Portuguese91

Thank you @arken @Chancy @Lucky Cat @JeanneAdil, you guys were most helpful! 

We already e-mailed the embassy

Hello everyone!

My fiancé (petitioner) and I applied for a K1 visa back in December of 2019. With the pandemic it didn't move as it usually would, and in the meantime we changed our minds. However, I have my interview date for June 23rd at the US Embassy in Paris.

My fiancé is here with me (Portugal) and we now plan on getting married here, and then apply for a CR1 visa. The main reason for that change is that I got a better job (than the one in 2019) and she is currently unemployed. It would make zero sense to keep pursuing a K1 visa and then having to quit my job just to sit and wait for 6-8 months before I could work in the US.

I have read several posts about withdrawing from K1 visa, and I know she (petitioner) must send a notarized letter with our decision. However, I still have a question: Since our K1 visa case is at the interview stage, who should we contact/inform about our decision? The US Embassy in Paris? The NVC? Or the USCIS?

Also, can we apply for the CR1 visa if we decide to live together here in Portugal for the meantime? Or must she (petitioner) be in the US to be able to apply?

Thank you all in advance!

18 hours ago, Mario001 said:

I got my K1 interview schedule, and was going trough the necessary documents to bring, but I have this question about the police certificate.

 

In the US France Embassy it says:

Police Certificate:  A police certificate is required for each applicant aged 16 years and over, including France or Portugal and/or any country where an applicant has lived for more than six months after the age of 16.  Please see http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/fees/reciprocity-by-country.html for instructions on how to obtain police certificates for each country. All police certificates must cover the entire period of the applicant’s residence in that area.  Police certificates for the current country of residence must be less than one year old.

 

source:https://fr.usembassy.gov/visas/immigrant-visas/immigrant-visa-required-documents/

 

I lived in the US for one year on a J1 visa. Does this mean that I need to provide a police certificate from the US, or do I only need to bring one from Portugal?

 

Thank you

Hey, bom dia!

It looks like we're in a similar situation! It's good to know there's someone else from Portugal going through the same process :)

I just received (yesterday) the e-mail from NVC saying my case was sent to the Paris Embassy. My case had been approved on March 31st 2020...

When did you get your notification (e-mail)? And did you get anything on your mail in the meantime?

I believe they will send me something and then I can schedule the interview, is that correct? Or how did you get your interview date?

Thank you, muito obrigado!

Hi there!

I also received an e-mail today from NVC saying they sent my approved case to the embassy in Paris! That’s why I decided to check the forum today... My case was approved on March 31st... 2020.

On the ceac tracker the case moved from “At NVC” to “In transit” 😀 Although it says there (on ceac tracker) that the NVC sent me the interview date, they did not. The email only states the embassy where the interview will be held. I wonder if they will actually schedule an interview anytime soon’ish.

Should I be expecting another e-mail (from the NVC or embassy) with the interview date details?

Thank you!

On 6/29/2020 at 4:57 AM, Goldenpurple said:

Wow. We seem to share the same dates. Our NOA2 is March 31st and expiration is July 30th. 

We do not have a case no yet, how has it been holding on? 

We do share the same dates!! 

I do have a case number now! I called NVC and they gave me the case number right away, you should do it too! At least you'll have something to hold on to!

I'm starting to wonder what's gonna happen with the expiration date... I mean, is it automatically gonna be renewed? Or do we have to call the Embassy? 🤷‍♂️

18 hours ago, Schildkrote5 said:

I just received my case and invoice number by calling the NVC. Tried logging in, but there isn't anything to see. I'm guessing this means the NVC isn't ready for any documents or fee payments from me. It appears I will have to wait for my "welcome letter" after all before I can go any further. If anyone has any conflicting information please correct me.

I just called NVC right at 7am (Eastern time) and got my case and invoice number! I think I had to hold for 5 minutes. The entire call, including listening and choosing the options plus hold time and talking to the representative was 11 minutes. The lady confirmed what we all know... that the cases are being held until further notice/embassies re-open.

I searched my case number on the CEAC search tool and it just says "At NVC" (as expected...).

Now we just have to keep waiting, but at least we now know that we have a case number! 😀

On 6/23/2020 at 8:52 AM, Schildkrote5 said:

Hello guys new to the forum,

 

Our I-129F petition was approved and supposedly sent to the NVC about 3 months ago. Sent an inquiry and they basically told me to piss off and they’ll send me a notification when they get to it. I realize things have slowed down for covid and I explained that in my request... I really just wanted to know if they had our file but I couldn’t get that information...Just wondering what other people’s processing times have been from time Petition was forwarded to the time you received a case number or welcome letter. It’s advertised as taking 2 weeks and it’s been about 12 for us now. A little worried that maybe the paperwork got lost at this point and frustrating because there’s no way to track anything without a case number being assigned. This has been the most nerve racking part of the process thus far. Thanks in advance.

 

My fiancée and I are in the same exact situation. We received our NOA2 on March 31st and haven't been assigned a case number by NVC either.

I'm from Portugal and she lives in Virginia. Haven't seen her in about 6 months as well.

I absolutely share your frustration... It's very hard to just sit down and wait for NVC to take some action

I'll try to call them and try my luck. I mean, at this point what can I lose?

Good luck with your process!

Edit:

I forgot to mention that in my NOA2 they set an expiration date for July 30th 2020... Doesn't seem like I'm going to an interview anywhere before that, but I also understand they may extend that "expiration date". What is your expiration date?

Hi everyone!

I created this post because I couldn't find the information anywhere else. After some replies, we ended up following some of the advice provided here but also our instinct.

Since we just received our NOA2 on time (our I129-F was approved without any RFE's), I will share what we did just in case someone else has the same questions!

On 12/2/2019 at 5:42 PM, Portuguese91 said:

Question 1: Should we list all those college dorms addresses on her Adress History? Her "official" adress was always her parent's house, and that is the one on her ID.

WHAT WE DID:  We ended up ONLY listing her (petitioner) parent's house address. After all that's the only address she only had in her ID.

On 12/2/2019 at 5:42 PM, Portuguese91 said:

Question 2: She also studied abroad for 6 months in Spain. But as far as I know, she would only have to list that one adress is she lived there for more than 1 year, am I correct?

WHAT WE DID:  Since my fiancée (petitioner) only studied abroad in Spain for 6 months, we decided not to list the spanish housing in her Address History.

On 12/2/2019 at 5:42 PM, Portuguese91 said:

Question 3: While in college, my fiancée worked twice as an RA (Residence Assistant). Should we include those jobs on her Employment History?

WHAT WE DID:  This is probably the part that gave us the worst headaches. We wondered if it would be a problem to list her (petitioner) jobs in college while "officially" living at her parent's house, which is 2 hours away. We ended up listing her RA jobs in college and it worked out for us!

On 12/2/2019 at 5:42 PM, Portuguese91 said:

Question 4: My fiancée had some summer jobs for 1 or 2 months, but is unsure about the start/end dates. Would there be a problem if we put approx. dates? Or is it better not to list those? Would we get an RFE?

WHAT WE DID:  Since she had received W2 forms from those jobs, we decided to list them with approximate start/end dates. It worked just dine for us!

If there is one thing I learned from filling the I129-F is that we often tend to overthink and complicate things that are pretty straightforward! 

I sincerely hope this helps someone that has similar questions! 🙂

Kindly,

Francisco

On 12/3/2019 at 9:23 PM, Pmta1 said:

-with a student visa I think she wouldn't have been considered "living" there. I think it's appropriate to put her Spain address there.

If it is not considered "living" there (which I agree), how come it is appropriate to list her Spain address? You got me mixed up here 😅

On 12/3/2019 at 9:23 PM, Pmta1 said:

-For her job, use the main office's address (or wherever the company say is their address). I suggest to look at the address of the company that shows up in the Paystubs.

Thank you! My question here was more if there would be a problem to have worked a job 2 hours away (Harrisonburg, VA) from her "official" adress (Ashburn, VA).

Thank you!

1 hour ago, Pmta1 said:

1. to me, a college dorm wouldn't count for an official address unless she shifted over her address to the college. I would still suggest her parent's home is still the address to put in the I-129F.

Awesome, I think that makes the most sense!

1 hour ago, Pmta1 said:

2. This address I would suggest you add to the I-129F because she actually went out of country to live indefinitely for study. Which visa did she go under? that also affects a bit of what the right answer is.

She studied in Spain with a visa type D (stay up to 6 months). I wasn't sure if I should list it because it was a short stay. I found this online about the visa:

Quote

"There is a visa (type D) for studies that allows you to stay in Spain for a period of up to 180 days (Visado D Estudios hasta 180 días). This type of visa does not allow you to obtain the Residence Card for foreign students (TIE)."

1 hour ago, Pmta1 said:

3. If she got paid or if she filed taxes on it, then yes, you will list that as employment.

Yes, she did! This is where I get confused though... Will there be a problem to list the RA jobs at JMU in Harrisonburg while her (only) address is in Ashburn (2 hours away)?

Hi all!

My name is Francisco and I'm from Lisbon, Portugal. I met my beautiful fiancée back in 2015 while I was studying and working (OPT) in Orlando, FL on a F1 visa. Since then we've kept our long distance relationship and have been travelling back and forth (Portugal and USA). All this travelling was getting costly and we decided to get married and live in the US.

We've been filling out the I-129F form and your forum has been very helpful! However, with so many tricky questions, I decided to write this post to try to get your help.

My fiancée (petitioner) finished college (JMU) earlier this year. While in college she had at least four different dorms/apartments. She is not sure of the move-in/out dates and the adresses for college dorms can be tricky as well (we usually only have the PO box). 

Question 1: Should we list all those college dorms addresses on her Adress History? Her "official" adress was always her parent's house, and that is the one on her ID.

This is probably the biggest issue we currently have. Because in order to have no gaps between adresses, if we list her college adresses we would always have to put her parents' adress during the summer... for the past 4 years.

I saw a post on VJ about this but it wasn't very helpful:

Question 2: She also studied abroad for 6 months in Spain. But as far as I know, she would only have to list that one adress is she lived there for more than 1 year, am I correct?

Question 3: While in college, my fiancée worked twice as an RA (Residence Assistant). Should we include those jobs on her Employment History?

Question 4: My fiancée had some summer jobs for 1 or 2 months, but is unsure about the start/end dates. Would there be a problem if we put approx. dates? Or is it better not to list those? Would we get an RFE?

We've been stuck on these questions and can't move on...

Thank you so much in advance. You guys have healed many headaches!

Kindly,

Francisco

PS: I'm sorry if I posted this on the wrong topic/sub-topic, I'm new here.