TraciB

My Congressman's office informed me today that the CSC is unable to locate my application, two weeks shy of my six month wait. Does anyone have any information on what happens from here? If I need to resubmit, will we have to wait another five months?? Would love any information any of you can provide. Thanks!!

The real difficulty is that for those of us whose spouse isn't from a VWP country, we have to prove to a VO who doesn't give a ####### and just wants you to go away that they'll return to their home country. Given that it is more or less impossible to do that when you're coming to visit your husband/wife, trying for a visitor visa while married to a USC is pointless.

People from VWP countries can at least fly over here and roll the dice that the people at the point of entry won't even ask about the visa in progress or why they're there. Even if they do, I cannot help but think that the pressure to let someone in who is standing at the threshold after flying over here is far far higher than what it is on a VO sitting behind a window waiting to go to lunch while thinking of a way to say no. Given the proclivity for VOs to say no to visitor visas to people like us in the first place, it makes it damned easy when there is a spouse in the US to use as a denial reason, no?

Just to add more suck, once you say "I do" your chances of ever getting a visitor visa go to zero.. even if you've got family members which will die before they ever meet your wife... fun, no?

No, I'm not bitter at all. Why do you ask?

Ok, clarification please, VWP (Visa Waiver Program?) and VO is??? I believe Belgium is a country with the Visa Waiver but from what I have read it is dicey for my husband to come here while deeply embedded in the immigration process so this is why I go there. Am I incorrect in thinking this???

yes, it will be changed! and if you asked for an e-mail or sms... you will get it.

Patience! I had to learn patience...

Patience is becoming a bore...now I want results!

Yeah, remember, those are just estimates based off VJ members' timelines who filled them out. There's still all the VJ members who don't update their timelines, plus all of the people not on VJ.

So true, sigh.

The longest part of NVC is just waiting for the case number to be assigned. For the last few months, it's been taking around 3-4 weeks to get it. Once you have the case number though, the remaining time spent in NVC is mostly up to you to send in packages (and sending them in without mistakes).

I don't remember to be honest. But my case was approved at the end of January and my husband sent the application at the end of August.

I just wish there was some rhyme or reason to it all. We watch the processing timelines and according to those, they are working on August 27, 2011 so a month past us.

That happened last year as well. It seems there's an influx of applications in the late spring/summer so there's many more cases to deal with at USCIS, thus the slowdown.

So last year, was there a huge amount processed at the beginning of the year?

my 5 month mark wait, was exactly 5 months...but that was just the easy part for me NVC is so slow!

No, please don't tell me that. I can only hope that NVC is faster than USCIS has been....

I feel your pain. Today is our 5 month mark and it can be frustrating to see that some VJ users are getting approved so fast while others are waiting 5 months and beyond. Hopefully we will fly through the NVC process. I have already gathered all the documents they will ask for so we won't be adding to the wait. Hang in there, our day will come soon.

Have you contacted your Senator or Congressman yet? I was in touch with both about two weeks ago since the holidays were so close. The Immigration Specialist for my Senator's office was very kind and contacted USCIS on my behalf, since we were still in the five month window they wouldn't do anything. I am to email the Senator's Immigration Specialist on January 2nd and she is going to request that our file be pulled. I can only hope that this does something to speed up the process.

I watch Igor's charts and really it seems that anything after June of 2011 has been slow going, not really sure why that is. Can anyone shed some light on this??

Any words of advice would be greatly appreciated.

I think we have long passed an officer who was fast. Timely would have been appreciated (within the 5 month timeline) but now we are even past that. Ah well, Senator's office will contact them January 2nd, hopefully that will help some. Thanks!

Yeah, sorry Just hope your case is on the desk of an officer who is fast

You have to remember that cases land on officer's desks and the officers process cases at their own pace. So if there's one slow officer and one fast officer, then it's "normal" for not all applications to be approved from the summer, and some that have been approved from November.

Yes, I understand all this but it doesn't make it any easier with the waiting...unfortunately.

I don't understand how it is that applications are being approved from November 2011 when June and July 2011 haven't all been approved. Everything says applications are handled in the order they are received, so how is this happenening? We hit our five month mark yesterday (December 26, 2011) and still nothing.

Sorry, just venting my frustration.

I know the feeling. Im a May filer and just received my NOA2. I called and visited my local USCIS office. I hope Dec will be a good month for all the June filers!