gringoconmexicana

Thanks. I won't worry then.

Hello. My wife is here on a fiancee visa. After we were married, she sent in the AOS request along with the EAD and AP requests via the post office. According to the post office, the application arrived in Chicago May 22. It's now one week later and the check hasn't been cashed. I called the USCIS help line and the automated voice said it could take up to 4 weeks for AOS to receive the request.

But, as I look at other people's timelines, it seems they were well beyond the check-being-cashed point one week after they mailed the application. Is this a recent phenomenon of week-long-check-ignorance in Chicago that is happening to others who applied for AOS or is this just happening to my wife?

Thanks,

Gringoconmexicana

We got our fiancee visa. Thanks for all the help. One question. At what point in the process does my fiancee have to get her vaccinations? I know it's already been said in here but I forget where.

Anybody know what exactly they check for in the Ciudad Juarez medical exam for the fianceè visa? Thanks.

Hi,

I am meeting my fiance in Juarez Mexico Jan. 28th. I was wondering about possible interview questions, how long it might take, if I can go into the consulate with him, when we should get to the consulate to assure that we will get in that same day etc...

If anyone has been there and can help me I would really appreciate it!!!

Thanks,

Amber

I'm going next week. There's a whole bunch of information from people who have already gone on the thread entitled Juarez Consulate. Good luck

Hola everyone, need some assistance with this question:

"30. Have You Ever Been Issued a U.S. Visa? When? Where?"

My fiance has a Laser Visa that she uses to cross to the US regularly for shopping and leisure activities. She has no idea the dates of all her crossings, etc... What is the appropriate response here?

Also, my fiance has obtained three B-2 Visas in the past to travel and visit me. But, we never made copies of these. They were returned to immigration before their expiration. We do not have the dates of issue for these either. What is the appropriate reponse here also?

Anyone with previous experience? Your assistance would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

I don't know the answers. Maybe for the dates of her crossings, she'd have the dates stamped on her passport? Sorry I'm not much help.

Good news for me. My packet 3 arrived. It was mailed December 5 and arrived yesterday here in Mexico. Esta bien chidillo.

Yes, the passport must be valid for a minimum of 6 months. You will also need it for AOS. It may be wise to go ahead and renew it. My husband also encountered the same problem. We decided to renew for one year prior to his interview just to avoid any problems. I am glad we did since we had our AOS interview about 4 months after his arrival. As for the financial information, take your mothers. They are interested in the person making the affidavit. In all honesty, they never looked at mine during his interview. He still had everything with him when he left. He said they never asked him for anything, but I would have the at least tax statements from your mother. While waiting outside of the consulate, I heard others saying how they were asked for their prior year tax statements. Again this is for the person making the affidavit. If you like, take everything you have. Sometimes it is better to be over prepared and over-whelm them with documentation

Thank you so much for that information. That totally helps. I'll tell my fiancee to get her passport renewed ASAP. That and she needs to fill out the forms on the Internet. Then, what? I guess I wait for the I-134 from my mother and the fiancee packet from Juarez. Good good. My mom said she'd call her represenative's office soon to complain that the Juarez consulate is tardando muchisimo in sending out the fiancee packet. There is one guy on here, Hodad, who has been waiting like 4 months for Juarez to send the packet. That's insane. I need to get back to the U.S. like yesterday.

I know it's early in the process for me, but I've been planning ahead to see what I still need to do. I looked at fiance's passport (I have all of his documents...I decided it's best if I keep everything together and not him since he's more confused about this process than I am) and it expires Feb 22. If he needs 6 open months after visa, that means he will probably need to renew it before his interview, which at this rate, I'm not really expecting to occur until Sept or Oct. Sigh...I wish I would have read that far ahead before because he got the passport for the sole purpose of the visa and it doesn't even have enough time on it! Well, I will wait until it's closer to the interview to have him renew it. It only takes about a week. Will they question why he's renewing it before it expires? I'm a nervous wreck! lol Well, at least I think that's the last thing we need. I finally received 3 copies of his b cert. When he applied for his passport, they kept his original and wouldn't give it back. So this time I had him get 3 copies to ensure we would have one for every pit-stop along the road. I've also read on here that Mexico does not give police clearances so he will not need one. However, he got one from the police department. It took 3 days. But that was before I knew we didn't need one. I don't know how he got it if they don't give them though. I guess I'm just rambling on. I don't have anyone here to talk about this crazy stuff with...lol

Mexico does not require police certificates because most places don't provide them. It's normal for them to keep the birth certificate when applying for a passport. His passport must have at least 6 months on it - it would make sense for him to get a 5 year passport now since it's a pain to do and you don't know how long of a wait you have. Also, once he's in the US it will be a valid piece of ID until he has others. No one wil notice that it has been renew and they even if they did they won't care.

I dug this Kitkat quote up from the old-school days of the Juarez consulate thread. My fiancee needs to have 6 months left on her passport at the time of the interview? Hers expires in May. Does that mean she needs to get a renewal?

Gringo you can have your mother gather all the information now. The affidavit is normally good for a year (if things haven't changed). I used the same information I provided to Juarez for the AOS and didn't have any problems. They weren't as picky during the K-1 as they were during K-1. Hope that helps

Yes, that helps, thanks. Will that be sufficient to show that we meet the financial qualifications? Or do I need to bring additional things? There is a list on the Juarez consulate site of things that are generally accepted as proof of financial sustainability ... but I don't have any of those things. I make zilch and have made zilch for 3 or 4 years.

I thought they would send it in just a few weeks after recieving it as posted here and on the timelines. It has been 8 weeks and they say they are processing it. What gives?? Any one else been waiting this long for the Fiancee packet from Juarez? I have gotten very little response from this site on this question is their any one out there with knowledge on this??

Thanks in advance

James

Have you called your U.S. representative's office? I got my NOA2 in late October. If they haven't sent me anything by the beginning of December, I'll be screaming my head off. I'm about to send an email to my family in the U.S. to get them to start telling their reps about this apparent Juarez delay. Your situation is ridiculous.

Okay. I know this has been answered before on this thread ... but, dang, there are a lot of messages to go through to find the answer. So I'm hoping one of ya'll can save me the time. I see Kitkat is no longer a member, which is pretty bad news for me.

So, here's the question ... or more like a bunch of statements followed by a gang of questions.

I haven't had a stable job in the U.S. for about 3 or 4 years. I was a journalist making about $25,000 per year up until the aforementioned 3-to-4-year swoon. After that, I was a sub teacher/student teacher for a year in California, which pretty much means I went a year with making about enough money to pay for 3 bags of ramen and a tank of gas (when gas was only $2.75 per gallon). Then I moved to Mexico, where I still live, and have earned pesos for being a teacher en varios lados. Anyway, I obviously am not making enough to qualify for proof of financial stability or an ability to support my fiancee.

My fiancee has a business but also does not make enough money. Besides, we're both moving to the U.S., where we won't have a job when we get there.

My mom has agreed to support us international freeloaders for a bit. She's well above poverty.

I looked at Juarez consulate's list of things that are considered acceptable as proof of financial stability. I have none of those things. My fiancee has none of those things. My mother could provide the bank statement I'm guessing and the letter from her employer. My mom could also fill out the I-134 affidavit of support, which isn't one of the things listed on the Juarez site.

Do I or my fiancee need to provide anything to show how much money we have (or don't have) as some sort of formality? Or is that a pointless waste of time since it will only prove that we have nothing?

Should I fill out an I-134 eventhough I have no proof I could support my fiancee (I noticed Kitkat filled out the I-134 eventhough she said it wasn't something the Juarez consulate uses).

Should my mother fill out the I-134 right away? When should she fill it out if she should fill it out at all?

I got the NOA2 (late October) and am waiting for the packet 3 ... which, from looking at the plight of those ahead of me, might take a while. If my mother went through the process of getting the bank and employer letters ready and filling out the I-134 right now, would it be too early, forcing her to do the same thing all over again in a few months? Or would it be a great idea so, when the packet 3 comes, we'd already be ready to go to the interview?

Thanks for any help you can provide. You all rule. ¡Happy Revolutionary War Day! Y que tengan un feliz dia de gracias. Lo voy a perder otra vez

Yes follow kitkats advice on collecting the financial information in the I-134 for your mother it will help. Have you checked http://ciudadjuarez.usconsulate.gov/wwwhiv...ml#fiancepacket to see if anything has changed for Juarez on K1 interviews?

Thanks for the response. Yes, I have checked the Juarez site. And I do plan to have my mom go through the I-134 process. But do I need to bring any additional financial information or will that be enough? And when should my mom gather the I-134 information? Now or after we receive the packet? I'm not sure when they consider I-134 info outdated.

Okay. I know this has been answered before on this thread ... but, dang, there are a lot of messages to go through to find the answer. So I'm hoping one of ya'll can save me the time. I see Kitkat is no longer a member, which is pretty bad news for me.

So, here's the question ... or more like a bunch of statements followed by a gang of questions.

I haven't had a stable job in the U.S. for about 3 or 4 years. I was a journalist making about $25,000 per year up until the aforementioned 3-to-4-year swoon. After that, I was a sub teacher/student teacher for a year in California, which pretty much means I went a year with making about enough money to pay for 3 bags of ramen and a tank of gas (when gas was only $2.75 per gallon). Then I moved to Mexico, where I still live, and have earned pesos for being a teacher en varios lados. Anyway, I obviously am not making enough to qualify for proof of financial stability or an ability to support my fiancee.

My fiancee has a business but also does not make enough money. Besides, we're both moving to the U.S., where we won't have a job when we get there.

My mom has agreed to support us international freeloaders for a bit. She's well above poverty.

I looked at Juarez consulate's list of things that are considered acceptable as proof of financial stability. I have none of those things. My fiancee has none of those things. My mother could provide the bank statement I'm guessing and the letter from her employer. My mom could also fill out the I-134 affidavit of support, which isn't one of the things listed on the Juarez site.

Do I or my fiancee need to provide anything to show how much money we have (or don't have) as some sort of formality? Or is that a pointless waste of time since it will only prove that we have nothing?

Should I fill out an I-134 eventhough I have no proof I could support my fiancee (I noticed Kitkat filled out the I-134 eventhough she said it wasn't something the Juarez consulate uses).

Should my mother fill out the I-134 right away? When should she fill it out if she should fill it out at all?

I got the NOA2 (late October) and am waiting for the packet 3 ... which, from looking at the plight of those ahead of me, might take a while. If my mother went through the process of getting the bank and employer letters ready and filling out the I-134 right now, would it be too early, forcing her to do the same thing all over again in a few months? Or would it be a great idea so, when the packet 3 comes, we'd already be ready to go to the interview?

Thanks for any help you can provide. You all rule. ¡Happy Revolutionary War Day! Y que tengan un feliz dia de gracias. Lo voy a perder otra vez

I don't know. I know it would arrive in Mexico and I think it would arrive at the U.S. petitioner's address too. I'd guess, too, that it would arrive first at the U.S. petitioner's address because the U.S. has faster mail. But, then again, I guess it would be starting in CDJ so maybe not.

You know who would know for sure? The people who write on the Juarez Consulate thread. Those people know everything.

Hi guys, I am waiting for my husband's packet for the visa k3. I have a question, and I hope someone could help me out, who is going to receive the packet my husband in Mexico or me here in Texas??? I am the petetioner.

Arg. I misread that. I thought it said CDJ received your packet ... but it was just sent and not received, I think. Sorry about that. Guess we're both farther off than I thought. Hopefully it doesn't take long to be received.

___________________________________________________________

Lei mal. Lo siento. Espero que no se tarda mucho.

We´re waiting for packet 3 from Cd Juarez... Are you in the same status? Let´s keep in touch...

__________________________________________________

Estamos esperando por el paquete 3 de la embajada de Cd Juarez... Hay alguien en la misma situación? Vamos a mantenernos en contacto¡¡¡ Que les parece la idea??

We got our NOA2 approved on October 26 so we're about a month behind you. I notice Ciduad Juarez received your packet November 6. I guess that I should figure that CDJ will receive our packet around the week of December 6. From what I've looked at, it's take another week or so for most to receive packet three from CDJ after CDJ receives the petition from NVC.

______________________________________________________________________

Estamos un mes atras de uds. Vi que CDJ ya recibio tu paquete. Creo que vas a recibir tu paquete en mas o menos una semana. Buena suerte. Por favor, mandeme noticias cuando algo pasa. Estoy muy interesado.

Thanks for the reply, Lucy N Bebe.

Yes, they will test for various drugs including marijuana. Nothing to worry about. It will be a simple urine test.

Okay, the Paulina Rubio news has me a little concerned. Does the Juarez consulate medical exam thing include a marijuana test? No, we don't do marijuana. Just wanna know. Thanks.

Congrats on the approval of your I-129F. I bet you felt a sigh of relief, now time for the next phase. Your case will now be forwarded from your service center to the national visa center (NVC). After about 2 weeks, you may contact NVC to see if they have forwarded your case to CDJ. Check out the K1 visa flowchart from the GUIDES section for more details!

Yes, I did receive the NOA2 towards the end of October. My then fiancé could have made the trip to Juarez much sooner, but we decided to wait until January to save up enough money, prepare for the interview, etc. Just remember that the approved I-129F expires after about 4 months from approval (if I remember correctly). So you shouldn’t wait too long to make the trip to Juarez. When you receive the hard copy of your NOA2 you should note until the date it is valid.

Good luck to both gringoconmexicana and zeroland and anyone else soon heading to CDJ in the near future.

Thanks for the advice. I check to the K1 visa flowchart at least once a week ... as if it is going to change. How do you make the e with the accent over it? I've got a Mexican keyboard and can't figure that out. That's awesome you guys actually waited - that means it might come sooner for me than I thought. I hope we don't wait. Depends on my girlfriend. She's well ingrained engraned engrained ingraned (I'm so out-of-practice with English, I don't know how to spell anymore) in the Mexican culture so she likes to take her time. I'll make sure to put all my American whining to use to push her a little faster. We'll have to sell off a gang of stuff before we move back to the U.S. Anybody want to buy a car? English-teaching books? Furniture? A refri? A tarot store? Everything must go. Liquidation sale. Peace.

The California center is now working on K1 aps from April 12. My application date was in June. Does that mean I'm 2 months away from having them review mine?

The dates posted are an approximate time frame, more or less. If you also look at your estimate from the VJ timeline date, it says your I-129F petition may be approved as early as Nov. 13th. This is simply an estimate since it may take a little longer or you may receive approval a couple days before. I remember my actual approval for the I-129F came a couple days (maybe around 2 weeks) after the VJ estimated approval.

You can also register with the uscis.gov website and check up on the site to see if they have "touched" your case. This will give you an indication if they are at least looking at your case.

Good luck.

Thanks for the response. You inspired me to check my online status on the uscis.gov website. And here is what it said ...

On October 26, 2007, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E). Please follow any instructions on the notice. If you move before you receive the notice, call customer service.

...

How unbelievably cool is that! You bring me luck. This is the NOA2, right? It came before the ETA. So now it goes onto the National Visa Center, verdad? I'm looking at your timeline and see that you received your NOA2 in October of last year and got the Visa at the end of January. I'm hoping it works out for me like that. I'm soooooooooo broke. With teaching English, the schools shut down in December, and don't come back 'til mid January. That means I won't even be getting paid pesos for a month or so ... only living off what my novia makes, which is just a bit more than I make. If we could snag that Visa in early February and get me a job in California paying dollars, that would be about as awesome as it gets - maybe we could get it all done before the new school session so I don't have to ask for time off.

I'm so jacked. Please don't let this thread die on me - all ya'll that came before me have given the best information available. And that's the neta.

Hey, Congrats!! Your NOA1 date is just a week ahead of ours....Fingers crossed that is a good sign...hopefully we aren't far behind you...I try to limit the number of times I check the web site to 2 or 3 times a day, but the more I see posts like yours, the harder that gets for me.

Thanks. I noticed a gang of people got the approval at about the same time. And things seem to be moving faster at the USCIS California office. It was stuck at December 2006 for a long time. Then, all of a sudden, it was March, then April and now June - like almost over night. So I'm sure your time is coming soon. Your time? Man, yesterday I found a restaurant that serves American food. The only thing that wasn't authentic about it was that it tasted good. So it wasn't like it brought back memories of what American food really tastes like - which is pretty much garbage compared to Mexican food. But the restaurant was playing real three-of-my-favorite-dogs-from-the-back-porch-just-died-and-my-grandmomma's-in-jail country music (not that Ranchero/Banda over-use-of-the-tuba-busting-my-eardrum-whiny-fat-guys-complaining-that-their-hot-model-wife-don't-like-them-anymore music ... blech). And there were pictures on the wall of stupid American stuff like the Dukes of Hazard and Stetson cowboy hats and even a real old-school-redneck-silver-double-barrel pistol. Great great great. Love Mexico and Mexicans and Mexican food and tequila and Mexican parties and my Mexican soon-to-be suegros and merenderos and the Spanish language. But I need to get back to my old backwards American culture with its American dollars at least for a bit. Can't wait to return. Make it happen NVC and Ciudad Juarez. ¡Andale!

The California center is now working on K1 aps from April 12. My application date was in June. Does that mean I'm 2 months away from having them review mine?

The dates posted are an approximate time frame, more or less. If you also look at your estimate from the VJ timeline date, it says your I-129F petition may be approved as early as Nov. 13th. This is simply an estimate since it may take a little longer or you may receive approval a couple days before. I remember my actual approval for the I-129F came a couple days (maybe around 2 weeks) after the VJ estimated approval.

You can also register with the uscis.gov website and check up on the site to see if they have "touched" your case. This will give you an indication if they are at least looking at your case.

Good luck.

Thanks for the response. You inspired me to check my online status on the uscis.gov website. And here is what it said ...

On October 26, 2007, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E). Please follow any instructions on the notice. If you move before you receive the notice, call customer service.

...

How unbelievably cool is that! You bring me luck. This is the NOA2, right? It came before the ETA. So now it goes onto the National Visa Center, verdad? I'm looking at your timeline and see that you received your NOA2 in October of last year and got the Visa at the end of January. I'm hoping it works out for me like that. I'm soooooooooo broke. With teaching English, the schools shut down in December, and don't come back 'til mid January. That means I won't even be getting paid pesos for a month or so ... only living off what my novia makes, which is just a bit more than I make. If we could snag that Visa in early February and get me a job in California paying dollars, that would be about as awesome as it gets - maybe we could get it all done before the new school session so I don't have to ask for time off.

I'm so jacked. Please don't let this thread die on me - all ya'll that came before me have given the best information available. And that's the neta.

The California center is now working on K1 aps from April 12. My application date was in June. Does that mean I'm 2 months away from having them review mine?

I took the advice of some and called the USCIS back about changing my address. This time, the person I spoke to changed my address for me.

The USCIS lady also said I, the applicant or U.S. citizen, should not have put my Mexican address on the I-129F K1 application form because the USCIS will not send any K1 stuff to a Mexican address. The government should probably change that rule since I'd imagine a gang of Americans meet their foreign spouses while they are living in that foreign country. USCIS also probably shouldn't notify me via their website that they have sent me something when they actually haven't sent me anything at all because I live in a country they won't send anything to. But, oh well. I'm not going to worry about it now. Apparently, it's fixed. Or at least I hope.

A coworker here, also an American, who successfully applied for the K-3 for her Mexican husband said she received things from the USCIS at her Mexican residence. So that makes things a little less clear. Maybe they send things to K-3 applicants in Mexico but not K-1 applicants?

And a nice person through this website said that when she was living in Mexico, she did not receive anything from the USCIS. So she changed her address to an American address. The only trouble was - she still didn't receive anything. So that gives me even less hope.

Anyway. No real reason to post this except for those of you who are just starting with the I-129F and wondering what you should list as the mailing address of the applicant or U.S. citizen. According to the USCIS lady I talked to today, you should put an American address down - hopefully you have somebody you trust with your mail in the U.S. Either that or I guess you could open a P.O. box account just for this and, with all those pesos you can earn in Mexico, you can fly up to the U.S. every time you receive mail. I don't know. I think I'm rambling. Peace.

Thanks a million, Kitkat. I'll try calling again soon or whenever I can.

I suggest you call again and attempt to change your address with someone who has a clue. (If some idiot tells you again to call the embassy in DF, explain to her that you are asking about making a change that impacts USCIS in the US for your I-129F petition -- not post-petition approval or consular processing).

In addition, watch the online case status as it normally does change. RFEs have time limits so yes, if you don't respond, eventually they close the case. I wouldn't worry about this too much now.

Okay. So I shouldn't even try contacting the embassy via email? This is the embassy in Cuauhtemoc that she gave me the address to, just in case there's more than one embassy in D.F. You can tell me not to worry yet about RFEs but I believe that's the next step in the process, unless things go smoothly. So I'll worry. Would the info from an RFE appear online? How long do I get to respond from the time they send it? If they do send one, can I call the USCIS and find out what it is asking for? Or do I actually need the thing they mail, which, apparently I may never receive? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for all the answers.

I've lived in Aguascalientes for two years. Nice place and I've made a lot of friends and met my fiancee here. But I can't stand staying in one place for very long, especially a small place. And I don't want to be here any longer than I have to.

First understand one thing -- ONLY the consulate in Ciudad Juarez processes K1 visas. There is no other location, no other embassy, no other consulate involved. Your fiance will be traveling there for both her medical exam and her visa interview.

Second, there is absolutely NO reason for you to contact any embassy or even the consulate in Ciudad Juarez at this point. They are NOT in any way aware of your pending petition. It is first handled by USCIS in the US. It will not be sent to Ciudad Juarez until it is approved and has passed through the National Visa Center. You should read the K1 process flowchart here on VJ on well as the Fiance Visa information on the travel.state.gov site to understand each step of the process.

An RFE is not the next step in the process. It only happens if something was missing from your petition application and they request additional information/evidence. You would see on this on the online case status update, but you're correct that you would not know what they have sent you an RFE for until you receive the physical RFE in the mail. I believe you have 80-some days to respond. Since you are worried about not receiving mail in Mexico, it makes sense for you to call the USCIS misinformation line and attempt again to change your address. Before you do that, you need to clearly understand that if some idiot at USCIS tells you to contact the embassy, you need to tell them that that suggestion makes NO sense when your petition is in the US. If you have to call two or three or four times before you get someone who actually has a clue regarding how to do this correctly, so be it. You can also check the USCIS website to see if there is anyway for you to change your address online.

Thanks again for the response. I'll try calling again when I can find a phone again. I have my doubts calling them again will do me much good other than cost me more pesos I don't have. But I really need to try everything. The USCIS lady who spoke with me checked with some other people before we finally hung up. She tried changing the address via her computer, figured out she couldn't, put me on hold to go talk to others, and then came back and said it's impossible for them to change a Mexican address from the USA, and that I'd have to contact the Department of Homeland Security location in Mexico, which turned out to be this embassy in Cuauhtemoc. No, I can't make an address change online since it requires that my previous address have a USA zip code.

I understand the RFE will only be sent if there are some issues with my request, and that the RFE would be sent before they could issue an NOA2 and send anything on. I've looked at other people's charts in the K1 process and many of them have RFE's listed after the NOA1. I hope nothing goes wrong with mine. I followed everything it said on this site but that's no guarantee.

Thanks again for the help.

I suggest you call again and attempt to change your address with someone who has a clue. (If some idiot tells you again to call the embassy in DF, explain to her that you are asking about making a change that impacts USCIS in the US for your I-129F petition -- not post-petition approval or consular processing).

In addition, watch the online case status as it normally does change. RFEs have time limits so yes, if you don't respond, eventually they close the case. I wouldn't worry about this too much now.

Okay. So I shouldn't even try contacting the embassy via email? This is the embassy in Cuauhtemoc that she gave me the address to, just in case there's more than one embassy in D.F. You can tell me not to worry yet about RFEs but I believe that's the next step in the process, unless things go smoothly. So I'll worry. Would the info from an RFE appear online? How long do I get to respond from the time they send it? If they do send one, can I call the USCIS and find out what it is asking for? Or do I actually need the thing they mail, which, apparently I may never receive? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks for all the answers.

I've lived in Aguascalientes for two years. Nice place and I've made a lot of friends and met my fiancee here. But I can't stand staying in one place for very long, especially a small place. And I don't want to be here any longer than I have to.