Confirming Proper Order of Operations After NOA2

[stegsaurus 3]

Hi everyone, following our NOA2, I have been watching videos and reading guides online about what comes next. I wanted to make sure I have the correct/most efficient plan in mind for our situation.

 

We received our NOA2 on July 23, 2024 (the paper NOA2 says July 23, while the USCIS site says July 24). However, our USCIS timeline hasn't updated with a "We've sent your case to the NVC" step yet. I planned to request our case number from the NVC's Public Inquiry Form on Aug 6/7, as I've seen guides online say that two weeks after your NOA2, you can request your number here instead of waiting for the email/letter. Is this correct, or do I need to wait two weeks after the "we sent your case" step from USCIS?

 

Am I also correct that we cannot take any of the next steps until we have this number? Per the US Embassy Tegucigalpa page, it looks like you schedule the medical exam simply by contacting the doctor yourself, but I imagine you need the NVC case number for that. I know we also need the NVC case number to complete the DS-160, which is then required to book the embassy appointment.

 

My fiancée is in Honduras. We created an account with USTravelDocs, and the first available appointment is October 11, 2024 (it was October 7 a few days ago). Apparently the embassy in Tegucigalpa only opens a few appointment dates per month, so I'm feeling antsy about getting our NVC number in time to get an appointment for October. I want to make sure I'm doing anything I can now to save time later -- I've already filled out the I-134 as best I can for now.

 

Thanks for your consideration! I'm essentially looking to make sure I'm not misunderstanding anything about the next steps and that I'm being as efficient as I can.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[ScarletWitch6x 62]

I'm out of a different embassy - but it was about 2 weeks after my NOA2 that my case updated to show sent to NVC. There is no benefit to be gained by submitting an inquiry until you see that. 

 

My case was created 4 weeks after NOA2, and was sent to the embassy the following week (5th week) and marked as ready almost immediately. 

[hplusj 135]

7 hours ago, stegsaurus said:

Hi everyone, following our NOA2, I have been watching videos and reading guides online about what comes next. I wanted to make sure I have the correct/most efficient plan in mind for our situation.

 

We received our NOA2 on July 23, 2024 (the paper NOA2 says July 23, while the USCIS site says July 24). However, our USCIS timeline hasn't updated with a "We've sent your case to the NVC" step yet. I planned to request our case number from the NVC's Public Inquiry Form on Aug 6/7, as I've seen guides online say that two weeks after your NOA2, you can request your number here instead of waiting for the email/letter. Is this correct, or do I need to wait two weeks after the "we sent your case" step from USCIS?

 

Am I also correct that we cannot take any of the next steps until we have this number? Per the US Embassy Tegucigalpa page, it looks like you schedule the medical exam simply by contacting the doctor yourself, but I imagine you need the NVC case number for that. I know we also need the NVC case number to complete the DS-160, which is then required to book the embassy appointment.

 

My fiancée is in Honduras. We created an account with USTravelDocs, and the first available appointment is October 11, 2024 (it was October 7 a few days ago). Apparently the embassy in Tegucigalpa only opens a few appointment dates per month, so I'm feeling antsy about getting our NVC number in time to get an appointment for October. I want to make sure I'm doing anything I can now to save time later -- I've already filled out the I-134 as best I can for now.

 

Thanks for your consideration! I'm essentially looking to make sure I'm not misunderstanding anything about the next steps and that I'm being as efficient as I can.

Wonderful questions, and I have to say, the NVC stage can be one of the most opaque ones in our timeline.  Here's a few things I would advise:

 

You're going to have to wait on booking appointments until your case is sent to your embassy.  This includes your medical, since the visa validity date is from the date of the medical and is good for six months.  Most panel physicians for this reason will not entertain appointments before your case is sent to the embassy (oftentimes not before you have your visa appointment booked) to ensure your medical packet won't expire.  They are usually pretty costly appointments, trust me, you don't want to do it twice.

 

You are correct in noticing that the DS-160 can't be completed until you have your case number from NVC.  I'm not sure where you saw inquiries seeing case numbers returned in two weeks: at the time we requested back in March, it was around four weeks and my understanding it's about that, maybe a bit longer now.  Four weeks is probably the safe window of time.  Use the inquiry form and be patient, NVC can take a few business days to reply.  If the case number isn't ready, they'll let you know and you'll have to keep trying.  Weekly is usually a good frequency.

 

As to filling out the DS-160, embassies can sometimes request you wait but technically a completed one is good for twelve months.  Be sure to check your regional forum to see what the average time is for cases to be sent to Tegucigalpa from NVC, so you're not jumping the gun.

 

Above all else, try to be patient.  There's a lot of ways to track USCIS cases but NVC is a bit harder.  Upon getting your case number, be sure to run a CEAC immigrant visa check (yes, K1 is technically nonimmigrant but there's no invoice number so CEAC uses immigrant for us).  The cases are sent every other week to embassies that request a caseload so tracking those shipments for checking CEAC makes sense.  Once you see the status change to in transit, keep your eyes peeled for the packets that inform you it is time to book appointments.  Again, every embassy is different so check on Honduras' operations for that one.

 

Best of luck to you!  Deep breaths, trust the process, stay strong as a couple, and start organizing your documentation for your interview.  You got this!

 

Oh, and one last thing:  do not book any flights or make any concrete wedding plans yet.  You could still be thrown curveballs and see delays beyond what the average K1 wait times are for your embassy.  I know we were thrown some, the average time to Johannesburg from NVC is/was about 5 weeks.  We waited four months.

Edited August 5 by hplusj

[stegsaurus 3]

Thanks so much to both of you for responding. Apologies for my late reply and for not putting this in the right location (I didn't realize I had to place it). 

 

On Tuesday, August 6, I got the alert that USCIS had sent our case to the NVC, so it was about 2 weeks after the NOA2. I'm glad things are moving  

 

@hplusj Thank you so much for your detailed response; I really appreciate you taking the time. The two videos that I heard mention you could send an inquiry to NVC two weeks after your case was sent are this (around the 8:57 timestamp) and this (around the 1:10 timestamp). However, I remember the former video incorrectly -- he says that you can send an inquiry after 4 weeks of the case being sent to NVC, and that you can start completing your DS-160 during the In Transit phase. In the latter, she mentions you can make an inquiry after 14 days of the case being sent to NVC and says the same thing about booking once you're at In Transit.

 

When you mention the regional forum, you mean here on VJ, right? This page says 102 days is the average time between NVC sending and embassy interview, which is one of the longest for any country. But there are only 2 Honduras cases so this might not be enough data/it might still be skewed from the Covid backlogs. 

 

Thank you for the kind words and advice. I'm trying to do as much as I can right now that isn't tied to the actual process -- cleaning up the house, gathering documentation, figuring out general things for the wedding, etc. I definitely won't make any concrete wedding plans or book travel until we're 100% sure she has the visa. I'm going to do my best to estimate as we can, without committing early and thus potentially creating a problem.

 

I am trying to do as much research as I can and rely on discussions started by other people, as I don't want to ask stupid questions or waste people's time. But in this process, sometimes it's nice to think out loud and make sure I'm on the right track. Thank you so much

[hplusj 135]

On 8/7/2024 at 9:11 PM, stegsaurus said:

When you mention the regional forum, you mean here on VJ, right? This page says 102 days is the average time between NVC sending and embassy interview, which is one of the longest for any country. But there are only 2 Honduras cases so this might not be enough data/it might still be skewed from the Covid backlogs. 

Super glad to help!  We almost went mad during the NVC phase which was just the weirdest part so far (we were even sent a second NOA2 which was like, what), so I just want to provide people with realistic expectations because there seems to be a lot of Murphy's Law that happens at this stage.

 

That does sound long at 102 days! I can't recall where those stats get generated from --either internally from user reporting or from the NVC site itself-- but the regional forums are great for confirming up to date information direct from the users.  If you scroll down on the Forums page, you'll find the Regional Discussions in the General section. Looks like there's one for Latin/Central America/Mexico, I'm just terrible at linking things sorry 🤣  But yes, if the wait is expected to be 3+ months it would make sense to wait on the DS-160 until your case moves to Honduras, just in case.  But it's alright if you do want to submit it early, it won't harm anything.  You will just have to renew it if the wait is over a year.  Any changes during the time from submitting the DS-160 to your interview (such as change in address or employment), can be clarified in person.

 

By all means you can try for the case number at two weeks, see what happens!  It can't hurt at all.  There were periods of time where I got concerned I was sending in too many inquiries, but again, if you just check in every week and make sure you're not overlapping (as in, sending another inquiry without waiting for a response), I don't think they'll care. 

 

 

Edited August 11 by hplusj