In what order are applications processed???

[K&D 0]

Does anyone know how the K1 is processed? In what order? Is there a specific order? It's so frustrating to see several couples receiving the NOA2 that filed after we did. Does it not matter "when" you sent in your paperwork? At first I thought it depended on the country, but recently I've seen people from the same country that have NOA1 dates later than ours, already receiving the NOA2. :/ (our NOA1 date is 8/6/10)

[Al422 221]

Despite USCIS denials, if you are Haitian, you go to the front of the line.

After that, if you are a California filer, you get yours done a month ahead of the Vermont filers.

After that, pick up some dice and roll them.

The process stinks beyond description, in this and many other ways.

[missyouhoney 1]

Does anyone know how the K1 is processed? In what order? Is there a specific order? It's so frustrating to see several couples receiving the NOA2 that filed after we did. Does it not matter "when" you sent in your paperwork? At first I thought it depended on the country, but recently I've seen people from the same country that have NOA1 dates later than ours, already receiving the NOA2. :/ (our NOA1 date is 8/6/10)

I´ve heard that they even play a lottery so if u r lucky yours get done very fast.

[HeatDeath 430]

When they receive your application, it gets packed into a file folder. The file folders are put in boxes. The boxes are put on shelves in roughly chronological order. The boxes sit on the shelves. When an adjudicator finishes a box of files, he goes to the shelves and takes the next box. So the cases are processed in roughly the order they are received, plus or minus a random factor of a several weeks or so depending on how fast the box got filled and put on the shelf, whether or not other boxes of the same arrival time ended up ahead of it, how fast adjudicator gets through his boxes and where in the box your case ended up.

Complicating this is the additional factor that the service center management will move adjudicators from one case type to another if a backlog has built up between the different types of boxes.

So yeah, figure they're handled chronologically plus or minus a random factor of a few weeks, plus or minus a random factor of a month or so depending on the current processing priority at the service center. Chronologically +/- a few days +/- a few weeks +/- another few weeks. So individual timelines are pretty unpredictable, but cases filed at the same time end up being processed within a few weeks of each other, overall.

[DarlingNikki 7]

This is interesting question. I wondered the same thing recently. There was an individual from Cuba that filed on 11/23/2010 and has already received their NOA2. I was like.... WHAT???? So go figure.

Rolling the dice I guess.

[Yagisama 93]

This is interesting question. I wondered the same thing recently. There was an individual from Cuba that filed on 11/23/2010 and has already received their NOA2. I was like.... WHAT???? So go figure.

Rolling the dice I guess.

There are some cases where a file is taken out and completed as a training exercise. Overall however, the situation is more like what HeathDeath described.

[ameribrit 37]

This is interesting question. I wondered the same thing recently. There was an individual from Cuba that filed on 11/23/2010 and has already received their NOA2. I was like.... WHAT???? So go figure.

Rolling the dice I guess.

That has happened at both service centers, both from Cuba. Go figure............ The process, as it is at the moment, stinks

[GDHB 3]

It's an interesting response from HeatDeath (1/20 at 1:47 pm) that appears to explain the timeline statistics.

HeatDeath - are you able to share your source for this information?

[ameribrit 37]

It's an interesting response from HeatDeath (1/20 at 1:47 pm) that appears to explain the timeline statistics.

HeatDeath - are you able to share your source for this information?

And in HeathDeaths day of waiting for approval this would have been a qualified explanation. HeathDeath got their NOA2 in 72days!!.... Oh how i dreamt that would be the way for us.Now the wait time is 5 months or more.

In fact Al422 is right on the money. TPS applications got in the way of I-129f's being approved in any great numbers. And completions of I-129F's are at a two year low. With two Cuban petitions, one from each service center, getting approved in just over a month lately, who the hell knows what really goes on at USCIS.

[KiwiBird 132]

HeatDeath is right. Also, some applications take longer for background checks.

Course, according to some people, they take these boxes and then throw darts at them. After that, they use the selected petitions as seat cushions while they play solitaire and laugh at how they are ruining our lives and plot new 'lies' to tell the general public.

Edited January 20, 2011 by KiwiBird

[pushbrk 12,212]

When they receive your application, it gets packed into a file folder. The file folders are put in boxes. The boxes are put on shelves in roughly chronological order. The boxes sit on the shelves. When an adjudicator finishes a box of files, he goes to the shelves and takes the next box. So the cases are processed in roughly the order they are received, plus or minus a random factor of a several weeks or so depending on how fast the box got filled and put on the shelf, whether or not other boxes of the same arrival time ended up ahead of it, how fast adjudicator gets through his boxes and where in the box your case ended up.

Complicating this is the additional factor that the service center management will move adjudicators from one case type to another if a backlog has built up between the different types of boxes.

So yeah, figure they're handled chronologically plus or minus a random factor of a few weeks, plus or minus a random factor of a month or so depending on the current processing priority at the service center. Chronologically +/- a few days +/- a few weeks +/- another few weeks. So individual timelines are pretty unpredictable, but cases filed at the same time end up being processed within a few weeks of each other, overall.

Pretty please, stop calling petitions applications. It confuses people to no end. Otherwise, great description of the process. One thing I would add is that all petitions are not created equal and the adjudication process has more than one step with some petitions either getting delayed between steps or requiring extra steps. So, not all petitions in a given "box" or stack are approved the same day. Some may take several days to several weeks longer once the box comes of the shelf. It would be accurate to say that a rough chronological order applies to when adjudication begins but a rougher connection to when adjudication is completed.

[lgarris 2]

I thank God for VJ and all the users. I am hurting as I wait to receive my NOA2, but when I open VJ and begin to read the responses here....I am sometimes filled with laughter. We are all frustrated as we wait, but once I get here and see the others that are going through the same thing and hear the encouraging remarks; I feel much better. BUT.....I STILL WANT MY NOA2!!!!

[HeatDeath 430]

It's an interesting response from HeatDeath (1/20 at 1:47 pm) that appears to explain the timeline statistics.

HeatDeath - are you able to share your source for this information?

GaryAndAlla is friends, or at least acquaintances [or at least was] with one of the former higher-ups of the VSC, and put together a QnA which I think is still stickied somewhere in here.

I did try to take the Haitian situation into account in my explanation. If the service centres have allocated a significant fraction of their adjudicators to other types of petitions, then there are fewer adjudicators pulling boxes of I-129Fs off the shelves, and thus it takes longer for them to be processed, by a constant multiplicative factor proportional to the reduction of I-129F adjudicators.

[Richie Rich 70]

Some applications take priority eg some military members asked for thier applications to be expedited because they are deploying within a month or two --so they are priortise .It holds true for for some state dept /dept of defense officials since they will be relocating to another country due to their jobs .Also some govt officials falls into this category due to the nature of their job (dont quote me ---lol) , and of course others have ''contacts ''. It is not fair --but what is fair now in this world . What can we do----We all have to suck it up and wait our long awaited turn .

[Charles-n-Erica 2]

HeatDeath is right. Also, some applications take longer for background checks.

Course, according to some people, they take these boxes and then throw darts at them. After that, they use the selected petitions as seat cushions while they play solitaire and laugh at how they are ruining our lives and plot new 'lies' to tell the general public.

Not kewl kiwi