ReneeGG

Yes, thank you for sharing this! My husband just received his IR-1 visa and I'm fearful of transiting through Europe to get to the US even though it says we'd be exempt from the ban. Glad it worked for you! 

1 hour ago, Kyle and Rita said:

Thats really weird. I've been searching forums for the last 4 or 5 hours and it looks like everyone has a status of "refused" until it moves to "issued". Looks like it started on March 5, 2020 like that. 

 

Is this the first time you've checked the CEAC?

 

This is what ours looks like now 

Yes, this is the first time I’ve checked it. I just read your separate post about it and now you’ve got me feeling nervous for our visa. 

7 hours ago, Kyle and Rita said:

Can you check your CEAC side to see if it is normal or if it also says "refused" ?

I just checked and mine says "Administrative Processing." 

9 minutes ago, Kyle and Rita said:

Did your husband get an approval paper, or did he just get told to wait a few days for the passport? Our CO just told my wife she was approved, and that the visa would be in her passport and delivered next week. I just looked on CEAC and it says "visa refused" 

They didn’t give him an approval paper. The only gave him a booklet that explains his rights as a legal permanent resident and told him to pick up his passport once he receives an email telling him it’s ready. 

Hi all, I wanted to share our experience today for the IR-1 Visa interview in Tbilisi, Georgia.

First of all, the interview letter requested that I attend the interview along with our 1 year old son. I have been living with my husband in Georgia since we were married, so attending the interview with him was no problem. His appointment was at 11:30am and we arrived at 11am. The embassy guards asked us to fill out a COVID-19 questionnaire regarding any symptoms or recent travel. After we filled out the form, they informed us that only my husband was to enter the embassy and if they needed me they would call me in. So, I waited outside with our son.

My husband entered the embassy and they told him to take a seat. After a couple of minutes, they called his name and requested the following documents: passport, birth certificate, relationship evidence (our sons birth certificate), military record, police certificate, and passport photos. They wanted all original documents.

Next, he sat for 10 minutes until he was called to the window. He had to swear by oath that he would answer truthfully to the following questions:

- When did you meet your spouse?

- Have you ever been apart from your spouse for an extended period of time?

- Why are you both living in Georgia?

- When was your son born?

- Where are you planning to live in the US?

- What does your mother-in-law do for work? (we are planning to live with her initially, so that's why they asked about her)

- What's your goal when you get to the US?

The consular approved the visa and told my husband to expect the visa in 3-4 business days. He gave my husband the option to arrange with a courier or to pick up his passport when it was ready.

And that's it! My husband also mentioned that there were only 2 other people in the waiting room and everything was very sanitary with employees taking the necessary safety precautions due to COVID-19.

40 minutes ago, SETETA said:

Then it provides the time and date or was that in another email? Congrats

Yes, at the bottom of the email it gives me the date and time of the appointment. It also requests that I attend the interview with my husband, along with our son (already a US citizen). 
 

23 minutes ago, Alexag said:

so they emailed you about your new appointment?

Yes, we received notice via email.

12 minutes ago, SETETA said:

Also did the NVC schedule it or was it embassy direct?

It was scheduled through the NVC. The emails says “The National Visa Center completed its processing of your immigrant visa application and forwarded it to the US Embassy/Consulate General, where an immigrant visa interview has been scheduled.”

18 minutes ago, OrihimeandIchigo said:

This is wonderful news, congratulations 😊

 

Can I ask if your Tbilisi US Embassy website is stating its open for Routine visa services again?

 

Or they being hush hush like I suspect most Embassies are. 

 

Edited to add: Did you also contact your Embassy to check on the status or did you just wait silently till you got your interview date. I've been considering emailing my Embassy. 

Their website doesn’t say anything about their specific operations. Just the generic Covid statement about limited services being available. I didn’t contact the Embassy. Based on other posts, I figured I wouldn’t gain any new information by doing so. I was checking my emails and ceac website daily. 

1 minute ago, Quarknase said:

Congrats, that’s amazing! We started at similar speed (I-130 approved within 3 months even though we had an RFE that took us 4 weeks to respond), but now are stuck at NVC waiting for document review since March. It’s crazy how unpredictable processing times have become this year (in a positive way, we all expect long wait times lol)

It's super unpredictable! We spoke with a lawyer in January and he gave us the impression that this would take a minimum of 18 months. So, we were pretty open to waiting until next year for any of this to start happening. I hope you hear something soon! 

I received an RFE yesterday requesting my 2018 and 2019 tax returns. I haven't worked for the past 3 years, so I submitted a statement of why I wasn't required to file for those years. I was slightly annoyed to receive this RFE because I submitted that statement in the same PDF file as my 2017 tax return information. I guess they wanted the statement submitted as a separate PDF file from the 2017 tax return.

Anyway, does anyone know if this is a one and done kind of ordeal? Meaning, they have already reviewed all my other submitted documents and this is the only discrepancy they have found? Or do they stop reviewing all other documents the minute they find something wrong? Just don't know if I should expect another RFE aside from the one they requested yesterday...