rbv_shard

Your registration sticker goes on the inside of the lower corner of your front window (windshield), so that it can be read from outside. "Front" is telling you which window, not which surface of the glass. The sticker isn't made to be outside in the rain and ice.

USCIS under Trump 2.0 is far more strict than is "normal". Expect that if something is in the immigration law passed by Congress, explicit or implied, no matter how many decades ago, it will now be fully enforced.

Yeah.... the NOA2 is a form letter and does not accurately reflect the status of your case. Ours took two months (Dec 3rd) after the NOA2 date (Oct 2nd) for the online status to change from "Approved" to "Sent to Department of State", then another couple weeks until NVC was able to give us the case number, and that shows "At NVC" and may be weeks more before they approve it and send onward to the embassy. There's no point in checking with NVC until at least a week after your USCIS status changes to "Sent to Department of State" -- online, not in the NOA2. On the processing times page you can see that it is taking an average of 70 days between NOA2 and reaching NVC. And yes, this means the validity of the USCIS approval will expire. (Why we got four months and you got only three, no idea. Or perhaps yours is March 2nd not Feb 3rd.) This primarily means we'll all need to provide updated evidence for "intent to marry" and "proof of relationship" (at the interview), the original ones are considered too old.

Don't mix up A-number of beneficiary (newly assigned during the I-129F processing) with A-number of petitioner (only applies if petitioner is an immigrant. For example, because I'm natural born citizen, I will never have an A-number and all our documents have "A-number of petitioner" listed "N/A")

To be correct, it seems like conditional GC and all visa statuses ought to have synchronized expiration (or get an ID sans-REAL star for full duration and carry foreign passport to fly), but LPR status is "permanent" and should not result in truncated duration on other IDs. Expiration of the green "card" itself does not terminate lawful status, it mostly means the photo and/or anti-forgery features on the card are too old to be trusted, and it doesn't make sense for that to affect a separate ID card with its own newer photo and its own anti-forgery features.

"Free" assumes one places no value on computer security. Adobe is infamous for vulnerabilities in Acrobat Reader and, more recently, stuffing their software with AI models to ingest all your data. A good solution is to run the official Adobe Acrobat Reader on someone else's computer, either for free (e.g. public library) or a small charge at some computer cafe.

You can submit an NVC public inquiry using your WAC number included on your NOA1, asking for your case number and confirming the mailing and email addresses in your NVC file. That won't help you get a copy of the NOA2, though. Regarding your attempt to contact USCIS for the missing notice of action, did you use this webpage? https://egov.uscis.gov/e-request/ndn As always, when using the Visa Journey forums, it's best to complete your timeline to give everyone a more complete picture and contribute to the overall processing time statistics that provide estimated times to future filers.

I was entering all of those, per the prompt on the form. That appears to have been a mistake. Using case number, "NA", and "NA", it returns the status. (Despite the fact that no part of our application was processed prior to 2022)

How do you do that? I was expecting it to be with https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx - how is K-1 classified in this particular system? It has the wrong case number format for the non-immigrant visa (which is formally is), and the immigrant visa search shows "Your search did not return any data.".

You're being careless with the dates, or else you have a time machine. Please fill in your timeline.

From OP's description (many calls, *mostly between parents*) this is likely an arranged marriage and it wouldn't be out of the ordinary to get engaged or even marry after only one in-person meeting. OP needs to provide evidence of meeting in person, for which travel documents can suffice, and also evidence of a healthy relationship, for which screenshots of video calls can suffice (probably at least some of which shall include parents on the call) Photos of the in-person meeting are recommended because they satisfy both requirements at once, but there are actually two separate goals and neither one specifically requires photos of the meeting. As far as cost sensitivity, K-1 + AOS filing fees may be higher than CR-1, but for countries without visa reciprocity every trip costs not only direct expenses but takes the US petitioner away from employment, making the filing fee an almost-trivial portion of the total expense (however unwelcome it may be). The filing fees are really only part of the K1-vs-CR1 comparison when the beneficiary is in a VWP country. (Yes, relative earning power makes a difference too but that's strongly correlated with VWP), In the case, being together sooner equates to fewer trips and saving money.

And this morning they replied with the NVC case number. Not sure what date to use for "NVC received" in the VJ timeline since didn't receive any email saying they received it, just the reply to inquiry. And CEAC says "Your search did not return any data" (assuming that https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx?App=IV is the correct page)

I had gotten this reply from NVC, which doesn't quite say that USCIS lost anything, but definitely puts the blame for slowness on them: Greetings, The National Visa Center (NVC) received your inquiry and the attached I-797 Notice of Action - Approval Notice. However, we do not have a record of receiving your approved petition from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). We will contact USCIS to determine the location of your petition. You do not need to take any action at this time. Thank you for your patience as we work with USCIS to make sure your case is moving forward. Although the Form I-797 approval notice mentions a delay of up to 30 days for cases to be delivered to NVC from USCIS, current shipping times may be longer. Once NVC receives this petition from USCIS and enters it into our system, all case parties will receive a notice that they can begin processing if a visa number is immediately available. For more information, call USCIS's National Customer Service Center at (800) 375-5283 or visit https://www.uscis.gov . Right after that, the status at USCIS changed from "Approved" to "Sent to Department of State". I waited three weeks (since NVC record creation is typically 2 weeks) and sent another public inquiry, which is currently awaiting a response.

Bribes benefit someone personally. Taxes go to the government. This is the latter. I'm not saying selling visas for cash ethically different than soliciting bribes.... but anti-bribery statutes do see a difference when the recipient is the government.

Jeanne is sharing the rules currently in effect, which doesn't mean they will still be in effect when OP's petition gets processed. There's already a change that has been proposed.

I thought you can't check status on CEAC until you receive a welcome letter. Is there a way to check prior to that?

And it's not just the chance of being detained while out of status -- OP would forever have to answer YES to the question "Have you ever been in the USA without authorization?". Even though a short overstay doesn't prevent marriage-based adjustment of status, answering that question wrong would make everything afterward null and void -- even conferral of citizenship is no protection against being deported for making false statements for immigration benefit.

For you, since you the visa beneficiary are the main breadwinner and travel both directions is visa-free, you definitely want the spouse visa (CR-1/IR-1) not K-1. Longer waiting time before permanent entry, but the ability to work immediately after permanent entry weighs heavily in your situation -- you won't need to have any significant gap in your employment. K-1 visa would be 5-12 months unable to work. Evidence of financial co-mingling shouldn't be necessary until removal of conditions. What you cannot do while visiting on ESTA is work, and that includes remotely for your European employer.

And why does your timeline indicate an NVC welcome letter if you don't have your case number assigned yet?

The official instructions are about the online system -- https://ceac.state.gov/GenNIV/Common/Instructions.aspx?U60ATkEsp0%2fpQMdXAcZygQ%3d%3d about the DS-160 form -- https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/forms/ds-160-online-nonimmigrant-visa-application/ds-160-faqs.html There's nothing about that question but it's been discussed extensively here, concluding that either answer will get your application processed and for either answer the embassy is going to ask for the medical documentation. The embassy is going to ask for the medical documentation in any case.

Your timeline says you got the NVC welcome letter Nov 18th, is that correct or are you still on the "Sent to Department of State" status? According to the processing time statistics, it would be about 5 weeks from NVC welcome letter until NVC processing completes and it is ready to send to embassy. BTW your case wasn't transferred from Texas Service Center to California, it started processing at California Service Center. It passed through the Texas mailbox, which is different from Texas Service Center. Having that wrong on your timeline may mess up estimates (although I think you're past the stage where that would have an effect)

The 90-day deadline for marriage comes from the K-1 visa. The 90-day deadline for filing I-485 to adjust status doesn't come from the K-1 visa rules. It comes from the 90-day I-94 you got when you entered with the K-1 visa. As others have said, being past 90 days doesn't prevent you from filing the I-485 but starting day 91 you have legally zero right to be in the USA.

Has your case status on the USCIS website changed to "Sent to Department of State", and if so, what date? The NOA2 says that, but it's a lie. We had two full months (from Oct 2nd NOA2 until Dec 3rd) with our case languishing at USCIS before they finally sent it to NVC, and now it'll be about another week until in-processing and welcome letter, and then possibly another month or more before they send to Manila. The government probably prefers to have a backlog (which they can control by how they assign personnel to different visa types) in order to stress relationships and make sure they are genuine. They don't want "fake getting engaged to an American, get K-1 visa, paper-only marriage" to be a fast path for every foreigner with a bit of cash to get a green card. That's why they require so much relationship evidence, and possibly also a reason for long slow process.

It's normal not to have any change in status between NOA1 and NOA2. Refer to the "Processing Times" page to know how long to expect. Right now it's showing 228 days between NOA1 and NOA2.

Is what's on the I-129F a reasonable plain language description of what you do, even if it's not the official title? For example, if your title is "Tour Specialist Grade II" and your fiance wrote "Tour Guide", no worries. But if you are actually a tour guide and your fiance wrote that you are an "Investment Banker", you should prepare to have your relationship questioned, and provide not only proof of what your job title actually is, but also proof that your fiance knows. For example he could work it into his updated intent to marry letter by saying something about you taking a vacation from your position as (insert correct job title here) to spend time together when he met you person. There are lots of anecdotes of being asked about the American's job at the document check stage of the interview, which is to make sure (a) the American has been forthright and (b) you know him well. In your case, you could have to prove you've been honest with your fiance.