has flagged as high risk). Cases take a long time because there are millions of petitions under review, and very little done to ensure workloads are balanced amongst service centers. Nebraska is notoriously slow for family visas, while Texas has the same reputation for its snail like approval of fiancée visas.

16 minutes ago, Meno said:

I take that to mean that USCIS does whatever they want however they want it.

Straight from the USCIS website.  To file a K-3 you must have filed an I-130 already.

https://www.uscis.gov/family/family-us-citizens/k3-k4-visa/k-3k-4-nonimmigrant-visas

Most likely you pay another fee, and when your spouse arrives, you pay all the fees (including another medical exam) associated with adjusting status.  No big deal, right?  Well if your spouse wants to work, s/he has to apply for that privilege at the same time as the adjustment and wait 90 days to receive the permission.  Unless your spouse likes doing nothing that's about all s/he can do.

If feels frustrating, but at this point, you're better off riding this through.  Your spouse will have his/her green card within a few weeks of arrival and the two of you can get on with starting your lives without going through another USCIS process the minute the plane lands. I've gone through AOS with a divorced spouse (after she arrived on a K-1).  The process sucks just as much as the I-130.

2 hours ago, Hbgarcia25 said:

Has anyone with their priority date in March  received approval from Potomac? I have my Priority date in April and just wanted to know if there have been any approvals made yet. Need to keep my hopes up. 

Yes a number of March filers have gotten their approvals already from that service center.

3 minutes ago, Staa said:

Okay i would find a way around that. Just received the mail from Nvc, they received the case.

Did you mean NVC or USCIS?  USCIS sends the notice that the file is on the way to the Dept. of State. Just curious which, as it usually takes two weeks before the NVC assigns a case number.

27 minutes ago, WCH said:

Thank you for the info

Knowing that they havent gotten to my case yet to review it and make a decision, and to avoid receiving an RFE and wait longer, is it smarter to send some prooving documents now?

You cannot send material in to augment your file until instructed. You could out your petition at risk. I asked this question of a tier 2 officer and he said to me not to do it.  Just wait for the RFE.  

20 minutes ago, Lewismicheals said:

greetings to march folks who are getting their noa2 congrats and to does awaiting you will get it by his grace. so i am a may filer and i am just trying to know what date is the recent date that has been approved. my service center is potomac. God bless.

They seem to be into March petitions at this point.  Figure your wait to hear from USCIS will be give months, plus or minus. That seems to be the trend.

I've read the threads the last week and there seems to be some concern about what constitutes proof of marriage and what could go wrong that might trigger an RFE.  I want everyone to know that my petitions were approved without an RFE been through:

*My wife.is significantly younger than I am. We married three months after meeting and filed two months later.

*I had to explain three prior USCIA petitions, one which I revoked because my ex-non US citizen spouse was a fraud.

*I unintentionally used an expired form I-130 in my filing. Check the right corner of your form to see if you did too. 

*I made a request for an expedited approval and was rejected.

... and I was approved in 4 months and 3 weeks.

If your love and marriage is real and you documented it, you will be approved.

My PD was March 23. 

NOA 2 dated 8/17. Never got a text message letting me know. Notices were in today's mail from the Potomac Service Center. 

1 minute ago, Jenkurai said:

We use Paypal he send me money to help pay for our apartment

Print out the receipts. I presume they have his name as the sender.  The more he sends (or the higher the dollars) he sends, gives greater credence to marriage validity then affidavits from the 3 or 4 people you "want" telling USCIS the marriage is authentic.   I print everything out from money movements to stupid stuff like call logs and if I top off my wife's phone.  Taken as a whole, an officer sees a recurring pattern both of communication as well as financial commingling.  I'd gather it in case you are asked for more.

6 hours ago, lousiaC said:

did any one got approved from potomac ? mine is 06 mar and still no update

No, but I'm 3/27.  Seems you're on deck as the trend is 4.75 - 5.25 months, give/take.

29 minutes ago, lousiaC said:

we didnt have any joint property either. But i guess wedding pics, affidavit from friends n family , marriage certificate will work. best of luck (y)

 

1 hour ago, Jenkurai said:

I'm worried about the evidence of marriage since my husband and I got married in February. We don't have any property or joint bank accounts together because I'm not sure how you do that with someone from a different country. However we met on an online game and the game company actually flew both of us out to test the game they wrote an article on us and wrote letters of support so I hope it is enough. 

 

 

Do you and your husband send/receive money transfers such as Western Union or Xoom?  That evidences financial commingling of assets without being in the same country.

6 minutes ago, Nakia1love said:

I'm considering getting he and his son tourist visas but don't know where to start. We are 5 1/2 months into our process. Does anyone have experience with this and can point me in the right direction?

It is not a good idea.  I think other forum topics discuss this topic.  The government could view your application for a tourist visa as circumventing the family visa process, and deny both.

26 minutes ago, Dianalorena said:

Confirmation and extra information if required is totally fine. I was just saying that a marriage younger than 2 years isn't automatically considered fraud by USCIS, it's case by case. Many people like my husband and I want to start our lives together in the U.S and that's why we applied before the 2 year mark. We did send affidavits from friends. And we are gathering evidence of our trips (7 trips total) with airplane, tickets, pictures and more, to bring to the interview. We frontloaded just in case. We know that USCIS value ''in person'' time as well as financial co mingling, but there isn't just one rule or one thing they require as additional proof of bonafide, there are many options, the more the merrier. Good luck!

We are in the same boat.  We married and then applied.  Doing so is absolutely no different than doing a K-1, the wait is the same and so is the outcome. It is just about where you're married rather than how long.  I guess I am cautious because it is too easy to poke holes in a file, but not one that's legitimate and well supported.

40 minutes ago, Dianalorena said:

a lot of couples go through the CR1 without having been married for two years. My previous CR1 from years ago was approved after just 6 months of marriage, and we didn't even send supporting documents like affidavits.  That is the whole point of the Conditional R1, you've been married for less than two years which results on the need of the ROC. Although we might face more scrutiny, it doesn't automatically mean they will think it is fraud. 

Again, it is and should be about proof.  Think third party evidence. I suggest we all keep as much of this up to date as possible because you never know what you may be asked.  Five months after NOA1, a USCIS officer may want confirmation that we are all still in the game for the right reasons.