jerval's US Immigration Timeline
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Petitioner's Name: Jeremy Beneficiary's Name: Valeria VJ Member: jerval Country: Chile Last Updated: 2023-09-05 |
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Immigration Checklist for Jeremy & Valeria:
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Timeline Comments: 24
J&J4ever on 2020-06-19 said:Hi! We are a fellow Chilean-American couple and we just DQ'd as well. Do you have any idea how long we all might be waiting for an interview appointment? Good luck to you both!
Jerval on 2020-06-19 said:Hey congratulations! Nice to hear there are others in Chile in the same process. I wrote the Chilean embassy and they told me that so far the embassy is closed but that I should write back July 1 to see if anything has changed. Health minister Paris said that Santiago will be under quarantine until at least July 1 so I think we'll just have to wait until then. Here's the response they sent me:
Thank you for your email. The embassy is closed and all services have been suspended. We dont have a tentative date as when the consular section will be able to go back to regular duties.
We advise not to have the medical exam as it has a limited validity and it might expire during the waiting process.
Plese contact us within two weeks to see if we have any updates on the situation.
sincerely,
Immigrant visa unit
Santiago, Chile (me)
IsItLekker on 2020-08-16 said:Congratulations on receiving your interview date you guys! Did you expedite your case?
Jerval on 2020-08-16 said:Thank you! No expedite here, we just wrote the embassy and they told us to set up our appointment online. If you're in Chile and DQ'd write to the embassy and they can assist.
Jerval on 2020-08-27 said:Updated interview date... The embassy rescheduled the interview for nearly a month later. It was supposed to be 8-28, now it's 9-25. Will try to expedite.
J&J4ever on 2020-08-27 said:Ugh, I'm sorry to hear that. We are still in limbo with NVC trying to get them to send our case over to the consulate so that we can schedule an interview through the portal. For some reason, it was not as straightforward for us but I think we are finally making progress. It has been an extremely confusing and nonlinear process - here's hoping we both get our interviews squared away soon!
Jerval on 2020-08-28 said:Yes, it's very annoying! I'll post here if we can finagel an expedite. Let me know when you guys get the interview too. Good luck!
Jerval on 2020-09-09 said:Very annoying... My wife was supposed to have her interview on Sept 8. She arrived and they told her that her case hadn't been sent to the embassy yet and that they couldn't conduct her interview! Nuts... So I wrote an email to nvc, the embassy and our representative. At 3am last night we received an email that the NVC had sent our case to the embassy and this morning the embassy wrote us giving my wife an interview this Friday! Roller coaster ride...
Anyway, if anyone reads this, it's best to ask for an nvc expedite and make sure that the embassy has your case before the interview. Someone messed up somewhere and the case wasn't sent to the embassy. Thank God things are working out.
IsItLekker on 2020-09-11 said:Good luck at your interview tomorrow! Keep us posted! :)
Jerval on 2020-09-12 said:Thank you! Visa was approved! They apologized a lot for the problems and delays and said that on Monday they'll ship the passport via DHL and it should arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday. Only a few questions, very basic stuff. The agent had already looked over the case. Still took about two hours though.
Jmc85 on 2020-09-22 said:Hi there! Congrats on your approval!
We are also an American-Chilean couple. We just got DQ'd sept 18th. Have not received interview letter yet. May I ask you what you wrote to the chilean embassy in order to get a visa appointment? What did they ask you at the interview?
J&J4ever on 2020-09-22 said:Hello! I think we both had slightly different experiences but in our case, we had to write to the consulate to understand how to get our case sent from NVC to them. They told us to request an expedite. When I wrote to NVC I received this response:
Dear Sir/Madam:
If you want to request that we expedite this case, please provide us with more information. Please send your request with the supporting documentation (such as medical records, a letter from a medical doctor, or deployment orders) to NVCexpedite@state.gov.
Enter the case number in the subject line of the email. Within the email itself, please include all of the following:
The reason for the request
The petitioner's name and date of birth
The beneficiary's name and date of birth
The beneficiary's two local contact phone numbers.
When we receive this information, we will send your request to the appropriate U.S. Embassy or Consulate for review.
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We followed these instructions and after a few weeks our case was sent over and we were assigned an interview date. I should note that our reason for expedite was because the Consulate told us to ask for one (we just attached a PDF of the email that said as much) so I recommend you start by writing to the Consulate so you have that documented. Good luck!
Jerval on 2020-09-22 said:Awesome, thanks for the update. Oh.. FYI, this is very important...
When the embassy sends you the passport with the visa and documents, you CAN open that envelope. The agent at the embassy said you couldn't but she was wrong. Everything was digital. My wife got a manilla envelope with all our docs, her passport and the sheet with info for the payment. It didn't say do not open and we were afraid to open it, but her passport was inside so she had to open it.
Just a confusing step and poor communication with the US Embassy in Santiago.
Jmc85 on 2020-09-22 said:Thank you so much for you help!
Jerval on 2020-09-22 said:Our reason for expedite was I had a job starting soon and wanted to be together with my family. I am the petitioner. I included my job offer letter in the expedite email.
Jmc85 on 2020-09-22 said:This is what the consulate answered:
Thank you for your email. In case you want your case sent to us, before finishing the process with the NVC please contact the following email and explain what are your reasons for emergency. Please send an email to NVCexpedite@state.gov
Oh well.. I don't have an emergency. I will just have to wait then.
Thank you for sharing!
Jmc85 on 2020-10-19 said:Hi there! may I ask you what the medical evaluation process was for you guys? were you able to get everything done in 1 day?
J&J4ever on 2020-10-19 said:Hi Jmc85, we just went through the medical evaluation (our interview is Thursday). Based on our experience, it is not possible to do in 1 day. The doctor set an appointment where my husband went and got a series of test orders, that he then had to go and take at a separate clinic (this took an additional ~day). He then had to call the doctor back and schedule a second evaluation - the actual evaluation, which took place about a week later. The doctor then had to finalize the documents and my husband will go pick them up on Wednesday. I imagine that if you call and explain that you need it done quickly because you have an appointment very soon or are coming from a region they may be more accommodating with a quicker turnaround but for us the process took about 2.5 weeks total. Note that the doctor only answers the phone to schedule appointments from about 12-2pm each day and it can be tricky to connect. I'm not sure if others had different experiences but I think with the backlog and COVID things are a little hectic, or that was my impression.
Jerval on 2020-10-19 said:We had a similar experience. It took a few days. The doctor was quite difficult to work with honestly. He kept on saying call me tomorrow and we'll set it up. Make sure you bring all the docs when you see him. He asked for things we didn't have. Also the urine and blood exams are done in a separate building, everything is right near Plaza Italia, so be careful. The urine test costs $100.000 and you have to do it with a nurse looking at you. This is in addition to the doctor's fees.
Jmc85 on 2020-10-20 said:Thank you guys for sharing!
My husband's interview is on November 13th and he loves in Concepción.
It's been very difficult dealing with this doctor. he told my husband to just call him once he is in Santiago to set up the appointment.
What documents did he ask you? We only have his vaccination records, photos, interview letter.
Jerval on 2020-10-20 said:I think that's it for the documents. Good thing your husband has his vaccination records, my wife didn't but she was fine. Yeah, he's very annoying, wouldn't let us set up an appointment either. Just call me tomorrow he kept on saying.
Jmc85 on 2020-10-20 said:may I ask what the name of the lab near plaza italia is called?
Jerval on 2020-10-20 said:I don't remember the name but it's on the southwest corner of Seminario and Av Providencia.
Jmc85 on 2020-10-20 said:thank you!
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