Skye_Cohen

i just got my interview date. it went like this: I called NVC just to see if by any chance they had processed my wifes DS 230, and my goodness they had. and they told me my interview date. that was it. by the waythe interview date was around 20 days or so after they approved the ds 230 and i 864

Hi VJers,

Anyone want to share what did you write on the email to the embassy once your packet 3 is ready as Packet 4... what is the format to ask an interview schedule? can you request certain date to them?

thank you

re: the address question, it is fine you just have to list that address for previous addresses in the g 325a or the i-130, i forget now which one it is. and also later on when you fill out the DS-230 once you get to nvc.

Hello fellow visa journey peeps!! I am a super newbie and about to send off the I-130 packet. My husband is Argentine and we just married on March 1st, 2011 after dating for more than 3 years and I have been living here in Argentina. Feels great to be officially starting our path to the IR-1/CR-1 visa but WOW it can be overwhelming!

I have done a ton of research on VJ as well as the uscis website and have a few questions...

What if his address on the I-130 does not match the address on our marriage certificate? We used his mothers address (still his legal and permanent address) in order to marry within the Capital border for legal reasons. Where as we live together in Provincia which is in another juristiction all together and gets complicated. SO, should I put his permanent address which matches the marriage certificate as well as his ID on the form while listing our current provincia address seperate where they ask for last common residence?

Also, I have been working under the table as an English teacher here which is very common, I was never even asked for documentation. I am worried about listing my work abroad since I do not have permission to work here legally. Any suggestions??

Thank you all for your help and feedback and best of luck to everybody!

Celina

active forum and my thread was lost quickly so this is my second time trying to ask.

I am using a co-sponsor, my mother.

I do not live with my mother.

I fill out an I-864 but does she fill out I-864 or I-864A, since we are not in the same household it would seem an I-864, not I-864A but maybe we need to say same household for processing reasons?

The instructions for I-864 seem to indicate that the I-864, not the I-864A would be appropriate for my mother to fill out..

which one is correct? i don't want an RFE, this has been too long a process already..

Thank you.

I'm sure this info is out there but i couldnt seem to find it, sorry if this question is commonly asked

So I am the petitioner, My wife is the principal applicant/aka beneficiary, my mom is the co sponser.

I do not live with my mother.

So both my mother and I need to fill out an I-864, no I-864a is involved since we are in different households correct?

then on my i 864, for question 24b, I leave that blank(or write NONE?) since my mother is not listed in my household, is that correct?

Thanks!!

i understand, He was let off the plane in a staging area for customs, there often is no place to buy food or water, it is simply a gate, a hallway, a baggage claim and then long lines for customs, PDX(portland OR, my home city/airport) looks like that too at the POE

Anyway congratz!! wow, i should have done DCF man that is amazingly fast!

Did you need to give them your akte perkawinan? did you give both suami and istri copies?of just one?

also how is the embassy? is it easy do you think for a non english speaking indonesian to navigate it?

Is that accurate?? :blink:

This just doesn't sound right.

I travel 5-6 times every year in Europe and beyond and I've never heard/experienced anything like that. I know liquids are not allowed before you reach Security, but after you've passed through them, you're free to buy anything you want from the airport shops or vending machines(including water of course!!!) and YES, of course you are allowed to take that on the plane!! Nobody will stop you since you're past Security and can only buy from the airport's controlled area. I do it every single time on every single trip, including to the US, because I always want to have water available at any time and I don't want to rely on the flight's serving schedule in case there are delays etc.

Besides that though, they must have catered for you on the plane for such a long flight, or at least there must have been an option to buy water/food on board if this wasn't included on the fare.

I'm afraid you somehow got very confused and you ended up torturing yourselves unnecessarily!!

Believe me, it's no one's best interests (airports or airlines) to let passengers risk their health from dehydration, thus why I think you got seriously confused as to what the rules are and what not!!

My wife also, she has 5 names and none of them are family names.

As far as i know (maybe somone smarter will correct me if I'm wrong) all of your paperwork, your akte perkawinan, your akte kelahiran, and your passport, all of them must have same thing written for first and last name, i think the best thing to do would be to see if you can go back to the catatan cipil and have them change your passport, you can bring your akte kelahiran and akte perkawinan and your kartu keluarga(if it too has the same name) so that they can see that you are not chainging your name, but correcting it.

I have two name for myself; e.g: Maria Magdalena

I dont have family name.

My fiance use that name for K1 petition.

Recently i got my new passport, and on it, they put my that two name followed by my father's and my grandfather one; Maria Magdalena Bt Eric Abraham. (Bt is mean daugther of, Eric is my dad's name, and Abraham is my grandfather)

I am confuse now. What should i put on the forms of DS-230, DS-156, and DS-156K for:

First name:

Middle name:

Family name:

Anybody could help?.

Excellent! I'm happy to hear your news. My wife will be interviewing at JAK embassy after we get through NVC and i have a couple of questions for you.

Was the Embassy simple for her to understand? like did she go in, take a number and wait? how was getting in? did she havto show her appointment letter? was there a long line? did you guys haveto wait in that line or just show the appoint letter to a security officer? how did that all work?

Also I've read that they will interview in indonesian if the beneficiary doesent speak english but havent had that confirmed, can you confirm? or maybe your fiance did it in english?

Also when you sent.. oh i just realized you didnt have to send in the akte perkawinan(wedding cert.) since you will be marrying here in the US but does anyone know if you send the istri(wife) or suami(husband) copy in to nvc or both?

Hello All,

I just want to share my experience with you all.

My fiancee had her interview today, and it went extremely well.

We were very organized in our paper work. We had everything that they asked for in pakage 3.

The CO did not let me in with my fiancee, although she was nice and said "your fiancee appreciates your support but wait outside until she's done".

The CO then asked her the following questions:

Where and when did we meet the first time?

- We met in Jakarta while Khalid was on vacation

Do you like Moroccan food? (i'm originaly from Morocco)

- Not really, but I try to eat it and not complain too much about it.

Did you ever meet his parents?

- No, but I chatted with them on phone and web cam

Are you going to have a big wedding?

-No, we want a small wedding, we already spent so much money on this process.

Are your family going to attend the wedding?

-No, my mom is scared to fly. So we are going to come back and have another party for my family next year.

What does he do for work?

-He's a director and travels a lot in America.

Where are his parents from, and where are they now?

-His parents are from morocco and they still live in morocco.

Who lives with him in the house?

-Only him and his daughter.

Have you ever been to America?

-No, never.

Have you ever been to Morocco

-No, never.

How old is his daughter?

-she is 20.

These are the question asked, the CO did not ask for any more pics or proof of relashionship. She then gave her a white slip and said to pick up her passport on friday.

The CO was very kind and polite and smiled when asking questions. It seemed that they had already approved the visa before even the interview.

I hope this helps ease some of the fears and uncertainty of some of you.

Don't hesitate to ask me any detailed question, i'll do my best to answer any questions you may have.

Thanks to VJ for providing all of us this platform and this amazing support group.

Khalid and Yuni

Yes it is just a glitch, i dont know how to link to the thread i just started but it's called "a glitch in the uscis case status checker"

hi all i just wanted to give you the info that my congressman office told me. first some quick background:

I was approved at USCIS, got my NOA 2, on feb 16, after recieving the email and text i went to the USCIS website and sure enough my case said "post decision activity". About a week or so later i recieved an email from USCIS that looked just like the email one recieves before getting the NOA1, it said that my case was being sent to someone in USCIS. My congressman's aid was very on the ball and noticed that my case number was one number off from the case number on the email that I had recieved, later i looked through all my emails from uscis and all of them were not to my case number but one digit off, I never recieved any emails reguarding my actual case #.

The email question is still unresolved but this is what i thought worth sharing, my congressmans aid told me that uscis has a glitch in their case status checker where sometimes after an application is apporoved with uscis but before it gets a case # with nvc, sometimes the USCIS website displays false information regarding the case. However, after the case # is assigned to that uscis reciept #, all is well.

Here is the text from the email sent by the congress' office, there is also text from the congresmans correspondance with an NVC person

Hi Skye --

Below is confirmation of your case and that it is at NVC, all is well.

I have requested that your email address be disconnected from the other case (ending in 7), so that you stop receiving updates on that.

The USCIS case status checker has a bug in it… when it goes to NVC and awaits a case number there, sometimes it changes from "Post Decision Activity" to something incorrect, as it appears yours is now. (Yours reads a Feb 10 initial review, but we have it in writing that you were approved on Feb 16 below.)

The NVC number should come soon, and the process will be drawing to a close! I will check again with NVC for your case number the week of March 28, if you have not received it by then.

Best,

Emily

From:

Sent: Friday, March 04, 2011 11:28 AM

To: __________________

Subject: RE: Case Status Information for Receipt Number: ___________

Hi Emily,

The correct I130 Receipt Number for your constituent Skye __________ is __________ The California Service Center (CSC) no longer has jurisdiction over this I130 petition. The case was approved on February 16, 2011. The approval notice was mailed the same day to the petitioner's address of record: ________________. The notice has not been returned by the post office as undeliverable. The petition is in the process of being sent to NVC. Please allow 4-6 weeks for the case to arrive at the NVC. Please contact their office for further questions on this case. National Visa Center, 32 Rochester Ave., Portsmouth, NH 03801.

search keys: Case status reverted, after post decision activity now saying initial review, after approval now initial review

I havent kept up with this thread but i am one of the CSC to TSC'ers, just wanted to check in.. I was approved on feb 16 and just today called the nvc (speed dial rocks) to check and see if my case # came in yet and yes it is!!

'hope all the pages that i haven't read on this thread are people saying the same thing

Got noa 2 on feb 16. finally back in action, at least for now

or any us consulate in indonesia, it doesent have to be from the jakarta embassy

also you asked where to get your wedding certificate, if the wedding will be under the religeon of islam, you need to obtain the certificate from the KUA. i dont know the spacific process as i marrried under hundu religion which is different but read those links and ask your wife and her family. I'm sure things will work out just fine, in indonesia, at least in my experience, the elders take care of things like that but asking them a ton of questions isnt culturally appropriate, just make sure you communicate what it is exactly that you need

At the US Embassy in Jakarta.

or any us consulate in indonesia, it doesent have to be from the jakarta embassy

Hello everyone

I would like to ask for some guidance with regards to marrying my fiancee in Indonesia this coming June.

1. She lives near Cirebon in West Java. Where do we need to go to obtain a marriage license or certificate?

2. Do you have any recommendations/advice about a pre-nuptial agreement?

Please let me know if there is anything else that could be of help.

Thank you in advance and take care

Ryan

Marriage Certificates

Available. A marriage certificate (Akte Perkawinan or Surat Nikah) is issued by the following offices for the following population groups: 1) Moslem - the Kantor Urusan Agama (KUA - Office of Religious Affairs); 2) all other religions - a solemnization certificate must first be recorded with the Civil Registry office (Dinas Kependudukan and Catatan Sipil). Please note that the marriage is considered legally valid from the date of recording, not the date of solemnization.

this taken from http://travel.state.gov/visa/fees/fees_4881.html?cid=3584

I can say from experience that it can be a bit difficult to obtain the paperwork as Indonesia is very corrupt, bribes are on a sliding scale and they slide very far up when a tourist is involved and competence can slide down too. there are a couple of other types of wedding certificates that are easier to obtain but the us does not recognize them, they will do you no good.

Also the statement above is a bit misleading, surat nikah is from the kua and it is for muslims, if you are any other relegion you need to first get married then take your religious paperwork along with her kartu keluarga and your passport and a letter of no impediment to marriage, easy to obtain from the closest us consulate or embassy, take all that to the catatan cipil and ask for your akte perkawinan, if the price is higher then 1jt (should be something like 200k but will probably raise up for you) you can maybe try to get your embassy or consulate to call them, dont loose your temper, smile and mention it as if you were helping them out.

I know nothing about pre-nups but i will ask my wife where to look for that

paypal works and is cheap too, both parties need verified paypal accounts, (tied to a bank acc,) it is something like 1.50 to send 300 or less and it stays cheap as you send more. The process is a bit wacky though:

transfer $ from your bank to your paypal, transfer $ from your paypal to his/her paypal, transfer $ from his/her paypal to his/her bank..

once you log into your paypal acc there is a button to transfer intl, i think it is on the right of the page

Is it possible to use paypal ?!?

info for you all. I got an email back from my congressman's aid who spoke with the TSC. she told me that my timeline, and I'm assuming all of you other CSC to TSC folks is 30 to 90 days after the transfer to TSC. She also said that once she(i'm assuming same is true for all congressional inquiries) gets a timeline from USCIS it is "very rare" that that timeline is not met.

Best of luck to you all. please keep us all posted if anyone has any updates and i will do the same

--also might not hurt for us all to keep the venting to a min. it gets tough to read through it all.

My two cents: Have the wedding as planned, after all, it is already planned. A wedding is indeed important for the parents of both bride and groom, but most of all it is for you and her. The way i think of it the wedding is for you two and the reception is for the whole family. Why not have a second reception in the USA later on so her mother and all of her other relatives and friends can participate too.

That is my wife and my plans too, we both have big families, for many reasons we had the wedding in indonesia and later when she gets here we will have a second reception here so that my grandparents uncles etc.. can be a part of our union as well.

Either way, tough situation but lucky if it is your only hardship. i wish you well and im sure your fiance's mother will understand and wouldn't want to be the cause of delaying your wedding.

The processing time charts here are wonderful but i'm wondering if there are any processing time charts for people who dont get RFE's. When i look at processing time averages they seem to be a good guideline but if i understand correctly, the average times shoot up pretty high because of cases where there are RFE's that take more time.

I want to know how long realistically if there are no RFE's, for NVC processing. When i look on the charts for indonesia it is something like 182 days from noa2 to interview but that seems long when i read other information about NVC processing times from the wiki.

Am i missing something? is there an official timeline from NVC such as the 5month time frame from USCIS?

me too, just sent it in. I will keep you posted if i receive a responses

i emailed the ombudsman just now..hoping for a reply....

great thinking, we should all email as our voice will be much louder if all together, i will email too later this am

Here's some info on the Ombudsman:

To help improve customer service, we seek feedback from our customers, stakeholders, and affiliated agencies to help identify issues that directly affect you. Email the Ombudsman Liaison Unit at OLUInquiries@dhs.gov. Please explain your concern, question, or suggestion as clearly as possible. Regrettably, we cannot post any inquiries online if they have case-specific or personal information in them.

I think I am going to email him, over and over and over and over. Maybe that will get me somewhere? I'm not yet to the 5 month mark, I've got a week left, BUT I think I will email him now, make light of the fact June/July filers were transferred, NOT approved but August/Sept/Oct filers have been approved.

My T-Mobile family plan offers unlimited international texting but it isn't free. It's $30 a month for all lines on the plan. We have four lines.

sorry, i said free but what i meant is you pay a flat rate and after that you aren't charged any more. yes im on a family plan too and also pay 30 for all the lines on it, not 30 if only a single line though. still i was spending about 50 before the plan was introduced

Quick note though, If i understand the i-864 instructions properly, and that is a big "if", your father would need to make enough to not only to sponsor your wife, but also enough to support all dependents in the household, again if i understand correctly, that would be your mother, you and your wife.

I am sure this question has been asked before, so I will get straight to the point.

I live in China along with my wife, and she and I have been approved for the CR-1 visa and are now getting ready to submit the I-864 affidavit of support form along with a joint sponsor because my income does not meet the 125% level that the US government requires. So, my father will be the joint sponsor for our support. He is my biological father (not sure if that matters) and his income combined with mine would reach the 125% level. However, I am confused about the forms which he, my father, is supposed to fill out.

It has been made pretty clear to me that the household members must sign form I-864A, along with me in regards to joint income. However, besides this form, does my father also need to fill out form I-864? I just want to know if he has to fill out any other forms besides the I-864A, or if we both have to fill out form I-864. I'd appreciate any responses that could clear up this matter as soon as possible, as it's been haunting me for nearly a month now trying to find this out. Thank heavens for Visa Journey.

I look forward to your responses.

--Jake

great topic!

no cheap fast internet in my wifes locale so phone, i have T-moble with my fav's that means 5 free numbers, one is an LA area code intl. access number from smartvoip i buy credits with them and it costs me 3.5 euro cents per min to a landline or 5.5 to a cell. She then uses a type of cell phone called Flexi which has a landline style phone number to get the cheaper rate.

for texting T-mobile just came out with a free text intl. plan, great for me but that "Flexi" phone i mentioned earlier is really expensive for texting so she uses a different cell phone for texting me as well as for local calls (XL for any indonesians out there).

Also for her to call me she uses that XL phone but dials(special for XL) 010001 then my area code and phone number giving her cheaper intl rates!

yes but know that people with "aids" are not banned from the usa now-a-days.

i could be wrong but i thought AIDS would infact be a problem for immigration, however HIV would not as long as the intending immigrant was on proper medication

oops! too late to edit the first post, i will edit in red below:

just for clarification: if the filer submits an i864 and has sufficient income for the current year but did not file taxes for the previous two years because they were not required to as their income was small enough, or they filed but the income did not meet the 125% of poverty threshold. would they still be able to sponsor the foreign spouse or would they need to find a co-sponsor?