MJP

The only thing they seem to be fast at processing is our payments! Will the "immigration is a privilege not a right" brigade please stop repeating this tired fact we are all aware of it. We are not demanding to be approved, we just want our applications to be adjudicated in a manner that doesn't leave us apart from our spouses for over a year.

Just as a note to my detractors, I was born in this country to white parents, so the "go back to India!" shows more than a bit of prejudice on your part. Also if you take the time to read the post that apparently everyone on this forum read, I said that I would prefer to live in a DEVELOPED country other than the US. In particular I listed Germany, Britain, and Canada. I am under no delusions about life in most other countries in the (developing) world and I am very aware of the fact that the quality of life of most people is better here than in India. If you could keep your hateful attacks on me personally factually accurate I would appreciate it.

Pardon the intrusion on your overzealous rant but you JUST sent your petition in three days ago. If anyone else joins you on this rant, they're foolish. You should put your anger back in your pocket and give up on this process now before you destroy every opportunity you have to get your spouse here with you. If you're this angry now and you havent even gotten in to the line yet, by the time you have more work to do and/or have to communicate with the government to finalize paperwork, what the hell kind of crazy will you be by then. You really should calm down and wait like all the rest of us. You sure as hell arent hoping with that that youre going to get any special favors. Good grief. If anyone else on VJ subjects their real self and their spouses identity to you and puts themself in this firestorm you're trying to start, your spouse and theirs will never get thru the interview and you'll be in line for longer than the rest of us. Just sayin. You wont hear back from me again. Hope you get the old heeve ho here by VJ. Good.luck.

I've sent everything back and somewhat put it behind me but it still bothers me that this kind of thing happens.
The USCIC and the NVC are mandated by U.S. law to provide this service to U.S. citizens. It isn't optional for them and it is actually a "right" to which you, me and everyone else on here are entitled to - they are not extending a privilege to us. If you apply for the Visa for your immediate relative and you meet the guidelines for approval, then they are absolutely obligated to provide you that Visa for your immediate relatives. Their only authority is to exam your case and determine if you meet the approval requirements. Issuing a Visa to other Visa categories, not involving the immediate relative of a U.S. citizen, is where the discretionary "privilege" comes into play. A person who is not a citizen of the U.S. and who is not being petitioned as an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen certainly doesn't have a "right" to a Visa, but I believe that if they are willing to contribute to our country, they should be extended that privilege and welcomed. Regardless, we as U.S. citizens are not being extended a "privilege", the USCIS and the NVC are mandated by Federal Law to provide us this service - which makes it a "right" and not a discretionary privilege.
The process is broken and failing. I will absolutely go through everything they throw at me, but I won't sit back and allow them to make mistake after mistake and negatively impact my life and others like me. Even if I get finished with this process in the next few weeks, I will continue applying pressure to right a wrong, if only because it helps someone coming behind me. The USCIS and the NVC are accountable to U.S. taxpayers. We can't forget that fact. They are also accountable to the Legislative Branch of our government - Senate and House. They know this fact too and that is why my case "magically" starting moving once my U.S. Senator got involved.
Listen, I'm not an unreasonable person. I realize that every process, whether within the government or private sector, has the potential for errors to be made and problems to be created. There will always be the extraordinary examples of things that went wrong and likewise there will be examples of a perfectly smooth experience. Mistakes are mistakes. They happen and we all make them but there is a huge difference between someone at some website messing up your order and someone at the NVC failing to properly review your documents, sending you a checklist, and then telling you that you need to wait another 6 weeks for someone to look at it again. That isn't acceptable to me, it wasn't acceptable to my U.S. Senator, it wasn't acceptable to the NVC supervisor who apologized and had my documents immediately reviewed again, and it shouldn't be acceptable to you.
Long story short, if anyone is reading this and you are filling out the I-864EZ, make sure you put "N/A or none" in any blank sections. It isn't anywhere in the written instructions for the I-864EZ, but thankfully we have sites like this to help us out and reduce delays. The thing is though, these sites wouldn't do anything for us without individuals like Saylin, who have helped out countless people on here for no reason other than goodwill. I know you get many "thank you" messages Saylin but I don't think you get enough gratitude from everyone in the community. Thank you for all the help you provide here!

Anyone can edit or comment on this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Anpi244OAt_IdGJxVU9tVVpXRkVZVlVMcjVwMGowOUE&usp=sharing
If you need to edit, just change the information. The totals will be updated, except for NOA2, which is broken.
NOTE: Feel free to fix NOA2 totals! Graphs are not set up yet. Feel free to set them up as well. You can also add different kinds of analysis. This is a team effort!

Hi All,
I just got off the phone with a tier 2 rep and he confirmed that although my NOA1 was addressed from Overland Park, my petition is at the Missouri (NBC) processing centre. Which makes me believe that Overland park is the recieving address/ mailing distribution centre not necessarily a different processing centre.
He also confirmed that the average standalone i-130 approval as of today from NBC is 8-10 months from submission to approval.

I asked why the averages have gotten so much longer from the national goal of 5.1 months and he said that previously only the beneficiary underwent a background check. Due to some loop holes and some backlash they have started back checks on the petitioners as well.

Didn't go as planned. Let's try that again.
March filers! Here's the breakdown for transfers!



It's from a spreadsheet I put together. Anyone have a solution for a breakdown in the functions on Google Docs so we can make a team effort on this?
*not reported refers to those who have been transferred but don't yet know which service center.

There's a difference between receiving your case and assigning a case number. There's usually a difference of a few days to a few weeks between those two time ticks. So, keep calling every day and asking if a case number has been assigned yet.
And as long as you give over both email addresses to an operator once the case number is assigned, then you'll receive all correspondence from NVC by email.
This really isn't an appropriate thread to post your question as this is about the NVC process.
Regardless though: I highly doubt they'll do the medical without the passport (definitely not the interview anyways). I'd suggest your husband contact the passport agency and get a new passport done asap. Copies of paperwork submitted isn't required at the interview, just suggested. And get as much evidence re-printed out again as possible.
If you give over both email addresses to an operator when the case number is assigned, nothing is physically sent out to either of you.
1. The new forms are split into two columns. You go down the first one, then continue on with the second column. So, the second column is a continuation of the first, thus that question is about the beneficiary.
2. Is there a reason why you're using both? Can't you just use the brother-in-law who earns more?
Call back again asap. It should be the three letter embassy/consulate code and then 10 numbers.
Required documents:
-interview letter
-passport
-medical results (if not sent directly by the panel physician)
-passport photos (number varies by consulate/embassy, for Canada it's 2)
There may also be country or embassy/consulate specific things as well (such as courier information). Also, if one was in the EP program, then it's also required to bring the original AOS and IV packages to present at the interview.
Somewhere between required and optional:
-proof of relationship
Some places don't ask for any proof of relationship (re: Canada), while others are incredibly strict about proof of relationship and if you don't bring enough or don't convince them, then you're either denied or put into AP (re: MENA countries).
Optional:
-copy of all paperwork ever submitted, at both USCIS and NVC

I don't think that you're just here to cause trouble. But I do think you're coming off as smug here and people are not reacting well to that (probable) miscommunication.
I get your points, I really do. I've already been through this process when I went to Europe. And like I said before, that also sucked, but in a different way. I was also in a wildly successful long distance relationship. So successful that we married years ago, had two beautiful little girls, and built a life for ourselves in my husband's country. I've been with my husband for more than 9 years. Why is your 'rightful fruition' more valuable than mine, or should be given more weight than mine? The answer is, of course, that they're not and you can't really make blanket comparisons like that. Of course your relationship with your fiance is going to be more important to YOU. But for people who are separated from their spouses, it will be like just another slap in the face from someone who isn't and wasn't going through the same long term separation issues. During your 4 year long term relationship, you and your fiance were the ones determining how often you got to see each other. You were not forced to be apart by outside apathetic and uncaring forces. And when you finally decided to be together, your process went very quickly. I'm happy that it did. At least that's two people who don't have to deal with this garbage. But your perception is entirely predicated on your particular experience and you seem to have no compassion for those who are in a different situation than you.

It is illegal to enter the US on the visa waiver program for the sole purpose of adjusting status. She will be attemping to enter with the intention of staying and it could end up hurting them in the long run especially if she lies to the CBP officer.

Please refrain from advicing someone to do something illegal. It is against VJ TOS.

Here's her response to my follow-up:

"I believe they are transferring cases on a rolling basis so while Feb. and Mar. files are being transferred now, I imagine we will see April, May, and June moving soon. However, USCIS is constantly reviewing and reevaluating workload distribution so it is possible that things could change again. I also understand that some petitions will remain at NBC for adjudication, which, again, is all a part of the workload-balance thing.

Once the committee pulls together their collective notes, there may be some additional insights to share."

Has anyone made note of how long it took from the beginning of Feb transfers to the beginning of March transfers? Perhaps that will give us an idea of when we might look out for our own notices. Approval rates compared to number of transfers is depressingly low, though.

I received an update from the AILA lawyer about the October 31 meeting. There's nothing really new or exciting, and I'm guessing when the official Q&A is posted to uscis.gov, there won't be any game changers there either.

"As you mentioned the NBC is now routing new stand-alone Forms I-130 to the Nebraska, Texas, and California Service Centers based upon the capacity of the Service Center and not the address of the petitioner. NBC stopped sending stand-alone Forms I-130 to USCIS Field Offices for adjudication in March 2013 and have since been holding them at the NBC. The NBC will also send backlogged stand alone I-130s to the service centers starting with the longest pending cases. Cases that are transferred should receive a transfer notice. The goal is for I-130s to be adjudicated in 5 months but the actual processing time right now is much longer – they are working on cases received on 10/1/2012. Note, however, that all of the service centers are now reporting processing times for immediate relative I-130s so at least we will be able to track USCIS progress on these cases whereas before we had no clue what was going on."

PD of March 20 - no transfer or NOA2 yet. I did an address change at the beginning of the month and got notification when they updated that. It somehow makes me slightly better that they havent lost it...? Sad when that is the most positive thing I can come up with regarding this whole process
Before this I had no personal experience with Visa/Immigration process - I had a vague understanding and felt as though there needed to be reform. Now I KNOW there needs to be a drastic change - it is just appalling how families are kept apart! Its so unfortunate to make the process so insanely frustrating for people who want to do things the lawful way. It gives me much more compassion or understanding to people who have resorted to other ways. Comparatively my situation is so easy in regards to what so many people are having to deal with and I am grateful for that. But I really can't imagine the strength and patience it takes to be apart from your children, or to be apart from your spouse and not be able to visit.
The hardest part is just now knowing when its gonna go through and that all of our lives are on hold while we wait for USCIS to allow us to move forward. So even though getting files transferred to different offices may or may not speed this up, at least it feels like * something * is being done. Meh - something is better than nothing.