Just a thought on one factor that affects how fast things go

[Cam&jada 2]

I know this is a long, and at times, frustrating process. Time just goes by so slowly! But we are all wondering why some people get approved in 3-4 months and others are closer to a year, and regarding this post, the I-129F can vary from under a month to 6-7 months or more. There are obviously many factors, such as where your docs are sent, how busy they are, if you get a RFE, etc. Many like to suggest it's about how organized the packet is that you send in. I'm sure they all have some influence.

But how much of a factor is simply how long it takes to do the background check? I'm not familiar with how it works, but I'm guessing that it may very well be the cause for the really fast ones being approved or the ones that drag on. It seems that some are as easy as can be, and others take quite a bit of checking to verify that all is good.

Anybody have some insight on this?

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

That's a very small part of it. Most checks take about one minute.

The real reason for the changes is how USCIS works. They shift priority around and keep lots of stuff waiting in the queue, so the workers always have something to do. Priorities change, they focus on one type of petition until they realize another has been ignored for a while, then they focus on that one. There are many more things they do besides the family-based stuff we see here. Your file is just sitting in a box until they pick it up to adjudicate it. Adjudication takes about 10 minutes.