alannah_rose

5 hours ago, stephanie918 said:

how did you go with it? i'm in the same boat...waiting for an interview, hoping what I submitted was enough

we included a letter that basically told them we are making every effort to reestablish domicile in the USA. There is actually part of the law regarding domicile that says they will accept you if you can prove you are trying to re-establish domicile. So we included quotes for shipping our things over, pet transport company quotes for our dog, etc.

We also managed to open an account with Capital One online, I think we used a VPN to do that. We also were required to have a joint sponsor, even though my husband earned more than the cut off, but because he wouldn't have a job when we arrive back in the US, they told us we needed one. 

An update for everyone on what I ended up doing:

I contacted the Australian Consulate and they said I can carry my renewed passport with my old passport (with the visa in it) and show both of them.

I have 5 weeks till I leave Australia so decided to risk it and hope that it would be processed in time. I submitted my renewal last week (and paid the $293 for it) and got notification yesterday that it has been processed and is on my way to me! So in a week they had completed it!

I could’ve travelled on my passport, as Australia is one of the countries the US exempts from the 6 month rule, but after looking into the process of renewing my passport overseas, it was easier and cheaper to just do it now.

Should have my new passport next week!!

21 minutes ago, stephanie918 said:

hi, so it's true that you can't get them downloaded from australia?  I am trying right now and having trouble.  sounds like i'll have to send in a form via mail.  did you try over the phone?

Yep this is what we had to do. We were unable to download it online because of the Australian address, it wouldn't accept it. We requested via mail but then got a response saying we had the wrong address on it. So we ended up calling and trying to find out what was going on. They realized there was a mistake in them sending that to us, so they then requested it again and we got it a few weeks later.

We tried requesting them to be emailed to us or faxed to us but they had just put in place a new rule that said they couldn't fax them anymore. So your only option is via mail.

17 minutes ago, Duke & Marie said:

I doubt Qantas would care too much given it’s an immigration visa attached to it... but might be worth renewing your passport before you leave as there aren’t too many Aussie consulates in the US for you to collect a renewed passport from once you live there... I’d check that the Ir visa carries over to new passport before doing so tho

Thats what I'm hoping Qantas will say. It does say that the US usually accepts people travelling on less than 6 months validity but I just want to make sure 100% before I go to the airport and risk it!!

Thanks for your advice!

Hey everyone, i'm panicking a little bit here right now. 

I've just realized that my passport expires in April 2020. Most airlines won't let you travel if your passport has less than 6 months validity.. I will have 5 months when I leave on 15 October! Obviously, we didn't think the whole process would take this long, otherwise I would've renewed it ages ago!

I've already had my interview at the consulate so I've got my Visa in my current passport already, but I may need to get a new one, if Qantas won't let me travel - i'm waiting on a call back from them about it.

Has anyone got any idea what to do? I've emailed the Sydney Consulate but they will take a few days or week to get back to me.. I'm starting to panic!!

Help!!

For those wanting to know the prices in Victoria, I just went to Toorak Village Medical Centre yesterday for my medical. It cost me a total of $655 which included a tetanus shot. You had to pay a $75 deposit when you book also. 

On 7/26/2019 at 4:18 PM, Derek & Cece said:

She's originally from Vietnam and doesn't have any records. She had a consultation and they referred her for some tests but they wanted $500 just to see what vaccines she had, not counting the cost of actually giving her the vaccines! At this point I'm not sure if it's less expensive to just get it all done during her medical exam since I know they'll be doing blood tests anyway and I hope they won't price gouge her but honestly I have no idea at this point. Sucks that medicare won't help pay for any of the costs.

Not sure if you know this but you can get your GP to do Serology to test immunity to certain vaccines. We got ours done for free and that made it a lot easier when it came to the medical. You can just ask and see what they say. I know some charge, so maybe shop around. At the medical, they do a blood test to test your immunity too but if she is found to be missing any, they will administer them there and charge for it. Its a lot cheaper to get it done ahead of time than get it done at the medical. 

Must be doing a blitz of Interview dates because I got mine overnight too!!

CC 26 June.

Interview Date 16 August

Sydney Consulate. 

4 hours ago, K-Kwette said:

I'll be traveling abroad on the 13th so I need my passport and I'm afraid that it will be too tight to get the passport back in time. (I'm sure it will be fast but I don't want to risk it). I will try to rebook it for early september. My husbant won't be at the interview. 

I had something similar happen, at least I thought it might happen. I'm going overseas tomorrow, so New Zealand so I was stressed out about them taking my passport if I had my interview close to this time. I contacted the Sydney Consulate and they said that if it came down to it i could just take my passport home with me and then send it back to the consulate once i got home. Thankfully, my interview wasn't scheduled (but has been for after my holiday). Perhaps you can do the same?

1 hour ago, md83994 said:

I had CC on July 18th, and just got the IL for an interview on Aug 13th!

Oh same!! I got CC on 26 June and just got the IL overnight, interview is 16 August! Happy days!! They must be taking a lot longer to schedule them now. My FIL and SIL both had their interview dates within two weeks of their CC, back in May.

16 hours ago, K-Kwette said:

Good to know that we are not alone in this situation! Do you have an interview date yet?

We are going to gather paperwork from a joint sponsor for the interview as well, as you say, better safe than sorry, I don't want to delay the process anymore (especially at this point, it must be very frustrating to be sent back to the NVC stage…)

No interview date yet. Been almost a month now, so just trying to be patient!

On 7/12/2019 at 6:53 PM, K-Kwette said:

Thank you for the explanations! It's all clear in my head now

We also got the same message you did, before we had our DQ email. Our situation was similar in a way, my husband is living in Australia with me currently and so hasn't submitted a tax return for 2018 yet as the Aust tax year runs differently to the USA. He also didn't earn anything in 2014-2016 due to studying, so they sent the same message that you had. We have gotten the joint sponsor paperwork ready to take to the interview, just in case they do ask for it. Haven't uploaded it to CEAC, but will take it with us. Better safe than sorry I think!

19 hours ago, hannahj_11 said:

Which interview are you talking about?

CR-1 Visa interview at the Sydney Consulate.

3 hours ago, Sukie said:

If you are talking about CR-1 in Sydney, it took us about 4 weeks to get the interview date after CC. The interview was scheduled six weeks from the notice of interview.  CC was the end of April, Interview notice was at the end of May, and interview was July 15th.

 

Sukie in NY

Thanks - just trying to get an idea of time frame for the interview..

Hi Everyone, thought I'd start a thread so we can keep updated on the timing of interview scheduling. A lot don't seem to update their timeline so i thought starting a thread here would be better.

We got CC on 26 June. Still waiting for an interview date. Anyone know how long it is approximately taking nowadays?

My family had theirs within two weeks after CC.

Finally got CC for our case on 26 June. Now to wait for our interview date, hoping for August!

Quick question. We got Case Complete roughly two weeks ago now. At their interview, my SIL and FIL both got asked for extra documents, and they had to upload them on CEAC and wait for NVC to review them. Its been about 3 and a half weeks and SIL still hasn't been issued her visa. One of the messages we got said we may need a joint sponsor, but thats up to the consulate to decide. If we do get asked at the interview, I assume the process is we have to upload it to NVC and then wait for them to review, so that adds more time on.. 

Should I upload the Joint Sponsor documents now? We haven't been given an interview date yet, but I want to know if i do upload the documents, will this take us out of the line for interviews? I could wait until we have an interview date and then upload it i guess but would that add any time onto our processing? 

49 minutes ago, HannahSF said:

Hey I'm June 3rd CC for Auckland consulate. I emailed them and they said "we have already been allocated our July appointment schedule from the NVC". This might be the case for Sydney too so hopefully August! I'm so ready to move  

Okay cool, I'm hoping i'll get my interview date in two weeks - thats the time my FIL and SIL had to wait for theirs. 

I am so ready to move too, so sick of Australia haha.

Finally got CC today, 26-06-19.  Now just waiting for an interview date at the Sydney Consulate!! Anyone have any clue where they are up to with Interviews? Hopefully next month, but I think it'll be August..

Sigh, still waiting patiently (or trying to) for our final document to be accepted. Its been a month since I uploaded it to NVC. Hopefully soon we get CC and then have our interview scheduled.

Has anyone from Australia had their interview scheduled recently? I just want to get an idea of roughly when ours could be (July or August).

Happy new month of interviews!!

My request for our case to be expedited got denied. Its as if they didn't even read or look at the evidence and letter i sent them. They said that they cannot approve my request to be fair to others who have petitions. I don't get it... We were told the wrong information by their representative that resulted in a months delay and now we are going to be another month behind because of this. Very frustrating but oh well. Just have to try and be patient.

Also, does anyone know how long it normally takes to get your passport back after the interview? I have travel booked from Australia to New Zealand at the end of July and am nervous I won't have my passport, if I get an interview scheduled for July.. I've emailed the consulate to see what happens in situations like this, but haven't heard back yet....

Well I finally have my answer as to why we hadn't received and interview date and the rest of the family had. 

Basically, back at the end of March we were asked to provide a Joint Sponsor, more Proof of Domicile and Proof of Employment. We were in the process of gathering and uploading all of these documents when all our documents got approved (on 20 April). I was confused as to what this meant, so I called up NVC and spoke to them and confirmed that this meant we did NOT need to upload anything further, and that all we needed to do was sit back and wait for an interview to be scheduled. I confirmed this multiple times with them on the phone. So we were waiting, trying to be patient when two other family members got their interviews scheduled, my Father in Law only a week after getting CC. I had emailed them after this and was querying why our interview date hadn't been scheduled yet, after waiting a month (yet to receive a response to that email too).

Now, overnight we got a status update email. They asked for Proof of Employment again. I know there have been glitches with other cases so I called them again (over an hour on hold). Asked whether it was a glitch and whether we would still be on track for an interview. She said Oh no, we are waiting for the extra documents we asked for, including proof of employment and a joint sponsor (i had uploaded the proof of domicile already). I asked her then why I was told that all my documents had been accepted and I would be getting the interview scheduled. She said Oh I have no idea, but said thats the wrong information. 

So yep, we've been waiting over a month and a half for something that was never going to happen, because we were told the wrong information and we should have been told to still upload the documents. So now we are delayed by another month - she said it will take at least 3 weeks to review the documents and then who knows how long to schedule the interview. When our family is more than a month ahead in the process than us. Very upset and frustrated at NVC right now, it means that we won't be able to leave with our family.

PS sorry its so long, you kinda need the back story to understand it all...

1 hour ago, nicedamsel said:

My dear are you in the  same embassy with your father-in-law if yes, knows so many embassies are having problem assigning interview dates for CR1 and IR1 and i dont know why. I'm still waiting, Lagos embassy didn't interview any CR1 or IR1 now in May, and no interview date for June yet. I'm tired of them.

Yep same embassy and same visa type. No clue why ours has taken so long.

Getting very frustrated now. My Father In Law got Case Complete on May 7th. On the 17th he received his interview date at the Sydney Consulate - 18 June. A week and a half later he got it! 

We got case complete on April 20. Its been a month and we still have nothing. Can't get onto NVC as everytime I call its the usual, we have too many calls message so you cannot get through. I emailed them two weeks ago and still nothing either.

Its looking like we will have to wait till July for an interview now.. Very annoying.