fox3c

Yes, but in Korean it is called "범죄·수사경력 회보서" ... it needs to say that in Korean on the document, even the English version will say that at the top. No where on the form will say "Bomjoi-Soosakyongryeok Hoiboseo" as that is just an anglicized pronunciation The problem is there are a bunch of "forms" in Korea that include the criminal investigation records, and in English they get translated into similar things, so it is confusing. Better to look for the specific Korean title. The document the original poster included did not have that Korean title on the top.

I am not sure if that is the correct document or not. It should say "범죄·수사경력 회보서" on it somewhere, which is a "criminal records history" report. My wife is a Korean citizen, and the document is slightly different, but it clearly says that Korean title at the very top of the document, even on the English version. What you have appears to be a "background check" (신원조사), so it might not be correct. It may be tricky to get a different version, since I think foreign nationals in Korea have to get it in person inside Korea. You could try including a note to NVC in writing and explaining that this is the document the police station gave you, then resubmitting. Also, if you can speak/read, I would suggest you also try asking this over at the Mijunmo Naver Cafe, which is specific for Korea regarding US immigration stuff. Someone there may know the exact answer.

I collected the data manually by going through forum posts on the Mijunmo Naver cafe. People there are pretty good about posting their timelines. Took a few hours, but was the only way. There were also a handful of posts I found about the Seoul Embassy on Reddit, but not many. I included those in the spreadsheet nonetheless.

That is absolutely not true. There are multiple people at the Seoul Embassy who applied for K1 in Spring 2024 (e.g. Feb 2024) who already have gotten NOA2 and have their interviews scheduled for August/September 2024. Literally, they will get their visas in under 6 months. Meanwhile there are those of us who filed for CR1 back in April/May of 2023 that are just now getting our Seoul Embassy interviews assigned in October 2024, after people who applied for K1 a full year later than us. I believe the situation is similar at the embassy in the Philippines and several other embassies such as Mexico and the UK. No idea why it is happening, but started around beginning of year. The other aspect is that K1 visas get to schedule their own interview appointments after DQ. That means they don't have to wait in line like CR1 visas for the NVC to get around to scheduling the interview. Otherwise, I agree with what everyone else said. The tactic does seem like fraud, and I would think USCIS would not allow it. Be curious to see if it worked.

Well yeah. I've never been a very political person myself, but going through the legal immigration process in the US is making me want to vote Republican more. Not that the Republicans are exactly pro-immigrant, but I don't like how the Democrats seem to only want to help illegal immigrants at the expense of everyone else, which seems like a slap in the face to those of us who are trying follow the rules. Like queuing up at the exit ramp for the highway on-ramp, and watching those people try to race ahead and cut in line. Then there is someone ahead of you not only letting them cut in, but turning around to give you a big "middle finger" after they do it. Like what the heck lol.

There are interview delays at several other embassies, which usually are pretty quick. For instance, several of us at the Seoul Embassy had to complain to our congressmen about the interview wait times for CR1/IR1 visas suddenly doubling after April 2024. Only then did they suddenly start scheduling them again, but many of us are enduring wait times longer than wait times during the COVid pandemic at the Seoul Embassy. As far as why, who knows. The Seoul Embassy has wait times of less than a week for non-immigrant visas. Part of me wonders if has to do with the election year, but that is just speculation. Regardless, I don't think any of the politicians (neither Democrat or Republican) in the US are concerned about helping legal immigrants. Lots of people trying to help migrants and illegal immigrants, but legal immigrants seem to get the short end of the stick unfortunately.

Official policy of the US State Department is that CR1/IR1 visas are to be prioritized (tier 1), and directs embassies to not do what you describe. If the Montreal Embassy is doing that, they are violating official US government policy. I would advise the original poster to reach out to their congressman (US senator or house rep), and have them inquire about the case. A bunch of us did that at the Seoul Embassy, when they suddenly decided to stop scheduling CR1/IR1 interviews. After they were contacted by several congressmen, they started rapidly scheduling CR1/IR1 interviews again. But getting your congressmen involved may be the best hope to force the embassy officials and/or NVC to behave in accountable manner.

Updated spreadsheet for those interested. Seems like several people complaining to their congressmen got the Seoul Embassy to schedule a bunch of people all at once for interviews covering 2 months of DQ dates. However, seems like they didn't schedule any CR1/IR1 visa interviews at all for the month of September (except the first few days of the month). So they skipped July and September for CR1/IR1 interviews, despite the official US State Department policy that CR1/IR1 visas are the highest priority class (tier 1). Interview wait times have suddenly doubled. They are currently running a backlog wait time for CR1/IR1 visas at the Seoul Embassy that is longer than during the COVid pandemic in 2021, for no apparent reason, which is disappointing. I am guessing that someone at the Seoul Embassy or NVC screwed up with scheduling, but doubt they will ever admit to any mistake on their part. Seems they have zero accountability to US citizens (and their families) who are affected by such negligence. Seoul Embassy Interview Timelines.pdf

Are you referring to the K-ETA for entering South Korea? If you are a US citizen, then they delayed the need for it until at least Dec. 31, 2024. So you don't need one right now to visit Korea, nor will having one speed up getting through passport control. You still have to go through the "foreigners line" like anyone else who is not a Korean citizen or registered resident of Korea. That said, the passport control line at Seoul Incheon Airport is not that bad. Obviously, if you are a resident (as I used to be), can use the automated passport lines which take 5-10 minutes at most. But even the Foreigners line, longest I've ever waited in the past year is 30 minutes (I've visited several times, cause still waiting on my wife's US visa). Compare that to Ohare in the US or Tokyo Narita where you can sometimes wait over 2 hours, unless you have Global Entry.

If you request an NVC expedite for a spouse visa (IR1/CR1), then you can schedule the interview yourself. Similar to how K1 visas work. At least that is what happens at the Seoul Embassy in Korea, but I would assume it happens at other embassies too. That can be a good or bad thing, as there are only so many open slots each month for self-scheduling. So you have to go online everyday for weeks searching for slots as soon as they open up. Thus you might get in faster than others, or maybe not.

I know some people have been using this data spreadsheet to make complaints their congressman and the US Embassy in Seoul about the sudden abnormal processing times. So here is a slightly updated spreadsheet, just some additional data from last year included now to cover the full period. They still have not sent out any new interviews since I posted the original one. The average wait times are still roughly the same as my original post above, about 80 days from DQ date to interview date. Roughly 35 days from DQ date to interview letter. Now the US Embassy in Seoul is suddenly taking over 100 days even to send out the interview letter (IL) though. Seoul Embassy Interview Timelines.pdf

**Please note you can only access the PDF if you are logged in here (to VisaJourney)

Hello, so we are waiting on my wife's IR1/CR1 visa interview at the US Embassy in Seoul. I have found the NVC stage to be much more opaque than the USCIS stage, with few data points to go off of. So I am posting this information here, in case it may be helpful for others. So there is a Naver Cafe called Mijunmo (미준모) that my wife uses. It is all in Korean though, and obviously focuses on the Seoul Embassy primarily. People there are pretty good on there about posting their timelines, including DQ dates, interview letter (IL) received dates, and actual interview dates. I do speak Korean, so I went through posts there from this summer and last summer to collate those timelines into a spreadsheet. I didn't record every single one cause it was a bit time-intensive hunting through the forums, but tried to get a good sample. I will attach a PDF of that spreadsheet here. You can see for the past year DQ to IL wait times average about 30 days, and DQ to interview wait times average 80 days. However, do note that recently the Seoul Embassy is taking a lot longer. Many of us who were DQ'ed in May still have not received interview letters (roughly 90 days ago). You can also see in the spreadsheet that there is a lot of inconsistency in how cases are handled. Even though NVC does mostly go "first in/first out" as they say, there are times that doesn't happen. Also occasionally cases seem to get skipped over for later ones. Seoul Embassy Interview Timelines.pdf

Hello, I wanted to follow up on this. So there is a Naver Cafe called Mijunmo (미준모) that my wife uses. You would need to be able to read/speak Korean though, perhaps you do. People are pretty good on there about posting their timelines, including DQ dates, interview letter (IL) received dates, and actual interview dates. I do speak Korean, so I went through posts there from this summer and last summer to collate those timelines into a spreadsheet. I didn't record every single one cause it took some time, but tried to get a good sample. I will attach a PDF of that spreadsheet here for you, in case it is useful. I have found the NVC stage to be much more opaque than the USCIS stage, with few data points to go off of. I will note that recently the Seoul Embassy is taking a lot longer. Many of us who were DQ'ed in May still have not received interview letters (roughly 90 days ago). You can also see in the spreadsheet that there is a lot of inconsistency in how cases are handled. Even though NVC does mostly go "first in/first out" as they say, there are times that doesn't happen. Also occasionally cases seem to get skipped over for later ones. Seoul Embassy Interview Timelines.pdf

They are KakaoTalk chat groups actually, that my wife is part of. I'm not sure how to get invited to them or how she found them, but if you live in Korea then maybe try searching on KakaoTalk. There are also some people talking about interviews at the Seoul Embassy over on Reddit recently, on the NVC page. Regardless, we are also in Seoul for IR1/CR1 visa, though our I-130 was already approved in April 18th since we filed last year. Our DQ at NVC was May 9th, but unfortunately still haven't gotten an interview letter (IL) yet. Seoul is supposed to be one of the quicker embassies, but alas. There were several people for the IR1/CR1 visa at Seoul Embassy who DQ'ed in April who all got interviews in June, but several people with DQ dates in May for Seoul have still not even received the IL, so no interview date set yet. There are at least 4 of us in the same boat that I know of.

I have noticed there is a strange slowdown in the interview dates posted on the Immigration Timelines for IR1/CR1 here on VisaJourney lately, if you just sort by interview date. I only see 10 interviews reported this month (July), and only 4 interviews scheduled next month (August). That seems quite strange compared to the past for IR1/CR1. In March, April, and May this year there roughly 40 interviews reported per month. Going back to last summer, in July and August, there were 60 interviews reported per month. What makes it stranger is that there appears to be not a similar slowdown on the K1 Fiance visa timelines for interviews. I don't know if something has happened, maybe some policy change or executive order, or perhaps people have just stopped completing their timelines here. Regardless it is odd. I am also in a discussion group where people are talking about similar interview slowdown issues at other embassies, e.g. the Seoul Embassy in Korea. It's really difficult to get information at the NVC stage though.

We filed a K3 a few weeks after our PD date (4/13/2023), but it didn't help us at all. Still took about a year for us to get approved. I don't know if it's cause our I130 was at Potomoc or not, or would have been same at any service center. Interestingly, even though our I130 was approved a few days ago, the K3 is still open and looks untouched. So take that for whatever it's worth.

Approved I130. PD 4/13/2023, approval date 4/18/2024. Service center was Potomac, but approval came from Texas. Still says actively reviewing, but approval letter in documents section. Hope that timeline is helpful for others waiting.