rms171

What my fiancé and I are planning to do is have a courthouse ceremony in order to be legally married the day after he arrives. Then I won't have to worry about finding a place for him to live in the meantime. While we go through the process of an adjustment of status (and more months upon months of waiting ) , we will be at liberty to do a ceremony that includes family and friends at our own choosing.

I am so beyond happy for everyone that was issued last night. It has always been my style to cheer for folks that share a common bond with me, this one being one that uniformly brings together people on a long and arduous journey I am immensely happy for everyone that is beginning to peal off of this forum as their visas are issued.
@Trinaqueen, if you were in front of me I would hug you and repeat thank you over and over again. You have been such a big behind the scenes help with patience and answering even the benign if not stupid questions I have asked you.
Maybe today will be our day. My fiancee's son's visa status turned from "ready" to AP this morning, meaning both are now in the Non-immigrant AP status. It still pains me inside that this journey started last March and I'm struggling to the finish line still. I pictured bringing my fiancee to meet my parents as I see them only once a year, but the government did not consult with my travel plans. If we can just get to issued I know that we will have a happy thanksgiving no matter what country we are in.
Hoping for nothing but good things for everyone as your visa journey continues.
Michael (and Maria)

Another ending to another disappointing day. Really thought this could be the day. The visa is just sitting in non-immigrant status at this point and doing nothing since the 18th.

I just told them to send it post. She said it was sent already when I told her it had not shown a escalated to post. Two minutes of holding later she said it's been escalated up. They must think the average joe must be so stupid to just accept their first lines of response.

@jess100,
My advice is to do a simple civil ceremony within your 90 days, and then have a nice reception when the weather is not your barrier. You have to consider your guests and the risk that they cannot come and weigh that with the benefit of having a full out wedding at time of year not conducive to it weather-wise. We are going to have a civil ceremony when my fiance arrives in early 2016 and then have a family party some time later as park weddings in the winter in the northeast aren't particularly beautiful. Remember, the visa has a six month life on it so it gives you enough time to find a window to bring your fiance here and do not forget that immigrant petitioners are in the minority. We have knowingly decided to marry an immigrant so the rules of engagement and how special our wedding should be, are somewhat altered by our personal choices and government restrictions on how long you can play house without being married. I know it is a big day, but remember it for being the culmination of months of waiting to share your life with your loved one, not a day that is defined by a white wedding gown and birds churping outside. The memory created by being married by a judge can and will be just as special for you if you want it to be. I was married for twenty years and had the white wedding, pomp and circumstance so I know where your mindset is. Still, be realistic to yourself and those you most want to share your memories with - your beneficiary.
Michael

The data on this site is only good as long as people correctly enter their info. Because there are a lot of CSC filers putting in TSC as their service center, it 'pollutes' the data and makes the estimates rather useless. :/
I really think that the VJ admins should consider changing the forms so that members have to enter the first 3 letters of their uscis case number (WAC for California, SRC for Texas) in their timeline instead of picking a service center. This simple change would eliminate this problem and I believe it's been suggested many times, but it's never been done.

Hello all, let me clarify Tom's posting as I am the practice dummy that learned a lesson the hard way what happens when you change the appointment too many times.
After you schedule your appointment on USTRAVELDOCS.com, you are permitted two changes thereafter. If you cancel your second change your visa fee is cancelled and you have to pay it again. I screwed myself because I wasn't paying attention when I modified the appointment the second time. It was a mistake that I made, but no matter how much I pleaded with the embassy, they said "we regret to inform you." Mind you this screw up happened within a 30 minute window, but still no sympathy and no help. When I asked, 'well if i can't afford to pay this again, does this mean I cannot bring my beneficiary here? Over a mistake, the government is telling me sorry?" Response "we regret to inform you". I hung up.
So the sage advice is this. When you go to schedule your appointment, think the date through very carefully with your beneficiary. Each country is different of course, but don't just run to take the earliest date only to find out you can't make it.
Today's lesson cost me $265 times two beneficiaries, all to end up taking the same appointment date I had started the morning with.
A very costly lesson indeed.

I highly doubt that my workplace received any phone calls about myself. This seems rather suspicious. Two points, your fiancee's employer could get sued if they release any identifying information about him without an explicitly signed waiver identifying the information to be released and the parties it may be released to. Second point, the USCIS does not deal with the financial matters, such as affidavit of support, since that's the USEM part.
What sort of questions were they and why does he think they were from the USCIS? Did they speak with him or someone else on the job?

It still basically is. I literally just got off the phone with a CSR at the NVC. My petition arrived on Friday and my number was assigned. I asked him what happens now and basically reiterated what you said. The file basically just goes into another package bound for the embassy.
One step closer.....

Agree'd on the pictures as a family. While it's a fiance visa, when kids are coming in with the fiance it becomes more like a "we're becoming a family visa". My fiance will have some pics of us together, only one pic of all three of us together, and some pics of him and her.

I think I have more pics of my fiance and my daughter than I do with him and myself because I'm usually the one taking pics. But those candid pics of them doing a puzzle at christmas, or playing chutes and ladders, or riding the carousel together, being at the beach looking at seashells together, those mean so much for us as a family, which is our goal at the end of the day. Our goal isn't simply to be able to be with the one we love and get married, our goal is to become a family together because it's not just about us.

You can see the love in them, and it's like he's always told me, he loves her as much as he loves me because she's an extension of me.

It's always weird when a kids involved, but it's almost always the adults making it weird. The kids just being a kid. =[




As for advice: I'd say either get more involved, and yes that means spend more money, but that's generally just how it is and retry. Take pictures, get to know her son, spend meaningful time together as a family because that's what you -should- be when he's there.

If not, then marry her and go through the spousal visa process, but I feel the same issues may come up.

I think from dating until currently my fiance has spent at least 7000$ just on visiting alone, not including everything for the visa. Not including buying christmas presents and birthday presents for us, which I know last year was around 200$ for christmas. He just spent about 100$ on presents for my daughters bday.

It gets less expensive once you're actually with them, but you have to tred on through. My fiance works for a casino and is 23. He puts in overtime hours just to make sure he can save up enough to come back here.

He works incredibly hard and has never once complained about how much he's spent. -I'VE- complained about how much he's spent, and he simply tells me it's worth it.

Tom is 100% correct. Immifairy tagged my file as 3/23, but the real NOA1 date was 3/17. This had something to do with the maintenance issues the USCIS had on its site where case updates just disappeared for over a month. I called the USCIS and elevated my question on NOA1 date to a tier 2 officer. She assured me (annoyed though) that the receipt date on the I-797C is the NOA1.

I am cheering for you and I am holding my breath at the same time. Seriously, nothing would make me happier than seeing anyone in this exile get their NOA2 already. I'd be happier if it is me, but I am cheering for everybody at this point. Continued strength to all the March 2015 filers at the TSC.

I am cheering for you and I am holding my breath at the same time. Seriously, nothing would make me happier than seeing anyone in this exile get their NOA2 already. I'd be happier if it is me, but I am cheering for everybody at this point. Continued strength to all the March 2015 filers at the TSC.

Igor's timeline tells the story, even if it is far from empirical. About two weeks ago the estimated adjudication date was sitting in a two week window, with the tail end being the end of September. Now its a five week window that extends to October 10. What the data is saying is right, even Igor doesn't know. Unless the TSC is staffing up my money is on October, if sadly, November. I hope I am wrong.
I said to my senate liaison today it would be less painful for me to relocate to a state serviced by the CSC, withdraw my TSC petition, refile and wait. I would most likely get my NOA2 from California before I will get it from Texas. Many seem to be concerned about being vocal to government for fear of reprisal. I'm concerned about not being vocal and leaving all the disappointment in a forum.

I'm sensing trickle, not landslide. I see the Immifairy reports each processing day and there still isn't any real trending that suggests that approvals are accelerating anymore. It was easy to see that the TSC was scattering approvals over a few months to water down the processing window, but not much else. The March approvals were either lottery picks or expedited cases. With that said I still hold hope that it is coming soon. Still the data does not lie.

I would greatly appreciate it if someone could explain the logic behind the timeline, statistically or technologically speaking? I know at 35,000 how it should work, but as I've watched my possible adjudication date move up by almost two weeks over the course of the 10-14 days, I have become extremely curious and highly cautious. My petition is at the TSC so the acceleration, while welcome, has me concerned as I am sure others are as well that have petitions at the TSC for months. I realize that garbage in can generate garbage out (as in if a CSC filer puts in the TSC because they confuse the lockbox with a service center), but what is really driving the sudden movement at this point? I can hypothesize too, but someone must have a good handle on the statistical side of what is going on.
Michael

I see someone posted today on a forum that they were concerned because they were approved too soon (less than a month at the CSC). I can't imagine the utter disappointment I would feel if that happened to me.

Not that I trust it much anymore, but the estimated adjudication dates here are bouncing around so much the last week. Crazy how much the date range is moving from a range of two weeks to know a full month. It might as well just say: "Some day" or " Eventually". Still I have hope of a NOA2 approval in the month of August even though this site now pegs the entire month of September. Gotta have hope.

Not that I trust it much anymore, but the estimated adjudication dates here are bouncing around so much the last week. Crazy how much the date range is moving from a range of two weeks to know a full month. It might as well just say: "Some day" or " Eventually". Still I have hope of a NOA2 approval in the month of August even though this site now pegs the entire month of September. Gotta have hope.

Receipt numbers, I am pretty sure are public domain, as part of the Freedom of Information act. That is the only reason why someone like Immifairy can get at them and produce data reports.
Bottom line here is for all of us, we're like a big family living in a small cabin and we're getting cabin fever already. We will all get there in time. If I am the last guy approved for March I will be no less happy, because I know that everyone on this thread has waited and suffered patiently and equally.

We are a community here, whether Texas or California. If we have friends on this journey who have erroneously marked their processing centers with Texas, it probably is not asking too much for someone to send a gentle email to them and request they update their profiles. I'm happy to do so with direction from someone, but we can work with each other to scrub the data so it helps all of us get to a happy place - The Land of NOA2.
R

Tom,
Thank you for taking the time to share with your fellow March filers. I appreciate the time and effort that it takes to summarize the data and present it. We are all in this conundrum together and any information on where we all stand is most welcome in my books.
Michael

Tom,
Thank you for taking the time to share with your fellow March filers. I appreciate the time and effort that it takes to summarize the data and present it. We are all in this conundrum together and any information on where we all stand is most welcome in my books.
Michael

Guys we can hope for the best wish is speedy approvals and nothing wrong with that, and prepare for the worst , ok now we know that some other people having their approval after 7 months, but nothing wrong with hoping and praying for the best, i remember there was a member here she was a December filler , she was waiting for something but so negative saying i know i will not have my approval until august or September and guess what she had her approval i think in 156 daysss which was so unexpected for her, so let hope , nothing is impossible, i will hit my 5 months next Sunday day 26 and cant wait to have my approval, how knows maybe i will be blessed to have my approval soon, i keep praying and hoping, we need to be strong, i still have a long road, because here in Egypt as i noticed just to set an interview could take from 1 to 3 months plus the nvc, but i need to be strong, because deep inside of me i am dying of being away from him, lets support each other by positive thoughts and info please as much as we can we need that

We are a community here, whether Texas or California. If we have friends on this journey who have erroneously marked their processing centers with Texas, it probably is not asking too much for someone to send a gentle email to them and request they update their profiles. I'm happy to do so with direction from someone, but we can work with each other to scrub the data so it helps all of us get to a happy place - The Land of NOA2.
R