Ako & Rich

Welp, there it is...we just got approved!!! 423 days. NOA1 7/19/21, NOA2 9/15/22. Wishing everyone else the best of luck! And we are happy to answer questions if anyone has them.

I just did a small, informal study of time between NOA1 and NOA2 for a handful of July '21 filers who recently received their NOA2 and these are the times I found (in days): 424 426 426 426 426 427 432 432 Ako and I are currently at 423 days. I'm gonna place a casual bet on Monday for our approval... It seems like they are doing everything they possibly can to get people approved by the 14-month mark. They are not changing the wait estimate on the USCIS website from 13.5 months. (Obviously, they are still lying and it's more like 14 months.) They must have reached a tipping point where they feel they absolutely cannot let the estimate get any bigger. So my guess is they are desperately trying to get the estimate to slow down, stop, and turn it around so they can finally start working to meet the projected September '23 goal of 6 months.

I think these spreadsheets are updated regularly. It’s not like a few times a week but at least a few times a month.

This will be helpful. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15hiSOTm85W1CG6c0jzQ8B7lXLo1JEwsWKr3zIszC2Zg/edit#gid=1587037210

Probably because of tools outage?

CMIIW but, as of today, anything above 109500 is probably some sort of special circumstances, I'm guessing. My guess is they actually are going in order. Looks like every time we see a receipt number higher up in the 11XXXX's, it's a "one-off", which makes me think it's a special case.

This link is for you! https://www.miami.us.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ja/11_000001_00472.html

Hooray!! So happy for you!!

Hi! I’m Ako! Can you check these PDF files? https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/content/001361129.pdf Please read page 3, Note 5. You're officially engaged to a Japanese citizen, so you can visit your fiancé!! Rich applied for a visitor visa to Japanese consulate in NYC on July 2022 and got the visa. It'll take one week or so to get a visitor visa. We submitted a copy of Notice of action (Form I-797C) as an evidence of our engagement to Japanese consulate/embassy. Good luck!!!

Hello everyone, this is Rich from "Ako and Rich". I just wanted to take a moment to commiserate with you all haha. 😩 Our NOA1 date is 7/19/21 and we are approaching the 13.5-month mark. I suppose there's a small chance we will receive our NOA2 by that point but I am doubtful. Perhaps 14 months is a more realistic estimate now; if so, I'm guessing the USCIS doesn't change their estimate to that because they feel they are really close to turning things around? I visited Ako in Japan in August. It was an amazing time but it was also very sad leaving her behind. The crazy thing is that we are closer to receiving our NOA2 than ever but this might be the most difficult break from each other we have experienced since she and I became so much closer during my Japan visit. 😕 So I guess I'm just wondering if any other couples out there have had a similar experience with visits and time apart that they would like to share? Or maybe your experience has been different? I would love to hear your thoughts!

My fiancé and I are about two weeks away from the 13.5 month mark for the NOA2. From what I'm seeing, it looks like the USCIS is still lying about the processing times. CMIIW but they are saying 80% of cases are processed within 13.5 months and it doesn't seem like that is happening.

I check this often; https://vicdus.github.io/uscis-case-statistics/?center=WAC&form=I-129F&mode=data_center_year_code_day_serial&fy=21 The data is updated daily and July is from WAC21900105500.

Again!!!!!

Here is a video on YouTube, but these notes are more helpful than watching the long video. Thank you for the summary of today's webinar, @gooblue

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/06/17/nearly-half-of-states-now-recognize-juneteenth-as-an-official-holiday/ Does it mean California Service Center has a normal Monday??

About 10 days after the May webinar (18th), they changed K1 processing time from 10.5 months to 13 months! I’m pretty sure they’ll tell us another ridiculous excuse for their slow progress in the June 22nd webinar😩 @meladee, I’ll share a video of the June webinar if I find it on YouTube.

"The CIS Ombudsman's Webinar Series: USCIS' Backlog Reduction Efforts" https://www.dhs.gov/news/2022/06/14/cis-ombudsmans-webinar-series-uscis-backlog-reduction-efforts I’m pretty curious about what USCIS will tell us.🤔 This is the last month's webinar.

"The CIS Ombudsman's Webinar Series: USCIS' Backlog Reduction Efforts" https://www.dhs.gov/news/2022/06/14/cis-ombudsmans-webinar-series-uscis-backlog-reduction-efforts I’m pretty curious about what USCIS will tell us.🤔 This is the last month's webinar.

https://www.acro.police.uk/police_certificates.aspx You can apply for it online. It takes more than one month to get it. (it depends on where you live, though. I live in Japan so it took nearly ten days to be delivered.) I don’t think you need to get a police clearance as you lived there less than six months.