I-129F December 2017 Filers

[John & Rose 7,237]

Just now, Dgaines205 said:

Thanks, I haven't made any deposits yet because I wasn't sure of how long it would take. But when we do finally finish this process we are planning a small beach wedding and then Disney World.

Awesome!  I hope you have the wedding of your dreams!  I have seen too many lose too much because they thought things would be quicker.  This is about two hearts coming together.  Don't let the ancillary stuff cloud that.

[ostde 10]

John and Rose, thank you for positing a general idea of what you think the timeline would be.  I don't have any wedding plans set in stone yet considering none of us know how long this process will take.

 

I have a couple trips scheduled to go see my fiance in the Philippines in March and July.  But I've been oscillating between booking a trip in November.  There are some good prices out there right now for flights so I would hate to miss out on a good price, but I also would hate for my fiance to be able to come here in say August, September, or October and I have a trip planned for November.

 

I was hoping that the group might be able to give some advice to help add some clarity to my thought process and see what makes the best sense.  

 

Would you wait to see if the process speeds up and you can potentially bring your fiance here before November? Or would you expect these extended timelines to continue and book a November trip to be safe while airfares are more affordable?

[Cleo_C 48]

I'm kind of late but I'm a Dec filer too (NOA1 on Dec 8th) and I just wanted to say hi . Looking back, I wish we would've done a paper marriage while still being together in the US but oh well.......too late now LOL. Hopefully the process will speed up for Winter filers. 

 

Sending good vibes to everyone!!!

[DA91450 19]

USCIS received my application on Dec 11. Case number is pulling up on their website now, but all it states is "On December 11, 2017, we received your Form I-129F, Petition for Fiance(E), Receipt Number WAC1890081420, and sent you the receipt notice that describes how we will process your case. Please follow the instructions in the notice. If you do not receive your receipt notice by January 10, 2018, please call Customer Service at 1-800-375-5283. If you move, go to www.uscis.gov/addresschange to give us your new mailing address."

 

So no real activity been done. So we are expecting April then for NOA2 ?

[nj2202 54]

1 minute ago, DA91450 said:

USCIS received my application on Dec 11. Case number is pulling up on their website now, but all it states is "On December 11, 2017, we received your Form I-129F, Petition for Fiance(E), Receipt Number WAC1890081420, and sent you the receipt notice that describes how we will process your case. Please follow the instructions in the notice. If you do not receive your receipt notice by January 10, 2018, please call Customer Service at 1-800-375-5283. If you move, go to www.uscis.gov/addresschange to give us your new mailing address."

 

So no real activity been done. So we are expecting April then for NOA2 ?

Hmm why April?

[DA91450 19]

On 12/4/2017 at 12:24 PM, Ontarkie said:

 

Just now, nj2202 said:

Hmm why April?

when do you think it will be approved? 

[Little_Vixen 1,869]

4 minutes ago, DA91450 said:

when do you think it will be approved? 

Fill out your visa timeline and it will give you an approximate date. My receive date is Dec 22 and it estimates my noa2 will come in around July 5-10

[nj2202 54]

1 minute ago, DA91450 said:

when do you think it will be approved? 

For me I want to say at least June, just so I  won't be disappointed if I don't hear back sooner. Currently the  average duration from NOA1 to NOA2 is about 6-7 months I believe...but then again there are way lesser winter filers than summer filers so I hope that brings that down to a 4-5 months. 

[nj2202 54]

1 minute ago, Little_Vixen said:

Fill out your visa timeline and it will give you an approximate date. My receive date is Dec 22 and it estimates my noa2 will come in around July 5-10

I think the approximate date is calculated based off of the current wait time now. It doesn't take into account the fact that there are lesser winter filers, which is a pretty important factor.

[Little_Vixen 1,869]

1 minute ago, nj2202 said:

there are way lesser winter filers than summer filers so I hope that brings that down to a 4-5 months

Oh that would be heavenly. I'll thank the gods if that could be possible. 

[nj2202 54]

Just now, Little_Vixen said:

Oh that would be heavenly. I'll thank the gods if that could be possible. 

yep, TELL ME ABOUT IT 

[Naes 12,205]

2 hours ago, nj2202 said:

For me I want to say at least June, just so I  won't be disappointed if I don't hear back sooner. Currently the  average duration from NOA1 to NOA2 is about 6-7 months I believe...but then again there are way lesser winter filers than summer filers so I hope that brings that down to a 4-5 months. 

Actually.. July and September is less than October, November (I am yet to finish December numbers) What brings your month down in numbers is not how many applicants your month or season will have, it's how many the months before yours will have for them to get to yours. (But yeah I hope you guys get around June too so I can also get it faster hehe)

2 hours ago, DA91450 said:

USCIS received my application on Dec 11. Case number is pulling up on their website now, but all it states is "On December 11, 2017, we received your Form I-129F, Petition for Fiance(E), Receipt Number WAC1890081420, and sent you the receipt notice that describes how we will process your case. Please follow the instructions in the notice. If you do not receive your receipt notice by January 10, 2018, please call Customer Service at 1-800-375-5283. If you move, go to www.uscis.gov/addresschange to give us your new mailing address."

 

So no real activity been done. So we are expecting April then for NOA2 ?

Please don't expect any activity for a good 5 months at the least, go relax for at least 3 months (cause they are the easy ones, after that the stress will hit the ceiling for some people.)

Edited January 13, 2018 by Naes

[ZKT 118]

On 1/6/2018 at 3:38 AM, ostde said:

To follow-up with Katrina Roa's post about the receipt number not tracking.  I was having a similar issue but I tried it today and it says that my case has been received.  I was curious if I should be counting from the date they have listed as receiving my petition; December 19th.  Or should I be tracking from the date I received the e-mail NOA1, December 26th?  I look forward to waiting alongside all of you on this thread for some good NOA2 news!

 

hi there ostde! my fiance tried it 2 days ago and it worked! i tried it out today and it finally also worked. i used to check it everyday... until i just gave up. hahaha. so today was a pleasant surprise though i think it's gonna take a long long time before anything would change in the status. hahaha. but i will do a monthly check and i do weekly checks on the cases they're doing/working on by reading the stats/processing times here and reading forums and groups on fb.

 

for counting, i started on dec 20 where my fiance sent in our package. we did 1 day mail, so uscis received it on dec 21. and when we got our noa 1, it said their received date is dec 21 and notice date is dec 27. so noa 1 is dec 27. so first waiting time is sending and uscis receiving. then from receiving to noa 1. so i started counting again from noa 1. so 19 days wait for noa 2. you start counting again when you get your noa 2 and wait for your nvc number in my case manila number.

[ZKT 118]

it's really hard to tell when we'll get our noa 2 and if we'll have our case number in our us embassies in our respective countries since there's just so many curve balls and factors. i've been reading on other month filers and it's taking forever for a lot of them. there's already a long uscis wait for noa 2 and then i read so many cases of like 8 weeks to get a manila number/nvc number. cray cray. hahaha. it depends also on how many cases the us embassy in your country gets.

tons of people have been asking me on when i'll get married, and i always can't give them an answer. a lot of people think i'm pretty much kidding about the wedding or not being serious about it since i don't even have a date! hahaha! i ideally wanted to get married on 7-17-17...  but my fiance was deployed out at sea (he's in the us navy) and he had a permanent duty station transfer, so we only got to work on things in november.  anyway, i do hope that i'll really get to marry this year and on 8-18-18. hahaha. triple 8... like a triple infinity. hahaha. well for chinese and other asian countries 8 is a very lucky number. so even better than my 7-17-17. but i'll have to wait and see if that will even be possible. but yeah, here's to crossing fingers and that the additional transfer of 129f case files to other service centers last dec speeds up things for the backlog cases of earlier filers... and to uscis having renewed energy and spirit since their fiscal year started in october and they continue to catch up to speed with a lot of their backlog. oh and also counting the possibility that less filers on nov and dec before us. i'll just try to stay positive and trust that it will happen in the right time/god's time.

oh on a side note... my mother in law is excited to have our wedding and wanted to do it in st. louis in southern illinois where my fiance grew up. his grandparents are there. she's like a super planner and plans all her trips and everything 2 years in advance. so like she's been asking me to do all my research for wedding venues and whatnots there and to set a date with a priest already. hahaha. which is tough with our visa timelines. anyway, i've never been there to st. louis which makes planning extra tough. my fiance's family lives in  georgia and he is assigned in california. but i'm happily getting ready with some of my props for the wedding. materials are cheap here and i thought of being creative and put some of my heart into creating stuff like the robes of my entourage and the buttonaires and my bouquet of flowers, the invitations, pillow for the rings etc. kinda exciting. so makes you forget all about the wait and time just seems to be zipping by fast!

[IssaCaptureFL 120]

On 1/4/2018 at 1:37 PM, gsdc23 said:

Hey! Have you received NOA1 yet? I’m still waiting on mine to even reach the lockbox so I joined the January filers as well to stay up to date with both months. 

It took 2 weeks to receive it. As long as you filed it in December you're still considered a December filer