Visa procedures so far

So in case anyone in the same situation ever ends up in this blog, here is how the process has gone so far.

1) Filled the I-130, Petition for an alien relative. For that some other papers were needed, such as proof of marriage and proof of an ongoing relationship. I had our marriage certificate and also a paper from the magistrate saying that we live in a same address. Also copies of both of our passports. And a passport style photo of both of us. Maybe something else, don't remember any more.

Sent this one out, I was prepared to wait for 5 months for it to be handled, but within two weeks from them receiving it I got my approval letter.

2) In the approval letter it says to wait for 30 days until contacting the National  Visa Center (NVC). Of course I didn't hear anything from them within that 30 days, so then I e-mailed them. In two days I got back an e-mail saying that I have to mail them a paper which states who is handling my case; is it me, or perhaps an agent or an attorney, and to which address my papers should be sent. Also it asked to pay the 88USD amount for the affidavit of support.

3) Sent out the paper, paid the 88USD. (online, from a U.S. bank account!). Once that was paid, I happened to need to contact them about my address change in Finland. I emailed them, but I did not get an answer "we have changed your address", instead, I got the next paper, saying that I should pay the 230USD visa fee. (the paper had the new, correct address). So I paid that. In the receipt there were directions to the next steps, what I need to collect for the visa applicaton.

4) Sent out the affidavit of support papers, which actually required that my husband filed his foreign earned taxes with the IRS... that was a lot of work. 

Now I'm collecting the documents for the visa papers (birth certificate, marriage certificate, criminal record from the police) and once I have them, I'm good to go and send those out!

So altogether until this point it has taken 2 months. Not bad. I hope to get an interview appointment for the consulate quite quickly, since everything else has been so fast. So I don't quite think the 8-12 month processing time estimate will be true in my case. 

So take heart, all you in the same situation! Make sure your papers are PERFECT when you send them out, and that will speed up the process. I'm sure there are also differences depending on which country you are immigrating from, and Finland as a small western country probably is easy to come from...

Good luck to all who are doing the same thing!