Does anybody know if priority date has to be current to hear from London Embassy?

[tucsonbound 0]

Hello everyone,

My Mother filed for me and my Family back in April 1999. At last after 8 long years our wait is almost over! Our case has been completed by the NVC and was forwarded to the US Embassy in London on March 22nd 2007. Our priority date is April 22nd 1999 and the current date being given by April's Visa Bulletin is March 22nd 1999, so we are a Month away. (I'm hoping it moves forward by one Month when May's Visa Bulletin is released)

My question is... Is it odd that I have not heard anything from the London Embassy 3 weeks after the NVC forwarded the case, or will I have to wait until my Priority date has become "Current"? I would like to know when to book my medical and expect an interview.

After 8 Years, once you get this far you want it over with!

Thanks for any help.

[maggs 0]

Hello everyone,

My Mother filed for me and my Family back in April 1999. At last after 8 long years our wait is almost over! Our case has been completed by the NVC and was forwarded to the US Embassy in London on March 22nd 2007. Our priority date is April 22nd 1999 and the current date being given by April's Visa Bulletin is March 22nd 1999, so we are a Month away. (I'm hoping it moves forward by one Month when May's Visa Bulletin is released)

My question is... Is it odd that I have not heard anything from the London Embassy 3 weeks after the NVC forwarded the case, or will I have to wait until my Priority date has become "Current"? I would like to know when to book my medical and expect an interview.

After 8 Years, once you get this far you want it over with!

Thanks for any help.

Hello

I'm afraid I don't know the exact aswer to your questions, sorry. My guess is that you'll have to wait for your priority date, but it's not that often that we hear about adult children getting approved and being processed or what their timeline would be. It would be really helpfull if you could add a time line as I personally woud be interested in your journey and I'm sure others would be too.

I also wanted to say well done for hanging in there, I know how hard it must have been for you all with such a long wait. I petitioned for my daughter a couple of years ago and it's so encouraging to see that progress does get made eventually. Good luck to you and your family and the exciting adventure in ahead of you.

Maggie

[tucsonbound 0]

Hello everyone,

My Mother filed for me and my Family back in April 1999. At last after 8 long years our wait is almost over! Our case has been completed by the NVC and was forwarded to the US Embassy in London on March 22nd 2007. Our priority date is April 22nd 1999 and the current date being given by April's Visa Bulletin is March 22nd 1999, so we are a Month away. (I'm hoping it moves forward by one Month when May's Visa Bulletin is released)

My question is... Is it odd that I have not heard anything from the London Embassy 3 weeks after the NVC forwarded the case, or will I have to wait until my Priority date has become "Current"? I would like to know when to book my medical and expect an interview.

After 8 Years, once you get this far you want it over with!

Thanks for any help.

Hello

I'm afraid I don't know the exact aswer to your questions, sorry. My guess is that you'll have to wait for your priority date, but it's not that often that we hear about adult children getting approved and being processed or what their timeline would be. It would be really helpfull if you could add a time line as I personally woud be interested in your journey and I'm sure others would be too.

I also wanted to say well done for hanging in there, I know how hard it must have been for you all with such a long wait. I petitioned for my daughter a couple of years ago and it's so encouraging to see that progress does get made eventually. Good luck to you and your family and the exciting adventure in ahead of you.

Maggie

[tucsonbound 0]

Hello everyone,

My Mother filed for me and my Family back in April 1999. At last after 8 long years our wait is almost over! Our case has been completed by the NVC and was forwarded to the US Embassy in London on March 22nd 2007. Our priority date is April 22nd 1999 and the current date being given by April's Visa Bulletin is March 22nd 1999, so we are a Month away. (I'm hoping it moves forward by one Month when May's Visa Bulletin is released)

My question is... Is it odd that I have not heard anything from the London Embassy 3 weeks after the NVC forwarded the case, or will I have to wait until my Priority date has become "Current"? I would like to know when to book my medical and expect an interview.

After 8 Years, once you get this far you want it over with!

Thanks for any help.

Hello

I'm afraid I don't know the exact aswer to your questions, sorry. My guess is that you'll have to wait for your priority date, but it's not that often that we hear about adult children getting approved and being processed or what their timeline would be. It would be really helpfull if you could add a time line as I personally woud be interested in your journey and I'm sure others would be too.

I also wanted to say well done for hanging in there, I know how hard it must have been for you all with such a long wait. I petitioned for my daughter a couple of years ago and it's so encouraging to see that progress does get made eventually. Good luck to you and your family and the exciting adventure in ahead of you.

Maggie

Hi Maggie,

Thankyou for your kind comments. I was beginning to think I was the only person in this situation.

I also think it appears I do have to wait until my priority date becomes "current". I have been asked by other members exactly what this means, so I shall try to explain..... Certain Family members of US Citizens, like Unmarried/Married Children, Brother's and Sister's are subject to numerical limits on the ammount of Visa's that can be issued each Fiscal Year. Every Month around the 15th, the State Dept. issue a visa bulletin. You scroll down this list until you find your category and then you check the date alongside it which is the date of applications they are now working on. Last Month they had reached March 22nd 1999, so I was hoping when the list was updated yesterday that it would have moved forward my a whole month to my "magic" date, but unfortunately it just moved forward by 10 days to April 1st 1999. This is so frustrating because we are only 21 days from being current but to get that far forward this late in the fiscal year could take another 4 Months! Our Case has been finalised and forwarded by NVC, our house is up for sale, our Children need to plan their further education and we are all in limbo waiting for 21 days on paper to progress! It wouldn't be so bad if you could have your medical/Interview and them just say we will issue the Visa as soon as your date ebcomes current. But no, you have to waste another 2 Months doing all that once it does. It makes you feel like saying To Hell with it!

I will try and post my timeline Maggie if you think it might help others but it will take some working out going back that far. One question though... What do you all mean when you say "touched"? lol.

Thanks again for your interest and good luck to you and your Daughter.

[Boiler 46,293]

You have 6 months once you have the visa to activate it, so I think you are ahead of the curve.

Depends on the housing market where you live of course.

[maggs 0]

Hello again

Most people on the family immigration forums are fiance's or spouses or children/step children under 21 and aren't subject to the visa limit allocation. For those who can't stand the wait to be with your loved one, have a look at the wait times for the other family categories, it's many, many years. For anyone who is interested, here is a link to the visa bulleting.

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin...letin_3219.html

It can be very demoralising when your own priority date is years after the date that shows up on the visa bulleting. For a long time I stopped looking at the dates as there was no movement for a couple of years, but as you are so very close after so many years of waiting I think I would be doing the same and looking every month!!!

In USCIS terms I think "touched" is when your file is looked at or moved or "touched" in any way, which gives people encouragement that something is happenning to their case. Was that the context it was meant?

Best of luck.

Maggie

[maggs 0]

Hi again

I noticed on one of your other posts that you were asking about changing the interview date at the London Embassy. I had to do this for my IV although that was in 2005. When I received the packet with the date we realised my husband was going to be out of town so I couldn't travel back to the UK because I had children/step children to take care of. (On a K3 with K4 visa at the time) I e mailed the Embassy to ask for another date and they were very helpful. They moved my date forward by 4 weeks which worked out perfectly.

Maggie

[tucsonbound 0]

Hi again

I noticed on one of your other posts that you were asking about changing the interview date at the London Embassy. I had to do this for my IV although that was in 2005. When I received the packet with the date we realised my husband was going to be out of town so I couldn't travel back to the UK because I had children/step children to take care of. (On a K3 with K4 visa at the time) I e mailed the Embassy to ask for another date and they were very helpful. They moved my date forward by 4 weeks which worked out perfectly.

Maggie

Oh that's useful to know. Thanks Maggie. I was only wondering if it were possible incase my Children have exams on the eventual day of the interview.

Hopefully Immigration reforms will change the Family allocation so that your Daughter won't have such a long wait. Meanwhile, can't you find her a nice American Guy to marry, or is she already married?

Arnie.

[homesick_american 1]

You have 6 months once you have the visa to activate it, so I think you are ahead of the curve.

Depends on the housing market where you live of course.

Right now is a perfect time of year to sell a house. Six months from now, the market will slow down both because of the time of year and the inevitable interest rate hikes.

[tucsonbound 0]

You have 6 months once you have the visa to activate it, so I think you are ahead of the curve.

Depends on the housing market where you live of course.

Right now is a perfect time of year to sell a house. Six months from now, the market will slow down both because of the time of year and the inevitable interest rate hikes.

That's right. and also not forgetting that fantastic exchange rate and the drop in house prices in America.

It's a job to know when best to take the step of selling your home. 6 months from issue date of the Visa seems a long time, but it's not really when the inevitable delays and problems arise with lengthy chains etc. We have already had the house on the market for 3 Months with no buyer.

[Boiler 46,293]

You have 6 months once you have the visa to activate it, so I think you are ahead of the curve.

Depends on the housing market where you live of course.

Right now is a perfect time of year to sell a house. Six months from now, the market will slow down both because of the time of year and the inevitable interest rate hikes.

That's right. and also not forgetting that fantastic exchange rate and the drop in house prices in America.

It's a job to know when best to take the step of selling your home. 6 months from issue date of the Visa seems a long time, but it's not really when the inevitable delays and problems arise with lengthy chains etc. We have already had the house on the market for 3 Months with no buyer.

Exchange rate yes

House price drop not so much

Varies of course, some have gone up.

The ones you hear about are in areas where it was inevitable, and usually not where you would want to live.

[homesick_american 1]

That's right. and also not forgetting that fantastic exchange rate and the drop in house prices in America.

It's a job to know when best to take the step of selling your home. 6 months from issue date of the Visa seems a long time, but it's not really when the inevitable delays and problems arise with lengthy chains etc. We have already had the house on the market for 3 Months with no buyer.

We put our house on the market in mid-November and just accepted an offer about 10 days ago. We had an offer in Jan. that we turned down; the house was on at 195k and the offer was 175k. We lowered the price in Jan to 185k and accepted an offer of 180k...their initial offer was 170k until we threw in all the appliances and furniture in the house. Luckily they've already sold and we have no onward chain, so yay us!

As for home-buying in the States...you'll find it hard to do with no credit history so I'd wait a year or two to build up a credit rating. You'll get a much better interest rate. My credit rating took a dive when I left the US...don't really know why...and my husband doesn't have one, so we'll be renting for a year or two before we can get a decent mortgage. It's no biggie; just something that has to be done.

Also, house prices won't drop in some areas of the US; a lot of markets are still seeing increases but the drops in some areas have been so massive that they've dragged down average and median values for the US as a whole. If you're on your way to Tucson, prices are supposed to drop there this year; but by the time you're ready to buy they could have risen again.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/09/real_estat...eymag/index.htm

Edited April 17, 2007 by homesick_american

[Boiler 46,293]

You can get an International Credit Report for Mortgages

It takes time and you need to work with someone who knows what they are doing.

But best to rent anyway initially so you get a good feel for the lie of the land.

[homesick_american 1]

You can get an International Credit Report for Mortgages

It takes time and you need to work with someone who knows what they are doing.

But best to rent anyway initially so you get a good feel for the lie of the land.

Oh really? That's great; we both have sterling ratings over here.

[tucsonbound 0]

You can get an International Credit Report for Mortgages

It takes time and you need to work with someone who knows what they are doing.

But best to rent anyway initially so you get a good feel for the lie of the land.

Oh really? That's great; we both have sterling ratings over here.

Thankyou Homesick America and Boiler for your advice. We are frequent visitors to Tucson and in general prices have fallen modestly there. I think that as usual the press here have seen that prices have fallen in some areas and just grabbed the headline. We will probably rent initially to make sure we buy in an area that fits in with our lifestyle, jobs, colleges etc.

Good job with selling your house. Looks like the timing has worked out perfect for you. Don't forget to ask for a preferential exchange rate before transferring any collateral.

Good luck.