This process.....beyond frustrating

[stressedcanuck 0]

When my American wife and I decided to move to the States, we were under the impression that applications for Spousal Visas when the American Citizen is not living in the country would be one of the faster applications to process. Some of our research showed roughly 5-8 months processing times if all went well.

My family here in Canada were now all gone, and she wanted to be closer to hers back home again after spending half a decade up here with me.

Being notified by RIM upon returning from Christmas break that our entire department would be laid off in Feb, she and I figured this was a good time to pick up and start anew in the States.

Given 4 months severance and an end date of Mid Feb, we had hopes that 5-6 months would be enough time to process the application and move south and start a new life. So we got the ball rolling early Jan.

Luckily, I found contract work to tide me over while we waited......So our severance nest-egg remains intact ready for the big move and the buffer downtime while we both search for new employment once we arrive.

I absolutely hate the job, but every day I kept telling myself it's only temporary....and that I can suffer through it until we move.

We didn't get confirmation from the National Visa Center until the end of May that our application had been approved. 4 months...not bad. On-track hopefully...?

We were given a case number on May 24th and told that our application has now moved on to the Department of State.

The letter said to give them 4 weeks before calling the DOS for an update.

Fine...I can wait another month.

(To be on the safe side, I called the National Visa Center and confirmed the paperwork is out of their hands and moved on to the Department of State)

Call DOS at end of June......they don't have our file yet. Said it could take up to 8 weeks, not 4.

....sigh...another month.

Call at the end of July....still nothing.

They asked us to scan a copy of our NVC approval letter and mail it to nvcresearch@state.gov.....apparently this is the department that goes and FINDS applications that have gone 'walkabout'.

...........shoot me now.

(This happens enough that they have an entire department dedicated to finding lost files??)

We immediately got a confirmation email stating our message had been received.

Two weeks later tho?....not a peep.

I called them today........they still haven't found our case on file.

I've worked in a Mail room before....it can NOT be hard or take TWO WEEKS to find a piece of mail sitting in the mail room, and it certainly can not be taking 10 weeks for a piece of physical mail to go from NVC to the Department of State.

The decidedly uninterested woman on the phone with the State Department said all I could do is wait for them to reply to our email, as they are 'handled in the order they are received'.

.....asked how long this might take.........'they are handled in the order they are received'.

So basically, NVC has done their part in a timely fashion as per the timelines we had researched, but the DOS isn't competent enough/staffed sufficiently to handle the volume they get in.

Great.

We've also since learned that even once the State Department FINDS our paperwork and processes it....our Consulate Interview still might not be booked until 2 months AFTER that??? And even tho there is a Consulate in Toronto (2 hours away) I'll most likely have to do my interview at the consulate in Montreal.......8 hours away in another province.

sigh again....

Both my wife and I have basically been living in a holding pattern for 9 months now.....unhappy with our temporary jobs, unwilling to purchase/replace things around the house with the thinking 'wait till we move, one less thing to pack and it will be cheaper in the States'......

Movers have been decided upon, pets have their updated shots and paperwork, vehicle paperwork acquired, house cleaned out of stuff we don't need to move...just waiting to pack it all....

We just want to start our new lives..........and we're being blocked by a seemingly inept government body.

I tried to mentally prepare for a lengthier wait than what we had hoped on when we started all this ...in case we were wrong on the processing times or if something like this were to happen.....but the stress is starting to get to us....

I'm now starting to search for a new job. I've had it. Pretty much just going to give up on this &^$% process and pretend like it's never going to happen.

If this is the easiest type of Visa Application to process in order to move to the States, I feel VERY sorry for people not in our 'easy' bracket.

Anyway...sorry for the rant.

Hopefully our experience helps future applicants to not get their hopes up for a speedy processing.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Sorry you're having trouble.

Some of your stress was by thinking your case would be different or faster and poorly estimating how long it would take based on your own guess and not hard data. 5-6 months is not a reasonable estimate.

From what I can tell from your long post is that your case has been stuck or lost at NVC for 3 months now? It doesn't go from NVC to DOS - something is wonky in your understanding. Have you done any NVC processing? If you have a case number can't you start the NVC paperwork?

You should be focusing on figuring this out, but it;s hard to parse what's what in your post. It's a lot of he said she said... Maybe you could outline the timeline and current state of affairs and what you have done?

Have you looked over this? http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/LingChe_NVC_ShortCut

Edited August 15, 2013 by Harpa Timsah

[slvrfx576 15]

I think that Stressedcanuck may be confusing USCIS with NVC and confusing NVC with DOS. The original I-130 petition would have been filed with USCIS. (they might have sent on to the National Benefits Center...NBC....possibly the source of the confusion) NVC is part of the DOS.

From USCIS approval it goes to NVC. Your approved petition most certainly did not get sent as the I-797 notice states. My timeline is similar to yours in that my I-130 was filed 2/19 and was approved by USCIS on 5/10....but it did not get to NVC until 46 days later. Many posts here are about the delay in getting from USCIS to NVC....up to 8 weeks....so that is not unusual at this point. However,30 days after the USCIS approval, I contacted both the NVC and the USCIS and got the usual 8 weeks answer. Dissatisfied, I then contacted my US Senator's office and they were very helpful and the very next day told me that they found my petition sitting in the Chicago USCIS field office and that they were told that it would be at NVC within two weeks. Sure enough it showed up 2 weeks later at NVC.

So I would recommend that your USC spouse involve her Senators or Congressman. Squeaky wheel gets the grease !

[pushbrk 12,975]

I think that Stressedcanuck may be confusing USCIS with NVC and confusing NVC with DOS. The original I-130 petition would have been filed with USCIS. (they might have sent on to the National Benefits Center...NBC....possibly the source of the confusion) NVC is part of the DOS.

From USCIS approval it goes to NVC. Your approved petition most certainly did not get sent as the I-797 notice states. My timeline is similar to yours in that my I-130 was filed 2/19 and was approved by USCIS on 5/10....but it did not get to NVC until 46 days later. Many posts here are about the delay in getting from USCIS to NVC....up to 8 weeks....so that is not unusual at this point. However,30 days after the USCIS approval, I contacted both the NVC and the USCIS and got the usual 8 weeks answer. Dissatisfied, I then contacted my US Senator's office and they were very helpful and the very next day told me that they found my petition sitting in the Chicago USCIS field office and that they were told that it would be at NVC within two weeks. Sure enough it showed up 2 weeks later at NVC.

So I would recommend that your USC spouse involve her Senators or Congressman. Squeaky wheel gets the grease !

Yes, looks that way, as NVC is part of Dept. of State. Sounds like USCIS approved the petition but NVC hasn't received it yet. OP is a little late in learning the process. The time to learn is BEFORE you have problems.

Please confirm whether any additional fees or paperwork has been provided since filing the I-130. That will clear up the confusion so we can know how to help.

[KP & SP 9]

When my American wife and I decided to move to the States, we were under the impression that applications for Spousal Visas when the American Citizen is not living in the country would be one of the faster applications to process. Some of our research showed roughly 5-8 months processing times if all went well.

My family here in Canada were now all gone, and she wanted to be closer to hers back home again after spending half a decade up here with me.

Being notified by RIM upon returning from Christmas break that our entire department would be laid off in Feb, she and I figured this was a good time to pick up and start anew in the States.

Given 4 months severance and an end date of Mid Feb, we had hopes that 5-6 months would be enough time to process the application and move south and start a new life. So we got the ball rolling early Jan.

Luckily, I found contract work to tide me over while we waited......So our severance nest-egg remains intact ready for the big move and the buffer downtime while we both search for new employment once we arrive.

I absolutely hate the job, but every day I kept telling myself it's only temporary....and that I can suffer through it until we move.

We didn't get confirmation from the National Visa Center until the end of May that our application had been approved. 4 months...not bad. On-track hopefully...?

We were given a case number on May 24th and told that our application has now moved on to the Department of State.

The letter said to give them 4 weeks before calling the DOS for an update.

Fine...I can wait another month.

(To be on the safe side, I called the National Visa Center and confirmed the paperwork is out of their hands and moved on to the Department of State)

Call DOS at end of June......they don't have our file yet. Said it could take up to 8 weeks, not 4.

....sigh...another month.

Call at the end of July....still nothing.

They asked us to scan a copy of our NVC approval letter and mail it to nvcresearch@state.gov.....apparently this is the department that goes and FINDS applications that have gone 'walkabout'.

...........shoot me now.

(This happens enough that they have an entire department dedicated to finding lost files??)

We immediately got a confirmation email stating our message had been received.

Two weeks later tho?....not a peep.

I called them today........they still haven't found our case on file.

I've worked in a Mail room before....it can NOT be hard or take TWO WEEKS to find a piece of mail sitting in the mail room, and it certainly can not be taking 10 weeks for a piece of physical mail to go from NVC to the Department of State.

The decidedly uninterested woman on the phone with the State Department said all I could do is wait for them to reply to our email, as they are 'handled in the order they are received'.

.....asked how long this might take.........'they are handled in the order they are received'.

So basically, NVC has done their part in a timely fashion as per the timelines we had researched, but the DOS isn't competent enough/staffed sufficiently to handle the volume they get in.

Great.

We've also since learned that even once the State Department FINDS our paperwork and processes it....our Consulate Interview still might not be booked until 2 months AFTER that??? And even tho there is a Consulate in Toronto (2 hours away) I'll most likely have to do my interview at the consulate in Montreal.......8 hours away in another province.

sigh again....

Both my wife and I have basically been living in a holding pattern for 9 months now.....unhappy with our temporary jobs, unwilling to purchase/replace things around the house with the thinking 'wait till we move, one less thing to pack and it will be cheaper in the States'......

Movers have been decided upon, pets have their updated shots and paperwork, vehicle paperwork acquired, house cleaned out of stuff we don't need to move...just waiting to pack it all....

We just want to start our new lives..........and we're being blocked by a seemingly inept government body.

I tried to mentally prepare for a lengthier wait than what we had hoped on when we started all this ...in case we were wrong on the processing times or if something like this were to happen.....but the stress is starting to get to us....

I'm now starting to search for a new job. I've had it. Pretty much just going to give up on this &^$% process and pretend like it's never going to happen.

If this is the easiest type of Visa Application to process in order to move to the States, I feel VERY sorry for people not in our 'easy' bracket.

Anyway...sorry for the rant.

Hopefully our experience helps future applicants to not get their hopes up for a speedy processing.

It could also be possible that the approved petition is sent to NRC instead of NVC.

[NikLR 13,227]

I'm really confused by this post about what is happening....

I think the OP has some lingo mixed up... I hope they come back and clear up the confusion!

[stressedcanuck 0]

Seems there was some confusion regarding acronyms on my part.

Y'all are correct.

The letter we received May 24 came from Department of Homeland Security (according to the leaderhead) and said it would be sent to NVC.

My wife called NVC shortly after we received the letter and was told (if i'm recalling her correctly) that it was handed off to the DOS.

I sent the scanned copy of the letter to nvcresearch@state.gov as they requested. To cover my bases (and not knowing they were the same entity) I also emailed nvcinquiry@state.gov to confirm they had indeed sent it off as my wife was lead to believe.

Heard back from them today.

Please be advised that the National Visa Center (NVC) has received your

inquiry and the attached I-797 Notice of Action - Approval Notice.

Unfortunately, we do not have record of receiving your approved petition
from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The NVC will contact
USCIS on your behalf for information on the location of this petition.

So....our paperwork seems to be lost between USCIS and NVC....if i'm reading this correctly.

Thank you for your suggestion slvfrx576.

Although she doesn't live in America currently, i'll have a talk with her to see if she can get ahold of a Senator or Congressman in the State we'll be moving to and see if we can't get some traction that way.

Much obliged all.

[TBoneTX 45,522]

*** Thread moved from CR-1 Process forum to the Case Progress subforum. ***

[Darnell 8,478]

OK - I posit this:

1. casefile routed to a local USCIS office for adjudication and approval.

2. Casefile still sitting at the local USCIS office.

What to do?

have the usCitizen engage with one of the 3 congressmen (there are 2 senators and 1 representative ) from her district in the USA.

First, find the websites, then get the privacy release form filled out and signed. Suggest to email a scan of the form showing signature. Fax is also good.

Second, write up a missive similar to what you've written here, give over to the Immigration Liason Staffer Human from the congressman's office.

Third - make a phone call, talking with the ILS Human, stating your fear is that the casefile is either still at the local office or it was misrouted to the National Records Center (NRC).

Then you wait a bit.

-----

Sorry your having these problems. IMO, only an ILS Human can wade into the muck and fix it.

Edited August 17, 2013 by Darnell

[stressedcanuck 0]

*Update

Two weeks later, NVCResearch writes us back basically saying ‘uh…yeah…we can confirm we don’t have your paperwork, you’d better contact USCIS yourself’.

WHY did we bother wasting 2 more weeks when we could have done that from the start?? Whatever.

Called USCIS, they said ‘your paperwork is with NVC, call them’.

After I explained to the level 1 support person ‘NVC told us to call you’, he said we had to wait *90* days from the time of approval before we could escalate to level 2. I demanded to know the logic behind this arbitrary and seemingly excessive wait time before we could get assistance…..he *hung up on me*.

Apparently my questions weren't on the script and it was just easier to end the call.

Realizing it HAD already been 90 days since our approval, I called back and got escalated to level 2. Takes 50 minutes on hold.

Within seconds, she confirmed we indeed had been approved….but she showed no record of our paperwork ever leaving USCIS.

Again…..3 months additional delay, because USCIS HAS LOST OUR PAPERWORK.

She says ‘I will fix this….and once I have confirmation that your file has been sent to NVC I will send you a physical letter confirming this’. Unfortunately they will only send snail mail to U.S. addresses. Luckily we could give her my wife’s father’s address. She then says to give it two weeks….if we haven’t heard anything back in two weeks to call back asking for an update

Two weeks pass, no word from USCIS. I call them, get level 2 again after 70 minutes on hold (luckily they have a call-back option that I now use). Unfortunately, even tho their automated greeting notes ‘you must be the petitioner, applicant or lawyer for either for us to help you’, they will ONLY speak to my wife, the petitioner….even if it’s for an update for our joint application.

They close at 6, she gets off work at 5 or 6 depending on the day.

I call again that night at 4:30 so we’re off hold by the time she gets home at 5:30. This time the wait is 110 minutes…well beyond when they close. TBH, was not expecting a callback.

At 7pm they return the call….we ask the level 2 for an update….all he says is ‘hmm, well, they’re very busy….best wait another 2 weeks’.

I explain this is unacceptable, and demand to speak to his supervisor. We want details. WHERE is our paperwork, WHERE has it been for three months, WHAT are you people doing to find it and fix this. And this joker is clearly uninterested and just wants to go home.

He puts me on hold for 5 minutes, then comes back asking for a number we can be reached at for the supervisor to call us back. I give it to him….then ask ‘when’ will they call us back. Cuz obviously, if my wife isn’t going to be home we’re going to be right back to where we were before…..

‘Oh, they’ll call you back, thanks for calling…’

‘No…WHEN will they call us back’

‘Thank you for calling goodbye’

And he *hangs up*.

That was Friday. Here we are Wednesday, no call back to date. I doubt he even wrote down our number.

So basically, our application is in the hands of uncaring, inept minimum wage slaves that are more interested in getting to the next call or going home rather than helping.

We’ve also done what was suggested above. We wrote the two U.S. Senators in Dallas outlining our plight and asking for assistance. (you can’t call for help, they just direct you to a web form). Only one wrote us back with the privacy release form….this was over a month ago. We’ve not heard back since.

Enraged after Friday, I also looked up ‘how to lodge a complaint against the USCIS’.

Based on what I found I've since emailed the Citizen and Immigration Service Ombudsman (cisombudsman.feedback@dhs.gov) and the Office of Inspector General, US Department of Homeland Security (DHSOIGHOTLINE@dhs.gov) detailing the gross mismanagement of the USCIS for losing our paperwork, failing to assist us in rectifying their ineptitude in a timely manner, and the general rude and uncaring conduct of their level 1 and level 2 employees.

We’re now going on four months since USCIS approved our application. By this time, NVC could have easily processed our application on their end, and we could have been well on our way to the consulate interview. As it stands, if they ever DO find our paperwork, we probably won't be able to move until well into the new year.

Subsequently, my Father, who has been living in the States illegally for two years now, married a US Citizen. He hired a lawyer for 5k in July to help with his I-130. He’s already got his Consulate Interview booked…..just over 2 months. We applied Mid-Feb.

So apparently the powers that be will do their job when a lawyer is involved….but couldn't care less about the rest of us pleebs. Unfortunately, we can’t afford a lawyer like he can.

So now….I’ve basically lost all hope that our application will ever move forward. If we hadn't constantly been rattling the gates we’d never have known our paperwork was even lost!

Our lives are in the hands of minimum wage morons that couldn't care less that our lives and future plans are in their hands.

I will provide more updates if/when they come available....but i'm not holding my breath.

[Darnell 8,478]

is interesting, you chose not to follow the steps I wrote for engaging with an Immigration Liason Staffer Human at a Congressman's office.

What's up? Why you not do that? What's preventing you from making that happen?

[pushbrk 12,975]

For one thing, these posts are by the foreigner, not the petitioner. The foreigner needs to understand that there is not "joint application" for anything and never will be. USCIS will deal with the petitioner, because there IS NO applicant in this case, until it gets to NVC. The foreigner is unable to deal with the Congressional Staff because they are the foreigner. It's time for the petitioner to become directly involved, even if it means taking a day off work or three.

[Darnell 8,478]

concur.