JayFromTexas

August 16

Maybe this will work Makes sense. Thank you

Scan attached I-797C Biometrics Appt Notice Redacted.pdf

My wife had her Visa interview back in July and entered the US on a CR1 Visa in August. Last week, she received an I-797c notifying her that she has a Biometric Submission here in Texas. I've searched here and see some messages that say Biometrics are required prior to some visa interviews. Should we be alarmed that it is happening now or is this normal?

I assume you've received your passport by now. My wife and stepdaughter interviewed for CR1 visa on July 19 and we didn't receive it back until August 15th. But, there was a period of administrative processing mixed in. How long did you wait for the passport to be delivered? UPDATE: I see in another thread that you got in on 11/14. Very fast!

My wife, stepdaughter and I are currently in Bangkok, waiting for the Embassy to deliver their passports with their CR1 & CR2 visas. They are very very slow. Their visa status went to "issued" last Friday and we got an email today that it could be another week to 10 days before we receive their passports at the agreed on postal location. Very very frustrating that the simple process of mailing and delivering our passports can take up to 2 weeks. That's not my question, though. We are looking at travel options and short notice tickets from Bangkok to Dallas ain't cheap. We are considering flying separately to save money because I can buy my flights with credit card points. The challenge is, the flight that is best to be purchased with CC points, is the not the best flight to buy for $$. Hence, the idea of traveling separately. My question is about my wife and stepdaughter entering the US without me. It is my understanding that as long as I enter the US before them, they can enter. They just can't enter before me. What if we are traveling on the same day, through different US cities? For example, say I enter the US in Los Angeles 6am and they enter the US in San Francisco at 10am on the same day. Will that work? I assume when I arrive my status will be updated showing I am in the US and when my wife presents her visas, everything will be ok. Is that how it works? If not, how does it actually work? Thanks in advance.

I’m glad our experience could help someone. Marriage certificates from previous marriages were never on any list that I saw. And then it all changed and they are now on the lists. I think one of the reasons the consulate accepted our case without them was they knew the requirements had recently changed.

That is exactly what they wanted. We already provided divorce certificates from all previous marriages but they also wanted all previous marriage certificates. And remember, this was for our CR2 case only. They didn’t require the marriage certificates for our CR1 case.

Yes, they have their domestic Russian ID. i went to the post office and all I had to do was show them a copy of their passports. thanks everyone.

They are picking up their identification

My wife’s visa is now “issued”. We selected a post office for delivery but we have no other information about how to pick them up. Are we supposed to have a code or other identifying information to pick up our passports? How do they prevent someone from taking their passports from the post office?

No. I contend that asking for marriage certificates from our previous marriages is was not a normal thing. Yes, you can go to State.gov and it clearly shows it NOW, but it wasn't listed in the items required when I filed the I-130 (without help from an advisor and yes, I WAS a student of the process) and it wasn't in the list required at NVC. Divorce certificates were and we provided those. My advisor says in the hundreds of cases she's handled they haven't been on the list of required documents and that this is a recent change. I don't know if that is the case or not, but that is what we told the consulate when they told us to submit the marriage certs. They agreed to process our case without them. The other part of this to understand is the marriage certificates were ONLY requested for the CR2 case and were not required for the CR1 case. They told my wife that they could go ahead and interview her and then interview her daughter at a later time, once they had the marriage certificates. She said no and that they should accept both cases as submitted because we submitted everything they asked for, prior to showing up for the interview. They relented. My wife is very persuasive. 🥲

I'm happy to report that our wait is over. Both cases were changed to "Issued" today.

Both

My Russian wife had her interview on July 19th in Bangkok Thailand. At first, they asked us to provide marriage certificates from all our previous marriages. We had never seen a request to send marriage certificates from previous marriages. We uploaded our certified divorce decrees as requested. They wanted to cancel her interview and have us reschedule the interview in the future, which would mean we would have to go back home to Russia and America and spend the $$ to come back to Bangkok at a future date. We were devastated. We were thorough. We were careful. We worked with a very experienced advisor. We were very confident that we had done everything required and that we had uploaded all required docs. Our advisor helps 75 cases per year and she hadn't seen a situation where they wanted the marriage certs, in addition to divorce documents. My wife pleaded with the COs and they eventually relented. They allow my wife and stepdaughter to sit for the interview. The usual questions were asked. There was only one missing piece which was my wife's old passport which had her active B1 visa in it. She had a new passport with her new name, but she kept her old passport because of the tourist visa. Unfortunately, she didn't bring it to the interview with her. They told her they needed the passport with the tourist visa so it could be cancelled which would allow them to issue her a CR1 visa. They wouldn't let us go to our Airbnb and get her passport and bring it back the same day. They would only let us mail it to them, which we did that day. So, the result of the interview, as we understood it was she and her daughter would get their passports back in 7-10 days with their CR1/CR2 visas. Now it's August 7th and we haven't heard anything. We contacted them to confirm they received the passport we mailed to them and their form letter kinda said they received it, but it is written with some ambiguity. We asked about the status of their cases a week ago and got a form email back that our case is in Administrative Processing and they'll let us know when they either issue the visa or need anything else from us. The problem is, we have no clue whether it will be 1 week, 1 month or 3 months. How do we deal with such uncertainty. We're in a timezone 12 hours away from my home in Texas which makes it very difficult to work remotely. Today is the first day of school in Texas so we've missed that. It's all very depressing. We contacted our US Senator and they were zero help. They just told us what we already know. Is there anything we can do? Does a consulate ever give an indication as to how long the wait is going to be? We don't know if the wait is due to an issue with our case or due to a backlog. As I mentioned the CO said they would send their passports in 7-10 days and that timeframe has come and past. What can we do? Thanks.

I guess I still don't understand the Visa Bulletin. He is eligible to pay the fees and submit documents, but he still might age out? I thought that if your PD was prior to the Visa Bulletin date AND you were under 21, you qualified to submit paperwork and the wait from that point wouldn't cause you to age out. No?

He was 18 when we got married and I understand every day/week matters which is why she wants to file at the earliest moment possible. If she's going to have an A# on her passport visa then I think that is what we need. Thanks everyone.

My wife has her CR1 interview scheduled for July 19th in Thailand. We anticipate success and that she will enter the US and become a LPR a few days later. We want to file an I130 for her 19 yr old son as soon as possible. I've read (I don't remember where) that when her CR1 visa is stamped upon her entry into the US, that she becomes a LPR and can then file an I130 on behalf of her son, even before receiving her green card. Is that correct? I've already started the paperwork on USCIS and they are asking for her A#, USCIS Online # or her SS#. She doesn't have any of these. On the next page, the online I130 application asks when she entered the US and where, which we will fill in when she arrives. Is it acceptable to only provide the date & location of her entry to validate her LPR and allow her to file the I130 form? Thanks!

Robert, how long have you been looking? My wife needed an appointment (at the Bangkok consulate) for her CR1 and we watched the website for a little over a week and then they released several appointment openings. There were open slots for several days after that. I think they release appts toward the end of the month. In April, they released appoints for 19 July on 29 April. We got two of the 19 July appointments, one for my wife and one for my daughter. Even after that, there were 20-30 slots available for July and as I said, they were available for several days after. So, you might have to wait another couple of weeks, but you should see some slots soon. Good luck!

He is asking how long after his Fiancé arrives in the US will she receive her green card. The process is taking 6-8 months, not 2-3 years.

Just another datapoint to consider. I and my wife have flown through Istanbul on Turkish Air multiple times and have not experienced any delays or changes in connections. It is significantly cheaper than flying through Dubai, and it is a shorter distance and requires less travel time. For us, flying through Istanbul is the preferred route.

People here were successful in getting a transfer to Almaty several months ago, but I haven't heard of any successful transfers in the past 3-4 months. It is my understanding that they are primarily accepting IR-5 transfers, but not IR/CR1/K1 transfers. It certainly won't hurt to try. Let us know how you make out.

I concur

Roy, I sent you a PM

We haven't done the interview yet. It should be happening soon. As several have said and it is time to stop worrying about it, IT IS A NON-ISSUE. Your bigger problem is getting a tourist visa. It will be difficult, if your fiance' doesn't already have hers.