Saihtiam

I had my interview today and I got approved!

I had my interview today and I got approved!

It's life.  Sometimes you just gotta do what you just gotta do.
 

Avoiding checkpoints in Jakarta is indeed a highly desirable endeavor but those guys can be tricky sometimes. 🙄  Stay in the hotel at night and your odds improve.

It's a few days.  Avoid checkpoints in the meantime.  Putting a visa in a passport is not "instant".  It's printed on a special secure machine and glued permantly to a page.  Once the visa is approved, you'll be without your passport for a few days.

That is indeed a valid concern.  I have been asked for my passport many times at checkpoints in Indonesia.  Usually I had it on me,  a few time in Surabaya I was passed through with just a photocopy and US Drivers licence.  In Jakarta I was detained along with the poor taxi driver who was driving me for like an hour with the cops trying to shake me down before they got tired of it and let us go.  Your circumstances is unusual so I could not say what the embassy would do but I am sure they are aware of the issue in Indonesia and would be sympathetic.  Perhaps your own embassy could provide you with a temporary document?

Keeping the passport is the norm.  Keep your interview letter to support any needed claim of where your passport is for a few days.

Well, when my Fiance went to his interview in Jakarta in 2021 and he was told the K1 visa was approved, they kept his passport and he stayed in Jakarta, ( he lives in another city in Sumatera,) and they did not give a receipt.  He was not concerned.   Five days later he received the notice that the package was delivered to the pick up courier and he picked it up.  In 2023, as my spouse, the same thing happened, he went to the interview in Jakarta, his visa was approved, they kept his passport, no receipt given, and 5 days later he picked it up at the courier.  He stayed in Jakarta in a hotel for the time waiting and had no concerns.      

Make a copy
 
I suppose the foolproof route would be to get a second passport

My mother-in-law did her interview in Jakarta late last year.
 
They did not *keep* her passport at the time of the interview.  They wanted to do administrative processing first.
 
When they were ready to issue her visa, they had us send them the passport through the courier service.  The courier service included a "bill of lading" that specified what documents were being provided.  The first thing was her passport.  She had a copy of the courier document that showed where her passport was until she got it back with the visa in it.
 
@Saihtiam why could you not use your Kartu Tanda Penduduk (KTP) for identification purposes while the embassy has your passport?  
 
Regards,
Vicky's Mom

I have never heard of this
 
What do people who do not have Passports do?

Happy to see I’ve received an interview date for the third week of February too. Seems a long way to go but I know the time will fly!

Same for us! Updated my timeline accordingly for those who are curious.
Surreal to have reached this point, and exciting!

That’s awesome! Congratulations to you and your spouse. Can you share with us your DQ date and which embassy? 

We just received an email from NVC to tell us we have an embassy appointment date in February 😁

We just received an email from NVC to tell us we have an embassy appointment date in February 😁

We just received an email from NVC to tell us we have an embassy appointment date in February 😁

Happy 2024 everyone! We started the year off with positive news too. We got a message from NVC saying we were DQ. Now we're just waiting for the consulate date and to arrange the medical. It only took a few weeks after submitting the DS  260 and the financial sponsorship info so we were a little surprised. 

Does anyone know if we need to schedule the medical ourselves after we hear from the consulate or should we do it earlier?

Update: We submitted our documents to NVC on the 8th of December 2023, and we were documentarily qualified on the 14th of December 2023.
Now all that remains is waiting for the consulate interview scheduling and the medical before that.
Great progress before the holidays. The wait felt in the USCIS stage felt like it would never end, but NVC has moved quickly!
Best of luck to everyone else and happy Yuletide

We ust got the welcome email from the NVC with all the information in there on how to proceed. Exciting stuff!

Yeah that is it, your case is DQ’d and awaiting interview appointment. Congratulations 

We received the notification that our case got approved today. We filed on Nov 13th 2022. 
 
🤞🏼 crossed all
goes well and good luck to us all. 

Our petition approval notice appeared on the USCIS page today. Timeline updated accordingly. A relief to be moving on to the next step!

We ust got the welcome email from the NVC with all the information in there on how to proceed. Exciting stuff!

Hello all,
 
Our I-130 was approved on 9/29/23, after we originally filed online on 11/14/22.  The NOA1 notice was generated by Texas SC but the Approval notice (NOA2) was from Nebraska (I’ve updated my timeline accordingly). 
 
As with a few of the more recent posts, I didn’t receive any email update but was “periodically” checking the online portal (aka, every day! Ha!), and spotted the approval notice under the “documents” tab.  Case status was also updated to “case is being actively reviewed by USCIS” on Sept 29, 2023, so I assume they’ve updated the “status” tab on the same day as posting the approval notice. 
 
Seems like I-130 processing is generally speeding up / all the Service Centers seem to be on roughly the same timeline, although the NVC process seems to be taking a little longer at the moment.  At least step 1 is now complete.
 
Best of luck all - hopefully not too long to wait for the majority of the Nov 2022 filers!