M & Alex

VISA APPROVED TODAY YAY

Our timeline just for our reference and for others as well. We used an attorney services as we feel a lot better if someone else more equipped could handle the official forms and documents and we don't want to mess up/delay the process.

Timeline

19th Sep '22: Contacted attorney to set up a consultation appointment.

3rd Oct '22: First consultation. 

Their services:

• Prepare and submit I-129F visa petition to USCIS
• Prepare and submit visa application for K-1 visa and all supporting document
• Rehearse applicant for visa interview
• After marriage in the United States: prepare and submit application for adjustment of status together with employment authorization and travel documents, rehearsal and representation at interview, if required.

Their fee:

• $1400 ($100 consult fee applied) - non refundable retainer fee [Paid 5th Oct '22]
• $1000 - legal fees at time of approval of the visa petition [Paid 15th Nov '23]
• $1500 - at time of preparation of adjustment of status application (after entry into USA and marriage)
• $1000 - at time of filing the case
• $750 - at time of rehearsal for interview only if the interview is required by USCIS

Fees that we expect to pay on top of their legal fees:

• $535 - government filing fee of  due at time of filing of I-129F petition [Paid 30th Nov '22]
• $260 - government filing fees [Paid RM1272 29th Nov '23]
• ~$300 - medical exam fee paid before visa appointment [Paid RM944 22nd & 26th Dec '22]
• $1225 - Government filing fee at time of preparation of adjustment of status application

5th Oct '22: Agreed to retain their services. 

30th Nov '22: Finished doing this step: U.S. Petitioner gathers various documents
Attorney asked for all our documents and filled up the forms for us (Form G-28 for representation of attorney and Form I-129F)

12th Dec '22: I-129f Package sent

16th Dec '22: 1st Notice of Action (NOA)

25th Oct '23: 2nd Notice of Action (NOA)

29th Oct '23: Case Forwarded by your Service Center to the National Visa Center (NVC)

15th Nov '23: Case Forwarded by NVC to U.S. Embassy in your fiance(e)'s country. We received a letter from NVC here with our Case Number and USCIS Receipt Number.

22nd Nov '23: Case received by Embassy from NVC

22nd Nov '23: Forms and Checklist sent to Beneficiary. Attorney compiled all this for us with a lot of back and forth emails. However, there is a bit of delay on our I-134 form as petitioner's 2022 Tax wasn't filed but attorney proceded to compile other documents.

29th Nov '23: Foreign Beneficiary compiles required forms (Attorney filled up DS-160 application for us). Note on how long it took to compile other documents:
- Police certificate: Application submitted on 17th Nov and approved on 12th Dec. Picking up the certificate from Ministry of Foreign Affairs only took 30 minutes.
- Translation of birth certificate: 3 days process. We used ITBM and paid RM100 for 2 copies. Send on Friday afternoon, picked up Monday noon. Can also apply online on their website.

20th Dec '23: Completed Forms sent to Consulate - still haven't done this as we're waiting for I-134 form completion. But we received email from embassy on this date after scheduling an interview. 

22nd & 26th Dec '23: Fiance(e) must attend medical interview prior to interview. Paid RM714 22nd Dec '23 for 2 vaccinations (COVID booster, Influenza + X-Ray) and RM230 26th Dec '22 for 2 more vaccinations (MMR, TDAP). Clinic was located nearby to Masjid Jamek LRT (3 min walk to Bangunan Ming and clinic is on 2nd floor) and X-Ray clinic is 5 min walk from Masjid Jamek LRT (walk towards Menara DBKL, clinic is located at Menara DBKL 2 besides Maybank). If you're driving, parking at clinic is RM3 for 1st hour and RM5 for subsequent hours (only accept cash). Clinic accepts cash and credit/debit cards.

20th Dec '23: U.S. Embassy issues Beneficiary with Interview date. We checked everyday for an interview slot from 29th Nov and only have 16th Jan available when we checked on 20th Dec.

11th Jan '24: Interview practice scheduled with attorney over Zoom

16th Jan '24: Beneficiary has Interview at U.S. Embassy

That's all our update so far (27th Dec '23 when I wrote this). For now, we're still waiting for 2022 Tax Transcript to complete I-134 form and we need to reply the embassy email one week before the interview so hopefully we'll get everything together before 9th Jan '24.