geraldineacevedo1

30 minutes ago, Mike E said:

USCIS requires certified translations. If the translator certified competence in both languages it is valid. 

 

Yes, she is/was!  Thank you for this!!

One last question:  may I use the same USCIS account that I have been utilizing during this entire process to help my husband?  It says my name and email address, but I have helped him throughout and now will also assist with N-400.

Thank you!

Hello everyone!  

We are getting ready to apply early for Citizenship and I think I have most things gathered already.

Quick question about the marriage certificate! Ours was translated and notarized back when we were married in 2020. It was "faithfully and accurately" translated here in the U.S, but the "Commission" stamp of the notary expired this year in April 2023.   Not sure if this detail matters.

Would it be valid anyway? Or do you all think I would have to get the document re-translated?

Thank you so much!

- Geraldine and Juan

On 10/2/2020 at 8:12 AM, Louis61404 said:

From what I've read on this forum, that is probably a good thing - especially considering they kept his passport.  It seems like within the last few months they've changed the "statuses" and Administrative Process is coming up on everyone's status, but only for a short amount of time.

 

Good luck.

Thank you!

You were right, this was a good thing! The following day our visa status changed to "Issued" and we received a phone call from Colombian embassy that our visa was ready to be picked up! 

October 5th visa in hand!!! 

Thanks sooo much to all for the support.

On 9/29/2020 at 4:49 PM, Gina Mendez said:

Hi Geraldine, any updates on your case? Mine hasn´t and is killing me

Hi Gina! I know we are in the same boat...I feel so  anxious. Our status updated today from "Refused" to "Administrative Processing" 😩...

8 minutes ago, Gina Mendez said:

I understand. hopefully this is it, and they will provide a positive response on your case soon. 

Thank you so much! Crossing my fingers, yes. 😄

3 minutes ago, Gina Mendez said:

I don´t think is bad advise, I think the message is so unclear that advise could go either way. 

 

Yes, upload the PDFs (I-130 and I-130 A) as separate files without any attachments, under the category "OTHER" and submit. Either the petitioner or the beneficiary can upload. I (the beneficiary) uploaded them.  

 

I hope this works and help your case. Good luck! 

Yes, I felt it was very unclear what they mentioned.

Also, BEFORE my husband even went on the interview on Sept. 1st, we had to send a huge PDF of like 80 pages with all of the scanned documents that they required, I guess because of these times of COVID they wanted to make sure nothing was "missing." The I-130 was not mentioned on that massive list!! 😅

That's why this AP is a bit confusing to me, since we had everything they asked of us...

1 hour ago, Gina Mendez said:

Geraldine, 

 

Yes, seems that they are asking for your I-130 petition. When my case was first sent to the Embassy from NVC (after expedited) the Embassy asked me to upload the I-130 form to CEAC. We uploaded it along with other documents and they said no, just the I-130. We ended up uploading the I-130 as one document and the I-130A as a separate document in CEAC. Email them after you do that. 

 

Best of luck, hopefully they will approve your case soon. 

 

Oh thank you for this tip!  So, upload I-130 AND I-130A separately, not in one PDF? Did you upload it in the section that said "Optional Documents" under the beneficiary?  

1 hour ago, Gina Mendez said:

I saw you said NOA, no it is not, it is the I-130 petition form. 

Yes, that was the suggestion made by my immigration paralegal friend... She said to just send the approval and that they can look up the case according to that. Now that I think of it, I think that was bad advice.  

Just wanted to give an update 09/21.

I received an email from the Embassy about my administrative processing.

They simply asked (translated): 

"Thank you for contacting us. We have visualized that your appointment was on September 1, 2020. Could you please tell us if you have the petition for this case, if so, please upload it to your NVC account and then send it to us by this means scanned in PDF and thus be able to pass it on to the officer in your case."

The message was quite unclear to me about which petition in particular..I feel as though there are many. 😂 I asked my friend, who is an immigration paralegal, about this message and she said to upload my I-130 Approval Notice of Action and send it to them. Seems like that's all they are asking for now?? 😵

20 hours ago, Gina Mendez said:

I went to the Embassy in Bogota, Colombia on 08/20 and it looked they were doing trainings for new consular officers. The person who interviewed me was super nice and my interview went really smooth. However my Visa was not approved because I had a J1 visa in the past and I had a 2 years home residency requirement, which according to the consul I hadn't met because I traveled for a couple of weeks to the US during these two years. In addition they requested a certificate from Migracion Colombia to prove that I didnt left the country in addition to the two times I went to the States. It's been 2 weeks since I submitted the requested document and have not been contacted again by the Embassy and my Visa still appears as refused. I keep looking at the CEAC tracker and it says the last time they looked at my case was yesterday, but still shows "Refused". I understand the uncertainty and anxiety that this causes. Hopefully you will hear from them soon with a positive response soon. 

Yes, it seems that the officer was new, he was kind of confused about how to ask the questions in Spanish.

I understand your anxiety! I look at the CEAC status daily and it has only updated once and says they're still doing administrative processing. They didn't require additional documents from us, which is the most frustrating part   I have a friend from Bolivia who went through a similar process with the "refused" status and that, eventually, it changes to issued, etc... it's just a matter of waiting, which is frustrating for all.

If they kept your passport, etc. I'm sure you will be approved in no time as well. =D 

1 hour ago, stringpuller said:

I cant believe they got that intrusive of his cell phone. Some of these officers are ridiculous. 

Anyway I hope it works out for you. I would have to say they are just suspicious because of the living with GF and the past rejections. 

Thank you!  Yes, I felt the same way about it, but I suppose it's a part of this whole process..whew 😅

On 9/6/2020 at 7:53 PM, C and M said:

Just letting everyone know that there was no problem. It was changed to “Issued” a couple of days later, and the lovely wife is in possession of her I-551 stamp!

Congratulations!!!! This is wonderful news for you both!

How many business days for you to receive the approval?

On 9/6/2020 at 2:23 PM, Jorgedig said:

Sounds like they have doubts about the bonafides of your relationship.  All you can really do now is to wait and respond if they ask for anything else.

Yes, that's what I thought, maybe because of his past rejections. I emailed the Embassy asking if they needed anything more from us and they said no additional documents were necessary. 😓

I am praying for the best!

2 hours ago, Missing7abibi said:

I am on the same boat as you my husband had his cr1 visa on 8-12 and was put under AP as of 9-1 so it’s a waiting game of patience, i pray it doesnt drag as much as I’ve read others has 😭. My husband also filed for a tourist visa before our marriage and was denied then i flew to his country to marry a month later, in their eyes that seems suspicious too, for us it was a cultural thing that he had to come marry me not vice versa but unfortunately he was denied so we had no other way but for me to visit him. 

Yes, lots of patience and just a waiting game. I hope for the best for you and your husband as well!!

18 hours ago, Natalia Malone said:

Hi Geraldine! I found this information I hope is helpful, he was a lawyer that we used before the process to solve some doubts! I hope this may help you!

 

 Thank you, Natalia!😃 Seems as though AP is quite common, so I guess no need to worry much.. now just a waiting game!😅😅

I am in the same boat! Currently in AP since last Tuesday and awaiting final decision.

Also,another note, the Embassy contacted me via e-mail and said we are in the 221G Administrative processing phase and that no additional documents are required.  Simply a waiting game...

Hello All!

I wanted to update on my situation for my Expedited CR-1 Visa and clear up some nerves that I have about our situation.

My husband went to his interview September 1st at the USA Embassy in Bogota, Colombia.  I was, unfortunately, unable to attend because travel from USA to Colombia is still on hold. 

The process took many hours of the day from around 12PM-5PM.  The official who interviewed him was a young man (we believe he was a new employee, unsure), north american, and there was a woman (who we believe was his supervisor)  telling him what to ask my husband in Spanish. They asked him a lot of questions regarding our relationship, and all seemingly went well.  He provided all financial proof, which is very solid, and many photographs of our relationship.

My husband was denied 2 tourist visas previously due to lack of knowledge regarding the visas. 1 he had applied to before he had met me and he was with his ex-girlfriend at the time, and the other he applied to 6 months into our relationship.

The part that is a bit confusing now is that they asked him about the 1st tourist visa denial, where and with WHOM he was living with when he met me in March of last year. I was aware that he was living with his ex-girlfriend and transitioning out of their apartment together, and apparently the official knew about this too! The official actually mentioned his ex-girlfriend's name and the family that he lived with!

This was a shock to me... I am really unsure if they did a background check on where he lived, because honestly it was quite random. Perhaps it raised some suspicions because they kept asking about that topic. 

Then, the Officer asked to take a look at his cell phone and he went through all the chats and pictures of every person.  He asked who EVERY SINGLE PERSON was in his chats!!! Everything seemed to be fine and clear, according to my husband, the official said to the supervisor "I see no signs of any woman. This relationship looks legitimate, everything is normal" to his supervisor.  Thank God my husband and I never delete our conversations or anything like that and we are in constant communication through chats, voice messages, photos, videos, etc.. The officer proceeded to take his cellphone to where the supervisor was and they kept looking through his cellphone, and investigated it for about 20 more minutes.

After the interview was over, the officer was smiling and laughing and said to my husband "Look, I would really like to approve your visa right now, but we have to do something with the US government, and now we have to wait for the next step. You will receive an email in a few days about the next step."

My husband was quite shocked because they said no documents were missing and they didn't say WHAT the problem was. They kept ALL of our documents and took his passport, which I'm hoping is a positive sign?? I'm very confused about all of this. I thought the visa interview would have gone smoothly, and I wish I could have been present to speak to the official in English about the doubts they had, because it seems some things were getting lost in translation. 😣 Our marriage is solid and we had all the evidence that they asked of us, so I'm torn up about what happened, but trying to stay optimistic.

So, I guess we are under AP according to our status:

Quote

"Refused. A U.S. consular officer has adjudicated and refused your visa application. Please follow any instructions provided by the consular officer. If you were informed by the consular officer that your case was refused for administrative processing, your case will remain refused while undergoing such processing. You will receive another adjudication once such processing is complete. Please be advised that the processing time varies and that you will be contacted if additional information is needed. "

I understand that there is still hope with Administrative Processing and it could take a few days, weeks, months or even years to get the visa issued... or am I wrong here? From what I have seen, others have had similar experiences with this.  Hearing your perspectives would be so helpful! VJ has been a huge help to me during this process.

Thank you so much!

Yes, I am wondering the same! If status says "Ready," does that mean they schedule interview soon?

On 7/22/2020 at 10:33 PM, Claudis927 said:

Hello! I am helping my mom with her F2B(daughter of LPR)visa. In May we did the steps and send all documents. Today we got an email from NVC saying to check your case messages. The page is very glitchy and it doesn’t show me the full message. I do see that the Police Certificate is an “invalid” document and needs to be resubmitted. Anyone can help me find the correct one that they want for Colombia. I was so positive that I send them the correct one. 

I had the same issue a few months back with my husband's certificate! I coudn't read the glitch and it just said "Invalid doc."

i think they have changed this process now and want people to pay for the certificate. He ended up calling la cancilleria and they directed him to Cancilleria.gov.co .... he had to pay a fee for the certificate and it came sort of translated and with an apostille and everything. I submitted it just like that and we were approved very quickly.

It was simple to do online or if you call them up.  Were you able to resolve?

On 6/27/2020 at 12:53 AM, Paul & Mary said:

They processed 12 CR1/IR1 visas in May

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/MAY 2020 - IV Issuances by Post and Visa Class.pdf

 

And 10 K1s

https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Non-Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyNIVIssuances/MAY 2020 - NIV Issuances by Post and Visa Class.pdf

Thank you for posting these helpful links about IV & NIV's that have been processed.

What about expedited cases with the Colombian embassy?  How would they conduct interviews if one partner is in Colombia and other in US?  I guess the spouse would have to go solo (if they allow that).

On 7/10/2020 at 9:01 AM, WendyB said:

Les cuento que el día de ayer estuve hablando con un conocido que tenia cita en mayo en Bogota para solicitar la visa de turismo, despues de reprogramarle la cita 3 veces, finalmente le enviaron un correo electrónico diciéndole que por este año la cita para la entrevista queda cancelada y que lo estarán contactando el proximo año para reprogramar. Yo solo espero que este no sea el caso para las personas que estamos tramitando otro tipo de visas como la K1

Esperemos que nos den cita a todos!! Creo que las visas CR-1 y K-1 tienen prioridad, de turista la verdad la veo complicada en estos tiempos.

57 minutes ago, Louis61404 said:

I don't think so.  But even getting an expedited interview would be great for you, because you can get the visa and travel immediately after the borders open.

 

David and I are both using the Bogota embassy as our home embassy because we're from Venezuela.  So, we are not currently in Colombia, making an expedited interview impossible.

 

Countries like the Philippines expedite at the NVC stage if you have a runny nose.  Bogota seems to be quite strict on expediting at the NVC stage, and I imagine will be the same for an expedited interview.  I doubt I would qualify anyway, regardless of the border situation. 

I'm in NY and hubby in Colombia.. would really like to attend the interview at Embassy with him, but I'm just assuming it will after Aug 31st. 

Let's be hopeful they will start scheduling appointments soon and that they'll consider re-opening the borders!

Sounds great!  Thanks for the update.  I've been waiting to get my renewed passport back... sure the wait will be long.😂