T83

Thanks a lot for the replies! Good luck with your case also:)

We'll go ahead and upload extra then, when the time comes

Thanks a lot for the replies and info. I will for sure get in touch with the medical office at the UK embassy if they are supposed to be helpful!

Thanks a lot for all the advice.

Can you explain why my  case will be sent to Guangzhou and not London?

Are cases always assigned to your last place of residence, no matter whether you live there now or not? I won't live in China beyond the autumn, and won't get notice of interview until at least the spring if not later next year, with an interview no earlier than the summer.

I'll definitely get the criminal record check translated here then, and notarized. And then if I need to do that gain in London, so be it. This is what the US embassy website says on their UK site about validity, which unless I'm crazy could be worded a lot, lot better:

With the exception of the U.K. police certificate which is considered valid for 12 months from the date of issuance, a police certificate is valid indefinitely, provided you do not return to the country and reside for six months or more, if it’s your country of birth or current residence. The period is twelve months for any other country.

Thank you for the reply and those links.

I found the criminal record length of validity on that site a bit tough to understand, to be honest.

Does it say that if we get the criminal record check, it is valid indefinitely unless we return to live here for 6 months or more?

Or does it imply it's only valid for 12 months?

(I read it as UK ones are only valid for 12 months from issuance, but other countries you no longer live in are valid indefinitely. If you live there or return there however, they are likely only valid 12 months.)

Ideally in the coming 3 or 4 months before we leave I'll get it done and translated here then we leave and have nothing else to be gotten from China.

My wife (US) and I (UK) filed our application late last year. It was done digitally. At that time, it was just the two of us and that's what we were expecting to be the case.

2 weeks after she filed we had the wonderful news she was pregnant. With luck, the baby will be born in several weeks.

We can still upload files to the USCIS case file. We believe we've given plenty of evidence of our 11 years living together and currently 4 years of marriage (inc. a US marriage certificate). However, I'm thinking the best proof we are legit would be our newborn child's birth certificate and US and UK passport images. They are hopefully going to be raised in the US, after all.

Is it known to cause any issues or delays if we upload those documents to the file after the baby comes? We have a rough estimate of February next year for a decision (Dec 2023 filers) and expect that to go back some, but don't want to push it further if we don't have to.

Also, I'm assuming from what I've read the fact our application says we have no kids isn't going to cause us problems as we honestly didn't nor did we know of any pregnancy at that time. Correct?

Thanks a lot for any thoughts.

My US wife and I, from the UK, have lived our entire 11 relationship in China. We still do. We she filed for the IR-1 late last year and we anticipate the response early 2025. We don't anticipate any problems, having lived together for 11 years, been married for going-on 5 at that point, with a US marriage certificate and a ton of proof. 

However, we will leave China and become nomadic-bum-homeless people for several months while take an extended holiday awaiting the decision and hopefully an interview date in London. We've requested London, and won't have the right to be in China at that time any more.

Now I'll need my criminal record check from China and as that will be in Chinese, it'll need to be translated. If my interview was in China, I'd get it translated at the US embassy recommended place here But it isn't. So I have 2 questions:

1) How recent does the criminal check have to be. If I get it now, ready for an expected interview next year, is that ok?

2) Where/ how should I get it translated? Does it need to be translated? Is that better to do here, or in London, for a London interview?

Thanks a lot for any thoughts.

I have a few questions so I will separate them into different posts.

My US wife and I, from the UK, have lived our entire 11 relationship in China. We still do. We she filed for the IR-1 late last year and we anticipate the response early 2025. We don't anticipate any problems, having lived together for 11 years, been married for going-on 5 at that point, with a US marriage certificate and a ton of proof. 

However, we will leave China and become nomadic-bum-homeless people for several months while take an extended holiday awaiting the decision and hopefully an interview date in London. We've requested London, and won't have the right to be in China at that time any more.

Now, I'll have to have a health check before the interview at the designated place. However, I've read the need for medical records from a GP, or something like that. I pretty much won't have any. After graduating at 21 I left the county. I haven't been to a GP in the UK for over 20 years. China doesn't have a system of GPs. You get sick, you go to a hospital - often the closest one -which means there is no centralized record I know of. (Many of them cannot even find your own history, let alone that of a different hospital). We don't plan on being back in the UK until a few weeks before the interview (I can organize my criminal record check online).

I don't have any major health issues, and have been fit and healthy to this point, however, are there likely to be issues here? What am I supposed to do regarding medical history?

Thanks a lot for any thoughts.

Thanks a lot everyone for the replies.

We've found the info and we are at the Texas sorting center.

Good to know these times are definitely to be ignored.

We are looking at a probable November result, which is more like what we were expecting.

Thanks for the reply. I gathered from reading here the time updates tend to be ridiculous.

How about the 'actively being reviewed'?

Is that usually accurate or also to be ignored?

My wife (US citizen) completed I-130 on Dec 26th 2023 online. I am a UK citizen and we have a US marriage certificate from over 3 years ago.

We received all confirmations digitally (payment, receipt number etc.) but still haven't gotten a paper NOA1 (which I understand we may have to wait a while for).

The timeline on USCIS initially said '4 weeks' until the next step, however, after 2 weeks the case changed to 'actively being reviewed by USCIS' with an estimate time of '4 weeks until decision'.

This cannot be correct, right? I understand from reading around this site 'actively being reviewed' means something akin to 'it's in the vicinity of an employee who will get around to looking at it some time in the coming months'. We haven't even gotten a paper NOA yet! This last update is from 4 days ago, but someone already has it in their 'pile' at a center? We only filed online on Dec 26th.

Is this kind of thing normal? Is there any chance at all that these numbers are correct? (we weren't anticipating this happening so quickly, although it would be a good problem to have.)

Thanks for any thoughts.