Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
National Visa Center (Dept of State)	Checklist from NVC - extremely vague	I am not sure how common this problem now is, but to me that sounds like you will need to call NVC and inquire. When I got RFE for the i-864, I got all sorts of extra info even if it was auto-generated, e.g.     So sorry you have to go through this!	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2014-01-18 03:03:00
National Visa Center (Dept of State)	Checklist from NVC - extremely vague	There should be a list of changes below the text you copied in--is that missing from their PDF?	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2014-01-18 02:53:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Confused - told gross income on i-864 is incorrect	I called the IRS this morning, and they confirmed that the "per computer" line is the actual IRS official record. My arithmetic error will cost us weeks... I guess even if I'd sent the f1040, if NVC cross-checks with official IRS records it would've had the same outcome, so I shouldn't beat myself over it too much, but still.   Thanks for the help, everyone.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-09-10 14:11:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Confused - told gross income on i-864 is incorrect	My income is comfortably above the cutoff point, but I guess they didn't like it anyway. I know it was my own fault for the error in calculation, but to get held back because I sent the f1040 and not the tax transcript... still sad.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-09-09 23:24:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Confused - told gross income on i-864 is incorrect	Thank you for the comment!    Ugh... I feel so stupid. Now it's another 30-day delay. I bet if I had submitted copies of my f1040 this wouldn't even be happening...   We were already delayed 6 weeks because their online payment system was broken in June and we didn't know our payment got magically rejected... and thought they were just late sending us the notice.  Edited by rysa, 09 September 2013 - 08:20 PM.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-09-09 20:19:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Confused - told gross income on i-864 is incorrect	The transcript number matches the f1040 number for "total income." The transcript for tax year 2012 also has a strange row below the total income number, titled "total income per computer," that is 1K USD less than the "total income" number. I've just looked at transcripts for tax years 2009-2011 and the 2012 transcript is the only instance in which the "total income per computer" number does not match the "total income" number. Could that be it? Maybe the "total income per computer" is the final number for IRS, if the filer (me) made an error... Maybe calling IRS is faster in this case.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-09-09 17:26:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Confused - told gross income on i-864 is incorrect	I called NVC and they said they'll put in a request for a supervisor review that can take 20-30 days... They did not recommend resending the information if it's not going to change (i.e. the amount would still be the same) since that'd also take 30 days to process... I'm worried.  I sent in the tax transcript, and not the f1040 form. I'm not sure if that's what's causing the confusion. They said I must call back to find out the review outcome. I chose not to get bumped up to a supervisor (since they said there'd be a supervisor review) during the call; was that a wrong choice?	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-09-09 09:13:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Confused - told gross income on i-864 is incorrect	Thank you for the responses.   slvrfx: No, I did not include this in my cover letter, as the instructions seemed to indicate you just need to match the line in the tax form, so I did not see a problem with it (and my 2012 income didn't change noticeably from 2010 and 2011, so it's not like including my spouse's income inflated my apparent income due to the foreign income tax exclusion--we just filed joint since we thought that's better evidence of bona fide marriage). What did you write in your cover letter? The Patriot: My total taxable income wouldn't have changed whether we had filed separately or not, but the i-864 instructions specifically stated that the amount I put down should match what is on the tax form, and we had filed joint, so I couldn't have left his income out in that sense.   I will also call NVC on Monday. I guess I'll just ask to speak to a supervisor right away.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-09-07 17:36:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Confused - told gross income on i-864 is incorrect	Has no one had this experience?	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-09-07 12:30:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Confused - told gross income on i-864 is incorrect	Hi all,   Finally heard back from NVC, but I'm confused why they need a correction. They only requested one correction:   In Part 6. Sponsor's Income and Employment, please correct the following... [x] Items 13.a.1. The income you enter must match the total (gross) income reported on your most recent Federal income tax return. If you filed Form 1040EZ, use the adjusted gross income instead.   But when I look at my tax forms, I reported the correct amount. I did joint filing with my overseas spouse, so I did foreign income tax exclusion. I did put down the "total income"  (line 22 on f1040) on my i-864, not adjusted gross (line 37 on f1040, although that's the same number, too). Am I supposed to put down a number from a different part of the f1040?    Do I just call them about this to explain, or will they force me to resubmit the i-864 (with the same information), which will potentially result in another cycle of "no, you put down the wrong info"?   Thanks muchly for your advice.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-09-06 19:56:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	I-130 Processing time and phases	For I-130, whether you ended up at a regional center or manged to stay at the Nat'l Benefits Center makes a notable difference (I think it did for us). There is little control over the processing times that you can exert other than to be super careful about your documents, especially once you get to NVC. Since you're using a lawyer, maybe the chances of an error is low but double-check everything... triplecheck. The i-864 form language is particularly obtuse and irritating. Request tax transcripts from IRS and use those numbers, not tax documents, in case you made an error on your tax form (I apparently did). Each review cycle @NVC costs you another 3+ weeks. Also, don't assume the online payment at NVC went through. Even if their system is at fault and doesn't process a pending payment for whatever reason (which was happening in June), they will not bother to email you with notifications. We found out the hard way. The burden is on you to make sure they are not making mistakes and are sending on the documents to the next agency.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-11-07 17:02:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	USCIS - ELIS issues	Do you mean ROC not AOS? Yes! Sorry, got muddled.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-11-12 23:01:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	USCIS - ELIS issues	Hi everyone, just posting this in case our experience is helpful with others and lets you avoid waiting in the phone queue. We had our interview recently without issues and was trying to pay the 165USD fee using USCIS's new ELIS. But as other threads back in summer might indicate, the site is really buggy. It's still buggy a couple months later. We first signed up with a secure pin number option since that'd have let us skip having to answer eight security questions. However, upon receiving a confirmation email and trying to log in for the very first time with the correct pin number, we got locked out with a system error message that claimed, "ERROR: Online access to your account has been revoked. Your account is now locked.The maximum number of unsuccessful attempts (3x) has been reached. Due to security reasons, your account has been locked." After going through the phone customer service song and dance, they recommended trying to reset the password before forwarding us to the technical team. So we just did that while being put on hold, and chose a different security option (the eight security questions). That actually worked in the sense that we could now use the security questions to log on. So we were finally able to pay the fee (gmail users: the receipt will probably go to your spam folder).    Of course, now we can't log in again because the website says our username/password is wrong (again), but we kind of don't want to bother trying to reset the password again until we have to since we have the email/cc receipt of the payment... We'll deal with it again when we do AOS.   Horrible system. So, if you get locked out, try to reset your password using a different security system option... and hope for the best.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-11-12 13:00:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	November 2013 Interviews	DO NOT DELETE: ***USE MOST RECENT LIST AT THE BOTTOM*** Instructions: If you want to share your case complete and interview dates: 1. Go to LAST PAGE or before and click "Quote/Reply" on the MOST RECENT LIST. 2. Ask for help only if you will mess up the list 3. Please make sure you are using Rich Text Editor as your message setting(Settings>Posting Settings->Enable visual (RTE)) 4. Remove [quote] around the list by clicking back space just before "do not delete" 5. Always use [Courier New] Font.(It will stay lined up correctly if you use the correct font.) 6. Add in order by NVC case complete date. 7. Add the date you received your interview date so others can see from case complete to assignment time-frame. 8. Please use your VJ member name not the Petitioner/Beneficiary name on your timeline. 9. Please update your timeline so VJ members can have accurate timelines to monitor their own case. March Cases Waiting on Interview: NAME................COMPLETE....RECEIVED....INTERVIEW...VISA TYPE....EMBASSY romanticminds.......03/27/13....08/26/13....10/01/13....IR-1.........Cambodia April Cases Waiting on Interview: NAME................COMPLETE....RECEIVED....INTERVIEW...VISA TYPE....EMBASSY draygri.............04/22/13....08/30/13....10/28/13....IR-1.........Cambodia May cases waiting on interview: NAME ...............COMPLETE....RECEIVED...INTERVIEW ...VISA TYPE ...EMBASSY Noahsmama...........05/21/13....09/09/13....10/10/13....IR-5.........China June cases waiting on interview: NAME ...............COMPLETE....RECEIVED....INTERVIEW...VISA TYPE....EMBASSY aliciafoster........06/10/13....08/13/13....10/18/13....IR-1/CR-1....DR July cases waiting on interview: NAME ...............COMPLETE....RECEIVED....INTERVIEW...VISA TYPE....EMBASSY Tony1234............07/02/13....08/28/13....10/24/13....IR-1/CR-1....Albania chaingang...........07/11/13....09/17/13....10/08/13....F2A..........Pakistan ayeshaimran.........07/24/13....07/27/13....10/10/13....IR-1/CR-1....Pakistan DrakeSG.............07/27/13....08/13/13....10/03/13....IR-1/CR-1....Vietnam August cases waiting on interview: NAME ...............COMPLETE....RECEIVED....INTERVIEW...VISA TYPE....EMBASSY Happytobe...........08/05/13....08/27/13....10/30/13....IR-1/CR-1....Morocco sanlot..............08/07/13....08/21/13....10/31/13....IR-1/CR-1....Nigeria ez & s..............08/09/13....08/20/13....10/02/13....IR-1/CR-1....Turkey lisap...............08/12/13....08/27/13....10/03/13....IR-1/CR-1....Jamaica Fab + She...........08/13/13....08/27/13....10/08/13....IR-1/CR-1....Italy Burnabrenna.........08/13/13....08/27/13....10/16/13....IR-1/CR-1....Canada vicmar..............08/14/13....08/27/13....10/11/13....IR-1/CR-1....Mexico sweety-sweet........08/15/13....08/27/13....10/01/13....IR-1/CR-1....Canada Evan11..............08/15/13....08/28/13....10/30/13....IR-1/CR-1....Canada Novembro............08/15/13....08/23/13....10/15/13....IR-1/CR-1....UK janw................08/15/13....08/26/13....10/07/13....IR-1/CR-1....Denmark micky2008....,......08/15/13....08/26/13....10/24/13....IR-5.........Haiti mitchester..........08/15/13....08/27/13....10/01/13....IR-1/CR-1....Philippines IR2visa.............08/15/13....08/22/13....10/01/13....IR-2.........Philippines stellaycarlos.......08/15/13....08/26/13....10/23/13....IR-1/CR-1....Colombia Tu chikita..........08/16/13....08/27/13....10/23/13....IR-1/CR-1....DR umer.shujaat........08/18/13....10/03/13....11/20/13....IR-1/CR-1....Pakistan luvmyfamily.........08/19/13....08/26/13....10/02/13....IR-1/CR-1....Philippines california0112......08/20/13....08/29/13....10/02/13....IR-1/CR-1....India nawalel.............08/20/13....08/27/13....10/29/13....IR-1/CR-1....Morocco paomarce79..........08/22/13....08/26/13....10/11/13....IR-1/CR-1....Colombia rose nice...........08/22/13....10/09/13....10/17/13....IR-1/CR-1....France schuecl.............08/22/13....08/27/13....10/15/13....IR-1/CR-1....South Korea  john & fay..........08/23/13....09/04/13....10/11/13....IR-1/CR-1....UK domingo y bianca....08/26/13....08/27/13....10/03/13....IR-1/CR-1....Mexico Katherinn...........08/26/13....08/29/13....10/24/13....IR-1/CR-1....Costa Rica ziont0612...........08/27/13....08/27/13....10/10/13....IR-1/CR-1....Jamaica bgreen19............08/28/13....10/03/13....11/14/13....IR-1/CR-1....Philippines Stevieb.............08/28/13....09/10/13....10/02/13....IR-1/CR-1....Fiji calygirl75..........08/29/13....09/09/13....10/07/13....IR-1/CR-1....Cuba xtrasome............08/30/13....09/09/13....10/22/13....IR-1/CR-1....Bangladesh Hana&Reda...........08/30/13....09/10/13....10/29/13....IR-1/CR-1....Morocco slvrfx576...........08/30/13....09/10/13....10/03/13....IR-1/CR-1....Bulgaria sy123...............08/30/13....09/09/13....10/16/13....IR-1/CR-1....Philippines September cases waiting on interview: NAME ...............COMPLETE....RECEIVED....INTERVIEW...VISA TYPE....EMBASSY florida4life........09/04/13....09/09/13....10/15/13....IR-1/CR-1....Jamaica jrbradley...........09/05/13....09/10/13....10/15/13....IR-1/CR-1....Japan phillyjon...........09/05/13....09/07/13....10/08/13....IR-1/CR-1....China mrs.rai.............09/06/13....09/09/13....10/16/13....IR-1/CR-1....Philippines samoha..............09/09/13....10/02/13....11/14/13....IR-1/CR-1....Tunisia AP & VP.............09/10/13....10/01/13....11/15/13....IR-1/CR-1....India Nick4all............09/11/13....10/01/13....11/06/13....IR-1/CR-1....India a1188323............09/11/13....10/05/13....11/15/13....IR-1/CR-1....UK justoleme...........09/11/13....XX/XX/13....XX/XX/13....IR-1/CR-1....UK Scottybobotti.......09/11/13....10/02/13....11/25/13....IR-1/CR-1....Japan sherryandyashpal....09/12/13....10/01/13....11/04/13....IR-1/CR-1....India lowetide1...........09/13/13....09/19/13....10/01/13....IR-1/CR-1....Bahamas intersect...........09/16/13....10/08/13....11/07/13....IR-1/CR-1....Philippines DreamAngelsWish.....09/16/13....10/02/13....11/18/13....IR-1/CR-1....UK flycal..............09/17/13....10/03/13....11/05/13....IR-1/CR-1....Canada karachif2a..........09/17/13....09/24/13....11/08/13....F2A..........Pakistan rjkhuletz...........09/19/13....10/01/13....11/14/13....IR-1/CR-1....Philippines vayne...............09/19/13....10/01/13....11/13/13....IR-1/CR-1....Philippines firesp33dr..........09/19/13....10/02/13....11/26/13....IR-1/CR-1....Nicaragua Bethann and Omar....09/19/13....10/01/13....11/26/13....IR-1/CR-1....Jamaica nikkers0728.........09/23/13....10/03/13....11/20/13....IR-1/CR-1....Tanzania A_Singh.............09/24/13....10/03/13....11/15/13....IR-1/CR-1....Canada racheese............09/25/13....10/02/13....11/19/13....IR-1/CR-1....Singapore SavaSilvia..........09/26/13....10/03/13....11/18/13....IR-1/CR-1....Bulgaria Dipikant............09/27/13....xx/xx/13....xx/xx/13....IR-1/CR-1....India October cases waiting on interview: NAME ...............COMPLETE....RECEIVED....INTERVIEW...VISA TYPE....EMBASSY wisegeek............10/01/13....10/03/13....11/03/13....IR-1/CR-1....Qatar George_Louisiana....10/01/13....10/04/13....11/27/13....IR-1/CR-1....China nattypruett.........10/02/13....10/04/13....11/03/13....IR-1/CR-1....Turkey TOTOEMEY............10/02/13....10/03/13....11/13/13....IR-1/CR-1....Morocco Worriedmominoc......10/04/13....10/11/13....11/04/13....IR-1/CR-1....Philippines Amejia12............10/07/13....xx/xx/13....xx/xx/13....IR-1/CR-1....Ciudad Juarez RandR2013...........10/08/13....xx/xx/13....xx/xx/13....IR-1/CR-1....Sri Lanka rysa................10/08/13....10/11/13....11/07/13....IR-1/CR-1....Germany jilliannep..........10/10/13....10/11/13....11/20/13....IR-1/CR-1....India MSusmani............10/10/13....10/11/13....11/01/13....IR-1/CR-1....India	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-10-15 16:19:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	NVC Filers - November 2013	Checklists:  Hi! Got checklists today! Weekend ruined! Have a few questions as I decide how to go about it.    My wife (petitioner) got check list for the following:   Petitioner i-864: You must submit the following financial evidence [x] A written statement indicating why you did not file ___2012_ Federal income tax returns. [x] ______2012_____________________________ IRS tax schedules. [x] _______2012____________________________ Federal income tax returns, IRS printout, or Letter 1722 issued by the IRS.   I guess the letter my wife wrote to explain why she hasnt filed (as shes attending college & is dependant on parents) was not clear enough. It did not have exact years mentioned, just that the past 5 years she has been in med school and did not have to file taxes as she is dependant on parents. Her name was clearly mentioned as dependant on father (joint sponsors) 1040 tax return forms which were also sent in AOS.   Joint Sponsor i-864: This is petitioner's father.   [x] Items 13.a.1. The income you enter must match the total (gross) income reported on your most recent Federal income tax return. If you filed Form 1040EZ, use the adjusted gross income instead.   We attached the joint-sponsors 1040, I did not think that's different from 1040EZ - so we just used adjusted gross income which was $2,000 off from Total Income for the year 2012. 2011 and 2010 were exactly the same. I guess we should use the TOTAL INCOME from this form, right?   There was a single bar-code under everything else, so that means everything else is good in AOS?   --- BENEFICIARY CHECKLIST:  I got a checklist for my visa application! Asking me to submit proof of my eligibility as a Canadian citizenship. I did scan the profile page of my Canadian passport, I guess that's not sufficient? Should I scan it and send it again, or maybe attach my citizenship card as well? health card? I dont know what else..I was born in England & had British birth cert attached, maybe that's why this came up.   When sending documents back (through EP), do we send ONLY the items they have checklisted, it says fill a new i864 form, but do we send the supporting documents with it also? Your tips and guidance will be appreciated.     Thanks for your help.   Regards   For the joint sponsor's income question, your sponsor might want to request&check the tax transcript in case IRS corrected something for your AGI (calling IRS might be faster since it's not sent instantaneously). We got a checklist for that and was perplexed; NVC reps had nothing to offer other than a supervisor review, so we just called IRS. They're known to have knowledgeable reps, who could look up the numbers and verify that IRS had to correct a calculation error. Your sponsor will need to make the call to IRS.   Citizenship card would be helpful. I also put down rationales for every item included in the packet on the cover letter just in case they got confused. (e.g., "Certified Family Register of beneficiary (with attested translation) as supporting document proving date and place of birth, and copy" and "Certificate of Naturalization as a German Citizen of beneficiary (with attested translation) as proof of beneficiary?s German citizenship, and copy")   When we resent the new i-864 form, we only sent that in (b/c that was all they requested in the RFE). I don't think you need to resend any documentation that was not requested, since they have your documents on file.   Edited by rysa, 29 November 2013 - 06:54 PM.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-11-29 18:48:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	NVC Filers - November 2013	I just receive a email with a checklist that says that we receive your DS260' please submit your civil documents. They have my civil document already, should I just ignore the email. Like teach706 said, it's an automatically generated message. It assumes that the applicant hasn't sent any civil documents yet prior to getting the email checklist. Their automated messaging system isn't very adaptive. We got it too after we'd already sent the documents. In our case, we didn't call them.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-11-13 18:20:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	NVC Filers - November 2013	Sorry, the form is I864EZ affidavit of support.   In that case, as the NVC rep admitted, they were in error. I did not fill out an EZ version but I've left things like A-number blank (on the non-EZ version you have to fill out both mailing address + place of residence separately, whether they're the same or not) and it wasn't flagged. I'm not sure if you should resubmit the form right away, in that case. Maybe someone who has had a similar experience can comment as to what your best course of action is. Was the NVC rep not forthcoming about what that would be? Sounds like supervisor review is your best bet and sending in a new form will result in a similar delay anyway (so sorry), as far as I understand the process--at least with supervisor review you'd have someone who's less likely to confuse i-864 with i-864EZ.   I can tell you, though, that even though I left one part of the i-864 form blank in a resubmit by accident (forgot to re-enter my income after entering it the first time elsewhere on the form... grr such a horribly confusing form), they let us proceed to the interview. They sent us a checklist and told us we need to bring the corrected i-864 form to the interview, but told us we cleared the minimum requirement. (The checklist was misleading... I thought I'd have to resend all over again and was kicking myself until my spouse pointed out that they actually cleared us for the interview.) And then at the interview, they didn't even ask for the corrected form. But that's kind of how things go... Hope things get figured out!	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-11-07 22:19:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	NVC Filers - November 2013	Friends,   NVC, I think, intentionally sends out a checklist just so they can borrow an extra time to process the application. Apparently, I received a checklist for not filling out Part 3, NO: 9 NVC rep. also admitted that I shouldn't have received the checklist since my mailing address and place of residence is the same and I left No:9 blank. If my memory serves me right we were supposed to leave the field blank, if an answer to the question is not applicable or not available. Now, this leaving a field blank is causing me a headache...there are few more fields in this form I left out blank. Such as A#, SSN, ZIp Code for the beneficairy...Am i supposed to leave it blank or just type N/A?   Also, do I need to wait for the checklist (does it come in the mail or email?) or can i just submit it before I get a physical checklist?   Thanks,   Which form are you talking about for Part 3 and related questions? DS-260? i-864 doesn't have #9 for Part 3 but it's good to make sure it wasn't a typo.   We received our checklist in the mail as an attached PDF. We happened to be getting processed right as the DS-230 transitioned to DS-260, but luckily all the forms we sent along with DS-230 were filed correctly (still had to fill out online DS-260). The first checklist you receive after paying the fee doesn't tell you anything critical that you should feel like waiting for (DS-230/260 + i-864). Like dwheels said, just start sending in the forms without waiting for an official checklist from the NVC. The second checklist you receive after you send in the first batch of required documentation (again as PDF attachment in an email) tells you what needs fixing. Then, if everything goes smoothly, a final checklist tells you what you still need to bring to the interview.  Edited by rysa, 07 November 2013 - 07:35 PM.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-11-07 19:34:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	NVC Filers - November 2013	Two questions regarding i-864. Can some one help me with this? I am the USC petitioning for foreign wife.   In the first page of i-864, Part 1 ( left is my info) , below that Part 2 is my wife. My issue is the right side of this page where it asks for the mailing address, is that the sponsors or visa applicant's? I am going to use a co-sponsor since my income is only slightly between above 20-23K and I am graduating grad school soon. My Sister and Brother in law are sponsoring. My question is whether it makes any difference if I use my BIL as the co-sponsor and add my sister's salary ( he get way more than her) in the form or should I use my sister as co-sponsor and add his salary too?   1. We put down the mailing address for the principal immigrant (i.e., we treated it as "part 2") - presumably this tells the consulate where to send the interview "invitation" when NVC ships the completed pkg to them. 2. I was in the same boat as you income-wise (grad student). I put down savings and such and chose not to do co-sponsors (I worked before going to grad school). I don't think the order matters, especially when you're already above poverty line by yourself. They send everything visa email. If by chance you never called NVC they would send to the email address you listed on I-130. If for some reason people didn't have a email than they would get the snail mail.   And all NVC does is send you links to go get the forms. Getting the forms is on you thats why we tell people do it in adavance don't wait for NVC. Get everything lined up and ready  Be very proactive at this stage. Agreed. Also, be OCD about checking your payment status. Sometimes their online payment system gets borked, but they'll never tell you and you might lose days thinking they're just slow.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-11-07 17:19:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	NVC Filers - November 2013	question about paper mails for beneficiaries.   After beneficiary picks usc spouse as agent. what packets do they physically receive. (the reason i am asking is because there's a issue of mail tampering where my husband is) is there anyway we can opt in email only communication.   We used the email option and in fact never got any paper packages in the mail. We used James' NVC guide for that: http://www.visajourn...tion_via_E-mail. Then we basically sent all the forms in as soon as the bills showed up as paid online.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-11-07 17:13:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	January 2013 I-130 Filers	Just received NOA2 in the mail dated 4/24. Which is weird, b/c the 4/24 update on my online case status only said "initial review." However, upon a closer look the fine print on the online case status, it does say "On April 24, 2013, we mailed you a notice that we certified our approval of this case and sent it to the appropriate appellate body for review." so maybe I was just thrown off by the mismatch between all the case status circles shown prior to case receipt # entry and after.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-04-30 01:19:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	January 2013 I-130 Filers	I finally got online case status to show up 4/24/2013, but it's strange that it's only at initial review because we've already gotten an RFE and sent in a package nearly a month ago. Those status "circles" aren't even showing up when I check the case status, though. I only see Acceptance, Initial Review, Decision, and Post Decision Activity--no circles for RFE, RFE Response Review, Testing & Interview, which are displayed as generic case status possibilities prior to my entering my case receipt.    Should we be worried that they perhaps didn't get the RFE response? The USPS tracker said delivery confirmed, so we had assumed, but... If the online case status doesn't even show RFE Response Review as an option (not even as a grayed out circle), maybe it just means they're not disclosing this particular case status at this time.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-04-28 18:23:00
IR-1 / CR-1 Spouse Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	January 2013 I-130 Filers	We're one of the "well, we sure feel like we're in limbo @ MSC" Jan filers (NOA1 1/16), but we recently got an RFE dated 3/27 so I guess someone is looking at things over there. We're to send our additional proof to a SF address - I wonder if this means we got assigned to CSC? Our online case status, as might be expected, is still blank. We plan to send 10 pages of boarding pass stub scans and a bunch of photos. So, MSC limbo people, have hope.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-04-02 00:47:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress Reports	Packet 3	We didn't even get a formal P3. They just went right to P4 four days after we figured out by the DHL tracker number method that the consulate received the package (we just put "P3" as the day before we got the P4 email in our timeline since we figured that might be close enough). We got some update email from NVC the day before we got the P4 email but it didn't say P3 anywhere on it--so we don't know what that email stood for. It even said something vaguely mystifying, like "The National Visa Center has received all documentation necessary to complete pre-processing of your case. As soon as an interview date has been scheduled, the applicant, petitioner and attorney (if applicable) will be notified." We kind of ignored that message since we thought it's supposed to be the embassy, not the NVC, that just received all documentation based on the DHL tracker. Luckily the P4 email arrived soon after so we didn't have to feel alarm over that weird wording. Not sure if each consulate is different (our was Frankfurt, Germany).	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-11-12 23:58:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Process & Procedures	Passport style photo question	My partner and I have been trying to assemble the i-129f package for the last three weeks and we're gradually getting there (tough considering that he's currently in the states and I'm in London. Our only last issue is the passport-style photos that are supposed to go with the G-325. He got his taken at a photobooth in the US but we didn't want to have to wait for another two weeks for me to send my hardcopy photos over so I just took some digitally and he got them printed at Walmart. My only concern now is that this photo isn't right - possibly too zoomed in? I'm wondering if we'll get an RFE or something if we send it in as is. It means a good bit of extra waiting though, and we wanted to get it in tomorrow. Thoughts? It looks pretty dark to me. You should retake it in daylight or use an image editing software to see if you can rescue it (might look blown out if you try to brighten the current photo, though). I used a similar method and used epassportphoto dot com to make sure the proportions were right in the photo--the site will prompt you to use their services but you can bypass it--and just downloaded the digital file. I then edited the image to increase the # of photos from 4 to 6 and printed it at Costco for 14 cents. There may be other sites but if you're 'worried about meeting proportion(?) requirements due to zooming, use the site or one of the dozen other sites like it. Hope this helps. Edited by rysa, 15 January 2013 - 12:07 PM.	rysa	Not Telling	Germany	2013-01-15 12:06:00
Australia and New Zealand	packet 3 and i-134	The I-134 isn't necessary for the initial petition. You should fill out another I-134 using recent tax info & pay stubs (it's probably been a while) and send it to her. She'll need to have one with the original, non-copied signature. Make sure to include all the supporting documents, too.	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-03-23 17:36:00
USCIS Service Centers	It's regarding Interview	AOS interview? What are you adjusting from?	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-07-11 19:50:00
Waivers (I-601 and I-212) and Administrative Processes (221g)	i got this email what does it mean	Unfortunately, 10 months of AP seems common for Pakistan.   This thread might be useful or depressing:   http://www.visajourn...racker-part-ii/	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-03-22 18:24:00
Mexico, Latin & South America	Nica - Time from interview to visa delivery	That was fast!    I'll definitely ask if anything comes up Thanks!	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-02-26 00:49:00
Mexico, Latin & South America	Nica - Time from interview to visa delivery	I take it you passed, then.  Congratulations!	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-02-14 20:44:00
Mexico, Latin & South America	Nica - Time from interview to visa delivery	Can any of the recent K1 people tell me how long it usually takes to receive the visa after the interview? I can't find any Nica specific info.    Also, is there a quick option such as picking up the visa directly from the consulate?    I'd love to wait 7-10 days then fly back with mi amor, but if that's not realistic, then I don't want to "waste" all my vacation time and wait a couple months to go back and fly here with him (he really doesn't want to fly alone).    Thanks!   PS - the consulate info says it takes 5 business days, but the packet 4 info is different than what I received, so I'm not sure how old/relevant it is. Edited by sadavis5, 13 February 2014 - 11:40 PM.	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-02-13 23:36:00
Mexico, Latin & South America	Good references in Spanish for K1 process??	The 2nd post is a good review of AOS - it's good to understand how that works as well, so you can prepare as much in advance and make sure you bring all the right papers from CR.  http://www.visajourn...-status-k1-p-2/	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-10-09 23:31:00
Mexico, Latin & South America	Hotel In Managua, Nicaragua	If you're on a budget, Los Felipe near Parque las Palmas is $20 a night. There is a little pool and half a dozen cats running around.    I think whatever the embassy emails you is the official letter.	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-10-09 23:14:00
National Visa Center (Dept of State)	any one receive *all* of their vaccinations at the medical interview?	My fiance was able to get all of the vaccinations done at once during the medical exam. The lists we found online weren't very clear as to whether all vaccines were age appropriate & required for him. Not getting them all done beforehand saved him a few jabs. The doctor was clear about which vaccines needed the 2nd & 3rd shots.	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-05-01 20:21:00
K-3 Spouse Visa Process & Procedures	K3 approved. Interview date at hand	It's not a requirement, but it seems to help in many cases. You can look at what other people from Ghana have done, or read reviews in the country portal to see if it's really important for that consulate.	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-03-26 19:36:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Interview letter	When I got the K1 information, the consulate said that they prefer to not use the mail, since it's not reliable. You can email the consulate & ask what to bring - they are good about replying if you only ask one question per email.	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-06-08 15:43:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	After interview with the embassy	If nothing holds up the visa (lost paperwork, AP, etc) you should get it quickly.  I think they told us 6 business days. They lost a paper, though, so once we got that turned in, we had the visa in 3 business days (5 days with weekend).	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-07-26 19:12:00
US Embassy and Consulate Discussion	Questions in the appointment ...	Which appointment?	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-07-26 13:21:00
Canada	K-1 and Debt in Canada	As far as I know, they don't look at any financial information from the beneficiary. The DS-160 asks for your monthly income, but that's it. I'm the petitioner, but I got approved with that much debt from student loans.	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-03-27 00:14:00
Removing Conditions on Residency General Discussion	Curious what you all used to send your petitions in	You weren't worried papers would be misplaced not using paper clips or a binder clip?   I had related things paper-clipped together, but they'd have to take the binder clip off at some point, so I figured I could trust them with handling a paper stack.    This may be helpful:   http://www.visajourn...dicator-q-and-a     Quick question: I am preparing to put my documents together now and I am debating between putting it in 3 hole binder, thick clips or a folder with 2 punched holes on top. What is the best and most appreciated option? Here's what happens at the center. Once your mailed petition arrives at the service center mail room the money and application are separated, then your information/application will be removed from whatever you place it in and put into a standard applicant file just like all the others. As I said earlier up the page, all the petitioners stuff/docs etc... is placed on the left side of the applicant file and the CIS generated stuff is on the right hand side. So it doesn't really matter what you send it in really, as long as it stays together until it hits the mail room. I sent all of my stuff in with a big black clip holding everything together and my check paper clipped on the cover letter. Then put everything in a US Mail Express mail envelope. it made it there yesterday AM and I'm sure I' was in my own little cozy A-file by the end of yesterday afternoon.	sadavis5	Not Telling	Nicaragua	2014-03-21 23:31:00