drussell024

BTW - even filling out the form in Adobe Acrobat and removing Javascript, there were still sections I had to manually fill out by hand and then re-scan and send to my fiance. Let me know if you have any other questions I'd be glad to help 

I listed my total income reported on the form in that section, and then in the explaination section I said that since we are getting married I will be supporting any and all financial needs of my fiance. We had no issue with the I134 doing that. 

My confusion is that it's not asking what my salary is in the below question (and no where else in the form) but rather how much will I contribute to the beneficiary annually. 

So is it correct to put my annual salary in the far right column? Or do I need to come up with an arbitrary number below my salary that is still satisfactory for income requirements? 

Petitioner will only be using income, do we list the petitioner's salary there for income contribution to the beneficiary? Or how should we fill out this question? 

Just seems strange to say I will be giving X amount of dollars to the beneficiary annually when we are getting married and will be living under my income together. 

For updating our email addresses with NVC - I read through the helpful tips PDF and it says to update our emails once NVC receives the packet. 

Should we be updating them earlier? Otherwise how do we know NVC received our application?

We received our NOA2 in September. 

To those still waiting in June - we were apart of the less than 15% of cases untouched. We put in the online inquiry and also reached out to my congressman to make an inquiry. We ended up receiving our NOA2 approval shortly after. 

I don't know if all that helped or not, but if you're still waiting for a response and can inquire, I'd recommend doing so at the least. 

I received a response back from my congressman's office this morning about inquiring, and late afternoon received our NOA2 approval. 

This could absolutely be a coincidence since correlation is not necessarily causation. I did have the online inquiry and perhaps we were just at our time? 

Either way, those more informed can extrapolate on whether or not this had an effect or was simply a lucky coincidence. 

I really appreciate everyone's input and information, this forum has been invaluable to us. 

I ended up reaching out to my congressman. There was a simple privacy release form to fill out and email to their office so it was fairly simple.

Will any sort of inquiry from my congressman help us receive a response? Maybe not. But at least I feel like we're doing everything we can and putting our best foot forward. Maybe it will help bring a small additional measure of awareness to the wait times we have all suffered and endured. Maybe it will just give us peace of mind knowing that we are trying everything we can. 

Coming up on 16 months waiting for a response is hard. To anyone else in a similar situation, or others in much worse situations, I guess all I can say is that reaching out to my congressman at least made us feel better. If nothing else, I suppose that in of itself is worth it. 

June 8th 2021 filer. Current processing time for the I129-F is 13.5 months with the case inquiry being available at the 15 month mark. Currently we are apart of the less than 15% of cases untouched for June 2021 filers.

We submitted a case inquiry this month and got what appeared to be an automated response back via email that our case is being adjudicated and we will receive a response within 45 days. 

My question is this - should we reach out to my congressman or wait the full 45 days? If that email actually is just a generic response and there's a chance we won't receive any word back within that time frame then I think we should contact my congressman sooner rather than later instead of waiting until around the 16/17th month mark. 

Has anyone gone through this and have any recommendations?

6 hours ago, Optimist19 said:

June updates August 30. Don't pay attention to the new/in progress numbers--these got messed up due to multiple scans. There were 21 RFER so several were definitely in progress. 

94000: 3 RFESs, 1 RFER (1 new / 3 in progress)
94500: 1 RFER (1 new / 0 in progress)
95000: 1 Approval, 1 RFER (1 new / 1 in progress)
95500: 2 Approvals, 2 RFERs (0 new / 4 in progress)
96000: 1 Approval, 2 RFESs, 4 RFERs (3 new / 4 in progress)
96500: 1 RFER, 1 Denial (1 new / 1 in progress)
97500: 1 RFER (1 new / 0 in progress)
98500: 1 RFER (1 new / 0 in progress)
99500: 2 Approvals, 2 RFESs (0 new / 4 in progress)
100000: 1 RFES, 1 RFER (0 new / 2 in progress)
100500: 4 Approvals, 2 RFERs (2 new / 4 in progress)
101000: 1 RFES, 1 RFER, 1 Denial (1 new / 2 in progress)
101500: 1 Approval, 1 RFES (0 new / 2 in progress)
102000: 1 RFER (1 new / 0 in progress)
103000: 1 RFES (0 new / 1 in progress)
103500: 1 Approval (0 new / 1 in progress)
104000: 1 Approval, 1 RFER (0 new / 2 in progress)
104500: 2 Approvals (0 new / 2 in progress)
105000: 6 Approvals, 1 RFES (0 new / 7 in progress)
105500: 7 Approvals, 2 RFESs, 2 RFERs (1 new / 10 in progress)
106000: 1 Approval (0 new / 1 in progress)
106500: 10 Approvals (0 new / 10 in progress)
08/30/22: 75 Total Updates: 39 Approvals, 14 RFESs, 21 RFERs, 2 Denials

 

May (39) + June (75) = 114

Just want to take a moment and thank @Optimist19for all these updates. 

1 hour ago, mpatel8151 said:

Hey, anyone submitted case outside of processing time inquiry? if yes, then how long does it take them to respond? or any early june or late may filers, if you guys can share your experience in this process that will be great.  my case of inquiry date is on sept 4th.  should i also contact my congressman? 

 

I'm waiting like 448 days now. 

Same boat as you. We are in the 97000 group - 447 days. Would also like to know the answer. 

10 hours ago, grumpypiggy said:

Does anyone know why the June spreadsheet is not open to public access now?

I was following the same spreadsheet but someone posted a few days back with the correct one that is maintained here: 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/15hiSOTm85W1CG6c0jzQ8B7lXLo1JEwsWKr3zIszC2Zg/htmlview#

Is the June spreadsheet still updated anywhere? The one I'm looking at only goes back to July 27th. 

On 6/27/2022 at 12:02 PM, jan22 said:

Have you checked out the US Embassy information on legal assistance in Iraq and contacted them as directed: https://iq.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/local-resources-of-u-s-citizens/attorneys/ ?

 

In most countries, the Embassy will post a list of lawyers (and doctors, etc) who other US citizens have worked with.  Baghdad, for security reasons, gives you a link to contact them to get the list.  Hopefully, you can get lawyer names from them that can help you.

Just a follow up - they responded today and provided a list of lawyers with contact information. Thank you so much for your help!

10 hours ago, jan22 said:

Have you checked out the US Embassy information on legal assistance in Iraq and contacted them as directed: https://iq.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/local-resources-of-u-s-citizens/attorneys/ ?

 

In most countries, the Embassy will post a list of lawyers (and doctors, etc) who other US citizens have worked with.  Baghdad, for security reasons, gives you a link to contact them to get the list.  Hopefully, you can get lawyer names from them that can help you.

Thanks! I sent them an email explaining the situation. Hopefully they can provide some contacts. 

My fiance needs to obtain judical records from Iraq because she lived/worked in Erbil (Kurdistan region) for a couple years. 

Here's the issue: per the reciprocity tables, records issued from the Kurdistan region are not valid for visa purposes and must be issued by Baghdad.

We have contacted an embassy and family friend who had the same issue and have gotten the following information. Basically we need to find a lawyer in Iraq who can get the records from Erbil and bring them to Baghdad to be "issued" there and then sent to the embassy we are applying from. 

Our problem: we have been struggling to even get in contact with any lawyer from Iraq (not to mention the language barrier if we found one), and the Iraq Embassy we wanted to go through in Ankara Turkey has not responded to any phone calls or emails.

Has anyone gone through this process before that can help get us going in the right direction? We are open to trying a different Iraq embassy (such as the one in Dubai where we first got this information), but we are really hitting a brick wall trying to find a lawyer in Iraq.  

Thanks in advance!

The two countries are the UAE and Iraq. 

We previously reviewed the DoS reciprocity tables and the issues are as follows: 

Iraq - during her time there she worked/lived in Erbil which is apart of the Kurdistan region, but the certificate can't be issued from there. There is this whole process to get the certificate issued from Baghdad for her time there. 

UAE - she is currently working/living there and we were going to take the certificate right before she leaves (likely a month before the NOA 2 for the I129F comes in with current processing times) because it is only valid for 3 months (and with interview backlogs means it will likely expire). 

I was not aware of the recommendation to waive the requirement if she is not living there anymore, she will be out of the country before the NOA 2 arrives. 

31 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Again, 16 is the age cutoff for police certificates being required. As she changed her name once she had already turned 16, I am not sure if the prior name would be a concern for police certificates. Not for the foreign countries, but the home one - Technically she would have had the old name for part of the period required for her home country. Then again, people change names regularly (marriage etc). Does the country concerned require fingerprints for the police check?

 

 

Her home country is Albania and we are going to try and obtain the certificate in both names there as it is a relatively easy process. (Whether or not that is successful is another story). 

The other two countries are middle eastern and yes, they take fingerprints/biometrics, but would be tied to her passport/visa which would be only in the new name. Our concern with the foreign countries is that one of them is going to be very difficult to obtain and will be done through an embassy with power of attorney to handle an issue with records not being recognized from a specific region within that country. (Which is why we were concerned about the name change and possible delays/inability to obtain if it is required).

8 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Before or after age 16?

She legally changed her first name when she was 16 years old while still living in her native country. After 18 years old, she lived abroad for over a year each in two different foreign countries, using her new name exclusively (passport, residence/work visas). 

So she would have been over 18 years old while residing in the two foreign countries and would require the police certificates, correct? 

38 minutes ago, Allaboutwaiting said:

What's I think could work -if doable- is requesting certificates on both her old and new names.

That was our original thought, but requesting this document in the UAE for example requires a current or previous Emirates ID which would be linked to her new name (with no reference to her old name). 

Is it worth reaching out to the embassy and see what they say? 

My fiancé (the beneficiary) legally changed her first name as a minor (and the official name change document was included in the I129-F petition). When she was an adult (18+) she lived in two different foreign countries for over a year each, and thus, requires police records from those foreign countries. 

On the website for the US Embassy in Albania K1 instructions page under the Police Records from a Foreign Country section, it is noted that:
"Please note that applicants are often refused under INA 221(g), because of failing to submit the certificate(s) in all the names/last names they’ve used."

Since her name was changed before moving to those countries, those countries won't have any record of her previous name when she applies for the records. 

We're not sure how to proceed here and any help would be greatly appreciated!

11 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

I doubt you will get an RFE for that.  The type of check boxes one receives and RFE for are the critical ones, like IMBRA/criminal history.

 

Btw, why use a lawyer?  So not necessary.   They do not speed up the process or increase the chance of approval; quite the opposite, as you're now finding.

Thanks for the response, really appreciate it. So submitting a follow-up letter is not recommended? 

Note to all though who may stumble across this:

DON'T have a lawyer prepare your paperwork. I found this site after getting a lawyer and learned more here than I would have from a team of lawyers. If you have specific legal questions regarding your case, call a lawyer and pay for an hour of their time, but don't shell out $$$ to have them carelessly fill out your paperwork and treat your case like another paycheck regardless of the outcome. 

Hi all - lurker here with a quick question for all you knowledgeable people: 

Our I129-F petition was prepared (horribly) by a lawyer. Before submitting, I (the petitioner) corrected COUNTLESS mistakes and omissions through multiple reviews with them. Our petition was received June 2021. 

I just got back from overseas visiting my fiance. I went back through a copy of our submitted I129-F petition in the excitement from just being together and noticed her (the beneficiary) mother's gender was not checked as anything (male/female/other) but her father's gender was checked as male. The checkboxes for gender were left blank for her mother, I couldn't believe I didn't catch the (yet another) mistake from the lawyer. 

Will this cause an RFE? I spoke with our lawyer today and they want to send a letter in with a correction, but they also said it's not a big deal. Any advice? Thanks so much in advance!