Werin

Can anyone tell me how the process works when you finally get to the top of the pile?
Do you receive a letter and if so how much notice are you given before your interview date? Many thanks.

Ray

What is the relationship to the person you are filing for

http://www.uscis.gov/USCIS/New%20Str...uides/A1en.pdf

ian-mstm

Generally, when you are within a year of your priority date (PD) becoming current, you will receive a notice to apply for the visa. After you apply for the visa, you will be called for an interview.

Ian

Werin

Very helpful link. We are some 9 and a half years into the process and according to the visa centre should hear late summer. Our main query is how long, once you get notification to apply for your visa, how long does the process take including interview.
Appreciate the help.

meauxna

Your first post indicated that you are less than a year away from your interview; what documents have you already submitted?
Have you and your sibling been notified by the National Visa Center that your priority date is close? There is a lot that happens before an interview date is set.

Werin

Petition was approved sometime ago, just waiting to hear from the visa centre now. We check from time to time to see where we are on the list.

meauxna

Petition approval has no bearing on the timeline for your case, though. The petition is to establish the relationship, and the date it is filed secures your Priority Date.

When you are estimated (by their supersecret calculations) to be within a year of your PD coming current, the NVC will contact you and your petitioner about starting the visa application. They do this as a courtesy to you, so that the moment your PD is current, you can interview. The "visa application" (document collection etc) can take up to a year.

I suspect it may yet be longer than you think. The posted date in the January bulletin is Oct 99.

Werin

Oh I see what you mean, we filed the petition in July 2000, we do talk to the visa centre we give them our reference number, they check and the most recent call we were told we were roughly 8 months away but obviously depends on the months in between. So I guess we are hoping that after nearly 10 years we may hear something. Thanks.

Werin

So where we hoped it would be 2010 it could be another year, I understand what you mean, oh well we have waited this long.

meauxna

There are some sibling sponsorship stories posted on here from the last year.. 2 or 3 at least. It happens, it just takes time.. better to know realistically than to be living with one foot out the door, I guess.

ian-mstm

Unfortunately, the biggest problem in trying to determine when your PD will become current... is that you have absolutely no idea how many people are still in line ahead of you. There might have been a tremendous surge in applications in February 2000... and they must all clear before your date becomes current. There's simply no way to know. It might be next year... it might be 3 years from now.

Ian

Ray

About 3 yeas ago .a brother brought his brother over ...
it was 13 years to the day ..he arrived ...friends of mine

Werin

Thanks everybody, seems such a long wait and prob longer now.We will just enjoy this holiday, stay away for some months and then save hard and try and get back in the late summer.