PleaseDeleteAcct

I'm still waiting, and I noticed that most of the people that have my exact date has been accepted, except us, and you can check that, unfortunately, we called several times, but we keep getting the same answer over and over, we have to wait, and they can do nothing about it, and they are saying that there system is malfunctioning now, and its still showing them that the processing date is 2/27th.

I know that I have to wait, and no one can do anything about it, but my entire life is on hold now, and I'm unable to do anything, because I don't know if I'm going to be rejected, accepted, stay in pending status, or what exactly.....and I know that my case is similar to a lot of people, but seeing that all of the people with my date have been accepted except mine is killing me...

I know this process is not fun. I know it doesn't make you feel any better but we are Vermont Service Center and our NOA1 is Jan 12 and we STILL haven't heard anything....

Unfortunately things got relaly messed up there for a while and who knows whats going on now. Can't relaly do anything about it, can try to get a congressman involved but even then they usually tell you to ask again in 30 days...

hey VJ, havent been on here much lately...

Happened to see this thread though and thought i'd respond

We are at VSC and our NOA1 is JAN 12, 2012... still no word on the NOA2 we are past the SEVEN month mark and nothing...

I'd like to say it's cuz VSC is still going very slow but it seems Feb, Mar, Apr are getting approvals so I don't know.

Yea, thats what is bothering me too... Feb and March approvals yet theres tons of Jan filers still waiting... And a handful of Dec filers too!

Hi,

I know where you are coming from and I can tell you first hand information since I have visited my wife more than twice within the last six months while having a pending I-130 application.

I actually wrote to CBP office directly and asked the question and this was their answer:

"You can travel under the Visa Waiver program while an I-130 is pending. Admission is always at the discretion of the port of entry, but you could bring copies of your petition, evidence of residency and employment in the UK and any other relevant documents to help facilitate your entry."

When I got this reply my ESTA had actually expired but I applied for it while I-130 pending and got approved. I was prepared for questions and I declared my purpose of visit is to see my wife. Every time I go it's not smooth sailing as they will grill you with questions..... one time it was almost 45 minutes of questioning my intention of visiting. I was blunt and honest and it worked out well in the end. Because they keep the history of all conversation I have had with them in the past and they can see my I-130 application it becomes easier after the first time. I did take a lot of supporting documents but they did ask but they never wanted to see them.

If you ask me, its a 95% chance you will be fine, just be honest and be prepared for questions, you may be lucky they may not ask too many questions after all.

Either way goodluck and congratulations on your wedding

R

OP,

1st-- congrats on the wedding! yay!

We are kinda in the same situation, I am the USC and my husband is from England. WE got married here though in the US and he had to leave just 3 or 4 days later. I then sent the I-130 petition and planned to go visit him in the UK a few times since it would be easier customs/border patrol wise for me to go there than for him to come here. I went for 10 days in Feb but then I ended up getting pneumonia a few weeks later and burned up almost ALL my sick and vacation time at work and I def cant afford to miss that much work for go back so he came here just yesterday.

I read tons of stories of people getting in and not getting in while having a petition/visa pending... I was a nervous wreck the whole time he flew especially since he lives with his parents currently so doesn't have evidence of a lease agreement or mortgage or anything like that.. he also just finished school (school was always a tie to England, ya know, a reason to go back... but now hes done so he didnt have that as a reason anymore) and he isn't working because as I said he JUST finished school and he hasnt begun looking for a job there yet (and might now since he will have to quit in like 3 or 3 months anyway to move here. lol) but anyway yea... all he had to prove he was coming home was a copy of his itinerary showing his return flight in 2 weeks, a copy of our NOA1 proving that we are in the visa process and are doing it the "right way" and wouldn't want to ruin that by overstaying or causing any delays, and the only other thing he had was his passport history where he came and left numerous times in the alst 2 years and always stayed only as long as he told them he was staying.

I was really nervous because so many other people bring lease agreements, car information, job/employment letters, etc. But we didn't have that option.

His POE was at JFK in NYC and this particular officer didn't give him any trouble at all. And he didn't need to give any evidence, he just stated that he had a return flight in two weeks... they didnt even ask him for proof (which he did have just in case).

As everyone says, sometimes it's kind of luck... its USUALLY fine for you to come here, but definitely be prepared to show ties home and have a return flight booked.

Also, like someone else stated, can you possibly go to a different internation airport in your spouses state? If they POE at the airport you usually use is that bad then maybe try your luck somewhere else...

You can check out peoples reviews of POE on here and maybe that would help your situation more?

Good Luck!!

Any news about I-130 visa approval for february2012 and march2012 filers? Vermont SC filers?! Please update me! Thank you!

We are Jan 12 2012 at VSC.

Still no word. Asked for service request, they told us just to wait... Senator can't do anything either.

Will be contacting congressman next week.

Have you tried calling your Congressman?

Contacted Senators office, they took all the information and then told me that I have to wait another 30 before doing anything... that was about 10 days ago or so, tomorrow I'm going to contact congressman with same information and see if that does us any good. I just dont want to do anything before tonight, can't afford to ruffle any feathers before my husband lands and gets through border patrol and all that. Once he's here with me for 2 weeks we can try to make some calls and see what we can do to find out what the heck is going on at VSC and why they think it is ok to completely neglect Jan and approve half of the Feb cases and some March cases already, ughh.

I just keep hoping, praying and crossing my fingers. there seems to be nothing else anyone is able to do for us right now.

yali they update every 15 days so if they are in jan 1st depending how long ago they did the last update depends when will be the your NOA2 i will suggest love just to be patience eso ya casi viene

For the record... On March 19th they told me that VSC was processing Jan 1, 2012 cases.... sooooo what does that tell u? :/

They tell everyone something different all on the same day, I honestly don't think they even know. they just tll you something to get you to leave them alone for a few more days.

I m past 5 months and they wouldn't even do a service request

I hope you guys have better luck!

Yup, still waiting... Jan 12th.

In other news, my husband is coming to visit tomorrow for 2 weeks (well, hopefully lol, ive read some horror stories!!). We realllllyyyy need this after all the ####### that's been going on with us, the visa, work, health stuff, etc.

I hope that finally seeing him can at least ease some of it

And maybe for those 2 weeks I won't be sitting around wondering why we still havent gotten our NOA2 yet...

LOL, well.. i did say MAYBE haha

Good luck Tamerlane and the rest of the Jan filers who are waiting with us!!

Well I don't know if it makes you feel better or worse but our NOA1 is 1/12/12 also at VSC and our case was last updated on 3/29/12 as well.

We are now past the 5 month mark and we were told they can't do anything for us (not even service request with senator/congressman help) for another 3 weeks...

I'd say since your NOA1 is in March you have at least another 2 months to go, possibly more.

Of course there is always a chance that things get sped up between now and then but I'd advise you to think on the long end of things instead of the short end so that you won't be disappointed... when we filed the average for VSC was 3 to 3.5 months so we were assuming ours would be too and VJ timeline originally predicted based on other timelines that we would have approval between April 1 and April 15th... here we are June 15th and still no NOA2 approval.

Better to be prepared for a good 5-6 months for NOA2 and then be pleasantly surprised if you get it sooner because it's not fun to have to try to re-adjust your thinking to wait longer that you originally planned or expected :/ Trust Me

Have you guys checked your case status on USCIS site? I saw this "Last Updated: March 29,2012". Does they updated our case last 3months ago? It's already June2012'should I be worried? Vermont is killing me!

Service Center : Vermont Service Center

Consulate : Manila, Philippines

Marriage (if applicable): 2012-02-16

I-130 Sent : 2012-03-14

I-130 NOA1 : 2012-03-27

You are simply too impatient, Be careful, you don't wanna push them too much.

I don't see another way to describe what you are doing. Regardless what the tier 2 told you. If you can wait 5 months, I think you can add another month to you wait time.

I am not trying to push anyone, as I said, we have other reasons that we can't just sit back and wait it out. We have been doing that a while and it's not just "wait another month" we still have the NVC stuff and interview after that... it's another 5-6 months still, even if we got approved today we still have a lot more to go through before things are actually done.

Again, impatient is not the word. As I said before, we were told on March 19th that we could expect an answer in 2-3 weeks.

If they never said that then maybe I wouldn't be as upset about this today, but it really hurts to be told something and more than 2 months later still not have an answer. It's not right to mess with someones emotions like that. I know it wasn't done on purpose, but if they had just said in March to wait 2 or 3 more months then I would have taken this a lot better... but when they said to me that I would hear from them in early April then yes, it becomes a problem and completely messes with our lives.

Like i said, it's more than just missing my husband, I have things going on at work right now and some health issues that I'm dealing with and it's VERY hard to do it alone, especially when we were told that we would be onto the next step by now.

Again, sorry if some of you feel we are being impatient, but that wasn't what the question was... the question was: What do we do from here?

---

Also thanks to all the people who were helpful and I will just keep my fingers crossed for something soon and look into contacting congressman instead of senators office in a week or two.

Thanks for the good lucks

I know I'm not the only one in this position and there are others that are waiting outside of 5 months as well, I hope things go well for everyone and I hope things speed up soon!!

I called USCIS yesterday. We also filed our paperwork on January 12th (NOA1 January 17th). They told me that the vermont service center is currently processing applications from January 1st (This was yesterday) and that we should hear from them in the next few days. It's just a waiting game....

They told me on March 19th that they were processing Jan 1, 2012 apps at VSC....

im afraid you have to suck it up... or you can go to another politician that is willing to help you. fyi, you have 2 senator and your current congressman to contact. therefore 3 politicians total.

i talked to a tier 2 and he said it takes 6 months process at uscis and 6 months at nvc - 1 year total.. is this guy misinformed?

Well it could be 6 months USCIS and 6 months NVC/Interview now...

When we applied it was about 3.5 months at VSC and 2-3 months at NVC then interview date (usually about 1 month later) totalling about 6-9 months.

Now we see that VSC is averaging more like 5-6 months and people are waiting a month or more in some cases for case numbers at NVC level. So it could be closer to 6 months at NVC instead of the 3-4ish (including interview) that it used to be.

I am going to contact my congressman in the next couple of days I think. I can't just sit around and wait anymore Esp past the 5 months.

Also I work for the government... and we just got a heads up that in the next 60 days there could be a significant amount of layoffs.

I don't understand how the gov't is laying anyone off when there is SOOOOO much work to be done that is backed up (my office included.. and OBV the service centers, etc.)

Instead of laying people off why don't they make people do the work in a timely manner, then it would be worth it to keep paying them since the work is getting done... light a fire or something so people start getting things done instead of just laying them off and causing the system to slow even more....

I just don't get it.

I don't understand how people can be so impatient at times. We know that it can be quick as it can be late, so why not give it to nearly 6 months and see what happens. It is more likely that after 5 months or nearly 6 months it will be worked on and this happens in a lot of cases. They are under much pressure from all applications and cases being sent everyday. I hope people will consider this fact, instead of driving themself crazy and frustrated over this process.

Ok well I'm sorry if you feel I'm being impatient.

I was told on March 19th by a Tier 2 that we would have an answer in 2-3 weeks....I have been MORE THAN patient because we have waited those 2-3 weeks PLUS 2 more months on top of that.

I've never been away from my husband this long, and as most people here know, it's hard. Also, I am having issues that I'm dealing with at work at the moment. We need to get things settled or at least moving in some direction in order to get everything else worked out.

We have reasons more than just missing each other to try to get things going a little faster but unforuntately it doesn't "technically" fit under any of the expedite criteria, we are doing the best to just "hang in there" but there are reasons that we can't just sit around and wait it out after we've already been told on 3 occassions that we would have an answer in a few days and then were told to contact a senator or congressman.

When we applied the average time at VSC was 3-3.5 months for NOA2. I don't think it's unreasonable to be upset and want to get things moving... we waited out the time we were told to. Now I was just asking for advice on where to go from here. You don't need to claim that I'm being impatient... you don't know anything about what we've gone through to this point with our case.

Hi VJ,

I am writing because I am not sure where to go from here....

Our NOA1 date is 1/12/12. Today (6/12/12) is 5 months since we sent our NOA1. I jumped the gun a little and sent my information to a senators office on 6/7/12 (5 days early) and got information back saying that they cannot do anything since we are still within processing times and to try again in a month!!! I'm sooooo frustrated, if I had waited until today to send the information they probably would not have given that answer right?

So I don't know what to do at this point.... should I contact a different person (congressman instead) now that we're at the 5 months? Should I just resend the information to the senator I've already spoken with now that it's 5 months? Just call USICS customer service (I know they don't help.. but... idk) and see what they say?

No idea where to go from here and there is no way in hell that I can just leave it alone for another month and be left in the dark. If we are told that we can file a service request or contact congress/senate at 5 months then I don't see how 4 months and 26 days is much different.

Yes, I should have waited but I had reason to send earlier, I wrote an explanation of why etc.

But the bottom line is... how does 5 days early make it ok to make us wait another month before anyone will help us out?? Ugh. I'm sooooo emotionally drained from this process, I've never felt this upset and depressed in my life.

I too have same feeling -

CSC is on 22nd Feb and VSC is on JAN files from past 2months.....hope they catch up soon after solving whateever the issue is....

Yea, They've been on "Jan 2012" for more than two months. On March 19th when I called they told me they were on Jan 1st and since we are Jan 12th we should hear something in 2-3 weeks (Early April)

Here we are, 2 months after that (5 months after NOA1) and still nothing.

VSC is really falling behind. It's very frustrating

Today is 5 months for us. I wrote a letter to a senator a few weeks ago when we were (wrongly) told that we were "outside processing time". I followed up on Friday 6/8 and they said since we are still within the processing time they can't do anything about it and to wait and contact them in a month....

#######???

it was 4 days earlier than 5 months....

Now i don't know what to do. Should I just resend our info again in a few days to the same office? Or send the info to a diff congressman's office or just suck it up and wait a month and resend?

It makes me sick thinking about waiting ANOTHER month before even getting an answer for NOA2 and then waiting another 3 months or more in the NVC steps...

ugh... help!!!

looks like vsc stopped at EAC1290269181. i am not sure how many they work on a day.

i doubt you need to check 400+ unless you have a macro that pulls the data instantly. i just do a margin of range +/-20 on my receipt number.

you can continue using the receipt number from above and follow how many will be completed this monday.

It seems the case numbers aren't completely in order.... we are Jan 12th and ours is EAC129019**** and we have had no activity. Some before and after us are around your date as well. I can't seem to figure out the rhyme or reason to these case numbers

(Or the way the work on anything at all to be honest... lol)

When we filed Status on this website was 83 days, that made me happy to be in VSC.....

Past 2months (From 10th April till today) VSC is with January Files.....

However looking at the Statistics I thought CSC is logest wait time, but i did notice 15th Feb 2012 File been approved for CR-1.....the Statistics are not correct.....

Please some1 give a wake up call for VSC.....

When i called on March 19th and asked what Vermont was working on, they told me Jan 1, 2012. So thats more than 2 months that they've supposedly been working on "JANUARY" cases :/

Back before we filed it was about 3-3.5 average for Vermont. It's definitely slowed down a lot since then and CSC is speeding up it seems.

I hope too that they get back on track soon!

I have a feeling that "no news is good news" is NOT true in this situation. haha

How is everyone, any more news?

I hope our time is coming soon...

Does anyone have any fun/new ideas of passing this time??

I hate spending so much time away from my husband... since we first met we've never been apart more than 8 weeks or so and right now we are at a little more than 14 weeks. It's crazy how much I miss him (as I'm sure everyone here knows the feeling!!).

We're just waiting here with our fingers crossed. Hopefully June brings a LOT more January approvals!

^ That information is not correct.... well sorta correct but not quite in the right order.. your passport and visa packet wont come til after your interview which is not the next step, you have another 1 to 3 months still to go.

You said wife, so im guessing you applied for cr1 visa (ir1 if married more than 2 years..) so now that i130 is approved your case will be sent to the national visa center (NVC) where you will then need to pay two different fees and send out the IV packet (immigrant visa) and the AOS packet ( in theis case affidavit of support)

If you need help with what is neeed justt search VJ for NVC steps

Or check out the thread in here called May NVC filers, that has tons of ste by step info. Hope that helps!

Sorry for spelling.. using my phone

I agree with Jayne D in everything except in the way you get your case number. As you are applying for an IR1/CR1 visa your case number (LND number) will be issued by NVC as soon as they have received your file from USCIS and logged it in their system. At that point you can book your medical.

As Jayne says you can usually get an appointment in the next week or two and the results are valid for 12 months. I recommend doing it as soon as you can in case there are any issues that need following up - rare I'm sure but it happened to me.

Definitely take Jayne's advice on the vaccinations too.

Thank you both so much! I figured we probably needed some type of case number in order to schedule it but I wasn't sure when.

Hopefully we will get our NOA2 soon and we'll be off to NVC

I'll tell my husband to find out about his vaccination history and stuff so that it's all set for when we get a case number with NVC we can get things going.

Thanks again!

http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/monthly_filers.php?form=2&visa=3&scenter=2&option=3&sortby=2

someone got approved today from noa1 w/ jan24. mine is jan24 but still waiting =\

Oh man, I wish I hadn't read that... making me so depressed

I know it should be good that they are working on ones near ours but it makes me sad that the last two approved were a week or more after our date. Ugh, just gotta hope we are getting closer..

Hi VJ!

I am just writing this because I realized that we don't have any idea when to schedule the medical exam (or how to do it for that matter). I know it needs to be done before the interview, but how do you know when you should schedule it? Is is only valid for a certain period of time? Does it take months to get an appt? Etc.

I am the USC, my husband lives in the UK (England to be exact) in case that information is needed for an accurate answer

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!!

It usually takes about 6-9 months to get your visa.

I remember reading about 6-9 months (some things said 7-10 months) when I was first getting ready to apply late dec/early jan but it seems at Vermont Service Center in particular has slowed down quite a bit and are generally telling people 6 months now between NOA1 and NOA2. (Then you still have the NVC case number assignment, sending of packets, checklist if applicable, send to consulate, assign interview date... then actual interview)

I'm also catching things here and there from other people saying that the NVC steps are taking a bit longer too, people waiting 2 or 3 times as long as they used to just to get a case number. In my opinion, I think 8-12 months would be a more accurate guess since most people are 5-6 months anyway just from NOA1 to NOA2 lately.

You will have plenty of time to sched a flight for your spouse to come to you before you return here. I wouldn't do anything untill you begin the NVC steps (probably about 6 months from now) or wait a few weeks later and get the interview date and have your spouse sched their trip to get you about 2 weeks or so after the interview (this allows time for the visa to be processed and sent to you after the interview).

Just some suggestions.. as always, nothing on here is 100% accurate and you can always find contradicting answers since some cases move faster than others for various reasons. But I do think you will likely be waiting more than a total of 6 months in all honesty and don't want you to have your spouse buy tickets too early and waste money

Good luck in the process and I hope all goes well!!

you are past the 5 month mark!!!!! that's right.... May is the 5th month of the year.

"NOA1 E-mail & Text: 01/12/2012"

.

Though I wish you were right, you are mistaken...

It's only been 4 months.

We are Jan 12th which means Feb 12th is the 1 month mark, March 12th is 2, April 12th is 3 and May 12th is 4.

We have another 2.5 weeks to go until we hit 5 months, unfortunately

This entire process is driving me nuts, I really want my hubby here with me for Thanksgiving and our 1st year anniversary. I thought that by now I wouldve seen an approval. I saw ppl with the same date as mine already gotten approval. I thought it was done according to date received, first come first serve?

You would THINK it was first come first served, and they want to say that it is... but the fact of the matter is: some case workers work faster than others... and sometimes its just whether ur box gets chosen first.

Your NOA1 is almost a month after mine and we're still waiting as well :/

Some people have been waiting 6-7 months unfortunately