cheekyerica's US Immigration Timeline
Immigration Checklist for Erica & Mark:
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USCIS DCF I-130 Petition:
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Dept of State IR-1/CR-1 Visa:
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USCIS I-751 Petition:
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USCIS N-400 Petition:
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IR-1/CR-1 Visa
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| Event |
Date |
| Service Center : |
Texas Service Center |
| Transferred? |
No |
| Consulate : |
London, United Kingdom |
| Marriage (if applicable): |
2006-11-23 |
| I-130 Sent : |
2011-11-09 |
| I-130 NOA1 : |
2011-11-23 |
| I-130 RFE : |
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| I-130 RFE Sent : |
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| I-130 Approved : |
2012-02-17 |
| NVC Received : |
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| Received DS-261 / AOS Bill : |
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| Pay AOS Bill : |
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| Receive I-864 Package : |
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| Send AOS Package : |
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| Submit DS-261 : |
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| Receive IV Bill : |
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| Pay IV Bill : |
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| Send IV Package : |
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| Receive Instruction and Interview appointment letter : |
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| Case Completed at NVC : |
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| NVC Left : |
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| Consulate Received : |
2011-11-30 |
| Packet 3 Received : |
2012-02-18 |
| Packet 3 Sent : |
2012-03-16 |
| Packet 4 Received : |
2012-03-30 |
| Interview Date : |
2012-05-09 |
| Interview Result : |
Approved
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Second Interview
(If Required): |
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| Second Interview Result: |
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| Visa Received : |
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| US Entry : |
2012-06-18 |
| Comments : |
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Processing
Estimates/Stats : |
Your I-130 was approved in 86 days from your NOA1 date.
Your interview took 168 days from your I-130 NOA1 date. |
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Member Reviews:
Consulate Review: London, United Kingdom
Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
May 11, 2012 |
| Embassy Review : |
May 8th - Took the train on Tuesday afternoon from Warwick to London Marylebone (we booked with thetrainline.com) and our fares (round trip, off peak hours) were a combined total of £20.
May 9th *Interview Day!*
05:00 -Alarms went off, got picked for snooze (ha hah like we were going to sleep!) and they went off again as we lay in bed discussing what we thought might happen.
05:15 - Up, eating breakfast, drinking tea and doing all that grooming and dressing jazz.
06:00 - Decided that was a good time to start going through the paper work again since Mark wanted me to quiz him about questions we might be asked, and also show him the DS-230 part 2 again (that part with all the yes/ no boxes) etc. It was at this point that I realized that I'd left the spare copy of it at home on the desk. I cursed and said we'd have to try to print out a copy at Gould's and fill it in while we're in line and waiting----all this just in case the embassy had misplaced it etc).
06:40 - Left for the pharmacy & took all our stuff since we'd be going to the embassy from there.
06:50 - Arrived waaaay early at Goulds (they don't technically open until 07:30). At 7:00 one of the guys showed up.
07:10 - Pharmacy guy took pity on us and let us in out of the drizzle and let us rent a computer to print out a copy of the (blank) ds-230 form.
07:30 - Paid for the computer time, and backpack/ phone storage. Left for the Embassy.
07:34 - Arrived at Embassy, found a there was already a line with about 40 or so people in it. It was drizzling at that time *it rained almost the whole day*.
08:00 - Got to front of the line & presented the interview appointment letter and my email confirmation from the embassy that I was on the visitor list. (I was really glad about this since prior to us getting to the front of the line they had already turned away 4 "partners". I was worried they'd make me wait outside and only let Mark in.)
A number of people in front of us got sent away because they had their electronic items on them (car key, couple of cell phones and--of all things--a calculator.) When they say no electronics they mean it.
08:03 - got inside the Embassy to the reception desk (the girl at the desk was talking to another about how fully booked they were for the day and the excessive numbers of applicants for the day). We got our ticket (I number) and went inside to take a seat.
The place was pretty big (and empty at that time) and the bank of screens all seemed to be out of order so you had to listen to the overhead speaker for the number. The Embassy was using a computerized voice to call out the # being served at the windows but occasionally there would be a human making the number announcement over the loudspeaker's announcement. I can only guess that was because people were finishing more quickly at some windows than others.
08:25 - after a lot of N-#'s got called and some fluff up about E-#'s (all I could think of were the food additive colors whenever one was called). I was hurriedly trying to fill out the DS-230 forms again and going off the other sheets of info I had in our accordion folder), and stressing because I hadn't brought mark's old passport for the previous dates of entry etc).
Our # was called and we headed over to window #1.
We were served by The Famous Dragonlady of Asiatic Origins. She was quite intimidating and also spoke quickly (and at a low volume that made it difficult to hear her over the hubbub in the rest of the room). Actually they ought to call that a chamber because of the high ceilings and acoustics of the place!
She had Mark place his fingers on the scanners, etc.
She was very quick and then we realized that I'd made another (major) foul up....She wanted the originals of our marriage certificate (no problem) and Mark's birth certificate (again no problem) but also copies of each!! *totally my bad, but I thought that since those had been included with our packet we'd sent in that we didn't need the copies now.
The Dragonlady was saying that they can't be processed, that we were supposed to have copies, and that all she could do was actually keep our originals.
Not great, but we did have a spare MC at home (d'oh hindsight!), and I was certain that we'd be able to get a duplicate bc for mark, so I told her to go ahead and take the originals. (We weren't going to go home without a visa because of two stupid, 10 cent copies, you know?!)
So she said that was ok.
She gave Mark his Chest X-rays on CD and told him they needed to be given to customs when he entered the country. And not to lose them.
She asked for the I-864 and I gave her that, as well as offering her the bank statements from our joint account, and the ones from the main savings which is what we were using as "liquid assets" for the application. She didn't want the joint papers but she took the others and asked if that that was ok because we wouldn't get them back. Said they would have to stay in the case file etc. She said some other stuff, gave us the pink courier form and then told us to go to window 12 and pay for our visa & bring the receipt back to her and then wait to be called for the 2nd interview.
08:30 - popped over to window 12 and paid for the visa. Took the receipt back to The Dragonlady and went to sit down and wait.
The N-#'s droned on and on (I really don't know how the embassy staff, or the couriers can deal with that non stop all day!) and Mark was filling out his courier form.
09:05 - Our number was called and we went to the window. We got a guy who looked quite a bit like a younger, better looking version of Ricky Gervais from "the Office".
He was pretty friendly and not as scary as we'd been expecting.
He said hello and we got to the beginning of the interview. We had to take an oath that everything we said was true etc. He then asked us why we wanted to move...to which I answered: "Do you want the honest answer?" (He looked a bit surprised by that and said "Yes, that would be best." and I said "Because I hate it here!" Then Mark chimed in (since this was his interview after all!) and said that "She'd been here for 6 years and it hadn't done her (me) any favors) and that because she missed home so much now it's my turn."
He seemed ok with that answer and then asked what I do for work (I explained about the secretary stuff and having been a housewife for the last bit. He asked if I was going to work in the states and I said yes. He asked Mark what he does/ plans to do in the states and he told him and that wasn't an issue and then he asked where we were going to be living, and we told him, and then he asked if I had family there etc. He might have asked a coupe of other things but frankly I can't remember.
He gave us back the originals of our Marriage Certificate & Mark's long from birth certificate (I guess Dragonlady took pity on us and copied them after all!??) and the He approved the visa (I have never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever heard sweeter words in my life!) He interrupted our jumping up and down by telling us about the packet that would come via courier, then wished us luck with the move, and told us to go to the courier desk and pay for that stuff.
09:20 - Paid the courier and left! Done! Woooo!
All in all a considerably easier and shorter process than we'd expected! |
| Rating : |
Very Good |
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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
