• Hello Members, This forums is for DV lottery visas only. For other immigration related questions, please go to our forums home page, find the related forum and post it there.

Doing CP from the US

EURO2014 said:
We consciously decided to process CP for DV-2014, while residing in the US, as we had a comparably high CN. There are no specific differences as compared to processing CP while living in your home country, for example you will be receiving sufficient advance notice to make travel arrangements for your DV-interview etc. And no, please do not attempt to change the date of that interview, if at all possible. One thing you will need to make sure, though, is to leave sufficient time after your interview, before your return flight to the US, in order to receive back your passports with DV-visa. This took approx. 2 weeks in our case, longer than we originally had expected. Luckily, we had planned in a family vacation in France during that time, so all worked out in the end. All in all, CP turned out to be a good option for us - quick and effective, in fact we learned that we were pre-cleared as far as security screening was concerned on the day of the interview. Retrospectively, we would most likely take the same decision (CP over AoS) again. Good luck!
Click to expand...

What is the processing time for CP and what are the procedures if we switch from aos to cp now ? Will there be lots of questions if I do cp as I return from US? What do I need to prove to the CO ?
 
EURO2014 said:
You are welcome. As to your question concerning medicals in your home country, before your CP interview: required lead-time will depend on whether or not your Consulate requires medical results to be submitted prior and be part of your file at the time of your interview. The US Consulate in Frankfurt, for example, where we interviewed does not require medicals at the time of the interview. Hence, we decided to fly back two days before the interview, completed medicals the day before, and attended the interview the following day. We knew that this meant that we could not be approved "on the spot" and, indeed, received form 221(g), which is the type of AP for missing document in our case (and other reasons with different types of colored forms). Anyway, this did not cause any problems in the end, however contributed to the extended time span until we received our passports with DV-Visa back, as I had explained above.

Now, if your US Consulate requires your file to be complete, including medicals, at the time of the interview, you will look at a different travel schedule with a m i n i m u m requirement of at least a week of medicals appointment before the interview, and I would speak with the doctor's office in advance, as to ascertain what their normal reporting times to the US Consulate are. Makes sense?

Lastly, I am somewhat dubious about your reference to "potential unauthorized employment in the US". If true, this may well come up at your CP interview as well, and possibly become a dealbraker if you are not able to successfully argue your case, at that time. Very best of luck!
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input @EURO2014
 
Britsimon said:
The amount of time you need to be "in country" for the medical varies according to how quickly the physician can produce the report. Call the physician to check that timing. Typically a week is about right - but we have had people do the medicals the day before the interview and pick up the report prior to the interview.

About the unauthorized employment. You keep using the word "potential". You should be more clear about that. If it is certain, AOS is not an option. So, as I have already told you (over 3 weeks ago), I would want to remove the risk. The ONLY way you should do AOS is if you are CERTAIN the unauthorized employment will not be an issue.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much @Britsimon for clarifying the fact that unauthorized employment is not an issue when doing CP.

In regards to me pointing out the unauthorized employment being a "potential" issue is because I'm not sure it would be considered de facto unauthorized. It was short and unintentional but I think it may still be considered unauthorized in the eyes of the official. So I'm taking your advice and not doing AOS for this reason since I'm not certain it won't be an issue. Thanks again for helping me understand this!
 
Xpucu said:
@Orien - for the medicals you must call the physician(s) designated by the embassy in your home country - I believe the period needed for medicals vary by country and for my country (and I suspect this is valid for other countries too) - they already changed the medicals twice this year. So even if you ask people who attended interviews in your embassy before, the answer may not necessarily be current.
In my country (BG) there are new requirements for the STD tests this year and the new tests take 3 days - so you can no longer attend the medicals the day before the interview - they will not allow it.
Also, check on your embassy's homepage what are the local papers required - for instance, we have one that usually takes a week to be issued.
Click to expand...
Thanks @Xpucu for your feedback. Will definitely call the designated physician.
 
@Britsimon , if we submit our DS260s in the next few days, when should we expect to get the 2NL? And the interview?

We're current already and our region is EU. We've seen that it can take about 7 months from DS260 submission to the interview (5 for DS260 processing and getting the 2NL, plus 2 months to be interviewed). If this is correct, we should expect our 2NLs to arrive at the end of May to mid-June, and the interview to take place in July. Is this a good estimate?

We want to plan well for this timeline to know when to expect to leave the US (which has implications for my current job here in the US).
 
Orien said:
@Britsimon , if we submit our DS260s in the next few days, when should we expect to get the 2NL? And the interview?

We're current already and our region is EU. We've seen that it can take about 7 months from DS260 submission to the interview (5 for DS260 processing and getting the 2NL, plus 2 months to be interviewed). If this is correct, we should expect our 2NLs to arrive at the end of May to mid-June, and the interview to take place in July. Is this a good estimate?

We want to plan well for this timeline to know when to expect to leave the US (which has implications for my current job here in the US).
Click to expand...

Processing will be faster at this point. So - your estimate might be beaten by a month.
 
We have some questions about the "addresses" sections in the DS-260:
1. For present address, I'd assume we should state our current US address since that's where we live as of now. Is this ok even though we're doing CP? (I had read that interview location can be determined by the present address, hence my doubt in our case)
2. In previous addresses, I wonder how we should state a period of time when my spouse, while on J2 status, went back to our home country and stayed there for a few months visiting family etc. I would consider this as vacation and thus not list an ex-US address for that period of time, but I'd like to confirm if it's ok given it was longer than a typical American vacation time. The idea is to list our US address for the entire period of our previous US visa (regardless of vacations -even longer ones- within that period); is this ok?
3. For mailing address, is this where our 2NLs will be sent? Are any other documents sent to that address? Depending on what they'd be sending and when, I would list either our current US address (e.g.: to receive the 2NLs in the US since we'll still be here), but anything else I'd rather have it sent to our family's permanent address in our home country. Which one should we list as mailing address?

Thank you very much!!
 
Orien said:
We have some questions about the "addresses" sections in the DS-260:
1. For present address, I'd assume we should state our current US address since that's where we live as of now. Is this ok even though we're doing CP? (I had read that interview location can be determined by the present address, hence my doubt in our case)
2. In previous addresses, I wonder how we should state a period of time when my spouse, while on J2 status, went back to our home country and stayed there for a few months visiting family etc. I would consider this as vacation and thus not list an ex-US address for that period of time, but I'd like to confirm if it's ok given it was longer than a typical American vacation time. The idea is to list our US address for the entire period of our previous US visa (regardless of vacations -even longer ones- within that period); is this ok?
3. For mailing address, is this where our 2NLs will be sent? Are any other documents sent to that address? Depending on what they'd be sending and when, I would list either our current US address (e.g.: to receive the 2NLs in the US since we'll still be here), but anything else I'd rather have it sent to our family's permanent address in our home country. Which one should we list as mailing address?

Thank you very much!!
Click to expand...
@Britsimon I'm mentioning you here to bring this to your attention. I'd really appreciate if you could help me answer these questions about the addresses sections in the DS-260. Thank you!!
 
Orien said:
@Britsimon I'm mentioning you here to bring this to your attention. I'd really appreciate if you could help me answer these questions about the addresses sections in the DS-260. Thank you!!
Click to expand...

Present address should be given as the place where you want to do CP.
Use your judgement about the vacation address.
Mailing address is the place you want the GC to be sent.
 
Thanks, Brit! I'm a bit confused about stating my present address as my home country (where I want to do CP) since I'm in the US and will remain here for a few more months. Right at the beginning of the DS260 I was asked if I wanted to do AOS or CP, and I had the chance to clearly state the Embassy where I'd want to have my interview. Do I still need to state my "present address" as where I want to do CP?
If yes, a follow up to this is... how should I include my history of addresses? Should I put my current US address as a past address up until the day before I submit my DS260?
Thanks for you guidance!
 
Orien said:
Thanks, Brit! I'm a bit confused about stating my present address as my home country (where I want to do CP) since I'm in the US and will remain here for a few more months. Right at the beginning of the DS260 I was asked if I wanted to do AOS or CP, and I had the chance to clearly state the Embassy where I'd want to have my interview. Do I still need to state my "present address" as where I want to do CP?
If yes, a follow up to this is... how should I include my history of addresses? Should I put my current US address as a past address up until the day before I submit my DS260?
Thanks for you guidance!
Click to expand...
@Britsimon I'd very much appreciate your input, thanks!
 
Orien said:
Thanks, Brit! I'm a bit confused about stating my present address as my home country (where I want to do CP) since I'm in the US and will remain here for a few more months. Right at the beginning of the DS260 I was asked if I wanted to do AOS or CP, and I had the chance to clearly state the Embassy where I'd want to have my interview. Do I still need to state my "present address" as where I want to do CP?
If yes, a follow up to this is... how should I include my history of addresses? Should I put my current US address as a past address up until the day before I submit my DS260?
Thanks for you guidance!
Click to expand...


Sorry I had missed this.

So for normal CP cases the interview embassy is chosen by KCC based on current address. They don't just let you choose where you want to interview (otherwise everyone would interview in Cairo and Kathmandu). For cases that have switched from AOS to CP, I normally advise people to change the address to the address in the home country. In that case, yes, just choose the latest day possible for the past address. However, feel free to contact KCC to check that.
 
Britsimon said:
Sorry I had missed this.

So for normal CP cases the interview embassy is chosen by KCC based on current address. They don't just let you choose where you want to interview (otherwise everyone would interview in Cairo and Kathmandu). For cases that have switched from AOS to CP, I normally advise people to change the address to the address in the home country. In that case, yes, just choose the latest day possible for the past address. However, feel free to contact KCC to check that.
Click to expand...

@Britsimon I called KCC and they said that when switching from AOS to CP, we can e-mail KCC that we want to change the location of the interview to another embassy. When I asked about using the current address as the one from my country, they said its not necessary.
One of the KCC rep told me that I can unlock DS-260 and change the address and send it and it would not cause DS-260 to be reprocessed.
However, another KCC rep told me that I can e-mail KCC to change my interview location to my home country and it would be scheduled at my home country. But, if I make changes to my DS-260 it has to be processed again and it would cause delay. What is your take on this ?
 
Britsimon said:
Sorry I had missed this.

So for normal CP cases the interview embassy is chosen by KCC based on current address. They don't just let you choose where you want to interview (otherwise everyone would interview in Cairo and Kathmandu). For cases that have switched from AOS to CP, I normally advise people to change the address to the address in the home country. In that case, yes, just choose the latest day possible for the past address. However, feel free to contact KCC to check that.
Click to expand...
I called KCC and I'm sharing what I learned here in case it's helpful to others:
Interview locations are typically determined based on your current address. But apparently, it may also be determined by your country of chargeability. This means that for people currently living in the US but planning on doing CP in their home countries, it's ok to list their US address as the current address and they will do the interview in their home country. I believe that when starting the DS260, it asks if you want to do CP or AOS; and if you indicate CP, you can select to be interviewed in the embassy in your home country.
Thanks @Britsimon for all your help and suggestions!! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top