sirius

wow congrats man!

i see ur case transfer to nyc was in June..mine was in March but still nothing. urgh annoying.

Have you called them more than once to confirm whether its actually in NYC or not? We were told in June that our case transferred to NYC in March. Then we called against in August and were told our case transferred to NYC in June. So obviously we don't know if they sometimes just concoct a date to get you off their back or what. But what I can confirm is that the receipt number for the service request we filed did have "NYC" at the end of the numbers - That convinced us that it must be in NYC field office.

bigboss19: Thanks. I can not say with conviction if my congressman helped or not. My wife initially filed a service request and then contacted her local congressman. She filled out the forms & sent them to the congressman in August, nothing happened for a month & then another employee from the congressmans office e-mailed on 25 Sept saying that he has now taken over our case from the last guy and he needs our MSC #, my wife sent it to him and 3 days later our case was approved. Did the congressman or the employee pull any strings considering our file was in the local NYC office? I dont know. It could be that it helped involving the congressman from the same city, our quite simply that our turn came and our case was approved after the service request. The tier-2 agents did always say 5-8 months and ours was approved exactly 2 days before 8 months so it could just be normal processing.

I encourage you to read this thread, especially the posts from "The Mean Lady" and do exactly as she says.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/436775-waiting-for-noa2-since-feb2013/

Good luck.

Thanks a lot guys. You are all wonderful people & I wish you all settle in with your loved ones soon!

Thanks guys.

THAT IS AMAZING NEWS ! ! ! ! CONGRATS ! ! !

We were all starting to think they only work 2 days a week over there at the USCIS.

Can you give details? Why does your timeline state Sept 27 for your NOA2?

THANKS ! ! ! !

GOOD LUCK ON THE REST OF YOUR JOURNEY ! ! ! !

We received the hardcopy in mail today, but when I entered the MSC # on USCIS case status, it says we mailed it out on 27 Sept so I suppose that's the day it was approved. Also, we didn't receive any e-mail, and our case-status was not shown on the website until today (after it was approved). I think I checked last week and it said case not found.

Thanks everyone!

Congrats and Good Luck for NVC .

It took ours 6 weeks to actually get to the NVC from USCIS, Still waiting on CC. Hope yours is speedier than mine.

Thanks. I was just reading that cases that are transferred from the field offices tend to take longer. Hopefully, NYC will speed this up!

Hi guys, I got approved today. I spent majority of my time grousing on this thread so I wanted to share this moment with you. Thanks for all your support, I hope NVC is a better journey than the wait for NOA2 was. Good news is that it seems January/February are being worked on now? Good luck.

Received NOA 2 in mail today! over the moon.

Received NOA2 in mail today! Off to NVC now.

wow - talk about timing. I post this topic today and just now I get a call from wife saying we got NOA2 in mail today!

Thanks gwenstar & Mark.

Mark: I understand what you mean, but clearly, we are not criminals, nor did we pursue any illegal means to be together. It's upsetting to think that the i130 would have a negative impact considering all we did was follow the prescribed path, we can't put our entire lives on hold while the USCIS gives precedent to cases filed after us (which have been approved). I assume, the councillor in the embassy would understand the situation and treat me fairly? If 9 months go by without any word from USCIS on NOA2 - are we really at fault for trying to earn a living by applying for J1? All professions are not the same, as MD's we can only apply for residency once a year (and it is a long, stressful and expensive process). If I miss out on the March-April deadlines and don't have a J1 or a work permit by then, I will have to apply again next year & its an entire year of my life wasted. It not only wastes time, money (which I dont have), adds interest to my college debt, but also adversely affects my chances of finding a residency program I deserve.

My wife petitioned for i130 and we received our NOA1 on Jan 29, 2013.

I am Canadian and my wife is a USC. We are both quite frustrated with the time it has taken. We expected everything would be done in 6-8 months (at max). But we have not received our Noa2 yet. We have involved the local congressman from her precinct, spoken to tier2 agents, but that has not helped much either.

The problem, now, is that this whole thing is started to worry me as a professional. My wife & I are medical doctors. And as we planned our lives together during medical school we decided to work/settle in the US. I gave a few nerve wracking, expensive and very difficult exams to get licensed in the US, and I did quite well in them, and now I am expected to interview at various programs in the US this winter. Most programs only offer J1 visas, very few offer H1. But I need to be open to apply for the J1 visa. From what I hear, you can not apply for the J1 with a pending i130. This is a big issue for me, my career for which I have worked so hard for hinges on the turtle like speed with which USCIS has handled our case. If I dont have work permit from the i130 route, or a J1 by March-April. I won't be able to start residency. I am wondering if its best to simply withdraw the i130, so that I can be eligible for the J1. We can always live together and apply for i130 later.

What do you guys think? Will this cause any new unforeseen issues? Any advice, tips will be appreciated.

I should have been more active on this thread, but since my NOA1 was 29 Jan, I mingled with the February filers. But just to boost morale, I'm also waiting just like a lot of you. This wait time is beyond ridiculous.

Seriously starting to wonder if i130 is even worth the wait. May as well file for my wife to move to Canada instead, we are young & can start our lives here, but career wise - the US is the best place for both of us. Is there a process to withdraw the i130? Does anyone know ?

Today (29 Aug) marks 7 months since we received NOA1. Visiting my wife in NY these days. We filed our first service request a couple weeks back, and I was looking at the correspondence they mailed. I wanted to check with you all, in letter addressed to my wife (petitioner) it didn't have my name where it says Beneficiary: It just says information not available. Is that normal for everyone? And also, the referral ID says WKD<numbers>NYC. It ends in NYC, does yours end like that also? Maybe that means the file is at NYC field office as per the Tier2 agent.

Spoke to the Tier2 agent again today.

It's going to be 7 months for us on 29th of this month.

Put in a service request.

This time the Tier2 agent said our file was transferred to the NYC office on June 11!

Does the case start the 6-8 month timeline all over again after it is transferred? The last time we spoke to the Tier2 agent in June, she said your case transferred to NYC in March.

Spoke to the Tier2 agent again today. It's going to be 7 months for us on 29th of this month. Put in a service request. This time the Tier2 agent said our file was transferred to the NYC office on June 11.

Does the case start the 6-8 month timeline all over again after it is transferred? The last time we spoke to the Tier2 agent in June, she said your case transferred to NYC in March.

Another february filer approved, dated 2013-08-12

Hey Annie,

Did yours get approved or is that someone elses? If its yours then, Congratulations!

Going to be 6 months exactly on 29 July for us. Looking to make an infoPass, but it says "No information appointments available at this time". Does this happen frequently? What to do now? I hope I'm choosing the right option "Service on a File that's already filed". Also, should we place a Service Request before going for the infoPass?

@sing_us,

just wanna know what's going on?!

Earlier today i called the 800 number and talked to a customer service representative, she said which is stated on the website, then I asked her talking to a tier 2 agent, the recorded message said that the holding time was about 57 minutes so I choosed to be called when an agent be available.

After I got speaking with him, he asked me about some personal information then he said that as I'm the beneficiary he can't tell me any thing about the case, only the petitioner could ask for it. (that's sucks)

Is that right or he got a reason to hang up the call?

Yeah, that is right. The first time I called, the same happened to me but then I called again, the next agent was nice enough to tell me that if i was to make a 3-way call and get my wife on the phone, he would be able to answer our questions. Which I did, immediately, and he answered all our questions. It's best to have the petitioner call them and ask everything to avoid the hassle though.

Im stuck in NYC field office as well, unfortunately.

My case is in NYC field office as well. The Tier2 agent told my wife that its being processed, rather than pending(?) so hopefully that means its being worked on. It's taking so long though!

KDH, thanks for all your help.

I was wondering, my wife has planned a trip overseas for a couple of months for later this year. With the case being in NYC, is there a big possibility that they might call her (petitioner) in for an interview or something? How would that work? Any ideas on that?

NYC RSA: Seems like we're on the same boat. I read on the other thread that you're doing infoPass soon? When do you have it scheduled for? Do post about how that goes for you.

shivam23: I wrote how I found out where my case is. I followed what KDH told me on this thread, please read page 1 and you'll know what to do as well. My wife or I never received any notifications regarding our case being transferred anywhere either. It was only yesterday when she called that we found out our case transferred to NYC field office in March.

head over to the thread for the Washington dc office specifically .... sorry, but they are running way outside processing times.. someone got a congressional response that it is almost 10 months to approve there now..

head over, lots of experienced infopass members at your local office

sorry to hear it is there

Why the Washington DC office thread? My case is in NYC.

So, as per KDH's advice. My wife called in to USCIS today and spoke to a Tier2 agent. The agent said, despite your case (MSC) not showing up on the website, it is still very much in process & there are not issues. Upon asking the direct question of when our case was transferred to NYC field office, the agent said "in March". My wife did not ask the exact date, but considering we got our NOA1 on 29 January, it must be early March? It's going to be 5 months exactly on 29th June since we received NOA1. The agent said to wait another month before making infoPass. What do you guys think? Should we make the infoPass now?

so my wife called USCIS today to find out about our i130. It's going to be 5 months exactly on 29th June since we received NOA1. As reccomended by KDH, she asked the direct question of when our application was transferred to NYC Field office & the Tier2 agent said March! My wife didn't get the exact date. The Tier2 agent was pleasant enough to say the application is still in process and we should wait another month before making infoPass. So I guess its another months wait here.