German people...rührt euch!!

[Jaz&Bry 9]

401k ist ein Investmentplan (vom Arbeitgeber) der dir später für deine Rente zu Gute kommt. Braucht man nicht hinschicken aber ist halt nochwas an evidence.

achsooo, puh!

[denverbuddy 0]

Hi fellow sufferers/revelers (depending on where you are in the process...),

I owe a lot to this forum as until now I've only been reading quietly, so I reckon the least I can do is share our story. (I'm not a German citizen but live in Munich so my case was processed by the Consulate in Frankfurt, hence my choice of thread.)

We were one of the September 2012 filers who fell victim to the spring 2013 delays at the CSC. Apart from the delay, the only hiccup we had was an RFE which we received at the end of April. To our surprise, the RFE required us to provide additional evidence of our relationship, although our initial package included tons of photos, flight itineraries, hotel invoices etc. What we didn't know is that our package was thin on what the USCIS calls "primary evidence" - the lesson learned is that one can never do too much research. We quickly submitted copies of passport pages with stamps from Munich Airport and by mid-May we already received our NOA2.

For a couple of weeks we heard nothing from Frankfurt and, respoding to my email inquiry, the Consulate informed us that they were still waiting for our package to arrive from Washington (but Washington told us much earlier that they had already sent the package to Frankfurt...).

Finally, I received a letter from Frankfurt, which just told me to follow the instructions on the website. It might be just me but I found the instructions regarding this part of the process rather confusing (e.g. the website says submit the application forms immediately, but also that you should collect all required documents and submit those along with the application forms). As I hadn't had the full documentation ready by then, I decided to submit the application forms first, followed by a second package once everything was available.

The medical in Munich was no big deal, although it actually takes two days as the chest x-ray is done at another location. However, I had to wait about three weeks for my medical appointment and another few days for the results of my blood test before I could get the missing vaccinations - if I had to do the process again I would definitely get my medical done in Frankfurt.

Once I submitted both packages and completed my medical (including x-ray and vaccinations), Frankfurt went quiet once again. A couple days after completing the medical I sent a polite email to the Consulate, asking whether they can give any guidance as to the timing of my interview. A week after the medical I received a response saying they're still waiting for the results of my medical. After checking with the doctor's office, I wrote back to Consulate saying that they must have already received my results long ago. I got a very quick response informing me that my file has been forwarded to the scheduler team who will be in touch with me soon. My takeaway from this is in line with that of many others on this forum: a polite email might be necessary every now and then to prevent your case from sitting idle at the Consulate.

The appointment letter arrived a few days later indeed and I had my interview on July 24th. It was a very pleasant experience, all Consulate staff were polite and friendly. First I had to drop my passport at a window and fill out the DHL "Expressmarke" with my name and address. Shortly thereafter I was called to another window where a lady asked me to confirm certain bits of information she found in my application. Finally, I had the official interview at a third window. The gentleman asked a couple of questions about our relationship, what we do for a living, what our plans are, so nothing tricky, and let me know that my visa was approved.

As I wanted to avoid any further delays, I asked the final interviewer whether I could pick up my visa at the Consulate once it's ready (the official process documents explicitly state that this is not possible). He said that would create additional work for them and my passport should be in the mail the next day anyway, so he would not recommend a pick-up at the Consulate.

My passport arrived this morning (July 27th), I've just booked my flight and should arrive in Denver on July 30th. I am a happy bunny.

To those looking for practical recommendations, two remarks:

1) I stayed at the Arena Villa am Wasserpark and it was perfect. The walk to the Consulate is less than 10 minutes, the hotel has its own parking, and I paid only €59 for one night (wifi is included, breakfast isn't). My room was simple but clean and not small at all.

2) I'll be flying with Icelandair via Reykjavik. As far as I've seen, Icelandair does not always show up on flight ticket search websites, but they look relatively cheap (or I should say less crazy expensive, given my last minute booking in the middle of the summer) compared to other airlines. They fly to quite a few destinations in the US and Canada including Denver, Minneapolis, Seattle, DC and Orlando.

(Apologies for the book...)

[Arinlars 19]

Well congratulations! I flew with Condor which is the cheapest to Seattle. I don't understand the question of the post if there is one But if you want to make a review use the timeline! Again congratulations !!! My story is a little bit similar to yours. Lots of delay at the CSC I am July filer. It took exactly a year to get here.

[sofasonics 3]

We were one of the September 2012 filers who fell victim to the spring 2013 delays at the CSC. Apart from the delay, the only hiccup we had was an RFE which we received at the end of April. To our surprise, the RFE required us to provide additional evidence of our relationship, although our initial package included tons of photos, flight itineraries, hotel invoices etc. What we didn't know is that our package was thin on what the USCIS calls "primary evidence" - the lesson learned is that one can never do too much research. We quickly submitted copies of passport pages with stamps from Munich Airport and by mid-May we already received our NOA2.

Welcome and congrats. That took quit a while.

I filed end of October and I'm in Denver for 4 weeks now

[denverbuddy 0]

Thanks to both of you.

One more thing I should have mentioned is that I did spend time in the US between NOA1 and NOA2. My POE was Philadelphia. The IO looked surprised when I said I was planning to stay for 2 months (in the end stayed almost 3 months) so that's when I mentioned the ongoing K-1 process (I still wonder if he really didn't have info on me or he was just acting). He asked a few more questions, but nothing bad. The trick question was "when are you going to get married?" and when I said only after receiving the visa he smiled and allowed me through.

I actually traveled via PHL twice and on both occasions (arrived on a weekday in both cases) I had hardly anybody ahead of me in the immigration line. Both IOs were very friendly, much more so than your average IO at, say, JFK or ORD. If you're ok to fly with US Airways then PHL is not a bad deal.

[reeko 0]

So, in gut 5 Wochen gehts für mich los, und ich hab noch so viel zu tun...

Wie und wann habt Ihr Euch denn in D abgemeldet?
Und wie habt Ihrs mit der deutschen Krankenkasse gemacht?
Wie ich die TK kenne, werd ich wieder extra was zahlen müssen, um die Zeit zwischen Arbeitsende und Auswanderung zu überbrücken.

So wies aussieht, muss ich in Nebraska wohl mindestens den schriftlichen Test für eine US driver's license ablegen, hat hier jemand Erfahrung damit?

Wie seid Ihr in den USA krankenversichert?

Und wer hatte Glück beim Autokauf?

Oh, so viele Fragen...

[HK12 273]

Wie und wann habt Ihr Euch denn in D abgemeldet?

Knapp eine Woche vor der Ausreise beim Bürgerbüro mit dem Datum der Ausreise.

Und wie habt Ihrs mit der deutschen Krankenkasse gemacht?

Ich musste noch ein paar Wochen über die Ausreise hinaus zahlen, da die Abmeldung erst mit der offiziellen Exmatrikulationsbescheinigung von meiner Uni möglich war und ich irgendwie verpennt habe, die direkt mit Abgabe meiner Bachelorarbeit zu beantragen. Deshalb hat sich das alles noch hingezogen. Aber normalerweise sollte das mit deiner Abmeldebescheinigung aus Deutschland möglich sein. Die brauchst die übrigens auch, um dich von der GEZ abzumelden.

So wies aussieht, muss ich in Nebraska wohl mindestens den schriftlichen Test für eine US driver's license ablegen, hat hier jemand Erfahrung damit?

Hast du in Deutschland einen Führerschein? Schau' mal auf die Seite des DMV's in Nebraska - da sollten eigentlich die Regeln alle stehen.

Wie seid Ihr in den USA krankenversichert?

Ich hatte die ersten paar Wochen eine Short Term Insurance, und nach der Heirat konnte ich mich dann über meinen Mann mitversichern lassen.

Edited July 28, 2013 by HK12

[Arinlars 19]

So, in gut 5 Wochen gehts für mich los, und ich hab noch so viel zu tun...

Wie und wann habt Ihr Euch denn in D abgemeldet?

Ein Paar Tage vor meine Reise und meine US Adresse gegeben fuer alle Faelle.

Und wie habt Ihrs mit der deutschen Krankenkasse gemacht?

Habe ein Brief geschrieben das ich umziehe, mit meine US Adresse und die haben eine Umschlag geschickt, ich muesste die Kart zurueck schicken. Dan habe ich 1 Woche vorher gemacht.

Wie ich die TK kenne, werd ich wieder extra was zahlen müssen, um die Zeit zwischen Arbeitsende und Auswanderung zu überbrücken.

Ich habe garnichts bezahlt!

So wies aussieht, muss ich in Nebraska wohl mindestens den schriftlichen Test für eine US driver's license ablegen, hat hier jemand Erfahrung damit?

Ich habe bei DMV angerufen, die haben mir gesagt ich brauche mein SSN, meine Green Card und eine Test zu machen. Manchmal hat der Mann gesagt wir Brauchen keine Test es kommt drauf an wie viele Jahre die Fuehreschein habe.

Wie seid Ihr in den USA krankenversichert?

Ich werde sobald ich heirate. Ich brauche SSN, Marriage Certificate. Aber ich mache es nicht mit mein Mann. Es kostet so 400 $ wenn er mit versichert ich gehe zu eine Andere Krankenkasse. Wenn ich ein Job finde das ist es viel billiger.

Und wer hatte Glück beim Autokauf?

Tja das werde ich antworten nach 4-5 Monate

Oh, so viele Fragen...

[reeko 0]

danke!

[sofasonics 3]

komme gerade vom Biometrics appointment.

Hat ganze 5 Minuten gedauert dann war ich auch schon wieder draußen :-)

Ach übrigens, holt euch den Führerschein erst wenn ihr die Greencard habt. Meiner kam am Samstag und verfällt im September.

Wenn ich bis dahin nicht die Greencard habe, darf ich kein Auto mehr fahren :-)

[annerobin12 9]

komme gerade vom Biometrics appointment.

Hat ganze 5 Minuten gedauert dann war ich auch schon wieder draußen :-)

Ach übrigens, holt euch den Führerschein erst wenn ihr die Greencard habt. Meiner kam am Samstag und verfällt im September.

Wenn ich bis dahin nicht die Greencard habe, darf ich kein Auto mehr fahren :-)

Ohh gut zu wissen...das gilt dann vermutlich auch, wenn ich den Führerschein nicht umgeschrieben bekomme, sondern alles neu machen muss.

Sehr kompliziert alles^^

Hab heute meine SSN beantragt. Sobald die Karte da ist, muss ich wieder hin um den Namen ändern zu lassen grrrrr

[Arinlars 19]

Wie habt euch eure neuen Namen lassen machen? Ich weiß das Doppel namens mit Strich sind ungewöhnlich . Ich dachte ich behalte mein alte Name aber als middle name

[JerseyyyK 20]

Hi Leute, muss echt mal bisschen Dampf ablassen

...am 22.07. wurde unser physical case laut NVC nach Frankfurt geschickt. Am 24.07. stand im CEAC status check "ready". Status check update am 25.07. (medical results received) und der letzte status check update ist vom 26.07. (Freitag). Heute habe ich Frankfurt eine Email geschickt und unser physical case ist noch nicht angekommen. Irgend welche Ideen? Oder ist das von denen ne Standardantwort?

[A&P_Germany 8]

See our timeline in the signature, there was ~2 weeks where Frankfurt said our physical file wasn't there, even though we tracked it with DHL and knew it was there. Just give it time, they will process it soon.

Edited July 30, 2013 by A&P_Germany

[JerseyyyK 20]

See our timeline in the signature, there was ~2 weeks where Frankfurt said our physical file wasn't there, even though we tracked it with DHL and knew it was there. Just give it time, they will process it soon.

Thank you. I just wasn't quite sure who we should believe...NVC saying it was shipped last monday or the embassy saying they haven't received it yet. The case status is just for the electronical file I guess, so we've to go after the status updates probably.