New visa procedure---I don't like it!

[ScottinCrimea]

Because things were not going according to any of the posted guidelines with my wife's visa application, I got on the phone with them at the NVC and learned the new procedure they are using.  They are doing pretty much everything at the NVC now before they transfer the file to the embassy.  Here's the process now:

Once the petition arrives at the NVC, they send the petitioner the affidavit of support papers and the applicant the choice of agent papers.  Before, the Affidavit of support documents were to be sent to the petitioner to bring with her to her interview.  Now they must be sent to the NVC for review and everything is placed on hold until these are received.  After the petitioner returns her choice of agent form, they send her or her agent a bill for the $380 that she formerly would pay at the embassy.  Again, everything is put on hold until they receive this.  After receiving the payment, they send her a packet describing what she must send to the NVC.  These include forms I-230 parts 1 and 2, the originals of her birth certificate, the marriage certificate, the police certificate, etc., all with certified translations.  Before she would bring these with her to the interview.  Now they want them all sent to the NVC.  Again, all processing is placed on hold until these are received.  Once they have received all of this and reviewed them, only at that time is the file forwarded to the embassy to arrange the interview.  I don't know what the embassy does after this as we haven't gotten that far yet.  Before, everything would already be in the embassy in Kiev.  Instead, we've been waiting three weeks for my wife to get the letter from the NVC telling her what she has to send back.  It will be at least another 2 weeks for everything to get mailed back to New Hampshire.  It's strange because WayneB sent his initial petition to the same USCIS a couple of weeks after ours, they went through the old procedure and he already has his girl in Texas with him.  The bottom line is that with the new procedure you're going to have to count on it taking a lot longer.

[William3rd]

I130 cases go like this-

USCIS (DHS)approval, then to NVC (DOS portal)
NVC fee bill and 864 fee
Document packet
NVC forwards to the DOS consulate with jurisdiction

The end of DCF changed the alien relative process for those living abroad

[MaxxumUSA]

Because things were not going according to any of the posted guidelines with my wife's visa application, I got on the phone with them at the NVC and learned the new procedure they are using.  They are doing pretty much everything at the NVC now before they transfer the file to the embassy.  Here's the process now:

Once the petition arrives at the NVC, they send the petitioner the affidavit of support papers and the applicant the choice of agent papers.  Before, the Affidavit of support documents were to be sent to the petitioner to bring with her to her interview.  Now they must be sent to the NVC for review and everything is placed on hold until these are received.  After the petitioner returns her choice of agent form, they send her or her agent a bill for the $380 that she formerly would pay at the embassy.  Again, everything is put on hold until they receive this.  After receiving the payment, they send her a packet describing what she must send to the NVC.  These include forms I-230 parts 1 and 2, the originals of her birth certificate, the marriage certificate, the police certificate, etc., all with certified translations.  Before she would bring these with her to the interview.  Now they want them all sent to the NVC.  Again, all processing is placed on hold until these are received.  Once they have received all of this and reviewed them, only at that time is the file forwarded to the embassy to arrange the interview.  I don't know what the embassy does after this as we haven't gotten that far yet.  Before, everything would already be in the embassy in Kiev.  Instead, we've been waiting three weeks for my wife to get the letter from the NVC telling her what she has to send back.  It will be at least another 2 weeks for everything to get mailed back to New Hampshire.  It's strange because WayneB sent his initial petition to the same USCIS a couple of weeks after ours, they went through the old procedure and he already has his girl in Texas with him.  The bottom line is that with the new procedure you're going to have to count on it taking a lot longer.

Scott,

Is this K-3 process or are they making this the process for K-1 also?

I'm currently in process with the K-1 for Elena.  Suckers sent me an RFE after sitting on my packet for one month longer than the normal approval time.  I JUST received the RFE yesterday but they claim it was mailed on the 20th.  No NOA2 yet and I filed Mar 13th at VSC which usually approves in two to three weeks.  UGH!

Just to let you know you're not alone in being frustrated...  And...  I have a lawyer and still have delays.  This sucks.

Best of luck to you.  If you're like me I am sure you just want your woman by your side.

- Dave

[Bruce]

Expect a headache every step of the way.  That way you'll be pleasantly suprised if anything happens to go right.  The waiting game is the hardest part.

[ScottinCrimea]

William, the process isn't as simple as you write.  Before they didn't wait for the affidavit of support documents, the processing fee or the original documents from the petitioner before forwarding it to the embassy.  Now all these things are asked for sequentially, which means a series of delays while each one is taken care of.  As far as this maybe being different because I was living abroad,  I began the process when I was in Texas, using that as my resident address, so everything is being treated normally, not as if I am living abroad when I file the petition.

Dave,  I don't know if this is the new process for the K-1 or not, but I suspect it is.  It seems that they are trying to remove as much of the process as possible from the embassy.  Since the NVC will have already seen all of the original documents, reviewed the affidavit of support and received the processing payment, there isn't anything left for the embassy to do but the interview.  I too have been frustrated by their send and receive dates.  for example, they first told me that they had sent the request for documents to my wife on April 12th.  Yesterday I was told that it was "The week of the 16th" whatever that means.  They had sent something to my Texas address that they also claimed was sent out on the 12th and still hasn't arrived there or been returned to them.  I sent something to them from Utah and according to them it was received 10 days later, which I know just isn't true.  I suspect the new regulations have them a bit confused and overloaded right now and things aren't being handled too efficiently.

[William3rd]

As of last week, what you describe is not the K procedure. That is the I130 procedure. And they have treated I130 petitions that way for quite some time.

DCF used to get around all of that stuff. Ex- payment at the embassy of the fees.

Most of the cases that I have done go one month from approval to receipt of fee bills and one month from receipt of the funds to the next packet for the 864 and application. Any delays have been based on the time necessary to complete the requirements for submittal.

I see where you are talking about differences if they are asking for originals of documents. We havent seen that request for original documents yet. . . .

[ScottinCrimea]

Was it also customary before for them to request that the affidavit of support documents be sent to them rather than to the petitioner to bring to the interview?

[William3rd]

For I130? Yes- for the last year or so.

Fee bill notice, then 864/230/doc packet. Separate

These procedures are the culmination of years of attempts to reorganize and establish a central repository of petition cases.

Twenty-some years ago, the petition files were kept at the individual consulates. After the storming of the Tehran embassy and the loss of all their files, the State department started thinking on ways to centralize files here in the US.

[ScottinCrimea]

The weird thing about asking for the originals is that they strongly suggest that the petitioner use an agent in the US because of potential postal difficulties, but this requires that she use the postal service to send her originals to her agent.

the issue of the safety of the embassies does make sense, though.

[bgreed]

Ok we plan on getting married in UA in July so if I have my puny little brain wrapped around this right (which is highly unlikely)  I should see if I can get the form for her to select me as her agent and while I am there to fill out the I230 so I can send it to the NVC rather than wait for the two weeks for it to arrive from UA.  If I am her agent here then there has to be someway to shortcut all this mailing back and forth crap.  And as far as letting any government agency have originals of important documents they can kiss my you know what.  No way I would ever let them have anything but certified copies.  If they were to lose(I mean misplace) those documents you could really be up the creek.  In the FSU these things aren't so easy to get as here.

[Simoni]

Ok we plan on getting married in UA in July so if I have my puny little brain wrapped around this right (which is highly unlikely)  I should see if I can get the form for her to select me as her agent and while I am there to fill out the I230 so I can send it to the NVC rather than wait for the two weeks for it to arrive from UA.  If I am her agent here then there has to be someway to shortcut all this mailing back and forth crap.  And as far as letting any government agency have originals of important documents they can kiss my you know what.  No way I would ever let them have anything but certified copies.  If they were to lose(I mean misplace) those documents you could really be up the creek.  In the FSU these things aren't so easy to get as here.

Given the recent track records experienced by Dar and Scott, perhaps you should consider the K-1 route?  And to the wedding in UA, but not file the paperwork?  Seems like K-1s are much faster than K-3s, and the DCF is not longer an option.  Just something to think about...

[ScottinCrimea]

If I had known it was going to take so long and I would be here in the US, I would have made myself her agent because it would have speeded things up a bit.  I have a completed, signed copy of the I-230 here with me and the plan was that when she got the request to send it, I would send it from here and shortcut the mailing time, but when they hit me with the idea that she also needed to send the original documents to them, that blew everything.  Now, all we can do is wait until she gets the letter from them and see what they really want.

I'm starting to think that the guy at the NVC who told me that was an idiot, but all I can do is wait and see.  The NVC has repeatedly said not to send originals because they couldn't guarantee their return.

As far as sending the originals to them, when I told my wife she said no way.  I agree with you that this is a pretty risky thing to do, given the propensity of both the postal services of the countries involved and the government to "misplace" things.  It would take a lot of time and money to replace those documents if they were lost.  We'll just have to wait and see.

[William3rd]

Agreed, SIMONi-

Once again- if you marry overseas as a tourist, you will file an I130 back here in the states. At some point in time after the approval, you will receive a fee bill from NVC. After you pay it, the NVC will send you the next packet. After all the requested stuff is received back by NVC, the completed file is sent to the consulate with jurisdiction over the alien.

If you reside overseas and can prove it, you are supposed to be able to file your I130 at the DHS office overseas with jurisdiction over the country you are in. I dont have any cases in the mill under this category.

On any given day, you will receive different information from the USCIS or NVC on the same subject. . . . .

[bgreed]

Scott I was hoping that it was something simple with your wifes visa not another governmental hair ball.  By the way did you get my PM?

[Jack]

William!  Who is this young girl in the photo you are kissing?  I hope your fiancee does read this board or you will be in big trouble   

[William3rd]

That is my THIRTY-SIX (36) year old fiancee, Jack. If perhaps someday she reads these boards, she will not learn anything that she does not already know about me.

fortunately for me

[Simoni]

She's very beautiful, William--and I love her smile.  You are one lucky man!  Congrats :-)

~Simoni

[William3rd]

For some reason, she contacted me first through a chat room and I was her first choice. Such a poor choice in men .

Thank you for the compliments

[Markus]

ScottinCrimea,

It's questions like yours why I hired an attorney. I can't imagine me trying to do it myself to save a little money. I would recommend every person use an Immigration Attorney; It's much easier. Let them do all the worrying.

Mark

[ScottinCrimea]

Mark,
     Hiring an attorney would not have speeded up the process, only left me with less money to spend while I was waiting.  The paperwork isn't all that difficult, certainly not worth the $2,500 I was quoted for someone to do it for me.  I would have still been making phone calls trying to find out what was going on, only they would be to the attorney instead of the visa center, and there would be no guarantee that the answers would be any better.

[ScottinCrimea]

My wife finally got her letter from the NVC today and, contrary to what the idiot I spoke on the phone with said, they are not requesting that she send the originals of her birth certificate, etc.  All they are asking is that she send the completed forms DS-230 parts I and II.

[ScottinCrimea]

Well it turns out that I was the idiot.  In my wife's letter from the NVC, they stated that each applicant must complete and send form DS-230 parts 1 and 2 and they referred her to a website for instructions.  I have looked at this link before and it was instructions for the on-line fillable form, so I assumed, wrongly, that it would be the same.  Now instead of giving instructions on what is needed in the letter, they just give out this link which has detailed instructions on the process.

In addition to the completed forms, they are indeed asking that you send the originals of your documents, with English translations, to the NVC.  These include the petitioner's birth certificate, your marriage certificate, divorce certificates from any prior marriage, police certificate, etc.

there is nothing so constant as change.   

[ScottinCrimea]

Here's the update:  My wife sent all of the original documents to the NVC as requested.  They acknowledged receipt, which is a good thing, but now they have sent a letter to her stating that she failed to send a copy of her passport.  Of course my wife did send this, but somehow they either overlooked or misplaced this.  It took them two weeks to review her documents and lose her passport copy and send the letter asking for it again.  I called the NVC and they said that it would take at least 10 days for someone to check again to see if they had overlooked her passport copy.  In the meantime, they said that she could e-mail them with the copy of the passport and the translation (actually they said that the translation was not necessary but the website says otherwise).  The plan now is for her to send the passport and translation by e-mail and see if this will fly.  In the meantime I'm sending them an e-mail asking that they check again for her passport copy.  The bottom line is that their incompetency has cost us additional money and time in the process. The only positive note in all this is that they didn't lose one of her original documents that they required that she send them.  The negative side is that the unnecesary delays have made it impossible for her to be here in time for my daughter's wedding.

[MaxxumUSA]

Here's the update:  My wife sent all of the original documents to the NVC as requested.  They acknowledged receipt, which is a good thing, but now they have sent a letter to her stating that she failed to send a copy of her passport.  Of course my wife did send this, but somehow they either overlooked or misplaced this.  It took them two weeks to review her documents and lose her passport copy and send the letter asking for it again.  I called the NVC and they said that it would take at least 10 days for someone to check again to see if they had overlooked her passport copy.  In the meantime, they said that she could e-mail them with the copy of the passport and the translation (actually they said that the translation was not necessary but the website says otherwise).  The plan now is for her to send the passport and translation by e-mail and see if this will fly.  In the meantime I'm sending them an e-mail asking that they check again for her passport copy.  The bottom line is that their incompetency has cost us additional money and time in the process. The only positive note in all this is that they didn't lose one of her original documents that they required that she send them.  The negative side is that the unnecesary delays have made it impossible for her to be here in time for my daughter's wedding.

Ugh.

[catzenmouse]

Sorry to hear about this Scott. Unfortunately, incompetency is the ONLY thing that they ever do consistently. Keep the faith and keep bugging them!

Ken