appleblossom

Blimey. $23k is utterly ridiculous for what is presumably a fairly low wage job? And I'm amazed that it's not illegal to charge the employee for that service rather than the employer. Pretty sure it is here in MA.

Why are you confused? That email gives you exact instructions to follow. We had to do the same when sending our documents in for our non-immigrant visa (had our interview waived). Forget phoning the call centre, it'll be staffed by people who don't know the details, and there's no need to anyway as the process is laid out for you. You need to go there in person with your documents as instructed. When you go you'll find they'll be well used to sending documents to the consulate, they'll put it in an envelope for you and send it on its way.

Hang on, is this for sending a document rather than for passport return? That's different then, the only approved service for passport return is DX, so that's how your passport will come back to you with the visa in it (and how those sending passports in for visa issuance have to send them). But if you're sending a document they've requested then you just need to sort your own courier out, any will do - DHL, Fedex etc. And most will collect from your house or have a local drop off point.

Ah, I see, that makes sense now. Where did you find this list of couriers? I thought DX was the only option? I've looked through all of my correspondence and none of the DX details have anything about this 'Information Services Consulting' on them, I think that may be a separate company. But I paid online using the consulate website so didn't get an invoice from them at any point.

What do you mean 'previous courier'? Who are 'Information Services Consulting Ltd', what do they have to do with it? And when you say Italian office, where does Italy come in to it? If you can clarify what you've done and what you're trying to do, then somebody can try and help.

Karachi doesn't do immigrant visas. https://pk.usembassy.gov/immigrant-visas/#:~:text=Immigrant visas to the United,the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.

Make sure the letter says that you won't be expected to work remotely - most employers won't give that much time off so I'd get him/her to clarify that too.

Phone number and online chat on the web page?? https://www.dxdelivery.com/help-support https://www.dxdelivery.com/your-dx/us-embassy-passport-applications

3 months is about the norm, London is very quick. But unless I'm missing something you'd have to submit the I-130 first, then wait the year or so for that to be approved before starting the NVC/consular side of things? So you're looking at at least 15 months extra, doesn't seem to make much sense to me if you're nearly there with the K1. Good luck whatever you decide.

4-6 weeks?! That’s ridiculous, mine was emailed to me within minutes of asking and was a tiny file. Sounds to me like she thinks you want your entire medical record rather than the summary (which should be a 2-4 page PDF!). And as said above it’s a standard summary you have access to if your GP isn’t understanding.

Standard message. You’re CR1? So there is no Priority Date for your category.

You need to look at the Visa Bulletin, as you can see from that those who applied almost 4 years ago now have a visa available to them - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2024/visa-bulletin-for-march-2024.html Their ages are important, any danger of them aging out in to F2B category in the next few years? As you can see, that has a much longer wait. As @Boiler said, if you have a spouse that could petition them instead that would be much quicker.

End of the year as a rough guide, it’s about 8 months from DQ to IL it seems.

It’s valid for a year from entry, as said above. The date is on the stamp. Look again at the wording on the visa - "UPON ENDORSEMENT SERVES AS TEMPORARY I-551 EVIDENCING PERMANENT RESIDENCE FOR 1 YEAR"

The response on your thread last week says you need to schedule it yourself.

You need to select 'non citizen' to be given the list for him. https://www.ssa.gov/ssnumber/ss5doc.htm

$13k?!? Blimey, that's ridiculous, I hope it's a proper immigration lawyer for that price and not a dodgy 'visa agency'. And as Boiler said, why are you paying? The employer should be. If you are eligible for EB3 then it would mean you'd get a visa much sooner, so may be worth going through it all again. Your employer should be able to sort it for you if so - they'll presumably be much happier with you being able to start work sooner anyway. The woman from Thailand is just expecting too much too soon, even the quickest consulates are 2-3 months from DQ to interview date. And it depends on her visa category of course, it may not be current yet. The only bad thing that I can think of if you did have your H2B refused is that you may struggle to visit the US as a tourist in the future. Often a visa refusal can impact a VWP or B visa application. It shouldn't impact your IV app at all.

Well, let us know what the lawyer says. Good luck.

Likely to be much longer than 2 years IMO. They've already said there will be 'very little to no forward movement' in the coming months for employment categories. Is there any way you could qualify for EB3 instead? Which category is the woman you know in? If her PD is current then it must be a country with a long interview wait (Pakistan, Canada, Nigeria etc). All you can do is apply for the non-immigrant visa, it's worth a try. Good luck.

EB1A or EB2 NIW are the self sponsored employment based categories, or EB5 for investment, but that's a huge amount of money ($1.8M IRRC).

Nope. If she's resident elsewhere, the consulate will usually accept the case.Too soon to worry about details like that anyway - if she has no other route other than through you, who knows where she'll be living in a few decades anyway. Where is she from?

Yes, just chucking out suggestions for her to look at, they'll need to work out themselves what she may be eligible for (if anything) and then perhaps speak to a lawyer to confirm.

OK, so kids won't be getting visas through you/your Mom then, they'll have aged out either way. If she has her own business then L1, or E2 maybe? Depends on if she could invest in a business in the US and how many staff she has though, but worth looking at. You don't need to do fingerprints or biometrics at all, you're the petitioner.

If the check has been cashed, it's definitely been accepted and received.

It will say on it on the visa. "UPON ENDORSEMENT SERVES AS TEMPORARY I-551 EVIDENCING PERMANENT RESIDENCE FOR 1 YEAR". Her stamp is the endorsement, so that's her temp green card, good for a year.