DS-260?

[shell20 746]

I am feeling rather perplexed and very stressed. After receiving our NOA2 my fiance and I consulted our lawyer. She said that I need to fill in the details of a DS-260 form. I emailed her back saying do you mean a DS-160? She said that it could be the DS-160 or the DS-260 or both. I thought the DS-260 was for people who were already married? I am so confused now and I don't want to be sending in the wrong form or filling in needless forms. Can anyone help please? Thank you in advance.

[rjmazur 1]

You will only be doing the DS-160 (it has replaced the DS-156 and DS-230 entirely) and it is online and your fiance must be the one who submits it, as they can track the electronic signature of where it was submitted from. After you submit it an interview date should be able to be set depending on how your consulate does things.

In Poland you still need to pay the Visa fee and it has to be done through their banking system and in their currency (pretty silly in my opinion. Why can't we just use a damn credit card online?) and then the interview date may be set. We were lucky to be able to set a date very early, as can be seen in my timeline below.

Tell your lawyer to get up to date with what's going on. Not really sure why you would want a lawyer in the first place. Unless you have a special situation, the K1 Visa process is rather simple (though time consuming) as long as you spend spending enough time on the internet doing research and reading through the instruction forms thoroughly when filling them out.

Edited November 6, 2013 by rjmazur

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Your lawyer is incorrect.

[makulit909 4]

I am feeling rather perplexed and very stressed. After receiving our NOA2 my fiance and I consulted our lawyer. She said that I need to fill in the details of a DS-260 form. I emailed her back saying do you mean a DS-160? She said that it could be the DS-160 or the DS-260 or both. I thought the DS-260 was for people who were already married? I am so confused now and I don't want to be sending in the wrong form or filling in needless forms. Can anyone help please? Thank you in advance.

Check this link of Dept. of State http://travel.state.gov/visa/questions/news/news_4413.html

Department of State Transitions to DS-160 for K Visa Applications

Effective immediately, all K visa applicants are required to complete the DS-160 Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application. The DS-160 replaces forms DS-156, DS-156K, and DS-230.

For K visa cases already in process at a U.S. embassy or consulate, the DS-160 is not required when, prior to October 7, 2013, one of the following situations exist:

• The K visa applicant is already scheduled for an interview.
• The K visa applicant has already been interviewed and has been requested to submit additional documentation or is pending administrative processing.
• The K visa applicant has already submitted a valid, signed, unexpired DS-156, DS-156K and/or DS-230 or received instructions to do so.

Hope this helps...

[shell20 746]

Thanks for your quick replies Guys, just reading through them and a couple of questions for you. Firstly, Thank you Rjmazur for your help and quick response. My question is, Is it really my fiance who fills in the form? I am the beneficiary he is the petitioner. My fiance decided to contact a lawyer because we were going to get married in Miami when I was on holiday there in April. I wasn't sure if that was legal or not and so my fiance rang an lawyer for advice and she told us not to go ahead because if we did it could mean a life time ban. When preparing the first stage of the form she asked me to fill in a ds156 only to tell me I didn't need to do that. My fiance and I have been in a heated discussion tonight about our lawyer, He really doesn't like to see me confused or stressed. Right now, I could just cry!n I also don't know much about NVC. I am not sure when to contact them for our number or if I can trace it onlline. , I just feel like I am on that journey right now, elated one minute and stressed and lost the next! Thank you Nich Nick, you have come to my rescue once before with words of wisdom and thank you Makulit 909 everything helps and everything is appreciated and it has to be the DS-160 for me as I don't as of yet have an interview lined up.

[rjmazur 1]

Ahh, didn't realize that. It doesn't matter who fills it out, but you, the beneficiary, must be the one who submits the form, just to be on the safe side.

Just call the NVC when it's early in the morning for them (so that the lines are open) and all you do is provide your Receipt Number which is on your NOA2 and they will let you know if they have received your packet and they will give you a case number if they have(which I have not had to use yet as the DS-160 didn't ask for it.)

[makulit909 4]

Don't be stressed..everything will be alright. That's what VJ is here for! I am new here but I gathered a lot of information from this community. We are all together here in this journey. If you have questions in mind, try to google it and the right thread from this community will come up and there you will find answers to your questions.. That's what I always do. Also, VJers' experiences are very helpful and most of them will enlighten you.

Hang in there.. enjoy the journey! Goodluck.

Edited November 6, 2013 by makulit909

[shell20 746]

Thanks Guys, thanks for your support, feeling better already now, your support and might I add a game of Candy Crush lol, now everything seems so much better. It's a great forum with great people and I am so glad I found it because of people like you!!!

[shell20 746]

Oh and Rjmazur, I see you have your interview on the 14th of Nov. Good luck with that, that is my nephews birthday a special day, so I am sure it is a lucky sign and an omen for celebration!!

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Thanks for your quick replies Guys, just reading through them and a couple of questions for you. Firstly, Thank you Rjmazur for your help and quick response. My question is, Is it really my fiance who fills in the form? I am the beneficiary he is the petitioner. My fiance decided to contact a lawyer because we were going to get married in Miami when I was on holiday there in April. I wasn't sure if that was legal or not and so my fiance rang an lawyer for advice and she told us not to go ahead because if we did it could mean a life time ban. When preparing the first stage of the form she asked me to fill in a ds156 only to tell me I didn't need to do that. My fiance and I have been in a heated discussion tonight about our lawyer, He really doesn't like to see me confused or stressed. Right now, I could just cry!n I also don't know much about NVC. I am not sure when to contact them for our number or if I can trace it onlline. , I just feel like I am on that journey right now, elated one minute and stressed and lost the next! Thank you Nich Nick, you have come to my rescue once before with words of wisdom and thank you Makulit 909 everything helps and everything is appreciated and it has to be the DS-160 for me as I don't as of yet have an interview lined up.

Just a FYI: You could have married in April. Then you would have returned to the UK and done the process for a spouse visa. It's cheaper and a better visa. But that is water under the bridge now.

I am not new to this. I know London embassy procedures. What you need to understand is once your case gets to the embassy, each has their own method of doing things. You need to ask all your questions in the UK forum for the best answers. You don't want to be confused by procedures for Manila, Juarez, Paris, etc. Helpful K1s from other countries may think you do it just like they do. Nope. Your petition is approved. Get out of the K1 forum and learn the London procedures. UK forum: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/99-united-kingdom/

NVC is the file handoff place from USCIS to the Dept of State (called DOS in the forum). The embassy and NVC are under DOS. For a fiancé visa, NVC is a short pit stop to get assigned a new DOS case number and to have the full petition file sent off to London. Your new case number will start with LND (London). My case was in London 10 days after NOA2. It could be delayed by you service center not forwarding to NVC in a timely manner. It should leave NVC the third day after arriving. Some have hit a snag getting out of NVC, so a quick dispatch isn't 100%. It takes about four days to arrive in London.

Do you need to do anything with NVC? No. They will notify the petitioner that they have sent the file to London and provide the new case number. Why do people call them? Because they can. They can't wait to be notified. They try to track their case every inch of the way. They want to make their medical appointment in London early and need the LND number to do so. But the truth is, you can get a visa without calling NVC ever. So don't get yourself in a dither about NVC unless you want to.

The case will arrive in London, but they aren't going to jump on it the first day or week. When they have your file all set up and are ready for you (beneficiary) to apply for the visa, they will send you a letter inviting you to proceed. It will provide a link for their web based instructions. This is the link so you can read their exact desired procedures and get familiar in advance. The latest version of their forms in the right column. (don't use the mobile version of the page) http://london.usembassy.gov/iv_15.html

Don't read only that page. Explore the entire sight. Where it say gather these documents, click the link to see the list. When it say "click here for more information", click and read all the info. In the left column, click the links for medical exam, visa fees, etc. Read everything. You've got time to let it sink in while your case works it's way there.

Unlike what you may have heard for other consulates, you do NOT schedule an appointment with London. You (beneficiary) submit the application (DS-160), gather you documents for the interview, book a medical, then notify them when you have completed all that by submitting an online Readiness for Interview form. (It's on the instruction page link I just posted) Then when all that is done, wait 4-5 weeks (currently) for them to assign you an interview date. You are notified of your date by letter. They pick the date, not you. After you get a date, you pay for the visa online and make arrangements for the courier to get your passport and visa back after it is issued. The visa/passport is delivered usually 5-10 days after your interview. All of that info can be found on the website.

So now that you have a summary, calmly start reading and soaking it in. It's a lot to take in at once, so go over it several times reading all the links on the London website. Make bookmarks, print pages, highlight important things, and make lists or notes. It's like studying. If you want to stop being confused and stressing, then do your homework.

[TBoneTX 45,663]

Nich-Nick's post deserves to be enshrined in the pantheon of all-time most valuable VJ posts.

[meuy99 4]

All of the above makes sense and I know my consulate in Johannesburg requires form DS160, but when I go online to CEAC and login in with my case number and NVC invoice ID, the only application available to me to complete is DS260, not DS160. Should I just ignore that and complete the DS160? I was so happy when they switched from the 156, 157 and 230 to just the DS 160 becasue it is so much easier to complete. Those other forms seemed so daunting- who remembers all the places they've lived since they're 16?! And my fiance was in the military, so how do we even decide what address to put during that time...DS260 is all those forms rolled into one and feels overwhelming to me, but if that's what we have to fill out, then so be it. Can anyone give me some insight to why my only option when I log in to CEAC is DS260?

Thanks.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

All of the above makes sense and I know my consulate in Johannesburg requires form DS160, but when I go online to CEAC and login in with my case number and NVC invoice ID, the only application available to me to complete is DS260, not DS160. Should I just ignore that and complete the DS160? I was so happy when they switched from the 156, 157 and 230 to just the DS 160 becasue it is so much easier to complete. Those other forms seemed so daunting- who remembers all the places they've lived since they're 16?! And my fiance was in the military, so how do we even decide what address to put during that time...DS260 is all those forms rolled into one and feels overwhelming to me, but if that's what we have to fill out, then so be it. Can anyone give me some insight to why my only option when I log in to CEAC is DS260?

Thanks.

I found reference on the South African consulate website to complete the DS-160 here https://ceac.state.gov/GENNIV/

That is the same page London has posted on the K1 instruction page. It is worldwide for K1s it seems since you start by picking your location.

Maybe you are using the place where those getting true immigrant visas like spouse visas fill in a DS-260. What makes this all disjointed is a K visa is a non-immigrant visa. But is is always processed by the Immigrant Visa Unit. Instructions are always under immigrant visas and not where the non-immigrant info is found (tourist, student, clergy, etc). So now they switch K1s to 160s, yet leave things on the DOS pages that say K visa applicants do not do a DS-160. Well as of 4 weeks ago, yeah they do.

Another problem K1s in London have found is the online payment system says immigrant or non-immigrant at the start. If they pick Non-immigrant, then they get on a path to a student or B1/B2 appointment and can't back out. They have to create a new account with a different email address to start again choosing immigrant as the path. It's as poorly constructed as the Obamacare website.

K1 visas are the step-child of immigration. They don't quite fit the masses who are clearly either immigrant or non-immigrant. So they get forms and instructions that don't really work for them.

[meuy99 4]

I found reference on the South African consulate website to complete the DS-160 here https://ceac.state.gov/GENNIV/

That is the same page London has posted on the K1 instruction page. It is worldwide for K1s it seems since you start by picking your location.

Maybe you are using the place where those getting true immigrant visas like spouse visas fill in a DS-260. What makes this all disjointed is a K visa is a non-immigrant visa. But is is always processed by the Immigrant Visa Unit. Instructions are always under immigrant visas and not where the non-immigrant info is found (tourist, student, clergy, etc). So now they switch K1s to 160s, yet leave things on the DOS pages that say K visa applicants do not do a DS-160. Well as of 4 weeks ago, yeah they do.

Another problem K1s in London have found is the online payment system says immigrant or non-immigrant at the start. If they pick Non-immigrant, then they get on a path to a student or B1/B2 appointment and can't back out. They have to create a new account with a different email address to start again choosing immigrant as the path. It's as poorly constructed as the Obamacare website.

K1 visas are the step-child of immigration. They don't quite fit the masses who are clearly either immigrant or non-immigrant. So they get forms and instructions that don't really work for them.

Thanks for the great info! I agree with what've said about a k1 visa being a hot mess! This is why I am so confused. Everything I've read says complete form 160 you but my only options to 260. oh well, I am NOT going to try to understand.

[KayDeeCee 4,894]

The DS-260 was the form used for the past couple years for K-1 applicants at Juarez. They have changed to the DS-160 for ALL K-1 applicants across the globe. It happened rather suddenly, but it is not a bad thing to streamline the process and make the same form requirement for everyone no matter what country you interview in. Kerry sent a memo about the change, and the last part of his memo is quite clear about not using the DS-260 for a K-1 >

You may not, under any circumstances, accept DS-260 Immigrant Visa Electronic Application forms for K visa applications.

http://travel.state.gov/pdf/Using_ds_160_for_K_Visa_Applications_October_2013.pdf

Whatever site you are using is directing you to the DS-260 because that form is used for immigrant visas. A K-1 is technically a non-immigrant visa, but the consulates process them under the immigrant section because the K-1 actually does have immigrant intent. Just go directly to the DS-160 online form and fill that one out. It is the one you need. https://ceac.state.gov/genniv/