katesuiter

Hey people!!!!
My fiance and I are applying for a K1 Fiance Visa, and we've been waiting for approval from Texas for 31 days so far...(not that I'm counting!! ). I've sent off my forms to London to apply for my visa, and they've now opened a provisional file for me. Yay!!! Anyway, they said that once we're approved, we can send them our original approval notice and they can schedule an interview for me that way, rather than wait for Texas to send our file. All that stuff's good news.
There's a few concerns I have about the waiting times for an interview, though, and Scarlett, this is where you could help me, girl!!!! You said that you emailed them about your wedding plans and they gave you a date 5 days later.......I'm also a little scared about how cheeky I can be, because my fiance's parents are moving out of his apartment in December, and I need to be in there more or less when they leave. Do you think it might help my case if I tell them this, and beg and plead for an interview before they move out? I really want to spend Christmas with him as well, but I'm feeling a little deflated as all I keep hearing is how long the wait for London is. They are very good as far as emailing goes, fair play. They always get back to me the next day, but I'm worried about this "Packet 3" and how long it takes to get it. I CAN'T WAIT MUCH LONGER, I'LL GO LOOPY!!!!!!
I'm also a little worried about getting an EAD at the port of entry. It seems a lot of them have stopped issuing EAD's, and I'm worried I'll end up with nothing that entitles me to work right away. I'll be living in Fort Lauderdale, but I think Miami is a no go as far as getting one goes. What do I do? I absolutely HAVE to work when I get there, so if anyone has advice, I'd be grateful.
Anyway, sorry to have chewed your ears off, but thanx in advance, and I'm sure you'll be seeing me again soon!!!!!

Patrick

Hi Kate,

When you send your OF-169 (DS-2001) put in the proposed date of travel 20th December and they will try and get it the week before (this is if everything else is in order -there was a thread this week about from a guy who put proposed date travel 32 October and this week he got his interview on the 24th - his notice was short obviously)

Scarlett emailed because she originally put her proposed date of travel as January.

I can't answer the EAD bit Kate sorry as I am doing an I-130

Good Luck

Patrick

katesuiter

Thanks for the hopeful news on that, Patrick. Do you have any ideas on the approval time for Texas?
And YUH!!!!! I know what you mean about the days attacking you all at once. I'm constantly mauled by weeks at a time!!!!

Scarlett

Sorry it took so long to get back to you! Others may have answered this already
(I have a huge stack of unread news to get through) but here's my two
penn'orth....
    >Hey people!!!!
    >My fiance and I are applying for a K1 Fiance Visa, and we've been
    >waiting for approval from Texas for 31 days so far...(not that I'm
    >counting!! ). I've sent off my forms to London to apply for my
    >visa, and they've now opened a provisional file for me. Yay!!! Anyway,
    >they said that once we're approved, we can send them our original
    >approval notice and they can schedule an interview for me that way,
    >rather than wait for Texas to send our file. All that stuff's good news.
    >There's a few concerns I have about the waiting times for an interview,
    >though, and Scarlett, this is where you could help me, girl!!!!

I'll do my level best!

You said
    >that you emailed them about your wedding plans and they gave you a date
    >5 days later.......I'm also a little scared about how cheeky I can be,
    >because my fiance's parents are moving out of his apartment in December,
    >and I need to be in there more or less when they leave. Do you think it
    >might help my case if I tell them this, and beg and plead for an
    >interview before they move out? I really want to spend Christmas with
    >him as well, but I'm feeling a little deflated as all I keep hearing is
    >how long the wait for London is.

OK from my experience it take them about 3 weeks to get your forms on computer.
Once they're on, and they get the approval from the US, they could interview
you any time. Though they have a backlog so it might take a while. So yes, I
think it's worth sending a polite mail asking them for an early date because of
your circumstances. Though personally I'd be leery of talking too much about
financial hardship as a reason (ie needing to move into the apartment and share
the expense and get a job fast) because one of the things you're having to
prove to them is there's no danger of you becoming a burden on the state.

They are very good as far as emailing
    >goes, fair play. They always get back to me the next day, but I'm
    >worried about this "Packet 3" and how long it takes to get it.

From what I read above you have already sent packet 3 - that's the one with all
the forms to fill in - nonimmigrant visa petition, checklist, K-visa page,
biographic data. Presumably you sent that when you opened the provisonal file?
If not you need to do it fast because no amount of emailing can make them move
fast if they haven't got what they need. You can download packet 3 from the us
embassy website if you haven't received it.

Packet 4 is the stuff they send you when they inform you of your interview
date. Did you actually mean this? They sent my packet 4 the day after they
mailed me with an interview date.

I CAN'T
    >WAIT MUCH LONGER, I'LL GO LOOPY!!!!!!
    >I'm also a little worried about getting an EAD at the port of entry. It
    >seems a lot of them have stopped issuing EAD's, and I'm worried I'll end
    >up with nothing that entitles me to work right away. I'll be living in
    >Fort Lauderdale, but I think Miami is a no go as far as getting one
    >goes. What do I do? I absolutely HAVE to work when I get there, so if
    >anyone has advice, I'd be grateful.

I'm struggling through this one myself so will leave it to someone who knows
more to answer this bit and eagerly read your replies.

    >Anyway, sorry to have chewed your ears off, but thanx in advance, and
    >I'm sure you'll be seeing me again soon!!!!!

No probs. Sorry about the delay in answering. If other people have already said
all this I'm sorry for repeating. I haven't waded through all the other posts
on my newsreader yet.

Very best of luck. And if you want to mail and talk about this some more, give
me a shout at [email protected]. Stick visa or something in the subject line so i
know it's not another sales offer of viagra and i don't delete without reading.

Regards
-=-
Scarlett

Scarlett

    >Do you have any ideas on
    >the approval time for Texas?

Here's my timeline.

July 16 - Garth files 129F in Dallas through Catholic Charities (they go
through your submission for a small fee to make sure everything's ok and file
it for you with the INS at Texas Service Centre.)

july 22 - Garth gets NOA-1, receipt to say his paperwork has arrived with INS.

(we're expecting to wait a long time for approval)

July 23 - I send off packet 3 to US embassy in London with Garth's receipt
number. I think, at this point, that I'm filing well ahead of time.

Aug 7 - NOA-2 arrives at Garth's place to say his petition is approved but he's
not there - he's holidaying with me in England.

Aug 13 - Embassy writes to me to say they can now process my papers. We're
confused because they include blank packet 3 forms. We phone them and they tell
us they've received approved petition from Texas Service Centre already; the
blank forms go out automatically but I don't need to do them again. They have
my originals - they just haven't got them on computer yet.

Sept 9 - I've been phoning the embassy every few days. This is the date they
tell me they finally have all our papers on computer and it's just a matter of
waiting now to be called for interview. They estimate six weeks then qualify
that by saying it could be more - they have a four-week backlog.

Oct 3 - I email embassy to express concern that we're trying to arrange
marriage in December but can't finalise anything until we know we have visa.
Politely ask if they can help.

Oct 8 - Embassy mails back to say they've scheduled interview for October 21.

Oct 10 - Packet 4 arrives.

Oct 31 - interview and medical on Halloween. Not long now....



Regards
-=-
Scarlett

Rete

Others have answered your London US Consulate inquiries and apparently they are user friendly and use to cheekiness ;-) I would leave the fiancee's parents out of the reason why you want to travel when you do and instead put down your anticipated wedding date.

On your issue of working and the 90 day EAD, I will be the doomsayer here and tell you if you need your income in the couple's equation to survive, stay in England until you have enough money to tide you over for a minimum of 90 days work free in the US. Counting on an EAD is fruitless and at best if you do get one, you still have the issue of obtaining a social security card in time to use it. Then factor into the equation that the 90 day temporary EAD might expire before you are issued an one year EAD and you have no authorization to work in the interim. The temporary 90 day EAD is a stop gap document and there are too many variables in this equation to insure that you will not only have authorization from INS to work continually but from the SSA as well.

As for timelines for approval from TSC, check out the resources of the newsgroup for that information. There are several that you can use, i.e. MDUdall's site, Dave Hollis site, Schusterman's site, etc.

Rete

Just Jenney

Thanks so much for posting your timeline, Scarlett. I've found it to be very informative in helping Mark and I prepare for our K-1 process via London. For instance, it's good to know that there's a current backlog, and also that Packet 4 is sent automatically even if a provisional file is already opened (which is what Mark plans to do).

Could you (or anyone else) please post this email address for the London Embassy that has been mentioned? I'm not sure where to get this information, and it seems like a really good thing to have.

I'm putting together our I-129F petition today and mailing it off on Tuesday. Yay! Soon after we'll be sorting out Mark's provisional file, and everything to follow. So expect to see us around here a bit more!

~ Jenney

p.s. Good luck at your interview!

Patrick

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_web/visa/moreinfo.htm

Scarlett

Just one thing - the packet that's sent out automatically when they get the
129F approval is packet 3. Packet four is the invitation to interview with
medical questionnaire.

The email address you want is:

[email protected]

Regards
-=-
Scarlett