irishgalinabq

Congrats!!

Congratulations! I know how you feel about needing something else to stress about. Mine was approved yesterday and on the way home from the embassy my husband kept asking me why I seemed so bummed out. I really felt at a bit of a loss. After having this stuff at the back of my mind for months (even though our experience was mercifully short) I felt a little blank yesterday. But today I feel great and a little bit strange... can't believe I'll be an immigrant soon haha!

Not sure about the layover thing, I'm super paranoid so we just booked flights with a 7 hour layover in JFK. I don't like to tempt fate. My husband was a little put off that I insisted on the longer layover, he just likes to get the traveling over with, but maybe he knows better than to trifle with an emotional woman.

Congrats on your approval. I think you are right with the longer layover....If i could afford to change ours I would have! I'm just hoping we'll get through to make our flight to DC on time....

Yes, after all the stress and wondering and piles of paper, it is weird that it is over now! It does feel a little anti-climactic. We are just so relieved-much more relieved than excited- as we did not have a "plan B" if this didn't come through! PHEW!

It took me 3 stinking hours because a flight from Vietnam(?) had landed just before mine and there were a lot of people in front of me waiting to get processed.

You should be fine since LAX is a bigger airport and there should be more immigration officers working. Otherwise could you send your husband ahead to pick up your luggage and re-check them in and that way you could just do a quick check-in and catch up with him?

congrats on the visa by the way! Hope the original police cert comes soon

Ugh! We get in at 6.25 am so hopefully that'd be an unpopular time for flights to arrive...I can't wait to be back in the states sitting in our new apartment with no worries! otherwise, your bag getting/checking idea is a good one! Stored up for later use....

Congratulations!

Relax! 2.5 hrs should be alright. We had 1 hr 45 mins and were still through with everything and even had 30 minutes to spare.

Awesome , thanks a mil! I need something new to stress about it seems!

And congratulations!!

Yay! My visa was approved but will be "on hold" til they get the original of the Aussie Police cert. I am excited.

Could someone let me know how long it took you to clear customs and immigration at LAX? We only have a 2.5 hour lay over and the guy at the embassy seemed to think that that was too short of a time to get both done.

Thanks a million! And thank you to all at Visa journey who answered my questions about the process. You guys were a HUGE help! We really appreciated this site and all the nice people on here. Good luck to the others who are currently in the process too. You will get there!!

silly police! at least they are willing to fax through a report to the Consulate though which is good

where are you guys moving to?

Moving back to MD, Baltimore-where we lived before we moved to Oz.

I am a bit worried now about the length of our layover in LA. We fly Syd-LA-DC and only have 2.5 hours as a layover in LA. The guy behind the desk at the embassy said it took him 5 hours to get though there and they missed their connecting flight!

I just called Qantas and it would be a whopping $4000 to change the flights at this stage so we are going to have to cross fingers and hope for the best!

How long did it take you to get through immigration?

Good luck with your interview.. not that you need it.. the people there are so easy going you shouldn't have any problem at all

Re: your police certificate. Are you able to ring NSW Police to ask if it has been processed?

When I had my prints taken in QLD they sent the report off to the Consulate directly also. I called them about a month after applying and they were able to confirm for me when it had been finalized and sent off. I'm sure NSW Police can do the same thing. Their number is listed here: http://sydney.usconsulate.gov/consular/vis...ertificate.html

Hey, Thanks a million for the good wishes and the good advice. I rang the NSW police and they have processed my certificate but sent it to my home address-despite the fact I included an embassy SAE and listed them as the people to send it to ....GRRRR! Our mail doesn't get here til after 11 so I guess I won't have the certificate today! The police did say they'd fax a letter through to the embassy for me to say they'd done the check and that it was clear so that might help.

Hey guys,

Tomorrow is my big day. The appointment is at 11am at the Sydney consulate...wish me luck!

The only thing I am stressing about is that the Australian police certificate had not arrived when they sent out the appointment date (Nov 24th) as they requested it as a required document along with further confirmation of my husbands expected income in the States. I applied for the certificate before then and the policeman at my local station recommended that I provide an envelope addressed to the consulate so they could mail my certificate right through to the embassy. So I'm hoping it'll be there when I go in tomorrow. I have the receipt for the fee anyway, so they can see that it is being processed. So I guess whether or not I get approved tomorrow will depend on whether the certificate will reach the interview before me!

We are not flying out til the end of January though, so we built in some time for problems like this! If this is the only problem, I will be a happy bunny! I am more worried about something weird showing up on the medical or something which would preclude us from going back...Gah! Stress!!

Good luck with your DCF! My husband (USC) and I filed our I-130 in June at the Sydney consulate and the process was really quick & straightforward - I think I had my visa in about 7 weeks.

Hey,

Just a quick question. how much was your NSW police check? I just went to the station and there are two options: certificate without fingerprints ($50), certificate with fingerprints ($95). I am worried that neither is the correct as it does say on the website that the cost should be in or around $175. Don't get me wrong, I would love it to be cheaper, I just don't want to spend $95 for a useless certificate and then have to spend a further $175 on the correct one!

If you could help, that would be awesome.

Thank you

Hi guys,

Since I got packet 3 I have started gathering the paperwork. I went into the local police station yesterday and asked about the police certificate. The officer at the desk said they have two options:

Certificate without fingerprints: $50

Certificate with fingerprints: $95

Does anyone know which of these certificates I need? I am a bit worried that neither is the right one as they do say on the website that the police check costs $175. Am I asking for the wrong thing at the police station or something?? How much did your NSW police check cost?

Thanks

Jennifer

Yes, your posts were a big help. I'm so glad I found this site!

I can't work out how to display the timeline at the bottom of my posts. if I click on timeline i can see it but it doesn't seem to want to add it as a signature.

Hi guys,

Just filed the initial I-130 at the Sydney consulate today. Thanks to you guys we had all the paperwork in order and the first stage went smoothly. Here's what happened so you'll know what to expect if you are filing I-130 in Sydney.

Rob (the USC) emailed last week and made the appointment and they came back to us with a time today. We got there nice and early and passed through security where they take your purse/bags etc leaving you with just your paperwork. I wasn't expecting to be able to go through with Rob as I had read on here that only the USC goes in but they were quite happy to let me through with my Irish passport. We then got taken up to the consulate floor by security, went through another metal detector and then got to the consulate area. There we took a number and after about 10 minutes we got called to the first window. There we handed in the I-130 form, and copies of Rob's passport, his Aussie Visa, his entry stamp, our wedding certificate, 325A's for both of us and US size passport photo's of us. We also gave the attendant Rob's original passport and our original wedding certificate. As everything was in order, we then were sent to another window to pay the fee. After fee payment, the attendant called us back and took the payment receipt. Then the attendant told us to wait again and that another attendant would interview us.

We were a bit nervous at this point wondering what would they ask etc and did we have enough proof of of a viable relationship. This bit is kind of vaguely discussed so we were stressing a bit. We had brought photo's, copies of our lease and our joint bank account statement. So after another 10 minutes, we were called back up to the counter by a second attendant.

Here are the questions he asked:

To Rob (the USC):

When did you arrive in Australia?

What have you been doing since you got here-working?

Where?

When do you plan on going back?

To me:

When did you get here?

Why did you come to Australia?

When do you want to travel to the USA?

As we had come over together on the same date and in our answers we had shown that we had moved here together the attendant seemed happy enough with that. Then he asked if we had any further questions and explained again what would happen now:

Adam Walsh check, packet 3, appointment setting. And then we got our original marriage cert back and we were off out the door. The whole process took less than an hour. So we never even took our photo's or other stuff out of the 'proof of relationships' folder. Now we are just waiting for packet 3!

I've contacted the Irish police to try and get the police certificate so we'll be ready to file packet 3 as soon as they send us the email.

Thanks everyone for the posts on here. They really helped us prepare. I'll update again after my next appointment.

Hi guys,

Well, I am starting my visa journey and all of the posts on here have been a big help. My fiance and I are getting married next month here in Australia. He is the USC and I am Irish. We lived together in Baltimore, MD (I was on a H1B) and then in February of this year moved to Australia. Now, my fiance's company has invited him to come back to the USA in February so we are making plans for that. Our plan is to get married in Sydney next month and then do DCF here at the Sydney office. I have noticed that most of the DCF applicants have been married for a long time. Do you know if there is any limitation on the length of time you must be married before applying for DCF? We were hoping to start the process right after the wedding. Please let me know if you have read anything else here in our story that may preclude us from DCF.

Thank you