LauraDP's US Immigration Timeline

Petitioner's Name: Chris Beneficiary's Name: Laura + 4 sons VJ Member: LauraDP Country: United Kingdom Last Updated: 2018-08-22 Add Comment to Timeline Register or log in to follow this timeline

Immigration Checklist for Chris & Laura + 4 sons:

USCIS I-130 Petition:       Dept of State IR-1/CR-1 Visa:     USCIS I-751 Petition:   USCIS N-400 Petition:

IR-1/CR-1 Visa Event Date Service Center : Texas Service Center Transferred? No Consulate : London, United Kingdom Marriage (if applicable): 1996-08-07 I-130 Sent : 2012-10-18 I-130 NOA1 : 2012-10-23 I-130 RFE : I-130 RFE Sent : I-130 Approved : 2012-11-08 NVC Received : Received DS-261 / AOS Bill : Pay AOS Bill : Receive I-864 Package : Send AOS Package : Submit DS-261 : Receive IV Bill : Pay IV Bill : Send IV Package : Receive Instruction and Interview appointment letter : Case Completed at NVC : NVC Left : Consulate Received : Packet 3 Received : Packet 3 Sent : Packet 4 Received : Interview Date : 2013-07-30 Interview Result : Approved Second Interview (If Required): Second Interview Result: Visa Received : 2013-08-12 US Entry : 2013-10-17 Comments : Processing Estimates/Stats : Your I-130 was approved in 16 days from your NOA1 date. Your interview took 280 days from your I-130 NOA1 date.

Port of Entry Review Event Date Port of Entry : Newark POE Date : 2013-10-17 Got EAD Stamp : Biometrics Taken : Yes Harassment Level : 0 Comments : The immigration officers at Newark were extremely helpful. Noting that I was travelling with four young children, they did their level best to speed up the process for me. The officer at the passport desk actually left his desk to help me go to the immigration room as the kids and I were each carrying a suitcase and so he carried our paperwork down for us and helped one of my kids with his case. Once in the immigration room, we were fast-tracked so that the kids didn't have to wait too long. We were pretty much done and dusted in 15 minutes. Everyone was really friendly and helpful, especially towards the kids.

Citizenship Event Date Service Center : CIS Office : Philadelphia PA Date Filed : 2017-10-25 NOA Date : Bio. Appt. : 2017-11-02 Interview Date : 2018-07-11 Approved : Yes Oath Ceremony : 2018-08-03 Comments : Compared to the Green Card process, Citizenship was straightforward and smooth. All the stress I experienced in this process was the result of having extremely short notice for each relevant date/appointment as it caused me scheduling crises and childcare challenges. Otherwise everything went smoothly and quicker than anticipated based on the predicted timelines for the Philadelphia field office. All of the staff at the Philadelphia field office were friendly and encouraging and helpful. I brought lots of paperwork etc to the Interview, as was required, but the officer assigned to me never actually asked to see any of it. I guess because I have been married for 22 years and we have four kids together means they didn't really feel the need to delve into stuff like co-mingled finances. The focus of my Interview, therefore, was ensuring that my verbal answers matched those I had submitted on my paperwork. The exam/test components were a breeze. I am a native English speaker so had zero concerns about that aspect and I was confident about the civics/history test too so got through that quickly. I was told I was approved at the conclusion of the interview and the officer was submitting documentation that effect immediately (which may be because I was his final interview of the day). I had a three week gap between my interview/approval and the Oath Ceremony. I was told it was expected to be busy so not to bring too many people with me. Therefore, my four kids stayed home and only my husband came. It turned out there would have been room for my kids so that was disappointing and is a regret. I was one of 57 people from 31 different countries at the ceremony. That was pretty cool. The whole ceremony and the admin involved was all extremely well organised and everything flowed smoothly. Really professional and polished. The ceremony took about an hour from beginning to end. As an additional bit of info, there were people from a voter registration organisation present in the room so most of us chose to register to vote immediately after the ceremony. (Edited to Clarify - While the initial Immigration process covered both myself and our four sons, only I had to undertake the citizenship process. Once my kids were in America with my husband/their Dad now resident in America, they were able to obtain birth right citizenship from him (which they could not in the UK as he was not resident in the US and had not lived in the US for long enough past his 14th birthday). My kids obtained US passports to cement their citizenship status not long after we arrived in America. That is why, therefore, only I went through the Citizenship process.)

Member Reviews:

Consulate Review: London, United Kingdom Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa Event Description Review Date : August 4, 2013 Embassy Review : I am in the process for a spouse visa and our four sons are in the process for immediate relative visas (my husband just missed passing on his USC status to them so they have to go in as LPRs like me but can become USCs on arrival in the US thanks to the Child Citizenship Act). We informed the Embassy (via a covering letter with the DS320s) that our medicals were scheduled for the afternoon of 29 July. Just days later (and a few days before we were due to travel) I received a phone call informing me that our Interviews had been scheduled for 8am on 30 July. The woman on the phone was actually pretty impolite to me. She castigated me for not knowing my in-laws' postcode off the top of my head (I needed the appointment letters sent there because we are staying with them as a base for travelling to London) even though it only took me 30 seconds to open up my address book and tell her. I was also told that my in-laws have a ridiculous address. I just tried to remain calm and polite and not respond in as snippy a manner as she was using towards me. She asked if I wanted my husband placed on the list as accompanying myself and the kids and I said yes (and this was later confirmed by an email which alas we were not in a position to print out at that point). Anyway, the kids and I did the whole process with the medicals on the Monday and then went and stayed in a hotel for the evening to get up bright and early the next day to get back into central London to the Embassy. Our appointment was at 8am and we arrived at 7.30am to join the queue. I think we were third or fourth in line. The four boys and I were checked off the list but my husband's name was not on the list. Annoying. We could not prove that we had the email confirmation, of course, since we had been travelling when it arrived so had no access to a printer and my husband had not brought his ipod to the Embassy because of the electronics ban. Frustrating. We, therefore, had to bid our farewells to him and leave him in a sheltered area (it was raining) beside security while we proceeded into the building. (As an aside, children's flashing shoes will have to go through the scanner machine - I had not even thought about it but my 4 year old only has the one pair of shoes so there was nothing I could do about it anyway other than whip them off of him). The ticketing system was not operational on the day we were there. (We were later told it was a "mop up" day just for expedited (mostly military) cases and special exceptions (I was never told why we were considered one of these - maybe because of the four kids?)) We were, therefore, led in to the waiting hall by the receptionist on the front desk. The back-up system was that we were seated in rows according to when we had all entered. That worked well for the first hour but just after the kids and I were called there was almost a lynching when a trio who had entered at 9am sat in the seats at the front (vacated by the first people in line) and then tried to go to the window before people who had been in the queue at 8am. So if you find yourself in this sort of scenario it clearly pays to be well aware of who is in front of you and who is behind you in the queue. Incidentally, because it was not a fully operational day, the refectory area was closed. Thankfully each of my boys had a backpack containing a packed breakfast and some activity books to keep them happy and occupied but the only drinks they could have were from a water fountain near the toilets. Despite being third or fourth in line, it took over an hour to reach the first window. I think the man (Keith) had a panic when he realised he had drawn the short straw to have five of us at once but he did commend me several times for having all of our documentation so organised so it all went smoothly. I almost immediately asked him about getting my husband into the building. He said he would go and send an email down to security to let him in but I should go and get my husband's attention as the window for him being allowed in was very narrow. I went to the window and flapped around like a total twit trying to get Chris' attention but he was deep in conversation with another spouse denied entry so he never once looked up. Thankfully our very unusual surname and the presence of the four kids had made us memorable to one of the security officers so she actually went and sought my husband out and got him in. That was a relief since managing the four kids and trying to do all the paperwork was quite a challenge. Once Chris was in he was able to wrangle the kids and leave me to deal with the actual process. Phew. So lessons learned are to ensure as far as you possibly can that your accompanying person is on the list (our timescales made this impossible) and, if initially denied entry, get your spouse to linger near the security desk and pay attention to what is happening in case they are called for. And look up at the windows from time to time. The first bit of the process was time consuming simply because there were five of us to compile files for. But the man was really pleasant and helpful and even went off to find out if the kids really did have to enter as LPRs even if the Childrens Citizenship Act meant they were going to be USCs upon arrival. Thanks to the knowledge of VJers I knew his mission was fruitless but it was nice of him to go over and above and at least try and save us some hassle and money. Anyway, we got to the end of that, went to the cashier to pay and then sat down again waiting to be called for interview. It was only about 30 minutes later that we were called for interview despite their only being two manned windows for that process. Our interview was easy to the degree of almost being laughable. After swearing my oath and giving my hand print again I was asked just three questions: how long we had been married (17 years next week); what was the date of our marriage (which I had actually already answered with the first question); and how we met (at University). I very much got the feeling that they looked at how long we had been married and how many kids we had together and figured that pretty much established the veracity of our relationship. My husband was annoyed they did not even ask at all about our evidence for establishing domicile given that he had spent eons compiling a dossier of evidence but, of course, we would rather the easy ride we got than a time consuming interrogation. Again, the man who interviewed us was professional, polished and pleasant throughout and even made a few jokes. Of course, the Embassy had not been able to receive our medical results from just the day before so we were denied the visas on administrative grounds but the interviewer indicated verbally that we would be approved so long as there was nothing problematic in our medicals. He then gave me a leaflet about the boys' access to USC status via the Child Citizenship Act and said it would be about 10 days after the medical results were received and processed that we would get the passports and visas back. I asked him to confirm the whole thing with the sealed envelopes etc and he said he was impressed with the extent of my knowledge about the whole process of immigration for myself and the children - all courtesy of the good people of VJ of course! So overall, despite a couple of glitches largely due to our peculiar and compressed timeline, we had a really positive experience. In particular, for anyone travelling with children, I would say to not be worried about the formality of the situation. My kids were allowed to spread out on the floor to work on their activity books and have their breakfast packed lunches as a picnic with no one batting an eyelid and, in fact, several officials actually commented on how well behaved they were. Rating : Very Good

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