USCIS prioritizes permanent residents over US citizens?

[Cherie123 8]

Looking at TexasService center processing times for I-130 are 1 week to 7 months for permanent residents, but 8.5 months to 10.5 months for US citizen filing for a spouse. I thought US citizens had priority over the other groups.( that is why lawyers recommend applying for citizenship rather than staying permanent resident).  Why is it like this at the Texas service center? 

[Waitingfor10 41]

I don't understand it either.  It's like this at VSC also. 

[Crazy Cat 39,227]

Different visa category...different queue.   One queue is longer than the other.   That would be my guess.

Edited June 7, 2021 by Lucky Cat

[Cherie123 8]

I understand different category and different queue, but I still don’t understand how one groups can get their approval so fast compared to other categories. Aren’t there great backlogs with both these groups?

Edited June 7, 2021 by Cherie123

[wagecuck3 31]

The processing times on the USCIS website are fake. They artificially increase them whenever they want to stop people from filing service requests.

[Cherie123 8]

That is discouraging 

[Crazy Cat 39,227]

16 minutes ago, Cherie123 said:

I understand different category and different queue, but I still don’t understand how one groups can get their approval so fast compared to other categories. Aren’t there great backlogs with both these groups?

Fewer petitions = Shorter line = smaller backlog = faster processing.  

Edited June 7, 2021 by Lucky Cat

[Crazy Cat 39,227]

17 minutes ago, wagecuck3 said:

They artificially increase them whenever they want to stop people from filing service requests.

You have a source to back up that, I assume?  

Edited June 7, 2021 by Lucky Cat

[top_secret 2,062]

Maybe Texas generally does not get assigned to handle permanent residents at all, but they did get one case that was expedited through there for some specific reason a few months back?????  My NOA1's said Texas,  when I contacted a live agent on "Ask Emma" it was confirmed to me that my cases were definitely in Texas, they were both apparently transferred to Nebraska without notice and approved in just 49 days from filing.  My takeaway was that the listed wait times are quite possibly irrelevant and do not provide any useful information.  YMMV

[wagecuck3 31]

17 minutes ago, Lucky Cat said:

You have a source to back up that, I assume?  

What, you think USCIS is going to admit that they manipulate the processing times?

 

You just have to look at what they've been doing and draw your own conclusions.

 

For starters, everyone knows that posted processing times don't reflect actual processing times. Even the USCIS Ombudsman acknowledges it. [Source] So does the Office of the Inspector General. [Source]

Surely no one believes that 7% of I-829s take 21 years to process?

 

USCIS sometimes claims that these inaccurate numbers are due to incomplete digitization. It seems plausible until you start noticing the patterns in the posted times.

 

For example, I've noticed an interesting pattern in the I-485 processing times at my local field office. Every day, the inquiry date moves forward by 1 day. But when it's about to reach October 2019, they suddenly move it back another month. This pattern has continued for almost a year. The idea that this accurately depicts the time frame within which 93% of applications are processed is nonsensical. And why that particular date, anyway? Hmm... could it be the fact that a large wave of receipts occurred in October 2019 and they don't want to allow those filers to inquire about their applications? Or is that just some weird coincidence?

[mushroomspore 3,043]

3 hours ago, Cherie123 said:

I understand different category and different queue, but I still don’t understand how one groups can get their approval so fast compared to other categories. Aren’t there great backlogs with both these groups?

Overall, there are less permanent residents than US citizens. That means that there are less petitions by permanent residents, which means they're able to get processed a little quicker. Not sure what's hard to understand about that.

[wagecuck3 31]

5 minutes ago, mushroomspore said:

Overall, there are less permanent residents than US citizens. That means that there are less petitions by permanent residents, which means they're able to get processed a little quicker. Not sure what's hard to understand about that.

Well, that's an interesting theory. But let's think about it. Sure, if USCIS has 100 officers who work on IR1 petitions and another 100 officers who work on F2A petitions then the IR1 petitions will be way more backlogged since there are more of them being filed. But why would USCIS do that? It makes much more sense to combine them into a pool of 200 officers who can all work on either IR1 or F2A, since the process of adjudicating these petitions is basically the same. They would just pick up whichever one is next in terms of receipt date, and then work on that. If that's the case, both types of petition should take roughly the same amount of time to process, since it just depends on how many total petitions (of BOTH types) are ahead of yours, plus how complex your case is.

 

Is there any ACTUAL evidence that I-130s are getting approved faster when filed by LPRs than US citizens? As I've said before, we shouldn't just blindly believe the processing times on the USCIS website.

[Crazy Cat 39,227]

Unfortunately, no one here knows exactly how USCIS is internally structured or how they allocate their workload, so we are all left with only theories, conjecture, and conspiracies.  One thing is for sure.  The immigration process demands a great deal of knowledge, planning, time, PATIENCE, and money.  Good luck to all......Personally, my wife filed her I-751 in March 2019.  We are still waiting for an interview....😒

[arken 4,197]

When the processing time says 2 weeks to 7 months, you know their algorithm is screwed is not trustworthy, so i say don't trust those processing times distinction between LPRs and citizens.

[igoyougoduke 1,604]

5 hours ago, Cherie123 said:

I understand different category and different queue, but I still don’t understand how one groups can get their approval so fast compared to other categories. Aren’t there great backlogs with both these groups?

where do you see green card processing faster than naturalization ? its the other way around.