juineh

We just got our approval 😀 13 days after responding to our RFE

At least they touched your file. It’s almost there! Good luck 🍀 

I am sure that they would check everything before sending an RFE. From what I’ve seen the RFE would include everything they need. So the good news is 1. They didn’t reject it and 2. You are one step closer to receiving you noa2. After you submit what they ask for, it’s usuallt prettt quick after that. Keep us posted. 

Dont worry. Request for "initial" evidence generally means some important document was missing like your marriage certificate. It's better than request for "additional" evidence, which could mean that they doubt your marriage is bona fide so they need you to prove it. I heard that someone got a REF and was asked to submit the marriage certificate which they already included in the package in the first place. It was very likely uscis lost it when they were reviewing the case. 
 
And at least they touched your case. Just make sure you submit all the documents they asked for. It will be there soon!  

I did too many searches today and I'm blocked for the rest of the day so I can't get a screenshot but I can try my best to explain how it works. Also, I know a lot of people hide their case numbers on here so I'm not going to include any actual case numbers because although a case number doesn't provide any personal or identifying information, I don't know if posting a real case number is/is not against the TOS of VJ and I don't want VJ to ban me  
 
When you go to the search tab it'll let you enter a case number and how many cases following that (up to 500) that you want to search. I always search 500 because that gives me the most results (it includes all case types, not just I-130). Technically the limit is checking the status of 200 cases a day but I've found that I can usually do ~8-10 searches before I get blocked. In case you're worried, being blocked for the day has no impact whatsoever on your case. Anyway, once the search finishes I sort by type by selecting I-130 along the bottom. Each case number will have the current status and the date that it changed to that status (so for the approved cases I saw, the status was approved, the date was February 21st (the date that they were set as approved), and they were in a batch of August 1st cases so that's how I know the PD). 
 
USCIS receives hundreds if not thousands of applications each day and not all numbers are valid so you'll probably have to change the number you're searching quite a bit more than you'd expect. Start with your own case number because that way you know what date the search will return (cases that have the same PD as you do). According to your timeline, your PD is pretty close to the beginning of August so you won't have to change yours as much as I did if you're looking for August cases. Try searching for a case number that is 2000 higher or lower than yours and see where that gets you. That'll give you a better idea of how much you need to change the case number that you're using for the search. If it's not what you're looking for, then try 3000, or 4000, or 10,000. I got a lot of invalid results when I first started so I just kept trying new ones until I got the hang of it. I hope that makes some sense!

There is a bunch of helpful info in the guide about the steps and forms that we need for each step...heres a link
 
www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide1

I wrote a blog post on my site after doing a few months of research on obtaining a CR1 or IR1 visa. I did it from the standpoint of obtaining one for a Romanian spouse, but it applies to any foreign spouse as the steps are the same.
 
I went over the complete process that will be required at the NVC stage, such as financial of support affidavits, and obtaining civil documents. You can check it out if you want it might help. http://roamingromania.com/blog/obtain-cr1-ir1-spouse-visa/#step5-nvc
 

The case tracker app. The notification was on my home screen when I woke up and I saw something like "return to normal processing times" then hit the home button and couldn't find it again 😫

I don't know anything about the waiver that you mentioned, but I was told when I consulted with a lawyer about my own overstay (2 weeks overstay on the VWP) that being married to a US citizen acted as a waiver in and of itself - that an overstay is "excused" for immediate relatives of US citizens once the relative applies for immigration benefits. 
 
I'm not sure if this is correct at all, but that's what I've been advised.

Thank you for clarifying. 

Yes if you have been married for 2 or more years upon entry for spousal visa, the designation will be IR1 not CR1 and a 10 year green card will be issued vs 2 year conditional.