Dan and Akari

I don’t think there’s any discernible pattern to the approvals outside the “normal processing time”. We have asked ourselves multiple times why we were approved in the timeframe we were. We can’t identify any reason but if we do we identify one, will share it with the world. We filed K1 May 12, 2023 Decided to switch to CR1, married July 2023 Filed CR1 August 2, 2023 Filed K3 immediately after receiving NOA 1 I-130 approved January 25, 2024 Approved at interview at embassy July 27,2024 Had my wife not been delayed for TB sputum testing for 10 weeks, we could have potentially been finished May 20, 2024, about 9 1/2 months after filing our I-130. We don’t know if switching from K1 to CR1 or the K3 helped. We are just grateful something worked in our favor. We sincerely hope everyone gets approved as quickly as possible because the waiting and not having any idea of how long the wait will be is the most difficult part of the journey aside from being separated from your loved one.

You can see all updates on our timeline. My wife was approved July 26 and she arrived with me in the US on August 7

My wife had her interview on July 26th in Bangkok and was approved. Visa status just changed to "Issued". We sincerely hope everyone gets good news soon, and you are all reunited with your loved ones as soon as possible.

I’m sure you’ve probably already done this but make sure you read and become intimately familiar with all the instructions specific to the embassy where you will be interviewing. For example my wife is Burmese living and interviewing in Thailand. The Thai Royal Police provide their certificate in English which is nice because no translation is needed. Her Myanmar police certificate required translation and notary. If the police certificate is in Chinese it will need translation and notary which I also suggest doing whilst in China. It is my understanding that police certificates are valid for 2 years as long as you don’t return to the issuing country in which case you then need to obtain an updated certificate.

I also filed I-129f for K3. Around the same time we received NOA2 I saw the status of the I-129f change to Case closed benefit received by other means I am assuming that since you filed the K3 in October and received your NOA2 in December, it took time for USCIS to get the K3 caught up to the I-130 hence the reason for the letter in July. I am sure you have read that K3 has around 0% chance of being approved, but filing K3 can potentially speed up I-130 approval. However, there is no empirical evidence to support that conclusion. In our case I think it helped because I filed K3 one month after filing CR1 and we received NOA2 in 5.5 months. However our K3 was not approved. Like @Boiler said, it was administratively closed because the CR1 petition was approved. I really hope that you get your IL soon and you are reunited in the US asap.

Thank you for the prompt reply and clarification.

I checked the IRS website last week to get a copy of my transcript to upload for 2023 for my wife’s upcoming interview. Message on the website said something to the effect of me not filing despite the fact they cashed my $10k check in March. Tried calling several times but couldn’t reach anyone. My sister checked my mail today and lo and behold there was a letter from the IRS saying basically that they received a return with my name and SSN and need me to call them to verify my identity so they can continue processing my return which they say takes 9 weeks I plan on printing a copy of the letter for my wife to take with her to her interview on the 26th of this month. In March I uploaded my 1040 and all supporting documents like W2, 1040’s etc to CEAC. I also uploaded a printout from Wells Fargo showing the IRS cashed our check. Could the fact that the IRS is saying I didn’t file somehow affect our case? I wouldn’t think so but wanted to ask the greater community for feedback.

We realize that it is difficult being apart but try to keep a positive attitude and definitely don’t pay attention to the USCIS estimates because they are useless. We suggest using this time to research the next phase of your journey which is NVC. There is a lot of paperwork to gather and upload and you need to pay attention to all the little details which I guarantee will spark more questions. The more familiar you are with the requirements, the faster you can submit the required documents, get DQ’d and get your IL. Keep the original of everything you submit. While waiting for your IL, research medical exam requirements and the interview requirements for your embassy. Not saying you must take our advice but in our experience submitting the petition and waiting on USCIS, while agonizing, was the easiest part of this process. We researched a lot and feel that staying a step ahead has made all the difference. We are sure that you will all be getting emails soon and best of luck to you all.

Thank you for taking the time to reply. y wife has all of her originals, and knowing what I know about Myanmar, I am sure that each township has a slightly different form. My wife's form does reference her national ID card number, her parents, address in Yangon and was signed by someone at the police station and my wife, then stamped. We then had it translated and notorized in Yangon. I uploaded it again(attached redacted version in my original post), and she will take the originals with her. I am sure everything is fine. It's just odd (or maybe not odd) that they were asking for something we already submitted and they approved.

It’s in the general email about her interview, but I would consider a direct request; however, this is her second interview because she got flagged for TB testing before her first interview. Her first interview letter asked for completely different information to be uploaded. I uploaded relationship evidence in her section on CEAC’s website, but I didn’t upload that evidence onto my section of the website. Consequently, the request to upload evidence into my section is legitimate. Relationship evidence is not a requirement to upload and there is no specific folder for relationship evidence when you upload documents so I never uploaded any into my section. I’m not concerned because since we officially married last July I’ve visited her in Thailand 7 times for a total of around 6 months. Before the marriage we lived together in Thailand together for 6 months. My family has visited us in Thailand, I’ve visited Myanmar 4 times, her family has visited us a half dozen times, all of this chronicled with photos, passport stamps, receipts and we own a house together in Myanmar,etc amounting to a mountain of legitimate relationship evidence that I uploaded into her section already in March. My concern, and the reason for my post, was the fact that we already uploaded her Myanmar police certificate and it was accepted by NVC in March. I wasn’t sure why they were asking for something they already had unless there was something wrong with what we uploaded.

Standard wording: “Prior to your interview, you must scan and upload the following documents into the Consular Electronic Application Center (CEAC) website by accessing the following link: https://ceac.state.gov/IV/Login.aspx   Petitioner’s heading  -         Evidence of relationship between petitioner and applicant such as photographs etc. Applicant’s heading - Valid Myanmar Police Certificate and translation Just wanting to make sure this is just standard and it’s merely an oversight on the part of the embassy since the document is clearly on the ceac site and wanting to know that I’m not missing something else. I’m sure I’m overthinking but I prefer to research now rather than find out something at the interview that could have been avoided.

Not questioning whether or not the document is there. I can see it’s there, and I know it’s valid because she went back to Myanmar in February to get it and hasn’t been back to Myanmar since. My question is are they questioning the validity of the document that is obviously there. If this message is simply that they don’t think it’s there then I am not concerned. My concern is that there is something wrong with the document we uploaded.

My wife's interview letter (Myanmar citizen, residing in Bangkok) from the Bangkok Embassy states that prior to her interview we must upload a Valid Myanmar Police Certificate and translation despite the fact that we uploaded one that was accepted by NVC in March 2024. She has not returned to Myanmar since then so the certificate should still be valid. After getting stuck for 10 weeks in the sputum test debacle, we don't want any surprises at her interview on July 26. Attached is a redacted copy of the certificate and translation we submitted. I uploaded it again and hope it will suffice, but I want to make sure I am covering all my bases. Myanmar Police Certificate redacted.pdf @ThailandRand @Mike E I saw your thread below, similar but not exact issue last July so I was hoping you could chime in.

Understood, and I was planning on contacting the embassy at some point before her scheduled interview to get clarification. However, I anticipate getting the same answer, maybe worded differently, and I anticipate not having any further clarification. Nonetheless, I will contact them within the next couple of weeks. Your response brings to light that I should have worded my request differently. I am looking for anecdotal references of anyone who has tried the approach I am contemplating. I want to clarify that I am not trying to circumnavigate the system. If it is a hard fast rule that we "must" wait until we receive medical clearance before we can even attempt to reschedule her interview, we will abide by the rules. If there are no hard fast rules, then we may try to take the aforementioned approach. By way of example, instructions are clear that you CAN NOT schedule an interview at a date earlier than your currently scheduled interview. If you do so you will not be interviewed on the earlier date and you must wait to reschedule. To me, this language is clear. I can see that their potential train of thought is that we should wait for everything to be cleared so the available appointment dates can be utilized by those who are ready, except we received her initial interview date from NVC before her medical exam was even scheduled. Again, if anyone has anecdotal reference, I would be interested in hearing it.

I am simply looking to see if someone has a definitive answer for my question of whether or not it is a requirement to wait until after your medical exam is complete (in this case sputum test results are returned negative and panel physician signs of on medical packet) or just a request? Email received from BKK embassy states: ”If you are not able to go to the interview on your scheduled date, you can reschedule the appointment after the original interview date from the NVC (20-MAY-2024) has passed, and after the hospital clears the medical examination.” Are there any ramifications to simply waiting until the original interview date has passed and the next day rescheduling the interview far enough in the future so it will occur after the expected date the results of the sputum test will be received? Is there something systematically that prevents me from rescheduling as described above, I.e they see we don’t have complete medical and traveldocs won’t even allow me to reschedule without medical exam? Wording in the email is that you “can” reschedule. Does that mean it is a hard fast requirement that we “must” wait for complete medical, and if I try to schedule something before receiving the signed off medical packet (in an effort to secure an appointment before her medical expires and we stuck doing this all over again) but after the expected date to receive the signed off packet, we will somehow get our wrist slapped? I realize that I am splitting hairs with interpretation, hence the reason I asked at the outset for someone who can provide a definitive answer and not just provide their opinion on the wording in the email.