Well they are going to get a zillion RFEs returned at the same time - there has to be a way to sort them by order of original NOA, right?

If they intend to clear a backlog, they should. But I think most people will be getting RFE's in very quickly, in which case they will likely prioritize by NOA date, as they come in. I am also going to assume they will prioritize the recalled petitions.

Who knows!

Oh yes, they will prioritize recalled ones, but all know most of those recalled aren't on VJ, or aren't all over the place to get this IMBRA and won't work as fast as we will. So here's what I am talking about, will they put the pending approvals on hold till all recalled petitions are reapproved? That wouldn't be fair, would it? Make them priority but also work on us that get our RFE back fast. I can only imagine recalled petitioners waiting weeks or even an entire month before their lawyer send anything back.

They cannot make everyone else wait until recalled petitions are approved because there is no way for them to control when petitioners return the RFE. Of course recalled petitions certainly need to have priority. But they cannot stop processing other RFEs that they receive in the meantime.

I guess I am scared 'cus they didn't mind screwing us over as it is.

hi laura we will all be okay... take a deep breath. all of us were at a point where we were going to wait til who knows when just as long as we get this process moving and have all these speculations as to when our RFE's are going to be done and now that we have almost a solid evidence at least we know that somehow something is going to happen. its not just sitting there in someone's cube and collecting dust because USCIS still doesnt know what to do about our petitions. you've been strong and giving such great advice to people, keep it up. take in your own advices. dont be scared, we are all in this. i guess we all get strength from each other... oh and i totally agree with hockeygal... your papers are in vermont, how bad could that be? keeping my fingers crossed for all of us!

First, we don´t even know for sure if we´ll get the RFEs before the new form is available for new petitioners to fill out...

Second, even if they send the RFEs to recalled cases first, they won´t be waiting for the 1100 cases to be sent back so they can start collecting more info from people on hold.

Of course they do have a plan, but it won´t be perfect since the whole situation is a mess.
I think those who send the RFEs back first will have their case processed faster.
Maybe the recalled ones look better because they were already considered approved, so they are just waiting for the RFEs.

No one knows for sure what´s happening with the petitions on hold.
Some of them might be already "to be approved" and some of them might need another RFE, with nothing to do with IMBRA. Or maybe they haven´t even touched some of them...

Sounds to me that these RFEs regarding IMBRA will be sent out as a snail mail and we won´t be able to download them.
All we need now is to pray for OMB to approve the damn thing asap!

Rlt, you must remember that the recalled petitions might not be considered approved anymore, ´cus some might have to say yes to meeting through a broker, or some might have a criminal record, so that would change their status, those petitions will be reapproved according to what people put in their RFE´s.

personally, I think it is kinda pointless to try and guess the timelines of the forms, the RFEs, and the processing. The point is they have announced an actual plan - RFEs for those who have applied. Eventually, we will get one. From that point on it is processing as usual - i.e., some fast, some slow, some with further RFEs, etc.

I just want to be off perma-hold.

Agree!

I agree as well, but I was expecting to read a notice saying "We have sent today an RFE to all who applied" and not "We´ll do that, eventually"

Having a record and/or meeting through a marriage broker is not a reason that USCIS can deny the petition. I'm not sure about the multiple filings as it pertains to the new law.

I am saying that from what the notice said about further RFEs I´d think that those with such cases will get another RFE to submitt their criminal records or something else, and they´ll then have to warn the beneficiaries, thus delaying the approval.

I think from a USCIS adminstrative POV that they will focus on getting the new 129 form on line ASAP as this will mitigate the number of RFE's they have to send out. Maybe they are working on the template in parallel but I would think getting the new form out is the #1 priority.



Well that part is kind of ambiguous in the notice. I read that as them (USCIS) saying you could get an RFE for something else such as lack of proof of meeting in person. Remember our petitions probably have not even been looked at yet.

Dunno, I got 3 touches right before the stop.

Just a thought, but seems to me that they would most likely send out a 1st round of RFE's with the questionaire to only those of us who were already approved.

After about a week or so, for those not approved, they will either (i) send out a 2nd round of RFE's with the questionaire, or (ii) send out an RFE with instructions requesting them to fill out the new form to be attached as an addendum to their existing application.

Of course as efficiently as the government has handled everything else in this fiasco, I'm sure whatever they do will be another huge mess.

That would be a smart and efficient way to approach it. So I think that means they won't do it that way! : (

No, the OMB has to approve the RFE template. The USCIS post implies there will be only one "type" of RFE for all petitioners.

NO NO NO NO NO

Guys, I hope this is not bad news, but the statement we read today is not on their website anymore.

It was on the USCIS frontpage and when you searched for IMBRA.
They took it off.

Why???????

Don´t tell me this!!!!

Just saw this on Yahoo's home page!

Yahoo's IMBRA story

Bill that must be you!

Homeland Security acknowledges the bureaucratic delay is "certainly an inconvenience"

yeah just a tad bit of inconvenience.......uggg

Computer problems maybe? (trying to stay positive)

Interesting article. But, it doesn't mention a thing about those of us who are already married and dealing with this crap!

Tons are in the same boat, whether married or engaged. At least its getting some attention!

I guess this is good

OMB spokeswoman Andrea Wuebker did not have details immediately on the additional forms, but said the new applications were approved Monday in an emergency clearance process. It was not clear when the new applications would be distributed to the public.

This is good news for everyone, we need exposure of this massive backlog in our government, thank you very much Bill! You rock!

Excellent article! lets hope it turns up the heat

Definitely not.
To change what you put online you need to actually do something.

It was there before and then someone took it off.

I hope it means nothing.

It sounds both promising, and confusing! If they are approved, print them off and send them out folks!

It has to mean something...

Maybe it means something good. The Yahoo article said the OMB staff told them that the form was approved yesterday. Maybe USCIS will give us even better news.

But they changed their website for a reason..

I tried backing out of the address, without the IMBRA statement part i.e. http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/publicaffairs/statements

and got this message: You are not authorized to view this page

WHAT IS GOING ON?

If you erase the /statements of the url you typed, you´ll see the statement we saw before is not there anymore.
Someone from USCIS told whoever works with their website to remove it.
I´m fine with 3 weeks waiting... just don´t want something new and bad to come up.

That´s what I meant with hoping it´s nothing. No more bad news please!

That article was well written, although made it sound like all of us met through marriage brokers.

Strange they yanked the statement

IT´S BACK!!!!

?????

How crazy is this?
The statement is back and now I saved it to my computer.

I´m not gonna check their website for the rest of the day so I can just celebrate Brazil´s World Cup match and sleep thinking I´m one day closer to my fiancée.



---

So it was a good day afterall.
I mean, USCIS finally said something and the Yahoo article has OMB saying they approved the emergency request.

We´ll survive this mess and be happy again.



WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW

HANG ON!!

They changed the statement!! That´s why they removed it before!!
Plz tell me if I´m crazy.

They now say the RFE template has been approved and they are sending it IMMEDIATELY to petitioners!!

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

just going to repost the link here if no one has read it yet

http://www.uscis.gov/graphics/publicaffair...RA_061306PN.pdf

This is without a doubt the news we have been waiting for! I assume that when I get home monday there will be a letter waiting for me. I will fill that out and go immediatly to the post office and ask if it can be mailed "SAME DAY EXPRESS"!!!

I know, same here!!!

I´d just like to congratulate Bill and his girl who had the guts to go to the press and get that article done.

We would get new eventually, but I´m convinced that getting the press involved and calling USCIS for information made them speed things up. At least releasing a public notice, and then updating it on the same day.

I agree with Gary. That´s the news we were waiting for.
The new form should be up soon and for us who have filled the old one, the RFEs are being sent NOW!

In our investigations we always got lots of answers, but we never knew the "WHEN".

Now we do. It´s immediately.

Let´s make a bet and see who posts here about receiving the RFE first?

i see a NEW IMBRA RFE thread/poll coming up...

Absolutely agree - it's awesome that Bill did this and I have no doubt that the questions the press asked of USCIS made a difference. Thanks Bill!!!

Yay for immediatly!!!!! I hope it means THIS WEEK.

I am thinking though that you recalled petitions will get it first, and it might take them a couple of weeks to send them all, so I might have to sit tight and wait for another 15 days.

this is great news, im so pleased for all the folk who were stuck in limbo through all this nightmare

i hope you all have a speedy process form here on in and the RFE's drop through your doors any day now

I already told Luis to grab that, open, reply, run to the post office and FEDEX it the minute the mailman arrives.

FYI - Below is the latest I have seen on fiancee petitions.

USCIS Public Notice: New Policy Concerning Fiance(e) Petitions

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services released a public notice today entitled, "USCIS Notifies Public of New Policy Concerning Fiancée Petitions." The public notice begins, "Washington, DC - U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced today that in order to comply with provisions of the International Marriage Brokers Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBRA), it will need to issue "Requests for Evidence" for more than 10,000 Alien Fiancée Petitions (Form I-129F) currently being held at USCIS Service Centers. USCIS will begin issuing RFEs to affected petitioners as soon as the RFE template has been approved and cleared by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)."

To read the entire public notice, please go to:

https://dhsonline.dhs.gov/portal/jhtml/dc/s...html?doid=27727

Yep, and after this statement they updated it and the RFEs are free to go!
---
I don´t know who will get the RFEs first..
It makes sense that it would be the recalled ones.. but no one knows for sure.

If the new form is already approved and they will only release it by the end of june, I think all the petitions on hold will get the RFEs before anyone use the new form.

I haven't read the previous posts so I apologize if this is repeated or out-of-date.

http://tinyurl.com/ju2nn

The US government just can't get anything right it seems...

Joel

What I am hoping for is a mass RFE. They send everyone an email followed by a letter. I hope they give us the option to going online and downloading and e-file or doing it the old fashioned way with a printed form and snailmail.

I don't know if this is really important/not already been posted 15 times this morning, but I saw this article on the IMBRA on the AOL sign in screen this morning. Apparently, there is a growing awareness of what is going on:

10,000 Weddings on Hold

I hope the link works!

-- Karen