Just wanted to see if anyone else has had a similar experience to this, and/or may be able to shed some light -

My fiance and I filed for K-1 on July 18; although we were a week or two before the changeover on July 30 we followed the new rules, as advised in here (and elsewhere), and sent it straight to Vermont, rather than via Texas (see official filing instructions here - my fiance lives in Texas). According to the mail tracking it was received at VSC on July 19, and we have now received the cheque back with a tracking number - it's stamped Vermont, and dated July 27. However, the first time I went to the USCIS site and used the tracking number, it stated that the petition is being processed at California! which doesn't seem to make ANY sense... if it was received at Vermont, which DOES process K-1 petitions from residents of Texas, why would they send it back to Cali, which does not? even if we were earlier than the July 30 date, we've read everywhere that they were accepting applications filed directly, throughout July... I'd understand it if we'd sent it to TSC, but as things stand... I'm just confused.

So I guess the possibilities are:

1. The USCIS data I just looked at is wrong, and it's really at Vermont

2. The information we received here, and elsewhere, about being able to send directly to Vermont in July was wrong

3. Some unknown third option

I'm not a massive hurry for the visa to be processed - all along, I've tried to take the attitude that 'it takes as long as it takes', and I certainly don't have any specific plans made yet - but our NOA2 estimate date has just skipped from October 19 to November 24, with the change from VSC to CSC in my timeline, and, well, it's a bit depressing! Add to that the news, that I just received today, that my wonderful Grandma just had a stroke, and has gone from being completely independent to lying in a hospital unable to speak - well, let's just say that having to put off my plans to go back home for even a month or two is NOT desirable

Anyone got any light to shed? many thanks in advance

...aaaaaand looking around I guess I should have posted this in the service centre section... dangit! thought I'd checked but not well enough

my apologies - I'll repost there and someone can delete this if they want

oh ur lucky if its in cali now.. they process fast there

or... not

You send it to the service center they ask you to send it to, but thats not where it may end up being processed.

With all the changes and fees, processing times I would guess are probably up in the air for both service centers. The timeline data on this site, applies to the recent past. With all the changes, it may not be a very good indication of the immediate future. You should probably hear something in about 3 months. Its hard to say at the moment.

ok, thanks... I didn't know they did that on a regular basis

it sort of makes no sense, then, to specify that residents of particular states should send to particular centres, at least in my opinion... if they're just going to transfer them anyway

this has been such a crap day, and there's still more than half of it to go

If the three letters preceding the case number are ESC, your petition is in Vermont. If WSC, it is in Cali.

The same thing happened to LisaD. She's from Florida and in anticipation of the new processing changes, sent her petition to VSC but had it transferred to CSC. Not really sure why, but would guess its because the change in processing wasn't "official" until 7/30/07. Just a guess, though! USCIS does lots of weird things!

I am curious to see if this trend continues. Why 'realign' where everyone sends their petitions if you're going to continue to shuffle them around? USCIS =

I think it's EAC for Vermont. Or at least, it was last September when I filed.

No kidding. Its really stupid since they said in their publications that you could send them to the new processing center in advance of the July 30 change. USCIS also =

I know! we thought we'd gotten the most recent information and acted upon it; it's not like I didn't do enough reading and research... in case anyone's wondering, here's the thread where the USCIS memo is posted, which clearly states - in bold, even - that "USCIS will accept forms I-129F [and whole bunch of others] filed with the new 'direct filing' location in advance of the July 30, 2007 effective date, that are otherwise properly filed."

I suppose it has to be 'otherwise properly filed' or they wouldn't have banked the cheque...?

anyway, I'm glad to hear we're not the only ones... not that I wish this on anyone else, just glad it's not a case of 'how weird! NO ONE else has had that happen...'

our prefix is 'WAC' so I'm guessing that's Cali...?

oh, and my apologies for the two threads in here now - this one was moved from K-1, rather than deleted, and of course I can't delete the other... so now I look like an over-eager, annoying idiot
for a change

No - you did exactly as you were supposed to. And WAC is California, so they have definitely transferred the case - and I would assume the same (that it was properly filed, or else it would have been sent back to you). Oh well, all you really care is that it's adjudicated, but still.

No worries on the threads - I moved the thread here when I saw you request it. I think only Ewok can delete threads - you may PM him the link to your other one and ask him to delete it.

thank you for being encouraging (and so nice)

I just cower when I make such an elementary posting error - I'm the mod on another forum, and have to do this sort of house-keeping all the time... but over there, if no one's replied to your initial post you can delete the thread yourself, and not wait for a mod

I'll PM Captain Ewok, as you suggest

Feh - its no biggie. It takes a little time to learn the layout of this place - its pretty big! - and if that's your worst 'crime' then life is good.

Julez is right, the same thing happened to me, STP

But eh, it's in....so there's nothing I can do about it. It doesn't make sense at all...but we are dealing with the gov't

In a way, I'm glad it also happened to you, cos I was like 'wtf?' when it was just me. Who knows? I think VSC is gonna have a slow down, so it might actually work out for the better....

I hope you're right

glad to be your partner in wtf?!edness, tennyrate
things ARE so much better when you're not the only one, aren't they...

Not to mention such great use of our taxpayer dollars!!!! We paid to send it to one state, then they (or inevitebly, we) paid to transfer it to another state. We could have just paid for it to be sent to "the real" processing center in the first place and used our tax money on hiring more people to process the $@&! things!

Very frustrating!!! Not to mention another delay!