DK999

We established residency in Thailand in January for the purpose of transferring her interview here. Still have to formally request a transfer from the Bangkok embassy, because doing so via public inquiry form proved useless.

Yes, NVC got my case, gave me a case number. When you use the public inquiry form, you're emailing an outsourced "call center," not the State Department. So the results I got were not surprising. Hopefully you have better results. Good luck

Did you hear back from the NVC about transferring? I'm assuming you used the public inquiry form? I tried the same thing shortly after getting NOA2, and they responded asking for proof of residence in our new country. I sent it. Heard nothing back for a month, messaged them again, and they responded with basically the same email as the first time, as if it was never read... So I'm even bothering with them anymore. I'm just going to contact the embassy directly.

Makes sense.

Yes, we currently reside here. So then the information on the NVC's website is inaccurate?

We is my wife (beneficiary) and I. She is Russian.

Hello, the NVS Processing page says that a police certificate must be obtained from your current country of residence if you've lived there for more than 6 months. Well, we've only lived in Thailand for two months, yet the civil documents page is asking for a Thai police clearance. I was not expecting this and now I'm worried our submission will be significantly delayed. The police clearance takes 30 business days to process, and god knows how much more time it will take considering we don't live in Bangkok. So what should I do? Select "not available" and explain that according to the NVC's own website we aren't required to submit one, and work on getting one in the meantime? Thanks.

Sorry I meant to post this in the general IR1/CR1 forum, not the specific RBU one

Crisis averted. So it turns out if you try entering all addresses at once the site always times out on you, which according to past threads has been a problem for years... So I did what one user suggested and painstakingly saved each address, messing with the dates each time because it won't dare let you save what you've inputted already unless the dates have no gaps. What a PITA. So when you do it this way, you can in fact enter more than 10 additional addresses.

Last five years for I-130. Since age 16 on DS-260

The DS-260 only allows you to input 10 previous places where the beneficiary has lived since age 16. So what if they have lived in more than 10 places? Is there an "additional information" section at the end where I can provide the extra addresses like in the I-130?

The DS-260 asks for all previous addresses since the age of 16. They specifically say DON'T enter "temporary stays" like hotels on vacation. Problem is, my wife and I are "itinerants" and moved around every few weeks, staying in Airbnb's from March 2022-January 2023. They will not let you continue if there is a gap of more than one month between addresses. I tried putting all addresses that we've stayed at but there is a maximum of 10. So should we just put her Russian address (where she wasn't actually living but owns an apartment) during our travel time? Thanks in advance!

About 3 months. 13 months in total for I-130 approval

Thanks, I submitted a public inquiry. Hopefully hear back soon

Our I-130 was just approved, and I've just submitted my payment to the NVC to start the AOS and the DS-260. My wife is Russian, but we have established residency in another country and do not want to interview in Warsaw. How and when should I contact the NVC to notify them that we currently live in another country? Thanks!

Just got approved. 12/9/2021 PD, approved 1/10/2023 at CSC, so here's hoping yours is just around the corner.

How do you get a rental contract while living in another country? I'm sure a significant number of couples are living abroad and will first stay with relatives. So what do you suggest in that case?

We're about to hit 13 months since our I-130 was received. In two days I can "ask them a question" about our case. My first and very obvious question would be, "You've been reviewing my application, actively, for more than a year, so how's it coming along?" Am I still resigned to contacting the general customer service line or will I be able to speak directly to someone at the CSC? Side note, and this is a true story: last month I spoke to USCIS customer service and the agent said, "Well according to what I can see, the status says under direct review, and that means it's been fully checked and it's just on the supervisor's desk waiting to be signed off on." I was like, "That's great news, when did the status change to this final stage?" Her: "December 2021." Me: ........ Thanks for any tips.

Gee I wonder where they'll find such a country? Someone please send them the "Visa Requirements for Russian citizens" wiki page

Yes, they said they would, but not at this stage. It was more about getting the State Department to designate a different embassy for Russians to interview at. They said they would send an inquiry on my behalf if I was trying to get the interview transferred.

Ours has said the same thing too. I think all these "estimated processing times" are meaningless. It's been 364 days since our NOA1 from the CSC, which has an "estimated time" of 10.5 months. They're jammed up. I've spoken to one of my Senator's offices and they're well aware of the problem. Nothing really they can do until you reach the date where USCIS says you can contact them.

I have a theoretical question based on how long it's already taken just waiting for USCIS to approve our I-130 (about 50 weeks now). If we waited so long that we had in fact been married two years by the time they issued the visa, would they grant us an IR1 visa instead of a CR1? Now for the brief rant: is this the longest it's ever taken for I-130's? With the pieces of data from this forum, whatsapp groups, etc, it seems like it's just getting worse and worse. The opacity of the process and the fact that it takes ONE YEAR to say "yep this marriage is real" is insane. Okay, rant over. Thanks for reading.

As you may know, USCIS has a handy dandy new feature showing your "processing time." Sadly, our "estimated time until case decision" is "?" and their only explanation is "your case is taking longer than expected to process. You do not need to take any action at this time." Just wanted to gauge how many people got an actual estimated wait time and how many people got the shrug, question mark response.