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I figure we'll do both things – send a letter to USCIS in the hope that they can amend our I-129F to reflect the new consulate, then double-check with the NVC that the change has definitely been made and they intend to send it to the right place. Hopefully one of those approaches will work! Thanks everyone for your input.

58 minutes ago, Mike E said:

The petitioner who filed I-129F should have a receipt. That receipt should have an address for USCIS. Write a letter (USPS priority mail) to that address, notifying USCIS that the beneficiary has a new address and state the new address. emphasize that the new address is a different country.  Note the case number,  beneficiary name, and old address.  
 

Include a copy of the receipt.  

Thanks for this! Super helpful.

12 minutes ago, pilot787 said:

We switched consulates, from Montreal to Paris. Took under 2 weeks. You need to use an inquiry form and upload your British passport or birth certificate and ask to transfer. 

Was this at the NVC stage? We're not quite there yet – still pending NOA2, sadly!

Me again, with another basic question!

I'm a British citizen. I'm currently in Canada on a working holiday visa, and will have legal status in Canada until early May 2024. We filed our I-129F in June 2022, and based on the wait times when we filed (13 months), we listed the Montreal consulate as the consulate where I would attend an interview. (Based on a one-time consultation, we confirmed with a lawyer that Montreal would be able to process me.)

Obviously things have shifted, and the uncertainty around timeframes is making me nervous that my time in Canada will run out before I can attend an interview. Plus, if there's a issue that requires AP after the interview, I'm worried about what will happen if I run out of time in Canada before the AP is over (I gather it can really drag on).

My fiancé and I have decided to ask that I be processed in London instead – I'll leave Canada early if I have to. My question is: does anyone know of a reliable way to communicate that change to USCIS? I don't know how likely it is that we will be able to speak to someone who can make the change over the phone, and I'm not sure how their Emma chatbot works. Would it be best just to write them a letter?

Thank you all in advance for your help!

1 hour ago, Anna Hessler said:

I'm not seeing any data for Wednesday and on so my post is delayed. Unless you have it Andi?

I gather USCIS had some system maintenance this week, so some data is missing – the tracking spreadsheet that got linked here a little while ago has also been struggling to pull all the data.

4 hours ago, New Romantics said:

I just put in my NOA1 date out of curiosity to see when I could submit an out of normal processing times request and the date has been pushed back another 10 days. Anyone else have the same thing happen? The processing time is still the same though 🤔

Yeah, mine has shifted by 10 days too. Not great!

What we seem to be seeing based on this ongoing thread is that USCIS has sped up enough in recent weeks to keep the wait time from getting any longer. (This has been borne out for me by my VJ timeline, which hasn't really moved over the past two weeks.) They're not doing enough to reduce the wait, but right now we're seeing an equilibrium. Someone from that thread who actually mines or collates the data can probably get into this in more depth, but that's the impression I have had, and it's a definite improvement on how bad things looked likely to get before.

5 minutes ago, CaLi90 said:

Congrats on the initial approval and hope they don't keep you waiting too long for your interview!

Aha, sadly I'm still in the pre-NOA2 stages – I'm literally just worrying ahead of time. But this is super helpful, and I really appreciate it! I periodically run my receipt number through the USCIS portal to check where it's at; is there anything else I should be doing in terms of keeping track of things?

Hi all! Sorry if this is an amateur-hour question, but it just occurred to me:

I know I-129Fs expire four months after being issued by USCIS. But with the amount of time it takes petitions to track through the NVC and reach the various consulates, and then with the wait times for interviews, most petitions take longer than that to get where they're going. Do we need to do anything to ensure that they don't expire? Or do the consulates/NVC just move them forward despite the expiry dates?

Thanks in advance; I feel like I keep finding new things to worry about in this process, and I appreciate you all for your experience and expertise.

58 minutes ago, Anna Hessler said:

It will take me some time to get the requests out there. But I can use this time to gather the stories. Feel free to share the email address with anyone you know who would have something good to contribute. I'm excited about this. It's really easy to brush off a letter or email. But if I'm standing there in person it'll be harder for them to ignore me. 😉

 

And thank you!

I am a professional writer (like, I've published short fiction and I have a literary agent) – whatever I can do to help with this, I'm keen.

1 hour ago, Lynxyonok said:

I would too! If only because it would be first for USCIS

Instead, my timeline fell back by a week in the last week. 🤡

 

Either we're celebrating a dead-cat bounce or VJ algorithms (based on everyone faithfully updating their timelines) are off.

Mine's slipped back a bit, too – but I am really hoping I'm right to trust the data people are actually mining from USCIS over a self-reported function on a forum. A really helpful self-reported function, don't get me wrong! But I want to believe that the raw data is telling a more reliable story.

Just wanted to thank everyone in this thread – I am a June 2022 filer, so I was expecting to wait over a year for any movement, but watching the USCIS wait times creep up over the past half a year has been miserable. Reading all this has given me a little bit of hope. I really appreciate your attention and your work, and I hope we all get where we're going as quickly as we can.

Commenting to keep an eye on this thread, mainly!

I-129 F Sent -  June 13th, 2022

I-129 F Received - June 17th, 2022 (NOA1)

Courage and solidarity to everyone in here. Not loving these wait times, but I know it'll be worth it in the end!