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Dear All,

Yesterday our visas arrived and we fly out on the 18th August, movers have been, Children and cats all updated with vaccines!!

15 months of waiting....Awful...receiving visas.....priceless!

Try to stay patient everyone who is waiting, as soon as you get your visas you forget about all awaiting time.

I'll update my timeline etc soon.

Emma

:dance: I passed my interview!! :dance:

Visa will be here next week, so happy.

Hope your all well

Bex xxx

Great news!! I am getting a bit nervous about ours, how was it?!

I don't think your letter was considered to expedite your interview but it was more of a wake up call for them to process a case that has taken 15 months to process.

Either way, I'm glad you're almost done.

Diana

Nah, I think this was an expedite. The interview is in about 2.5 weeks after she got the date. Thats really quick. They usually try to give you a month to schedule medical and all. Either way, good for you. Good luck at the interview.

Thank you!

Although they can only schedule me in for the medical on the 18th so it wo't get to the embassy in time for our interview. But I've been told everything should be done by the 28th (ish!!)

Emma

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to let you all know that I have had my case expedited and have received my interview date for the 21st July Aaaaarggh.

It was not a military expedite but based on my children starting school in September and I have posted a seperate topic on what I did.

Hope perhaps some of you are able to use the idea.

Best wishes

Emma

Dear All,

I requested to have both mine and my childrens CR1 visa expedited on the grounds of my children needing to attend school starting in September. I email the NVC with the request ( you need to put Attn: PI Supervisor Sue in the subject line) here is an extract from my email:

"Our children are of school age; 9 and 5 and I am extremely concerned that if our visa application is not approved in time for the commencing of the new school year in September my children will be adversely effected by having to change schools and educational systems mid year, especially my eldest daughter who is dyslexic. In addition, I also have a verbal agreement with a local school that my children will have a place to commence in September 2008 and fear that these places will not be available should they not be able to take them in September.

I appreciate that there are many people waiting as patiently as possible for their visa and as such I thank you in advance for the time you have taken to look at our cases. My family and I eagerly await you response."

I sent this on the 13th June and have just received our embassy interview date (21st July!!!!)

I hope this information my be of use to people and that a few more of us can get through a little bit quicker, I'm a patient person but waiting 15 months was beginning to get on my nerves a bit

Hi Matt85,

I just wanted to tell you in fact that you are incorrect. When the soldiers are overseas fighting in a war or wven at home going through training they are already under high stress levels. Their minds must be focused at all times because that makes the difference between life and death for them and their fellow soldiers in many situations.

A soldier having to worry about when he will see his or her spouse and about matters related to immigration IS a matter of DOD interest because they need them functioning and their higest levels.

At the end of the day it's NOT about 'the visa'....it's about getting their spouse at home as soon as possible so they can feel more at ease.

I imagine if you are not, and have never been in a military relationship it might be difficult to grasp. It's much easier to deal with a prolonged separation if your spouse is doing desk work all day than knowing they are getting shot at and blown up on a regular basis.

I'm not going to speak any more on the matter as it is apparently very touchy. I think our time would be better spent helping, encouraging and assisting each other in our quest to be with our loved ones regardless of the way we choose to do it.

I'm sorry, but a military member being with his/her loved one is not vital to our nation's security. Any claim as such is completely outrageous.

Let's be clear, military expedites for deployment reasons are completely valid.

But now we are talking about just a general expedite for a military member for the reason of "National Interest".

I'm curious how these commanders, who are signing off on these "military" expedites, are wording these papers to reflect that reuniting loved ones is a national interest.

For perspective, say 100 military people apply for an expedite. Lets say 50 are deploying, and 50 are just trying to get one because they are military members. If any of those that are not deploying get expedited faster, it is a great disservice to those who are going to be deploying into Iraq/Afghanistan. This much should be obvious, right?

National interest entails accounting for our nuclear stockpiles, helping Americans affected by natural distasters, etc. Things of that scale. Not speeding up immigration because a soldier misses his loved one. No other way to spin it.

Matt

Dear All,

Firstly Hello, I have not seen this thread before and wanted to introduce myself as a wife of an active duty US soldier (I do't like Military Spouse as a term - It sounds like I married the military and not my husband, although I realise that this effectively means I married the military!!! )

Matt,

I can appreciate your point but it is not one that I can agree with. There are a few issues that as a none military spouse you will probably not be aware of and I thought I might bring them to your attention in the interest of discussion:

1. Military members are often away on field training with no access to phone, email or regular mail. The length of time can vary from a week to several weeks. And you can bet that this training will happen several times a year generally when you are waiting for an all important notice or packet. Personally, my husband and I have lost 3 months due to these particular circumstances.

2. Generally, military members do not work 9-5 jobs so getting to the post office, obtaining copy documentation, making the endless calls to the USCIS and NVC is difficult. Lower ranks have even bigger problems as they may need to get "permission" to do these things during normal working hours.

3. Divorce in the military is at a higher rate than the general population so you need to have a very strong relationship to cope with long seperations, regular moves and irregular work patterns. This relationship cannot be built up over the couple of months you might get prior to your spouse deploying especially as if he (she) has already receive orders to deploy as you can be sure that their mind will be focused on deployment not curling up on the sofa with newly arrived spouse!!!!

4. My final point is that when your spouse arrives you know that you will never have to spend this much time apart again. You know that when they go to work, generally, they will be home for dinner, weekends will be yours, conversations can be forever face-to-face. Military spouses know that their husband (wife) will be gone several weeks a year if not for a full year or more, we know that dinner will not always be eaten together (despite the fact you made it as you he was on the way ome an hour ago!), we know that our time as a couple, a family is only our own until the phone rings or orders arrive. We know that one day we may need to stand and watch our beloved partner walk away and deep down know that we may never see them again, we will want to run after them and say "don't go" but know that is just not something we can do, we know that nights will be spent lay awake one phone under the pillow, another by the bed and a mobile phone (or two) "just in case". As military spouses we know what we "signed up" to so I am not asking for sympathy just the compassion to understand that for every day a military wife spends away from her husband is a day that could have been lived together, a day that she may not get the opportunity to make up for over the coming years. A day lost forever.

So is the expediting of our cases really so very wrong? I am sure many people will say it is, but as the husbands & wives of the military we will disagree in strongest terms.

Regards

Emma

It sounds as though your husband is military. If that is th ecase he will probably have used JAG (Judge Advocate General) in his divorce. If he does not have copies of his papers then JAG may possibly be able to help - bit of a long shot but worth a try.

Also just so you know the military will also have facilities for him to have copies certified free of charge on post/base.

We have decided that enough is enough waiting and have decided to go with The Shortcuts, so I am playing catch up!

Just finishing off the DS230 but re question 23 on schools attended I didn't goto University and finished education at highschool level. Do I list this? As the question asks for degree or Diploma I thought that maybe they were looking for University?

Next question would be 25 "all previous visits" REALLY!? Do they mean holidays, trips when I was 17? I have no idea of these dates (never thought I would need them!). Am I reading this wrong? If this info is required can anyone suggest where I would get it from (I don't have the same passport so can't check stamps!)

Advice appreciated.

Thank you

Emma

Hi,

Could anyone tell if my husband needs to pay the AOS fee bill 3 times (once for my my visa application and once for each of our 2 children?). I am due to fly back to the UK tomorrow and we are trying to get all the paperwork gathered and clarify our plan of action. I am sure it will all be clear on the letters (perhaps!) but as they have not arrived yet thought someone may be able to tell me.

Thanks for your help.

Emma

Hello Emma,

1. The AOS fee bill is $70. The IV Bill is $380.

2. For the choice of agent you should choose the person you want the NVC to send all correspondence to while your case is being processed. Typically people choose the US Citizen to be the Choice of Agent since the US mail system is faster and more reliable than having it go overseas.

3. The beneficiary is the one who fills out and signs the DS-3032 form and it cannot be sent to the NVC until they say it has been generated. If you call the NVC, the automated system should tell you when it has been generated. It's usually about 2 weeks after they assign your petition a case number.

FYI - Try to go to the National Visa Center forum to find out more info about the NVC process for CR1/IR1 visas.

Diana

Thank you so much! It is good to have people to check this stuff against - especially when it is all wrong!!

I will go to that forum now. Not sure how I failed to find it!!

Dear All,

As usual I have tried to absorb way to much information today and my head is just spinning so would someone mind answering a couple of questions for me? I promise I have searched the site but keep getting sidetracked with the results I find onto something else!! Sorry!

So here goes:

1) Is the AOS bill payment $380 per petition? Or is this for something totally different? If so what?!

2) DS3032 - Choice of agent form - we are not using a lawyer so do I put myself (the alien) or my husband (the USC) on the form. I started thinking about the UK postal strikes etc and now have no clue what to put!!

3) Can I be completing and returning the DS3032 prior to my husband paying the AOS bill (he is "out" for the next couple of weeks with no access to the real world - I know that sounds odd but it is his line of work!)

I think that is it for now! It has been a very stressful & exciting week (getting our approval and passing my driving test on the first attempt - yay me!) my brain has decided to go on strike!

As ever help much appreciated.

Emma

hi guys

23 may my priority date 31 may check cashed 13 june NOA1 date was 31 augest so do you think guys i would get my approval soon even my visajourney timeline is saying 15 december ?

We have similar dates to yours and received our approval in the post yesterday! It was dated 15th October. So yours should be anyday now.

Good luck - and don't check the online info too often it will make you crazy....25 times a day is more than enough!!

Emma

Laura received her police report this morning.

We're wondering if this is all that's needed. I'm assuming it means she's squeaky clean but wanted to see if other peoples' reports were acceptable that said this.

Regards

Hello,

That is the exact same letter I received and to the best of my knowledge, previous advice given here and a phone call to the my local police department which dealt with the request that is all you need. I have not had an interview but I am sure someone who has will answer!

Personally, I have a Criminal Record Bureau advanced disclosure as well but this is due to having previously volunteered in a school. I plan to take this to the interview but it is really not needed. The only reason I mentioned it is that so many areas of work require them now that if Laura had one she may want to pop it in with all the other "stuff"

Best of luck

Emma

Hello everyone,

Thought I would add my details to this list. We received out NOA2 dated the 15th October (took 145 days)

I am at work so have not had the chance to read through all the pages in case you wanted the info in a particular way - sorry.

I'm so excited!!!

Emma

Helllo ,

YES YOU ARE RIGHT>>>.. they updated it today... my case is current

Ah you of little faith, I was soooo surprised too!

Hello everyone,

Not sure if you have noticed but the CSC have updated their processing times.

For the I-130 for a spouse etc they are working on petitions dated....drum roll please...February 12th I have to admit to being pleasantly surprised!!

Here's the link:

https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/jsps/Processtim...eviceCenter=CSC

Just to flog this one more time -

On 07/20/2007 I sent my I-130 to Texas by mistake. SInce I was going to file 485/765/131 as well, it should have all been sent together to the Chicago dropbox instead. Other VJers said I should wait for the receipt and send the rest to Chicago with a copy of the receipt. I have had the package with the I-485 etc ready to send to Chicago while waiting the receipt from TX. On 08/18/2007 I got the I-797C NOA, but it was from California, not Texas, even though I live in Georgia. So, do I still send the package to the Chicago dropbox, or to California?

The other question is, should I scream in frustration or pour another glass and relax?

I could be very wrong about this but I have been given the impression by the customer (dis)service that I130 are only handled by California now. We sent ours to Nebraska and it has ended up at California. I was told everything should be sent to California but hey I have been waiting for 65 days for my NOA1 and my daughters petition is not linked to mine. So who knows whats going on!

WRT screaming or drinking I like to alternate the two on a daily basis - variety is the spice of life don't you know.

We have sent I130 petitions for myself and our two daughters. We also had to send a change of address recently, which we did online. The notices saying the address change had been done arrived for myself and my youngest daughter on the same day but for my eldest daughter 1 week later. I was not concerned as her name begins with a Z so she regularly gets things through a day so later than her sister (poor kid!).

However, We have not received an NOA1 and when I called to request it be resent. The customer (Dis)service lady said she noticed our cases were not "linked" and that she would do it for us. I was expecting that a touch would show on the case but nothing has so I presume she hasn't done a thing! Basically when I ring back again (because clearly we all love being on hold for ever!!) I want to know if I should ask them to link the 3 cases?

I should perhaps mention that the children are 4 and 8 so no issues with being over 21 or anything like that.

Thanks for any help or advice you can offer.

Hello everyone,

Sorry I have not been around for a long time various work etc reasons.

We have now swapped to the CR1 visa (won't bore you with why!) But just to say that we have still not received our NOA1, that is obviously not a big deal now we are no longer persuing the K3. However, I have requested another copy which I have been told to wait another 30-45 days for! Oh well nevermind.

I guess you might want to remove me from the spreadsheet. Best of luck to you all.

The timeframe we are looking at is 6 months for a CR1 visa and slightly LONGER for the K3!! The immigration officer advised not to file for the K3 as it will only take longer and cost more. I have decided to go with this advice, it means that we can relax and not worry about the NOA1 and sending the I-129f. There is of course the other factors such as having to wait for Perm residence status and the new higher costs to consider when choosing the K3 route.

The above statement is confusing. The USCIS "officer" is not privy to visa time frames. He would be privy to the time frames for adjudicating petitions. Are you saying he predicted six months from receipt of petition to I-130 petition approval and then even longer for an I-129F for spouse?

Or, was he generalizing on actual visa time frames that vary widely depending on the country?

Perhaps his "even longer" comment was in the context of petition filing to green card.

This is why you see some of us continually reminding people of the correct terminology. If you want meaningful answers you must ask the right questions. If you want your reports to give the proper impression, they must be as verbatim as possible.

Any clarification would be appreciated if your memory serves you well.

Hi,

Good point well made!

I take shorthand notes of everthing which is said so they are verbatim.

So let me give you the type up of my shorthand for this section and then everyone can use their own interpretation of what has been said and let me know if I have got hte wrong end of the stick: IO is officer EM is me

EM: The reason I am inquiring about the delivery time of the I797 is that we wish to file a form I-129f in order to obtain a K3 visa...

IO: Currently from receipt to approval the I-129f for a spouse visa is taking longer than the than the I-130 visa by a few days. If your I-130 gets to the embassy before your I-129f then the embassy will not see you under the I-129f and you will have wasted your money. You also have to remember that you will not become a permenant resident for 2 years and with your husband possibly not being in the US at that time this could be a problem for you. There is also the extra costs involved.

EM: Can you tell me if this an estimate of the timeframes? and is that generally or for cases the same as ours using the CSC and the London embassy?

IO: No one will be getting anyone into the country quicker than this ma'am.

From here I asked a few questions regarding expediting the case due to issues which have occured with my husbands job I was told at this point that no I-130 or I-129f can be expedited under any circumstances (NB: this is not what I was told yesterday!!!)

I am sorry if anyone feels I am passing on duff info. We have however decided to abandon the K3 visa for various reasons which I won't bore you with as they are not relevant to most people here.

Well hope this clarifies things for everyone. I'm feeling a bit sad so I'm having an early night!!

Emma

Thanks, Emma. Your notes as transcribed above don't mention anything about six months. How is that?

Anyway the USCIS officer probably has less current timeline information about various visa processes after they leave USCIS service centers than is available here. I wouldn't take anything he said about NVC or Consular procedures as gospel. He clearly failed to mention that if you file a timely I-129F, you effectively kill your CR1 possibilities or that the NVC part of the process is far longer for the I-130 than for the I-129F. (The former he should know but there's no reason to expect him to know the latter.)

Sorry, the reason it was left off was because I stopped typing half way through due to my youngest daughter bumping her head and I lost my place. I am at work now but will look again when I get home and see which sentence I missed out.

Although, it be honest it seems a little pointless as the information based on NOA arrival dates was clearly wrong. Bah all very frustrating. I think I am just going to step back from things for a few days my husband is out of contact for a while so I will not know if your NOA1 arrives anyway.

Emma

Emma

I hope so for those waiting, but do keep in mind the officer you spoke with is human and very capable at playing guessing games as well as making mistakes.

Sorry again, I should have said that she told me she was reading from a notice but it is certainly not gospel as they say.

I do have a nasty habit of presuming everyone takes the same attitude as me in life which tends to be that I don't believe anything until it is in my hands/reality I really hope everyone does get their NOA's as the "notice" suggested.

Emma

The timeframe we are looking at is 6 months for a CR1 visa and slightly LONGER for the K3!! The immigration officer advised not to file for the K3 as it will only take longer and cost more. I have decided to go with this advice, it means that we can relax and not worry about the NOA1 and sending the I-129f. There is of course the other factors such as having to wait for Perm residence status and the new higher costs to consider when choosing the K3 route.

The above statement is confusing. The USCIS "officer" is not privy to visa time frames. He would be privy to the time frames for adjudicating petitions. Are you saying he predicted six months from receipt of petition to I-130 petition approval and then even longer for an I-129F for spouse?

Or, was he generalizing on actual visa time frames that vary widely depending on the country?

Perhaps his "even longer" comment was in the context of petition filing to green card.

This is why you see some of us continually reminding people of the correct terminology. If you want meaningful answers you must ask the right questions. If you want your reports to give the proper impression, they must be as verbatim as possible.

Any clarification would be appreciated if your memory serves you well.

Hi,

Good point well made!

I take shorthand notes of everthing which is said so they are verbatim.

So let me give you the type up of my shorthand for this section and then everyone can use their own interpretation of what has been said and let me know if I have got hte wrong end of the stick: IO is officer EM is me

EM: The reason I am inquiring about the delivery time of the I797 is that we wish to file a form I-129f in order to obtain a K3 visa...

IO: Currently from receipt to approval the I-129f for a spouse visa is taking longer than the than the I-130 visa by a few days. If your I-130 gets to the embassy before your I-129f then the embassy will not see you under the I-129f and you will have wasted your money. You also have to remember that you will not become a permenant resident for 2 years and with your husband possibly not being in the US at that time this could be a problem for you. There is also the extra costs involved.

EM: Can you tell me if this an estimate of the timeframes? and is that generally or for cases the same as ours using the CSC and the London embassy?

IO: No one will be getting anyone into the country quicker than this ma'am.

From here I asked a few questions regarding expediting the case due to issues which have occured with my husbands job I was told at this point that no I-130 or I-129f can be expedited under any circumstances (NB: this is not what I was told yesterday!!!)

I am sorry if anyone feels I am passing on duff info. We have however decided to abandon the K3 visa for various reasons which I won't bore you with as they are not relevant to most people here.

Well hope this clarifies things for everyone. I'm feeling a bit sad so I'm having an early night!!

Emma

Dear All,

Today I decided that I was bored of waiting for our NOA1 for the I-130 so I called USCIS and managed to get to speak to an immigration officer here is how I did this and the info I got:

1) To speak to an immigration officer, not just a general customer service person, say that you have been waiting for over 45 days for your NOA1 and that the person you spoke to last advised you to call back today and ask to be transfered to the people who can track the case. (Do not ask to speak to an immigration officer I tried this & they won't let you if you ask directly)

2) The customer service person will transfer you to the immigration officer. Note you will be on hold for about 25+ minutes

3) Yippee you have an immigration officer all to yourself, the one I got was lovely and asked me about 5 times if there was anything else I wanted to ask.

So here is what I learnt:

Anyone who filed from mid to end of May and have not yet received there noa1 yours have been posted last Friday or this Monday - yay for you!

Beginning of June filers expect yours at the end of this week/start of next.

The reason that we have all been sent to California is that the powers that be have decided that California is now the only centre to process 6 different forms including the I-130 therefore they are behind!

The timeframe we are looking at is 6 months for a CR1 visa and slightly LONGER for the K3!! The immigration officer advised not to file for the K3 as it will only take longer and cost more. I have decided to go with this advice, it means that we can relax and not worry about the NOA1 and sending the I-129f. There is of course the other factors such as having to wait for Perm residence status and the new higher costs to consider when choosing the K3 route.

Well I hope that you all may have found some points of interest in my mini-ramblings.

Best of luck as ever.

Emma and Family

If my NOA1 was sent by snail mail I think our snail has been squashed by a nasty child - Still nothing and the online status checking seems to be on the blink my lovely internet guardian ie Norton, tells me the security certificate has been revoked but when I ignore the warning it then tells me my user name and password are incorrect. Which doesn't fill me with confidence, anyone else had the same problem?

Now I might be being a bit dim but why are our petitions at the California Service centre? I thought I would get Nebraska (my husband is in Seattle) and the sending the I129f to Chicago.

Any thoughts? Have I missed something re Nebraska.

Oh and no NOA1 as of yesterday. I have a feeling that they use carrier pigeons to deliver our mail