JapanResident

Just now, JAC&MEH said:

Thank you!  Is it my imagination or does it seem like the NVC has actually sped up during the routine visa suspension period?

I really have no idea. Lately, though, just before and after NVC's closing hours, it seems we've gotten a wave of posts from people who just got DQ'd. Could be!

3 minutes ago, JAC&MEH said:

Just received 2 emails from NVC.  We are DQ!!!

First Submission:  March 6

That was pretty fast! Congratulations!

10 minutes ago, TamMhmd said:

23 April  --> ANOTHER RFE

 

Doc re-submitted 10 Feb

Household member added 24 Feb 

 

Silver lining, they reviewed from when first re-submission date not last uploaded doc.

 

Reason for RFE: I used the wrong form, I-864a not an additional I-864 for joint sponsor.

You have no idea how much I am beating myself up about this silly mistake. The word household threw me off since I was using my dad. 

I want to cry.

Really sorry to hear about this. But you'll get through it! Remember, with all the embassies closed and air travel impossible or next to impossible, these RFE delays maybe won't set you back like they normally would. The important thing is to carefully correct what you can and resubmit it. You'll get where you want and need to be soon.

1 minute ago, MS&JA said:

I have a question about the signatures...I may have messed up.
 

The instructions said that you can’t have a TYPEWRITTEN signature. We signed electronically (a digital signature of our ink signatures stored on Adobe). You can’t even tell if it’s in pen or not. It’s identical to a pen signature. 

 

Is this going to be an issue? Should I re upload the forms as “Additional Docs” with a scanned ink signature? And make it look more...rugged?

 

Thank you. 

I think it's hard for any of us to say if it will be an issue, but I think a lot of us have seen that it has proven to be an issue for some people. That's why people here strongly encourage fellow applicants to use a real signature, scan it, and only then upload the document.

As for uploading it as an additional doc, I've seen people do that before, too, and it's been fine for them in the end.

I hope other people will comment if they feel differently! But my feeling is, better safe than sorry.

1 minute ago, SummerF said:

DQ!!!!!!!!! 

First and only submission. FEBRUARY 16TH!

thanks so much for the support 

Congratulations! Hopefully the embassies will be able to reopen soon and the travel ban can soon be rescinded as well.

(We submitted on 2/18, so I hope tomorrow or early next week we'll hear good news, too.)

7 minutes ago, AarLar said:

So I tried to change my embassy a few days ago, and was told that just a picture of my bio page of my passport was not enough evidence to proof that I am a citizen of the Netherlands.. How confusing. So I just sent them another e-mail with my passport page (again), birth certificate, driver's license, and official government documentation of when I came back from Dubai.. *sigh* I hope its sufficient now. 

Did you not send them the birth certificate, driver's license, and official documentation before? My wife in Japan only uploaded her passport page and birth certificate as proof of citizenship (she uploaded other documents, however, like police reports and our marriage certificate). I wonder if we'll receive a request for more documentation too. I'm sorry to hear about your situation. Good luck!

11 minutes ago, MS&JA said:

Question, we uploaded everything yesterday (DS160, I864, supporting, and civil docs). When I log in to the Status Update section of CEAC, it says this- do I need to email them everything I submitted through CEAC? We're so confused. Thank you.

No, but I understand your confusion. It's appalling how unclear their directives are, and potentially damaging, too, if you follow them! If you've uploaded and submitted everything, which it seems you've done, then that's all you need to do. You can go to the self-tracking link (the second one highlighted in your screenshot), but until you're approved, the page won't let you proceed. I always check here instead: https://ceac.state.gov/IV/Login.aspx On this link, you can see if you have any communications from them, and you can also check if your submissions have been approved or denied.

1 minute ago, MS&JA said:

I guess it’s better than getting an RFE asking for a cat pic? 😂

 

Guys on a side note. We’re stuck in Spain. Everything has been locked down. We ordered my husbands police certificate over a month ago but nada. We have a receipt that the Ministry of Justice has received our request, along with a recently expired Police Certificate (he needed one for work). Our plan is to upload an affidavit showing we requested an updated certificate, along with the expired one. We indicated we’d bring the updated one to the interview.

 

What do you think? We just wanna send this off before Trump tweets any more wild ideas about immigration or USCIS.

 

Thanks.

I have read posts from people who have done exactly what you're thinking of doing, and it seems that in most cases that has worked. The risk is that there's no standard procedure in place for this situation, so you're taking a chance on having your case reviewed by someone who is either willing to help you with this or by someone who can't be swayed to help you in these unprecedented circumstances. Having said this, I must say that I've seen more successes in this approach than failures.

If they don't accept it, you'll get a RFE, I guess, which could set you back two more months or longer. Right now, with these ongoing delays, two months maybe isn't such a huge deal.

1 minute ago, Nenz.i said:

Does anyone have any slightest bit of idea when the embassies will re-open? I know I know it's hard to tell, but the reason why I'm asking is because I've noticed that on the travel.state.gov website, it no longer says "US Visa Services Suspended Worldwide". So I'm hoping that it's something positive. Maybe I'm being too optimistic lol. 

What I heard previously was May 4th for some embassies and May 11th for some others, whereas others didn't indicate a reopening date at all. I honestly don't think the embassies have a plan in place yet. We're working through the US embassy in Japan, and they were open until much later than many other US embassies around the world. Again, I have no idea when they intend to reopen. You might want to try both emailing and calling the embassy you're working through. Someone on Visa Journey did in fact get a reply to an email sent to their embassy.

2 minutes ago, Nenz.i said:

 

When I had asked NVC about this, I called twice just to make sure I got the same response both times and I wanted to make sure i was correct when submitting the documents. Both people on the phone had told me that these "photos" can literally be anything. The first lady on the phone even said, "IT could be a picture of a cat for all we care, we just need something to be uploaded in that "photos section". apparently it was an old category from back in the day and they never got rid of it. Both of them said to upload any picture we want in that folder. So what I did was I uploaded a picture of my husband and another picture of both of us together. 

A cat?! That doesn't reassure me at all about this convoluted and excessively time-consuming and expensive process! What's terrible in hearing this is that I seem to recall people getting RFEs for the most minor problems with the photo uploads.

14 minutes ago, Quarknase said:

We even used the same as we used for USCIS. It stated that the passport pic must be less than 6 months old and we made new ones when we filed the I-130, which was approved within 3.5 months (and we received WL one day after approval) so we figured we're on the safe side  

Wow, that's incredible that it only took you 3.5 months to get approved for what took us 12 months and 6 days! That's why we got the new passport photos, because our originals were over 6 months old.

2 minutes ago, MS&JA said:

Guys, I’m sorry if this is a basic question but I don’t want to make a mistake. What “photos” are we supposed to upload for each of the sponsor and applicant with NVC? 
 

Is it just the applicant’s passport photo? Both? Pictures of the relationship like we did with USCIS?

 

Thanks.

We just uploaded one or two of the applicant's passport photos (actually, not the same one, but new ones we got specifically for uploading to NVC). We didn't upload pictures of the relationship like we did with USCIC, but we intend to bring those to the embassy interview. Hopefully we did it right. No action has been taken on our NVC submission yet.

Just now, Jaze said:

Hi Everyone! Just got documentarily qualified today! April 21,2020

Submitted documents: February 13,2020

 

Its just weird that below the documentarily qualified, i also got a passport message but when i opened it , it said about the police certificate..but I know it should be about the passport since it will expire on September. Thank God my husband already renewed his passport before everything started closing.. So I guess he'll just need to show his new passport during interview since when i looked back at the documents it was accepted anyways..☺️

Good luck everyone! We will all be with our loved ones soon!❤

That's great, two updates in a row about DQs! Congratulations!

5 minutes ago, MattyUKtoUS said:

Some good news at last!! Feb 9 was our submit date! I am so utterly grateful of some good news! To everyone waiting! your time will be soon - this took just over 10 weeks!

Congratulations! That's a long wait, and we're right behind you with a February 18th submission date. I'm happy to hear your good news and to know that the NVC is still processing applications – especially during this crazy day of immigration news.

10 minutes ago, Cristina280390 said:

I unfortunatey just received the dreaded RFE for several reasons....  It says that for my country I need to present as part of the Police Records, also Penitenciary and Judiciary Records. My country is on lockdown and I am currently in the US so that is impossible. I will try to get in touch with NVC to ask if it is possible that I just bring them to the interview, which I read it worked for someone. I also got both AOS (sponsor and joint sponsor) rejected but I have no way of knowing why, it only says incorrect/missing items so I don't know how to do it correctly. I made sure I uploaded all pages (even when blank) and in handwriting, so I know it is not that. Will they tell me on the phone? I have to know so I don't make the same mistake! They also rejected the Tax Return of my Joint Sponsor stating that I need to upload all sides, which I did (complete 1040)... so yeah... I am lost... sad... but have no choice but to do it again.

 

On another note, the good news  would be that they seem to be taking the first submission date. I submitted everything on Feb 1st, then added a translation on Feb 4th and then added supporting evidence and extra documents (after reading about people getting RFE for that) on Feb 24, so I wasn't expecting my case to be revised but I guess I was counted as Feb 1st.

I'm really sorry to hear not only about the RFE but also about the confusion about how to proceed now. I would highly recommend calling NVC to ask for the reason(s) your AOS was rejected and then to find out from them exactly what you need to do to fix the problem. If the first person you speak with isn't helpful, or if you feel uncertain about what they advised you, then try again. They don't want you to make mistakes repeatedly, so I'm sure they'll help you if they're in a position to. Remember, the NVC operators are there for just this reason – to help us – even if it feels sometimes like they aren't.

As for some of the mistakes they say you made, you should also be able to have them check on this, especially if you feel you have proof that you did things correctly. Hopefully they will in fact respect the first date of your submission, but as far as that goes, it seems to depend on whose desk your case happens to land on. Good luck and keep us posted on what happens!

1 minute ago, Alix64 said:

Hey Guys,

We got an RFE

The marriage certificate is not good. I don't understand because it is the official marriage certificate from the City Hall in France with proper translation (from a US professional translation company).

Anyway.

Alix

I'm sorry to hear this. Are you able to contact the NVC to see what the specific problem with your marriage certificate was? Or do the phone representatives not have access to the reason for the certificate's rejection? For your sake, I hope there was only an error on their part and it can be corrected by talking to a manager. Good luck with it.

41 minutes ago, Duke & Marie said:

So after living through the nightmare of Nebraska processing, then being stuck at NVC since September, with NVC errors and Expidite denials.. plus the coronavirus, boarder closures, embassy closures and interview rescheduling, stay home orders and loss of employment I’m finally announcing that after 18 months of waiting I’ve had enough and have given up on the whole IR1 process

 

i am now formally announcing I’m going to Adjust Status and will not be flying home on Tuesday.. I can now at least take comfort with being with my husband while the rest of this nightmare sorts itself out. 

It's a terrible situation. I hope things turn out well for you, even if it takes more time. And I hope things turn out well for everyone here, of course. One of these days there will be a ray of positive news that breaks through this despair we all feel, and perhaps it will be enough to get all of us through this – finally. That moment can't get here quickly enough. I'm grateful knowing that I can lean on this community right now for support, even if most of it comes indirectly through the general sharing of personal stories and advice.

13 minutes ago, LilyJ said:

Unfortunately while previously the embassy told us our interview was not cancelled or affected since my husband is a spouse of a US citizen, we just saw today when we checked my husbands email that they ended up cancelling it, the day after they told us it was still confirmed  

I'm so sorry to hear this. Do you have any idea if the embassy will use some kind of waiting list drawn up in order of interviews previously scheduled, such as in your case? In a way, it may be better not to have a visa right now because of the risk of it expiring before you can move to the US. I'm sorry, I'm just trying to find a silver lining in this. I wish you all the best of luck going forward.

On 3/12/2020 at 7:09 AM, Sponsorer20 said:

NVC said that I should change my address only with them, and they would notify to US consulate abroad.

Thank you for posting about this. Did you change your address with them directly over the phone, or did you change it online?

3 hours ago, LilyJ said:

This morning we got our interview letter!

DQ: Feb 19 2020

IL: Mar 11 2020

ID: Apr 1 2020

Congratulations, @LilyJ! I'm really happy for you, especially since you've been incredibly helpful to so many people on this forum. I'll be sad to see you leave (for purely selfish reasons), but wish you and yours all the best moving forward. You deserve a celebration!

3 hours ago, bel044 said:

Is anyone else worried about the corona virus impacting their cases?  My husband is from Japan and I'm worried they could close the embassies or put issuing new visas on hold if it continues to spread.  

 

Just one more thing about this process to keep me up at night!😩

I'm in the same situation as you. My wife is actually going to the US embassy in Tokyo today for something other than her visa, and I'm curious if she'll see or hear anything about the possibility of a suspension of services. I hope not! This has taken far too long already.

1 minute ago, LilyJ said:

Totally normal. It will say that until your documents are reviewed 

Thank you @LilyJ! The USCIS/NVC/CEAC websites all seem to be intentionally maze-like, contradictory, and confusing. Anyway, I'm thankful for this community and relieved to hear this is normal!

Hi all,

Three days ago we uploaded our AOS and Civil Documents via the ceac.state.gov website, and our immigrant visa page says our AOS items are "paid" and "submitted," and our IV fee "paid," our IV application "Completed," and our Civil Documents "Submitted." In other words, we've done everything we're supposed to do. However, when I log onto the CEAC website to check our status, it tells us:

Then it tells us to submit the exact same things it says we've already submitted, but by mail. When I try to click on the CEAC status checker, I've only ever gotten a 404 - page unknown message, along with a statement that the page couldn't be found on travel.state.gov. Is this normal, or am I missing something? When I click on the CEAC FAQs link, the same thing happens! I'm sorry if I'm being really dense and have missed something obvious.