hplusj

44 minutes ago, OldUser said:

I wouldn't think a TV company ban is major loss, at least for me.

 

$10 a year doesn't seem like an amount that would cause a company to spend money and time to fight for...

 

I'm curious to know what Saffers would say, but I'm 99% sure cancelling or maintaining TV license was not on their mind when moving to the US 🙂

 

After all, I'd think she'll be able to challenge any issue in the future showing stamps in passport and other proof she no longer resided in South Africa.

 

 

It's probably best to avoid legal trouble and credit score damage, if possible.  I'm curious to see what others have done.

My fiance is also male, just FYI lol

So my fiance is preparing to sell his goods and pack up the essentials to move to the US, and the one string creating any amount of concern is the SABC tv license.   

In South Africa, any resident in possession of a television has to pay the government a little over 200 ZAR a year for the privilege.  Although a pittance, if left unchecked there are horror stories of nonpayment schedules affecting credit and adding you to a blacklist.  The SABC attests that it is very easy to cancel the license and one needs only to submit an affidavit attesting to you no longer owning a TV, or that you've immigrated to another country.  However, depending on the conditions that make you exempt, the varied means of documenting that the license doesn't apply to you is ridiculously complex, and seems to be ignored--unsurprisingly.

So, I'd love to hear from Saffers who have immigrated to the US.  Did you successfully cancel your license?  Have you heard the nightmare scenarios, and just continue to pay the ZA government from abroad just to avoid the headache?  Would love to hear what everyone else has done, to mitigate this red-tape nonsense.

https://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadcasting/542491-how-to-cancel-your-tv-licence-4.html

Just an update, NVC sent our case to the consulate in Johannesburg today.  Status is now in transit and we got the K1-FTP.

I feel completely drained after that experience, but am very glad to see some movement again.

Same here, took a total of 17 weeks (4 months, approx 120 days) and an additional NOA2 issued to us.  But it finally went today.

Would it kill people to show a little kindness or did that pinned topic become null and void eight years ago

If you don't have anything productive to contribute, please leave us alone.

Just close the thread, mods, it's not even worth it anymore to ask a damn thing.

5 hours ago, pushbrk said:

Just a note that your "State Senator" cannot be of assistance.  You want the assistance of a member of the US Senator FROM your State's staff.  US Senator, not State Senator.

It was an honest mistake and a matter of semantics, and I would really appreciate you not picking apart my attempts to work on my case when this is a very painful experience for us.  What purpose does it serve?

I also didn't petition a minor league baseball team for assistance.  Should I clarify that as well, in case people think I'm speaking about a different kind of senator?

2 minutes ago, Gary Rich said:

To be transparent.. I wrote letters to Homeland Security, the Department of State, and even the White House..(believe it or not.. it worked for me) (Thank you for writing to President Biden about your visa inquiry.  Your letter was forwarded to the Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs for a reply.  We apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiry.  Please open the attached document for our response to your visa inquiry.) 2 days later I had  my interview date

Great info, thank you.  If I could DM you, maybe I can get some links as to where you sent your letters.  Were they online forms or snail mail? 

I'll pop in your messages, thanks

1 minute ago, SalishSea said:

NVC wait times are much longer than they were years back.   Maybe that’s the trade off for the current fast petition approval times?   
 

Doesn't seem to be universally applied, even within the same embassy.

I'd be content if K1s going to the same embassy were being taken in order.  This is very strange.

Just now, SalishSea said:

Why not just provide them with documentation?   If you have a valid reason to expedite, you should have no problem providing evidence.

We don't have a life or death situation... we have just been seated at NVC for four months with other K1s passing us, going to the same embassy.

If there's an issue with our case being passed up, we want to know or at least put some pressure on NVC to follow through.

2 minutes ago, SalishSea said:

US senators and reps have assistants who can make inquiries on behalf of their constituents, to federal agencies.   They usually have a link on their website, often with a permission form that you sign.

 

It isn’t a magic fix.   They often get the same info available to you, like “this case is in administrative processing due to background checks.”  Etc.

Yeah we've been speaking with the assistant to my senator, who is asking for documentation that proves we need the case expedited.

We just want an inquiry.  Do we try another rep?

Hi everyone:

I'm trying to get my state senator's help with our case being stuck at NVC but I keep being told 'only expedites and only in life or death situations'. 

We just want some assistance in investigating reasons for the delay.  Has anyone talked to their state/district reps to get assistance other than an expedite, or even an expedite OTHER than a medical emergency?  How did you go about it?

Thank you so much for your advice.

13 hours ago, hplusj said:

I am hoping NVCResearch proves different.

Nope, it did not.

To Whom it Concerns:

In order to make sure your private information remains protected, please resubmit your inquiry and any attachments using the AskNVC form only. You can find it at https://nvc.state.gov/inquiry.

You must provide privacy information to receive case specific information. Please limit your inquiry to one case per submission.

If you already submitted this inquiry on the AskNVC form or your issue has been resolved, please disregard these instructions.

Thank you.

Regards,

Ellen | Inquiry Management

Department of State CA/VO/DO/NVC

LDRM | DTSV | Contractor

---

Another contractor.  Probably didn't even read it.

I have escalated this situation to the office of my senator.  Fingers crossed.

41 minutes ago, nautilus808 said:

The letter they sent you Looks like a copy paste from covid days

It totally does, and it certainly makes me question what kind of hierarchal team structure they have over there.  Like, there is no way the NVC director actually sent this.  And, as we all know who've sent inquiries via the site, all replies are a template issued by contractors who handle the workload.  Nothing is actually addressed with consideration to the specifics of any case.

I am hoping NVCResearch proves different.

1 hour ago, nautilus808 said:

When you received a second NOA2, did you also get a paper letter in the mail?

Well I got the NOA2, that's what I received.  The dates were adjusted to a new four month window, beginning in May instead of March.

Additionally, about a week later I got this email:

To whom it concerns:

This notice is to inform you that NVC is currently holding your approved Form I-129F (Petition for Alien Fiance(e)), and it has been at least 60 days since we received it from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS). Your case number is JHNxxxxxxxxxx.

Where local conditions and restrictions allow, some embassies and consulates have resumed processing a limited visa workload, including K-1 nonimmigrant visa applications. For embassies and consulates that were unable to resume processing their visa workload, NVC is holding your approved Form I-129F. We cannot predict when routine visa services will resume, and we cannot guarantee or predict when your case will be sent to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate General in Johannesburg. When NVC does forward your case, you will receive another notification.

Approved Forms I-129F have a 120-day expiration date from the date of approval by USCIS. Once your designated embassy or consulate resumes normal operations, a consular officer will revalidate your petition for another 120 days. You do not need to take any action for this revalidation to happen, though you may need to provide evidence that you still qualify for the K-1 nonimmigrant visa. For the most up-to-date information about the U.S. Embassy or Consulate General's operating status, visit their website at https://usembassy.gov.

Thank you for your patience.

Sincerely,
National Visa Center Director

Totally confusing, as it seems to imply services were paused and scheduled to resume at my embassy: yet, I've seen regular shipments to Johannesburg before and immediately after receiving this letter.  Just not our case.

I appreciate you again for tipping me off to NVC research.  I wrote a succinct yet formal request to have our case reviewed for any delays, and for them to send out K1-FTP if nothing is located.  Hoping that makes a dent.

On 6/22/2024 at 11:49 AM, nautilus808 said:

Thanks for explaining your experience in more detail. I called USCIS and was able to speak to a human. The person I spoke with could see 2 approvals and said it was a system error and that it is likely that the first NOA2 is the valid one. They also said that they have never seen 2 approval dates. I asked for an expedite and he said there is nothing to expedite your case has been approved or atleast we think it has based on receiving 2 NOA2. Tier 1 help really doesnt know anything.

 

Our case has not even been sent to NVC according to public inquiries with NVC, I get the 60 day robot email. 

 

Have you tried emailing nvcresearch@state.gov ? 

I was told to email them after 60 days of my case not being sent to NVC. The instructions were to to put only the case number in the subject, and petioners and beneficiaries name and date of birth in the body of the email and a copy of our NOA2. I have 7 more days to wait to do this.

Our cases are held up at differnt stages in the process but perhaps its worth a try for you to email NVCresearch. 

I know how you feel watching cases fly by your procesing time. It took us 17 months to get a NOA2 but we did have an RFE. Recently, I have seen cases go from NOA1 to sent to Embassy in 6 months. With that said I believe some case end up with incompetent employees that are slow. Or employees that have more important tasks to do. The reasons are endless.

I did not even know of the existence of NVCresearch, so I will definitely be looking into this.

I very much appreciate you sharing, and hope in just a few more days, you'll be able to prod them too and get some answers.  All the best.

Please stop tagging me multiple times, thank you.

In fact, do the case how you want.  I'll leave my advice out of this moving forward.  Best of luck.

4 minutes ago, SneakyPete said:

Aren't you past USCIS phase? They approved your case and it is NVC now. I would think if you have valid reasons to expedite you need to be contacting consulate at that point and have them request your case. 

USCIS sent us an updated NOA2, so who knows where our case truly is.

Could you please illuminate me on what valid reasons exist, other than medical reasons?  As I queried in the OP, someone told me USCIS errors can warrant an expedite.  I'm looking for anyone to confirm or discredit this, as I'm skeptical but also desperate.

On 6/20/2024 at 10:07 PM, nautilus808 said:

we recieved our NOA2 on April 29th. After waiting 50 days foor ma NVC case number , our petion was approved again on june 18. Now our timeline on USCIS has erased the April 29th approval date and replaced t with june 18.

Does anyone know why this happens or the meaning behind it?

Hi there.

I had never seen this happen before to anyone else on the forums either.  We received our first NOA2 the beginning of March, and then about mid-May, we got a new one with a new four month window but the same USCIS receipt number.  Our case number at NVC seems to remain valid as I've messaged them several times since receiving the NOA2, and they always confirm our case number as being unchanged.  About a week after we got the second NOA2, we also got an email about delays in processing our case and that there would be no action required to extend the window: to which I thought, clearly, you sent us a new notice which showed that.

Even still, it's bewildering as to why, and no answer has been concrete, simply because the NVC stage is terribly opaque.  There are theories, such as USCIS making an error such as sending an incomplete case, which upon the resend generated a new NOA2.  I do suspect that whatever happened though, put us at the back of the queue.  Others who have gotten NOA2s after us for K1 and same embassy, have been sent from the NVC already.  The usual 4 weeks or so.  In our case, it's been fifteen weeks since the first NOA2 was issued, so...

Whatever happened, I hope they sorted it.  Continual NVC inquiries never produce any requests for my fiance or I to take action.  If there was an issue with the case, it appears only to be on their end. 

I do hope that your NVC stayover is shorter than ours.  But that's our account, at the very least.

10 minutes ago, SneakyPete said:

3rd party Case Tracker app does work for NVC cases as well as USCIS as of now. 

Thank you!  I've found a tracker that works.

I am however curious about the expedite request.  Do you have any information on if USCIS errors are a reason to expedite and, if so, how do I go about pursuing that?

1 minute ago, SalishSea said:

No.   They are third party apps.

All good, thanks!

Still curious about the expedite validity, if anyone knows.  Never did get any solid feedback on that.

1 minute ago, JimmyX said:

I don't check any longer either. but the USCIS Case Tracker app checks regularly for me and I trust it will give me notifications when it's time.

USCIS has a tracker app?  Does it work for NVC cases though?

1 minute ago, Boiler said:

This has slowed your case?

Compared to other K1 timelines for Johannesburg, which is all I have for metrics at the NVC stage.  People have spent 2-4 weeks at NVC after getting case numbers.  And they certainly did not get new NOA2s from USCIS.

NO idea if this applies to our situation, but someone planted the bug in my brain so I have to ask:

Our case is seated at NVC now for 15 weeks and during that time, we were issued two NOA2s, the dates updated in the second issuance two months later.  Someone suggested to me that this might be grounds for expediting the case, if USCIS made some kind of error.  I have no idea how that would be applied to a case at the NVC, but I am curious if this theory has legs.  We are looking for any reason to get our case picked to go to the consulate. Been over this so many times on these forums that I feel like a broken record, but watching other K1s head to our embassy after shorter times at NVC, has set me on wanting to explore every possible option to move this along.

FYI, our first NOA2 expires next week, and the later NOA2 is through mid-September, so I don't even know if I need to contact the embassy to extend.  It's just a weird situation but if there's a legitimate expedite request in there, we want to submit it.

Four cases left at NVC from our day: 001, 003, 004, and 008

001 is in transit

rest of us, At NVC

fourteen weeks.

1 hour ago, Fay and Kev said:

Per the NVC Current case creation time frame: As of 17-Jun-24, we are working on cases that were received from USCIS on 5-Jun-24.

My notice date 5/22 is that  same as  received from USCIS? 

 

Sent an inquiry last week and got this reply on 6/13

Thank you for your inquiry. Our records do not show that we received your petition.

 

Just trying to see if there is anything else i can do. Appreciate any guidance  you can offer.

 

F & K 

 

Typically you have to wait around four weeks, then request a case number from NVC.  You may find more up to date reporting from the MAY NVC TO EMBASSY thread.

8 hours ago, Rachel n Tyler said:

I tried finding more info but it didn’t tell me anything clearly. Thank you!

The site is vast and I am unsure what you are looking for specifically.  I assume you are looking for the NVC: that would be in the Visa section.

You asked what the Department of State was, so that's what I delivered.