Does the pot boil if you watch it?

[Leonidus 0]

Hi everyone,

It has been five months since my fiancee and I sent in our K-1 packet to the Vermont Service Center (submission date July 28th). To be honest, we are getting rather nervous about the lack of response. Every time I log into the case status website and see that bubble cemented to `Initial Review`, I want to scream. It feels like being stuck in some sort of bureaucratic purgatory, waiting for some higher power to descend from the sky and hand me a cookie.

Considering that we have now exceeded the standard processing time, would it be wise to contact USCIS to see what is going on?

Anyone else out there who submitted to the Vermont center in July and are still waiting for a response?

It's hard to know what to do with yourself when there is nothing you actually can do to speed the process along.

Thanks,

Leonidus

[Zharren Young 32]

Hi everyone,

It has been five months since my fiancee and I sent in our K-1 packet to the Vermont Service Center (submission date July 28th). To be honest, we are getting rather nervous about the lack of response. Every time I log into the case status website and see that bubble cemented to `Initial Review`, I want to scream. It feels like being stuck in some sort of bureaucratic purgatory, waiting for some higher power to descend from the sky and hand me a cookie.

Considering that we have now exceeded the standard processing time, would it be wise to contact USCIS to see what is going on?

Anyone else out there who submitted to the Vermont center in July and are still waiting for a response?

It's hard to know what to do with yourself when there is nothing you actually can do to speed the process along.

Thanks,

Leonidus

hello, were July filers w/ NOA1 dated July 13, way far beyond the 5th month time frame yet when we called yesterday we were told that they are going to communicate with on or January 12

i suggest you try calling them, maybe when we all VSC july filers start calling them at the same time maybe it will make them realize how many people's lives are on hold becoz of them and hopefully start giving us some good result

[Leonidus 0]

July filers of the world unite!

I tried calling multiple times but couldn't figure out how to get a hold of customer service. I imagine they might

be out for the holiday.

[Zharren Young 32]

July filers of the world unite!

I tried calling multiple times but couldn't figure out how to get a hold of customer service. I imagine they might

be out for the holiday.

oh well keep trying and when u get a hold of one insist on talking to someone else higher, thats what we did and does most vj'ers say although were still not satisfied for the january 12 communication thingy we plan to call this monday again and again till they give us some definite answer. unfortunately, no matter how desperate & disappointed we all feel now, thats the only option we have left

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hi everyone,

It has been five months since my fiancee and I sent in our K-1 packet to the Vermont Service Center (submission date July 28th). To be honest, we are getting rather nervous about the lack of response. Every time I log into the case status website and see that bubble cemented to `Initial Review`, I want to scream. It feels like being stuck in some sort of bureaucratic purgatory, waiting for some higher power to descend from the sky and hand me a cookie.

Considering that we have now exceeded the standard processing time, would it be wise to contact USCIS to see what is going on?

Anyone else out there who submitted to the Vermont center in July and are still waiting for a response?

It's hard to know what to do with yourself when there is nothing you actually can do to speed the process along.

Thanks,

Leonidus

Has your fiancee gathered all her personal documents (school records, etc.) and made copies of them? Had them translated if needed? Have you had her education evaluated by an accredited evaluator in the US?

Besides what you need to do to obtain a visa (which is a tiny portion of what you need to do to marry someone and move them here from a foreign country) you need to prepare your home and your life for your fiancee and what her plans are. If she wants more education, now is the time to arrange that. She should start any further education within a day or two of arriving. She won't be able to work but she CAN go to school and she CAN volunteer. Both of these are good things to get people adjusted to the new culture. You can arrange this ahead of time. Volunteer jobs can also be an excellent source of future paid jobs if you volunteer in the same field. If she is a nurse in her home country, for example, she could be volunteering at a hospital here 24 hours after arriving, before she has her green card she may have a job lined up. A teacher? Volunteer at a school. An accountant? Volunteer for some charitable organization. There is almost always someone in need of a skill she may have. Go to meet with these people now. Get something lined up for her. After a couple of days, you have to go back to work and she is going to stare at the walls all day, line up something for her to help her adjust and for her future.

If you need to add a room or remodel the bathroom, now is the best time you will ever have.

Staring at a website "update" will do nothing. When something happens they will send you a letter which will come in your mailbox. Until then, spend your time on productive things for your future. I cannot recall EVER my (then) fiancee saying "What does the website say?" She did ask about her education credential evaluations, her scholarship application, her MA degree program (she started her MA program in Teaching English 5 days after arrival WITH a 50% private university grant)volunteering activities (she volunteered in ESL classes and at a hospital) The hospital volunteer job pushing people around in wheelchairs from their rooms to different departments for tests, etc., landed her a paid position interpreting for patients at $35 per hour and that has expanded to include many other clients including USCIS at the local office.

I never looked at the website updates, I am glad she didn't ask.

[Zharren Young 32]

Has your fiancee gathered all her personal documents (school records, etc.) and made copies of them? Had them translated if needed? Have you had her education evaluated by an accredited evaluator in the US?

Besides what you need to do to obtain a visa (which is a tiny portion of what you need to do to marry someone and move them here from a foreign country) you need to prepare your home and your life for your fiancee and what her plans are. If she wants more education, now is the time to arrange that. She should start any further education within a day or two of arriving. She won't be able to work but she CAN go to school and she CAN volunteer. Both of these are good things to get people adjusted to the new culture. You can arrange this ahead of time. Volunteer jobs can also be an excellent source of future paid jobs if you volunteer in the same field. If she is a nurse in her home country, for example, she could be volunteering at a hospital here 24 hours after arriving, before she has her green card she may have a job lined up. A teacher? Volunteer at a school. An accountant? Volunteer for some charitable organization. There is almost always someone in need of a skill she may have. Go to meet with these people now. Get something lined up for her. After a couple of days, you have to go back to work and she is going to stare at the walls all day, line up something for her to help her adjust and for her future.

If you need to add a room or remodel the bathroom, now is the best time you will ever have.

Staring at a website "update" will do nothing. When something happens they will send you a letter which will come in your mailbox. Until then, spend your time on productive things for your future. I cannot recall EVER my (then) fiancee saying "What does the website say?" She did ask about her education credential evaluations, her scholarship application, her MA degree program (she started her MA program in Teaching English 5 days after arrival WITH a 50% private university grant)volunteering activities (she volunteered in ESL classes and at a hospital) The hospital volunteer job pushing people around in wheelchairs from their rooms to different departments for tests, etc., landed her a paid position interpreting for patients at $35 per hour and that has expanded to include many other clients including USCIS at the local office.

I never looked at the website updates, I am glad she didn't ask.

You comment makes a good point & you have pointed some good ideas, but guess what? coming from someone who got their application approved w/n 42 days? but ofcourse! if ours is that fast too then we wont be here ranting duh!?! so i think you dont have any right to judge how we feel unless you were in the same situation.

[thelastpetitioner 218]

Has your fiancee gathered all her personal documents (school records, etc.) and made copies of them? Had them translated if needed? Have you had her education evaluated by an accredited evaluator in the US?

Besides what you need to do to obtain a visa (which is a tiny portion of what you need to do to marry someone and move them here from a foreign country) you need to prepare your home and your life for your fiancee and what her plans are. If she wants more education, now is the time to arrange that. She should start any further education within a day or two of arriving. She won't be able to work but she CAN go to school and she CAN volunteer. Both of these are good things to get people adjusted to the new culture. You can arrange this ahead of time. Volunteer jobs can also be an excellent source of future paid jobs if you volunteer in the same field. If she is a nurse in her home country, for example, she could be volunteering at a hospital here 24 hours after arriving, before she has her green card she may have a job lined up. A teacher? Volunteer at a school. An accountant? Volunteer for some charitable organization. There is almost always someone in need of a skill she may have. Go to meet with these people now. Get something lined up for her. After a couple of days, you have to go back to work and she is going to stare at the walls all day, line up something for her to help her adjust and for her future.

If you need to add a room or remodel the bathroom, now is the best time you will ever have.

Staring at a website "update" will do nothing. When something happens they will send you a letter which will come in your mailbox. Until then, spend your time on productive things for your future. I cannot recall EVER my (then) fiancee saying "What does the website say?" She did ask about her education credential evaluations, her scholarship application, her MA degree program (she started her MA program in Teaching English 5 days after arrival WITH a 50% private university grant)volunteering activities (she volunteered in ESL classes and at a hospital) The hospital volunteer job pushing people around in wheelchairs from their rooms to different departments for tests, etc., landed her a paid position interpreting for patients at $35 per hour and that has expanded to include many other clients including USCIS at the local office.

I never looked at the website updates, I am glad she didn't ask.

again gary,you were very lucky to get your petition done and over with within five months.

imagine if the OP had done the whole educational evaluation thing you recommend in every damn post about two months ago,imagine if he or she had paid full for his or her fiance/es college.it would all go to waste

with the amount of uncertainty surrounding USCIS,its the best to not make any serious moves that could cause financial damage.

OP it is your right to call VSC since you are over five months,make sure they do file an inquiry when you get an operator on the phone

[TBoneTX 43,133]

Gary's advice is quite good, actually.

The petitioner can call USCIS and cut off the clueless customer-disservice drone in mid-script by insisting on escalation to an immigration officer. If the drone objects (a 99.44% certainty), repeat the request. Upon continued objection (another 99.44% certainty), state that the drone is obligated to escalate the call upon the request to do so. If the drone gives more lip, say "ESCALATE THIS CALL NOW!"

The beneficiary can do a few things in the meantime that will be worth their weight in gold later:

1. Get, or renew, the foreign driver's license.

2. Get THREE official copies of the birth certificate.

3. Get at least TWO (preferably, three) official copies of university or school transcripts.

4. Get at least TWO official copies of the vaccination/childhood-illness record. (These can be on a doctor's or a clinic's letterhead with a stamp or original signature on them.)

[Jenny & Danny 0]

Hi everyone,

It has been five months since my fiancee and I sent in our K-1 packet to the Vermont Service Center (submission date July 28th). To be honest, we are getting rather nervous about the lack of response. Every time I log into the case status website and see that bubble cemented to `Initial Review`, I want to scream. It feels like being stuck in some sort of bureaucratic purgatory, waiting for some higher power to descend from the sky and hand me a cookie.

Considering that we have now exceeded the standard processing time, would it be wise to contact USCIS to see what is going on?

Anyone else out there who submitted to the Vermont center in July and are still waiting for a response?

It's hard to know what to do with yourself when there is nothing you actually can do to speed the process along.

Thanks,

Leonidus

In regards to the USCIS web site. I logged in and checked my status everyday a couple of times. My status never changed. It drove me crazy waiting and not knowing if I would receive a RFE or approval. Then one day my NOA2 just showed up in the mail. No text or email notification. I have read that many people never receive any notification. Just one day it will show up.Be patient. It will arrive.

[texas-gal 3]

I can understand the frustrations of everyone. I submitted my petition in September and like everyone else would love to see more approvals of K1 requests and would love to see something happen on the progress of my request. But I also think that Gary makes a good point because there isn't anything we can do to speed up the process. We can't even call USCIS until the 5th month, even then there's no guarantees any phone calls or other things will speed up the process of a specific visa. Things we can do in the meantime are trying to help get ready for when our fiance/fiancee is finally able to come. I've been using some of the waiting time to work on making space at home so that there are places for my finace's things. I've also used some of the time to read on things that I'll need to know for AOS, getting a Texas driver's license, etc. It makes sense to know now what needs to be done so that we can have the forms needed for AOS completed as soon as possible so we can send in the packet after our honeymoon. One thing that has been helpful is knowing that for my fiance since he's coming from Germany, he doesn't have to complete a driver's education in Texas as long as he has a valid German driver's license he can give them when he applies for the Texas license. I wouldn't have known that without reading other topics on this forum and looking on the Texas DPS website. It's helpful to know about whether he might need a SSN or not before he can be added to my bank accounts, about how to help him build credit in the US, and different types of ways to show we have a legitimate relationship when we go for the AOS interview. I think it's smart to do as much as we can while waiting to be prepared for the next steps that we have to take.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

I cannot recall EVER my (then) fiancee saying "What does the website say?"

I never looked at the website updates, I am glad she didn't ask.

You know, I didn't really look at the website for the first couple months either. Luckily for you, that's when your petition was approved. Those of us nearing or past the five month mark have a right to be frustrated and curious as to the state of the petition.

While I agree with the majority of your post and that there is a lot that needs to be prepared for and this is a good time to do it, I disagree with anyone judging someone or telling people to find something better to do with their time in regards to the website. Easy to say when your application was so quickly approved.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

You comment makes a good point & you have pointed some good ideas, but guess what? coming from someone who got their application approved w/n 42 days? but ofcourse! if ours is that fast too then we wont be here ranting duh!?! so i think you dont have any right to judge how we feel unless you were in the same situation.

I guess this is where I get bashed because I have a shorter timeline. So be it. We also spent 4 months making preparations before we filed the petition, such as getting the required permission letters from the two boys biological father before filing, which was no small task. That does not show up in the timeline. But then we weren't running around trying to get needed signatures just before an interview. Silly of us, eh? I guess we should have done the smart thing and filed immediately after getting engaged insteads of 4 months afterward?

I made no judgements...read it again, where is a judgement?

I stated facts and gave suggestions of how to help your fiancee. Your petition WILL get approved and your visa WILL get issued and your fiancee WILL arrive to start a new life in a new place. I am simply suggesting people spend their time in productive activity that will be greatly appreciated by your fiance(e) when they arrive and you begin your life together which will be a much longer period of time than the waiting.

If you choose to ignore my suggestion and check useless websites...good luck to you. Personally I consider the way we handled our "journey" to be one of my greatest accomplishments in life...to move a family of three people a dog and a cat, start educations in a new country for two of them within 5 days, get the other into a top university in Moscow at the same and then coordinating his arrival and adjustment (green card) later, laying the groundwork for my wife to have a really good part time job using her language skills while getting a scholarship to earn an MA in teaching English...oh yeah! And all without a hitch and not so much as a single question asked at any interview. It did not happen by mistake or accident and none of that happened because I checked a USCIS website. You can believe me or not, but the truth is, whether you wait 2 months for the NOA2 or 6 months or 8 months, this part of the journey is nothing, literally nothing. It is the paperwork delay in your journey, it is not the journey at all. It is the easy part. You will forget all about the waiting for the NOA2 pretty quick.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

Nobody's bashed anybody. It's simply one of those situations where it's easier for someone who hasn't had the same experience to tell others how they should be handling things, or what they should be doing. Also, it's somewhat rude to assume that someone is simply checking a website countless times a day and not doing anything else worthwhile with their time. Checking a 'useless website' doesn't mean that people are not prepared.

Edited December 30, 2010 by Coconuts

[LoriT 16]

Although Gary doesn't need anyone standing up for him, I can't help it. Gary has given me the most useful information on this board. He is down to earth and straight to the fact. He isn't going to sugar coat anything. But he is going to HELP you through this process with his wisdom and experience without being a jerk about it. Listen to him and trust him. We are all miserable without our loved ones. We all want this to happen immediately. Bashing someone because their timeline is shorter will not make your loved one arrive any more quickly. If you look closely at his history and experience with the USCIS you may find some incredibly useful information. If I hadn't listened to him and not taken his advice I know Colin and I would have been denied. But now we have a fighting chance because of the things I learned from him.

[jj202 0]

Are school records required? I've never heard of this. My fiance never went to university, what exactly needs to be presented?