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If you scroll up you'll find lots of timescales, but if you were DQ'ed today I'd expect you to receive an IL in August's batch (they're usually only sent out once a month), for an interview in October, as a very rough guide. It certainly won't be in a months time so enjoy your holiday and good luck.

As mentioned earlier, it could be 6 months if everything goes smoothly, but that is about as quick as it will get going on current processing times. Mine was 5.5 months via London which has no backlog, but things have slowed down at NVC a bit since then though, it’s now taking 6 weeks for Welcome Letters to be sent (was 2 weeks when I applied). My I-140 was submitted on 8th February, and I got my visa on 20th July. So assume 2 /3 weeks for I-140 if you don’t get an RFE. Then add on a week or two for the case to be sent to NVC. As said above, current processing time is 6 weeks for case creation and for you to be sent a Welcome Letter. If you pay the fees straight away once you have that then that’s a week or so for them to clear before you can complete the DS-260 and submit your docs. 3-4 weeks for becoming Documentarily Qualified (assuming no RFI), you have to add on a week or so to the quoted processing times as you have to mail your documents as an EB applicant. So that’s around 4 months in total if you do everything straight away and don’t get any RFI’s/RFE’s. Then it’s just waiting for your interview date, medical and interview, if you’re lucky that could be 2-3 months. HTH.

Assume you mean further retrogression? As your PD isn’t current as of 1st August anyway? Nobody knows unfortunately, all you can do is keep checking the Visa Bulletin and hope your date becomes current at some point next year. Good luck.

It could be less, but even the quickest consulate would be approx 6 months from approval to interview date. Is AOS not an option?

I I think (looking at his previous posts) he just means he really doesn't like the country.

OK, fair enough, it's the first time it's retrogressed in years though (and by far more than in 2020), so I'd definitely keep an eye on it personally. But once you're approved figure maybe 3 months to get documents approved at the NVC stage, and then hopefully no more than 6 months for an interview from then - but again, this may change depending on the queue at the time. Have you applied using Premium Processing?

I don't think Germany has that much of a backlog for an interview, but the key thing will be watching the Visa Bulletin to see if there's actually a visa available for you, at the moment only those who applied before May 2020 have a visa available to them, so quite the wait. https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-bulletin/2023/visa-bulletin-for-august-2023.html So once you've got the I-140 approved and know your Priority Date, you can keep an eye on the VB to give you an idea. Good luck.

This sets the process out step by step - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-1-submit-a-petition/step-2-begin-nvc-processing.html#:~:text=After USCIS approves your petition,e-mail or physical mail. You can’t pay the fees until you get your Welcome Letter (different from the I-130 approval), so expect that in just over a month unless processing times speed up again. Once you’ve got that you pay the fees, wait another few days for those to clear, and then submit docs and the DS-260. Then hope those are approved in a couple of weeks and sit and wait for an interview letter - the time for that will depend on the queue at your consulate. Good luck.

Other way round, case review is only about 2 weeks, the June date is for case creation.

That is a very good point! Hadn't thought of that, I feel a bit less guilty now. 😁

Thank you, that's a very comprehensive response…..just need to look at it tomorrow when I'm not tired and try and work it all out! 😂

Because if immigration officers responded to every inquiry, that would add a lot of time to everybody else's cases, there just isn't the resources for that usually. If they did answer you, I bet they'd just say they're waiting for something from a third party, because that's what 95% of the time is for background checks, whoever is dealing with your case will be sitting around waiting for a response from other agencies/companies/people that are incredibly slow. I know it's utterly frustrating, but you can't compare somebody that got a visitor visa in a few days to somebody applying for an immigrant visa, the background checks for an immigrant visa will be much more detailed unfortunately. You have my sympathy, I can't imagine how tough it is for you to have waited 4 years and still not have an answer, it is appalling. But it's equally frustrating for those working at the consulate I'm sure, please don't blame them for others ineptitude. Hopefully as time goes on and electronic records become easier to access, and less paper records, it will get easier for anybody from a similar country. I really hope you get some good news very soon. Best of luck to you.

That's a good point. I wonder what the total number of employment based visas (EB 'green cards', as well as all the temp work visas that can also use PP i.e. L1/H1's) would be, versus family based applications. Presumably a lot more family than employment, so that may well be a reason.

It's $2500 now, but yes, probably worth it for most people. UK spousal sponsorship is a heck of a lot quicker than going the other way, that's for sure. I think there's even a 'same day decision' you can pay for if you wish.

It's only just retrogressed though, has been current for years previously. But yes, no point in paying for PP if there's no visa available anyway. Still doesn't make sense to me why immediate relatives don't have the option of PP. 🤷‍♀️

It was (5.5 months) but it's the I-130/I-140/I-129 decision that is what I'm looking at, and why one group can apply using PP but another can't. All work visas can get a quick decision by paying extra, so why can't a spouse/child/parent? Perhaps you're right, and I'm just trying to apply logic where there isn't any! I just wondered if there was a logical reason for it, but perhaps not.

I don't think it does tbh, as most employment based visas (even temporary ones) can apply using Premium Processing, including EB2. Obviously that does mean only those with either a generous employer, or the funds themselves to pay for it, can apply via PP and those that don't have that option will take much longer. But it's still possible for any employment based visa to get a decision within 15 business days, unlike family cases.

I often lurk around the forums reading threads from spouses/children/parents etc of US citizens, and feel slightly guilty that my (employment based) immigrant visa application has taken so much less time than theirs. I'm struggling to understand the logic of why I can apply and get approval within 8 days, but somebody married to a US citizen has to wait a year or potentially even longer for that decision. Anybody know why? Just intrigued really as to how the applications are treated so differently, and I almost feel it should be the other way around. I'm sure there is some brilliantly logical explanation that I'm missing, but I've no idea what it could be. Apologies if this is the wrong place mods, please feel free to move…...😊

All good. Lots of waiting around but the actual interview was only 2 questions! Had the interview last Monday and passport delivered back on Thursday so super quick. We leave on Saturday. 😁

Yes, of course. Processing takes much longer for many people, some consulates have 2 years + wait just for an interview so even if their category was current they wouldn’t have got a visa before it retrogressed. As for why, it tells you that in the VB - "In the April 2023 Visa Bulletin, it was necessary to establish a final action date in the F2A category and Item D of the July 2023 Visa Bulletin warned of the strong possibility of retrogression as early as August. Number use has remained steady, and it has become necessary to retrogress the final action date to keep number use within the FY-2023 annual limit." Hopefully it will move in October, good luck.

Possibly - I've no idea as I'm an EB1 applicant. But you didn't say you were specifically referring to the IR1/CRI procedure in your first post, so was just clarifying for anybody reading. I'm not sure the procedure or any change in it would really make much of a difference anyway tbh. It's about number of applicants, Covid backlogs and how they've been dealt with more than anything. Some consulates still have a 2+ year wait for an interview because of the backlogs.

Sorry, I misread your post, I thought you were DQ’ed before him and wondering why he’d jumped ahead. But same answer really. It takes so long because it’s not linear, Lagos normally only processes a handful of FB1’s each month and prioritises other visa classes i.e. spouses. So it will move forward really slowly. Here’s last months visa issuance stats for info - https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/Immigrant-Statistics/MonthlyIVIssuances/JUNE 2023 - IV Issuances by Post and Visa Class.pdf

With regard to 2, that’s still the process for many. All EB applicants have to mail their documents and cannot upload them via CEAC.

No way of knowing unfortunately, it may go back to the date that was in July’s bulletin when October rolls around. But unlike other categories (EB-1) the August bulletin doesn’t specifically say it expects that to happen in Oct.

I think that's really optimistic unfortunately. It's only moved a month in the past couple of years, so at that rate it'll be a lot longer than 3-4 years.