Hey All- So I am waiting approval for me and my fiance from the Cali Service Center...and let me tell you it seems to be very slow compared to the others! Any one have any helpful words because it is putting so much stress on us and making things very hard on us. I also have chapel reserved for our wedding here in Colorado and am wondering if I should just switch the date we have set in October! HELP....its making me crazy!

We all know what you're going through. I would just hang tight for the time being. CSV is actually doing quite well with getting their cases processed. Keep your head up and be patient. That's all you can do.

Just a little tip: Fill out your timeline so we will be able to give you information based on other petitioners who filed near, or around the same time as you.

difficult to predict as you have no timeline, so no idea when you filed.

It's very difficult to say as you havent put down your timeline. I take it you received your NOA1. As its the CSC your probebly looking 6-8 months from when you filed, but thats only a guide. As for switching the dates only you will know how to judge that.

Good luck

Katiemanny,

You filed at the CSC, so you're not moving along slowly at all actually. CSC is slower than VSC remember, so you're actually not moving slowly. we sent our petition in on november 1st and got our NOA 2 on march 10th. so about 4 months. You probably have about two more months of waiting for the NOa 2, then you will be all done with uscis.

I wouldnt change the date just yet on your wedding because once you get your NOA2 it supposedly moves a lot quicker, although we're still waitiyng for our interview date and the embassy received our papers 27 days ago. So don't worry it will go by in no time and youll be onto the next step!

good luck!

Honestly, if I were you I would change the wedding date only because I might have a full on anxiety/panic attack in the process of waiting with such pressure. The wait is already stressful enough as it is and having a wedding date and out of town visitors and people making plans, etc. etc. would put me over the edge. That is just my take on it.....only you can know how much you want to count on everything going smoothly and how well you handle the wait.

I agree with what others wrote....it hasn't actually been too long of a wait considering you filed at CSC. Granted it may feel like an eternity, but, you have to remember that USCIS is reporting that CSC is only now working on filers from October 07. You can get lucky, my fiance and I were approved in four months and we filed at CSC but even with the quick approval we are now coming up on 7 months since filing and he hasn't arrived.

I suggest you look at timelines really careful and develop a realistic expectation of when you can start expecting news. Also, check out others from the Dominican Republic forum so you have an idea of how quickly things move once the petition is forwarded to the consulate. That may make it easier to decide what to do about the Chapel. Good luck and hang in there!!!!!

CSC is pretty slow ..sad to say but its true.We filed our on Oct.30 and still waiting for the approval.I hope u will get urs very soon.

Hi, Got my NOA1 12-10-07 and until now i still havent got my NOA2..... its very stressful.........

Well we filed a month before you almost and we have a Sept 27th wedding set......so let's just keep our fingers crossed all goes well with CSC for month of May and they crank out approvals! I wouldn't get too worried yet!

If there is lots of movement during May you will probably be alright for your wedding date, but if things are still slow you might want to push it back a month. Leave it as is for now unless you absolutely have to book things that cannot be altered - in which case you should move it to November just to be on the safe side.

Look carefully at the timelines for people filing through the same service center and same consulate as you to ascertain whether your schedule is realistic based on how long other people have taken from NOA2 to obtain an interview date.

We filed in December and have a provisional early September wedding date, but are prepared for the possibility that we'll have to move it to late September or October if we don't get our NOA2 in the next five weeks.

Darren and I had no idea how long this process would take, so we opted for a civil ceremony first and a celebratory service (for friends and family) later.

My advice (from someone who waited 7.5 months for noa2) is to get it off your mind in whatever way you can. Just get it in your head that it's going to take a long time and hopefully you'll be pleasantly surprised with a short wait. And if not, you won't drive yourself crazy worrying, wondering, waiting etc... Just focus on your relationship & keeping in touch as often as you can (we talked daily and that helped immensely). Try to remember that the 2 of you is what's important and not the paperwork. Get things done that you've been putting off. Get into a new hobby. Read books. Play video games. Just whatever helps you to pass time faster.
Good luck!! I wish you a short wait

Thats indeed what we're doing also, better safe then sorry as my SO always says ^^

yes, indeed! we're doing same. there's enough to deal with without trying to plan some big shindig... though, we're going to go to vegas to renew our vows with friends and family so we can have a dueling elvis sing-off during our ceremony. well, unless our friends agree to do it for us somewhere closer to home (which wouldn't suprise me)

hang in there! the stress is understandable, but you will get there in time.

That's what we're doing, too. I wanted to plan a big ceremony initially and just was going crazy trying to make contingency plans just in case it wasn't approved yet. I finally decided it was worth the stress and craziness it was causing me. We'll have a civil ceremony (very possibly in Vegas! I live about five hours away and it's a running joke every time he's here that we should just go down there and get married), then a big church ceremony in May of '09.

You can't say that Cali is slower or faster than the VSC. Each case is different and I have seen approvals take 1 month and then some take 6 months, both filed at the same time. It's a matter of who's desk it gets on and how long the background checks take.