dfmag

Hi, everyone! 

This morning I got a message from USCIS saying there has been action on my case, but when I checked everything was the same as before. I kept checking obsessively and 6 hours after I received that e-mail my i-485 status changed to approved!! 🎉

I'm so happy and relieved. My status has been the same since my biometrics appointment in May. I hope everyone that is still waiting gets to experience the relief I felt today very soon!! 

1 hour ago, PatLuvO said:

Is your EAD card the combo card with the advance parole?

Unfortunately, no. It's just the employment authorization. It's valid for 2 years and in the bottom it says "not valid for reentry to U.S ."

On 6/21/2022 at 12:26 PM, dfmag said:

Yesterday (06/20) I was doing my usual daily check up on the USCIS website and, to my surprise, my i-765 was approved! My status changed to "my card is being produced"! 🎉🎉

 

What a great feeling! Hoping that everyone waiting can hear back soon 🙂

Update: My EAD card arrived on friday (06/24) !! In the same week my status changed to approved and I received my card in the mail 😁

Yesterday (06/20) I was doing my usual daily check up on the USCIS website and, to my surprise, my i-765 was approved! My status changed to "my card is being produced"! 🎉🎉

What a great feeling! Hoping that everyone waiting can hear back soon 🙂

I also just had my biometrics done yesterday and the online status of my i-485 and i-765 applications changed to "being actively reviewed". 

Hi, everyone!

Glad to be joining the group!

-Submitted my i-485, i-765 and i-131 on April 13th.

-USCIS received the package on April 21st.

-Got 3 text messages from USCIS on April 25th.

-NOA letters were received last friday (April 29th).

-Also on April 29th case status online changed to "my Biometrics Appointment was Scheduled"

3 minutes ago, ScottLangbehn said:

I called them first and tried to explain.  They pretended to understand, so I scheduled an appointment.  That's when the debates started.  It required 2 additional appointments after that. 😞

 

Uhhh 😰 , but thank you for all these info!

2 minutes ago, ScottLangbehn said:

I "fought" with my doctor's office manager to not have a medical exam again.  I had to bring printed copies of the pertinent instructions of both the i-485 and i-693 just to prove it to her.  She finally relented and just agreed to fill out the i-693 portion for us.  Of course was billed for the full exam but I didn't argue any further because it was delaying our process.

This is very helpful! Thank you very much.  One last question: Did you schedule first and then talked to them in the the day of the exam about filling just part of i-693? Or did you talked to them prior to scheduling?

On 3/27/2022 at 12:06 PM, K1visaHopeful said:

You said in your post that the results boxes were filled in.

The bottom completion box was not.

The officer will be able to see your results because they are filled in and will know your vaccines are completed.

I'm not sure what the problem is.

The vaccines were correctly recorded along with the blanket waivers. However, the box in question 2 in the bottom of the assessment was marked as "K visa applicant electing not the be vaccinated at this examination". 

2 hours ago, ScottLangbehn said:

Hi,

 

I opted for the i-693 because our DS-3025 was not filled out completely.  When doing research as to which vaccinations were required. I found this link below.  At the bottom of the page, there is a very helpful chart to determine which vaccines are required.  I hope this helps.

 

Scott

 

https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/civil-surgeons/vaccinations.html

Were you able to do just the vaccination portion of the form i-693? Or did you end up doing a full exam again?

On 3/25/2022 at 8:51 PM, K1visaHopeful said:

 

F. Completion of the Results Section by the Civil Surgeon

According to the Vaccination Component of the Technical Instructions, the civil surgeon should mark the appropriate results box at the bottom of the vaccination assessment chart. The Technical Instructions direct the civil surgeon to only check one appropriate box.

The officer should be aware that civil surgeons may improperly mark the boxes because they may misunderstand the meaning of these boxes. Therefore, the officer should determine, from the vaccination assessment completed by the civil surgeon, whether the applicant received all vaccines, which blanket waivers should be granted, and whether the applicant requires any other waivers. The officer should exercise discretion in reviewing the vaccination chart and when evaluating the results boxes at the bottom of the vaccination assessment chart.

 

Thank you for the reply! But it also says:

"If the civil surgeon did not check any result boxes, the officer should only return the form for corrective action if he or she is unable to ascertain whether the applicant is admissible. The officer should never alter or complete sections on the medical examination report that are the responsibility of the civil surgeon, such as the results boxes.

The results boxes and their meanings are described below (according to the Vaccination Component of the Technical Instructions).

"

It just seems like an even higher price to pay if they don't actually check the vaccines per say, and just the box chosen by the doctor.

Thank you very much for the suggestions and tips! This was exactly what I was looking for when I posted here.

It's a shame to have to make an appointment and pay for a civil surgeon to simply transcribe the DS 3025 info. But if that's what I have to do to avoid delays, then it is what it is. I hope I can find someone that will do that. 

Hi @Chancy! Thank you for the reply.

3 minutes ago, Chancy said:

If your DS-3025 is not marked complete, then your only option is to submit an I-693 signed by a civil surgeon in the US.  No need to submit your DS-3025 in that case.

So even if the DS 3025 has the required vaccinations or waivers recorded in it (line by line) they would still only care about the fact that is marked incomplete?

Hello, everyone!

I know this is a common topic, but I find myself still very confused about how to go about choosing to submit the DS 3025 or a part of the form i-693. 

I read the pinned topic "Immunizations. DS 3025 or I 693?" and a few other resources, and it seems to me that I have all the required vaccinations. However, the doctor in my home country marked "K visa applicant electing not to be vaccinated at this examination" (despite not actually giving me the option of getting vaccinated).

I have reached out to the doctor back home about this subject a couple times, without any replies. So I decided to seek the help of other visa journey members. Can anyone help me find what vaccines I'm missing?

These are the vaccines in my DS 3025 that was completed in December of 2021:

* DTP series completed in childhood

* Td shot in 07/2021

* OPV series completed in childhood (legend A)

* MMR in 08/2008 and 02/2014

* Rotavirus (legend A)

* Hib series completed in childhood (legend A)

* Hepatitis A (legend A)

* Hepatits B in 05/1996, 06/1996 and 04/1997 (legend A)

* Meningococcal (legend A)

* Varicella vaccines in 03/1997 and 07/2014

* Pneumoccocal (legend A)

* Influenza in 07/2021 (legend F)

* Covid in 08/2021 and 09/2021

Blanket Waiver: A - not age appropriate;  F - flu vaccine not available

If I'm not missing anything, is it an issue if I submit DS 3025 without it being marked "K Visa applicant voluntarily completed vaccination requirements"?

I appreciate any help! Thank you!!

21 hours ago, MLGood said:

Hello! I'm happy to know that you finally finished this hard process! God bless you and your fiance! 

I read that in October you scheduled your interview for January. How does it work? I thought they would schedule the interview for you. How long after DQ  at NVC were you able to schedule your interview? 

Is it hard to get a medical appointment? Did you schedule your medical appointment in October also? And were able to do so only in December? 

Another question: Even if they don't allow the spouse to be in the interview room, is it a good idea for the spouse to at least be present at the embassy? Can it help somehow?  

The information that you shared is helping a lot! Good to know that we are not alone! 

My husband and I are still waiting for the NVC to review our documents. 

 

Thank you!! I wish you all the best!

Hello!

As @IanD mentioned earlier, I applied for the fiance visa so the process and the time frame is different in your case (spouse visa). But I wanted to respond to some of your questions that, in my opinion, might be applicable to both visa types.

Is it hard to get a medical appointment? Did you schedule your medical appointment in October also? And were able to do so only in December?

I only tried to schedule the medical appointment in Belo Horizonte, so I can only speak from my experience with them. I could not get in touch with them through the phone they provided and my e-mail to them went to their spam. So I ended up physically going there to make the appointment, since I'm from Belo Horizonte. But I do believe e-mail is the best way to reach them. If you don't here back after a couple days, I would e-mail them again to follow up. Once I got a hold of them, it wasn't difficult to schedule the exam. I scheduled the exam in October for December, but I could have scheduled it for November.  The reason I didn't is because of my interview in January. At least for the fiance visa, they want the medical exam close the interview. Since the visa validity for K1 is 180 days from the day of the medical exam.

Even if they don't allow the spouse to be in the interview room, is it a good idea for the spouse to at least be present at the embassy? Can it help somehow?  

I think it is still a good idea to have the petitioner present in the embassy for multiple reasons: 1) peace of mind; 2) if there is an issue with anything they can request that the petitioner goes inside the Consulate; 3) it is supporting evidence of a strong/real relationship. One of the questions in my interview was "when was the last time you saw your fiance?" and I responded he was there outside the consulate, he just wasn't allowed inside. The covid rules are changing constantly so I don't know how long these restrictions for the petitioner will stay in place, but I think if the petitioner can go it's always a good idea. But if it's really difficult for them to go to the interview, it might not be that necessary.

Glad to help people going through the process and wish you both the best of luck as well!

Here is an update on my experience. 

I got my medical exam done in Belo Horizonte on December 9th, 2021. On December 22nd, I got an email from the medical exam office with a copy of my vaccination record. The doctor informed me they would send me an email with that once they had submitted my medical exam to the US Consulate, but made no promises on when she would actually do it.

On January 5th, 2022 I went to CASV and got my biometrics and pictures taken. Nothing hard, just a long line in Rio and lots of people near you. It took around an hour and a half.

On January 6th, 2022 I had my interview. Contrary to what the embassy's website says the petitioner was not allowed to go to the interview with me. They said they are not allowing the petitioners to go inside due to COVID, but my fiancé could go inside if the consular officer requested him to.  That was not necessary in my case, but I did see them call someone else's fiancé. The whole process took about 3 hours, the interview itself only took a few minutes.  The officer asked me how I met my fiancé, if we had been married before and when was the last time I had seen him in person. I wasn't asked to provide any additional proof other then the required documents (police certificates, Affidavit of Support and so on). Then the officer told me we were approved! Yay!!

On January 10th, 2022 my online status changed to issued. And today, January 19th, 2022 I got my visa and sealed package!!! I requested my passport to be sent to my home via Correios.

I was a little upset when I went to schedule my interview on October 2021 that there were only January 2022 dates available. But I think being able to do my medical exam weeks in advance to my interview made a difference in the end. It seems like when the Consulate has everything (medical exam) prior to the interview and there is no additional documents requested, the process can go (surprisingly) quick. I wish all of you going through this process a quick turnaround as well! Good luck!

On 1/13/2022 at 2:11 PM, Gauchos said:

We just received our K1 back (again) today. Some random facts for anyone that might find this helpful:

 

• If you send them an e-mail and they need to act in any way then you should expect a response in about 7 days - sometimes longer, and sometimes never. See point below if never. If they don't need to do anything then expect a response much faster (e.g., if they send you somewhere else).
• If you absolutely need the consulate to respond quickly then have the US Citizen Petitioner call the consulate and beg a consular officer to reach out to immigration. You won't be able to talk to anyone in immigration, but you will get a response from immigration within 24 hours.
• If you stupidly open the K1 packet (like we did) they will have you send it back to the ASC/CASV. It will take them about 2 weeks to reseal and a few more days to get it to the CSC and finally the courier. There will be no way to check your status until it has actually shipped.
• We used Correios for shipping. I don't know why this is, but tracking began with the package in Porto Alegre (we are in Rio Grande do Sul). I don't know what the CSC does with it between their receipt and it appearing with the courier. This happened for both K1 deliveries.

Congrats on finally getting your K1 visa and package!

1 hour ago, Gauchos said:

I don't think it's normal. There are some others in this thread with similar times, but both had K2s. Our status was REFUSED right after the interview. I suspected that there was an issue with the medical so I e-mailed the consulate a little over a week after the interview. The consulate waited their customary week to respond and told us that they were still waiting for the medical. The doctor claimed that she had sent it prior to the interview so I sent an e-mail back to the consulate and included the doctor so they could duke it out. Nobody bothered to respond, but two days later our status changed to Application Received and a week later to Issued. I think a week is probably normal.

Thanks for sharing. It's a shame about the extra confusion, but glad to hear everything is sorted out! Congrats on the visa and good luck with everything! 😀

On 11/30/2021 at 3:02 PM, Gauchos said:

29 days after the interview and CEAC finally changed to ISSUED.

Thank you for the update and congratulations! Were they waiting on your fiance's medical exam or is that the normal processing time?

14 hours ago, clarkster said:

Good evening, everyone!

 

Thank you for supporting one another and sharing all of this information! ❤️

 

Some questions for the group:

1. How was your process with scheduling your appointments on the U.S. Visa Appt. Service Website? Were there available appointment times when you attempted to schedule & pay the fee? How long did you have to wait for appointments to become available? 

 

2. Were you required to already have a scheduled interview appointment date when attempting to schedule the medical exam?

 

Also responding to question 2, the secretary at the medical office in BH would only send me the instructions for the medical exam once I had sent her the confirmation that my interview was scheduled.

13 hours ago, p_marv said:

Ours seemed to be pretty quick - we put in for home delivery, interviewed on 11/1 and went into issue this morning.

Thank you for the update! It's great to hear everything went well 🙂

47 minutes ago, ori8 said:

Question on scheduling, has anyone dealt with "No appointments available" before and if so how long did it take for appointments to show up? We've been checking regularly for 4 business days now and nothing has come up yet.

When I was trying to schedule, I had a problem with the website constantly crashing saying they were doing maintenance. When I finally could look at the schedule, the months of November and December had no dates, but January had 3 dates available. I didn't experience this '"No appointments available" message. 

On 11/5/2021 at 12:56 PM, ori8 said:

Damn, we were going to schedule after work today and I was hoping they'd still have late November/early December slots open T__T But it's fine if it ends up being next year, that just means NEXT Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year will be our first one together and we get a whole year to plan for it   I feel so lucky to have y'all as a resource so we can get a better idea of how things are going before we actually get into the guts of scheduling. I'll update here/my timeline when we get our dates scheduled!

I feel the same. This group has be very supportive and so incredibly helpful! Hope you can schedule your interview soon 🙂

20 hours ago, ori8 said:

The Embassy sent us the interview info packet today after two emails over two weeks. However, it looks like the SP doctor isn't taking any new appointments until February 2022. Have any of y'all had success scheduling at the other doctors recently? Or any advice on how to follow-up with doctors offices in a sufficiently annoying but not TOO annoying way to try to get an appointment sooner? I'd really like my fiancé here before the end of the year if at all possible, but I know everyone else feels the same way, so it might not be possible... but still hoping to try! I will gladly fly him to BH or Brasilia if I have to. 

I made a doctor appointment in Belo Horizonte, they seem to have availability for sooner than that.

However, I scheduled my interview early last week and the earliest date I had was for the first days of January 2022. So unless there are some people rescheduling, I don't think you will be able to bring your fiancé this year. Maybe the doctor availability has to do with the interview availability? Have you scheduled your interview?

Just an update for those still going through this process in Rio and are looking for more info... 

The US consulate in Rio received my application from NVC on Sept 30th, I waited for two weeks without any feedback from them. Following the suggestion of other members here, I submitted an e-mail to the embassy and 3 days later I got the instructions for the next steps (at first we just got an automated response). So thank you @p_marv and @Gauchos for the great suggestion!!

Regarding the medical exam, I called the doctor's office in Belo Horizonte without any luck. The number ending in 3938 would not even ring. The number ending in 2335 would always just say they were busy. I tried for 3 days at various times and I couldn't reach them. I also submitted an email to them and did not get a response. Since I am from BH, I ended up stopping by the office to make the appointment (which I understand is definitely not an option for most people). Talking to the secretary, we found out that my e-mail was marked as spam and that is why she did not respond to it. So I believe the best way to reach them is through e-mail and, if you don't get a response within one or two days, just send them another e-mail.

Also, the medical office requested that I sent the consulate instructions e-mail as well as the consulate interview confirmation e-mail in order to book my medical appointment date. 

In the instructions for the medical exam in BH, they state that the fiancé needs to be fully vaccinated against covid for them to release the medical exam.

On 10/7/2021 at 12:46 AM, kkmedica said:

Onde você checa isso de "em transito"? 

Uma vez que você tenha o case number da NVC você pode checar o status em https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx.