JCFZ

Hi all,

I am very happy that announce that my fiancees visa was approved. We were part of the bunch that had scheduled interviews on 9/28, but were then postponed to 10/6. From what she told me, the process was pretty straightforward once she was at the embassy. As for the interview, she said the questions were pretty straight forward and general. We even got our pictures from the K1 packet back. After several general questions, the agent said "Felicitations!" and gave her information about the next steps (validity of visa, rights as a visa holder, etc.).

Immediately after the interview, the visa status on CEAC was "administrative processing." The next day it was changed to "issued." We are now waiting for any notification that the visa is ready to be picked up (she chose this option because she lives in Paris). 

Thank you to you all, you have been so kind and helpful throughout this process. For those who are still waiting, my heart goes out to you! There is light at the end of the tunnel. 

On 8/9/2021 at 7:59 AM, Mahza said:

We have our interview scheduled for the 28th September as well and we're facing the same problem with paying the visa fee. I heard from someone that it could take 2 days for them to update it in the ais system. Since I received the interview email on Friday, I'm guessing it's because of the weekend it hadn't updated yet. Or its going to take them a little longer, nevertheless there's a few of us in the same boat.

 

For the Noa2, the instructions are in the email, you have to type up a letter with the intent to marry again and add a request to extend the petition for another 4 months in the same letter, this is the letter the beneficiary takes to the interview.

 Hi Mahza,

You were totally correct!! Yesterday we were able to make a payment and register our interview date. It seems that they needed to update their system indeed. We also were able to schedule the medical in Paris. Thank you so much! A big relief. 

1 minute ago, neto-66 said:

Ah okay, you did the right thing, I think this is a technical issue. I know at least one other member here is having the exact same problem as you. I would email the fae_contact address and explain. 

Ok! Interesting. Will do. Is the fae-contact a 3rd party? According to what I've read Paris embassy has been very slow to respond (understandably). Wondering if they respond more quickly.  
 

Thanks, Neto!!!

3 hours ago, neto-66 said:

Are you sure you selected the right options?

 

I did this back in May so I don't remember my answers to every question, but I thought there was an option for the K-1 within the immigrant visa portion of the website that prompted for DS-160 instead of DS-260.

No, I'm unsure about the options. I'm a little confused about the options, because the K1 option includes "needing to schedule an interview." We went all through the K1 option, which does indeed prompt the DS-160 number, but then when we proceeded to the next page, it said that no interviews were available (even though we already have a date assigned -- this date was not an option unfortunately).

Also, it looks like my NOA2 expires 2 days before the interview date. So that means I will need to ask the embassy for an extension, right?

So many questions! Thanks again to everyone who has taken the time to help.

2 hours ago, neto-66 said:

You must pay the fee before your interview. You pay the fee on the online portal by creating an "application" on the Immigrant Visa section. You are not able to lock in your appointment until AFTER you pay the fee -- if you were to call the Embassy right now, they would say that they cannot see your interview date.

 

We have not had our interview yet, but we were originally scheduled for June and rescheduled for October due to missing the appointment. You should continue by selecting the answers that apply to you, pay the fee, and select the pre-populated interview date given to you. You will know you are done when your home page shows your appointment and says "Current Status: Appointment"

 

Yes. You should call and schedule an appointment as soon as possible, as they often book a month or so in advance.

 

Yes!

Hi Neto,

Thank you so much for your reply. This is very helpful. However, my remaining question is still surrounding the payment. We are able to start an application by choosing the questions that apply to us (immigrant visa) but we are not able to proceed because we don't have a "DS-260" number. (This is for the "I have received a consular interview" option.)

Any insight on that?

thanks again very much to all

Hi everyone,

Thankful to everyone for all the info you've shared (and thanks to JobbinsKnobbins for sending this thread). 

I have some questions about the next steps in the process, I see some people here have made it through the interview, so some insight on some steps right before it would be very helpful. I am feeling a bit lost and nervous that I've missed a step somewhere. We are currently at the pre-interview stage:

- We received our paper NOA2 on 5/27/21

- Received and email (and PRS case number) from NVC that our case had been sent to Paris. 

- Status on CEAC is "Ready"

- Filled out DS-160 on 6/29/21

- (Surprisingly) Received an email today from the Paris Embassy with an interview date (9/28/21) and confirming that they have received our approved I-129F.

The email we received links to instructions on the embassy's website. We are now stuck at Step 2: "Register, pay the visa fee, and schedule a K visa appointment through the online appointment system." When trying to register through the "non-immigrant" section, K visas were not an option. We realized this error, and then when trying again through the "immigrant" section, we can proceed without a "DS-260" number.

Questions:

1. Have we missed the paying-the-fee step? How and what do we need to pay the fees? (Is an invoice number from NVC necessary?--we don't have that...)

2. How did those who made it to the interview register through this process? (this link: https://ais.usvisa-info.com/en-fr/iv).

3. Do we need to schedule a medical ASAP? 

4. In the immigrant section, we clicked the option "I have received a Consular interview appointment date from the National Visa Center (NVC), Kentucky Consular Center (KCC), or the Consular Section and I have been instructed to register my appointment on this site." -- is that correct?

Any insight into this part of the process would be incredibly helpful. Thank you very much!

JCFZ

1 hour ago, Nobita24 said:

Hi,

 

I think not all embassy has the same process. Is US embassy in France usually do this (set interview date without sending P3)? You might reply the email and ask the embassy. US embassy in Indonesia sends P3 first then we have to do medical examination and then interview. But as I have said before, US embassy in another country might has a slight different one. In here, we also have to make an account and when I looked into Visa Class, K1 is under Immigrant Visa. But you might can ask this also to the embassy or in France Portal if you can't find the Visa class.

Hi Nobita,

Thank you so much for your response. I think you're right, we started to apply through the "non-immigrant" option, where the K visas were not an option. We have continued to the immigrant section.

However, I am still really confused. Since we received an interview date, it seems that the logical next step is to register the appointment date (selecting "I have received a Consular interview appointment date from the National Visa Center (NVC), Kentucky Consular Center (KCC), or the Consular Section and I have been instructed to register my appointment on this site." When we start the process of registering the appointment, we have all of the necessary information besides a "DS-260" number. I have read multiple posts saying that DS-260 is not for K1 and that there is not fee to pay at the NVC stage?

I'm afraid that we've messed something up somewhere. We don't have an invoice number (for CEAC), nor a DS-260 number (for the Embassy appointment registration).

I don't know how to go about paying the visa fees. 

You all have been so helpful. Thank you for your help and the time you took to read this. 

JCFZ

Hi everyone,

Great news! Today we received something from the embassy in France. We're happy but definitely confused. Once we got a notification that our case had been sent to Paris from the NVC, and then that it was "Ready," we went ahead and filled out the DS-160 (on 6/29/21). We have still not received a P3. However, today we received an email with an interview date (9/28/21)! We are ecstatic, but a little confused as to why we haven't gotten a P3?

Also, the email contains a link for https://ais.usvisa-info.com/, where we are supposed to make an account, login, and then pay the visa fee? However, we are stuck because when prompted to select a "Visa Class," all other visas seem to be an option besides K visas! It states that if your Visa Class is not listed, then send an email. Has anyone heard of this issue before?

Thanks for any insight! And best wishes to all those still waiting. 

JCFZ

On 7/26/2021 at 1:06 PM, NB5347 said:

Finally received P3 packet from the embassy!

Wow, congrats!

This is very promising! Thank you very much for you helpful and informative reply. Best of luck! 

3 hours ago, JobbinsKnobbins said:

Congratulations on the NOA2!
First let me answer your immediate questions:

1. I am not sure to be honest; I cannot find a spot where the invoice number is helpful other than looking up case information.  In your case its probably at the embassy by now.
2. Yes, you are waiting for P3, as I understand it, the beneficiary will receive the packet 3 information.
3. No, it shouldn't hold anything up; I wish I had deleted my earlier post.  As  far as Paris goes, the DS-160 is done after you get the packet 3.  You will also be billed then.
4. Email address update is really good to have, don't know if its needed but it won't hold anything up as far as I can tell.

Now for the bad news, Paris embassy is pretty much in a frozen state.  You can track it here, cases that have come in from as early as March-April are still pending, Passports are being held; interviews aren't being scheduled. They aren't telling anyone anything. You can stay in the loop on what is happening to others in this thread 

Hope that things work out for you; my NOA2 is from about a month earlier and we haven't heard anything from the embassy either.

JK,

Thank you so, so much for this quick and informative reply. One big positive about this tough process is that the VJ community is really awesome. Incredible generosity around here. Thank you sincerely.

Looks like it's more waiting then. This is unfortunately what I expected. Have you submitted your DS-160 as well?

Hi everyone,

Reading through all this info has been super helpful--thank you for that. However, I am still feeling a bit lost and I'm afraid I'm maybe missing something.

My fiancée (Algerian) will be going to the French embassy in Paris. We received our NOA2 on May 27th. On June 22nd I received an email from NVC stating:

"The National Visa Center (NVC) received your fiancé (e)’s/spouse’s approved I-129F petition from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). NVC will now forward the petition to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in Paris, France. Please note that the transfer process can take several weeks. The U.S. Embassy or Consulate will contact your fiancé (e)/spouse when they are ready to process his or her petition." My fiancée received a hard copy of this letter as well.

The email/letter includes our case number which I used to check the status in CEAC's system. CEAC shows that our case is "Ready" and has been since June 23rd. CEAC's system says the following:

"Your case is ready for your interview when scheduled at the U.S. Consular section. If you have already scheduled an appointment for an interview, please prepare your documents as directed in your appointment letter and appear at the consulate on the appointed date and time. Otherwise, please wait until you have been notified of your interview appointment"

We have not received any other information and we are not quite sure what to do next. Here are some questions I have:

1. We do not have an invoice number. Is that necessary at this stage? 

2. Are we waiting for the "P3?" from the embassy (information about documents and scheduling interview)? 

3. We have filled out and submitted the DS-160. Is the fact that we haven't made a payment holding this up? Is that the next step?

4. I saw a post about updating email addresses (which we have not done). Is that holding this up?

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much in advance. 

13 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

Just letter of intent to marry.

Thank you, Jorgedig.

Do we need just one letter signed by us both? Or do we need a letter from each of us?

Thanks again

Hello everyone,

I am going to be visiting my soon-to-be fiancée in the next few days and want to make sure I can get some documents signed while I'm with her. Which documents for the I-129F, if any, need to be signed by the beneficiary (with a wet and/or scanned signature?)

Intent to marry?

Explanation of meeting?

Am I missing anything?

Thank you very, very much 

Thank you to all who replied! I sincerely appreciate your insight and advice.

So, I will be answering YES to Domestic Violence question.. However, I have one more question:

I contacted the court through which this case was processed. In 2016 the charge was expunged in the file destroyed. Therefore, I am not able to obtain a certified copy of the charges and disposition. The clerk at the court said she was unable to provide this since the file no longer exists. All I have is the certified certificate of annulment of the charge which does show that the case was dismissed. Do you think stating this in the letter of explanation along with the certificate of annulment will suffice?

Thank you

3 hours ago, Tyler26 said:

Well the question that mentions domestic violence does so to the effect of "have you ever been arrested or convicted of domestic violence, x, y, or z." So since your docket says something other than the listed charges I'd answer no. I'm curious what other people will recommend. 

After looking back at the original docket just now, it does in fact have a box ticked next to Domestic Violence Related.

I must say this makes me quite nervous... could this realistically be a reason for our case getting denied?

Thanks again for your help. 

Thanks for your reply, Tyler26.

I definitely will be answering yes that I was charged for simple assault. However, I'm just unsure of whether or not to respond YES to the question specifically about domestic incidents. Nowhere on any of the police/court documents does it say anything about domestic violence. It just says simple assault for all of them. 

Hello everyone,

I am in the process of gathering all of the paperwork for filing the I-129F. I have a question regarding a simple assault charge I had in the past.

In 2008, when I was 18 years old, I got in a fight with my little brother, 16 years old. Our mom called the police to diffuse the situation and teach us a lesson. I was arrested and charged with simple assault. Eventually, the case was dismissed. The record of arrest has since been expunged and the file destroyed. (I have all of the paperwork). 

According to the I-129F,  "The term 'domestic violence' includes felony or misdemeanor crime of violence committed by a person.
(1) Who is a current or former spouse of the victim;
(2) With whom the victim shares a child in common;
(3) Who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the victim

...

At that point I was no longer living with my brother. However, I did live with him during years prior. 

Does this mean I am going to have to answer YES for this question? I am terrified that if I must answer yes, this will raise a flag for me as a domestic issue. I have a completely clean record since this incident. 

I would very much appreciate any insight.

Thanks so much in advance.