xxlian

On 7/18/2020 at 12:30 PM, Akrapovic said:

There does not seem to be a lot of traction for this bailout bill at the moment, which I personally feel is quite worrisome: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/7508

However some senators have urged Senate to include the emergency funding for the USCIS into the next stimulus package... https://www.aila.org/advo-media/whats-happening-in-congress/congressional-updates/senators-letter-emergency-funding-uscis

 

Lets all cross fingers that something happens before Aug 3rd... 🤞

The process hasn't moved forward lately because Congress has been out of session since July 3rd. They will return tomorrow, July 20th. Whatever will happen will likely happen very soon.

7 minutes ago, agataa said:

Oh yikes, if it’s supposed to be mutual then I truly don’t think it will happen this year, unless a miracle happens or Trump just decides to reopen everything completely on a whim

That's not a definite, but it was one of the possibilities that were mentioned. I'm not sure what's going to happen.

38 minutes ago, agataa said:

@xxlian is right! I wrote to the embassy in June when the new EO came out and at first they told me that issuing of k1 visas is suspended until 2021, but when I asked them to explain it to me because I couldn’t see anything about that in the PP, they sent this reply: 

 

Thank you. I had forgotten who had posted this. This was the email I was referring to. 

I read awhile back that the Schengen Area travel ban will probably be lifted mutually, with the EU re-evaluating their travel bans every two weeks. Unfortunately, I just don't know how/when things will get better again here in the U.S., which does continue to worry me. 😕

1 hour ago, David and Anna said:

I read thru the "potentially allowed" visa persons list in the revised EO and it comes no where near mentioning family or fiances.  This non-immigrant visa "opening" is for students and people with important work in the USA mostly.  My take is that the fiances and family is covered by the other EO and that, rightly or wrongly, many embassies are grouping K-1's with immigrant visas.  And thus I fear that we are not only awaiting the removal of the EU travel ban, but also the removal of the stop on immigration. (I know that the EO neither includes nor excludes K-1s in its scope - its that lack of clarity in the EO that is leading to much guessing and contradictory replies from various embassies about whether K-1's can move forward or not).

Embassies have confirmed that they're only waiting for the travel ban to be lifted. Their general idea is that there is no point in issuing a visa that cannot be used. Then they'd have to deal with countless visas that they'd just have to reissue at some point after they expire.

2 hours ago, agataa said:

Hmmm I guess our embassy will resume some services July 20th, but probably nothing for k1 until the schengen travel ban is lifted

I just came here to post this. I'm not sure whether they'll begin processing K1s before the travel ban is lifted or not. This does feel like a step forward, at least. Even if they don't start processing the K1s yet, maybe getting through any backlog when they do open on July 20 would mean that the K1s could be processed faster once the travel ban is lifted. I'm not sure; I'm just trying very hard to be hopeful at the moment 😂

USCIS has a form that you can fill out to fix typographical errors. They will correct it in their system and then send you a NOA after it's complete. https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/displayTypoForm.do

23 hours ago, holdingonforhope said:

So, I'm setup for the US Postal service to send me a daily report via email ("USPS Informed Delivery") about the pieces of mail that are set to be delivered to my home every day. They take pictures of each mail piece, save for ads / flyers.

 

I set it a long time ago and don't really pay much attention to it, but it is nice to have. This morning, among other pieces of mail in my report, there was a picture of the USCIS California Service Center envelope. I was excited and looking forward to have this in my possession.

 

It wasn't delivered.

 

All other pieces of mail in the report were delivered. I want to believe it's an honest mistake, but there's a part of me that was afraid this might happen. Also had bit of a row with the mail carrier a few years ago -- don't know if he's still on my route and holding grudges.

 

I already reported it as missing. If you're not signed up for this service, I recommend signing up for it.

 

 

Was it ever delivered? I'm signed up for Informed Delivery as well, and I recall seeing a "I didn't get this mailpiece" checkbox that you can select to report it if you need.

11 hours ago, James120383 said:

 

Congress hasnt passed an immigration bill for 25 years. So if you need to chill.. read that again. Congress track record and interest to change status quo is zero. Silly donald think he is a king and. can pass EO for citizenship. 

Yes, I absolutely agree with you. I just had very little knowledge about what a merit-based system would entail, and I had to do some research about it. Any time anything about immigration comes up, people who are in this process (like I am) or who are considering this process can get anxious about such things. I'm just trying to allay other people's concerns the way I had to with my own. 

9 minutes ago, LibbyG99 said:

Thanks for calming my fears at least

I had to calm mine as well.

He has been talking about changing to a merit-based immigration system since at least 2017. There's obviously no guarantee at this point, but it looks as though his idea of a merit-based system is mostly targeted toward work visas, as described on the White House website's article posted after the work visa EO was announced (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/president-donald-j-trump-putting-american-workers-first-restore-economy-greatness/). It specifically mentions the move to a merit-based system as "taking action to reform our H-1B immigration program." 

Again, this is no guarantee that K1s wouldn't be affected if there were such a change, but it doesn't seem as though that would be their focus. Unfortunately, this is another "wait and see" situation.

6 hours ago, holdingonforhope said:

You were right. I got the text at 6:18 PM last night.

Yay! That's great! You're one step closer!

45 minutes ago, holdingonforhope said:

Thank you, @xxlian! I hadn't seen that yet. Thank you for sharing. That's great. I really hope they can make it happen.

I really hope so. I've had to make myself stop checking the news about it constantly, especially since I learned that Congress is on break right now and won't return until July 20. I assume our news regarding the furloughs will come sometime within the last two weeks of July.

57 minutes ago, holdingonforhope said:

 

Hi, agataa.

 

Hope things are better by then, too. I've scheduled 3 weeks vacation from my job for September in the hopes of going to Poland to be with my fiancée.

 

I sent my I-129f and it was delivered on June 30, but I still haven't gotten my NOA1 nor has the check payment been debited from my bank account, which makes me bit anxious. I checked @xxlian's timeline and they got theirs about 9 days after when they submitted back in June, so I'm hoping I get some kind of action by tomorrow or Monday at the latest. Hope I didn't make a mistake or that they're not just letting them sit unchecked because of the upcoming furloughs.

 

Working on a back-up plan to move to Poland if things don't work out (it would actually be my Plan A if I spoke Polish and had job skills that are easily transferable to Poland). My main concern about moving to Poland is the income requirements for my fiancée to sponsor me there. I asked her to do the research, but it overwhelms her a bit.

 

I'm starting to learn to code in the hopes that if I do move to Poland, I don't just become her burden. I'm not even sure if they hire web developers in Poland without programming degrees, but I hope they do.

 

Sorry for the wall of text / venting. Thank you for checking in with us and I hope you're well.

 

 

Same things are on my mind. Hang in there, xxlian. I'm hoping we get some good news in a few weeks.

 

 

Don't worry -- your timeline seems right! I got the text at around 6:40 PM that evening, which seems pretty standard as far as when they send them out. I kind of expected to get it early in the morning, so don't let that worry you. Also, I got the text at least a couple days before the check was debited from my bank account.

Also, not sure if you saw this article (https://www.law360.com/aerospace/articles/1289762/congress-plans-new-funding-bill-to-aid-uscis-shortfall), but it is the most hopeful news I have seen so far concerning the possible furloughs. Things are moving slowly, but that does seem to be the nature of immigration services and government in general, so hang in there!

In addition to triple-checking everything (which cannot be said enough -- I apparently didn't do it well enough because I made a stupid mistake on my I-129F and had to request a correction), go through USCIS's form filing tips to make sure you're compiling everything correctly. There are certain things that you may not realize you must do, such as writing Original Submission and the form number (I-129F) on the envelope itself and the cover letter.  https://www.uscis.gov/forms/forms-information/form-filing-tips

36 minutes ago, d99gr81 said:

My lawyer says it needs to be approved soon or we will get stuck in long wait and the national visa center because on July 12 they are laying people off. 

 

 

 

 

I have tried to find information to support that, but I don't see anything online about it. Are you sure he/she isn't referring to the possible USCIS layoffs that may begin August 3rd?

On 7/2/2020 at 12:57 PM, agataa said:

Hi everyone, just checking in to see how you’re doing! 
 

I’ve been thinking a lot and my fiancé has to leave Poland this month to go back to the US. I think I’ll try visiting him in September with a 15 day stop in Serbia, if things don’t get better by then

I've just been trying to do my best to keep my stress down about how the virus and the possible USCIS furloughs are going to affect our visa process. Currently I'm not doing so well with that.

Please do NOT send your petition to the Texas Service Center. It goes to the Texas lockbox. It's a different address.

I just got the NOA1 in the mail today and realized I also entered a typo on my beneficiary's birth date. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has experienced this, but I'm very upset with myself about it...

3 hours ago, holdingonforhope said:

Those furloughs are making me anxious too. And with with the EU about to ban travel from the USA when they re-open, it's just making me feel powerless and restless almost all the time when I'm not busy.

I can definitely relate to that.

13 hours ago, agataa said:

We’re considering moving somewhere else in the EU too (sadly Poland doesn’t recognize same sex marriage), I think if you and your partner married first it would be much easier for you to move here!

We're a same-sex couple as well (I'm the U.S. petitioner), and that, along with some other factors, is the primary reason that we chose K1 over IR1/CR1. We just received our NOA1 yesterday, so we're hoping that things will be a little better with the virus/travel bans by the time we get to the embassy stage. I'm very anxious about the possible USCIS furloughs, though, and we really want to be able to have another visit...

I mailed the application on June 16 (delivered on June 19) and just got the text that the case was received! 

I just filed (this week!) and literally had the same dilemma -- for the same country, even. I submitted photographs, a scan of my passport stamps, travel itinerary, and a written statement about the visit. From my understanding, we only got passport stamps in Germany and not in Poland because Germany was when we entered the Schengen Area (therefore, Germany to Poland would be traveling within the Schengen Area, so no passport stamp required); I'm just hoping/expecting that USCIS will recognize that as well. I also called the airline, but no real help there...