Approval in 1 month

[Derik-Lina 230]

I have noticed some I-130 petitions were approved within one month or even less.

Is this true or some VJ members are just full of it? Thanks

Ps. If true, share the secret recipe, please.

[Hypnos 6,576]

Luck. 

[Derik-Lina 230]

11 minutes ago, Hypnos said:

Luck. 

That is some serious luck there lol Tho I don t think luck exists. 

[geowrian 22,335]

Expedites, incredible luck, etc. There's no way to make them look at the petition any sooner through anything in your packet.

[Derik-Lina 230]

2 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Expedites, incredible luck, etc. There's no way to make them look at the petition any sooner through anything in your packet.

Not even expedites. I asked the lucky ones. I am left to believe not to believe it lol 

[Jorge V 195]

There's also DCF (direct consular filing) to consider, where if both spouses live outside of the US in the following countries, https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/international-immigration-offices , they can file directly with the consulate instead of the Chicago/Phoenix lockbox. I just recently did this and my I-130 was approved in 9 days. The total process from submission to approval was only 49 days. Most of that was just us waiting for our interview date. 

[Lee & Lei 42]

Mine was completed in a month exactly from the date the tracker showed Delivered. I filed it from abroad to the Chicago Lockbox and was assigned to Nebraska. My country doesn't support DCF and we didn't expedite.

 

No clue how or why I got lucky -- I give the glory and credit to God for blessing my wife and me.

 

I did have to call USCIS though because I put the wrong mailing address, so I never received my NOA1 or my case number. Had to leave my number for a call-back from a Tier 2 supervisor, who used my SSN and beneficiary's biographical data to pull up my case and provide my case number, as well as processing a change of address. 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2017 by knightofdight

[Derik-Lina 230]

31 minutes ago, Jorge Valdivia said:

There's also DCF (direct consular filing) to consider, where if both spouses live outside of the US in the following countries, https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/international-immigration-offices , they can file directly with the consulate instead of the Chicago/Phoenix lockbox. I just recently did this and my I-130 was approved in 9 days. The total process from submission to approval was only 49 days. Most of that was just us waiting for our interview date. 

Wow! I have never heard of such service. I am surprised not many take advantage, and then again, maybe only few countries and certain candidates qualify. I know of couples who reside in Mexico, and had to go through it all via the traditional ways; Wait, wait, wait and then wait.

[Derik-Lina 230]

31 minutes ago, knightofdight said:

Mine was completed in a month exactly from the date the tracker showed Delivered. I filed it from abroad to the Chicago Lockbox and was assigned to Nebraska. My country doesn't support DCF and we didn't expedite.

 

No clue how or why I got lucky -- I give the glory and credit to God for blessing my wife and me.

 

I did have to call USCIS though because I put the wrong mailing address, so I never received my NOA1 or my case number. Had to leave my number for a call-back from a Tier 2 supervisor, who used my SSN and beneficiary's biographical data to pull up my case and provide my case number, as well as processing a change of address. 

 

 

Don t count your blessings till "Visa in Hand". I hope the rest of your Visa Journey is just as fast. In other words, don 't jinx yourself and I do wish you a smooth and fast journey. I say so because I have seen couples stuck in one step and or the other, while others fly through. Let us hope we all go through this process as fast as possible.

Edited October 20, 2017 by Derick

[Lee & Lei 42]

4 minutes ago, Derick said:

Don t count your blessings till "Visa in Hand". I hope the rest of your Visa Journey is just as fast. In other words, don 't jinx yourself and I do wish you a smooth and fast journey. I say so because I have seen couples stuck in one step and or the other, while others fly through. Let us hope we all go through this process as fast as possible.

Yeah, I know it isn't over til it is over. But, thus far we HAVE been blessed. The first part went smoothly, the NVC didn't lose any of our stuff, and our waiting has been minimal. I hope the rest of it goes just as smoothly. There's a cloud of anxiety hovering over me that will only dissipate once we're truly finished and she has her visa in-hand. 

[Jorge V 195]

14 minutes ago, Derick said:

Wow! I have never heard of such service. I am surprised not many take advantage, and then again, maybe only few countries and certain candidates qualify. I know of couples who reside in Mexico, and had to go through it all via the traditional ways; Wait, wait, wait and then wait.

You're right, unfortunately not many people know or take advantage of it. Like you, I know many couples living in Mexico that go through the traditional route because they don't know about DCF.

 

When I first started our visa process I talked to several lawyers in the US and none of them mentioned DCF. I would always be sure to tell them that both my wife and I lived in Mexico and that we were looking for the absolute quickest way, but again, not a single lawyer mentioned it. It wasn't until I discovered the DCF forum on VJ (http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/82-direct-consular-filing-dcf-general-discussion/) that I realized it existed and that it was easy enough to just do myself.

 

You're also right that only some qualify. The general requirements are that the USC spouse lives in the relevant country as a resident (not a tourist/visitor)  for at least 6 months. Most embassies are less strict, but there are still some requirements.

Edited October 20, 2017 by Jorge Valdivia

[Russ&Caro 1,548]

22 hours ago, Derick said:

I have noticed some I-130 petitions were approved within one month or even less.

Is this true or some VJ members are just full of it? Thanks

Ps. If true, share the secret recipe, please.

I used to work for a different Federal agency where I examined applications/cases aligned in a queue. We weren't supposed to deviate from the queue but occasionally the examiners would see a super easy case at the top of the stack which was an easy pass and we'd approve right away. Examiners who made a habit of it were called onto the carpet, but no one got dinged for a very occasional quick and easy approval out of queue.

 

Understand that there are real live human beings behind the examination of your case. These people are undoubtedly evaluated based on a couple of metrics... how many cases they fully examine and send out an RFE or rejection, and how many cases they approve. Easy approvals or easy rejections make their work and lives much much easier.  More difficult cases generally have to wait in line.

[Derik-Lina 230]

4 minutes ago, Russ&Caro said:

I used to work for a different Federal agency where I examined applications/cases aligned in a queue. We weren't supposed to deviate from the queue but occasionally the examiners would see a super easy case at the top of the stack which was an easy pass and we'd approve right away. Examiners who made a habit of it were called onto the carpet, but no one got dinged for a very occasional quick and easy approval out of queue.

 

Understand that there are real live human beings behind the examination of your case. These people are undoubtedly evaluated based on a couple of metrics... how many cases they fully examine and send out an RFE or rejection, and how many cases they approve. Easy approvals or easy rejections make their work and lives much much easier.  More difficult cases generally have to wait in line.

Makes a lot of sense. One would also imagine that no officer/agent wants to approve a questionable case; That case gets pushed down, unless it remains that person s responsibility until either approved or rejected. 

[Pennycat 880]

1 hour ago, Derick said:

Wow! I have never heard of such service. I am surprised not many take advantage, and then again, maybe only few countries and certain candidates qualify. I know of couples who reside in Mexico, and had to go through it all via the traditional ways; Wait, wait, wait and then wait.

Yeah it's only a dozen or so countries that have USCIS field offices (and those are the only ones who can do DCF). So you figure that both people have to be legally residing there (not just visiting), already a small number, and want to immigrate to the US (smaller still) and it's just not as common. Plus, the ones who do it don't need a ton of help from Visajourney and so are probably less likely to end up here

[Jeanne Adil 1,651]

On 10/20/2017 at 9:38 AM, knightofdight said:

Mine was completed in a month exactly from the date the tracker showed Delivered. I filed it from abroad to the Chicago Lockbox and was assigned to Nebraska. My country doesn't support DCF and we didn't expedite.

 

No clue how or why I got lucky -- I give the glory and credit to God for blessing my wife and me.

 

I did have to call USCIS though because I put the wrong mailing address, so I never received my NOA1 or my case number. Had to leave my number for a call-back from a Tier 2 supervisor, who used my SSN and beneficiary's biographical data to pull up my case and provide my case number, as well as processing a change of address. 

 

 

Nebraska was that fast?   they had our case in 2013 and transfered it to Missouri 9 months later for faster processing 

and all here are saying Nebraska is slow

you not only got lucky you got more than lucky

elhamdo lellah