LookyWhatIFound

Thanks dude, for information, you know the waiting is very bad and mind also not working this time, so

No problem, so I guess you're ok, you are able to bring your wife over right?

Hey guys, can you tell me about this lines... I can't understand this line, plz.

Follow to join benefits allow the spouses and children of lawful permanent residents of the United States to get green cards at a later time than their spouses or parents did. This benefit is available to the eligible dependents of those who got their green cards based on family sponsorship, employment or through the diversity visa lottery program. Dependents of immigrants who received green cards in the United States based on an immediate relative petition are not eligible for follow to join benefits.

My translation, somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

If you got your LPR by another LPR filing for you, then you cannot file an I-130 to get one of your immediate relatives until you become a USC.

But I don't understand the difference between Family Sponsorship and immediate relative petition.

Hang in there Fatigo! I know it seems really long, but it'll come soon, I'm sure. I think you're right about the timelines Looky, I've checked a few timelines and they seem to have their NOA2 dates either missing or the same as the NOA1 date, which probably means that the database doesn't get a lot of accurate results to go off of. Unfortunately for us, that means that the estimating algorithm is probably going to output some very inaccurate dates. Still, it all comes back to "expect 5 months, and if it's sooner, great." Can't rely on luck and hope to get you through, we just need to be patient.

I'm honestly a little surprised at how empathetically I feel towards everyone in the same boat as my wife and I. This immigration stuff is rough. I genuinely want everyone to get approved already so you can all move on and stop this torturous waiting game. Good luck to everyone, I hope all of our cases get approved soon.

-Reg

You're exactly right there Reg, expect 5 months at least, anything better we'll take it!

Yeah it is a tough bumpy road with shark infested waters to get by throughout the journey, but you know, nothing really good in life ever comes easy!

@LookyWhatIFound i agree with you. I've been looking at processing times too. My timelines says 5. Jan - 18. Jan but we haven't heard anything yet. Btw i kinda have a sad story too well in August 2014 my husband left to start I130 but we were just married. So we couldn't stand being apart and he came back after only 2,5 months. But this time we've been married for 1,5 years. So thank God it's a little bit easier this time :\

Hi Fatigo, wow you got married at almost nearly the same time as I got married, the end of July 2014! I know its a long time to be apart but I think it will be better for you in the long run, for two reasons.

First of all, I think Turkey falls under the list of higher fraud countries so they will scrutinize your case further than many other countries. So since you have been married for that long I think it shows that your marriage is a real one, and not for immigration purposes.

Second, if you time it right and enter the US after being married for 2 years you will automatically have a 10 year green card and have unconditional full privilege,

Hopefully very soon you will get your NOA2, that's another frustration about the processing times. The lucky ones get it during that range but their are lots of cases that are delayed a month or so.

Just hold on a little longer, sometimes cases can be a little stubborn! Good luck!

Looky

Just updating on the my latest quirky finds of what VJ guides say about USCIS processing times.

For TSC it says they are currently process NOA1 dates of July 31, thats about 2 weeks later than it used to be.

For CSC it says they are currently process NOA1 dates of Oct 19.

The weird thing is that the guides are now saying I may be approved from March 9th to April 19th??? How can that be, initially it was saying around May 10th to June or July.​

I've been looking at timelines, and I noticed that a lot of approved I-130 timelines have the wrong approval dates on them, with the NOA2 date the same as the NOA1 date. I imagine that's what screwing the estimates up, people getting approved probably not updating their NOA2 dates, which probably default to the NOA2 dates being the same as the NOA1 dates.

Hi guys! I know I'm a little tardy to the party, but I filed our paperwork for my wife's I-130 on December 9th, and got my NOA1 via email that it was received on December 21. We're being processed at the California Service Center, so hopefully ours gets approved soon. I'm living in the US right now (I'm the USC), and my wife is in Ireland.

OMG that's terrible. It must have been one of those spur of the moment decisions. Its like when you would have one a million dollars for being the millionth customer except you let the guy in back of you skip to the front!

I guess nobody knew to warn you. Well there's nothing you can do now, but wait it out. Hopefully CSC will cut the wait time in half. We seem to be a lucky group, I already lost count of how many people got their NOA2s already.

Looky

Omg...wow right now it says June-July!! Hard to say what the delay is, if there is one. Visajourney only has data from people that enter it and in my experience from doing this before, it's only a guideline. I think the long-term stats are more accurate.

Yes its only a guideline but it still helps during most of our wishful thinking phases. Like today the range has swung back and now it says: April 14th to June 16th!

Hey you know I think TSC is going backward. A month ago VJ's prediction was telling me I should get my NOA2 by the middle of May and now, a month later it says by the middle of June. . Strange, I guess the holiday and snow day effects are starting to show up as USCIS delays?

WActually, never mind, that VJ estimate thing has to be pretty unreliable for I-130s. There aren't enough VJ I-130 members to get very good stats on when your petition might be adjudicated.

Hi, fellow vjers! How's everyone doing?

My husband just received the NOA2 hardcopy. Exactly 8 days after we received the online update.

Then our case status online also changed:

Case Was Sent To The Department of State

On January 29, 2016, we sent your case, Receipt Number ************* , to the Department of State for visa processing.... Etc..

I guess our case is on it's way to NVC.

Congratulations Deedah, your on your way!

Yeah, it'll work a lot better for timing if I don't get the visa in hand until the new year! Can't believe it's only January and I'm trying to plan for 2017.

Well, you have an excuse for having to plan a year ahead of time. 'The government made me do it!'

Hey you know I think TSC is going backward. A month ago VJ's prediction was telling me I should get my NOA2 by the middle of May and now, a month later it says by the middle of June. . Strange, I guess the holiday and snow day effects are starting to show up as USCIS delays?

Guess i'll just look at the brigther side of things. Sigh! And come to think of it, a year after the ROC, you can already apply for naturalization. Another fee haha!

It's a good thing you thought about the timing, Looky! You will probably save almost $600 in the future.

Oh life is full of fees, there's no getting away from them. Well at least in the US they don't charge for you to go to the bathroom, like they do in Europe! The timing was more for dealing with the dog situation, dogs getting old and the vet wouldn't sign off on her surviving the flight to America. So finally we decided to give it a little more time to see what goes on with the dog. Dogs still ok so we finally settled on bringing her on a ship. So after that it just worked out that the timing was pretty close. So I could just wait a couple months for the IR-1 timing.

Well, we got married April 2015 so I am still in the CR-1 category. But assuming we TSC people get our visas around November 2016-January 2017, I'd have to hold onto to the visa until April 2017. I also might try to delay the process slightly by not rushing each step...not having to remove conditions would be nice!

All of this is complicated by the fact I'm about 90% sure I will be signing a 1 year lease on an apartment in April, which presumably would end April 1st, 2017. So it's in my best interest to not get my visa super quickly!

Oops, silly me, I read your 1st post wrong, you said 6th anniversary. I interpreted that as 6th wedding anniversary, without reading the part about 6th anniversary of your meeting!

I read here that the I-130 doesn't expire until a year after it gets approved by USCIS. So you could delay the NVC process just a little. Cause the Visa is valid for 6 months for entry into the US, and the 2 year Marriage requirement for the IR1 is based on when you enter the US.

So I think you can get the IR1 if you want to.

I'm under CR1 looky! So, more fees 2 yrs after I get my green card.

Yes that's the hard thing. I know of a bunch of couples that went through the whole Removal of Conditions stuff, for their fiancé Visa's, they didn't enjoy it. But you'll be with your husband so something to ease the other crazy stuff.

I purposely timed it so that right now my wife and I just got to 1.5 years that we've been married, so that by the time she gets to the interview and/or into the US, we'll have been married for a little over 2 years.

Thank you so much lookywhatifound!

You are quite welcome. You'll soon get your wish and be back in America again!

I just called NVC. I was on hold for 10 minutes before speaking with someone. He told me that my case was just received by them and it could take up to 42 days for them to be in touch with me. He said they normally send out emails to people, so that made me feel good - hopefully won't get lost in the mail like my other NOA 1&2 did. So .... thanks for the info. Feeling more on top of things.

I also went to the Immigrant Visa page on the travel.state.gov page where it helps you walk through the process a bit more. Is it correct that the Immigrant Visa Application fee is $325? And the Affidavit of Support is $120? I need to ask my parents for the money! Thanks.

Wow great!

If those fees were from the travel.state.gov site they are correct, because that's the Department of State, part of the Department of Homeland security. As official as you get.

You can also look for the US Embassy in Israel's website, under Immigrant Spouse Visa and those forms listed are what they want you to fill.

Congrats Caleb!!! Such exciting news!!

I just noticed something JlovesA, your signature has you getting a CR-1 visa. Actually for being married for over 2 years you will get rewarded with an IR-1, which means you will get the full 10 year green card immediately. The CR-1's still have to remove their conditional residence status, which is also a lot of paperwork and proof of evidence and stuff.

I'll also be getting that, and Blanche too, I don't know of anyone else in this thread getting the IR-1.

CONGRATS CALEB!!!!! yayyyyyy God is good!!!!!

Good luck in your process with the NVC and please keep us posted how things are.

Anyone updates in your petitions?? How are you guys getting along with waiting time? Its been a month since we filed so it should be anytime to get our NO2. I do not want to receive RFE.

Hi Sky, no updates for me, still just 'Case Received'. Waiting is always awful but I just set my mind for the worst possible scenario. Why frustrate myself is the way I look at it. Good things happen but I'm not one to bet it will happen to me.

Well I guess my wife and I have it a bit different, we've been apart and waiting for this for so long that our attitude is like, we've come this far, a few more months or even a year is still worth the wait, especially for the life that will reward us after that!

Yay for approvals! I'm awaiting the actual paper copy of the NOA2 at my parent's house in Florida. I had to change the address and it caused confusion to USCIS so ... patiently waiting. I'm assuming it is going to tell me to fill out the next set of forms. Can someone show me what their NOA2 looks like (without your information, of course). Thanks!

Hi Blanche, I believe mostly the info on the NOA2 is the NOA2 date, what embassy your case is being sent to, your husbands Alien number. So as far as USCIS is concerned they are finished. They don't tell you about any forms. The NVC process is not the same for every country. NVC will give you a case number for Israel. You can call NVC for the case number but be ready to be frustrated and put on a holding queue. They may require you to fill forms out and send it to them or fill out the packet that the embassy sends you. Once you're finished and send the forms back they will give you the interview date.

But how the process is done may be specific to your embassy. The forms are in the VJ embassy info tab and the forms are probably at the travel.state.gov DOS site.

Good luck!

Yeah I know. California is going very fast.

Now.... In a few weeks I'll start the NVC process. How long unit the interview itself? An estimate? 6-7 months?

Hi Caleb, its very Embassy specific. I just checked your timeline and it says your country is Armenia but I suspect you just never changed it to Brazil. Anyway you can compare other VJ members timelines to find out how long it took to get their Visas.

If you go to your timeline, under the US Visa & USCIS Immigration Timelines click the IR1/CR1 Spouse Visa times link. It will take you to a form that displays peoples timelines. Select your country, visa type and any values you want to select from the Drop Downs. Set the filters and I don't remember if you have to click display. But in any case you can see the Total time it took people and their NOA dates and all. Not all of them have completed it yet, but you can go to different pages of the form and get an idea how long it may take you.

Good luck!

God is great!!! For some reason I decided to check our case this morning and it was approved yesterday! We sent I-130 December 29th, they received it on the 30th, and approved it January 26th!!!

Woo! I guess we're all on board in the quick approval train! This is awesome. We're starting off with a great year.

Woo! Congratulations, that's amazing! The CSC train must be on steroids or rocket engines or something! Hopefully its smooth sailing the rest of the way!

God is great!!! For some reason I decided to check our case this morning and it was approved yesterday! We sent I-130 December 29th, they received it on the 30th, and approved it January 26th!!!

Woo! I guess we're all on board in the quick approval train! This is awesome. We're starting off with a great year.

Woo! Thats amazing, the California service center train is obviously running on rocket engines or steroids or something! Hopefully the rest of the way is smooth sailing!

Hi December filers.

I am in the same time line. Just want to understand how USCIS picks the cases as we can see some cases are quite fast and the others even past 5 month timeline. I guess they have criteria to prioritize cases, is that true?

Hi daylightvn, welcome!

Mostly the priority is based on the date that the lockbox/service center receives your case.

They want to have all service centers process cases in an average of 5 months. But the current reality is that they are not. Some service centers have a bigger back log of cases, whick means the cases they are processing are from earleir dates than service centers with a smaller back log of cases.

There is also the fact that some cases are expedited cause there is some emergency reason that the filing couple has that expedite was approved by USCIS. So they do get higher priority.

It seems like most of the people, except for Deedah, were filed from the country where both the beneficiary and petitioner were living together abroad, and so far as I know all of those cases ended up at the California Service center.

Other things that can slow a case down if USCIS needs further evidence or clarification.

Name checks can be slower, in some cases like in some countries the names are very common and it takes longer time to determine who is who.

There may be other reasons but these are all I am aware of.

Woo! Congrats!! Still waiting on my NOA2. I filed from abroad and I was sent to CSC. This is awesome. I'm happy for you guys. Cut away a few months of headaches and worries!

My only hope is that we don't get a RFE. I only sent thirty or so photos of me and her when she was 14(she's 19 now), from our friendship, dating, and marriage. Our wedding invitation and a few utility bills with my name and hers. I think that's enough, right?

What only 30 pictures! I have no idea what is good enough so I just put in the kitchen sink! I think they care about what you to did after getting married. So if what you showed looks like a real marriage relationship. I also put in stuff like affirmation letters from people who know about your ongoing relationship and anything else that shows you two do lots of stuff together.

I think you can still send in evidence to supplement what you did send, in case you want.

Nope, he didn't file from abroad nor he's in the military. But I checked other timelines similar to me (same filing month, same country where I'm from, same service center) and mostly all their NOA2s arrived a month after their NOA1. That was why I was expecting my NOA2 to arrive this month. Maybe the country where I'm from, a factor? I'm not sure.

But i guess we really can't figure out why some cases gets approved quicker than everyone else, right? That will always remain a mystery. ?

But anyway, thank you!! Your NOA2s will arrive soon, i'm claiming it! ?

Yes one never will know how magic works! I was curious cause all the other approvals in this thread have been from abroad so was just wondering if yours was one of them. Good luck the rest of the way!

So I just checked my USCIS case status today and found out that our case was approved!

That was fast (43 days) knowing our case was sent in Nebraska. Finally our case is moving.

So January 21 is my NOA 2 date then? Or is it when i received the hardcopy? I'm not sure..

Best of luck to everyone! Let's hope and pray that your NOA2s will arrive sooner than expected. ?

Wow Deedah! That was quick! Hey just curious was your husband filing from abroad? Is he in the military? Just wondering if there were special circumstances in your case. But anyway onto NVC and all the other work that comes with that, but well worth it, congratulations!!!