Scandinavians

[Mr. Borkström 63]

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Understand completely! I'm a pretty easy going person, trying not to worry too much but still this process have me on needles!

So happy you have your interview so soon!

I had my medical today,easy and fast. But my son needs an extra shot they didn't have. So he need to get it fast so they can mail the papers to the embassy..

I do have an pre excisting condition and I'm so worried they will deny me based on that (public charge?) The doctor thought it will be ok and I'm probably worrying over nothing but I'm still nervous and worried!

Have to get everything in order for the interview now, I got an e-mail yeasterday that my interview is next week! Good thing my boss knew it was coming and are giving me two days of on a short notice. Just booked a hotel and flights!

Wonderful news! Fingers crossed for you.

[Mr. Borkström 63]

OK. I'm off to Stockholm in a couple hours. I'm going to stay the night at my brother, he lives in southern Stockholm. That way I know I won't have to risk the trains running late or something tomorrow morning. Västerås is only an hour from Stockholm by train, but I'd rather not risk it. I can just hop on the subway tomorrow morning, switch to a bus that stops right on the street where the embassy is, no problems.

The interview is at 9:00 AM local Swedish time tomorrow morning, 3:00 AM New York time. I think I have everything in order, I am only going to pick up stamps and some photos on the way to the train station here in Västerås. I may not need the photos but I thought it couldn't hurt to have some developed anyway. Besides I can just give them to my mom afterwards, I know she'll appreciate that.

So, yeah... See yinz on the other side.

[jaycali 415]

OK. I'm off to Stockholm in a couple hours. I'm going to stay the night at my brother, he lives in southern Stockholm. That way I know I won't have to risk the trains running late or something tomorrow morning. Västerås is only an hour from Stockholm by train, but I'd rather not risk it. I can just hop on the subway tomorrow morning, switch to a bus that stops right on the street where the embassy is, no problems.The interview is at 9:00 AM local Swedish time tomorrow morning, 3:00 AM New York time. I think I have everything in order, I am only going to pick up stamps and some photos on the way to the train station here in Västerås. I may not need the photos but I thought it couldn't hurt to have some developed anyway. Besides I can just give them to my mom afterwards, I know she'll appreciate that.So, yeah... See yinz on the other side.

Best of luck to you! I'm excited for you!! Remember to write a review!

[MissK 5]

Juhu! Mr.Borkstrom is at the embassy now! Crossing fingers for you

We hit a bump. My fiance is here now with all the papers and we just realized that the tax papers should be notarized and it's not.....So stupid of me not reading the instructions good enough. Nothing to do now, I have to go to the interview with what I have and probably they will ask for new papers and delay issuing the visa.

[Alaska2012 462]

Juhu! Mr.Borkstrom is at the embassy now! Crossing fingers for you

We hit a bump. My fiance is here now with all the papers and we just realized that the tax papers should be notarized and it's not.....So stupid of me not reading the instructions good enough. Nothing to do now, I have to go to the interview with what I have and probably they will ask for new papers and delay issuing the visa.

They might not care about that at all! My husband sent me his tax papers but for some reason they ended up in india for 2 weeks so i didnt get them in time. So the night before the interview he scanned the copies he had kept and emailed me them and they worked fine. They were not notarized and like i said only scanned copies... So you might be good with what you have! Good luck!

[GandK 168]

Juhu! Mr.Borkstrom is at the embassy now! Crossing fingers for you

We hit a bump. My fiance is here now with all the papers and we just realized that the tax papers should be notarized and it's not.....So stupid of me not reading the instructions good enough. Nothing to do now, I have to go to the interview with what I have and probably they will ask for new papers and delay issuing the visa.

I know that the I-134 instruction says the tax paper should be notarized but I have read here on VJ many times and people say it doesn't have to be notarized.

Our tax return transcripts were not notarized, they weren't even original from the IRS, my wife just scanned it and I printed it out and the embassy accepted it without any problem.

Also, I don't think they put much weight in our tax papers since my wife only earned $2000-$3000 a year back in 2010,2011 when she was a student. The thing that they considered in our case is mainly her current income, letter of employment and several months of paystubs.

Edited September 28, 2012 by GandK

[Mr. Borkström 63]

"Your visa application has been approved. Congratulations."

[Alaska2012 462]

"Your visa application has been approved. Congratulations."

Yay!!!! Congrats!!! Sweet feeling ha..

[Mr. Borkström 63]

It's surreal. It definitely hasn't sunk in yet.

"Your visa application has been approved. Congratulations."

I think that was what the lady told me. When she got to that part, I kinda blacked out. I was in disbelief. "What did she say?" I thought to myself. I was tearing up. She said something like "you'll have your passport back in the mail within two weeks". I almost wanted to go back and ask her "Approved? Are you sure?" I wasn't sure I'd heard it right. But I thought to myself that she probably wouldn't have said "congratulations" if she'd denied me.

So... Yeah. There it is. It still hasn't sunk in yet. I think it will take at least a couple of days before I realize that it wasn't just a dream. When I was riding on the bus back into downtown Stockholm I thought something like "That was it? It's over?" It felt surreal.

I'm going to try to sum up my experience, but I only got home about an hour ago after a long day and a long afternoon/evening/night yesterday, so I need to gather my thoughts, so I will get back to you on that a little later.

[Mr. Borkström 63]

OK, let's see.

At 3:50 Thursday afternoon (Sep. 27), ten minutes before I was going to leave to catch the bus and then catch the train to go to Stockholm, the mailman delivered the mail. In the mail I got an envelope from the embassy. It was a couple of papers informing me that my visa interview was scheduled at 9:00 AM, Friday September 28. There was also information about what I needed to bring (copies of documents I had previously sent to the National Visa Center, passport style photos, the result of the medical examination, stamps etc.). I probably would have been OK even if I hadn't gotten the letter, but still. That was a close call. Anyway, I left the house, went downtown, picked up photos and stamps along the way and then caught the train to Stockholm.

Once there I got on the subway and met up with my brother. He lives in the southern parts of Stocktown so I figured it'd be much smarter to stay the night at his place, rather than get up super early and trust the trains to run on time. I spent a nice evening with him, his g/f and his daughter, my adorable little niece, who is literally a 5-month bundle of joy. Cute as a frikken button. I slept on the couch, and I slept better than I thought I would, I didn't actually spend the whole night thinking about the interview. I woke up a bunch of times tho, but oh well. The last attempt to go back to sleep was at like 5:40. My brother and I hopped on the subway at 8:05. I got to the central hub station and got on a bus to go to the embassy.

If memory serves me right, the embassy website says they open at 8: AM. My appointment was at 9:00 AM.

It was only when I got to the bus stop before my stop that I got nervous. I was like "OK, this ###### is real. There's no going back now." I got off the bus at maybe 8:30. The bus stop was right across the street from the US embassy, so that was very convenient. The Stockholm embassy is famously ugly. Concrete, chain link fences and barb wire galore. There was a security checkpoint and I was asked to wait outside (it was raining, of course) and stand in line. There were two lines and I obviously went to stand in the wrong one.On the plus side, next to me was an older couple, turned out they were from El Salvador and had lived in Sweden for 25ish years. They were very chatty, so that was nice. Behind me there was a whole bunch of middle aged guys, the members of an orchestra as it turned out.

After a while I noticed I was in the wrong line, though, so I went over to the correct line. There was one person ahead of me in the much shorter immigrant visa applicants line. When it was my turn, a security guard took my passport, ask me to wait behind the line right outside the entrance and show him the soles of my shoes. I was let in and a second guard took over. It was funny cause I thought he sounded Australian. "Just like at the airport" he said. I scanned all my belongings and turned in all electronic devices (cell phone, iPod, memory card for the camera etc). I was then asked to proceed outside, follow the yellow line and into the main building and a waiting room. I got a receipt so I could get my stuff back once I was done.

I got in the main building and the waiting room. It was probably around 9:25 when I got in. Another security guard told me (in Swedish) to go to Window F. Another Swedish guy asked to see my passport, looked at a list and then asked me to go to Window G (for immigrant visas). A third Swedish guy took my passport, looked through my documents (forms and such) and gave me a large envelope to write my address on and put the stamps on it. When we were done he asked me to sit down and wait and they would call my name later.

It was hard to tell how quickly time passed cause there was no clock, only a television set and a vending machine. I passed the time by starring at the vending machine and eaves dropping on the old dudes in the orchestra. After an unknown period of time had passed, a speaker voice told me to go to Window something-or-other (I forget). It was an American woman, probably in her early 40's or so. She started looking through all the papers and forms that my wife and I have sent in the the US authorities since we started this process back in November. I had to swear an oath that all the information I had given and was about to give was true. I left my finger prints in a little scanner they had. She then started asking me questions. How long have you known your wife? Where did you meet? When was she born? Has she lived her whole life in Pittsburgh? Have you ever applied for an immigrant visa before? What are her parents' names? Have you met her parents? Do you have children? Has she been to Sweden? Oh you got married here in Sweden? Why did you decide to get married in Sweden? Were her children there for the marriage? They were not? Why not? Did any of your friends and family attend? There may have been more questions but those are the ones I can remember for now.

The whole thing didn't take very long. I'd say between five and ten minutes. At that point, she said: "Your visa application has been approved. Congratulations. You will have your passport back in the mail within two weeks." It felt like it came at an unexpected time. I was stunned. Everything turned hazy. I started tearing up. I wasn't sure I heard her right, I almost wanted to go back and ask her "Approved? Are you sure?" But I thought to myself that she wouldn't have congratulated me if she'd denied the application. So I gathered all my things, went back outside, claimed my electronics at the guard station and went on my merry way. I was outside again by maybe 10:10 in the morning. I called my dad and texted my mom. I got on the bus back to downtown Stockholm (and then spent the remainder of the day with my brother, his g/f, my niece and my nephew, before my nephew and I got on the train to go to Västerås). It felt surreal. It's funny how you wait for something for so long, and then all of a sudden it is over. It's going to take a while for it to sink in I imagine.

So, yeah. I think that is basically it. My wife called me when she got up. That was one cool, emotional phone call. I'm exhausted now, writing this. It's been a long day, it's been an emotional day, but it has also been a good day. A very good day indeed.

[MissK 5]

Fantastic!! Congratulations

Great review!

I can't believe it's my turn soon...

[Mr. Borkström 63]

Thank you kindly.

I'm going to write a "formal" review later (or maybe copy, paste and edit my above entry) later, but with all the happiness and relief that I feel right now, I am not sure I can give the embassy a 5-star rating like so many others have. For as thankful as I am today, I'm not sure that I can let the unusually long wait for an interview date slide. I don't know how long people normally wait to get an interview date after the NVC has completed the case, but 2 months and 15 days, that just can't be right. The past two weeks since I got the email from the NVC informing me of my original interview date (Oct. 9) and then getting an earlier interview date Tuesday this week and to be done with it all about this time of day yesterday, it has all come together very quickly. I am sure I will never know; I have concluded that it will be one of those things that will always remain a mystery, but I can't help wondering what took 'em so long. Now that I have been approved, I am more or less prepared to forgive them for any mishap, but I still have to think it over whether I feel the long wait, which had me pretty darn depressed, is not worth mentioning. I suppose for my own sake it's probably better to just forget about it. But we'll see what kind of mood I am in when I submit the review later.

There's another thing that I meant to ask. My wife told me to ask them about all the forms and documents that we have sent in to the USCIS/NVC throughout this process, and when I left the house to go to Stockholm on Thursday I knew that there was something she wanted me to ask them, but I just plumb forgot what it was I was supposed to ask. Naturally I remember when I was out of there and waiting for the bus and at that point it was obviously too late. No one at the embassy said anything about it, they only mentioned my passport. What about the other documents? I have heard about a package that you are not supposed to open but you're supposed to bring it with you when you fly over to go to your POE and give it to Immigrations once there... Are they going to send me that package in the mail? Cause they didn't give me anything to take with me when I was at the embassy?

[Eve&Josh 5]

^You'll get all that in the mail with your passport, and there will be instructions in there for you as well.

Congratulations Mr. Borkström!!!! When will you be flying out? Be sure to stock up on time with friends and family, it'll be easier now that the stress and wait for the Visa are over. Soon you will be with your wife, dancing on rainbows and cloud nine, yay!!! That feeling is unbeatable

[Alaska2012 462]

Thank you kindly.

I'm going to write a "formal" review later (or maybe copy, paste and edit my above entry) later, but with all the happiness and relief that I feel right now, I am not sure I can give the embassy a 5-star rating like so many others have. For as thankful as I am today, I'm not sure that I can let the unusually long wait for an interview date slide. I don't know how long people normally wait to get an interview date after the NVC has completed the case, but 2 months and 15 days, that just can't be right. The past two weeks since I got the email from the NVC informing me of my original interview date (Oct. 9) and then getting an earlier interview date Tuesday this week and to be done with it all about this time of day yesterday, it has all come together very quickly. I am sure I will never know; I have concluded that it will be one of those things that will always remain a mystery, but I can't help wondering what took 'em so long. Now that I have been approved, I am more or less prepared to forgive them for any mishap, but I still have to think it over whether I feel the long wait, which had me pretty darn depressed, is not worth mentioning. I suppose for my own sake it's probably better to just forget about it. But we'll see what kind of mood I am in when I submit the review later.

There's another thing that I meant to ask. My wife told me to ask them about all the forms and documents that we have sent in to the USCIS/NVC throughout this process, and when I left the house to go to Stockholm on Thursday I knew that there was something she wanted me to ask them, but I just plumb forgot what it was I was supposed to ask. Naturally I remember when I was out of there and waiting for the bus and at that point it was obviously too late. No one at the embassy said anything about it, they only mentioned my passport. What about the other documents? I have heard about a package that you are not supposed to open but you're supposed to bring it with you when you fly over to go to your POE and give it to Immigrations once there... Are they going to send me that package in the mail? Cause they didn't give me anything to take with me when I was at the embassy?

You will get a big yellow envelope well tejped together, those are all ur documents. U r not to open it, when u get to ur poe u hand it over and they keep it...or send it off somewhere. But we after being here a while we got a letter from our lawyer, we were lazy having someone do everything for us and in the letter were all our photos and personal stuff we sent in plus original documents. So I guess u do get stuff back but not everything u provide them with.

[Mr. Borkström 63]

OK I see. I assume my passport and the documents will be in different envelopes... right?