Just Turkish

[substance 0]

i called nvc a min ago. the lady said they will schedule the interview appointment on the 15th of december. The embassy gives them plenty of dates available. depends on when your case was complete , you get a sooner or later date. december interviews are already scheduled, so the soonest can be january but they dont guarantee that.

i will have to wait 10 more days and see

[MPGGPM 0]

i called nvc a min ago. the lady said they will schedule the interview appointment on the 15th of december. The embassy gives them plenty of dates available. depends on when your case was complete , you get a sooner or later date. december interviews are already scheduled, so the soonest can be january but they dont guarantee that.

i will have to wait 10 more days and see

Does "interview appointment" mean the actual interview date for you? Or does that just mean that is when the NVC will sit down and finally decide when your actual interview date in Ankara will be? (I think you meant the latter?)

I appreciate the input you've given on your experiences. You're very descriptive.....and I am hoping when you have your interview..............and after you have done your celebrating etc......that you might get around to taking a few minutes of your time, sometime after the interview, and share what your experience was like. I know you'll have other things on your mind then....like seeing and reuniting with your wife again...(of course).....but maybe....after things settle down (days..weeks etc..after), you can share your experience.

I would like to pass that info on to my wife.

As for that questionnaire from the NVC......I had no idea it was so long. My wife has been working on it in Istanbul, and she told me it was like 17 pages long! I can see where someone....with the length of such a thing...might make a few mistakes.

What you said about "like prison without walls" was a good descriptor of how my wife must feel....... . That description was right on the mark.

My wife will be here to visit soon...(hopefully she doesn't get hassled at the airport...which has been known to happen every so often to some people ...when they just try to visit their US citizen spouse).....then I am going to look at that questionnaire with her, and we'll be sending it to the NVC in a few weeks.

Hoshakal

(I DO know a Turkish word.... here and there.....I'm learning

[substance 0]

yes it does mean the later one. on the 15th of december(this month) NVC is going to sit down have my case on the desk and give a call to ankara and discuss the possible dates available and assign one of them to my case. my case was complete on november22nd so i will have my interview later than the guys who was complete between november 15th-21st. but my date should be sooner than anyday after 22nd.

she said they usually schedule dates for the following month(january in this case) but the dates available are limited and NVC will not guarantee the following month or the month following that and so on.

for your wife. maybe it is better for her to not to tell about the immigrant visa petition at the poe. i have heard they denied some ppl saying they should wait for their immigrant visa and cancel their B1/B2.

if she was any nationality other than turkish , she would be fine but american officals dont like the turks anymore and they usually give hard time to them. i know what you think but its not 9/11 that changed it. its the turkish parliement rejected the note in 2002 when america was going on a war with iraq. since then no more alies, no more friendship but all sort of hardship.

well ds 230 is pretty easy to fill out for a person who has never been to usa. but its quite difficult for us bc we have to state each visit , each visa, purposes, how long we stayed and all that.

part 2 is easy too. you say NO to all of them.(mostly questions like are you a terrorist, prostitute, etc..) only 5 countries plus the ones in africa does the part 2 which puts ppl into lowering themself and emberrased. having to sign the paper in front of the officer saying i am not a terrorist and stuff. this is what i meant with turkey and america no more alies. and all sort of hardship. there are hardly barely any terrorist from turkey and i dont know any problems from the turks to america(people wise). but they put us in the black list. this is just politics. there are a bunch of countries where 20% of their population lives in the US illigaly and there is no restriction for those.

[substance 0]

I have my interview date. NVC scheduled it on the 7th of December(they told me they would do it on 15th) Its not as close as I wanted but too bad either. Its in Mid january. My case was completed on November 22nd. The interview is about 2 months and couple days from that date.

[MPGGPM 0]

I have my interview date. NVC scheduled it on the 7th of December(they told me they would do it on 15th) Its not as close as I wanted but too bad either. Its in Mid january. My case was completed on November 22nd. The interview is about 2 months and couple days from that date.

Good luck. Hopefully my wife won't be too far behind you.......as we will be sending in our questionnaire and the rest in the coming weeks. I assume she'll have her interview based on what you've written and from what I've seen from other timelines on this thread, around mid to late February (if..heaven forbid..we don't get any RFE's).

My wife is here now .We'll have a terrific one month together anyhow...before she has to leave again....she didn't have any problems whatsoever at the airports, and in fact...through all of her 4 visits over the past 2 years, she has never had any problems at all entering. If any Turkish residents have ever had a hard time entering (you said they might give Turkish citizens a hard time because of the disagreements over use of the military bases issue in 2002?)....fortunately, she's never noticed it or been subject to it. She told me this time, the customs agent was very friendly, and even joked with her. Each time she's entered , they have hardly asked her a thing.

I'm going to spend a lot of time this weekend with her....looking over that questionnaire and the rest, then send it to our lawyer. Hopefully we can send it back to the NVC soon. I am ready for this visa process to be over with...and for my wife and I to be able to have a "normal" life soon. Having her here now, only helps to remind me of how much our lives have been missing.......as we endure this process.

Good luck once again......

[substance 0]

good news, she had no trouble and you are together. She got her B1/B2 probably before you filed I130. Because my wife and I tried for B1/b2(as well as F-1) and they said we must wait for our immigrant visa. If I could get the visa, I would have stayed with her in the States for 6 months(thats how long visa allows me). but it didnt happen. she had to come here and live with me instead.

well. my interview date is not so bad however it would be great if it was 1 weak earlier to fit my wifes school schedule. so we emailed Ankara for that purpose. They replied today, they cant give us a sooner date as Ankara embassy is already overloaded.

for you guesstimation of your wifes visa......february is a bit too soon.....assuming you are going to submit DS230. from your writing , your lawyer mostlikely submit it next week someday. That is between 18-22th of december. Give 3+ week for NVC to review them. (usually 4 weeks). your case will be complete on January 18-24th. You will have to wait till february 7th for NVC to schedule your interview(NVC schedules interviews only on the second week of each month.) and now we have the info that Ankara embassy is overloaded mostlikely give appointmants for 2 months ahead. I say her interview will be around march 15-20th.

You are too late for Jan 7th scheduling. if you submit you ds 230 today 15 december....and you are too lucky they review it in record time 2+weeks and be complete by jan 7th. her interview , still slim to none chance for late feb (but possible) but probably early march.. .but there are too many " if" s in this case.

I dont like to say this but I believe mid to late march is most realistic one.

hope you dont hate me now....but I explained my points as I have been through all of this.

have a good time with your wife in the US.......you are almost done...dont worry

[Michele&Omer 0]

I have my interview date. NVC scheduled it on the 7th of December(they told me they would do it on 15th) Its not as close as I wanted but too bad either. Its in Mid january. My case was completed on November 22nd. The interview is about 2 months and couple days from that date.

CONGRATES ON YOUR INTERVIEW DATE!!!

Jan and Feb are both hard months for interview dates...as a government employee myself, we get holidays off for both months...New Years and MLK Day in Jan. and Presidents Day in Feb. also from looking at their interview calendar they do not seem to make any intreviews on Fridays and most days no interviews are scheduled after 10:30 or 11:00 each morning.

Hope your interview goes well....we will be following the CR-1/IR1 about this time next year.

Our K3 interview went well...a few questions to each of us (his in Turkish and mine in English) about when we met online and in-person, asked about pictures from our wedding, we did not have any wedding pictures but we did have pictures of us with his family (from my 2 trips to Turkey) and of our honeymoon, asked about our age difference and was that going to be a problem for us later on, asked each of us how our families felt about our relationship, she asked him how many children I have and what they do...and then she handed him the UPS card to fill out.

Good Luck,

Michele

Edited December 17, 2006 by Michele&Omer

[substance 0]

thats rude to ask if the age difference will be a problem for you later on....its not their business. when you decided to marry you probably considered all pros and cons and ended up getting married you know.

well i dont know if you read my previous posts but i had lived in the US for 6 years and I met my wife the last 2 years of it. So we have plenty of pictures of us together in the US as well as with her parents...BBQ parties and all. And of course she lived with me here for long time while we were waiting for the visa. and many pics from her moms and dads visit as well. Well we didnt have a wedding ceremony since we found it stupid to have a big wedding and she leaves for USA and I stay here for 1 year. SO ours going to happen this summer. We can have a big wedding by bosphorus and then trip to Fiji then live together in our new home.

I dont think i will have any problems with the questions. and the pictures , mails, emails, phone calls, plane tickets, hotel reciepts for our trips will help as well. We both seem like great match.. about the same age , same height:) both college student, both turkish (she is turkish american from turkish parents)

but still , its never 100% chance you know....

they can ask question about each other to test if its a fraud marriage but giving their own opinion about age and stuff is rude......they are not the ones to tell us who to marry. just ask your questions to see if this is a real marriage or not.

thanks for the responce

i would suggest wait till your second anniversy for your CR1/IR1 interview. by the time of the interview if its been 2 years since you got married, he will directly get IR1(10 year GC) but if its less than 2 years , he will get CR1(2 year GC) and 2 years after the entry to US you will have to deal with getting IR1 again. so better to wait or make it take longer by responcing the mails late to have your interview after your second anniversary.

[MPGGPM 0]

for you guesstimation of your wifes visa......february is a bit too soon.....assuming you are going to submit DS230. from your writing , your lawyer mostlikely submit it next week someday. That is between 18-22th of december. Give 3+ week for NVC to review them. (usually 4 weeks). your case will be complete on January 18-24th. You will have to wait till february 7th for NVC to schedule your interview(NVC schedules interviews only on the second week of each month.) and now we have the info that Ankara embassy is overloaded mostlikely give appointmants for 2 months ahead. I say her interview will be around march 15-20th.

You are too late for Jan 7th scheduling. if you submit you ds 230 today 15 december....and you are too lucky they review it in record time 2+weeks and be complete by jan 7th. her interview , still slim to none chance for late feb (but possible) but probably early march.. .but there are too many " if" s in this case.

I dont like to say this but I believe mid to late march is most realistic one.

hope you dont hate me now....but I explained my points as I have been through all of this.

have a good time with your wife in the US.......you are almost done...dont worry

I am going by the fact that your schedule and the other timeline I showed in an earlier post took approximately one and a half months from the last stage of NVC. If you recall, from one of my first posts, I told you your interview would be around January 15. You thought that that would be unrealistic, and even said the chances would be "slim to none" (your words).

Now, your interview appears to be right around what I predicted.

I still feel mid to late February is realistic and consistant with yours and other timelines. But who knows........

The way I look at it, my wife and I are used to waiting, due to this 2 year rule for her j-1 visa. If it turns out that it is later than planned.....well...the way we look at it, if we've waited 2 years already, a few more weeks won't be much in comparison.

To Michele& Omer............

Can you tell us how long your actual interview in Ankara took? Was it minutes.....an hour....maybe more? Once you go to the embassy, how long did you have to wait in line until your interview? Did they give an interview time....and if so...were they prompt...or did you end up having to wait a while at the embassy until your interview? What was the atmosphere like?

Congratulations on your approval. I can only hope my wife's is as smooth.......

[substance 0]

OK I re-read your past posts. you are confusing K3 process and CR1/IR1. Yes you are right when you do send in the last paperworks for K3, the interview will mostlikely be in 1-2 months from that day. On K3 process, once your I129F got approved, they send your file to NVC, NVC only assigns a case number(and nothing else) which takes only couple weeks and send your case to Ankara. Then Ankara ask you for final paperwork which are similar to ds230 and I864. As I said this happens between you and the embassy in Ankara. and Ankara is lightning fast comparing to NVC , they review your paperwork in 2-3 days and you get the letter that tells you the interview date in the same week(mostly) and you are right its 1 and half month or 2 months ahead from you last send in final papers. Most people on this forum do K3 , thats why you see such timings.

CR1/IR1 however is completely different. After your I130 got appoved, you case is forwarded to NVC and NVC does all the work. You send in the final papers. It takes about 3-4 weeks for NVC to review them . When your case is complete. You case has to wait till the second week of next month to get scheduled for an interview date. And the interview date is 1 and half month or 2 months from this day(the second week of next month).

I assuming you mean sending in the final paper work to NVC as last step. Mine took exactly 3 months from that moment. When you replied to my message and predicted Jan15th, it had already been 45-50 days since I submited and NVC pronounced on its system that they have my final paperwork.

I hope I am mistaken and you are right but if you check for CR1/IR1 applicants you will see that these are very common time frames.

to Michelle and Omer..........

how long did it take for you to recieve Omer's passport in the mail? The Ankara website says 2-3 business days. My interview is on January 23rd and I am planing booking my flight for Jan 28th. the 23rd being tuesday.......wednesday , thursday, friday(3 business days) and i believe ups delivers on satudays too and my flight will be on sunday. I really have to make sure I wil get the passport within 3 days.

thanks

[MPGGPM 0]

OK I re-read your past posts. you are confusing K3 process and CR1/IR1. Yes you are right when you do send in the last paperworks for K3, the interview will mostlikely be in 1-2 months from that day. On K3 process, once your I129F got approved, they send your file to NVC, NVC only assigns a case number(and nothing else) which takes only couple weeks and send your case to Ankara. Then Ankara ask you for final paperwork which are similar to ds230 and I864. As I said this happens between you and the embassy in Ankara. and Ankara is lightning fast comparing to NVC , they review your paperwork in 2-3 days and you get the letter that tells you the interview date in the same week(mostly) and you are right its 1 and half month or 2 months ahead from you last send in final papers. Most people on this forum do K3 , thats why you see such timings.

CR1/IR1 however is completely different. After your I130 got appoved, you case is forwarded to NVC and NVC does all the work. You send in the final papers. It takes about 3-4 weeks for NVC to review them . When your case is complete. You case has to wait till the second week of next month to get scheduled for an interview date. And the interview date is 1 and half month or 2 months from this day(the second week of next month).

I assuming you mean sending in the final paper work to NVC as last step. Mine took exactly 3 months from that moment. When you replied to my message and predicted Jan15th, it had already been 45-50 days since I submited and NVC pronounced on its system that they have my final paperwork.

I hope I am mistaken and you are right but if you check for CR1/IR1 applicants you will see that these are very common time frames.

I can distinguish pretty well between a k-3 timeline and a Cr-1 timeline.... And it was NOT k-3 timelines that I was looking at, but Cr-1's......including one or 2 on this very thread.

But I can guess we can debate this on and on.........and it's still going to boil down to how soon we can send in our last packet (there's no guarantee it'll go out this week...but we're gonna try), whether it's error free and we don't get any RFE's , how quickly the NVC processes our paperwork , and then finally, how backed up Ankara is.

If things go our way, then I feel confident it will go according to schedule. But, my wife and I are prepared for things if they don't. Even worse case scenerio.....it can't be any worse than being separated for 2 years already.

In the meantime, I am enjoying having my wife here.

You know....for a Turk, she sure can cook up a mean hamburger.

[Michele&Omer 0]

To Michele& Omer............

Can you tell us how long your actual interview in Ankara took? Was it minutes.....an hour....maybe more? Once you go to the embassy, how long did you have to wait in line until your interview? Did they give an interview time....and if so...were they prompt...or did you end up having to wait a while at the embassy until your interview? What was the atmosphere like?

Congratulations on your approval. I can only hope my wife's is as smooth.......

to Michelle and Omer..........

how long did it take for you to recieve Omer's passport in the mail? The Ankara website says 2-3 business days. My interview is on January 23rd and I am planing booking my flight for Jan 28th. the 23rd being tuesday.......wednesday , thursday, friday(3 business days) and i believe ups delivers on satudays too and my flight will be on sunday. I really have to make sure I wil get the passport within 3 days.

thanks

The interview took maybe 15 or 20 minutes.

Our interview appointment was for 10am and they would not let us in the Embassy until 10-15 minutes before 10am. After getting thru the main gate, we had to make a stop outside the building to hand in his passport, medical reports, and his "new" passport pictures, and they also give you a number to be called by for your interview. Then we went inside and went thru security, they will take any cell phones and cameras and such there and give you a number for them so you can get them back after the interview. You then enter a waiting room with maybe 50 chairs, and 7 windows. Window 4 seemed like the window for immigrating couples, we were called just before 11am and were thru before 11:15. The had a toy box for childrern to play with and the UPS table was in the back so you basically could tell if someone got their visa or not by if they went to the table. We just talked between us, but if your wife is going alone I would have her bring a book or something to occupy the time. When you are called to the window you talk to the officer with a glass between you so at times you can hear what is being said further in the room as they have a voice box next to the window so the officer can hear you better. You slide any information they want under the glass, we had 8 pictures picked out that kind of represented our relationship but also had a photo album that would not have had fit under the glass, she looked at the sheets of pictures we had and declined to see any more in the album.

She never told us that we "had" the visa just gave Omer the paper for UPS, so when we went outside and I said congrats he said did she tell you something?? He still did not beleive that it was over and he was given the visa. I had asked at the window if there was any chance that we could come back and pick up the visa and she said no, but that the visa was being printed as we talked and would be sent out that afternoon. He visa arrived in Sanli Urfa on Sat. (our interview was Wed.) but UPS said they would not get it to his village until Friday, so he asked if he could pick it up at the UPS office and they let us go get it, but we needed to take his plane ticket to show them we had reservations to leave on Friday. All in all it was a good experience.

They were doing constuction on the street in front of the Embassy we stayed at the Hotel accross the street but had to walk across a makeshift bridge to get there. Hopefully that will be done by the time your interview is.

Good Luck to you both!!!

Michele

[Allison-Mahir 0]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this board but not new AT ALL to immigration and spouses from Turkey! My husband is from Izmir, Turkey and came here on a K1 visa in May 2004. We have done the whole K1 process, AOS, and now we're working on Removal of Conditions so he can get his 10 year green card and in 1 year we'll be working on citizenship.

My husband found your board and after reading it myself I'm amazed at some of the similarities that you all describe regarding your spouses and the amount of bread they eat and the way they blame sore muscles AC/Heat!!!! I was just laughing so hard because both are exactly the way my husband is!

Well, just wanted to say hello and introduce ourselves to all in case you want to talk about immigration, Turkey, or bread and muscles!!!!

Allison

[Mina76 0]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to this board but not new AT ALL to immigration and spouses from Turkey! My husband is from Izmir, Turkey and came here on a K1 visa in May 2004. We have done the whole K1 process, AOS, and now we're working on Removal of Conditions so he can get his 10 year green card and in 1 year we'll be working on citizenship.

My husband found your board and after reading it myself I'm amazed at some of the similarities that you all describe regarding your spouses and the amount of bread they eat and the way they blame sore muscles AC/Heat!!!! I was just laughing so hard because both are exactly the way my husband is!

Well, just wanted to say hello and introduce ourselves to all in case you want to talk about immigration, Turkey, or bread and muscles!!!!

Allison

Hi Allison,

Welcome to VJ :-)

Funny huh, about the way they blame sore muscles AC/Heat, they all seem so sensitive to everything!!! Ohhh and let me not get started on the bread thing, I think I have gained so much weight since getting married to a Turkish man! I definitely need to go on a diet

Anyway I wish everyone here Good Luck on their Visa process.

Mina

[MPGGPM 0]

To Michele& Omer............

The interview took maybe 15 or 20 minutes.

Our interview appointment was for 10am and they would not let us in the Embassy until 10-15 minutes before 10am. After getting thru the main gate, we had to make a stop outside the building to hand in his passport, medical reports, and his "new" passport pictures, and they also give you a number to be called by for your interview. Then we went inside and went thru security, they will take any cell phones and cameras and such there and give you a number for them so you can get them back after the interview. You then enter a waiting room with maybe 50 chairs, and 7 windows. Window 4 seemed like the window for immigrating couples, we were called just before 11am and were thru before 11:15. The had a toy box for childrern to play with and the UPS table was in the back so you basically could tell if someone got their visa or not by if they went to the table. We just talked between us, but if your wife is going alone I would have her bring a book or something to occupy the time. When you are called to the window you talk to the officer with a glass between you so at times you can hear what is being said further in the room as they have a voice box next to the window so the officer can hear you better. You slide any information they want under the glass, we had 8 pictures picked out that kind of represented our relationship but also had a photo album that would not have had fit under the glass, she looked at the sheets of pictures we had and declined to see any more in the album.

She never told us that we "had" the visa just gave Omer the paper for UPS, so when we went outside and I said congrats he said did she tell you something?? He still did not beleive that it was over and he was given the visa. I had asked at the window if there was any chance that we could come back and pick up the visa and she said no, but that the visa was being printed as we talked and would be sent out that afternoon. He visa arrived in Sanli Urfa on Sat. (our interview was Wed.) but UPS said they would not get it to his village until Friday, so he asked if he could pick it up at the UPS office and they let us go get it, but we needed to take his plane ticket to show them we had reservations to leave on Friday. All in all it was a good experience.

They were doing constuction on the street in front of the Embassy we stayed at the Hotel accross the street but had to walk across a makeshift bridge to get there. Hopefully that will be done by the time your interview is.

Good Luck to you both!!!

Michele

Thanks for all that information!

Edited December 19, 2006 by MPGGPM