May 8th NOA1 - Almost 6 months later, no NOA2

[Thomianguy 36]

We are at the Nebraska Center and at first, we were told they are working on about a 5 month window, give and take a week in either direction and we have confirmed from seeing other petitioners that this seems to be the case. We received our NOA1 on May 8th. According to our timeline, we should have heard from them about October 9th - 13th. Well, we did hear from them, but what we got was a NAME CHANGE update on October 14th which I requested back in July. I was happy because that indicated someone there was looking at our application. Then on October 19th, I get home and saw a large brown envelope from them in the mail. Since I have e-mail alerts turned on and received no e-mail, I got scared thinking they were asking for more info which would hold the process up. Instead, it was two original documents I sent to them (photocopies were obscuring the seals and I did not want a non clear seal to cause a hold up). Again, I was happy because it told me the application is on a desk being looked at. There was no mention of any denials or request for more information and with them sending those back, told me they concluded the info was satisfactory.

So, if on October 14th they updated the info (8 days ago) and then on October 19th I received my originals back, can someone tell me why it has or is taking them 8 DAYS, so far, to determine or make an approval? While on one hand, I realize they ARE looking at our info, another part has my wife in fear thinking something must be wrong, if it is taking them this long to. One caveat is that on a paper they sent back with the originals, they checked this off:

"If you have not received your approval notice AS YET, allow 20-30 days to receive one."

The sender (a director) sent his name and extension, but USCIS, of course, will not let me speak to him.

What are we to make of this, especially when we see others who received their NOA1's in May (many AFTER us) receiving their NOA2s?

On a little side note, the letter they sent to me was dated OCTOBER 19th which is the same day the letter arrived. Found that odd unless they sent someone by Lear Jet yesterday to deliver it directly from their office.

[KiRilie 16]

We are at the Nebraska Center and at first, we were told they are working on about a 5 month window, give and take a week in either direction and we have confirmed from seeing other petitioners that this seems to be the case. We received our NOA1 on May 8th. According to our timeline, we should have heard from them about October 9th - 13th. Well, we did hear from them, but what we got was a NAME CHANGE update on October 14th which I requested back in July. I was happy because that indicated someone there was looking at our application. Then on October 19th, I get home and saw a large brown envelope from them in the mail. Since I have e-mail alerts turned on and received no e-mail, I got scared thinking they were asking for more info which would hold the process up. Instead, it was two original documents I sent to them (photocopies were obscuring the seals and I did not want a non clear seal to cause a hold up). Again, I was happy because it told me the application is on a desk being looked at. There was no mention of any denials or request for more information and with them sending those back, told me they concluded the info was satisfactory.

So, if on October 14th they updated the info (8 days ago) and then on October 19th I received my originals back, can someone tell me why it has or is taking them 8 DAYS, so far, to determine or make an approval? While on one hand, I realize they ARE looking at our info, another part has my wife in fear thinking something must be wrong, if it is taking them this long to. One caveat is that on a paper they sent back with the originals, they checked this off:

"If you have not received your approval notice AS YET, allow 20-30 days to receive one."

The sender (a director) sent his name and extension, but USCIS, of course, will not let me speak to him.

What are we to make of this, especially when we see others who received their NOA1's in May (many AFTER us) receiving their NOA2s?

On a little side note, the letter they sent to me was dated OCTOBER 19th which is the same day the letter arrived. Found that odd unless they sent someone by Lear Jet yesterday to deliver it directly from their office.

According to their website; they are working on April 2nd. My PD date is May 7th I also havent heard from them.

It seems they are not really processing the petition in a specific order.

I think we just need to wait a little bit more.

[Thomianguy 36]

According to their website; they are working on April 2nd. My PD date is May 7th I also havent heard from them.

It seems they are not really processing the petition in a specific order.

I think we just need to wait a little bit more.

Yes, it appears we have to wait a little longer, but because I have spoken to about 10 different reps over the past 5 months, you hear different things and you learn different things and you can piece together some understanding of what this is all about. I am not sure what Visa Journey taps into, but based on the USCIS timeline, the Lincoln, Nebraska center has a 5 month window with the NOA1s and I guess this how they arrive at their adjudication estimate. To confirm that they are in the ballpark, we have seen quite a few people receive their NOA2s WITHIN that 5 month window, some even earlier.

Now, here's the kicker on some information I got from one USCIS agent.She told me that USCIS does NOT update the timeline daily.They update it every 15 days so when we hear them tell us, for example, they are at April (date), once they update it again, they will jump all the way to late April or early May and so on. So the April 2nd you are seeing is not necessarily accurate. We proved this back in July when their website said they were ONLY at January 2014, yes 2014, only to find people who received their NOA1 in February 2015, getting their NOA2s in July 2015 (5 months) all the while the USCIS website was saying that they were working on applications from 1 year EARLIER.

I mean, I know I should not hold them to a concrete date, but my problem is, the fact they corresponded with me twice (once to honor an update request and once to return original copies), gave me the idea that our application was being worked on, as of now, 10 days ago. If that had not happened, I would not be as puzzled or worried. So of course we are wondering if an application takes more than a week to look over and approve or deny?

Edited October 22, 2015 by Thomianguy