Jacq1227

packet that you brought to the interview -------> No. Medical sends their results to the consulate, medical give you some receipts and bits and bobs for your personal use, but the interview requested none of them. documents be delivered two weeks in advance -------> This is the official consulate advice, when I emailed them they said even a week out is fine. In saying that I also did my medical and delivered documents by hand to the consulate two weeks out. include your I-864 and evidence of relationship -------> The required documents is a hot mess. I ended up making an excel spreadsheet accross all the various sources of what you should bring and including anything I could find a reference for, with the idea in mind that it's better to have something they dont need than to not have something they need. Yes I included my I-864 and I used about ~50 photos since marriage (and including marriage photos) as evidence of relationship. There were a few people at the interviews that failed or had conditional approvals because they were missing documents. So if in doubt, just chuck it in. Also I was part of a group that are being processed electronically and so any extra evidence I brought to the consulate that I hadnt given the NVC via CEAC I had to also upload to CEAC. I attach a copy of my "table of contents" describing all the documents I submitted to the consulate in a sealed courier bag two weeks before my interview.
TableOfContents_ONLINE.doc

Finally, the long wait is over. Just received our IL 20mins ago. Scheduled on 06-Oct. 🥳

Replying to my own post for future reference.

Further research on the medical - it seems Citymed Auckland charge standard rates for vaccines. Might as well just let them do it.
Traveling to the US - Yes, it is possible. Immigrant lawyer said no worries. I went and US immigration didn't care at all. Currently coming back 1 week before my medical in NZ.

So I got Documentarily Qualified on the 19/05/2023, received NVC email on the 31/08/2023, for an interview set for the 13/10/2023.

Good luck to everyone.

Finally, the long wait is over. Just received our IL 20mins ago. Scheduled on 06-Oct. 🥳

Hi everyone, it’s been awhile since someone posted in here. I hope everyone is doing well.☺️
 
Just a quick update for those who are waiting for an IL like me. Just hang on tight, we’re almost there. A colleague of my friend applied for L1B visa (working visa) a month ago and received the IL last weekend (24-Jun) and the interview is set on 06-Sep. I think working visa interviews are being prioritized, but i also believe that they are starting to release schedules for September. Having said that, we might be getting the letters soon. ☺️
 
Goodluck to all of us.
 
 

Hello.... Received interview letter May 19th and interview for July 12th..YEah!! Glad this is almost over!

Hi! @MaliceDaMeanest and @kiwipete thanks for your help! Just had my interview today all went well!
I can confirm they do need the courier bag so good you got one @kiwipete! however for those who didn’t include it in the pack, don’t worry You can bring it on the day of the interview or if you don't have one at the time too they told some of us we could go to the dairy at Britomart which sells postal bags, they could buy one after the interview and just put it in the immigrant visa mailbox so they can use that to ship your passport back to you. They were understaffed today so we couldn’t buy one there today but I think usually you’d be able to!
 
If anyone’s worried about the questions don’t worry! They’re so nice and didn’t ask me much overall I think I was in line for 40 mins but the interview only took about 2 minutes. Here’s a few questions I can remember:
1) who’s your petitioner?
2) who is he to you? (I just said his name so they followed up with this)
3) when did you meet?
4) did you start dating right away?
5) how did you manage long distance?
6) how long have you been together for?
7) what made you want to get married?
8 ) what’s his job? Which company? US OR NZ?
9) what do you do?
10) where are you planning on staying in the states?
11) when do you plan to move? (Reminded me that we need to move within 6 months if when the medical was taken)?
12) what work did you do while on a J1?
 
Then I had a mini freak out because she said we might need a joint sponsor because my husband was currently working for an NZ company and not US but thankfully it was all ok in the end as he had some investments and I just pointed to where the documents were in the package.
 
Wishing you all the absolute best next week! ❤️❤️❤️

@chevin thanks so much for posting the follow-up. It's very informative, but also so nice to have a recent experience posted for knowing what to expect.
 
An update from me. Yesterday I had the medical exam at CityMed (9am) and dropped off the documents to the Consulate before (8am). I'll post a detailed recount -- never know which little piece of info someone might find useful (like I have - thanks everyone!)
 
Rescheduling medical:
I originally had it scheduled last week, but my flight to AKL was canceled. Rescheduling with CityMed for this week was no problem, but they mentioned the US immigration medical can be one of the trickier ones to schedule because they need nurse, doctor, and radiography appointments to be available all together. That said, I got the day I wanted. Time required before interview -- they use digital forms. Everyone advised that it takes about 2-3 days for the test results to come back, and for them to be sent to the consulate. My (rescheduled) medical was 8 days before my interview; everyone seemed to think that would be more than enough time. Accommodation, etc:
I stayed at the Rydges on Federal Street. Price was OK, ~170 NZD. I joined the 'PriorityGUEST' rewards club when I booked on the website. It was free to join, got me a few $ off the booking, and 20% of food/drink (although the meals at the hotel were a bit spendy so I didn't end up going there). I caught the SkyDrive bus. $17 each way. Goes from the Auckland Airport domestic terminal to the Skytower (2 blocks from the Rydges). Can book ahead online (same price) or the driver has an EFTPOS machine and most people were just paying by Paywave as they got on the bus. Double-decker bus, lots of room for people & bags, very comfortable. There is an NZ Post (for the oft-mentioned courier bag) on Wellesley St West. It doesn't look like it from the street (esp. with construction) but it's there. You go down an alleyway - if you're on Wellesley St West looking at the Wellesley Centre, it's on the left. Go down the alley and the shop is on the right. It's small, but has the bags. Dropping off documents:
Arrived early, about 7:45am. The security guard was there  but no-one else. As you turn left out of the elevator, there are 2 drop boxes against the far wall - one for immigration documents. I think this is probably where you drop the documents, but I wasn't sure (and didn't want to put the pack with all the original certificates etc. in the wrong place!) so I asked the security guard. He just ended up taking the packet, scanning it through the x-ray machine, and saying he'd sort it out. Easy drop-off. Medical:
Got in ~20 mins early to fill in paperwork. The paperwork was just a general CityMed registration form, no extensive background questions at this point. Handed it back and they said to go to Waiting Room 1. Appointment was scheduled 9am, got seen ~9:10am. First stop was nurse #1: Passport Quick eye test (I normally wear glasses but asked to try without, we went to the second-from-bottom row and he called that a pass). Took height, weight. Took a urine sample. Bit awkward because you have to walk through the waiting room to get to/from the bathroom, but what are you gonna do. Trickiest part was washing hands while trying not to drop the tube. I think this was where I got the test forms to take to each person (some wanted them, some didn't). Nurse sent me to Dr. Donna: Wanted to see record of vaccines - couldn't accept the print-out from MyHealth because it didn't have my name on it. I logged into MyHealth on my phone and showed her it matched up, that was fine. I had printed test results for Varicella that I got a few weeks ago because I had no proof of having had chickenpox. This did have my name on it and was fine. I also happened to have my Plunket book with vaccination records in it - she got reception to photocopy it and write my name on it. Apparently they have recently received an update about COVID vaccines. Her understanding was only 2 are required, but offered me the 3rd booster (was behind). I have a flu vaccine from July 2022 (so within the year) but they wanted a current one. Fortunately (at least in this case) I'm an asthmatic so these were both free. Asked some medical history questions - mainly concerned with gonorrhea, syphilis, TB, and mental illness as far as I could tell. Asked about smoking, not much about family history. Controlled asthma was fine. Physical test - stripped down to undies (a sheet was offered). Pretty brief, maybe 3 mins. Poked some organs, checked pulse, ears, eyes, tongue. No jumping jacks or anything like that. Back to waiting room #1 Nurse #2: Top-up jabs (current flu, and COVID booster) Draw blood for blood tests Then down to radiology for Chest Xray - waited for maybe 5 mins, then about 1 minute having the Xray taken All done.
 
Total time - arrived 8:40am (early), left 10:40am.
 
Hope that's helpful, happy to answer any questions!

I’ve been following this page for along time now. I’ve been DQ’ed last 20-Apr-23 and still waiting for the IL.
I was looking on the news on the US Consulate NZ website. I want to share what I found so that people waiting for interview schedules will know what to expect. I found out that they won’t do interviews on July and August.
 
Reference: https://nz.usembassy.gov/plan-ahead-apply-now/
 
 

I’ve been following this page for along time now. I’ve been DQ’ed last 20-Apr-23 and still waiting for the IL.
I was looking on the news on the US Consulate NZ website. I want to share what I found so that people waiting for interview schedules will know what to expect. I found out that they won’t do interviews on July and August.
 
Reference: https://nz.usembassy.gov/plan-ahead-apply-now/
 
 

We submitted our documents last 07-Apr and just got DQ'd yesterday, 20-Apr. I got worried because alot of people were posting about getting their NZ police cert being rejected. Luckily, on our first submission everything went well.
 
What we did for the nz police cert is that we marked it as not available, and put the following comment that I got from here, " New Zealand police department will send the information directly to the US Consulate in Auckland, who will then send it to NVC"
 
 

We submitted our documents last 07-Apr and just got DQ'd yesterday, 20-Apr. I got worried because alot of people were posting about getting their NZ police cert being rejected. Luckily, on our first submission everything went well.
 
What we did for the nz police cert is that we marked it as not available, and put the following comment that I got from here, " New Zealand police department will send the information directly to the US Consulate in Auckland, who will then send it to NVC"
 
 

Just want to share the good news I got DQ'd on our first submission, 04/20. We received 2 emails, one for the change of status of the case and one for the DQ'd.
 
@AhmadHamouda DQ means documentarily qualified, it means NVC have reviewed and accepted all the documents you have provided. The next step is for them to sent the case to the US consulate and schedule interview.
The fee is $445 (AOS: $120 IV processing: $325)
 
Goodluck to everyone!

We submitted our documents last 07-Apr and just got DQ'd yesterday, 20-Apr. I got worried because alot of people were posting about getting their NZ police cert being rejected. Luckily, on our first submission everything went well.
 
What we did for the nz police cert is that we marked it as not available, and put the following comment that I got from here, " New Zealand police department will send the information directly to the US Consulate in Auckland, who will then send it to NVC"
 
 

I figured I'd start this thread as I have submitted my paperwork on April 5th.

Hi @Sammy.NZ and @mekbus, I can weigh in here.
I was also living in NZ with my spouse when we applied for CR-1. Here's what I provided for proof of domicile that was accepted by NVC:
My Colorado voter registration Proof of ballot submission for the last US election Bank statements from my US bank account for the last 4 years My Colorado drivers license One (most recent) statement from my US retirement account (Roth IRA) Last 4 years of statements from my US brokerage account I've been living abroad for 7 years but have always maintained a "permanent" US address (my dad's), and that address was on all my bank and brokerage statements, which I think helped my cause. I've heard that maintaining an active US drivers license is clutch as well.
 
I also included a domicile cover letter where I explained why I was overseas (my foreign husband) and that "I intend in good faith to re-establish my domicile in the United States no later than the date of spouse's admission into the U.S."
 
I will say though, just prepare to go through several rounds of NVC asking for more stuff. We thought our case was super straightforward, but we had to go through 3 rounds of document review that ended up taking 4 months – each time you submit something else, your case goes to the back of the line so it takes ages.
 
**Also, this is super important: NVC is unfamiliar with the special way that New Zealanders are supposed to submit their police check. NZ police sends it directly to the Auckland Consulate and you need to upload your signed Section 14 'overseas' form from police.govt.nz and explain in depth in a cover letter that you are unable to upload the police check results directly it because it was sent to the Auckland consulate. Uploading it to CEAC and including a note that says "sent directly to consulate per NZ guidelines" is not enough! We wasted over 6 weeks on document review because we had to explain this over and over again to NVC. Give them the link to the New Zealand page of the travel.state.gov website and restate their own guidelines.
 
 

Congrats!!!

Just want to share that we got our approval as well after 365 days from potomac. 🙂
PD: 29 March 2022

Folks, we got our approval a while ago! I pray the rest of you receive the great news soon too!

Congrats to you both!!! 🤗 Finally seeing March filers getting approvals from Potomac. 
We've checked our processing time earlier and its now showing 4 weeks from 2months last 21-Feb
 
Hope that next step for you guys  is way faster than the i130 approval timeline. Goodluck guys! ☺️

Congrats to you both!!! 🤗 Finally seeing March filers getting approvals from Potomac. 
We've checked our processing time earlier and its now showing 4 weeks from 2months last 21-Feb
 
Hope that next step for you guys  is way faster than the i130 approval timeline. Goodluck guys! ☺️

Omg yasss!!!! You made me go look and we went into AR as of 02/25/23 and logged in and we are approved to!! YASSSSS!!! 

Woke up this morning to see our case is AR as of 02/25/23. Checked our documents tab and we’ve been approved!

Hi all,
 
I'm very excited to report that we were approved!!!
I received the "We have taken an action on your case" email today, but the approval notice date is Jan 12th.
 
Here's the timeline:
PD/NOA1: March 31st, 2022
AR1: March 31st, 2022
AR2: January 12th, 2023
NOA2: January 12th/13th, 2023
 
Regarding the NOA2 date, it's a bit strange because the notice itself says Jan 12th, but in the case history it says Jan 13th. And the email notification about AR2 came yesterday and the one about the approval came today (and I totally missed both because my phone has been acting up and didn't send me the notification about the emails).
 
We were at the Texas Service Center, though initially at Nebraska, it was transferred at some point along the way (we had an address change in July, so maybe that's when that occurred).
 
I am beyond excited, because I did not expect any movement this early. I was hoping for it, but never thought this would happen.
 
Here's hoping everyone in this group gets approved soon, best of luck to everyone! 

Hi all !
My daughter's case has been approved at the beginning of November. Our PD was 03/03/2022.
We had to update our address in the US (sponsor's address), so I think it helped.
And fortunately, I could manage for her case to join mine and we both had our interview on November 30th. Our visas have been issued just today !!! We are very happy.
For me it was a 19 months process and I'm very happy that I can finally see the end.
Good luck to all of you, I'm sure you will soon be approved !