Coming to England

Have just heard, via the final NVC automated message, that my papers were despatched (or is it dispatched?) to the London Embassy on June 16th. My case is coming to England.

YAY!

The next thing that should happen (I think) is that the embassy will contact me for a medical. But before that, there is a(n unofficial) way for me to follow my paperwork from the NVC to the UK:

Every day the NVC posts a batch of immigration forms to various embassies/consulates around the world. The always use the same format for their tracking "EXP dd MMM yyyyA" where dd = day, MMM = month (JAN, FEB etc) and (guess what?) yyyy = year (the "EXP" and "A" don't change).

Some examples are: "EXP 08 JUN 2009A", "EXP 24 DEC 2006A" & "EXP 16 OCT 2008A"

The date you will be after is the date mentioned on the automated message (or maybe the day before/after that). Go to this site and enter your reference. This will give you a list of the packages sent on that day. Find your country and track your package...
(update: Mine (9343816182) has gone from Londonderry NH to Boston MA to Wilmington OH (I know that looks like the wrong way but DHL have a major site in Wilmington) and should be in the UK tomorrow(ish))

It's not a great help but, for some reason, it helps...

150 Days and Counting

The timer that I set on January 14th (go check - I'll wait) now* reads 150 Days**.

We're a LOT farther along this process than I dared hope.

Yay!!!

*Obviously, if you're reading this after June14th*** then the counter will show more than 150 days.
**It would also read exactly 5 months, but the site I picked, doesn't do months.
***Two points:
1- Notice I'm using the US term and I'm not saying "14th of June"
2 - If you are reading this on June 14th 2009, er, "welcome" and "who, how, why?"

NVC Automated Messages

For your own reference (and timeline) here are the main automated messages:

NVC Assigns a Case#:

"...This case was entered in the NVC computer system on _______. The case number assignned by the NVC is (Case #). Please allow 6-8 week from this date for the beneficiary to receive the documents"

DS3032/ AOS Fee Bill Generated:
"...NVC will mail...the beneficiary..." OR "DS3032 and AOS Fee Bill has been generated on________"

DS3032 Entered in the System:
"...NVC has received the DS3032, Choice of Agent and Address form on______.
Please allow 4-6 weeks before you will be notified by NVC..."

AOS Fee Processed:
"...NVC has received the DS3032, Choice of Agent and Address form on______.
and will send further instructions within the next few weeks..."

IV Fee Bill Generation:
"...The Immigration Visa Fee Bill letter has been generated on ____and will be sent within the next few weeks..."

IV Fee Bill Processed:
"NVC has received IV fee bill on ______ and will send further instructions within next few weeks. "

DS-230 Generation:
"NVC is expecting return of the biographic forms by the petitioner... "

DS-230 Receipt:
"The NVC has received the checklist letter response on ______"

Processing:
"The NVC received your documents on ______. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks..."

Case Complete:
"... your Case was completed on ______. Please allow 8 weeks for further instructions..."

Case Forwarded to Embassy:
"...The NVC has completed the case and forwarded it to the Embassy or Consulate in..."

Note - If you're outside the US, try a service like Skype to save on call costs (especially as, if you're like me, you'll be calling the NVC a lot more than you'd like to admit)

NVC - Complete

Our case was completed at the NVC yesterday.

YAY!

All Documents at the NVC

The automated number at the NVC now states that, as of May 27th 2009, all documents are now with them at the NVC (er, you've had them for a week guys). They also state that there should be a decision in about six to eight weeks.

As I've said before, we're hoping for a much shorter waiting period...

NVC (kinda) Acknowledges the Affidavit of Support

The automated message from the NVC has changed to one stating that it's awaiting (my) biographical information . . . which is strange as the forms were sent together (albeit in separate envelopes) and arrived at the NVC at exactly the same time. So they are (sorta) acknowledging that they have the AOS (that's Affidavit of Support not Adjustment of Status).

The message says that, once they have my biographical information (clue: it's in your building, guys!) they will make a decision within six to eight weeks.

The good people of Visajourney.com give us some extra hope here. Their records show that decisions are currently taking less than two weeks. The feedback is usually one of three things:

1. Accepted - paperwork will proceed to Embassy
2. Queried - more information required
3. Investigated - mostly happens to engaged couples (and, hopefully, not married ones). This is a bad thing, cases are in a form of limbo for months...

There may be a fourth, rejection, but I have yet to hear of a case that has ended here. More fun to pass the case to the Embassy and let them deliver the bad news...

Going For It!

We've had a discussion and, as the information from the NVC says you should wait to hear from them AND it also says you should not proceed before paying... as we've paid, we're going for it...

Should we wait?
(The NVC case-line tells us to)
Can we sent our stuff now?
The website hints that maybe we can...

We'll just have to see...

Still waiting for the NVC

It's been just under four weeks since payment was acknowledged by the NVC and we've heard nothing. We should have had some forms through by now (either the I-864 "Affidavit of Support" form or the DS-230 "me" forms). The official position is that if you haven't heard from the NVC in six weeks you can contact them.

Foof is going to call them tomorrow. I'm amazed at how patient she's been.

Two Pinball Machines = One Premium Economy Ticket

So today I managed to sell my two pinball tables for roughly three times what I paid for them (I'm sure they were worth lots more than that but one wasn't working properly (and they're very big and heavy) so I was glad that someone came and dismantled & collected them). I used the money to pay for a fully flexible one-way (premium economy) ticket to Las Vegas. I know I haven't even had the interview date yet but I wanted to get this detail out of the way.

I'll be flying with Virgin Atlantic, non-stop from Gatwick. As I live a couple of hundred miles away from Gatwick I'll have to work out how to get there - I have a number of options:
1. Drive there on the morning of the flight. As I have to be there for about 8.30am, diving (a hire car) that morning would mean I had to leave my (UK) home at about 3.30am.
2. Drive there (or part way) the day before. If I drive (my hire car) down the day before, I have to work out where I want to spend the night (though I'd probably be able to talk to Foofer early the following morning).

3. Take a train the day before and stop in a hotel near the airport. The bad side of this is that, especially if I take lots of luggage, I have to struggle through London's Underground system. Also, hotels near to airports are not the best/cheapest and the travelling between station/hotel/airport would be time-consuming, costly, painful or any combination of the three. Being able to chat to Foofer on the morning of the flight helps somewhat though.
4. Fly there on the morning. There's a flight that gets me into Gatwick, from Manchester, at 8.10 - just in time. The questions I have with this are "How do I get to Manchester for 5am?" and "What happens if the plane is delayed/cancelled?".
5. Fly there the evening before...well, maybe, but I'd need some convincing.

So far the first two options are my favourites as I'll probably already have a hire car once I've handed my company car back to work.

(and yes, this means that Sin City will be my POE)

...waiting...

I know it's only been just over two weeks since Foof paid but it feels like forever.

Of course this will be replaced by sheer panic once I have my visa and haven't settled everything here in the UK. Just a quick note concerning that - I have various large items for sale, a car to get rid of, my belongings will have to be put into storage prior to my move to Nevada and I'll have to sell my house (roughly in that order). I'm making a start on that list tomorrow...

The Waiting Game

Obviously, the trick I've used before of resigning myself to waiting a long time for results, only for the NVC or USCIS to respond almost instantly, isn't going to work again but I'm trying it anyway. According to their automated update system, the NVC generated the next pack for us a day after Foof paid online (I assume it's my DS-230 pack and not the tax stuff for Foofer) but they stated that it could take some weeks to reach us.

As we have all of our paperwork filled in (or filled out if you're on the western side of the Atlantic) in advance and our documents (both original and certified copies) ready, we have nothing left to do at the moment except to spend hours on Skype chatting to each other, waiting for things to arrive in the mail.

And sometimes the mail at Foof's apartment complex gets screwed up.

So we wait.

Again.

Research

With my birth certificate and police certificate safely with Foofer (I took them with me to the US), I now have to prepare to fill in my DS-230.

Okay, as well as my name and address (and Foof's too), I need to know the following information - Employment history for the last ten years (easy - I have a c.v. (a résumé)), every town in which I've lived since I turned 16 (I've always lived in the same town), all educational establishments I've attended (I checked and they want higher education - diplomas or degrees, they don't care about my infant school) and details of every visit I've made to the US (which may be tricky as they cater for a "from/to" "month/year" layout and I'm pretty sure that I've visited New Jersey twice in the same month).

Also, they'll need to know the year in which my father died.

I drew a blank.

I asked my Mum and . . . she wasn't sure either.

We couldn't find the death certificate but, fortunately, I found an old email where I mention it to a friend.

Thank goodness for the interwebz.

Update

...and I'm back!

That was a lovely break (The Dairy Queen in Ludlow, CA will always remain a special memory).

As I mentioned before, I took the DS-3032 with me and we posted it on the ninth (or maybe it was the tenth - I was kinda tired).

We had our honeymoon in NV, AZ and CA.

Just before Foofer started the sad sad task of driving me to the airport yesterday, she checked her mail. The NVC had contacted her, as my agent, in a letter dated 16th April. They were asking for $400 but it still cheered us up as things are progressing (and they're progressing fast).

The letter also contained instructions about how, three days after (online*) payment Foof should go back to the website she paid on and, once payment was acknowledged, download the next round of forms.

Things are speeding up...

*There were instructions about paying by mail but we skipped those - viva la intrawebz.

A Very Late Honeymoon

This blog should be quiet for the next week or two. I'm flying over to McCarran to see my Foof and take her on a very late mini-honeymoon.

We'll be touring the Mojave Desert.

Aren't you jealous?

As my DS-3032 only arrived yesterday, I'm taking it with me and posting it in the US so that it will reach the NVC ASAP. Okay?

Ciao...

More mail!

My DS-3032, Choice of Agent, form arrived today. For some reason it came to the UK via Germany (Deutsche Post in Frankfurt to be exact (or, maybe, Niederaula (as that's on the envelope too))). The DS-3032 is a strange form where you have to enter some of the information twice (why? I do not know).

I have a dilemma.

Do I fill this in and send it or, as I'll be in Las Vegas in 48 hours, do I post it from Sin City? I see that a new option (discussed on Visajourney.com) is to email the NVC directly, claiming that you haven't received your form yet and proposing your spouse as your agent.

I will be IMing with Foof later today so we'll decide what to do then.

The "Magic" of this Blog

When I seem to note, on this blog, that I'm waiting (patiently) for something but that it's going to be a long long time, stuff happens.

Today, Foofer received a package from the NVC (posted on the 25th of March).

A copy of the DS-3032 and a bill for $70. Foofer is paying this fee as I type (which will take about three days to go through).

If my copy of the DS-3032 hasn't arrived by Thursday, I now know that there's one waiting for me in Las Vegas.

Yay!!!

Waiting (again)

Every day is like the next - at least, that is, for me,
I'm waiting for our letter from the NVC.
I haven't waited very long (though it feels like it's been ages).
I bet it falls upon my mat, the second I'm in Vegas.

I'm heading out to Las Vegas in a couple of days to have a well deserved mini-honeymoon with Foofer. As the first form from the NVC has yet to arrive, it will be just my luck if it gets here the day after I've flown. Still, Foof should get a copy too so, hopefully, we'll be able to fill that in instead.

More news when I get it...

Please Mr Postman

And so our case is officially at the NVC, I called their special hotline and the (irritatingly drawn out - but oh so useful) automated message system (603 334-0700) confirmed it and even gave me our new NVC case number. It's very straightforward but seems to be busy for a lot of the time.

The next step is, apparently, when I receive a DS-3032 through the mail, although it seems that Foofer should receive a copy of that form too (though I'm not exactly sure why). This is the point where the process splits into two and can get complicated:

The DS-3032 asks me to nominate an agent to represent me. Often this could be an attorney or a family friend or even myself but, as payments are needed from a US bank account (which I obviously don't have as you need a social security number to open one) and we haven't relied on anyone else yet, we decided that Foofer would be my agent.

While I'm busy nominating my agent, Foofer will get a request (for money followed by another) for her tax history (I-864) to prove that she can support me if I were to be unable to find gainful employment. If that's acceptable than that would normally be her efforts completed - but as she's my agent she'll have a few more tasks.

It appears that I have to pay a fee too (or maybe two fees? I'll let you know if/when it happens) and then I'll receive the infamous DS-230 form (biographical information).

But for now, I'm waiting at the door for my DS-3032, checking my mail every day. Hoping that, today, the postman will make me smile...

Born again...

Well, not quite, but my second birth certificate has arrived.

Unlike the first one, I bought this certificate online from here, the official UK government website.

If you know your GRO index reference (look it up) then it is especially good value (£7) but, even if you don't, it's cheaper than the other online services. Most other online services charge between seventeen and twenty-one pounds, yet this site will find a certificate without a GRO thingy for £10.

I now have two certified birth certificates, just in case one gets lost during our process.

A Quick Note About Costs

Now, we've already paid $355 for the processing of the I-130 but, as the NVC is a separate part of the process (and, technically a separate entity), we have to pay them too. They require a further $355 plus a $45 "Immigrant Visa Security Surcharge".

Note that, once we progress to the embassy in London, we'll have to pay further charges for a medical (currently £180), the visa itself (about £95 but worth every penny) and the courier to get the visa to me (another £20). That's a total cost of just under $1,200 (not counting any certificates, postage or printing.)

Fortunately, spending the rest of my life with my wonderful wife will be worth every penny (and a LOT more besides).