pljm02

Wow such a great info! Really appreciated!!! Sometimes we get so stressed with so much info regarding the visa… that is so overwhelming Thanks a ton really!!! ❤️

How I shipped my personal belongings from UK to US
 
Part 0.    Introduction
 
In this topic, I'm describing my experience with shipping 11 boxes with all my “personal effects” by air from the UK to the USA as I was relocating on K1 visa. I hope this information may be helpful for those who are considering doing something similar.
 
Short resume: 
My boxes were picked up from my UK apartment on Nov 11. The boxes left the UK on Nov 15 (delay that I requested to travel to the US myself first) and were delivered to my US house on Nov 19. The shipping itself took 5 calendar days, including customs clearance.  I used Transglobal Express (https://www.transglobalexpress.co.uk/) for this door-to-door service, they seem to have piggybacked UPS and then DHL services for this shipment.  The entire project cost me £749.16 that I paid to Transglobal during booking, and I did not pay any extra unexpected costs to any of the parties at any time.  
 
I have divided this thread into a few posts:
 
Part 0.    Introduction
Part 1.    Packing materials that I used (with links to Amazon.co.uk)
Part 2.    Packing and sealing boxes (with pictures)
Part 3.    Labeling
Part 4.    What items CANNOT be put in the boxes due to air transportation or US customs rules
Part 5.    Shipping companies quotes
Part 6.    Insurance
Part 7.    US customs paperwork
Part 8.    Shipping process step by step
 
 
Just a couple preliminary comments:
First of all, I was leaving the UK for good, I don’t have any friends or relatives that I could leave my things with and expect them to travel to my new US location and bring my things in suitcases. So I had to make sure that I clear my flat entirely: sell/give away everything I don’t need and ship to the US everything that I do need. Some people say “Shipping is expensive, c’mon, just leave everything behind, you will buy new things in the US, start fresh”. Well, I was curious and actually put every single item in an Excel spreadsheet and specified approximate value of it. When I summed everything up, my 11 boxes contents appeared to be worth £16K while I only paid £750 for shipping them to the US. I think it’s a pretty good deal. Note that “personal effects” cannot arrive earlier than the owner crosses the US border, or the shipment won’t clear customs. My travel date was Nov 16, 2019, and the shipping by air via DHL would just take 1-2 work days so I had to arrange the pickup on Nov 15, 2019 to make sure the boxes do not arrive earlier than myself. At the same time, there was only me who could hand them over to the carrier, so I had to have them picked up right before I leave for the US. It was a bit of a quest. Shipping by sea takes longer so it may be easier to arrange the arrival of boxes after you get to the US yourself.

Hi @Bethliza,
 
We are applying for a IR1 visa.
We got DQ'd on Oct 11, 2023. We received the interview letter by email on Nov 29, 2023. They scheduled our interview for Jan 16, 2024.
 
Hope that helps. Good luck with the journey.

We got our case approved yesterday! We found out from the "Documents" section.
PD 11/05/2022. NOA1 11/05/2022 from Nebraska SC. NOA2 09/21/2023 from Texas SC.
Hope the best to everyone!

Thanks @Izzymael. I can't relate to that. On CR1, you pay the fees on the NVC stage.
Hope you get dates very soon.
 
Thank you!

Hello all,
 
Our I-130 was approved on 9/29/23, after we originally filed online on 11/14/22.  The NOA1 notice was generated by Texas SC but the Approval notice (NOA2) was from Nebraska (I’ve updated my timeline accordingly). 
 
As with a few of the more recent posts, I didn’t receive any email update but was “periodically” checking the online portal (aka, every day! Ha!), and spotted the approval notice under the “documents” tab.  Case status was also updated to “case is being actively reviewed by USCIS” on Sept 29, 2023, so I assume they’ve updated the “status” tab on the same day as posting the approval notice. 
 
Seems like I-130 processing is generally speeding up / all the Service Centers seem to be on roughly the same timeline, although the NVC process seems to be taking a little longer at the moment.  At least step 1 is now complete.
 
Best of luck all - hopefully not too long to wait for the majority of the Nov 2022 filers!

Congratulations! We got the same message. Now waiting for the NVC welcome letter.
They should contact you by e-mail or physical mail (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).
Though most references I have, they got an email.
 

We got our case approved yesterday! We found out from the "Documents" section.
PD 11/05/2022. NOA1 11/05/2022 from Nebraska SC. NOA2 09/21/2023 from Texas SC.
Hope the best to everyone!

Same here. Our estimate went from 3  months to taking longer than expected since April.
PD 05-NOV-2022
NOA1 05-NOV-2022
 
Still waiting 

We got our case approved yesterday! We found out from the "Documents" section.
PD 11/05/2022. NOA1 11/05/2022 from Nebraska SC. NOA2 09/21/2023 from Texas SC.
Hope the best to everyone!

Hi All. I just want to share an update with you my fellow Nov 2022 filers. 
Our I-130 just got approved today, Sep 20, 2023. We filed on Nov 2, 2022. 
On our USCIS account's homepage, it said it was being actively reviewed as of Sep 23 and that the estimated time is still 2 months. But when I looked under the "Documents" tab, that's where I found the I-130 approval notice. 
 
It feels so good to finally get this news. I hope you guys get the good news soon too, if you haven't yet. 
Good luck to us all!

Hey everyone,

Just filed I-130 and I-130a online and we got a notification of receipt on USCIS that I believe is the NOA 1. Now starts the long wait for NOA2. I hope it's not too long but I know that realistically we're looking at a wait for about a year. Fortunately we're lucky and we've been living together (out of the US) since we've been married, so we won't have to do long distance anymore. 
 
It looks like our case was sent to Nebraska which I hear is a fast one? 

I noticed that there isn't a thread for Nov 2022 filers yet so I figured this one could be it. Stressing out Waiting is more fun when it's done with others who are in the same boat