7 months

[Robert&Julia 0]

It has been almost 7 months since my NOA 1 at VSC. I have a lawyer and a congressman both working on my case......still no results. I don't understand why they skip around when they approve cases. Why can't they approve cases in the order that they are received? I would understand the long wait if i had a RFE, but i have nothing at the moment. My fiancee lives about 7000 miles away in Donetsk, Ukraine. It seems like they don't care or understand that the long wait creates financial difficulties for American citizens. All i can do is hope and pray for the best.

[Phil & Alla 26]

Seems you have not gotten an answer all day, so I will put in my 2 cents worth

As for a lawyer I think a lot of money is paid and once it is in the hands of USCIS there is NOTHING they can do unless there is a legal issue, a matter of law USCIS violated. A lawyer will get the same responses from an inquiry at USCIS as you would get, they cannot expedite the process anymore than you can. I have not read a post in which a congressman actually was credited with the petition being approved for going over the estimated processing times. Gary & Alla can give you the food chain, but if I remember correctly USCIS does not answer to congress. I did contact my congressman and got an RFE two days later Did he actually contact USCIS or was it a coincidence?? I tried to find out from my congressman, with no response.

Now to the meat and potatoes of the problem, I will give you some of the same answers I got from members--each case is different and service centers are different, which I will agree with--- but as you said, "in the order they are received" is B/S. When I was at your spot it was very disappointing to see other petitions being approved ahead of mine that were received 3 months after mine, from the same service center. At the time I contacted 10 of these people who got their petitions approved before mine (2 from the same country) and asked if there were any special circumstances as to why their petitions got approved so quickly. Only one of the 10 had filed an expedited petition, due to military. The rest were just like me, just average folks with no problems. To me there is no justification in the world that there could be such a wide range of approval times, when according to USCIS "they are processed in the order they are received". But also we are talking about the federal government, who is not known for their efficiency. Yes some of USCIS's employees work faster and are more efficient--- so you and I got the person reviewing the petition who is being written up for poor work performance!

But you are right, NO ONE, at USCIS really cares about the wait time, or the pain it causes. With that said, here at RUB, we do and most of us have felt your pain and heart ache.

[Robert&Julia 0]

Thank you for your time replying to my post. I feel better knowing that i am not the only one who has went through this hell.

Like you said, It's very disappointing to see other petitions being approved ahead of mine that were received after mine, from the same service center.

I called USCIS yesterday and they told me that my case should be approved in 7 days or less. I will believe it when i see it.

They also said that they are currently processing Feb 6th petitions and if this date goes past mine then i can file a service request. So i guess that this is some good news.

I hired an immigration lawyer just to make sure that i did everything correctly to reduce the chance of something going wrong. He will help us during the whole immigration process. Yes, it is a lot of money paid but i didn't want to take any chances.

I also agree that each case is different and service centers are different..... but to wait 7 months+ for NOA2 is rediculous. The person that reviewed our petitions should be fired for poor work performance. Sounds like a great job....they are paid well and don't do a damn thing.

If that is truly the case about some workers being faster than others....I believe that they should help the slower workers approve petitions after they are finished with their petitions. There is no reason why they should start approving later petitions when they need to finish the current petitions. If a service center can't handle the workload they should send some petitions to another service center. But as you said we are talking about the federal government, who is not known for their efficiency.

Hopefully i will hear something soon. I am tired of waiting. I haven't seen my fiancee since March. At USCIS, They don't care or understand that we can't always take off from work to travel around the world to maintain our relationships. Things would be a lot easier if they would allow my fiancee to visit me on a tourist visa.....but i heard that the chances of this are slim to none.