thonati

"Seriously?" He!! yes. I cannot speak to the 1-800 # as I have not used it. Bringing the K1 fiance here before the interview is subject to fraud. So I have no problem with the K1 interview at the embassy. Something so simple as a I-129F application should not take 159 days while others take only 21 days. If it can be approved in 21 days for some, why not everyone? DOGE needs to attack USCIS on 20JAN noon and have it solved by 6pm. I do not trust any government worker to be efficient and that is why I support outsourcing it. Now if the outsource company fails in their mission, pull the contract and give it to someone else. If the next company fails, repeat. We HAVE to hold our government accountable to us, The People. I trust Elon and Vivek can get this done.

This is exactly my point. It should ALWAYS be first come, first serve. Anything else should be criminal. I can understand putting our Active Duty Service Members ahead of the line, no problem. But in my case, they lose my wife's death certificate? I cannot accept mediocrity. I cannot accept poor performance from my government. There was a man that got approved in 21 days.....TWENTY ONE days. This whole process stinks of inefficiency, bloated government. Trump's DOGE should attack USCIS processing on the first day. Hell they are working on a way to pay Federal Taxes with an phone app. Why not a simple USCIS application? The I-129F petition basically confirms the petitioner 1) is not an axe murderer, 2) Is he/she a terrorist, 3) Does he/she pay taxes on time, 4) does he/she pay student loans (and other Federal loans) on time. That is all. Fairly simple. The more important questions occur with the fiance at the embassy to confirm the marriage is not a fraud. I understand the first two question is the most difficult and a background check is needed. The I-129F petition should be approved in less than 30 days.

That may be true but the approval times increased dramatically the month they were fired. So while they may not have adjudicated cases, they offered some case management that improved efficiency. I paid for a USCIS service where they tracked approvals on a daily basis and it was very clear, direct cause & effect. The fired workers slowed down the approval process.

I had an RFE from USCIS. They wanted proof of my 1st marriage ending. My wife died in DEC22 and I sent them an original from the Records Office. Somehow they lost it. I have copies of that record but I went back and purchased another official copy and sent it in. The $20 is not the problem. The problem is the lost time. There has already been a complete halt to USCIS processing since they fired the 400 people in APR/MAY this year. People who filed in APR and MAY received approvals in under 60 days. I am on day 150 and counting. This is ridiculous. I am so happy that Trump has a Dept of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and I certainly hope they attack the USCIS and get them straight. It should not take this long to process these forms. I understand these are government employees and they work at a snail's pace. Maybe they should outsource this to a company that can be more efficient. I will have my approval soon after they review my RFER but hopefully others will benefit from Trump's new policies.

I had a few skirmishes with the law when I was under 18. In my state, these court records are sealed and then destroyed after 10 years (this was 30 years ago). I did a background check on myself before I filed my I-129f. I did not disclose these items and USCIS did not question me. I am not suggesting anyone do what I did as YMMV.

Fair point. I see where the USCIS has skipped over an entire week of cases back in Feb. They are now processing those cases now. I will not buy any airplane tickets etc until we get approved. Thanks for the advice.

I had a DUI in college and I had to submit the documents. It took heaven and earth to get the courts to 1) find the documents from 35 years ago and 2) provide me with a certified copy. The requirements did not say to provide "notarized or certified" copies but I did anyway. My case will be adjudicated any day now as they have processed about 50% of the cases with the same NOA1 date as me. Right. That is why I asked people to provide details on their specific case. Others will read this and know what to do when they apply.

WHICH required document please?

Can people give examples of what triggered an RFE? (No pictures, forgot to sign the form etc)

Congrats Spicy. We filed a few days after you did so we are hoping for an approval soon. The extra trip from Cebu is not really that big a deal for me. Sure it is a hassle and a day long trip, hotel room and trip back the next day. Americans are rich donchakknow? We can afford the extra $500 USD if we really love our Filipinas. Right? I'm kidding of course. Just another layer of BS for those of us who want to do things legally instead of walking across the Mexico border.

2nd time? Oh man. He sounds like a winner. No offense to you but the guy is a #######. Since the child is a USC, the courts will favor keeping the child in the US. There have been many cases like this and the mother has been refused to take the child "back home". You really need an Attorney, a good one. This case is more than merely an Immigration issue. It is also a custody issue. My advice, try not to hold any ill will to your spouse. I know it is hard but hate makes people think and behave ill-rationally. He may be a horrible husband but he might be an excellent father. Please do not try to get back at him or hurt him by take the child "back home". Do it the proper way, through the courts. Good luck.

Now back to the OP. I am sorry you are in this horrible situation. The reason for divorce really does not matter in the US as most states are "no fault". This means the either party of a marriage can petition the courts to dissolve the marriage for any reason. There is no requirement to show cause, although there are some states that are trying to bring back the "for cause" requirement. It really does not matter if your spouse cheated or burnt the toast. No fault divorce is treated the same. You need to get an attorney on this one.

Thanks for the reference. It sounds like this is not a permanent reduction in cases. I am sure there will be a temporary disruption but once things settle down; everything will be good. It is just a pain because those of us that are affected feel cheated. However, in the big picture, what is a few months delay? Nothing really.

Do you have any references I can look at? It would make sense why the activity has been cut in half. I am surprised actually because the current Administration does not seem to care about how many employees on the payroll nor does it care about the work that gets done. Many agencies are still work from home, which is a joke. Trump says he will bring back all the WFH people so they can work for the USC.

Congrats. 411 days is a very long time.

Fair point. Government as a whole is inefficient by definition. This is why they hire 3rd party contractors to get the job done.

You have that right. I with they were more transparent. Nothing is guaranteed. However, I will say statistics is based on past behavior to predict future behavior. When the USCIS does something that is abnormal behavior (skipping entire weeks of cases); prediction becomes less reliable. There has to be a good and easy explaination. For example, were these weeks in question assigned to a particular group or department and the workers got COVID and were off for 2 weeks? Then when they returned, they did not start where they left off? Then they did not realize the mistake for several weeks? We are dealing with the government here. No one should be surprised by the poor performance.

Yea, tmvn put out a YT video on this. They are just as confused as the rest of us. They claim this is the first time the USCIS has "skipped over" a full week of cases. Actually it happened twice, a week's worth of FEB cases and a week's worth of MAR cases. I see they are now working on those "skipped" cases so you will hear back soon. As I mentioned, tmvn says they will start working on June filers next week, so they are knocking out FEB-MAY cases at a rapid clip. I suggest you watch that video. The real question is how did this happen? Did someone pitch the files and went fishing, or to the bar? Now that things are electronic, I doubt they tossed the I-129f forms in the trash, never to be seen again. I believe (not certain) that the NOA1 is generated after the forms are scanned into the system. So it seems logical to me that once an NOA1 has been sent, it will get adjudicated at some point. It is not like they have a system Hack. Well on second thought, we are talking about he Biden Administration here. They cannot do anything right.

This sounds really complicated to me. Whenever an Attorney makes a mistake, especially with Immigration cases; it can have long-lasting consequences are you are attesting to. I would recommend you contact a different Attorney to 1) provide guidance on your case and 2) Possible legal action against the first Attorney for fouling up your case. I understand this is extra money that you did not plan on, but if a new Attorney can make things right, it is money well spent. Most attorneys will give you a consultation for no cost. They will review your case and tell you what they can/will do and how much it will cost. I would NOT move to a new country until you get good legal advice because if you leave, you may never get back in. You are here, even though it is a gray, murky situation, you still are standing on US terra forma.

EXACTLY. Help yourself anyway you can. I would recommend carrying the "official copy" of the marriage license with the passport. Remember the foreigner does not have the same rights as a USC until the Green Card is in-hand.

Edit 2: We had another May filer report and they were NOA2 approved in 57 days taking the average up to 44 days for the May filers. This number is only going to increase now that USCIS is "on vacation".

I will add my two cents. The K1 visa is a non-immigrant visa. Immigrant visas are treated differently and more strict. K1 visa must be vaccinated before AOS. I have read on this and other forums where the foreign bride waited for several months to get the 3rd and final shot of HEP B. This was well after the expiration of the 90 marriage requirement. On another board there was a lady from SE Asia (Thailand I think) that did not have any vaccinations and she was approved for the K1 non immigrant visa. She got the first jab during her first week here and got the 3rd jab 6 months later. Then she filed for AOS and there was no problems. As we discussed in another thread, AOS is required 2 years after a K1 marriage so that is a lot of time to get caught up. https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-8-part-b-chapter-9 This clearly states that immigrants and non immigrants applying for AOS (K1, K3) need to be vaccinated for diseases including Hep B.

I wanted to provide my analysis of the USCIS activity recently. There has been a significant reduction in case activity starting around mid-June. The average number of cases per week from 04MAR to 10JUN is 1685 per week. The week of Easter and Memorial Day had 20% reduction as you can imagine. Since 10JUN the number of cases reviewed is 768, greater than 50% reduction. This week (22JUL) look like the lowest number of cases reviewed. So far through Wednesday, the number is 136 reviewed. If I had to guess, I would say summer vacations at USCIS California are to blame. It is nice weather anytime in SOCAL but really nice this time of year. Good for them as everyone needs a vacation. Bad for us that have petitions that need approval. That part of the state (between LA and SD) is beautiful and the surf must be up. Everyone is at the beach while we are hitting re-fresh every 2.3 seconds to see if our case is approved. Good luck to everyone, especially if you applied in Mar/Apr 2024. EDIT: Let me also add that the average time NOA1 to NOA2 for VJ members is 64 days for March filers, 54 days for April filers, 39 days for May filers. I filed 13JUN and I am at 41 days today and USCIS has not begun to review cases filed in June. So I suspect June filers to be back up to the 50~70 days again. That is if everyone comes back from vacation sober. There are a significant number of VJ members so the sample size is significant to approximate the overall population provided the VJ members entered the data correctly and not make any typos.

Thanks for the vote of confidence. We had this discussion and I cannot move. She has accepted this. However, people make decisions all the time without having all the facts. Like I told her, she cannot say with 100% certainty that she will marry me until she gets here, meets my extended family, and gets accustomed to the cold climate. She has a cousin that married (K1) a USC a few years ago but they live in sunny Florida. Once I retire in a few years, we do plan on going back to the Phills in Jan/Feb every year. I hate the cold too. ;o)~

I did not get the link. Detained by whom? What were the circumstances? Did she leave the US and tried to return, that will certainly trigger detention even if she filed I-485 but not approved. The I-485 instructions CLEARLY state you cannot leave the US until the I-485 is approved and green card is issued. You must have the green card in your possession to re-enter. I Was she stopped by the State Police for speeding and arrested for out of status? Why would anyone have interaction with the CBP in their normal daily lives? In many states, they passed state laws that prohibit state law enforcement officers from detaining individuals for Immigration issues. What was the end result? If she was in the US, never left, married legally then some <DELETED> CBP officer was wrong for detaining her. It happens I would guess, people make mistakes. Was she departed? If not, then this was an error. I know many people with green cards and they rarely have to provide it upon entry. The green card is attached to your passport. One is my buddy who has Global Entry and he does not have to show his passport to anyone. CBP asks if his name is Bob, he answers yes. Welcome home. Easy peezy.