Matt & Rocio

Thanks for the information and again congratulations.

Unfortunately, it means us other late July petitioners are still probably in for the long wait...

Day 174 of no action...

A VJer with a 7/11 NOA1 date reported getting their NOA2 today. I'm thinking 2 more weeks for those of us in the late July time frame. I also read a post that said someone called the USCIS and was told they were working petitions around that same date, so there is more hope now than the past month or so.

On January 17, 2012, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I130 IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE, FIANCE(E), OR ORPHAN. Please follow any instructions on the notice. If you move before you receive the notice, call customer service at 1-800-375-5283.

Congratulations! Now is the time to prepare for the NVC phase. Since your husband lost his job the I-864 affidavit of support will be crucial. Do you have a willing co-sponsor who can easily meet the required income?

I did contact my congressman, but all he did was checking the status and said "just wait, your time will come, and I'll check back with you later."

I'm 16 days behind you. I hope to get my NOA2 in 16 days or less.

Those estimates are based on timelines entered by VJers. Lately there have been a number of December petitions that have been approved. This has skewed the numbers to show faster than what is really happening. There are a lot of July filers who are still waiting for their NOA2. Remember that these are just estimates provided by visajourney.com. If you were to call USCIS they are officially working on applications received on/after June 16, although one user posted that they were told that CSC is currently working petitions from the first week of July.

First off let me say this site is wonderful and has been extremely helpful in navigating the process of obtaining a visa for my wife and step-daughter. The step-by-step guides, the forums and the timelines are extremely valuable resources to anyone who has to embark on this journey.

I check the Immigration Timelines on a daily basis. I received my NOA1 on July 27 and as is the case with many July filers I have yet to receive my NOA2 or an RFE. There has been a trend lately with CSC approving petitions from December. It's hard to tell if these petitions were expedited or if they were just picked at random to work right away as opposed to putting in in the queue. Would it be possible to add a field that indicates if you have requested an expedite and if that expedite was approved?

I have no problem with USCIS approving expedited applications ahead of me, but it is very frustrating when I continue to wait while other non-expedite petitions "win the lottery" and wait less than a month between NOA1 and NOA2. Obviously this wouldn't fix or change anything, but it would help to know how often USCIS does something like this. It's already ridiculous that we have to wait 5 months or more for someone to take 15 minutes to process our petition, but it is simply unfair that some are stuck in a long queue while others breeze through.

We complete five months since our NOA1 tomorrow. How long would you guys advice we wait before I ask my husband to contact his congressman's office?

I would suggest contacting them now since you are at the 5 month mark. They will probably just tell you that they are behind, but you might get lucky and get an Immigration Liason who decides to write a letter which could trigger a service request.

I called my Congressman's office at about the 3 month mark and again at the 5 month mark. When I called at the 3 month mark I was told to call back at the 5 month mark. When I called at the 5 month mark I was told to call back about 6 weeks later.

This is just my opinion, but it seems that if the liason just calls USCIS they will just tell you what they are telling everyone, that they are behind and they are currently working on June 16. If they send a written request the chances are greater that USCIS will chose to pull your file and work it right away. Probably wouldn't hurt to point out that we know that CSC is not working petitions in order. Based on VJ member timelines it is clear that they are working "low risk" petitions from December, probably in an effort to keep their average processing time at 5 months. Some of these were expedites, but others had no expedite request. I just ask that the system be fair and that it be applied equally to EVERYONE. Also make sure they know that CSC has been stating June 16 for at least 1-2 months now.

Has the check cleared yet? What address did you send the packet to?

CSC is only at mid-June?! When I checked the processing times yesterday, it shows that they're currently processing October 7 petitions! If they are really only at mid-June, my frustration level is going to go way up! VSC seems to be burning through them!

When you say you checked the processing times yesterday are you referring to the dates listed on this website? If so, remember that is not an official date and is only an estimate generated by the timelines of VJers. Check out the July 2011 I-130 threads, there are a couple of them. Unfortunately you will find that multiple VJers have reported that CSC is currently working June 16. They have been saying this for at least a month now, if not more.

It seemed like CSC was moving along at a fairly decent pace until the Friday before Christmas. Since then it seems to have slowed to a snails pace.

Don't give up hope though, it's always possible that they pick up the pace and clear their backlog so they can start getting out NOA2's within their 5-month goal.

I just received 2 e-mails from NVC one is the choice of agent and the other is telling me to pay the $88 AOS fee, but I didn't receive no e-mail from USCIS saying that the case was approved. I am so excited because I didn't expect to get an approval until April or March the earliest. If NVC set me those e-mails that means I was approved right? silly question I know. Aaaaaaah! I'm so happy

Based on other VJers timelines who list Haiti as their country it looks like their average processing time between NOA1 and NOA2 is a few weeks. I'm guessing that USCIS automatically expedites requests when the beneficiary is residing in Haiti due to humanitarian reasons caused by the earthquake 2 years ago.

NOA #2 in usually the notice of approval for a petition or application by the USCIS. I don't know if that applies in the case of DCF. When filing the I-864, (Affidavit of Support) it requires the attatchment of the last three years of copies of the last three tax returns, or transcripts to establish the income history of the (USC) sponsor. If one or more of the years includes the income of both spouses, so much the better.

According to the I-864 Instructions PDF found on the USCIS Website you are only required to provide a copy of your most recent return:

"You must provide either an IRS transcript or a photocopy from your own records of your Federal individual income tax return for the most recent tax year. If you believe additional returns may help you to establish your ability to maintain sufficient income, you may submit transcripts or photocopies of your Federal individual income tax returns for the three most recent years." Page 8, first paragraph.

This is also taken from that same PDF and should be helpful for your situation:

"If you were required to file a Federal income tax return during any of the previous three tax years but did not do so, you must file any and all late returns with IRS and attach an IRS-generated tax return transcript documenting your late filing before submitting the I-864 Affidavit of Support. If you were not required to file a Federal income tax return under U.S. tax law because your income was too low, attach a written explanation. If you were not required to file a Federal income tax return under U.S. tax law for any other reason, attach a written explanation including evidence of the exemption and how you are subject to it. Residence outside of the United States does not exempt U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents from filing a U.S. Federal income tax return. See "Filing Requirements" in the IRS Form 1040 Filing Instructions to determine whether you were required to file."

This form can be downloaded from the USCIS website at this link:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/form/i-864instr.pdf

In my opinion this would not be a reason for expedite. Having said that you could always request an expedite and list the reason and see if they accept it or not.

If this were a valid reason for expedite it would open a can of worms in my opinion. The ultimate goal is for the petitioner and beneficiary to live together, in most cases this would be in the US. In those cases the beneficiary is going to have to quit their job when they move to the US. If USCIS allowed expedites due to lack of job people would start quitting their jobs knowing that the processing time would drop from 7-9 months to just a few months. This wouldn't be the case with everyone, but it would be used by a lot of people. This is just my opinion of course.

I should clarify by saying that the beneficiary would be the one to quit their job in order to request an expedite, not the petitioner.

In my opinion this would not be a reason for expedite. Having said that you could always request an expedite and list the reason and see if they accept it or not.

If this were a valid reason for expedite it would open a can of worms in my opinion. The ultimate goal is for the petitioner and beneficiary to live together, in most cases this would be in the US. In those cases the beneficiary is going to have to quit their job when they move to the US. If USCIS allowed expedites due to lack of job people would start quitting their jobs knowing that the processing time would drop from 7-9 months to just a few months. This wouldn't be the case with everyone, but it would be used by a lot of people. This is just my opinion of course.

Some progess for July filers....

Two VJers with July 2011 NOA1 dates reported getting their NOA2 on 1/10/11. Both were early July. At this point I will take any progress as a good sign.

I have a problem with that, my congressman is Dr. Phil Roe, whom I did not vote for. I do not believe in his opinions and policies, especially about immigration.

They are not processing VWP countries quickly or I wouldn't be sitting here almost seven months after my NOA1 wondering what is going on.

They say we are with in current processing times and there is nothing that can be done right now, but sit here and wait. It's pointless to tell them their web site says five months... They're stuck on June 16th.

I had the same response from my Congressman's Immigration Liason officer. Maybe the difference for those that have experienced positive results from contacting their Congressman is that the Congressman's office sends a letter instead of just a phone call to USCIS.

In my case I contacted my Congressman a week ago and they told me to let them know if I haven't received a reply by the middle of February. My NOA1 date is 7/27. My guess is they came up with the mid Feburary date based on being told that CSC is working June 16 petitions. Problem with that is that they have been reporting that date for at least a month now.

CSC is still bloody "processing 16June"

"All you can do is keep waiting sir."

Take your "keep waiting" and die in a fire

Thanks for letting us know. While I hoped the earlier report of July 15 was true, I didn't get my hopes up too much.

Let's all hope this week shows some major improvement.

I have a few theories on why CSC seems to have slown to a crawl the past few weeks.

1) High turnover rate at the CSC. There are a couple of interviews on this site with people from the inside. In both they mention that there is a turnover rate within this group. From what it seems people use this as a stepping stone to better jobs within USCIS/DHS. So, there may be times when the outflow of employees exceeds the rate at which they can train new employees. This would then cause a general slowdown as there would be fewer well-trained employees to work petitions.

2) Shifted focus. Another possibility is that the USCIS is placing a higher emphasis on getting other visa petitions processed and out the door. Some possibilities are employment based visas and temporary protected status visas.

3) Statistical anomoly. It's obvious that VJers only represent a fraction of all petitions. It's possible that the slowdown is only perceived due to VJers not getting approved while non VJers are being approved. This is unlikely though, due to the many VJers who have reported that USCIS customer service has been stating June 16 as the current process date for about a month now.

4) Fudging the numbers. 4 of the last 5 VJers who reported getting their NOA2 had NOA1 dates in December. Some of these are expedited requests, but others weren't. It's possible CSC is pulling December petitions with perceived low risks (ie low fraud countries, marriages over a few years) and working them right away. This can help keep their average process time at 5 months.

These are just a few of my theories. I claim that none of these are facts and of course this doesn't help anything, but maybe it provides some reasons for the slowdown.

During the past week 5 VJers reported receiving their NOA2 for their I-130 petitions. 4 of those users reported submitting their applications in December, the other in June. Normally that would be good news since people would be waiting less than a month, problem is there are a lot of VJers from June-November who are still waiting.

Hopefully this upcoming week has better results.

He needs to IMMEDIATELY in the interview admit there was a mis-ticked box on the form stating that he was never denied a visa when in fact he was. He won't be denied for the denied visa but he WOULD be denied with a lifetime ban for lying on the form. He needs to fix it ASAP.

OP, can you confirm which form you are referring to? As I stated in an earlier post if you are referring to question #42 on the DS-230 form this isn't the same thing as being denied a visa. It asks if you were denied admittance at a port-of-entry into the United States.

I'm not claiming to be an expert on this, just interpreting the form as I understand it.

OK so here is the issue. when filling out forms for our visa we were asked if he had ever been denied a visa and we said no. thing is he has been denied! it was an honest mistake. if they ask him if he was denied he will say yes but that is not what we put on the documents if they detect fraud will they question him or immediately deny him? surely they have noticed the error i mean they know EVERYHTING!!! if they detected fraud would they still have scheduled the visa interview? i am extremely nervous about this. his uncle had sent him an invitation letter for him to visit the states while on a break from school and they say he didnt have strong proof that he would return so they said no. honestly i think it is because he is african and even though in germany know africa is labeled high fraud. please help me any advice is appreciated!

Which form asked if he had ever been denied a visa? I just looked at the I-130 petition and I don't see this question on there. I also looked at the DS-230 form and couldn't find it there either. The DS-230 form does ask "Have you ever been refused admission to the United States at a port-of-entry?". Is this what you are referring to or is there another form I am missing? The reason I ask is because my wife was denied a tourist visa a year ago when I was naive enough to think that they would issue her a tourist visa so she could meet my family and friends before we got married.

We're going on 7 months. My NOA1 date is June 16th, so if they've been working on June 16th for weeks now, where the hell is ours?!

After the five month mark I called and was told because of the money order snafu, that my filing date was changed to July 12th. Well... we're still passed the 'five month mark'. I called again on Thursday "We're currently processing cases from July 16th..."

GDI!

I don't condone it in anyway, but I see why people come illegally...

The operator said they were working July 16th when you called on Thursday? They had been saying June 15th for about the past month. Has anyone else heard July 15th? I'll take any progress at this point.

Apparently the people who are getting approved in weeks are people who have been living together for a while and who's spouse is from a low fraud country. I wonder if they treat these the same as if they were a DCF. If that is the case we will now have to watch even more people get approved before we do.

Is it worth applying for a K-3 so you can wait in the US?

It seems to me that it makes sense to apply for K-3 IMMEDIATELY when receiving the NOA1 just in case there is a delay in processing the I-130. You know... just for backup.

It is my understanding that K3 visas haven't been issued for a year or two because the processing time for the K3 and IR-1/CR-1 are about the same these days. When the K3 visa was created couples were waiting 1-2 years in some cases for their IR-1/CR-1 visas to be issued.

What I don't understand is why it would take USCIS longer to process an I-130 application vs an 129-f application. Maybe a less rigorous background check?

3 more days and its gonna be 7 months, my NOA1 is June 8. Does anyone know what is the longest time for an approval?

Have you contacted the USCIS by telephone to check your status? They have been saying for at least a month now that they are working applications from 6/15. I would also suggest contacting your Congressman's office and have their Immigration liason do an inquiry for you.

BTW, i'm sure you are 'thrilled' when you see that the last 3 reported NOA2s were from VJers who filed in December.

As much as I hate to say it, and likely won't follow the advice myself, it seems all we can do for at least the next couple of weeks is just continue to wait as patiently as we can.

I agree with you on that. At least we can get together on this forum and have someone to listen to our rants and empathize with us. I just wish I would have done my research a year ago and found this website back then. I would have done things differently knowing what I know now.

For example this time last year I was helping my then fiance fill out an application for a tourist visa. I was completely naive to the fact that she would have zero chance of being issued a tourist visa because she couldn't prove strong ties to her country. My plan was for her to come to the US for a few weeks so she could meet my family and see what it is like to live in the US. My wife would prefer that we live together in Chile, but my line of work doesn't translate very well there and I have a house that I would lose my shirt on if I had to sell it now. The time came for her interview and as you would expect she was flat denied. I was angry of course, partly because they took the money for the application even though they would never issue her a visa and because I felt like they were calling my future wife a liar. I then consulted with a relative of a friend who is an immigration attorney and he suggested we get married in Chile and then go through the direct consular filing process. I guess he didn't know that most if not all consulates now require a minimum of 6 months of residency in the foreign country before you are eligible to do this. I found out about a week before we were planning to go to the embassy in Santiago. So, if I had it to do over again I would have filed for an I-129f visa instead of a tourist visa this time last year and more than likely I would be with my wife now.

I just spoke with the Immigration Liason from my Congressman's office after she made an inquiry for me. She said that they are about a month behind their goal of 5 months, but that they are still within normal processing times. She said I should call her back if I haven't heard anything by the middle of February. My NOA1 date is 7/27/11.

I wasn't expecting anything different from that call, but I decided to do it anyway in case this does drag out for another month. I've decided to shift my focus from fretting over something I can't control and instead focus on planning a trip to see my wife in the next month or so. Fortunately the Chilean government lets me visit my wife whenever I feel like it