MM&CS

Filled ROC 4/26/21. Got a notice in June of 21 saying that they won’t need a new biometrics appointment. Just got a text today saying there was an update on the case. Card is being produced, no interview needed!

We just got a notification our AOS has been scheduled for interview! How far out do they usually schedule these things? Considering it's Friday I'm not holding my breath we'll see the letter till next week! 😂 our filling date was 10/5/18 (or 10/9/18 depending on if you ask the old site or the new one 😂)

49 minutes ago, DIVITA said:

Hi guys I received an email saying that they are still reviewing my application. Do anyone know why if 2 weeks ago i got email saying ready for interview 

Mine was marked ready to schedule for interview back in October lol. I don't think that the statuses really mean too much till they say approved anymore 😂

has anyone else noticed date differences between the old and new sites? The old site says EAD received 10/5, and AOS ready to schedule interview as of 10/30. New site says case ready to be scheduled 10/31, and EAD was 'Submitted 10/8, received 10/9'

3 hours ago, Gama said:

Any other October filers still awaiting their EAD? mines been pending over 159+ days now for AP and EAD and over 120+ days since my AOS / GC was last updated with the "Case is ready to be scheduled for an interview"

 

Really starting to drag... not sure what their delay is but hoping to hear something next week the only good thing is for those of us waiting we are approaching the date of when we can submit an inquiry.  

 

 

My PD was 10/5/18, still waiting. Case status for EAD and AP was changed to case received 169 days ago. AOS was changed to 'Ready to schedule interview' 149 days ago. 😩

My timeline now says between March 2 and 9... 😂 I'm really hoping it's our week for an EAD too! 

I can't say as far as the extension if that will work or not, I would think it would if they asked for it, but I can say don't let Administrative Processing get you down. My fiancees case was put from ready to AP the day after her interview and the next day it changed to issued. Everyone goes into AP, processing the visa and paperwork is as much AP as being put on hold for more info is. Fingers crossed for you!! 

2 hours ago, Paul & Mallory said:

Don't panic - it is pretty common. In our case, my fiancé's medical was the week before his interview. So they hadn't received the papers from his doctor yet. They basically told him the same thing - everything looked good and as long as they receive the papers from the doctor, he'll be approved. I believe it was the following week when they received the papers and he got his passport back with the visa in it within a week.

 

Do you know if they took her passport?

They did keep her passport, they said she'd have everything back in 1-2 weeks. Just that 'it's not an official yes cause rules say I can't say definitely yes here and now' comment by the CO that's giving me worry lol 

She says they had received her medical, which was our worry cause she was only able to get in a week before the interview for her medical, but Christchurch was real fast with that turn around! XD 

Quick check in to say that today was my fiancée's interview at the Auckland embassy. She said it was quick once they actually let her in, she showed up early and they turned her away the first time. Also, make sure you have your interview letter, she said that they were turning people away in front of her that didn't have it. She said that when she actually got to talk to the CO, he only asked a few basic questions, what I do, how we met, how I proposed (she said she gushed about how cute it was, I'm dying from mortal embarrassment cause I was jetlagged and I dropped the ring and gave up and was just like 'uhhhh....so.....wanna get married? I mean, if you want? it's cool if not! No pressure or anything!'), things like that, then asked if she minded answering about if it bugged her that I was married before, and to a man. She explained that no, it didn't, that she and I both knew we were bi before we ever started dating, and that was it. She said she was told by the CO that she was 'approved but that's not an official answer as per rules' and she'll receive her stuff in 1-2 weeks, and that'll be when she knows for sure, and that her medical expires in October, so she'll have to be over before then. I'm nervous, from what I've read a lot of people are given an approval at the time of interview, but I don't remember really seeing any 'yes, but it's not an official answer' stories. ::quietly panics in the corner::

1 minute ago, Bri&Grant said:

This is probably a odd question but how long do you think I can wait to go to the interview etc.. after we get approved? We aren’t fully ready yet to go ahead with the whole process but we just wanted to get this long wait out of the way first do you think a couple months or what? I’ve been here in the U.S for 3 months now but will be flying back home to the U.K this Sunday. So I’m gonna be starting a new job when I get back to put more money behind us (we are only 20) but I just would like an estimate time that I can wait until we proceed with the process if anyone knows. I certainly don’t wanna go through the process of sending another petition and paying 535$ again that’s for sure.

The noa2 approval expires after a few months (someone else can probably say if it's 4 or 6, I'm drawing a blank) but the long and short of it is unless you can convince the embassy to extend it, you've got a limited window in which you can push the interview back before that approval expires and you have to start again

13 minutes ago, Lotts said:

What number are you guys using to call the USCIS? I've sent him on a mission to see if we have any movement on our case. 😬

1800-375-5283 is the number i called, and then 1, 2, 2, 2  I told them i didn’t have my WAC and they transferred me to tier II, which did the ‘automated call-back’ set up, and i got a call back an hour later that showed up as 800-000-0000 just fyi, so don’t ignore that thinking it’s a scam or something XD

18 minutes ago, Jolie&Charles said:

Are you the USC or the beneficiary ? Just to know as I would like to sneak and call myself sometimes..

I’m the USC  

So I figured I’d bite the bullet and just give USCIS a call today, since I was done orienting at the hospital early, cause I don’t know when I’ll next get to sit around waiting for them to ring me back will be now that I’ve got a proper full time non independant contractor (that doesn’t satisfy visa requirements because of how my taxes get filed) job. Yay me! XD 

Called and got through to a tier I rep, told them I didn’t have my WAC# (which was true since I was still on campus and didn’t have any of my paperwork with me.) He was super sweet, really nice, said no problem, I’ll transfer you to tier II, they can help. An hour later I got a call back from a tier II rep, who got me my WAC, after giving me a heartattack cause she jumped right in with ‘what’s your last name?’ ... ‘i don’t have any files in the system with that last name’

OMG

But anyway. I was given the standard ‘you may have to wait a few more weeks, we don’t have any sort of timeline anymore, we’re still working on June 1 cases’ so i go ‘omgosh, i wonder how many cases you guys GOT for 6/1, since it says on the site that you were working on 6/1 back on 10/31/17’ and she just goes ‘...yeaaa....we really got a lot. Anyway, give it a couple weeks then try again, but you should be good in a couple weeks.’ 

I swear if i get an approval on my phone at work i’ma scare the hell outta patients XD I was trying to save some heart attacks, i swear!!! 

2 minutes ago, MarksMate said:

I hope you get your noa2 soon! You've been waiting for aaaaaaaages then there is a long wait at NVC too.

 

I am the kiwi spouse haha. I am always confused about who is the one on the forums. I still don't know who is the one in NZ and who is the account of @mysticdolphin95 haha. My American lurkes on my posts! He has way more patience for this process than I do.

Lol I just realized that rereading the last post 😂 I wonder if we ran across one another in the 😂l airport 😂

Pri has loads more patience then me, but this whole waiting and being apart thing is really dragging on her. She just asks for updates on how everyone in the forum's doing. I'm the one that likes to research everything online and she's the one that goes 'its the government... We'll see it when we see it, and there's no point in stressing over it till then...' I just hope we get moving on this stuff before the police records she got from the Japanese consulate for her exchange student thing need to be redone... 

I feel bad groaning about how long I've been waiting what with people like John add Rose, and the mat and April filers, but there's times where the rugby player I sat next to on my flight back up to Auckland seemed to have the right idea... Why did I get on that plane? Why didn't I stay? Logically? Cause kiwilandia doesn't have any need for my skills so I can't get a work visa lol. But when she had a bad allergic reaction last night to surprise mushrooms in her food and had to get herself home, and I could do was sit on Instagram and wait for her to message me that she was home safe... That was one of those 'wish I'd just stayed' moments! 

I've got my fingers crossed for you to get through to the next step in the process soon! Bring ALL THE KIWIS TO ILLINOIS! 😂

Just now, MarksMate said:

My fiance was here in NZ last March too! And where is the lamb in the supermarket?!? We are gonna miss the lamb!!! I found a farm close to Chicago that you can purchase lamb but you gotta buy the whole lamb and we only 2 people so if Pri wants to share a lamb let us know!! 

 

Also side question for those who might know... is USCIS and NVC closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr day? 

I just told her we might be able to still have lamb and she just made the most adorable excited noises 😂😂😂 I think we're probably gonna have to split a lamb to keep our kiwi spouses properly fed, yea? 😋

MLK Jr day is a federal holiday, so I'm going to guess they're closed, yea. 😩 this is the first year I've NOT enjoyed close holidays, but can we just get into the holiday drought already? 😋

14 minutes ago, Lotts said:

Wooooo, yeah!!!! 200 days. Yeaaaaaah!!!

What do I win? 😬😎

Hopefully it's an noa2! 😂 I joined the 200+ club on Friday 😥 reading all these 'noa2 showed up in my mailbox today, no updates elsewhere' stories and am cursing the post office for not delivering tomorrow! What if I've got an noa2?! Don't they understand my neeeeeed?! (They're like calm yourself child, all you ever get is junk mail!) 😂

17 minutes ago, daleguthery said:

Where in Central Illinois are you from?

If you draw a triangle between Champaign, Decatur, and mattoon, I'm roughly in the center of the wonky triangle of nothingness that creates 😂 I'm out in the fields, but the nearest actual town is a little bitty one called Lovington

13 hours ago, MarksMate said:

Your attitude to this journey is admirable. I really hope you guys get your NOA2 very very soon, you deserve it. All the couples do. You are only about an hour and a half drive away so hi neighbor! Illinois is a huge adjustment for me coming from New Zealand, there are SO many cornfields and soy beans

Haha omg you guys are like an hour and a half north of me! I'm sure Pri will be glad to know she's not the only kiwi adjusting to all the flatness of central Illinois! 😂 after visiting her last March for a whole month, I totally understood her concern about what's holding the sky up here! 😋 so many corn fields, so few sheep! 

1 hour ago, mysticdolphin95 said:

Got our case number this morning!  I'm on the west coast at the moment, so called from bed around 5am PST - had to scramble for a pen and paper when they asked me for the beneficiary's name (gave them the wrong birthday too, in my sleepy state...)  They must have received and assigned the number yesterday, as they didn't have the file in the system when I called yesterday morning.  48 days from NOA2 notice date to NVC, so at least it seems that they're staying consistently slow from October/November/December and not slowing down further.

 

Wow, can't believe I'm saying this - time for my fiancé to schedule his medical and do the DS-160!  I sent the I-134 back in November in my naiveté, so I think I'll redo it as it'll be pretty out of date by the interview.  I think we're the first Kiwi case to make it through, so I can let all the other Auckland people know how things go  @MarksMate @Kat&Joel (others I'm missing?)

 

Another kiwi couple here! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that Auckland remains a relatively smooth cake walk after this long as wait for you! Today I join the 200+ day club, but I'm hoping yesterday's activity continues going forward and we all start getting more good news! 

11 minutes ago, John & Rose said:

My new family should have experienced their first white Christmas last year.  As an early June filer it never even once crossed my mind that my expected POE in November of 2017 will actually be a POE in June or July of 2018.

Same here, I had fully hoped to have my first Christmas with my wife last year, and this slow down never even crossed my mind as a possibility. Not to this degree. But we both agree that on the positive side she gets to skip over the hellish cold this year lol. Illinois this year is very much of the 'kill the weak' mindset, the whole dang country is! So at least they don't get a 'baptism by ice storm' to their lives here? I've got a good feeling about this week for you! 🤞🤞🤞

1 hour ago, mysticdolphin95 said:

We'll be getting legally married in the U.S., of course, but we're going to have a ceremony with people invited next year.

We're going to be doing the same thing! 😋 its way too cost prohibitive for her family to all swing last minute tickets to the US for the wedding when we have a limited amount of time to plan things once we've finally got the visa, so it's a marriage here and then ceremony there XD we'll be getting married in Dunedin, how bout you? 

5 minutes ago, mysticdolphin95 said:

Hmm, NZ most definitely does stamp passports.  Wonder how yours got through...?  Your boarding passes should be fine, though.

That's so weird. I definitely wasn't stamped even though they took my passport as inspected it when I was going through passport control. My poor empty passport can't prove I was ever there! 😂

2 hours ago, Lisa & Jorge said:

Ill share in another fresh post - Day 210 for me (June 6 filer) .  I have had no notifications what-so-ever until informed delivery today told me i was receiving something from USCIS,  which was an RFE for providing more info that I have met him within the last 2 years - I went to see him in end of May 2017 which was the only time, and filed right after. However i think i forgot to photo copy the passport page with the stamp and only sent one set of airline tickets and minimal photos ( that werent dated) so im sending more photos, both sets of tickets, and the obv copy of passport and drafting another letter stating i was there. this is EASY PEASY  -- ill send everything back tomorrow afternoon overnight and we shall go from there.... thanks for all your support and know that theres a good change early juners are getting notifications without updates.  

GOD BLESS 

That actually makes me a little nervous lol. My very first trip beyond the states was to visit my fiance last year in NZ, and I honestly only realized even I was copying my passport that NZ didn't/doesn't stamp passports anymore? I sent my boarding passes for both flights, the one there and the one back, I hope that's enough! :: crosses fingers:: c'mon 2018, let's be a good year that doesn't hurt my brain so much! 

Glad to see your rfe was an easy one to handle, here's hoping it's a quick dash from here to the next horribly long line for you now! 😃