Processing Times during Summer

[Lola B 39]

This is more a question for members that have been K-1 approved already... 

We have been waiting for our NOA2 for what now seems forever and it seems that every time I look on the estimate timeline here it seems to be delayed and delayed...

Hence my question: is this normal? is anyone as frustrated as we are? does this have anything to do with the summer period?(less staff cause vacation time?) should we consider calling and double checking on the status of our file with the USCIS? this is so frustrating! any thoughts?

Thanks a bunch! (...and yes I know that perhaps I am freaking out for no reason and just being impatient but the wait is killing me)

[AB96 0]

We are also waiting on our NOA2, we called USCIS two weeks ago and they told us that they were processing January still. (It says that on the USCIS website as well). Feeling slightly panicked but trying to remain calm and rational. 

[acidrain 325]

Greetings my fellow Canadians. We applied for IR1/IR2 and our i130 is stuck in Nebraska. I'm starting to feel panicked too because every time I look at our estimated i130 completion date it gets pushed further and further back. I was hopeful it would've been approved by now (5 months) but it is starting to look like I should feel happy if it's approved by the end of the year!

 

I have no concrete answers. The only theory I can come up with is the fact there is a political environment which is anti-immigrant and it's given permission to the 5 service centers to work whenever they feel like. I mean really what is their consequence if it takes everyone longer? Reading previous threads from years ago it's common for back logs to happen. But 9 months for a i130 to get approved? That's ridiculous. I think the most frustrating part is there is nobody to complain to. Then what happens is everybody (rightfully so) starts to call in to the service centers and political offices taking up further resources. I'm happy when people get expedited but a part of me wonders if all those people are going to be making me wait even longer.

 

The part that drives me crazy is the fact our application fees pay the salaries of all these workers. I know if a private business were this ineffective the place would go bankrupt.

[RJandHamid 1,129]

Average waiting time for NOA2 for K1 visas is currently around 3-4 months. I do think things have slowed down slightly due to summer holiday, but your timeframe is still normal. USCIS will consider your case outside of normal processing times after the 5 month mark. You can call them if you want, but for now they will tell you they are working on January/February cases. We have been seeing a lot of March NOA2 approvals on these forums however, so don't let what USCIS says scare you too much.

 

CR1/IR visas have a longer waiting period for NOA2, usually around 6+ months.

Edited July 21, 2017 by RJandHamid

[PedroDaGr8 245]

1 hour ago, acidrain said:

Greetings my fellow Canadians. We applied for IR1/IR2 and our i130 is stuck in Nebraska. I'm starting to feel panicked too because every time I look at our estimated i130 completion date it gets pushed further and further back. I was hopeful it would've been approved by now (5 months) but it is starting to look like I should feel happy if it's approved by the end of the year!

 

I have no concrete answers. The only theory I can come up with is the fact there is a political environment which is anti-immigrant and it's given permission to the 5 service centers to work whenever they feel like. I mean really what is their consequence if it takes everyone longer? Reading previous threads from years ago it's common for back logs to happen. But 9 months for a i130 to get approved? That's ridiculous. I think the most frustrating part is there is nobody to complain to. Then what happens is everybody (rightfully so) starts to call in to the service centers and political offices taking up further resources. I'm happy when people get expedited but a part of me wonders if all those people are going to be making me wait even longer.

 

The part that drives me crazy is the fact our application fees pay the salaries of all these workers. I know if a private business were this ineffective the place would go bankrupt.

Back logs happen often around fee changes. Fee's went up at the end of Dec. 2016. You will see a glut of applicants racing to beat the fee increase, this causes backlogs like you are seeing now. 

It has nothing to do with the political environment or anything like that. Trump hasn't had enough time to really affect the Immigration process itself that much, short of his hamfisted block attempts at certain nationalities and regions.  

[acidrain 325]

30 minutes ago, PedroDaGr8 said:

Back logs happen often around fee changes. Fee's went up at the end of Dec. 2016. You will see a glut of applicants racing to beat the fee increase, this causes backlogs like you are seeing now. 

It has nothing to do with the political environment or anything like that. Trump hasn't had enough time to really affect the Immigration process itself that much, short of his hamfisted block attempts at certain nationalities and regions.  

I beg to differ. My lawyer who is a retired federal judge with over 60 years of experience was shocked at the level of disrespect the Nebraska office has. He asked a question about my file and the remarks he got were disturbing and the person hung up the phone on him! He's shared other cases which I won't get into detail here. But our lawyer himself said the tone has completely changed since Trump took office. He's seriously considering retiring he is so fed up with everything. Normally a case such as ours should've been handled differently but the entire system is chaos. You can't complain to anyone because who really cares? The political offices are inundated with inquiries not only from people such as us but people being deported. There is typically only one immigration case worker at a political office and unless your like that baby in the UK that seems to have gotten Trumps attention to get a green card, your out of luck.

 

After checking out my time line today we are almost at NINE months to get an i130 approval. You'd think there would be someone competent enough just like there has been in the past to go "wow all the other service centers are close to 2-3 months ahead of Nebraska, let's transfer files to level the playing field out". I can only imagine the people Trump hired to oversee USCIS.

[KULtoATL 1,551]

8 hours ago, Lola B said:

This is more a question for members that have been K-1 approved already... 

We have been waiting for our NOA2 for what now seems forever and it seems that every time I look on the estimate timeline here it seems to be delayed and delayed...

Hence my question: is this normal? is anyone as frustrated as we are? does this have anything to do with the summer period?(less staff cause vacation time?) should we consider calling and double checking on the status of our file with the USCIS? this is so frustrating! any thoughts?

Thanks a bunch! (...and yes I know that perhaps I am freaking out for no reason and just being impatient but the wait is killing me)

When we were waiting for NOA2, our possible adjucation dates kept getting pushed further and further on the VJ timeline. It changes based on new data entered by VJers. However, note that VJers are just a small sample of applicants from the USCIS application population. Therefore we can never be 100% certain about when our individual cases would be adjudicated. 

 

Follow the monthly filers threads because you'll get a better feel of where USCIS is in terms of what NOA1 dates they are currently adjudicating. I'm a March filer and I can tell you that some March only received their NOA2 this month though the timeline gave a tentative adjudication date range in June. Same thing happened to February filers where March filers were starting to get approved in June yet a bunch of February filers were still waiting.

 

Backlogs, speed of adjudicators, holiday period and background checks are some of the things that could slow things down. You are still within the processing time so sit back and relax. Calling USCIS now won't help. They will only give you the same processing time as stated on their website, which is inaccurate info since they don't update it daily. If you end up waiting for 5 months or more, call and speak to a Tier 2 OR you can also get your congressperson to help you put in an inquiry.

 

If seeing others filing the same month as you or later than you get their NOA2, maybe take a break from the forum and keep busy with other things for now. You can also spend your time gathering K-1 required documents that's aren't date sensitive starting from now to keep yourself occupied. Look up info related to your embassy to familiarize yourself with their procedures.

 

Have faith because your NOA2 will come

[martinzl 91]

Trying to keep positive withe the waiting times to get the NOA2.  I'd like to believe this is just the reality of today's government bureaucracy.  You can't do more with less, you do less with less.  Fewer employees and they may have to be doing closer scrutiny of petitioners and applicants today.  Meanwhile, the number of visa applications is not declining.

[GabiMatch 161]

19 hours ago, acidrain said:

I beg to differ. My lawyer who is a retired federal judge with over 60 years of experience was shocked at the level of disrespect the Nebraska office has. He asked a question about my file and the remarks he got were disturbing and the person hung up the phone on him! He's shared other cases which I won't get into detail here. But our lawyer himself said the tone has completely changed since Trump took office. He's seriously considering retiring he is so fed up with everything. Normally a case such as ours should've been handled differently but the entire system is chaos. You can't complain to anyone because who really cares? The political offices are inundated with inquiries not only from people such as us but people being deported. There is typically only one immigration case worker at a political office and unless your like that baby in the UK that seems to have gotten Trumps attention to get a green card, your out of luck.

 

After checking out my time line today we are almost at NINE months to get an i130 approval. You'd think there would be someone competent enough just like there has been in the past to go "wow all the other service centers are close to 2-3 months ahead of Nebraska, let's transfer files to level the playing field out". I can only imagine the people Trump hired to oversee USCIS.

I can't help but wonder about your consideration on the government and it's effect on USCIS processing time...assuming that you're right, they must have not been working much since last year, because if the cases that are been processed now are cases that where sent in January/February (6 months ago) what did they processed in January and February? You really think that the processing time took a great change because of the government that started exactly when the cases been processed where received?

 

PS. Your Lawyer "who is a retired federal judge with over 60 years of experience" is "seriously considering retiring"...you lost me here!!!

How old is he?

What a man still working so close to or already in his 90's! (Considering that he is not retired just yet).

[acidrain 325]

5 hours ago, GabiMatch said:

I can't help but wonder about your consideration on the government and it's effect on USCIS processing time...assuming that you're right, they must have not been working much since last year, because if the cases that are been processed now are cases that where sent in January/February (6 months ago) what did they processed in January and February? You really think that the processing time took a great change because of the government that started exactly when the cases been processed where received?

 

PS. Your Lawyer "who is a retired federal judge with over 60 years of experience" is "seriously considering retiring"...you lost me here!!!

How old is he?

What a man still working so close to or already in his 90's! (Considering that he is not retired just yet).

Since the election processing times have come to a crawl especially in the Nebraska office. The backlog is getting worse every week. From looking at past threads if the backlog was extreme it was dealt with. I haven't seen any evidence USCIS is dealing with anything. Please correct me if I'm wrong because I'd love something to feel positive about. Have you tried to get in touch with a political office since Trump took office regarding immigration? It's an absolute nightmare. They will give you a generic answer (e.g. your within normal processing times) just to get rid of you. Trump's pick for the head of USCIS believes there should be more restrictions on immigration. What better way than slowing the entire system down? I am merely coming up with a theory. I really hope I'm wrong because nothing would make me happier than having my i130 approved.

 

Yes my lawyer is a retired federal judge who still practices law on a part time basis. I know many people who don't fully retire because they are passionate about what they do. There are studies that show when people stop working they are more likely to die. Work keeps the body and mind active. My father in law who is an American citizen built houses in his 70's and helped with our home renovations in his 90's. Just because a person is old does not mean they are incapable of working. They just might have some limitations.

[Lola B 39]

Thank you to all that responded... this community is great and knowing we are not alone and hearing the encouragement is helpful!

I guess we have to wait the 5 months and see what happens - I am crossing my fingers it will happen before that.

A wonderful day to all!

 

[AB96 0]

We just received an RFE (really stupid mistake on our part... we are both kicking ourselves for such an oversight) but at least that means that they are looking at our file, etc. Any news is good news at this point!

[jozi333 29]

On 7/21/2017 at 10:04 PM, Lola B said:

This is more a question for members that have been K-1 approved already... 

We have been waiting for our NOA2 for what now seems forever and it seems that every time I look on the estimate timeline here it seems to be delayed and delayed...

Hence my question: is this normal? is anyone as frustrated as we are? does this have anything to do with the summer period?(less staff cause vacation time?) should we consider calling and double checking on the status of our file with the USCIS? this is so frustrating! any thoughts?

Thanks a bunch! (...and yes I know that perhaps I am freaking out for no reason and just being impatient but the wait is killing me)

My lawyer said that the current processing time for the petition/129F approval is 5-6 months from NOA1 date. I think this is probably the maximum time it would take and, as always, each case is different and the time could be longer/shorter. Good luck with the waiting!! 

[JFH 12,189]

*~*~*moved from "processes and procedures" to "progress reports" - enquiry about processing times*~*~*