I'm helping a friend with his CR visa and wondered how much time can you save overall using James' shortcuts if you do everything correct.
Also wondered if people didn't do everything "to the tee" have they ended up losing time from the average CR/IR process?
Thanks

Hi Becky,

I used them for everything except the I-864 I think it was.

James's shortcuts save time with mailing - that's it - so it does truly save time because how can it not if you are cutting down on mail time?

For instance if I had waited for the DS-230 to arrive in the mail - it was generated and the letter was dated August 20th, the postmark was September 4th - it took them 2 weeks to put it in the mail and another few days to arrive at our place. By using James's form I saved over 2 weeks right there.

The only shortcut that is questionable (and it's not James's) is emailing the DS-3032. They are so slow responding to email right now that the person is probably better off just downloading the form, adding the barcode and mailing it.

The only way I could see not making time using them is if the person messed up the coversheet (badly) and it was rejected - although I have not heard of that happening.

I would say all up I saved about 4 weeks in mailing time minimum.

I think it is very helpful for people who get I-864 RFE. In my case I know I will get one. for someone who does everything correct and no RFE then it would still save some time. I don't know exactly how much time it saves. In mine, so far I saved atleast 3 weeks.
I guess You know about the two different tracks. One is I-864 and the next one DS-230. By using the shortcut the first track finishes soon. since u can't produce the IV fee bill by shortcut the DS-230 is longer.
And using the shortcut is not very hard so why not try it. Also lot of people used it with success.

Anyways check this thread I put. I tried to make the barcode thing easier with visual.
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=89948

You are right. email is slow. We downloaded the DS-3032 and just wrote the case number on it. We didn't even put the barcode and they still accepted it. right there, it saved atleast 2 weeks. so I think it is helpful.

It's worth using...

I used JSC every process within NVC and I saved about 4-6 weeks on my case. However, the only problem I have with NVC is not really the JSC but the waiting game. My case is on its last phase, DS230, and its taking them so long than norm (10-14 days supposedly for CASE COMPLETE or RFE).