Bayareaguy

Any chance?

No.

Why is it easier for a K-1 beneficiary to get here as opposed to a CR-1 spouse? It never made sense to me.

Probably because the CR-1 is an immigrant visa, while a K-1 is not (they become immigrants only if they marry the petitioner within 90 days, else they are to leave the country).

No.

Immigration should NEVER be a system where the people who can afford to pay more get better service.

I agree. What it should be is the applications are processed in the order received, as well as fairly and evenly across the types of applications. Unfortunately, that is not the case either.

AVERAGE for August applications

178 days

I would have to add, AVERAGE for August applications that have been processed. When the remaining august applications are finally processed (and the majority of August applications have not been processed yet), starting today they will be 179-209 + 1 day per each day it takes to get processed.

if you are on the 5th month, i recommend you conducting a alpha strike as i mentioned on this post.

The problem with that is they will tell you "you are within normal processing times, contact us in 60 days"

dont forget they have contractors working on your case.

What, a total of 2 contractors working on I-129F's since December?

I'm on it guys... I've written a letter to my Senator, signed the privacy release document and it's en-route to their office now. I'm not trying to be too pushy or anything but with us on our 224th day waiting, we are starting to worry that just maybe our petition has gone missing or something. That being said, there are still signs that the CSC has shelved I-129F Petitions. In Igor's list, zero petitions were adjudicated yesterday at the CSC with only 2 of them being approved last week; whist at the VCS three were approved yesterday with well over a dozen approved last week!

Yep, that's how you will see when they are filing NOA2's. Based on the amount of NOA1's received (about 130/month for CSC), we "should" be seeing about 3-4 NOA2's a day for it to be at an even rate. If they are to "catch up" to the 5 month goal, there needs to be more than that to catch up. Look at VSC, almost always a few a day. CSC, 10 NOA2 in the last month. and has been that way since december. do the math.

i am glad you are exercising your rights and raising concerns for waste in tax dollars.

It's worse than that...they get payed from your application fees...so in essence, you have already payed them, and they are now just sitting on your case.

When I hit 5 months, I called to make a service request and the tier told me to call back another month if I don't receive a decision. I called today, I know, two days before I hit 6 months.. But told the tier I've yet to receive a decision and would like to send in a service request. She said I wasn't allowed to since I was still in the "processing times". I don't understand!!!! She used the "working on July 18" but they've been on that date for two months! I am so frustrated I'm on the verge of tears. I planned my wedding for April 13, and now it's looking impossible. ? What's going on CSC? Help me understand

Slow processing at CSC.

Why? The million dollar question. Nobody is accountable it seems. No reason given, other than "we're late, because we're late".

And you've discovered the wonderful world of "we decide what normal processing times are, not what normally actually is".

Just wait it out. There are many who share your predicament. But you really shouldn't plan on anything, until the visa is in hand.

There is someone from July 31th that got a RFE last 23th...

Oooh, CSC is cookin' with gas now!

Many are being approved past the 200 day waiting. Hopefully soon for you.

Many at CSC? Not really. A whole 10 in the past month: http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/k1list.php?op6=California+Service+Center&op7=All&op1=5&op2=d&op3=1&op4=1&op5=5%2C6%2C8%2C10%2C11%2C13%2C14%2C15%2C16%2C17%2C18%2C20%2C21%2C22%2C25%2C26%2C27%2C28%2C108%2C110%2C111%2C208%2C210%2C211&cfl=0

COULD you guys advise abt any RFE OR NOA2? I called USCIS an hr ago and was advise to call back in 60 days-- i was told bc they received many of the I129F... thats why they are soo far behind & can't say when it will pick up again.

They are so behind because they are not processing them at the rate they are receiving them. They are receiving them at the same rate as always as far as I can tell. Typical BS answers from USCIS, but what can you expect from a government agency.

Thanks.. am just not seeing any updates at all

Yes, your observation is correct. You aren't seeing updates, because there aren't many updates to see.

.. and yet we pay for it!

Yep, that makes it burn all that much more.

I think it is definitely worth a try, what have you got to loose?

On the other hand, you are just another number in the system, and being a K1 filer, you are in a very "minor" minority group, vs the more preferred and larger minority groups with more clout. They really couldn't care less.

According to their timeline schedule or the I129F, the California Service Center takes 5 1/2 months to process.

If this is your first visit there your in for a wake up call and the attitude you already show will bring you much trouble and hurt and more importantly put your girl in a bad light, harm or risk also

I agree with this post.

Even if they don't have guns, how will you fare against four guys coming at you with knives at the same time?

Here's an example...in Makati, not Zamboanga, and he was a former Marine as well, who also thought he could take care of himself: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/283756/news/metromanila/palace-hopes-fatal-stabbing-of-american-won-t-result-in-travel-advisory

I've already emailed the ombudsman, and received the same stock email you did. Yes, it seems only 1-2 people (or the equivalent man hours) are working on I-129f's since December at CSC.

I'm not confident they will do anything about it, but it's worth a try. I already tried my congressmans office, but they said they wouldn't do anything until after 200 days have passed since my NOA1. I will also try my senators as well, but in a state my size, I don't think they will care much about my problem.

Yeah, I had a feeling you might mean that. I'm trying not to have such a tin-foil hat wearing paranoia so don't want to believe they'd artificially "fix things" that way. I kind of hope it *is* DACA, because that's at least understandable from a work-load perspective. I'd rather it was "we are overwhelmed and can't cope at the old rate" than "we're just screwing you all over to make our stats look more even". Who knows.

Wish someone had a friend who worked there that they could just ask.

Yes, the data seems to imply that "someone" or "some people in some meeting" consciously decided to have less I-129F processed at CSC, for "some" reason, be it for allocating resources for DACA applications, getting the numbers in line, or something else. When it's 3 months in a row, you have to think it is a conscious decision, not a random or seasonal effect. You can see some possible seasonal effect earlier where both centers' processing tends to go up or down at the same time, but even that trend diverges in april 2012, and has been off since then.

Haha, but yeah, the last thing I want is to be seen as a tin-foil hat wearing loony. Though I guess if I was, I wouldn't realize it...would I?

So I suggest people look at the data and make their own conclusions.

What the data says so far: December has a 2 year historical low in I-129F processing (USCIS data).

This coincides with a 2 year high of NOA2 at VSC (USCIS data).

VJ data suggests that for CSC, the processing remains at a historically low rate for 3 months in a row, up until now, and if there isn't any increase in the rate of NOA2's, this low rate may be extended beyond 3 months (until ?).

This reduction in rate also happens to coincide with the introduction and increasing number of processed DACA applications (USCIS data).

The only thing about that assessment is they're physically separate offices - if we saw evidence that they were shipping boxes of files from VSC to CSC, or visa versa, then that would make sense (folks would no doubt get info that that had happened to their petitions for contact reasons). Unless you mean they're sending fewer new cases to the slower service centre?

Actually what I mean is they are not switching cases to the other service center, the are merely "putting the brakes" on the CSC applications until the pending cases pile gets bigger and in line with VSC's pending cases.

Of course it would be better to just process the VSC cases at a faster rate to get their number of pending cases down, but that's not the lazy mans way. It's easier just to slow down the CSC processing. "Who cares about those K1's, it's not that many of them".

And again, that is just a theory which is not neccisarily true, just as the "DACA effect" may or may not be.

USCIS data updated through December. Yes, CSC is slow compared to VSC. CSC logged it's slowest month for NOA2's while VSC is it's highest in 2 years (completions).

I've conveniently put both on the same chart.

Indeed, Retemad... Indeed... I certainly wish I was the only one going though this and thank GOD there are others that share the same stresses as we're going through together. Visajourney is a good place to support one another. Good luck to you as well...

I'm complaining, and I'm at only 192 days...it really blows for you july filers. But good news Sahs, "Based on timeline data, your I129f may be adjudicated between January 11, 2013 and January 13, 2013"

Here is the USCIS data CSC vs VSC. VSC NOA2 was 7X the amount of CSC NOA2 in december.

Quite interesting that they receive about the same amount (giving credence that they can send to either center depending on the load of applicants, and try to even them up), they just aren't processing them at the same pace.

Too bad for CSC applicants, other than the lucky few that are slipping by. Someone obviously didn't get the memo to stop working on I-129F's completely at CSC, haha

December info now posted http://dashboard.uscis.gov/index.cfm?formtype=6&office=2&charttype=1

How good was your prediction?

I predicted 244 completions and 11,168 pending (compared to 484 and 10,489 respectively), so it's far from perfect, but the trend is there. 484 is lower than any month in the last 2 years, and Jan and Feb don't look much better. And if it picks up this last week of February, that will boost the numbers...I hope it does and proves me wrong.

Heres the updated Dec data included:

Interesting also to note, that VSC December NOA2 was the best month in 2 years, so the observation of VJ data is correct, CSC is very much slower than VSC at the moment.

So wrong on so many levels!

Yeah, PAL out of terminal 3???

Yes, please dont write a novel, the applications take long enough as it is to process.