USCIS

Once step 1 is behind you, your file is sent to the National Visa Center.

Second step: NVC

The NVC receives your file and assigns it a case number.
The petitioner (US Citizen) and the beneficiary (and the lawyer if there is one) receive the invoices for the fees, the Affidavit Of Support Fee ($120 last December) and the Immigrant Visa Application Processing Fee ($325 in December ). Since we had a lawyer, he was the one who made the payments online.
In the same email, you also receive the cover sheet of the case file that you must put together (and which list all the documents you need to provide).
Once the payments are cashed, your DS-260 is generated (see below).

There are then 2 “requests” to manage simultaneously.

The DS-260 (there is no order, you can start with this one or the other).
This is an online questionnaire that you fill out on https://ceac.state.gov/IV/Login.aspx with your case number and your invoice number. Watch out, it’s long! Fortunately, you can save it and fill it in several times.

The information to provide:

Family information: your parents, their addresses, the same for your spouse.
ALL your addresses since the age of 16 (TWELVE for me !!!!!!) and your future American address.
The list of your trips to the USA and their duration.
You must answer security questions (similar to those you answer on your travels).
If you have or want a social security number.
Information about your current job or the list of your previous jobs.

Once you have completed everything and re-checked (several times and with a rested head!), you submit.

The I-864 packet.
To build this packet, you must follow the instructions of your cover sheet. The papers depend on your situation and what you have already provided in your initial file.
Here is a list of what is needed:

Affidavit of Support of your sponsor/s, IRS Tax Transcripts, W2 or other evidences of incomes.
Proof of Relationship (Marriage Certificate)
Proof of US statut (US spouse’s birth certificate or passeport)
Birth Certificate of the alien spouse and its certified English translation.
Criminal record of the Alien spouse (from all countries where you have lived more than 6 months since you’re 16 years old, so I had to provide one from Denmark) and its certified English translation (this translation does not seem obligatory , but we did not want to take risks).
Copy of the valid passport (valid for more than 6 months after the planned departure) of the Alien citizen.

You then send it by mail and the day your file arrives at the NVC is what is called your Scan Date (the day the file is entered into the system). Then starts the wait again, which used to be short (between 2 and 4 weeks) before but can sometimes go up to 12 weeks (we waited 9 weeks) since your Scan Date.

If you have forgotten a document… it’s horror! You will receive a checklist and it will be necessary to provide these documents as soon as possible BUT the date of their arrival at the NVC will be your new Scan Date so… yes, you have guessed right, you must wait again for a similar amount of time!

Once everything is OK you finally have CASE COMPLETE (you receive a letter/email)! At this point, you can begin to relax, because you fulfill all the administrative and financial conditions to obtain the visa (but there is still the medical visit and the famous interview).

Your file is then sent to the embassy.

I will write a series of articles on that visa, to detail the different stages.
If you meet the requirements for a cr-1/ir-1 visa, start by gathering some proofs of your relationship, and follow these steps.

First step: USCIS

The US citizen completes and files a “Petition for Alien Relative”, form I-130.
Send it along with your file (proofs of relationships) to the USCIS center you depend on (depending on where you live, you can check and find the addresses here).
Pay the fees, send them with your petition (we paid $420 but they now amount to $535 and increase each year – see here).
There are no “rules” regarding the documents that you must attach to your petition, but it is advisable to include some proofs of authenticity and duration of your relationship such as epistolary or telephone exchanges, some photos and possible testimonials from friends.

To give you an idea, I will list exactly everything we included in ours:

form G-28 because we were represented by a lawyer.
form I-130
form G-325A (Biographic Information) x 2 (one form each spouse) – a summary of the latest work places and housing of both spouses.
3 testimonies (my mother-in-law – who also announced her intention to be co-sponsor, my mother and my best friend, who had both made the trip to the USA for our wedding), signed in front of a notary, with presentation of a ID.
our wedding certificate
our birth certificates (+ certified English translation for mine)
ten photos
letters from him and from me (8-10 each) that shows a continuous relationship and its evolution (the least funny part because you expose your intimacy). Be careful not to include letters with inappropriate language or sexual content, and avoid sending letters that are too long.

If you have completed everything correctly and sent a check in the correct amount, you will receive your NO1 – Notice of Action – in a few days, which confirms receipt of your file and announces your “Priority Date” (the date your file arrived and not the one of the notice).
You can also follow the evolution on the USCIS website.

From there… you have to be patient! Your NO1 will tell you which center your file will be treated at, and apart from constantly monitoring the progress of the files of this center via mobile applications and community sites on immigration (like visajourney.com, a mine of info), there is nothing to do ! The official deadlines generally announce a wait of 4 or 5 months for this stage, some centers respect them, others don’t. In our case, we found ourselves in a completely overwhelmed center, which transferred a large part of his cases, late, including ours, to another center, when we had just reached 5 months of waiting . As a result, we got our NO2 after 7 months!

And at some point (when you’re at the end of life, slouching on your couch and too discouraged to look what has just beeped your phone):

You will also receive your NO2 by mail. Nothing more to do at that moment, you have to wait (between 2 weeks and a month) that your file is sent to the NVC for the next step.

Visa CR-1 / IR-1 [step 2, NVC]

Visa CR-1 / IR-1 [step 1, USCIS]

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