alizon

If you've gotten a letter from USCIS in the mail, it should have a box that says "priority date." As far as I know, that's your NOA1 date.

Ditto to La Banquise, Premiere Moisson, and Fairmount Bagels (they're better than St. Viateur)! We always love/d just strolling the Maissoneuve and Jean Talon markets, and you can't miss Parc la Fountaine. Obviously, I spend most of my time there in the summer, but Juliette et Chocolat and Fonduementale are wintery places. Other than that, my husband and I are youngin's, so my thoughts go to the bars...

As for the language, I've never had anyone be rude to me and my weak French in Montreal (Quebec City is another story), but making an effort will get you big props. Just trying to speak got me a free brownie once!

Igor's List is showing the June filers to have just passed the 50% approval mark. That's progress! Let hope June also has a bunch of slackers who aren't updating their timelines...(sorry, June).

"Dear Congressman Smith...

I sent a similar email, but received no response at all, so I called today. They seemed completely accustomed to hearing from people with immigration requests: I was immediately transfered to someone who deals specifically with immigration issues in my section of the congressional district, and that person suggested that I come speak to her in person and bring my paperwork. I live in a major city with some very entrenched political power, so maybe the effectiveness of the congressperson's requests varies by who they are...I guess I'll find out.

I contacted my Congressman who, for no reason other than because I asked nicely and might vote for him someday, submitted an inquiry about our case status yesterday.

I just contacted mine as well. It can't hurt, right? And I'm a loyal voter.

Today is day 110 for us. Nearly 4 months of waiting without even a touch.

On that immigration timelines chart it says July 31. That can not be accurate!

It would be nice if there was an explanation of their methodology...and if they would give the option of excluding military expedites, as someone else mentioned.

Many of us July filers seem to have the same 08/04 last touch. There must have been a big box of files moved at once. Hopefully they'll all get approved at once!

I have not had a touch since 08/04/11 I notice many people with NOA1 around mine ave also been touched on 08/04/11. I guess they updated us all that day for some reason.

Just wanted to add my voice to the choir here. We're the same: NOA1 on July 22, touched August 4, and nothing since. Boo.

I did something similar. We don't email back and forth much, but we text through google voice over 100 times a day, so instead of printing out all of those texts, I took screenshots of my google voice inbox which shows my phone number and his phone number on each text. Each text conversation is collapsed, though, showing only the first one or two, last one or two, and how many are in between. I think summaries that show the extent of the conversations over a long period of time are better than showing the entirety of each individual exchange, but I haven't gotten my NOA2 yet, so I guess we'll see...

if necessary call their supervisor

How are you supposed to know who to call? Obviously, if you ask them for their supervisor's number, it sort of defeats the whole purpose of trying to check their credentials that way.

Do you have to have a reason that they like for the expedite when you call or is that something you can just ask for?

Nevermind, I've seen in one of the other forums that your case is automatically expedited due to your husband being in the military. Oh well.

Well last friday my husband called and asked for an expedite, and yesterday he faxed them proofs... but we never knew if we were approved or not (I don't think we would have been anyway but it was worth a try). And today we got our NOA2 ... so honestly, I think we got it before the expedite got approved!

Do you have to have a reason that they like for the expedite when you call or is that something you can just ask for?

It is possible those postings are trolls, but really; the value of VJ is that you can ask questions and people here can get you informed advice;

I totally agree! Which is why it would be so sad if anyone on this forum was misleading people on the time frame. I certainly hope that isn't the case.

Or just as the topic says, they received their NOA's very quickly When do you usually make an account? It is usually when you want to partake in posting. So people create their account usually about their NOA1 and in 3-4 weeks they are posting they received their NOA2. I am one of them. The people who did receive their NOAs quick did nothing special, they are from all countries and there is no pattern. If you look at past posts, this thread comes up every 3-4 months. Maybe they're trying to fudge statistics by pushing out some earlier? It's all just speculation and we'll never truly find out.

I do feel sorry for those who do have to wait, especially for the ones who have to wait longer than the "approximate" waiting time even without RFEs. Best of luck with speedy approvals.

I'm just saying that everyone should take things they read on the forums with a grain of salt and look at the larger trends rather than individual flukes. Regardless of whether those flukes are real or not, they're likely overrepresented here. People on the normal timeline are probably more likely to just follow the forums quietly compared to people who can chime in with their extremely short, extremely lucky wait time. The aggregated timeline data must be more reliable than individual comments on the forums.

Maybe I am too cynical, but is anyone else suspicious of these posts saying that they got their NOA2 within a couple weeks of sending off their applications? Some of these posts come from people who have just signed up to the forum within a few days of their post. I wonder if 1) they just got their NOA1 and don't know the difference between that and the NOA2 or 2) they're just bored and messing with people here. It is the internet after all...it's possible they're trolls.

We got our NOA1 in July from CSC and haven't been touched since August 4th, but I'm not starting to worry yet (or at least trying). If you think about it, it makes sense from a "customer service" point of view to tell people that their application will take longer than it actually might. If they tell us that our applications should be moving on to the next step in two months, everyone will start calling them at two months and one week. If they tell us it'll take 4 months and it only takes 3, then it's a pleasant surprise for the applicants and CSC won't receive any panicked phone calls. Even a 1 month wait is going to be frustrating for those of us separated from loved ones, but it doesn't seem fruitful to stress out unless we've passed the original 3-5 month wait time the processing time charts show. It's just a recipe for an ulcer.

Thanks NavyK. We haven't filed any papers at all so far (just got married this month), so I guess we don't have a timeline yet. I decided to go with just including a note that I haven't moved into my new address yet, but that the lease is signed, I can receive mail there, and I have a letter from my employer saying I'll be back in the US in September. Hopefully that won't ruffle any feathers.

Hello,

There seem to be a few questions similar to mine on the boards, but not too many clear answers so far, so I'll give mine a shot: I am a US citizen filing for a visa for my Canadian husband, and I am currently visiting him for the summer in Canada. I gave up my old US apartment, but I already have a new one that I will be moving into September 1. I haven't signed the lease yet (it is in the mail), but the person who currently lives in my future apartment is a good friend. How should I proceed with the US address for our paperwork? I could stretch the truth and say that my new US apartment is my current address or I could show that I am not currently living in the US but will be in the future at that new address...both make me nervous that they will lengthen the process or even get us denied. Does anyone have an idea of what I should do?

Thanks!

Thanks for the replies everyone! I'm still a bit nervous about giving any possible excuse to see our marriage as invalid (despite the 2 years of phone records, texts, plane tickets...), but thanks for the reassurance. We'll keep thinking about it...

Hello everyone,

My fiance and I are working on having just a simple wedding with our immediate when he comes to visit in June. Neither of us are religious, so clergy isn't really an option, but I would also prefer not to get married in the court house (I live in a major city, and I've heard that ceremonies there are a bit of a circus). What I would really like is my brother to marry us in a restaurant or other nice setting. I know that it is legal in our state for one of our friends/relatives to be ordained online and marry us, but I feel like that might give us trouble with the immigration procedure. Does anyone else have experience with trying to apply for the I-130 after a marriage by a non-traditional officiant? Are my instincts correct or am I being paranoid?

Thanks!