Regarding the Current Processing Times

[clarkthegiraffe 10]

Call me crazy, impatient, bored, what you will! I am all of it - I've been looking at the Processing Times on this site every day since receiving our NOA1, which we received on April 14th, saying that they had received it on April 10th. So I wasn't sure which would be the better date to use as my estimate according to the processing times...

Anyway, the current processing time is on April 17th - no, I know it's not THAT much of a difference, but I thought that this table was based off of people entering their data into the system - or is it just an estimate? I know I'm incredibly lucky to have been transferred to California, a blessing which I am thankful for every day, but when you get your hopes up for a date (which admittedly is something I shouldn't have done) it becomes a bit disappointing to fall behind in expectations.

So, have most people received their NOA2 email/text/mail after the "current processing" date?

[wbeem 567]

Visa Journey uses the NOA1 date. I think USCIS uses the receipt date. It is a matter of days and won't make much difference to the estimate. Some of it is just luck (or bad luck) as to who's petition gets processed first. They don't work strictly in order, although CSC seems to have more consistency than TSC from my observations.

[TBoneTX 43,040]

*** Thread moved from K-1 Process forum to the USCIS Service Centers forum -- topic involves processing-times. ***

[Pennycat 880]

Call me crazy, impatient, bored, what you will! I am all of it - I've been looking at the Processing Times on this site every day since receiving our NOA1, which we received on April 14th, saying that they had received it on April 10th. So I wasn't sure which would be the better date to use as my estimate according to the processing times...

Anyway, the current processing time is on April 17th - no, I know it's not THAT much of a difference, but I thought that this table was based off of people entering their data into the system - or is it just an estimate? I know I'm incredibly lucky to have been transferred to California, a blessing which I am thankful for every day, but when you get your hopes up for a date (which admittedly is something I shouldn't have done) it becomes a bit disappointing to fall behind in expectations.

So, have most people received their NOA2 email/text/mail after the "current processing" date?

The Visajourney estimates are based on averages, so only a few will hit the actual date, and a little less than half will be longer and a little less than half will be quicker. Those estimates also fluctuate day-to-day (Mine went from NOA2 estimate between Aug 31, 2015- Sept 8, 2015 to Sept 4- Sept 16, to Aug 10- Sept 24 (!!!) and now from Sept 11- Sept 18).

In terms of Visajourney's "most recently processed"--- that I believe is the date of the most recently approved petition to go through that office. But they don't have an actual, one by one, first come first served line (if only they did....). They probably have each adjudicator pick up a group of files and take them to their desk to work on that day/week/whatever. And those files may not even be in perfect date order to begin with, and even if they were....some adjudicators will just plain work faster or slower than others, some cases will take an hour, some will take 20 minutes (which, repeated enough times will throw any resemblance of "perfect line order" out of whack). Some adjudicators will have dentist appointments this Wednesday and need to take the afternoon off, while others have a kid with pinkeye who's not allowed to go to school so she and needs to take two days of leave this week, while still others will be on an "Alternative Work Schedule" in which federal workers, can if they choose, work 9.5 hours every day for 2 weeks and then get every-other Friday off (getting theirs done quicker for 2 weeks and then catching back "down"). All of that is why, within a particular service center, you won't see people get NOA2s in *exact* date order. These are being handled by humans, not robots. If you're near-ish the "average" seen in the timelines, here: http://www.visajourney.com/content/k1historical, you'll probably hear something either 10 days before or 10 days after that average.

Edited to add: Haha, just looked at the timeline again. Yep, even that date-- April 17. That's based off of the average seen in the timelines, not the most recently passed through. Average means just that--average. About half over it and half under it. I still think a margin of error by 10 days is a conservative estimate, it's probably more accurate than that. The difference between 21 or 31 or 41 days is SO negligible there's really no other way to explain it other than the above--- these are people, with lives, families and work schedules and some are better/faster than others. ONE worker out for an afternoon is probably enough to hold back a whole day's worth of petitions, the rate that CSC goes.

Edited May 19, 2015 by CatherineA

[yuna628 9,527]

What VJ provides is an estimate, based on user data which could be at times incorrectly added to its database. That being said, since you are at California, I would not expect a wait longer than a few months, if that. The expectations you should go by is the USCIS's which claims to average 5 months in waiting time. This however is not true for California (faster) and certainly not true for Texas (black hole of death). So take a little comfort, that you should be up and out of there soon, provided your case has no issues.

[clarkthegiraffe 10]

Some adjudicators will have dentist appointments this Wednesday and need to take the afternoon off, while others have a kid with pinkeye who's not allowed to go to school so she and needs to take two days of leave this week, while still others will be on an "Alternative Work Schedule" in which federal workers, can if they choose, work 9.5 hours every day for 2 weeks and then get every-other Friday off (getting theirs done quicker for 2 weeks and then catching back "down").

I like this! Even though I still get frustrated over the fact that I still cannot check the status of my application on the USCIS website ( ), it's nice to read something that humanizes them. I know I'm an impatient person, and everyone on this forum likely knows how hard separation can be, so I won't go preaching to the choir! But alright, looks like I'm going to have to do exactly what I thought - which is wait like everyone else.

Thanks for everyone's responses - I hope things are going well in your visa journeys!

[StephanieC 43]

I like this! Even though I still get frustrated over the fact that I still cannot check the status of my application on the USCIS website ( ), it's nice to read something that humanizes them. I know I'm an impatient person, and everyone on this forum likely knows how hard separation can be, so I won't go preaching to the choir! But alright, looks like I'm going to have to do exactly what I thought - which is wait like everyone else.

Thanks for everyone's responses - I hope things are going well in your visa journeys!

I think it's super easy to get angry at the adjudicators directly, calling them incompetent or hamsters or other such names but we forget that those are people behind desks doing their job. Perhaps they aren't the most efficient nor are they overachievers but some of it could be work conditions and lack of staffing.