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Monthly processing times can be found on the various datasheets available in pinned posts on this forum and elsewhere on the internet. Per admin below post, I'm not allowed to share any further details about any other sources, even if they are just informational and contain no advertising intent.

FWIW, I plan on sending an update to the Rep Katherine Clark's immi assistant who was of zero help, and was stonewalling me, detailing how easy it was for Sen Ed Markey's office to send out an email inquiry to USCIS, and how effective and hugely helpful that simple inquiry turned out to be for me. So, she can open her eyes, expand her horizons and get welcoming for any future inquiry requests.

In my case, Senator inquiries have had a direct and immediate impact on USCIS to pick up and act on my case both post-NOA1 and pre-RFE, and post-RFE. Otherwise, I can almost guarantee that my case might still have been languishing in some cold, dark corner waiting to be opened/touched and even after RFER, it might not have been looked at until close to the cursory 60-day post-RFE published timeframe. Specifically, Senator Ed Markey whose office has been very welcoming, friendly and very responsive (He has my vote, my money and my network forever). My rep Katherine Clark's immi assistant simply refused to even send an inquiry saying she has tons of immigration experience and that it never works out until the USCIS published times are way past. My other Senator Elizabeth Warren initially refused with a similar canned response, and just now sent a response asking me for a physically signed auth form so they can send in an inquiry (6 weeks after my request to them), but thankfully I don't need them anymore.

NOA1: 21Oct22 RFE: 21Nov23 RFER: 27Nov23 NOA2: 12Dec23 RFE after the first Senator inquiry on Nov 8th, finally, out of the RFE jail, after a 2nd post-RFE follow up inquiry sent in by the Senator! we just got approved today! NOA2 in the mail... thanks for all the support, folks! Guess our next step is to wait for a couple of weeks and submit an inquiry to NVC for the case number?

Finally got an RFE today for a simple form checkbox error (due to my confusion/error in interpreting the order of questions in the form) in the mail today, which I filled in on the same form and returned back already. It was dated 11/13, but just got it in the mail today. No updates online, even now. Hope they pick it right back up from where they left off once they receive my updated RFE form, and hope this is just a small hit of a couple of weeks of delay (can someone who got an RFE comment on this, pls?). Have to credit this to the Senator's inquiry, since the RFE date was 11/13, about a week after the Senator's office got an acknowledgement from the USCIS.

Please find enclosed my filled in and signed form, further to the USCIS follow up request form that I submitted online on your site. Some additional details: I have applied for I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiance(e), more than a year ago, case received by USCIS on 21Oct2022. USCIS confirmed the receipt vide NOA1 (case # WAC******) on 26Oct2022. But, even after more than a year, they have not yet even touched my case. I can see from the USCIS data that they have ignored my case and have already moved on to other cases that were filed as late as in November, December and January, months after I filed, which I perceive as being an unfair delay. I'm herewith enclosing detailed data that shows USCIS' random processing pattern and how USCIS is processing disproportionately more cases filed much later in November, December and January, while leaving out my case filed in October untouched. Source: screenshot and additional details further below. This random processing pattern, with no visibility about the anticipated issue date, and no transparency about the current status and/or about the process used to shortlist to process applications that were filed months later, while ignoring/not even opening some like mine, coupled with the inordinate delay in what should have been a relatively simple Fiancee Visa application that used to take just 3-4 months (but now is already more than 1 year old and no updates yet) is very confusing, disappointing and frustrating. It's also very frustrating to my Fiancee's family who are in a socially awkward limbo about their daughter's life/marriage status; and also highly aggravating to my Fiancee who has been waiting for more than a year with her entire life on hold. She cannot take up any steady employment or get into long term leases, or other social/work commitments, due to the uncertainty around when her visa will be available. Wondering if you might be able to intervene and inquire with the USCIS about my case and see if I can provide any more details to USCIS/clarify anything related to my case to get my case at least picked up and looked at, and get it processed in a fair and timely manner. Please let me know if a physical/virtual meeting with you and/or you office staff might help explain my situation better. Various other Senators from many other districts have been highly successful at at least sending out a casual status inquiry (not an expedite request) to USCIS which has worked wonders in getting the corresponding cases to start getting looked at. Thanks so much in anticipation of your kind willingness to help me out with this! Below is a statistical summary of the I-129F (K-1, Fiancee petition) cases that are currently being processed by USCIS. You can notice the bizarre approach where they have already processed as many as 20% of cases filed in January 2023, and more than 50% of cases filed in November and December 2022, while they have left behind almost 20% of cases (more than 600 cases) filed in October 2022, for no apparent rhyme or reason, or predictable/logical priority/processing pattern. <<<Added screenshots of monthly processing stats here>>>

They already processed more than 50% of November and December cases and more than 30% of Jan2023 cases, while a significant number of September and October (and even earlier months) are left behind untouched and skipped. About 93% of all October were processed, and the other 7% were left untouched. While everyone from later months whose case got picked up sooner would certainly be happy (and I'm happy for them too), those 'left behind' are left clueless about what the logic is in them getting left behind. That's where I feel a complete lack of logic, visibility and accountability. I find it very difficult to call the blackbox USCIS processing patterns 'fair'. While they have sort of improved the overall number of cases being processed, they do appear to be more concerned about the 'optics' of creating an appearance and the 'word' that they might be processing faster than they really are.

They just skipped over hundreds of cases with NOA1 around end of October and are now off to processing a majority of Jan/feb cases. Zero logic, zero efficiency, zero visibility/transparency and zero accountability are the norm with USCIS They want us to believe in file and forget!

You mean an inquiry to the USCIS? What's a 'deleted' inquiry?

21Oct 2022 NOA1 here.. Any more October 2022 filers still waiting here? My Congresswoman Katherine Clark and Senator Warren refused to even move a finger. My other Senator Ed Markey sent out an inquiry to USCIS about 3 weeks ago, received a response back from USCIS saying they moved my case to an 'Adjucation Unit' about a couple of weeks ago, but nothing happened yet. Fingers crossed.

Based on the below reco from VJ, I'm wondering if I should consider calling USCIS if nothing happens within a week. Any opinions on whether it is too soon to call? "Based on timeline data, your I129f may be adjudicated between October 3, 2023 and October 13, 2023*. If this date range has passed or your application is past due per USCIS processing times then you should consider calling the USCIS to inquire on your petition"

Yeah, thx.. that's what my VisaJourney estimate says too! My NOA1 was 10/26/22. Very happy for you and everyone else from Nov/Dec who already got their NOA2. But, gotta admit this last stage is especially frustrating when USCIS seems to be processing applications in some opaque/random order with no predictability/visibility/pattern.

Seems like they have stalled processing October NOA1s and are leapfrogging to December (and Nov) already!

Wonder if anyone is stll following this thread? If not, this seems like a good thread to resume/restart, given it's context. The last post that I can see on this is from 2019!

Thx. We have something similar in mind as well for the wedding - traditional South Indian style (stock photo samples below). Our regular puja photos included in tje K1 application are nowhere cllose to these, don’t have us wearing any garlands, etc that are typically worn at a wedding, etc and hopefully ithe contrast/differences are obvious to the CO, despite the presence of a havan fire pit in 2 of the dozens of photos submitted.

Thanks so much for the ideas and support! My Engagement photos themselves are pretty clear since they have a Western style ‘kneel down’ proposal, etc. It’s only 2 photos from a later post engagement puja, formalizing the engagement religiously that may tend to be questioned because of the presence of a fire pit in them, and might need to be defended/explained if need be, especially if the CO gets confused by the presence of a fire pit/havan if/since (s)he may not be familiar with typical wedding ceremonies which are way more elaborate vs regular puja which is way toned down.

Thanks! Great suggestions! We both were relatively recently divorced back when we got engaged last year, and hence did not feel comfortable posting the photos on social media. Afraid it may be a bit too late to post them now, a year later after the engagement, and risk looking like it was a deliberate/desperate attempt to create provability, no?

Thanks. That was my primary question: What can we do in our interview preparation to demonstrate/explain/prove/clarify to the CO that the couple of ‘fire’ photos included in the Supporting affidavit were clearly from a regular Puja (routine worship service) and not from a wedding ceremony (which they were not), in the unfortunate case that the CO brings it up. Would an extra affidavit help from my finace’s parents and/or the relative who provided the original affidavit with 2 fire photos, asserting/confirming that the photos were from a simple, routine puja attended by just their immediate family, and NOT from a wedding which would typically be more high profile and attended by dozens/hundreds of people? Any other ideas to proactively prepare for tje possible confusion/questioning from the CO?

OK. Thanks for the suggestion.

Yes, they are 70+ year olds, not very social media savvy, and anyone familiar enough with Indian traditions would associate those photos to a regular 'havan' as a part of regular service, and NOT a wedding ceremony anyway.

Thanks. There are NO social media posts with those photos, since they were just photos taken by one of our relatives at the Puja (a religious worship) at their residence, and hence were on their phones - they just included those photos on their supporting affidavit.

Thanks. Yes, we had included photos of a typical 'kneel down' proposal, ring exchange, and engagement celebration with friends and family in our LOIs. Photos in our LOIs depict traditional dress that's typical at an Engagement ceremony, not at a wedding. Photos enclosed by one of our relatives in their supporting Affidavit include photos of a fire worship (and us in traditional Puja worship clothes), performed in a different city 4-5 days after our Engagement, with clear write up in the Supporting Affidavit by the relative that it's a religious celebration of our Engagement, since her parents were not able to attend our Western style Engagement that we had with friends and family in another city.

Thanks for weighing in. I hope I was clear enough that we DID NOT take the seven steps around the fire, or anything close to it. My detailed reference to the 7 steps above was precisely to draw a clear distinction between a typical wedding ceremony vs. what we did, which was a regular 'havan' which is a fire worship that's performed with any religious worship, as a part of the religiously celebrating our Western-style engagement. In our affidavits, we enclosed detailed photographs and narratives about both our 'Engagement' wherein we exchanged rings in Western style. In one of the supporting affidavits by one of our relatives, they have included photos of the religious fire worship 'Devi Puja' performed at their residence to celebrate our Engagement religiously per Hindu tradition, and they detailed it as such (as a religious engagement celebration) in their affidavit.

Thanks. We are so close to the interview date (VJ NOA2 estimate is this October/November) that it does not make sense for us to cancel the K-1, meet again to get married, and start CR1. My question was to see if anyone else had a similar situation/experience, and if so, what they may have done to prepare for the visa interview to dispel any potential misuderstanding of the CO, and/or to further clarify/defend to the CO that it was indeed just a religious engagement ceremony, and not a wedding.

The honest answer to that is that: 1. At the point when we applied, K-1 timeline estimate was around 12-14 months, and I-130/CR1 timeline estimate was around 18-22 months, and we wanted to have my fiance join me here and start living together ASAP, despite the obvious extra costs, extra hassles with AOS (in case of K-1) etc. 2. We have extended family and close friends here in the USA, and we wanted a formal, grand wedding ceremony to happen here in their presence. Logisitcs for planning and organizing a grand wedding celebration back in India were too complicated for us (her Indian parents are in their late 70s, etc). Not sure if #1 or #2, or both, would be the 'correct' answer if asked at the interview, or if we'd need to explain/defend our K-1 choice more strongly than that.