southafricatousa

Hello all VISA JOURNEY FRIENDS!!! We need your help!

So here Sarah (Fiancee) and I are nearing the last phase. Sarah and I have been working on her documents needed for the interview – going very well. We will be faxing in OF-169 tomorrow and DS-230 Part 1 in order to receive packet 4. I managed to have the consulate email the packets and not do snail mail.

Tonight, she realized that no one ever asked her to hand in her I-94 departure slip when leaving the states in May/2007 – she still has it! So, I’m guessing the US may not have any notification that she actually left the country in May-2007.

Is this a serious issue?

Would the USCIS approve a K1 visa to the NVC and forwarded to the US Consulate in South Africa if they hadn’t recorded she had left?

What should we do?

If approved, will this become an issue when she enters the USA?

Thank you!

Jesse

YOu're absolutely right. The NVC Will send the case to the consulate where your fiance is. Then they will send out packet3 to you. It will require you to send to your foreign fiance all your information etc (134, tax returns, bank info, job info, evidence etc) for the INTERVIEW part. she will need to get a police check for packet 3, long form birth certificate, divorce decrees etc etc. your lawyer is uneducated with this type of visa perhaps its time to terminate his "services"

here is a sample of the packet3 South Africa's consulate will send to your fiance:

http://www.visajourney.com/consulates/inde...ty=Johannesburg

Hi - THANK YOU SO MUCH. My lawyer is a mess...thank god I had this site. He also put down Pretoria on the I-129F as the fiance will apply abroad...after i put down joburg. Do you think the NVC will still automatically send it to Joburg?

Thanks!

Jesse

HELLO ALL-

I met with our lawyer today to discuss next steps after receiving the NOA2 in the mail. I think he is more confused than me! Please help.

I stated to him I wanted to go over the I-134 to get notarized and sent to Sarah in South Africa. He said - No, we have to wait for NVC to request that from us. He stated that the NVC sends us a paper requesting for the I-134 and that is sent to the consulate from the NVC. He also stated that the NVC may request a police certificate before sending anything to the consulate.

AM I WRONG? My belief was that: NVC gets approval from VCS or other service center, assigns a case number (which I have), runs a background check and ships the packet to the consulate. Sarah than provides the consulate with the I-134 notarized an all other related documents requested.

Thank you!!! PLEASE CLEAR THIS UP FOR ME SO I CAN SLEEP ANOTHER NIGHT!

I first want to state that I believe unfortunately like anything in life there are people that get things very quickly and those who very unfortunately get hit with waiting. For those who feel they are in the middle (good/bad/who knows), I believe that viewing the immigration timelines under your visa is your best bet for knowing how your service center is doing. You select IMMIGRATION TIMELINES, select your type of visa, and I sorted by NOA1 and kept moving the pages to get to my date. At that time, I viewed others posting dates from their timelines, I viewed their profiles, and I gathered if I felt they had an understanding of the process or not.

I saw approvals arriving for those before me of course, but also those right next to me and after. I called Sarah (my wife to be) last week letting her know I believed we would hear an approval this week based on what I saw by the instructions above - and it came true within days. Further, fellow Visa Journey members I searched and watched as well had the same outcome.

I know from this post I will receive a lot of people saying that I was lucky with the how soon I received the approval and others in the same boat right now - I do feel for those who wait so long. However, I'm posting for those who need general direction. We all know that first feeling of getting the NOA1 and thinking...awesome that was a blast and this is going to be faster than I thought. People are posting accurate dates on their timelines - there is no reason to lie about something so special as receiving your NOA1 and NOA2. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that you are in the same batch when viewing the timelines.

I hope this provides some comfort to people who are in waiting - November VSC submits should be excited right now. To re-affirm my position - check out Terryn from South Africa too. Right in the same timeframe. VSC is moving quickly!!!

-Jesse

WE WERE APPROVED TODAY 1/23/08........NOW WHAT!!!!!!!!

AWESOME!!!!!! I SAY NOW WHAT TOO!!!!!! Hey, I have to say if we are around joburg at the same time we should all get together and party! I'm working on figuring what happens with the NVC. Things seem to moving quickly there, so I'm hoping the next part is A LOT easier.

CONGRATS AGAIN!

-Jesse

Congratulations on your approval!

From what I know, a report of commercial rating concern is a report that's done by organizations (like Dun & Bradstreet) to rate and estimate a business' financial standing (they predict or "rate" how likely it is that a company will pay it's bills in a 12 months time frame). It's usually done when the business concerned is a fairly new established one.

I am not sure if it's done for a small business like yours, to be honest.

About the tax returns to submit - they usually want to see the ones of the most recent tax year. That's def. for the I-864 you will have to submit later on with AOS. I received a RFE because I didn't submit the most recent ones (but the ones for the 3 previos years) and an explanation that my husband didn't file yet but they didn't accept it.

For the I-134 I assume though you should be fine with the tax returns for 2006 because in the instructions they ask for the last tax return filed, not specifically for the most recent tax year. Make sure to submit all other documents the I-134 asks for. If you can get your parents to be your co-sponsors you will def. meet all requirements and be fine and won't have to worry about that report of commercial rating concern.

Maybe someone else is/was in the same boat and can help out a bit more here.

So, if I have have little to show in my bank account (very little), but show my 2006 meeting the poverty requirements, and my parents co-sponsoring - you believe it should be ok?

Thanks!

Jesse

P.S. This is a great site.

Does anyone find it interesting that my approval email stated On January 21, 2008, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E). ???

ISN'T VSC CLOSED ON MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY? They really keep you guessing huh? I'm very thankful for the email, but I found it quite odd.

-Jesse

Has anyone from Sept or Oct heard anything Yet!!!! This waiting is killing me!!!!!!

Hello!

We got ours on Tuesday, January 22nd! You should be very soon!!!!!

-Jesse

First - great news is we got approved yesterday!!!!

Now, I'm focusing on the next steps.

I'm a founding partner in a health club. I've poured all of my money/resources into the gym over the past year +. So, my 2006 tax returns show me meeting the poverty level, but if I file for 2007 they won't. As a business owner - what should I do? And what is?

report of commercial rating concern

For the 134, should I just use the 2006 returns, since I won't file for 2007 until the last possible day (as I always do).

Should I also get a co-sponsor (my parents) just in case?

Do I need to show my financial records as a business owner, or just my 2006 returns? I still have no idea what a commercial rating concern is???

PLEASE HELP!!!! I don't want all my efforts into my business to stop Sarah from coming home.

Thank you!

YES!!!!! GOT APPROVAL TODAY!!!! #######...what now haha!

My post was not to say anyone was doing anything wrong on this site with posts or I knew exactly how the process works at the service center. I was simply working off of common sense. If you look at a company (I own a fitness center)...You have a front desk that handles all the calls and people that service everyone else and don't take calls. The phone calls all have to do with what the people not answering the phones are doing. Day in and day out the phone calls directly impact the the people that aren't answering the phones, because they have to report to the people that are what is going on so they can provide information...the more questions the more answers needed. So, I just had a fun thought of starting a week long ban on calling to see if there was a relate.

I feel for everyone on this site. It's an extremely painful process. I wish the best to everyone and to take my posts as a way of looking at things with common sense, not the cases outside the boundaries (those are exceptions). Because, for the most part, a lot of people get approved within the long set timeframe.

-Jesse

I WOULD LOVE THIS FOR ONE WEEK! PASS ON AND LET's SET A DATE - Everyone make a pledge on this site to not contact any service center by phone or even ask someone else to contact. All of a sudden have the phones stop ringing...1) they will notice something all of a sudden happened 2) they would have a lot of free time/interruptions to get things moving even better.

I pledge to not call.

-Jesse

I see your point, but the people who answer the phones are not the people working on petitions. They are two separate groups of people, and probably even work in different buildings or floors. The work flow is not affected by phone calls to the service center.

I wish you the best of luck during this long process. I only hope for lots of people to receive approvals when I go about my day.

-Jesse

My post was not to say anyone was doing anything wrong on this site with posts or I knew exactly how the process works at the service center. I was simply working off of common sense. If you look at a company (I own a fitness center)...You have a front desk that handles all the calls and people that service everyone else and don't take calls. The phone calls all have to do with what the people not answering the phones are doing. Day in and day out the phone calls directly impact the the people that aren't answering the phones, because they have to report to the people that are what is going on so they can provide information...the more questions the more answers needed. So, I just had a fun thought of starting a week long ban on calling to see if there was a relate.

I feel for everyone on this site. It's an extremely painful process. I wish the best to everyone and to take my posts as a way of looking at things with common sense, not the cases outside the boundaries (those are exceptions). Because, for the most part, a lot of people get approved within the long set timeframe.

-Jesse

I WOULD LOVE THIS FOR ONE WEEK! PASS ON AND LET's SET A DATE - Everyone make a pledge on this site to not contact any service center by phone or even ask someone else to contact. All of a sudden have the phones stop ringing...1) they will notice something all of a sudden happened 2) they would have a lot of free time/interruptions to get things moving even better.

I pledge to not call.

-Jesse

I see your point, but the people who answer the phones are not the people working on petitions. They are two separate groups of people, and probably even work in different buildings or floors. The work flow is not affected by phone calls to the service center.

Note to all!

Simply view the current NOA2 received by fellow Visa Journey people on this site to get an understanding on how service centers are processing. I received NOA1 on October 2nd. Now, I'm seeing a bunch of people around me reporting NOA2's all of a sudden. If you were a government organization, would you be giving every caller an exact timeline of when they will get approved? Do we fully believe any organization could handle that accurately? That would probably create more trouble in trying to please callers by trying to give them an exact date on when they would be approved. It is impossible with their load of applications.

My best advice to everyone on this site and waiting like I am. Click on immigration timelines on this site. Search your visa and sort to your NOA1 date (great function on this site), view what others are posting for their process. That is the best way to understand how any service center is doing at handling all the applications. Calling isn't the answer, congressman won't get an accurate answer all the time and it is true that an application lands on someone's desk and you may get a hard worker, average or someone that is slow at their job (like any corporation out there - 10% do the work and 90% tend to move paper).

I believe the best evidence is what people post on their timelines on this site. (1) no reason to lie about your postings (2) people get excited to post good news, which then i believe is accurate (3) its a great way to view where you are in the process.

I WOULD LOVE THIS FOR ONE WEEK! PASS ON AND LET's SET A DATE - Everyone make a pledge on this site to not contact any service center by phone or even ask someone else to contact. All of a sudden have the phones stop ringing...1) they will notice something all of a sudden happened 2) they would have a lot of free time/interruptions to get things moving even better.

I pledge to not call.

-Jesse

Nothing yet - I got our NOA1 on 10/2/07. I'm going to add you as a friend so we can track our progress together . BEST OF LUCK!

I am wondering has any October filers has any touches from VSC.

Hi-

I enjoyed reading your posts. I'm stressing big time about this wait on the approval. I'm approaching day 60 now. I know your done with the process now...but what hope can you give me or thoughts recently on the vermont service center????

-Jesse

I just joined this site today...so I am not on this list. Good luck to everyone, hope your NOA-2 comes tommorow

Hey Jas S, welcome to VJ. The list I have above is just the I-129Fs for K-1 Visas. I didn't think about adding the K-3s. If its easy to do, i'll add them in too.

Best of luck on your journey!

My second reply-

I received the first receipt on 10/2/07. We should keep in contact to see or know how long this is taking - I have to guess if i hear something you will hear something or the other way around. We can help one another stay sane....just a thought. I could use this discussion right now. I also have been to South Africa twice since this process, which seems you are in the same position. Also, I would love to see other areas of South Africa - That might be fun?

-Jesse

We are trying to get a K1 visa...Vermont service center..South Africa......Vermont Service Center recieved my petion on 10/23/07....How long does the approval really take...Does anyone out there think we could be married in the US in April 2008 or am I dreaming

I sent my 129F on September 21st 2007. Received receipt marked 10/1/07. Couple days will mark 60 days of the process. Starting to get concerned with how long it will take to get the approval...stressful!

Do you think having a lawyer moves the process along faster?

-Jesse

Just to start off my name is Jesse and I'm engaged to Sarah. Sarah and I met in the USA - she was actually one of my first customers at my business. Eventually after a wonderful relationship in the states, Sarah had to go back to South Africa (her visa expired). We decided it was best for her to go home to see her family and friends. It would also give us time to think about our feelings for one another. We also did not want her to stay illegally and ruin our chances of her coming back!

Sarah left on May 25th of 2007 (hardest thing ever). After a lot of phone calls, I arrived in South Africa rom the end of August to the beginning of September where I asked her to marry me. I arrived home on September 11th. After arriving home I found an immigration lawyer. I didn't want to do it alone. Joe has been a fantastic lawyer, worked for the government, and able to let me ask questions and get stressed out! Very important!

The good news in the beginning. We sent out the entire visa application on September 21st 2007. On October 3rd, I was reading the reports on receipt delays and was so stressed that we could just have to wait months for the receipt and to even start the process - that night I checked the mailbox and there was the receipt! I was shocked. I cried, so happy knowing that the road to getting Sarah back had truly started. I was also amazed at the speed of the receipt. Was that normal? The receipt was dated received on October 1st - we received a receipt in a week from the Vermont Service Center?

Waiting! It's been exactly 60 days since we received the receipt not any word. When I check online it states case received and pending. What would we receive next? I did speak to the lawyer recently and he sounded optimistic. He stated that he wouldn't be surprised if we heard very soon about an approval. I don't know though...I'm beginning to get very sad about the process. However, I had another great experience with Sarah. I flew back over to South Africa from 10/16/07 to 11/13/07 - ALMOST A WHOE MONTH THERE! It helped cut a month out of this long process..much needed.

I hope everyone enjoyed our story. I like this site so I signed up today to talk to others, help myself calm down about the process, and learn more. Best of luck to everyone today with visa stuff.

Time line:

Lawyer mailed 129f package - September 21, 2007

Vermont received and sent receipt - October 1, 2007.....only 5-6 business days!

Now waiting on approval...