Will Schu

Is there a separate visa stamp or something while we wait for the I-485 to get processed?

We picked Yerevan, Armenia at the suggestion of a lawyer we consulted when doing the I-129F. I would pick someplace that your fiancee can get to without a need to get a visa (like Armenia, Turkey, etc). Getting a visa for anyplace in Iran is a practice in insanity from what I can gather.

Ah. Thank you so much. The wording between # days for visa and passport are self-separating in my mind.

Does my fiancee have to surrender her passport at the interview, or can we return home?

I'm sure this is a simple topic, but I keep getting confused. How long do we stay in the country after our interview? We chose Yerevan because my fiancee is Iranian.

Salaam! Here's the thing I found out with Yerevan so far. They expect to communicate with your fiancee. My emails go unanswered, and they'll reply to her within one day. When we got the invitation letter, they asked for her email address, and only then did they actually send the invitation document and other information. We did get an interview. Finally! What she had to do is send them a completed copy of our DS-160, and make her case to get an interview date because our petition is expiring soon. USCIS puts 4 months on the petition, and the NVC ate up 2 months. Yerevan responded in less than one week after the NVC forwarded our case to them. The free appointment slots are not up when you go through the AIS system to register your DS-160 and pay the MRV fee. They'll open up slots after your fiancee emails them (no phone and they only like to reply to fiancee). Hopefully, that will change and you'll be able to schedule when you guys in the information--but be prepared for the stress. From what I can gather, the NVC is mostly contractors. It's probably a safe bet they drag their feet and complain once they accumulate too much to do--so be prepared for any communication dealing with the NVC to be next to nothing. Their inquiry information does say to contact them if you have not received any word 6 weeks after USCIS sends their case to them. Make sure you do! The only communication was the K1_FTP (K1 forwarded to embassy)--and it will be a Rich Text File format. The only way I found out they received our case was through the inquiry system. They never sent any notice. Message me with any questions you have. I'll do my best to respond as soon as I get them. Make sure to scan your NOAs and keep good copies of everything. Once your case gets to the NVC make sure to start preparing everything you can (start now if you guys can). After the case makes it to Yerevan do your best to move on everything as fast as you can. Good luck!! -Will

Congratulations! I know your pain. Ours took 442 days. We submitted in May 2021, and got our NOA1 showing May 17 at receipt date. It took USCIS until August 11 to review and approve it and get it over to the NVC. I keep reading that people have had good experience with the NVC. Mine was the exact opposite. It took them two months to enter our information and send it to the embassy we chose. Those two months ate up two months of the four USCIS gives the approval. The NVC has not been transparent on what steps they are on, and never send a notification. After 6 weeks of waiting for some word from the NVC I had to send them an email asking if they located my case. The problem there is that should I have to ask? Shouldn't they update the petitioner of any status updates? The only thing to come from the NVC is the K1_FTP notification two months after they received it. Don't give up hope. We're trying to hang in there, and this process has been the largest and primary reason for relationship stress that we have in an otherwise peaceful, amiable, and caring relationship for the past 4 years.

Thank you for the info. I definitely got to find someone who has dealt with Armenia before. We're currently stuck in some sort of weird catch-22. We need to get a medical exam, but cannot schedule a medical exam without a confirmed embassy appointment which requires a medical exam be completed and all paperwork from the exam with us at the appointment. Essentially, we need to get an appointment that gives us enough time to get there, get a medical exam, wait 5 business days for results, then go to the interview, and then wait a possible additional 5 business days after the interview to retrieve her passport and visa info so she can return home and begin the process of coming here. And that's all reliant on how well the consular is feeling that particular day. I'm freaking out so hard and so stressed right now...

It is possible, but I cannot say for sure. I want to give them the benefit of the doubt and say they're still attempting to recover from the covid backup. It's been almost 2 years since any covid public health measures, but I'll still give them the benefit of the doubt.

I know how you feel. My fiancée and I even went and toured around the outside of the embassy we chose. Hang in there. We filed and got confirmation in May 2021. They didn’t approve the petition until August 2022, and the NVC only just sent it to our embassy on October 25th. The one thing that irks me the most is that each place said they have to enter our information into their system. Not sure why USCIS doesn’t allow database synchronization, and why each office is using different (wild guess) software.

Yerevan, Armenia

We filled out the DS-160, printed and saved the confirmation page and entire application, and now at the MRV fee page where it says there are no appointments available. Do we randomly check back and pray for an appointment date, or is there something I'm missing? The welcome letter has outdated links and information, and the embassy website isn't much help at all. I'm unable to find this answer in the flowchart.

Also to follow up, we never got an email or letter that the NVC received our petition. The only notice in that regard is the I-797 (the NOA2) USCIS sent.

For ours it took about 6 weeks to get a short email from the NVC that our case was forwarded to an embassy. The case number is listed at the top of the “K1_FTP” and in the body of the message. After that it took about 3 weeks for the embassy to send me an email requesting my fiancée’s email address to send her the welcome invitation email with next to no information in it. You’re going to have to email or call them a lot just to keep things going. The welcome email did not say to send them a copy of the DS-160 confirmation page, but they requested it after we got to a point where we could not do anything. It seems they now custom schedule each interview date to the submitted DS-160 & the case number specific to the embassy (three letter embassy abbreviation followed by some digits that look like a date timestamp). Good luck! I’ll do my best to keep my timeline update.

Thank you all for the info. I kept expecting physical mail from the NVC because all of their FAQs point to some invoice that is mailed and we never got one and can’t currently pay the fee or schedule interview.