Hi everybody,
Here goes my story (sorry if I make it too long...)
I have been living in NY doing research since 2006 with a postdoctoral scholarship from the Spanish government. So I had a J1 (which was going to expire now in January) and the 2 year home residency requirement (so I had to go back to my country for 2 years!)
I really wanted to stay in NY since I loved the city, my work and I met the man of my life..but I didn’t know how..when last year I saw some people from my dorm taking pictures for the DV lottery. I never heard of this thing so they explained to me and I sent the application online (the deadline was the following day!).
So..:
-By mid March I got the letter from Kentucky (I had almost forgot about the DV lottery, at the beginning I even didn’t know what this letter was and I left it in my room for a week without really checking it
-I had a very low number EU000009XX
-When finally I found out what it was I started doing research on the internet and I found out that I needed to get a waiver for the 2YHRR for getting the green card!
-so I started the process of the J1 waiver. I needed a letter of approval from my embassy, so I wrote to them telling them the importance of my research in NY.
-They answered back saying that they needed a job offer..so I sent them another letter with a job offer for teaching from a university and also I told them about the DV lottery. So in less than 2 weeks I got the approval letter.
-DOS got the letter at the beginning of May and by the first week of June they approved my case and sent confirmation to USCIS.
-Here came the worst part and where I got more nervous..I had to wait 3 whole months until I got the final waiver from USCIS (the first week of September).
-Also in the mid of the J1 waiver (in summer) I traveled to Spain and some people said I could have problems on my return to the USA (get the 2YHRR again), but nothing happened.
-About the DV lottery process. After reading a lot of info in the internet I decided to change from AOS to CP, it seemed it would go much faster.
-In August I found out that my interview was scheduled for October, however since I planned to go for Christmas to Spain and I didn’t want to do an extra trip I changed the date of the interview to December 26th. (I had to call several times to the USA embassy in Madrid until I got a clear confirmation of this, sometimes they said they didn’t know when I could have the next interview, others they said I could change it for whatever date I wanted).
-So the 26th I had the interview, they called me three times:
1.they asked for these documents (and they checked with the originals), no need for translation, they were in Spanish:
-education
-birth certificate
-police certificate
-medical examinations – 120€ (which I did a week before the interview, the results are ready in one day. Also I got all stressed in summer getting all the vaccinations since my mom lost my vaccination record..however when I did the medical exam they told me I would have only needed two –according to my age 30 – and they could have given me the shots..)
-J1 waiver
-Bank statements (I also had a job letter from the university where I’m teaching)
-2 pictures
-passport
2.Then I had to pay the fees (total $755) and they called me to take my fingerprints.
3.Finally they called me to another window where a guy just asked me how many PhDs I have and what was my research about. Then he congratulated me and said that my visa was approved and I would get it in a week by mail. Done!! In only 2 hours (my appointment was at 9.30am but I went an hour earlier).
To finish (finally!) I would like to thank everybody in this forum, it was extremely helpful, I didn’t need any lawyer, you can do everything just by reading this forum (even with a complicated case like mine).
My advice: read this forum thoroughly and double check when you have doubts by calling Kentucky (they are really efficient and quick answering) and the USA embassy in the country where you do the CP (maybe not as efficient…).
Thank you very much to all of you and good luck!!
Here goes my story (sorry if I make it too long...)
I have been living in NY doing research since 2006 with a postdoctoral scholarship from the Spanish government. So I had a J1 (which was going to expire now in January) and the 2 year home residency requirement (so I had to go back to my country for 2 years!)
I really wanted to stay in NY since I loved the city, my work and I met the man of my life..but I didn’t know how..when last year I saw some people from my dorm taking pictures for the DV lottery. I never heard of this thing so they explained to me and I sent the application online (the deadline was the following day!).
So..:
-By mid March I got the letter from Kentucky (I had almost forgot about the DV lottery, at the beginning I even didn’t know what this letter was and I left it in my room for a week without really checking it
-I had a very low number EU000009XX
-When finally I found out what it was I started doing research on the internet and I found out that I needed to get a waiver for the 2YHRR for getting the green card!
-so I started the process of the J1 waiver. I needed a letter of approval from my embassy, so I wrote to them telling them the importance of my research in NY.
-They answered back saying that they needed a job offer..so I sent them another letter with a job offer for teaching from a university and also I told them about the DV lottery. So in less than 2 weeks I got the approval letter.
-DOS got the letter at the beginning of May and by the first week of June they approved my case and sent confirmation to USCIS.
-Here came the worst part and where I got more nervous..I had to wait 3 whole months until I got the final waiver from USCIS (the first week of September).
-Also in the mid of the J1 waiver (in summer) I traveled to Spain and some people said I could have problems on my return to the USA (get the 2YHRR again), but nothing happened.
-About the DV lottery process. After reading a lot of info in the internet I decided to change from AOS to CP, it seemed it would go much faster.
-In August I found out that my interview was scheduled for October, however since I planned to go for Christmas to Spain and I didn’t want to do an extra trip I changed the date of the interview to December 26th. (I had to call several times to the USA embassy in Madrid until I got a clear confirmation of this, sometimes they said they didn’t know when I could have the next interview, others they said I could change it for whatever date I wanted).
-So the 26th I had the interview, they called me three times:
1.they asked for these documents (and they checked with the originals), no need for translation, they were in Spanish:
-education
-birth certificate
-police certificate
-medical examinations – 120€ (which I did a week before the interview, the results are ready in one day. Also I got all stressed in summer getting all the vaccinations since my mom lost my vaccination record..however when I did the medical exam they told me I would have only needed two –according to my age 30 – and they could have given me the shots..)
-J1 waiver
-Bank statements (I also had a job letter from the university where I’m teaching)
-2 pictures
-passport
2.Then I had to pay the fees (total $755) and they called me to take my fingerprints.
3.Finally they called me to another window where a guy just asked me how many PhDs I have and what was my research about. Then he congratulated me and said that my visa was approved and I would get it in a week by mail. Done!! In only 2 hours (my appointment was at 9.30am but I went an hour earlier).
To finish (finally!) I would like to thank everybody in this forum, it was extremely helpful, I didn’t need any lawyer, you can do everything just by reading this forum (even with a complicated case like mine).
My advice: read this forum thoroughly and double check when you have doubts by calling Kentucky (they are really efficient and quick answering) and the USA embassy in the country where you do the CP (maybe not as efficient…).
Thank you very much to all of you and good luck!!