Timeline of i130 for husband/wife of a US Citizen

[TheBoss 1]

I helped a friend file an I-130 on March 2025 for her husband. She is a U.S. citizen, and her husband lives in India. Is there any place where we can see real timelines or updates from other people going through the same process? That way, I can help her understand when her husband might get an interview, visa approval, or arrive in the U.S.

Thanks

[Rhema1 558]

11 minutes ago, TheBoss said:

I helped a friend file an I-130 on March 2025 for her husband. She is a U.S. citizen, and her husband lives in India. Is there any place where we can see real timelines or updates from other people going through the same process? That way, I can help her understand when her husband might get an interview, visa approval, or arrive in the U.S.

Thanks

Are you not able to get it on the USCIS web page?

"Case updates"

A friend of mine received a response after about 16 months 

Edited Sunday at 10:35 PM by Rhema1

[TheBoss 1]

we can do that but i want to compare with others who filed around the same date, see how long their I-130 took, and when they got interview or visa outcomes

[Rhema1 558]

1 minute ago, TheBoss said:

we can do that but i want to compare with others who filed around the same date, see how long their I-130 took, and when they got interview or visa outcomes

OK I got it now.

Someone more helpful to you will surely Chip in 🤲 🙏 

[appleblossom 5,647]

20 minutes ago, TheBoss said:

I helped a friend file an I-130 on March 2025 for her husband. She is a U.S. citizen, and her husband lives in India. Is there any place where we can see real timelines or updates from other people going through the same process? That way, I can help her understand when her husband might get an interview, visa approval, or arrive in the U.S.

Thanks

 

Ignore the 'My Progress' bar on her case page completely, it's notoriously inaccurate. Current processing times (which tends to be more accurate) are here - https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/ And you can search VJ timelines, seems about 15-16 months is the norm. 

 

That's only for the I-130 though, the second stage (actual visa application) will very much depend on them (i.e. when they pay the fees, how quickly they upload the documents etc). Once they've done all that and been DQ'ed, it's about a 4-5 month wait for a visa interview at Mumbai. 

 

So maybe, as a very rough guess, they'll be finished towards the end of the year (assuming he doesn't get put in to admin processing). 

Edited Sunday at 10:44 PM by appleblossom

[TheBoss 1]

thanks for that case on the receipt notice i see below service center. so which option i need to choose form the Field Office or Service Center to check the processing time? 

 

 

[appleblossom 5,647]

2 hours ago, TheBoss said:

thanks for that case on the receipt notice i see below service center. so which option i need to choose form the Field Office or Service Center to check the processing time? 

 

 

 

 

Neither, it's SCOPS. See the 'alert' at the top of the processing times page. 

[S2N 625]

4 hours ago, appleblossom said:

And you can search VJ timelines, seems about 15-16 months is the norm. 

VJ timelines tend to be slower than what is being reported through the API data by 2-3 months. My theory is we get the “trouble cases” so it skews slower.

 

They’re currently processing December 4, 2024, so 13 months exact for around 50% of cases. Whatever is on the USCIS website is the 80th percentile.

 

We were trending towards 11 months before the government shutdown, but October/November really slowed down. Speed looks to be picking back up again since we’re at 13 months exact, which is down two weeks from September.”

 

If the current conditions continue I think people applying today will be in the 11-12 month timeframe we had in 2023 before Biden-era USCIS decided to focus on I-485 from overstays.

Edited Monday at 03:15 AM by S2N

[teddy2025 0]

20 hours ago, TheBoss said:

I helped a friend file an I-130 on March 2025 for her husband. She is a U.S. citizen, and her husband lives in India. Is there any place where we can see real timelines or updates from other people going through the same process? That way, I can help her understand when her husband might get an interview, visa approval, or arrive in the U.S.

Thanks

Hello I think... Here is a great site to watch time lines of other petitioners. I recently filed and joined this site to help me guide and keep updated with people who also have file the same form as myself. 

[JD2 234]

21 hours ago, TheBoss said:

we can do that but i want to compare with others who filed around the same date, see how long their I-130 took, and when they got interview or visa outcomes

Click on timelines of this very website.  That's why it's important for everyone to update their timelines.  When we were going through the process, there were India specific groups for tracking DQ to Interview trends on Facebook and Telegram.  I even made a spreadsheet and graph but you probably won't have to go through that.  Things were crazy during Covid.  You can also check here but I don't know how accurate it is:  https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/iv-wait-times.html

Edited Monday at 08:32 PM by JD2

[TheBoss 1]

Is the processing page on VisaJourney correct? I haven’t seen any updates for the past few weeks. I’m wondering whether no cases are being updated, or if everything is currently frozen.

[JD2 234]

3 minutes ago, TheBoss said:

Is the processing page on VisaJourney correct? I haven’t seen any updates for the past few weeks. I’m wondering whether no cases are being updated, or if everything is currently frozen.

Take ALL processing times, here or USCIS website or any other website, with a big grain of salt.

[TheBoss 1]

6 minutes ago, JD2 said:

Take ALL processing times, here or USCIS website or any other website, with a big grain of salt.

Then whats the best way to understand or estimate the timeline or how many months to wait?

[TBoneTX 48,881]

Just now, TheBoss said:

Then whats the best way to understand or estimate the timeline or how many months to wait?

Look at each reference.  Note the earliest and latest estimates.  Be pleased if your own case is handled by or before the earliest.  If your case drags beyond the latest, consider involving your U.S. Congressman's office.

[appleblossom 5,647]

14 hours ago, TheBoss said:

Is the processing page on VisaJourney correct? I haven’t seen any updates for the past few weeks. I’m wondering whether no cases are being updated, or if everything is currently frozen.

Of course cases are being updated. VJ is a very tiny sample size compared to the millions of cases USCIS process each year, so just because no cases were updated on here doesn’t mean anything. 
 

Plus of course, data on VJ relies on people completing/updating their timelines and a lot of people don’t do that, particularly when they’re busy with other things like holiday season. 
 

We can guess at when your friend may hear using the data (as I did above), but do remember that we don’t know if her case will be an outlier - for example, she may get an RFE that she doesn’t respond to properly, or her husband needs extra background checks etc. 
 

The very best thing you can do for her is tell her that if everything goes smoothly, her husband should be with her by the end of the year. But that there’s no point in obsessing over timelines, or comparing hers to anybody else’s in a journey with so many unknown and variables. Suggest she plans a visit or two to him during the year (or vice versa if he has a visa) to give her something else to focus on instead, and help build their evidence for the NVC stage. 
 

And lastly, I’d suggest to her that she joins VJ herself so she can find a community of others going through the same thing, and ask questions herself rather than through a third party. That would probably be the most reassuring thing she could do. 
 

Good luck to her. 

Edited 6 hours ago by appleblossom