Sulaimon & Brandy

I hired an immigration lawyer who did all of the paperwork and had me gather most of this documentation Day 1 (one reason I am October and not September), which I am happy has been completed. I have an email out to see if anything is missing. We have not gotten her medical or court records yet because it is too early in the process. I am going to see my wife next week so I have an email out to the lawyer to see if there are any additional items I need to get while I am in Colombia. Getting excited....and PS my file of documentation sent was about two inches thick! Of course I went loco with supporting documentation! Hahahahaha

on the list of documentation did you send originals? Im wondering if I send copies like I did for the I130 petition if they will request the originals at the interview? I wont be going back to Africa until August but I am thinking that maybe way to late. I am sure with help from fellow Vj'ers I shouldn't have a problem filling out the paperwork its just the originals that I am worried about. Im waiting to see what others are planning to do.

I'll tell you what guys. I feel like we are more likely to find people who are looking for answers as to why they were overlooked or not yet approved, than the people who are approved every day. I see that Nebraska is actively approving cases in July and considering they have barely any through August and September, I wouldn't worry so much about it. The people who did get approved in July seem to average about 60 days. And those same people, when they were transferred, took 6 months for transfers. We're here at 5 months getting transferred. I don't see why we couldn't expect approvals in 30-45 days. You can't look at high risk countries, and wonder why they are waiting longer than others, the answer should seem obvious.

On another note, I feel that if the beneficiary is a women, especially from a higher risk country, it makes the process less risky on the USCIS side. My personal thoughts.

It looks to be according to the spreadsheet on the transfers for NSC they have begun adjudicating September 2013 applications... OOOOOOOHHHHH our time is coming faster!!!!!!!! Slow or fast the numbers keep coming down.

Hello guys, because of we are near to approvals and NVC processing i decided to start practicing and getting ready for further procedures which is much more difficult than it was i-130 packet. So i have some questions and i want to get confirmations if i am doing ok and not missing papers. If someone knows well about NVC procedures and can answer my quick questions please notice me, i am appreciating all respond and VJ is just awesome. Maybe this forum isn't as appropriate as another could be for my request but i am here feeling familiar and i am sure much filers from this forum are already with prepared papers for NVC procedures. Thanks

I am ready to prepare for the NVC stage too. I have been looking at the steps and it just seems to be a bit tougher then the petition for the I130. Maybe its just me and Im having some brain pauses. I agree 100% we all should be practicing and getting ready for the stage. I too would love to hear if anyone else has started preparing.

You don't really have to change your name. Besides, why can't you ask your souse to courier those documents to you?

Sure I can ask my spouse to send the documents to me. If he sends them by mail we risk them being lost or the 1 and 1/2 month wait it takes for registered mail. Perhaps the only solution will be to pay DHL to have them shipped, I guess I should get started on them soon. So it doesn't really matter if I used my married name on our I130? I did list my name as other names used. I'm just having a mental pause or a mental freak out.

Hey everyone, all this transferring and talks of a shorter wait time has me absolutely frazzled. I have spent the greater part of my day reading about the NVC stage I keep saying to myself what is this or what is that. OMG how can I make it and do it all by myself. I see where we send originals to the NVC, great I'm thinking I left all the originals such as the marriage license and his birth certificate in Africa. I had already made one of the biggest mistakes not bringing the original marriage license with me so I could change my name legally. I feel like I'm about to enter one big mess. Sorry to unload I was feeling overwhelmed and needed to vent some where.

Just got the transfer!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!

Lol I freaked out and started crying

Yay Im so happy for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

_{How unfortunate to have such a harsh and scrutinizing interview. I wish you the best and a positive outcome. I too am very out spoken and answer out of turn its a problem I have had all my life. It just seemed that the interviewer was having a very bad day. That was here in the United States??????}

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have yet to receive our NOA2, but I am curious once we are in the NVC stage does the NVC send the beneficiary mail? My husband uses his work address for his mail I have a concern because the principal only checks the mail at random times. Im wondering if he should obtain his own mailing address?

been waiting all week....FINALLY we got transferred on March 7th!!!!..our PD is October 15th..

Can anyone tell us how we can find which local office we got transferred to?

Hope all of us get our NOA2 fast..Thank you so much and GOD Bless us all!!

Yay another transfer. I pray your journey goes much faster now!!!!!!!!!!!

Yea guys... Case transferred to local office...

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!

Well guys, after getting up to brush my teeth before calling it a night, I opened my e-mail up and there it was, an e-mail from the USCIS informing me that my case was transferred to a service center! My NOA1 date is October 11. Some good news to know that they are really picking up the pace. I don't know how to find out what service center its been sent to though. Hang in there everyone!

Yay for the transfers!!!!!!! it gives us all hope!

I am seeing how fast things are moving, so much that when I look at our case status I seem to be excited!!!! Then when I click submit it says Initial Review. LOL I know our time is coming soon...!!!!!!!!

Congratulations!!!!!

I totally agree with you nightingalejules... most of all the Aug filers have been transferred and September filers have been now started to get the transfer.... hopefully Oct filers should get the transfers by March end.

Please help me understand the transfers, do you mean people who are at the service centers can be transferred to or just those at the NBC?

The people at the call centers have pretty much no access to any up-to-date information. They will tell you that the information they have is current, and that everyone on VisaJourney is lying, or mistaken.

Here are a few facts.

The information they are quoting is out-of-date, even by their own data. If you go to the USCIS website, you will see exactly the information they just quoted you. Look at the small print. The dates they are quoting were current as of December 31, 2013. It's now almost the end of February. So they are telling you they are currently processing April filers? They were doing that 2 months ago. Yes, there are still some filers stuck, still waiting, from April. And March, and February. But they are also processing May filers, June filers, July filers and August filers. And transferring some from September.

The average wait time may be 9 months. Or rather, may have been 9 months as of December 31, 2013. They made a promise to try to get the timelines close to their goal of 5 months by May 2014. So presumably, they are trying to catch up. There are also fewer DACA petitions going through now, which is what slowed down the process to begin with. The likelihood is that the average is actually closer to 7 months now, and making up ground.

It is to the USCIS' benefit to estimate processing times extremely conservatively. Once they go on record as saying "we are processing files from X date" or "the average wait time is Y," then anyone with a priority date before "X" or who has been waiting more than "Y" can legitimately complain and demand to know what's going on with their file right now. Which would take a lot of time and resources away from actually processing and approving our petitions. So it stands to reason that they would not release the actual, current information.

Finally, VJ is a community of people going through this process, who have nothing to gain by lying about the status of their petitions/applications. Our data is collected in real time, continually updated and reported.

Our data suggests that USCIS is playing with the numbers, jumping ahead and processsing the majority of cases from July and August before they completed April, May and June (possibly in order to be able to claim a dramatic drop in "average" processing times at some point in the future). We also have observed that September petitions are now being transferred to other service centers, and if the patterns we've observed hold, those petitions will start to be approved soon. It stands to reason, then, that October filers will be next. Transferred within about a month, and approved within another month or so after that.

You're right. We don't know, and it flies in the face of what USCIS is telling us. But our anecdotal data is showing a different pattern from the official line of USCIS.

I personally tend to believe us. USCIS has a reason to lie (or not lie, exactly, but not give us all the truth). We don't.

Very Knowledgeable information. I see what you are seeing with the approvals. I have even seen one Oct filer who was approved from NSC. I just try and stay optimistic believing that our time will come soon. I have to admit sometimes Ill look at the immigration timelines for NSC and one day all the but a few blocks are filled then the next time there are more transfers, this is the part that is fearful for me to think that all the transfers are going to NSC and that is why they are so slow. Im here for a reason, I pray for us all to have a swift wait time.

Congratulations!!!!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!

Hi all fellow October filers,

10/10 reporting in. Been lurking on this thread for too long. Wanted to say hi all!

hello and welcome..........

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!

wow unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!

Spending time away from our loved ones is the hardest part of this process in my opinion. I considered a lawyer but I have found confidence with the knowledge of others on VJ that have been threw this or are currently going threw the process. Good Luck on your journey it maybe short or long but in the end you will be together as one.

Try XE.com but you will have to send as dalasi, they don't have fees though.

Ill take a look at XE.com. Thank you all for the suggestions.

My fiancé just sent me money through western union last month. $8 to be wired to my bank account.. Not sure about your country. Try checking western union?

Sure Ill check western union perhaps I can do a wired transfer through them.