rad1182

Hi all, I'm petitioning my wife who is a resident of the UAE. We're deep in the process (DQ in Nov 2023). Based on current timelines at the embassy in Abu Dhabi, she'll be getting her IL in about a month or two. However, we've recently decided to put her visa case on hold. She's just recently gotten a promotion at her job and I work remote so we decided it would be best for us right now to continue living in the UAE, at least for the next few years. After much research and a lot of great input from the visajourney community in this thread, we determined it's possible to hold the case at NVC. A couple of weeks ago I sent the following message via AskNVC: I am writing to request that my wife's immigration visa case be held at NVC for 1 year. Based on current timelines at the Abu Dhabi consulate, we should be receiving an Interview Letter (IL) very soon. However, due to personal and work-related reasons, my wife will not be able complete the process and move to the US within the next year. We respectfully request a one year hold at NVC and we'll be touch within the next year when we are ready to resume the process. Please let us know if additional information is required. Immediately after submitting, I received the auto-generated receipt confirmation email. A few days ago, I received the email response below. MY QUESTION: The email is rather vague and doesn't really confirm that the case is on hold. Has anyone successfully requested a hold/delay at NVC and can share your experience? Is there anywhere online I could check and confirm that it's on hold? I'm worried that she'll still get her IL in the next month or two and from what I've read, once the case goes to the consulate, it's very difficult to put on hold. Appreciate you all.

This is very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Thank you all for the responses. This is very helpful and informative. So all I have to do is log into CEAC and click on 'Ask NVC' which takes me to this link: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/ask-nvc.html And then I submit a request to delay the IL? Any specific wording I should use? Do I need to provide a justification? Or do I simply say, 'please delay assignment of IL, I'll be in touch again in 12 months'? Thanks again all. This community is invaluable.

Hi all. I’m trying to gather some info to make an informed decision. I’m the US citizen and we started my wife’s CR1 journey in Nov 2022. She was DQ’d in Nov 2023 and we’ve been waiting for an interview since (heck of a backlog at the Abu Dhabi embassy). Anyhow, my wife has an opportunity for a promotion at her current role in Abu Dhabi. I’m able to work remotely from anywhere in the world. And she can sponsor me so I can easily get residency in the UAE. If we decide that we instead want to live long-term in the UAE, what happens with her CR1 case? Does it just get cancelled? Ideally we’d like to keep the case open and just postpone or delay it if possible, leaving the opportunity to move to the US sometime in the future. We’re so far along in the process that I’d hate to have to start all over again in the future. Thanks in advance for your input.

Curious to hear from ex-cabin crew or from anyone who might have insight... My wife's CR1 visa is documentarily complete since Nov 2023. We're just waiting for an interview. She's Filipina but lives in the UAE where she works as cabin crew for one of the airlines. Her US crew visa has expired and she has an appointment to renew later this month at one of the embassies in the UAE. Any chance that they'll just combine both interviews and kill two birds with one stone? It would make sense specially if the consulate is so back-logged. Her crew visa renewal application did ask if she has any other pending visa... Thanks for any input.

This is super helpful, I greatly appreciate it. I'm not sure if it matters but she'll be doing her interview in the UAE where she has residency and not in Manila.

Hi all, sorry to bring this topic back up. We're now at the CEAC stage and my wife is applying for her NBI clearance. We never did submit a ROM. If she puts 'married' on the NBI application, will there be issues? Should she put 'single'? Tried searching the forum but I couldn't find any posts on this topic. Thanks!

Hello all, I'm a US citizen and my wife is Filipina. We met in Abu Dhabi where we both lived and worked, though I'm back permanently in the US now and she's still there. We got married in Abu Dhabi in September and filed the I-130 petition shortly after. We haven't yet submitted the ROM to the Philippines Embassy in Abu Dhabi and were going back and forth on if we should even do so. I've seen a lot of posts on here about the ROM but most of them are procedural questions. We'd like to know what the benefits of filing a ROM are? I know that without a ROM she won't be able to renew her Philippines passport under her married name. That's not a big deal for us. Are the benefits mostly on the Philippines side or will the US government care about a foreign ROM at all? She also owns a couple of properties in Manila which she'll be keeping. Will not having a ROM affect that at all? Thanks so much for you input.