Bill y Bella

My fiance, Margarita, has a brother that lives in the US. He came here on a tourist visa 9 years ago,and he never left. He lives in Pensylvania,and I livein Wisconsin. Will this be a problem for us? Question 37 on the DS156 asks if she has family here, and what is there status. The answer will be working. We are too scared to lie about it. Any insite is appreciated. thanks

john

And that is why it is so difficult for Colombianos to get tourist visas. In any case, lying can get her banned for life so she never wants to do that.

I think this might be one of the few times a lawyer could be helpful. They ask that question for a reason. I think you need to be prepared in case they do not accept the "working" answer and ask you his status during the interview. At that point you will absolutely need to answer honestly and then they might become very suspicious. I really think you need to do your research on this prior to the interview. If her brother's status is going to cause her problems you need to find out now so that you can be prepared.

Hi Everyone, I am silent reader from last year. I have a question for those of you who have brought the children over with the parent on the visa. What was requested from you at the embassy?

Did they need the baptismal certificate? What about the DAS? We have a letter from the Colombian Embassy that we will have authorized in Bogota so the kids can leave. Any help would be great. The boys are 16 and 11.

I have not been through the process yet but maybe I can help. I have studied this a lot.

The children need:

1. DS-156 (2 copies)
2. DS-230 Part I
3. 6 photos
4. Passport
5. Orignal or notarized copy of the birth certificate. Make sure that the notary's color stamps are on the copy.
6. Original or authenticated copy of the baptism certificate with notas marginales (We obtained new ones from the church.)
7. Judicial and prison records if they were ever arrested.
8. If they are 18 or older a Colombian Judicial Police Report (Does not apply)
9. If they are 16 or older and lived 6 months or more since attaining the age of 16 in another country (other than the US or Venezuela) they must have a police certificate from that country. The 6 months is cumulative. If they lived somewhere else for 4 months and then lived there again for 2 months they must obtain the police certificate. (Might apply to the 16 year old.)
10. DAS Migratorio Certificate (maybe). I think if the oldest boy is 16 1/2 months old or older I would obtain one for him. This is the document they use to determine if a police certificate from another country is required. You do not need one for the younger child.
11. Medical exam and lab tests
12. Paid visa fee
13. The 16 year old must attend the interview. The younger one does not need to attend but he can.

In addition, if there is a father on the birth certificates you must have a notarized letter from the father stating that he grants the child (children) permission to leave the country. This is enforced by DAS at the airport. The letter cannot be more than 60 days old on the day they leave the country. If the father is dead you will need a death certificate. If the father cannot be found, you will need proof of abandonment. I think that comes from ICBF. Maybe the letter from the Colombian embassy covers all of this. What does it say? Remember that the US embassy has nothing to do with this. You will want to make sure in advance that the documents will be accepted by DAS at the airport.

I hope this helps.

Thanks everybody.. Feel a little better.. Was in a state of complete shock.. Guess, its back to the waiting game. Praying for everybody for a speedy union with our loved ones...

But did you call DOS?

Congrats to Atlanticat on the NOA2! Bout time! We got a touch today too

Ah. finally a real touch. I would keep a close eye on things now if I were you.

We will live in Bogota, and are you sure i will need fathers permission of my son even when he is not in his life? the real father is from the states. I am also from the states and my fiancee from bogota, colombia.. We wont be living there forever, just visiting for a couple months, 3-4 months, while waiting for visa. Would i still need a letter from the father when he doesnt even have anything to do with him????

As stated previously, this only applies if the child has a Colombian passport. With a father and mother from the US I assume the child has a US passport so the father's permission is not required to leave Colombia.

If you are planning on staying 4 months, you will be staying longer than the time normally allowed visitors to Colombia without a visa. I know some people who want to stay longer go to Venezuela or Panama before their time expires and then reset the clock when they return to Colombia.

Bill where are you in the process?????????

We are marking time until our interview on Feb 29th.

I am glad to hear things are going well for you. The forums have been a little quiet since Leidy arrived.

Hello, i live in the states and my fiance and i are waiting for our k-1 visa. Is it ok to live in colombia for a couple months while we are waiting for the visa? Also, i have one child that would come live with us and there is no problem getting the fathers consent. We will only stay a couple months. How could i find more info. and facts on how to do this? Thank You

Where does your fiance live now? Who is the petitioner?

Assuming you and the child have US passports there should be no problem entering or leaving Colombia. Just make sure your stated purpose is tourism as you go through Colombian Immigration and make sure they grant a 60 or 90 day stay. You should not have any problems unless you state that you are entering Colombia "to live".

If the child has a Colombian passport, getting the child back out of the Colombia can be a little difficult but doable. You must have a notarized letter granting permission from any parent not accompanying the child and the letter cannot be more than 60 days old.

The fact that you live together for a few months will only make your petition stronger since it provides great evidence of a valid relationship.

...We just found out y'day that our case has been put under admin review. This has become a joke!!

Has anyone been under admin review and the case got done in a few days / weeks..

Parul [/color][/b]

As was previously stated, Weedebz was told the same thing and her processing was not delayed at all. NVC sometimes describes their normal review process as "administrative review" so it could be that your case will be sent to the embassy very soon.

At this point I suggest that you contact DOS at 202-663-1225 opt 1, opt 0. They will be able to give you your new case number, tell you when the package leaves NVC, when the embassy enters it into their system, when package 3 is sent (if applicable), and the date of your appointment (after the embassy sets it).

Good luck.

Steve, it is a K2 for the girl. Thanks for responding. I will have Margarita fax a ds230 for each of them.

It will probably not hurt anything to do so, but as I stated yesterday it is not necessary to send the DS-230 for children accompanying the beneficiary when requesting an interview appointment. The embassy becomes aware that there will be accompanying children from line 21a of the beneficiary's DS-230. I did not send a DS-230 for the children and DOS confirms that the embassy has noted that they will also be applying for visas.

HOLA!!

I'm home in PA!! I arrived to NYC/JFK on Sunday at 5 am, POE was easy I was out with my luggage by 5:30 waiting for my fiance. They didn't ask any question and I got EAD stamp! I'm very happy to be here!

Saludos,

Marcela

Welcome to the USA!

Steve, thanks for the tip. I understand how to fax packet 3 to the embassy, but I don't know if I should fax ONLY Margarita's DS230, or her daughter's also. The woman on the phone told me that I only need to send Margarita's ds230, but she also told me that Daniela (the 8 year old daughter) needs to attend the interview. I read on the embassy site that a child under 14 years of age that is listed under his/her parent on the same petition is not required to attend the interview. I don't trust what the woman on the phone told me.

As far as I know, you should send Part 1 of only the beneficiary's DS-230 when you tell the embassy that you are ready for the interview. It is not necessary to send the DS-230 for the child when requesting an interview. You notify the embassy that you are seeking a visa for the child on line 21a on the beneficiary's DS-230. You will however, need to prepare a DS-230 Part 1 & DS-156 (2 copies) for the child to be used later.

As to the requirement for the child to attend the interview, I do not think it is necessary for children under 14 years of age to attend the interview unless the petition was filed directly on their behalf. An example of this would be if a US citizen petitioned for their child living in Colombia. If the child is accompanying a beneficiary to the US, the child does not need to attend the interview unless they are at least 14 years old. It says this in the package 4 dated Jan 07 that I have in my file. Perhaps someone who has received a package 4 recently can confirm that this has not changed.

If you want to double check, you can also try emailing them the question also. Sometimes they answer and sometimes they don't. IVBogota@state.gov

Ok, I agree with the logic you all gave - it makes perfect sense that the sent date is probably the most accurate measure.

I also took the suggestion to use the "last seen" time for inactive profiles. If the I-129F sent date is at least 90 days ago, and it has been at least 60 days since they logged in, I now consider this profile inactive. These code changes were pretty small to make, but I could easily have messed something up in a new and exciting way... so reader beware. Also, not all timelines have associated profiles, and some profiles mark their "last seen" time as private, so there are some that can't be evaluated this way.

So here is the list with these alterations.

Can you tell I miss my girl?

Wow. That is a great job with the stats and open petitions report. Thanks!

I was struck by how many of the members with open May and June petitions are still active. I had asumed that most of those timelines had been abandoned. It is just incredible that people who filed then are still waiting while October petitions are being approved.

Bill, Not sure where you are traveling from, yet here is the way I just did it and it was fairly inexpensive. I booked round trip flight to be in Bogota 5 days before the interview (help Sandy prepare, medical, etc.) and scheduled my return flight one week after the interview. Then I also booked one way tickets for Sandy and her daughter on the same flight I was returning to USA on.

My ticket was JFK to Bogota / Bogota to FLL $ 645.00 (all taxes included)

Sandy's Bogota to FLL $ 343.00 (all taxes included)

Her Daughter Vania (under 2 years) of age $117.00

I checked in case I would need to change my reservation (Avianca) Change fee $ 100.00 + differance in airfare from time of purchase for my round trip ticket, and $ 35.00 for Sandy's ticket.

Thanks Steve, that is very helpful! I usually fly from Philadelphia through Miami or Ft Lauderdale via Delta, US Air/Avianca or American. American is my preferred carrier although there are certain times of year when their fares go through the roof. I have most of my frequent flyer miles with them.

My first, middle AND last names are ALL common but are they checking me (USC)? Or are they checking him? Why would the FBI check the foreign fiance? And then why does the embassy do that later too? I just don't get it. I was assuming the name check now was on me the petitioner and the embassy checks the fiance since they're based in their country. ?

NVC checks the beneficiary. The service center checks the petitioner. The embassy rechecks to make sure the person showing up is who the IDs belong to.

NVC is checking the beneficiary to make sure they are not a terrorist, wanted criminal, fugitive from another country etc. If the beneficiary name is common then it takes a while.

generally i see it taking the longest with middle eastern countries since its more often to see people with the same name and more scrutiny for background checks. Most of the ones on VJ who are in NVC for 6 months to a year in extended review have a beneficiary in the middle east. Dont know why you are still waiting there.

Chris

I may be confused but I think CBR is saying her petition is still at CSC. If it is, one does have to wonder why she warrants an extended review.

...although I get a proper laugh when I think about our first conversations about his moving here back in May/June of last year and I was wanting him to move by august, but he felt like he should wait until the end of sept. to save up some more money before he moved!!!! THEN we filed the visa.......we had no idea what it would take and the memories of those first little naive conversations always makes me laugh!

Cheers,

Sara

When I proposed to Bella exactly one year ago today I told her the entire process would take 3 months. I know it sounds crazy now but that is how long it was taking for Colombia filers going through VSC back then. Luckily she does not beat me up too often about my slight miscalculation.

The good news is we learned today that our interview is Feburary 29th. Suddenly it is dawning on me that if all goes well in a month or so I am going from a family of 1 to a family of 4. I am looking forward to it but Yikes!

Well we finally have an interview appointment. The embassy told me at 4:00 on Jan 23rd that there was no way we would have a February appointment, and we are not on the February appintment list that was recently posted on the embassy website. However, DOS tells me this morning that our appointment is February 29th and Package 4 was mailed on Jan 23rd. I called DOS twice and I received the same information each time. Maybe the embassy had a change of heart after I hung up the phone.

Does anyone have any tips regarding strategy on booking flights? I'll do some research of course but I thought maybe someone might have some ideas I should consider.

• What options do I have if I book the flights and then we are not approved on the 29th? Can the flights be changed? What is the fee?
• I don't have enough frequent flyer miles to buy 3 tickets. Can I use the miles I have and pay the balance with a credit card?
• Unless the fares are very high at the end of March (Easter week) that is when Bella and the kids will probably travel to the US.
• I will go down for the interview at the end of February and then return to accompany them home at the end of March. That means an extra ticket but I can't spare the time to go for the interview and then wait around for the visa unless I book the flights very close to the interview. That means if there is a snag in the visa delivery we have a problem.

Thanks!

I looked at the stats again and you are right about June....it only change a few to go by received date but on July

when I pulled up sent dates versus NOA1 dates it made a big difference...infact I show 24 that are waiting that sent there

application in July....it was like someone else said, there was such a huge influx of applications that some NOA1's were very late

in being sent out...but VSC does not go by that....but by the date they received the applications which should make some

July filers feel better!!!!!!!!

Also everyone checking stats should remember to bracket the period they want to investigate. VJ excludes the beginning and ending search dates from the results. I always start a monthly search with the last day of the previous month and the 1st day of the month that follows. July's search dates should be June 30th to August 1st. If you search from the July 1 to July 31st you will lose 2 days of results.

Do we have any confirmation on what date VSC actually uses? It would seem to me that they use the date on the NOA1 document. When I log on to the USCIS site, that's the date that is listed. Is this not true? For example, I mailed on 10/31, they received on 11/1, and my NOA1 is dated 11/2. (And I received it on I think 11/8 in the mail.) The date in my portfolio on the USCIS site is 11/2... the date on my NOA1 document.

A couple of things to consider:

1. USCIS uses the received date to determine the "age" of a petition.
2. The received date is almost always a few days after the sent date. The only exception would be when delivery of the package to VSC took longer than a few days. This does not happen very often.
3. The NOA1 date on the other hand can sometimes be delayed by weeks or even months without explanation. This seems to be more common than delivery of the package being delayed.
4. VJ uses the sent date when calculating the projected date of adjudication.
5. Members are entering their NOA1 dates on an inconsistent basis.
6. The one date members remember and relate to is the date they put the petition in the mail or gave it to the delivery service. Psychologically, I think most of us began waiting for our approvals on the day we sent the package.
7. I would wager that the accuracy of the sent date on the VJ timelines is extremely high and probably the most accurate of all the dates on the VJ timelines other than the interview date.

Because of all of the above, I think the sent date is the best date to use in your report.

By the way, great job on the open petition report! I think everyone enjoys seeing themselves climb up the list and also appreciates knowing if there are others who filed at the same time still waiting. Good work!

PS: If I might make a suggestion, maybe you could add a last seen field for the older months and automatically delete those who have not been seen for a long time. That will allow everyone to evaluate for themselves the viability of the oldest open petitions.

!!!!Heads up on traveling with Fiance's with children thru Bogota Airport!!!!

Not sure if any others have had this problem: We nearly did not get through the DOS checkpoint at El Dorado Airport with Sandy's daughter! Reason being much to my surprise and Attorney never advising us, the document signed and notorized by the father to remove the child from Colombia, was done in October and apparently only good for 60 days! When I saw Sandy start to cry, I knew something bad was going down. They told me to go through and sent her off with some DOS woman who tryed to contact the father's cell phone, to see if he was still okay with her leaving, do you believe that? They where unable to contact him (cell phone off) and eventually allowed her through, this was the only problem we encountered and almost a major one!

As for Ft. Lauderdale as POE. This was a breeze, maybe it was timing, not sure. We entered the imagration line for the USA citizens, and the officer was fine with that. After quickly reviewing Sandy and her daughters documents, off to the interview room we went. There where several people waiting to be cleared, we where second one's called! Sandy was asked one question: When will you and Steve be getting married? Easy and promptly she replied "St. Valentines Day" February 14th. Thank you very much, from the time we deboarded till clearing imagrations, 35 minutes.

I am glad to hear that things went quickly for you in Ft. Lauderdale, I guess I had bad luck the 2 times I landed there.

That must have been horrible feeling in the Bogota airport, but its all over now. DAS can be extremely strict so I am a little surprised they let the children leave with an expired permission letter from the father. Congratulations!

Current Status: Approval notice sent.

Congratulations!

Should i just breathe and try to wait it out till Monday?

Yes, I recommend breathing. The alternative can cause undesired ramifications.

A couple of thoughts:

1. If you call, you will obtain 3 possible outcomes; no information, misinformation or accurate information. If it is either of the two latter outcomes you won't know which of the two you received so it will be useless. On the other hand, if they give you no information the call will also be useless. So the 3 possible results are all useless. Therefore, I conclude that it will be uh, what is the word I am looking for... oh yeah, USELESS to call.
2. If things proceed normally, you should see an update soon in your USCIS website online status that says that processing has resumed. Once that occurs you can call VSC customer service and they will look at the same information you can see online and read it to you. This is the ONLY service that customer service provides. They provide this very valuable service for people who cannot read it for themselves because they are illiterate or visually impaired or don't have computers.
3. If there are no additional complications you might see a decision within a couple of weeks. It is also possible that you will not see a decision for a long time. The only way to know which of the two scenarios applies to you is to wait and see what happens. There is absolutely no way that VSC customer service is going to tell you in advance because they do not know.
4. In the time it took you to post this question you could have called VSC. Wouldn't it have been better to have just called and conserved the valuable space in the forum for members with big huge billboard sized photos of themselves in their signatures so that we can all see them over and over and over again?

Sorry for the sarcastic tone. I know what you are going through. Try to relax and be patient. The chances are good that you will have a decision soon. Good luck!

Congratulations Scott & Yenifer!

I thought for sure we would hear about our interview appointment by today. It has been 3 1/2 weeks since we faxed in our response to package 3. So I waited on hold with DOS for 1 1/2 hours this morning until it finally dawned on me that they are not open today. It would have been nice if they told me that instead of telling me that my expected wait time was 15 minutes and please continue holding.

Still no appointment. I called DOS this morning and the automated system said "all reps are busy, hang up." That is not out of the ordinary so I just tried again and now they say they are closed. Why?

I am sure I will have better luck this afternoon when I call the embassy.

I called the embassy over and over again this afternoon. Finally got through at 3:58. That is the good news. The bad news is that their records show that they received the DS-230 on December 28 but never received the OF-169 until January 15th. Which is strange because I sent both documents via fax and courier on December 27th from Bogota and Servientrega shows that the package was delivered on December 28th. I have not sent any documents since then.

In any case, they say February is completely booked and we are on the "list" for March. Looks like we lost at least a month because someone made an error at the embassy.

I appreciate the good luck Steve!!! Scott and Byron too!!!

My Good Luck does not count? Perhaps it was disqualified for being offered a little late. In any case, congratulations! Now you can relax for a while and enjoy your new life.

I cut it a bit too close, mainly for failing to consider that this past Monday was Martin Luther King holiday and the Embassy was closed. We where approved last Friday, yet Domesa just recieved our package today at 1:00pm! They will deliver it tomorrow and we will make our flight on Friday! Thank you my God! POE Fort Lauderdale Florida![/size]

If your experience at Ft. Lauderale is anything like mine be prepared for a very long wait before you get to the head of the immigration line. Also, make sure you use the bathroom before you leave the plane because there are no bathrooms between the plane and the immigration waiting room. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to get to that point.

After doing it twice I swore I would never go through immigration at Ft. lauderdale again. Hopefully you will have better luck.

I thought for sure we would hear about our interview appointment by today. It has been 3 1/2 weeks since we faxed in our response to package 3. So I waited on hold with DOS for 1 1/2 hours this morning until it finally dawned on me that they are not open today. It would have been nice if they told me that instead of telling me that my expected wait time was 15 minutes and please continue holding.

Still no appointment. I called DOS this morning and the automated system said "all reps are busy, hang up." That is not out of the ordinary so I just tried again and now they say they are closed. Why?

I am sure I will have better luck this afternoon when I call the embassy.