ryvfader

Honestly, some sort of ticket that has your name, a location or place that can be tied to a location, and a date on it. Boarding passes can be perfect for this, same with hotel receipts. Take a photo holding your receipts with your passport's identification page clearly visible and yourselves. Print this photo large enough to easily read all the details and send it to USCIS proof of life style. With that you have "hard" evidence that you were together, because you're together in the photo, that it's who you say it is because you're holding identification, and finally that it's within a certain date and location because you are holding a timestamped ticket for that date/time and location. 

Can even send individual scans of each document as well to ensure it's easily read. 

Really it just comes down to ease of access to transparent information. They have people processing these immigration applications until their eyes bleed and it's a thankless job. No one is meeting the person/team that adjudicated their petition and buying them a pack of beer for all the work they do. A lot of the frustration that gets directed at a underfunded, understaffed organization weighed down by red tape and the whims of immigraton policy could be resolved by having accurate information readily available on something that for most is a very emotionally charged part of their life. 

If you pull their quarterly service wide form data current processing times for FY21 were 8 months in Q1, 8.1 months in Q2 with 21,106 outstanding cases at the end of March. 

"9) Processing times are defined as the number of months it took for an application, petition, or request to be processed from receipt to completion in a given time period. The number of months presented is the median which is the time it took to complete 50% of all the cases processed in the quarter."

If you use the Q1/Q2 processing times and base your estimates on that then I wouldn't expect November to reach 50% completion until at least the later end of July. 

As to why the USCIS processing times page doesn't reflect this, I don't know. But their service wide data charts reflect more accurately to what we are actually seeing real world. 

2 hours ago, payxibka said:

You need to understand that the only part that is somewhat predictable is tbe uscis part.  The consulate part is not predictable due to the pandemic 

This.

Keep this in mind with the whole process. Likely the most accurate prediction you're going to get is with the congregated timeline data on this site or similar places. But even then don't expect week or even month specific accuracy. Also, the USCIS processing times are near useless. For example as of this post USCIS says cases up to 18 November should be 90% completed based on their data collected two months ago. If you pull look at data pulled by members running batch queries of most/all I-129F cases you will see not even 75% of September filers have been cleared yet. So the closest you're going to get to an accurate estimation is not even going to be a guarantee of a specific month, VJ seems to have the best real world estimates for this. For the consulate you're at the mercy of COVID shutdowns, political feuds, country of the consulate, and at times it will seem just based on which direction the wind is blowing. Not to mention how long the line is based on how many others are also waiting for their interviews. For an analogy of the entire process think less Formula 1, and more 1950's Le Mans but your car was built by the lowest bidder.

2 minutes ago, J&D1008 said:

i agree! it may be due to all the November cases that were previously processed in March and April. I wonder if anyone can run the stats for November like they been doing September and October

At this point I'm honestly not even remotely sure on this, but feel that it is likely accurate and skewing their data. The fact they processed a handful of November cases almost exactly two months ago certainly makes an arguement. The only odd part is that the number of November cases processed in April/Early may was just a fraction of even total November 1-15th cases. Nowhere near the 50% their website claims should have been completed just by May. I think they along with padding their times with those "advance" cases getting processed are also playing a bit fast and easy with their numbers overall. 

USCIS estimated processing times have gone down again, new dates for outside of normal processing times are cases received before 15 November 2021. Time for a lot of folks to start submitting their outside processing time tickets. Granted we all already know that since these numbers are based off data from two months ago if you genuinely believe them to be accurate you're also buying bridges from door to door salesmen. 

https://www.cdc.gov/importation/bringing-an-animal-into-the-united-states/high-risk.html

I just wanted to share this for those who are planning to bring their dog type furry children with them to the US.

On 14 July 2021 the CDC will temporarily suspend the entry of dogs from a large number of countries worldwide, with exemptions available for US citizens or permanent residents relocating to the US. It's unclear how this will impact a K1 entry as there is no permanent residency until after AOS. As of now entries (after 14 July) with a dog can only be made through JFK. Permits must be applied for 30 days prior to travel, with required laboratory work to ensure antibodies against Rabies completed 3 months prior to travel.  

3 hours ago, brvids2020 said:

Approved today. 
 

sent 10/27

received 10/30

This made my day. I know you were one of the people who had excessive delays in your NOA1 so seeing that it didn't have a major impact on NOA2 times is great news. 

On 2/4/2021 at 10:48 PM, ryvfader said:

I have a charge on my card account now as well.

Received my NOA-1 message yesterday evening. (2/7)

This makes a total of 97 days from package sent to NOA-1 receipt, and the receipt is using the actual delivery date in November. As a note I found a bit funny, the Lockbox finally responded to my email from 12/19 on Saturday with a copy/paste delay notification stating the same 4-6 week delay for receipt notices... almost 14 weeks after the package was sent. With the number of NOA-1's getting logged the past week though I really feel bad for the people doing the physical labour, hundreds of applications going in at all odd hours makes me say they are really putting in an honest effort to get peoples stuff processed but will rarely get appreciation because of failure in management to be transparent with applicants about the status of the backlog. 

Also, can confirm that the delays are so unprecedented that trying to update the date received NOA-1 on our timeline breaks the site, it outright refuses the submission due to the difference between date sent and NOA-1. 

I have a charge on my card account now as well.

So far today I'm counting 150 new petitions having been entered today, but as of 2245 new NOA-1 receipts were still getting entered while I was counting, so total will be higher. Dates are ranging from November 1st to November 19th.

9 hours ago, King•Adan said:

Hey! My I-129f received in November 6, at Texas Lockbox as well. But until today haven’t heard or gotten anything NOA1  yet from them. Did you get t your NOA1 yet since they received both of your and my in same day (November 6)??

Nothing yet on my end. Looks like they began working through the 3 November deliveries today. So hopefully in the coming week or two. 

Looks like they are pressing strong with the I-129F's, 138 November 2nd petitions today alone, compare this to an average total of about 20 a week prior to the end of last week. Good to see folks here are seeing their receipts drop, very encouraging. 

Something hopeful for us November filers, I'm seeing 28 NOA-1s with receipts from 30 October today and four yesterday. This is the single biggest movement in cases since Christmas as the average per week as been about 20, seeing this many in a day is a good sign that we may start seeing progress towards our own. 

29 minutes ago, kate777 said:

Our NOA1 has arrived! I tried to update my timeline here and it errored out, saying that there could only be 8 weeks max between filing the I129F and receiving the NOA1. It's Oct 29-Jan 18 in my case. Not sure if that's something an admin can update so the timelines stay accurate.

This is great to hear!

Also, additional hope for you October filers. So far for today day I'm counting 28 I-129F's getting NOA-1s generated, with four additional from yesterday. All have receipt dates for 30 October. This is the single biggest movement in I-129F NOA-1s since before Christmas. Since the holidays we have been seeing around 20 total per week, so counting 28 before the end of a single business day is very encouraging. 

You are not alone in this. Most filers from the last week of October and onward have no movement in their NOA-1. USCIS has acknowledged delays at the Lockbox but has provided little in terms of accurate processing expectations or transparency in when we should expect to see receipts. Most current information I've received from USCIS is to allow three months from delivery then re-engage with support for additional information. 

You can view the following threads for your reading enjoyment. 

5 hours ago, BreeMB said:

Ok, excellent! I was starting to worry that K1s were on hold for some reason. Thanks!

Looks like no I-129F's for today though. I feel that we are very quickly approaching a situation where we should begin urging people to reach out to their congressman or congresswoman and ask for assistance or to hold additional accountability to USCIS for at least more transparency in this process. 

14 hours ago, BreeMB said:

Hi, when I originally posted this thread question I meant to ask whether NOA1s are being processed specifically for K1 applicants. I think I have somewhat figured out how you are seeing the number of receipts issued every day, however, I haven't seen any recently for a K1 fiance applicant. Have you? You seem to be quite good at understanding such things. My concern is that they're not processing K1 receipts for some reason.

Here is what I've gathered for this month as of this afternoon. Have not seen any new entries today (20 Jan) as of yet. It absolutely looks like they are inprocessing and sending NOA-1s for K1 petitions, just at a ungodly slow pace especially compared to before Christmas. Unfortunately I really have no other objective information on what they are doing other than statements on their Lockbox status reports.

Date of Application Received at USCIS Lockbox: 11/06/2020

Location : Dallas Lockbox

Receipt Status : No Response

Additional Info:

Emailed Lockbox Support - 19 December: No Response

Contacted USCIS Tier 1 - 04 January: Informed of Lockbox delays, told average wait time is two months, has seen some take 3 months. Advised to give an additional 30 days for receipt and if no response to call back in February

50 minutes ago, metuchen said:

Does that mean the entire timeline moves back months?

This is what we would like a definite answer on. 

USCIS has said that with the current delays receipt dates will not be affected. In the past with a similar delay they also stated that receipt dates would be honored. Currently we are seeing all NOA-1 messages using the receipt date at the lockbox, rather than the inprocessing date. So something entered today is still using a receipt date of October, November, December, and so on. Our hope is that rather than seeing a NOA-1 taking 1-2 weeks and NOA-2 taking 8-9 months what we will see is NOA-1 taking 2-3 months, and NOA-2 taking 6-7 months due to this. However we will not have any definite facts until October-December filers begin getting their NOA-2 this upcoming summer. 

10 hours ago, metuchen said:

Anybody have any info if NOA1s have begun to be processed? My I-129F packet was received on the 12th, but judging from people's messages it seems it may take up to a month. I do hope though with holidays over and the new year, processing will speed up...

I can tell you from looking at what is being receipted right now, unless you are a very lucky outlier plan on a short timeframe of 2 months, and an average timeframe of closer to 3 months. All I-129F's given an NOA-1 yesterday were delivered to the Lockbox in October. 

2 hours ago, Greenbaum said:

We have lots of info on NOA1's being released. Though it's slow no one can articulate why there has been a slowdown. Most of this process has been revealed but only by what others have reported. I recommend that you become a student of some of the different topics to learn more. Good luck and stay engaged in the process. 

This.

2 hours ago, Einhver said:

It looks like they indeed are backdating the receipt dates as they said they would in the press release. A case status added yesterday (January 15th) acknowledged a receipt date of October 29th 2020.

 

This could be good news if despite being delayed 2+ months in getting the receipt notice, our official receipt dates won't be. I.e. the time we are waiting right now is already counting against our case processing time from receipt date to NOA2, currently about 8 months.

This is the conclusion I've come to as well which leaves me hopeful.

Assuming an 8 month timeline, instead of NOA-1 in 1 week and NOA-2 in 7 months, 3 weeks the timeline might look more like NOA-1 in 3 months, NOA-2 in 5 months. Between what I'm seeing with the backdating on NOA-1s and the verbiage put out by USCIS I believe it's a logical conclusion. 

7 hours ago, igoyougoduke said:

WAC2190000001 to WAC2190099999  ( MOSTLY for filing between october 1st to Dec 31st)

WAC2190100001 to WAC2190199999  ( MOSTLY for filing between Jan  1st to Mar  31st)

Are you sure on this? I've been catching the Jan 1st - Current filings still falling under the WAC 21 900 2XXXX queries still. 

21 hours ago, BreeMB said:

How are you finding the WAC numbers that are being issued? Where is this information/data?

I'm aggregating it using batch queries for receipt numbers, since they are entered numerically as items are inprocessed at the lockbox I can generally just search for cases higher numerically than the last entered each day. 

2 hours ago, mrveg said:

Did he just manually type in those numbers and check their dates?  Like just guess numbers in order and see when their send in dates were?

Sort of, I used query batches to find valid receipt numbers then narrowed it down from there until I found the data I was looking for. New cases are entered numerically I'm assuming after they are inprocessed at the lockbox. I've done some searching for numbers outside this range but so far everything I've found supports I-129Fs entered numerically under the "900" identifier. Some other types of applications are entered using a julian system for the workday that fiscal year, so instead of WAC21900 you get WAC21001, 002, 003 and so on as the workdays continue, I did not find I-129F's in these searches. 

At this point I'll just put the most recent case number in a spreadsheet then pull info on the cases following that to track status updates. As of 1820 central time there have been three I-129F's entered today, delivery dates from October. This is assuming they are only being entered in the number area I'm looking. 

14 minutes ago, BreeMB said:

How are you finding the WAC numbers that are being issued? Where is this information/data?

They seem to be entered in numerical order for new cases being entered with a fiscal year and catch all date identifier.

For example WAC219002XXXX is where i'm seeing cases entered in right now. I initially found it through trial and error searching WAC number ranges in a batch query tool. 

WAC: California Service Center

21: Fiscal Year

900: Not sure what specifically this pertains to, it threw me off because some other forms will use a julian date format for the workday day the case was entered. However I-129F's and some other seem to just fall under the "900" catch all. It wasn't until I looked at some WAC numbers posted by others on this forum that I realized this. 

2XXXX: Just the case number, FY21 started off at XXXX1 and increases numerically with each case as it's added. 

It's entirely possible that there is another number area they are issuing NOA-1s, but I havn't been able to find them as of yet. 

Also my hopes that NOA-1 rates increased today based on most NOA-1s issued from November-Christmas being on Thursdays and Fridays was wrong, counting 3 new NOA-1s today ranging from 30 November - 29 December. 

1 hour ago, BreeMB said:

Ok that's seems like it's still chugging along. Where are you seeing this information? When I do a timeline search or when I look at all the K1 visa timelines I see that the last NOA1 was received mid December. I don't see any that have been received this year

 

I'm using an application to batch query WAC numbers as they are issued then picking out the new I-129Fs. 

39 minutes ago, AishaniA93 said:

Hey fellow Aussie We filed December 23rd and it seems there are people who filed back in October that still have not received NOA1. It's so frustrating but at least we are not the only ones. 

 

I did read another post (I think on the November 2020 filers forum) where someone said that even though we are not receiving NOA1, USCIS is still processing them based on the normal timeline that we WOULD receive it (ie maybe a week after arriving at the lockbox) and so maybe our adjudication process has already started...? It seems too good to be true haha but it was definitely a positive blip through this. Waiting for someone to delve into that theory a little further. 

Very likely this was my post

Though I'll note the entire post is assumative based on information posted from the Lockbox that the delays will not affect the receipt date of files, and historical situations where they also specified that Lockbox delivery dates would be honored. Also all the NOA-1 receipt notices I'm reading follow the same trend that the notice is written as if the I-129F was processed without delays. For example one from today uses the following verbiage "On October 30, 2020, we received your form I-129F...if you do not receive your receipt by November 29, 2020, contact the USCIS Contact Center...". So this was processed today, but they are giving the receipt date from when it was delivered to the Lockbox in October, not even changing the deadline date. My hopeful thinking based on their verbiage is that you could still expect an adjudication in July based on current timelines even though it was not processed at the Lockbox until January since the adjudication backlog is so long right now even with background checks it still has time to find it's place in the rough chronological order of delivery for adjudication within the current USCIS timeline as if it was processed at the Lockbox in October without any NOA-1 delays. Basically you can still keep some faith in the USCIS estimated timelines based on your delivery month rather than whatever month our NOA-1s end up getting issued. Again, entirely speculative/assumative on this, but logically it's making sense to me and that leaves me with some hope. 

Though I think it's safe to say if your initial payment has not been charged and you have no NOA-1 then your I-129F is definitely not being adjudicated yet, since contacting USCIS shows they have no case existing in the system under your identifiers and March-May NOA-1's are still being adjudicated as of now leaving a minimum of five additonal months of adjudications before ours. Apologies if my initial post or this post is confusing, I'll blame the American education system.