My mom's I-130: timeline glitches on myUSCIS: what's going on? + travel advice

[Elle84 25]

Hello fellow VisaJourney-ers!

I (USC) filed an I-130 for my mom on September 1st, 2024.

First month - "myProgress" tab showed "4 months to case decision".

Second month - it jumped to 17 months. Fair enough - Vermont Service Center.

Steadily decreasing every month and it got to 7 months this month.

Yesterday I get an email "we have taken an action on your case". I go in myUSCIS, status was saying "Case is still being processed by USCIS" with the same "7 months" under myProgress.

But.... I go into my Documents and here it is... a gleaming I-130 APPROVAL NOTICE PDF. Saying "we have approved your petition, case is being transferred to NVC." Yay. There is an inconsistency on the notice, it says that I said in the i-130 both that she will interview at the embassy, AND that she will apply for Adjustment of Status from the US, and that, because her last address is in our home country, the case will go the NVC-embassy route. Mind you, I did NOT say in the petition that she would apply for Adjustment of Status from the US (I double checked the petition - I ONLY said she will interview at the embassy). Anyway, whatever. Today I go into myUSCIS again, the approval notice is still there, but the myProgress now says "time until case decision - 20 months". Questions:

- How long until it will show the correct status?

- How long until case gets to NVC? AI is giving me 1-2 months

- How long until documentarily qualified and case sent to embassy?

- We did my I-130 (spousal visa) back in 2019-2020 and we dragged the NVC part because of how we were planning our move to the US, and the Bucharest embassy at the time had basically zero backlog (I got an interview date almost as soon as we were documentarily qualified)... anyone has any recent experience with this stage?

- This all boils down to... any real chance of visa in hand by January 2026? Based on the original timeline we were planning for my mom to come in January on her tourist visa and stay for like 5 months and then go back and do the embassy phase in Bucharest, so this sudden early approval kind of busts our plans

- anyone traveled to the US successfully on a tourist visa while having an approved I-130 petition? Everywhere I looked strongly advises against this, and we obviously are leaning towards just waiting until she has her immigrant visa but curious to see others' experience

- and lastly.... what is going on at USCIS? Is this because of the government shutdown?

[appleblossom 5,120]

1 hour ago, Elle84 said:

but the myProgress now says "time until case decision - 20 months

 

And this is why we tell people to ignore it completely, it's utterly useless!

 

1 hour ago, Elle84 said:

How long until it will show the correct status?

 

Possibly not at all but it's not relevant now anyway, your USCIS stage is done.

 

1 hour ago, Elle84 said:

How long until case gets to NVC? AI is giving me 1-2 months

 

Don't use AI for immigration advice (almost as useless as the 'My Progress' bar!), stick with official info - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/nvc-timeframes.html 

 

1 hour ago, Elle84 said:

How long until documentarily qualified and case sent to embassy?

 

That depends on how quickly you submit everything, but again, current processing times are above. Case isn't sent until an interview is arranged, but that's also super quick - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/iv-wait-times.html

 

1 hour ago, Elle84 said:

This all boils down to... any real chance of visa in hand by January 2026?

 

Possible, but tight. If she gets her Welcome Letter in a few weeks, and she's got all of her docs ready to submit, and she's DQ'ed quickly (i.e. makes sure she submits everything required first time around, instead of it needing to be asked for again), then she could be DQ'ed by end of November ish. I'd think a December interview is unlikely, particularly given Thanksgiving and Christmas, so January is probable. So I'd move her flights back a month or two personally. But maybe wait to see when she gets the Welcome Letter in case that comes much earlier (it often does).

 

Good luck. 

 

 

[Elle84 25]

4 minutes ago, appleblossom said:

 

And this is why we tell people to ignore it completely, it's utterly useless!

 

 

Possibly not at all but it's not relevant now anyway, your USCIS stage is done.

 

 

Don't use AI for immigration advice (almost as useless as the 'My Progress' bar!), stick with official info - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/nvc-timeframes.html 

 

 

That depends on how quickly you submit everything, but again, current processing times are above. Case isn't sent until an interview is arranged, but that's also super quick - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/iv-wait-times.html

 

 

Possible, but tight. If she gets her Welcome Letter in a few weeks, and she's got all of her docs ready to submit, and she's DQ'ed quickly (i.e. makes sure she submits everything required first time around, instead of it needing to be asked for again), then she could be DQ'ed by end of November ish. I'd think a December interview is unlikely, particularly given Thanksgiving and Christmas, so January is probable. So I'd move her flights back a month or two personally. But maybe wait to see when she gets the Welcome Letter in case that comes much earlier (it often does).

 

Good luck. 

 

 

Thank you! This definitely helped make some order in my scattered brain. (Also, I should have known all this already lol, I did my own immigration process from I-130 to naturalization, I just have a serious case of double mom brain this time around). Thankfully, there are no flights booked yet, and you bet we'll have everything ready to submit!

[OldUser 10,730]

1 hour ago, Elle84 said:

Hello fellow VisaJourney-ers!

I (USC) filed an I-130 for my mom on September 1st, 2024.

First month - "myProgress" tab showed "4 months to case decision".

Second month - it jumped to 17 months. Fair enough - Vermont Service Center.

Steadily decreasing every month and it got to 7 months this month.

Yesterday I get an email "we have taken an action on your case". I go in myUSCIS, status was saying "Case is still being processed by USCIS" with the same "7 months" under myProgress.

 

Right. It's a random number generator. Just like in your case, it showed 3 weeks until decision on day of my oath.

[appleblossom 5,120]

9 minutes ago, Elle84 said:

Thank you! This definitely helped make some order in my scattered brain. (Also, I should have known all this already lol, I did my own immigration process from I-130 to naturalization, I just have a serious case of double mom brain this time around). Thankfully, there are no flights booked yet, and you bet we'll have everything ready to submit!

 

Oh, then don't book flights yet! Sorry, I assumed you'd already got them sorted. Wait until she has the visa in hand, and then hopefully she'll be able to fly early next year.

[JeanneAdil 7,289]

do not be alarmed if the case status shows nothing or does not allow you to enter

that would mean its on the way to NVC

 

After you receive the embassy code # , you can check case status on the following site (it is slightly better than USCIS)

 

https://ceac.state.gov/ceacstattracker/status.aspx