It seems to me there is a total lake of consistancy in peoples timelines and tracking methods. VJ tracks by both by date sent ( which in my opion is meaningless), and by receipt date ( this is receipt date on Noa-1), but many people here are tracking either by the date they received the hard copy ( meaningless) and the date sent ( meaningless). We have been told quite cleary by a guy who worked at USCIS that the clock starts from the recieved date printed on the NOA-1, NOT the date you sent it, or the receipt date ( the mods might want to clarify that with him). But whichever one it is, its not the date you posted it or they signed for it, or the date you received the hard copy.
For example if like me you you posted in June but Noa1- received and receipt date ( as printed on NOA-1) is in July, you are a July filier, I think its pretty simple USCIS dont start the clock, by your post mark.
Lets get consistancy or the data is worthless

Ok i guess this is not of interest anyone, just thought some consistancy would help folks, and help stop all this crazy posting thats going on about timelines and wait times that make no sense. Time to go back to CFL were is not so out of reality

I use the stats, it is a very small sampling of what the USCIS does but it still gave us comfort

I agree, but we have got people here saying their start date is this, is that, people are saying they wait this long from file date , the date they posted, or the date they got hard copy, they are deceiving themselves and confusing the site. It does not matter a hoot what date you posted the petition on, or received hard copy, but alot of people are going by these dates

I agree Rob...I've brought it up in the past with the same result you're getting *sigh*

calculating for NOA2

specially, come on! the received date is so easily obtained!!
besides, when you get the noa2 hard copy, it CLEARLY states the received date as your Priority date

it's great that you brought it up, I wish it would be reviewed to have more accurate stats

Saludos,
Caro

I think the Mods need to make a clear statement on this, and make it clear which NOA DATE, they use , and post it big and clear on stats- recieved( as printed) or receipt ( as printed) on NOA form, plus sent date should be removed, it is totally meaningless

You've got my support
In our case...we sent our petition on march 27th. It arrived at TSC march 28th. Was forwarded to CSC and received April 5th. Our priority date was march 28th, and if you perform a timeline search, this is the most accurate way to calculate for the NOA2 .

Caro

I think the MODS need to sort this out and smooth it out with simple and clear time line instructions, and get rid of posted date in stats, the USCIS dont care when you posted it, plus people are posting in so many differrent ways and from different counties, it is a totally invalid statistacly it has no value at all. Any Mods listening ? In a nut shell posted date is not filled date, filled date is USCIS received or receipt date, the guy who worked there says it is received date, AS PRINTED ON NOA-1, nothing else time lines should start from that date, IMHO
But unfortunatly no- one wants to hear this

Application Type: I129F, PETITION FOR FIANCE(E)

Current Status: Case received and pending.

On May 21, 2007, we received this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E), and mailed you a notice describing how we will process your case. Please follow any instructions on this notice.

THIS (ABOVE) IS WHAT IT SAYS ON THE USCIS WEBSITE. WE MAILED THE 129F TO TEXAS ON 9TH MAY, CAL RECIEVED IT ON THE 21ST MAY AND THAT'S THE DATE WE USE. PATSY SAYS THERE IS NO DATE ON THE NOA1, WHICH SHE RECEIVED ON JULY 30TH! SURELY WE SHOULD BE USING THE DATE QUOTED ON THE WEBSITE?
JUST MY OPINION AND I HOPE YOU'RE WRONG ABOUT USING THE NOA1 DATE.

No, you should go by the date TSC received your petition

Look at received date on NOA-1, NOT RECEIPT DATE, as posted on email or NOA-1, received date is start date, receipt date is their reply date

Well if thats the case then our date should be May 21st not June 4th as the USCIS website says! Hey I'm all for that for sure!
Maybe I should change my timeline to reflect that what do you guys think!!
When I first read the web site then I seen the NOA1 hard copy it says our priority date is May 21,2007, So I don't know if we are May filers or June filers which is it??
Can anyone help?

OK, I am really confused now. I have a received date of May 9th, then it was transferred to CSC and the Notice date is June 1st. Basically I lost 3 weeks because our package was in the back of a truck. I will just keep on waiting and hope for the best.

it's even weirder, after reading the above, to realise that after posting the package on July 18, our NOA1 shows a received date of July 19, despite it being transferred from VSC to CSC in that time... the cheque even has both stamps on the back

gad, you have to wonder what they're doing sometimes; I should have included a GPS chip in the package so I could see exactly where it was, and for how long

Come on its not hard, the received date that is printed in the box on the NOA-1, not some fed ex, usps, ups or mail room signature, Its the received date printed in the box at the top of the noa-1. In the box titled received date

Ours was received at Nebraska in April but the received date on the NOA1 on the Website stated May but we have been approved. I think they use the date that it was received at the original centre to prioritise.

I created a spreadsheet with the data from end of march, to try to see what would be the most accurate way to calculate for NOA2. I'm getting a spread (max-min) of 38-39 days calculating by "NOA1 isuue" date and "package sent" date.

Click to view attachment

Also confirms that it ussually takes USCIS between 3-4 months to approve petitions.
Now the add/edit timeline has a link that tells you exactly where to find the date to be used on the notice, that is really good, it will help keep the stats more accurate.

But I still think we should have the option to use the date the first processing office received the application. In our case, our application was received by TSC on march 27th. Then transfered to CSC, Our NOA1 date was april 5th. We got approved around the same time those that filed at the end of march did, and before those that sent their applications at the beginning of april.

Saludos!,
Caro

As I said, if you read back, "Patsy says there is NO date on the NOA1". So the only printed date we have is the 21st May as quoted off the USCIS website. She called last night and we got touched and today is 4 months since the 21st May. So we know we exist on their shelves but are wondering why after 120 days nothing appears to be happening. I'm still worrying about the NOA1 date ( the day Patsy received it [30th July]) being the START day for us as that would explain why we're being ignored.

Sorry to hear about your Delay Patsy and John. I checked the timelines, it seems like there's 3 UK couples going through CSC that filed around the time you did. None have received their NOA2. Good news is, doesn't seem like it's a problem with *your* case. Hope you get your NOA2 soon.
Regarding your NOA1, some couples never get it...it's only for your information, so it shouldn't cause you any problems. You know they have your case, since you talked to them and got a case number.
My online case status still shows "received and pending"...after having the visa in hand for almost a month now

Good Luck,
Caro

The date the NOA1 was received by you is irrelevant. We never received a hard copy of the NOA1 and the only way we knew one had been issued was from looking up the case on the website but we still got an approval within a good timespan based on the date it was received at Nebraska. I would expect you to hear something in the next couple of weeks.

I agree that there's a lot of unnecessary confusion around this issue, and it would be great if things could be made a bit more consistent (and a bit clearer on behalf of USCIS!)

but I DO think there's still value in keeping as many dates as possible on the VJ timelines - as long as it's VERY clear what they refer to - as more information is always better in this sort of thing... it can help with all sorts of stats, and I'd rather they add to the information requested, rather than subtract

certainly though, the received date needs to be clarified; even USCIS don't seem to know where they're measuring from in that regard