US Immigration from United Kingdom

Hi all,

Apologies if this has been covered before, I've searched various sites and forums and no answer to me seems concrete but pretty much as the title says. If I upload unsolicited evidence, will it negatively impact my case review timeline?

For context, my wife (U.S. Citizen) and I (UK Citizen) submitted our I-130 online in Nov 2024. We were long distance for a few years and then got married and have lived together in the U.K. since 2021. When it comes to evidence for our I-130, I submitted our child's US consular report of birth abroad, 2024-2025 joint-auto, home, travel and life insurances as well as bills for co-habitation, past few yearly UK council tax bills and a document with images of us with family, child & pets over the years.

Whilst going through a series of files I have found a bunch of wire transfers, my wife's old UK visa residency cards and insurance policies from over the past few years that I couldn't locate at the time of submitting the I-130.

I guess my question is: given the evidence I already have, is it worth uploading these additional items, considering the ambiguity around how unsolicited evidence affects case review times?

Hey all,

We're making a start on my AOS paperwork and I have a couple of questions:

1) Do I need to change my name on my SSN before filing for the AOS? I interviewed at local SSA on 6th Feb and am still waiting on the card. We got married on 16th Feb and I'm a little concerned now because I'm unsure how much longer it will take, and I may also have to factor in the time it takes to change my name on my SSN too. My K1 expiration is 17th April. The AOS forms ask if I have an SSN and, if so, what it is (or if not, if I would like USCIS to provide one). I have read that our marriage cert is all we need to evidence my change of name, but hubbie thinks that the change on my SSN is the real legal name change. Are we safe to move ahead before my SSN arrives and leave that part, or should we wait? Or should I ask USCIS to provide a new SSN with my married name, even though I have already requested one in my maiden name prior to marriage?

2) The forms ask about previous criminal history. I have one arrest dating back 20 years ago for shoplifting. Of course I am selecting YES for the relevant questions. Should I provide copies of my police cert and SAR that I gathered for my original embassy interview, to go alongside a written explanation of the details? This one is a little worrying as I thought I was already determined as eligible after going through vetting at the original embassy interview with this stuff.

Thank you!

Hey everyone,

I'm midway through the application for an IR1 and at the stage of attending my visa medical and document review (in two weeks) followed by my interviews (two further weeks).

I'm having a lot of trouble obtaining my vaccine records (except COVID, which I have x 3). The majority of my required vaccines were administered in the early 90s and while I was there, I was under 2 and have no recollection, let alone records. My parents don't recall being given physical records and if they were, they don't have them (we even checked my red book - nada!). None of the NHS apps (either official NHS apps or Patient Access) have records for my vaccinations except COVID, even the more recent ones done in the 00s.

On the advice of my GP surgery, I filed a Subject Access Request for my full medical records and last night (after the full 28 days) they gave me up to 2015. This doesn't cover the relevant period. I don't now have time to file another Subject Access Request before my Medical appt and I have a strong suspicion that even if I did, the NHS does not have my handwritten vaccination records from 1993.

I know I can get the jabs there, but I'm going to need so many simultaneously (an entire childhood's worth, basically the full list required by the US) that I'm concerned they won't be able to complete them all in one appointment and it will set my other appointments at Nine Elms back.

Has anyone else faced similar? Any suggestions on where else I can try to find my medical records?

My other potential plan is to find a travel clinic that can start doing them ASAP and take those records to my Visa Medical, rather than risking doing them all on the day.

(In case anyone asks, yes, I'm extremely confident that I was definitely actually vaccinated! My mum works in healthcare so she's very pro vaccinations. I just can't prove it based on available records.)

Posting this to help anyone who needs this in the future, as it was a confusing aspect of our process and hard to find clear info on.

My fiancee lived in New Zealand for about 18 months, so when preparing for her interview at the London consulate she had to get a police certificate from both the UK (her home country) and New Zealand. However, New Zealand does not do police certificates. They have two options: get a copy of you criminal record, which if the applicant had no convictions is just a letter from the police bureau stating as much, or "Police vetting".

If you are applying to immigrate and you need a police certificate, you must choose police vetting. My fiancee attended her interview with the letter stating she didn't have a criminal record, which resulted in her passing the interview but being told to send the correct documentation to the consulate before they could approve the visa. You can find information about it here. NZ Police will email the vetting documentation directly to the US consulate in Auckland, at which point it will be mailed directly to the US consulate through which you are applying for your visa. They do this very quickly--regular mail took three months to get to my fiancee when she was in New Zealand, but the London consulate received the police vet within a week.

The communication around this, as with the rest of the visa process, is somewhat lacking. My fiancee received an email about a week after applying for the police vet confirming they had received it and were forwarding it to the Auckland consulate; this was the only communication we received about this. The only reason we knew the consulate in London received the police vet was because our case status on the NVC case tracker website changed from "Refused" to "Approved". So if you're worried because you haven't heard anything--that's normal.

So typically I see the CEAC status go from Ready to Approved to Issued and CO keeps the passport (after a successful interview/no additional documents needed)

But if the CO returns the passport back, and needs additional documents, you send those documents in, I imagine Status will go from Ready to Refused to AP to Approved.

Is there another status for when they request for the passports for visa to be issued?

The 221g did NOT ask for the passport to be sent. Only my birth certificate - even though the box was NOT checked on 221g. They asked for my W2 to be uploaded - but to where - nothing was stated? So I included my W2 along with birth certificate via DX.