shytown

Oh wow, why are things so slow, actually? Is there still a backlog from the pandemic period?

Thanks! Do they require you to show 6 month's worth of paychecks? I will be sponsoring my husband with my US-based job that I started recently (which exceeds the income requirements). It's likely we'll also get I-130 approved soon and I certainly won't have 6 months of income history in the US, nor did I earn enough while I was working in Germany to have paid US taxes.

That's awful. I doubt it will take much longer, but you also have the option of submitting an "outside normal processing times" inquiry in the next couple of months worst case (I have to wait until mid-December 🙄). Does anyone here know what that process typically looks like? How long does it take for them to respond to those inquiries?

To their credit, they are clear about the time they predict it'll take. My biggest issue is the lack of transparency with what is happening behind the curtains during the wait - mine was transferred to Potomac without me knowing, for example, which effects my waiting time, of course. And what does "Active Review" mean anyway? Why are 2022 petitions being approved before ours?

+1 Thanks for the advice, this is also relevant to me in my situation. @DeniseL, you're a few steps ahead of me - can you please let us know what you encounter once they check your sponsorship eligibility?

Hi there milimelo, thanks again for your advice. I sent in I-865 last week and have still not heard back. Do you remember how much time it took to get the I-797 confirming your address change? Did it prompt any action on your pending visa/s?

Congratulations! Just wondering, where did you hear this?

Hang in there! We're waiting alongside you. It'll all work out when the time is right. 🙏

They need to seriously reorganize their efforts. My feeling is this worsening of timelines is a symptom of systemic incompetence and inefficiency at USCIS (i.e., pulling off the top of the stack and approving recent 2022 filers while our petitions gather dust).

Hardly anything is moving at Potomac either, it seems to me. It's probably a general issue with vacation season.

Anybody stuck with Potomac SC? I feel like this one is the slowest of all despite their official processing times. 😒 I'm not even allowed to submit an outside normal processing times inquiry until December.

For what it's worth, I submitted K3 in March and it did nothing - imo it does not help. They even entered my birthdate wrong on the receipt and it took 3 months for them to fix. Pestering them to respond to fix this error did nothing either to move either petition to the top of the stack. There are also rumors that filing for K3 only speeds things up if you're at the Potomac service center. All of these tricks are just a crapshoot and the majority of us just have to play the waiting game.

My German husband and I have been living in Europe for years and submitted our I-130 petition September 2021. We're still waiting for an approval (just hit the 300 day mark). I recently moved back to the US to start a new job, and we are expecting months of separation. That is typical with the process and something we planned for with my job search process and timing when we left our last residence. USCIS publishes processing times on their website so you can get an idea what to expect - in our case we knew we'd be waiting 10-12 months for the first step. There are little "tricks" you can try to nudge USCIS to speed up your petition, like submitting a K3 visa application, but they rarely work. I would recommend joining a thread where other people who submitted around the same time as you did and talk about their experience. I'm not sure it matters that much where the petitioner lives when you submit the application. From what I'm seeing, everyone is waiting about the same time and if anyone's application moves faster than anticipated, it just by chance. Some of the more recent petitions made in 2022 are moving a lot faster than ours (2021 filers). So you might have that working for you. Good luck!

I'm not the beneficiary. My German spouse is the beneficiary and I've been living in Germany until recently as an expat.

Would you also recommend using form I-865?

Oh cool. May I ask where you filed it to? Did you send it into your service center or to another address?

I appreciate your advice. That's great to hear. Related to this question, I was wondering if you could help me with a second issue regarding notifying them of my change in address which doesn't seem to be simple when you submitted the petition while living in a foreign country...

Thanks for the tip. Did you personally do this or how do you know? It doesn't say anywhere to use this form which is super confusing. Also, I forgot to mention that I am not at the NVC stage yet. Still waiting on NOA2.

Haha I couldn't even reach anyone via the phone number. I'll try the chat again. But yeah, choosing a random option for the prior address doesn't feel like that big of a deal. It's the new one that they're interested in, right? Then again, who knows...

I tried to, but it does not allow you to select another country.

Good to hear that you also had this impression reading through it! ☺️ Wishing you the best of luck that you get an anniversary surprise!

I've been following July 2021 and August 2021 filers threads. There were many people getting their approvals around the 300 day mark, but it seems like most got it a couple weeks after the 300 day mark. That was just my vague impression, though. It's interesting to read them and subscribe to any updates there.

Hi everyone, I hope this is the right place to post this. I filed I-130 while I was living in Germany and I am now moving back to the States as a US citizen. I could not update my address on the USCIS website because it doesn't let you select a prior address in a foreign country. I reached out to USCIS which instructed me to mail in form AR-11 to my service center. This form just doesn't seem right as it's clearly intended for an alien to fill out. Can someone confirm this is what I should be doing? Wouldn't it just be easier to pick a random state/zip code from the dropdown in the prior address section because it'll be changed to the new one anyway? Thank you in advance!

Congrats, that's amazing!! Thanks for sharing your experience moving forward. Gives me hope since we're also in a very similar situation and being processed via Potomac. 😀 Can't wait for more good news soon!

Wow, 18-24 months total...? I'm a little shocked because I read that the NVC stage is usually 3-6 months max (well, of course there are always exceptions) and they're moving really fast right now because of their new processing targets.