AndreaK

we got our approval emailed to us today (ie, NOA2)!!!!

called my fiance as soon as i saw the email (about 1pm for me, MST) and he was just as excited as i was. i know it varies for everyone depending on where they live, but approximately how long from the time the NOA2 is sent out to the time the packet is received from the consulate (for the medical, etc)? i'm planning to go to wichita about may 17 for a couple weeks, and i'm thinking my packet will be arriving sometime while i'm gone...

good luck to those who haven't received their NOA2 yet! i'm keeping my fingers crossed for you

no more touches since the 26th we're officially over the 3 month wait now. this waiting gets so frustrating at times, i just want to be with my fiance

It's a change in the "last updated" field in your USCIS online account portfolio. It won't generate an email because technically it isn't an action of any kind. A touch doesn't mean you were approved or denied or are getting and RFE. It doesn't mean anything until you, uh, find out what it means.

Some people get a bunch. Some people get none at all. Some don't even get emails and just have an NOA2 show up in their snailmail box.

well, i guess we got 'touched' today then this is the first time i've checked our status online in over a week (too depressing to see it still say 'pending Jan 22/07). low and behold, the last updated date is today! no email received, but hopefully that means we don't have to wait too much longer to get our NOA2... which would be so good because my fiance has really been getting depressed this week i feel the same; i'm trying to stay strong for him, but it's getting very hard.

wish us luck things start to happen quickly now *crosses fingers and toes*

i've made a few posts already - and asked a lot of questions, i know - so i thought i'd introduce myself and share my story.

i'm sure everyone's is very unique, but i honestly challenge anyone to beat ours, lol. i'll do my best to keep things brief.

before i can tell my story, i have to tell my sister's... about a year and a half ago, she was working at a local lighting company here in Edmonton, Alberta Canada. she got a call one day from a guy working at a Lowes in Wichita, Kansas, looking for a light fixture for a customer. there weren't any locally, so he'd done a general search and one came up in Edmonton, AB - which he assumed was Alabama

how, i'm not exactly sure, but they hit it off immediately and kept talking and texting each other over the next 9 months or so. he came up for a week last september and things went better than they both hoped for. two months later he was back, and they got married in a very small ceremony at my parents' mid November. unfortunately, he had to go home after a few days, but shortly before Christmas, my sister flew down to Wichita and drove back with her new hubby. for many reasons, they decided it was better for them if he immigrated here instead of her moving stateside. they are a perfect match for each other in every way, and i see them being together for a long time

now i'll have to back-track ever so slightly... after my now brother-in-law was here in september, he made mention to my sister several times that he thought his best friend - also in Wichita - had a lot in common with me and was going through a rough time (a couple relationships that ended badly). he asked my sister if he could give his friend my email address; i though what the heck, he probably won't email me but if he does, maybe it will be a new friend and didn't think anymore of it.

mid-october, i got an email from Tom and for the next three weeks, things progressed quickly from emails to chatting via Yahoo (several hours each night) to talking on the phone for hours on end. thank goodness for unlimited long distance!! by the fourth week (early november, just before my sister's wedding), i was flying down to Wichita for a week... all i can say is it felt like we'd been together for months. he came up for two weeks at christmas, we got engaged while he was here, filled out our K1 paperwork and now we're very impatiently waiting so that i can move to Wichita and we can finally get married and be together.

as a side note, my mom doesn't know what to think of this, haha. two cross-borders romances and marrying off both her daughters in less than a year.

Being from Edmonton- you'll go through Vancouver. Which is good! Vancouver is known to be faster than Montreal. If you were doing a CR1 Visa- Montreal is the only Consulate that handles those.

When you reveive your packet 4, that will be the time and date of your Interview. They book it for you.

vancouver is definitely better for me, plus my uncle lives in abbotsford so i shouldn't have to worry about paying for accomodations, just the airfare and getting to/from the consulate... still rules out a day trip like i'd hoped for.

does anyone know how long the wait generally is from the time you get your third packet from the consulate (to get your medical, etc) to the actual interview date?

i just thought of this too... is it a problem that on our application we indicated that calgary was my local consulate? or will they just automatically forward everything to vancouver?

thanks in advance

well this totally sucks... i guess i didn't do enough reading ahead of time, or look in the right places, but i thought since Calgary has an embassy, that i could do my interview there

does anyone know if you can choose which consulate you would like to do your interview at? or is it decided for you? also, and in my reading i haven't come across a clear answer to this, do you set up your own appointment once you've received the package from the consulate, or do they set it up for you? what's the usual timeframe from when you get your package to the interview date?

sorry for all the questions, just trying to wrap my head around all of this...

Nothing since 4/12! It really has been a week!

I keep hoping for a Nov or Dec filer who's been approved to stop by and tell us that we're being silly and that it went the same way during their approval months and we just can't tell because we're in the midst of it. But I don't think that's the case.

Bollox!!!!

that really does suck - hopefully they get going on things very soon, all this waiting is killing my fiance and i.

btw, no one makes swearing sound more civilized than the brits! lol

does anyone know how much the medical, etc, costs? or does it vary by doctor?

i noticed in the attached pdf on the medical exam that any hospitalizations, chronic medical conditions, etc need to be noted by your doctor... just so happens that i've had many, going back to when i was a baby. do they need all of that? will there be a form of some kind outlining what they want so you can be sure of providing the info they want?

thanks for the extra info and pointers everyone, i'll be sure to keep it all in mind (along with everything else, lol)

i understand completely about the std issue, and thankfully i have nothing to worry about in that department, or with HIV, etc... that's a really good idea though, to have my doctor write up a brief note about my issues and how they're being managed (and have been for years). honesty is always the best policy.

thank you so much for the quick reply! that's exactly the info i was hoping for.

thanks!!!

from what i've read, by and large the biggest factors in determining whether you will be denied a visa is if you have a criminal record or if you have any communicable diseases (eg tuberculosis, etc).

i have neither of the above, but i do have a couple of medical issues - none transmittable or contagious - and i am wondering for those that have gone through the whole process of getting the medical, what was all involved? just a general questionaire and blood work? was there a set list of doctors that could be seen to perform the medical, or could you see any doctor? did you have to provide medical records at all? would going on short term disability from work potentially affect the visa application (if they even ask or have access to records of this sort)?

i'm probably worrying over nothing, but if anyone could offer a little insight, it would be greatly appreciated.

thanks

Since we're on the topic of moving stuff across the border, I have a question. I was talking to a collegue yesterday. Her daughter has a K-1 approved and was told that you can't bring across a mattress. Is that true ? Is there a list of items that you can't bring with you listed somewhere ?

I searched on http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation..._restricted.xml but didn't find anything.

i'd like to know the answer to this too, from someone who has actually tried to take a mattress across. when i called US customs (one of the n. dakota crossing points), the agent said he'd never heard of anything like that and there was no problem taking a mattress with you... i hate conflicting information

BUT...the catch is...you *should* marry as soon as possible so AOS/EAD can be filed immediately. After the 90 days the temporary work status is technically expired which necessitates the EAD. You can't file for EAD first without having filed for AOS and you can't do that until you're married.

kind of on the same topic here... from what i've read on this site, as soon as i'm legally in the US (ie, via my K1 visa) i can apply for my SSN and EAD - regardless of whether or not my fiance and i have already married. is this correct? or do we have to be married first before i can apply? sorry, your post has me a little confused...

thanks for the reassurance everyone. if the 2.9 months is truly the average, that would mean it's coming up pretty quickly for us - hopefully we're on this list instead of the 6 month one.

i did check our case number again, and the last info given is that our application is 'pending', so i guess we just simply have to continue waiting patiently...

Here's my 2 cents - we got engaged last July 2006 and only started the K-1 process in Jan 2007

I travelled after getting engaged both by plane and driving and I answer truthfully that I am visiting my fiance, they ask when I'm returning or when I'm returning to work - I have nothing to hide anyway! You don't need to provide letters from your employer if you're visiting for a week or 2 - they honestly might be more suspicious if you're providing some sort of 'odd' evidence.

I've also travelled since the K1 process started - they don't ask about it and they don't have you in a database somewhere that I've heard of - they might, but obviously it's not a problem. I personally scan my passport at the ticket booth, although I guess they take a look at it too.

Don't sweat it, as long as you're truthful, you should be fine.

from my own personal experience about a month ago, i beg to differ - maybe i just got a real cross customs official, who knows...

when i flew from edmonton to wichita to visit my fiance in march (our application was submitted in january of this year), i was up front and honest about my travel intentions - going to visit my fiance, had a visa in progress, i was moving to the US. as soon as i mentioned this, i was told to follow the customs official to the back room, where another customs officer proceeded to take my picture, fingerprint me (index fingers only, but both hands), and question me. it was a good thing i'd heard that something like this could potentially happen because i had a letter from work stating the dates of my vacation, and when i was returning to work, along with my flight itinerary for a trip to Winnipeg at easter (so my fiance could book his flights) for a family gathering. had i not had this information, i'm positive i would have been turned away and not allowed on the plane.

once the customs officer was through with me, i entered the line for security; once it was my turn, they fully searched my carry-on bags and did a full pat down on me - they couldn't have done anymore unless they strip-searched me.

as a result, i am now very leery of trying to fly - or drive - to the US until i have my visa in-hand because i'm obviously now in the system somehow (can someone verify/deny this for me?). i'd hate to get to the border or be in line at customs and get turned away...

i'm sure this is an extreme circumstance, but i say it is much better to be fully prepared just in case, than to get to the customs line or be at the border and told you are not allowed to cross...

hey there everyone, i've been browsing this site - and forum - for a little while, but only just registered...

i have to say, it's depressing seeing how many of you who sent in applications in january already have progress made on your fiance visa... we sent ours in, and it was received, something like january 22 and we received our confirmation number, but that's it. when my fiance (he's the 'sponsor', as he's the US resident) has checked the site, it indicates that they are currently processing applications about 6 months in arrears, ie january 07 was processing july 06 and so on... if this is true, it means nothing will happen with ours until at least mid-july. is this correct?