unique5589

41 minutes ago, LBX said:

LOL - no written list given -  she just has a good memory.   Fortunately also, we correctly identified where our red flags would be before hand, so we expected a lot of these questions and practised several variations of them for weeks.  Our strategy was to keep answers as brief as possible and expand on answers only when necessary or if prompted by the CO. 

 

The only surprise question was the CRBA question on if our 2 kids had DNA testing done - to which she simply said "no".

 

We debriefed immediately after the interview and wrote down the questions she was asked as we drove back from the embassy because we had already decided to post them to the VJ site because of all the help we got from here.   I pulled hundreds of useful interview questions from VJ that were really useful.   

 

So my advise is -

1. think of where your red flags would be and prepare thoroughly for them. 

2. review as many interview questions as you can find on VJ. 

3. keep your answers short and don't ramble on - the more you talk, the more avenues you open up for the CO to drill you.

 

This is such great advice. Thank you.

7 hours ago, unique5589 said:

This is the most thorough interview I’ve seen for a visa of your type.

 

Congratulations! 

How was your wife able to remember all the questions they asked her? Did they give her a written list of these questions? That's a lot to remember!

Just now, LBX said:

Will be praying for you.

Thank you.

2 hours ago, LBX said:

Thank you.  I was expecting it to be thorough especially because of the age difference with my wife and the fact that I recently retired.  So I made sure my wife had tons of evidence for support our relationship and how I planned to support our family.  Even with that, I was still a bit worried.  We did do several test runs at home to simulate what we thought her experience would be.  And we used a lot of questions we found on VJ.  So she came well prepared.  In the end it paid off.  We are grateful to our VJ family and wish everyone success.

You're welcome. This has been such a difficult journey for a lot of us. I'm glad that the embassy was compassionate and granted you an expedite interview. 

I requested an expedite about two months ago. It was unfortunately denied. I sent in another request last week for the same reason. Hopefully I will hear positive news in the coming weeks, as I'm in the service and will be stationed outside of the USA. I need my base to sponsor my husband which is dependent on my husband getting a USA visa, at least that's what is written in my present orders. Some of the terminology is specific to the military, so if anyone doesn't understand a term, please let me know.

3 minutes ago, LBX said:

Approved!!

My wife and I are so grateful to the VJ site and it's members for their support and encouragement.  She is currently too excited to post so I am posting her interview experience here and on our timeline also:

 

Overall, a pleasant experience.  Everyone was nice and friendly, but the interview was still very thorough.

 

The initial lady collected the following documents:
-  Passport
- Passport pictures
- Police reports

 

The interview lasted about 30 mins despite the fact I was asked many questions.  
I kept my answers short and clarified just a couple of points to the CO. 

 

Interview question:

 

1. How did you meet your husband?
2. How did your relationship progress from there?
3. How much older is your husband than you?
(A lot questions surrounded my husband because of the age gap between us.)
4. When did you say you met?
5. So you have known your husband for 8 years and married for the last 2 years. How come it took you both that long to get married?
6. Can I see your wedding pictures?
7. How many people were at each of your traditional and white weddings? 
8. Do you have any other pictures of your relationship? (Yes)
9. Can I see all of the pictures you have?  
(I had about 200 pictures in collages - she went through every picture while she kept asking more questions)
10. I see you have travelled outside Ghana.  What countries?
11. Have you lived abroad and if so for how long?
12. Have you ever been arrested before?
13. Where is your husband now? (He dropped me off for the interview?)
14. When did he come back to Ghana? (He hasn't left since we got married in 2019).
15, How come? 
16.  When does he plan to return to the US? 
17. Where does your husband live in the US.
18. Does he have property in the US?
19. Do you know that your husband recently retired? (Yes).
20. Can I see his financial records? 
(Submitted copy of I-864 and his updated 2021 bank and investment statements - he used assets as additional financial backing)?
21, How many children do you and your husband have together? (She asked for their birth certs) 
22. Did your children have any DNA testing done for their CRBA? (No. None was requested.)

 

Then came the magic word:

 

"Congratulations!" -  I can't find a reason to deny you. I wish you and your husband all the best in the US"

 

She kept my passport and handed me a Domestic Violence document to read and instructions to collect my passport.

 

Documents she did not ask for but that I carried along:
1. Tax transcript (but she did look through my husbands I-864).
2. My husband's divorce papers.
3. My husband's citizenship papers and passports.
4. Call logs, whatsapp messages, Travel logs. 

This is the most thorough interview I’ve seen for a visa of your type.

Congratulations! 

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1 minute ago, knmuffin said:

I feel you- I actually just got approved from work to head to Ghana for a month. I'm spending an arm and a leg to make this work, and I'm worried to travel during COVID, but I haven't seen my spouse in more than one year and it's just too much now. I am hoping the email to schedule an interview will come while I'm there so we can properly celebrate, and so I can leave Ghana knowing we'll be together permanently soon! I have faith things will turn out well!

Safe travels!

I haven't visited my husband since December 2017.

How's everyone doing so far? 

I'm fine but becoming frustrated and impatient with this process. There are days when I reflect on when I had the chances to visit my husband but didn't due to prior obligations. I understand that no one knew this virus and quarantine would turn out to be so devastating for so many of us, but I do regret not visiting my husband when I had the opportunities to do so. I won't be able to leave the US until later this year, which means I won't see my husband physically until toward the end of this year, and that's very psychologically and emotionally damaging! As mentioned before, I requested an interview expedite about a month ago. The embassy denied my request. I will try again soon.

1 hour ago, Three said:

Thank u.. sure 

So who’s filing for me? What’s his name? How did we meet? When did we get married? Where does he live? What job does he do? What work do I do? Have I bn married before? Do we have kids? That’s it basically 

Great!

Just now, LBX said:

It's unfortunate they don't realize how much panic and distress they cause with their terminology. 😓

It's SO unfortunate. This entire experience for me has been nothing been tacky and trashy, to say the least!

45 minutes ago, HelpneededJessica said:

Just checked case status and says REFUSED what does this mean, is this good or bad?!

Tried looking into other feeds but couldn’t find a good definite answer.

TIA

  

Someone in a FB group that I'm in said that all cases in administrative processing say REFUSED.

2 hours ago, Joe Alex Akomeah said:

Smh 

I haven't heard any CR1/IR1 appointments being cancelled as a result of this news.

Have you all heard?! The US Embassy in Ghana is back at it again. They're cancelling some appointments!

5 minutes ago, Zoe B said:

He has to get a new police report (Getting in next week) because the one he got for the first interview is expired. I submitted new financial info in like March/April of 2020 so I don't need to resubmit that. I will say that for the medical appointment- I suggest telling your partners to go to Holy Trinity vs Akai House b/c since Akai house is in Osu, its about $100 more expensive than Holy Trinity (In Kaneshie area)

Thanks for this valuable information.

2 minutes ago, Zoe B said:

yep! he got an email just 2 days ago that asked to resubmit it. i did it yesterday. you just have to go do your account and go thru the DS260 thats already submitted and edit anything and then E-sign and its submitted to the embassy again. super easy although i got nervous when we got the email!!

I was also nervous at first because I was under the impression that I had to re-enter all that info. but it seems like we only have to verify the info that's there, make changes if necessary, and then send it.

Did you have to send in any new documents (e.g. Ghana police report, financial information from US sponsor, etc)?

2 minutes ago, Zoe B said:

Jan 29, 2020- which was 3 months before his original interview was supposed to be. He got the date 3/11/20 and interview was supposed to be 4/23/20...but alas, COVID

Did you have to re-submit the DS-260?

Just now, Zoe B said:

I am in the US and my husband is applying for a CR1 spouse visa in Ghana. We got his original interview date in April 2020 which got cancelled due to COVID and rescheduled for August. That also then got cancelled. The first week of January 2021 we finally got a new date for March 2021. Hopefully for people with similar timelines as us will get new dates soon!!

Awesome! Congrats on the interview date. When was your case DQ'ed at the National Visa Center?

9 minutes ago, LBX said:

I go through the Ghana timelines regularly and sometimes contact individuals that may not have updated their timelines to do so.  Some people can't be bothered to update their timelines so I PM them directly to get information.  

 

You can check this link with some of the updated timelines.

https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=All&op66=All&op7=Ghana&op1=3&op2=&dfile=No&i129prem=All&i140prem=All&op3=&op4=1&op5=5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C11%2C13%2C14%2C15%2C16%2C17%2C18%2C20%2C21%2C22%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C108%2C110%2C111%2C208%2C210%2C211&cfl=

 

I hope you find it useful. 

I will soon be after you to update your timeline 😁😅

Good looking out. Thank you.

1 hour ago, LBX said:

Today there were 5 interviews (4 CR1/IR1 and one K1) recorded. All approved.

Congratulations to those that have made it!

Congrats to those that have made it.

How are you getting this info?

35 minutes ago, LBX said:

Let's pray it is before June 2021, so your police report does not expire.  Also, they may ask for the DS-260 to be resubmitted if it is more than a year old. 

My goodness! I hope it's before June 2021 because that's more work for my husband and I.

49 minutes ago, LBX said:

So you are within the processing times for Ghana.  I understand they were scheduling Jan/Feb 2020 DQs for March 2021.  There is one May 2020 DQ outstanding so will monitor that. That will give you the signal you are next.

Based on the times I've seen, it seems that my husband will get an interview either in August 2021 or September 2021.

48 minutes ago, unique5589 said:

What do NOA1, NOA2 and CC stand for?

1 hour ago, LBX said:

Hello everyone, please update your timelines so we can get better estimates on Ghana. So far this is what I have gathered from our Ghana timelines:

 

PROCESSING TIMES:

NOA1 - NOA2 → 8 to 10 months

NVC submission to approval (CC/DQ) → 1 to 2 months

NVC CC/DQ  to Embassy Interview → 11 months

 

Note that the interviews just started back up in Jan 2021 after a long pause. There were a couple in January and one member was interviewed today (3-Feb-2021) and approved.

 

SUGGESTIONS:
① I suggest that individuals that are waiting on their NOA2 approval should start gathering documentation for their I-260 and I-864 requirements.  If you are in the 6th month of waiting for your NOA2 then you may also consider getting your police reports especially if you lived abroad for over a year. This will save you valuable time.  I spent 6 weeks between my NOA2 and final submission to NVC because I didn't plan ahead.

 

If anyone has corrections or other helpful suggestions, please let us know.

 

I will update as I get more information from our timelines so please update yours. Thanks.

NOA1 - NOA2: 9 mons

NVC Submission to approval (CC/DQ): 1 month

NVC CC/DQ to Embassy interview: 7 mons and counting. I have yet to be scheduled for an Embassy interview. I was DQ'ed June 2020.

26 minutes ago, LBX said:

Hello everyone, please update your timelines so we can get better estimates on Ghana. So far this is what I have gathered from our Ghana timelines:

 

PROCESSING TIMES:

NOA1 - NOA2 → 8 to 10 months

NVC submission to approval (CC/DQ) → 1 to 2 months

NVC CC/DQ  to Embassy Interview → 11 months

 

Note that the interviews just started back up in Jan 2021 after a long pause. There were a couple in January and one member was interviewed today (3-Feb-2021) and approved.

 

SUGGESTIONS:
① I suggest that individuals that are waiting on their NOA2 approval should start gathering documentation for their I-260 and I-864 requirements.  If you are in the 6th month of waiting for your NOA2 then you may also consider getting your police reports especially if you lived abroad for over a year. This will save you valuable time.  I spent 6 weeks between my NOA2 and final submission to NVC because I didn't plan ahead.

 

If anyone has corrections or other helpful suggestions, please let us know.

 

I will update as I get more information from our timelines so please update yours. Thanks.

What do NOA1, NOA2 and CC stand for?

2 minutes ago, LBX said:

No I did not mention my first attempt.  I wanted my second request to be reviewed on its own merit and felt the first request would be in my file anyway.

Thanks for your response.

Just now, LBX said:

Sorry to hear that you were not approved. I also was not approved on my first attempt so it is a good idea to try again with more info.  

Thank you for your encouragement. I'll follow up once I put in the second request. For your second request, did you write in the email that this is your second request?