Thomianguy

Day 32 waiting for a CC and now a holiday today. Seriously just fed up with this whole broken process.

Day 30. Here's to hoping we hear something on Tuesday.

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What's your scan date?

My hope for CC date is around yours.

Our scan date is 17/12/2015.

Congrats to all who received their CCs. Based on how this is going, we should get ours by the 27th of this month. Fingers, toes and everything crossed. Hoping to be finished with the interview and everything by March so we can celebrate our first anniversary together.

Website is down, can't check to see the status of our case. Scan date 17/12/2015.

Hi everyone,

So I called a few times 2 weeks ago to get my scan date and was given 12/18 the first time and then given 12/21 three other times - so am going off that date. I never received an email stating they received my documents though, just phone confirmation (of different dates nonetheless). Is it worth it to call to ask about the email? Has anyone else gotten an email with a scan date similar to mine?

Our scan date is 17/12/2015 but we got the email with the scan date on 01/01/2016. When I called the NVC, I was told it was normal to not receive such an email but you're given your scan date over the phone. After calling several times between the 17th December to 01 January just to make sure we didn't need this email, we finally received the email. My wife kept insisting we are suppose to receive this email and after not getting it, I called and spoke to several polite persons about it. They all informed me about the same scan date and told me that not getting the email doesn't mean something is wrong with your process. You may receive yours soon so just hold on.

The NVC has officially made me hate the weekends. Really hate waiting.

Hey everyone. Happy to see some people getting their CCs. I know the wait has been brutal. Our scan date is 17/12/2015 so we are hoping for a case complete in mid January or by some luck, sooner. We did not receive an email with our scan date but after calling the NVC several times, we were told all is well and they have all the necessary documents, just waiting to be reviewed now.

KiRilie, yes, you are required to submit two photographs with the IV package. Since this is absent from your package, you may receive a checklist for it. You also have to take two additional photographs to your interview.

KiRilie, that was paid also.

By the way, the NVC received our case on November 12th and a case number was generated on December 3rd. D261 completed and now awaiting approval.

So:

I-130 received - May 8th, 2015 (priority date)

USCIS completion - October 22, 2015

NVC received - November 12th, 2015

NVC Case number - 12/3/2015

Thank you all!

Well, after days of anguish, OUR NOA2 APPROVAL CAME THROUGH at 10:44 PM on 0/26/2015.

Our priority date was May 8th, 2015. According to the Visa Journey time line, we were to hear something around October 9th - October 13th. The good news is, we DID hear something from them TWICE. The bad news is, neither was an approval or request for more evidence.

The fact that we heard from them twice alerted us that our file is on someone's desk, but 5 days since we heard from them last, we have still have not yet gotten an NOA2 which now has us worrying and wondering, HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE THEM TO LOOK OVER A 3 PAGE APPLICATION and make a decision.

What did we get from them?

October 14th, they updated the application to make a name change. They confirmed they did this for us.

October 19th, they sent us back TWO original documents that we sent in because the photocopies were not showing the seal clearly.

Again, this suggests someone looked at our file at least TWELVE days ago. Still no NOA2, but in the letter they sent to us, there were 3 checkboxes and the one asking for MORE information was not checked. What was checked was a box saying that if we have not received an approval as yet, one is coming in 20-30 days. Really???

At a few government agencies here in New York, you will receive a number (EX: #1029) only to hear the rep come out and call #1047. Then you find out that EACH rep is given a certain amount of cases and different reps work at different speeds or could move faster or slower based on, perhaps, a case that might require more time with it. This is why the way they call numbers is not in any kind of order. Does USCIS work the same way? I ask because I see no numerical consistency in how cases are completed/approved. I see the dates all over the place. In fact, based on the VJ update, they are now working on dates in the 20s of May 2015 or even LATER. Our NOA1 was on May 8th and I've seen people BEFORE and AFTER receiving NOA2's from the Nebraska Service Center. We have received correspondence from them (one to tell us they made requested name change and another to return original documents which tells us, SOMEONE IS LOOKING AT OUR CASE!) but NO RFE which they would have done by now based on the fact that they communicated with us already.

It's been 12 days since the last possible date we should have heard from them about an approval.

Oh, on another note, when they sent us back our original copies on October 19th, they checked off a box that said:

"If you have yet to receive your approval notice, please allow TWENTY to THIRTY days to receive it."

It takes them THAT long to review a 3 page application and make a decision?

My wife and I met online, and we were in our relationship 13 months before I got to see her in person the first time. In the course of three years, we only saw each other for maybe a month-two months total in that time before getting married. Immediately after we got married, I got deployed.

She moved in with me March of 2013; three and a half years after we met and eight months after we married.

I am in the Air Force, and lived in Ohio at the time, she in Bulgaria. It was $1,500 for a plane ticket, and my job requires me to get security approval before I travel to a foreign country, which can take months. We usually had to go a year or more between seeing each other. So trust me when I say I feel your pain.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you get used to it. Yes, the underlying yearning is always there, but eventually it just becomes a daily routine. For us it was relatively fast; we had both been in long-term long-distance relationships before; I, for example, have only been in two relationships my whole life, the first lasted three and a half years and was for the most part purely online/phone. This sounds bad, but hear me out; it helps not to think about the future. Take it one day at a time, and it all sort of blends together. Eventually the day will come where you two are together and today will seem like a distant memory even if it's just a few months. Don't think of it like, "What about Christmas and New Year's?" or similar. Just think about this afternoon or what's for lunch. It's inane, yes, but trust me, it helps more than you can imagine. Naturally I am not saying don't discuss your future, but don't dwell too much on the distance between you, it simply causes more heartache.

Thank you, sir!

I think my wife is now peeping in so this should hearten her a bit to see that others are going through the same thing.

Beautiful story and beautiful wife you have there, man. Best of wishes to you both.

Can't seem to upload the weeding photo ( 1 of over 600). Keeps uploading this one.

Wow, this has been disheartening and heartening at the same time. Just a few seconds ago, as I am prone to be involved with any second of the day, my wife sent me a photo of a place in her hometown that holds so much memories for us. Part of the reason why this moment is so painful is not only because her great grandmother passed away, but also, because she ia sback in her hometown where we shared such a beautiful time last year. She was rising on the bus on the way there when it hit her that I was not on the bus with her, nor did I cross the river with her, nor did I go to sleep with her as it rained outside. It was like returning to a place where you had your first kiss and the person you kissed and fell in love with is not there to revisit the moment with you.

I had always been a source of encouragement for my wife, keeping her spirit up when she began to think negatively about it all. When I introduced her to Visa Journey and she was able to see timelines and learn more about the process, she felt better and there was hope that my early October, we would be at the NOA2 process. Almost a month later, crickets. Even I began to break down and with a confluence of grief, frustration (her job), the distance and the missing, we both got sick.

My wife is a VERY eloquent person and skilled at writing and she knows how to get her points across so when I get a 10 paragraph whatsapp message expressing her deepest love with me contrasted by the hurt, fears and worry due to thei whole process, I felt it down to my toes. Still, I know we are not the only ones going through this and while I am not happy for any of us in THIS situation, I am happy that we all are holding on and letting love win out the day. If only the NVC or USCIS could really understand what goes on with some of us, but I realize, they get the frauds and they have their jobs to do.

Anyway, in the photo, that was me and my wife in May 2014 in her hometown, next to an old abandoned house she spent her early childhood in. As that is Guyana and into the rain forest area, it rains in buckets and we both literally showered right in the rain after this kiss. lol. I love this photo, not because of how I look, but because of how SHE looks and the emotion that it elicits. She is there right now, in the new house, probably looking at that very spot.

Wedding photo:

Be ye of equal yolk..amen. So, keep loving each other passionately and know this is a test and too shall pass! I, personally, have to remind myself...mind over matter. Hold on and be strong my brother, your time shall soon come. And always know that you are surrounded by an extended family here that will be of encouragement and strength when you feel like you're losing yours.

Thank you!

If I may add...during times of frustration and anguish...don't take it personal, realise that it's rooted by some other reason. Simple..I love you, I miss you, I need you and I'm not going anywhere will help in soothing some of the tears and frustration. I know this is known and I'm probably overstating the obvious...we (women) are emotional beings so fed that emotional need (even from afar) to your wife and you will be greatly rewarded! Just my opinion...

Sis, don't I ever know this. My wife was literally losing he rmind today. The only thing that snapped her out of it was me emphatically stating I am coming "home" to her. Yes, when she was at the height of her frustration I have to give her an illustration of two family members that wanted tp beat each other up this past summer. They NEVER fight, but they went to Florida, was locked up all day in a house with NO air conditioning and bored out of their minds. I had to tell them that that they had to realize that the problem was NOT with them, but rather, the situation they were in.

My wife is a VERY passionate woman and she loves hard (which I love). Guess it is a good thing that she is so sold out on me and me on her, considering the distance. She IS worth the wait, but wish we could get an express path straight to the interview. lol

I don't think I could envision how challenging this process would be. Prior to the process we plotted out a timeline on paper and even with use ahead of our projection we are struggling.

When there is a favorable development there is happiness, when there are delays there is much sadness.

We are struggling with it.

We have worked hard to keep the communication going. When work is busy that helps, and also much efforts in satisfying my spiritual needs, along with much prayer has helped me to keep somewhat of some sanity.

This is has been the most challenging thing I have faced in my life.

Well, I see both of you are filing for someone in Jamaica where my first wife was from. Like I said, that was a cakewalk because she was here. This time around, my wife is 3,000 miles away in Guyana and it's like we are trapped. It got so bad the past few days, with a mixture of frustration, grief, emotional pain, bickering over petty stuff, crying and sleepless nights because we don't know what to do. So, in a crazy moment, a decision was made a few hours ago for me to go back to Guyana in a few weeks. You see, if we had gotten the NOA2 last week or the week before, as was expected, then, we know the AOS and other things would have to be taken care of and some hope would ease the frustration, but now, since the window has widened and we are hearing they are just at April (Nebraska) and our NOA1 was in May, this could mean another month or more of waiting. So, it was down to "should I go now or wait?" Waiting is causing us to lose our minds.

Shams, unlike you, however, my wife's job and my job allows us to talk ALL day and any time of the day if we want and we do. Thanks to video technology, we talk through Skype or Tango and fall asleep with the video on so seeing and talking to each other is NOT a problem. It is the intimacy and now her great grandmother passed away two days ago and with the gov't change over back in May, she, a government worker, has only been paid TWICE since May with no new pay date in sight adding to the frustration as bills are piling up.

Again, what we feel is not the concern of USCIS or their employees. They just show up to do a job, collect a check and go home to their families, but if there is one complaint, it would be, this process could be better streamlined and faster if they wanted it to be. I realize MILLIONS of people are applying, worldwide, weekly, but the process is a billion dollar money maker for the U.S government which should give them the incentive to speed it up and keep the NON REFUNDABLE money rolling in.

Now to go rob Peter to pay Paul for my plane ticket to Guyana. *sigh*

I am generally a VERY upbeat guy, but I must admit, this process could be the death of me. I mean, I went through this years ago with my first marriage, but in that case, my (then) wife was here in the states and it was just a matter of going back to her home country, going through the interview, getting through and bringing her back with me so I barely even remember a concern. This time around, my wife is overseas (almost 3,000 miles away) and being that is a far more passionate and complete (mature) relationship, the separation during this time is unbearable because the yearning is so deep so the anguish is commiserate .

I realize that the USCIS did not tell me or any of the other long distance lovers on here to go find love in distant locations. It's not their fault and the U.S has put its measures in place to interview applicants. I get it, but what is killing us is the uncertainty as you wait. For us, we are somewhere in the ballpark of the process window and we are watching that window widen into a next month so the hope you once had, now turns to uncertainty. we heard, from the horse's mouth, "FIVE MONTHS" and you watch 5 months slip into 6. You are not sure if it will be another few days, weeks or months and that is just getting the NOA2 so you can get to the REAL nuts and bolts of the process. Then, from the stories I've seen, you can do everything right and still be dismissed on some technicality or one person might go from NOA1 to NOA2 in 5 months and another in 10 months without there being any issue with their application.

Not all of us have the money to make frequent trips and you are caught between whether you should go for a visit (that requires a whole day to travel) only to have to turn back around in a mere few months to attend the interview, not to mention the fees in between. Thousand of dollars when all is said and done.

So I ask, for those in this position or who have been in this position, how do/did you cope? How do you temper the frustration that can creep in and make even the smallest thing bother you? It's like i have given up and just left the outcome to the Fates and just suppress expectations.

According to their website; they are working on April 2nd. My PD date is May 7th I also havent heard from them.

It seems they are not really processing the petition in a specific order.

I think we just need to wait a little bit more.

Yes, it appears we have to wait a little longer, but because I have spoken to about 10 different reps over the past 5 months, you hear different things and you learn different things and you can piece together some understanding of what this is all about. I am not sure what Visa Journey taps into, but based on the USCIS timeline, the Lincoln, Nebraska center has a 5 month window with the NOA1s and I guess this how they arrive at their adjudication estimate. To confirm that they are in the ballpark, we have seen quite a few people receive their NOA2s WITHIN that 5 month window, some even earlier.

Now, here's the kicker on some information I got from one USCIS agent.She told me that USCIS does NOT update the timeline daily.They update it every 15 days so when we hear them tell us, for example, they are at April (date), once they update it again, they will jump all the way to late April or early May and so on. So the April 2nd you are seeing is not necessarily accurate. We proved this back in July when their website said they were ONLY at January 2014, yes 2014, only to find people who received their NOA1 in February 2015, getting their NOA2s in July 2015 (5 months) all the while the USCIS website was saying that they were working on applications from 1 year EARLIER.

I mean, I know I should not hold them to a concrete date, but my problem is, the fact they corresponded with me twice (once to honor an update request and once to return original copies), gave me the idea that our application was being worked on, as of now, 10 days ago. If that had not happened, I would not be as puzzled or worried. So of course we are wondering if an application takes more than a week to look over and approve or deny?

We are at the Nebraska Center and at first, we were told they are working on about a 5 month window, give and take a week in either direction and we have confirmed from seeing other petitioners that this seems to be the case. We received our NOA1 on May 8th. According to our timeline, we should have heard from them about October 9th - 13th. Well, we did hear from them, but what we got was a NAME CHANGE update on October 14th which I requested back in July. I was happy because that indicated someone there was looking at our application. Then on October 19th, I get home and saw a large brown envelope from them in the mail. Since I have e-mail alerts turned on and received no e-mail, I got scared thinking they were asking for more info which would hold the process up. Instead, it was two original documents I sent to them (photocopies were obscuring the seals and I did not want a non clear seal to cause a hold up). Again, I was happy because it told me the application is on a desk being looked at. There was no mention of any denials or request for more information and with them sending those back, told me they concluded the info was satisfactory.

So, if on October 14th they updated the info (8 days ago) and then on October 19th I received my originals back, can someone tell me why it has or is taking them 8 DAYS, so far, to determine or make an approval? While on one hand, I realize they ARE looking at our info, another part has my wife in fear thinking something must be wrong, if it is taking them this long to. One caveat is that on a paper they sent back with the originals, they checked this off:

"If you have not received your approval notice AS YET, allow 20-30 days to receive one."

The sender (a director) sent his name and extension, but USCIS, of course, will not let me speak to him.

What are we to make of this, especially when we see others who received their NOA1's in May (many AFTER us) receiving their NOA2s?

On a little side note, the letter they sent to me was dated OCTOBER 19th which is the same day the letter arrived. Found that odd unless they sent someone by Lear Jet yesterday to deliver it directly from their office.

TESTING!