pandora

I dont think it matters who calls the DOS as long as you have all the correct information ( and dont forget there in washington so 5 hours behind us and there office hours are 8.30 to 5pm i think) - i havent rung them as i;m on BT and would prolly cost more than the extortion UK, calls can take over 20 minuets with being on hold

wow your about 3 miles away from me in that, I live in Billesely by the common.

From my other post - i kinda get the feeling the Consulate Officers that do K-1 are on there hols atm as there dont seem to be any movement of stuff and no interviews between the 30th and 13th August, but hope I am wrong

If you do manage to get your LND number when ringing the DOS you can find sample packet 3's here that you can complete in the meantime.

g'morning!

morning or should i say afternoon

From what i have seen on here - you tend to get better and more information by the USC ringing the DOS number and hanging on the phone for a while to talk to a person.

The UK numbers - cant give any information and tend to only give you an email address to correspond with

The Department of State is a big organization with a lot of stuff going on. You can read about it here.

I will leave it for others to fill in more about the organization. I am creating this page simply to let you know that you can check your case status by calling the DOS:

Dial 202-663-1225 Then press 1 and then 0 for an operator. Have your case number ready.

The operator should be able to tell you where your case is at, whether your packet 3 has been sent out to you and whether you have an interview date scheduled.

Copied from the vjwiki

Hope that helps

on a side note - which part of b'ham are you from

congratulation's and good luck with the rest of your journey

well i hope its not that long as they have mine and my daughters passports and could of gone and visited my aunt in spain instead of being sat here waiting

Hmmm seems strange - no interviews between 31st july and 14 august and no responses to my email. I kinda get the feeling london peeps went on holiday for 2 weeks.

i maybe wrong but seems uncannily quiet and the Guy at the embassy is usually very prompt at responding to my emails.

someone tell me i am imagining things please

yes was very confusing - but is mainly due to there not being sufficient income shown on the I-134 for previous tax year, so they need to gather the evidence via another form.

ok update on medical which was originally done on 20th June - had to go back give more blood on 30th June as they needed to retest it ( had the start of a cold when first was taken ).

so 2nd sample was sent off - they redid the first test again as there wasnt enough sample for what should of be the second test. They had the results and sat on them for a week. when I rang to see what was going on i was adivsed that they had done the wrong test on the second sample but was confident there was enough left from the 1st sample ( made me wonder why i had to go give a second sample). Found this out on a Friday and was told the test woudl be done on the Monday. Rang back on the Wednesday to see if it had been done and if they had results. Was advised at this stage that this particular test is only carried out on a thursday

At this point i was livid and made a formal complaint to the HPA ( there the people the sample is sent off to ).

finally on Friday 25th July the doctor rang to say they had the results back and they were fine. So worried for a month that there was something wrong with me

Got a letter of apology from the HPA where they will revise some of there practises to ensure that this doesnt happen again.

So the embassy finally got my medical results on Tuesday 29th July so waiting on them to process it.

I was just wondering, is booking the Medical for the day before the interview okay timing? , I figured instead of making 2 seperate trips up to London from Scotland I could travel there for the medical, stay at a hotel and go to the interview the next day.

should be fine - but visa would be subject to medical and they would issue it 3-5 days after receiving the medical results.

Hope this helps.

DOS = Department of State

Dial 202-663-1225 Then press 1 and then 0 for an operator. Have your case number ready. <-- from the wiki on here

and my thoughts exactly - if we can get through this anything else will seem small in comparison

Congrats to those who have had interviews and to those that have moved.

Am still sorting my paperwork (bleh) and have a formal apology from the HPA.gov over the mess they made with my bloodtest <-- thats Just one of many things that could go wrong that have done ( lol )

Well I decided that i was gonna be stubborn and try and see the process through to the end - cause i am hopeless at starting something and not being able to finish it - guess i am like a dog with a bone now which is kinda ironic as i am now stuck waiting as they have my passport and information and seem to have gone on holiday for 2 weeks from lookin at the interview dates in August.

Anyways Hello and congrats people

Hiya,

Am not sure how long I had various different problems with mine had to do I-864 got that sorted to find out there were issues with my blood test - long story which included a wrong blood test, formal complaint and letter of apology from the HPA, but additional stuff got there last Tuesday and not heard anything yet, my OH rang DOS yesterday and medical is now logged and in processing. Have read in places on here that its taken upto 2 weeks so hopefully in the next week or so.

Seems you get better information from the DOS than the UK extortion line, so you could ask you SO to give them and ring and find out what the status is

Sorry it doesn't help much - but I know how you feel.

Hope you hear something soon

Oh geez, you've gotten some confusing information here. The I-864 is for immigrant visas, not non-immigrant visas like the K1, and assets need to be five times the income when it's a joint sponsor. But you seem like you may already know that. Just wanted to make it clear for anyone else reading.

I'm sorry I can't help with your original question but wanted to ask about the equity in your fiance's house. If it's just the two of you and the equity in his house is more than $52,500 USD (about 26,500 GBP), then you don't have to wait for the house to sell.

Self sponsor for the K1, they only need to see a few thousand.

Ok I know that there is a lot of talk between the I-134 and the I-864 and not wanting to seem to be pedantic but having gone through this with London for the last four weeks and there insistence that the I-864 is completed . I feel that is the best advice that the form should be looked at and completed as a backup for the interview. We ended up doing a combination of my OH's tax return for last year and both our savings. I asked the embassy via email about self sponsoring as people on here had mentioned it and was again told we needed to complete the I-864.

I am not sure if London have changed of there requirements or procedures recently but as my OH's tax return was insufficient for last year that was what we were asked to provide over and over again, whether or not that is right of the embassy to do that - i dont know. But that was my experience of what the Embassy are requesting in July 2008.

Personally i would suggest you cover your bases and do both forms as the I-864 gives you an area to add your spouses equity and combine it with your own.

Kindest Regards

I would suggest you carefully read the I-864 Especially part 6 as the london embassy don't seem to be very good at telling what is wrong with it and may just ask again for joint sponsor ( i have daily to and from emails to prove that)

good luck and hope you manage to resolve things.

Regards

Pandora

Reposting from embassy forum...I think I need UK specific advice.....

I'm the USC, petitioning for my fiance who is in the UK. I do not work, but my fiance has substantial assets tied up in his house. It's up for sale and has not sold yet (thank you UK housing market), so therefore we are asking my parents to co-sponsor for the I-134. We don't need them for the AOS because by then we're hoping my fiance's house will be sold and he will be able to self sponsor for AOS. My parents are retired with little income and are planning to use their farm's value as the asset on the I-134. (The value of the farm far surpasses the I-864's requirement, and has no mortgage.)

Question is, do my parents need to get an appraisal for the farm or is a mere statement of its value sufficient evidence? Since this is a huge favor on their part (they don't want the govt knowing their assets!) I really hesitate to ask them to get an appraisal ($400) if one's not necessary. (I know if would be necessary if we were to use them for the I-864).

Does anyone have any suggestions or additional input? This is so confusing. Seems this entire process is designed for a wealthy USC and poor beneficiary. Seems to be little provision for the beneficiary to be the one with the assets!

Also, if anyone sees a problem with this logic, let me know. I'd rather have this figured out BEFORE we get to the interview, LOL!

Hi i recently went through something similar due to my OH being at uni last year and not having sufficient income on his tax return. When i sold my house back in April I did it at a lower price with a rent back option as with after all the charges and fees there wasn't too much of a loss of equity. So that may be an alternative for your OH to sell his house, prolly not the best but may get a quicker sale, as the housing market seems dead her at the moment with prices dropping.

With regards to the co-sponsor your family would have to complete the I-864 form which details income and assets this would need to be 125% above the poverty level for assets shown for the K1 they need to be 3 times the difference between income and assets for the 125% of poverty level.

EG income of $10,000 poverty level of $16,500 difference of 6,500 would therefore have to show at least $19,500 in assets ( 3 x 6,500)

Hope this helps.

Sorry forgot to add that evidence is needed to support claims of assets, eg bank statements etc

If the biological father is on the birth certificate you will need a notarised letter from the father, if you are unable to get that or are no longer in contact with him you may have to get a order from the court giving you permission. They will ask you for evidence that you are able to take your child out of the country. Fortunately for me my Ex singed a letter and got it notarised for me cost £20 for the notarising.

I'm not sure that parental responsibility comes into play as that is a UK law and not a USA.

hope this helps - there are some older threads on here regarding the subject

Pandora. Hun I’m so sorry things didn’t go as well as expected yesterday. Just under a week isn’t a bad turn around for the bloods, I believe it takes them 2-3 days to get the results so I would say if you haven’t heard anything by Friday then you are definitely good to go. They aren’t going to send any bad results to the embassy for them to tell you they will call you if there is a problem. As for the co-sponsor issue, I think Kim summed it up brilliantly. It must be so hard to go from being self sufficient and full independent to being so dependant on somebody else but you are doing it for all the right reasons. As for being ignored, I’m sorry that you feel that way. I consider everyone here my big, happy VJ family, there are no entry requirements to this club. We talk a lot of rubbish in here to pass the time, don’t mistake that as private conversation, everyone is welcome to join in and to be honest I wish they would - I’m bored of Mummy Nichole and Kim!! (Kidding, I love you guys) Sending you lots of good vibes and big hugs

Bex - i wish it was only a week had my first blood test on 20th June and the second on 30 june received letter and phone call today to say the earliest they would get the results are the 16th. With regards to to co-sponsorship my So's parents have said no and said they would seek legal advice from a immigration lawyer, but dont see the point as there will always be some form of resentment eg from them for being asked and from us for there reluctance. It seems that the easier way is to give up on this and apply for a UK fiance visa and my SO move here.

I Just feel like giving up n crawling under a rock somewhere

Already had to eat humble pie and withdraw my resignation - not sure how to tell the rest of my family yet

Why didn't you self sponsor?

not sure that i can as i will not have a job when i move so no income until i get EAD and employment, and only have so much in savings

Sorry to hear about this.

This is a pretty good site. http://talk.uk-yankee.com/

Good luck with everything.

Thanks for the link - Just wish it hadnt come to this - he hey ho thats how life goes sometimes

Following my interview yesterday my SO needs a sponsor as his tax return for last year was insufficient even though this year he has already exceeded the threshold. Have spoken to his parents who initially said no and had decided to legal advice from a immigration lawer before they make a decision. To be honest - if they wanted to do it they would of said yes to start with so am upset that were having to try and persuade them to complete the form, which for me is degrading as never had to ask anyone for support since I left home at 16 ( damn long time ago that was) and have no intention of asking for support

So we have decided that as I earn more a good salary and there are less aggravations to the process that we will abandon this one and he will apply for a UK fiance visa which may seem as it costs more but considering we have already spent hmm 455 540 70 262 ( $1372) on the American one which seems to have been a complete waste of money on our behalf, its not that expensive.

Anyway will get to my point are there any good sites for information on UK Fiance visas that people know of.

many thanks

bleh am grumpy atm

feel bad pasting this at this point - had interview today didnt go well need to get a joint sponsor - had medical on 20th june and had to go back for a second blood test and results wont be back till the 14th and that worries me sick on why it is takin so long.

I have never been dependant on anyone ever in my life and now i have to ask people that i hardly know to agree to sign an affidavit of support- i feel demeaned - guess i was brought up to be a proud gurl.

There is always something that upsets the apple cart and guess mine needs a new cart or does it need new apples?

but than again dunno why i am posting here as i read comment and post, get ignored or people quote my comments as being from someone else - guess not part of the clique that formed early on

ignore me am grumpy

congratulations and good luck

Congratulations

We're approved! Just received the e-mail. Good luck to the rest of you still waiting. I know it's tough but keep thinking positive thoughts.

congratulations

Barry had his interview this morning and was approved! His appointment was for 8:30 and by 4:45 he was calling me with the news. They only asked for his police certificate, birth certificate, and I-134, they looked at pay stubs and letter from employer which they returned...that's it.

Congrats