Ellxtdan

Hi friends! I don’t remember if I ever wrote our timeline on here, but we filed in late June 2022 and received the new green card yesterday!

National Benefits Center

Application received: 6/29/2022

Fingerprints were taken: Feb 2023 (don’t remember exact date)

Approved: 11/14/2023

Green Card delivered: 11/18/2023

Hope everyone else gets their approvals soon!

On 9/16/2020 at 1:01 PM, RTimo said:

how many days does it take for the embassy at Stockholm to return the passport?  please share your experience 

My husband had his passport sent to the ICA near his home in Gothenburg. It took two days after the visa was issued. (Issued on the 2nd, ICA had it on the 4th)

20 minutes ago, stuckonyou said:

Well, hopefully I'm at the front of the line already since I've already had the interview. 😅

I did hear about someone commenting an immigration lawyers YouTube video that they expedited (due to stress or something on the US fiancé) and now it seems like her fiancé will be able to get his visa (he's from Poland) and even travel directly from Schengen. So I guess I'm grasping at straws here... 😇

Aww I mean, you could always give it a try! Worst case, they say no and just tell you to wait.

1 hour ago, stuckonyou said:

Do you think there's a chance for us to get an expedite or to do something (perhaps with the help of a lawyer if it comes to that) for me to get my K1 visa issued?

I already had the interview in March and did everything I was supposed to do, but then the travel ban happened and all these months later I'm still waiting for them to issue the visa. We haven't seen each other in over a year now, and I heard a lawyer mention something about not seeing each other for a long time could count as undue hardship. Not sure if something like that could work, though. 👀

Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s much you can do. As far as I know, the embassy is still only issuing spousal visas. An expedite wouldn’t do anything except put you at the front of the line until they resume K1 services.

1 hour ago, theswedishyolk said:

I’m reading a lot of you got interviews! How? Did you all expedite? I’m on CR-1 and NVC is approved. Is there anything I can do? Or do I first have to wait for the embassy to open and then wait for them working through like 6 months of backlog? 

We expedited our case! If you have any valid reasons (and proof of them), I would give it a shot. It seems like the embassy is very sympathetic during this pandemic.

10 hours ago, TamMhmd said:

This made me tear up. I just had an airport goodbye, bad phone connection call and am currently counting down days till the next visit! Congrats, so happy you are past this.

Aww, post-visit blues are always the worst. Hang in there!! The day you are living together will be so worth it!
 

8 hours ago, dwheels76 said:

Man seems like Sweden is the place we all need to be. Lovely, safe and hardly any COVID.

 

But really Congratulations. Finally living in one house. 🥳

Thank you! Haha Sweden really is the place to be. 😅 I just returned from visiting not long ago. It was the best feeling getting away from all of the political turmoil and COVID-related madness here. Life actually felt normal for once!

We have gotten our official approval today! Now we wait for the passport to be returned.

In case anyone wants to know a recent timeline of the medical results: my husband had his appointment completed on Aug. 20th at the Gothenburg location. The doctor originally assured him that the results would arrive on time for our interview on the 28th, but it was delayed. There is currently a backlog for the radiologist who reads the chest x-ray results, so he/she was unable to get to it until the 28th. The clinic sent the final results on Monday, and the embassy received them this morning. The embassy emailed us to let us know and ask for another copy of the waybill (they said they never received it, but they took it from my husband? Lol). Within 3-ish hours, everything was finished and the visa was issued.

Hi Everyone! My husband just had his interview. We are approved, just waiting on the medical exam results. We got it done on Aug 20th, so it should hopefully arrive soon!

Anyway, my husband arrived about 20 minutes early, and was asked to wait outside for 5 minutes for another staff worker to come. Once inside, he did the security screening. He said you are allowed to have anything but a laptop. They took his phone and placed it in a slot, and gave him a tag to retrieve it. After that, he waited 5-10 mins before being called to the counter. The woman asked for his: personbevis (counts as his birth certificate and our marriage license since we got married in Sweden), police certificate, financial documents (both I-864 from me and our joint sponsor, and only our joint sponsor's taxes), and proof of relationship. He said the woman also asked him how we met, and who the joint sponsor was, but this wasn't part of the interview. The documents were scanned and returned to him.

Lastly, after waiting another 5-10 minutes, he was called to the next window where the CO was training someone. He was asked:

Where does your spouse live?

How did you meet?

How did the relationship start?

When was the last time you met?

They also asked a few questions about his last visit to the US because apparently there were notes added to his file (he was here in March when the pandemic started) but it did not relate to the interview. The CO was just confused about why the notes were there.

All in all, it took about 45 min between the time he entered and left the building.

11 minutes ago, OrihimeandIchigo said:

What time of day did everyone in Scandinavia receive your "Expedited was approved email" and your "Interview appointment date email". I would love to know please so I wouldn't be such a anxious person checking my email every 5 minutes lol Thank you 😊 

We got the “interview was cancelled” and “expedite was approved” emails a day apart. Once we got the “expedite was approved” email, the case status changed to “In Transit.” The day after, it changed to “Ready.” The interview appointment email/letter came 2 days after that (I also noticed that the case status was updated that same day the email was sent).

Hope that helps!! Congrats on getting the notification though! You’re almost there!!!

On 8/10/2020 at 10:15 PM, theswedishyolk said:

Wow, I wasn't aware that you could do this. Thanks!

 

Since there are no direct flights she will have to do a layover though. Is there any country we should avoid for that? (i.e. one which might give her trouble at the border). To me it seems like Netherlands, France, and UK are the most likely transit countries from L.A

Aw, I wish I knew that you could transit through CPH. My husband lives in Lund. I ended up getting a flight from LAX to GOT instead.

Anyway, like everyone said, your wife can visit you and you can visit her. Either way works. If she is going to visit you, I would avoid transiting through Amsterdam! The U.S. embassy recommends avoiding Schiphol because they have denied U.S. citizens entry into the EU even if they are transiting (however, a layover in Amsterdam on the way to the U.S. is acceptable).
 

I chose the KLM/Air France flight that transited through Paris instead. The entire process was very quick. At LAX, they asked for my husband’s picture id (I had a scan of his passport), vigselbevis, and personbevis (she wanted proof of marriage with my name and date of birth on it). I wasn’t asked any questions at CDG, the border officer just asked me to remove my mask so he could see my face. Then he stamped my passport and wished me a nice trip. I didn’t have to go through security at GOT, so after I landed, I got to see my husband straight away.
 

Also, your wife technically needs to get a negative COVID PCR test result (within 72 hrs of the flight). France requires proof of it and their health statement for flying. I was never asked for these, but I would still get them in case. As far as Sweden’s requirements, (my husband called and asked) they say to have proof of relationship, and your return flight too to make things easier if needed.

Update: received an interview date for August 28th! We’re a bit bummed the turnaround wasn’t sooner (I am flying to see my husband and help pack/say goodbye to his friends and family soon, so it would’ve been nice to be able to fly home together!) but thankful to finally have an end date.

I did try asking for an earlier date, but they said they are operating at a limited capacity and were booked for all of August already. Based on the dates we’ve seen here, maybe they’re only interviewing on specific days (like Tuesdays and Fridays)? Either way, it looks like they’re working on the backlog though!

Hi Everyone!

I was a bit inspired by the previous couples getting expedites, so I decided to try it for myself! We've been waiting for DQ at the NVC stage (only had a RFE on one form left), but I did not want to wait any longer. I emailed the embassy with the request, and they responded a couple days later asking me to email NVC instead since we weren't DQ'ed yet. I did that on Sunday night (7/19), and this morning (7/23), we got an email saying the embassy "is willing to expedite this case" once the NVC has reviewed everything. We got DQ shortly after, so just waiting to hear from the embassy now!

We got DQ today! We received a RFE a couple of weeks ago (small mistake on my form I-864--I typed the date and did a wet signature. They wanted me to handwrite the date as well). We've been planning on requesting an expedite, but didn't want to wait any longer for DQ, so I emailed the embassy last week. They asked me to email the NVC instead, and this morning we got the approval! DQ came within an hour after that email.

For those interested in the timeline-

Submitted docs: 6/19/20

RFE: 7/8/20

Requested expedite: 7/19/20

Expedite approved: 7/23/20

DQ: 7/23/20

3 hours ago, SarahSwede said:

Well it's all happen very fast now! We have an interview July 21 (they didn't wait for us to contact them, as they had previously stated) and we managed to schedule a medical appointment in stk the day after!

Congrats!! That’s wonderful news.

33 minutes ago, NancyNguyen said:

Embassies and consulates are still closed, you won’t receive it until they open again.

I’m assuming they’re referring to the NVC welcome letter. If so, it doesn’t matter if the embassies or consulates are open.

@Carlcayl I would call the NVC to see if they’ve received your case from USCIS. If not, contact USCIS. Are you an online filer?

On 6/26/2020 at 2:45 PM, LilyJ said:

We got word on email this week that the embassy is ready again to reschedule our interview once we've collected all our papers again! How is the situation over there for those who have recently been to the embassy/Stockholm in general? Are people wearing masks on the buses/social distancing, if the buses are running much at all? Particularly for anyone who had to fly in from out of Sweden, which airport do you recommend flying in to and did you take rental car/bus/taxi/something else to and from the airport? We are trying to feel out the situation and transportation options to minimize my husband's contact with other people when he goes without spending too much on transportation since we are tight on money with this unexpected COVID and an almost 3 months delay on the interview..

Been lurking here every so often, but just wanted to say, I’m rooting for you and your husband LilyJ! You guys are so close!! 

Exciting to hear that Stockholm’s starting to reschedule interviews!

After ten long months of waiting, we finally got approved today! I saw we had a date change in the morning, then around 2pm, I received a text and email saying our case status changed. MyUSCIS still says “In process,” but above it, it says “Case Closed” and the approval letter is under the documents tab. Our case status has also changed on the old site.

Good luck to those who are still waiting! I know it’s discouraging, but your time will come soon!!!

On 5/11/2020 at 4:26 PM, AMN said:

I received an email response today! Unfortunately, all it said was the case is within normal processing times. According to their timelines, this would be incorrect. However, the representative that placed the inquiry for me told me the last three letters in the confirmation code for the inquiry typically tells you the service center it’s located. In this case, my case would have been transferred to California. However, their dates are processing from 2014 which is unrealistic. Part of me wants to call yet again, but I feel like I’m just going on a wild goose chase.

I received a response today. It said, “Your case is currently under review by an officer. We regret that we are not able to give you a time frame for when we will complete the review of your application.”

So, back to waiting and checking the case status indefinitely 😅

On 5/10/2020 at 12:21 PM, AMN said:

Same things happened to me. I called to speak to a live agent, though, and he put in the request for me. Other people from Facebook tried to do this, but they were told that the processing times online were a mistake. I guess it depends on the agent you get.

That’s so interesting! I submitted an inquiry online Friday night and it went through. The email said to expect a response by May 31st.

2 hours ago, twln said:

So do you think online submissions are being processed faster? I suppose that would make some sense (however doesn't seem like it would be fair!)

 

I'm just not entirely sure how there can be such a large difference in approval times where beneficiary's country, service centre, no RFE etc are all the same - what other variables are there?

The officer I spoke to said what takes the longest is verifying things. For example, I think my case might be taking longer because I got married abroad (verifying a Swedish marriage certificate probably takes longer than a domestic one) and my husband got a new passport a month before we applied (they’d need to check his old passport number if they want to see how many times he’s entered the US).

Others also think if USCIS is unable to receive an answer from the country they’re verifying with, they’ll leave your case and work on others before coming back eventually. So if you’re lucky, the organization they’re contacting will respond quickly and the case is approved. If not, they play phone tag and approval takes longer.

5 hours ago, AMN said:

Not sure if this will help, but I was finally able to open it using Google Chrome!

Thank you! I realized I primarily use my iPad and phone to access MyUSCIS, so I used my laptop today. I was able to download and open the file! It’s labeled as “(Case number-other numbers) Part 1.” It’s basically the first half of my evidence: birth certificate, marriage certificate, timeline of relationship, pictures, and proof of visits.

17 hours ago, Happyt2 said:

You said your uploaded case ? I mailed in my case pd date 8/14/19 i130 and received a IOE number, on USCIS they only uploaded my passport picture (petitioner), nothing else. Is this correct ? Still waiting on approval 

Yes, by uploaded case I mean the document USCIS uploaded onto MyUSCIS. I also mailed in my application and got an IOE number. I’ve never been able to open that document, so I don’t know what’s on there. I’m assuming it’s part of my case because that’s what everyone else says it is.