Jim Brown

Congratulations!

Just as a follow up, we did do the medical on the 8th of this month, prior to the case arriving in London. Knightsbridge confirmed that it was okay! I'll let you know how it works out!

Congrats to all the ppl getting CC and interview dates lately!!! :dance:

I called the NVC myself a little while ago, since my husband (the USC) never seems to get far with them. He has called at least 3 times and asked to speak to a supervisor and each time he is told he can't speak to anyone else.

The lady I got was very nice, but really couldn't tell me much. She said that my husband had requested a supervisor review of our case due to getting a (false??) RFE for our original marriage certificate..which are 100% sure was in the package.

She said a supervisor had pulled the file, but had sent it back to the orignal department today. I asked if this means that the supervisor had found the marriage certificate and had fixed it up, or if they still couldn't find it and had sent it back to wait for us to reply to the RFE...she couldn't tell me what it meant. She said we should get a CC in the next two weeks, and it could then be forwarded to Sydney, but I wouldn't get a July interview now, but would get one for August.

I really hope that this gets fixed up ASAP, it's so frustrating when you KNOW you have sent them everything and they try to tell you its not there!

KLS2010, the -exact- same thing happened to me. I distinctly recalled putting the marriage certificate in the envelope, because it was a larger piece of paper and I had to fold it 3 times. I remembered it quite clearly, and then got an RFE. I asked for supervisor review and called them every single day morning and night, and each time I got the scripted "Supervisor review, going to document review" response. Then, out of the clear blue, I got the CC. It made me happy, and angry, because it was 2 weeks wasted and they could easily have just looked at the files instead of wasting their and our time with the false RFE's, but in any case: take heart! The supervisor review worked for me, as did calling every day to check on the status. I was always (with only one exception) superbly polite with them, and if I got a dunce of an operator I just thanked them, hung up, and called right back. That frequently worked for me.

Looking back though, I wish I had -not- requested the supervisor review, and instead had just overnighted a new marriage certificate. I think that might have been faster than them transferring things back and forth. Either way, it did get the CC eventually!

Just Called the NVC again (second time today) and they answered 2 questions I was curious about. #1: We got our interview!!!!!!!!! July 25th at 9 AM! #2, the operator said: "I see you called earlier today," which was something I was curious about. They do record how many times you call!

But, in any case, the great news is.... we're scheduled!!! and in July!!!

You can add Jim and Anna, July 25th at 9 AM, London! JUST got the word from NVC! Whoo hoo!!!!

oh ok. so it's not something that needs to be done. thanks for the explanation. i figured if it needed to be done and it was in our control then i should have been on the ringer as well.

Yeah, I doubt I'm doing more than just appeasing my own desire to feel involved. Once the case is closed I'm under the impression that nothing short of a congressional inquiry or a writ of mandatus would move things along faster than the NVC is already going... and, credit where credit is due, they are a heck of a lot quicker than the USCIS.

i was told by an operator that once the interview is scheduled then they'll email the appt letter that's shown at the embassy. my question is what's the purpose of calling everyday and getting the standards scripted answer if it isn't gonna make a difference on when they schedule the interview anyway?

Because I don't trust the operators as far as I can throw them. They've shown themselves to be the front end of a very disorganized process, and the only use they've shown themselves to have is that they seem to have access to information before the AVR updates or I get e-mails. The operators always knew I'd be getting an RFE before I got the letter, so I'm imagining they'll know I've been scheduled before some clerk feels bothered enough to send out the mass auto-email. If it buys me a week of extra time to have my wife schedule her trip to London it was worthwhile, plus it satisfies my curiosity and lets me feel like I'm still doing something with the petition rather than just sitting and waiting for the unknown. At least with an interview date we'll know what precisely we're waiting for. With the NVC I don't have that confidence.

Spoke to an operator today to ask if they had scheduled an interview yet. She said the same normal script, that they couldn't get us in to June because it was already full, and NVC schedules all interviews in the 2nd week of the month. I asked her if this was considered the second week, and she said yes. I asked her then if I was going to get scheduled, and she said "No." ... Confusing to say the least, but I'm just chalking it up to standard operator silliness.

Is there any chance we're in AP? I thought AP at the NVC stage occured PRIOR to a SIF and CC, or does it occur afterwards?

Anna (my wife) had her medical today! Everything went well! One step closer!

Based on what's been said here, I'm worried our interview date is going to fall in August when my wife has to attend the (only) once a year module courses she needs to practice hygiene in the state of California.

If you recieved your case number on the 2nd I'd say it's very very unlikely you get a July interview. August or sept seems more likely!

I have a CC and SIF, I'm hoping to join this thread soon! Been calling everyday since then to see if I've gotten an interview, no luck yet!

Well, the scripted message from the 'humans' at NVC has changed for me at least. Instead of "Please allow 20 business days to review..." or "Please allow 10-15 business days for a supervisor review..." Now I'm getting, "The NVC has completed your case, and we are waiting to schedule an appointment at the embassy. Unfortunately, due to limited embassy capacity, we were not able to schedule an interview in June. The NVC schedules interviews in the second week of the month, based on the embassy capacity provided to us." I love how when you ask a simple question that isn't in the script they get all kinds of confused, or repeat the script as if that answers the question. "Great, thank you. Do you have any notion of whether the interview will be available in July?" *long confused pause* "The NVC has completed your case, and..."

OMG OMG OMG!!! I just tried to sign-in to the payment portal and got the SIF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't received ANYTHING official yet, but you can bet your ___ that I'll be on the phone first thing tomorrow to confirm!! I feel like it's a false positive just because I was so discouraged that it was gonna take forever to close, but low and behold..... SIF!!!!!

I'm with you guys... just praying to God that we can still get that July date!!! I'll cry happy tears forever if we do!!!

Congratulations!

I guess my concern is that July will fill up with interviews for K-1 visa applicants and any other miscellaneous tourist visa applicants while I'm here waiting for NVC to pencil me in.

I hope I do still have a shot. Will keep my fingers crossed.

Me and you both! We've got plans together in Scotland in early August, and I was -really- hoping we could travel back to the US together after that!

SIF and CC as of Yesterday for me too! Exciting!

Suddenly, I'm beset by the feeling of: "What do I do now?!" First the 5 months with the USCIS where I just waited, then the flurry of constant contact and work with NVC, and now I'm back to just waiting and its too sharp a shift!

Just got home from work, checked AVR again to be sure. Case Completed as of June 3rd, and then tried to sign into payment portal. Sign in Fail too! So, all the stuff was in the package all along, I never actually -sent- anything else for all the RFE's I got, but even still, I'm happy we made it through NVC in just 1 month. Now onto the interview!

Case closed at NVC today! Whoo hoo! Just in time for a July interview!

Congratulations!

I recieved a third False RFE this morning. The first one I got was for both packages, despite both being sent weeks earlier. The second I got was for the AOS Package, and the Marriage Certificate. I confirmed with them that the AOS package -had- arrived, and the Marriage Certificate was in fact there and thus, the whole IV package went into supervisor review.

Now, this morning, I recieved an RFE stating that they had recieved the AOS package, but not the IV Package. ...

I am rapidly losing patience with the NVC. I believe I spent it all waiting on the USCIS. At least they were straightforward in their slowness; I'm surprised to find it is more frustrating to have a fast-moving but ridiculous process than a slow moving predictable process --- but alas, it is!

Spoke to a supervisor who said it was impossible to review the package over the phone, but also asked me NOT to send a new marriage certificate in (I guess he realized it would confuse things). He barely spoke English, which always bothers me when I've pressed one for English and then cannot understand the person, but I believe I did manage to get out of him that the package was requested for supervisor review on the 26th, arrived on the 28th and should be reviewed by end of week.

Do you all think it wise to send another marriage certificate while they're reviewing the case for the first one, or does that risk slowing things down and confusing them? They have given me an rfe for the certificate, saying the one I sent wasn't original, but didn't look at the original behind it. I'm concerned if they look again and make the same mistake I would have missed out on time, but also concerned if they look and find it, but see more mail waiting to be reviewed, they'll delay cc.

Tha's very weird...when I got the RFE for my multilingual birth certificate, I had an operator who accepted to review my package with me, so together we went through the whole package til he got to the BC and realise that English was the second language right after the Portuguese headline . You should call later I have the operator opening your file.

Good luck

BTW it was about 3am Paris time when I called that day.

Thanks for the tip, I will do that tomorrow if there isn't forward motion again by then. I tried calling and asking for a supervisor and they simply refused, but I've had lots of luck with the "hang up and call back" method before. The very first time I talked to them the operator refused to give me my iin, until i used this method!

Just got off the phone with NVC (incidentally, AVR isn't working?). The operator told me they -had- found my AOS package, reviewed it, and there was no issues or RFEs. They indicated that they had NOT found the marriage certificate yet, the supervisor is going to keep looking at it. I found the AOS part hard to believe b/c they had not even found it as of late Friday according to the operator (and then there was the holiday weekend), so I called back immediately and got Jenny the Moderately Ungrumpy Operator instead of Dave the "Why The Hell Are you Calling Me" operator, and Jenny re-confirmed that not only had they found the AOS, they'd reviewed it and completed it and found no errors. So now all that remains is finding the Marriage Certificate in the IV-4 Package.

I considered overnighting another marriage certificate to them just in case, but the operator insisted that it wouldn't speed anything up because they were going to complete the supervisor review either way, and if the marriage certificate was in the package they would find it. I'm worried it could slow things down to have another 'un-recieved'/'un-reviewed' package floating around when they complete reviewing the IV-4. Thoughts? I can overnight one today if it would help.

*Fingers Crossed* I'm hoping they stop with the ridiculous and fake RFE's and just review the packages a bit more thoroughly, either it's laziness or being careless, but it's a waste of time and money on both ends.

Thats the thing that gets me the most. They know that they're going slowly, and they complain about the volume of petitions they get, yet they make inefficient mistakes like this. By not looking at -every- paper in my package and just assuming the photocopy they found first is all I sent (and not the original behind it), they delay a case by weeks potentially. Not to mention the time spent sending out RFE's for stuff that isn't even as good as that, (like, for both packages, when they already admit they've received both). Just get the package, open the files, look through all of them carefully, and THEN determine if there is a need for an RFE. They should have some check such that if a reviewer determines an RFE is needed, a supervisor automatically checks it to be sure. If our thread is representative at all, it looks like we have 1 real RFE out of about 20 fake ones.

And, then there's just the general stupidity of RFE's in general. So someone wrote "1" instead of "0" or vice/versa on the AOS form. It was clear what they intended, call them to clear it up and then approve the thing. And a photocopy vs. an original? The ONLY difference between the two marriage certificates is one has a raised seal and the other doesn't. Just pick up the phone and call the marriage office listed on the paperwork and ask if its genuine, and move on. Bingo, you've saved a week of time for the beneficiary, petitioner, and perhaps most importantly: THE NVC, which doesn't have to review the package AGAIN, recieve it AGAIN, process it AGAIN, and thereby increase their workload even more.