Totally lost! Military family & NVC issues

[joanne3010 1]

I'll try outline the situation as best I can, just hoping for some advice/reassurance/anything! I'm sorry this is so long, but we are desperate.

My husband is US military, I am a British national. He came to the Uk on military orders in 2009 and has been stationed here since. During this time we met, got married had a daughter, and I am now 3 months pregnant with our second child due in December. His time serving the USAF overseas is up in October 2015, so we are due to leave in 4 months time for a new assignment.

We really had no idea what to do to file my visa, apparently military members overseas filing a petition for a visa for a foreign national spouse are supposed to send their I-130 directly to the embassy of the country they live in, so we should have filed ours at the London Embassy. We didn't know this, and simply followed the instructions on the travel.state.gov website and filed at the Chicago Lockbox address, as advised on the I-130 instructions. Somewhere between filing and it being approved we realised our mistake, but it was too late and we were advised we had to stick with the process we had begun, and we could still get my visa this way but it would take longer. So. I-130 was approved in Jan, I got my checklist from the NVC end of Feb along with an Immigrant Visa login. I paid my fees, I filled in the DS-260 online (this took a month because it kept taking a long time for the fees to become payable) and then mid April we send our supporting and financial documents to the NVC. I paid for 3 day tracked shipping with USPS, they never arrived. USPS told me to wait 21 days, I did, they never arrived and no trace was found. So once again we gathered the docs, had our visa pictures done again, and resent them. They arrived at the NVC 21st May.

Then the NVC emails us and tells us it will be at LEAST 60 days before our documents are even looked at. This would be the end of July, about 8 weeks before we leave. Not enough time for the NVC to send our case to London, me have my medical and then interview unless they are really on the ball. TheNVC said they could potentially expedite our case if my husband had a military assignment, As yet we are waiting for one (a whole other disaster - leaving in 16 weeks and no idea where in the States we are going!) instead we wrote an email outlining the situation above, as well as the fact I am pregnant and if my visa doesn't come by the end of Oct I will be too pregnant to fly, I will have the stay in the UK (with nowhere to live, our rent is covered by his military benefits) and have the baby alone, as well as have our 2 year old who will not be able to go with him as he won't have any childcare for her when he goes to work. Not to mention that the military will have shipped out all our belongings, so I will have no home, no belongings, my husband will be gone. We also attached two military documents which say his overseas tour is over in october 2015 and he will be returning to the States on military orders. They emailed back to say the expedite request is under review.

NOW we have come to realise that the I-864 Affidavit of Support we sent in May has an expiry date on it of 31/03/2015. As if I wasn't in a panic before to discover our documents may not be accepted now. This version of the I-864 is still showing as active on the website, so I can only assume that despite the expiry date it is still valid? I have emailed the NVC but no reply yet... can anyone shed any light on this? Do I have any chance in hell of having the case expedited with what we've provided? If they don't and my case doesn't get to London by July/August is there really any way I will actually have a visa by October? I can't even stomach the possibility of not getting it in time but it;s looking more and more likely as time goes by.

Edited June 2, 2015 by joanne3010

[Morganalmonshid94 84]

I'll try outline the situation as best I can, just hoping for some advice/reassurance/anything! I'm sorry this is so long, but we are desperate.

My husband is US military, I am a British national. He came to the Uk on military orders in 2009 and has been stationed here since. During this time we met, got married had a daughter, and I am now 3 months pregnant with our second child due in December. His time serving the USAF overseas is up in October 2015, so we are due to leave in 4 months time for a new assignment.

We really had no idea what to do to file my visa, apparently military members overseas filing a petition for a visa for a foreign national spouse are supposed to send their I-130 directly to the embassy of the country they live in, so we should have filed ours at the London Embassy. We didn't know this, and simply followed the instructions on the travel.state.gov website and filed at the Chicago Lockbox address, as advised on the I-130 instructions. Somewhere between filing and it being approved we realised our mistake, but it was too late and we were advised we had to stick with the process we had begun, and we could still get my visa this way but it would take longer. So. I-130 was approved in Jan, I got my checklist from the NVC end of Feb along with an Immigrant Visa login. I paid my fees, I filled in the DS-260 online (this took a month because it kept taking a long time for the fees to become payable) and then mid April we send our supporting and financial documents to the NVC. I paid for 3 day tracked shipping with USPS, they never arrived. USPS told me to wait 21 days, I did, they never arrived and no trace was found. So once again we gathered the docs, had our visa pictures done again, and resent them. They arrived at the NVC 21st May.

Then the NVC emails us and tells us it will be at LEAST 60 days before our documents are even looked at. This would be the end of July, about 8 weeks before we leave. Not enough time for the NVC to send our case to London, me have my medical and then interview unless they are really on the ball. TheNVC said they could potentially expedite our case if my husband had a military assignment, As yet we are waiting for one (a whole other disaster - leaving in 16 weeks and no idea where in the States we are going!) instead we wrote an email outlining the situation above, as well as the fact I am pregnant and if my visa doesn't come by the end of Oct I will be too pregnant to fly, I will have the stay in the UK (with nowhere to live, our rent is covered by his military benefits) and have the baby alone, as well as have our 2 year old who will not be able to go with him as he won't have any childcare for her when he goes to work. Not to mention that the military will have shipped out all our belongings, so I will have no home, no belongings, my husband will be gone. We also attached two military documents which say his overseas tour is over in october 2015 and he will be returning to the States on military orders. They emailed back to say the expedite request is under review.

NOW we have come to realise that the I-864 Affidavit of Support we sent in May has an expiry date on it of 31/03/2015. As if I wasn't in a panic before to discover our documents may not be accepted now. This version of the I-864 is still showing as active on the website, so I can only assume that despite the expiry date it is still valid? I have emailed the NVC but no reply yet... can anyone shed any light on this? Do I have any chance in hell of having the case expedited with what we've provided? If they don't and my case doesn't get to London by July/August is there really any way I will actually have a visa by October? I can't even stomach the possibility of not getting it in time but it;s looking more and more likely as time goes by.

I can rest your mind about the i864 the expiration date does not matter don't even think another thought about it . There is no new form and that's the correct one . And in my opinion of course I am not someone working at the nvc that will determine the expedite I think your reasons are more valid then a lot I have heard of, I've seen people get handed them for what in my eyes seems like a reason anyone could claim . I think you have a pretty good shot . The nvc is only taking 30 days not 60 anymore if that helps at all in case they happen to not approve the expedite I think it is still possible to make it before October .

[joanne3010 1]

Thank you so much for the reply! You've eased my mind a lot about the form! Oooh when did they tell you they;re only taking 30 days or where did you hear that? They emailed us on 20th May to say it was 60 day turn around. I can live with 30 days!

[Boiler 45,525]

Any time lines you take with a bucket of salt, just remember you need to expedite each stage.

[joanne3010 1]

Yeah I really do try to take what they say lightly, but so far the deadlines they've given me have been fairly accurate. They emailed to say they had my docs within a day of them arriving too. But they said my I-130 would take about a month, it did, my checklist was supposed to arrive within 30 days and it came within about 40 days. I'm just so nervous, if I wern't pregnant I wouldn't mind too much, we can do a few weeks or couple of months apart. But to have to have a baby alone all because of paperwork... that would be very hard to stomach.

Yeah I figured once thiis stage has been expedited and my case is with the embassy I'll need to then contact the embassy for further expedition. However if they do things properly (haaaaaaaah) our case would then be treated as a military case and should deal with faster anyway. We also *should* have an assignment and may be able to even get his chain of command involved too... right now I just need to get everything where it needed to be in the first place and at the embassy.

Edited June 2, 2015 by joanne3010

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to Military Immigration-Related Discussion.

[joanne3010 1]

Thanks Ryan, I didn't realise there was a military sub forum.

[joanne3010 1]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to Military Immigration-Related Discussion.

But does my question actually belong here? My questions is about the NVC processes, their forms, and whether or not I actually have a chance of getting my visa are all related to IR1 discussions. Our situation may be connected to the military, but my questions are not.