A few first hand lessons learned with NVC processing....

[speedracer2j 0]

Just to save some others some time that I had lost in NVC, I decided to post a few personal tips, of course, country specific...hopefully can help a few people.

#1. Make sure you have all the documents in hand in the US prior to paying the IV bill so you can send the ds-230 packet right away. I lost about 6 days waiting on some original documents from my wife in Panama.

#2. A BIG ONE. Be sure the birth certificate you have is the correct one. My wife from Panama, needed the "long" copy, which is not stated by the NVC in their documents needed. By long form, this means it has to include ALL the data about the person, and their parents. A short, printed off copy with the data is incorrect. As a rule of thumb I made sure all documents came with an apostille.

#3. Police certificate- Be sure to have a recent one on hand and ready to go with you ds-230. We had one produced in July, but since Panama had changed their format and it was invalid for our purpose. Be sure to request it plenty of time in advance, if it had not been for family/connections in Panama Police, we would have to wait longer than the 4 days we originally did.

#4. If the document is in the language of your spouse/family members country, no need to translate it. Save yourself the time and the money, when I called NVC they said I was one of the few who actually knew about this.

#5. Marriage certificate- I submitted my original marriage certificate from Germany, which was the international version meaning it is including a VARIETY of language translations already made on the certificate, and got an RFE for it. So its wise to attach a note with it off the bat, stating it is in fact the original, and the only one you were given. I also pointed out pieces of the form to prove it was the original and valid form. This note seemed to have worked, because I never had issues past then.

#6. Make sure the benificiery has an up to date passport not expiring within the next 6 months. In some countries it can be timely waiting on a new updated one, and I feel it makes it simpler for marriage reasons, that it has the NEW married name on it. The less we make the NVC think, the better off we are in the long run.

All in all, none of us our mindreaders, although NVC seems to think so. They will tell you the document is not right, but you have to wait 10-15 days to recieve their reasoning behind it? Bogus. Learn from my mistakes, which set me back a good 3-4 weeks, and added more $$ in DHL shipping costs. Hopefully this can help someone out down the line, I know its country specific, but the same kind of applies to the whole spectrum. Best of luck

Jason

[natt141 0]

good work!!

thanks

[christeen 966]

I would like to add the following tip;

If you are a cronic checker of the website, The IV fee bill will show available to pay in the evening... resist the temptation and DO NOT PAY IT IMMEDIATLY!!! Wait till the following day!!! What happens is that the billing is done by a 3rd party, they post the bill as available for payment in the evening and notify NVC that it has been invoiced... THEN NVC will officially recognize that it has been billed and put it in their system and notify you that it is available... ONCE NVC NOTIFIES YOU THAT IT IS AVAILABLE THEN YOU CAN PAY... Many people have gotten delayed because of falling into this grey area where they paid the bill but NVC did not recoginze it was billed!!! This takes a few days to a week to sort out and many times requires you to send proof that the $$$ was paid... It is not guaranteed this will happen if you pay immediatly, just something that has happened to quite a few people and created drama and lost days!!!

[M&ME 2]

I'm happy that they accepted the international marriage certificate after you explained it to them. You can bet I'll be adding a note about mine, I hope it's not too late already since I included my cert with the I-130. When do you think it is best to send that note and prevent the RFE?

Thanks for the tips, btw.

[What Happened? 4]

We received an RFE for our marriage certificate. I would add that for marriage, birth and police certificates....check the department of state's reciprocity table before you order and/or submit the document. If the reciprocity table is (for example) saying the marriage cert should be gotten from the vital statistics office but your marriage cert says on it that it came from anything other than "the vital statistics office", you should have that office give you a letter stating that they either fall under the office of vital statistics, they are the equivalent of that or that they no longer use that name for the office......

we lost a full month at nvc because our marriage cert said demographics service instead of vital statistics office (which was what the reciprocity table said the doc should have come from). Because of this they questioned whether the marriage certificate was really a marriage certificate .

We resubmitted the marriage certificate with a letter from the demographic office which said that it fell under the umbrella of the vital statistics office and all was fine after that. NVC's reciprocity table is not up-to-date, so they don't have all of the current names for all of the various offices in different countries, where we would be getting our required documents from.

So, it is advantageous to be proactive with regards to this, and send a letter with your document.

Edited December 14, 2009 by What Happened?

[Terca 6]

Great tips, thanks everyone for taking time to do this. Speedracer I was aware of the point #4 but I feel nervous about not including a translation anyways

[Safiya&Samir 0]

OK, now I'm confused. I'm not to this part yet, but I thought the birth certificate, marriage certificate, police certificate and divorce papers had to be taken to the embassy for the interview. You have to send them to the NVC? And then also they have to take another original to the interview?? This can't be right, but now I'm confused.

[Malrothien 6]

You send the originals to NVC and take copies with you to the interview.

[newtica 0]

You send the originals to NVC and take copies with you to the interview.

Ok now I'M really confused....didn't we all have to send the originals of everything with the I-130 packet? So then doesn't the USCIS send that to the NVC? So the NVC should already have it...?

[trailmix 77]

Hi,

No you didn't have to. USCIS asks for copies, as in photocopies, not originals - from the I-130 instructions, page 2:

Copies. If these instructions state that a copy of a document may be filed with this petition, submit a copy. If you choose to send the original, USCIS may keep that original for our records. If USCIS requires the original, it will be requested.

Any originals you sent to USCIS with your I-130 will not be forwarded to NVC. NVC wants originals only, so you send them the original (certified copy from the Government office etc that issues it) plus a photocopy of each document as well.

Any originals you send to the NVC (except police certificates) should be returned to you at the interview.

Edited December 14, 2009 by trailmix

[speedracer2j 0]

As for the questions posted...

The best time to include your note to NVC with the marriage certificate is when you actually send your ds-230 package.

As far as not including translations, read their required documents website, you will find this. Between you and me, I feel better knowing they may not be able to read the documents I send. Less for them to say no to ya know They can ID the document, and its real, thats all they need.

There are 2 types of processing with NVC, which surprised me too, and wasted my time. My wife had all the documents with her in Panama for her embassy interview, oops, and I learned. A majority of embassies are what they call "appointment" posts, where all the documents are collected and verified by NVC prior to anything. You can check with travel.state.gov website to verify if your country is an appointment post embassy. This is exactly why I made this post, to inform those the way I wasn't.

The documents you sent to USCIS SHOULD have been copies. I did a DCF, but they would only accept copies of all the documents. Hell, I think by now NVC has about 3 copies of everything.

As far as the interview, im HOPING you don't need copies of everything, because it will just be another pain in the butt. I would assume, in a "logical" world, since they have that packet right in front of them, any documents and or copies they need will be right there in their hands. But like I said, logical world haha.

Hope this can help more. Oh BTW I called NVC today and got my case complete speach from the operator. 4 months to the day, from I-130 submitted to NVC case complete. NOT TOO bad.

[trailmix 77]

Grats speed

Guide for NVC is here:

http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/...he_NVC_ShortCut

Specifications for which documents they require - by country - is here (just select your country from the drop down box at the top):

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/reciproc...ocity_3272.html

Edited December 15, 2009 by trailmix

[Egbosimbas 2]

Re: Speedracer's #4. It IS true. My husband is on the Ivory Coast (they speak French) so his police certificate from there is in French. He's Nigerian by birth so the one from Nigeria is in English. When I was racing around trying to figure out where to get it translated into English, I found out that if it's in the native language of the country he will interview in ~ no need to translate. I sent it (not being translated) with hesitation and waiting for an RFE - that never came! Don't waste the time or money if you don't need to.

[trailmix 77]

While it does state on the State Department Website:

Translation Requirements

All documents not in English, or in the official language of the country in which application for a visa is being made, must be accompanied by certified translations. The translation must include a statement signed by the translator that states that the:

Translation is accurate, and

Translator is competent to translate.

Be sure to double check with the consulate you will interview at as they may require you to translate anyway - it is consulate specific.

[newtica 0]

Thanks so much for the info. I can't believe I missed the boat on things to send with the DS230...it should come with an instruction page like the I130 and AOS. Why doesn't it?? Anyway, I called the NVC and they said that sometimes the USCIS (sometimes? what??) sends all the documents to the NVC. Since I sent the originals of everything, including translations, to the USCIS and they accepted them, then they very well could have made it to the NVC in which case they would not need anything further. For some reason the guy on the phone could tell me they received my mail (sent 2 weeks ago...) but would not know for a couple more weeks whether or not they got the documents from USCIS. Ok....what? Shouldn't it all be right there? Sorry, venting a little.