USCIS 2019, Q2

[NikLR 13,220]

2 hours ago, Tanish said:

Agreed with everything but the children aspect. I don't think just because someone doesn't have kids for 2 years after getting married, that means ill-intent. There are lots of reasons to not have kids for more than 2 years. Some couples can't conceive for years.

I agree on that, just stating if they had children they wouldn't be forced to abandon said child.  If you took it beyond that, not my issue.  

 

Fyi, Hubs and I dont have kids but I have one from a previous relationship.

---

Okay people, Im sure there are other factors that they decide on, just that it's more strict.  It really is stupid to have a ROC process that 97% approved.  I completely agree with that.  Either make it more strict and purposeful, or remove it.  

 

Personally don't feel you should be able to ROC on a 1-6 month old marriage unless you've been abused. This just sounds like a bad match. 

 

On the flip side, Canada does allow to common-law and conjugal relationships for immigration purposes and also allows for purposeful AOS.  You can enter with the intent to stay with your spouse.  So while you guys are having issues with the 2 year thing, I'd have prefered not to be forced into marriage to begin with or forced to be apart. There's no fiance visa.  Live together for 6 months and you're common-law.  No marriage certificate required but also no divorce. 

[Crazy Cat 39,362]

1 minute ago, NikLR said:

It really is stupid to have a ROC process that 97% approved. 

Yep.  That was my point.  It would be interesting to know how many cases actually get interviews, and how many of them are denied......

[dumiduda1990 19]

2 minutes ago, NikLR said:

Personally don't feel you should be able to ROC on a 1-6 month old marriage unless you've been abused. This just sounds like a bad match. 

 

That I can see. 

[NikLR 13,220]

1 minute ago, missileman said:

Yep.  That was my point.  It would be interesting to know how many cases actually get interviews, and how many of them are denied......

Funny part was Canada adopted the 2 year bit because of the ROC process.  Lmao

[Mollie09 1,543]

42 minutes ago, NikLR said:

Legally resided with work visa or DACA? 

Work visa, not that it should matter at all. Legal is legal.

[Tanish 197]

57 minutes ago, NikLR said:

I agree on that, just stating if they had children they wouldn't be forced to abandon said child.  If you took it beyond that, not my issue.  

 

Fyi, Hubs and I dont have kids but I have one from a previous relationship.

The disagreenent wasn't directed towards you. You are not the one (potentially) denying petitions due to this. I was stating objectively, that denying based on that reason is just ridiculous. Please don't take any offense when there is none intended (or directed).

[Tanish 197]

Do we even have any data as to how many of ROC petitions are done without spouse? Just because it is approved at higher rate doesn't mean they are approving haphazardly. It can also mean that there are higher number of joint petitions.

[Ash.1101 1,755]

48 minutes ago, Tanish said:

Do we even have any data as to how many of ROC petitions are done without spouse? Just because it is approved at higher rate doesn't mean they are approving haphazardly. It can also mean that there are higher number of joint petitions.

Honestly with the recent numbers of approvals without interviews, it seems like they're approving haphazzardly, at least for joint petitions.

We didn't provide a 2016 lease (year we were married), forgot to send W2's to go with 1040's, and I think a couple of other things. It's possible that our other proof was so strong that they didn't RFE us, but we technically sent some incomplete info and were expecting an RFE, but were approved no interview, no RFE. lol

[Tanish 197]

48 minutes ago, Ash. said:

Honestly with the recent numbers of approvals without interviews, it seems like they're approving haphazzardly, at least for joint petitions.

We didn't provide a 2016 lease (year we were married), forgot to send W2's to go with 1040's, and I think a couple of other things. It's possible that our other proof was so strong that they didn't RFE us, but we technically sent some incomplete info and were expecting an RFE, but were approved no interview, no RFE. lol

I see what you mean.

Looking at it objectively, you don't strictly require W2's to go with 1040's. Also, the whole point of this ROC is to see if you are still married (in good faith) to the same person who petitioned for you. If not, there is a reason (fault on US spouse's part) that the marriage ended. [Alternatively, if you want to avoid ROC, you have an option of waiting 2 years before you enter US after your marriage overseas; in which case, you have to time your I-130 petition accordingly]

 

You may have provided enough evidence to show that you entered the realitionship in good faith and are still in good faith without you realizing.

 

Once again, I may be incorrect, but I am not necessarily in opposition of ROC.

[vincentlina 74]

7 hours ago, alexpop13 said:

Looks like USCIS published the report for Q2. You can check it out HERE

 

I-751 RECEIVED: 42,392

I-751 APPROVED: 53,060

I-751 DENIED: 1,481

I-751 PENDING: 242,455

Looks like 90,58% of the I-751 processed were approved. 

How can you determine what the approval percentage/rate is when we do not know how many of those "pending" applications were "brought-forward" from period periods, say for example, from 4th Quarter 2018 into 1st Quarter 2019 which forms a part of the pool of "pending" forms? Is it not possible most of the 53,060 approved were applications not of Q1 or Q2 2019 but of 2018? This is why the pending pool of Q1 (252,804) and Q2 (242,455), totals 495,259 -- significantly more than the totals for FY2019 received (86,386). They obviously has been brought forward from prior years and therefore, we do not know the percentage of approvals that is of FY2019 or what percentage are of prior years (2016, 2017, 2018, etc.)? I was never great with math, so I may be absolutely  incorrect in my assessment in trying to analyze the data.

[NikLR 13,220]

2 hours ago, Mollie09 said:

Work visa, not that it should matter at all. Legal is legal.

Yes you were legal vs illegally present.  Yes it matters imo. In Canada you'd be able to apply for PR on your own status because you'd been legally present not due to marriage. So think on that one. Here you only had the availability of maybe an L1 or H1b or marriage to adjust your status vs because you were a contributing member of society.  

[Tanish 197]

26 minutes ago, vincentlina said:

How can you determine what the approval percentage/rate is when we do not know how many of those "pending" applications were "brought-forward" from period periods, say for example, from 4th Quarter 2018 into 1st Quarter 2019 which forms a part of the pool of "pending" forms? Is it not possible most of the 53,060 approved were applications not of Q1 or Q2 2019 but of 2018? This is why the pending pool of Q1 (252,804) and Q2 (242,455), totals 495,259 -- significantly more than the totals for FY2019 received (86,386). They obviously has been brought forward from prior years and therefore, we do not know the percentage of approvals that is of FY2019 or what percentage are of prior years (2016, 2017, 2018, etc.)? I was never great with math, so I may be absolutely  incorrect in my assessment in trying to analyze the data.

It doesn't matter the approved petion was from which year, what matters is they are processing more petitions than what they are receiving which means the backlog is getting cleared little by little.

[xillini 71]

1 hour ago, Tanish said:

It doesn't matter the approved petion was from which year, what matters is they are processing more petitions than what they are receiving which means the backlog is getting cleared little by little.

Not necessarily. 

 

This statistics does not discriminate I 751 approval from concurrent approval for I 751/N 400. 

As you might be well aware, many I 751 filers apply to N400 on day 1 of the window open due to extended processing time.

Only 3 years ago, (around 2016), I 751 used to take 6-8 months (if it is joint petition with cut-and-dry marriage circumstances, and maybe a little over 12 months if it is divorce waiver cases), but now what? It is at least minimum of 12 months, where many I 751 filers are tempted to apply N400 for various reasons (political climate changes and practical inconvenience to prove work eligibility and travel).

So being that said, when the concurrent approval is taken into account, which is executed by local office level such as Chicago office for instance (not service center such as CSC and VSC), it does not have significant impacts on reducing backlog on I 751 because N400 is the driving force for local USCIS officers to conduct both N400 and I751 interviews. 

 

In other words, USCIS officers in Chicago field office does work that should have been done by USCIS officers in CSC when concurrent I751/N400 are performed and processed. 

Why? because it is longer than 12 months and many I 751 filers apply to N400.

Internally in USCIS, I know that local offices such as Chicago field office do not like this circumstance (because they already have workload to do, and then they have additional work to do, which should have been done by another department within their own organization, which will only give salt to the wound). Plus, you get to be paid the same amounts and would you be happy if you have to take over someone else job? It is like that kind of situation that creates hostile environment  for I 751 (Plus, USCIS system in I 751 is all based on paper, meaning that often time local office may not receive the paperworks from service center, and when I 751 filers are present for N400 interview, they don't even have paperwork to review, which often leads to pending N400 approval per I 751, and takes more time). 

 

Apparently, the published USCIS statistics do not show how many concurrent N400/I751 are adjudicated simultaneously, so there is no way to back it up, but I would assume that reasonably 20% of I 751 approvals are coming from concurrent adjudication for N400/I751, meaning that even though 50,000 cases were approved on Q2 in 2019, Service centers that are primarily responsible for I 751 was only able to finish 40,000 cases, which is slightly less than what USCIS received in the same period of the time. So in this case, USCIS just completed the amounts of cases to the number of incoming cases meaning that backlog is still present. 

 

Again, it depends on how many concurrent N400/I751 adjudications are made, and plus there is no guarantee that this high number of I 751 will continue. 

 

Don't get me wrong, though. I think USCIS deserves some credits and I can tell the I 751 has been slightly faster, but USCIS's performance is still haphazard. 

[xillini 71]

9 hours ago, missileman said:

If you then assume that 75% of denials are later appealed and approved, then the approval rate climbs to even higher........thus, I contend that I-751 should be eliminated completely.

When I 751 is first introduced as part of great immigration reforms in 1986, the workload in USCIS was not this much weighted.

Just in 2016 (3 years ago),  the average processing time for I 751 was 6-8 months for cut-and-dry joint filers and may be 12 month ish for questionable filers or divorce waivers. 

Yes, so it would have been still issue, but 6-8 months if you are married and could provide legitimate documents? It was not too bad. 

So being that said, I 751 processing time never was more than 1 year in 30 years of I 751 existence since 1986. 

 

Then you would question why now it takes at least more than 1 year? There are multiple perspective reasons and I don't want to create arguments here, but generally the increasing numbers of petitions have been received to USCIS, many of which are filed based on questionable circumstances and legal grounds (I won't say specifically which type of petition, but you probably know what I am referring to). 

 

So conclusively, Congress never expected I 751 to take this long (yeah if you say their intent was good, but the reality is mess, I totally agree because life is more than complicated, and just because someone has good intent does not necessarily lead to good results, and many times, it leads to bad consequences). 

Plus, I 751 itself really have impacts for potential fraudsters to reconsider this option.

 

There is always good and bad, and Congress, as a delegates of people of the United States, should they believe it is not really necessary, I am sure they will eliminate. So voice your opinion out and who knows? Maybe it will be eliminated someday! 

 

 

 

[AstroCanada 206]

10 hours ago, NikLR said:

Or should be more strict. For instance in Canada if you're married less than 2 years when you immigrate, and are no longer living together in marital union after 2 years (or don't have kid) then you are denied PR status and must return home. They eliminated the divorce waiver aspect. 

Actually that information is out of date and now completely incorrect.  Canada removed that requirement and their version of ROC in 2017.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/notices/elminating-conditional-pr.html