MapleLeaf29

Just now, thatsmygsp said:

I was an examiner for the US Patent Office. I wonder if the folk examining our applications at USCIS go through a similar process like I did at the patent office. In the old days, the US Patent office had paper applications like USCIS has now. When an examiner requested applications to work on, we would physically receive 10 or maybe 20 applications on our desk at a time. The examiners would review the applications one at at time,  but we would do the easy ones first, because we were working on a production schedule, and not by the hour. The easy ones were worth as much as a hard one, and its human nature to do the easy ones first. And lets say an examiner ordered 20 applications to work on, but then went on a short vacation, was out sick, was out for any reason really - an application might sit in his/her office for days, maybe weeks longer than other applications with the same filing date that are being worked by examiners who are actually at work those days. Reviewing geo's graph, it seems something similar might be happening at USCIS. Not trying to knock the process. Just trying to understand. Those who know, please correct me

 

And does anyone know if the USCIS examiners work on production? IMPORTANT question! 

 

I have read so many different threads on VJ that I can't cite my references, but my understanding is that they go through the easy cases first.  If I remember correctly, they also tend to process beneficiaries with children first, since I believe the beneficiary and each of the children are assigned different case numbers, but the worker really only has to look at one set of paperwork, so they get more numbers for their time.

5 minutes ago, CmAndS said:

Guys. It's my birthday today and i was hoping to get approved. I took a nap at work after lunch and when i woke up, i checked my app, it says approved. I couldn't believe it. I checked the other app and USCIS website too. I'm so happy. ???

Happy Birthday!   So glad to hear that you got your NOA2.  What a perfect birthday gift!

Just now, Andsco said:

 On my NOA1 hard copy says:

 

Notice date: November 25th 2016
Received date: November 21st 2016

So there goes my confusion haha

So, you have the same dates as we do.   Here's to a speedy NOA2 for both of us. 

6 minutes ago, Andsco said:

Hi everyone!

I'm a little confused about which date I should use as a reference for my NOA1. Here's how my timeline should be:

 

1. Sent the I-129f to Texas Lockbox the 18th Nov.

2. Got to Texas Lockbox the 21st. Nov.

3. We got the letter NOA1 the 25th. Nov.

4. As we got the tracking number to check on their website, on the website it says they got the I-129f on the 21st of Nov. 

5. My fiance got an email and a SMS the 28th Nov. saying the same as the letter NOA1 said. 

 

Now with so many dates..what's my date? 

It can be very confusing.  What is the date on the hard copy of your NOA1?  That is the date you should use for your VJ timeline.  The app goes off of your "received" date.

Here is our timeline, for reference:

1. Sent I-129F on November 19th.

2. I-129F received on November 21st.  (If you look up your case number on the app or the website, this is your "received" date.  All of Geo's updates go off of your "received" date as well.)

3. Hard-copy NOA1 dated November 25th.  This is the date we used for our VJ timeline.

4. NOA1 arrived in the mail on November 28th.  We don't use this date for anything, but we celebrated when it arrived.

12 minutes ago, Reboot1 said:

Looks like USCIS data is toast for Valentine's Day.

 

 

 

Today was an especially tough day to not have an NOA2.  I didn't realize how much the stress had been building until I found myself sobbing to my fiancé on the phone.  I don't really know what happened to me, because we've been expecting a long wait, and we've said for a long time that we would be happy if we got our NOA2 in March.  Tonight I dined alone. . . on chocolate.  

5 minutes ago, vogann said:

Today's stats for Nov 14th NOA1 fillers:

  Reveal hidden contents

Approved: 35

RFE: 27

 

All past reports: https://sites.google.com/view/nov14/latest-reports

Good to see they are chipping away at those November 14th cases.  Thanks for continuing to do this even though you have your NOA2!  I am sure other November 14th filers really appreciate it.  My received date is one week later, but it's just nice to see progress.

1 minute ago, TiruRiru09 said:

I hope you get approved tomorrow! I filed in January and I don't know what to do with myself. I found this website and it is a huge support system. I read it all the time and it helps. I hope you have a wonderful time on your vacation!

Thank you!  We are really looking forward to a vacation after the stress of the past few months.  Hoping for way faster processing times for January filers!  The CSC seems to be moving a lot faster now.

1 hour ago, TiruRiru09 said:

Realistically speaking, how long do y'all think it will take before we get our NO2. My friend filed in August and her fiancé came to the states in mid-November. I don't think we will be a lucky. How do y'all not relieve the stress? Because I feel like my anxiety levels and stress levels are through the roof!

I don't know a realistic timeline.  It has been 86 days since we sent in our petition and 84 days since our receipt date.  There are still around 900 untouched k1 petitions that were submitted before ours.  However, a few cases after ours have already been approved, so the CSC isn't working cases in exactly chronological order.  This has probably been the toughest week so far, since we know that we could be approved any day, or we could still be waiting for weeks.  

We are trying to find positive ways to relieve the stress.  I find that it helps to stay busy, so I have been going to the gym, doing projects around my house, and putting more hours into the small business I run in addition to my regular job.  We are planning a vacation to Mexico together this spring, which I think will really help a lot.  Depending on where we are in this whole process, we may have a "no talking about the visa during this vacation" rule.  

Hoping for fast processing times for everyone here.

14 hours ago, amye said:

I've been searching for where I have to go to get my medical done but I'm not finding anything.  Anyone know where I can find this info?

Here are specific threads that I sent to my fiancé that talk about getting your medical done.  If you search "Canada medical" in the search bar on this website, you should pull up quite a few threads.  Depending on where you want to have your medical done (his will be in Toronto), you can also search for Vancouver, Toronto, or Montreal.

1 hour ago, Chelleyandaaron said:

i think it was @Maple Leaf

I honestly can't remember if it was me or not, but here is the Canada sub-forum:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/forum/93-canada/

It's very helpful.  Just about every question I can think to ask about Canada has already been answered.  I've read a lot of the threads and they have really helped me and my fiancé feel more prepared.

1 minute ago, Chelleyandaaron said:

On the ds-160 it says to enter approximate dates if you aren't sure.  It doesn't seem as if they are particular about the exact detailsas long as you are not trying to hide anything.  There are lots of posts on other threads by Canadians who had no idea how many times they had visited and mentioned this at interview and had no difficulties.

That's helpful.  I sent some of the posts from the Canada forum to my fiancé so he can read through them as he is filling out the DS-160.  I didn't see in any of those posts that the dates could be approximate, so that's really good to know.  Thank you!

2 hours ago, CmAndS said:

Waiting for monday to see the approvals ?

Aren't Mondays grand?    I never thought I could love Mondays as much as I do now. 

2 hours ago, Chelleyandaaron said:

Sorted!  I still can't add anything to my ds-160 list but I have managed to cobble together what I think is a complete history - I think I only had two visits prior to my current passport.  I have the full CBP list of 15 visits - another five in my current passport and I'm fairly certain I only had two visits prior to that - one in 2007 and one in 1993.  So - like you - 22 visits in total!

 

I'll put it onto a sheet and take it to the interview. Thank you for letting me know about your experience with the system - and the advice

 

We're really struggling to put this list together for my fiancé, since you didn't even need a passport to cross between Canada and the United States until fairly recently.  He can get a record of his visits for the past five years, but before that, we just have general information.  We know he attended a conference in New York in January of 2004, but we have no idea of the exact dates.  We also know that he took a skiing trip to Colorado in high school, but we aren't even sure of the exact year.  How specific do the dates have to be?

2 hours ago, Noeyjohns said:

I always happy to see all the progress and new info from all the VJ . I think USCIS is almost done with the November 2016 filers now.

I've read on November filers someone who got NOA1 on 11/28 , just got NOA2 and Geowryan will update soon.

If USCIS always works fast like this, that means it won't take any longer for December 2016 and January 2017 filers to get Noa2.

Yeay!

 

This week, Geowrian said that they're a little over 40% done with November filers.  They are jumping around a lot with their approvals.  Hoping for NOA2's for all of the November, December and January filers soon!

1 minute ago, geowrian said:

Still running. It takes 50-70 minutes to run, the another 20 or so minutes for me to compile all the info. That said, so far I'm not seeing any cases updated today.

 

@amye What case number(s) did you see updated? I can do a second check here to see if something is up.

Wow, I didn't realize how long it took for you to compile the info each night.  Thanks for putting so much work into this.

1 minute ago, Adreeanuh said:

This is what mines says in my timeline 

Could happen, could not happen.   It's a very rough estimate at best.

45 minutes ago, Adreeanuh said:

And another question on our timeline it says estimated times for your paper work and they give a date is that true or never happens ?

The VJ estimate used to be pretty accurate, and then everything slowed down in November and December.  My estimate started out as mid-December, then moved to January, then moved to late January, then moved to the beginning of February, then moved to mid-February. . . .  Right now, it says between February 16th and 19th, which could actually happen based on current processing times.  We'll see.

Based on Geowrian's scans, there are currently 2107 untouched cases from November 1 to November 30th.  This does not include the many cases where requests for additional evidence were mailed; there were hundreds of RFE's in November.  There are also a number of outstanding cases from October, including 20 that were received on October 31st.

My fiancé and I have a received date of November 21st.  There are currently about 900 November petitions ahead of ours, but the CSC is not working cases in exactly chronological order, so we we could be approved any time (or we could have a few weeks or even a few months to go).  Currently, the CSC is jumping around a lot.  A handful of people with received dates in the November 20s have already been approved, while other people who submitted in early November are still waiting.  That being said, the CSC appears to be focusing on the mid-November range.  We're not sure exactly how they select which applications are processed on a given day.

2 hours ago, Selma and Nermin said:

@Kevin&Kanyanat if you open the link and scroll down you will see the data from different days in november. The whole month had around 500 applications

The link is for November 14th only.  On November 14th alone, there were over 400 k1 petitions submitted.  Over in the November filers thread, Geowrian scans all of the November cases on a nightly basis and reports on the progress from the CSC.  The CSC handles pretty much all of the k1 applications.

Here is the data from last night:

10 hours ago, geowrian said:

***Today's comprehensive update***
Date: 2/10/2017
Scan ran: 10:30 PM EST
Scan finished: 11:29 PM EST
Records: 5000

 

Cases updated today: 127
Approved: 49
RFEs: 65
Other: 13

 

Today's Data: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8es4j04tzi2LXpnM2F2RDF3dFU

 

All data: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1B_oR3Imoi-dVhQSG02YkFhVjg
MS Access Database: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8es4j04tzi2WndWWDFpM2gxVm8

 

*Keep in mind I'm only counting WACs from WAC1790048000 onward. Records untouched prior to this are not included.*

1 hour ago, Chelleyandaaron said:

Update: DS-160 used to only ask for the five most recent visits on earlier forms - so I think I should be okay with the most recent nine and the online form probably does limit the number of trips we can input.  I can breathe again!  Other forum threads said that you can discuss other visits at the interview if it comes up.  They just want to be sure that the information is consistent - not necessarily requiring your full travel history since the year dot...

Oh, that's helpful.  Like a lot of Canadians, my fiancé has been to the US a zillion times, starting when he was a child.  We were afraid we would have to list every single visit.  It's so nice to know that we only need to list the most recent nine.

Just now, Reboot1 said:

I am thinking they cherry pick the easy files first, so you end up seeing less RFEs. Then they grab the harder ones, and the approval/RFE percentage drops.

That makes sense.  

Just now, Stephanie B said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I've been following this thread since early December and  have finally decided to comment.  I have a 11/21 NOA1 date and I'm just here patiently waiting like you all, but I must say that this thread has been a great resource for me and also extremely encouraging.

 

I live in a state away from most of my family and my other half is thousands of miles away, so reading the daily post have been my "support".  

 

You guys are an amazing group and I wish you all success and greatness in your upcoming nuptials.

 

xoxo

Welcome.  My received date is also 11/21.  There seemed to be quite a lot that day.  The good news it that there have been a few 11/21 approvals lately.  We're starting to hope that we might get our NOA2 by the end of February.  Hoping for a speedy NOA2 for you!

15 hours ago, Serik said:

Based on the reports from the November thread, it looks like it takes around 80-90 days for the NOA2  We all need patience and good luck! Hopefully our cases will get approved soon 

This sounds about right.  We are on day 83.  Hoping for speedy approvals for everyone here.