Elle84

Updates updates! (and sorry Mada I thought I had replied to your message earlier but life has been crazy busy so just realizing not that I didn't). My mom had the interview today. Consular officer said he is going to approve her visa, canceled the tourist visa and took her passport. Said she should expect her passport to be delivered to her home in 3-5 business days. I had uploaded to CEAC on 1/2 the following: updated I-864 and I-864A, latest pay stubs of both me and my husband, a letter of employment from my new job, the lease of her rental property, and her proof of pension (cupon de pensie). She also had these printed with her at the interview. Nobody asked to see them, and the status of these documents in CEAC still shows "Submitted" and not "Accepted" (which makes me think the embassy didn't look at them in CEAC either). Anyway, maybe they will look during the background check/administrative processing phase. The visa status still says "Ready" with the last status update showing today's date. To answer your questions: - immunization records: she got them from her primary care provider (medic de familie). - I am from Constanta, that is where my mom currently lives also - we did not plan yet for her pension to be sent to an American account. She is currently receiving it in her Romanian account (Raiffeisen), and she can use her Raiffeisen debit card here with no issues. We'll decide later on what is best to do in this aspect. How's your mom's case progressing?

Thank you!! Her rental income is $500/month so not much compared to her pension but I will definitely have her add that in. Also my husband and I's combined income is going from $164k to $190k with me changing jobs, and we filled out a I-864A, and she will be living with us, it's not like she will be paying her own rent for a whole place. If even like this they will see her as potential public charge, idk what to say anymore. Cross your fingers for us, will send updates!

Some more things: 1. My mom is 67 and has Type 2 Diabetes (induced by her tyrhoid meds) and cardiovascular diseases (high blood pressure, arrythmia). But she is otherwise in good standing, not overweight at all, and carries herself with ladylike grace. I was thinking of ways to prove that she will not become a public charge with her age and chronic diseases. Some ideas: - upload to CEAC (and have her bring at the interview) the proof of her pension ($2,500/month) that she will get for her whole lifetime no matter where she lives - she also has a rental property in our hometown, so we could translate and upload/bring that lease contract as additional proof of ongoing income - I can write a letter stating that we will purchase health insurance (which we absolutely will). Any other ideas? 2. I am starting a new job on Monday (big raise yay). By the time the interview happens, I assume I'll already have 2 biweekly pay stubs and I can get a letter of employment from my new employer. I want to upload and have her bring those to the interview as well. Will they make me submit a new I-864 too?

You guys!! My mom's case got Documentarily Qualified by NVC this morning! Now we wait for the email with the interview date! I looked back at the email chain from my own case in 2020, and it took 15 days from receiving Documentarily Qualified email to receiving the interview date email. And, interview date email was 10/6, for an interview of 11/4. Very curious to see how it pans out with the dates this time! The US Embassy in Bucharest doesn't really have a big backlog of Immigrant Visa interviews. The day of my own interview, there was just me and another lady (but also that was during Covid). Omg I'm so excited!!

Yayyy congrats!!! May the rest of the journey go smoothly! Keep us posted ❤️

I was able to pay the NVC fees once I logged into the CEAC site which was after I got that welcome email from NVC. The payment does take 2-3 business days to get processed though, because you pay from your bank account and not with a credit card. And I finally got to upload all the documents and fill out the visa application this weekend! Now we wait...

Yall!! Soooo my mom and I got the NVC welcome email this morning - case is at NVC!! 1 week after USCIS approval! Christmas in NYC with my mom now seems very do-able! Woooo!!! (And no we're still not getting tickets until visa in hand but Bucharest embassy is super fast so it's starting to get real!)

Thank you! This definitely helped make some order in my scattered brain. (Also, I should have known all this already lol, I did my own immigration process from I-130 to naturalization, I just have a serious case of double mom brain this time around). Thankfully, there are no flights booked yet, and you bet we'll have everything ready to submit!

Hello fellow VisaJourney-ers! I (USC) filed an I-130 for my mom on September 1st, 2024. First month - "myProgress" tab showed "4 months to case decision". Second month - it jumped to 17 months. Fair enough - Vermont Service Center. Steadily decreasing every month and it got to 7 months this month. Yesterday I get an email "we have taken an action on your case". I go in myUSCIS, status was saying "Case is still being processed by USCIS" with the same "7 months" under myProgress. But.... I go into my Documents and here it is... a gleaming I-130 APPROVAL NOTICE PDF. Saying "we have approved your petition, case is being transferred to NVC." Yay. There is an inconsistency on the notice, it says that I said in the i-130 both that she will interview at the embassy, AND that she will apply for Adjustment of Status from the US, and that, because her last address is in our home country, the case will go the NVC-embassy route. Mind you, I did NOT say in the petition that she would apply for Adjustment of Status from the US (I double checked the petition - I ONLY said she will interview at the embassy). Anyway, whatever. Today I go into myUSCIS again, the approval notice is still there, but the myProgress now says "time until case decision - 20 months". Questions: - How long until it will show the correct status? - How long until case gets to NVC? AI is giving me 1-2 months - How long until documentarily qualified and case sent to embassy? - We did my I-130 (spousal visa) back in 2019-2020 and we dragged the NVC part because of how we were planning our move to the US, and the Bucharest embassy at the time had basically zero backlog (I got an interview date almost as soon as we were documentarily qualified)... anyone has any recent experience with this stage? - This all boils down to... any real chance of visa in hand by January 2026? Based on the original timeline we were planning for my mom to come in January on her tourist visa and stay for like 5 months and then go back and do the embassy phase in Bucharest, so this sudden early approval kind of busts our plans - anyone traveled to the US successfully on a tourist visa while having an approved I-130 petition? Everywhere I looked strongly advises against this, and we obviously are leaning towards just waiting until she has her immigrant visa but curious to see others' experience - and lastly.... what is going on at USCIS? Is this because of the government shutdown?

ALL DONE, guys!! It was such an emotional morning and day. Still trying to collect myself, glad I took a whole day off from work. I sobbed almost the entire time while being there. There were about 1200 people scheduled for ceremony today (not all showed up but it was still A LOT of people), from 102 countries. What I learned today is that naturalization ceremonies are basically federal court hearings. There's a judge who swears us in but before that, there's someone (I think from USCIS) who "advocates" for all those present to be naturalized and formally confirms to the judge that we meet all the conditions. Then the judge stands us all up, says the Oath (I could barely hear him even though I was in second row) and we're supposed to say "I Will". Then he says the Pledge of Allegiance and then a lady and a guitar guy play the Anthem. All this while we all stand. Then some city/county officials say speeches. Afterwards I thought it would be a nightmare for all of us hundreds of people to get our naturalization certificates but it was actually very organized, with several tables and they have ushers that direct people etc. That part only took maybe 15-20 minutes from the moment they allowed my section to leave their seats until I had my certificate in hand. Also - guests were allowed!! For those of you still on the journey - may your day come soon! ❤️

Hello beautiful people! I have the following situation: N-400 online filing: 11/12/2023 USCIS actively reviewing case: 11/12/2023 (no biometrics, I got a "reuse biometrics" notification, probably from my ROC in 2022) Currently it says about 5 months wait time until a decision will be made (that's for people applying under 5-year rule in my area; I applied under the 3-year rule so that estimate can be totally irrelevant). I am in Houston, TX. So assuming I will get an interview letter in early June this year - how far out will the actual interview date be from the date I receive the letter? Asking this because of course I am planning on traveling for vacation to my home country for 2 weeks between last week of June and 2nd week of July. I already know that "vacation" is not exactly a valid reason to try to move your interview date, and I am planning to book tickets in a way that makes the trip date change possible. But the trip still has to happen at some point during summer and I don't want to give it up altogether. Thanks so much!!