DCF in London - January 2020

[Dp16 0]

20 minutes ago, Morgan5698 said:

Nothing received my end yet (LND No.). Week 15 now since NOA2 approval. 

Sorry to hear that - really hope things get moving for you :(.

 

Are you in a tight situation like quite a few of us are or is time more flexible?

Edited June 29, 2020 by Dp16

[Morgan5698 58]

7 minutes ago, Dp16 said:

Are you in a tight situation like quite a few of us are or is time more flexible?

Thanks!

 

Time is flexible until 2021. I would need to have the visa issued by Feb at the latest or may start causing us some difficulties. Still plenty of time, but cant be sure of anything in these times! 

 

[Gaz1a 22]

40 minutes ago, Morgan5698 said:

Nothing received my end yet (LND No.). Week 15 now since NOA2 approval. 

That sucks man, sorry! Is this because you got your NOA2 before lockdown? 

 

I think it's safe to assume the IVU is not open yet (or opening slowly on a case by case basis) and as such we are better off disregarding the last few months as part of the timeline. 

Edited June 29, 2020 by Gaz1a

[Wuozopo 4,293]

3 hours ago, Dp16 said:

Transferring the submission to a different embassy. We filed the DCF here prior to me applying/receiving a job offer - is there any way to switch embassy (to say Korea?) so that she can stay with her family temporarily and do the interview there? Would she have to wait for her LND number to arrive before leaving?

 

3 hours ago, The4Sands said:

 

I have read about people transferring their embassy, but I don't have any experience of it.  @Wuozopo might know, as they have been around a lot longer.   

Transfer protocol:  The applicant would contact Korea to request that they accept the case for processing. If/when they accept, Korea would request the file from London. You don’t ask London. London would send the file and you will wait on a letter from Korea for how to proceed (much like you waiting on a letter from London now). Pre-pandemic, I would say you add two months to your timeline when you switch embassies. During this time of closures, all stated timelines are invalid. The few people working are probably busy answering thousands of emails instead of processing cases. And are you certain the USCIS office has transferred the file to the IV Unit. Maybe they are holding. Did anybody get confirmation that your case has left the building?
 

All who I know who transferred had already been assigned an LND number at the NVC stage and their case was in London. They continued to process with that London (LND) case number at the new embassy. The case number is not changed when the processing transfers to a new embassy.  I don’t know what happens when you have not been assigned a case number.

[Robyn-n-Kris 72]

2 minutes ago, Gaz1a said:

That sucks man, sorry! Is this because you got your NOA2 before lockdown? 

 

I think it's safe to assume the IVU is not open yet (or opening slowly on a case by case basis) and as such we are better off disregarding the last few months as part of the timeline. 

Exactly this. I would say from mid March until mid/end of June just will not have existed in the timeline of things with the IVU. But that's just my thoughts. 

[os306 103]

Just now, Robyn-n-Kris said:

Exactly this. I would say from mid March until mid/end of June just will not have existed in the timeline of things with the IVU. But that's just my thoughts. 

Agree with this. I would discount anything from the week beginning the 16th of March until mid-June timeline wise. 

[Dp16 0]

6 minutes ago, Wuozopo said:

 

Transfer protocol:  The applicant would contact Korea to request that they accept the case for processing. If/when they accept, Korea would request the file from London. You don’t ask London. London would send the file and you will wait on a letter from Korea for how to proceed (much like you waiting on a letter from London now). Pre-pandemic, I would say you add two months to your timeline when you switch embassies. During this time of closures, all stated timelines are invalid. The few people working are probably busy answering thousands of emails instead of processing cases. And are you certain the USCIS office has transferred the file to the IV Unit. Maybe they are holding. Did anybody get confirmation that your case has left the building?
 

All who I know who transferred had already been assigned an LND number at the NVC stage and their case was in London. They continued to process with that London (LND) case number at the new embassy. The case number is not changed when the processing transfers to a new embassy.  I don’t know what happens when you have not been assigned a case number.

 

 

Thanks for the help @Wuozopo, Have you ever heard of somebody doing this with a DCF route? If there ends up being virtually no chance of her getting the Visa before August 15th, she will probably head to the states temporarily on her B-1/2 Visa (which I believe she can still enter since she is spouse?).

 

Meanwhile we would just wait for the LND to arrive here at our previous address with the hope that concierge here is remotely competent to forward it to us... Then I guess try to request a change to the Korean embassy, if allowed under DCF. Once that is done she can visit family there and do the final procedures. 

 

Great time to be starting a new job and switching countries!

 

 

[Morgan5698 58]

20 minutes ago, Gaz1a said:

That sucks man, sorry! Is this because you got your NOA2 before lockdown? 

 

I think they shut the embassy on that week! So would assume so. There's a couple of other people on here in a similar timeline. 

 

21 minutes ago, Gaz1a said:

I think it's safe to assume the IVU is not open yet (or opening slowly on a case by case basis) and as such we are better off disregarding the last few months as part of the timeline. 

Totally agree. I guess the issue is when do we count it from... As far as I'm aware no one on here has received anything in way of routine processing from London IVU, so it may still be not doing anything. 

[AlanD26 14]

Just to update everyone, I've still had no movement from my end either.

 

I-130 approval was on March 16th and I've had nothing from anyone since ........ just waiting. I even asked the question via their contact us section on the website and got zero reply, which doesn't inspire me with confidence.

 

All this talk of the field office closing in July is extremely concerning. Does this mean that if I continue to not hear anything soon, I will be transferred? I live in London so that would be extremely frustrating if that's the case.

[Robyn-n-Kris 72]

3 minutes ago, Morgan5698 said:

I think they shut the embassy on that week! So would assume so. There's a couple of other people on here in a similar timeline. 

 

Totally agree. I guess the issue is when do we count it from... As far as I'm aware no one on here has received anything in way of routine processing from London IVU, so it may still be not doing anything. 

Not sure, but, I'm counting mine from the date of my NOA2 approval which was June 16th. I think I'm the first of the last batch of I-130s that got in before the March 31st date. Based on the letter I received, the packet should come in about 5 weeks. That would put it around the week of 21st of July. 

[os306 103]

4 minutes ago, AlanD26 said:

Just to update everyone, I've still had no movement from my end either.

 

I-130 approval was on March 16th and I've had nothing from anyone since ........ just waiting. I even asked the question via their contact us section on the website and got zero reply, which doesn't inspire me with confidence.

 

All this talk of the field office closing in July is extremely concerning. Does this mean that if I continue to not hear anything soon, I will be transferred? I live in London so that would be extremely frustrating if that's the case.

Thankfully, the Field Office closing has nothing to do with the steps that follow after I-130 approval. The Immigrant Visa Unit (housed within the same building) deals with the subsequent steps in the process, so closure of the Field Office won't have any impact. 

 

In your case, I suppose lockdown started the week that your I-130 approval came through. I think it's safe to assume that the IVU was not processing throughout the lockdown period and has just recently resumed operations. Hence the "normal" 5-8 week time-frame wouldn't apply from March in your case. It's a frustrating situation for all involved, but it is what it is, I suppose.

Edited June 29, 2020 by os306

[Gaz1a 22]

Look I think the positive here for all of us waiting for the LND is that we all have had our approvals at different stages, which means @Morgan5698 and others that got their NOA2 just before lockdown will presumably be one of the first to get the LND, so that will give us a clearer timeline for those that got NOA2 after May. 

 

In terms of the USCIS field office, they obviously have been working to get NOA2s out because they're closing but the next step is through the IVU (which is basically closed) so I don't think we can use any previous timelines. 

 

 

[Wuozopo 4,293]

15 minutes ago, Dp16 said:

 

 

Thanks for the help @Wuozopo, Have you ever heard of somebody doing this with a DCF route? If there ends up being virtually no chance of her getting the Visa before August 15th, she will probably head to the states temporarily on her B-1/2 Visa (which I believe she can still enter since she is spouse?).

 

Meanwhile we would just wait for the LND to arrive here at our previous address with the hope that concierge here is remotely competent to forward it to us... Then I guess try to request a change to the Korean embassy, if allowed under DCF. Once that is done she can visit family there and do the final procedures. 

 

Great time to be starting a new job and switching countries!

 

 

I have never known a DCF to transfer to a new embassy. A couple of UK visa expiration cases I recall, where the Spouse/fiancé was in US—

 

A woman from an African country on a UK student visa . She went back to Africa when her UK visa expired before her US visa interview was assigned. She got permission from the London embassy to travel to London to interview for her US visa in London, even though she no longer had a visa to reside in the U.K.

 

A man from Pakistan on a UK student visa. He had sent his passport to the UK to extend his student visa for one more course. They didn’t reply (Or return his passport) and after seven months, he had by that time finished his course and had a fiancé visa interview date. The UK home office had apparently lost his Pakistan passport but wouldn’t admit it. He needed it for his US visa. He was out of status and just wanted his passport back so he could interview and leave for the US. He had to keep cancelling his US visa appointment and rescheduling, I think three times. Finally the US embassy allowed him to interview without a passport (or a valid visa to be in the UK). He was approved but pending getting his passport from the UKHO. The couple tried everything...calls, letters, in person visits to UK offices...all a big run-around. I think the fiancé ended up faxing every office and official the the UK government one day demanding they find his passport which they had had for over nine months by that time. It was eventually returned and he got his visa.

 

The examples show that the US embassy has been flexible in the past with people with expired UK visas. I guess they aren’t too bothered with what goes on between the applicant and overstays in the UK but it does state somewhere that the person should be legally resident in the UK. These two weren’t. 

[Morgan5698 58]

7 minutes ago, Gaz1a said:

Look I think the positive here for all of us waiting for the LND is that we all have had our approvals at different stages, which means @Morgan5698 and others that got their NOA2 just before lockdown will presumably be one of the first to get the LND, so that will give us a clearer timeline for those that got NOA2 after May. 

 

In terms of the USCIS field office, they obviously have been working to get NOA2s out because they're closing but the next step is through the IVU (which is basically closed) so I don't think we can use any previous timelines. 

As soon as I receive it i'll post here. I guess if everyone does the same we will get some idea when things are starting to move again with the IVU. My gut feeling is all the time the website is stating they are not processing immigrant visa's then nothing is going to happen, but hopefully that will start changing soon. 

[Dp16 0]

@Wuozopo Thank you so much for the long reply and the helpful information! We aren't going to do anything brash at the moment, but this is extremely helpful!! I may call on you in the future if we have any questions, so my apologies for questions in advance.

 

Both of us will sit tight for as long as possible, since if the IVU comes to life then I imagine (hope) a lot of us will hear back quickly. Will update here if I hear anything back from our e-mails to the visa office too!

 

 

 

Edited June 29, 2020 by Dp16