Micam

Just to add another vote for Mint. I actually just have the regular sim but I got it delivered via their amazon shop to the UK so I had it as soon as I landed! Worked a treat for me and was the most affordable plan I could find.

5 hours ago, JamesJourney said:

20 Dec 2023 

 

Visa status “issued”

 

hopefully I can pick up my passport soon 

Yay, congrats! Mine arrived a couple of days after the interview from London. Fingers crossed you can make it for xmas!

Seems like you have followed these steps: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/family-immigration/nonimmigrant-visa-for-a-spouse-k-3.html#4  

Quote

• You, the U.S. citizen sponsor, must first file Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, with Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office that serves the area where you live. The USCIS will send a Notice of Action (Form I-797) receipt notice to inform you that it has received the petition. See the USCIS website under K-3/K-4 Nonimmigrant Visas for more information.
• You must then file Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e), for your foreign-citizen spouse and stepchildren. See Direct Filing Addresses for Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) for information on where to file the petition for a K-3 visa.
• After USCIS approves the petitions, they will be sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) for processing.

but need to make sure you include everything from the checklist here: https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f

Quote

Did you provide the following?

• Evidence of your U.S. citizenship:
  • A copy of your birth certificate, issued by a civil registrar, vital statistics office, or other civil authority showing you were born in the United States; 
  • A copy of your naturalization or citizenship certificate issued by USCIS or the former Immigration and Naturalization Service; 
  • A copy of Form FS-240, Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA), issued by a U.S. Embassy or U.S. Consulate; 
  • A copy of your unexpired U.S. passport; or 
  • An original statement from a U.S. consular officer verifying you are a U.S. citizen with a valid passport;
• Evidence you or your fiancé legally terminated any previous marriages (if applicable):
  • Final Divorce decree;
  • Annulment order; or
  • Death certificate for their prior spouse;
• One color passport-style photograph of yourself and one for your fiancé taken within 30 days of you filing this petition; 
• Evidence of legal name change (if applicable); and
• Evidence to support an International Marriage Broker Regulation Act waiver (if applicable).

....

 

If you are petitioning to classify your spouse as a K-3 nonimmigrant, did you provide the following?

• A copy of the Form I-797C, Notice of Action, showing you have filed Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, on behalf of your spouse; and 
• A marriage certificate.

I don't think you need to include EVERYTHING you sent with the I-130 but do make sure that it has included everything above. The link above also shows you which lockbox to send all of this to.

You do not need biometrics, medical exam, police reports etc, as this will be needed at the NVC and interview stage. See info here for what's needed for interview stage: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/family-immigration/nonimmigrant-visa-for-a-spouse-k-3.html#4 

It also has information for filing the K3 petition: 

Quote

The First Step: Filing the Petitions

• You, the U.S. citizen sponsor, must first file Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, with Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office that serves the area where you live. The USCIS will send a Notice of Action (Form I-797) receipt notice to inform you that it has received the petition. See the USCIS website under K-3/K-4 Nonimmigrant Visas for more information.
• You must then file Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e), for your foreign-citizen spouse and stepchildren. See Direct Filing Addresses for Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiancé(e) for information on where to file the petition for a K-3 visa.
• After USCIS approves the petitions, they will be sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) for processing.

and a it links to a checklist here for the I-129F stage: https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f

Quote

Did you provide the following?

• Evidence of your U.S. citizenship:
  • A copy of your birth certificate, issued by a civil registrar, vital statistics office, or other civil authority showing you were born in the United States; 
  • A copy of your naturalization or citizenship certificate issued by USCIS or the former Immigration and Naturalization Service; 
  • A copy of Form FS-240, Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA), issued by a U.S. Embassy or U.S. Consulate; 
  • A copy of your unexpired U.S. passport; or 
  • An original statement from a U.S. consular officer verifying you are a U.S. citizen with a valid passport;
• Evidence you or your fiancé legally terminated any previous marriages (if applicable):
  • Final Divorce decree;
  • Annulment order; or
  • Death certificate for their prior spouse;
• One color passport-style photograph of yourself and one for your fiancé taken within 30 days of you filing this petition; 
• Evidence of legal name change (if applicable); and
• Evidence to support an International Marriage Broker Regulation Act waiver (if applicable)

..........

 

If you are petitioning to classify your spouse as a K-3 nonimmigrant, did you provide the following?

• A copy of the Form I-797C, Notice of Action, showing you have filed Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative, on behalf of your spouse; and 
• A marriage certificate.

Hope this helps! I would follow the US gov website as some visa websites can be slightly out of date (and therefore confusing).

The I-130 is the longest part of the of the process and you can be together in the UK whilst you're waiting for that. As others have said once NVC stage comes around your partner will need to prove that she can support you financially and may have to leave early to the US for this. Your partner could also look into a family member sponsoring you if they have enough money/income to do so. This will probably mean a few months apart, but you're unlikely to have any issues with an ESTA* if you take short visits whilst you're waiting on the latter end of the process. Luckily for you the NVC & London Embassy are quite speedy in comparison to USCIS, so it shouldn't be too long apart.

I understand this process is incredibly overwhelming when you first start to research it, I found this useful to break down the process: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition/step-2-begin-nvc-processing.html

Feel free to reach out - I have just completed this process and recently arrived to the US. I applied from the UK whilst my partner lived in the US, so the process may be a little different to you, but I am happy to help where I can

*do make sure to read up on ESTA's and what you can/can't do on them though. There's a whole thread in this forum of people discussing how their visits to the US went whilst awaiting their visa. You are much more likely to be scrutinized at the border with a pending immigrant visa.

For what it's worth, I used to teach English internationally. The students who were the best at English had found something they were passionate about and practiced a tonne. For example, some students liked to play games online where it was required you spoke to people, some loved English music, some loved documentaries or certain film genres. If there is something your partner is passionate about, maybe they could sign up to a local club and practice there! I think the key is that it shouldn't be 'work', just something positive to focus on in English.

I do understand that finessing grammar is slightly different, but these kinds of activities do help a lot, especially if you're able to speak to native level speakers (which I imagine will be very easy to do now!) Just my two cents anyway 

6 minutes ago, Mil123 said:

A year after the USCIS approval. We’re trying to time it right because of the 6 month expiry and because I wanted to get the IR1 instead of the CR1 (don’t like the idea of having to do all that paperwork and not be able to leave if there is an emergency). My job has a really long notice period so I’d need to move in August anyway. 

What do you mean not be able to leave on the CR1? My understanding was that was only for people doing AOS whilst they were waiting for CR1 approval. 

Additionally worth noting that I think the 6 months expiry is from the medical, not the interview (if that changes anything).

7 hours ago, pushbrk said:

The real purpose of the cover letter is to provide a table of contents.  No need for explanations or other text except to name you both and list what's in the package.  That's for a mailed filing.  No need for an online filing.

I would add though, that if your proof of relationship is very long (mine was 20+ pages) I would add a contents just for ease for whoever reviews your case. I added a contents for mine, my logic was to make it as easy as possible for someone to approve my case! It's not a necessity though.

On 9/1/2023 at 7:49 PM, beeldn12 said:

 

My fiance is also worried about having a history of depression. No self harm or hospitalizations or anything like that. His GP is horrendous and we've been battling to get an appointment to get this letter but I'm not optimistic. How was your experience without one? Is it just a conversation about how your mental health is currently?

 

Really appreciate any insight.

I didn't need an appointment to get this letter from my GP, I just called up and explained the situation. I got charged (I think around £25) for the letter though, but it was done in a couple of days. I would try this route, it may be quicker if they can do this! 

On 9/1/2023 at 9:03 PM, crudley said:

Apologies for the hijack, but does anyone have any insight into why the "Premium" option is seemingly missing/removed from the application form (v34)?

They got rid of this option when their website was hacked and they had to manually process everything. I have no idea if they are still manually processing or if it's all back up and running like normal, but perhaps they're still backlogged even if they are back processing things like usual.

Just in case anyone in the future has this problem and sees this thread - I had my interview yesterday and I had (stupidly) forgotten all about this. The person who collected my documents actually brought it up and clarified how long we had been married. He changed it there and then, and now I can see it has changed to CR1 on my CEAC page  

7 hours ago, bencdxb said:

Same here. Received a confirmation email when I submitted the actual visa application, but nothing when I submitted the civil docs or the financial docs. 

 

Only submitted everything on Tuesday, so figure I've got at least another week to wait to hear back once NVC have actually looked at all of the documents

I didn't receive anything either - I remember being anxious I hadn't done it right whilst waiting for it to come through. I got approved in just over 2 weeks so perhaps the system just doesn't send out emails to everyone? I wouldn't worry until the expected time frame has passed! 

p.s. I am really enjoying seeing all these approvals come in.... congratulations to everyone!!!!

14 hours ago, MarmiteC said:

Mine was very similar - it listed active conditions, medications and treatments.  Mine was also 3 sides of A4 long.  This sounds right.  Mine listed active conditions which aren't even active anymore and I discussed them with the Dr and it was fine. 

Thanks for the response! Sounds pretty much the same then! 

Hey all, I think I may be overthinking this but I am worried the summary my GP gave me is wrong as it looks different to the examples i have seen on here/seems to have a different name. However, it does seem to have the correct information. It is called "general practice summary" and includes allergies, medications, clinical observations, problems and issues, and treatments (which also details all the vaccines I have been given). It's 3 A4 pages long. Does this sound like the correct document or should I go back and speak to the GP again to get the correct patient summary? 

I haven't got experience, but this is what I intend to do: I saved everything I submitted (for I-130 & NVC) in folders on my laptop. I was just going to print all that out to make sure I have everything covered and ready to discuss if needed. Unlikely they'll ask for it but as you say, you never know! If there's an option for originals I am also bringing those, but a lot of my additional financial proof documents were PDFs originally anyway with no physical copy (such as payslips).

I sent off the I130 in Sept 2022, K3 was sent in Dec 2022. I made a mental note (and then later physical notes) of the times I saw people get their I130 approved faster when they applied for a K3. I looked at reddit/facebook/visajourney (I know, not exactly perfect places to get data, but all I had!). I learnt that it heavily depends where your I-130 is being processed at - from the top of my head those at Nebraska often heard back in a couple of months, California was closer to 4-6 months after sending off the K3. I can't remember the other ones, but I did notice that some locations didn't seem to process them at all. I got approved the same day as the K3 was rejected, around 5 months after I sent off for the K3 (I was processing at California, so about what my 'research' suggested)

So, in my opinion, I think the K3 helped me speed up the entire process. Unfortunately, the whole thing seems like luck. And just because it worked for me/some others doesn't necessarily mean it would work for someone else in my situation. I would say go ahead and file the K3 since it won't harm the visa process (and might even help!)

8 minutes ago, Crazy Cat said:

Not a good idea.  Travel plans should not be made until visa is in hand and has been checked for errors.  Good luck. 

I want to avoid paying for a last minute flight - they're pretty extortionate. I intend to book a flexible flight so I can change it if needs be. Thanks!

46 minutes ago, NasUK said:

I got mine exactly 2 days after my interview. So my interview was on Monday it got issued on Tuesday and on Thursday i had my passport in hand 

Great thank you! My interview lands on a Wednesday so I am thinking of booking my flight out the following wed-fri. Sounds like it should be fine based on what I am hearing!

On 7/14/2023 at 10:01 PM, Justme_13 said:

@NasUK thank you! My ceac shows as issued, had interview Wednesday so hoping for a Monday miracle. Can I ask when did you received the text from the courier? Congrats by the way!!!

Can you let us know when you receive it? I am booking flights soon (for the post interview move) so looking to get an idea of wait times!

15 hours ago, Chancy said:

 

Includes time waiting in line and possibly at secondary inspection.  The actual POE admission procedure for a CR1 (or K1) visa holder when it's their turn with the CBP officer, doesn't take long -- typically around 15 minutes.

 

Ah gotcha, thanks for confirming how long the process takes! 

10 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Typical advice here is to allow 3 hours minimum, 4 optimal.  If your departing flight is unduly delayed and you arranged for only a short connection layover, you'd spend your entire first flight worrying.

I never knew this! Definitely had once or twice where I have felt the time pinch.. thanks for the info! 

Sorry if this is hijacking of the thread - are these timelines given considering the amount of time waiting in line? Or the possibility of getting held up speaking to a border patrol agent? I will be moving over soon with a CR1 visa and I am aiming to book flights sooner rather than later. I usually fly through Dublin when I visit using my ESTA and I was planning on giving the same amount of time as usual (2 hours to allow for delays/lines). Is there a chance there will be other hold ups regarding the border/the visa?

4 hours ago, Frank Abbot said:

Received IL today (19th June),

interview date 25th August. 
 

Me too! DQ'ed 12th, interview date August 30th

53 minutes ago, VIVI C said:

Hi guys,

 I checked everywhere on the form and their email. no where says it need proof of current address. I am a bit concerned where it said we need to send it. thanks

It's not explicit but it does refer to 'proof of address'. I included it since every other website had mentioned it and I didn't want to deal with missing documents since the process was already so slow! 

22 hours ago, TJ&NP said:

Hi, So happy to finally be joining this thread as we just got DQ'ed today!  Wondering if it is more likely that we'll get an interview date in August or September.

I was DQ'ed a couple of days before you! I am hoping we'll make this months cut off (for an August interview) - judging by last months roll out it seems plausible!  (someone mentioned they were DQ'ed on the 18th of the month and got the IL by the end of the same month!)

Good luck & keep us updated

Hey all, submitted on the 27th May and DQ'ed today!