Bec_Dipu

He won't be going on the cruise unless we get the stamp or letter. All of my research shows that as long as he has one or the other, he is copacetic. The problem is getting one or the other.

I looked up the Ombudsman and it led me to a www.uscis.gov page where I can fill out an electronic request about not receiving the I-797 notice and wouldn't you know that when I hit submit, it says that the form number doesn't match the receipt number despite being the exact combination they reported on the biometric appt letter.

Here's the electronic request page in case anyone comes across this post in the future (for what it's worth since it doesn't seem to work for me):

https://egov.uscis.gov/e-Request/Intro.do

Read my case.

Go if you can.

If you can't go, there are a lot of examples on VJ where the couple is denied or goes through hell specifically when they have all of the red flags you have.

GO.

We filed the I-751 in July and received a biometrics appointment letter but we never received the NOA receipt that extends hubs' green card for another year. We have a non-refundable cruise in Oct that leaves after his green card expires (we were expecting to get the receipt and not have an issue).

We had our second Infopass appointment today and they refuse to give him a stamp in his passport or any other notice of extension unless they have a letter form his employer stating he will be terminated without the extension or evidence of our cruise. Hubs work refuses to write the letter because they will not terminate him if his green card expires and USCIS refuses to issue a temporary stamp until 72 hours before our trip.

Our issue is that they didn't clarify if the 72 hours is before we fly out for vacation or 72 hours before we depart on the cruise. We are going to Disney for 4 days before the cruise, so 72 hours before we fly to FL is more than 72 hours before we leave the country. Does anyone know what the 72 hours refers to?

Also, is there a way to just get the USCIS to print the freaking letter and mail it to us? We paid for the service, we deserve the receipt. We shouldn't even have to go through this garbage but when we tried to call them, they refused to help us and told us we could only resolve this through an Infopass appointment.

I'm feeling a lot of rage right now.

Has he not heard of a library card?

Books, CDs, movies - all for free.

I've never done this before, but I would make sure of the following:

The company is licensed and bonded and carries sufficient liability insurance to cover any damages.

Document everything that is sent and it's condition, preferably with photos.

If you can, have an insurance appraisal on anything that is of significant value and provide a copy to the mover.

Pray really hard.

On a side note, don't waste effort bringing beds. US beds are way better. My husband would disagree but I'm pretty sure I'm right. I'll take a king pillowtop over a cot any day!

Don't know if anyone still reads this, but Matthew and I just welcomed our first child into the world on March 20th!! The first day of spring! She's our little sunshine We named her Emma Darling Bonner. Looks like her daddy!

Hope everyone is doing well in our Decemberite Family!! God bless!

Tara & Matt

She sounds "Darling"...congratulations!

Just to clarify, the "she" is the US citizen. The "he" is the Indian citizen.

Amanda, I'm so happy to see that you might be able to register after all!

I would wait on the name change though - no sense in giving them an opportunity to screw up.

Hope you're enjoying India and stay safe!

Its been 40 days since they got my RFE... filed on 2nd December 2011 transferred to CSC 28th January. So bored of waiting...

Well, that sucks. They just got my RFE last Friday.

Do you have to file an EAD extension just in case the AOS is still processing? Have you called to check on the status - this wait seems very exorbitant.

My husband's drivers license expires in April when his EAD expires. I hope we all get processed before we have to start refiling stuff.

Hay it's been a month since anyone posted on here, how are folks doing? Did everybody get there Green Cards, is everything going well for you? Jenie Bee and I are doing well, her most recent accomplishment was the all important drivers license, ah the freedom! We are also planning our first vacation to the Philippines in January, it's coming fast. What are you guys up to?

We finally sent our RFE response (visit to the Civil Surgeon)on Saturday, so hopefully, our GC will arrive within a month. The hubs is employed, has a license and a car (which he has wrecked twice - once he hit our apartment building and he rear-ended me twice last Thursday)and a credit card.

The hubs says no babies until he sees all 50 states. So far, we've knocked off OH, IN, IL, KY, WV, PA, VA, MD, DE, and NY. Not too shabby...we can knock another 5 off when we visit my parents next year. What we need is a two week road trip (on which I'll be driving, see above).

F-word, f-word, f-word, f-word. Finally got a text on AOS stating status changed but it turns out we'll be getting an RFE in the mail.

I would rather have had our case stay in Columbus and gone through the interview. At least we would be done by now.

Now we just have to wait for the RFE so that we can respond. Please let it be something simple.

Hi guys!!

Well...HE'S HERE! He was born Tuesday afternoon after an 18 hour labor that finally ended in a c-section.

He was pulled out in all of his 5lb 14oz glory and is absolutely freakin beautiful. I'm so in love with him!!!

Yea/yeah!!! (I never remember which one expresses excitement and which one means yes)

This is fantastic, congratulations!!!

1) The consulate officer is not ignorant. Plenty of people plan a wedding prior to having the visa. At the very least you should know who you plan on inviting and their contact information. You don't have to have solid plans or reservations already made to say that you plan on inviting these people, hopefully in this month, to most likely this location. Be prepared for them to actually contact your invitees. Consider getting notarized letters from friends and family stating that they know you intend to marry and they are familiar with your relationship and that they plan on attending the wedding when the visa is issued.

2) There are plenty of people who have gone through this at Mumbai. Go to the "Reviews: Embassy/USCIS & POE" tab on the menu of VJ and look up your consulate. Focus on reviews with a poor rating and you will be able to find examples of this and how people responded.

3) A 221(g) is what is issued when they are putting a decision on hold pending further information. If the information you provide is sufficient and you aren't required to also undergo an additional background check, most people receive their visas in India with 6 weeks of submitting the additional evidence.

4) Stop typing in all caps and use the search feature to proactively find advice for your specific information. There is tons of it on here and not everyone who went through your situation is still on here replying to new topics.

5) Good luck on the rest of your journey.

The hubs and I are finally going on a honeymoon...woo hoo! Short and educational, but at least it's finally a trip more than 2 hours away

We are off to Washington DC because he loves history and I love converting people to my political views. Maybe we'll run into a few senators and I can tell them what I think needs fixed with immigration

They said "insufficient proof of relationship." I think because my fiance is Indian, and in India to be "formally" engaged, you have to have a formal engagement ceremony (which we hadn't the first time). Now, we have had this ceremony with our families in attendance, his friends, etc. At least in India, thats a big deal.

There are several posts/embassy reviews for India where couples were denied because their engagement party looked too much like a wedding and the CO said that they were married.

Look carefully at your proof and make sure your not including items that would go overboard and make someone think you are married. You may want to include notarized letters from attendees attesting to your engagement. This may have been overboard, but I provided Save the Season (as we didn't know the date) cards and a letter stating where we intend to marry and who we intend to invite and their contact information. I also included with our packet 4 pictures of my wedding shower.

Good luck!

4) I don't like being stared at and it happens a lot when you look pretty different from the billion people around you. Freckles are not a skin disease by the way.

The 2 of you mention several times not fitting in/ clothes fitting/ people staring etc. and you can't seem to get used to it.

We chose to come here because of income ie it would be harder for me to make a living there. However I suffer with feelings of guilt for asking her to leave everything behind and come to a place where people may stare or see her as different. Of course she never brings this up but I know it has to be scary for her.

How did you get over asking your spouse to tolerate what you cannot?

I can tolerate the stares, but that doesn't mean I enjoy them. My husband doesn't like any kind of negative feedback directed my way at all. He's the one who really can't tolerate it.

My husband has never had a problem with people staring and whispering here because there are Indians, Somalians, anything and everything south of the US, Chinese, etc. everywhere. Tons of diversity. It's much easier to blend in when everyone looks different from each other.

I didn't ask my husband to give up everything and move here. I offered to move there and we discussed moving to Bermuda, Australia and Germany as he had promotional opportunities in each place. He chose to move here because he loved it here.

But hey, "How did you get over asking your spouse to tolerate what you cannot?", thanks for making me sound like a massengill who can't deal.

Read the embassy reviews. Many people tell the questions they were asked and what the results were.

This does not seem like the reply you would receive for a standard background check. If you read through the embassy/consulate reviews for India, you will find a few instances where the embassy called the beneficiaries family and I believe even visited his home in two separate cases.

They may be attempting to verify your marriage certificate or if either of you have been married before, that your divorce is valid.

Provide a list of the evidence that you provided and the questions your spouse was asked at the interview as well as whatever biographic data you feel comfortable sharing (religious differences, ethnicity differences, age differences etc.)and VJ may be able to offer better advice.

Driver's license has been earned!

It was the best trip to a DMV/BMV EVER! Two women got kicked out for causing ruckuses, one Indian immigrant failed her test because she didn't stop at any stop signs, one man had to retest for medical reasons and kept wondering into the wrong rooms (I don't even think they let him drive) and I found out that during a motorcycle test, the deputy does not ride on back. And my honey passed...success!

He still scares the ####### out of me though because he waits so long to start breaking.

Here is the email that I sent to VFS:

Beneficiary Abu xxx, NWDxxx

I, the petitioner, Rebecca xxx, attended the K1 interview with my fiance on August 3, 2011. We were placed in mandatory administrative processing. To date, no communication has been given to us regarding the current status of our application. It has now passed the 60 day time limit that the US Department of State lists as the time by which most AP is resolved.

http://travel.state.gov/visa/a_zindex/a_zindex_4353.html

Please revert to us with any further actions that are required on our part and with the status of the mandatory administrative processing.

If they aren't telling you why he's in AP and you weren't issue a 221(g) requesting more evidence, just the white paper explaining you are in AP then it is a background check. There isn't anything that anyone can do to speed the process up as it takes however long it takes to clear all the layers of government background checks.

When we finally received my husband's visa, there was a data disparity between the approval and the printing and the mailing. I believe we cleared background checks a few weeks before his passport was couriered back to him. He coincidentally received his passport the day after the embassy received a congressional inquiry on our case. It could be coincidence or it could be that they didn't feel like having to explain to the congressman about why they hadn't sent the visa and passport yet when it was already approved. So only in this specific instance, I suspect our congressman helped us by forcing them to put our already approved visa at the front of the line to stick in the passport and mail. His inquiry did not influence the rate at which the background checks were approved and the visa was issued.

If you are in a background check, there is no point in stopping by the embassy. Just send them a once a week email to check the status and wait it out.

Sorry this is happening to you!

Thank you guys for all your inputs. I really appreciate it...for now i will try to find under the table jobs with my bike... i am communicating with his family about this but I dont want to wait and sit and do nothing...

any more ideas i will surely appreciate

poods

Why in the world would you post your intent to break the law? If you do it, you do it, but for the love of God, don't post about it.

Unless you are being literal and you are allowed to legally work, you just choose to do all of your work under a table with a bike...in which case, I apologize, carry on.

Unfortunately VJ doesn't keep AP (Admin Proc) stats. They would be extremely helpful. When my husband (then fiance) was in AP, I scoured VJ for every case I could find that went through AP. Unfortunately, many India users never update their timeline once they get the visa, so it can be difficult to discern exactly who went through it and why.

If you are in AP for a background check, have heart. Our case was in AP for just over 3 months. Of the AP cases I found here that were for background checks in India, they were generally done by 6 months. I think i remember only one that took 9 months. I don't recall any that didn't get their visas for background checks, but then like i said, there aren't a whole lot of self-identified background AP people in India.

If you are in AP because you were issued a 221(g) for additional information, all of the cases I saw were cleared up in less than 2 months of turning in the required documents. If you are still in India, I would schedule an appointment at the embassy and request information about the status. If they refuse and appointment, keep harrassing them with phone calls and emails. This type of AP the embassy staff has complete control over and I can't really think of a valid reason for it to take this long.

Someone in another thread I follow just wrote the following:

"Today I called USCIS and went in circles with the first agent. I think I frustrated her so she finally transferred me to Tier 2. The gentleman was friendly and I felt he tried his best to help me out. He is putting in a service request, but told me to still be patient because service requests are not always productive. He also commented that almost ALL cases transferred to CSC are sent back for interviews...this goes against what I have been reading. "

So the USCIS told her that most transferred cases get an interview. This doesn't really jive with the AOS stats on the Immigration Timelines page of VJ if you isolate the AOS cases that were transferred but it could just be that no one fills out their timeline correctly. Or the guy could be full of poo. Interesting.

I've occasionally seen people get transferred to CSC, only to have it be transferred back to their local office for interview. Happens pretty rarely, but happens.

By any chance, do you remember if that added significantly to their processing time? We'd love to go to Canada this summer, but we're waiting and waiting and waiting on the GC (too cheap to apply for advance parole).

Thanks for the info!

I haven't seen any evidence of anyone being transferred to the CSC and still having an interview on AOS.

It seems to be much slower processing though. They are processing files transferred in December right now which means they generally filed AOS in November. The local offices are averaging four months review from NOA, CSC seems to be averaging between five and seven months to review from NOA.

I think I'd rather have the interview.