Good grief....only the INS could make 52 days seem short!

Here's our schedule:

Express mailed I-129F 1/30/01 NSC Receipt date 1/31/01 1st NOA 2/12/01 Approval
3/24/01 (by phone message)

I just called the phone system tonight and about fell out of my chair.

Some comments:

1. We didn't notarize any of our forms or letters of mutual intent. We based our
letters on the examples on Alvena's site, stripped out the legalisms and just
signed and dated them.

2. We didn't send any photos of the two of us together. Strangely, we didn't have
any and didn't know we would need them until we started the application process.
So we buried the INS will photocopies of boarding passes, hotel receipts, and
passport stamps as proof of meeting.

3. We also sent a stack of emails and phone records (IDT calling cards provide great
rates to Chile if anyone is interested)

4. I followed the INS instructions for form assembly religiously and used removable
post-it notes to tab and identify the different sections.

5. I sent in the cable request form and paid the cable fee. I will post back to the
group whether that did any good.

6. Internet telephony is saving my phone budget. We talk hours at night using MSN
messenger service and it works pretty well with at 36K baud.

Now it's on to the next step. Good luck to the rest of you!

Kent (US) and Isabel (Chile)

congratulations kent, and thanks for the phone tips!

kate (actioned through nsc on 30.01.01 and wondering why she's not been approved yet and late feb petitions have...)

Another followup comment. We used the forms downloaded from the INS web site. I
ordered the paper forms online in January and they have still not arrived. So
it takes the INS less time to process K1 visa than it does to mail out the
forms I guess.

-Kent-