Scandinavians Part 2

[UsFin 1]

I know Helsinki embassy is processing IR1/CR1 cases but does anyone have an idea of how long until you can expect to have an interview date scheduled / which DQ dates are they currently scheduling? 
 

We've only been DQ'd since last month and would like some estimate, but seems like there's hardly any people here interviewing for IR1/CR1 in Helsinki.

[Klintos 2]

Hey guys! We have our interview on Tuesday and were looking through all our papers this morning and their email when we realized we had accidentally skimmed over something they wrote in the email. They said "Your joint sponsor must upload W-2 for 2019 and proof of his current U.S. income such as three most recent pay stubs to CEAC prior your interview". The thing we didn’t notice is that it said to upload the three most recent pay stubs specifically to CEAC prior to our interview. Does that mean we need to log in to our NVC account and upload more paystubs? I think we will do it just to be safe but it seems weird, since our case is now with the embassy and not NVC. (And we already uploaded paystubs from that time to the website). We’re feeling pretty nervous now since we noticed this now so close to our interview! Does anyone know about this or can shed some light on this for us? 

[isamanda 4]

 

3 hours ago, Klintos said:

Hey guys! We have our interview on Tuesday and were looking through all our papers this morning and their email when we realized we had accidentally skimmed over something they wrote in the email. They said "Your joint sponsor must upload W-2 for 2019 and proof of his current U.S. income such as three most recent pay stubs to CEAC prior your interview". The thing we didn’t notice is that it said to upload the three most recent pay stubs specifically to CEAC prior to our interview. Does that mean we need to log in to our NVC account and upload more paystubs? I think we will do it just to be safe but it seems weird, since our case is now with the embassy and not NVC. (And we already uploaded paystubs from that time to the website). We’re feeling pretty nervous now since we noticed this now so close to our interview! Does anyone know about this or can shed some light on this for us? 

I guess if you have a joint sponsor then just upload it as requested to NVC because Embassy can see all the submitted documents on CEAC. 

[Simon Pacis 6]

On 2/4/2021 at 3:51 AM, tunuki said:

Hi,

Reading through some comments here, it seems that the only cases being sent for interviews in Stockholm are the CR/IR ones. We are waiting for the employment based IVs to start again, guess we have to wait for the PP to end. 

We got our DQ November 30th, is there anyway to know where we might be in a potential queue when/if interviews for employment based opens again?

There is no way to know, but you can always email the embassy for more information. They’re very nice, although I don’t know if they can help you with more info. Worth a try!

[stuckonyou 75]

I did my visa medical February 8th in Stockholm. I already had the interview last year just as everything was shutting down, so they just asked me to update a few documents and send to them plus do a renewed medical. I've sent the documents to them by post over two weeks ago, so basically I'm just waiting for them to receive my medical and hopefully issue the visa very soon. 😇

 

I'm a K1 that got stuck when things shut down so we've been waiting for a very long time. I just keep checking CEAC every day now, but maybe it's too soon and I won't see any change until sometime next week. I just wanted to ask if anyone here can tell me about how much time went by between when they got your medical and your visa was issued?

 

And also is it enough to check only my STK-number or do I need to check the DS-160 number as well? So far the STK-number still says refused and the DS-160 number just says "No status"...

[Kl30morg 7]

Hi everyone,

Back again asking a question for a friend (She's the US citizen with her fiance from Norway).

Her K-1 got approved in February of last year, but she never received her hard copy NOA2. She's called twice and put in requests to have it sent but still nothing. She did get her STK number and it show's "Ready" on the CEAC website. But neither she nor her fiance have received packet 3 with the interview medical/instructions. I did a K-1 pre-covid so I'm not up to date on the new restrictions/closures and don't have answers for her.

 

I've read through the last few pages of this thread but if anyone has any guidance on what she should do next, I would be forever grateful. I know packet 3 get's sent out the application gets to the Embassy- do you think they're holding on to it until they begin K-1 interviews again?

[stuckonyou 75]

14 minutes ago, Kl30morg said:

Hi everyone,

Back again asking a question for a friend (She's the US citizen with her fiance from Norway).

Her K-1 got approved in February of last year, but she never received her hard copy NOA2. She's called twice and put in requests to have it sent but still nothing. She did get her STK number and it show's "Ready" on the CEAC website. But neither she nor her fiance have received packet 3 with the interview medical/instructions. I did a K-1 pre-covid so I'm not up to date on the new restrictions/closures and don't have answers for her.

 

I've read through the last few pages of this thread but if anyone has any guidance on what she should do next, I would be forever grateful. I know packet 3 get's sent out the application gets to the Embassy- do you think they're holding on to it until they begin K-1 interviews again?

Unless her fiancé is an exemption to the travel ban, they have a valid reason to expedite their case or they are plaintiffs in the Milligan lawsuit everything is stuck right now. From what I understand cases are either laying around at NVC waiting to be sent to the embassy or they are at the embassy but not being worked on due to the restrictions, meaning no instructions emails are being sent out at the moment.

 

If he is an exemption to the travel ban (like for example if they have a child together) they might need to contact the embassy about that. Expedites have to be applied for and processed, but I believe you need a really good reason for that like for example if the U.S. citizen is sick or there's some hardship that would be helped by the foreign fiancé being there.

 

What helped us was joining round two of the Milligan lawsuit back in December. They're doing a third round, but the deadline for joining was February 15th. If they think that would be the right thing for them and they have the money for it I think there might be a chance if they contact the lawyers ASAP. Links aren't allowed on here, I think, but just google Milligan lawsuit or something and you should be able to find information. Or look up gsiskind on twitter. The only other option right now (unless exempt to the travel ban or having a good reason for an expedite) is to wait. Either for the judge's order about visa processing in travel banned countries to maybe start applying to all K1's which the lawyers will try to do, but the outcome of that is still not a for sure thing, or for the travel ban to go away and the embassy starting to process K1's again. A lot of other embassies around the world are not processing K1's travel ban or no travel ban, so no one really knows how long it would actually take when the ban does go away...

 

I hope this helps.

[Annem95 1]

DQ’ed Jan 28th for CR1! Now I wait more I guess. Hopefully Sweden lets me (Norwegian) enter their country? I have to take so many days off work to quarantine when I get home. It’s all worth it, but it’s tough....

[ntur 4]

On 2/6/2021 at 4:46 AM, Klintos said:

Hey guys! We have our interview on Tuesday and were looking through all our papers this morning and their email when we realized we had accidentally skimmed over something they wrote in the email. They said "Your joint sponsor must upload W-2 for 2019 and proof of his current U.S. income such as three most recent pay stubs to CEAC prior your interview". The thing we didn’t notice is that it said to upload the three most recent pay stubs specifically to CEAC prior to our interview. Does that mean we need to log in to our NVC account and upload more paystubs? I think we will do it just to be safe but it seems weird, since our case is now with the embassy and not NVC. (And we already uploaded paystubs from that time to the website). We’re feeling pretty nervous now since we noticed this now so close to our interview! Does anyone know about this or can shed some light on this for us? 

Can you provide an update on how your interview went?  

[stuckonyou 75]

I'm still waiting for the embassy to update something on CEAC. I had the interview already (last year right before everything shut down!) and redid the medical on February 8th and still nothing... It's been 2.5 weeks now. I did the medical in Stockholm and the embassy is in Stockholm too, so it's not like it needs to be sent a very long distance either. The clinic said 7-10 days, and even if you count that as only workdays it's still been more than enough time by now.

 

Anyone has any personal experience in how long it takes from when you do the medical to when the embassy should have it and then issue your visa? How long should I wait before I start emailing the embassy and the clinic and ask about it? Anyone?

[Scandi 4,173]

4 hours ago, stuckonyou said:

I'm still waiting for the embassy to update something on CEAC. I had the interview already (last year right before everything shut down!) and redid the medical on February 8th and still nothing... It's been 2.5 weeks now. I did the medical in Stockholm and the embassy is in Stockholm too, so it's not like it needs to be sent a very long distance either. The clinic said 7-10 days, and even if you count that as only workdays it's still been more than enough time by now.

 

Anyone has any personal experience in how long it takes from when you do the medical to when the embassy should have it and then issue your visa? How long should I wait before I start emailing the embassy and the clinic and ask about it? Anyone?

It took 2 weeks for my medical to reach the embassy from the date I had it done. Shipping is fast, it's all the testing in the lab that takes time. They also need to gather the info from the x-ray place which is completely different from the medical clinic, and then add that to the medical package as well. It takes a while. After they received my medical it still took 5 days to get the visa issued. This was back when they had a full work force, not like now during the pandemic. So you need to wait a bit longer. 

[Kumirei 1]

7 hours ago, Scandi said:

It took 2 weeks for my medical to reach the embassy from the date I had it done. 

Thank you, I was wondering about this as well. I didn't have any vaccination records, so they had to do tests to see what immunities I have so that I can top up. I've been waiting for 10 days now without hearing anything and was starting to get worried

Edited February 26, 2021 by Kumirei

[stuckonyou 75]

10 hours ago, Scandi said:

It took 2 weeks for my medical to reach the embassy from the date I had it done. Shipping is fast, it's all the testing in the lab that takes time. They also need to gather the info from the x-ray place which is completely different from the medical clinic, and then add that to the medical package as well. It takes a while. After they received my medical it still took 5 days to get the visa issued. This was back when they had a full work force, not like now during the pandemic. So you need to wait a bit longer. 

Thank you, this makes me feel better about it. ☺️

 

I did end up emailing the clinic yesterday, though, and they responded this morning that they sent it to the embassy Tuesday this week which is three days ago. So hopefully I should be able to see on the "case last updated" part on CEAC sometime soon that the date changes and then I'll assume that they at least have it. 😅

[Klintos 2]

Hi! Just an update on our case, I got accepted! (CR1 Visa / Based on marriage with a US citizen - I am Swedish).
Here’s a rundown of the dates in this process.
1 Oct 2020  - DQd with the NVC
11 Jan 2021 - got an email from NVC saying our interview was cancelled (but we had not gotten an interview date yet! I read that this happened to  others in this forum)
12 Jan 2021 - email from NVC saying our interview got expedited (which we didn’t ask for - also something others on this forum have described)
14 Jan 2021 - got a interview notice by email from the embassy  
9 Feb 2021 - I had the interview at Stockholm embassy 

How it went down (with the interview):
Took a train to Stockholm the day before the interview (just in case something would be wrong with the trains). I stayed at a hotel with about 15-20 min walking distance from the embassy so I wouldn’t have to rely on public transportation (just in case something would go wrong with that). On the day I walked to the embassy and arrived there 30 min before my appointment (which was at 12:30), still had to wait til 12:30 til they let min in though, and I was first in line. I had my documents (two fat binders) in a desktop case, which security were okey with, they just asked me to open the compartments and show them what was in there before they let me in. However I would recommend getting a bigger see-through plastic binder with handles, saw another guy with one of those. After passing security, I entered the building. I sat down in the waiting room and waited a bit til they called my name. Then I gave them the documents they asked for, which was much less than I thought - most of the documents I submitted digitally to the NVC they didn’t ask for (but do bring them). This part is pretty snappy and fast, so be ready to be quick with your papers, it helped that I had organized them well. Shortly after that I had the interview in the same place, but in a tiny room within the first room. It was formal but relaxed.They asked questions like:
When did you met your wife?
How did you get together? 
Do you have kids? (Which we do)
How do you know the joint sponsor? (Not everyone has one, we did)
What are your plans in the US? 
There was maybe one or two other questions that I forgot now 😅but very basic questions and no personal questions such as: which side of the bed so you sleep on? etc. (but you never know - rehearse and study all possible interview questions)
After the questions she said right there that I was accepted (yay!). I walked out feeling very happy and strange, never thought this day would come. My passport, now with a new green card stamp, arrived to me after one week(quick!) (the real green card is sent to our selected address in the US). 

[stuckonyou 75]

1 hour ago, Klintos said:

My passport, now with a new green card stamp, arrived to me after one week(quick!)

I realize it might not be the same for me since I'm a K1, but what did the process on CEAC look like after the interview and how long did it take for it to say issued on there?

 

It looks like it went fast for you even with the pandemic to get the visa after you were approved and they had everything they needed. Kind of gives me a little hope that maybe, just maybe, it will for me too. 😇