US Immigration from Ireland

I know there are a few others out there doing something similar because I learned about it from someone else . . . I've been looking through the cases getting assigned WAC# etc on Case Status Online and had sort of assumed they worked regular 8-4 or 9-5 hours but cases were being assigned WAC# etc over the long weekend and this morning (as of 7:00 a.m. Eastern), there's already been some "On February 16 we [received/accepted/rejected/approved] your form [insert type]."

I'm wondering if anyone else knows about the way/hours they work. Are these from cases that have been entered earlier and then there's autogeneration in the system that just happens around the clock or are they now working extra long hours to clear the backlog? I can't imagine that's the case and yet, from the time they seemed to stop on Friday to last night I counted over 400 notices. These all had the 21900 "prefix" and I'm only looking at WAC. And, to be clear, these are not all I-129Fs.

I'm looking mostly because I'm a bit of a data geek I still have a long wait for my NOA1 and am curious about the data. For example, did you know that the Philippines accounts for ~20% of all K-1 visas and that 100% of visas issued are used (no surprise)!

I was also looking at the annual report for FY 2020 and saw that in each quarter there were about ~18k pending I-129F applications. The Fiscal Year ended on September 30 with nearly 39k received and 28.5k approved and 21k pending. If there were 21k pending on Sept 30 and Q1 (Oct to Dec 2020) received an additional ~10k . . . well. There is math. They'd have to be processing 350 a day to get through 21k in 60 days and that pile keeps getting added to.

*If you're interested in how to search, check out the November 2020 thread which is how I learned about it.

I decided to use FedEx to send the K1 application and sent the application to the address specified for express mail and courier deliveries. I waived the signature requirement per the new Covid requirements for accepting packages but just got a notice from FedEx that my package couldn't be delivered due to "Customer not available or business closed."

Looks like someone else ran into this back in December - anyone else had success or failure submitting this way? They'll try again tomorrow, but this is really annoying. I assume if that office had closed due to Covid it would say to use USPS to the lockbox only on the website, but I should know better than to make assumptions.

Another silly NVC related question

In the DS230 under other names used or 'Aliases' if married woman give maiden name - wondering if any nicknames need to be included here too E.g. a shortened version of your name that family/friends call you?

Hi all,

Apologies if this has been answered previously but I am still slightly confused and hope someone could shed some light:

So our I-130 petition was approved last week and we are just starting the NVC process. On our I-130 I(the beneficiary) gave my maiden and married name together as that's what I intend to use moving forward. My passport and police certificates only state my maiden name.

Should I
A. Move forward filing the forms using only my maiden name, have my greencard matching my passport/police certs with my maiden name only and change the name on the GC at some point in the future.
OR
B. If it is ok to submit our documents to the NVC as they are now, renew my passport in the meantime, so that I can file with my married name, reupload a copy of the new passport and have both the new and old passport once it's time for the interview? (Seems messy?)

It seems like option A is the most straight forward tbh but would like to have my married name on my GC. If I move forward with my married name would I then need to get new police clearance certs also as they only state my maiden name? Curious to hear what other people in similar situations did.

Hi Friends,

I've been in Ireland throughout our IR-1 process, and as of Oct 16th we've been sitting in the NVC at DQ'd. Recently my dad's health has taken a nosedive so I rushed home last week to see him and to help my family out with his death. It's been a long battle with cancer. I don't know how long I'm going to be in the US. I'd like to be back in Ireland to accompany spouse to the interview (no date yet), but with finances and covid restrictions, not to mention my dad's health being completely variable, I'm not sure that I'll be able to get back in time.

Is there anything I have to do as far as the NVC/CEAC is concerned? Spouse is still in Ireland, it's just me here.