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You can find those on the official site rather than using a third party site that may not be up to date - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-5-collect-financial-evidence-and-other-supporting-documents/step-7-collect-civil-documents.html

6 months notice here too but I just negotiated it down. Most companies wouldn’t hold you to 6 months if they know you’re moving abroad but even if yet do you still have time. You don’t have to move within the 6 months, only enter the US - so if you need to return to the UK for a month or two to tie things up before moving, that’s fine too.

I don’t remember the questions, but it’s just more detailed about each thing that’s on the main questionnaire. Do you have a specific thing you’re concerned about? If so let us know what it is and we can see if we recall what questions are asked about it.

From submitting the DS-260 to actually having a visa in hand via London is likely to be around 3-4 months anyway, so plenty of time to sell a car etc. And as said above, it's not 6 months from the DS-260 being approved to enter the US, it's 6 months from the medical (which will be 3 months ish after the DS-260).

Unfortunately there’s nothing to do other than wait. You’ve not given details of your brothers case - which family member is sponsoring him?

You’ve posted this in the section for permanent residents bringing family members to the US so just checking - you are a citizen?

Are you single or married? Who are you applying for, when did you apply and which country are they from?

But it does make a difference if the parents petition him as well as suggested.

You can add yourself - just copy and paste the table and add yourself in.

Looks like this month's batch went out today from the CR1 thread, hope we have some EB applicants with them!

Canadian immigration, not US. I'm afraid I have no idea on the US process, I simply know how frustrating and lengthy Pakistani background checks can be from an immigration officer's point of view. What I would say is that March 2023 to now wouldn't be unusual at all, background checks can take years unfortunately. Bureaucracy in Pakistan is painfully slow. So I really woudn't worry, as tough as it is you just need to wait and hope that you get a positive result once it's all done. I hope you get good news very soon.

You've been waiting for them to schedule it, or you're trying to schedule it yourself? Different visas have different ways of doing it, what are you applying for?

Thank you. It was a lot of waiting around, but the actual interview itself was incredibly quick and easy - only two questions. We had our passports back last Thursday so only 4 days after the interview, and we leave for Boston on Saturday. 😁🇺🇸

If you scroll up you'll find lots of timescales, but if you were DQ'ed today I'd expect you to receive an IL in August's batch (they're usually only sent out once a month), for an interview in October, as a very rough guide. It certainly won't be in a months time so enjoy your holiday and good luck.

As mentioned earlier, it could be 6 months if everything goes smoothly, but that is about as quick as it will get going on current processing times. Mine was 5.5 months via London which has no backlog, but things have slowed down at NVC a bit since then though, it’s now taking 6 weeks for Welcome Letters to be sent (was 2 weeks when I applied). My I-140 was submitted on 8th February, and I got my visa on 20th July. So assume 2 /3 weeks for I-140 if you don’t get an RFE. Then add on a week or two for the case to be sent to NVC. As said above, current processing time is 6 weeks for case creation and for you to be sent a Welcome Letter. If you pay the fees straight away once you have that then that’s a week or so for them to clear before you can complete the DS-260 and submit your docs. 3-4 weeks for becoming Documentarily Qualified (assuming no RFI), you have to add on a week or so to the quoted processing times as you have to mail your documents as an EB applicant. So that’s around 4 months in total if you do everything straight away and don’t get any RFI’s/RFE’s. Then it’s just waiting for your interview date, medical and interview, if you’re lucky that could be 2-3 months. HTH.

Assume you mean further retrogression? As your PD isn’t current as of 1st August anyway? Nobody knows unfortunately, all you can do is keep checking the Visa Bulletin and hope your date becomes current at some point next year. Good luck.

It could be less, but even the quickest consulate would be approx 6 months from approval to interview date. Is AOS not an option?

I I think (looking at his previous posts) he just means he really doesn't like the country.

OK, fair enough, it's the first time it's retrogressed in years though (and by far more than in 2020), so I'd definitely keep an eye on it personally. But once you're approved figure maybe 3 months to get documents approved at the NVC stage, and then hopefully no more than 6 months for an interview from then - but again, this may change depending on the queue at the time. Have you applied using Premium Processing?

I don't think Germany has that much of a backlog for an interview, but the key thing will be watching the Visa Bulletin to see if there's actually a visa available for you, at the moment only those who applied before May 2020 have a visa available to them, so quite the wait. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2023/visa-bulletin-for-august-2023.html So once you've got the I-140 approved and know your Priority Date, you can keep an eye on the VB to give you an idea. Good luck.

This sets the process out step by step - 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#:~:text=After USCIS approves your petition,e-mail or physical mail. You can’t pay the fees until you get your Welcome Letter (different from the I-130 approval), so expect that in just over a month unless processing times speed up again. Once you’ve got that you pay the fees, wait another few days for those to clear, and then submit docs and the DS-260. Then hope those are approved in a couple of weeks and sit and wait for an interview letter - the time for that will depend on the queue at your consulate. Good luck.

Other way round, case review is only about 2 weeks, the June date is for case creation.

That is a very good point! Hadn't thought of that, I feel a bit less guilty now. 😁

Thank you, that's a very comprehensive response…..just need to look at it tomorrow when I'm not tired and try and work it all out! 😂

Because if immigration officers responded to every inquiry, that would add a lot of time to everybody else's cases, there just isn't the resources for that usually. If they did answer you, I bet they'd just say they're waiting for something from a third party, because that's what 95% of the time is for background checks, whoever is dealing with your case will be sitting around waiting for a response from other agencies/companies/people that are incredibly slow. I know it's utterly frustrating, but you can't compare somebody that got a visitor visa in a few days to somebody applying for an immigrant visa, the background checks for an immigrant visa will be much more detailed unfortunately. You have my sympathy, I can't imagine how tough it is for you to have waited 4 years and still not have an answer, it is appalling. But it's equally frustrating for those working at the consulate I'm sure, please don't blame them for others ineptitude. Hopefully as time goes on and electronic records become easier to access, and less paper records, it will get easier for anybody from a similar country. I really hope you get some good news very soon. Best of luck to you.