awesome.. thanks!

Hi All,

I just spoke to immigration officer named Mark at VSC and he told me that he is pretty sure that my I-129F will not be looked at all. He said they will only consider I-130 petition. Then I asked him when can I expect to have a decision on my I-130 since my NOA1 date for that is 03/04/2008, he said at best it can be adjudicated by September 2008 and at worst Dec 2008. Then I gave him one example that someone filed I-130 petition to VSC in Jan 15 2008 and was already approved on May 1, 2008 so that means the adjudication happened in 3.5 months without any expedite/family emergency or military spouse criteria. I said why is there such kind of preferential treatment. He said they dont have any control over that and they just do what their supervisors tell them to do. He said if I am not happy with the way things are going I can lodge a formal complaint to DHS Office of Inspector General. He pointed me to a link on their website which has following email address and phone number to lodge complaints:

1-800-323-8603 or email DHSOIGHOTLINE@DHS.GOV

The description on the link says: If you have knowledge of suspected criminal violations, misconduct, wasteful activities, and allegations of civil rights or civil liberties abuse, you may report them to the DHS Office of Inspector General. Calls can be made anonymously and confidentially.

I feel that what VSC is doing definitely falls under "WASTEFUL ACTIVITIES". I am sure all of you will agree with me. But do you guys think lodging a formal complaint will really help or make a difference? I feel if a lot of us called this hotline or sent email complaining about VSC's wasteful activities it might make difference. Any of you out there willing to do this with me?

I-130 Processing:

- I-130 package sent to Chicago lockbox on 02/25/2008
- Received at Chicago lockbox on 02/26/2008
- Fees check cashed on 03/06/2008
- I-130 entered into CRIS on 03/04/2008
- NOA1 hardcopy notice received at home 03/08/2008
- Touched 03/07/2008
- Touched 03/09/2008
- Touched 03/10/2008

I-129F Processing:

- I-129F package sent to Vermont Service Center on 03/10/2008
- I-129F received by VSC on 03/11/2008
- I-129F entered into CRIS on 03/12/2008
- NOA1 hardcopy notice received at home on 03/14/2008
- Touched 03/14/2008
- Touched 03/16/2008

If they do not I.D. themselves as OFFICER they are not officers but office aides.
I verified he was a officer" Immigration Officer" and I did get a bad number, and not a I.D. "such as the aides have"

yesterday my phone call from my very first question concerning my marriage and how it occured, "marriage conservation lasted about 15 minutes" That is not for posting: right down to the questions of my education background to my very educated husband's education and work background, and what my husband plans to do for a profession when he comes to USA, right down to him asking me if my husband plans on going for his phD when he comes to U.S. . then asking if he thinks we will be delayed for processing cause my husband is from Algeria.
"You know, "One of those regions" yeah nice one. No matter what petition you filed, EVERYBODY goes thru back ground checks.

K1 petitions are "No brainers" easy to process, very little paperwork, a few photos, phone bills, email and back ground check, unless they get RFE, re-markable K1 ever gets one, since they have so little to submit, "Rocket scientist" Okay we already knew that part!!

I dont see that they have the choice to pick and choose what to process, we all take orders from higher ups.!
Then he kindly asked me to verifiy my I.D. address and D.O.B. also asked me to verify my husbands I.D. and etc.

Then he pulled up my two cases, talked about them, more questions of my work, I gave his my full job descriptions from the Customs officers to all the agencies I deal with on a daily basics, to where I was born, how long I have been waiting, etc.

I explained to him of my time restrictions , he understood, and said should be no problem, I mentioned Im ready for NVC and Embassy paperwork, he said I was organized and ready to move on, and I agreed with him. I told him we need to get this process done at USCIS, so I can clear the NVC and make the interview at Embassy before end of the year, etc, etc, etc. He made some notes in system, I heard him punching at the keyboard.
A few words of K3 petitions "all that was mentioned yesterday" And not to lose hope, things will be changing very soon. Blah blah blah.
the rest of this posting is useless to members, but you wanted the whole thing:

A bit more of friendly conservation, then I thanked him, he told me I was a very nice lady, and was a pleasure speaking with me and to call back if I had any more questions or concerns. I verified his name, I thanked him, several more minutes of meaningless conservation , I said I will give it a couple more weeks, and we will see what happens, then I hung up.
So folks, most of this stuff we have heard over and over before, but believe what you want. So it gives hope to some, , some its not good enough.
Im wish you more luck and information with a officer that is willing to talk to you. Maybe I did not get the answers we all have, but the point is this gives some of us hope, and its more then we had 2 days ago.

PLEASE POST OFFICER ID AND NAME....

called

complained about vermont Service Center!

Sorry guys but I did not ask for officer's ID or badge number. However I did call the comlaint hotline and lodged a formal complaint. The person gave me my complaint report number and I will be e-mailing them about the investigation done by office of inspector general. He told me that I would have to file for Life Information Act to find out the outcome of the investigation. So if any of you call please make sure to get a report number and then follow-up on it. Thanks

Thank you Paris for letting us know. I have hope that your case will be approved soon due to the conversation you had with the officer regarding your case and I think based on that info your case will be approved very soon. It sounds as if your time is coming. However I do not see that the rest of us should have hope. Things are still appearing to be the same at Vermont. The conversation only seemed to prove to me that many of our cases will not be adjudicated any time soon. If I am missing somthing please show me. I am not saying this to put you down or your information, however I think many who read the title of the post expected to get real answers to our questions but all we have from this is that our cases are still not being worked on and that we will still be waiting and living in the unknown. I can understand how you would have gotten hope from this conversation but I think many of us were expecting general answers to our questions not answers regarding your case. I hope you will not take offence becuase I am not trying to offend you. I am just trying to point out why some are responding the way they are.

No you did not offend me, yesterday I posted on the touches and how VSc is going to speed up and etc.
Todays posting was just to show basically the time we were on the phone, cause as someone would point out, its just was not K1, or K3 , or touches talk and etc. To save time I posted it all, and why I made the call in the first place to USCIS.
Like I said it gave me hope rather they process my case now, in a few weeks, or by middle of summer, it still gave me hope, and for the small talk of my profession, education and my husband, I believe it was polite conservation, or maybe he was just kind cause he could hear the stress in my voice and the frustration of this whole process. Or maybe cause he saw I was denied for a expedite, and just took the time to speak to me.
Next time, I will get Barbara Walters to interview the officer.
Like I said, its nothing we have not heard before, but keep in mind, its not just going to wake up tomorrow and see a ton of Dec. Jan. filers all at once, we have seen a couple, and to me its a start from once it was nothing at all but K1 approvals.
I mean no offense to you, and I wish you a Happy/Safe Memorial Day.

If it can make you feel better, there is a someone (for CR-1, mind you) that filed (their I-130) mid March at VSC and got approved on May 22 (see a recent thread in the CR-1/IR-1 forum).
So I wouldn't focus too much on any dates you are given over the phone right now. Sure it could be Sept or even Dec, but it could also be way faster. We just don't know at this point.

My husband also spoke to someone from Vermont and that person told him that I-130 gets approved faster if you filed I-129F along with it.

Looking at the approvals timeline for CR1/IR1 and K3, i guess it's the opposite, it's faster if you don't file I-129 along with I-130. And lately(for Auguest filers and up), VSC is canceling all I-129 for K3 visa.

Hey! VSC must be doing something as I got touched on my I-130 again today. But to my big surprise I also got touched on my I-129f today too. Now I'm not even gonna begin to try and work out what this means in relation to days/months/years away from approval but at least someone looked at them today. Maybe they heard my ranting last night?!
Still hanging in there - just!
Cheers
Dave

I noticed that you are the part of the group that got I-129F touches at about the same time in April and you got approved.This might mean more I-129F approvals for others!

Based on some information received from these posts, I started getting nervous about the VSC not handling K3 cases any longer. I sent a message to my attorney concerning this. I got the following response:

"We have had some I129F petitions that were administratively closed. It basically means that we have to process it as a CR-1 visa if that happens. We need to wait to get your approval notice before we can determine which way the case will proceed. I will let you know the details as we progress. Thanks."

Not good news. I was then informed by my attorney that a CR-1 will take approx. 4 months longer, but I wouldn't have to file AOS and would be $500 cheaper (I guess this would be saving the AOS Perm. residence fee.)

So apparently all of the posts about K3 petitions at VSC have some merit. Not real sure why VSC just closed up shop on K3 petitions.

Sference, others on this forum had been hearing the same thing lately, which had us all on edge.
But today we saw an approval of I-129F for K-3 at Vermont!!
So let's wait and see, but maybe in the next weeks we might start seeing some of those petitions approved again?
It's an interesting development, to say the least though!

What I'm not clear on is why is a CR1 going to take 4 months longer.
It seems that before it used to take a while because of all the mail back and forth that was required. What's the process now? I see CR1 timelines that say "Yesterday I paid this bill. Today they generated something else, etc"...so what is it at NVC that takes a long time to do? With electronic billpay what's a reasonable timeline for NVC now?

I just spoke with someone at Vermont, and she acted like I was from Mars. She was very polite and helpful. She said that she didn't know anything about converting K3 to CR-1 at Vermont, which really confuses me now, since my lawyer sent me the email referenced above. Anyway, I'm going to take the lady at VSC's word for it, until they tell me something different.

As far as the CR-1 taking longer, I'm not an expert, but the way I read it, is that the K3 was invented because the CR1 (immigrant visa) takes so long. Thinking being, that you can enter the US on K3, and then file AOS to permanent residence.... but that's my 2 cents... take it for what it's worth.

The only part of the K3 that was faster was the NVC stage, that is where you would save those 2 months, but now with the online system up there is not a big difference. Before July both the I-129f and the I-130 would be approved at about the same time, you can ask your lawyer about it and I am sure he will tell you the same thing, I didnt use a lawyer for mine but i called a ton of them before i filed to get a good idea of what is what. If you are ready for the NVC part of things you could expect to be done with NVC in about a month. The only thing that stops me from being ready is my wifes police reports, in Brazil they are only good for 3 months and take 1 month to get. Since I am on month 6 of waiting I cant really say that I will be done with USCIS in the next 4 months. So I lose a month even when my petition is approved because I cant ask her to get her police reports now to have them ready because i fear that USCIS VSC is not making any progress. Ive pretty much given up on America though, my wife is getting ready to open her own Pharmacy and I agreed that it was a good idea so if she gets everything in order I will be moving there within the next 4 months or so.

The way I understand it this was the case in the past, CR-1 was taking a while. My analysis of the timeframes for CR1 goes kind of like this:
2 months or so to get out of USCIS and get to NVC.
4-5 months to get through NVC.

But didn't NVC just introduce electronic billpay and doc printing? I see timelines in the CR1 thread and you can see that at the beginning of this year people took something like 4 months to go NOA2->NVC Case Complete. Now it's down to 40-50 days...

I'm trying to prepare for all eventualities. And most certainly, IF we were to get both NOA2s on the same day like they do now, I'd go NVC route (embassy in Moscow is running pretty high volume on interviews so they are usually 2 months out) just in case we can do the ol' "switch to CR1 at the last minute" trick.
And if we don't get the 129F NOA2 then we're stuck with just CR1...I still want to know how long it'll take.
We got married in December of 2007. I'd hate to tell my wife that the family vacation to Hawaii that we're right now planning for this Xmas will be ...postponed due to buerocratic BS that happens in this country.

Quoted for truth...
I'm Russian living in the states, my wife is Russian but she wants to come here right now, hence why we're going through this nightmare. If I get anymore BS from the government or economy tanks even further so that I get laid off I'm gonna seriously consider selling off what I got (or renting out the house) and moving back. I'm one of those lucky people who don't live in McMansion, don't have 3 mortgages and whose house actually went UP in value instead of down.

Regarding your police cert...my answer to your situation is:
- order police cert right now.
- Get it a month later.
- If, 2 months from now you don't have a NOA2 yet, you order another one a month before it expires.

Only problem with that is she has to ask for them in person, Strange thing about Brazil, you cant just order them like we can. It is a 700 dollar plane ride and then the hotel, and then 1 month later she has to fly back to pick them up I wish it was so easy, I get frustrated with her government because they make things so difficult sometimes.

Just a thought. If the I-130 is approved before the I-129F, does that make it a CR-1?

Folks, don't call VSC phone support. Save yourself the time on the phone.
"We're processing I129F from November 17, 2007 so it will be 3 more months until we get to you, that's the fastest" Ok...I've mailed my I130 in Jan of this year. "Oh, I-130s are still on July 2007".

In a way, I sort of understand WHY they're saying what they're saying. That's unfortunately how ANY large business operates, if you ever had to call tech support. Those folks can't just go and make up stories or do the "wink wink, fill out this form", they have to follow the "party line" so that everything operates consistently otherwise there's no accountability. Of course, unlike any large business, USCIS is not a business but unaccountable governmental monopoly so they get away with anything they want.

Gotta love that answer! But yeah thats USCIS, however their is still reason to call and keep on bugging, clearly there are inconsistencies with the IO's answers, lets see how many we can find, document and everyone write detailed letters to congressmen, ombudsman, w.e. it takes to get this point across. One thing is for sure.. NOT doing anything ISNT going to help the situation at ALL.

It's kind of moot because the petitions are generally approved together, but yes, an I-130 petition getting through NVC to the Consulate abroad would result in an immigrant visa CR1 or IR1 whether approved first or second.

An I-129F for a spouse can only result in a K3 visa whether approved first or second.

You guys [K3s] don't know how lucky you are if you end up with a CR instead of a K3. Sure wish we had after all the crap, cost, stress we went thru doing AOS.
Once CRs get thru NVC and the embassy interview they are done with USCIS for 2 years.
With the CR you get GC and SS card in the mail within a short time of arrival in the US.
Not having a SSN is almost as bad as not having GC.
When K3s arrive all hell breaks loose again. More paperwork. More money. More stress and normally another interview and even the possibility of facing deportation.
Some people take over a year to be approved for GC and sit in limbo waiting.
When we did the K3/K4 CRs were taking a LOT longer than the K/3.
We'd definitely have gone with the CR if the timeframe was what it is now!

Thanks, that is actually very helpful. So I guess wont worry about it at this point.

i'm not sure if this varies from country to country, but in Dominican republic, even though the police reports say they're valid for only 3 months, for immigration purposes(sent to NVC), they're valid for 1 year. i'm pretty sure i need to take a second recent one with me to the interview, but the one i mail in could have been taken out anytime from a year ago to today. might wanna check up and see if thats the case for other countries as well. i thought it was 3 months only also cause i just sent my wife to get hers.

A validity period assigned by the country issuing a police report has not meaning. The US Dept. of State is only concerned with the criminal status on the date of issue. They use their own standards for how recent the report needs to be.

thats what i thought, so if the NVC told me one year, then its one year for all countries then, no? someone else might want to try calling and see if they get the same answer.

One year is the standard but a Consulate can set its own. The best practice is to obtain the police report as close to the interview date as is practical. We knew it would take three weeks, so ordered it shortly after returning the P3. The right timing will depend on how fast the Consulate is and how fast the report can be obtained.

Hello 000!
From what part of Brazil is your wife from? Pernambuco's police (one of the states where i lived, so I have to get the police reports) gives the reports in 2 days! Well, I was also surprised about it because I was expecting a lot more time to wait. But make sure you have the correct information. Anyway, I also have to check that information because I called them last week, but sometimes they give us the wrong info!

I dont know about the federal police though. As far as I know, I have to get a separate report from federal and state police (where I lived for more than 6 months).
Well, that is... if you decide to go on on this awful journey...
Good luck!

She lives in Para but needs to travel to TO, they told her the standard time is 30 days. They might be faster or slower but they told her 30 days It doesnt matter at this point, I doubt she will be here before 2009 anyway so im not going to try to rush things. VSC is setting a pace of atleast 10 months for the I 130 as it is now, so they are really 10-12 months just for the I 130. If i get approved in November which is 1 year from when I filed there is no way to have everything done before 2009, i will be lucky to be done with NVC in Jan of 2009.

Well, I hope you don't have to wait that long! It's like torture! good luck!

its one year from the day you get it, so if she got it tomm, it'd be valid until 05-27-09. you'll definitely need it before then so might as well get it. you never know when you might get a surprise approval.

We will NOT be waiting that long. I speak it now. We WILL NOT.