Matt and Chandra

I realized that someone already replied negatively about this, but we found DHL to be cost-effective and extremely reliable. FedEx is also very good; it was UPS that I'd heard some complaints about. I suspect it has to do with the reliability of the local affiliate in India.

In our experience, care packages sent through the regular postal system tended to get pilfered or lost, and aren't worth the trouble unless one knows one's post office/carrier are reliable on the Indian side. Important documents, however, should never been sent USPS/Indian Post because it is that much more crucial that they arrive on time and intact, and pretty much require DHL or FedEx.

M & C

Can I call the State Dept? Will that help? No

Will it help to call my Congressman? Maybe, but probably not

Any insights or experiences on this would be greatly appreciated; we need to file our income tax soon.

Go back to the office to speak with the office manager Explain that your wife applied through the Enumeration At Entry process and should have received an SSN card within 3 weeks. However, your employee(s) has said that the EAE application is pending, so they need to either resolve the reason for the appliation not having processed or take an application in the office.

RM 00202.315 Enumeration At Entry:

http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0100202315

BTW Did you submit an application for the child? If the child came in as a permanent resident, the child is eligible to be assigned an SSN.

Hi I Q and all,

Our son is a US citizen (born abroad to us several years after marriage; he has the "Report of a Birth..." US certificate), so he's had a SS# for years.

I think maybe we'll try to go to the office this coming week and push a little bit more. She had a filled out form when we went before (we'd thought that maybe her entry into the enumeration at entry thing had somehow gotten dropped), but the agent would receive it (or do anything else) when he saw that she was already in the system.

We've been in contact with my congressman's office, but so far this has been of little help. His aide on this issue said that SSA simply take a lot of time to do things. Not very encouraging.

I'll post anything further to this thread (and appreciate any further pearls of wisdom), in part so it can be added for anyone who has a similar problem in the future.

Thanks!

Matt & Chandra

Well, my wife's card arrived today.

It turned out to have been tremendously helpful, possibly even crucial, to have gotten my congressman involved. A couple of weeks ago, there was a call from the head of the social security branch nearest my permanent residence, who gave the extension to his own office phone. When I told him I was currently in another state pursuing postgraduate studies, he told me it would be no problem. My wife had to submit a new application, but branch head from my home state made a point of giving us a reference number and other information to "ensure we weren't given the run-around". It was clear that this was at least partly in response to my congressman's having made contact with the office.

If your spouse's social security card/number is delayed, call your congressman's office. In addition to having a "point person" for immigration issues, each office also has a "point person" for social security issues. In the case of both immigration and social security, contact with the congressman's office turned out to be very helpful. The US is a representative democracy, and we have the right to make use of that.

Hope this info is useful for someone reading this.

Matt & Chandra

Can I call the State Dept? Will that help? No

Will it help to call my Congressman? Maybe, but probably not

Any insights or experiences on this would be greatly appreciated; we need to file our income tax soon.

Go back to the office to speak with the office manager Explain that your wife applied through the Enumeration At Entry process and should have received an SSN card within 3 weeks. However, your employee(s) has said that the EAE application is pending, so they need to either resolve the reason for the appliation not having processed or take an application in the office.

RM 00202.315 Enumeration At Entry:

http://policy.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0100202315

BTW Did you submit an application for the child? If the child came in as a permanent resident, the child is eligible to be assigned an SSN.

Hi I Q and all,

Our son is a US citizen (born abroad to us several years after marriage; he has the "Report of a Birth..." US certificate), so he's had a SS# for years.

I think maybe we'll try to go to the office this coming week and push a little bit more. She had a filled out form when we went before (we'd thought that maybe her entry into the enumeration at entry thing had somehow gotten dropped), but the agent would receive it (or do anything else) when he saw that she was already in the system.

We've been in contact with my congressman's office, but so far this has been of little help. His aide on this issue said that SSA simply take a lot of time to do things. Not very encouraging.

I'll post anything further to this thread (and appreciate any further pearls of wisdom), in part so it can be added for anyone who has a similar problem in the future.

Thanks!

Matt & Chandra

Oooooh Matt, your situations sounds a lot like my husband's and you know what I ended up doing? I called the local SSA office where we had gone (twice) to give them a new SS card application and went off on them, then the rude receptionist transferred me to someone else, got a voice mail and that upset me even more. So, I went off on her too and said that it was ridiculous how they had handled my husband's SS card application and that I was going there in person that same week to make things happen. This was on a Monday and we went in on Wednesday and all of a sudden the lady who saw us that day said "Oh, your application was approved on Monday but we still don't have the card but here's the number". What a coincidence that the application was approved the same day I had to leave a nasty message on sombody's voice mail. Veeery interesting...

The card arrived in the mail the following week.

You need to be on these people or they'll play you like you don't exist because to them, you're just a number.

Diana

Thanks so much to all who replied.

Diana, I found your experience above to be intriguing. I have not been able to acquire a phone number for any SS office, including the one where we visited (and maybe were too polite..... ); all I can find is the same toll-free number with the impenetrable menu system. In the event, we're planning on faxing the permission form to our congressman this weekend. Hopefully he will be able to move things quickly.

Peace,

Matt & Chandra

Hi Gang!

Well, after a process which stretched out to 16 months between application and entry into the US (and a four month absence), my wife and son and I rejoiced at being reunited in the US in early December! Her GC arrived in late January, and we were relieved to have that out of the way. However, her social security card has not arrived. About a month ago, we went to our local Social security office with a fresh SS application, figuring that her application which was part of her immigration had gotten dropped somewhere along the way. We were told that her application is actually in the system, but that it's 'pending', and that they could not give us any further information. I recently discovered that, according to this Social Security policy document, apparently her application should have been cleared, or she should have been asked to submit another application (which we had with us).

Have any other GC holders had a three-month delay in getting their SSN? What can be done? The SSA phone menu system is the most impenetrable I can recall encountering in recent memory.

Can I call the State Dept? Will that help?

Will it help to call my Congressman?

Any insights or experiences on this would be greatly appreciated; we need to file our income tax soon.

Matt & Chandra

Thanks Matt great post!

This brings up all the red flags I've been thinking about that may come up with this "VFS" office.

Some of this should go into a sticky for all the others, haven't seen some of this advice summed up anywhere.

Also can someone please clarify?

Does the VFS need another I-864 Made out just for them, even though the NVC has been submitted one and been approved? In my case I did a I-864EZ.

This goes against what the Packet 3 PDF from the Mumbai Consulate site says (see under Instructional Packages - Packet 3 Click Here For PDF, which is:

If form I-864 and its supporting documents have already been submitted to the National Visa Center (NVC), the documents will be forwarded to our office by the NVC and will be reviewed by the consular officer during the visa interview.

Also is the VFS checklist accurate from their website Link where it says " Click here for list of documents to be submitted to VFS."

And how

Also can someone please also clarify what the Packet 3 consists of exactly:

1) The Packet 3 PDF Checklist/ Applicant's Statement Sign-off (From mumbai consulate site pdf)

2) DS-230 Part 1 + Photographs (2)

3) Passport Copies (Biographic Data/Parent Names) First/Last Pages

Also did you submit these directly to the Mumbai Consulate, once you found out the case was transfered from the NVC?

Any specific advise on how to submit these in advance? As waiting for the mailing asking for it may be lost/delayed/etc.

Glad we could be of service, in spite of the many typos! (remember, kids, that "preview" button is there for a reason! )

Anything extra was submitted via VFS in Mumbai, although some things (x-ray from the medical, et al) were hand carried to the consulate on the day of appointment.

Peace,

Matt & Chandra

Congratulations, Matt & Chandra!

Best wishes,

Maya

PS I love your wife's name... if we are ever lucky enough to have a little girl by birth or adoption, I'd like to name her Chandra... so pretty.

Thanks, Maya! I love her name, too, as well as virtually everything else about her...... though I am a tad biased. Not bad after 14 years of marriage!

Congrats :dance: and thanks for all the interesting details! So happy it finally worked out though you guys were put through a lot of hassle!

Thanks, Nagaraju & Eileen!

Hi,

I am so happy the family is united. Just to bug u again ... what did your wife submit to the VFS; which documents are you talking about which need original signatures

Jigi

Hi Jigi,

It was slightly complicated. My mother is joint sponsoring my wife (I'm in graduate school at the moment). Initially, we had her fill out an I-864 as a joint sponsor. NVC told us she had to fill out the I-864A instead, as we had the same address (we'd done the I-864 originally for various reasons I'd rather not get into here). Unfortunately while we sent in the I-864A (which required both of our signatures), I had not sent in a fresh I-864 which included her I-864A information, including joint household income.

She had brought another I-864A (which they'd had anyway, but returned to her since it wasn't on my I-864) and the new I-864 I'd filled out reflecting my mom's household income. The scanned documents which they'd found inadequate were my scanned signature on the new I-864 and my mom's scanned employment letter. The counter person at VFS was asking for more documents, but it seemed like one of those situations where someone begins demanding something one isn't like to have on hand in order to create a problem which doesn't really exist (perhaps in order to feel important, to enjoy harassing someone, out of their own ignorance......who knows?).

Hope this is helpful, and that you have less headaches in January than we did.

Peace,

Matt & Chandra

hi,

emirates is too costly and it doesnt fly to the US destination I would be travelling to

Jigi

Two travel metasearch engines, one of which I got on another thread here on VJ:

1. http://www.mobissimo.com; this got us the ticket we bought. Simultaneously searched numerous travel sites, including both agency and airline sites. We were able to get tickets for my wife for about $850 o/w (including taxes!) on Jet Airways, connecting to Continental once in the US. Jet's international service was excellent, and connections were seamless. Mobissimo actually found the fare on Orbitz, and it's worth noting that her ticket was purchased less than a week before traveling. Ironically, the day before we booked, I found another fare (also on Mobissimo) for virtually the same flight, but for $712 (including taxes!); unfortunately, there was a detail yet to be confirmed at that point. The nice thing is that when going through an engine like this, you can have it checking on flights to virtually any airport in the US, from virtually any airport in India, and it makes the connections. Brilliant.

2. The one I discovered here was http://www.cheapflights.com. It looked pretty good, but doesn't allow booking so close to the departure date.

Disclaimer: Of course, I post these just for information's sake, and have no pretensions of expertise on travel. I personally found these helpful. I certainly don't work in the travel industry.

Matt & Chandra

Hi all,

I wanted to write a brief note concerning my wife's experience in Mumbai. She received her visa and is now with our son and I in the US (after a four-month absence!), but I thought that perhaps someone might benefit from her experience at the consulate.

1. Her appointment letter never arrived, which is not especially unusual. It arrived in the US, and we scanned and sent it to her, but it turned out that it would not really have been a good idea for her to try to use the scan. In the event, she collected a copy of it from the window at the embassy on the day she came for her medical exam, although it is worth mentioning that the line was very long to get to that window. The staff at the window were very nice and helpful, and said that it was good that she was collecting it, as it might have been problematic to try to use a printed scan of the letter. I would suggest that if anyone has not received their letter and doesn't have a lot of time to spare like that, it would be wise for the USC in the US to courier them the copy of the letter which they received. She was able to submit her documents at the VFS office without any problem.

2. When she came for the interview, she was questioned by the clerk who took her documents, who made a number of insulting and unnecessary remarks as well as misinformation. When I called the State dept and asked about this later, the person I spoke with sneered and said, "She was just a clerk. She probably didn't know what she was talking about." It's good for those going for an interview to be aware of this, so they aren't unnecessarily rattled just before going in for their interview.

3. We got 221g'd because we needed to send a couple of documents which hadn't been included to the NVC, and we scanned and sent them by email for her to print. They needed originals. It was a major pain in the neck, but on important documents they need *original* signatures. I know, I know, sounds pretty stupid to have tried to send anything in that way, and to be frank, it sounds stupid because it was. My bad on that one.

3. When she returned with the documents (now couriered) to her!), the person at the VFS counter (different from the person who had been there earlier) demanded a document that *no one* had even mentioned earlier, and tried to send her away! My wife argued that she had brought everything she had been asked to bring, and that she needed to receive her documents *NOW*. The lady's response was a doubtful, "Well, we'll let the consulate decide." (which, I suppose, is the whole point, right? ).

3a. Important Note: As far as possible, don't take anything with you to VFS accept what one needs to submit. My wife went alone the second time (from another city) and had her backpack with her. She left it with a woman who said she was waiting for her daughter, and when my wife returned, the woman was gone, and so, apparently, was her backpack. She was then scolded by the security guard, who went on and on about how it wasn't their responsibility to look after her backpack, that she shouldn't have left it with that lady, etc, etc. After waiting there for a good half hour trying to figure out what she was going to do, the guard brought out her backpack, which it turns out the lady had left with him to give to my wife! He was going to keep her backpack!

4. The visa was issued several days later; I was able to find out by calling the State Dept (+202-663-1225) and find out that her visa had been issued before her passport arrived the following day! That was nice....

A Couple of other bits and pieces:

5. We got a reasonably good ticket price for her to fly out to the US within 10 days of getting the visa by going to http://www.mobissimo.com, which is a meta search engine for flights. Highly recommended.

6. Her visa had the following on it: "Upon endorsement serves as a temporary I-551 evidencing permanent residence for 1 year;" from appearances, it looks like this is standard.

7. POE in Newark was without problem.

8. Embraces and family hugs upon arrival were celebrated by all 3 of us!!

Hope this is helpful to somebody[ies]. The upshot is: 1. Make sure you have all of your original documents in, 2. Don't get discouraged by clerks and VFS staff, and 3. Be persistent, and 4. Don't bring anything to VFS, unless you have someone with you who can wait outside with your stuff.

Matt & Chandra

Thanks for all the support. Jigi, my I-130 petition was transfered from Nebraska Service Center to California Service Center few days after I filed it. So it seems that Nebraska is just a place to send the petition and the petition is actually processed at CSC. And one-way ticket prices are very expensive compared to the round trip prices. The same airline ticket which costs about $1200-1250 roundtrip is about $850-$900 for one way. I was searching for airline tickets in about 2 weeks and the cheapest I was able to find was over $800 for one way trip.

First and Foremost, Congratulations!

Second, honestly, $800 from India to the US is actually pretty good. I assume that's including tax. Where'd you get that fare?

Peace,

Matt & Chandra

I've sent a few emails, but haven't gotten any responses... how longs does it usually take?

Is there a different address other than mumbaiIV@state.gov?

Is there a certain way of addressing them in the subject line?

thanks

Alas, our subsequent questions (such as confirmation that one can collect one's passport following IV approval the same evening in VFS Mumbai) have gone unanswered. Sigh.

Of course, in my case they may not have answered because apparently this information is available elsewhere. In this case the VFS website, which says,

Matt & Chandra (though this one was all Matt's fault!)

I've sent a few emails, but haven't gotten any responses... how longs does it usually take?

Is there a different address other than mumbaiIV@state.gov?

Is there a certain way of addressing them in the subject line?

thanks

Our initial inquiries to the Mumbai embassy were answered in a series of back and forth emails which were at times taking a mere hour to receive a reply. We were quite impressed.

Alas, our subsequent questions (such as confirmation that one can collect one's passport following IV approval the same evening in VFS Mumbai) have gone unanswered. Sigh.

Does Mumbai embassy require a Packet 3 from us, or do they accept it from NVC and send us the Packet 4 directly?

In our case, after the NVC sent Mumbai the case info, they issued an interview date. Packet 4 hasn't shown up in the mail as of yet, but as we have an interview date, it would seem that packet 3 is integrated with the NVC procedure for CR-1/IR-1 applicants. It would be good if others could confirm this, though.

Peace,

Matt & Chandra

Hi Gang!

My wife finally got an interview date ..... unfortunately the day after our son's birthday . We're wondering if it might be possible for her to come by Thanksgiving, though. So my question is, does Mumbai ever allow interviewees who have received their visa to pick up the passport from the embassy? Or courier to another address? Mainly I'm wondering if she can avoid heading all the way back to Kolkata just to be there when her passport arrives. Also, how long does the passport usually take to arrive by courier?

Thanks for any info y'all can provide.

Matt & Chandra

You can pick up the passport from the VFS office (very close to Mumbai Consulate) in the evening.

Wow! That's great news. Thanks!

Matt & Chandra

Hi Gang!

My wife finally got an interview date ..... unfortunately the day after our son's birthday . We're wondering if it might be possible for her to come by Thanksgiving, though. So my question is, does Mumbai ever allow interviewees who have received their visa to pick up the passport from the embassy? Or courier to another address? Mainly I'm wondering if she can avoid heading all the way back to Kolkata just to be there when her passport arrives. Also, how long does the passport usually take to arrive by courier?

Thanks for any info y'all can provide.

Matt & Chandra

Hi Vjs,

Thank GOD my case was completed and

I would like to thanks Vjs as well, I do reallly appreciate each one of you!!!

I called NVC last night and the auto message stated that the case was completed on Sep 11 2007 and wait 8 week......etc.

Hope I will get my medical ang interview in London soon!! INSHA ALLAH--------------------

MY TIMELINE - CR1

I-130

09/29/06 - GOT MARRIED IN PAKISTAN (MOST BEAUTIFUL DAY OF MY LIFE)

09/01/06 - I-130 sent.

09/05/06 - NOA1

05/24/07 - NOA2

NVC

06/13/07 - NVC receives petition and case # assigned.

06/25/07 - Form DS-3032 (Choice of Agent) & AoS bill generated.

06/27/07 - E-mailed choice of agent using James' shortcut.

07/03/07 - Mailed AOS bill via overnight mail using James' shortcut.

07/11/07 - NVC e-mails back accepting Choice of Agent

07/13/07 - IV bill generated.

07/16/07 - Received IV bill via snail mail

07/18/07 - Mailed IV bill back via overnight mail.

07/20/07 - I-864 received via snail mail

07/23/07 - Mailed I-864 via overnight mail.

07/28/07 - Payment for IV bill entered into the system

08/06/07 - DS-230 generated.

08/15/07 - Received DS-230 coversheet via snail mail.

08/24/07 - Mailed DS-230 packet to NVC via overnight mail (didn't use James' shortcuts).

08/29/07 - DS-230 info entered in NVC's system.

09/11/07 - CASE COMPLETED!!! THANK GOD

1. Congratulations!

2. We got "case complete" on 9/11 as well. It's been almost eerie how our timelines have been almost identical.

Wa Salaam,

Matt & Chandra

Mazel tov & Swagatam, Mala! :dance:

Don't let the NVC confuse you. All you need are either: 1. tax transcripts from the IRS (no W2s needed). OR 2. copies of tax returns WITH copies of the W2s. That's it.

hi, is this the same info for the I-134 affidavit of support? and does it have to be notarized? thanks alot for your help

Belated thanks, gang!

Matt & Chandra

We also applied for the IR-1 (a year ago), and only came across VJ a few months back. We are towards the end, though I just found out that they want more financial information from our documents.

Thanks, I'm trying to organize everything but NVC is taking forever to accept my e-mail with the choice of agent...

I just got off the phone an hour ago with the NVC, and to my surprise was told that along with the transcripts (not returns) I needed to send in not only the W-2'a and 1099's, but also a copy of tax schedules filed with the 1040 (C, A, et al). I'm wondering if the lady I spoke with was confusing transcripts with returns.

Matt & Chandra

I sent the Choice of Agent email on June 26, and received a reply indicating that they'd accepted the choice of agent on July 6. Certainly longer than we were expecting, although still less time than it would take for the letter to reach India. The email read,

Anyone have any idea how long it will take for the IV Bill to arrive?

Thanks,

Matt & Chandra

This morning a woman at NVC told me that they had finished their Administrative Processing and that the file would soon go to Moscow. We were in Administrative Processing for exactly four weeks.

Congratulations on getting past AP! Hope things go more smoothly for you from here on out!

In the meantime, we got the happy news that our AOS and DS-3032 were generated yesterday. We have already sent out the choice of agent email. Hopefully things will be fairly quick now.....

Cheers,

Matt & Chandra

Thanks it is much appreciated!!!!!!! Hope all goes well for you both Matt & Chandra and Dan & Tiffany.

Thanks Eddie & Mary, I'm sure everything will go according to script for you on Aug 3!

Hoping to get word of a generated AoS & choice of agent forms on Tues!

Peace,

Matt & Chandra

I just got off the phone and found out the interview is on August 3, 2006.

Wow! Congrats on your interview date!

We just got our case number from NVC, which was cause for rejoicing (the obligatory

, etc, etc), but will definitely be increasing the rejoicing when we receive the interview date (and indeed, even more so once we get through the interview!).

Cheers,

Matt & Chandra