mrev

I believe your husband does not have to prove domicile if he lives in the U.S., so I wouldn't worry about that. On the police cert front, I also don't know of any reason they would give you trouble particularly since you were there less than 6 months. We did ultimately find passing mention of the citizen-but-not-resident requirement in one of the embassy's emails, so it was sort of on us that we missed that.

One other detail for @ak89; my husband's 221(g) paper also asked us for a W-2 to go with my affidavit of support, which I wasn't able to provide since I've been paid by an Irish entity since living here. I uploaded my latest Irish tax statement as well as 2023 IRS transcript to CEAC with a note explaining that I wasn't able to provide a W-2 and that seemed to be fine; so if they ask you for that and you can't provide it it may not be reason to panic

Whatever extra domicile evidence you come up with, I'd recommend uploading to CEAC before your interview; the officer had no interest in looking at any of the paper docs my spouse had brought with him.

@ak89 Really sorry to hear about your delays! I know you've been waiting a long time.

Just wanted to share our interview experience because you mentioned you're the petitioner and still in Ireland with your spouse. We were pretty confident going into the interview since we breezed through NVC, but they were quite choosy about our documents which led to a 221(g) refusal.

The things we messed up were:
- We didn't have a police certificate for a country my spouse is citizen of but has never lived in (this wasn't required by NVC rules, but apparently Dublin specifically requires it)
- I hadn't uploaded my passport to CEAC to accompany my financial docs (spouse had it in hand at the interview but they wouldn't accept it there)
- The officer didn't like my proof of domicile at all (again, even though NVC accepted it). Asked for more concrete evidence of our plans to move; specifically suggested a Bill of Lading from our shipping company. Specifics on that below.
 
He received a white 221(g) refusal slip on the day of the interview asking him to upload the missing docs to CEAC and courier them back to the embassy along with his passport. We had to wait for a while for the missing police cert to come, and in the meantime we went ahead with our plans to ship our household goods (which was obviously nerve wracking given the uncertainty of everything). The timeline was:
 
Mar 21: interview/refusal; CEAC status shows "Refused"
Apr 17: Resubmitted docs via CEAC and courier
Apr 19: Docs arrived at embassy
Apr 26, May 1: "Last updated" timestamp changes but remains Refused
May 2: Status changes to Administrative Processing
May 3: Status changes to Issued
May 7: Receive DPD tracking number from NVC
May 8: Pick up passport with visa from DPD
 
The whole thing was fairly awful but now it is over  I hope it is perfectly smooth for you!
 
--
 
Here are the specifics on our domicile submission; there's of course no guarantee that any doc(s) will or won't be enough for any given officer, we just did as much as we could. Both of these packets had cover letters explaining each doc and the overall situation.

Documents that were in my initial packet, accepted by NVC but rejected at interview:
- Valid U.S. drivers license
- U.S. bank and investment statements (officer mentioned there didn't seem to be a lot of activity on them)
- A letter from my employer indicating they were aware of my plans to move and ready to transfer me to U.S. payroll at any time (officer didn't like this because it wasn't on letterhead/didn't have a wet signature)
- My initial work permit for Ireland with a validity of 2 years (intended to show I always meant to move temporarily)
 
Documents I submitted as my second packet which led to approval:
- An updated employer letter on letterhead with wet signature
- Invoices and pickup receipt from the moving company (we weren't able to get a bill of lading)
- A signed and notarized affidavit from my mother indicating our plans to stay with her when we first arrive
- Vehicle registration and proof of insurance for my vehicle in the U.S. (I made a trip home to set this up)
- Transfer history from Wise showing my Ireland to US transfers from the last year
 

Glad to help! Unfortunate news is that he currently doesn't have a medical until April 2. The Mater wouldn't let him schedule it before we had the date. He's on the cancellation list of course, but I suspect we might get put in processing limbo for a while after the interview while we wait for the medical to be done and processed. Oh well, what's another few weeks 🙄

For anyone looking for a recent timeline for IR1, we just got scheduled:

DQ 26 December
Interview Letter from NVC on 7 Feb
Appointment is on 21 March

Just got our approval! Logged in, saw a new "Actively Reviewed", and the approval notice was under "Documents".
Hilariously the estimated time, which had been "taking longer than expected" since the summer, went back up to 4 months on the same day it was approved.
 
Didn't get any email about it, so definitely keep checking  

Sent 1/6/23, Approval 12/7/23. Texas service center. No K3 or expedite.

Hang on friends, the next step is within reach!
 
 
 

Just got our approval! Logged in, saw a new "Actively Reviewed", and the approval notice was under "Documents".
Hilariously the estimated time, which had been "taking longer than expected" since the summer, went back up to 4 months on the same day it was approved.
 
Didn't get any email about it, so definitely keep checking  

Sent 1/6/23, Approval 12/7/23. Texas service center. No K3 or expedite.

Hang on friends, the next step is within reach!
 
 
 

Just got our approval! Logged in, saw a new "Actively Reviewed", and the approval notice was under "Documents".
Hilariously the estimated time, which had been "taking longer than expected" since the summer, went back up to 4 months on the same day it was approved.
 
Didn't get any email about it, so definitely keep checking  

Sent 1/6/23, Approval 12/7/23. Texas service center. No K3 or expedite.

Hang on friends, the next step is within reach!
 
 
 

Just got our approval! Logged in, saw a new "Actively Reviewed", and the approval notice was under "Documents".
Hilariously the estimated time, which had been "taking longer than expected" since the summer, went back up to 4 months on the same day it was approved.
 
Didn't get any email about it, so definitely keep checking  

Sent 1/6/23, Approval 12/7/23. Texas service center. No K3 or expedite.

Hang on friends, the next step is within reach!
 
 
 

Yeah, same. Ours was at 7 months and dropped to 5 weeks last week, now 4 weeks.

This thread on Reddit's r/USCIS community suggests that there might be a legitimate operational change behind this, but there's no way to know for sure unless/until people actually start seeing faster-than-expected approvals.