AndrewF

I used an e-visa for 4 different visits to Vietnam prior to COVID and never had an issue.  You get a .pdf print out of the VISA itself that you can take with you.  

My wife's mother in her 60s got a US tourist VISA approved back in March with little issue.  Her wait time to get an interview was nowhere near 305 days.  Was about 100 days from the time she submitted the application.  Maybe the wait times are longer in Hanoi then Ho Chi Minh.  Mother owns a house in Ho Chi Minh worth about $700k with the father, has a lot of family in Vietnam, but no pension or retirement income (sounds pretty similar to your situation actually).  Her mother used a company over in Vietnam to help her with the VISA process.  I ended up writing a letter to support her visit.  
 
On the other hand, my wife's sister who is unmarried and in her 30s, has a job but owns no property, tried to get a VISA 6 months ago to visit my wife and was denied.  

If you are renting, you need to check your lease carefully.  Many times there will be specific provisions in the lease that if you have someone living there and don't tell the landlord, that is grounds for getting evicted.  
 
I'd recommend getting married immediately or very soon after she arrives to the US so you can apply for the EAD, travel authorization and Green card ASAP.  In many states, she will not be able to get a driver's license, etc. until she at least has the EAD.  
 
When my fiancé arrived:
 
1)  Told my landlord she was arriving.  Since I was moving in a few weeks after her arrival so the landlord didn't care.
2)  Got married 2 days after she arrived in a civil ceremony.  Had her last name changed to mine when we got married.
3)  Applied to get the SSN at a local office after we moved to Iowa using her married name.  
4)  Submitted her I-485 application and all the other related documents for her EAD, travel authorization and Green card
5)  After she received her EAD we took her to the Driver's license place and she got her Iowa ID and learner's permit for driving
 
 

It will resume on 6/29 for IR1/IR2/CR1/CR2 only.
 
Beginning Monday June 29, the Consulate will conduct interviews for IR-1, IR-2, CR-1 and CR-2 immigrant visa applicants who had appointments scheduled in March, April and May that were canceled because of COVID-19. Please visit this page to make a reschedule appointment. Please note that currently we are only allowed to interview these four categories; if applicants for other immigrant visa categories make appointments, they will be canceled. Also note that at this time, we are only allowed to issue IR-2 and CR-2 visas to applicants who are under 21 years of age.
* For all immigrant visa applicants other than IR-1, IR-2, CR-1 and CR-2, the Consulate is not conducting routine visa appointments. Please click here to request consideration for an emergency appointment. We will resume routine interviewing as soon as possible but are unable to provide a specific date at this time. We will post instructions for rescheduling interviews for applicants who missed previously scheduled appointments because of COVID-19 cancellations.

I'm really don't know the reasons behind why he so upset with whoever say YES to get vaccinations done in HCM. In fact, I'm really curious about that.

Mmmmmm.... no I think I clearly implied that I paid $40 or $50 for the vaccinations.  
 
No one is arguing whether or not you can get them for free.  What I'm not sure is why you are so upset that others attach a different value to money.  I make a sufficient income that I prefer to pay $50 for the convenience of just everything done at once in Ho Chi Minh rather then messing with it getting it done for free here in the US.  If the value of that amount of money is so important to you that you rather make a different decision regarding vaccinations that is great for you.  My personal decision is I rather pay more for convenience because I can afford to, and because I want to.  If you don't want to, more power to you.

Just in this moment my case status update to Ready for interview after 227 days...I am in minnesota and now pray for soon appointment date 🙏🙏
 

We have very similar timeline and my status just changed to ready to be scheduled for interview too. Hopefully after Corona ends our case is set for interview date.

I-485 permanent residency based on US citizen husband and my case was approved on March 25. The date of the receipt was July 2, 2019. 
My interview was on January,14,2020. We are in Indianapolis.

Hi everyone, interview went smooth yesterday (3/5). waiting time was around 1h15mins (probably we arrived late like 5mins before the appointment time) then intv was only 15mins. No documents or Evidences asked from us even we brought a bag of papers. The officer then printed a paper and congratz us. told me i will receive my gc within 2 weeks!

On my wife's I-129f packet, her father's exact birthdate is unknown.  We just made up a month and day, and then in the back of the application added an explanation.  

Hi fellow Des Moines person!
 
The lady we had at the SSN office was definitely not nice, but we at least had no issues with getting my husband's SSN. She tried very hard to find a reason to not do it, but I came prepared with all of the paperwork.

just received my interview notice yesterday. The new interview date is in March. I had actually received interview notice last 3 weeks but 4 days after received another cancellation for no reason. We called to USCIS and was told to wait for a new date and the reason for cancellation or reschedule is unknown 😂 Anyway we have the new date and its 3 weeks after the first date which is not too bad. hope everything goes smooth!
 
My timeline:
8/7: AOS Submission
8/17: NOA
9/5: Biometrics
10/10: Ready to be Scheduled
12/6: Combo Card Received
1/8: Interview Scheduled
1/13: Interview (first) Notice Received
1/17: Interview Cancellation Notice
1/20: Call USCIS
1/29: Ready to be Scheduled (updated again)
2/3: Interview Notice Received
 
Hope everyone can get their updates soon!

There's a deadline in the sense that the underlying petition has a deadline, at least if it's' a K1 visa.  Once the I-129f is approved, the approval is good only for 4 months though that can be extended.

Current timeline: 
 
8/20/19 I-485 submitted
9/16/19 biometrics
12/9/19 interview scheduled
12/15/19 EAD/AP approved
1/10/20 interview
 
We interviewed on January 10 and we thought everything went well, it's obvious we are a bonafide couple.. We did not get a decision however and were told the case is still under review.  IO said we would hear back in a few days. Still haven't heard anything back almost two weeks later, my attorney told me to wait up to a month before we should consider following up...please pray for me and my wife that everything will be OK this process has really taken its toll on us.

EAD approved today ! 
 
Filed AOS 08/08/19
Bio appt.  09/13/19
EAD approved 01/21/20

I waited until my case was sent to the US Consulate from the NVC and was assigned a HCM case #.  I did the DS-160 once the case was sent to the consulate but prior to receiving the PKT3.  There's no advantage to doing it this early that I can think of.  Once you need to create the US Travel Docs account and start the process for getting an appointment is when you need your DS-160 confirmation #.

Hi guys. Weird Time line guy again.
I was supposed to have my biometrics appointment on Christmas eve, but the office was closed due to the Executive order.
They rescheduled it to January 8th, but I was out of town that day so I missed it.
 
But today, my wife and I just decided to do the walk in, and the officers there let us do it!
We happened to walked in when the office was empty, so we finished everything in less than 5 minutes!
 
Now I only have the interview left!
 
My Timeline (St. Louis, MO):
08/22 Mailed packet
08/23 USCIS received
08/27 NOA
09/25 Call USCIS for service inquiry (Biometrics Letter), never got the answer
10/14 RFIE
10/29 RFIE Received
11/05 Call USCIS again for service inquiry (Biometrics Letter), never got the answer
11/29 Biometrics Letter Received
12/09 Biometrics appointment (Code 2). They've only taken my index finger's fingerprint
12/13 Another Biometrics Letter Received (Code 3)
12/20 EAD Card is being produced
12/24 Biometrics Appointment scheduled -> Cancelled due to executive order
01/08 Supposedly the rescheduled biometrics appointment, but couldn't make it.
01/15 Did the Walk-in Biometrics!

Thanks so much again Andrew.  Now we go onto interview scheduling.

Interview scheduled for January 28th at 7.10am(!) in Denver! At least we are early so hopefully don’t have to wait too long to be seen
 
@Yu Q we’ve decided that given the time of our interview we‘ll drive there. We’ll allow plenty of time for traffic on Arapahoe! Thanks for your advice. 

Wife's green card just came in the mail today.  My best wishes to everyone else still on their journey and I hope you all have a great new year!

If my fiance/step son has a reaction, I am not there, nor do they have the benefit of the US Healthcare system.  No, this is not a debate, I'll take a 1st world system over any other.
 
Cost:  she can get most of these shots for free from the State/Federal gov't.  Also, once married, your health insurance will cover many, for free.
 
The medical exam for the K1 is a joke.  Its not an exam, its a screening.  Completely different levels of care.  
 
Most health plans provide for a free annual physical that includes blood screens, for free.  So while I'll get to pay $500 for two  sham 'screening' I can get two free, actual exams on my health insurance.  
 
And on the plus plus side, now the family is in my health providers system... meaning all that information is not going to be lost on paper cards.
 

Wife's green card just came in the mail today.  My best wishes to everyone else still on their journey and I hope you all have a great new year!

Wife's green card just came in the mail today.  My best wishes to everyone else still on their journey and I hope you all have a great new year!

Today December 27, 2019 I received my EAD card😊🙏🙏.Thank you everyone for being a very important part of my journey. Without all the members that shares their experiences, struggles, mistakes, hardships, ups and down, problems and everything each of you faced during the immigration application, my journey would not adjudicated in a timely manner. Me and my husband struggles financially, and I don't have the resources to pay for the lawyer to get this done. Being on the dark was really an excruciating fact for all of us! To get everything done successfully, I read, learn, research, read again some more topics here at VJ then update myself with whats new at USCIS page. AND THATS IT! Please save your $$$$thousands, its not that hard....just follow all the instructions and everythings going to be okay. 👍