amberL's US Immigration Timeline

Petitioner's Name: Amby Beneficiary's Name: Charles VJ Member: amberL Country: Canada Last Updated: 2009-06-03 Add Comment to Timeline Register or log in to follow this timeline

Immigration Checklist for Amby & Charles:

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? No Consulate : Montreal, Canada I-129F Sent : 2008-09-19 I-129F NOA1 : 2008-09-25 I-129F RFE(s) : 2009-02-13 RFE Reply(s) : 2009-02-21 I-129F NOA2 : 2009-03-09 NVC Received : 2009-03-11 Date Case #, IIN, and BIN assigned : NVC Left : 2009-03-12 Consulate Received : 2009-03-13 Packet 3 Received : 2009-04-07 Packet 3 Sent : 2009-04-07 Packet 4 Received : Interview Date : 2009-07-08 Interview Result : Second Interview (If Required): Second Interview Result: Visa Received : US Entry : Marriage : Comments : P3 recieved in Montreal April 9. First p3 was "lost in the mail" Touched March 4. Touched March 3. Touched March 1. Processing resumed Feb 27 touched Feb 17. touched Feb 13 - RFE touched Feb 12! touched september 30th! Processing Estimates/Stats : Your I-129f was approved in 165 days from your NOA1 date. Your interview took 286 days from your I-129F NOA1 date.

Member Reviews:

Consulate Review: Montreal, Canada Review Topic: K1 Visa Event Description Review Date : July 28, 2009 Embassy Review : Ok so I was 4th in line and called up to window #9. I smilled and was very polite to the "lady" who never identified herself by name and who wasn't wearing a nametag. She was short, maybe 5 feet tall, slim, had long dark hair which was kinda wavy. Right away she told me to put all my documents that were listed on the checklist that they gave us when we came in through the window so I did. She yelled at me because I put the expresspost envelope through the window at the same time as the rest of the documents. So I removed the envelope from the pile and pushed the pile into the slot. Then she yelled some more because I didn't give her the envelope. GRRR I was thinking to myself.. umm ok. So then she asked for the affidavit of support and the supporting documents, so I handed her: 1) 2008 tax return 2) Letter from employer 3) letters from his banks 4) 2 different paystubs from his job and from the National Guard. She made a snotty scrunched up face and made some comment about it being so much papers. But the questions I had e-mailed to the embassy were never really answered, my only reply was " Documents will be evaluated at the interview, goodbye" So I wanted to be safe. Then she asked for a copy of my passport. I had stapled my copies all in order so that the front of the book was on the front. Well of course that was wrong. She said " your biographic form needs to be on the front!" So I ripped off the front cover and put it at the end of my passport copies. Well apparently " your biographic form needs to be on the front!" means to fold over the front page because she had a fit because I ripped off the front page. it's not like I tore it up in her face or anything, I just tore if off in the corner by which it was stapled. So then she says "Why would you rip it??? I dont know why you would rip it????" and is muttering under her breath. Then I didn't have the 156 supplement form. So she gave me one of those to fill out, and a dead pen. I asked her if she had another pen because this one is dead and she snapped " THERE ARE ALWAYS 2 PENS!!!" I said well both the pens, the one you gave me and the one on the string are dead, So she gave me another dirty look and threw a pen through the window. After she had everything she told me to go pay, come back in this room "sit infront of her window, face forward, do not approach the window until she calls me even if there is no one at the window and she is standing there and to not talk to anyone." So after I waited for her to come back with a coffee and stand there for 5 mins before calling me , then went out to the waiting room as instructed and waited and waited to get fingerprinted. After nearly an hour, muffintop went to go and look for her because no one had been called to her window for nearly an hour and the people ahead of me were fingerprinted soon after providing their reciept. I was way too scared to go and look for her, and assumed she was likely in another room back there eating babies, because she already had a coffee. So the second time muffintop went to look, she came back and asked me if she was wearing a yellow shirt, I said no because when I had seen the mean lady she was wearing a brown button up shirt. I guess she changed because right after muffintop sat down, I was called to Window 9 for Fingerprinting. Well she was just as miserable while doing the fingerprinting as she was before. First she reviewed my and Charles' contact info and yelled at me because she couldn't hear me, but it wasn't my fault there was a girl in a green shirt sitting by her window who apparently didn't get the dont talk to anyone lecture because she was very loud. The mean lady was all like "OH YOU HAVE TO TALK LOUDER , THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT STUFF AND YOU WANT US TO HAVE THE CORRECT INFO." Then she turned up the volume on her side. She asked me for Charles's phone number and I was like "... I have him saved as a contact in my phone, I think I have had to actually physically dial his number all of twice." Of course this resulted in another disapproving look. So then the fingerprinting was done, she instructed me to read the instructions and when she tells me "when I say go, put your hand down right away like in the picture and press down." Well stupidly I expected her to say "go" because she said she would say go... instead she just said "left" and yelled " I don't see antyhing on the screen." Finally I was finished with her and called to interview room 7. The interviewer I had was about 65, wearing a black suit, yellow shirt and yellow tie. He was very very nice. When I walked in he asked me if I was alone or if my fiance was with me, I said something like unfortunately I am all alone After a little bit of chit chat, he looked at the employment letter and said," Oh your fiance works for the government." and that was it. Never asked me what he does, and I'm glad because I have a rough idea but I don't really know because of the security clearances. I was asked how we met and how many times I have been there, and he asked me to tell him something about the first time we met, so I told him about going to the South Carolina Aquarium and seeing a fish species named " Slippery Dick " and how that resulted in many laughs the entire visit, and how it became our own inside joke and how it was quite possibly the worst fish species name ever. Then he asked what I did for work and if I had any potential job leads, I told him I recently graduated and have a volunteer position lined up at the aquarium and that was it. I think my interview lasted a bit longer than most, but only because I went off on the slippery dick tangent. Then when I got out of the interview room, I was like did I really tell him about the fish, but it was ok because he was laughing. The lady who I handed my documents was just so nasty, I really hope that not that many other people have to deal with her, or maybe she was just having a bad day, or they ran out of babies for her to eat... She made it seem like I was disorganized, but I had everything lined up together and knew exactly where everything was and no way had 4 copies of this mystery form. And interestingly when she came back from her hour whatever she was doing, she had a stack of 10 files and there was no way that she had seen 10 people, only about 5 people had been processed from what I could tell at that point. Rating : Very Poor

POE Review: CDN-USA Border Event Description Entry Date : 2009-08-24 Embassy Review : I crossed at the Peace Bridge in Buffalo NY. We arrived at the little booth at the Peace Bridge at about 1 30 pm on a Monday afternoon. There was a bit more traffic than I had expected but only had about 10 cars infront of us. Ahead of us there was a pick up truck pulling one of those old style silver camper trailers and the border patrol guy was going over it with a fine tooth comb. Well this was a warning as to what we should expect. We pulled up, said I was entering on a K1 visa. Well the guy had no idea what that was at all. He asked me for my " card", I told him I didnt have a card I have my passport with the visa and a package of papers that I am supposed to hand in with my visa. Well he didnt want the envelope, he just took our passports ( me and my fiance) and told us to go park in the full sun. We were travelling with 2 cats, and no other parking spot could be offerred that wasnt in full sun and I wasnt initially allowed to bring them in. Yay leaving 2 cats in full sun in the August heat. I really should contact PETA about this. previous reviews I had read indicated the whole crossing would on average take about an hour. HAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. On a positive note they had recently been remodelling the little building at the Peace Bridge so it looked nice. We walked into the waiting area, there were almost no free seats. It was about 1 55 pm. We wait and wait, both of us take turns going out to see that the cats are ok. They are obviously very hot, angry and panting. Our flight was at 6 22 pm so we thought we still had some time. After an hour there is NO ONE in the waiting room that was in there when we arrived. No one in there will even make eye contact with you, they are soo heartless. I asked the guy at the door how long it was going to take, cause I had pets in the full sun he said honestly I dont know, and I mentioned that I had been waiting for 90 minutes now and no one had called my name, he seemed concerned and said I should try and catch someone's attention. There were 5 employees standing behind the glass leaning up on some filling cabinets laughing anmd carrying on for the entire 90 minutes and despite waving etc no one would come over to the window or address me.Finally a mean agent came over and I asked her if I could bring in my animals she asked how big they were, I said 2 cats in one carrier she laughed at me and said no. Its not like I said I was bringing in a rabid great dane. We had been sitting by a NY woman who was coming back from Canada and was made to come in and pay some duty, she was really nice, because when she was called up she told the border guard she dealt with that we had been waiting a long time and had animals in the car. A nice blonde agent waved me up, and the mean and nasty agent also came over, the mean one said I was next in line and that it was taking about 2 hours to process immigration cases today. I told her that by now it had already been 2 hours and 10 minutes. The nice blonde one wrote me a note to go and get my cats. So I went out to fetch Nexus and Marla. They were extrememely hot and one of them had went to the bathroom in the carrier. So here I am carrying this reaking heavy carrier into this waiting room full of screaming kids. At least I had this small victory.And I thought hey I am next in line it cant be that much longer. Our rental car had to be back by 4 30, and it is now 5 pm and we are just being called up. Our flight boards in just over an hour. I am freaking out. We are late on the car, my cats pissed themselves, ive been in this building for hours, and it looks liek we might miss our flight. So we get called into a little fishbowl room at the back. The mean agent is there and talking to the guy at the booth we were called up to, she makes a comment about how she told us we were next in line... yea that was over an hour ago. During this hour no one else was called to the little room at the end of the hall, and those 5 people remained talking at the filling cabinets. So I was pretty pissed. I made a comment about how some other helpful employee let me bring in my animals that had been sitting in full sun for hours. Processing went fairly quick at room at the immigration room at the end of the hall. We were on our way. We took the car back, stuggled with our luggage and the 30 pound cat carrier and made it to check in and through security. We each had to carry a urine soaked cat through the metal detector... yay... and it was 6pm by now. The plane was already boarding when we got to the gate, the furthest gate away of course. But we made it!!! And the cats were so worn out that they did not make a single noise on the plane. And to anyone who was worried about travelling with their pets, no one checked vet papers or anything, and that part was a breeze, except them being alone in the hot sun. Gotta love taking 4 hours to process my immigration paperwork. After the 3rd hour I was thinking about my experience in Montreal and really starting to wonder if it all was worth it.If Charles hadn't been there this time I would have prolly had a mental breakdown. Oh and after all that they charge you $6 to enter the US. Seriously? I guess thats the customer service $6 will buy you. Harassment Level : High

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