top_secret

I have heard of a number of Filipina-Foreigner couples meeting in Maldives during the pandemic. It has become a favored destination for just that. If the girl can make it out of Manila she is home free for Maldives.

I was just looking at my credit reports and noticed USCIS did 4 soft pulls on my Experian Credit report. Slightly odder is the timing of the inquiries. I filed two I-130's on a Monday morning but it says USCIS pulled my credit report twice the Friday before I filed, then again on the Sunday the day before I filed and there was a 4th credit pull 10 days after I filed. I'm guessing that due to the proximity of the credit pulls to the time I actually filed, they could only have been a response to my filing and the dates just got predated a few days somehow. It just seems odd since I have never heard of anyone else mentioning USCIS doing credit pulls under those circumstances. My petitions are simple online I-130's for overseas spouse and stepchild. No conceivable connection to any public charge angle or adjustment of status anything like that and we are nowhere near NVC looking at my finances for Affidavit of Support yet. Anyways I just thought it was weird since I have not heard anyone mention credit pulls from initial filing of I-130's. They were soft pulls so it doesn't affect my credit scores and I don't mind if they evaluate my petitions based on my credit reports because my credit scores are even more sound than my I-130s and any information in my report would only corroborate what is in my I-130's. Has anyone else noticed USCIS pulling their credit report?

Using https://mullvad.net/ vpn right now which is a non recurring €5 fee for a month of service and definitely isn't blocked and lets you log into your account on irs.gov

I have been in the city of Rio de Janeiro, with a Filipina no less, at the very height of the pandemic. Whatever propaganda of bodies lying in the streets may be on TV, we were there. First hand. The city and society of Rio de Janeiro was functioning just awesome. The pandemic meant your Uber driver would leave the windows down and you would randomly get splashed with a shot of hand sanitizer hear and there. Otherwise everything was working great. If the US Consulate is shut down there they are about the only ones and I'm sure the Embassy workers are out in public enjoying the beach if they have an excuse to not be working.

It's all controlled by a complex computer algorithm

To better put USCIS published wait times in perspective. Here is a site that has cataloged the monthly changes over the last year. https://lawandborder.com/uscis-processing-times-i-130s-for-immediate-relatives/ Notice that over the last year various centers regularly traded places for fastest or slowest. Then go to look at actual results by visajourney members here. Those lamenting getting sent to Vermont could take heart that among recent NOA1 to NOA2 results of visajourney members Vermont is currently the second fastest. Not the slowest. This time last year Vermont was cranking out i-130's in a couple of months and everyone was dreaming to get sent to Vermont.

I have always thought that "delivery person in the Philippines" must be one of the most challenging jobs that exists. Amazingly they usually seem to come through. Probably more important that the address is make sure there is a good local phone number. The delivery guys will text or call if they need help locating someplace.

I filed online March 8, had the online NOA1s March 9. The paper NOA1s showed up in my mailbox March 12. The postmarks on the envelopes were March 9.

Those numbers constantly change. Allot. In July of 2020 everyone submitting an I-130 petition was hoping and praying it would get sent to Texas or Potomac because they were by far the fastest centers at that time. A month later, by August of 2020, everyone was hoping their petition would get sent to Texas or California, since Texas and California were way faster than the other centers. But those number are only a reflection of approvals at a certain point in time. What the statistics may be if and when todays petitions actually start getting approved is anyone's guess. But it is kind of predictable that they will be way different than they are now.

Although I do not believe it provides really useful information, I do enjoy overanalyzing the situation while I wait. 😂 So just for fun I did try the Ask Emma approach. I got a really nice agent that said my petitions are indeed at the Texas Service Center which matches my mailed NOA2 and differs from my online status. Interestingly, the agent said my IOE receipt numbers "generate an error message" so she had to look up my petitions by name, birthdate, address, phone number and such.

I'm really convinced that this early there is no way to even get a remotely accurate answer what service center will eventually process your application. Mine says Nebraska online. My mailed NOA1 says Texas. The postmark on the envelope with the Texas return address indicates it was actually mailed from Virginia. As others here have discovered, an online agent may give you a completely different answer than anything you can see, and you could find many examples of where others have received answers from agents that turned out to not be completely accurate once they did receive their NOA2. On top of that, the wait times of the centers themselves change very significantly. There are people who were jumping with joy a year ago that they got assigned to what was then a super fast center, and a year later some of those same people are still waiting and are bitterly regretting the day they ever got assigned to those same centers that were super fast a year ago. But playing a guessing game is an interesting diversion while we wait. Maybe I'll try and see what an agent has to say about where my case is later. Although I suspect a betting pool would be more accurate at predicting case approval dates 😂

I just filed i-130's for spouse and step-daughter. Under the beneficiary page of the online form it askes. "For whom are you filing this petition? Select the relationship the beneficiary has to you......." If you select "Child" at that point, the online form alters the remaining questions to be more appropriate for a child beneficiary. The only really odd questions remaining for a child beneficiary, regarding employment and marital status, can still be answered factually. The child is indeed unemployed and it is an important detail that they unmarried. Other places where it is asking spouse (of the petitioner) and other familial relationships are relevant and can be answered factually.

I had to file on paper last year. I just now, like in the last couple of days, had my 2019 tax return transcript finally appear in my online account. I filed with an extension last summer. It took like 9-10 months for them to process. I'm owed a return and haven't seen any sign of that yet but at least my transcript is now available. Keep checking your online IRS account right up to the last moment because they are apparently making a little progress.

Receiving the case is an action.

Oh, man. I'm always the guy wind up in that line somehow. This is going to take forever. 🙄😉