bck

Mumbai consulate has also joined the party!! We got the interview scheduled for November 26th.

Although I am relieved on getting a date, not feeling very happy since it is pretty much the farthest date possible. It is also not a convenient week for my wife to travel to Mumbai.

Our case was first completed on 9/10 ..so barely missed the October interview dates scheduling. Then we got a second case complete on 9/25 - This is after NVC reviewed a mysterious 3rd package (Not the AOS or IV packet we sent). Not sure if all this played into us getting a farther interview date but I guess so.

Another confusing thing is November 26th is the last Wednesday in November.. Mumbai consulate website states, they are closed for consular services on the second and last Wednesdays of the month. So i am not sure how they managed to get Nov 26th date scheduled.

BTW, anyone with recent experience with rescheduling Mumbai counsulate interview? How do you go about doing it? Are we expected to register with http://www.ustraveldocs.com/ and reschedule via this website??

congrats!!!!!!!!

Thanks!

Yes its a case complete!!!!!!!!!! The rep told me to wait for an email with interview schedule date..

Thanks Saylin for your wonderful wiki and the time you spent here to help out everyone here. I would be lost without VJ..

Best of luck for everyone still waiting.. It seems NVC is finally picking up speed..

VJ Folks, i am very excitedddddd... I just noticed AOS fee PAID is now showing N/A .. I am on hold with NVC to confirm. Our IV package was scanned in on July 21st.

Hi, we got our NOA2 Approved in april 29, 2014 NVC still hasn't received anything. The lady at NVC has now told me to scan and email a copy of my NOA2 and they will research it. So anyone got any stories about this, what to expect, etc. This is very frustrating, is 4 month. Please let me know if your cases is finish.

justa77, same thing happened to us. i recommend emailing USCIS service center operations head quarters at SCOPSSCATA@uscis.dhs.gov explaining your issue.. Also CC "Neufeld, Donald W" <donald.w.neufeld@uscis.dhs.gov> and OLUInquiries@dhs.gov in your email... send a follow up email every week till your issue is resolved. SCOPSSCATA was very helpful in locating our case.

I assume you already emailed nvcresearch and contacted your representatives... If not, you should also try that..

Thanks Naumanxenon ,LoveMyTico,MoBar65 for your quick responses. I am feeling better now.. I guess the third package is probably embassy's response to the expediate request..

Hi, I called NVC this morning and received a good news and a very puzzling bad news.

Good news - They said my AOS with scan date of July 7th was reviewed and looks like it is accepted .

Now the Puzziling news - The rep told me a third package (other than AOS or IV) was scanned in on August 11th. I have know idea what this files are. I only send them two packages.1) AOS package scanned in on July 7th and 2) IV documents scanned in on July 23.

When i asked the rep (mario), he told me they can only only tell what it is after the package being reviewed and the NVC policy is to review everything that is put in the folder... I was expecting CC in 2 weeks. Now, I am worried if my CC will be delayed because of this third package. Anybody had similar experience? I did submitted an expedite request on July 22nd which i was told was denied around in the first or second week of August. Could third package something related to the expedite request?? Any clue??

Hi,

I have a PCC question. My wife (beneficiary) lived in 2 states in India after turning 16. 1) Location A - her home since childhood and where she currently lives. 2) Location B - where she attended college and did internship for about 5 years. We got the PCC from the regional passport office of location A (in India PCC is issued by passport office). I am confused if a second PCC from Location B is also required? Any insight on this will be helpful.

Also, I read elsewhere in VJ that PCC is not required for Mumbai Consulate, is it really true ?

I was able to pay IV fee today after 12 business days of wait since completing DS 261..i was bracing for another 2-3 weeks of of wait .. so totally surprised to see the invoice on my inbox!

OK. Thank You.

Thanks Saylin. I reviewed your references. But i am looking for some color on the expected wait time before being able to send in the IV package and complete DS260.

Per your flow chart, I assume IV invoice is dependent on DS 261 acceptance. we completed DS 261 last week (6/26). I did not get any communication that DS261 was accepted yet. It does shows as "completed" in the forms page. Any idea how long the current wait for the IV invoicing from this point?

When i log into the forms page, it does shows "Pay Now" under IV fee section, but when i click on this Pay Now link, it takes me to the invoice payment page. However, the check box to select the IV fee payment is not shown in the invoice payment page. Is this normal? I assume I have to wait till NVC invoice IV fee for this check box to appear, correct?

How long is the current delay for NVC to invoice IV fee after AOS fee is invoiced? My AOS fee was invoiced 6/26 and paid on 6/27. Wondering how long i should wait for the next step...

My case was approved on 3/27/14 but it still hasn't reached NVC... its been 25 days.. so frustrating... NVC keeps telling me wait 5 to 6 weeks..

Anyone else with same/close approval date as mine and still waiting for NVC receipt?

As I said if you watch the timelines too they are more accurate and there's even more than the spreadsheets. This week they did 3 Octobers!!! That makes me so happy when I saw those. They approve more according to timelines than the other centers you're right! They finally kicked into gear! But yeah 3 Octobers. Yay!!

i am not sure how to pull the total number of cases per month from timeline.. this number will be higher in the timeline just like the higher number of weekly approvals registered in timeline.

I use spreadsheet data because it is easier to compile data from there for me and for months like September there is large enough sample size (>30 NSC cases in September) to provide a good representative sample and data is well updated/credible...

So NSC approved 9 September filers this week and issued 2 RFEs based on the transfer sheet data - out of ~30 cases in the beginning of the week. This is the highest rate of approvals that i've seen from NSC for a single month registered in VJ spreadsheets since i started compiling data..

NSC is really accelerating guys.. At this rate, remaining 18 September filers has 50% of chance getting response from NSC next week and should be able to finish up almost all in 2 weeks

This is a crude measure of course.. but trend is clear.. NSC is alive and kicking... Roughly speaking NSC has been approving more cases than other service centers combined.

I got a Post Decision Activity email at 9:45 AM EST today . I am 9/26/13 PD transferred to NSC on 3/4...

My prayers for everyone still .. NSC is accelerating guys.. Cheer up

To update my crude measure:

This week NSC approved 12 cases, compared to 4 by CSC, 4 TSC and 1 VSC - from those cases registered in the VJ tracking spreadsheet for months June to September only.

There are still 47 pending NOA1 sitting at NSC for these months (10 june,6 july,1 august and 30 from September).

At current rate weekly rate of 12, it will take 3.9 week to go through 47 cases.

I compiled some data from the tracking spreadsheets as a framework to estimate NSC wait times.. NSC approved 13 approvals this week from June to September (i didnt look at other months), compared to 10 from CSC and 2 from TSC . NSC has 49 pending NOA2s from these months. At this rate it will take them 3.8 weeks to approve these if we assume NSC will approve petitions in order (which we know they don't)...

PD month| NSC NOA2 pending (excluding RFE)| NSC approvals| CSC approvals| TSC approvals

201306 12 7 0 1

201307 9 4 0 0

201308 1 0 5 1

201309 27 2 5 0

SubTotals 49 13 10 2

NSC Weekly approval rate 13

Week to complete June to Sep pendings NOA2s 3.769230769

Yep, that is an approval Congratts!!

I would expect USCIS to check at minimum :US SDN List (http://sdnsearch.ofac.treas.gov/default.aspx) ,UN Sanctions/counter terrorism list, list of Politically Exposed Persons , suspected arms dealers, drug traffickers, past immigration offenders etc..

All together, it could be millions of names. if you are unfortunate enough to have a common name with any of these people, they may have to do further due diligence to clear you...

I compiled some data from the tracking spreadsheets as a framework to estimate NSC wait times.. NSC approved 13 approvals this week from June to September (i didnt look at other months), compared to 10 from CSC and 2 from TSC . NSC has 49 pending NOA2s from these months. At this rate it will take them 3.8 weeks to approve these if we assume NSC will approve petitions in order (which we know they don't)...

PD month| NSC NOA2 pending (excluding RFE)| NSC approvals| CSC approvals| TSC approvals

201306 12 7 0 1

201307 9 4 0 0

201308 1 0 5 1

201309 27 2 5 0

SubTotals 49 13 10 2

NSC Weekly approval rate 13

Week to complete June to Sep pendings NOA2s 3.769230769

Congrats! Wow, this means there have now been more approvals from the NSC than the TSC (according to our spreadsheet)! Another thing I noticed, and this may just be speculation, is that the two that have been approved from the NSC did not have their ARN changed. This may just be a coincidence, but who knows?

i count about 14 approvals from NSC this week. higher than even CSC i beleive... only thing is NSC is all over the map.. approving june, july and sep petition without regard to priority date order...

Good point about ARN change. Also, i wonder if any natural born US citizen petitioner received this ARN change notice? I am speculating Alien Registration Number is only issued to natuarlized USC (who has previously went through immigration system)... just speculation, if anyone can dismiss this theory, please do:)

Congrats!!

I also received ARN change notice today from NSC... please update tracking sheet ....

No...we got transferred to NSC.

Someone posted a letter they wrote to their senator a little while ago, would that person be able to post it again so I can copy it and send it to mine?

Thank you!

The letter i sent to my senator is below.. Good if you can sent a similar letter.

Senator X,

I am a US citizen applying for permanent residency for my spouse who is residing in XXX. I need your help in following up with USCIS in adjudicating our I-130 visa petition (US Citizen Immediate Relative) without further delays. I filed my I-130 petition on September XX, 2013 and it has been more than 5 months waiting for this petition to be adjudicated. Please note that even after USCIS approval, we need to wait another 4 months for the state department’s processing.

To give you some background, USICS has a stated goal of adjudicating I-130 petitions within 5 months. However, they are severely backlogged and I am afraid USCIS is not trying hard enough or don’t have the resources to meet their own goal.

Today, I learned that our case was transferred to Nebraska Service Center. Unfortunately, this service center is known for its huge backlog. Specifically, I-130 CR-1 petitions transferred to Nebraska center in December 2013 still haven’t been adjudicated whereas petitions transferred to California service center during the final week of February, 2014 are swiftly being approved.

I am extremely frustrated with USCIS for transferring our petition to a backlogged service center while service centers with minimal backlog were available. Due to this, I am looking at the realistic prospect of another 2 months+ delay for my case to be adjudicated. All in all, at the current slow speed, it will take a year or more for our family to be together. This is not humane and can be avoidable if the government agencies are more proactive and accountable to citizens.

I request you to contact USCIS on my behalf to speed up the process. Please question them about the cause of the backlog in Nebraska service center and steps USCIS management taken to increase efficiency there and timeliness of their corrective actions. It will be tremendously helpful to us and thousands of families in my situation if better efficiency can be achieved. Layman like me has little influence over USCIS bureaucracy. I will be extremely grateful to you for any help in this matter.

For your reference, here is a recent NY Times article published on February 8, 2014 outlining delays in US Citizens’ Immediate Relative visa processing. < http://www.nytimes.c...rs.html?hp&_r=2>

I am afraid if timely action does not take place by people in authority, we will be also left waiting 15 months for approval as mentioned in the article. Please help.

Sincerely yours

It is anybody's guess adilahmed.... If VJ sample data is representative, my guestimate is that it will take them 1.5 months to finish up september approvals More conservativley, i would say 2 months:( Expect the worst, hope for the best...

Watchout for the NSC daily approvals from June forum... currently it is lurking around 1.5 to 2 approvals per day... if approvals bumb up to 3 per day, it will make a huge difference in our estimated wait time..

Pending NO1s from NSC

Sept - 20* estimated as entire September data is not available

August - 1

July - 13

June- 20

Total Pending: 54

Current daily rate of approval 2 per day

Estimated time to process pending NO1s at current rate: 27 (that’s about 1.5 months in government working days..)