Amanda&David

On 5/16/2023 at 8:00 PM, EatBulaga said:

I've only heard of one case where the CBP agent didn't know the procedure to open and inspect the sealed envelope. The K1 called USCIS to inquire what to do with the envelope, and USCIS told them to immediately go back to the airport to drop it off with the CBP.

There are supposed to be other documents inside the sealed envelope besides the medical like police report, etc. so all those are supposed to be with the USCIS already when you file the AOS.

Yes, good thing that you kept the envelope sealed. I read posts that in the near future this passing of the sealed envelope procedure will be updated to electronically transferred.

Wow really? I didn’t realize that, but I’m glad it didn’t cause any huge problems. We just got notice that our case was approved not too long ago so I guess it turned out fine  

1 minute ago, EatBulaga said:

Wait...whoa...you had the brown sealed envelope this whole time? which was supposed to be picked up by the CBP at the POE to forward to USCIS? And the current officer accepted it to put in the file?

 

This is highly irregular.

 

I'm guessing the officer is elevating the review to a superior since this is highly irregular. Ideally, the brown sealed packet is reviewed by the CBP at POE, and then forwarded to USCIS. Not sure what will come of this? Do keep us updated.

It was a white sealed envelope, but yes we had it since he entered. The current officer seemed confused on what it even was, but he accepted it and put it in the file since he said we did a good job in keeping it sealed. Yeah, that might be the case, but we will see.

My husband had his interview today, and we were sent home with a letter that our case was being held for further review. The officer was very nice, and the interview went well overall. However, he informed us that the reason he was keeping our case open was because it had been some time since he had reviewed a case adjusting status from K1, and he wasn't sure about the validity of the medical examination that was done prior to the consular interview. We submitted the DS-3025 with our original I-485 application which was marked as 'K  Visa applicant voluntarily completed vaccination requirements'. The medical examination was also completed long before the one year requirement from when the application was filed, and no class A medical conditions were revealed. We still had the unsealed envelope with us from the examination, since nobody asked for it when my husband entered the US. We gave that to the officer and he put it in our file. I assume the evidence we provided is enough to just wait for that officer to perform his final review and adjudicate our case. Maybe this could be useful for others to inform them that this might happen should they have an interview adjusting from K1. I guess it depends on the knowledge of the officer on whether he will approve you on the spot or not.

3 hours ago, Hardship waiver said:

As Reikan suggested, calling helps. I called USCIS this morning to ask for an update. I was told that my interview was waived in July. Of course that wasn’t reflected on the online account. 

Did they give any other useful information? I read somewhere that it seems like NBC is waiving a lot of interviews right now but that the final decision is in the hands of your FO.

1 hour ago, Hardship waiver said:

Congrats! Which center has your case? 

Thanks! National Benefits Center 

Our status for EAD just now changed to ‘Card Being Produced’ 🥳 hoping this means good news for more of us May filers!

On 10/18/2022 at 4:20 AM, nena_bby said:

Requested an expedite over the phone. Representative on the phone stated they would be reaching out via email or phone within seven business days for more information. No one ever reached out, but we got this email a few weeks after that initial call 😕

 

May filer here - we got the same response. I contacted a live representative through Emma today and they said that apparently this message indicates that the expedite request has been denied.

8 hours ago, Mikey9213 said:

Hola, como va su caso? tengo fechas similares a a las suyas, buena suerte.

Hi, we are still waiting. My timeline is up to date. Good luck to you too!

Hi all, just joining the thread  

Mailed: 05/13

Lockbox Received: 05/17

Texts Received: 05/19

Sending all the good vibes and hopes for a speedy process (as much as possible) for everyone!

On 3/17/2022 at 10:09 AM, EatBulaga said:

Hello January NVC processors,

I'm in the February NVC process.

The CEAC tracker for our case has had the messages:

 

"At NVC", then

"In Transit", and now

"Ready".

 

Does "Ready" mean the consulate has our case now?

Am I just waiting for Package 3 now?

Thru email or mail?

I haven't gotten an email notification yet?

Any suggestions of what I should do next?

What should we expect next?

 

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Yes, "Ready" means the consulate has received your case and you should indeed wait for them to send you P3. Mine was sent through email, which I think is quite common. The only thing you should do now is wait for correspondence from the embassy. Good luck!

1 hour ago, rd731 said:

Hi! How long did it take for NVC to send you an email with the case # and invoice ID? Called last week and they didnt have it called today but they are closed today  my NOA2 was Jan 6th 

It really depends on when USCIS decides to send your case to NVC after your NOA2. For me, my case number was assigned on Jan 28, but I called and received it on Jan 31 and then got the email the next day. I would assume your case number should be available sometime next week if they're closed today. Hang in there!

27 minutes ago, swiss-miss said:

We are in transit to the embassy!!! 😍 I hope all of you guys are too/will be super soon! 

Same here! Let's hope the process continues to move quickly

27 minutes ago, maki90 said:

Congrats, it is another step further. Woohooo.

 

What number have you called and at what time? I have called 603-334-0700 yesterday several times and this morning and I couldn’t get them. They said because of high intensity of calls I should try later, grrrrrr.

I called 603-334-0888 and got through relatively quickly based on what I've heard from others. The first time I called at 10:30AM ET and the second time I called at 5:45PM ET and was on hold each time for about 15-20 minutes before I was able to speak with someone

3 hours ago, swiss-miss said:

Just called the NVC today and they received our petition on January 19th! no case number yet but he said it shouldn't be much longer since they are working on cases received from January 11th! Our NOA2 was January 4th!

Yay! I also just called and they told me it arrived today

17 minutes ago, slavaskii said:

Interesting, are you sure it's the exact WAC number? Did you get an RFE or anything before, and do you have NOA2 in-hand? That's really strange, but I still believe the case tracker is "generally" correct because we've seen other filers get approved real-time, so there doesn't seem to be much of a delay or anything. Plus it aligns perfectly with our estimates of where we know they're working... regardless, if you got the approval before it updated, then perhaps there's less cases open then we thought. It is very suspicious to me that there's 40+ cases still open in one January category, for instance; while we know some of them are still waiting, that's an oddly high amount. 

 

Thanks for letting us know!

Yes, that's why I'm really confused. No, I didn't get an RFE and I do have the physical copy of the NOA2 that I received last week in the mail. I figured this might be their way of trying to trick us into thinking that there are more cases being approved per day than the actual reality. I used to keep a spreadsheet of cases in the 575x range and updated it to the point of getting the NOA2 and there weren't really that many cases left to be approved. So I highly doubt those were all new approvals in that range today. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I just wanted to post it here to see if anyone else had that issue!

1 hour ago, slavaskii said:

Agreed! That sounds like a ton of fun  

Also wanted to just come back to report even better news. I finally looked in the 570x upwards groups and, shockingly, just saw 16 updates in 575x and 22 in 580x. Below 600x alone I think we have at least 40 updates today already. Great to see!

I also randomly checked this because our case falls in the 575x range and was shocked to see so many approvals there today. However, after going through some of the case numbers, I noticed that our case was actually one of those that claim to have been approved today even though we already got our NOA2 on Jan 4...I wonder how many of those are actually new approvals or if they're like ours

7 hours ago, swiss-miss said:

I called them yesterday, but they said they havent received my case yet! NOA 1 Jan 4th 

Same here. She told me it could take up to 60 days, but it seems like from what I've read on other groups, people are getting their case numbers after around 1 month of their NOA2

7 hours ago, Pacca said:

We just received our NOA2 last week (the mailed notice states 1/11 as the issue date).

1. How long should we wait before contacting the NVC for our case number?
2. I'm also considering getting a head start on the affidavit of support (I-134, employment letter, letter from bank, etc.) documents, as I've seem some suggestions to start doing so, but how long are those valid ahead of the interview?
3. Lastly, I'm planning to move to a different state in March. Wondering how that might impact the next phases? 

Thank you for hearing me out! Wishing everyone some positive progress this week.

Hi, congrats on your approval!  

1. So I think the NVC is a little bit behind, so I would suggest waiting at least 3 weeks from NOA2 before calling for a better chance that they'll actually have your case created with a number by that point. I've read about some people calling after 2 weeks without getting answers yet, but you never know.

2. The employment letter and I-134 shouldn't be invalid by the time your interview rolls around, unless they finally decide to make a new version of the I-134 or if there is a change in your employer, salary, etc. So you should probably be able to get those in advance without a problem. The letter from the bank, I would maybe wait a bit longer depending on what exactly the letter would contain. Assuming that it would have information about your current balance, maybe waiting would be best. Personally, I went ahead and just requested my tax return transcripts in advance. I wasn't planning on getting a letter from my bank, so I'm not sure about this.

3. I would recommend making an inquiry to the NVC to notify them about your change in address. Although they will likely send further information to you via email and they should contact the beneficiary in their country by post, it might be a good idea to make sure they have your updated address on file for further correspondence, just in case. 

15 minutes ago, Saivarshini said:

Where can you submit this?

You should do a google search for the congressional representative of your district (unless you already know who it is) and navigate their website. There should be a contact section somewhere on the website where you can then fill out an inquiry. For me, someone got back to me relatively quickly, and they asked me to sign a privacy release form including my case information before they inquired on my behalf

15 hours ago, swiss-miss said:

I'm excited to be finally at this stage now 😅 I hope it goes faster than waiting for NOA2😂

Yes, me too! Congrats on your NOA2  Looks like we got it on the same day

6 minutes ago, keickhoff said:

Are you sure you can put in a second inquiry?  I put in an inquiry December 3rd, tried another today and a message popped up saying they already had an inquiry on record, so it was rejected

Yes. This also happened to me when I sent in my second inquiry, but I just waited a bit longer and it allowed me to send it eventually

2 minutes ago, Marquise007 said:

Congrats 🎉 . When was your NOA1 though ? 

Thank you, March 3!

9 minutes ago, lb119397 said:

Our time will come for sure! If this is not our week, then hopefully within the first week(s) of January. Best of luck to you!!  
 

Also, since I see that your embassy is Madrid, if it is any help, I know someone who had her interview in Madrid fairly quickly after her case was received by the embassy. 

Best of luck to you too!  And yes, that's what I've heard about Madrid. Thank you for your positive vibes!!

4 minutes ago, lb119397 said:

Trust that it’s definitely a struggle to be a March 8 filer in the 59500-60000 range and to see virtually no movement in your range, yet there are 40+ approvals for March 8 in the 60000+ range. I am trying to be as patient and optimistic as possible, but it is also so disheartening. 😞

I feel you being a March 3 filer in the 57500-58000 range and having the majority of the range already looked at. Definitely feeling skipped over