Andrew

All,

In preparation for our "hopefully real-soon now" K1 approval (we've been waiting for
~7 weeks from NSC so far), I'd like clarification on a few things from any Aussies
out there who have been through the process (the newsgroup FAQ is not
country-specific):

- Does sending a letter to the US consulate in Sydney regarding the opening of a
provisional file actually get acted upon? Do they do that while waiting for the
official approval to come through?

- Once I get the checklist, where would I apply for a police records check (I'm in
Adelaide) and how long do they typically take? Do they get sent to the consulate or
should I expect to receive it and take along with me to the eventual interview? Can
I apply ahead of the approval getting to the consulate (ie assuming a provisional
file has been opened), or do I have to wait until the consulate receives that?

- Are the medicals carried out in Sydney, or do they have approved doctors in
Adelaide too?

- Is there anything additional required for the I-134, other than the bare minimum
typically specified? (ie employer letter, notarized originals)

- Anything else I need to gather together? (aside from piles of relationship
evidence) What is the typical waiting time for an interview? I'm hoping to be able
to get the visa before October!

Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers, Andrew

Soozeeq

Hi Andrew

My husaband is Australian, and just today (finally!) we received a Notice Of
Action stating that his permanent resident status (conditional, of course, for the
next two years) has been approved and that he should receive his green card
(Permanent Residence Card) by mail in three weeks. We haven't been keeping up with
this newsgroup, but it's been quite helpful along the way along with all of the
other published K-1 survivor pages. We did everything ourselves, without an
attorney, as have many other people, so be brave. It *does* help to be
obssessive-compulsive, though. I hope that we can help you out since we've been
helped so much by everyone else's experiences and have appreciated all of their
hard work! (THANK YOU ALL!!)

My husband is from Tasmania, and he had to go through the Sydney Consulate for his
side of the K-1 application. Throughout the process, they were very nice, polite, and
helpful (much unlike the INS here in the U.S.) They did, indeed, open a provisional
file for him there in Sydney after he submitted his portion of paperwork to them.

Initially, he merely made a telephone call to the Sydney Consulate, asking how to get
application forms, and they sent him a complete K-1 application packet, including a
list of approved doctors for his medical exam, which he was able to have done in
Tassie. Right off hand, I can't recall the numbers of all of the application forms,
but the Sydney Consulate sent everything that was necessary from his end. For his
police record, he just went in person to the main State police headquarters in
Hobart, and the police handed him a form to fill out there on the spot. So, I suspect
that if you went to the main State Police Headquarters in Adelaide, that would
work...try calling them first. He also had his fingerprints done at that same time,
there at police headquarters (ask if you can do that there as well). Within two or
three weeks, the State police mailed him a letter confirming the status of his police
record, which was (of course) clean. After gathering all of his paperwork, he mailed
his application packet on to the Sydney Consulate, and they opened a provisional file
for him upon receipt, which we verified some time later with another phone call. (He
mailed the police report with the rest of the application materials....the police did
*not* forward it to the Consulate.) He *did* have to hand-carry his x-rays to Sydney
for the K-1 interview because the lab in Hobart kept avoiding releasing them so he
could mail them to the Consulate, and he ran out of time (I think he only had about a
month to prepare after he received the letter about his appointment date for the
interview). So, he had to pick them up at the lab on his way to the interview! I
can't recall now what I had to send back to him for him to take with to the
interview, but we ran into a time snag with the interview date, with me spending
*lots* of money to have a packet express mailed to him before he left for Sydney,
which got held up at the Sydney post office on the weekend before the Monday he was
to fly to Sydney. Luckily, the postmaster in Hobart tracked it down for him, so he
had it in his hand on the day he left. The moral of the story is: Mail early!!!!
BTW....the K-1 interview was a breeze! Worst thing was the cost of the flight, back
and forth, because he had to return to Tassie before packing up for the U.S.

(Please forgive me, but I'm having a hard time recalling details at the moment
because we began the K-1 process late in 1999--close to three years ago--and I don't
have everything in front of me, but I will be happy to gather information for you if
it will help.)

Anyways....he had his medical exam in Hobart in January of 2000, and he had his K-1
visa interview in Sydney in August of 2000. I submitted all of the K-1 application
forms from my side to the Nebraska field office in April of 2000, and they approved
the application in late June of 2000, which was when he received a letter telling him
to show up for his K-1 interview in Sydney. So, it was about 4 months from the time I
submitted the petition to the time he had the interview. He arrived here in the U.S.
(Chicago, via Los Angeles as the P.O.E.) in October of 2000. Upon deplaning, the
customs process was quick since he was the only person on the plane who was
immigrating to the U.S. and actually had a customs officer all to himself. Didn't do
all that much good, though, because the customs officer--of course--did *not* stamp
his passport for temporary work authorization. So, later on, we had to apply for the
EAD and pay the fee for that, which we submitted at the same time as the application
for Adjustment of Status, along with that fee. We were legally married in December of
2000 (in a civil ceremony, followed 9 months later by a formal family wedding, which
is a WHOLE 'NUTHER SAGA! LOL!), and we applied for AOS in January 2001. His EAD was
issued in March 2001, although the local INS office screwed up his file number, which
we later went back to have altered, and then they screwed up the replacement by
mispelling his name on the card, which we never bothered having fixed. (Seems the
local INS office is much less organized than the Nebraska regional office, although
Nebraska is notoriously slow compared to other regional offices.)

(We never did apply for Advanced Parole because we were simply broke and hoped that
we'd get his passport stamped before we'd need it, but we were taking a big chance,
and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND APPLYING, just in case you'd have to leave the country on an
emergency. If you don't have advanced parole approved and you leave the U.S., YOU
WON'T GET BACK INTO THE U.S.! )

We didn't expect to have the AOS interview until about 18 months after applying in
January of 2001, but in early November 2001, we received a letter telling us to come
in for the AOS interview, which was about a 9-month wait. We had only two weeks'
notice, and we hustled big time to gather things together that we never even needed
for the interview, but better to be OVER-prepared than under-prepared. We believe
that we were called in early due to the 9/11 attacks, although the interviewer denied
this, claiming that they had "caught up" on the backlog. The interview was really
quite silly and really not much of an interview. The interviewer was very nice and
not the least bit formal. We tried hard to hand over lots of documentation, but all
he wanted was a photocopy of our marriage license. He swore us in and asked us when
we were married and did we have our marriage license, and that was about it (he kept
running in and out of the office the whole time). Nonetheless, the process wasn't
completely snag-free. At the end of the 10-minute "interview", he told us that our
"case has been approved" but that our "file was still in Nebraska" and that we
couldn't get my husband's passport stamped with the I-551 stamp until the file
arrived in Chicago "which would be in about two weeks" (from that point) and that we
would be notified for him to come down to the office to have the passport stamped.
Unfortunately, that never happened. We waited and waited for weeks and weeks.
Finally, in February (almost 3 months later), we trudged down to the local office to
see if they'd stamp the passport, but my husband was allowed only to "fill out a
correspondence form." He filled out the form, explaining our problem and wanting to
know when he could get the passport stamped. About a month later, the local office
sent us a letter telling us (essentially) not to bother them with any more
correspondence for at least another 90 days. Interestingly, as of yesterday (about 90
days hence), we were making plans to just go down to the office again, rather than
writing, but today we received the NOA stating that he'd be getting the green card in
three weeks. So, the stamp on the passport won't be necessary anyway since he'll
actually have the Permanent Residence Card--the everlovin' GREEN CARD in his hot
little hands. Then again, like in baseball, IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER!, so
we'll celebrate only when we can actually fondle the card. *grin*

My husband suggested that you might want to check out if you can go through the
Consulate in Perth because it would be cheaper to go there than to Sydney, but CHECK
OUT FIRST whether or not the Perth Consulate is an option for you. If you're told to
go through the Sydney Consulate, than do that. (You can call either Consulate to
verify which one to go through.)

All in all....although the process was tedious, lengthy, expensive, and absurd, we
really didn't run into any serious problems. It does, indeed, test the strength of
the relationship. I doubt seriously that if all couples had to go through this much
hassle in order to be together, the divorce rate would shrink drastically because
nobody would get married!!! LOL!! All I can say to anyone contemplating the process
is: BE SURE YOU REALLY WANT THE RELATIONSHIP!

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail us. In the meantime, read,
read, READ everything on the K-1 survivor pages because they're jam-packed with
helpful detailed info.

Cheers, and Good Luck from both of us!

Susan and Paul

P.S. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "is there anything additional required
for the I-134, other than the bare minimum typically specified?" because
everybody's financial information is different. I, myself, included a notarized
I-134 (and the backup for it) with the I-129F because I'm a compulsive whacko.
I sent another (notarized) I-134, with all the backup, to my fiance for him to
take with to the interview. (Sending the I-134 materials along with the I-129F
is *not* required, but I wanted a complete packet sent to the Nebraska field
office, just in case). For evidence, I included copies of my tax forms, a
notarized letter from my bank (verifying my bank balance and the balances from
the previous year and the length of time I've had the account), a letter from
my employer stating my employment status, and some current pay stubs. Your
sponsor (I assume, your fiance) is the one who has to gather all of that
evidence, fill out the I-134, have it notarized, and then send all of that on
to you to take with to your K-1 interview (I suggest that she send it early so
you don't run into a time crunch). Ask the consulate if they want anything more
than the recommended documents, but my motto is: MORE IS BETTER, AND MORE IS
NEVER ENOUGH! *grin*

Andrew wrote:

    > All,
    >
    > In preparation for our "hopefully real-soon now" K1 approval (we've been waiting
    > for ~7 weeks from NSC so far), I'd like clarification on a few things from any
    > Aussies out there who have been through the process (the newsgroup FAQ is not
    > country-specific):
    >
    > - Does sending a letter to the US consulate in Sydney regarding the opening of a
    > provisional file actually get acted upon? Do they do that while waiting for the
    > official approval to come through?
    >
    > - Once I get the checklist, where would I apply for a police records check (I'm in
    > Adelaide) and how long do they typically take? Do they get sent to the consulate
    > or should I expect to receive it and take along with me to the eventual
    > interview? Can I apply ahead of the approval getting to the consulate (ie
    > assuming a provisional file has been opened), or do I have to wait until the
    > consulate receives that?
    >
    > - Are the medicals carried out in Sydney, or do they have approved doctors in
    > Adelaide too?
    >
    > - Is there anything additional required for the I-134, other than the bare minimum
    > typically specified? (ie employer letter, notarized originals)
    >
    > - Anything else I need to gather together? (aside from piles of relationship
    > evidence) What is the typical waiting time for an interview? I'm hoping to be
    > able to get the visa before October!
    >
    > Any information would be greatly appreciated!
    >
    > Cheers, Andrew

Andrew

Wow! Thanks for all the information - you have cleared up a few points I was
concerned about. So the local INS office you dealt with was Chicago? I assume that is
the case for AOS after we get married in November (we'll be living in Illinois)?

Regarding the I-134, my fiance is busily gathering the supporting documents for that,
although we haven't received the approval from NSC yet (we're getting close to 70
days wait since the 1st NOA). I'd heard the employer letter was all we would need,
but I have also heard that the consulate has their own requirements for the I-134 and
at the end of the day, that's who has to be satisfied with it.

For opening the provisional file in Sydney, was the consulate notified by the NSC
centre that the petition had been approved and was on it's way? Or did your husband
contact the consulate before the approval? Can you remember how long the documents
took to reach the consulate from the NSC centre? We're hoping we have enough time so
I can arrive in the US in October, about 6 weeks before the wedding in November.

Many thanks, Andrew

soozeeq <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > Hi Andrew
    >
    > My husaband is Australian, and just today (finally!) we received a Notice Of
    > Action stating that his permanent resident status (conditional, of course, for the
    > next two years) has been approved and that he should receive his green card
    > (Permanent Residence Card) by mail in three weeks. We haven't been keeping up with
    > this newsgroup, but it's been quite helpful along the way along with all of the
    > other published K-1 survivor pages. We did everything ourselves, without an
    > attorney, as have many other people, so be brave. It *does* help to be
    > obssessive-compulsive, though. I hope that we can help you out since we've been
    > helped so much by everyone else's experiences and have appreciated all of their
    > hard work! (THANK YOU ALL!!)
    >
    > My husband is from Tasmania, and he had to go through the Sydney Consulate for his
    > side of the K-1 application. Throughout the process, they were very nice, polite,
    > and helpful (much unlike the INS here in the U.S.) They did, indeed, open a
    > provisional file for him there in Sydney after he submitted his portion of
    > paperwork to them.
    >
    > Initially, he merely made a telephone call to the Sydney Consulate, asking how to
    > get application forms, and they sent him a complete K-1 application packet,
    > including a list of approved doctors for his medical exam, which he was able to
    > have done in Tassie. Right off hand, I can't recall the numbers of all of the
    > application forms, but the Sydney Consulate sent everything that was necessary from
    > his end. For his police record, he just went in person to the main State police
    > headquarters in Hobart, and the police handed him a form to fill out there on the
    > spot. So, I suspect that if you went to the main State Police Headquarters in
    > Adelaide, that would work...try calling them first. He also had his fingerprints
    > done at that same time, there at police headquarters (ask if you can do that there
    > as well). Within two or three weeks, the State police mailed him a letter
    > confirming the status of his police record, which was (of course) clean. After
    > gathering all of his paperwork, he mailed his application packet on to the Sydney
    > Consulate, and they opened a provisional file for him upon receipt, which we
    > verified some time later with another phone call. (He mailed the police report with
    > the rest of the application materials....the police did *not* forward it to the
    > Consulate.) He *did* have to hand-carry his x-rays to Sydney for the K-1 interview
    > because the lab in Hobart kept avoiding releasing them so he could mail them to the
    > Consulate, and he ran out of time (I think he only had about a month to prepare
    > after he received the letter about his appointment date for the interview). So, he
    > had to pick them up at the lab on his way to the interview! I can't recall now what
    > I had to send back to him for him to take with to the interview, but we ran into a
    > time snag with the interview date, with me spending *lots* of money to have a
    > packet express mailed to him before he left for Sydney, which got held up at the
    > Sydney post office on the weekend before the Monday he was to fly to Sydney.
    > Luckily, the postmaster in Hobart tracked it down for him, so he had it in his hand
    > on the day he left. The moral of the story is: Mail early!!!! BTW....the K-1
    > interview was a breeze! Worst thing was the cost of the flight, back and forth,
    > because he had to return to Tassie before packing up for the U.S.
    >
    > (Please forgive me, but I'm having a hard time recalling details at the moment
    > because we began the K-1 process late in 1999--close to three years ago--and I
    > don't have everything in front of me, but I will be happy to gather information for
    > you if it will help.)
    >
    > Anyways....he had his medical exam in Hobart in January of 2000, and he had his K-1
    > visa interview in Sydney in August of 2000. I submitted all of the K-1 application
    > forms from my side to the Nebraska field office in April of 2000, and they approved
    > the application in late June of 2000, which was when he received a letter telling
    > him to show up for his K-1 interview in Sydney. So, it was about 4 months from the
    > time I submitted the petition to the time he had the interview. He arrived here in
    > the U.S. (Chicago, via Los Angeles as the P.O.E.) in October of 2000. Upon
    > deplaning, the customs process was quick since he was the only person on the plane
    > who was immigrating to the U.S. and actually had a customs officer all to himself.
    > Didn't do all that much good, though, because the customs officer--of course--did
    > *not* stamp his passport for temporary work authorization. So, later on, we had to
    > apply for the EAD and pay the fee for that, which we submitted at the same time as
    > the application for Adjustment of Status, along with that fee. We were legally
    > married in December of 2000 (in a civil ceremony, followed 9 months later by a
    > formal family wedding, which is a WHOLE 'NUTHER SAGA! LOL!), and we applied for AOS
    > in January 2001. His EAD was issued in March 2001, although the local INS office
    > screwed up his file number, which we later went back to have altered, and then they
    > screwed up the replacement by mispelling his name on the card, which we never
    > bothered having fixed. (Seems the local INS office is much less organized than the
    > Nebraska regional office, although Nebraska is notoriously slow compared to other
    > regional offices.)
    >
    > (We never did apply for Advanced Parole because we were simply broke and hoped that
    > we'd get his passport stamped before we'd need it, but we were taking a big chance,
    > and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND APPLYING, just in case you'd have to leave the country on an
    > emergency. If you don't have advanced parole approved and you leave the U.S., YOU
    > WON'T GET BACK INTO THE U.S.! )
    >
    > We didn't expect to have the AOS interview until about 18 months after applying in
    > January of 2001, but in early November 2001, we received a letter telling us to
    > come in for the AOS interview, which was about a 9-month wait. We had only two
    > weeks' notice, and we hustled big time to gather things together that we never even
    > needed for the interview, but better to be OVER-prepared than under-prepared. We
    > believe that we were called in early due to the 9/11 attacks, although the
    > interviewer denied this, claiming that they had "caught up" on the backlog. The
    > interview was really quite silly and really not much of an interview. The
    > interviewer was very nice and not the least bit formal. We tried hard to hand over
    > lots of documentation, but all he wanted was a photocopy of our marriage license.
    > He swore us in and asked us when we were married and did we have our marriage
    > license, and that was about it (he kept running in and out of the office the whole
    > time). Nonetheless, the process wasn't completely snag-free. At the end of the
    > 10-minute "interview", he told us that our "case has been approved" but that our
    > "file was still in Nebraska" and that we couldn't get my husband's passport stamped
    > with the I-551 stamp until the file arrived in Chicago "which would be in about two
    > weeks" (from that point) and that we would be notified for him to come down to the
    > office to have the passport stamped. Unfortunately, that never happened. We waited
    > and waited for weeks and weeks. Finally, in February (almost 3 months later), we
    > trudged down to the local office to see if they'd stamp the passport, but my
    > husband was allowed only to "fill out a correspondence form." He filled out the
    > form, explaining our problem and wanting to know when he could get the passport
    > stamped. About a month later, the local office sent us a letter telling us
    > (essentially) not to bother them with any more correspondence for at least another
    > 90 days. Interestingly, as of yesterday (about 90 days hence), we were making plans
    > to just go down to the office again, rather than writing, but today we received the
    > NOA stating that he'd be getting the green card in three weeks. So, the stamp on
    > the passport won't be necessary anyway since he'll actually have the Permanent
    > Residence Card--the everlovin' GREEN CARD in his hot little hands. Then again,
    > like in baseball, IT AIN'T OVER 'TIL IT'S OVER!, so we'll celebrate only when we
    > can actually fondle the card. *grin*
    >
    > My husband suggested that you might want to check out if you can go through the
    > Consulate in Perth because it would be cheaper to go there than to Sydney, but
    > CHECK OUT FIRST whether or not the Perth Consulate is an option for you. If you're
    > told to go through the Sydney Consulate, than do that. (You can call either
    > Consulate to verify which one to go through.)
    >
    > All in all....although the process was tedious, lengthy, expensive, and absurd, we
    > really didn't run into any serious problems. It does, indeed, test the strength of
    > the relationship. I doubt seriously that if all couples had to go through this much
    > hassle in order to be together, the divorce rate would shrink drastically because
    > nobody would get married!!! LOL!! All I can say to anyone contemplating the process
    > is: BE SURE YOU REALLY WANT THE RELATIONSHIP!
    >
    > If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail us. In the meantime, read,
    > read, READ everything on the K-1 survivor pages because they're jam-packed with
    > helpful detailed info.
    >
    > Cheers, and Good Luck from both of us!
    >
    > Susan and Paul
    >
    > P.S. I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "is there anything additional required
    > for the I-134, other than the bare minimum typically specified?" because
    > everybody's financial information is different. I, myself, included a
    > notarized I-134 (and the backup for it) with the I-129F because I'm a
    > compulsive whacko. I sent another (notarized) I-134, with all the backup, to
    > my fiance for him to take with to the interview. (Sending the I-134 materials
    > along with the I-129F is *not* required, but I wanted a complete packet sent
    > to the Nebraska field office, just in case). For evidence, I included copies
    > of my tax forms, a notarized letter from my bank (verifying my bank balance
    > and the balances from the previous year and the length of time I've had the
    > account), a letter from my employer stating my employment status, and some
    > current pay stubs. Your sponsor (I assume, your fiance) is the one who has to
    > gather all of that evidence, fill out the I-134, have it notarized, and then
    > send all of that on to you to take with to your K-1 interview (I suggest that
    > she send it early so you don't run into a time crunch). Ask the consulate if
    > they want anything more than the recommended documents, but my motto is: MORE
    > IS BETTER, AND MORE IS NEVER ENOUGH! *grin*