devblt

I honestly think buying a one-way ticket is a big mistake. That is definately going to set of red flags at immigration. He he get's denied entry because of the one-way ticket, he'll have to make that known, and he'll have to try and explain it away. To minimize the hassel factor, I would recommend getting a return ticket for a two weeks stay, and extending that once he gets here. With a two week return ticket, the fact he is a student etc.. and any other evidence of "ties" back home, he should be o.k.. that said, there is no garatuee that he'll get through POE without hassell. It'll be a lot easier explaining that then a one-way ticket that's for sure.

Good luck

Yep.. that's exactly what it is. Anytime your "file" is updated for what ever reason, it is reflected with an updated with a new date on the USCIS website. That is what the touch is!

Good luck.

I understand that when I-130 gets approved (counselor processing, US citizen, IR category) from the appropriate service center you get a visa bill which is $380 + $70 for finger printing. Two questions ...

1) How long does it generally take after submitting the I-130 application before you get the visa bill?

2) Do they take personal checks and the real question ... who is the check made out to? Department of State, Department of Homeland Security?

Thanks in advance!

Check out my time line below. Typically takes about 3-4 weeks or so. You need to make it payable to the Department of State, and you can't use personal checks - certified or money orders are only accepted.

Go the the NVC section you'll see a pinned thread that gives you all the information about the process you'll go through after your I130 is finished at the USCIS.

Good luck!

Had a conversation with my SO the other day, and found out that we both like to sleep on the same side of the best (the left side).. we kinda joked out who would have to give up the left side.. we are still 5 months away before she get's here.. but thought it was an interesting question about if the SO who live here in the States would be willing to give up somthing this trival to make their SO's adjust that much easier..

In the end.. I think I would give up the left side for my wife

Hi

I am worried about filing for a K1 visa because he was denied a tourist visa in April. I thought this would go on his permanent record.

I don't think you need to worry too much. Many people have been denied tourist visas in the past. You should only be concerned if your spouse was refused entry at customs when he attempted to go through immigration in the U.S.A, which you would have to declare on the application, but even then, many people who have been denied entry into the USA have successfully entered on a spouse visa without too much difficulty.

Good luck!

Doing DCF in India is not as straight forward as your friends seem to think it is. I got married in India in August. The requirments for a DCF in India is that you have to live in India for 90 days and provide proof of residency before you can apply for DCF. In the past maybe a couple of years ago, it could be the case where you can go to India get married and file for DCF within a couple of weeks.. this is definately not the case anymore. If you goto the Delhi consulate website, you'll be able to find the current requirments for filing DCF in India.

As for DCF's in other countries, the requirments vary.

It could be staged like the astronauts landing on the moon.

You too huh?

I'm not sure if I believe the moon conspiracy or not.. but just a thought, with all the technology we have available to us, surely we would be able to use a telescope of some sort to focus in on where we landed to see if the flag and the lander are still there? That would be the definative answer.. if we can't, surely we can then send a satalie to take pictures to put this question to bed

I really don't think he got a fair trial to be honest, I really think there was a lot of polotics involved, and the U.S. government had a major say in how the trial was handeled. This is a shame. It would have been much better to keep Sadam in prison until a time when Iraq was truly governed my the Iraq people, and all of this fighting had subsided even if that is 10-15 years down the line. Had that happend, and the trial took place when

*peace* and stability had eventually spread out throughout Iraq, that a trial at that time would have been more appropriate.

In the end, whether the trial happend today or in 10 years, I believe the outcome would have been the same - that he would have been found guilty and the ultimate punishment would have been carried out. However if the trial had happend later, I think history would have seen that to be a fairer trial than the one today.

I answered "No" to the first question and "Yes" to the second.

Thanks for all your help guys, this is great news.

We think we may only need 2-4 more months to get our house sold as the market is sluggish here right now and we've not had much luck.

Our first address in the USA will be with my parents so they can send the GC there. Yay! This is great!

How long will we have to be in the USA getting him "processed" before we can come back here?

I actually come over to the USA on a greencard. I think our visa came in when I was still in school. My parents were not ready to move over here permanently at that time due to my schooling. So the first time we came over here, we really came over here on a "vacation" of sorts for about 4 weeks during my summer holidays. The first time you go through the POE your process is pretty much complete. The greencard is mailed to the address in the USA you designate along with your SSN. By the time we were ready to head back to England, the Greencards had arrived to the address here in the states, we then applied for a re-entry permit, since we knew we would be out of the country for more than a year, and that was about it. The re-entry permit was delivered to the US address a couple of months laters, and was forwarded to our house in London.

It can be that simple, just there are certain conditions that apply. You say you'll not be ready to move over permanently until after the IR visa expires. If you come to the states and then go back "home" you'll have to ask yourself one very important question. This is will you be out of the U.S.A for more than 1 year from the time you go back home? If the answer is yes, than you have to apply for a re-entry permit - not sure what form that is. The re-entry permit will allow you to be out of the USA for more than a year when you hold a Greencard. You have to apply for it before you actually leave the USA. If you are only going to be out of the country for less than a year, say 6-7 months, than you don't need to apply for a re-entry permit

The last interaction I had with NVC was to send in the payment for the IV Fee bill, which NVC received on 12/21/2006.

Therefore, I expected to call NVC and get a message saying that the DS-230 had been generated/sent to the Agent (i.e. me).

However, I am thoroughly confused by NVC's latest automated message to me:

"The NVC is awaiting the return of biographic forms from the Petitioner (me). Once this packet is received, allow 6-8 weeks for the reviewing of all your documentation, and you will be notified of the outcome of the review"

What in the world are they talking about?

What happened to the DS-230 being sent/generated? (which is info about the Applicant, my wife, not me!)

Dazed and confused...

From other post's i've read, it seems as though the message is indeed relating to the DS230. They may be using different language, but it's the DS230.

Can someone please confirm, since I'll be getting that message in the next couple of weeks

Thanks

Pam,

Read your post about the bar codes. I've been able to use it successfully.

Here are the steps you need to take.

1) Use Jame's instructions to actually generate the bar code.

2) Do a "right click" with your mouse over the bar code and click on "save picture as"

3) Save the picture on your desktop.

4) Go to the file on your desktop and do a "right-click" on the file

5) Go to "Open with"

6) Select "Microsoft Office Picture Manager" as your first choice if you don't have that then use "Microsoft Paint"

7) If using Picture Manager, open the file put your mouse over the picture and do a right-click and go to "edit pictures" A panel will pop-up on the right side of the screen

8) Under "edit using these tools" click on the crop function. You'll see thick black lines around the picture.

9) Put the mouse over the middle - dottom horizontal line. Left click and move the mouse up so that the black line are now above the verbage "Powered by IdAutomation.com" and click on the "O.K" button on the pop-up window on the right hand side. That will crop your picture for you.

10) Now do a right click over the cropped picture.. click on "copy" go to the document where you need to replace the bar code and paste it.

11) Simillary if you are using Microsoft Paint.. you'll do something similar.. where you crop out the verbage and copy and paste it on the appropriate document.

Hope this helps.

Here's my take on it.

I got married in India August 06 came back to the states in September and applied for the CR/IR1 visa. I hope to have the process complete by May. All the paperwork so far has gone smoothly so far, I went to India for one month only to get married. There is no rule about how long you have to stay in India before you can get married. This option is always available to you.

You go to India get married stay for 90 days, (90 days being from the time you arrive, and not from the time you get married is my understanding.. could be wrong) and apply for the IR/CR1 from New Delhi (DCF or Direct Consular Filing). There are some residency requirments in place. You should go to the Delhi consulate website for more information. Going this route, the process should likley take less than 5 month from the time you apply. After you apply you can either stay in India until the process is complete or come back to the States and wait for your wife's application to be complete. However if you do a DCF you both have to go to Delhi to apply

Third option is what the previous poster suggested.. going through the K1 process.

Hope this helps.

i would recommend u go 2 the nvc forum and start studying the thread pinned at the top called "timesavers for nvc plus knowing ur case number". it all sounds complicated, i did several "dry runs" printing out forms and getting myself familiar with the procedure, i think that thread helped me more than anything else in the nvc process, plus some great help from some other vj'ers who had done it already. good luck!

Thanks for your tips. I've done "dry runs" before so I can get familiar with the process. I told my wife she could probably get her interview appointment by the end of march.

justo,

End of March seems a little to optomistic from my perspective. From the time NVC receives the paper work from USCIS to when they send complete it and send it on to the embassy is approx 3 months (using James' shortcuts - go to the NVC section it's pinned there) At the embassy, the interview is scheduled for 2 months from the date that the embassy receives the paperwork.

Personally I've not got to the interview stage yet, but looking at other people's timelines, 5 months is probably more of a realistic timeframe. I don't want to be the barer of bad news, but I think it's unfair to set unrealistic expectations/timeframes for either yourself or your SO.. and be disapointed when they don't pan out.

If you check out my time frame, you'll see I've already been at the NVC for a month, and I still havn't submited my I-864 or my DS230.. I'm hoping to have all the paper work submited by end of Jan. NVC to complete the review by mid-late Feb and forward to Mumbai (India) in late feb to early march. This will put our interview out to about April/May depending how busy the embassy is.

Hope this helps, and again, please don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger!

The message is referencing your DS230. You can either wait for the offical packet to come via post, or use James' shortcut. I have read many have used James' shortcut with great success. It's really upto you whether you feel comfortable using the shortcuts or not.

I can't believe 8% choose the red light.

I know, that makes me wonder.

Maybe they are trying to make a point?!?!?

Sufi,

It normally takes about two weeks or the "second Tuesday" from when NVC assigns a case number for your application. You should phone the NVC around that time and the Automated Voice system will tell you that the AOS fee bill and the DS3032 have been generated.

Read the pinned NVC time savers section in the NVC discussion board for more detailed information.

Good luck.

It will take on average about 70-80 days for your I-130 to be approved. I-129's may be a little faster. You should sign up for e-mail notification on the USCIS website. You'll need to have your NOA1 receipt number. My I-130 took 87 days before it was approved. Some are quicker some are longer.. it's really hard to tell.

Good luck!

Sandy,

I just generated my bar code using Jame's shortcut. Read the instructions carfully, as it tells you how to set the sizing of the barcode itself. You may have an issue copying and pasting the bar code directly from the "bar code generator". What I did was saved it as a .bmp image. Opend that file with Microsoft Office Picture Manager. You'll have to "crop" the bar code from the bottom so the verbage "powered by IDAutomation.com" is not there anymore. Once you do that you can copy and paste the bar code into the word document on you'll download from James' shortcut.

I compared the length and hight of the example barcode and the one I generated and both are exactly the same.

Good luck. If you still have issues, PM me your NVC # and e-mail address, and I'll be happy to generate it for you and send it to you.

Be carefull about this. I know of someone who was in the same boat as you. He's wife came on a number of occasions without any issues while the process was ticking along. The last time she tried to come over, the immigration officals denied her entry because they found out (somehow) that she was in the process of getting an immigrant visa. She was refused entry and had to fly back to London on the next flight out.

She then had to declare on her application that she was refused entry into the USA. During her interview they ask her questions about it.

Thankfully this expereince did not negatively impact her ability to get approved for the immigrant visa, the possiablity was there. My friend and his wife were very concerned about it.

If I was you, I would seriously consider going to see her in London rather than taking the chance of her coming to the States while her immigration process is in the works.

Just called NVC today and was told that the Choice of Agent form and the AOS fee bill have been generated. I'll be sending that back to the NVC tomorrow using Jame's shortcuts

Well that sucks big time.. I'm an english ex-pat and have been following the ashes series over the last month. I knew it'd be difficult but to go out like this is just shameful.

Can't wait till 2009 when Warney and Co will hopefully have retired and the ashes can come back home where they truley belong!

I know what you mean.. i've been reading about Jame's shortcut's and post's from other who have used it.. i'm going to get my hands dirty over the weekend and experiment with the barcodes!

P.S. I don't know who Jame is, but by the looks of things he is a saint for putting this info out there for the rest of us. He should have copy righted his short cuts.. could have made him self a lot of $$$$$$$$$

Anyway.. where ever you are James... WE ALL THANK YOU!

My NOA2 was on 11/27 and I just called the NVC to find that a case number was assigned for my application.. that's 8 business days.. I know may will hate me for saying this but kudos to the NVC!

My NOA2 was Nov 27th. I just called NVC a few minutes ago and my NVC case number was assigned!

Thought i'd be waiting a lot longer than this.. looks like my process is sailing through calm waters.. well atleast for now..

Hope everyone else's is going well