current i-130/visa timelines london

[newgatejm 0]

Hi all!

I am going nuts not hearing anything further on my visa application. It feels awful just waiting with no way at all to check in on any progress.

So far-

-1 Dec 2013- sent in i-130

-4 Jan 2014- i-130 approved

....now i await the next packet of forms so that i can attend the medical.

Does anyone have a recent timeline they can share? .

Thank you!

[lost_at_sea 995]

You can try calling DoS to see if you have had your LND number assigned. If so, you don't have to wait for the letter. You can just get on with next steps.

[newgatejm 0]

Thank you! I did try calling both the embassy and DoS on Friday... i think they are trying to close those windows of contact- both said they could not do anything for me without my LND#...

[lillico84 0]

Hi Newbie.

Just out of curiosity who did you call/where?

We tried last week and had the same problem.

regrds

[newgatejm 0]

I tried the embassy- no dice! And the Department of State couldnt give me any information without the LDN. Seemingly they have geared the system so that it is impossible to talk to anyone any more. If that means it runs smoother, then great. But it is super frustrating. Let me know if you find a way!

[Mister Jeeves 4]

Hi, London DCF folks,

Previous GC holder here; was inches away from N-400 process before having to return to the UK and unable to maintain PR status. Expected to be in the UK longer than we have but we're looking to head back to the sweet South, y'all!

Not sure if anyone knows of anyone with experience of filing DCF after previous GC abandonment, but that's the boat we're in and hopefully I can share a successful story with y'all.

Cheers,

Mister Jeeves!

[newgatejm 0]

Hi Mister Jeeves,

Did you have to formally give up the green card (forgive me- I don't actually know how it works if you end up leaving the US!)?

We have filed our i-130 alone, but consulted an immigration lawyer in preparing to do so... We asked the question about whether we would have to go through this (hellish) application in the future if we ended up living somewhere other than the US at some point down the line. She told us that if we kept ties that indicated we always saw the USA as our primary residence (address, bank accounts etc etc), then we may be able to keep the green card all the while. Would you think that you might be able to do this?

Otherwise, I would guess you are in the same tormenting i-130 boat as the rest of us!

[Mister Jeeves 4]

Hi there,

Yes - I did not file for Naturalization prior to leaving the USA and even though we have significant US ties, it would not be possible to reasonably convince any immigration authority that I did not "abandon the intention to permanently reside in the USA". I took a job in the UK and quite frankly envisioned that we would stay much longer than we have. Not knowing this in advance, I abandoned my GC to comply with the law.

We've decided that the USA is the place we call home and have to bite the bullet and go through the DCF route, but this was not outside the realm of expectation.

Re-entry permits are generally issued (to the best of my knowledge) where out-of-the-ordinary circumstances arise that cause a LPR to be outside of the USA for a long period of time, and are granted prior authorization to re-enter without major scrutiny. If said circumstances don't exist, it is much easier and more cost-effective to re-file for IR/I-551 via DCF than pay an attorney to plead for something realistically outside of entitlement. Know the boundaries and live within them for fairly predictable results and less financial risk.

With 20/20 hindsight, it would've been better to have naturalized given the short duration of our UK stay, but we weren't to know it was going to be such a brief stay. After careful consideration, we deem the USA to truly be home to us, and it took us a brief re-visit to the motherland to show us that.

I hope your visa-journey is progressing smoothly!

Cheers..

[newgatejm 0]

Hi Mister Jeeves,

Just thought I would ask... And good to know what the lay of the land is if we do decide to live abroad again in the future.

I can't find any way of contacting the embassy and finding out how long it is likely to take my next set of paperwork to arrive (i-130 has been approved, but nada for the actual visa yet). But if you haven't seen it already they put up an indication of i-130 processing times on the right hand side here: http://london.usembassy.gov/dhs/uscis/i130filing.html%C2'>

The page is updated about once a month, so not overly helpful- but did help me to stress less when we were waiting to hear. Looking at other people's timelines on here, it seems like 4-6 weeks is the average time it is currently taking them to process i-130 applications. And, seemingly another 4-6 weeks to get the next set of paperwork.

The whole process if super frustrating, and most of that stress is from going long periods of time without hearing anything at all. I am trying to remind myself to be thankful that our application is going through London. Apparently London is one of the quickest places to process applications, so I am trying hard to remember to be thankful for that fact (and to accept that these months of waiting is actually fast!)

Good luck!!!

[Snorbs 0]

Hi Mister Jeeves,

Just thought I would ask... And good to know what the lay of the land is if we do decide to live abroad again in the future.

I can't find any way of contacting the embassy and finding out how long it is likely to take my next set of paperwork to arrive (i-130 has been approved, but nada for the actual visa yet). But if you haven't seen it already they put up an indication of i-130 processing times on the right hand side here:

The page is updated about once a month, so not overly helpful- but did help me to stress less when we were waiting to hear. Looking at other people's timelines on here, it seems like 4-6 weeks is the average time it is currently taking them to process i-130 applications. And, seemingly another 4-6 weeks to get the next set of paperwork.

The whole process if super frustrating, and most of that stress is from going long periods of time without hearing anything at all. I am trying to remind myself to be thankful that our application is going through London. Apparently London is one of the quickest places to process applications, so I am trying hard to remember to be thankful for that fact (and to accept that these months of waiting is actually fast!)

Good luck!!!

Hi newgatejm,

I used the embassy contact form to contact someone regarding our LND number. By the time they had replied (within 5 workings days) my spouse had received the letter in the post anyways! Timeline is below, but it was about 3 weeks until we received out number, after receiving NOA2.

He had a medical on the 20th, had previously submitted the DS-260 and NOR forms online, so now we are just twiddling our thumbs waiting for an interview date. I will be keeping an eye out to see whether anyone else is at this stage at the same time...

[newgatejm 0]

Hi Snorbs,

Thanks so much for your reply... It is both nice to know what your wait has been AND that you were/are seemingly as anxious about this as i am! I sent an email last week with no reply... Sigh. I know that they make this unpleasant for a reason- ie. you may not bother going through with it if your relationship isn't legit, but a lot of the stress could easily be avoided if they allowed some contact or gave more information that sort of confirmed that everything is on track. We had very little time to do this- my husband is rather abruptly being relocated back to the US, and his company would not let us wait until I could go too. So, it sucks to be the one left behind without any set end date in sight.

I hope you hear from them soon about the interview date- as soon as you have that, then the end is really in sight!

GOOD LUCK!

[newgatejm 0]

Anyone else looking at this page, and going through London- do you have timelines to add?

[someshine 0]

Hi all!

I am going nuts not hearing anything further on my visa application. It feels awful just waiting with no way at all to check in on any progress.

So far-

-1 Dec 2013- sent in i-130

-4 Jan 2014- i-130 approved

....now i await the next packet of forms so that i can attend the medical.

Does anyone have a recent timeline they can share? .

Thank you!

I recommend sending them an email via the website. I don't want to scare you but our packet got lost in the post (we did change addresses but we had forwarding service, who knows what happened). We waited 12 weeks for the thing thinking that it was just delayed until I came on here and saw that others were getting theirs. I tried calling too and didn't get anywhere without the LND number. Finally someone responded to my email with a link and our LND number. You may want to try that if it's been more than 8 weeks. Best of luck.

[newgatejm 0]

Thanks, someshine!

It hasn't yet been 8 weeks, so it might just be that things have slowed down. I am just getting worried, as pretty much all the timelines I have found on here have the packet with LDN arriving in something close to three weeks. If we had more time, it wouldn't matter, but I want to get there asap and spend as little time apart as possible. I did email them on Monday- will just wait to see if they respond!

Thanks again! And good luck with your application.

[Snorbs 0]

We just got our interview date, 20 Feb at 8am. Used the contact form for the Embassy, and they actually replied with out date, 2 hours later. I think that must be a fluke, (to have such a quick reply) but just going with it! Going to update my timeline on here....