London CR1 / IR1 Appointment Updates

[UKIL 2]

Hi. Anyone here who had their interview after January 1st and have received their passport back ? I had my interview on the 8th. I was verbally approved but the status has not changed. It still on Ready status. Wondering how long do they need to process it.

[OldUser 7,672]

18 minutes ago, UKIL said:

Hi. Anyone here who had their interview after January 1st and have received their passport back ? I had my interview on the 8th. I was verbally approved but the status has not changed. It still on Ready status. Wondering how long do they need to process it.

Verbal approval is not an approval.

It's normal, wait 2-3 weeks before even starting thinking about it.

[UKIL 2]

Still waiting for my passport after interview and approval on January 8. Case status is still ready on ceac. Case has been updated 4 times and the last update was 28 January.

 

[Sully413 0]

We received DQ 23 Jan

Waiting for our IL 

Any insight into wait times now?

 

[mark_adders 0]

Hi all! 

 

Just trying to make sense of this thread and all the abbreviations. Could use a helpful explanation!? We are to arrive at the London embassy part of this epic journey soon. 

 

I am UK citizen waiting on my partners visa petition to clear. We are expecting within 2 months or so, fingers crossed. 

 

As we wait;

-what exactly are the next steps, explained in a bit more detail? I know we need to do the actual visa application then likely go for an interview. But what are the steps and timeframes?

-is there anything we can do in advance to prepare? 

-can we book any interviews at consulate in advance? 

-is there any forms we can access to complete?

-just want to know if we can action anything that relies on UK system. 

 

Hate sitting waiting for this to happen, especially in this political climate (let's not discuss further lol)

 

Praying we clear clean and easily this summer/ year. 

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[appleblossom 3,222]

10 minutes ago, mark_adders said:

Hi all! 

 

Just trying to make sense of this thread and all the abbreviations. Could use a helpful explanation!? We are to arrive at the London embassy part of this epic journey soon. 

 

I am UK citizen waiting on my partners visa petition to clear. We are expecting within 2 months or so, fingers crossed. 

 

As we wait;

-what exactly are the next steps, explained in a bit more detail? I know we need to do the actual visa application then likely go for an interview. But what are the steps and timeframes?

-is there anything we can do in advance to prepare? 

-can we book any interviews at consulate in advance? 

-is there any forms we can access to complete?

-just want to know if we can action anything that relies on UK system. 

 

Hate sitting waiting for this to happen, especially in this political climate (let's not discuss further lol)

 

Praying we clear clean and easily this summer/ year. 

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

DQ - Documentarily Qualified 

IL - interview letter

 

And in response to the questions above -

 

Steps for the interview part are set out on the usual website - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-10-prepare-for-the-interview.html Not sure exactly whereabouts you are in the process (whether you’ve been Documentarily Qualified by NVC or not), but probably step 10 ish onwards?

 

You can start making sure you’ve got all of the documents that will be required

 

No, it’s booked for you

 

Depends on what stage you’re at?

 

You could order the police cert, that’ll be required from the UK. But your profile says Canada? So are you in the UK now?

 

Good luck. 

 

 

Edited Monday at 08:06 PM by appleblossom

[mark_adders 0]

3 hours ago, appleblossom said:

 

DQ - Documentarily Qualified 

IL - interview letter

 

And in response to the questions above -

 

Steps for the interview part are set out on the usual website - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-10-prepare-for-the-interview.html Not sure exactly whereabouts you are in the process (whether you’ve been Documentarily Qualified by NVC or not), but probably step 10 ish onwards?

 

You can start making sure you’ve got all of the documents that will be required

 

No, it’s booked for you

 

Depends on what stage you’re at?

 

You could order the police cert, that’ll be required from the UK. But your profile says Canada? So are you in the UK now?

 

Good luck. 

 

 

We are at the waiting on approval of the us petition step. It's been a long process and I'm hoping the next steps feel quicker. 

 

I'm UK citizen, working in Canada. 

 

Another question I had was to do with passport relief, it's seems you have to give the embassy the UK passport for a period of time? Why is that? How long does that seem to be? 

 

Mark

[appleblossom 3,222]

12 minutes ago, mark_adders said:

We are at the waiting on approval of the us petition step. It's been a long process and I'm hoping the next steps feel quicker. 

 

I'm UK citizen, working in Canada. 

 

Another question I had was to do with passport relief, it's seems you have to give the embassy the UK passport for a period of time? Why is that? How long does that seem to be? 

 

Mark

 

Ah, ok. So steps 2 onwards then. And you’ll be doing this via the Montreal consulate rather than London? It’s usually where you’re resident, not your citizenship.  

 

Yes, you have to leave your passport for the visa to be put in to it but unless there’s any issues it’s usually back with you within 10 days or so. 

 

Best of luck, hope the I-130 is approved soon. 

[Walker-X 9]

14 hours ago, mark_adders said:

Hi all! 

 

Just trying to make sense of this thread and all the abbreviations. Could use a helpful explanation!? We are to arrive at the London embassy part of this epic journey soon. 

 

I am UK citizen waiting on my partners visa petition to clear. We are expecting within 2 months or so, fingers crossed. 

 

As we wait;

-what exactly are the next steps, explained in a bit more detail? I know we need to do the actual visa application then likely go for an interview. But what are the steps and timeframes?

-is there anything we can do in advance to prepare? 

-can we book any interviews at consulate in advance? 

-is there any forms we can access to complete?

-just want to know if we can action anything that relies on UK system. 

 

Hate sitting waiting for this to happen, especially in this political climate (let's not discuss further lol)

 

Praying we clear clean and easily this summer/ year. 

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

Just to add to what @appleblossom said.

 

The petition process is the longest one. It takes 9+ months MINIMUM to complete. In the meantime what you can do is:

 

- Prepare all your documents - originals of birth certificates, any tax documents, marriage certificates, evidence of relationship, etc

- Catch up on your vaccination. Before the interview you have to go to medical check and you have to have certain (many) vaccines, otherwise they'll charge you for them on the spot. You might want to either get immunization evidence from your GP, get an antibody test or get them administered from your GP (possibly) cheaper/free.

- Get police certificates from all the countries you've lived in for 6+ months. Don't do this too early, because for some countries they're only valid for 6 months or so.

- You can tentatively go through the visa application form and gather all the information you'll need for it.

 

Once your petition gets approved you don't want to waste any time and you want to submit your documents and visa application asap. After they go through the documents (and they're happy - DQ) they'll send you an interview letter - IL, where they give you an interview date (you don't get to choose). This date is several (four in my case) months in the future, so you have enough time to get your medical etc. But you don't want to prolong this after waiting for ages already.

 

Hope that helps.

Edited Tuesday at 10:42 AM by Walker-X

[Cookie88 109]

1 hour ago, Walker-X said:

 

Just to add to what @appleblossom said.

 

The petition process is the longest one. It takes 9+ months MINIMUM to complete. In the meantime what you can do is:

 

- Prepare all your documents - originals of birth certificates, any tax documents, marriage certificates, evidence of relationship, etc

- Catch up on your vaccination. Before the interview you have to go to medical check and you have to have certain (many) vaccines, otherwise they'll charge you for them on the spot. You might want to either get immunization evidence from your GP, get an antibody test or get them administered from your GP (possibly) cheaper/free.

- Get police certificates from all the countries you've lived in for 6+ months. Don't do this too early, because for some countries they're only valid for 6 months or so.

- You can tentatively go through the visa application form and gather all the information you'll need for it.

 

Once your petition gets approved you don't want to waste any time and you want to submit your documents and visa application asap. After they go through the documents (and they're happy - DQ) they'll send you an interview letter - IL, where they give you an interview date (you don't get to choose). This date is several (four in my case) months in the future, so you have enough time to get your medical etc. But you don't want to prolong this after waiting for ages already.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Do police certificates still 'expire' after 6 months (if mentioned on the certificate) even if the department of state website says for them they are valid for 2 years?  

[Walker-X 9]

4 hours ago, Cookie88 said:

 

Do police certificates still 'expire' after 6 months (if mentioned on the certificate) even if the department of state website says for them they are valid for 2 years?  

I think it's not that the certificate itself expires, but that USCIS might want a recent certificate not older than 6 months.

 

https://unlock.org.uk/advice/travelling-america-usa/#:~:text=Applicants applying for visas at,months of the visa interview.

[Cookie88 109]

19 minutes ago, Walker-X said:

I think it's not that the certificate itself expires, but that USCIS might want a recent certificate not older than 6 months.

 

https://unlock.org.uk/advice/travelling-america-usa/#:~:text=Applicants applying for visas at,months of the visa interview.

 Interesting, never seen this website before. The US department of state website states 24 month validity: https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/family-immigration/required-documents/

Edited Tuesday at 04:25 PM by Cookie88

[Walker-X 9]

3 hours ago, Cookie88 said:

 Interesting, never seen this website before. The US department of state website states 24 month validity: https://uk.usembassy.gov/visas/family-immigration/required-documents/

 

Yeah I don't know. I was told by my lawyer to only get the police certificate last minute so I did  It's possible that they in fact don't care.