I think there are some guidelines as to whether they'll ask for it or not, but I don't remember what they are. I'm always of the mindset to over-prepare (and it sounds like you are too) so I'm just going to provide it and not worry about figuring out if or why they'll ask for it.

And completely off-topic, let me just say how fortunate you should consider yourself that your future in-laws speak the same('ish) language. Thought I'd catch up a little on my Russian today, and I think I just sprained my mouth from trying to say too many consonants in a row.

I just read that PDF TBone and read "birth certificate" as "death certificate"... I *actually* wondered how the hell you were meant to include that for a full second before re-reading it correctly

Moxie - I will prolly find the I-134 download and get it filled out - I am pretty certain they ask for it in the UK but I just don't understand why it wouldn't have been mentioned yet!

It's obvious -- they want the death certificates of everyone at the CSC whom we wish to throttle.

Hmmm... surely there would be protests against the amount of deforestation caused by the sheer volume of death certificates though?!?!

We could plant new seeds and use the corpses of the CSC goons as fertilizer.

Oh, great... C. just wrote, using no terms of endearment, to say "We need to have a long conversation." Of course, she is too busy until this coming Sunday, at least. She admits her high level of stress with the business and with school.

I am tempted to drop all contact until (perhaps) she begins to wonder where I am. Of course, Murphy's Law may apply, and the consulate will call to tell her of her interview date, and (depending on her stress at the time) she'll say something that would be viewed negatively. Thoughts, anyone?

Wait and hear her out... you don't know what may have happened yet and need to listen first before you can decide what to do. Sounds like there are lots of conflicting pressures right now so you need to be as supportive as possible. Perhaps there are guilt issues about leaving?

I am the worst person in the world to give relationship advice. Therefore you should do exactly opposite of whatever I recommend.

I recommend margaritas. Lots and lots of margaritas.

(In all seriousness I hope you two crazy kids can hook back up and get back on the same page. Best of luck to you!)

I do not drink, but I shall begin to do so, immediately and heavily. That is, unless the little paper umbrellas are missing. Thanks, dude.

Okay, so you're missing the whole "do the exact opposite of what I recommend" part I think. Well, the good thing is that they make you feel better for awhile. Enjoy!

Hey everyone!

I've been working on making a completely automated version of the waiting list.
STP, I hope you don't mind me working on this.

This is a very rough draft for now, but I've got the basics working. I'll be adding more functionality to it later.

Follow this link to see the list.

Don't be spooked that it's on another server. That's where I have the program running. It grabs the data from VJ in real time and then manipulates it to produce the list, so the list is always up to the last minute.

Let me know what you think please.

AWESOME!!

I've only taken a quick look, but it looks like you and StP might be using different cutoff dates. On StP's list I'm at 108. On yours I'm 128. Why do you hate me? I'll take a look at it a little later and see if I can spot the diffs.

Thanks for doing this!

Thanks Mox!

You know I don't hate you. My list has me lower then on StP's as well.
But seriously, right now the logic I use is as follows:
1. Include all CSC filers with NOA1 who sent their petition after the current date on the USCIS/CSC Processing Times page (2007-06-18)
2. Include all NSC filers with NOA1 who sent their petition after the current date on the USCIS/CSC Processing Times page (2007-06-18)
3. Include all TSC filers with NOA1 who sent their petition after the current date on the USCIS/CSC Processing Times page (2007-06-18) but before 2007-07-31

Any ideas for improving this?

Hmm, ok. Where I think the difference lies is that you are sorting on I-129F sent, and StP is sorting on NOA1. I personally think sorting on I-129F sent is the more accurate sorting method, since it's impossible to tell if people are entering their received date or their NOA1 date in the NOA1 field.

How often are you pulling data? It seems snappy enough, so I don't think you're pulling the data from VJ every page hit, which is good. Once a day would be good enough I would think.

Since you asked for suggestions, a really cool feature to have would be a column that shows movement in the last week.

Also, does anyone know why some member's names don't have links? I know it's not your program that's doing it because I've seen before where a member profile isn't linked. Does that mean they've been removed? And if so, maybe we don't count them?

Again, super work. This is really nifty!

Agreed. That was my thinking as well.

It's in beta stage right now, so it actually pulls data real time, on every page hit. It is my intention to switch it to do pulls once or twice daily once when I have a more mature product.

Hmmm... I'd have to somehow retain data from last week to do this comparison. Maybe I'll do something like this.
I was also thinking of adding some statistical crunching to produce daily, weekly, and monthly averages and maybe even some graphs.

You are correct, my program grabs the names with links and all directly from VJ, so if the link is not there it's because it's not on VJ. I don't know why VJ doesn't have links sometimes.

Thanks for the feedback, Mox!

No problem. If you need help at all, let me know. I'm fairly handy with perl and php.

Very nice work Igor. As I'm looking at the list, I wonder how many of the June and July folks haven't updated their timelines. I noticed that the last update is pretty old for some people; however, if they have no news, then there is nothing to update. Too bad everyone wasn't obsessed with statistics. How nice would it be for USCIS to put out a list like this for all filers in the system? Certainly wouldn't be too difficult and would cut down on alot of questions of how much work is getting done at the service centers. And it would give us something else to rant about with the system.

Aha! An automated list - thanks for that! I also noticed Rob & Maylee (fellow July Filers for me) have their NOA2 after an RFE so I have filled in their info on our spreadsheet Yippee!!

Nice work Igor ...

IF CSC could get up to four a day and IF they approve petitions in order then judging by your numbers Mercedes and I would be approved in 8 weeks - so March 18th-ish!!!! I wish/hope/pray that that's the case!!!!

Have a nice week everyone - I'm about to go headlong into a mad month at work so that'll help things pass along quickly - I hope you all can find some distractions too as this visa stuff can drag you down!!! It's funny but I find it easier now we are past the halfway stage to a NOA2 than I did back in say November. Keyword there is easier!!!

R

Haha - yeah I can relate to that - I found that realising others were in the asme situation and some had been waiting longer made me feel so much better - we've made our bed if you like now so we are waiting until June for me to move - I am in no rush but I know others are and I sometimes wish I could trade places

Saying that I am kinda looking forward to coming out the other side then having a couple months to sort my life out!!!

Thanks Igor so much for this. This is the first list I've seen that has me down with the July filers (as I should be) and not with late September filers (as per my very late NOA1). I'm number 55! Which is infinitely less depressing than being eternally a long way down the list. Sent date is prolly the most consistent since some people input received date and some notice date in the NOA1 field. Thanks again

Very quiet today on the CSC thread. Hope everyone's not sitting in their bathrobes snarfing down pints of Cherry Garcia and washing it down with a 40.

No offence to StP and bszoom, by the way, I just am enjoying seeing my name lower. It's a superficial thing



That's cos nothing is bluddy happening at CSC! What's a 40?

I'm washing it down with Baltic 10's LOL

Wikipedia's entry on 40-ouncer.

Now my turn: What's a Baltic 10?

(Sounds like we all agree on Cherry Garcia though, huh? )

gotcha. Cherry garcia sounds yummy. Things aren't bad enough (yet) to wash down with a 40.

Anyone know how you can view the Sent date when you view the latest K1 NOA2 list? No matter what I try it messes the sort up if I try and view 'sent' date rather than NOA1 date. I want to be able to see quickly whether those August NOA1 dates correspond to an earlier petition or not.

Thanks!

Click on the "enable advanced mode" link on the upper right hand side. That'll reset your columns.

Thanks for responding. I did that and clicked 'hide' so that I could only see relevant columns, sent date, noa1 date, noa2 date etc. and then clicked sort on NOA2 and it refuses to show me the latest NOA2s. It returns a search with a lot of blank NOA2s. Don't worry, it's not important.

On another note: I was thinking about this whole situation and the impact on those who paid the higher fee. I'm at 180 days now. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but looks like August filers are going to face approvals outside the six months too. I know it should speed up shortly after August approvals are underway, given the fact there are a lot less, but what a fantastic service people are getting for paying three times the fee eh?

Oh and my projected approval date has slipped from Christmas to Feb 5th. I haven't looked at it for a long tome so it has probably slipped in the meantime through various January dates. February 5th! I was hoping to be there by easter. *Downs the 40*

Are you clicking on the left-most arrow in the NOA2 column (the one that points down)? When I click on the left arrow, I see the most recent NOA2's.




I hope you'll be calling CSC tomorrow. You'll be outisde the 6 month window and unless they change the rules again they'll have to investigate. Hopefully that means they locate your file and get it on someone's desk.

Oh maybe not. I probably clicked the wrong one. Thanks



Calling on Thursday for sure. Slightly concerned that we'll get the 'don't phone again we need however many months to investigate your case' response. I should update my sig to reflect the touch I got last week after I called but I figured they were meaningless touches.

Don't let them browbeat you into not calling. If I fall outside the 6-month processing time, I'll be calling weekly. They really can't take any action against you for calling.

Oh, and it's also time to call your representative and get pressure started from that end.

Yes absolutely. Time to apply some pressure.

Defo - it is getting silly now - I don't understand why things have slowed down so much but they should have defo got around to sorting the rest of July out by now... couple more weeks and you'll be looking at the six month mark - there are a fair few July-ers I think that are and it seems a bit odd - I really admire your patience - part of me wishes I could swap places because I am not in so much of a rush *hugs*

As for being quiet - I am always out on a Tuesday night so I am just popping on In other news, I got the NVC letter/NOA2 hard copy from Jeremy today to add to my visa file so I can store it all together - exciting stuff! I have a little display book I am using - one for my visa stuff and the other for my wedding stuff

Also want to update July filer spreadsheet again tomorrow evening - I have added a couple things in that people have PM'd me but after I spent all lunch hour on it and lost it all I am not really in the mood to update at near-midnight

*ahem* *looks at watch* You're late young lady! I've had to run this place by myself, and you know how unruly this lot can get. Er...I mean...it's mostly empty right now, but that's not the point. It *could* have been unruly!


Woot, congrats! It's all coming together, slowly but surely.

What do you mean unruly?!?! What are you saying about babbles?! She was practically the only person here! I am sure you are grown up enough now to handle one person!!

Will be around more tomorrow night though... that is if I don't fall asleep at my desk until 10pm after being up so late I haven't even opened my parcel from www.firebox.com - Am going to do that when I get a drink and go to bed!! Which I really should do now.... now... NOW...

...

Nope - still can't tear myself away Tuesday night is always D&D night with my geek friends - you must understand that surely?!?!

Goodnight all ... everyone go and look at the lyrics to Acrobat by U2 ...

"And you can dream
So dream out loud
And don't let the ba*tards grind you down"

Here's hoping that CSC send approval emails out in clusters at 5.30pm PST

R

PS Excuse my French - I'm Irish - and have a potty mouth!!!

Hahaha - I speak to the Irish lots when I am in work and they are nothing but sweetness and certainly no potty mouths Of course I think they are just trying to be polite... who knows what is being said while I am on hold...

*likes the way you had to excuse your "French" because you're Irish...*

Yeah...but...you know the way she looks at you. Very unnerving.


All you really needed to say is "I'm Irish." The rest is implied.

On that note I am going to bed - I still need to open my parcel and get some juice or milk or something and I am soo tired because I am doing someone else's work as well as mine at the moment... coupled with the stress of impending wedding etc creeping up on me I feel like a walking zombie... Ohh I can't wait til all this is over and everything settles down - then we can introduce Nadya to the joys of D&D moxie - she'll think we're nuts

Something else to do on our camping/road trip/visit thing

Night guys!

Night!

Yeah, that'll be a ton of fun to try to explain. She already thinks I'm mostly not all there in the upstairs department. Wait until I try to explain the concept of "rolling a toon."

Nothing again from USCIS. This is getting so hopeless. And it doesn't help that I am very upset at Phil tonight. He called at work at 4:55 to tell me that he will call me in about a half an hour. Well, no word. I am so pi$$ed at him. I know that he fell asleep and this has happened so many times before. I just feel forgotten. I'm hurt - again. He tells me that he's tired and I tell him not to stay up until 11:30 to talk to me but he insists but then he falls asleep. What do I do? I just want to ignore him for a couple of days........Help? Anyone?

Ladies and gentlemen, in an astonishing display of...um...approviness, CSC have approved 2 filers today. Give it up for Alex and Barbara, and Masayo & Casey! Congratulations to you all!!

Also, someone snuck in an approval for last week, bringing both this week (thus far) and last week (in its entirety) up to an average of 1 approval a day. Baby steps folks, baby steps.

Congratulatation to all approved!

BTW Alex and Barbara are a Cuban couple so 11 days from sent date to NOA2.

Yeah, that's incredible isn't it? Cubans are automatically fast-tracked, but this is even the fastest Cuban approval I've ever seen. Tells me that there's no longer a bottleneck in the mail room.

Yep, just checked the lists, it is the fastest ever from CSC!

Oh and holy ZOMG, there's yet another CSC approval. Jan & Tim, congratulations!! Go CSC go!