Jeannie & Al's US Immigration Timeline
Immigration Checklist for Jeannie & Al:
|
USCIS I-129F Petition:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dept of State K1 Visa:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
USCIS I-485 Petition:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
USCIS I-765 Petition:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
USCIS I-131 Petition:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
USCIS I-751 Petition:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
USCIS N-400 Petition:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
K1 Visa
|
| Event |
Date |
| Service Center : |
Vermont Service Center |
| Transferred? |
Texas Service Center on 2013-05-28 |
| Consulate : |
London, United Kingdom |
| I-129F Sent : |
2013-01-15 |
| I-129F NOA1 : |
2013-01-23 |
| I-129F RFE(s) : |
Transferred to TSC |
| RFE Reply(s) : |
|
| I-129F NOA2 : |
2013-06-25 |
| NVC Received : |
2013-07-15 |
| Date Case #, IIN, and BIN assigned : |
|
| NVC Left : |
2013-07-22 |
| Consulate Received : |
2013-07-26 |
| Packet 3 Received : |
2013-08-07 |
| Packet 3 Sent : |
2013-07-29 |
| Packet 4 Received : |
2013-08-09 |
| Interview Date : |
2013-08-13 |
| Interview Result : |
Approved
|
Second Interview
(If Required): |
|
| Second Interview Result: |
|
| Visa Received : |
2013-08-24 |
| US Entry : |
2013-08-25 |
| Marriage : |
2013-09-29 |
| Comments : |
Packet 3 and cover letter/DS2001 sent ahead of receipt of Packet 3. Interview date received via email on 8/9. |
Processing
Estimates/Stats : |
Your I-129f was approved in 153 days from your NOA1 date.
Your interview took 202 days from your I-129F NOA1 date. |
|
Adjustment of Status
|
| Event |
Date |
| CIS Office : |
Newark NJ |
| Date Filed : |
2013-10-11 |
| NOA Date : |
2013-10-15 |
| RFE(s) : |
|
| Bio. Appt. : |
2013-11-18 |
| AOS Transfer** : |
|
| Interview Date : |
|
| Approval / Denial Date : |
2014-04-17 |
| Approved : |
|
| Got I551 Stamp : |
|
| Greencard Received: |
2014-04-24 |
| Comments : |
local Newark office called to say original London medical results were lost. Had to take emergency medical (at our expense) and green card was approved a week after those results were received. |
|
Employment Authorization
Document
|
| Event |
Date |
| CIS Office : |
Newark NJ |
| Filing Method : |
Mail |
| Filing Instance : |
First |
| Date Filed : |
2013-10-11 |
| NOA Date : |
2013-10-15 |
| RFE(s) : |
|
| Bio. Appt. : |
2013-11-18 |
| Approved Date : |
2013-12-12 |
| Date Card Received : |
2013-12-20 |
| Comments : |
|
Processing
Estimates/Stats : |
Your EAD was approved in 62 days. |
|
Advance Parole
|
| Event |
Date |
| CIS Office : |
Newark NJ |
| Filing Method : |
|
| Filing Instance : |
First |
| Date Filed : |
2013-10-11 |
| NOA Date : |
2013-10-15 |
| RFE(s) : |
|
| Date Received : |
2013-12-20 |
| Comments : |
Combo with EAD Card. USCIS site still says initial review for AP but card is a combo one. |
Processing
Estimates/Stats : |
Your AP was approved in 62 days. |
|
Member Reviews:
Consulate Review: London, United Kingdom
Review Topic: K1 Visa
|
| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
August 13, 2013 |
| Embassy Review : |
My beneficiary fiance is not a member here so he wrote this up on his Ipad on the bus back to Cardiff and I'm cutting and pasting..hope this helps someone like the other reviews helped us 
__________________________________________
I'm writing this on my way from London having been approved for my K1 Visa. Apologies for the length of this but I've tried to include as much detail as possible.
My appointment was at 9am so I went down to London the night before and stayed in a hotel. I had decided to store my electronics at Gould's Pharmacy so headed there for 7.30am (opening time, although it was actually open at 7.15am). There are little desks with picture lists of what you aren't allowed to take into the Embassy. They put your electronics into plastic envelopes with your contact details on them. They also wrapped one of those envelopes around the handles of my small bag (I used a small combo lock to ensure it was safe). Keep the receipt (£6 for my bags and the electronics) and yellow raffle tickets for when you return. Then I headed to the Embassy some 100 yards away.
There are two queues. One that goes along the black bollards and, right next to it, a shorter queue that leads to a small desk - you need to get in this shorter one first.
There are two or three visa reps walking around in black jackets. They ask if you have anything you shouldn't and hand out clear plastic bags to put your money, belt and wallet in so you have nothing in your pockets etc. I put mine in my own ruck-sack.
The first queue leads to a small desk where they check your passport. They also ask for your DS-160 - which is not required for K visas, they're for working visas only. Instead she checked my email from the Embassy (my letter didn't arrive before I left) and my name against separate list for K visas.
Then you join the longer line next to the black bollards - make sure you queue in a straight line next to the bollards or you'll be told off. The guy next to me said this line is often around the block with 100-200 people in it. Today, there were 20. At the front, they check your passport only but make sure your documents are out for them too. Then you line up to go into the security "shed". You go into this 4 at a time. Your bags get put on the conveyor belt while your documents and passports go into a blue tray. Everything is x-rayed and you go through an "air point scanner".
(I had nothing in my bag to worry about BUT they said I had a USB with a cable. I had to empty my bag to prove I didn't. However, I did have a TSA combination lock I use at the air port. They re-scanned this and said I had to go out, get rid of it and re-join the queue. Dammit! Twenty minutes of re-queuing later, I went through security just fine, although I was asked to drink some of my water in front of them to prove it was water and not something dangerous.)
Despite my appointment being at 9am and going through security twice, I was inside before 8am. Getting there early really helped.
You exit the security shed and go right around to the main entrance for visas. Your passport/letter are checked again and they put some stickers with a reference number on it (K visas start with the letter I with some numbers after it). Then you sit in the waiting area. It's a large room with 300 plus chairs. It wasn't full but you are cramped.
At the front is a series of TVs making up one larger screen that rolls through a video commercial telling you how amazing the US is. On the left portion of the screen, is a list of numbers and which window that reference number must go to. Each time a new number and its window goes up, there is a beep. Underneath the large screen are some vending machines with the usual stuff in. To the right side of the waiting room are windows 1-11. To your right and down the hall, are windows 12-25 and the toilets.
Following a thirty(ish) minute wait, I was called to window 1. She (a small woman of American-Asian decent, probably late 50s) asked for my passport and 2 photos. She didn't like my photos saying the quality wasn't good (I'd had them done in a photo booth near home) so I made a joke about it being my face that was the problem. She said "No, it is a handsome face." in a stern manner with absolutely no humorous undertones. It took her ages to scan my photos for the computer records and kept getting annoyed with the machine and my photos.
Then they couldn't find my medical stuff from the doctors. I showed her the receipt etc I'd been given by the Medical Centre but she didn't care. She disappeared for 2-3 minutes before returning to confirm my name. Then she left again, coming back 5 minutes later with my medical records.
She took my birth certificate, police check, receipts, I-134 and financial support/backup (only cared about my fiancee's pay stubs, not the tax returns - I didn't have a letter from fiancée's employer) as well as the photocopies of each - she liked that mine were in colour and was impressed. This woman talks to herself A LOT and she's quiet which isn't particularly helpful in a noisy room.
She gave me some documents back and told me to sit down and wait. Which I did. For around 45 minutes. I read my book. After a while, my number was called by a female voice which told me to go to window 16 that was around the corner on the right, passed the toilets.
Behind the window was a very pleasant, smiley, cheery African-American lady in her 30s. She skimmed through the documents they'd kept from the previous window plus then forms I'd sent in a few weeks before. Then we started to chat. I was only asked four questions:
1) When and how did you meet?
Simple. If you get this wrong, you're in trouble.
2) Your fiancée is ...
And I told her what my fiancée's job was. She was immensely impressed with what my fiancée did and said that between our jobs we must have an fascinating life - not what most people say but nice nonetheless. Also, she asked for my opinion on two topics relevant to my job for her own personal information as she's having to deal with them in her private life.
3) Tell me about her family.
I did and she genuinely listened before asking a follow up question about my-soon-to-be-brother-in-law's family, which I also answered.
4) When do you intend to travel?
ASAP.
She then asked me sign the DS-156K to indicate that everything I'd written and told her was the truth. She said I was approved and described how I would get my visa, passport and sealed envelope for US Customs in the States. I'd paid for my courier on line a few days earlier which really made her happy. She wished me the best. I turned and left through a door behind me that led back to the front desk where we were given reference numbers.
I returned to Gould's Pharmacy to collect my stuff. There was a short wait but I was out and in a cab back to the station before 10am. |
| Rating : |
Good |
|
POE Review: Newark
|
| Event |
Description |
| Entry Date : |
2013-08-25 |
| Embassy Review : |
My fiance is not a member here but I asked him to write up a review:
_________________________
I came into Newark for my entry on my K1 visa. I've been to this airport many times. They've done some work on the area in the last twelve months but it remains relatively similar.
On my flight, I knew I had to fill out a white card as well as the blue one but the (dumb) flight staff kept telling I didn't - I think they didn't have any white cards. Nevertheless, I filled out the blue one on the plane.
When you enter the Customs & Immigration room (down the escalators or stairs) you need to join the line immediately to you're left. Prior to joining the line, I asked a Immigration Worker (red jackets) where I could get a white card from. He told me to join the line and ask for one when I reach the front.
Just before I reached the front, I saw the same red jacket guy again and asked if I could jump out of line to fill the white card in at the designated table. He said I could but that he'd have to get a white card for me as there weren't any at the table ready. It took me less than a two minutes to fill out and surprisingly, they let me join the front of the queue rather than go back in where I jumped out. Probably saved me twenty minutes of queuing.
I approached the customs desk and hand over my envelope and passport (with both the blue and white cards inside the page with the visa sticker). The Officer viewed my passport, and asked me to scan the fingers on my right hand on the pad and then stare into the camera. He asked if I'd been to the US before - an obvious trick question given my passport shows at least 6 trips in stamps. He then radioed for another Officer to take me downstairs.
I did have to wait for around five minutes, much to the annoyance of the people in the queue behind me having to wait.
I followed the new, second, Officer downstairs via the elevator and was told to sit in the waiting area. One tip: sit near the front because none of the Officers behind the desk call your name loud enough for anyone to hear and when you don't react, they get annoyed - all of them. I knew this due to a visit to this area during a prior trip.
My envelope was brought downstairs by the second Officer who handed it to another Officer behind the desk, of which there are three. He dealt with one or two other people before getting to my envelope. I watched him tear it open and swear when he realised he'd torn one of the papers inside, which he then had to tape up. He stamped it, shuffled some papers, check a few things and a good ten minutes later called me over.
This third Officer was the same one who'd grilled me in December. I recognised him and said, with a smile that we'd met before. He wasn't impressed and asked how it had gone. I responded by saying he'd let me in. "Then you're lucky," he said without an ounce of humour or sincerity.
He asked when we were planning to get married. I was in the middle of my answer when he cut in to say I had until Nov 27th. He stamped one last document before handing my passport back with the white card tear-off piece stapled inside along with the blue card. They keep all the documents inside you envelope. I wasn't asked for the x-rays or anything else.
He told me to leave and pointed me towards the exit to luggage collection. Another Officer used his key card to let me out through the large bullet-proof glass doors.
(This fourth Officer had scolded a girl fifteen minutes earlier for doing exactly what she'd been told to do by another Officer. The poor girl had very little English and couldn't answer him quick enough when he screamed his questions at her. As he walked away from her, he uttered an insulting phrase under his breath which only I and another traveller could hear.)
I collected my luggage and joined the (unusually enormous) queue for the last check point where they take your blue card. Make sure you have this out ready as they want it quickly. On occasions, they may ask for your passport here too.
Given how busy Customs & Immigration was, the whole process was relatively quick. I've only ever seen queues as long as that once before. |
| Harassment Level : |
Moderate |
|
Timeline Comments: None yet, be the first!
*Notice about estimates: The estimates are based off averages of other members recent experiences
(documented in their timelines) for the same benefit/petition/application at the same filing location.
Individual results may vary as every case is not always 'average'. Past performance does not necessarily
predict future results. The 'as early as date' may change over time based on current reported processing
times from members. There have historically been cases where a benefit/petition/application processing
briefly slows down or stops and this can not be predicted. Use these dates as reference only and do not
rely on them for planning. As always you should check the
USCIS processing times to see if your application
is past due.
** Not all cases are transfered
ver 5.0
