Jessandmargarito

Good evening. 
 

Filed 9/20 so will start following this thread. 
received NOA 9/29 from MSC

Biometrics appt letter received today 10/8 and is scheduled for 10/20. The letter was sent from National Benefits Center. 

Looks like we are in for a long wait at MSC. 
 

10 hours ago, bseddiqi1 said:

How did you guys get an expedite?

How did you guys get an expedite?

We just sent an email to NVC and asked. It was approved shortly after 

On 3/2/2021 at 9:48 AM, bseddiqi1 said:

Anyone here got an interview yet? I'm wondering if I should be worried and contact someone about it. I got approved in October 2020 but have been waiting for interview instructions for months now. I heard some interviews are being taken. Anyone know anything about it?

Hi. My husband had his interview in November and was approved. We were just expedited at NVC though. Few interviews are happening without an expedite now. There are also huge expedite lines in some places so that may be why you haven’t heard anything. 

On ‎1‎/‎19‎/‎2021 at 1:51 AM, Maverick1990 said:

How did the joint sponsor situation work out for you two? We're now at the NVC stage, so beginning to look into her family being joint sponsors. 

 

Had no Issues whatsoever. My husband had his interview and arrived on Dec 3.

Thank you for your responses. We are not too concerned at this point because we haven’t hit the 90 day mark yet.  we were just having a conversation about when it might come and my husband mentioned the 6 month estimate from the guy at the airport. 
 

my husband already has his ID and ss card so he really has everything he needs at this point. We were just curious as to whether covid was slowing things down. 
 

thanks for your help!

 

My husband arrived on Dec 3 and we were wondering how long it is currently taking to receive the green card in the mail. He received his social security card within 2 weeks but he is still waiting on the green card. The guy at immigration when he entered told him it could take up to 6 months but I’ve also heard 90 days. I’m curious to know if anyone who recently received theirs could share what the current timeframe is. 
 

my husband arrived on a CR1 visa.

On 4/9/2020 at 6:54 AM, JenelleRosado said:

Well the situation here has gotten pretty dire, civil unrest etc. So yes I'm okay with leaving here for now and returning for the interview when things settle down. I'll keep you all updated when I do return for the interview. Thanks for all your help Greenbaum! 

I’m curious what type of emergency visa they granted you. I tried to get my husband on the repatriation flight from Belize and they would only offer non-immigrant visas such as the tourist visa or diplomatic visas. Was the emergency visa you are referring to a tourist visa or were you given another option? We elected not to go that route since my husband wouldn’t be able to work for an indefinite period of time so I just stayed here with him in Belize and requested an expedited interview when they open back up.

By the way, I don’t really consider the situation in Belize dire as we only had 18 cases. It is actually much safer here than in the US right now. I live with my husband near the western border and while there has been some issues with border intrusion, the situation here is not really out of the ordinary for Belize.

1 hour ago, starboogie said:

I spoke with a Tier 2 for my case and they said it was still in Texas where I initially filed it. I couldn’t file an inquiry online due to an error on their end which the Tier 2 promptly submitted an inquiry on my behalf. The response came from Texas.

 

While your theory is totally possible in terms of Beneficiary’s country of origin, for me personally this theory wouldn’t apply. My wife is from Canada. We’ve also been together for 5 years prior to marriage, and both of us have no criminal records or legal issues of any sort. She works in tech, and I work in law enforcement.

 

I genuinely think there is some general disorder with their process.

 

Regardless of the reasoning, for those of us still waiting, I hope we get approvals soon. 

There are things that make some cases more complicated than others. In one of my other groups, a person mentioned that the Tier 2 told them that it sometimes has to do with background checks on the petitioner. Someone with a previous divorce, a criminal record, or someone who has lived in many different states/countries may need more time and be less straightforward than other cases. It is possible that the country of the beneficiary may have something to do with it too, especially in countries with high fraud rates. 
 

We had a pretty early approval (April 7) and I’ve lived in 4 states, but only two within the last 5 years. good luck to everyone! 
 

On 5/23/2020 at 9:36 PM, HRQX said:

Whoever said that is out of touch. From the government: "Important Notice: When both petitions have been approved by USCIS and sent to the NVC or when USCIS approves the I-130 before the I-129F, the availability of, as well as the need for, a nonimmigrant K-3 visa ends." https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/family-immigration/nonimmigrant-visa-for-a-spouse-k-3.html

 

Also, in fiscal year 2019 only five K-3 visas were issued in the whole world; zero of them in Africa: https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/AnnualReports/FY2019AnnualReport/FY19AnnualReport-TableXVI-B.pdf

So we applied for i130 at the beginning of Sept and K3 mid-Sept. Our i130 was approved in April and the K3 petition hadn’t even been touched. We just received a notification that our K3 won’t be processed because the i130 was approved last week. It will be much quicker to continue with spouse visa. Plus, I believe many of the documents for CR1/ir1 are still required for K3.

31 minutes ago, cbro said:

So when they "touched" my case during all this they somehow fked up my address - and replaced it with theirs?!?!  Have already sent them an email via the Inbox but haven't heard isht!

 

I never had any luck emailing them. It can take days for them to respond. Best to call and speak with a live person if you have the time. I had an issue when I changed my mailing address and they kept sending things to my physical address. You probably have to speak with a Tier 2 rep. There is an address change form that you can fill out online. Not sure if that will help since this is there fault.

On 5/10/2020 at 10:46 AM, SETETA said:

Has anyone been approved for an expedite lately within last couple weeks? If so, it would be great to hear details! Like how long for the response, the details on moving forward if approved, designated embassy, etc. Thanks!

Hi. We were approved today. It took almost two weeks to receive a response. Now have to wait for interview date. Embassy is Belmopan, Belize.

3 hours ago, Anynonmus said:

Good point , you can try. 

I think I read something that they were considering expediting cases for medical professionals but I don’t know if that is still happening. Worth a shot. 
 

4 hours ago, Wcalmt1 said:

Okay I am very worried about the fact that of the 3 I-130's I submitted, PD July 22, 2019 on all.  I received NOA1s from Nebraska but learned from online chats, that in fact 2 are in the Texas service center, and 1 is in Potomac, no transfers.   I also sent in a K-3 that first did go to Nebraska receive date of October 28,  and on March 9th was transferred to Texas.  As of today the date on the USCIS's site for I-130's in Texas to submit an inquiry for taking longer than normal, is July 24, 2019, for Potomac May 10th.  My Lawyer stated she believes the K-3 should kind of bind them together.  I want to submit an Inquiry, but should I possibly first request the one be transferred from Potomac to Texas, so that all our forms can be in one location?  if so is there a form for doing that? and who do I address it to?       

FYI I don’t think the K3 app is attached to the i130 any longer. My K3 is still pending and is a paper app in Texas while my i130 was approved in California. The K3 was never denied like in the past. They also weirdly asked for evidence that I submitted the I130 even though I included it in the packet. 
 

I would definitely send an inquiry about your Texas case.

10 minutes ago, onek said:

I don’t think you need to take original I-864 or third person’s proof of citizenship.  As long as you take a copy, it should be fine. 
when they say to bring originals, it’s usually documents such passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, police certificate, etc. 

Thanks for the clarification. I was thinking they couldn’t really want my joint sponsor’s passport to be mailed for the interview. But then again, the IRS wants that for an ITIN so you never know. 

We are just submitting our forms through the NVC portal and notice that my husband will have to bring the original documents to his interview. We have a joint sponsor in the US who has filled out the I864 and provided proof of citizenship to me via scan that I plan to upload. Will my husband have to bring our joint sponsors original i864 and proof of citizenship to his interview? I am with him in his home country so I can provide these for my i864 but it may be tough getting the original documents from our joint sponsor. Do these count as original documents for the interview?

On 4/20/2020 at 2:04 PM, FAW said:

Hey All - brand new member here.  I’m just in the process of filing my paperwork for my husband to join me in the US.  I’ve been researching all of the types of forms and am undecided if it’s worth completing the I-129F, especially now that COVID-19 has invaded all of us?  
 

I’ve read it’s a waste and usually not faster than the I-130.  I’m not sure what to do.  Thoughts and experience please?  Thank you. 

In my opinion, I’d say don’t bother to submit one right now. It was useful to get a quicker approval when the petitions were being sent to a specific service center. Some locations, such as Nebraska, took over a year on average. People were seeing their i129f denied and then the i130 was approved within a few days of the denial since they were processed together.  Since 2/23, and possibly before, the petitions seem to be sitting in an online pool and are dispersed to a service center when it is their turn in line. 
 

I was originally sent to Texas but was transferred to California to be approved after about 7 months. I also filed the i129f and it stayed at Texas. My i130 was approved on April 7 and my i129f is still pending. They no longer appear to be processed together. 

I sent my husband credit to help out with our phone bills since his phone is credit based and I have unlimited data. We liked to video chat every night so it was helpful. I included a list of transactions from Ding and we got approved. So in that case, it might be helpful to include rather than western union or money gram transactions. I agree though if there is not a good reason to send, something that is not beneficial to both spouses, I would avoid sending money transfers. 
 

I may have also sent money to help pay for his passport when he didn’t have time to save money for it when we went on a trip to Mexico for my birthday. I’m pretty sure I included it but was able to justify why I sent since it was for my last minute birthday trip. 
 

It might be helpful to include what you submitted in the original packet so that we can determine what may have prompted the  RFE. 
 

As far a commingling finances, that is very hard to do as many banks won’t add your spouse unless they have a social security number. I added my husband as a beneficiary for my checking account instead.
 

Good luck!

5 hours ago, LondonerCat said:

Hi all,

 

I wanted to start a topic about those of us who have been transferred to the California service centre. 
 

I was originally assigned to Texas, with my husband filing on November 27th 2019. Case was transferred to California on Feb 23rd 2020 (I think quite a few were?) One more update on March 31st and nothing since. 
 

Hopefully we can all share our cases to get a better idea of timelines! 

Hi all, we were transferred to California from Texas on 2/23 and were approved on 4/7. PD was 9/6. We saw several updates before approval so for those of you with a few updates since 2/23, you will probably see your approval soon too. Once you have approval, you will receive your NVC email possibly the same day. We actually found out that we were approved via the NVC email. 
 

Good luck. Being transferred to California seems like a good thing.

1 hour ago, Maverick1990 said:

Has the process moved fairly quickly so far for you? We're trying to get an idea of how long the total process is, from applying for the I-130 to the interview.

Yea, she's currently up to date with all her tax filings.

We are kind of in limbo at the moment because we have to wait for the records office to open in my husband’s country so we can order his police certificate. Based on the NVC estimates, they were processing documents from Jan 31 as of the other day. So it could be another few months before we are DQ and receive an interview. 

1 hour ago, Maverick1990 said:

 

6 hours ago, Danova said:

You’ll have to wait for like 2-4 weeks for uscis to mail your package to nvc, then another 1 -2 weeks for nvc to asign a case number and invoice. 

 

NB: you’ll be the one to get the package from nvc via email and postal mail. You’ll get email first then they will also mail it to your postal address, after that, your husband can now head to ceac website, login and fill the form 261- which contain his email, your email and agent email. 
 

i will use my F1 case as an example, my case got approved on 1st of Jan 2020, then I called nvc after 2-3 weeks to know if they have received my case but they said no, and should call back in 7 working days. I didn’t call them back but on 1st of April my dad got case creation notice also known as welcome letter I guess, the letter contain my nvc case number and invoice and instruction to login. 

I received my welcome email with case # the day after approval. For US citizen petitioner apps, I think it is pretty much immediately after the approval. No waiting anymore. Of course you still have to wait for them to review your docs. 

You can apply for i130 just fine and now with the online app it is even easier. Our i130 was approved and I am living abroad with my husband. Not yet at the interview stage but up until now we have no issues. We are planning to have a joint sponsor to help out. We’ll see how that goes with the public charge ruling. 

There are phone scanning programs that will probably work. 

7 minutes ago, Lucre said:

It's an update only in the text, not the actual status. The screenshots I posted before show what the change was.

 

I don't have any changes in my dates. Last time I had an update it was on December 10th

Thanks for the clarification. I’ve been very confused about this update since I didn’t receive an alert or any changes myself. The last text I received was that my RFE was received. 

My date updated to February 23, but my status still says my request is accepted and is under review. So it seems not all received the update.