waiting4approval

Ok...so my lawyer got the Affidavit of Support documents and fee pertaining to I130. He asked me to give him support documents such as my Tax returns, original marriage certificate, original birth cert of my wife, her Polica Certificate, her 2 pics, and her passport copies. I have opted to go for I-130, as I will have less headache with it in the future. I heard that if I go with K3, she will have to come to USA and apply for adjustment, which is another $1500, plus lawyer fee.

My wife in Pak also received the K3 interview forms, but I told her to keep them aside, as we are going for I130 immigrant visa. In the K3 papers she received, it was required that she comes to interview with the same original documents that she would have to send me here to give to the lawyer. If I go ahead with I130, and hand over all the original documents to lawyer, do I shoot down any chance of pursuing K3 any further? I feel like going for I130 but am not sure. ANy help will be appreciated.

I was stuck in namecheck for my citizenship for 33 months.. ended up suing the USCIS in July 08 and I was given the oath date in Sept. 08.. I also wish I had done it sooner than that but thats how Allah had it planned for us so thats just how it worked. I upgraged my I-130 and filed 1-129f soon after I became a citizen.The approval process was quicker after that and both I-130 and I-129F were approved at the same time.. with a lot of research and suggestions/advices we ended up pursuing the I-130 (IR-1 visa) just so we don't get stuck in the process again here in the US.

Personally I would suggest go for IR-1 visa.. InshaAllah she will get the visa at the interview.. if possible, attend the interview with her.

If I go ahead with I130, and hand over all the original documents to lawyer, do I shoot down any chance of pursuing K3 any further

No you can obtain certified copies and send them to NVC for IR-1 and originals for K-3.. you will get the K-3 interview sooner than the IR-1 and hopefully it will be approved.. only then you let go of IR-1.. god forbid, K-3 doesn't go well, they will return the original documents to you and you can present them for IR-1 interview if needed, just in case, but it won't be required since certified copies are sufficient anyway.

Mind you, NVC asks for original OR certified.. .. IF you DONT want to submit originals then you need certified copies and can get a certified copy from teh same place where you got the originals from. Let's say you lost your birth certificate and you need to get another one, where would you go to get another one?!?! this another copy would be the certified copy of your birth certificate.

For the marriage certificate, the same thing, you need to go to the place where you got your original nikkah nama from that same place will be able to give you a second copy of your marriage certificate, which is the certified copy!

I did all this research just so I could pursue both of them together but at the end it wasn't worth all the trouble since it's really hard to obtain certified copies in Pakistan.. we ignored the correspondence for K-3, went ahead with IR-1.. had an interview in July and of course he is on AP now.. hopefully it will be over soon.

Good luck with everything.. it's almost over. :-)

Congratz Dean.. good luck for the interview.. keep us posted. :-)

Waiting4approval, I have not heard anything yet. I was thinking to start our own list here to keep track of all Islamabad Embassy AP cases. I know there is one started by "divorced" which is very nice but we can use that as global and ours here as just for ISL. What do you guys think.

sounds like a good idea.. looks like most of us were put on AP around the same time so it would be helpful tp keep track of all of us. Here is a list for the ones that I know..

atk_721 Interview June 24th

L179 Interview July 16th

Lonely heart Interview April 15th

baji Interview July 13th

waiting4approval Interview July 16th

there is someone else who had an interview on May12th but I dun remember her username! Probably you would have seen her around.

Any updates Ali?

It's comforting to know that people are getting visas within six months but as L179 said I just hope and pray none of us become a victim of that never-ending AP that we have heard about at Islamabad Embassy. Good luck to all of us.

PINK SLIP TODAY FOR HER!! I believe everything is finished.. passport should arrive Saturday.. I really hope that this is the end.. :star:

Finally !!!!!!!!!!!!!

congrats and good lucks.

Please add us in as well.

Interview held on July 16th... put on AP for 2-3 months.

CO told us that case has been approved and kept the passport. Anyone with similar experience?

How do you know you r in AP for 2-3 mons??? one cannot estimate the AP Time, ISL and DOS provide you w/an avg AP but these averages do not apply to ISL cases.

good lucks!

well thats what the CO told us that they need 2-3 months for office work but since they kept the passport I was assuming probably it's true.. I guess you are right, we never know how long it takes!

Please add us in as well.

Interview held on July 16th... put on AP for 2-3 months.

CO told us that case has been approved and kept the passport. Anyone with similar experience?

My husband;s interview was on July 16th, he was put on AP but we were told that case has been approved. The CO kept the passport so I was hoping for a quick visa but I called DOS and it looks like the same 4-6 months process.. anyone had that experience?

oh and also, they scanned my husband's photos before the fingerprinting.. any significance?

oh wait I just realized that yours is not the IR-1 visa.. sorry about that.

When is her interview???

My husband's interview is on July 16th at 8:00 and I have opened a thread in the embassy forum and posted a list of documents that we will be taking for his interview.. probably you can contribute there too. How did you obtain another new PCC?

Good luck to you guys :-)

Looks like three of us VJ members are scheduled for July 16th interview at Islamabad embassy.. Is there anyone else out there?!?!?

The ones that I know..

L179 at 8:00am

waiting4approval at 8:00am

Karachitte Time???

Good luck everyone.. lets compare notes :-)

My interview folder contains:

-Copy of I-864

-Copy of DS-230

-Copy of I-130

-Notices from USCIS

-Petitioner's Naturalization Certificate

-Petitioner's degrees

-Petitioner's apartment lease

-Cards and letters

-Pictures (Missing the most recent ones from my trip in March 2009)

-Emails (Not yet.. hubby has them printed out, I will include them in once I get to Pakistan)

Anything else that I MUST include?

I was told by the NVC operator that PCC is valid for one year no matter what it says on the PCC.. my husband's PCC from Lahore expires on the 16th, the day of his interview, and he hasn't lived in Lahore since 2006 so I am hoping that it would be fine. It was a hassle to get one from there, I dun think we can even try to get one now in 10 days. :-(

Karachitte: Looks like we have an interview on the same day.. what time is yours? My husband's interview is at 8:00am.. Is your spouse going to be there too?

So far, it's three of us VJ members scheudled for July 16th interview.. good luck everyone.. Lets hope for no AP and considering we are destined for one, lets hope for a short AP. :-)

5 year multiple entries visa for US?! does that mean your AP lasted from June 9th to July 2nd? Just curious :-)

waitingforapproval.......

a special one out to you!

awww sweety.. you are wonderful :-)

I am so frustrated right now that I have lost my apetite and sleep..I had to call in sick today because I didn't sleep for even a minute last nite :-(

May Allah Taala make this process easy for all of us. if i had a nickel for every hour of mental torture this immigration process has made me gone through, I would be filthy rich by now. :-(

Omar please fill in your timeline.. when was your interview? AP?

Congratz Asher..do let us know when she receives the visa... at least one person without an AP :-)

oh really... thats good to know, Iw as thinking about leaving the hotel at 5:00 or 5:30 and as I told you it would take only 20 mins to get there.. now only if I wasn't this stressed out, we could have met up at serena for breakfast but I dun wanna ruin the beginning of everyone's day so i guess we will just meet later.. I am looking forward to seeing you there :-)

hehe i know it appears like I am all prepared for the AP.. watch me throw a tantrum there if they mention the word AP!

You know you are visiting this forum too much when you live and dream the word AP.. gotta stop doing this to myself!

Feisal.. did you try calling NVC to receive the interview date???

no Feisal, we dun have children yet.. we were married young and delayed having children until we were out of this mess.. his name has "ahmed" in it... very common I must say! We are very thorough with our dates and such.. we literally grew up together (good family friends) so we know each other's family basically on the tips of our fingers... it's the AP I am scared of the most.. I dunno anyone who were approved the same day at the interview.

One of VJ members had her husband's interview on June 24th.. they have been married for 3 years, she went there for his interview and of course he was put on AP.. CO mentioned 1-3 months but lets see how long it takes.. I spoek to her on phone and she told me that only one Afhani guy got the immigrant visa, and this 60 year old woman was also put on AP while she was being sponsored by her son in the states. I guess as a Pakistani, we gotta through this no matter what. :-(

I am talking about arriving outside the diplomat enclave.. we will be coming from Karachi but staying in Islamabad overnite so just wanted to know what time should we get there.. I guess 6:00/6:30 would be okay!

we are mentally prepared for AP but I would hate to come back alone AGAIN :-(

I agree with you 100%.. they should do the background check before they call for an interview.. I was stuck in my citizenship AP for 33 months just because they hadn't completed the name check yet.. so unfair!!!

Ali.. what time was your interview? my husband's interview is at 8:00am and I will be going with him.. do you think getting there at 6:00 or 6:30 would give us enough time to pass through the security and all that?

awww good to know.. you are almost done.. share the good news asap :-)

It looks like everyone is going on AP at Islamabad embassy.. my husband's interview is on July 16th and I am dreading this the most.. does anyone have an idea how long is this AP taking?

arrghhh that sucks.. hopefully he will get the visa soon.

Dun do anything for K-3 and it will not get processed.. just dun respond to the correspondence that you would receive from embassy once NVC sends the application to them. Thats what we did. :-)

Congratulations and have a smooth IR process. :-)

they REQUIRE the tax return for 2008 only.. people provide 2007, 2006 just for the sake of it.. I didnt meet the requirement for even 2008 but my current income was far above n beyond the required level so I sent in my employment letter, recent pay stubs and all that... I still had a co-sponsor only to find out later that since he is self employed and had his wife n daughter dependent on him, he didn't meet the requirement for a household size of 5 people! I sent the papers in, never received any RFE, now I dunno if they looked at my current year income or what but it went through just fine!

Personally, I dun even think that you need a co-sponor.. bottom line is, if you have income 125% above the poverty line for 2008 and current year 2009, you are good. :-)