yoda one for me

As far as I understand, waiting 6 weeks is not unusual. Some people can wait a year or more, others it takes a month. Have you looked at the official USCIS processing times for your local office and the timelines on this site? You can get a feel for how your office is scheduling things by watching what other people have entered. Start here and filter as needed: https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/aoslist.php?cfl=&op5=5,6,8,9,10,11 

You also might want to double check that you're looking at the right local office. If you visit the USCIS website field offices page you can put your zipcode in and it'll tell you. I say this because you have Richmond as your location which appears to be served by the Norfolk VA office, not Washington DC. It's worth checking to make sure you aren't watching the wrong timelines and getting yourself worried unnecessarily! 

Looks like you only get the date/time of the interview from the letter or if you call up USCIS to ask specifically, they don't put it on your status (annoyingly). But you will get a status update when your interview has been scheduled, it won't sit on 'ready to schedule' forever but it will only change once they get to it. 

If you call up the field office they'll probably refer you to online status. They won't have you down for an interview date until you get one - so watch for a status change and then look out for the letter in the mail.

You'll receive a letter (apparently a week or two) after status flips to 'interview was scheduled', but now that you're ready for interview to be scheduled it's down to your local office to be able to fit you in with their workload. Some local offices are fast, others are slower.

38 minutes ago, HanVis said:

Thanks for the heads up! I'm in Lakeview East so it's only a 20 minute drive away - should certainly be worth it! 

 

I think I was reading about the REAL ID needing something along the line of the EAD/GC as proof of residency. I want the REAL ID so I'm not needing my passport for ID at airports. I'll be honest, I have only looked at the REAL ID requirements once, on a bus so could be wrong 😂. 

 

AFAIU, your permanent resident card is considered ID appropriate for flying with and as I understand you have to keep that on you all the time anyway  Source: https://www.tsa.gov/sites/default/files/resources/realid_factsheet.pdf

I used a removal company for my stuff as I had boxes and furniture, but if you've just got a few suitcases I'd probably just pay for excess baggage.

Got an email this morning telling me that my fingerprints have been applied to my AP case. Same status (but different date) to my EAD case which switched to that the day after biometrics. Think I'm getting a card issued soon? 🤔

43 minutes ago, skjourney said:

no expedite, im as surprised it was this fast too as i mailed my package Dec 23rd, so quite late in the month.

Wow! That's fast! I think we have a similar set of dates so far, so fingers crossed 🤞

If you have a job offer in writing you could try expediting your EAD. I believe you have to call USCIS and tell them you want to expedite.

1 hour ago, Meg101 said:

Been having some difficulty and big delays changing my SSN to my new married name,  opening joint bank account with my husband etc. So at the moment we don’t have a lot of ‘evidence’ but I’m still absolutely buzzing for this positive news. 

Yeah, because I have no govt ID in my married name we've had to do everything in my maiden name with regards to joint accounts, health insurance, and suchlike. As long as you have a SSN you should be able to get things set up, even if the name isn't what you'd like to use right now. I'm under the impression that as soon as I get the EAD/AP combo card I should be able to get my name changed with the SSA and get my name changed everywhere else too. Lots of fun

Incidentally, here's a timeline update for myself (I'm watching this thread and the Dec filers because we kind of crossed a month in our application)

Filed: Dec 20 2019

NOA: Jan 2 2020

Biometrics: Jan 30 2020

Status updated to ready to schedule interview: Feb 28 2020

Here's hoping my EAD/AP cases tick over soon like a lot of people have been seeing. 🤞

Huh, everyone at my Biometrics was told to remove all earrings too. I had some fun trying to get the ball off one of my piercings but got there in the end. Would have been useful to know beforehand as it was an interesting couple of minutes trying to unscrew the tiny thing!

I knew I'd had some injections at school but we moved so much that somewhere the documents disappeared. I just got everything that wasn't in my GP record at the surgery. I hadn't had MMR according to their records, but I know I did, and they were able to give me two doses at no charge.

For Tdap it did take a bit of persuasion, I had to print out a lot of documents that proved to them that I needed it. They initially tried to tell me USA has no travel vaccination requirements (which, sure, but this isn't for a holiday...) and then tried to send me to a travel clinic. The squeaky wheel gets the grease tho. I was able to get them all that day but I had to pay for the Tdap as they could only do it privately. They told me that one is only routinely given to pregnant women, hence they didn't want to give me it at first. Really had to play up the "if you don't give me this injection I won't be able to get the visa and proceed with my wedding" as I was doing K-1 and then the nurse prac was very keen to help me out.

Oh! That's great! Mine actually arrived around Thanksgiving so it was waiting for me when we got home from visiting family.

So, since we both applied in October, you've got a UK passport situation and I checked in with you guys last week, I thought I'd give an update on what was going on with mine.

I called my local SSA office (the national toll-free line told me they couldn't check my case) on the 4 weeks since application mark, and got told they hadn't received any verification response despite the SAVE case check telling me it was returned to SSA. The lady I spoke to took my i-94 number and passport number again and said she'd resubmit by fax - she was kind of baffled that it came up wanting manual verification due to mismatch in the first place and confirmed that K1 is eligible for SSA with an unexpired i-94 and that I should check back in a week or two now rather than waiting much longer.

That same day I found a thread here suggesting I email my nearest CBP deferred inspection site (in my case it was Milwaukee) to get my name on the i-94 corrected. Turns out they have a dedicated email address for i-94 corrections so I submitted my passport & visa scans to have my name properly separated out instead of being FIRSTMIDDLE - which I thought was the problem causing me not being verified. I was able to get a corrected i-94 within a couple of working days, yay!

Today, 1 week later, I just called my local SSA again. Luckily I got the same agent I spoke to last week so she got straight into checking and said she confirmed it was verified so she was going to action issuing the card. She told me it would take 5-7 business days and to make sure that my name is on the mailbox to ensure delivery.

Hope you've had things go smoothly yourselves in the meantime, @Sarah n Ryan but if you haven't heard anything, do try find your local SSA office number and give them a call to check in on status. For me it was so much quicker than showing up and waiting to see someone at the kiosk.

Hey Sarah n Ryan, did you get a SSN? We just hit 4 weeks since I applied at the office and no sign of a card in the mail yet so it looks like I'm going to have to chase it up now.

Also to note: London Embassy told me to carry my chest x-ray CD with me just in case a CPB agent wanted to see it at POE, but advised this was extremely unlikely to happen. Might want to just have it in your hand luggage, since it's pretty small and light to carry.

From what I gather this is really common for UK passport holders because the machine reading system mushes our first and middle names together into one on the i-94, which causes weirdness that in all cases requires it to be sent for manual verification before they issue a SSN.

You can put your passport number & DOB into the SAVE case check website to get a feel for status, but again, I understand that one it says 'case returned to SSA Maryland' you're just waiting for the social security agency to produce the card and mail it. (Hopefully someone else will correct me if I'm under the wrong impression here but I've been scouring old threads to figure this out and this is what I've got to.)

I'm going to hit 2 weeks since applying later this week so I can't really suggest how accurate that is or what point one should start hassling them about it, tho.

I've got 24 medium-size boxes and a couple of pieces of small furniture coming via https://www.shipit.co.uk and they basically palletise your stuff and ship it over.

Cost me under 900 GBP but I'm looking at almost $400 in fees for it once it arrives in port (this is an extra fee and they do warn that port fees are not in their bill UKside). 

Still waiting arrival so I can't fully review but their UK-side service was very good. 

I was asked no questions, just told that it had to go for manual verification and I should have a card within 4 weeks. (Like many UK nationals, my first name and middle name were mushed together into one field on the i-94 and it looks like that might be why it needs to be manually verified.)

I actually got married 2 days after I arrived in the US and applied for my SSN about 5 days later. Was never asked if I was married or not yet (and I didn't volunteer that), but I was applying in my maiden name as per my passport, visa, and i-94 record anyway. 

I interviewed this past August in London. I took boarding passes and a few photos of our meetings since our K1 packet was submitted. None of this was asked for at interview. It was just a casual chat with no supporting evidence of relationship required.

London just wants the financial stuff & your ACRO and certified birth cert that they tell you to bring. Don't stress about bringing more than is necessary.

Just posting an update in case anyone else comes across this thread with the same question.

We did not pay for an agent to collect the dog and chose to pick him up ourselves. British Airways cargo were in touch two weeks before to get an "OK to forward" from us - basically checking we would pick him up on the day he arrived. They also provided the address of their warehouse unit and directions to it at O'Hare, and advised us that we should be there about an hour after his plane landed as there was some processing needed before the dog was moved to their warehouse.

We arrived a bit early and found the cargo office. I had to provide photo ID (my passport) and sign the paperwork and pay a $75 port handling fee. After that we just had to sit and wait. The office staff were friendly and advised there was a slight customs holdup with that plane's cargo but he'd be there soon. I think we waited about an hour total? We brought our truck around and they carried the crate out. Dog was calm but happy to see us :) There was plenty of grassy space by the parking lot to let him run around (on leash) and stretch his legs, then we drove home. 

Overall, nice and easy and I'm so glad we didn't spend the extra money on an agent to sign him out of the cargo area!

I was in the Embassy for about an hour. It was a 10am appointment (got there a bit early to get through security etc.) and I was out at about 11am as I didn't have long to wait between the document window and the interview window. I had a return train booked for about 4pm because I expected to be a few hours, so I had time for lunch and wander around the Carnaby street etc. after. Was nice to know I wasn't running against the clock because it was a late afternoon train.

However my appointment was in August and I've since read people having to sit in the embassy for 3-4 hours since then. 

Exactly as Melc said. Order 1 copy. Knightsbridge want to see it and make their own photocopy, then they'll give your original back so you can take it to the Embassy.

8 hours ago, Zoeeeeeee said:

For any letter like this, whether for the medical or the embassy interview (or something completely unrelated to emigration), if you don’t know the name of the person who’ll be reading the letter, you should address it to ‘to whom it may concern’ or alternately, ‘Dear Sir/Madam’. 

This is exactly what my surgery did - they offered a "to whom it may concern" letter and I just needed to specify what it needed to be about. I had to pay but it was reasonable. 

12 hours ago, prettylilraindrop said:

I have read that you need to show strong ties to the UK to show that you will come back and all should be ok, so I am getting a letter from my manager to say when I am away/ returning. I also rent an apartment but am moving back in with my mum next month, so I can show my contract but as I am moving out November 2nd, I am worried that wont be strong enough evidence, so was thinking of getting a letter from my mum who I'll be living with just to say how much rent she will be charging etc to show I have bills to pay? I was also thinking of taking a screenshot of our holiday calendar at work/ the email stating the time off I have and of course the return flight. Is there anything else I should be thinking of?

I went through pre-clearance at Dublin each time I visited on ESTA. Each time I took a printout of my time off approval from work, evidence of my mortgage and my car finance being current, my booking confirmation for my return flight, and a copy of my K1 NOA1 (that's your notice they received it - later I took a copy of the NOA2 approval when we got it and finally my interview confirmation). I was never asked to show any of this evidence - even when I mentioned to the officer on my last visit that I had my K1 interview scheduled 2 weeks out so that's why I wasn't wanting to stay any longer.

Just don't be too nervous, be honest, answer what they ask, be prepared to show evidence if they want it. People visit on ESTA during K1 all the time CBP just want to be confident you aren't going to stay without the right permission.