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National Visa Center Changes Immigrant Visa Processing
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Posted on November 11, 2002 National Visa Center Changes Immigrant Visa Processing The National Visa Center (NVC) changed certain immigrant visa (IV) processing procedures as of October 1, 2002. Under the new procedures, when the NVC receives the approved IV petition from INS, NVC first generates for all posts one bill per case for Affidavit of Support review (where applicable) and one bill per applicant for consular processing fees. All such bills are bar-coded and must be paid through NVC's bank in St. Louis by certified check or money order. Because a separate processing bill is issued for each visa applicant, and in the instance of the I-130, that information is taken from the fields in Part C, Item 17 on page 2, and from the I-140 in Part 7 on page 2, it is important to complete those fields. While it is possible to add a derivative beneficiary to the bar-coded processing bill, doing so requires modifying the bill and can be confusing. Once NVC receives notification of payment from St. Louis, further processing begins. There are two processing streams, "appointment cases," meaning those to be processed through Montreal, Albania and the African continent, and "standard" cases, where appointments are set by posts. In either case, the NVC will issue another bar-coded form with the instruction packet. The bar-coded form must be returned to the NVC with the requested documents, e.g., the DS 230, civil documents such as birth and marriage records, and police clearances, and, where needed, the I-864. No documents are to be sent to St. Louis. In sum, as of October 1, NVC will generate bar-coded bills that must first be paid, after which it will generate one or another form of bar-coded document request. All requested documents will now be sent directly to NVC in response to this second step, thus eliminating the potential for document loss by the bank in St. Louis, but somewhat extending processing times. The NVC will continue to accept photocopies and computer-generated forms like the DS 230 and the I-864. So, attorneys can prepare in advance to respond to the document request by generating and having clients sign a DS 230 Part I, an I-864, etc., but there will be no point in submitting these or other documents to NVC before receiving the bar-coded requests for them, because NVC's computer system will not allow it to advance the case before the bar codes are generated and returned. And, the bar-coded "cover sheet" must accompany the forms and documents when they are submitted. |