TunisianYankee
Active Member
I'm married to a Tunisian and am going through the immigration process so I just thought it would be helpful to post our experience and time line so far:
May 11th 2014- Married! As soon as we returned from our honeymoon we began collecting our documents. We wanted to do all of this before we were married but there was little we could do without the marriage cert. We signed a joint lease with our landlord, opened a joint bank account, collected 20 photos from our time together (before wedding, wedding, honeymoon, outings, with family etc). We had to wait several weeks for the marriage to be registered and for his new birth cert to reflect being married. Once we were able to get a copy of the marriage act and his updated birth certificate, we took everything to a sworn translator and translated everything. I had collected my documents from the US ahead of time so that made it easier on us. Trying to get all of them from here would have been a nightmare. Once we had all documents collected, photocopied, translated, etc, We put in a package and sent via FedEx to our attorney in the US. We also made our final payment to the attorney and paid for the USCIS i-130 processing fee.
June 25th 2014- Attorney sends I-130, processing fee and supporting documents to USICS (homeland security) We were told that processing time for this step would be 5 months.
July 11th 2014- Attorney receives "notice of action" from USICS. This is basically just a receipt of your fee being paid and acknowledgement that your application has been received by homeland security.
July 31st 2014- Attorney receives approval notice for the Alien petition. This means that my husband cleared the homeland security investigation and that our case will be forwarded to the National Visa Center (NVC). This step was supposed to take 5 months but only took 5 weeks. AWESOME.
Now we wait for the NVC to receive the case and send us a bill for their fees. We cannot proceed until the NVC generates file numbers and sends us the bill. During this time we began collecting the additional documents and answering the questions from the DS230 and emailed the answers to our attorney. My husband ordered the required police report which can take up to a month to receive. You can't order this too early though because it must be current.
We also used this time to secure a co-sponsor for my husband. Because I am with him in Tunisia, I am not working and therefore not able to be the only sponsor on the Affidavit of Support. We reached out to a family member who agreed to to co-sponsor him.
August 18th 2014- Received notification from NVC with NVC case number and and their invoice number.
August 19th 2014- Made payment for IV fee (immigrant visa processing fee) and AOS fee (affidavit of support fee) Payed these online for faster processing. sending a check/money order takes 30 days. Doing it online, you only have to wait for the ACH to clear.
August 22nd 2014- Received notification that ACH has cleared and that the DS230, and I 864 can now be sumitted and supporting documents mailed.
August 25th 2014- Police report FINALLY ready. Turns out it was ready for a while, but lost on someone's desk...Shocking, I know.
August 26th 2014- Had police report translated by a sworn translator and made copies of all supporting documents then sent originals via DHL to our attorney.
August 29th 2014- Attorney received documents.
Edited to update:
September 23rd 2014 NVC receives all supporting documents
November 24th 2014 NVC confirms that their case review has been completed.
Next the case will be forwarded to the embassy in Tunisia and my husband is assigned an interview date. Could be one to four months from the time the NVC approves the application until the interview takes place. It just depends on how busy the embassy is.
Edited to update:
December 5th 2014: NVC confirms that interview has been scheduled with the US embassy in Tunis for January 8th 2014
December 8th Doctor's appointment for blood testing, vaccinations, etc. The doctor gave him a sealed envelope to bring to interview
December 8 Interview- The embassy can't find the case Rescheduled to Dec 18
December 15th Interview- APPROVED! Five minute interview with basic questions.
once he has his interview and is approved, he gets the visa, the $165 USCIS immigrant fee will need to be paid online via credit card or US bank account.
Travel to US
Green card arrives in mail at US address within 30 days of arrival at port of entry.
Receiving a green card based on marriage is never a guarantee. Prior to marriage we discussed at length the possibility that for whatever reason the US could choose to deny immigration to my husband. Contrary to popular believe Green Cards are NOT automatic when marrying a US citizen. I hope this post demystifies the process a bit. I'll continue to post as we progress through our case. The following official government websites are VERY helpful:
http://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-through-family/green-card-immediate-relative-us-citizen
http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/petition.html
Also, the site www.visajourney.com has everything you ever wanted to know about immigration to the united states. There is enough on this site to keep you occupied for DAYS just reading and learning about the process.
May 11th 2014- Married! As soon as we returned from our honeymoon we began collecting our documents. We wanted to do all of this before we were married but there was little we could do without the marriage cert. We signed a joint lease with our landlord, opened a joint bank account, collected 20 photos from our time together (before wedding, wedding, honeymoon, outings, with family etc). We had to wait several weeks for the marriage to be registered and for his new birth cert to reflect being married. Once we were able to get a copy of the marriage act and his updated birth certificate, we took everything to a sworn translator and translated everything. I had collected my documents from the US ahead of time so that made it easier on us. Trying to get all of them from here would have been a nightmare. Once we had all documents collected, photocopied, translated, etc, We put in a package and sent via FedEx to our attorney in the US. We also made our final payment to the attorney and paid for the USCIS i-130 processing fee.
June 25th 2014- Attorney sends I-130, processing fee and supporting documents to USICS (homeland security) We were told that processing time for this step would be 5 months.
July 11th 2014- Attorney receives "notice of action" from USICS. This is basically just a receipt of your fee being paid and acknowledgement that your application has been received by homeland security.
July 31st 2014- Attorney receives approval notice for the Alien petition. This means that my husband cleared the homeland security investigation and that our case will be forwarded to the National Visa Center (NVC). This step was supposed to take 5 months but only took 5 weeks. AWESOME.
Now we wait for the NVC to receive the case and send us a bill for their fees. We cannot proceed until the NVC generates file numbers and sends us the bill. During this time we began collecting the additional documents and answering the questions from the DS230 and emailed the answers to our attorney. My husband ordered the required police report which can take up to a month to receive. You can't order this too early though because it must be current.
We also used this time to secure a co-sponsor for my husband. Because I am with him in Tunisia, I am not working and therefore not able to be the only sponsor on the Affidavit of Support. We reached out to a family member who agreed to to co-sponsor him.
August 18th 2014- Received notification from NVC with NVC case number and and their invoice number.
August 19th 2014- Made payment for IV fee (immigrant visa processing fee) and AOS fee (affidavit of support fee) Payed these online for faster processing. sending a check/money order takes 30 days. Doing it online, you only have to wait for the ACH to clear.
August 22nd 2014- Received notification that ACH has cleared and that the DS230, and I 864 can now be sumitted and supporting documents mailed.
August 25th 2014- Police report FINALLY ready. Turns out it was ready for a while, but lost on someone's desk...Shocking, I know.
August 26th 2014- Had police report translated by a sworn translator and made copies of all supporting documents then sent originals via DHL to our attorney.
August 29th 2014- Attorney received documents.
Edited to update:
September 23rd 2014 NVC receives all supporting documents
November 24th 2014 NVC confirms that their case review has been completed.
Next the case will be forwarded to the embassy in Tunisia and my husband is assigned an interview date. Could be one to four months from the time the NVC approves the application until the interview takes place. It just depends on how busy the embassy is.
Edited to update:
December 5th 2014: NVC confirms that interview has been scheduled with the US embassy in Tunis for January 8th 2014
December 8th Doctor's appointment for blood testing, vaccinations, etc. The doctor gave him a sealed envelope to bring to interview
December 8 Interview- The embassy can't find the case Rescheduled to Dec 18
December 15th Interview- APPROVED! Five minute interview with basic questions.
once he has his interview and is approved, he gets the visa, the $165 USCIS immigrant fee will need to be paid online via credit card or US bank account.
Travel to US
Green card arrives in mail at US address within 30 days of arrival at port of entry.
Receiving a green card based on marriage is never a guarantee. Prior to marriage we discussed at length the possibility that for whatever reason the US could choose to deny immigration to my husband. Contrary to popular believe Green Cards are NOT automatic when marrying a US citizen. I hope this post demystifies the process a bit. I'll continue to post as we progress through our case. The following official government websites are VERY helpful:
http://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-through-family/green-card-immediate-relative-us-citizen
http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/petition.html
Also, the site www.visajourney.com has everything you ever wanted to know about immigration to the united states. There is enough on this site to keep you occupied for DAYS just reading and learning about the process.
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love conquers all....
Our progress has been a lot slower than yours though. We could not afford a lawyer, so I've been doing everything myself. (I live in AZ, he lives in Tunisia) If I could do it all over again, I would rob a bank or blackmail for the money to hire a lawyer LOL. It's been very difficult, but we're slowly getting through it. Our case was received by the USCIS on June 21, 2013. It was forwarded to the NVC sometime in November I think. The government shut down was fantastic! Thanks guys! Our case was moved around from office to office because so and so was backed up with cases. Gotta love the government. Right now, we are waiting for approval of the affidavit of support, then his interview date. We've had a few set backs, so here we are, over a year later, still waiting to be together. We've seen eachother once after my original trip to get married. I try not to get bitter about it, but reading this back - I think I've failed! 
I do know though that this was a battle we knew we'd have to fight and it will be worth it in the long run. I'm very happy that your case has moved along so quickly and that you were able to stay with him. Thank you for starting this post. It's nice to hear from someone that is in the same stages of the process, and American too!