I-130 February 2017 filers

[Dianalorena 1,153]

52 minutes ago, EmmBrennan said:

Hi, Be patient and storng, sometimes, they don't update it in the website or email , so also need to check MAIL. I got the approved information only from the MAIL.

 

 

 I Follow multiple apps as well and check them weekly. No February filers for the time being as people are still stuck from November, December and January... it's absolutely ridiculous. 

 

I am currently sick and traveling through Asia, so that's not helping. I'm sure once I'm back to Mexico and feel better I'll reset my patience button and not want to scream bloody murder into a pillow. 

[Dianalorena 1,153]

48 minutes ago, acidrain said:

Every time I check the estimation to when my i130 gets approved it gets pushed back a week. First it was Sept, then it got pushed to Oct and now it's starting to look like Nov. I've been fortunate I have been able to visit my spouse twice in the past few months. But it's frustrating to see all other service centers get Feb approvals. Even the people I spoke to at the border were shaking their heads on how it could take this long to validate a birth certificate. Seriously 9 months if I'm lucky??? I said I still have the NVC process and Consulate process to go through. I've been married nearly 10 years and have a 4 year old son so there isn't much to verify with my relationship.

 

The thing I'm most worried about is if Nebraska starts doing mass transfers. From what I've read it can mean an additional 60 days if a case gets transferred from one service center to another. If that happens it would be closer to an entire year for my i130 to get approved. I keep shaking my head over how any of this is possible.

The absolutely ludicrous thing is that expediting should lead to faster approvals not slower ones. I'm already completely shocked that it just went from 5, to 7, to 10 months to the posibility of a full year just for approval. So more than twice as long. And nothing we can do about it

 

everyone I talk to is shocked by this. They keep asking "so how is the process going" and my poor husband has to be like: well... it isn't" 

 

I'm surprised they haven't yet, considering how they're the only damn center still processing 2016 cases. I even read that some October fillers and many November ones are still waiting and that is simply not okay. 

 

Im traveling to distract myself but it isn't working as well as I hoped. I am at  a 12 time difference and wake up to my husband saying how much he misses me and it breaks my heart. 

[OlayemiLoray 172]

1 hour ago, Dianalorena said:

February 8th, still waiting because: yup, Nebraska. 

I don't know why I came to see  the approvals from February, March and so on. It's just breaking my heart and I feel like crying and curling up in bed. 

 

 

I am so with you @Dianalorena..... I just knew when I got back from Lagos, that I will have an approval letter waiting for me since my phone was kind of acting weird while I was there....Hopefully soon....

[OlayemiLoray 172]

6 hours ago, Team Hayward said:

A combination of 'exasperation and incredulity' probably best sums up my feelings toward the NSC processing times at the moment. Luckily I am able to visit my wife in Houston this week so I know I'm luckier than some but it is hard to not feel generally hard done by as a Nebraska filer nonetheless! 

You are very lucky....I wish my husband can come visited me while our petition was in process, but as we know it would very difficult to obtain a visitor visa being that he is from Nigeria...Oh well, hopefully soon he will be here with me...Have loads of fun in my city despite all the mess hurricane Harvey has caused. 

[Lazybones18 261]

38 minutes ago, Dianalorena said:

The absolutely ludicrous thing is that expediting should lead to faster approvals not slower ones. I'm already completely shocked that it just went from 5, to 7, to 10 months to the posibility of a full year just for approval. So more than twice as long. And nothing we can do about it

 

everyone I talk to is shocked by this. They keep asking "so how is the process going" and my poor husband has to be like: well... it isn't" 

 

I'm surprised they haven't yet, considering how they're the only damn center still processing 2016 cases. I even read that some October fillers and many November ones are still waiting and that is simply not okay. 

 

Im traveling to distract myself but it isn't working as well as I hoped. I am at  a 12 time difference and wake up to my husband saying how much he misses me and it breaks my heart. 

Texas and Feb - Still stuck

 

[Dianalorena 1,153]

3 hours ago, Loray Thomas said:

I am so with you @Dianalorena..... I just knew when I got back from Lagos, that I will have an approval letter waiting for me since my phone was kind of acting weird while I was there....Hopefully soon....

I hope so! And I also hope you had and awesome trip to Lagos 

[SNK 3]

Texas, PD is Feb 27th and I am still waiting for my NOA2..

[Keithdior 2]

God, Nebraska is sooooo slow with these cases. So embarrassing 😡😡😡

[acidrain 325]

16 hours ago, Dianalorena said:

The absolutely ludicrous thing is that expediting should lead to faster approvals not slower ones. I'm already completely shocked that it just went from 5, to 7, to 10 months to the posibility of a full year just for approval. So more than twice as long. And nothing we can do about it

 

everyone I talk to is shocked by this. They keep asking "so how is the process going" and my poor husband has to be like: well... it isn't" 

 

I'm surprised they haven't yet, considering how they're the only damn center still processing 2016 cases. I even read that some October fillers and many November ones are still waiting and that is simply not okay. 

 

Im traveling to distract myself but it isn't working as well as I hoped. I am at  a 12 time difference and wake up to my husband saying how much he misses me and it breaks my heart. 

My heart goes out to you because I know your situation with not wanting to travel to the US. I don't blame you either after my own experiences. Whenever I talk to Canadians or Americans about what kind of scrutiny I have to go through everybody is stunned. Imagine traveling to the border with a 4 year old and knowing for certain I have to report to secondary and not having a clue whether I will be sent home or allowed through. My layover is 4-5 hours because one of Canada's major airlines terminated the direct route to Vegas from where I live.

 

I've heard the term "reasonable" or "unreasonable" used to judge a situation. I believe it's reasonable to expect the process to take a few months while it takes people to process. What I do not believe is reasonable is taking a year to validate a bloody birth certificate. Especially when people from other service centers get processed in half that time!

 

I'm honestly at a loss on what to do. I considered mailing a letter to a number of executives at USCIS that are in charge of these service centers. But my fear is they will start transferring files which may in the end make the process longer. I don't understand why it would take an extra 60 days to process if a file is transferred?

 

In your case being separated from your spouse must be absolutely heart breaking. It makes me sick just thinking about it. For our family it is the cost of every month that goes by and having to pay for two separate households.

[sandakan2017 1]

18 hours ago, acidrain said:

Every time I check the estimation to when my i130 gets approved it gets pushed back a week. First it was Sept, then it got pushed to Oct and now it's starting to look like Nov. I've been fortunate I have been able to visit my spouse twice in the past few months. But it's frustrating to see all other service centers get Feb approvals. Even the people I spoke to at the border were shaking their heads on how it could take this long to validate a birth certificate. Seriously 9 months if I'm lucky??? I said I still have the NVC process and Consulate process to go through. I've been married nearly 10 years and have a 4 year old son so there isn't much to verify with my relationship.

 

The thing I'm most worried about is if Nebraska starts doing mass transfers. From what I've read it can mean an additional 60 days if a case gets transferred from one service center to another. If that happens it would be closer to an entire year for my i130 to get approved. I keep shaking my head over how any of this is possible.

Your situation is kinda similar to my husband's except that my husband is with me in Canada.  We have been married for 11 years and I am the USC.  He used to have greencard that he surrendered in 2011 as he was not able to meet the US residency requirement after having settled down in Canada.  Now that our 2 kids are older, we are thinking about going back.  I thought the I-130 should be approved in 5 months but I was wrong.  It seems like my petition won't be looked at until the end of October if I am lucky.  It's difficult to plan for anything such as the kids' school, housing, etc. without having an approval.  It's just frustrating but at least our family is together.  I hope you will see a happy ending to your long wait.

Edited September 6, 2017 by sandakan2017

[Tim Lee 3]

Approved 8/31/2017, case sent to NVC!!!!!!!!!!

[Gades82 5]

2 hours ago, Tim Lee said:

Approved 8/31/2017, case sent to NVC!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats!!

[SNK 3]

11 hours ago, Tim Lee said:

Approved 8/31/2017, case sent to NVC!!!!!!!!!!

How did you get to know? Does website say approved or you got a letter?

Edited September 7, 2017 by SNK

[Tim Lee 3]

38 minutes ago, SNK said:

How did you get to know? Does website say approved or you got a letter?

Got letter in the mail. Website still to this day shows "case received"

[acidrain 325]

18 hours ago, sandakan2017 said:

Your situation is kinda similar to my husband's except that my husband is with me in Canada.  We have been married for 11 years and I am the USC.  He used to have greencard that he surrendered in 2011 as he was not able to meet the US residency requirement after having settled down in Canada.  Now that our 2 kids are older, we are thinking about going back.  I thought the I-130 should be approved in 5 months but I was wrong.  It seems like my petition won't be looked at until the end of October if I am lucky.  It's difficult to plan for anything such as the kids' school, housing, etc. without having an approval.  It's just frustrating but at least our family is together.  I hope you will see a happy ending to your long wait.

That must be extremely frustrating to know your husband had to go through this process before, was issued a greencard and now has to start all over again. Like you I was optimistic the i-130 would be issued within 6 months and after 7 months there is no end in sight. ONLY for those stuck in Nebraska of course. We had our i130 approved before but decided to wait to move as the economy in Vegas had not stabilized until the last year or two. As you know any sort of prior approval does not get you to the front of the line and what surprised me is how Montreal shreds all past files. They are apparently one of the slowest consulates in the world, one of the busiest with so many applications but make people like us start all over again. They really should have a K3 option or temporary Visa. Why is it that people such as us who have been married so long have to wait longer than people who are dating an American? I couldn't believe it when I was told your given a visa within a few months to enter the US if you are either dating or engaged.

 

What I really don't understand (this is me venting) and I got into a lengthy discussion with the front line border agent at YVR is why people who have applied for a IR1 aren't allowed to stay in the US for 6 months. Even he did not understand why there would be a need to do this. This part has made everyone I talk to shake their heads. If I was a snowbird or was not planning on moving to the US there is a very high probability the border would grant me a 6 month stay. But when you intend on immigrating I've been told it is against the rules to spend more than 1-2 weeks at a time visiting my spouse. The logic is you are not allowed to live in the US while the application is being processed. Not only is this requirement cruel but I was told if you get caught spending more time in the US than your home country it could be grounds to terminate your green card application. If we were allowed to spend the last 6 months together that would've saved us a half a year in living expenses.

 

As my spouse had not spent one year as an adult in the US we were advised to have him move down before the i864 is completed. I'm not sure if you are aware but just a few years ago i130's used to be processed at consulates. In 2011 we just had to drive 4 hours to Vancouver and it was completed in 2 months! Now as you know all i130's are processed within the US. It's ridiculous the price has skyrocketed and it's probably going to take FIVE TIMES longer! How's that for efficiency. To think our fees pay the wages of USCIS workers at all these process centers. They really should go back to DCF process because clearly there is a problem when it takes three quarters of a year to verify a birth certificate.