Alekezam's US Immigration Timeline

Petitioner's Name: Alex Beneficiary's Name: Olena VJ Member: Alekezam Country: Ukraine Last Updated: 2023-05-29 Add Comment to Timeline Register or log in to follow this timeline

Immigration Checklist for Alex & Olena:

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 : California Service Center Transferred? No Consulate : Ukraine I-129F Sent : 2017-11-03 I-129F NOA1 : 2017-11-08 I-129F RFE(s) : RFE Reply(s) : I-129F NOA2 : 2018-08-03 NVC Received : 2018-08-17 Date Case #, IIN, and BIN assigned : NVC Left : 2018-09-27 Consulate Received : 2018-10-05 Packet 3 Received : 2018-10-05 Packet 3 Sent : 2018-10-05 Packet 4 Received : Interview Date : 2018-10-18 Interview Result : Approved Second Interview (If Required): Second Interview Result: Visa Received : 2018-10-24 US Entry : 2018-11-26 Marriage : Comments : Processing Estimates/Stats : Your I-129f was approved in 268 days from your NOA1 date. Your interview took 344 days from your I-129F NOA1 date.

Port of Entry Review Event Date Port of Entry : Houston POE Date : 2018-11-26 Got EAD Stamp : Biometrics Taken : Harassment Level : 0 Comments : I was fortunate enough to have the time and funds to travel to Ukraine to spend some time with my fiancee multiple times prior to heading to the US together. When we arrived in Houston we made our way to the immigration area where a number of greeters were giving instructions and directing people to the correct lines. I've entered the US through a number of different airports and I have to admit, Houston definitely has it's ducks in a row. From the staff to the visual prompts, everything is well organized and flows very smoothly. I proceeded to ask one of the greeters where VISA holders need to go and he directed us to go all the way to the end of the hall where both signs and other greeters would ensure we would get to the right location. I am a global entry member so prior to heading to the end of the hallway I went to a GE Kiosk and printed out a slip. We both proceeded down the hallway and along the way were multiple signs that indicated directions to the area where VISA visitors were to go complete with pictures of Visa examples. I sort of chuckled at one Visa picture showing a K1 Fiance Visa with a picture of a model looking woman showing the country of Russia. Even the US Immigration admittedly identifies Russian women as being "hot"..... Once we got the end of the hallway a greeter directed us to a line stating that all Visa types are applicable to that line. It may have just been a slow day but there may have been 10 people at the most waiting. Actually, Houston in general is a pretty easy airport to get through in regards to immigration. Lines are never long and in all honesty, my global entry status gives me almost little to no advantage over those who don't have it. In other airports it makes a huge difference, LAX, SFO, etc. The officer and line was no different that the lines for US Citizens and others that do not require a Visa. When it was our turn the officer was friendly and jovial joking about how he's seen a K1 Packet before. He even tried to speak some Russian to my fiancee. For some reason I think he thought my fiancee couldn't speak English so he called one of the greeters standing nearby who happened to be Kazakh and asked her to translate a few questions to ask my fiancee. "How long has she known me?" "Do you have any drugs, alcohol, fruits, that you brought with you?" "How did you guys meet?". She answered and he pretty much sped through a quick summary on how we still need to get married, etc. etc. From there he told me to go ahead and collect our bags and wait in the baggage claim area for my fiancee. He said that she would need to go to their processing room to have all her paperwork processed electronically and then would be given her visa stamp and escorted down to the baggage claim in approximately an hour. I hesitantly left her there with him and collected our bags and patiently waited. I'd say about 40 minutes later she came down and all was good. She told me the processors in the room joked around by yelling out loud humorously "who is getting married soon?" knowing she was the only one so she was sorta forced to raise her hand in embarrassment. All in all I'd say it took about 45 minutes from the point that we stood in line to when I met her downstairs. Oh, and to those who freak out about the infamous slashed corner that appears on a lot of packets, it is indeed a standard thing that is performed by the embassy. Not entirely sure why but it doesn't really matter as long as you know it doesn't pose any problem as we had that very exact corner missing and had no issues whatsoever with entry. As long as it looks like a clean cut and isn't a tear no need to worry. Very well done Houston!

Adjustment of Status Event Date CIS Office : Houston TX Date Filed : 2019-01-14 NOA Date : 2019-01-18 RFE(s) : Bio. Appt. : 2019-02-11 AOS Transfer** : Interview Date : 2019-12-02 Approval / Denial Date : 2019-12-02 Approved : Yes Got I551 Stamp : Greencard Received: 2019-12-07 Comments : Our interview was scheduled at 12:30 the day of. We decided to arrive about 20 min before our scheduled appointment time. Office is on the north side of town not too far from IAH in an office/warehouse district. As they always are, USCIS office wasn't exactly in the nicest part of town if you know what I mean. Parking was ample. Step 1: As you enter you have to go through a security check....greeting employees were all pretty friendly and helpful. As soon as you get past security you have to check in at the front desk where they ask for your interview letter to which they verify on a computer and then hand over a piece of paper with a number it to which we were instructed to go get a biometrics done at a table off to the side. Went over to get the biometrics done (this is for the applicant only) and then were instructed to go to the main waiting hall. Not sure why this happens again since a biometrics had already been completed but you don't gain anything by questioning so we just went with the flow. In the waiting hall you basically sit until they call the number that is on your white paper. A person over an intercom will announce either a number or a specific individual and where to go. From what I could tell it there was only 2 choices, either Door 1 (only one door so this is a no brainer) or one of about 20 windows that are located in the main hall. One thing of note is that they don't have a screen that shows numbers or names of people as they call them so you have to be sure to pay attention, otherwise, you might be out of luck. The officers seemed nice enough but they were all pretty stern and did not appear to be very tolerant of those who don't follow directions. We must have lucked out because by this point I noticed that the check in line had grown by at least 30 people....pretty insane. Step 2: After I'd say about a 20-25 minute wait our number got called. They don't call numbers in sequence so don't be surprised if say your number is K530 and they call up a bunch of numbers before or after yours like K510 or K580. There are also a lot of different types of cases so numbers can be different depending on type so the K could be a J or something else. We walked over to door 1 immediately after our number was called out and was greeted by the officer handling our case. She was cordial and polite but didn't really show a whole lot of emotion and was pretty stern despite my attempts at trying to drum up some harmless small talk. I did get her to chuckle and smile a few times which was what I was hoping to do. So first thing she does once she walks you to her office is close the door and ask that both me and my wife remain standing to do an oath. Took our oaths and then sat down. First question was how did I meet my wife. Gave her the story of how we met and then she proceeded to ask us for standard documentation (Passports, Birth Certificates, EAD card, and Social Security Card for my wife/applicant only). While she gathered all that up she threw a few more questions out like "Have either of you met each other's parents?" "How many brother's and sister's does your wife/husband have?"....and I'm pretty sure that was it. She seemed to be more concerned with paperwork than questions. Next thing she asked for was for our medical packet. Glad we did one because despite having all the original files in front of her from both the K1 process and the AOS submittal she did not check to see if one even existed. In my opinion, despite what everyone says about not having to take one as long as the last one was done within a year I'd go ahead and do it anyways to avoid any problems. Depending on where you go it's not going to cost much more than $300. If that's too much to spare then all I can say is wow.....She then asked us to produce evidence that proved that we were truly married so I gave her a copy of a bank statement that showed we had a joint savings and checking account, a joint tax return from 2018, a cable bill with both our names on it, auto insurance with both our names on it, and my health insurance that showed her as a dependent as well as pictures from this year. Neither of us care much about fancy weddings and ceremonies so all we did was a court marriage with one picture that had my parents and my brother in it and she thought that was cool. I told her that we'd rather spend our money on more practical things like traveling and she really liked all the pictures of our travels. Pretty easy. She didn't really even ask for anything else but I voluntarily gave her an updated I-864 with more recent pay stubs and a recent letter from my employer. She then went through a laundry list of standard questions revolving around some pretty ridiculous topics like drugs, rape, prostitution, espionage, terrorism, gangs......to which my wife obviously has never or would ever partake in. And then that was it. She printed out a document ticked something on it and handed it over to us and asked if we had any other questions. I asked what the timeline would be and she said she just needed to do one final checkup to make sure no documents are missing. If she needed any additional information I would be informed by mail, otherwise, she would approve. She said she had one more interview that day and then she would be reviewing the all the cases for the day. We both thanked her and off we were. I took a closer look at the document she handed us and noticed it said that a decision is unable to be made at this time with a Reason For Continuance section with three reasons. The first box was ticked that stated that our case was being held for review and that at this time they don't require any further documents but if so we would be informed by mail. At the end of the letter it said that 120 days maximum are required before we would hear of a final decision. I pretty much panicked at this point since I hadn't seen many people on here mentioning that letter so I started to research the topic and found that it is apparently pretty standard for them to hand those out now. I don't know why people don't mention it. Step 3: I had to go immediately to the airport to leave town for work and while sitting at the gate I was a bit anxious and checked my USCIS profile for any updates on both the old and new pages and I'd say literally in about 2 hrs after our interview the old site profile status switched to "New Card Being Produced"! So yeah, don't be alarmed by the sheet of paper they give you at the end as it's a standard form they give to everyone. I'd only worry if the other two boxes other than the first one is ticked. Sorry for the long drawn out review but I wanted to make sure I detailed exactly how our experience went so others know what to expect.

Employment Authorization Document Event Date CIS Office : Houston TX Filing Method : Mail Filing Instance : First Date Filed : 2019-01-14 NOA Date : 2019-01-18 RFE(s) : Bio. Appt. : 2019-02-11 Approved Date : 2019-05-01 Date Card Received : 2019-05-09 Comments : Processing Estimates/Stats : Your EAD was approved in 107 days.

Advance Parole Event Date CIS Office : Chicago National Office Filing Method :   Filing Instance : First Date Filed : 2019-01-14 NOA Date : 2019-01-18 RFE(s) : Date Received : 2019-05-09 Comments : Processing Estimates/Stats : Your AP was approved in 107 days.

Lifting Conditions Event Date CIS Office : Texas Service Center Date Filed : 2021-09-29 NOA Date : 2021-10-09 RFE(s) : Bio. Appt. : 2021-12-03 Interview Date : 2023-04-21 Approval / Denial Date : 2023-04-21 Approved : Yes Got I551 Stamp : No Green Card Received : Comments : 09/29/21 - Sent package by USPS 10/05/21 - Text Message and Email of USCIS Acceptance 10/7/21 - Check Cashed received NOA 10/09/21 - Received 24 Month Extension Letter 11/12/21 - Received Biometrics Screening Appointment Letter 12/03/21 - Biometrics Completed 1/6/23 - Received email and text stating that case has been transferred to another office - 1/14/23 - Received notice in the mail that case was transferred to Lee's Summit, MO 3/7/23 - Received new 48 month extension letter 4/21/23 - Had combo I-751/N-400 Interview. Both approved but no new green card will be sent out as N-400 was approved.

Citizenship Event Date Service Center : Online CIS Office : Houston TX Date Filed : 2023-01-04 NOA Date : 2023-01-05 Bio. Appt. : 2023-01-05 Interview Date : 2023-04-21 Approved : Yes Oath Ceremony : 2023-05-10 Comments : 1/5/23 - Received notice that Biometrics has been waived and past fingerprints will be used. 3/16/23 - Received notice that interview has been scheduled for 4/21/23 4/21/23 - Combo I-751/N-400 Interview, both approved 4/27/23 - Received notice that Oath Ceremony Has Been Scheduled for 5/10/23 5/10/23 - Oath Ceremony Completed and Received Certificate of Naturalization

Member Reviews:

Consulate Review: Ukraine Review Topic: K1 Visa Event Description Review Date : October 18, 2018 Embassy Review : My fiancee's appointment was scheduled for 8:00 am. She showed up about 20 minutes early and saw that there were quite a few individuals waiting around. Turns out she said, that lots of people were arriving way before their allotted time as some had appointments as late as 11 but were already waiting. I suppose nerves get to people causing them to be overly conservative with everything. She said the K-1 specific visa interviewers were directed to the front of the embassy to a first window (like a ticket booth) where they each submitted their paperwork pertinent to the I-134 and DS-160 along with the other items required (Proof of ongoing relationship, medical, etc.). Everyone was given a number and told to wait till they were called (I assume in this time they review the submitted documents). The waiting took around 15 minutes to which she was then called up. The entirety of the interview was done informally in front of another window where the interviewer was. In our minds we thought it would take place in a closed room away from everyone else at a desk. My fiancee noticed that the other ahead of her had their interviews in Russian as she could hear tidbits of their conversation from where she was sitting. When it was her turn the interviewer asked if she could speak English to which my fiancee replied "yes". Two questions were asked.....1) What does your fiance do for a living? and 2) How did he come about getting into the US? I'm of Asian descent so that more than likely prompted the 2nd question. My fiancee answered each question with no hesitation and next thing she knew she was approved. Took 5 minutes. In total from the time she handed the required documents in to the end of the interview was just under 20 min. She was given a sheet of paper that explained the next steps and voila, all done. The sheet of paper basically explained that her next package with her passport and visa would be ready for pickup at the location she initially chose when filling out the DS-160 within 5 days. If a change of delivery location is desired then she would need to inform them of this by the end of the interview date. It also stated that if the documents are not picked up within 15 days of it's arrival at location they will be sent back to the embassy. A pretty seamless and straight forward process. Employees were all friendly enough she said and nothing out of the ordinary happened. Pretty impressed with their process and quick turnaround. We'll have to see how quickly the package gets delivered but for now I'd definitely give the US Embassy/Consulate in Kyiv a huge thumbs up! Rating : Very Good

POE Review: Houston Event Description Entry Date : 2018-11-26 Embassy Review : I was fortunate enough to have the time and funds to travel to Ukraine to spend some time with my fiancee before heading to the US together. When we arrived in Houston we made our way to the immigration area where a number of greeters were giving instructions and directing people to the correct lines. I've entered the US through a number of different airports and I have to admit, Houston definitely has it's ducks in a row. From the staff to the visual prompts, everything is well organized and flows very smoothly. I proceeded to ask one of the greeters where VISA holders need to go and he directed us to go all the way to the end of the hall where both signs and other greeters would ensure we would get to the right location. I am a global entry member so prior to heading to the end of the hallway I went to a GE Kiosk and printed out a slip. We both proceeded down the hallway and along the way were multiple signs that indicated directions to the area where VISA visitors were to go complete with pictures of Visa examples. I sort of chuckled at one Visa picture showing a K1 Fiance Visa with a picture of a model looking woman showing the country of Russia. Even the US Immigration admittedly identifies Russian women as being "hot"..... Once we got the end of the hallway a greeter directed us to a line stating that all Visa types are applicable to that line. It may have just been a slow day but there may have been 10 people at the most waiting. Actually, Houston in general is a pretty easy airport to get through in regards to immigration. Lines are never long and in all honesty, my global entry status gives me almost little to no advantage over those who don't have it. In other airports it makes a huge difference, LAX, SFO, etc. The officer and line was no different that the lines for US Citizens and others that do not require a Visa. When it was our turn the officer was friendly and jovial joking about how he's seen a K1 Packet before. He even tried to speak some Russian to my fiancee. For some reason I think he thought my fiancee couldn't speak English so he called one of the greeters standing nearby who happened to be Kazakh and asked her to translate a few questions to ask my fiancee. "How long has she known me?" "Do you have any drugs, alcohol, fruits, that you brought with you?" "How did you guys meet?". She answered and he pretty much sped through a quick summary on how we still need to get married, etc. etc. From there he told me to go ahead and collect our bags and wait in the baggage claim area for my fiancee. He said that she would need to go to their processing room to have all her paperwork processed electronically and then would be given her visa stamp and escorted down to the baggage claim in approximately an hour. I hesitantly left her there with him and collected our bags and patiently waited. I'd say about 40 minutes later she came down and all was good. She told me the processors in the room joked around by yelling out loud humorously "who is getting married soon?" knowing she was the only one so she was sorta forced to raise her hand in embarrassment. All in all I'd say it took about 45 minutes from the point that we stood in line to when I met her downstairs. Oh, and to those who freak out about the infamous slashed corner that appears on a lot of packets, it is indeed a standard thing that is performed by the embassy. Not entirely sure why but it doesn't really matter as long as you know it doesn't pose any problem as we had that very exact corner missing and had no issues whatsoever with entry. As long as it looks like a clean cut and isn't a tear no need to worry. Very well done Houston! Harassment Level : Low

Local US CIS Office Review: Houston TX Review Topic: cis_topic Event Description Review Date : December 4, 2019 Embassy Review : Our interview was scheduled at 12:30 the day of. We decided to arrive about 20 min before our scheduled appointment time. Office is on the north side of town not too far from IAH in an office/warehouse district. As they always are, USCIS office wasn't exactly in the nicest part of town if you know what I mean. Parking was ample. Step 1: As you enter you have to go through a security check....greeting employees were all pretty friendly and helpful. As soon as you get past security you have to check in at the front desk where they ask for your interview letter to which they verify on a computer and then hand over a piece of paper with a number it to which we were instructed to go get a biometrics done at a table off to the side. Went over to get the biometrics done (this is for the applicant only) and then were instructed to go to the main waiting hall. Not sure why this happens again since a biometrics had already been completed but you don't gain anything by questioning so we just went with the flow. In the waiting hall you basically sit until they call the number that is on your white paper. A person over an intercom will announce either a number or a specific individual and where to go. From what I could tell it there was only 2 choices, either Door 1 (only one door so this is a no brainer) or one of about 20 windows that are located in the main hall. One thing of note is that they don't have a screen that shows numbers or names of people as they call them so you have to be sure to pay attention, otherwise, you might be out of luck. The officers seemed nice enough but they were all pretty stern and did not appear to be very tolerant of those who don't follow directions. We must have lucked out because by this point I noticed that the check in line had grown by at least 30 people....pretty insane. Step 2: After I'd say about a 20-25 minute wait our number got called. They don't call numbers in sequence so don't be surprised if say your number is K530 and they call up a bunch of numbers before or after yours like K510 or K580. There are also a lot of different types of cases so numbers can be different depending on type so the K could be a J or something else. We walked over to door 1 immediately after our number was called out and was greeted by the officer handling our case. She was cordial and polite but didn't really show a whole lot of emotion and was pretty stern despite my attempts at trying to drum up some harmless small talk. I did get her to chuckle and smile a few times which was what I was hoping to do. So first thing she does once she walks you to her office is close the door and ask that both me and my wife remain standing to do an oath. Took our oaths and then sat down. First question was how did I meet my wife. Gave her the story of how we met and then she proceeded to ask us for standard documentation (Passports, Birth Certificates, EAD card, and Social Security Card for my wife/applicant only). While she gathered all that up she threw a few more questions out like "Have either of you met each other's parents?" "How many brother's and sister's does your wife/husband have?"....and I'm pretty sure that was it. She seemed to be more concerned with paperwork than questions. Next thing she asked for was for our medical packet. Glad we did one because despite having all the original files in front of her from both the K1 process and the AOS submittal she did not check to see if one even existed. In my opinion, despite what everyone says about not having to take one as long as the last one was done within a year I'd go ahead and do it anyways to avoid any problems. Depending on where you go it's not going to cost much more than $300. If that's too much to spare then all I can say is wow.....She then asked us to produce evidence that proved that we were truly married so I gave her a copy of a bank statement that showed we had a joint savings and checking account, a joint tax return from 2018, a cable bill with both our names on it, auto insurance with both our names on it, and my health insurance that showed her as a dependent as well as pictures from this year. Neither of us care much about fancy weddings and ceremonies so all we did was a court marriage with one picture that had my parents and my brother in it and she thought that was cool. I told her that we'd rather spend our money on more practical things like traveling and she really liked all the pictures of our travels. Pretty easy. She didn't really even ask for anything else but I voluntarily gave her an updated I-864 with more recent pay stubs and a recent letter from my employer. She then went through a laundry list of standard questions revolving around some pretty ridiculous topics like drugs, rape, prostitution, espionage, terrorism, gangs......to which my wife obviously has never or would ever partake in. And then that was it. She printed out a document ticked something on it and handed it over to us and asked if we had any other questions. I asked what the timeline would be and she said she just needed to do one final checkup to make sure no documents are missing. If she needed any additional information I would be informed by mail, otherwise, she would approve. She said she had one more interview that day and then she would be reviewing the all the cases for the day. We both thanked her and off we were. I took a closer look at the document she handed us and noticed it said that a decision is unable to be made at this time with a Reason For Continuance section with three reasons. The first box was ticked that stated that our case was being held for review and that at this time they don't require any further documents but if so we would be informed by mail. At the end of the letter it said that 120 days maximum are required before we would hear of a final decision. I pretty much panicked at this point since I hadn't seen many people on here mentioning that letter so I started to research the topic and found that it is apparently pretty standard for them to hand those out now. I don't know why people don't mention it. Step 3: I had to go immediately to the airport to leave town for work and while sitting at the gate I was a bit anxious and checked my USCIS profile for any updates on both the old and new pages and I'd say literally in about 2 hrs after our interview the old site profile status switched to "New Card Being Produced"! So yeah, don't be alarmed by the sheet of paper they give you at the end as it's a standard form they give to everyone. I'd only worry if the other two boxes other than the first one is ticked. Sorry for the long drawn out review but I wanted to make sure I detailed exactly how our experience went so others know what to expect. Harassment Level : Very Good

Timeline Comments: 4



*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.

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