ForumTitleContentMemberSexCountryDate/Time
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

So how did all ya'll meet your other half??


Twitter. She saw some comments of mine about a wbgame via a mutual friend of ours, and corrected my mistakes on some math I'd done. Then we started talking regularly, moved to IM and then Skype, then she came to visit back at the start of this year, I proposed to her (by making a video game for her to play with the question at the end), she accepted, and now I'm stucking waiting on a RFE that probably got sent to my physical address rather than my mailing address.

Currently getting my passport renewed so I can go visit her - if we're lucky, we can arrange it so I can be there for her interview, but the way the CSC is faffing about with our case it might just be a regular visit - which will be more than good enough for me, even if I'll want to just bring her home at the end of it.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-25 21:57:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

Have you heard anything else???? :unsure:


Hah. I wish.
No, the odds are looking like the hyper-intelligent beings at CSC probably sent it to the wrong address again, so in a couple more days I'll get to call them back and see if I can get them to give me useful information somehow. u_u
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-25 16:42:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
Yeah, I called the NCSC today. Not only can they not tell me what address it was mailed to, I was informed that I should allow up to 15 days (!) before I contact them about it not being here. Apparently, the government expects _everything_ to take half a month. So I get to keep obsessively checking the mail until I get it or until the 28th. u_u

This is doing nothing to improve my already-low estimation of government agencies, I fear.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-20 19:00:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

What Patty Said.. it should move fast after the RFE, I'm sure you will be getting a wife for Christmas. :lol:


I was originally hoping, with how fast the CSC /was/ moving, that she could potentially have a husband for her birthday, but no amount of A Wizard Did It is going to make that happen now. She'll have to settle for the package of Stuff we're going to send her.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-20 05:40:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
Yep. I'm giving them one more day before I call the NCSC (_again_) and try to find out if they actually sent it to the correct address. :P
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-18 19:14:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
...Wow. Their email followups really leave something to be desired. Prior to the notice of a RFE, I called the NCSC, then 15 days later emailed the CSC with a request to know what's going on and what address they have for me. It was a polite paragraph-or-so of an email. Today, nearly a week /after/ the bloody RFE, I get a response email. 'A request for additional documentation was mailed to the address of record on 09/12/2012.'

...Seriously? /This/ is the followup email response that took nearly two weeks for them to produce? Man, I knew government agencies were barely competent, but this is just insane. u_u
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-18 16:14:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

Good to check. I still cannot believe you got a RFE.


Neither can I. I am extremely dismayed, even though I'm sure it's some stupid, tedious, pointless thing.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-14 23:28:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
I've clarified it via the webform, via the form they mailed me, and then most recently when I called NCSC the phone rep insisted on getting it written in a third time.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-12 21:34:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
It's been clarified and re-clarified three times so far.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-12 21:21:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
Are they kidding me? A RFE? Feh. Guess I have to wait for the paperwork to see what the merry hell they think they need. (Dear USCIS, please join the technological age. Email works! It really does!)
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-12 20:39:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

I'll trade ya! :wow:


I'll second that. :/
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-06 19:08:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

i envy you, we recieved our noa 1 last 10th of may and up to this day still waiting for our noa 2..happy to see alot of may filers got approved already, but depressing for us too that we are now close to our 4 month mark and yet still waiting..best of luck!


Mine was marked approved on May 10th, still waiting around here, too. Still, sooner or later we'll get approvals.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-09-01 04:04:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

hmm I was just coming to check on Kassil&Tierce - no news yet I suppose. it can't be far away, couple of weeks at best, unless its in the mail already.


Nope, our notice on the USCIS site is still that oddball one, no news for us yet. She's started having fits of glee about the getting-married, I'm busy just wishing they'd approve the application so I can get her home sooner.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-28 09:38:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

just wanna ask if any May filer already got their case number, we wanted to know how many days before we can get the case number and schedule the interview :) thanks for your responses

Hey, RyRo, since you've apparently called two case approvals so far, want to send a little luck my way? ;)
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-22 08:49:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

My hardcopy NOA1 took some strange path too. I think mine took as long as yours.


Mine took as long as it did because of an issue they had with the mailing address; I was just on the phone with the USCIS customer service to make sure the address was corrected, and to ask about why my status is /still/ 'On May 31, 2012, your document I129F, PETITION FOR FIANCE(E) was processed and mailed to the address on record.' when all they did at the time was re-mail the NOA1 hardcopy to the actual mailing address rather than my not-recognized-by-the-USPS physical address.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-21 10:32:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

My hardcopy NOA1 took some strange path too. I think mine took as long as yours. I hope my NOA2 doesn't do the same. I'll let you know. Are you checking the USCIS site for status?


Heh. Obsessively. I'm on the line with USCIS right now making sure my mailing address is correct, and asking about the status of the case.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-21 10:19:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

I was going crazy last week watching all the NOA2s right around and after my date. Friday was the worst. I must have checked the USCIS site 8 times. That night I got it! I suspect yours will be very soon.


I sure hope so. My hardcopy NOA1 was May 10th, even though I didn't get the actual hardcopy for nearly a month after because of their screwup on my mailing address. I just hope they send it to the right address /this/ time right away.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-21 09:28:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
And now I'm getting ready to start fidgeting and pacing like a restless cat, since I'm at the CSC and not approved. :/
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-21 09:15:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
It'll still be months before CSC leaves this thread, there's still the /other/ end of the process for everyone to go through.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-19 15:03:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

can you put a mail forward on your physical address? and when you say physical address.. I assume perhaps that you don't live there?

so.. just checking for understanding, so when you log in to USCIS and check on your case status, it doesn't say 'initial review'? :unsure: and the 'status' hasn't change since NOA1?

I'm not good with the phone either, I hate calling anyone other than my close friends, I get really nervous. It took me 2 months at my last apartment to get the electricity account disconnected as they only do that stuff over the phone. :blush: although I don't have a huge problem with people calling me, actually I have no problem with that whatsoever


I live here, I just live in a rural area; we have a mailbox at the end of the gravel road my house is down. They're within a quarter-mile, but the USPS just doesn't recognize that the physical location exists, only the mailbox.

My cases status changed to NOA1 early in May - then changed to 'processed and mailed to the address on record' at the end of May, with the hardcopy of NOA1 finally arriving a couple days later. It's pretty clear they did that as a 'we mailed you the thing, finally', but seeing it instead of 'initial review' or anything else is frustrating, and trying to get an answer as to whether or not it /is/ initial review still or not is dementia-inducing.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-17 19:40:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
It really doesn't help matters any that dealing with phones is difficult for me due to a mild phobic response to them. (Which seems fairly common among geeks...)
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-17 17:08:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
The thing that's irritating me is that my case says 'processed and mailed to the address on record' - which was apparently a spurious alert when it happened back at the end of May, due to the USCIS office trying to mail my NOA1 to my physical address rather than my mailing address like I asked in my cover letter and on the return address on the envelope, and then doing that 'update' when they mailed it to the actual mailing address. (Dear USCIS employee, please learn to read and recognize that 'please send the response to this mailing address' means just that!)

So, now that I see so many other people getting approvals, I'm getting spastic and twitchy about my brain providing what-if situations where the status means something other than 'Oh, ha ha, we goofed, here's the NOA1 sent to your mailing address, hehehe.' Calling the USCIS hotline just makes me want to take a baseball bat to the person who designed their menu, since it's so convoluted and ill-explained in places and I could not for the life of me get a living person, just the automated recital saying 'processed and mailed to the address on record'.

Argh. Government, why must you be so shoddily designed and implemented? Why couldn't you let the older method of bringing one's fiancee to the country stand?
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-17 16:07:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
Trying to avoid any excitement, looking at Igor's List - even if they're processing some of us at the CSC right now, I know there are 205 filers who used VJ still ahead of me in line - so there are plenty of /others/ who went through some other route who are waiting just as much as we are, without the support of the community. So here's hoping, for all of us, that we're one of the early flukes, ahead of the five-month schedule. And here's to the VSC people, hope they keep things flowing for you guys so you're at least on schedule.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-13 19:44:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

Its funny how everyone knows how things work... I've had people make assumptions from movies.

I'll be ok once I have my visa in hand. Although the NOA2 is a great hurdle to jump through, you know things will pick up momentum then.

I'm just hoping at this point, that my SO and I make it till then. Things have been uncomfortable since his little dummy spit. I'm hoping the time we get together in 3 weeks will settle this once and for all. Not feeling special or overly confident at this stage. :wacko:


This is just one of the 'Relationships take time and effort' components of making all of this work. Hold together, and keep trying.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-13 15:59:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
My timeline estimate has crawled close enough that the first date of the estimation is now in August! It might just be a rough estimate, but it's a good sign for how fast CSC is still moving! :D
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-08 16:50:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers
Well, the Curiosity rover landing has helped mitigate some of my recently developing anxiety. We landed a rover on Mars using a rocket-powered flying crane, how amazing and awesome is that?
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-07 16:37:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

Thats a great story, very unique. So many people meet via internet these days, one way or another, guess that's why this visa process has become so lengthy. *sigh*

now searching my android for geocaching app. hehe. not that I need another past time.


c:geo is free, but unless you pick up a premium membership on geocaching.com you'll only load the closest 20 caches without having to deal with a CAPTCHA image. (My fiancee, my mother, and I all have premium accounts - $30 for a year of full access to everything, plus supporting the site is cool.) I'd recommend, if you go looking, to search for some larger caches with lower terrain/difficulty ratings.

Unless you see something rated 1/1 or so in an urban area. In that case, look under the cover on the closest lamp post and there'll probably be a small bottle or a metal tin with a logbook.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-05 22:18:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

Wow.. that sounds interesting. my world feels really small right now. haha. Is that how you two met?


Actually, we met via Twitter, due to a mutual friend and a web-game we all three play, called Fallen London. She introduced herself by correcting my calculation on how much something cost in the game, and we just never stopped talking. Geocaching is something I introduced her to, after tripping over it while poking around in the Android App Store.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-05 20:35:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

No pug should be left behind!

now the bolded.. please explain what this means. :unsure:


Heh.
The short and flippant answer is that geocaching is the art of using billion-dollar satellite technology to find Tupperware someone hid in the woods (or under a pile of rocks by a yucca, out here). The long answer is that it's a sport/game that uses GPS technology to hide containers (usually) in various places, register the coordinates (and clues) on a site dedicated to the sport (We're on Geocaching.com), and then find the geocaches hidden by others. It's a fun thing, because it combines getting outside with treasure hunts and, often, puzzles. My fiancee and I both participate - she's kicking my posterior with 364 caches found to my 306 - and since she went back to Portugal for us to wait through the visa process, I've been placing a geocache each month. Missing Caeliat #1, Missing Caeliat #2, and Missing Caeliat #3 are the currently active ones; I placed one this morning that's waiting for the local reviewer to approve.

Said reviewer goes by the handle of RoadRunner, and my fiancee met him yesterday, at the Lisbon Geocoinfest event. Apparently, after talking with him, she has a pair of trackable items from him to give to me. Really, it's a fairly fun sport, and geocachers tend to be awesome people who are all too happy to help each other (and 'muggles', as the adopted phrase for non-cachers tends to be) out without any real complaint. (One relatively popular kind of event cache is a CITO - Cache In Trash Out - where people who attend clean up the garbage in a given area for proper disposal.)

Edited by Kassil&Tierce, 05 August 2012 - 05:51 PM.

Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-05 17:50:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

ha, not at all, I was wondering the same thing really.



Perfectly fine, feel free to rant! VSC can't stay like this forever, they have to have a burst of processing sooner or later, I think it makes it worse that CSC have over done things. It seems they are operating entirely independently. This whole process is a nightmare. Its part of why 2 friends of mine decided to go the other way, he.. the USC, moved to New Zealand instead, took all of 30 days.
I try to do an exercise, where I can think about a time, that was not that long ago or a time that is equal to my estimated processing time, and consider how 'not that long ago' it feels, like Christmas, it really feels as though it wasn't that long ago right?.. but its been 8 months, then I think.. well its going to be less time than that, till I am with my fiance and don't have to leave again. I don't know, it helps me anyway.


If it were something I could afford to do, I totally would've gone to Portugal to stay with Tess and worked on an I-130 instead - but the economy's even more in the pits here in Nevada than the rest of the country, so dropping my job like that wasn't really an option. Plus, that would mean leaving the pugs behind, and we both adore the pugs. (Plus I wouldn't be placing my set of geocaches for how much I miss her, if I had, which has apparently gotten the attention of the local reviewer.)
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-05 16:22:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

I don't believe in God or anything,


>.>
Thank you. I was starting to feel like my fiancee and I were the only ones who aren't religious on here...
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-05 10:04:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

Hi all!

I've read about how the CVC are approving petitions from April and May now, that's great news for you guys waiting on them!

I looked at Igor's list and I can't believe the VSC are so far behind CVC, am I reading it properly? They're still approving petitions from January and February? :angry:

xx


That's really about 'on time' for the expected national average - they should theoretically be starting in on the March filers all the way around. Those of us at the CSC are just lucky that, overall, CSC seems to be moving rather quickly.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-03 22:24:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

Thanks! I totally wasn't expecting it this early! Timeline predicted Sept 5. Not complaining, though. Good luck on your petition. You'll get it soon too. :)


This news of yours is making it difficult to sleep. :lol:
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-03 04:30:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

OMG!!! We have been approved Aug 2!!! And I was expecting an RFE but we didn't!!!! I love you all!!!


Awesome!
Err, I presume you're at the California Service Center, since as far as I know Texas is just a sorting facility for our petitions, and the CSC is the one that's been moving...
Hopefully it'll be good news for more of us, soon!
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-03 03:08:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

*sigh* so... everyone deserves at least one chance right? <_< I'm really embarrassed that I announced this, I didn't think someone would say stuff like this unless they meant it. It was an unprovoked decision by him, it came out of the blue, I thought we were really happy, I wasn't disillusioned. He did go through a nasty divorce with his ex-wife and one of the guys at his work, who is bitter and unhappy in his own marriage got in his ear, saying that I might be wonderful now, but as soon as we are married, I'll change. he started thinking I was too good to be true. The distance doesn't help I suppose. it was a complete ####### move.. trust me.. I even told him that.

I don't do the 'on again, off again' thing. I thought he was serious, he tells me he feels foolish, realised he went too far when I just started talking logistics for my cat and belongings (emotional hysteria is not my thing either). I'm a little wary, but think he deserves at least one chance based on being a complete idiot. finally.. a reason to use this... :bonk:

I'd also like to say.. its nice to know that you guys are fully supportive. I wasn't going to come back here I was so embarrassed, but its not like you've seen my face. :P


Well, it's good to hear he realized he was being an idiot now, rather than years from now. Tell him that I, as another guy, am telling him to not listen to the people who ###### about their marriages - either they bought into the Hollywood fairy-tale romance, or they got into the relationship based on sex and looks, which are not the foundation of a good relationship. Any relationship is going to take work - doing things together, spending time together, spending time apart with your own hobbies so you have alone time, weathering the arguments that inevitably crop up from two people with fully developed personalities and opinions having a difference of opinion on a topic. Entirely too many people go into marriage either expecting a fairy tale, an excuse to get laid constantly, or with the belief that they can 'fix (him/her) up' into what they think they want, instead of accepting that their partner is a real person with quirks, perks, and flaws that make them real. As long as you're both willing to put in the effort, you'll be fine.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-01 18:05:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

Wha what?! What just happened here seriously?!


According to her profile status update, her fiance's decided he's not in love with her and called it off - kind of a ####### move, what with her having sold her stuff and shipped her cat. :/
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-08-01 09:31:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

I think I'm confused. What happened?? You bought a ticket and now it's the end?


Apparently her fiance has chosen to call it all off - I hope that she at least gets her cat back. :/
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-07-31 20:54:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

March filers through CSC are getting their NOA2 recently. If CSC can keep up approving at this 120 days or less rate, CSC May filers will be looking late August or early September for our NOA2 barring RFE. :dance: :dance:


As great as this would be, I'm keeping my hopes under control; if NOA2 happens before five months, I'll be happy, but I'm expecting it sometime in October. I'd rather not get my hopes up and have them dashed on this. >.>
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-07-17 17:41:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

no real thoughts on the date, it depends on when we get approved really, if its November, then I'll try for POE early December, otherwise maybe wait till January - mostly due to work and bonus time - every penny helps since I won't be working for a few months. but plans will be simple, we'll hop on a flight to Vegas for a weekend - then have a few friends and family in Hawaii for a quiet celebration later. I'd be happy to just have us two, but I have a couple of friends and my cousin insisting. hang on.. whose wedding? :unsure: :lol: really, I'm fine with obliging them as its a good excuse for them to visit.

what are your plans Pinkrlion?

Patty, organising sounds fun for you.. its nice though that his Mom is keen. :)


When my fiancee gets approved, we're definitely getting married in Vegas - I live in the area, after all! We're planning for the legal part ASAP, so we can file the AoS as quick as we can, and then we'll have a ceremony for family and friends later on. A few friends have already offered help with the wedding, and one tried to argue us into a Colorado wedding - we refused, because her idea of scenic locales tends to involve elevations that leave everyone else gasping for air. The hard part is that, as part of the Millennial generation, our friends are scattered all over the place, above and beyond the two countries we're from. Trying to wrangle everyone together is past tricky as a concept - likely we'll just take about a month and visit as many of them as we can on a honeymoon.
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-06-28 12:25:00
K-1 Fiance(e) Visa Case Filing and Progress ReportsMay 2012 Filers

Oh, I know, you're right, it's the same for us all with this waiting and anguish. I don't think I can visit again anytime soon though because I already spent so long over there in so little time that I'd look suspicious at border control - I was almost denied entry back in April so I'm even more wary now :/


We decided against trying to visit until it's time, because parting ways at the airport is just too brutally painful. u_u
Kassil&TierceMalePortugal2012-06-22 17:46:00