Which visa for this situation?

[Lansbury 19]

One police report covers all address in Great Britain. If you lived in Northern Ireland you would need one from there.

The checklist of what you need for the visa interview is here http://london.usembassy.gov/cons_new/visa/iv/docs169.html

Edited February 3, 2008 by Lansbury

[BritishGuy36 0]

Super! I've scoured this site - dunno how I missed that one!

[BritishGuy36 0]

Wow. Good job I checked my passport. It expires August 2008! Have filled in the online form for the renewal on the appropriate government website.

The checklist you linked to specifies that the birth certificate must be a full one and not the short form. It doesn't say on the one I have which it is, but it's A4 size - I presume that's the "full" birth certificate.

Something slightly worrying is that it also says "The certificate must contain the person's date and place of birth and names of both parents." Erm - well my father's name was never recorded in the birth register, hence it doesn't appear on any certified copy of my birth certificate.

Surely thay can't use this as a means to refuse me? That would surely be discriminatory?

Edited February 3, 2008 by BritishGuy36

[Lansbury 19]

Wow. Good job I checked my passport. It expires August 2008! Have filled in the online form for the renewal on the appropriate government website.

The checklist you linked to specifies that the birth certificate must be a full one and not the short form. It doesn't say on the one I have which it is, but it's A4 size - I presume that's the "full" birth certificate.

Something slightly worrying is that it also says "The certificate must contain the person's date and place of birth and names of both parents." Erm - well my father's name was never recorded in the birth register, hence it doesn't appear on any certified copy of my birth certificate.

Surely thay can't use this as a means to refuse me? That would surely be discriminatory?

The "short" birth certificate doesn't have the boxes for the parents names I think. My birth certificate certainly isn't A4, it is about half as deep as an A4 and twice as wide. It contains the following information: where when born - name - sex - fathers name - mothers name - fathers occupation - signature of person registering - when registered - signature of registrar. It is a copy of the entry I obtained in 1996 and is hand written. Last time I was at that registry office (2006 to register a family death) everything was on computer and came on A4 from a laser printer.

Providing the birth certificate you take has the boxes for fathers details so they can see it was not recorded that should be sufficient. They cannot refuse the application because you don't supply information you don't know and cannot find out.

Edited February 3, 2008 by Lansbury

[BritishGuy36 0]

Well thanks for the reassurance.

I would tend to agree, but this visa business is so involved, there's a lot of potential for hangups - it wouldn't surprise me if USCIS found an issue with something. Hopefully I'm just being over cautious.

The wording around the police certificate is a bit confusing too, to say the least!

By the way I posted my I-130 to London on Wednesday, 1st class recorded - but isn't logged as delivered on the royal mail website yet...don't tell me it's gone missing! And with my credit card details in it too.....

[BritishGuy36 0]

Err....just realised my passport expires in August 2008....better get that sorted.....

[BritishGuy36 0]

Right. This is unbelievable.

I got the package back from USCIS this morning. On the checklist they have circled the bit that says "only one form to be completed by the petitioner and one by his/her spouse" for the G-325A form. As this is the form that duplicates itself over the first 4 pages, I didn't know whether to just submit page one or whether "one form" constituted pages one to four of the form.

I called their scandalously priced "advice line" which turns out to be nothing of the sort, the guy didn't seem to know what he was talking about and said send all four pages. Now this has been sent back to me because I sent all four pages of the form? Why didn't they just shred the other 3 sheets, if they didn't need them? And why don't they educate their "helpline" people properly? If I am paying a premium for this information, I expect it to be correct! What are these guys on?!?!?!?!?

So how do I know which one of the almost identical pages to send them!?!?

So they sent it back, my credit card has been debited the $355, and they did not send back either the credit card payment form OR any of the photographs we sent.

Surely they don't expect me to pay again?!?!

Help!

Edited February 6, 2008 by BritishGuy36

[BritishGuy36 0]

Hang on a minute. I think I may be panicking over nothing.

Looking through the paperwork they sent back, they only sent back 3 of the 4 sheets from each G-325A form. And the credit card page is missing, and my card has been debited. They also sent my covering letter back and the photocopy of my birth certificate. And they kept the photos.

Did they actually just send back paperwork they didn't want, and put the application in the queue for processing?

If so, it's not clear!

Either way the premium phoneline gave me incorrect advice.

I guess I will find out if I get a notice from them listing a filing date sometime soon?

Any thoughts?

Edited February 6, 2008 by BritishGuy36

[Lansbury 19]

Hang on a minute. I think I may be panicking over nothing.

Looking through the paperwork they sent back, they only sent back 3 of the 4 sheets from each G-325A form. And the credit card page is missing, and my card has been debited. They also sent my covering letter back and the photocopy of my birth certificate. And they kept the photos.

Did they actually just send back paperwork they didn't want, and put the application in the queue for processing?

If so, it's not clear!

Either way the premium phoneline gave me incorrect advice.

I guess I will find out if I get a notice from them listing a filing date sometime soon?

Any thoughts?

Sounds like they have sent back stuff they don't need. You should get the NOA1 with the file date on it within 7 days, the file date should be the date they charged your credit card.

[BritishGuy36 0]

Here's hoping!

I have been calling banks but getting nowhere fast.

Wells Fargo say that my wife should be able to open an account online as he has an SSN, but when I go to try that it asks for a US phone number that they can call us back on....hmmm.....

I think if you are confident that domicile is not going to be an issue Lansbury that I am going to risk it and just ask my father-in-law if we can transfer the money into his bank account - then we can set up our own once we get over there. I will leave an amount in my UK account here for us to be going on with while we are getting stuff sorted over there.

Otherwise it means spending chunks of cash on flights etc that we may be able to do without.

Edited February 6, 2008 by BritishGuy36

[Lansbury 19]

I really don't think you will have a problem with the domicle issue.

If you wanted to open a bank account look at VoIP. We used this when we were in the UK, we had a phone with a local Oregon number on it. When we moved to the USA just plugged the box in over here and added a London number onto it as well. Anyone in the UK calls us on an 0208 number and in Oregon on a 503 number. Look at http://www.broadvoice.com for information. Also there are services were you buy a local US number and it can be forwarded to any number worldwide, google finds several.

[BritishGuy36 0]

I already use VOIP, and have a UK 0845 number on which friends/relatives may contact us when we have gone. Checking it out, I can get an Ohio number for £10 set up fee and £8.99 a month. I may do that.

On another note, NOA1 arrived this morning. Woohoo! File date 4th Feb, on the USCIS London website they say that on 4th Feb they are processing petitions filed exactly 9 weeks earlier - so a bit shorter of a wait than was expected.

[Lansbury 19]

On another note, NOA1 arrived this morning. Woohoo! File date 4th Feb, on the USCIS London website they say that on 4th Feb they are processing petitions filed exactly 9 weeks earlier - so a bit shorter of a wait than was expected.

That's a weight of the mind. Hopefully as you say will be a bit quicker than you expected.

[Lansbury 19]

OK a bit more about domicile. On another forum someone got turned down for a visa at London because the applicant said at the interview the USC was domiciled in the UK and not the USA

Elmcitymaven, who also did DCF via London, made a good point in another VJ thread about the above. After your I-130 is approved and your wife sponsors you for your visa, when she fills out the I-864 to go with the visa application, she puts your UK address as her mailing address and her parents address in the USA as her place of residence.

[BritishGuy36 0]

Hmmm....ok. Sounds a bit odd....and not really the truth, at least at that point. I wouldn't want them to pull us for not telling the truth. I guess there's no way to be sure on this point really. But I can't afford to get turned down and have to start the process again.

Good info, thanks.