nica19

we brought my wife's birth certificate to the visa interview at the embassy and they kept it and put it in a sealed envelope to be opened by the immigration officers at our port of entry. it was not returned to us. is this normal?

we now need a birth certificate for AOS. will they (INS) have the birth certificate? or do we have to get another one? my wife cannot re-enter the country to go get another one.

any suggestions?

thanks

So my fiance sent back the letter to the embassy yesterday saying that she had gotten everything together in packet 4. this morning she got a call that the interview would be monday, this coming monday! now i am all for hurrying this thing along but that was too quick since i am planning on going to the interview with her. i called the embassy back and spoke with a very nice lady who asked me when i would like the interview and she changed it to that day, three weeks from monday. its like 7 months of absolutely nothing and then its everything all at once! well, now comes the fun part.

good luck to everyone out there!

OK heres a question. the K-1 visa is a, technically, non-immigrant visa and thus would require forms DS-156 & DS-156k. my fiancee picked up packet 3/4 or whatever you want to call it and it asked for form DS-230 and states that the we have to pay $400 for the visa. this all sounds like an immigrant visa and not a non-immigrant visa. i got in touch with the embassy earlier this week and they emailed me a copy of what they said they were going to give my fiancee, its titled packet 4 and says that forms DS-156 & DS-156k are required and the visa should cost $131. we are now very confused. i'm sending another email to the embassy to try and straighten it out but i wanted to see if anyone had any comments on this.

thanks again to everyone and i hope everyone still waiting gets their approvals soon.

what are you putting for question #11,

do you intend to make specific contributions to the support of the person in item 3?

someone said just to put N/A but what would you select? intend or do not intend?

thanks

so you would select "do not intend" and then write in "N/A" ? or would you not select anything and still just write in N/A?

thanks,

Hey, what is anyone putting for #11 on the I-134,

Do you intend to make specific contributions to the person mentioned in item 3 (fiance)?

thanks,

Just got through to NVC and our case was forwarded to the embassy yesterday. Stoked! Did the DHL tracking trick and based on past packages to Managua it should be there on Monday.

I also just sent an email out to the embassy alerting them that we're coming and to try to get some inside info on whats in packet 3 and any tips to make the rest of this go smoothly.

And to everyone still waiting, do like Tupac said, keep ur head up!

As for the DS-156 i think you can just fill it out online and then print it anytime. I thought that i read somewhere that when you fill it out online all you are doing is generating a barcode that you can then print out. There is a portion on the bottom of the form if someone other than the beneficiary is filling it out, i would assume you just put your name. then just get it to your fiance and have her sign it.

sound right? anyone?

Called NVC around 6:15 pm eastern and the lady said that they just received and entered our case into the system. she was amazed at how quickly i called after it got put in, she said if i'd called half an hour earlier she would not have seen it. told me to call back on friday and to see if got sent out. also told me i'd be getting a letter after they sent it confirming that it got sent out.

this seems like a common thing at NVC, cases not getting put in til very late in the day.

anyway, stoked things are moving along and i wish everyone still waiting a speedy approval!

Just got the email from CRIS, we were approved! Got my first touch this morning when i first checked USCIS and spent the whole day worrying and sweating it out but it went through. It looks like CSC sends out its email at night. Anyway congrats to all the other NOA2'ers and i hope everyone else waiting gets theirs soon too, things are moving now!

So we now have 9 CSC'ers that got NOA2's yesterday with 2 of them true september filers (NOA1 sent dates). i think thats a record.

i meant to say I129-f sent dates...

Heres a couple articles postulating that the slowdown at USCIS is actually a plot by the Republicans and the current Administration to prevent applicants from voting in the upcoming presidential elections.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...8012502997.html

http://www.ilw.com/articles/2008,0128-lee.shtm

I wouldnt put it past our government to do it...

i've received USCIS (Application and Petition Receipting Update for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) updates so far on the 4th, 7th, 8th and today. kind of strange since it hasnt been updated since the 4th.

this is pretty painful just watching vermont plug along and CSC barely do anything.

thats awesome, congrats!

i figure i'm a few months away still but i'm sure i'll have some questions for you guys about the process when my fiancee goes to managua too.

not to be the wet blanket, but...

CSC has only processed 2 (one of which i believe was a military expedite) AUGUST filers. Although, as of today there were only 68 August filers versus 227 July filers at CSC (and 163 June CSC filers). Incidentally, September has 68 CSC filers as of today. Don't get me wrong, I am a firm believer in the "now that the ball is rolling through July they should plow through August and then September" but...

also, heres a few stats i got this morning for CSC, #filers at CSC/NOA2 & % complete,

June: 163/122 75%, July: 227/131 56%, August: 68/2 3%, Sept: 61/0 0%.

I do think we might see a september CSCer get NOA2 in January, but i think we'll really start seeing us septembers moving in february.

had some time to kill this afternoon and started looking at the number of I-129f's filed as recorded here on VJ. It looks like things began to pick up around March of this year and peaked in July, obviously, but if you look at Sept through now and assume that VJ is a good representation of the total number of applications that USCIS gets we are at about half of the average of before the onslaught. Call me optimistic but with the additional folks hired on at USCIS and the drop in applications right after the fee hike hopefully in the end we wont really see any increase in overall processing time. well thats just me being optimistic.

neither my fiance nor any of my other friends in Nicaragua have been able to send SMS text messages out of the country. has anyone else noticed this? they all have Movistar and i cant find any sort of customer service numbers that i can call from here in the states. any suggestions?

My fiance is from San Juan del Sur and I had the same questions. I just put it exactly as if you would mail a letter to her. Once you get approved they will use that address so send her a list of things to get. Good luck!

I've also read some posts that say once you get NOA2 and your stuff has been sent to NVC you can call the embassy in Managua and ask to pick up any forms that they would send you right at the embassy, that should save a couple of weeks!

Found this after googling "California Service Center"

http://www.region12.nafsa.org/r12howtocontactcsc.htm

its got some phone numbers and emails which might be helpful.

Anyway, man time seems to be creeping slowly by lately.

NOA1 arrived in the mail today!

They are honoring the received date of Sept 28.

OK, back to the waiting.

Hopefully once the ball gets rolling they keep it going.

Just saw my check got cashed yesterday! Can't see any 13 digit number starting with 3 letters though. Guess i have to wait for the notice.

There was a stamp that said Oct 21, 2007 on the back but no other non-bank numbers.

Hopefully this is the start of a trend!

Sent my package to CSC on Sept 26, 2007

Received on Sept 28, 2007

Waiting....(no cashed check and no NOA1)

Sent an email to the Ombudsman October 24, 2007.

Has anyone else called USCIS, as per the USCIS Ombudsman's recommendation,

5. Wait Times - How long should someone wait to receive a receipt for an application filed this summer before inquiring about it? Should an application be re-filed?

Response: We suggest that you review the weekly “Receipting Update” posted on www.uscis.gov, which has the receipting dates for each application type. If your application was filed before the date posted, go ahead and call USCIS customer service (1-800-375-5283) and email our office at cisombudsman.publicaffairs@dhs.gov.

and asked about their case? If USCIS says they have receipted all cases up to 9/29/07 we all should have received our NOA1's and had our checks cashed by now.

Just saw the USCIS update on form processing,

As of October 19, 2007, USCIS has completed initial data entry and issued receipt notices for applications and petitions received on or before the dates indicated:

California Service Center

Form Number Date Received

I-130 8/30/2007

N-400 8/02/2007

All Other Forms 9/29/2007

I just got off the phone with USCIS and they claim that I-129f forms are included in the the "All Other Forms" catagory. OK then, any day now. Also I asked about the reports that some October filers are getting thier NOA1's already and the woman assured me that regardless of when the NOA1 is received by the petitioner all september filers are "in front of" october filers, just like the august filers are ahead of us and so on and so on. The forms are processed in the order they are recieved at the office.

So, we all just gotta hang in there.

Be sure to update your timeline once you recieve your notice.

If my fiancee has only worked for cash as a housekeeper and in restaurants here in nicaragua and not paid any kind of income tax, is it alright to leave the work history blank? I just think it is more trouble than its worth for trying to remember names and phone numbers. What do you all think? Thanks