Greeting guys, hope everything are well with you. We would like to know from those who filed for an I-130 at the Vermont Service Center on how things are going with your case? My husband decided to hire a lawyer to handle our case because he doesn't want to make any mistake in petitioning for me. But the problem is, our lawyer doesn't inform us the details about what's going on with our case. And my husband doesn't want to fuss our lawyer on what's happening for the worry he might get pissed so we just wait until we hear from him.

I-130
March 10, 2008 - USCIS Received Date
March 14, 2008 - Notice Date


I-129F
April 7, 2008 - USCIS Received and Notice Date

Until now we don't know what's happening with our case. I am hoping to get some ideas from here so I would know what to ask or demand from our lawyer to give us. WE would be very grateful to any help/ advice you can give us. Wishing you all guys the best in life. Thank you.

You should fill out your timeline first of all. That is how we gather information and look at trends etc on this website. You should have gotten a Notice of Action in the mail for both petitions. You can setup an account on the USCIS website based on the receipt number on your I-797. You can look at it there. It will have a "last updated" date. That is what they refer to as a "touch' Kinda means something has been done to your case etc. Someone looked at it or whatever.

K-JForever...your timeline is almost identical to mine....no action here yet, but I did receive a touch on I-129F on May 30.

Heey! I'm also a March filer! End of March, actually, but it doesn't matter that much! Both my case have been updated lately, but so far, no NOA2's! I'm getting really anxious because I really wish I could be with my husband for his b-day in September. Well, what ca we do besides wait and pray? I believe to have seen a couple approvals from march filers already... I hope we're next! I wish you guys luck!

Hey Monica....I had my NOA1 (130) on 7 april, so I know how we are so apprehensives hehe And I hope you can be with your hubby on September and I hope I can be with mine on October for our marriage anniversary hehehe I think will not delay so much as 2007, I think will be normal this year...Im really really really positive hehehehe

Jessica

CJ Vasani......... Let me first congratulate you for getting your US citizenship!!! You are right, we almost have the same timeline. But I'm just wondering, how could I know if our case has been touched or not? Coz I noticed you filed your I-129F a week after we filed ours but you already got a "touch" notice on May 30. How come we haven't gotten ours?

You guys looked so sweet on that pic of yours!!! I'm pretty sure, like us, you also can't wait to be with your sweetheart there with you and live a happy life together. I really wiish us both goodluck so we could be with our love ones. Let's keep in touch ok? Take care and best wishes!

'Monica&Isha'.............. That's great! Hope we could keep in touch and update each one on what's happening with our cases. Let's help each other so we could be with our partners sooner rather than later. If there's a way to speed up the process, don't you think it would be nice to share it with others? Goodluck and take care.

This is a great spreadsheet that one of the members is doing on this site. It is some really good info. Unfortunately, Vermont seems to be really dragging, especially for K-3s. California seems to be turning them out pretty quick. I think it is a cyclical thing, so hopefully Vermont will issue a bunch of I-129F NOA2s in the near future.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p-9...mJHCw&gid=0

'sference'........... Thank you for teaching me about the "timeline." We did get both NOA1 from both petitions. I do have an account in the USCIS website but unfortunately, there's still no "last update" on our case yet. Well anyway, hope we could get some updates real soon. Goodluck to you and wishing you the best.

Good luck to you as well. I check the USCIS thing quite a few times daily... wishing it will change... doesn't seem to work.

Hey, we have an attorney also.. and guess what? they don't know more than us in this stage of the game. just have to wait, wait, WAIT...

Our timelines are almost identical. Be curious to see how it plays out. My attorney is Holmes and Lolly by the way.

Really??? You think it would be right to tell them what we know based on the advises of our VJers to help speed up our case? Coz I'm thinking, if they don't know more than us, then our waiting time could be longer.

Hi k-j, we got our noa1 on 3/31, and a touch on 4/24 for the k3.. hoping for some good news in the next week or two... hope that helps

If you have a receipt notice for the I-129F, then there's nothing the attorney can do at this point, unless you have some kind of extenuating circumstances for an expedite. So now it is just sit and wait. Once you get the I-129F approval, things seem to move along pretty quickly according to the time lines on this site. Vermont is just really slow now for some reason.

One piece of advice.. keep calling the attorney regularly because the VSC has been known to send mail to the lawyer and not the actual petitioner. So, if your lawyer's really busy they may not let you know right away if something was sent out - evidence request, NOA, etc..

hey all, we have got our noa1 3/31 and a touch 4/24, hope to get noa2 in the next week or two.. of course if we do we will post it...hope that helps some...ronjie

sference............ do you know any congressmen or senators on where you at? Coz my american friend adviced me to tell my husband to contact his congressman and have our case checked since our case is almost 3mos now. That's what he did with their case and he immediately got an approval for his fiance's visa. Unfortunately my husband doesn't know any congressman or senator to call and have it checked. Maybe you do...... and what could get wrong if try calling?

Basically every month around the 15th USCIS posts processing times on their website. Right now for I-129F it says they are processing I-129F petitions with a received date of December 18, 2007 for Vermont. So basically they wont do anything until the processing date that they advertise is passed the NOA date of your I-129F. So by looking at your timeline, the date they post on their website would have to be after 4-7-08 before they would even look at it. I wish it moved quicker, believe me. I am thinking about planning an interim trip back to Thailand to see the wife.

My lawyer was nice enough to send me an unsolicited email right after my I-129F petition was sent in, they basically said, "dont call us until the end of the summer, because we wont have any information for you." Which prior to this they never returned my calls anyway. Really made me feel like I made the right choice. ;-)

I was lucky enough to live with my wife for a couple years in Thailand, before I came back to the US. I'm really kicking myself for not doing a direct consular filing while I was living there. I didn't realize this was going to be such a drawn out process.

That's the thing, my friend had spent 100s of hours here searching on how to get his fiance quicker and based on his research, it turns out that the dates which the USCIS is posting online is not the EXACT processing time, its actually months ahead. Like when they say for I-129F the dates being processed now are those filed in Dec 2007 but actually they are processing the Mar 2008 files. If that worked for my friend, why not for us? But the decision is still all up to you, I'm just giving you facts. My husband also wanted to come back here in Manila but unfortunately his job wont let him. We badly miss each other so much that's why we are willing to try it, hoping to get the same result as my friend had.

Well goodluck to you RONJIE............ hope things would move faster at the VSC so we could be with our spouse asap !!! Keep in touch!!!

I totally agree with you. The dates they post are a joke. I've been following them for over 6 months now. Basically, every month they just add 30 days to last months date. The problem is that the USCIS kinda hides behind those dates. It's very obvious on here that they are approving alot of April and May filers, but it seems to only be for people that filed with California. Give it a shot. I'd like to know what they say. Myself and some other people have done a pretty extensive analysis of the dates on here, and Vermont is pretty much at a standstill. It seems to be a cyclical thing. Like Vermont will start approving alot of petitions, and California, will slow down. Hard to say.

Jessica, I really wish for the best. I'm kinda positive too! I do believe that we won't have to wait 8 months like most people waited last year. But every week that passes I worry about the interview date, since tha RDJ consulate is very busy and people who called in the beginning of June were having their interview scheduled for middle August! So, if I don't get my approval now, chances are my interview will be long past my husband b-day. But I think you have better chances of being there for your anniversary!

K-J Forever29, we'll definitely share any news and tips on how to make things faster and better. But at this point, as long as we've sent all the forms correctly filled up and all the correct documents, we just have to wait. Our case is actually considered fresh at the USCIS. I just think it's really unfair the CSC grants the right for people to join their family so quick while VSC does not!

Sference, I also check the USCIS website every single day, sometimes twice or three times a day. It really annoys me to look at the same date for the last update... I sometimes think I should stop checking often because it will drive me crazy! LOL!

Oh, last thing! I do agree with Lee L about the attorney thing. Sometimes they don't know that much about the process.

We're doing everything on our own, using VJ and a book we bought at Amazon called Fiance and Marriage visas: A couple's guide to US immigration. When we started filling up the forms in March, I was nervous so I called a friend who has been through the process. She got her visa in only 4 months (there was before the "boom" of petitions in 2007). She told me that many times the attorney is busy, so he/she receives the notices and doesn't mail the next package on the same day like we do because to him/her, it doesn't really matter as much as for us. So in the end the process may take a little longer. The good part of having an attorney is that we don't have to stress out with these forms!

Well, let's be positive! If we look at the forum, there have been several approvals from Vermont over the past month. We'll get ours soon!

It took my attorney a month after he received the I-130 NOA1 to send in the I-129F. So I agree with you there.

Ah! If you see my timeline you will notice that my I-129F was not sent right away... That's because my husband didn't pay attention when he wrote the address on the package and ended up mailing it to Chicago lockbox! We wasted a couple weeks... Every little mistake we make turns our wait a little longer... Isn't it crazy? But we're hanging in there!

Thanks Lee L for the advice, I already begged my husband to call our lawyer to try find some updates and he promised to do it tomorrow. He's kinda confident that our lawyer is doing his job well. But I agree with some of the VJers here, lawyers could be very busy and won't give much of their time to monitor what's going on with our case. Worst, some dont know as much as we do here.

HI Everyone

I am new to the site, I filed my I129F a few months after I filed the I130 because I really wanted my Husband to be able to enter as a Permanent Resident, but the wait is killing us and flying back and forth every other month is becoming way too expensive. Today I checked my online portfolio @USCIS.GOV and my case for K3 was touched on 6/27/08. I was basically stalking the site everyday checking for updates but stopped looking for a few days because it was becoming depressing with no updates. LOL

But VOILA today an update so there is hope! Everyone keep the faith hopefully this "touch" means an NOA2 approval is on the way . Good luck to everyone, looking forward to sharing my journey with all of you

Hey guys, any good news from any of my co-VJers who filed their petition at VSC? I'm kinda desperate to hear some good news, even though its not mine, just to help lift my spirit up. To VSC.............COULD YOU MOVE FASTER.... PLEASSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEE????!!!!


K-3 VISA

Service Center : Vermont Service Center
Consulate : Manila, Philippines

Marriage : 2008-01-02
I-130 Sent : 2008-03-10
I-130 NOA1 : 2008-03-14
Touched : 2008-06-19

I-129F Sent : 2008-04-07
I-129F NOA1 : 2008-04-07
Touched : 2008-05-02

Ok, once more...

Any I-130 & K-3 filers from VSC March ( BOTH petitons filed in MARCH) got any touch in June or July?
Anyone got a RFE ?

yea, we got a touch 5/8 on the I130 AND 4/24 ON THE I129F... NOTHING SINCE THEN. and after a long weekend of pickleing their brains at the holiday BBQ'S I wouldn't expect much from them early next week either,..but we can hope.. can't we?

I filed in April (does that help? lol) and got a touch in June and nothing since.
P.s- only the 129f was touched
I check the site obsessively like most everyone else.

im a feb2008 filer and up to now, no news from vermont. its really pissing me off

I'm a March filer at VSC. I am hopeful that usually after 6 months, cases are either touched and approved or transferred... I completed my 6 months yesterday. Please share any thoughts...

I like your quote about running the center better. I am sure you can kick some a$$

I wish I knew how some at VCS get NOA2s so fast... I saw that one even, from Pakistan, got approved quickly. I would think that would take longer for there than the Philippines. I hate sitting here so long with no word wondering if there is any problem with ours. ZI guess we are all in the same boat. I just wish I could "see" what is going on there.

I was wondering if it is touched early on, and no other word, if that might not mean they did a quick check to see if it "looks" complete, therefore no need for RFE, then put it back in the file until later when they actually do the work on it.

I'm wondering the same thing.. our last touch was back in June and nothing since. I think they first see that everything is on order then do the background checks. But then again who knows?
From looking at timelines and reading here, there really is no rhyme or reason.

hang in there my fellow march vsc filers. Next week is ours

We can only hope that it would turn into a reality! I've decided not to bother with it right not, but at the end of the 7th month, I am going to raise hell with them if they don't act...

How I wish I could share positive results with you DesiMan regarding my visa but like most of the March filers, I still haven't gotten any results since they last touched our case in May 02 (I-129f) and Jun 19 (I-130). But since it's already September, this should be our month!!! So let's hope and pray that we would receive some good news from VSC real soon. Lets keep in touch and if some of you VJers have tips to share, please do share them. For we are all desperate applicants who just wanted to be with our partner in life so we could start our married life together and NOT APART!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WISH US ALL GOOD LUCK!!!!!

Hi, i'm new to this. We rec'd our NOA 1 for I130 - 3/11 & I129F - 3/25; I129F touched on 4/17 & other on 5/8. Nothing else has been rec'd. Is this bad news? I'm worried!--mmartinez

Same touches as you... No need to worry too much: we are all on the same boat, and unfortunately the boat is not going anywhere. No one knows when it sails, and we are only guessing. Kind of annoying, but we cannot help.
Pestering USCIS/VSC director/Congressmen with calls might help shed some light on what happened to us March filers, and why CSC is approving May, June, July applicants right now... and even VSC seems to have approved a lot of later applicants. Perhaps the useless adjudicator will wake up and find our box!


Anyone knows what happens to us K-3 after the approval notice is sent?


[quote name='MMartinez' date='Sep 8 2008, 07:49 AM' post='2194725']
Hi, i'm new to this. We rec'd our NOA 1 for I130 - 3/11 & I129F - 3/25; I129F touched on 4/17 & other on 5/8. Nothing else has been rec'd. Is this bad news? I'm worried!--mmartinez