Ovid3

23 hours ago, Hubbster14 said:

Hoping it’s not the horrible 3 month wait people keep mentioning nowadays

The wait at NVC is frustrating… Unfortunately, save for expedited requests or @Budzmaroo's extreme luck, NVC seems to be pretty much consistent with its processing estimates and they do not seem to be improving. I really hope that they realise sooner than later that this is a systemic problem and take measures to speed things up, but in light of the massive DQ backlog, they might not be so keen on making any significant changes.

As per USCIS website: " We strongly encourage you to pay the USCIS Immigrant Fee after you pick up your immigrant visa from the Department of State and before you depart for the United States. […] You may also pay the fee after you arrive in the United States. If you choose this option, we will send you a notice requesting payment with instructions on paying your fee. You will not receive your Green Card until you have paid the USCIS Immigrant Fee."

13 hours ago, SteveInBostonI130 said:

In that same post Ovid3 mentioned they filed a K3 and got an approval for their I-130 when their K3 was denied.  Per Ovid3's timeline, they submitted the I-130 in Feb 2021 and was approved in Sep 2021 - 7 months, which is the tail end of the 4-7 months processing for NSC.  Again, this does not show any evidence of the K3 speeding up the processing of the I-130.

I cannot speak for other timelines, but I'll react to mine at least. My case was received in NSC, but swiftly moved to Texas (were is stayed until approval), well before I submitted my I-129f. At the time, Texas estimates were standing at over 11 months. My case was approved in 7, which was substantially faster than most applicants at TSC at the time (some of them who submitted around my time are unfortunately still waiting for their case to be processed as I write). As I said at the time in a monthly filers thread, correlation does not imply causation and my case had already been under review for a long time, so approval was bound to be processed eventually. In my case, the K3 did not seem to make any difference and I was more startled by the coincidence between us uploading additional documents and our case behind reviewed the next day, which is something that a few other VJ members had also witnessed right around that time. At any rate, my K3 was then logically denied on the same day.

I cannot venture to say whether the K3 trick works or not in order to speed up the I-130 process. My timeline is not one of those examples. What it does show is that received K3 will be left untouched until I-130 is approved and then be denied without review, which seems to have been the practice of USCIS for a little while now. This is why I believe that flat denial of K3 without any sort of RFE or NOID only comes on the back of approved I-130, which does not mean that such approval is faster.

The rationale behind the K3 trick, if I understand it correctly, was precisely to use this logic of K3 being only denied following I-130 approval by enticing USCIS to process the I-130 faster in order to get rid of both the I-130 and the K3, the assumption being that the officer would want to get rid of unnecessary paperwork (especially since K3 is still paper).

12 hours ago, shytown said:

My question is, should/can I amend our application to include this evidence while we are still waiting on NOA2?

There is no need to prove intent to establish domicile at the USCIS stage, this will only be a requirement once your case moves to NVC and you have to file I-864. So no need to add documents now, simply start collecting them in preparation for the next stage.

1 hour ago, etrangais said:

From previous experience, this means your I-130 IS APPROVED and it is only matter time before you get your approval notice.

I second that (K3 denied on the same day I-130 was approved, though in my case the denial arrived after the approval, but that is hardly relevant). USCIS simply does not process K3 anymore, so a denial only comes on the back of approved I-130. congratz! 

Hello everyone!

We just got DQ today as well, document submitted on 27 September. We had a second message with the DQ one saying that we did not meet the income requirement (which we do). We didn't quite know what to make of it (the other message explicitly states "documentarily qualified"). From browsing on the forum, we understand it to be an indication that we should bring additional documents to the interview, but we are not being sent back into the NVC queue, which is a relief.

I was approved at TSC last month. PD was 23 February 2021 and I was approved on 16 September, so about 7 months after I-130 submission.

18 minutes ago, Hubbster14 said:

You officially represent best case scenario for me lol you’re one of the rare fellow texas center peeps with me here

The estimates in Texas are a bit wild, but it looks like they are processing a lot of November 2020 to January 2021 cases right now, so yours is hopefully just around the corner!

22 minutes ago, nikmak said:

How do we know it has reached proper location other than delivery service saying it was delivered?

Theoretically I believe they should send a NOA1, but that might not be until the file reaches the Center where it will actually be "processed". Since it's all paper, 2 to 4 weeks from delivery to some form of receipt wouldn't be surprising.

4 minutes ago, nikmak said:

Hi! After mailing I129-F at Texas address, how long did it take them to send you a text/notice saying they received your application? Also, was it forwarded to the same service center as your I130 is being processed at?

Mine was mailed early August, received on the 20th of August. I am yet to receive any acknowledgement of receipt on their part. To be fair, my I-130 application was approved on the 16th of September so they might have just dropped the I-129f entirely before the NOA1.

My case was actively reviewed for over 4 months (from May 5 until September 16) at the Texas Service Center. I wouldn't give too much credence to the USCIS website estimates as they seem quite inaccurate. My case was processed in just over half the time indicated on their website (under 7 months, the estimate said 11 to 13) and many people on this forum report much faster processing times at the CSC that their crazy 30+ months estimate.

14 minutes ago, Hubbster14 said:

Btw is i129F free if you’re a US citizen filing it for your spouse? I know certain versions of that petition are $535. 

It is free when your are applying for spouse of USC to get a K3. The same form is used for K1 applications, which come with the 535 dollars fee. Filling it is pretty straightforward: it is essentially a simpler version of I-130 and we didn't overthink it since the point was not to get a K3, which is a dead-end anyway, but simply to boost the main application. Again, the evidence that it does anything to help is anecdotal at best, but considering that all it took us was 2 hours on a Sunday and the price of a stamp, it was worth a shot!

Hi everyone

I have been shadowing this thread for a while and posting for the first time. We submitted I-130 online on February 23. Like most people here, NOA1 was from Nebraska, but following the advice on this thread, we asked Emma and were told the case was in Texas. The status changed to actively reviewed not long after that (May 5) and stayed this way until two days ago (September 16), when it was actively reviewed again and, behold, the NOA2 was waiting for us in the "documents" section! Overall, it took just under 7 months from submission to NOA2 at the Texas service center (VJ estimate was 10 to 11 months, but the sample seems fairly limited).

We did try a few "tricks" in the hope of boosting our application. We submitted I-129f in early August, which was delivered on August 18, but never got any NOA about that. Then, following some comments on this thread, we updated additional documents (pictures) through the website 3 days ago and we got approved the next day! I know correlation does not imply causation and, after 4+ months of actively reviewed, an action was bound to happen at any time. Still, the coincidence is startling and, since a few others in this thread have had the same experience, I'm pretty sure uploading the pictures somehow bumped our case in their system.

This thread and others on VJ were immensely useful in the past 7 months and I really hope those who are still waiting will get their NOA2 soon; there is hope, even if your case is in Texas!