From the NVC to the POE for Argentina: all the papers the embassy will need

[Ashley y Diego 3]

Hello fellow visa journeyers,

This website has been a great resource for us throughout this process, especially when it gets confusing or we have to wait without knowing what is going on. Since this happened to us quite a lot going through the argentina embassy in buenos aires, I wanted to share with you what we've learned so that your trip through the consulate to the interview and POE can be straightforward and quick! I have a K-1 visa, but most of the info applies to other visas as well.

Attached is the "Packet 3 Checklist" (K1K3 appt instr) for K1/K3 visas, which comes in a package with additional detailed instructions. I've attached the police certificate instructions; everything was too large to upload, but if you want the whole package of instructions, send me a message and I'll email it to you.

Also attached is the interview letter they send to all visa applicants (Appointment info). I would use this as your primary list, supplemented with any additional items from other materials.

WHAT TO MAIL TO THEM - When they indicate they have received your packet, gather all of this:

1/ DS-230 part 1 (do NOT sign part 2!)

2/ More evidence of relationship (updates from the first packet you sent, they have that already)

3/ Two copies of DS-156

4/ Two copies of DS-157 if male aged 16-46

5/ DS-156K

6/ All passports you have ever held

7/ Legalized birth certificate (legalization is free in Capital at Calle 25 de Mayo 179)

8/ Any marriage and divorce/death of spouse certificates if applicable, legalized as above

9/ Police certificate (follow attached instructions exactly! Will not accept if without "exception to article 51")

10/ Court and prison records, if convicted of a crime

11/ Military record, pertinent pages in original DNI suffice

12/ Four identical US passport-style photographs

13/ Evidence of support (I-134 plus documentation of funds plus proof of US citizenship/residency for each sponsor/cosponsor, copy of passport bio page will suffice)

14/ Medical exam- sealed envelope you receive from one of their approved doctors

15/ Court order, for each beneficiary who is a minor

16/ Receipt from paying the visa fee.

Make a simple photocopy of everything here and mail it to the consulate or bring in person if you're nearby. File all of the originals into an organized folder, wait for the interview date, and bring it! Easy enough.

Some notes:

Documents for the interview will be accepted in English and Spanish (and the interview may be conducted in some combination).

1, 3, 4, 5: if you're unsure about signing something, leave it blank and do it at the interview when they tell you to. Not a big deal.

2: Be thorough, but not too crazy. When you get to the interview and have to explain what all that stuff you are submitting is, there may be laughter and you will likely feel a little silly. So don't worry too much!

6: It will be a problem if you are missing any passports used in the last 10 years. However, there is a solution: go to Direccion Nacional de Migraciones at Calle Antartida Argentina 1533 in Capital and get "Movimientos Migratorios" for every year of the last 10 you are missing a passport. Send copies and bring originals to interview in place of previous passports.

7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16: There are specific instructions for any questions you have with these. If you want to complete them before receiving info from the embassy and have any doubts, don't hesitate to message me so I can email you the complete instruction packet (maybe it's somewhere on the internet, but I didn't find it??).

7, 8: You will need these translated to English for the AOS. You can have that done while you're waiting for the interview here in Argentina, check VisaJourney for the translator's statement that must be included.

ABOUT TIMING:

There are two ways to contact the embassy, email or the USC going in person. The former is the preferred method, while the latter should be reserved for more extreme/immediate type situations.

After you get the NOA2 your packet is sent to the NVC. You can find out from the NVC when they mailed your packet to the embassy. The embassy will contact you (email) anywhere from a few days to a few weeks after they receive your packet, requesting you to send the above list of documents. If they have not contacted you in one month, contact them. It will take them anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to process the documents you submit. If they have not contacted you (always, by email) within two weeks, consider contacting them. At this point they should assign you an interview date. The date may be as short as three days or as long as months away. After the interview, they will return original documents to you but keep the beneficiary's passport and all the forms you have submitted to assemble the sealed packet you will present at the POE and put the visa in the passport; they will be mailed in one to three weeks.

Okay, I hope this is helpful to others making part of their journey through the consulate in buenos aires. Good luck! And of course, leave comments if you have had a different experience with visa documents here.

Appointment info (English).doc

K1 K3 appt instr(English).pdf

Police Certificate Requirements.pdf

[messi 0]

Wow, this is fantastic!! thanks for posting!

[Monica&Bruno 0]

Thank you so much! This is so incredibly helpful!! The Embassy just received our application so now we are in the process of gathering all of the needed documents. We'll definitely be using your advice!

[nonayadro 1]

Ashley y Diego,

Thank you so much for the info. We just received our NOA2 after waiting a painful 6 months. I have a few questions for you since you have already been through the process. Can we do the medical exam before receiving the packet 3 or is there something in the packet that we need to take to the medical exam? Could you tell us all the fees you paid after your NOA2, everything you can think of that you had to pay for pertaining to the visa(before starting the AOS process). Also, one other thing I was not clear about, after sending all the requiered photocopies for the packet 3, will the consulate give you an interview date, or do we call and set up an interview date?

Thanks for any help you can give us! Im sure I will have more questions in the future.

Thank you! Winona y Adrian

[Ashley y Diego 3]

nonayadro, congrats on your noa2! It feels like a miracle when it finally arrives.

For the medical exam, they send a list of doctors they approve to do the official medical exam, so you have to wait for that to arrive. However, you should be able to schedule and do it pretty quickly. My husband elected to do an exam with his own doctor before packet 3 arrived, so he would be aware of any potential problems (since the official exam results go to the embassy, not you). That's totally up to you, of course.

After submitting packet 3, the consulate will contact you by email to set up the interview. They actually do not even have a phone, so you can't call them!

The costs... depends if you already have all the documents ready. You will have to pay for the medical exam and the fee at the interview for sure. But if you have trouble with the other documents, you may have to pay any number of fees relating to them. We had to pay to get a certified copy of his birth certificate, for translations (really for the AOS), to get Movimientos Migratorios in place of his old passport that had been lost, for bribes to get that document in a timely manner.. for parking or taxis to get to all the offices we had to go to.. and we were lucky in that we didn't have daytime jobs so could drop everything to spend the day waiting and going between the offices without a cost to that. If you have all the records and documents and getting it done as fast as possible isn't as important to you, it might be just the required things, but for us it ended up being more. Nevermind once you finally get the visa in the mail and call the airline for hours begging to get on the first flight out of Argentina (for an extra fee of course) or when you want to get married so desperately you have to pay to expedite marriage licensing in your home county so you can have a legal ceremony as soon as you get there! So, sorry it's not much help, but this really depends on you.

Mucha suerte!

[nonayadro 1]

Hi Ashley,

I see on your timeline that you took the packet 3 to the embassy the day after you received the packet? I know you said we would receive a list of doctors for the medical exam therefore we would have to wait to do the medical but I did see a list of the doctors for the medical exams in Buenos Aires. Is there something from the packet we have to take to the medical exam? Do you think it would be too much of a risk for us to do the exam before we receive the packet? Also, do you know the immunizations required?

I called NVC today and our case has already been forwarded to the Embassy so we are excited that we are seeing movement after waiting for so long! But we also want to have EVERYTHING ready the moment we receive the packet so we can keep this progress moving along as fast as possible. And, I plan to take the copies of everything to the Embassy myself like you had suggested just to save a few days or so.

One thing I was not completely clear on was, does the embassy give you an interview date or do they give you a choice at all?

I just wanted to thank you for your first post on this topic because you gave such wonderful and clear instructions to what we will be going through next! Your post has helped me understand everything much better!! So thank you!

Winona

[Ashley y Diego 3]

Hi Winona,

The reason I suggest to do the medical exam, then send in packet 3 with the results (a copy of the sealed envelope of the results that is) is because we submitted packet 3 without this (as it instructs to do); you are really only supposed to have the medical done and bring the envelope to the interview. But, they sent us an RFE before granting the interview date asking for a copy of the sealed envelope. I think this request is ridiculous and they shouldn't actually need it until the interview, as all the paperwork states. However, I suggested to you all that you submit everything they might ever ask for with your very first packet 3 so you don't have to go through the EXTREMELY painful RFEs we did.

This said, for you I recommend calling the approved doctor, telling them your packet is being sent to the embassy, and asking if they have what you need to do the appointment now. They do these exams all the time and are pretty aware of the process. That way you will be able to get it taken care of and submit your packet 3 the day after you get it from the embassy as we did, in your case with everything they could want so you hopefully get an interview much more easily than us!!

After you do submit it, the embassy will assign you an interview date- you don't get a choice. They'll email you the information, and not until it's the time of the interview will they EVER let the visa applicant into the embassy, and then not until they get called up to the window will they ever actually talk to them. One thing I wanted to share here (which I think I might have done a better job of in the BA embassy review section) that I didn't understand going into it is that the embassy is not like a business you're used to- they don't have a phone number, they won't answer your questions, they can't tell you anything. The customer service is just about nothing, so you really have to stand up for yourself in the process to get what you want. I suggest frontloading packet 3 as strongly as you can with everything they could think to ask you for to pre-resolve many issues that might come up in the process. Otherwise, you're going to face a lot of unnecessary waiting (which obviously you don't want) and your communication options with them are so limited it's super frustrating!

I'm glad my first post was helpful to you all! Good luck!

[Rugby7 0]

We have our interview on December 28th!!!!!!