horsea

I'm glad to hear from others who are moving forward with this process. I think I am somewhere in the middle of the pack. My case was sent from USCIS to the NVC in early October. I didn't hear anything for a month, so I sent a public inquiry (including my name, my beneficiary's name, and our case number from USCIS) on the advice of others on this forum. An NVC representative was able to provide a case number to us. My case is still "At NVC," so we are now waiting for the paperwork to be transferred to the embassy. I knew bureaucracy would make this process slow, but I wasn't prepared for how slow this would be. Reading statistics and figures isn't the same as living through the process of obtaining a visa. It's been almost a year since we submitted our documents. I am grateful that this visa is an option available to my partner and me, but there is a part of me that thinks the past year of waiting could have been compressed into a week with more efficient processes. If this were fully digital, we could have submitted our petition, photos, evidence, and payment instantly; had background checks or other such procedures completed within days; and had a case number shortly thereafter. I question whether the slowness is intentional as a rate limiter on applications or a measure against fraud. This process is about as close to the dictionary definition of red tape as you can get.

My case status was just updated to indicate that it's been sent from the USCIS service center to the Department of State. It's my understanding that this takes a few weeks, so I'm not expecting to hear from the NVC for a while.

My petition was approved today! My receipt date was December 19, 2024.

Congratulations! This is great to hear. My receipt date is similar, and the other tracking website says I should receive a response soon, but my case status hasn't changed. Only a few petitions from my date have been processed, but I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll hear back within a few working days. (I fear that I may get an RFE. I think my partner and I relied too heavily on photos as evidence of meeting in person, but I've since read that other forms of evidence are preferred.)

I believe USCIS will begin processing cases filed in December soon. It should only be a few weeks to a couple months until most of us hear back.

I submitted form I-129F in December. I think we still have quite a while before December cases are reviewed. USCIS hasn't even processed half of the cases from November yet.

For me, the other site estimates that I'll hear back in October. The VisaJourney estimate is a few months ahead of that. (I've already been waiting for six months.) I don't think it's really possible to predict the timeline accurately in advance. I think I started this thread mostly for commiseration, as many of us are experiencing the same downward trend in the processing rate. The actual review time will depend entirely on how quickly USCIS processes cases going forward, and whether this trend is indicative of what's to come.

I believe USCIS is handling new cases again, but they are still processing them more slowly than usual. The tracking site I use added a banner about the slowdown in processing, and my estimated review time jumped backward by a month. The site now estimates that I'll hear back about eleven months post-submission (last December). I agree with the statement in the banner that "USCIS is rapidly falling behind," as the number of cases being processed has dropped well below replacement; it is small relative to the number of new cases coming in. At this pace, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes a year for new cases to be reviewed. I'm curious whether USCIS will hire contractors to address the deluge of paperwork.

The site I use to track my case has removed its banner about the pause in processing at "the front of the line." My position in line decreased by tens of cases today, so I believe USCIS has started reviewing new cases (forms I-129F) again. It seems like the shift in priorities only lasted a few weeks.

I think you might have better luck finding a more relevant topic (or creating one). My understanding, however, is that the case is sent to the National Visa Center (NVC) after form I-129F is approved, and your case will receive a number once the NVC processes it. The transfer to the NVC, as I understand it, can take several weeks.

I'd consider this unlikely (unless there was a reason to expedite the process for specific cases). For the most part, cases are processed in order of receipt. I believe USCIS has only recently started reviewing cases it received in early November 2024. USCIS received my I-129F in December 2024, and I haven't heard anything since I received the Notice of Action 1 a few days later. If you create a timeline on VisaJourney (click the "Timeline" button on the left side of your post above), you can get an estimate for the dates on which your I-129F could be reviewed. This isn't an exact science, though, as the rate at which USCIS processes cases is not constant.

This information is coming from **. It queries the USCIS API daily to get case statuses. According to the service, USCIS approved an average of 112 forms I-129F per working day (excluding weekends) during the month of April. That's fairly consistent with the figure you provided (2,475 cases approved over 30 days is ca. 83 per calendar day, which is similar to your first-quarter figure of 88). For May, this figure is currently sitting at 67 cases per working day (48 per calendar day). The number of cases being processed has dropped by half in the past month. I don't doubt that tens of thousands are currently pending. I think this is a proprietary algorithm the service is using to determine an approximate date for the form to be reviewed by USCIS. The service estimates that there are around 4,500 cases between the "front of the line"—what that means, I'm not entirely sure, but I think it excludes cases that have been skipped or already reviewed in some fashion—and me. This number has been decreasing more slowly than usual. It decreased by 9 between yesterday morning and this morning. I think USCIS has switched to focusing on backlogged cases. It approved 54 cases on May 16, according to this service. That's fewer than the past few months, but it's not a complete cessation of activity. If the "front of the line" metric only decreased by 9, the majority of recent approvals must be older cases. This is consistent with the statement that "USCIS has paused movement at the front of the line" on **.

Hello, I apologize if this has already been mentioned in another context, but I haven't seen a relevant thread yet. I filed form I-129F in December 2024, and I check my case status daily with a paid service that collates data from other cases. In the past few days, the number of cases between mine and "the front of the line" has hardly shifted; it has moved on the order of 10 cases per day. Additionally, the service I use has a banner that states that "USCIS has paused movement at the front of the line." I'm currently somewhere in the ballpark of 4,500 cases from the front of the line, so at the current rate of processing, my case would be processed well over a year from now (after already waiting five to six months). The estimated processing date for my case slips backward each time I log in to check my case status. The service I use has a "current wait time" histogram, and in recent days, it's changed from a right-skewed distribution with a peak around six months to a bimodal or uniform distribution spanning six to ten months. Has anyone else experienced something similar with their case? Does anyone know the cause of the recent slowdown, and is it a temporary measure or a signal of a shift in policy or strategy?

According to the instructions for Form I-129F from the USCIS, you need to I just barely received my (electronic) NOA1, so I'm not sure my answer will be very helpful, but I included a number of photos, flight and hotel confirmation messages, and photos of boarding passes (though I only have a couple, unfortunately, as I've misplaced some and used electronic passes when possible) as evidence in my petition. It sounds like our petitions are similar in this regard; I think I overestimated the value of photos as evidence. If I were to receive an RFE of this nature, I'd include statements from my fiancée and me, statements from family members of my fiancée whom I met during my visits to the Philippines, and scans of the stamps in my old passport. I'd also check my email and digital wallets (Google Wallet and Apple Wallet) for additional digital evidence, such as expired boarding passes and electronic receipts. I didn't keep neat, tidy records of my relationship or my travels, and I'm regretting it now and a little anxious about the prospect of receiving an RFE. I'd be curious to hear how others approached similar quandaries.