retheisen

Approved. I received the email at 9:06 pm edt. My NOA1 date was Sept 30th. TSC received by RFE documents on May 6th (Initial RFE notification on April 24th). NOA2 on May 20th. Oddly ... no text update.

TSC received my RFE documents on May 6 and I received noa2 approval on May 20th. Missing letter of intent was The reason for The RFE.

I'll add that I have heard that have a certified copy of your Birth Certificate (if a natural born US Citizen) may be required. If you have ever been married before, bring certified copies of divorce decrees or death certificates.

It may happen, but it is not legal at all.

Federal law says that employers cannot discriminate against you because of your immigration status. Employers cannot:

• Refuse to hire you, or fire you, because of your immigration status or because you are not a U.S. citizen.

• Require you to show a Permanent Resident Card, or reject your lawful work papers.

• Prefer hiring undocumented workers.

• Discriminate against you because of your national origin (or country of origin).

• Retaliate against any employee who complains of the above treatment. For more information about your rights, or to file a complaint, call the Office of Special Counsel at 1-800-255-7688 or 1-800-237-2515 (for hearing impaired). If you do not speak English, interpreters

You can check that at page 37

http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/nativedocuments/M-618.pdf

You will find that the US is an employer-friendly nation and prospective employees can be rejected "without cause" very easily. The employer will simply state that there were other "more qualified" candidates. Case closed. Once you are hired and have been employed for 60 to 90 days, terminating you becomes a bit more challenging but employment contracts are generally unheard of for all but very top level directors and officers and if the company wants you gone they can find a way to do it legally. I am not saying this is a bad thing, it is just the reality of employment in the US. On the plus side, IT is generally a good field to be in in the US and most companies are pretty decent to their IT staff. It is quite easy to make yourself "valuable" in IT here and have a job for as long as you want it.

For the folks who got RFEs late last week or over the weekend, I received a RFE notification on April 24th (11:16 am edt via email and 1:16 pm edt via TXT). The paper letter that actually described what evidence I needed to send and the address to send to did not arrive until May 2nd (8 calendar days ...TX to FL I am assuming). I overnighted the document back to the Mesquite TX PO BOX on Monday May 4th with delivery expected on May 5th before noon. (Fiance letter of intent ... I had her sign one the last time I was in Brazil so I was ready).

The letter from USCIS will include a cover sheet that you have to mail back to them, so don't think you can jump the gun and send the evidence you know you are missing as soon as you get the email/txt.

Hope this helps. I know I was worried last week that the letter was lost in the mail or got thrown away by mistake.

Thanks

R

APPROVED

Congratulations!!!

I am actually happy that I got an RFE. I know it means that I did not get approved yet ... but at least someone it looking at my file. :-)

On April 24, 2015, we suspended processing of your case, blah blah blah.

I was expecting this. They probably need a signed letter of intent for my fiancee. (I am glad I got her to get a wet signature on one the last time I was in Brazil)

I feel the wheels of justice turning in my direction finally.

I would go to interview and go to USA. Watch you wife and hire Private Investigator to follow her.

If she is cheating I would file for divorce and try to get half of her assets..

Divorce is handled by the State Government instead of the Federal Government. Since they have not been living together for the past year, she would claim "no-fault". She would not lose any of her pre-marriage assets and I seriously doubt the judge would consider any post marriage assets as "shared assets" to be divided. He probably ends up paying her legal fees as well as his own. Family Court in the US is very biased against men.

My request for expedite was refused within 2 days without any request for supporting documents. Maybe its good that they have not turned you down yet.

So my NOA1 date was 200 days ago today. Is it safe to assume that if I was going to get an RFE that I would have gotten it by now? Am I on the home stretch now?

Congratulations on your good fortune. :-) May we all be united with our loved ones soon.

I thought that the update meant that's the date they were processing as of 2/28/15, but someone corrected me that the as of 2/28/15 only applies to the petitions falling within the accepted approval time (i/e processing in 5 months). If it says a date, that is the date they are claiming they are processing as of the update which would mean 8/23/14-4/13/15 which is 233 days - of 7 months 21 days

They play it in whatever way makes them feel better. From a "responsibility" point of view they can say ... "Hey your application is not older than the published date from two months ago, so you are still within acceptable processing times" But from a "reporting" point of view they can say ... "Well, on March 31st 2015 we were working on August 23rd 2014 applications, so we are almost within a month of the 5 month guidelines ... not bad". I guess possession of the cake is 9/10 of eating it ... too? Or eating 9/10 of a cake means you possess it like a gift horse? Something along those lines.

Did they cash your check yet?

Today's Update give us 190 days to NOA2 (8/23/14-2/28/15) - Or 6 months + 1 week

Previous update gave us 183 days to NOA2 (8/2/14-1/31/15) - Or just at 6 months

I don't see how this update positively swings anything for USCIS? I would have expected a serious inflation of the time... like maybe down to 5.5 months or something...

Or do they not care because they announced the "routing of new cases to CSC on 3/27/15?

This is beyond me... seriously... I'm sorry September Filers

So based on these trends ... The next update will come on May 18 2015. It will give an update stating that on March 31st they were working on applications from September 15th. 197 days.

Lucky me ... I will be able to make an inquiry after the June 22nd update to processing times once my NOA1 date is 266 days old (Just shy of 9 months).

Miserable. There are now NOA2 approvals for applicants from "historically TSC" States that were directly routed to CSC after the workload equalization announcements. NOA1 date 3/27/2015 NOA2 date 4/11/2015 State of Residence of Applicant Alabama. Service Center CSC. (sobs)

Based on the info in the Immigration Timelines, it does appear that most/all of the newly submitted applications are being routed to CSC. If this is the only "action" that USCIS is taking to equalize the workloads, then it is the worst possible action to take. This action will do absolutely nothing to reduce the processing time for the existing applications as TSC (the files they have in house now will take at least 215 days to work through and then there will be a big gaping hole of nothing to work on) and will serve only to build up a huge backlog at CSC. It just swings the pendulum in the other direction. If this trend continues, then come November of this year, CSC will be sitting on 215 days worth of files and TSC will be turning over applications in 20 days. How about the lockbox in Dallas starts tracking the actual backlogs in both centers and tries to address any discrepancy when it approaches 20 days rather than 200 days.

So based on the K1 Immigration timelines that have been created over the past week ... it appears that all of them have been routed to California. I am considering re-filing my entire packet because I think there is a good chance that a packet submitted to CSC this week will be approved before a packet submitted to TSC 7 months ago. Especially considering I suspect I will get an RFE on the TSC packet due to a missing statement of intent.

I do not have all the answers for you just yet, but I will be going through many of these same adventures in the coming months (hopefully). Our K-1 application was submitted on Sept 24th and we hope to hear about USCIS approval in the coming weeks. Fiancee is in Brazil, speaks little english, we will interview in Rio de Janeiro (hopefully in early July)

I have heard that the US Consulate in Rio will accept all required documents in English or Portuguese. Only documents in a third languauge would need certified translations.

My fiancee is working on her english, but of the consulate reviews I have read over on this site ... most interviews are done in Portuguese.

Attend the interview if at all possible. I believe you will be allowed in the room with your finacee based on the current guidelines. (who knows if that will change tomorrow or next week or next year)

My finacee and I are living apart ... she in BR, I in the US. I have been managing and fretting the process from this side of the equator. She has been preparing for the wedding and spending time with her family in BR. I have asked her to begin making arrangements for the medical exam so she is going start getting busy down there too.

I do not yet have a copy of the packet from the Embassy so I do not know if it is in English or Portuguese, I'll update when I do know.

In Brazil she will need a police certificate from each State she has lived in and also one from the Federal Police. Also, if she has ever lived outside of Brazil, she will need a police certificate from that country as well. There is information on acquiring police certificates online ...

Police Certificates

Responding to the standard claim that "All service centers are subject to delays and there is no appreciable discrepancy between the CSC and the TSC".

This statement seems to be the standard reply whenever an official is questioned about the processing time discrepancy. End of story. You are all crazy to think there is a discrepancy. We see nothing. Naaa naaa naaa!!!

I will try to do a bit of data mining tomorrow but something along the lines of ...

Well ... According to an independent crowdsourcing website we have collected statistics on 250 adjudicated applications over the past 60 days. Of those 250 applications, 130 were processed through the TSC and 120 were processed through the CSC. Of the 130 files that were processed through the TSC over the past 60 days, 70 were filed in June 2014, 50 were from July 2014 and 10 were from August of 2014. Of the 120 files that were processed in the CSC over the past 60 days, 20 were initially filed in December 2014, 70 were from January 2015, and 30 were from February 2015. The USCIS must have records of file submission and adjudication dates, tell us ... What percentage of the adjudicated files processed at the CSC during the month of February were initially submitted in July 2014 or August 2014? What percentage of the adjudicated files processed at the TSC during the month of February were initially submitted in July 2014 or August 2014?

Can we get an answer to just one follow up question?

Holy Hell! It's over and not a friggin word about the issues surrounding legal immigration, let alone our issue!

Absolutely. Nothing but partisan finger pointing related to the executive order. I noticed there were no democrats present to defend it ... other meetings to attend and all.

On the Senate panel discussion ... the USCIS panel stated that file processing metrics were no longer used in performance reviews. The only remaining metric would be whether or not someone the adjudicator singed off on turned out to be a criminal, right? "Ooops sorry Joe, you're getting a write up because someone you approved 3 years ago got a DUI last week."

Senator Cruz is making me want to move to Texas. This man is right on with the questions about fees.

Yeah .. unfortunately I think he could have done a better job of itemizing the fees ... the panel did not seem to catch on.

i.e. i129f == $340 to USCIS + $250+- to the Foreign Embassy + $cost of medical exam + $cost of random visa fees

Those fees then put you on equal footing with an illegal immigrant in the US who did not come in via a legitimate POE.

Once the illegal immigrant is here and the K1 visa holder here ... then they both get to start paying the various AOS / Green Card fees.

The panel was just looking at it as "These are the services we provide and this is how we fund those services" without addressing the bigger picture of fairness.

Never heard of a post-nup, personally. I'll have to check that out. I've only heard of a pre-nup. Thank you for your response!

I suspect the post-nup is not a legally binding document, but is instead a 95 theses nailed to the door of the marriage home that addresses her needs in the context of the pre-nup.

I cannot be the only one here who wishes he could edit "Lin & Qiang's" timeline and correct their NOA2 date!! When I sort the K1 timelines by most recent NOA2 date, their's is always at the top of the list. 2015-12-24 :-(

Sometimes credit unions are more lenient with their account requirements.