January 2010 CR 1 filers

[deepdawg 3]

hi Deepdawg,

I just noticed an approval for january 2010 from Musi (whose NOA1 was jan 27th).

http://www.visajourn...i-130-approved/

Did you notice any 'touch' to your application ?

Also, did you submit any additional info like marriage/wedding photos, bank statements (or) sworn affidavits from your relatives/friends

who attended your wedding ?

your inputs are appreciated.

thanks

sim

There were no touches on my app....

I sent the following (as listed on my cover sheet):

- Payment in the amount of $355.

- I-130

- I-130 continuation sheet

- Copy of marriage certificate

- G-325A and passport style photo (Petitioner)

- G-325A continuation sheet (Petitioner)

- G-325A and passport style photo (Beneficiary)

- G-325A continuation sheet (Beneficiary)

- Copy of birth certificate (Petitioner)

- Affidavit certifying the marriage (Petitioner’s Mother)

- Affidavit certifying the marriage (Petitioner’s Aunt)

- Pictures from the wedding ceremony

<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break">The continuation sheets contain the addresses and other info that did not fit. in the PDFs.

[bwoo 1]

I found these two links which talk about EP:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_4409.html

http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_4411.html

They say that its only available for Guangzhou, China and Montreal, Canada.

I guess the rest of us have to go the old fashioned way

Congrats Deepdawg! You are right, I don't believe India can do EP. However, you may be able to get NVC to email all the forms to you as was suggested above instead of waiting for them in the mail. When you get your NVC case number, talk to an operator and give them your email addresses and say you want all forms email to you. That may save some time in the mail. I don't think EP really speeds up the process a whole lot - really isn't proven by the numbers. Saves some money mailing things overnight or two day though.

[Wife of Mohammed 0]

I found these two links which talk about EP:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_4409.html

http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_4411.html

They say that its only available for Guangzhou, China and Montreal, Canada.

I guess the rest of us have to go the old fashioned way

Nice research! Well, there's EP out the window for me. But I will definitely call and ask them to email everything to me. Kind of glad it turned out like this, I was worried about finding scanners and them not having Adobe Professional in the computer labs in Egypt to merge the pdfs together.

Speaking of Egypt, does anyone have experience getting Police Certificates? My husband hasn't started on that. He went to school in Aswan and worked in Sharm for more than 6 months...so would he have to get a couple of reports, or is Cairo able to do one report for all of Egypt??

[Musi 0]

Received NOA2 by email today. It came a lot sooner that I expected...!!

[bwoo 1]

Received NOA2 by email today. It came a lot sooner that I expected...!!

Congrats Musi! Took about a week (5 working days) for me to get a NVC case number after NOA2. Called and talked an operator and gave them our email addresses today. Expecting email links for DS-3032/I-864 invoice in 3-5 days.

Use the time to get everything you need forms, documents, etc. ready for NVC. You are filing from Canada so you can do EP if you wish. We are going to try the EP route.

[CAN2US 0]

Congrats to all the Jan filers getting their approvals!

[CAN2US 0]

Thanks Zenaxe! Hope your approval comes very soon! Should be as it looks like they are getting through them pretty fast recently. Mine was actually approved on the 17th but it didn't show up in the system (on the website) until yesterday after I received the text message. When I got home from work the NOA2 hardcopy was sitting in the mailbox. So you might already be approved and could be further along than you think. That said I called NVC and no case number yet even though it's almost been a week since the actual NOA2.

Hi Bwoo-is it possible for you to tell us, like deepdawg, exactly what were the documents that you sent with ur I-130...thanks!

[bwoo 1]

Hi Bwoo-is it possible for you to tell us, like deepdawg, exactly what were the documents that you sent with ur I-130...thanks!

No problem, I don't have the complete list with me but here's what I can remember and is probably most everything.

- Payment in the amount of $355.

- I-130

- Copy of marriage certificate

- G-325A and passport style photo (Petitioner)

- G-325A and passport style photo (Beneficiary)

- Copy of birth certificate (Petitioner)

- Affidavit certifying the marriage (Petitioner)

- Affidavit certifying the marriage (Beneficiary)

- Affidavit certifying the marriage (Petitioners Friend, a firefighter)

- Pictures from dating, engagement, marriage, wedding ceremony, and a few from afterwards but before we filed

- Copies of some letters and cards to each other and congratulations cards from others

- List of emails sent to/received from each other (no full emails, only subjects and dates)

- Proof of joint bank account, joint credit card, and joint cell phone plan

Front-loaded it quite a bit, probably doesn't help all that much in I-130 approval but will be helpful during interview. I've heard if you sent in the necessary items then you shouldn't have problems getting approved, and if not, they'll send you and RFE.

[Musi 0]

Congrats Musi! Took about a week (5 working days) for me to get a NVC case number after NOA2. Called and talked an operator and gave them our email addresses today. Expecting email links for DS-3032/I-864 invoice in 3-5 days.

Use the time to get everything you need forms, documents, etc. ready for NVC. You are filing from Canada so you can do EP if you wish. We are going to try the EP route.

Thanks bwoo!

I'm not sure if we have enough time to gather all the necessary documents before the NVC case number was assigned.

Since I am the Canadian, my husband is the one who has to prepare the documents for I-864. The NOA2 came a lot sooner than we expected, and he hasn't filed his 2009 tax return yet. On top of that, his mom is going to be the co-sponsor for I-864so it'll take some extra time to have the form signed and papers from her. I also need to apply for a police certificate, which will take 2 to 3 weeks to receive the result from the Montreal SPVM.

So now here's the question... I'm not sure if we should opt for the EP. I've been reading a lot about this option and thought this was the route to take since it's a lot faster compared to the conventional paper/form processing. But the NOA2 arrived earlier than we expected, what is the point of us using EP if we don't have all the documents yet? It's our bad that we didn't anticipate enough.

Another problem is the time line for the Embassy interview in Montreal.

We are going to spend 3 weeks in August in Asia to visit my parents. It is going to be "the" visit because he will be meeting my parents as the son-in-law for the first time. Moreover, we are also going to give 3 concerts there (we're musicians) and the venues are booked and the contract signed. Therefore there is no way that we could cancel this trip.

Right now it looks like there's about a 3-4 months wait for the interview after the case is completed at the NVC. So if we hurry up and get all the documents together to hopefully finish the NVC stage around April/May, there's a good chance that the interview date will fall somewhere in August... when we are going to be in Asia! I don't think I'll want to reschedule my interview.

Any suggestions on how fast or how slow we should proceed at the NVC stage?

[CAN2US 0]

No problem, I don't have the complete list with me but here's what I can remember and is probably most everything.

- Payment in the amount of $355.

- I-130

- Copy of marriage certificate

- G-325A and passport style photo (Petitioner)

- G-325A and passport style photo (Beneficiary)

- Copy of birth certificate (Petitioner)

- Affidavit certifying the marriage (Petitioner)

- Affidavit certifying the marriage (Beneficiary)

- Affidavit certifying the marriage (Petitioners Friend, a firefighter)

- Pictures from dating, engagement, marriage, wedding ceremony, and a few from afterwards but before we filed

- Copies of some letters and cards to each other and congratulations cards from others

- List of emails sent to/received from each other (no full emails, only subjects and dates)

- Proof of joint bank account, joint credit card, and joint cell phone plan

Front-loaded it quite a bit, probably doesn't help all that much in I-130 approval but will be helpful during interview. I've heard if you sent in the necessary items then you shouldn't have problems getting approved, and if not, they'll send you and RFE.

I think Front-loading it helped,I guess, you got your NOA2 right on time, but I only sent in the necessary items...the only proof of bonafide I sent was...a joint bank account statement and 2 affidavits...and that's on top of sending all the other necessary documents...

I am hoping to hear something, anything, RFE ...etc etc...

Let's see, thanks so much and congrats once again =D

[Musi 0]

I think Front-loading it helped,I guess, you got your NOA2 right on time, but I only sent in the necessary items...the only proof of bonafide I sent was...a joint bank account statement and 2 affidavits...and that's on top of sending all the other necessary documents...

I am hoping to hear something, anything, RFE ...etc etc...

Let's see, thanks so much and congrats once again =D

Maybe you're right. We also sent in some pictures from the wedding at the town hall, although they were not requested on the list.

Good luck with the NOA2. You're going to receive it soon!!

[zenaxe 22]

I found these two links which talk about EP:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_4409.html

http://travel.state.gov/visa/visa_4411.html

They say that its only available for Guangzhou, China and Montreal, Canada.

I guess the rest of us have to go the old fashioned way

When they finally approve us - at this rate I'm getting a tad annoyed, I'll go electronic processing. We have 99% of the documents scanned and ready. Just waiting for the majic word...

[zenaxe 22]

Nice research! Well, there's EP out the window for me. But I will definitely call and ask them to email everything to me. Kind of glad it turned out like this, I was worried about finding scanners and them not having Adobe Professional in the computer labs in Egypt to merge the pdfs together.

Speaking of Egypt, does anyone have experience getting Police Certificates? My husband hasn't started on that. He went to school in Aswan and worked in Sharm for more than 6 months...so would he have to get a couple of reports, or is Cairo able to do one report for all of Egypt??

EP isn't out for you unless you decide not to. By Montreal it means if your consulate/embassy is in Montreal you can file EP in Canada. And because Montreal is the ONLY embassy in Canada that processes immigrant visa, then Montreal is your embassy and therefore, you qualify for EP. I assume that may have caused confusion hence your comment about EP is out the window? Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks...

EP isn't out for you unless you decide not to. By Montreal it means if your consulate/embassy is in Montreal you can file EP in Canada. And because Montreal is the ONLY embassy in Canada that processes immigrant visa, then Montreal is your embassy and therefore, you qualify for EP. I assume that may have caused confusion hence your comment about EP is out the window? Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks...

Ooops I realized my error...and I'm wrong haha you are in the US and your hubby is Egypt..not Canada. My mistake

[zenaxe 22]

We got NOA2 approval at 10:46pm tonight !!!! Very exciting !!

[Nj328 2]

We got NOA2 approval at 10:46pm tonight !!!! Very exciting !!

hey! congrats..