shytown

Hello, sorry to hear about this bittersweet situation! I'm almost 13 months into the I-130 process still waiting for approval. Like you, I filed while I lived abroad and needed to request an address change once I moved to the US for a job via snail mail. I filed I-865 which is what you need to do if you're a citizen. Initially, the delightful folks at USCIS steered me the wrong way and told me to fill out an Alien's change of address form thinking I was not a citizen. Anyway, I got a receipt fairly quickly after submission, but it's been over two months and my address is still not changed. I called them 1 month into waiting where they supposedly "manually inputted it" over the phone but this apparently accomplished nothing. Just a heads up regarding the urgency of your situation. Regarding the expedite, I imagine it wouldn't hurt but it's probably not going to work. A lot of us with spouses abroad are in hardship situations, whether emotionally, financially, or all of the above and they don't care. What I'd suggest is to explore contacting an ombudsman about your situation to see if they can push USCIS. According to their homepage, one of the things they can help with is: "Certain cases involving an emergency or a hardship that fall under USCIS expedite criteria." Supposedly, they get back to you within 30 days. I hope this helps. Good luck, I know it's not easy.

I'm so close to giving up on this process and going back to Europe lol. I needed a spousal visa in Germany, and the whole process took me two weeks from start to finish (and no, Germany is not really a super organized country like everybody thinks ).... You have to wonder what's going on in the background.

We haven't moved onto the NVC stage yet (we're going on 13 months at Potomac waiting on NOA2 so it should be soon) but I already asked my husband to schedule his medical 2-3 weeks ago. The soonest appointment he could get was in November. For us that'll work out okay but it's a serious delay if you need it now.

When it asks you to say your receipt no. give it a wrong one a couple of times and it'll connect you to a person. However, all they can do is tell you what you can already find out online and confirm where your petition is at. Depending on which service center you're at the inquiry date is different.

It said because it's still in normal processing time

Thanks for the tip. I was able to submit something for the K3 but not the I-130. 🙏

I'm officially at 370 days. I checked the inquiry date for both my 1-130 and K3 and they pushed up the dates by one day. I can't believe it. How much more room are they going to give themselves to play games with our lives?

I contacted a congresswoman in January and she called Potomac. All that resulted was an officer checked my file, told her that it was being processed normally and no further documentation was necessary from me. Soon after it went into AR but that was just because of the officer checking. Expedites... I'm not sure. I hear they rarely work and I don't know if physical, stress-related health issues is good enough of a reason to try. Does anyone else know? In that case, I feel like a lot of us are experiencing the same thing and they'd probably be inundated with requests. 😅

In 2 days it will be one year of our petition sitting in this black hole of Potomac. I would be so happy if all of us September folks still hanging on could finally just wrap up our sagas and move onto the next phase. This process has caused me so much anxiety and stress living apart from my spouse and it's really hard to function some days. I'm starting to get worn down and I've lost almost all of my patience. I hope you all are faring better.

I did in March. No movement whatsoever. I've heard it only "works" when you're at Potomac, which I am, but even in my case, it didn't help.

I'm at 1 year in 11 days. There are a lot of people in the September thread still waiting. I'm hoping that we'll all get answers soon now that vacation season is almost over. 🙏

11 days til one year for me.

I just don't get it. I see more and more approvals in the October thread but everything seems to have stagnated in ours. 😔

I mean, there are a couple people already getting approvals from the October 2021 thread. It's completely random.

A USCIS rep told me on the phone, "I don't know how people can even afford to immigrate legally." I feel you. I think apart from submitting at the worst possible time at the tail end of Covid, we also landed at one of the worst, if not THE worst SC. It's a total gamble and they keep you guessing (and paying!) every step of the way.

Also at Potomac, submitted early Sep 2021. K3 filed in March. Not only is it incredibly frustrating and emotionally challenging, it's also a huge waste of money to keep waiting while maintaining 2 separate households, flights abroad, etc.. We just want to get on with our life together. I'm sure one of us will have good news to report soon. Wishing us luck!

I'm also at Potomac, filed 09/11. It feels like they're not moving at all. 😔 I'm getting really overwhelmed these days.

Congrats on your approval! I'm so happy for you guys, gives me hope that there's a light at the end of our tunnel soon as well. I tried to follow your advice and the agent told me no action was taken and I will be informed once that happens. So I suspect you just called at the right time (or maybe spoke to the right person). Whichever way, you finally got the answer so celebrate and enjoy this first step towards your reunion.

Regarding phoning agents, I called to confirm my address change and got through to one after 30 mins in the queue and they basically told me the same info you can find out on their website and confirmed my service center. She said there was nothing that can be done to speed things up. There is no option to push progress on your case this way. I gathered they have virtually no communication with officers making decisions or anything they can flag in their system to prompt action. Not sure this is true, but she told me the date that you can contact them for "outside normal processing times" is the deadline the officers reviewing the I-130's work by. I try not to complain about this and stay optimistic, but I'm getting really impatient as we near the 1 year mark and I really miss my husband. I'm going to see him soon and I hope that by the time I return, there will be an answer. Putting positive vibes out there for us all. 🙏

Did you do that at the time you submitted or did you add more documents over time?

I wasn't aware... I have heard that it's good to involve a lawyer at that point anyway to threaten a lawsuit if it gets to outside normal processing times.

I know what you mean. Definitely mixed emotions. But it says that 80% are processed by the processing time they advertise on their website, and 93% are processed one month before the outside normal processing times inquiry date. So that, to me, is very reassuring. I feel like as it gets closer to the finish line I'm getting more impatient tho haha

Congrats!! Wishing you the best of luck with next steps 🙏 I feel you, it's really tough on us too. We're at 11 months at Potomac, which seems to be moving extremely slow compared to other SC's. It's really hard being separated, especially after living together for so many years. I feel bad for everyone going through this with kids. This whole system is cruel and flawed. I read recently how they intentionally implemented strategies to slow down the processing speed, like expecting employees to review each application twice. I can't believe we pay thousands of dollars in fees to fund this.

You mean, you had to prove your marriage extensively to USICS? Or to your lawyer so he could prepare your application with convincing evidence? I think all these hoops USCIS asks you to jump through are just there to limit the amount of people that elect to go through this process each year. There are no quotas for marriage-based greencards issued to spouses of USC's, but they generally aim to limit immigration. Expenses aside, it's also a confusing and emotionally draining process. When I applied in Germany for a marriage-based Aufenthaltstitel it was fast and easy. I think I got it issued in like 2 or 3 weeks. They asked my husband to go into a short "interview" with me but it was really just a 5 min appointment to collect his signature. There was none of this medical checkup nonsense because everyone's got health insurance, no demand to demonstrate the validity of your marriage or anything.

Wow, that feels like a lot of proof to demonstrate when you both have good income? You're right, job security doesn't really exist in the US. I'm not an expert and I don't know the details, but to me it seems quite unlikely you'd get the visa denied over this..