Radioherd

On 7/5/2021 at 7:23 PM, Radioherd said:

Ok so after Ewan's interview apparently all but the London embassy are extending the police certs to 2 years.... My parent's certs hit 1 year on June 30th and they have their interview on July 14th.... So we have done the 4 day advanced processing to get new police certs and take to the interview....

 

Ewan said he took his new cert to the interview (on file they had the old one), and his case was "refused pending updating that document" - which his lawyer promptly did the next day and he was approved - which is great. My question is, once we receive the new police cert, should we submit it in the consular portal as an "additional document" so that it is there, or should we just wait to do it after interview? My parents also have new passports for the interview so the ones online are expiring....

 

There's not an obvious place to upload "replacement" documents but i don't want to mess up "documentarily qualified" by uploading new stuff?

Ok so my parents had their IR5 interviews at the London Embassy today and both were approved on the spot! Just waiting for the courier text notification returning the passports.

For reference they were DQ'd November 2020, but we did put in an expedite request which seemed to have an impact.

Does anyone that has already made the journey know how long it takes to receive a social security number? E.g. is it x number of weeks from visa approval, or x numbers of weeks after entering the USA? We can't get healthcare until they have a social, so curious what others are doing to bridge that gap?

Thankful to everyone for the advice in this forum - and if you have an updated document (such as passport or police cert), uploading them to the CEAC site as "additional documents" ahead of the interview was successful for us.

On 6/16/2021 at 5:19 PM, Ewan said:

Sorry - I've got that wrong. I have checked back through my emails. I've been using an immigration lawyer and they advised me to get a new police certificate. They said the previous one had expired because it was issued in January 2020. So they must have been working to the one-year deadline.

I've tried to add a note to that effect to my previous comment but there seems to be a time limit for making edits to a comment. Apologies if I have caused any confusion.
 

Ok so after Ewan's interview apparently all but the London embassy are extending the police certs to 2 years.... My parent's certs hit 1 year on June 30th and they have their interview on July 14th.... So we have done the 4 day advanced processing to get new police certs and take to the interview....

Ewan said he took his new cert to the interview (on file they had the old one), and his case was "refused pending updating that document" - which his lawyer promptly did the next day and he was approved - which is great. My question is, once we receive the new police cert, should we submit it in the consular portal as an "additional document" so that it is there, or should we just wait to do it after interview? My parents also have new passports for the interview so the ones online are expiring....

There's not an obvious place to upload "replacement" documents but i don't want to mess up "documentarily qualified" by uploading new stuff?

Can anyone confirm if they have ever had a "certified copy" of a document accepted for interview and what you did for the certification? I've heard that someone didn't have their certification accepted and had to wait for the original and don't want that to happen...

For my parent's IR5, we need to provide my original or certified copy of birth certificate, but my original is in the USA so figuring if i need to mail it over to the UK....

4 hours ago, Ewan said:

I was told to get a new police certificate because they are only valid for US visa purposes for six months.

This is the advice from the London embassy on the medical appointment...
When scheduling the appointment, please note that it takes 5 workdays for the results of the medical examination to be couriered to the Embassy.

Unfortunately, for me that means two trips from Scotland to London and an overnight stay each time to make sure I'm there for my medical and interview appointments the next morning. But I went ahead with that and had my medical yesterday. 

Yes we are thankful things are progressing for my father and hopeful my mother is also in this batch!

Ok that is what we feared re. the police certificate, here was us being prudent getting it early in the process (June 2020) thinking interview was imminent but we say the cert is supposed to be within 12 months - so a July 14 interview will be 2 weeks past... If you are hearing from immigration lawyer it is 6 months, but the next poster says 2 years, we will need to reach out and confirm i guess...

Yes we were just thinking same thing re. overnight stays for both trips re. medical - and doing medical a couple weeks ahead sounds like the best idea - you can't do them too early right?

So we have some movement - my parents IR5 were both DQ’d on Nov 2020 - my father just got an interview email for July 14 in London. My mother got her DQ notice a couple days later so is this the expectation that interview notice will also follow shortly for others that have applied for both parents separately?

For Interview prep, what’s the current expectation for the police certificate? Are they allowing it to be more than a year old given the delay now?

Also, what’s everyone’s recommendation for how close to the interview to do the medical? Is day of too close? Day before? Trying to plan for time needed in London 

thanks all!

Hi All,

Obviously nobody really knows, but vaccination rates continue to increase and cases continue to decrease in both USA and UK so at some point they have to open this travel route to allow UK to USA....

Personally I feel like after July 4th might be the announcement (just because if there is a spike that week it can't be blamed on opening the travel route up), what is everyone else thinking/hearing?

2 hours ago, ArkansasExile said:

My mum got an ALS diagnosis - sample below is the expedite request with NVC that was approved. We were denied the first time with a very similar email/request but the second one was sent right as they were reopening the embassy

We received an expedite (Second attempt, seemed unrelated but as the US Citizen son I also contacted my congressional delegation) from NVC to London after an ALS diagnosis for my mother. 

 

We included (on the second + successful attempt) the diagnosis letter from her doctor, an estimate of costs to travel to be with her, loss of income, and the impact on me as the petitioner, my wife, children, brother, sister in law and my nieces. 

My email requesting expedite is below:

 

I am writing today to request that the above case IDs expedited to the earliest possible appointment with the London Embassy, which is out of the English lockdown procedure. When we submitted the paperwork for my parents immigration we were excited to have them come and retire close to family. However, on Friday March 19th my mother was diagnosed with ALS/Motor Neuron Disease. ALS is one of the few diseases for which there is no cure and will be terminal. Her neurologist has provided the attached letter with diagnosis and average life expectancy. I request an expedited appointment to prevent a financial burden upon myself as a US Citizen. Currently with quarantine procedures, travel costs and lost income then simply travelling to the UK for help with medical appointments would cost me tens of thousands of dollars.

 

Waiting for my parents in America are the entirety of my parents family: in particular their 5 grandchildren, my brother & I. We desperately don't want to lose any of the time we have left with our mother and their grandmother, particularly in the years that she has the least mental and physical impact from ALS. We are eager to maximize whatever time we have left with my mother, to support my father and to celebrate every moment we have left. All the guidance we've read & that her doctor gave her is to not waste a single day of the good times remaining.  

 

We are a proud family. We love each other and asking for help from strangers doesn't come easily. That being said, we beg you to expedite this process and expedite their interview. By doing so you will be enabling so much joy and relieving the burden on our family, including the now 9 immediate US citizens. If we can't expedite the process then I (and my brother) will be travelling back and forward to support my mother, negatively impacting 5 young children who will be without their fathers for significant periods of time. 

Ok thanks for sharing -

I can't seem to find info on where to send the expedite request, is it through the NVC website or direct to the London Embassy?

On 5/21/2021 at 1:18 PM, Wuozopo said:

@Chadmaia

Answers often depend on specific info. You haven’t filled out a timeline. Where are your cases right now? Has the petition been approved by USCIS?  Is your case at NVC? If NVC, when were you documentarily qualified? 
 

Also must mention that health care is going to be very expensive and health insurance will be too. Have you priced out insurance? Are you aware that you will still be paying a percentage of your medical bills as well. The sticker shock can be overwhelming to those used to NHS. 

Yes, we have priced it out (i'm the petitioner and US citizen) - there's actually some pretty good plans with the ACA now and not as bad as i was expecting

On 5/24/2021 at 8:07 AM, ArkansasExile said:

I haven't done the timeline due to not having all the dates to hand and the amount of personal stuff requested. Possibly just overly cautious. 

 

They interviewed on April 28th, got 221g'd pending medical and new original birth certificate from Gloucestershire for me. Both the medical and the new birth certificate were received on May 5th, CEAC tracker shows my mum's case was touched on the 5th, then the 6th, my dad's just on the 6th (but the embassy consolidated their cases on the day of the interview). 

 

So coming up on about 3 weeks this Thursday from the last touch and collectively we probably check it 50 times a day each

What was the example you used for the expedition @ArkansasExile?

On 5/18/2021 at 10:36 AM, Ewan said:

Some surprise news! I jut got notification of my interview at the London embassy for June 28th. So they are starting to move on IR-5 cases. 

 

I-130 sent to USCIS - January 14, 2019

I-130 approved - April 25, 2019

Notice of case received by NVC - January 3, 2020

Fees paid - January 8, 2020

Documents accepted - March 5, 2020

DQ'd - June 8, 2020

Interview date - June 28, 2021

Ok great news congrats! - 1 year between DQ and Interview so in theory we may be looking at November 2021 on our end - let us know how the int goes!

On 4/9/2021 at 8:03 PM, Gar9 said:

Your DQ date is in Jun.2020 or Nov.2020 ? 

Nov 2020

29 minutes ago, Ewan said:

That's what I'm hoping for. At least to have a visit over the summer - I haven't seen my son and daughter for over 18 months now. Good luck to you and your parents. I'll let you know when I finally hear from the embassy,

Thanks yes good luck to you too! - I signed up to this link that will notify me when UK to USA is open again to apply for an ESTA.

Keep me updated on your progress!

21 hours ago, Ewan said:

Hi. I've been waiting for an IR5 interview at London since being DQ'd on June 8, 2020. I've seen a handful of IR5 interviews scheduled for VisaJourney members in other countries but not any indication of when the London embassy might start IR5s.

 

Here's my very basic timeline.

 

I-130 sent to USCIS - January 14, 2019

I-130 approved - April 25, 2019

Notice of case received by NVC - January 3, 2020

Fees paid - January 8, 2020

Documents accepted - March 5, 2020

DQ'd - June 8, 2020

Ugh - yes that's what i'm hearing - London has almost no movement on IR5 - really looks like it's going to be 2022 for my parents (Nov 2020 DQ) if some of you are still waiting on one from June 2020 DQ..... Here's hoping the UK-USA travel opens up this summer and they can come on a travel visa for a few weeks as if the interview is gonna be 6 months out they may as well!

On 3/25/2021 at 2:50 PM, AS777 said:

Hi everyone,

 

Thanks for sharing all of your updates - this thread has been a real lifeline throughout this process! I thought I would do a quick summary based on previous posts in this thread on where we seem to be at with April interviews. 

 

For context, I was DQ on January 4th and I’m still waiting for my interview (hoping for May…)

 

If anyone has any further updates (or corrections!) please do share:

 

@Muso303DQ October 16th - Interview April 7th (changed by Embassy from March)

@Jonathan Simpson DQ October 16th - Interview April 7th (changed by Embassy from March)

@Jamie B DQ October 8th - Interview April 8th (changed by Embassy from March)

 

@Charlie87 DQ December 14th - Interview April 19th

@bharats DQ December 16th - Interview April 26th

@Ailurus DQ December 16th - Interview April 27th

 

It seems like December 16th was the cut off for April interviews since: 

@Christine Kapp DQ December 17th - No interview yet

@Dawn2021 DQ December 22nd - No interview yet 

 

I also jotted down the dates interviews were released each month:

• March 15th 2021
• February 11th 2021
• December 15th 2020
• November 13th 2020
• October 7th 2020

 

So, in summary, I’m hoping that those of us that were late December / early January DQ dates will hear about our May interviews sometime in mid-April..! 

 

I hope this is somewhat helpful also for those new to the thread.

 

Thanks

Hi All,

My parents are both on the IR5 track and were DQ'd Nov 6th - anyone similar timeline or know where that puts them in estimated interview month in 2021?

I know it's all a bit unknown with the limited appointments but are IR5 interviews still happening?