MrsP2010's US Immigration Timeline
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Petitioner's Name: Bob
Beneficiary's Name: Helen
VJ Member: MrsP2010
Country: United Kingdom
Last Updated: 2021-06-23
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Immigration Checklist for Bob & Helen:
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USCIS 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 : |
California Service Center |
| Transferred? |
No |
| Consulate : |
London, United Kingdom |
| Marriage (if applicable): |
2010-10-05 |
| I-130 Sent : |
2011-02-25 |
| I-130 NOA1 : |
2011-03-01 |
| I-130 RFE : |
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| I-130 RFE Sent : |
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| I-130 Approved : |
2011-06-13 |
| NVC Received : |
2011-07-11 |
| Received DS-261 / AOS Bill : |
2011-07-21 |
| Pay AOS Bill : |
2011-07-29 |
| Receive I-864 Package : |
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| Send AOS Package : |
2011-08-31 |
| Submit DS-261 : |
2011-07-21 |
| Receive IV Bill : |
2011-08-01 |
| Pay IV Bill : |
2011-10-07 |
| Send IV Package : |
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| Receive Instruction and Interview appointment letter : |
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| Case Completed at NVC : |
2011-10-13 |
| NVC Left : |
2011-11-03 |
| Consulate Received : |
2011-11-07 |
| Packet 3 Received : |
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| Packet 3 Sent : |
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| Packet 4 Received : |
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| Interview Date : |
2011-12-02 |
| Interview Result : |
Approved
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Second Interview
(If Required): |
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| Second Interview Result: |
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| Visa Received : |
2011-12-11 |
| US Entry : |
2011-12-17 |
| Comments : |
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Processing
Estimates/Stats : |
Your I-130 was approved in 104 days from your NOA1 date.
Your interview took 276 days from your I-130 NOA1 date. |
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Lifting Conditions
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| Event |
Date |
| CIS Office : |
California Service Center |
| Date Filed : |
2013-06-26 |
| NOA Date : |
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| RFE(s) : |
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| Bio. Appt. : |
2013-11-13 |
| Interview Date : |
2014-07-03 |
| Approval / Denial Date : |
2014-07-24 |
| Approved : |
Yes |
| Got I551 Stamp : |
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| Green Card Received : |
2014-08-01 |
| Comments : |
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Citizenship
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| Event |
Date |
| Service Center : |
Online |
| CIS Office : |
Nashville TN |
| Date Filed : |
2020-11-09 |
| NOA Date : |
2020-11-09 |
| Bio. Appt. : |
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| Interview Date : |
2021-06-22 |
| Approved : |
Yes |
| Oath Ceremony : |
2021-06-22 |
| Comments : |
Friendly, a little intense, some additional questioning due to my own strange circumstances, nice officer though. Said Pledge right there in the office, was done in maybe 40 mins. |
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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 : |
December 3, 2011 |
| Embassy Review : |
I woke up at 4:30am to get the train in to London, got to the embassy queue at about 7:30am, there were a good 30 people already there. The queue is a confusing huddle of people right at the front of the building, and it looked like it started in both directions. We started getting let through the security hut at around 8am. I got in to the place, got my number (looks like I was the second I-visa to check in! yay!) went to the loo and then sat down by the screens.
The room is big, with the left side made up of windows so you can look down over the square outside. There's tonnes of rows of chairs on both halves of the room facing towards a row of screens that come up with a big yellow display each time a ticket is called.
After what can only be about 10 mins, my ticket got called and I had to go to window 13. The lady there asked me to identify my packet of paperwork from the photo attached to the front and asked me if the photo was recent. She asked me my husband's name, and then she started ticking things off a checklist. For those of you wondering, the reason this takes 10 mins is that you have to stand there while the woman wanders off, fills in paperwork and annotates things. She also had a hard time opening my photos up because of her long nails. She looked at my passport and told me they couldn't use it, I asked her to check this, and then she came back and confirmed that the 'big boss' (I couldn't see him, he was hidden away in a special room I think!) said no. I asked if this affected the interview and she was like, "oh... umm, well I don't see why you can't continue, you'll just have to get a new passport before we can issue your visa." It was a fair point. I did fingerprints for her (cue sweaty slimy fingers) and then she asked me a bit about my overstay after my wedding - it seemed like she was concerned for me. I told her it was 141 days, which shouldn't be a problem as per the research I'd done, and she said it wasn't her place to inform me on this but that I should have gone down a K1 route to 'save all this trouble'. Well thanks lady, now I'm panicking more than ever!!
I went and sat back down and waited for round 2. Because the first lady had questioned me more heavily than I anticipated, I was shaking like a leaf. I honestly don't think they know just how stressful this is. It felt like huge tremors of fear kept snaking down my spine, and was staring at the door and watching the N-visas finishing up and leaving and wished I could do that too.
About 45 minutes and one unread copy of That's Life! later, they called my number. I walked down the corridor and over to window 14 where a young woman with a stern face awaited me. She didn't smile when I said hello and this made me nervous. She asked me a couple of basic questions about Bobby and what he did (as suspected she questioned me about why I said a different job to what he'd filled in, and I explained his changing of jobs), and then got straight into the dates I had filled in on my form for when I was in America.
It seems that I didn't actually reference my point of exit to Tijuana anywhere in my file, so the lady and I had a long discussion about where I'd been before it clicked with her that the entry stamp I got in July 2010 was me returning from Mexico. At this point it sort of turned into an interrogation about what I did in Mexico and how long I'd stayed. She maybe asked me 10 questions on this and got shouty with me. At this point I was convinced she was about to deny me as she seemed a bit personally annoyed by me.
Then she suddenly dropped the subject of Mexico and asked a few more questions about he wedding. When did we get engaged? When and where did we get married? Who was there? What were their names? Who else came? What did we do afterwards? How long have we been married? What was the date of the wedding (I noted she'd already asked me this one).
Then she reached over to pull out a blue form. I swear if I hadn't been leaning so much on the ledge that my legs would have given way. She started writing my name and case number on the top, and I was beadily watching where she was going to tick (was this going to be a cold, hard refusal??!). She asked me as my passport could not be used, was I going to get a new one? I said I was, and then she filled in the top box ('We're refusing you') and then the second box ('You can overcome the refusal above by doing the following...') and then the box on the back (Passport) and then put a great whopping star next to the bit that said to ring them when I'd got my new passport so they could taxi it back to put the visa in. I asked her to clarify does this meant I'd been approved pending a new passport? And she simply said 'yes'. I thanked her, and left, walked back along the corridor and up to DX secure desk, asked them if I still needed to pay (apparently not - I need to pay when I ring them) and then through the door of glory back to the outside world.
In summary then, WTF. It was an awful interview, although I think mainly brought on by my own stupidity. I'll be happier when I get the new passport in my hands with the visa in it. I think the interview woman could have been much nicer about things, but I guess it's her job. I hope she never has to put her marriage and life on the line for scrutiny like that, and if she does I hope someone is a bit more understanding than she was to me.
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| Rating : |
Poor |
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POE Review: CDN-USA Border
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| Event |
Description |
| Entry Date : |
2011-12-17 |
| Embassy Review : |
Actually my POE was through Calgary airport flying between London Heathrow and LAX.
I found the POE reviews quite vague and a little unhelpful, most of them were about K-1s, and as a CR-1 I began to get really nervous as there was no info out there that really told me what to expect. So...
When I got off the plane with my new friend, we got our bags and she queued up for her next flight. Then a man in uniform told me I had to effectively leave the airporty bit through the arrivals section and go in a lift and then through a corridor to preclearance to the USA.
It was really empty, and I went up to the man in his little booth (the one that normally takes your fingerprints and asks you where you are staying. Then he took my passport and asked me my purpose, so I told him immigrating!! YAY! And he asked was it VWP? I said no, CR-1 so he wandered off through the 'secondary inspection' marked door. Few seconds of standing there alone and a little self-conscious, he came back and told me to park my luggage outside and take a seat inside. Just me and some dude chilling in there for about 5 mins, when my name was called up and I went up to another desk, this time it felt more like an office than an interrogation room.
I ended up standing there for about 20 mins while he really slowly filled in forms. FYI, the 'brown/white' mystery envelope just has a photocopy of all your NVC forms and I-130 stuff. Nothing sinister in there, no red-ink letters telling them to question me on anything (this is what I had made myself expect!). It was about 10 mins of him stapling things to other things, moving photos from one page to another, writing numbers in boxes and looking confused at the HUUUUGEE bookcase of forms while he tried to work out how to process my visa. I think he asked me where I came from and where I was heading, but it was in no way a questioning, more just getting a background for my reason for travelling.
Once he'd done, he stamped the passport - on the page where the visa is and over the center of the two pages, and he also stamped the form that was stapled to my visa package when it first got posted to me, then handed me a pink form with what looked like Comic Sans telling me the process for conditions removals in 2 years. He gave me back my passport and started doing something unrelated, I had to prompt him to tell me he was finished with me, no 'Welcome' or anything (even through I suppose technically I'm not in USA yet!)
Very much paperwork and fingerprints, no Q + As at all. |
| Harassment Level : |
Low |
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Local US CIS Office Review: Memphis TN
Review Topic: cis_topic
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
July 4, 2014 |
| Embassy Review : |
Super simple interview - we had some gaps in our time together and I was sure they would come up, but she just wanted to confirm answers I'd already put in my packet. I could see red pen, highlighter and sticky notes all over my packet, which was a little bit intimidating.
The lady interviewing me was incredibly friendly - there were no "are you sure?!" or "this seems odd" style comments - she even added "if you can remember" when asking my ex-husband's birthday. I honestly started to forget I was being interviewed, and spent most of the time checking out her impressive engagement ring...!
After about 10 minutes she told me they'd missed doing background checks on 'a few packets', but once that was done my GC would be issued. She assured me, "it'll probably not cause any issues, and in that case you should get it in the next 30-60 days" :D Good thing I'm as clean as a whistle!
UPDATE: On 7-25-14 I got notice that my GC was in process and being sent out to me - just over 3 weeks after my interview. My whole ROC (with divorce waiver) process began on 10-7-13, which calculates to 9 months and 18 days, with no RFEs. I hope this gives hope to those who are in a similar boat as me, and need reassurance - sometimes these things just take longer. Crack open a beverage of your choice and enjoy the fact that you're 1 day closer to your resolution. 
(updated on July 27, 2014) |
| Harassment Level : |
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
