apnzz

Congrats! No movement on anything for me, hopefully soon lol!

Did biometrics today - I had 2 appointments as I mentioned in my above comment, it went well (will go into detail due to the weird situation of having I765 filed online and seems separate processing) USCIS ASC Alexandria (Virginia), super busy, first app was 1pm, arrived at 12:45. Huge line and wait, first lady checked my docs and sent me to second line, second line the employee reviewed my docs took my ID and stamped my appointment notices - both of them, giving me a number to wait for that number to be called then proceed to the worker to get my prints done etc. After almost 2hr wait (super busy), made it clear I had 2 appointments, she took 1 set of fingerprints but 2 pictures, 1 signature (assuming signature and prints just attached to both apps), after getting in car both I765 and I485 statuses updated to "Case Is Being Actively Reviewed By USCIS" (assuming normal/automatic after biometrics completed. Fingers crossed for a speedy EAD approval

The online form process will prompt you with what to upload, it has separate sections for each required document and specifies what they want. My experience, I uploaded: I765 form Marriage certficiate Appointment for biometrics i485 Receipt notice for i485 My approval notice for my k1 visa My visa page in my passport My passport identification page My latest i-94 record of entry My 2x2 passport photograph Additional note: My i765 and i485 had 2 separate biometrics notices - what I did was rescheduled i765 biometrics to the same day as the i485, just 1hr apart. I have seen some posts state double biometric apps you can attend 1 of them but bring both notices, and only have to do one, then other posts contradicting this, and as our location for closest centre for biometrics is quite a far journey, we decided that in the off chance we have to do both biometrics, would rather do it sane day and wait around a bit between the 2 apps (1hr apart) rather than have a 2nd day my husband has to take off work, drive all the way there etc. I will ask the people taking my biometrics what I can do / whether I can just do 1 or if I need to stay to do the 2nd.

Hi! I am a May 2025 filer here is my timeline so far Packages (I-485 and I-765) Mailed: 20 May 2025 Arrived at Lockbox (Elgin): 22 May 2025 NOA1 (text): 05 June 2025 (only for I-485, no I-765 text yet) (So I had issues with I-765, no notices, no receipt, no payment taken, no rejection notice, upon weeks of contact and no update for i-765, after talking to tier 2 USCIS agent, as of 12 June 2025, I was advised to refile, so below is my ONLINE I-765 experience) Check Cashed: 06 June 2025 NOA1 (physical): 10 June 2025 OAC (from Live Agent):06 June 2025 Biometrics Scheduled: 06 June 2025 (status changed then a few hours later saw the notice pdf on document tab on online acc) Online Access Code Letter Received: 10 June 2025 Biometrics Appointment: 23 June 2025 Online I-765 File Submitted: 12 June 2025 Payment Charged: 12 June 2025 Below is what my account currently displays as

It is because there are 2 ways to file online "File form online" and "file online PDF" (c)(9) category are only able to file online PDF (latter option) vs filling out the form online (former) Found this out myself first hand after having issues with USCIS; filed i-485 and i-765 concurrently but only received case number and receipts for i-485 yet no rejection notice for i-765, after looking into it USCIS advised me to refile. After deciding to file online since I now had my OAC and account set up, I did successfully e-file for my (c)(9) based i-765. Was annoying submitting several pdfs to a temperamental upload system but was successful none-the-less. The more you know! To the OP: yes you can file i-765 online with an already received i-485, it requires you to include your i-485 receipt notice within that application though.

Be prepared for more of a 40-50 day wait just for your case to get sent to the Department of State. These stages are extremely delayed. Research your embassy and what documents it asks for, I would say be aware of preparing these if you want them to be dated closer to the interview I'd hold off because the interview is still several months away. If you live or work in Canada, it can be Montreal *only Canadian embassy that does k1* but you can change it to Philippines if you want. Be aware this forum has several threads about Montreal Embassy being widely known for significant periods of administrative processing and delays. (Search ds-5535) 3. Yes any country you've lived in longer than 6 months. So Philippines and Canada if you've lived in both for over 6 months. 4. As long as you have some form of it you'll be fine - original or photocopy. I'd recommend scanning it so you don't lose or misplace it.

Same here, I misread and thought they were naturalised. Thank you to @EatBulagafor the info & correction.

I 2nd this, we're still undergoing the k1 process and if I could re-do it I would definitely go spousal visa. But particularly in your situation (OP) I would say go the spousal route simply because it would make things *less* complex rather than applying for another k1. That's just my opinion, I know a lot of people here will recommend spousal over k1 anyway. As Edward said, it's a higher bar than the k-1, less expensive, no adjustment process and being able to work and travel straight away is a huge benefit.

Congratulations. Please fill out your visa timeline so that it can be useful to other people

In this situation, have you considered marrying and going the spousal visa route? It doesn't eliminate the potential scrutiny but in these circumstances it might be more appropriate or "better" for you considering a previous k1 with you as the petitioner/sponsor has happened. All the best!

Usually, the embassy correspondence lists the evidence required. As most countries will ask for this (and some countries even want to see more evidence regarding the i-134 - it really is embassy dependent) it's recommended to bring the tax transcript regardless of country. Better to have something that is listed as required evidence, and not need it, than to not have it, and they ask for it. (Not to mention the i-134 instructions lists this as one of the forms of evidence) In addition, most embassy will send (either via email, physical letter or their website) the list of documents that they require (again, this can vary from country to country, but most of them will say I-134 and evidence). Some countries are known to not ask for it, or have a less chance for the officer to ask for it, but every officer is different and it's better to have it than to not have it and they ask for it. Regardless; many say the focus in general is on current income, but there are so many countries on here you can read interview experiences' for that state they were asked for the tax transcript.

Easiest way to see others' timeline on here in relation to interview is, go to immigration timelines, filter by country - Canada, click advanced search then sort by interview date descending. Then you'll see all the dates; noa2, nvc, embassy and interview date. Edit; upon doing this myself for Canada seems as if the average / shortest you can see is just under 2 months between Consulate received to interview date.

Same here, contacted USCIS and they told me a worker just used a generalised approval template, and that all i-129f / k1 go to NVC then the embassy and to ignore the generic template that didn't reflect the actual k1 process. My case also went from approved, to sent to DOS, through NVC then arrived at embassy.

Wow, I never actually knew this. It's actually terrible an organisation can do that. But then again there are only limited sources that can actually do something about their obscurity and inefficiency, and even when you contact Congressmen or senators, they usually accept any generic response USCIS provides. I never knew they hid data like that, thank you for sharing, but sorry that happened to you and others. Either way it's really terrible USCIS is able to do that type of thing without any consequences or accountability.

If you file when in the U.S, then you would answer those questions because it is applicable to you, because at the time of completing the form, you are in the U.S. If you are filing when in the U.S, and requires the i-94, then include the i-94 to show your entry. As, at the time of filing, your i-94 shows the entry, and you are in the U.S so it's accurate at the time of filing. Edit: if you're really worried about it, then you can always use the extra pages to include an explanation and just say you're leaving on X date.

As someone who was a part of that feb-march skipped batch, we tried literally everything and nothing worked. Congressional aid, senator aid. Calling USCIS. nothing worked. we even had screenshots and proof that they skipped the period - USCIS took the stance that they didn't skip any cases, that it's impossible that that happened and that there's no way for us to prove or know we were skipped because cases are processed in order of when they are received. Which we all know in reality this isn't true. We all know we had proof, but USCIS refused to acknowledge any of it. I know for a fact dozens if not hundreds of us called regularly and tried congressmen etc. They just essentially gaslight you on the phone lol. I'm fully aware the customer service people are only tier 1 officers and have nothing to do with adjudicating cases, but to us at the time we all felt like if they just put their hands up and said "hey, yea, you guys were skipped, we'll get back to it eventually" it would've felt less upsetting. But they just denied it was even happening and then any congressional or senator aid responses were "USCIS has informed us that you filed on [insert date] which is within normal processing times" and that I could re-request assistance after my inquiry date - as a March 4 filer, my inquiry date was April 25th 2025. At the same time, people who filed just a week after me, up to May filers were getting approved in under 90 days - so many even under 40 days. It was heart breaking. The situation now is with June/July filers is still the same in terms of being skipped, but generally processing times aren't as fast as they were in early 2024. It seems like they're slowing down. The initial feb/march skipped period filers speculated that we had been skipped to make their data look better; processing times looked so much faster but they had skipped over 3k cases from feb-march at the time. that could be what's happening here -who really knows haha. As much as it is upsetting and unfair, please hang in there. It isn't the first time it has happened, and unfortunately with how USCIS processing behaviour works, it is unlikely to be the last. For a bit of hope/motiviation; we got approved Aug 23, (I was extremely lucky compared to others skipped in this period, some of my friends from the same filing day as me had to wait until October or even November to get approved) and booked the 2 days ago for Jan 23rd. So there definitely is light at the end of the tunnel - we went into the process saying anything under 12 months would be considered a huge win for us, since the processing times for k1 were, in previous years, atrocious compared to what we have in 2024. Hang in there! ❤️

Unfortunately not all immigration journey's are fast. Try to keep hold of the positive; approval is a wonderful thing and a big step of the way is now checked off, and it'll all be worth it in the end once you and your fiancé are together and getting married!

Whilst this is true this is on the rarer / less frequent side to happen. People have been religiously tracking and posting updates regarding cases being sent to DoS & even making little graphs/tables to share for everyone to keep up to date with what cases are being sent to DOS and when, across the facebook groups, reddit and k1 discord. Either way, it's taking an extremely longer time to get sent to DoS - averaging at around 50-60 days and that has been the case since October. (October it was taking around 40-45 but this has increased since then) and hasn't decreased since & so only waiting 2 weeks since approved is still too soon in these circumstances. Most recent cases that were sent to DOS were cases approved Oct 16, sent to DOS on December 5 & 6th.

That's still too soon for right now. Until your case status at USCIS updates as "case was sent to the Department of state", USCIS still has possession of your case and therefore NVC cannot help, all they will say is they don't have your case yet - which is natural as USCIS hasn't sent the case the case to DoS yet. The average right now is minimum 50 days. But for some it takes over 90 as per what USCIS states. The most recent cases I've seen sent to DoS this past week are cases approved Oct 9th - 16th sent this last week. So most likely you have several weeks of waiting- if not close to a few months.

We literally just said a small paragraph something like "We initially met through a gaming group chat in mid 2019. In late 2019 we started playing video games together daily and spending time together every day. This included watching movies and TV shows together, video calls, gaming and phone calls." I then said we physically met and listed all the dates and trips and times etc. Went into details and that's about it relating to written evidence. Then I included as much evidence and proof of physical meeting and the relationship as possible. I didnt use ant proof relating to xbox, i didnt think it wouldve been useful. I included 1 page of call log screenshot and 1 page of social media posts (one announcing the engagement and one from a family occasion). Amongst other evidence of course, but just was summarising here what i did in relation to xbox. The officers are still people, they will understand what you're talking about, I didn't feel the need to go into more detail, because that's basically how we met, that's what I tell people if they ask how we met anyway. We got approved with no RFE on Aug 23rd. (March 4 filed, initially part of the skipped period of cases). We are now at interview stage.

Yeah like others have said.. your job here is to essentially convince a random stranger whose job it is is to scrutinise and decide if a relationship is genuine, that your relationship is real. Naturally that would require strong evidence - I'd encourage physical evidence more; proof of physical meets, time spent in person - of course people include online things, that's common, and by all means, but imho the strongest evidence is always being physically together, travelling, doing activities etc etc. Like Edward and Jaycel, we included about a half page just quickly summarising how we met - online via xbox video gaming, just because I felt like not everyone would understand, then included photographs of physical meets (several different meets), boarding passes, the typical evidence etc etc. That's essentially what the "describe the circumstances under which you met" means. They don't need an entire relationship story or timeline, just tell them how you met. At the end of the day it's your job to try and convince a sceptical stranger that your relationship is genuine and real; what you include evidence wise is down to you, but most people will include how much they feel it is necessary to do so.

Just disclose all names used as you're supposed to & then perhaps include a short paragraph like you have here. Name change disclosure is most likely just to ensure they can carry out the relevant background checks on you. Disclosing every name you've ever had or used or gone by is the only logical way to proceed. If you feel the need to explain to them why your name was changed or the nature then write a paragraph explaining it.

Canada has a p3 and p4 process where they have to email some documents. They have to do that then wait for the status to update as a 2nd ready status. I don't recall the specifics but I remember my Canadian friend talking to me about it. Essentially the embassy has some sort process where once its ready at embassy the beneficiary should receive an email requesting certain things, they send it to the provided email address then once the embassy confirms they have it, they get sent p4 which details instructions for the interview and once they receive 2nd ready status then they can proceed. Something along those lines. I'd suggest the k1 discord OP, it has a channel dedicated to Canada and there's a whole thread on there about the updated Canadian process including p3 and p4 steps. My friend said she emailed the embassy herself because she didn't get p3, and a few days later they sent her p3(email) and she responded with the relevant docs, they then responded the following morning and she could proceed to book interview as soon as p4 arrived. I don't recall the specifics so I am sorry! I just remember my friend saying how different Canada was to the UK (I'm UK and she's Canada)

Unfortunately in regard to the accepting mediocrity - it's not like there's much that can be done- USCIS has always ran and processed this way, that's just how it is. Until there are means of holding organisations like that accountable there isn't much that can be done. It's not a tax funded organisation and only other elements of the government can hold it accountable in relation to these issues (unless it exceeds normal processing time and other serious issues which can be addressed via congressional aid, senator aid and other methods like ombudsman and even seeking White House assistance, but like I said, these routes are only helpful and result in action when it's serious or has exceeded a specific time frame). There's hundreds of thousands of people who go through these processes. The people who filed during covid, the ridiculous delays seen in previous years.. Yeah it's crappy they lost or misplaced or even just overlooked a document, but at the end of the day it happens a lot not just with USCIS but things like that happen in every organisation. Whilst it may seem straight forward to us like you wanted to previous condense and downplay, we don't know the true extent and processes of the i-129f, background checks happen and those are commonly external or with other organisations and naturally intergovernmental communications aren't instantaneous. Expecting an approval in 30 days is ignorant. You mention someone getting approved in 21 days but no one knows their case details, whether an expedite occurred, every single case is different and the only people who know the true details of the case are the petitioner and the case adjudicator. Whilst I have no specific explanation as to why cases vary so much with processing times, I can assure you the amount of people approved in extremely short periods of time are small in comparison to those who wait months. I do think you're simplifying and downplaying the process. Immigration isn't just 4 question/tick boxes and then the petition should be decided.. You can see that via statistics readily available not only via this site but on other resources on the internet. Also involving politics here, in my opinion, is completely irrelevant to the topic at hand. No president or government has made this visa process take less than 30 days. Historically in general it takes months from start to finish - yes filers at the start of 2024 saw faster approval times, but not all of them. I was one of the ones who didn't. Let's not ignore the majority in favor of highlighting a smaller amount of fast approvals. Historically this isn't a fast process. I think sometimes perspective is needed. Look on this forum and read the huge amount of posts from people who waited 6+ months, over a year, etc etc. We should be thankful it isn't as bad as it used to be. & I agree 100% USCIS is inefficient and it's completely unfair some get approved so fast whilst others wait longer times in comparison, and that is so unfair and makes no sense, but that's how USCIS has always been for every visa type. If you think 159 days is ridiculous then you should be so thankful we aren't in the same position as the filers from before 2024. The process has never been fair or balanced. Is that an issue? Yeah, it's messed up. But things could be worse. Overall you really have downplayed the visa process. It's not as simple as asking 4 questions then boom, there's a decision.

That's true, but in the circumstance that being a thing, there is the option for them to marry in the UK. Since the OP mentioned the partner is a UK citizen, they could just go home to the UK and marry. Just thought to mention anyway