Simplytex

Right, so I'm really trying not to get my hopes up, but they kinda are up... May 28 online filing, June 6 k3... Even getting an approval by end of year would be brilliant 🙃

Not to take it too off thread topic, but yeah it's annoying on VJ timelines that there isn't a way to flag K3 filling or not for I130 people. Also, I'm pretty certain my case is at Vermont, which USCIS are currently saying 15mo for I130, but only 5.5mo I129F, but from what I understand Vermont doesn't do K1 visas (or at least, none currently/recently on VJ.)

Unfortunately not. I'm pretty sure it was because of them just not being convinced but I'm also not sure how the review of evidence went. So, when they sent a response asking for more info, I had to fax it within 20 calendar days, and they would review within 7. I did it on day 13... So, in assuming that the fax was received with all the documents, but I also have no way of really confirming that they looked at it/that the request didn't just "time out"... And there's no way of knowing, cause it's just a fax and their response was pretty generic. They also said, I can't request expedite again for another 60 calendar days, so I have a while longer to wait. Since I do feel like my case/evidence is worth pushing, I will probably reach out to my congressperson(s) in Sept if the "k3 trick" doesn't work for me.

Seeing this and two other posts having success with the k-3 gives me some hope... I filed online at the end of May, with K-3 filed 2 weeks later in June, so I'm really hoping that I get an approval by the end of the year.

Sure thing. Italy was a choice of cost+convenience for the time being, but seems like that has changed. Also had been thinking of the Greek, Spanish, or Hungarian options... We'll see. Alternatively, just to meet up, might go to Georgia.

Yikes, didn't realize the Italians were taking so long, we were thinking about going that route for a trip in October but maybe not...

@Jagr0op just wondering if you had an update to your case? Or could give any extra information - did you expedite, file k3, or just get lucky?

https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/monthly_filers.php?form=2&visa=3&scenter=1&option=2&sortby=2 Doesn't look like anyone from CSC has reported getting NOA2 on VJ timelines yet. Edit: There was one filer - https://www.visajourney.com/timeline/profile.php?id=402884

If you go to the USCIS homepage (or any other page, such as the contact page) during I assume 8am-8pm Eastern (thats when their other contact centers are open), you will see on the right side a little box that says "Need Help? Ask Emma". That will get you into the chat-bot, then you just need to keep saying "speak to live agent" until it connects you (I think you have to pick a reason, generally?) Then when you are connected, you give case info and they should be able to tell you what SC you are at.

Hoping to resuscitate this thread to ask if anyone recently has had a positive experience with k3 visa improving I130 processing time.

Thats what happened to me the last time 😅 Well, mine was a little wierder. It was last December, and when I arrived, I had flown US->Turkey->Russia. The rules after COVID were very unclear, and even certain airlines had no idea what was going on (looking at you, Lufthansa...) Basically, it wasn't clear if I could connect through an 'approved' country in-transit and never leaving the airport, or if I had to fly direct (which I had done two times after they opened borders again after summer.) Anyways, Turkish Airlines let me get on all the flights, so seems like they didn't care/thought it was fine at the time. I arrive at the little booth, and the lady see my passport cover and immediate I get a hairy eyeball. I was prepared for that, so I just slide over all my documents anyway. She opens the passport, sees that I've got the visa, etc., but still seems shifty that I'm an American coming from Turkey. So before even scanning or doing anything on the computer, she looks at the a sticky note by the phone and dials someone. I was pretty nervous at this point, as she spent about another 2 minutes talking to someone. She then starts to try to ask me something (I'm not even done with Russian duolingo now, so good luck trying to say anything to me back then...) All I could assume was that she was trying to maybe ask 1) where I came from, or 2) did I exit the airport in Turkey. No idea, but I just kept saying "Houston, Istanbul, Moscow... Istanbul transit, no exit." Stalemate. Then, I kid you not, after the phone call she busts out a eyeglass/magnifier and starts inspecting the visa, my stamps, all that, manually! Finally, she puts that away, puts my passport on the scanner, reads the chip (I guess), stamps it, gives me my entry form, and off I go.

Good to hear. I really wonder if the border 'interviews' are due to random spot checks huffing and puffing just to hit a quota profiling of certain age/fitness American men bored agents who have a masochistic streak

Novosibirsk is definitely closer, but one other intl airport along the train line you could look at would be Kazan or Yekatarinaburg. Just to provide options!

I'm not an expert, and perhaps this would be better suited for the I-130 or NVC forums. But, that said, I believe what you have found is correct. Additionally, if you view the NVC document stage webpage here, it also indicates that you only need to submit authorized translations. I've not ever seen mention of apostille for documents in any of the interview threads, so I'd be curious as to where you had heard that as I don't think it is correct.

@FJinSD, congrats on finishing the NVC process! (VJ pinged me that you had updated your timeline - I'm not that on top of things ) Just a thought that you might want to review/be able to contribute to this thread.

I wouldn't create suspicion by exclusion. In fact, it could be more helpful to say that you are visiting a Russian friend, and also you are visiting Russia as a tourist and she will be helping to show you around. If anything, they might even try to call to confirm, so have phone numbers, addresses, etc on hand. I wouldn't mention anything about US govt, immigration, etc, since it doesn't relate to your entry to Russia. Just keep it to the point of your trip, factual, and very simple.

Just curious, what was your timeline for filing, two expedites, then K3? I see you filed 2022-04-07, how long after did you try to expedite? I'm just asking as I'm kinda in the same position (waiting on 2nd expedite, and did file k3 already...)

Interesting - I've not heard of people being notified twice, maybe I misunderstood something. I thought, most of the time the case moves to AR once, and then its a guessing game. Did you get this second notification by email, checking the USCIS online case tracker, or something else? I hope it does go through for you!

How do you mean?

I wouldn't worry much. If you look at the immigration stats page, take a look at the graph with all five SCs noa1-noa2 lines on it. What I noticed was that the average case processing time has in the last couple months, really started to converge. I have a feeling, that with the advent of online filing, they are moving all the cases to a digital system and are reviewing them first come, first serve (as they should) across all service centers. I think that the inquiry time shown on the USCIS page is probably for legacy filing, considering we are probably 8-10 months away from getting reviewed I wouldn't worry too much...

Yes, RFE = Request for Evidence. As the other poster mentioned, thats a surprisingly fast RFE, only 2 weeks. I wonder if for online filers, the USCIS has some sort of new system which can automate some of the review, kinda like how HR in companies can automate scanning resumes? Considering they said their aspirational/target goal is to be doing I-130 reviews in <6months...

As probably one of the last filers in May... I just hit 30 days. Possibly 10% of the way there 🤞 But, I did file K-3 the week after NOA1, so, maybe I could be one of the lucky people to get approved in 3-4 months!

I'll follow this thread since I was May 28th, that's basically June 🤔

It could be that, but I doubt it. I don't think the USCIS would be allowed to discriminate on the basis on nationality, regardless of the home country politics. I would think, that more likely, is that people have stopped updating as much, or are trying to figure out other options. The same happened for IR-1 visas, for a long time over COVID plus the US embassy closure, there was not much reported progress as many people decided to seek alternative options (based on my own anecdotal research by messaging various members who hadn't updated their timelines last year between July-Oct...)

Sure, though for this I'm preferring to her personal info off the web Appreciate your input here, as you've got a lot of good advice on the forum I've read through for other situations. This is just one of those strange ones where the official instructions say to do one thing (create a expedite support request over the phone or ask Emma), but it's not very effective. I guess my learning here was to: 1) ask the support agent to note that additional and pertinent information is available, and 2) not just use the generic headings given on the USCIS website for "reason to request" and expect them to ask for more info. I guess also, it seems quite a few folks have had the issue where a ticket isn't actioned and seems to be denied just before hitting the max time allowed for USCIS response, which leads me to believe that USCIS might be closing tickets in bulk to meet some internal time quota, since they can't respond to all tickets. I'm sure they have a lot of tickets, but I guess my suggestion to others would be if your first request is denied without you being able to actually provide evidence, just try to request it again. Of course, if my request is denied after giving the evidence, then I wouldn't try again if I don't have any additional information to provide (that's just contributing to USCIS excessive backlog, and I hope others would do the same.)