General question on consular documents

[Mike B. 231]

This is my first post here, and this seems like an extremely basic question, but I haven't been able to answer it even looking at the guides. I hope people don't jump up and down on me.

According to a book I have (Nolo's "Fiance & Marriage Visas: A Couple's Guide to U.S. Immigration" by Ilona Bray) "Once the U.S. consulate recieves the NVC notice of the approcal of your Fiance Visa petition, it will send you a follow-up application and further instructions. Which forms they send, and with what instructions, varies among consulates." However, I talked to an immigration lawyer that a coworker of mine knows, and she told me that that is totally incorrect -- it's always the same exact forms for everyone. The book I have also says that these forms are given to the consulate, and the lawyer said that they are instead sent to the NVC in the United States, although they ultimately do end up at the consulate. So which is it? Are the same exact forms mailed to everyone? Which ones are they? And are those forms mailed to the US, or directly to the consulate?

Thanks a lot for your help.

[Terri and Seb 0]

Please fill in your timeline so people can better help you, and get an idea of their own personal timelines based on your data!

All cases are sent to the National Visa Center before they are sent to the consulate. Different embassies require different documents, or different forms of the same type of document especially in the case of divorce papers, court records, birth certficiates and police certificates. Some countries also have different stipulations for the affidavit of support.

[thepizzadude 26]

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...p;page=examples

Here you will find all the example forms you will need...

[adiiann 163]

All forms that need to be filled up is the same to all US petitions. But the difference from every consulate is the structure of the letter or should I refer as the packet because every consulate have different instructions on what the beneficiary need to do on or before the interview as well as the requirements.

[payxibka 10,047]

Basic forms are generally the same but procedures vary greatly from consulate to consulate

Moving to:

US Embassy and Consulate General Discussion

You are almost there and now you have to deal with the embassy. This is the place to post your experiences or questions related to this last step before moving to the US. Topics relating to I-134's, packets sent from consulate and medical & police certificates should be posted here

Edited February 5, 2009 by payxibka

[lucyrich 20]

According to a book I have (Nolo's "Fiance & Marriage Visas: A Couple's Guide to U.S. Immigration" by Ilona Bray) "Once the U.S. consulate recieves the NVC notice of the approcal of your Fiance Visa petition, it (the consulate) will send you a follow-up application and further instructions. Which forms they send, and with what instructions, varies among consulates." However, I talked to an immigration lawyer that a coworker of mine knows, and she told me that that is totally incorrect -- it's always the same exact forms for everyone. The book I have also says that these forms are given to the consulate, and the lawyer said that they are instead sent to the NVC in the United States, although they ultimately do end up at the consulate. So which is it? Are the same exact forms mailed to everyone? Which ones are they? And are those forms mailed to the US, or directly to the consulate?

Rule 1: If you receive specific instructions about your case from any official directly involved in the processing of your particular case, those instructions should be given a lot more weight than any general purpose generic guide. That's always true, but especially once your case reaches the consulate.

It sounds like your lawyer is describing a different phase of the process than the book is talking about. For most immigrant visas (but not for K visas), the NVC typically handles receiving the DS-230 and affidavit of support, does some intial review of them, and forwards them to the consulate. Since the attorney is talking about documents that get sent to the NVC, I assume that's the phase he's talking about.

But the book is clearly talking about what happens after the case gets sent from the NVC to the consulate. At that point, the NVC is normally no longer involved. If, as the book says, the consulate sends you instructions about documents it needs, then they will tell you where to send them. My bet is they'll tell you to send the documents back to the consulate (or to hand-carry them to the interview), not to send them to the NVC.

There are definitely differing requirements from one country to another at the consular phase. For example, a police certificate is required where it's available, but some governments won't issue a police certificate. Local consulates know about the policies of the governments of their host countries, so they'll have country-specific instructions about whether a police certificate is required, and they may even provide some guidance as to how to obtain it, or what format will be acceptable to them. Also, for K visas, consulates have discretion regarding the evidence required to avoid public charge grounds of inadmissibility. Most require an I-134, but not all.

Local postal services vary widely. Most consulates use the local mail or courier to deliver packets, but our experience in Venezuela was that they sent everything over the Internet, and they expected documents to be hand-carried to the interview. The consulate in Caracas knows how trustworthy the Venezuelan postal service is, and they also know how common internet cafes are, so they chose the communications option that works best in the local circumstances.

[Mike B. 231]

Thank you for the information. I actually haven't even submitted the I-195F yet, and am totally new to this process. I am concerned about this particular issue because my fiancee does not speak English very well, and would probably need me to fill out any additional US-government forms that the consulate sends her. My worry is that they'll send her some form that I've never heard of and tell her that she has to fill it out and submit it back to the embassy in Lima in a week. That would make it impossible for her to mail me the form, have me fill it out, and mail it back to her in time. However, if what they send to her is predictable, I could fill out the form way in advance and mail it (or even email it) to her as soon as she needed it.

I understand that some of the information that is requested will be different from country to country (Peru, for example, issues certificates stating that you've never been arrested, and I'm sure the embassy will want to see one), but as long as the actual forms are the same, that would be a big help to us.