SerenityHope

Ali was told at his interview that I do not make enough income to support him, regardless what the NVC seems to think. I handed in a partial year's Federal Tax Return which showed that I made $15,500 from April 2008-December 2008. I also submitted a statement of my savings ($3,500), a letter from my employer stating my full year's salary ($22,000) and copies of my earned scholarship disbursements to be used for living expenses ($12,000/year). Had they looked closely and reviewed all of our evidence (as it seems the NVC did, as we were obviously approved) they would have seen that I make enough money to support a family of four or more at 125% above the poverty line. I also submitted unofficial transcripts of my Master's program detailing that I was in the top 15% of my class. Instead they asked for a joint sponsor. Which leads us to our 2nd RFE.

Ali handed all of the documents to the consular and everything was in order. Ali's sponsor, a male relative of mine, is married. She asked if the wife also works (assuming because the married couple filed their taxes jointly and only the husband's wage statements were in the evidence that I sent) . Ali said yes. However, Ali was mistaken (we unfortunately never discussed this, I did not predict they would ask this sort of question). When Ali left the embassy and retrieved his phone from security he called me to tell me what transpired. I told him that he was mistaken, that my aunt does not work. Ali rushed back to the embassy to talk to the same woman who said "I have put a date for you into the computer already. Explain the situation to me then" and dismissed him. So, now we have an RFE that says that Ali needs to submit a joint affadavit of support and wage statements of a woman that does not work. What a nightmare.

What I intend to do is get a signed, notarized statement from my aunt detailing the situation told to her by Ali and myself and verifying that she does not work and has not worked for some time due to a disability. Then I will get a copy of some document verifying her disability and have that notarized as a certified true copy. I will also have my uncle write a signed, notarized statement verifying that he is the sole wage earner in the partnership. Then I may have them fill another Affadavit of Support---but I don't see the sense in this except they asked for an Affadavit of Support. My lawyer has yet to get back to me.

So, any thoughts, advice, words of encouragement?

Hey all,

How did you all proceed in actually purchasing the ticket for your spouse to get here. You see, hubby doesn't have a credit card (hardly anyone in West Africa does, it's a huge fraud risk). I could wire him the money to buy the ticket directly from the airline but that's a 60 dollar or so Western Union Fee. I would like to buy the ticket online with a credit card however, I heard from the grapevine that the traveler has to show the credit card to the airline attendant before tickets/boarding passes are issued. There is NO way that I sending my credit card through the mail. My husband is not an authorized user on my credit cards (I saw no point of doing this until he got there. Very few vendors in Ghana accept them anyway). I was told that I would have to go through a travel agent to book the ticket to use the credit card and my husband not have to present it when collecting boarding passes. Ok. How much of this is true and how did you go about purchasing a ticket for your spouse? Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill?

nobody in any consulate is qualified to read it, they do not have on the consulate/embassy, a staff radiologist... all the needed information was read and transcribed onto the medical report

Okay. Thanks. That answered my question perfectly!

Hey guys,

Do you know if the beneficiary needs to get X-rays at his medical exam and then provide them at the interview. I am most interested in the policy for Ghana CR-1 filers. Thanks!

Hubby and I agreed that if it doesn't come by Saturday then I am going to make some phone calls and talk to an NVC supervisor. Thanks for the tip to get the email confirmation! I will do that as well if the letter doesn't come by Saturday. Also, I am comforted that some of you just got your letter today.

Thanks all!

Hey, anyone else not get their appointment letter yet. I was scheduled on Thursday, February 12th and I guess they sent out that letter the same day. That's what the operator said. I still haven't recieved it yet. I live in Michigan (hubby designated me has his correspondence reciever). Should I be worried yet?

OMG! I seriously would have considered bodily harm! Good job keeping your cool with her. Just think about this, if she's a bitter, unhappy person now, she will be for the rest of her life. You on the other hand, will eventually be reunited with your lovely wife and experience great joy in that.

MoonLitCherri,

I've read your past posts and know that you encountered a problem with the embassy before and they told you you didn't have enough evidence. My interview date is March 30th. I am sending my husband with about 100 pages of emails, 1 phone bill showing that we text each other (we just learned that we could do this with a text plan and not pay gross international charges), 6 phone bills showing that we called each other via phone cards, used phone cards, an auto insurance policy with him listed, a letter of good status from my bank with him listed as beneficiary on accounts, a joint federal tax return from 2008, a document listing him on my auto loan as my spouse, and my lease saying he will occupy the apartment. In your opinion, is this enough?

Thanks for your input!

AND CONGRATS! What a wonderful day for you!

My wife's IR1 visa case was completed at NVC on Feb 10th, 2009, but she did not get an interview date for March at Mumbai.

She has the K3 visa interview on Mar 18th. I was told that unless one gets an appointment date for IR1 visa, they will

not mail the paperwork for IR1 to the consulate. I thought that if NVC would mail the paperwork for IR1 to the consulate

before the K3 interview, my wife would have a chance to convert the K3 visa interview to IR1 interview. I do not know

what to do at this moment, whether to go for K3 or IR1 visa interview. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

See my reply under "March Interview".

All,

I haven't gotten my interview package for my husband yet, either. Glad I am not the only one!

My wife's IR1 visa case was completed at NVC on Feb 10th, 2009, but she did not get an interview date for March at Mumbai.

She has the K3 visa interview on Mar 18th. I was told that unless one gets an appointment date for IR1 visa, they will

not mail the paperwork for IR1 to the consulate. I thought that if NVC would mail the paperwork for IR1 to the consulate

before the K3 interview, my wife would have a chance to convert the K3 visa interview to IR1 interview. I do not know

what to do at this moment, whether to go for K3 or IR1 visa interview. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Jai,

The same thing happened with my case. I suggest you stay on the IR-1 path. The IR-1 has more privileges and is ultimately less expensive than the K3 (You have to change status with the K3 and will pay upwards of 1300 in administrative fees and costs). You will probably get an interview date next month for the month of April. You may have already mailed in all of your original docs with your IR-1 DS230. With the time that it would take for the NVC to mail those back to you and you to mail them to your wife (which they are required for the K3 interview), you may miss the March 18th interview date, even. Trust me, it's in your best interest to stay on the IR-1 track.

I got my interview date! The automated system wasn't updated because I talked to an operator at 11:30 a.m. and they told me an interview had been scheduled yesterday and the necessary information mailed out. I jumped up and down, screamed, thanked the woman profusely and told her she had just made this the best day of my life, hung up the phone and hysterical laughing turned into hysterical crying. Oh, Allah is good. Thanks for all the support guys!

...and she said it happens all the time. I've done some research and Ghana has some of the longest waits for interviews but then others who have done research say it's odd that I've waited more than a month (these are Ghana filers). The NVC automated line asks you to talk to an operator if it has been more than eight weeks. The operator just gives you the same tired, scripted response that they schedule interviews based on embassy capacity blah blah blah. I suppose I just want to rant. But anywhoo....anyone been waiting more than eight weeks? What steps did you take to get scheduled? Allah be praised if we're scheduled this week, we've been waiting so looong.

yeap , the operator named Ozzy n Sarah said the same tired, scripted response that they schedule interviews

based on embassy capacity blah blah blah n that they schedule 2nd week of each month.

well , hope both us will get the interview date for next month this week.

Thanks for the love! I hope so too. I see that you got approved around the same time we did. Good luck!

...and she said it happens all the time. I've done some research and Ghana has some of the longest waits for interviews but then others who have done research say it's odd that I've waited more than a month (these are Ghana filers). The NVC automated line asks you to talk to an operator if it has been more than eight weeks. The operator just gives you the same tired, scripted response that they schedule interviews based on embassy capacity blah blah blah. I suppose I just want to rant. But anywhoo....anyone been waiting more than eight weeks? What steps did you take to get scheduled? Allah be praised if we're scheduled this week, we've been waiting so looong.

Thanks for starting this thread! I AM SO TIRED of hearing the same scripted response. Those poor souls at the NVC they call operators, they must take a ton of abuse. I wonder if they log how many times you call...that could be why the operators are getting increasingly snippy as I think I've called thirty times now in the eight weeks since our case was completed!

Getting an ITIN requires a US Notary certifying a copy of the immigrant's passport. That means sending a passort from Pakistan. Pretty cumbersome for most people and highly risky.

I had my husband send a scan of his passport via email. I then had it notarized in the US. I had filed POA and so I wrote some statement on the document saying that "I, so and so, spouse of so and so, appeared before this public notary attesting that this is a real and true copy of so and so's passport issued by the Republic of Ghana, West Africa." I then signed my name and the notary did her thing. Everything seemed well and good. I really don't think that it will be a problem. The IRS have bigger fish to fry.

I just spoke to my attorney about the filing status I should for my 2008. He told me to file as single since my wife is in Pakistan, and in order to file married I would need her SS#. So, I guess it's ok to file as single for those people whose husband/wife is abroad. Can anyone share their opinion? Thanks.

Smart attorney. That's the easy option I used. Then, we filed an amended return after she had a tax ID number.

Thanks, but wouldn't it be a problem at the NVC or the embassy, when they see that I am married but I filed as single? I just want to be sure before I go ahead and file my taxes.

No problem that, if asked about can't be solved with by answering, "My husband's attorney told him to file as single since his wife is in Pakistan, and in order to file married He would need my SS#."

Here is what I did. I filed married and when I sent in my taxes, I also filled an application for a ITIN (tax ID number). You will need a notarized copy of your spouse's passport bio page to do this. It was simple and easy. I actually went to HR Block and they took care of every thing for me. I just had to get the notarized copy of the passport bio page. I did have to send the ITIN app and a POA form to my husband to sign and he sent that back to me and then I was able to sign our joint return for the both of us. It took one afternoon not including the couple weeks of mail time to get documents signed by my husband and returned to me. Cost at HR Block was 219 dollars at a Premium office that deals with special situations. I filed joint as further evidence of a financially-obligated marital relationship which can only help us during the interview process. I don't claim to be an expert but I am an Master's Public Administration and my BA is in Political Science. I more or less know how bureaucracy works and its always been rather safe than sorry with me. It doesn't matter how many copies of text messages, lovey-dovey emails and phone bills you submit of evidence of a true relationship. They want to see that you're willing to spend money on your spouse, put him/her beneficiary on bank accounts, have joint checking/credit accounts, as insurance beneficiary etc. They want a paper trail. Invest the 200 dollars and afternoon. It can only help you.

Ditto. I would wait for your I-130 approval. The process speeds by after that. It's a good idea to get all of your documents gathered now. Your husband has to go to the Police CID in Accra. The cost is about 10 dollars plus passport photos they take there, so about 15 dollars altogether. You can get the report in as little as seven days, like we did. The safer bet is to believe the police report is valid for six months but I have never personally seen an expiration date. You can get a rush on it by slipping someone somewhere a few cedis to get the petition to the top of the pile. Also, tell your husband to expect a long line. My husband waited about four hours before anyone could help him. It's probably best to go in the early morning. Best of luck and PM me if you have any more questions. We just got through this not too long ago and we are expecting a March interview date.

Hello,

Does anyone know how long it takes for an update to your case to be posted to the automated line? Is it that same day or is it one business day? These are my best guesses. Anyone know?

Update:

I just called the NVC and was able to talk to an operator that said that most updates are posted to the automated line that same day.

Hello,

Does anyone know how long it takes for an update to your case to be posted to the automated line? Is it that same day or is it one business day? These are my best guesses. Anyone know?

I am a US citizen petitioning to bring my husband from Ghana. He genuinely does not want to come here but I just recieved a scholarship to attend law school that pays for 2/3 of the tuition. That was the clincher and, not wanting to limit my life opportunities, he agreed to come. He loves his country, he loves his family and he's not a person to go outside of their comfort zone very often. I actually married him, in part, because he is a Ghanaian. There was something exotic, beautiful and perfect about the fact that he's only once ever owned an Xbox and only so he could let the neighborhood children play for 100 old ghana cedies. He thinks video games and comic books or a waste of time. I guess simply put, it wasn't until I went outside of the US that I found someone that had the same values, beliefs and lofty ambitions that I do.

Hi folks,

Our case is now completed at the NVC and after a call to them I was told that an interview date for my husband will be scheduled the second week of January. We first began filing, sending in the I-130 and later I-129 which were both approved at the same time, in the beginning of July. Our case was completed at the NVC on December 16th. My question is does my husband have to have any sort of completed vaccinations before the interview? We haven't recieved any information regarding vaccinations or the medical exam yet but we want the heads up so we know what to expect and if it's possible to get a head start on required vaccinations. I have retained a lawyer as a matter of insurance and assurance and he says that vaccinations are not required until Ali is in the US (this may be a mistake as he may have been referring to the K-3 visa at the time. We were pursuing both at that time and then settled on the CR-1). A link would be helpful!

Serenity

ds 230, parts one and two, part one is signed

marriage cert

birth cert

police clearance cert

two passport photos

two photocopies of passport

we've only been married once to each other and neither of us have committed a crime.

should i photocopy everything, i swear i read somewhere that they wanted everything in duplicate.

THANKS!

Hi,

Got a letter today in the mail that my husband should come and pick a package up at the embassy in connection to a K3 visa petition filed on his behalf. We haven't yet sent the DS230 or I-864. What's this package about? Anyone know?

Can I submit a tax transcript in lieu of the actual return? The transcript takes 10 days and is free where as the return is 57 dollars and takes 60 days.

Tax transcripts are preferred since you don't need any supporting document (i.e., W-2s, 1099, etc).

(Side Note: Not sure where you're getting your returns from - but the rest of us just kept copies.)

Haha. I am college student and a very mobile one with a ton of stuff. It would have been easier to wait 10 days then look for 10 days in my mounds of cardboard boxes to no avail. Thanks for the reply. I think I'll submit the W2 too, just in case. For my own personal peace of mind, do you have a source? Not that I don't trust you, but I am worry wart.