zoso

Just collected my passport with visa and package. So officially my visa process is over. Yahoo.

Waited more than three yrs and 2.5 months of AP.

I like to thanks all the people and VJ for offering tremendous supports. Without you my visa journey would have been a nightmare.

My prayer goes to those who are still waiting.............

Embassy just called that visa is ready to pick up. What a news. All the waiting seems nothing at this moment.

After 2 months of AP, Embassy finally asked for passport.Do you know how long does it take for them to issue visa. Its been one week and they have not called me

Today i got an email from embassy saying that they need my passport and PCC to complete visa process. I hope this means they are ready to issue me the visa .Three yrs of waiting and two months of AP finally coming to an end

If you had I-94 with D/S and left USA without any immigration procedure you will be able to come back. I had I-94 D/S and overstayed F-1 visa by 10 months. I also submitted I-94 card to airline representative and left USA. 3 Months later i applied for another F-1, issued and entered US same month without any problem.

Good luck

Yes ! you are eligible to report birth of your child abroad. I reported birth of my daughter in Doha Qatar and my wife was US citizen just for 5 months at that time. Only requirement is 5 years of physical presence(either as LPR or citizen)two years of which must have occurred after the age of fourteen.

Collect all the evidence of your physical presence and you will be fine.

Cheers

Hi

I am in Ap since my interview on 4th April . Yesterday CO called and interviewed me over phone.

I had to explain my student visa issue, reasons of overstay and so on.Interview lasted 45 min.Same co called again today and asked

to provide 4 documents. i guess my case is moving now. Also Called DOS and lady said case is still in embassy. Hope it is over soon.

Hi

Which number i can call and speak to a human about the status of 221g administrative processing.

Cheers

Hi all,

I had my interview for K1 in abu dhabi today. They gave a refusal sheet with 221(g) checked in it. I do not understand what 221(g) means and there is no more explanation on the paper. But on the top of the form is written refusal worksheet.

The item they have checked for me also states that i need to wait for administrative processing. I asked the officer if it was a name check and she answered no.

She also kept pictures of me and my fiancee together.

Would someone please help me? What is the situation now, and what does this 221g mean?

I had my interview yesterday and also got 221g form saying need further processing. They kept my immigration papers. It is as if they are asking formally that they do not know what to do and need to consult with senior.

Hope Ap ends very soon.

I had my IR-1 interview today at in Doha, Qatar. My wife and 6months old daughter was with me at the interview. We reached there at 10:15 am, got a number and waiting. Six people were in front of us. At 11:30 am we were called to a window, an Arabic guy checked papers, fingerprints, passport, and photos and asked if my daughter is an American, yes! She is. We were asked to wait.

At 12.15 pm we were called to a consular at different window and interview starts. We took lots of our pictures, printouts, bills and so on but unfortunately consular did not asked for even a single evidence but good thing was that he was the same consular we reported birth of our daughter five months ago.

Interview question started with my immigration problem back in 2006(did not attend school and got voluntary departure from Judge).He asked for my immigration papers. My lawyer prepared for a formal petition stating why I should not have a bar, so i gave that one. Some of the questions were

- Why u didn’t go to school

- Why u stayed in US for five month if u stopped going to school

- Who financed while staying there

- When i got married (we got married same yr i stopped going to school, so he thought marriage is my purpose for going to US but we were in love 4 yrs before we got married.

- Asked about how we met

- What i was doing back in 2002(time we first met and i was going to School)

- When i came back after graduation (graduation 2004, came back 2005)

- Asked me what i was doing after graduation

- What was my intention going to school second time?

Consular kept saying that he doesn’t understand why i stayed five months if i stopped going to school. I answered him that i was in the process of changing school.

Bottom line, i was hammered with questions asking why i stayed without going to school and what was my intention. No question was asked to my wife. Whole interview took about 20 min.

At the end consulate told me that he is NOT going to hold me for staying after school and also will NOT hold me for unlawful presence . He needs to check if i need any weiver from immigration side.He handed me with a white paper saying

X Section 221 (g)which prohibits..................................

Needs further processing.

Sorry to make the story long. After 3 yrs of waiting another journy begins.....

I am getting ready for my interview at US embassy in Qatar. I have over 200 photos (sorted accroding toevents),Email/chat printouts, cards, boarding passes, letters, bills etc. I hope it is going to be happy day. We waited three years for this day and finally it came.So i need a lot of prayer for you.

i need help guys. my fiance worked in qatar for 2 yrs and i'm not sure if he'll need a police clearance from there. the only problem is, i don't know how he'll be able to get one because he doesn't work there anymore and he's back in the philippines. there's now way he can fly back to get one and i don't think his friend who lives in qatar can get it for him because that's a confidential matter. i don't know what to do. but he did tell me the company he worked for provided him with and NOC (no objections certificate). he said that's certifies that he had good conduct in qatar while he was there and that he is still valid to enter qatar if he wanted to because he has a clean record (i.e. never been in trouble or arrested). will the NOC be sufficient as proof vs a police clearance??... someone help us please!

Did you get your police clearance yet ! i live in Qatar and might help you.

Both my Visa(IR-1)interview and 3yr bar ending time are in April(24 days apart).

My USC wife and USC child will be with me at the interview

Will they deny my visa because of bar?

The "3 and 10 year bar" to reentry was created in 1996 as part if the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act ("IIRAIRA"). The law states that an alien who accrues more than six months, but less than one year of "unlawful presence" in the United States, will be barred from readmission to the United States for a period of three years, and any alien having accrued more than one year of such "unlawful presence" will be barred from readmission for ten years.

*Looks like the bar is almost up in this case anyway since the VD was 3 years ago in 2007?

GET AN ATTORNEY so you will not be caught off guard by a bar or its effects. This can effect his selling property, quitting a job too early etc. Also it appears that you might not be a citizen but a LPR? (lawful permanent resident) Not sure but you might have an issue with a wait for an available VISA.

Thanks for your reply. I became citizen last year. All the papers are done and he got embassy interview next week. His Voluntary departure thing is always worring me . My lawyer never mentioned about I-94 D/S until i read about it and asked him.

If his unlawful presence starts from the time judge issued him Valuntary Departure, then he is fine as he left USA within one month

On the other hand if that starts from the time ICE came at our house first, then he has less than one year of unlawful presence, means 3 years of bar

Should i request interview reschedule to a date after his 3 year bar( finish 28th of April 2010) ends to avoid visa denial.

Sorry for the confusion. This timeline is mine ( petitioner)and question is for my husband. VD for voluntary departure. He is currently in Qatar waiting for interview.

What i understand from articles, my husband will not accumulate unlawful presence until judge declares him as out of status. He got Voluntary departure from judge and left country within one month from that date.

Guys

i am getting mixed info even from my lawyer. I got VD from immigration judge in april 2007 after 10 months of not going to school(F-1, I-94 D/S).

Should i choose yes in DS-230 Part II, h

Please please help me , my interview is just around the corner.

Regards

Thanks VJ for its continuous support with immigration matters.

Finally i got my CR-1 interview on 4th of April.Preparation is almost done,however i am really concern about my Voluntary departure back in 2007. My story is like this

-Came as F1 student with D/S I-94 on February 2006

-After May 2006 did not enroll school and got married to an US resident.

-January 18,2007 ICE came and took me.

-Got Voluntary departure by Judge and left USA 28th April, 2007

and hence i got bar of 3 yrs which ends 28th April 2010 (24 days after my interview). Should i be worried about it or should i prepare I-212 or I-601 before interview. Can they deny my visa?

Really worried

I had my interview for the greencard with my wife. i just wanna share my experience with everyone caus after i read other people's story i felt more confident going in the interview. first of all if the interview is in the morning then that's a good sign. they have soo many cases during the day that they try to hurry and rush through them in the morning. mine was at 10 30 in the morning so i was happy about that. it was in dallas. half the people wore jeans and somewhat decent tshirt. other half wore professional clothes including me like slacks or pants w/ a nice shirt. dont wear a suite tho, one guy was wearing suite. thats just weird. Everyone seemed to be in their 30s or 40s (some of them pregnant which means it’s almost a automatic approvial). we were the youngest for sure being 21. my lawyer told me that in dallas last year they hired a lot of people so if we get one of the newbie then they will go deep into the investigation caus they feel like they have a lot to prove and they wanna follow the directions exactly how its suppose to be. Luckily once again mine was a old man.

when we went inside they asked us for the id. i showed them my employment id and he asked for the passport which expired 10 years a go or something. i showed it to him and he asked for any other id and i showed him my college id. do not lie to them, if ur passport or anything is expired they already know at this point. he asked me if i came here on visitors visa and i said yes. be really confident. dont b nervous. if he sees anything wrong w/ ur body language then he might separate you guys or ask you ?s. according to my lawyer if they do separate you then dont worry at all as long as your marriage is real. sometimes they do it just because they are new to this job and their superior told them to do this to get more experience. other times they do it because they are ahead of schedule. so dont freak out, it could be for any reason. remember confidence is the key. also sometimes at the end of the interview they might be like we are going to review the documents and let you know later on about ur status. dont freak out. that just means they are new to this job and they dont have the authority to approve it on the spot. i was lucky with that and had my approved on the spot because my interviewer had the authority. i had a great lawyer and he submitted everything the interviewer needed to know it was real. even pictures. but i brought the original documents and pictures just incase.

so now the ?s start. my lawyer told me most ?s are gonna b from everything i submitted (idk what it was but had some weird numbers ), and it was exactly that. he asked my wife whats my name and her name, whats my parents name then outta nowhere he looks at me and asks when did i get married. it was the first time i talked and since it was outta nowhere i got nervous and said the date. i know he meant to catch me off guard too. then he asked me where she works and whats her parents name. where do her parents live? then he asked for the exact address and it just slipped my mind so i said i dont remember and he didnt care. he asked how we met and we said freshman year cafeteria and been best friends since then until we dated and got married(now we r seniors). asked if we exchange phone numbers and how often we met. Asked me what my religion was and asked her if she is gonna convert to my religion. She said no. he asked her if she likes curry now (yes I m indian lol) and she said yes definitely. I wasn’t nervous at that point anymore so I added “my mom cooks enough food for both of us so during the week we don’t have to cook” he said that’s nice of her and made that face which said ok his family is close to her (which was a good thing). Then he asked me if I met her mom. I said no and I was about to explain it to the interviewer why but he didn’t care and started asking other questions. He asked her what’s her major then asked me and then asked both of us if we are gonna further the education or stop at bachelors. My wife is gonna do her phd but I m gonna stop after bachelors. He asked if I m gonna take care of her financially and I said she is gonna work part time during her masters but with phd she will just concentrate on her studies. Then I joked around saying that if she does good during her phd then her starting pay will b a lot higher so its kind of a investment and he started laughing. Try to joke a little and keep everything calm if the interviewer allows u to. He was more confident about the marriage caus we talked about our future together and were specific abt it. So yeah know your future plans together. Asked if we r gonna have baby anytime soon and we both said no. asked both of us where we lived and wanted us to state the address about 3 different times. Then he asked me if either of us ever got married before and we said no. then he asked my wife if she ever filed a petition for anyone. He asked me if my parents r legal. I got a lil worried and said no (do not lie to them) and then he saw the look on my face and he said the only reason I wanted to know is because to find out if they petitioned for u. then he just moved on. He asked us if we took any vacation from work (lot of these ?s he asked is from other part of this website where they tell u wat ?s we should review for. Almost as if they use the same ?s. pretty weird). We said no but we did goto a san Antonio trip during spring break and asked him if he wants to see the pictures but he said thats ok.

Finally he said I believe you guys that this marriage is real and u r approved. Then he printed out a approval notice. He told me to get the passport renewed so we can “go on a honey moon to paris.” He told me that 2 years from now ur greencard is gonna expire but 90 days prior I can apply to get the 2 year condition removed and get the 10 year greencard. When I apply for the 10 year greencard I maybe randomly selected to go to another interview for it which is gonna b similar to this one. Also after having the greencard for 3 years i can apply for citizenship.

Just incase if you don’t pass the interview then they will threaten to do an ICE investigation. If ur marriage is real then tell them to do it, if it is not real then pull out the petition form and walk out of there.

If anyone found anything useful or helpful then please comment so I don’t feel like I wasted my time writing all this. Eventho I misspelled and have lotta grammer errors. thanx

Waw!!! what a story. Thanks for sharing, very informative. I am going for interview very soon and this definately helps. Whats up with the big font

You are Pakistani but how did you manage to have the interview in Saudi Arabia? Was the VNC process delayed in anyway for this?

Sorry for your situation but it is a good sign that they kept your passport.

I am a resident of Qatar and citizen of Bangladesh. Matter of fact, most of my life i spent in Qatar. Now i am about to submit my DS-230 and AOS to NVC. Also thinking to change consulate from Dhaka, Bangladesh to Doha, Qatar. Doha consulate seems to be very fast and convenient for me

Do you think it is too late or it will make the process delay?

Please need help.

My I-130 has approved and it is now with NVC but strange enough they dont have citizenship record of the petitioner. Citizenship certificate has been sent to USCIS for I-130 already but how come NVC doesnt have it. I mailed one copy and called after one week and they said they didnt get my mail. I emailed also and waiting for response.

Any other option?

- My husband (came with F-1 student visa with D/S in I-94 card and did school for one semester) got Volunteer departure from immigration Judge back in April 2007 for staying around 7 months of unlawful presence .

- He left on time and got three year bar.

- I became US citizen in 2009, applied for I-130 in March 2009 and recently got it approved and waiting for NVC to issue him a visa number.

- The bar is going to finish in April 2010

Now do you think its a good idea we submit DS 230 form late lets say two three months so that a embassy interview date comes after this bar ends in April 2010. This way we can avoid filling I-212 which takes about 7-9 months to approve.

Also we are having our first baby due in this September

Name........Service center.. .Sent...... NOA1........ NOA2........ NVC.... Case Complete....Relative

zoso420 California 01/22/2007 01/28/2007 08/24/2009 xxx xxxx husband

Hi

i know it was a silly thing to do but truth is i lost the copy of court letter from immigration judge stating my volunteer departure in 2006. Is this letter required for my I-130 interview? how do i request for a copy.

I just found his I-20 (school admission form) and it has an immigration officer's seal at the right corner with the entry date and also says D/S. So his I-94 should be written D/S in it as well. So he doest have any bar. .........right

Now another question. Would it be wise to apply for a short visit visa so he can visit my family here in USA and go back on time.

If they reject visit visa, would that effect his I-130 processes.

Or just wait for the I-130 to approve, finish all the process and come with immigrant visa.

Thanks in advance