Intro and a Couple of questions about the USCIS website

[BrandonandKhandaa 1]

In one week, we will hit the 5 month mark. It's so frustrating. I was in the Peace Corps for two years, and we met after one year. I would have filed in June, when we got engaged, but I had to wait until I got home in July. It was then that I realized that there were going to be some forms that she would have to sign, and since Mongolia is so far and so isolated, it took some time to get everything ready to file. We got our NOA1 on Sept.02, but the check didn't clear for some mystical reason that still hasn't been explained. I sent in a Money Order for the petition fee and the bounced check fee. We got a status update that the money was received on Oct. 7. Every time I call they assure me that there should be no delay in the process, but the form says that I didn't retain my filing date. I hope that I'm still working with a Sept. 2 filing date for the 5 month estimate.

That's our story. I've checked the site twice a day for the last 3 months for any update. We've never had a touch. The website says that our status is still "acceptance", but the woman at USCIS assures us that we can't trust the website, and that we are still under review.

My question to you guys, does the site update at midnight every night, or should it update right when the person scans the file? If I know that it only updates at midnight, I'll stop checking wice a day.

Thanks. We need some encouragement. Mongolia is too far to just go visit. A round trip ticket is like $2000, but if I know it's going to take 6 more months, I'd go ahead and pay for it.

[iampatricias 17]

I don't know the answers to all of your questions, but in terms of what the USCIS website shows for your Status (the one with the blue circles, yes?), ours changed from Initial Review to Request for Evidence at like, 9pm EST. and from RFE Review to Post Decision Activity around 8pm EST (Is it sad that I know these times? It's sad, isn't it ) Anyway, many members find their status NEVER changes, or changes really unpredictably. For example, we got email notification about our RFE, and our RFE Review, but not our Post Decision Activity (the most important one!). So, the USCIS site is not necessarily dependable, no.

As for your filing date, I believe you can go by the date on your NOA1?

[misterbigtoe 45]

That's our story. I've checked the site twice a day for the last 3 months for any update. We've never had a touch. The website says that our status is still "acceptance", but the woman at USCIS assures us that we can't trust the website, and that we are still under review.

My question to you guys, does the site update at midnight every night, or should it update right when the person scans the file? If I know that it only updates at midnight, I'll stop checking wice a day.

Thanks. We need some encouragement. Mongolia is too far to just go visit. A round trip ticket is like $2000, but if I know it's going to take 6 more months, I'd go ahead and pay for it.

It is really not productive to pay much attention to the online case status. My wife's petition never showed an update"touch" and in fact, did not even show "post decision activity" until about a month after I received the hard copy of the approval notice. Our son's petition only caused the online system to return an error message.

You could try to call USCIS and speak to a supervisor "tier 2" as they will often have more information than the agents "tier 1" who answer the phones.

How are you and Khandaa staying in contact through this separation?

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

In one week, we will hit the 5 month mark. It's so frustrating. I was in the Peace Corps for two years, and we met after one year. I would have filed in June, when we got engaged, but I had to wait until I got home in July. It was then that I realized that there were going to be some forms that she would have to sign, and since Mongolia is so far and so isolated, it took some time to get everything ready to file. We got our NOA1 on Sept.02, but the check didn't clear for some mystical reason that still hasn't been explained. I sent in a Money Order for the petition fee and the bounced check fee. We got a status update that the money was received on Oct. 7. Every time I call they assure me that there should be no delay in the process, but the form says that I didn't retain my filing date. I hope that I'm still working with a Sept. 2 filing date for the 5 month estimate.

That's our story. I've checked the site twice a day for the last 3 months for any update. We've never had a touch. The website says that our status is still "acceptance", but the woman at USCIS assures us that we can't trust the website, and that we are still under review.

My question to you guys, does the site update at midnight every night, or should it update right when the person scans the file? If I know that it only updates at midnight, I'll stop checking wice a day.

Thanks. We need some encouragement. Mongolia is too far to just go visit. A round trip ticket is like $2000, but if I know it's going to take 6 more months, I'd go ahead and pay for it.

There are two different computer systems. The Customer Relationship Interface System (CRIS) is not tied directly to the internal system they maintain actual case status on. They don't want to risk the internal system being hacked. The CRIS system is updated daily when they run an automated database processing job. This program scans for updated case files, screens them according to criteria USCIS doesn't tell us about, and then sends the results to the CRIS database. The CRIS database is what you see when you check your status online.

Case file updates sometimes don't get through the screening process for the CRIS system update. I've never found an explanation from USCIS for this. The results you see online should be taken with a grain of salt as they may not be accurate or current.

As far as I know, your petition isn't accepted until the payment has been processed. Your acceptance date may be the date that the money order was cashed. That doesn't necessarily mean you were moved back to the end up of the line, though.