August 2011 F2A filers

[apple21 953]

Oh, I see ?, so basically they are done for this month they dont schedule any interview even though my PD is Aug 29 and the visa bulletin says that the cut off date is Oct 8?

Yes. You can start calling NVC regarding your interview schedule on July 1st (US day/time).

[guvnor2010 3]

I got a checklist for my IV package The checklist doesn't make sense to me, but I don't really have any other choice but to respond to it. I am sad that this is going to delay our case complete, but maybe we still have a chance for an August interview.

How are you? You got an interview for July, didn't you? That's amazing, an F2A visa in less than two years!

Am good. Yes, I got interview for July.

I had a checklist as well for a missing document in my IV package; Had to request for a supervisor to recheck my package, It took another 15days for case completion.

Will you be upgrading this month or will just attend your interview under F2A in august?

It seems F2A will be taking less than 2 years now, does it mean F2A spouse will also now be receiving the '2 year conditonal green card' instead of the '10 year green card' at POE, if the marriage is still under 2 years?

Edited June 11, 2013 by guvnor2010

[Athena June 37]

As of today, my husband is a US citizen . He will send the upgrade request to the NVC first thing tomorrow morning. I want to upgrade the case just in case we'll have retrogression in the August VB, and also not to waste a precious F2A visa number.

My response to the checklist is on its way and it should reach the NVC tomorrow too. The NVC asked for my birth certificate, which I already sent them, but it seems that the reviewer did not accept it. Finland does not issue birth certificates, but instead, information on births, marriages and deaths is recorded in the central population register, and when you need a birth, marriage or death certificate, you ask for an extract from this register, called virkatodistus. This is what I had sent them and this is also what is required according to the NVC's own reciprocity schedules, and therefore I was surprised that they asked for it again. We did ask for a supervisor review, but to be on the safe side, I decided to send the NVC a new original of the extract and an explanation as to why this is the correct document.

The checklist also asked for a document relating to my J1 visa from 15 years ago. Luckily I still had it. I was going crazy with this part of the checklist since the NVC kept telling us different things as regards the missing document: the first two persons we talked to said that they needed my work permit for Germany (which I don't have, this is the EU and I don't need one), and a third person just said I had made a mistake in answering one of the questions in the DS-230. The actual checklist we received by email asked for the J1 form, and a fourth operator confirmed that this is what they need. I sent it and I hope that's the end of it. Hopefully both the response to the checklist and our upgrade request will be accepted within the next couple of weeks.

[Athena June 37]

It seems F2A will be taking less than 2 years now, does it mean F2A spouse will also now be receiving the '2 year conditonal green card' instead of the '10 year green card' at POE, if the marriage is still under 2 years?

Yes, I think so. If someone is very close to the 2nd wedding anniversary when they get the visa, it probably makes sense to wait until after the anniversary to go through POE. From what I understand the date of entry is what matters, not the interview date.

When is your interview, by the way? You might well be the first person from this thread to get your visa - congrats!

[Athena June 37]

Hi Athena I hope everything goes well with your case. I just wanted to uptade you in my case which was completed last week because we sent the documents late cus I was waiting from IRS to assign an ITIN number for my husbund and as soon as they did I ordered the transcript and we sent all the document and the case got complete just 2 weeks after. Today I called NVC to find out for the interview and the lady told me : " now we are in June and for June we are scheduling people with PD Jun 8 2011, you should wait until the end of july to have and interview schedule". Is it how it works? I didnt really understand, anyways I hope you get a case complete and reunite with your family?

Congratulations on the case complete! I hope you'll be able to get an interview for August.

[Athena June 37]

Just a quick update: our case has officially been upgraded to CR1 category. Now I can't wait for our case to be completed and an interview date to be assigned! I called the NVC yesterday for an update but no news yet.

[f2aforconsular 11]

Hi, i am an f2a applicant from India with August 2012 priority date. any idea when can we expect NOA2? also, if f2a is likely to get current in the next bulletin, will NVC expedite all applications that have become current? thanks in advance.

[apple21 953]

Hi, i am an f2a applicant from India with August 2012 priority date. any idea when can we expect NOA2? also, if f2a is likely to get current in the next bulletin, will NVC expedite all applications that have become current? thanks in advance.

I doubt USCIS nor NVC will expedite our cases. Lots of people with past due priority dates still waiting for NOA2.

[f2aforconsular 11]

Thanks. But what is the point if PD is current and applicants cannot get a visa? It will still seem like the long journey is getting longer. Is there a way to figure out how much of backlog is existing before our PD? I mean can we know the number of people who have filed in our category in a particular month and year?

[apple21 953]

Thanks. But what is the point if PD is current and applicants cannot get a visa? It will still seem like the long journey is getting longer. Is there a way to figure out how much of backlog is existing before our PD? I mean can we know the number of people who have filed in our category in a particular month and year?

You can put the blame on USCIS.

[I-130 2]

I wish u luck all of you pray for me

[f2aforconsular 11]

You can put the blame on USCIS.

:(

Just hope things get faster all around for everybody

[lubnajavid 20]

Sorry for the late update... had been away from VJ for some time - the AP tracker for Islamabad was very disheartening and i didnt have the heart to read all the posts that often there....and then there was very little progress on my wife's case for SO long.

But to recap - I was LPR and filed F2a and our NOA1 was Aug 3 2011.

you can see the NOA2 date in my signature and then we received NVC requests early Sep 2012.

BY end of October 2012 we had provided all the documentation (took a little longer to get 3 different Police Certificates from 3 different cities in pakistan...but we did it)

In early march we got a RFE regarding our marriage certificate (stating they never received it...which they clearly did) and also regarding my wife's birth cert - she didnt have one but we provided school records (which the country reprocity schedules shows we can use).

Before we were able to send the documents the NVC sent an email saying they had everything!! So we held on to the seond marraige certificate we requested and the birth affidavits...

Right after that time i naturalized and upgraded our case and so didnt need to wait for the priority date to become current...

By the time NVC received our paperwork, and sent it forward to the embassy it was actually our 2nd aniversary, but the case still showed CR1...

She received the packet for interview at the end of april and the interview was scheduled for June 6th.

I traveled to the interview with her - was allowed all the way in the embassy as the petitioner (no doubt being a US citizen with my US passport also helped)

In her interview letter they still were asking for our marriage certificate and her birth certificate.

We went prepared - with the docs we never got to send to the NVC (affidavitss etc.) and also proof of ongoing relationship and photo album.

I can provide info on the file for relationship if anyone wants to know what we included...

At the first window after the fingerprints were taken they had her sign and took her medical and again asked for her birth certificate - i was at that window and my wife and i both explained (and showed 3 separate pages from the DOS site) that their own pages show school records suffice if born before 1980

Lady at first didnt agree but then just told us to sit down...waited for the interview, and the CO didnt even ask to see anything about the marriage cert or her lack of birth cert....

My wife began with asking to ensure our case was correctly categorized as IR1 and not CR1 - lady at first window said it was...but the interview CO said it wasnt and corrected it - my advice - ensure your message is heard by the interview CO - dont rely on other Embassy folk before...

He was concerned only about how our marriage came about and and our previous marriages and details of our divorces.

My wife tried to give our relationship file and photo album - CO said he didnt need to see anything - that she was approved

I had asked my wife to give up to date tax return/employment letter/pay stubs etc. - the CO said he didnt need them. - told her she was approved...

That was that...10 minute interview..done by 910am.

Got the call about passport/visa/envelope two days later and had it in hand 3 days after the interview - turned out my wife and i didnt recognise the telephone number the first day they called and ignored it!! - HINT - dont ignore phone calls after your interview!

My wife's POE will be in mid July -

If anyone has any questions, please do PM me or ask here...i'll be glad to answer what i can etc.

Sorry again for being out of touch - was just too hard to visit VJ regularly while being APART.

[apple21 953]

Congrats!

[kash1966 0]

Sorry for the late update... had been away from VJ for some time - the AP tracker for Islamabad was very disheartening and i didnt have the heart to read all the posts that often there....and then there was very little progress on my wife's case for SO long.

But to recap - I was LPR and filed F2a and our NOA1 was Aug 3 2011.

you can see the NOA2 date in my signature and then we received NVC requests early Sep 2012.

BY end of October 2012 we had provided all the documentation (took a little longer to get 3 different Police Certificates from 3 different cities in pakistan...but we did it)

In early march we got a RFE regarding our marriage certificate (stating they never received it...which they clearly did) and also regarding my wife's birth cert - she didnt have one but we provided school records (which the country reprocity schedules shows we can use).

Before we were able to send the documents the NVC sent an email saying they had everything!! So we held on to the seond marraige certificate we requested and the birth affidavits...

Right after that time i naturalized and upgraded our case and so didnt need to wait for the priority date to become current...

By the time NVC received our paperwork, and sent it forward to the embassy it was actually our 2nd aniversary, but the case still showed CR1...

She received the packet for interview at the end of april and the interview was scheduled for June 6th.

I traveled to the interview with her - was allowed all the way in the embassy as the petitioner (no doubt being a US citizen with my US passport also helped)

In her interview letter they still were asking for our marriage certificate and her birth certificate.

We went prepared - with the docs we never got to send to the NVC (affidavitss etc.) and also proof of ongoing relationship and photo album.

I can provide info on the file for relationship if anyone wants to know what we included...

At the first window after the fingerprints were taken they had her sign and took her medical and again asked for her birth certificate - i was at that window and my wife and i both explained (and showed 3 separate pages from the DOS site) that their own pages show school records suffice if born before 1980

Lady at first didnt agree but then just told us to sit down...waited for the interview, and the CO didnt even ask to see anything about the marriage cert or her lack of birth cert....

My wife began with asking to ensure our case was correctly categorized as IR1 and not CR1 - lady at first window said it was...but the interview CO said it wasnt and corrected it - my advice - ensure your message is heard by the interview CO - dont rely on other Embassy folk before...

He was concerned only about how our marriage came about and and our previous marriages and details of our divorces.

My wife tried to give our relationship file and photo album - CO said he didnt need to see anything - that she was approved

I had asked my wife to give up to date tax return/employment letter/pay stubs etc. - the CO said he didnt need them. - told her she was approved...

That was that...10 minute interview..done by 910am.

Got the call about passport/visa/envelope two days later and had it in hand 3 days after the interview - turned out my wife and i didnt recognise the telephone number the first day they called and ignored it!! - HINT - dont ignore phone calls after your interview!

My wife's POE will be in mid July -

If anyone has any questions, please do PM me or ask here...i'll be glad to answer what i can etc.

Sorry again for being out of touch - was just too hard to visit VJ regularly while being APART.