A few weeks ago I read a post from a former USCIS officer who processed petitions, you can find it here on VJ somewhere. A lot of it is random, and frustrating for all of us when some petitions are approved in 5 months and others take a year or more. The processing times from VJ members' timelines and the USCIS website are only averages, some take less and others more time so it's best to expect the worst and then be surprised when it is approved. Officers are assigned boxes of files in an organized way, the oldest ones are given to an officer in batches, then he/she works on the box at their own pace, some go on vacation or work slower, others process them quickly, depending on the details of the case, background checks, complexity of the cases, etc. I picture in my mind a desk piled high with files and boxes, and officers going through our applications, viewing our photos, etc. and other personal information. There are hundreds of petitions arriving every day, and they pile up, not enough employees to review them so they wait in a storage room to be assigned to a USCIS immigration officer. The poster said some files took a long time to review, others were fast. When they finish their box of files, they go back for a new box. Humans make errors, and there are rooms full of boxes, so I can see some employees taking a box of newer petitions by mistake and may miss an older box that sits on a shelf in a storage room or gets lost for a few months, out of order. You would think that in 2018, they would scan everything to an electronic file and then the computer would automatically assign the next case in the queue to an officer in a more fair way, but that's not how it works. They assign and review paper files based on the former employee's post. On top of that, some centers work faster than others, or get assigned more files so they get behind, or add more employees or lose some, you get the picture. The good sign right now is that if you look at the average days for I-130 approvals, it is going down slightly the last few months. The waiting really sucks. Lots of visits to be together is how my husband and I are coping with this long process of living apart. All the best to all July filers!
