S2N

Looks like they’re making quick work of January!

Yep. Means it got sent to NVC. I received the NVC welcome letter two days later.

Congrats!

Thanks. Did this and it arrived a few hours after.

NVC just sent us an email telling us to submit our documents online, which said we should have already received a welcome notice with case number and invoice. I was able to make out the case number from the subject of the email, but both of us have searched all of our email folders and spam folder and can’t find anything with an invoice number on it. Reached out to NVC, but also wanted to check if anyone had seen this before.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Todd Blanche’s response to this case. He seems to be able to read the room. The Good case you could interpret the videos several ways, and the DHS argument was that it was clearly an in-policy shooting and you had career officials who thought that as well (which doesn’t really matter — DHS internal policy isn’t the law, but I digress. Matter for a civil court to deal with 2 years from now.) The video on this one just looks like cold-blooded murder of an American citizen by an immigration enforcement official, and there’s nothing coming out that looks good for DHS. Even if that turns out not to be the case, it’s what most of the public is seeing right now. That’s why Trump and GOP senators are moving so quick to throw Noem and Bovino under the bus on it. An investigation ran by the woman who called a man shot 10 times in the back while he was prone on the ground a “domestic terrorist” isn’t going to be taken seriously in these circumstances, and I’m glad DOJ political leadership gets that the tone here matters for the credibility of any investigation. Really hope they pry their jurisdiction back in the case from HSI and we get a report most people can have confidence in.

Its going to be under HSI, not the FBI. FBI normally investigates LEO shootings, and to be honest I’d be fine with them doing it because at least Todd Blanche seems like he gets there was a potential issue. Slash, within the FBI they’re still pretty apolitical. DOJ has its issues but the rank and file do try to stay impartial still. I think it’s a pretty big conflict with HSI doing it given that Noem is also their boss and she’s blurred the lines between the various DHS agencies by declaring that they’re all focusing on enforcement within the US now.

Fwiw, I’ve also had this issue.

Orwell based it primarily on the Soviet Union, because he viewed Soviet-style communism as the primary form of totalitarianism in the world when he was writing. His idea was more of what a totalitarian state would look like in the English-speaking world than communism itself, even if it was the model. People also frequently forget he was a socialist. This was the same man who wrote Homage to Catalonia, which is anti-communist, but also very left-wing.

Like I said, I think it’s incredibly stupid to take a gun with you to a protest — whether it’s a left-wing one or a right-wing one. It is legal, though. I’m not really sure your analogy holds here though as the CCH wasn’t the one who fired any shots. Someone having a gun on then when they (appear to be) restrained on the ground isn’t a reason to unload 10 rounds into them, and if that’s all they can produce as reason for the shooting it’ll be an issue. I think that’s my overall issue with the “well why was he there???” questions. Let’s say he was a plant or a domestic terrorist or whatever. LEOs don’t have the legal authority to shoot a restrained individual, which from all indications we’ve seen so far this guy was. They might have the right to detain and charge, but simply resisting arrest with a concealed firearm (which is essentially what DHS is claiming happened), shouldn’t end in him getting shot. Like I said, let’s have an investigation and see where it goes, but what DHS has come up with so far doesn’t inspire confidence.

We agree. I think having a gun on you in these circumstances is stupid, but that isn’t reason to shoot someone. I also think it’s odd that many of the people who supported an expansive 2A reading previously are not using this as justification for killing him. The current law is if you have a permit, you can concealed carry. Even if you’re going to be around LEOs. The issue with state/local investigations is that DOJ could have any potential charges removed to federal court and then dismiss it. I’m for an independent investigation, but I’m also aware of the reality that if the state or local government does it, DOJ will override any investigation. That’s why I’d prefer Congress to get involved.

Also, if people prefer an analysis of the videos by a right-leaning source here’s the WSJ analysis.

As I said on the other thread, let’s have a full investigation and see where it shakes out. I think it’s incredibly stupid to bring a firearm with you to a protest for any number of reasons. From what I recall though it is legal, and one of the reasons given for the expansive gun rights we have in this country by those who support a broad second amendment is that it protects from government tyranny. I think that’s a bad argument, but if that’s what we’re going with it seems odd to me that him having a legal firearm that it looks like he never took out is being used by the government as justification for killing him. We’ll see where the investigation goes. As I said on the other one, I would prefer an independent investigation commissioned by Congress because I have zero faith in the federal government to investigate itself after the last year. The MAGA crowd wouldn’t trust a local investigation and there’s supremacy clause issues there as well.

They mail/issue the letter before they update the timeline. Once you see the letter you’re fine. You can use the date listed there. The real date that matters is when they send to NVC, which is up to two weeks after approval.

Looks like today they did the straightforward cases with PDs 12/31/24-1/2/25. Current case rate being starting 2-3 new PDs a day and working through any backlog of cases with extra administrative items. If you’re left behind don’t worry — the government has a lot more data in the databases on my husband and me than most people that would make my case by definition straightforward even ignoring what we’ve upoloaded. I would suggest tracking on Reddit/Discord/Facebook though to see what the current newest approvals are. VJs estimate is (imo) skewed by us getting complex cases here. Use current data to plan for the earliest on average, and use VJ data to plan for the 80th percentile approval timeframe.

Approved. Got the “still processing your case” email an hour ago. Checked 10 minutes ago and the approval notice was in my documents. Approval date: 1/22/2026 PD: 1/1/2025 Original SC: Nebraska Approving SC: Texas

And Reddit/Facebook/Discord are reporting 1/1/25 approvals coming through (our PD) hoping for something soon

Not true. They were approving cases from 12/18 a week ago. You can find websites that give detailed readouts of the API. They didn’t skip ahead. It’s that some cases take longer to process than others.

Saw reports of PD 12/31/24 being approved ed 1/21/26. January 2025 should start seeing approvals tomorrow or Friday at the current pace.

Only thing that will impact is what metro stop she gets off at. At least Las Condes has a lot of nice restaurants and bars you can hit up for lunch after

You don’t declare assets on your taxes. You declare income. The distinction matters. There are federal forms for declaring foreign assets that are reported to the IRS, but those aren’t tax returns in themselves, the IRS just collects the information as part of ongoing monitoring for tax evasion using foreign accounts. Here is the Washington Society of CPA’s find a CPA feature filtered for international tax. I’d call a few of them and see who you like.

Whats the standard option? A DHL drop point or something like that?

Documents in the language of the country you’re applying from don’t need to be translated once you reach the NVC/Consulate stages (i.e. Spanish for Colombia)

As a 1/1/25 filer with a fairly standard case, I’m expecting week of 2/1/26. Though the Christmas holiday falling in the period under review might speed that up (i.e. less cases around that date.) Unfortunately all the free API analysis websites are down and still trying to recover, so hard to see number approved a day vs. number of cases until January. Time will tell, I guess

Birth certificates have no security features as they are a copy taken from the book where they are registered. Each copy must have a blue or black stamp with a legend stating “es copia fiel del original.” Digital copies may not have the stamp but will be issued as a PDF with a digital signature. Digital copies from the Province of Buenos Aires and the City of Buenos Aires will have a verification code. Other provinces may have a verification code or scannable code. Digital is accepted. Apostille is never required in the immigration process but if it’s anything like Chile, they’re free and automatic with the digital version so might as well in case it’s needed in the future, but that’s a consideration outside of immigration.