Ken1

Wooo hoooo!!!

CSC is cruising now!!!

Good luck to all!

So sorry to hear this. It is cruel and unfair for the US government to separate families. What the heck do we pay taxes for? How can they call this a free and open society? Why can't the at least be realistic with your and more transparent so that you can plan your life? As hard as it is, if it is going to be over a year (and hopefully it will be the two weeks that was someone else's experience), maybe it's time to move to his country. I'm sure they would welcome you in with much less red tape, and while you might fear living in a place with certain problems or more poverty, or other issues, family take priority and I'm sure you will find a way to make it work and be happy.

My heart and prayers are with you and, again, I pray for you to get word in a few weeks!

Congrats on the pregnancy and the NOA2!!!

You've gotten some good info here and some totally incorrect info (my fiancée is also pregnant and I have done quite a good amount of research on the topic - we are praying for our NOA2 and then will try to speed up the NVC and interview times).

First - after 7 months of pregnancy you need a doctor's note to fly. This generally needs to be written within 72 hours of flying and state that you are healthy and your pregnancy is doing well. Beyond this, there are MANY airlines that will let you fly up until 36 weeks (make sure your doctor has included your due date and make sure you call around to speak to the airlines - get something in writing from them if you can). There is no harm in this if you and your pregnancy are healthy - perhaps a bit uncomfortable sitting for so long but nothing beyond that - drink lots of water on the flight, get an aisle seat so you can get up easily and go to the bathroom, get a seat near the bathroom, walk around the plane every 45 minutes to stretch.

Second - while getting an expedite between NOA1 and NOA2 is very hard, this is much easier at the NVC and also for getting an earlier interview date (depending on your embassy). Have the USC speak with his congressperson and they should be able to put in a request from you. It's the service centers here that are slow and unsympathetic, but abroad they seem to be better (this is all acording to my very experienced lawyer). Make sure to get documents with your due date and make a lot of phone calls, be nice, but stay on peoples case.

Third, some doctors will tell you to wait three months before you fly with the baby, many people do this earlier with no problem (perhaps as soon as a month or so). Make sure your baby is feeding during take-off and landing, even if that means waking him/her up to do so - this will help keep his/her ears unclogged.

Fourth, your fiance should be able to add you and baby to his health insurance as soon as you get married. He will have to upgrade to a family plan and pay more. It might take a month or so to work through the system, but it should cover you retroactively from the day you were married if he has upgraded. He should also be able to put the baby on the plan even if the two of you are not married (again, upgrade to family plan) but he should call his healthcare provider (I spoke with the person at my job who deals with health insurance coverage).

Fifth, Happy Dancer, I don't understand the attitude. Why not state the things you have to say in a nice way? In my opinion the whole "suck it up honey" attitude is a detriment to all (including yourself Happy) - let's try to make the world a better place.

Lastly, while the USCIS and some cynical people out there may think that this is a shallow reason for an expedite, I think it SHOULD BE one of the best ones. Everyone here suffers with the distance and the wait, but when we loose respect for the relationship of a couple going through childbirth something is wrong with the world. I simply don't buy the "if that was a reason for an expedite, everyone would be getting pregnant" line. Pregnancy is something people do when the time is right, and it's often not something that happens right away, even when you try hard at it. On the other hand, sometime the time is right before you have a visa, and more power to you! I doubt that many couples would get pregnant before ready to make such a huge decision to save a few months of waiting. If we air on the side of humanity, we should allow couples with pregnancy and children to unite faster. Pregnant women can do it alone in some cases (and the many strong women who are forced to have my total respect), but it is clearly better to be together with their significant others during a time of medical, physical and emotional need. Children have the right to be with their parents and not have to be forced to be separated from one for any amount of time. Personally, as someone who has paid taxes for many years, worked as an educator for over a decade helping our county's youth become good citizens, I feel abused by the system and I think all people on this forum should help to change this - we are not free until all are free. This might sound very pinko-liberal to some here, but think about things not based on just your situation, but from a base of humanity.

As for me, my beautiful fiancée is 5 and a half months pregnant. Since returning to the US in September after spending the summer together, I have been fortunate to travel there once in October, once in November and am heading there again for the upcoming holidays. It has been expensive but worth every cent to do ultrasounds together, see, touch and sing to her beautiful belly and help out emotionally (really emotionally helpful to both of us) and in other ways. I know that not all in this situation are able to be able to do this and my heart goes out to them. We are praying for an NOA2 soon (we are at 102 days since our NOA1 from VSC) and will then work to move things as quickly as possible. We are aware that we may not have the baby here in the US and either way we will make it through, but I hope to someday soon see this situation change for all.

Congrats again, and all the wishes for a healthy birth!!!

ps: keep me/us updated as to your progress and anything you learn along the way.

At the risk of sounding a bit vulgar, a wise woman once told me:

"Opinions are like a##holes... everyone's got one!"

Only you and your partner truly know what goes on between you. If you really love each other and you feel and know that, you're doing great! Don't start to doubt yourself based on others. Our friends, family and loved ones' comments can have an effect on us, that's unavoidable, but remember, they don't know what you know, and in time they will understand - the proof is in the pudding!

All the best for you and yours!

My Online Case Status for K1 visa has come up with a "validation error" since day one and we are now at 100 days!!!! I got the "could take up to two months line," and I even got a letter in the mail from USCIS saying they IT department was looking into it, but nothing has ever changed. To put my nerves at ease about once a month I call USCIS and they look me up by name, find my case, assure me that the Online Case Status has no bearing whatsoever on my case and that I am in the system and will be processed. That's probably the same for all of you with similar problems, but I'd at least call and find out that they can locate you in the computer by name. When you call USCIS and get the automated system, just type the number for "don't have or lost case number" and that will get you to an operator, you then need to speak to a supervisor/hire up person which you can do by asking to after giving basic info to the first person you speak with.

Good luck to all!!!

Hi Everyone,

After we fill out our timelines here we are given an estimate of our wait time until adjudication. First, I understand that this is just an estimate based on the history of other people's experience here on VJ, but I like it as a reference. I see my estimated date move a little bit from time to time and I figure it is computer generated and moves as the data changes every day. However, yesterday or the day before my adjudication date was between Jan. 21 and January 29th and today it says between February 13th and March 7th!!!!! What could have caused my (and I imagine everyone else waiting for a k1 from Vermont) date to change so drastically? Should I be concerned that my wait time really jumped a month?

Thanks and speedy approvals to all!

K

Hey Everyone,

Our day has come!!!! Opened mail today like every other day waiting and got NOA2 dated Dec 4th, but I received today Dec 10th. Postmark from Vermont was December 8th, mailed Monday afternoon.

No email notifications, USCIS website still says PENDING and I have called NVC the last 5 days THINKING it might already be there and they say NO RECORDS found, so I'm assuming it will be in system soon as my mail comes 1-2 days from Vermont and mail from Vermont to NH -NVC office is one day, so this notice should be in system on Dec 12th, if we are lucky. At this point, i am not counting days or hours anymore. Its nice to just know that we can count on Sveta being here in February.

Thanks to everyone who kept our hopes up and it NOW seems like 135-150 is the magic number of waiting days lately, so I wish all of you the best of luck and I KNOW that things will happen fast for you. We are finally able to smile again and the misery of waiting and checking is over and we can get ON with our new life and start 2009 off to a bright new start!!!

We are # 103 on the Igor list today, if anyone was wondering???

be well and Merry Xmas

John & Sveta

Wooooooo hoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats!!!

Hi!

Soooo excited right now... for the first time ever, our case status came up as something other than "not found". And that something other than "not found" is Approved! It says that a notice of approval was mailed on December 1st. Then when I click the receipt number in my account, it gives the approval date as Dec. 2. Either way... how long does it take for this to get to us? Seems like we should either have had this by now or else any day now. No email notification either yet.

Is it possible that USCIS is not the well-oiled machine that they might like us to believe it is?

Sorry... a little giddy right now!

First, congrats on the great news!!!!

Second, a question: My Online Case Status has come up as "not found" for the past 3 months whenever I enter my receipt number. I've called USCIS and they are able to locate my info when I speak to a higher level person, but as far as the Online Case Status system, nothing. If I understood correctly, you too were never able to check your online case status either until yesterday when you checked again and now when you entered your receipt number your case came up (and approved!!!). Is that correct? I understand that not coming up on the Online Case Status system has no bearing on my case, but hearing that this happened to someone else who was then approved will put me at ease.

Thanks and best of luck!

K

I got to know here that:

****Note about POLICE CERTIFICATES and validity****

Consul replied:

"Although the certificate is only valid for 3 months, we can accept it

until one year after it was issued, for immigrant visas purpose.

Regards,

Consular Communications Office"

So, I ´d like to know where the statement above can be found officialy on the Brazilian Embassy Website or any where else, since, I am trying to explain to my ATTORNEY that it won´t be necessary to get another POLICE RECORD CERTIFICATE, since mine is expired 3 motnhs and my interview is set for january 9th.

Can u guys help me to find it...

Beijos

Ary

Hey Ary,

Interesting, I just asked my lawyer about what we could do to start preparing for the interview (we haven't gotten our NOA2 yet, but we want to be prepared and not leave things until the last minute). My lawyer (who does a lot of work with visas for Brazilians) told me that we could get the police certificates and that they were good for 6 months, so they should be fine by the time of our interview. That's what I heard.

While were on the topic, can someone tell me where we get the police record certificates (state and local - Policia Federal & Estadual) in Rio? Also, how long does it take to receive them after you request them? Do you have to pay for this? Also, my fiancée is concerned that a lot of state offices close down around the holidays and then again around Carnaval. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

K

Woo hoo!!!!

Congrats!!!

Congrat's Kai!!!!

I've read a number of your recent posts in reference to other people's questions and comments it's soooooooooo nice to now be reading about YOUR big day!!!

Good luck with everything!

K

Ken i have heard that USCIS only needs one copy of the G325a also, but I was just following the instructions, I mean why take a chance. I have worked at a Police Officer for over 27 years and have learned that if something ask for so many copies then I would send that many copies even if I know the AG's office only really needed one. I am sure your attonrey is correct on this but I just feel that it ask for 4 the form prints 4 why not send what the instructions call for. I can say I dont always follow the instructions on things. I use to get yelled at by my ex wife for not reading thin instructions on stuff we would by that had to be put together and I will admit sometimes she was correct, but sometimes I got the whole thing put together with out every looking at the instuction sheet. Heck IM at the point now that I forgot the point I was trying to make. But over all I wouldnt worry about it the laywer probably knows.

Thanks for the reassurance!!! And yes, while I assume my lawyer was correct, if filling out forms on your own, I would recommend to all to do exactly as they ask for.

I can understand the reasons for using and reasons for not using a lawyer. In my particular case, I hired a lawyer, who charged $1250 for the whole deal. Clearly not hiring a lawyer will save you some money, and with a great site like this, you can find help (I didn't know of this site when I applied - though had I, I still probably would have hired a lawyer) My fiancée is pregnant and my thought was that I didn't want to take the chance of any extra delay by making any minor mistake (I am a very detail oriented person and still found the forms confusing and not well written). There were minor details that I didn't know how to deal with, such as what to do when you fill things out online and the info doesn't fit in the space given - my lawyer knew to simply hand write in the info that didn't fit and include a note to clarify.

Many people on this site are anti-lawyer, and I can understand that. Lawyers can be cold. A lawyer won't help speed the process up when the paper work is filled out, but on the other hand my lawyer helped write the affidavits (info about your meeting, relationship, marriage proposal, etc.) in a very well laid out fashion (with the info I gave her), when I went into my lawyer's office with the documents she told me to bring, it took us less than two hours and everything was done (and hopefully correctly!). As far as hiring a lawyer, I asked my brother to investigate for me as he too is a lawyer (but not an immigration lawyer) and he found two people who came highly recommended. I spoke to both, as well as a couple other lawyers who friends had worked with, and in the end went with the one who I felt had the strongest understanding of the process (as others on this site have experienced, lawyers can make mistakes and it's good to hire one you feel is experienced and at least a bit caring). Her price was on par with the other lawyers I spoke with and less than one other with whom I spoke. I was able to talk with her directly on the phone and walk into her office and meet with her in person. I don't think I would have felt as comfortable working with someone in a different location, with whom I could not meet. In the end, it's an individual decision, but whether you hire a lawyer or not, keep using this site as an extremely helpful reference.

Lastly, Stevew158 brought up something that concerns me about my case and if someone can offer their knowledge, that would be appreciated. The forms do come in 4 copies. I printed out four copies and my fiancée and I signed everything. My lawyer took one look at that and with no hesitation said, "While it does say to print 4 copies, USCIS only requires one." and she only included one copy in my application. I assume this is the kind of info a good and experienced immigration lawyer knows and hope she was correct, but does anyone know if this could be grounds for and RFE? Again, she has done many recent successful applications with no trouble, but I got nervous reading what stevew158 wrote. As for someone doing it on his or her own, I'd recommend sending in 4 copies regardless, but my application has already been sent.

Thanks!

Hi Ken,

We have the same problem and i'd like to get in touch with USCIS like you have and at least confirm my case is on their "real" system. But I'm completely lost as to how you get through to a person on the USCIS line without a receipt number?

When I call their number (800-375-5283) and enter my receipt number it tells me it's invalid and takes me in a circle over and over again without ever giving me the option of talking to someone. The other options also don't seem to have an option to get through to someone.

How did you do it? Is there another phone number I don't know about or am i missing an option?

Thanks

Emma

Emma, try calling and hitting the option for "you don't know or have lost your receipt number." That should get you through to an operator.

Good luck!!!!

Your post could have been written by me! Even though we are told that things are fine and don't worry about it, I also see posts about people not receiving hard copies of RFE's and only knowing about them because of the online status and calling to check. It would be really nice to know that everything is going as it should!

I hope you get approved sooooooooooooooon!!!!!!!!!

Best of luck!

Very good words of wisdom!!! Thanks friends!

did you enter the number without the hyphens?

Yes, I entered the number without hyphens!!!

I received my NOA1 for my I-129F petition for Fiancée (K1 visa) dated September 4th and I am STILL not entered into Online Case Status system. USCIS cashed my check and my receipt number is the same on both the returned check and my NOA1, but when I enter it into the system I get a message that the system is unable to find my case. They are also not able to look up my case by case number on the phone.

I called USCIS and they were able to look me up by name, said I was in the system, not to worry and to give it a month. After a month, I called back, was told the same thing (and to give it another month) and a few weeks later I got a letter from USCIS saying that the IT department was looking into the problem. I since called once more, and was again told by the secretary "not to worry," that I was in the "real" system and that the Online Case Status system was totally unrelated to what happens with my case (that the system they use to work on the case is different from the one customers can access). However, it's frustrating and a bit unsettling not being able to see my case!

Most of the time, I'm not too worried about this as the people at USCIS are able to look up my case when I give my name and some personal info they ask for. I posted about this after a month and a half of waiting and many VJers responded assuring me not to worry. All this said, it is still nerve-racking. Any thoughts about this? Is there any way I can actually get USCIS to do something about it (their letter impressed me, but no action to follow up on it!!!)? Is there any reason for me to worry that they have lost my case or stuck it at the bottom of the pile?

Thanks and best of luck for speedy approvals for all!!!

Well i have a cheapest way for ya

did you try magic jack ??? its awesome

just 20 bucks a year

I recently purchased the magic jack to test it. Great device. A must for anyone who wants to cut down on their international call cost when calling their spouses abroad.

I preferred signing up to a service like vonage and sending the device to the spouse abroad but if someone is on a tight budget and does not care about call quality, magicjack is the way to go.

Is magic jack poor quality? I'd like to try it. I imagine the vonyage service requires a landline or internet which my SO doesn't have, and neither do I, so we're dealing with cell phone to cell phone. I'm thinking about getting a landline as I've been going over my minutes (find a cheap way to call and then rack up tons in minute overage!!!)

Both pingo and jaxter have you pay online and then give you a bunch of credit towards calls. Pingo is very cheap for calling landlines, but awful for cell phones (at least in Brazil). Jaxter is very good for cell to cell - I try not to calculate the actual minute price as I'll probably feel worse, but I put in $10 and it goes for a while - certainly not as good as the $20 a year that was mentioned for Magic Jack! Usually the quality is good for both, but once and a while it's not so hot, I think that might just be the Brazil side of the connection.

Well i have a cheapest way for ya

did you try magic jack ??? its awesome

just 20 bucks a year

I recently purchased the magic jack to test it. Great device. A must for anyone who wants to cut down on their international call cost when calling their spouses abroad.

I preferred signing up to a service like vonage and sending the device to the spouse abroad but if someone is on a tight budget and does not care about call quality, magicjack is the way to go.

Is magic jack poor quality? I'd like to try it. I imagine the vonyage service requires a landline or internet which my SO doesn't have, and neither do I, so we're dealing with cell phone to cell phone. I'm thinking about getting a landline as I've been going over my minutes (find a cheap way to call and then rack up tons in minute overage!!!)

Both pingo and jaxter have you pay online and then give you a bunch of credit towards calls. Pingo is very cheap for calling landlines, but awful for cell phones (at least in Brazil). Jaxter is very good for cell to cell - I try not to calculate the actual minute price as I'll probably feel worse, but I put in $10 and it goes for a while - certainly not as good as the $20 a year that was mentioned for Magic Jack! Usually the quality is good for both, but once and a while it's not so hot, I think that might just be the Brazil side of the connection.

Hi VJ Folks,

Here are two great ways to call your loved ones internationally:

www.pingo.com (this works great for me to call landlines)

www.jaxter.com (this is great for calling cell phones)

Both are very cheap for calling direct phone to phone. You purchase credit and go. With jaxter, they give you a local number and for few bucks that connects you abroad to the person you're calling's phone.

Enjoy and speak with the one you love often!!!

Hi All,

I've asked a few questions here, and you all are sooooooo helpful!

I'm applying for a K1 visa from VSC and received my NOA1 on September 4th at which point my fiance was 2 months pregnant. I was told that USCIS does not speed up the visa process based on pregnancy (doesn't this seem absurd? - with all respect to everyone's cases out there, I'm sure most would agree that this circumstance should be considered for expedition). I hate to give a sob story here, but my fiance is in a bad living situation - she recently lost her job and health insurance and is living in a room with three other women, a shared bathroom and limited kitchen facilities, and above all there is mold in the apartment and bathroom. I talked with my congressman's office and they tried to help, but they told me VSC rejected the request.

Last week, my fiance got very sick with a fever of 103. She went to a doctor (we're obviously paying for all doctor's visits out of pocket) who confirmed and wrote a letter stating that she was 17 weeks pregnant and her living situation was causing "allergic crisis" and was "impossible in her state of pregnancy." One high-up person at my congressman's office was very nice and when we got turned down for the expedite request he told me that he would keep thinking if there was another way to help. I just wrote him again, and explained about my fiance getting sick and that I now have a doctor's letter confirming the unhealthiness of her living situation for the pregnancy and photos of the mold. The first time around, we sent in no evidence which confuses me (do congressmen just call up and ask for an expedite? They never sent me any paperwork and just asked me to write up a brief outline of the situation). To add insult to injury, the place my fiance lives is supposed to be for single women with no children and I'm concerned with what will happen if she doesn't get here before the birth. In order to get here, she will need to be on a plane by the end of February.

So, my wonderfully helpful VJers, any thoughts on if an expedite is possible, how to best organize the paperwork, how to best stay on top of/help out my congressman in an expedition request, etc., would be great. Also, is there any danger in requesting again? Will the people at VSC see my name again, find me annoying and through my case to the bottom of the pile?!?!?!

To end on a more positive note, my fiance and I couldn't be more thrilled about the pregnancy and many years together as a family!

Thank you all and best of luck and speed for everyone's case!!!