HBundle

We got our EAD about a month back but it was not a combo card (no advanced parole), so we are still unable to leave the country and visit family.  The I-131 has not been updated.  The Adjustment of Status still reads as interview scheduled despite having the interview 85 days ago.  While the EAD is nice to have, it isn't very helpful for us because my wife is a student and doesn't have time to work.  I was really hoping to get a combo card so we could visit family during her school break. 

I believe the EADs are being processed more because the Biden administration has been pushing for this in order to cut through the massive backlog.  So it appears that, in our case, they uncoupled it from the rest of our applications for the sake of processing it. 

I'll count our blessings though.  At least my wife no longer has to bring her passport whenever we go get a drink at the bar! That's our only use for the EAD so far haha

Still waiting on our case to be updated, 71 days after our interview when we were told we would be approved.  Our attorney suspects the case is in some sort of limbo and won't be updated until we pass the 15 month processing time, which would put us in October.  At this point, I'm just hoping they don't send out an RFE to cover their failure to process our application in a timely manner. 

We had our interview on 2/14 and were told we were approved, but the case tracker has not updated and still reads interview scheduled.  We are now 49 days out.  I called last Friday and was told that there some sort of movement and our case was touched last Friday 3/25, but still no updates.  I'm told its not uncommon but still very frustrating being in limbo...  Hopefully yours gets processed faster than ours.

On 4/1/2022 at 11:26 AM, ocjmakaveli said:

The case status still say interview scheduled and interview was 12 day ago

On 3/8/2022 at 10:25 AM, KnoxThai said:

 

We had our interview in Nashville almost 2 weeks ago with no issues and our case still shows Interview Was Scheduled on the status page.

 

I'm beginning to think that Tennessee is just really slow with this whole process.

 

We were asked (separately) to provide last year's taxes for my K-2 step son (brought them with us for this interview) before the interview, but the lady that interviewed us didn't seem to think that would have anything to do with our AOS for my wife.

 

Any updates for you? Ours still hasn't updated. Our attorney seems to think there may be an issue but unclear what our next steps might be...

We had our AOS interview on 2/14 and were told that it would be approved; however as of today 3/5, the case tracker still has not updated and reads "Interview Scheduled." From reading on the forum, it seems that most people get an update on the case tracker within a few days or even 24 hours to show "Approved."

Is this something I should be concerned about?  Is this more common than I am aware?

To clarify further, I am not talking about the time from interview to receiving the greencard (though we are definitely eager to get the greencard in order to be able to visit family), rather I am talking about the case status.  I'm assuming that we will have to wait a few weeks once the case updates to finally receive the greencard. Hopefully I'm wrong!

1 hour ago, NataliaM said:

Finally received a notice for the interview! April 6th.

By the time of the interview my medical checkup, which I've done for my K1, will be over 1 year, so I wonder if anybody had the same situation and completed the medical again or not?

I am planning to do it again, just to be sure since I still have to update my vaccination record adding Covid-19 vaccine there, but just curious what everybody else did?

 

Also the list of the document on the interview notice is pretty big, but it is basically everything we've already submitted before and won't be a problem. Do they really check it during the interview?

My understanding is that the medical is good for 1 year, and the important date is the date when you filed, not the date of the interview.  With that said, in our case, we were unable to finish a series of vaccines before our visa interview, so we opted to go to the civil surgeon before applying for AOS and finish the vaccine series, and they went ahead and gave us a full examination and an I-693; however, it isn't strictly necessary.  I do believe that officers have required this in certain instances. I included the original sealed I-693 in our application for AoS.  Again, this isn't strictly necessary, but our officer ended up asking me about our medical and when I said we got an I-693, she asked for a copy.  This was the only document she asked us for.

As to COVID vaccine-- this requirement was not added until I believe October of last year.  Since you are posting in the July forum, I assume you applied for Adjustment of Status in July, and therefore this shouldn't be an issue.  I say shouldn't because I think officers can decide unilaterally if they want.  However, in our case, we didn't have the COVID vaccine noted on the I-693 or the prior embassy paperwork.  I did make a copy of her vaccine card just in case, but it was not asked for in the interview.

My strategy was to just print off the application that we submitted, then ahve a separate folder with some more up-to-date things like more recent pictures, paystubs, my 2021 W2, etc.  I didn't go overboard-- just a few extra things.  Make sure you bring originals of the birth certificates and the interview NOA (if not all letters from USCIS). 

Good luck!

We are still waiting on the case tracker to update to "approved" despite being told we were recommended for approval at our interview on 2/14.  Does anyone have any ideas what is going on or if there is anything I should do?  Thanks

We had our interview on Monday (Valentine's Day) and have been approved!

The interview was a lot easier than we expected.  She asked me (the US citizen) how we met, when I proposed, and when we got married.  Nothing about the wedding. 

She didn't ask to view any additional documentation specifically, but did ask if we had our medicals done at the visa stage, which we did.  I told her we also got a I-693 filled out because my wife wasn't able to complete a vaccine series in Colombia.  The original was included in our application in a sealed envelope, but I gave her a copy that I had.  She didn't seem to really look at it. 

We're obviously thrilled with the result!

I do have one question-- the case tracker still says "interview scheduled".  We are now 3 days out from our interview.  Is this common?  Most people I read seem to have it updated within 24 hours.

Thanks for all the help along the way! I'm looking forward to ignoring all things immigration for at least a few months before starting anything with the Removal of Conditions process.

We finally got our biometrics appointment set for 12/14 🥳 Only took 4 months haha

Does this mean we shouldn't get an RFE?  Do RFEs ever follow biometrics?  Or are they generally before receiving the biometrics appointment?

I think its a good theory but was just commenting that I don't think there is necessarily a 90 day window since many people, including us, fall outside of that.  I suspect there is some truth to the theory but probably not as an actual policy, rather certain examiners may take the lazy route if a case hasn't been updated in a while.  Who knows? 🤷‍♂️

2 hours ago, uapilot said:

They generally RFE for no good reason other than for your case to have an update within the required 90 day window. Sometimes it's because they lost documents at some point in the process.

We got an RFE for I-864, birth and marriage certificates. We resubmitted everything exactly the same online (except possibly in poorer quality since we didn't have a scanner) and had an interview scheduled about a month later.

While I agree with the concept, I don't think the 90 day window you mentioned is accurate.  Our application is currently on day 108 of no response (no RFE, no biometrics, nothing since the NOA). 

Still nothing on our case.  No biometrics, no RFE, nothing.  Our NOA is July 19.  I'm starting to get a little concerned because it seems like everyone else here has at least had an appointment set for biometrics (if not already done it). 

Still waiting on biometrics appointment or anything really.  I check the portal every day and there's nothing. 

Is everyone required to have a biometrics appointment?  We still haven't gotten one, though we did the biometrics at the Embassy in Colombia during the visa stage (rather than a separate ASC appointment).  Maybe we won't be required to do biometrics again?

I'm crossing my fingers we don't get an RFE like others have here for documents that were included in the original package.  That is very frustrating to hear about-- hopefully it is easy for you guys to resolve.

We are also still waiting on biometrics appointment.  Our office is Memphis.  Hope to get it soon.

To follow up what Bri said, we also had our interview and have just recently received our visa.

You will have to do the medical exam first-- there are now only 2 approved doctors (plus 1 additional one that only attends minors).  If you are going off the old P3 packet, make sure you call one of the currently approved doctors.  I know Dr. Dennis is still approved because he is who we picked.  His office is kind of far away from the embassy-- took between 30 min to 1 hour with the awful Bogota traffic, so if you are considering multiple trips, you might book a hotel near his office.  For this appointment, you need to print or write on a piece of paper the name of you and your fiancee, the case number, type of visa, passport number, and maybe a few other things (the doctor's office will instruct you). You also need to bring the visa pictures.  I believe 4 if I remember correctly.  May also need to bring other documents but honestly can't remember.

After that appointment, the Doctor's office will schedule a time for the labs, generally the next day early in the morning.  This appointment is at another location and all the appointments are very early, like 7:00 AM.  While there are technically appointments, it was really first come first serve as there was a long line. For this you also need to bring 2 visa pictures (if I remember correctly), and copy of passport. Possibly other documents-- I can't remember.

After the lab, you will have to pick up the results at the original doctor's office, likely the next day at the end of the day.  They will give you an envelope that you have to bring to the airport, as well as a document for the green card interview.

I would probably just wait until you receive information from the Embassy just in case anything changes.  I'm not sure how the doctor's offices would react to you scheduling it yourself.

Also note that Bogota is under strict quarantine and pico y cedula right now.  Meaning, many restaurants are closed or only domicilio, especially on weekends when everything is closed.  We didn't have an issue with pico y cedula for the doctor's appointments, but the ASC for the biometrics appointment observes the pico y cedula rules so you can't enter if its not your day, even if you have an appointment. If they cancel your biometrics appointment or you can't attend due to pico y cedula, don't worry because they can do it at the Embassy, which is what we had to do.

7 hours ago, callmeshelle said:

Has the issue been resolved for you? Im experiencing the same thing

The website never resolved for me, but we received an email about picking up her passport, so it's no longer a problem for us personally.  Still not clear what is up with the website.  Before we received the email, I called the helpline on the usvisa website and they wouldn't confirm anything (they are a separate group from CEAC).

Minor update--

So as previously mentioned we were approved last Monday April 19, and they said it would be a few days before we could pick up the passport.  We received an email on Saturday, April 24 that said it was ready to pickup, but you actually have to set up an appointment via the same usvisa website.  The earliest option was Tuesday but the ASC office observes the rules of Pico y Cedula, so we scheduled to pick it up on Friday, April 30 at the Bogota ASC office. 

Hello everyone,

Is the CEAC Visa Status page not working for anyone else? 

We had our interview on Monday and were approved but waiting on receiving our passport back.  I have been trying to check the CEAC Visa Status page since then (now 4 days) and while I can get the page to load, when I put in our case number and the CAPTCHA, it never shows me the status.  I never had this problem previously.  Is this happening for everyone?

Thanks

Here's my Embassy review with more detail of our experience:  https://www.visajourney.com/reviews/index.php?trim=no&cty=&cnty=&page=1&dfilter=5&topic=

We had our interview on Monday, and we got approved!  We've been told we'll get her passport back in about a week, which is resulting in a big hotel bill.  Hopefully they will reach out soon and say it is ready.  We are super excited to have the interview behind us and she'll be moving to the US in the next few weeks!

2 hours ago, MedellinCOUS said:

I am perplexed by this.  It was my understanding that the NVC is actually awaiting the embassy to request transfer for my case and then the NVC will either physically or electronically transfer all the case documents to the embassy for processing.  But the recent response from the embassy makes me question this.  They state:

 

 

The way this is written makes it sounds like they are just sitting there awaiting the NVC to send the documentation, but everything I've read on the NVC site says they are awaiting the Embassy.

 

Now I'm seriously confused.  I'm going to try and call the NVC today and see if I have any luck getting some clarification on this.

 

 

My interpretation is that this is the way governmental offices reply -- they don't want to say more than they have to.  I believe you are correct that the NVC is waiting on the Embassy to clear more cases before sending it on.  Have you called the NVC? If so, have you received your NVC/Embassy case number (it starts with BGT for Bogota)?  If so, this means your case has either been sent or is about to be sent to the Embassy. 

10 minutes ago, Bri&Alejandro said:

Okay got it! I thought I had seen a message that said “at the end of this form you must pay a fee” but I am likely definitely losing my mind from lack of sleep 🤣 

 

I am curious if they will ask you to redo it as well. It took my fiancé and I about 2.5 hours to finish due to a horrible phone connection. I’m glad to have this one thing behind us

To clarify a bit-- you might be thinking of the interview fee. You do have to pay this but its on the interview portal as opposed to the portal you use for the DS-160.  You will have to pay a fee on the interview portal (assuming they are still using the interview portal).  There is no fee to submit the DS-160.

3 hours ago, Bri&Alejandro said:

Hey @HBundle quick question about the DS-160. We just finished it, and I thought I would have to pay a fee at the end of it but it did not ask for any payment. Did you have to pay when you completed yours? 

No, there's no charge and supposedly it doesn't expire though they could ask me to re-do it since I did it last March. 

Really happy for y'all Bri, and thanks for the info on the packet.  I too plan to be there for the interview and hopefully I can attend.  I'm still hopeful we get an interview sometime in April--we'll see.  You inspired me to reach out to a local representative to see if they could help.  They previously called on our behalf during the pandemic. I don't know-- couldn't hurt!

Good luck preparing for the interview