deneter

What a story! I feel so sorry that you had to go through all this. There have been many 6 months+ approval lately. I hope you´ll be one of the next ones. It is aweful how a goverment can make your life so difficult.

Maybe with the new president there will be less entries denied. Just a guess...

Congratulations to everyone that got the NOA2 within the last weeks. There have been so many approvals!!! It makes me very happy to see that.

My So has been here in Germany with me for the last 3 weeks. We`ve had our engagement party/German wedding here on Saturday. Our parents also met this way and it was wonderful. Now we are just hoping to get our NOA2 soon.

But those last approval really made us hope!

This is a great thread! All the comments are so nice and supporting. Noone in here deserves to wait for such a long time.

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations! You must be so happy. When someone gets approved who waited that long it almost feels like I got approved myself. I wish you good luck for the rest of your journey!

Wow Sara, that sounds really good. I´m so happy that something is happening with your case and really hope that you might get approved soon. Nobody deserves it more than you do.

Estadia, do you ever think about going to Pakistan, getting married and applying for a K3?

mmm no lol perviz is in india.......as for getting married and applying he wont apply again for visa for usa if this does not go thru he is tired and truthfully so am i so im moving to india in june if we still do not have any movement on the case

sara

i hope you dont have to move to India.....USA is better in many many ways, so i wish you the best for you , your life, and your relationship!!

well i wish he could come here to but lets face it we are going on two years now just waiting on our noa2 and it hasnt happened so that does not give me much faith in the system.........

sara

Hi sara! I´ve been reading your posts since a longer time now. I don´t even know what to say to you. It is incredibly unfair and I am really impressed with how you are dealing with it. You must be a very strong person.

Here is something I found the other day.

http://immigrationroad.com/green-card/contact-uscis-fbi.php

You´ve probably seen it before. I am just curious if you ever considered the last option: filing a lawsuit. It is probably expensive. But I really think that this whole process is just so unfair and that everyone should have the right to live with their loved ones in the country of their choice. And afterall the U.S. is a civilized country and its citizens have certain rights.

Just a thought I am having here.

I am really feeling with you sara. Good luck for everything!

Oh I know exactly how you feel, I'm just wishing my life away because all I care about is this damn visa. My fiance thinks it'll be approved any day now but I have this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach that we'll be waiting a very long time. I can hardly look at the other threads on this because others are getting approved and it makes me feel sick, I'm so happy for them but it's just a reminder that we are NOT approved. Not even getting any touches, at least that would be something. I'm on the verge of tears all the time and because the rest of the world is getting on with their lives, you end up feeling very isolated. All my friends are married and having babies - I feel like Bridget Jones!

At least Bridget Jones didn´t have to wait for a visa and millions of single women could identify with her (haha)- nobody seems to understand me or us.

I just graduated and so did my friends. Everybody is starting new jobs and every weekend I am helping people to move into nice new appartments. Some with their boyfriends/husbands. I sold all my stuff and live with my parents. What is ok for some time but definetly not an option for much longer.

I hate to say it: My life sucks.

We are having an engagement party in Germany on march 7th. I don´t know what to celebrate right now. Just hoping I´ll be in a good mood then. At least my guy will be with me then. That is something to look forward to.

I appologize to everyone in this thread for having to read my depressing thoughts. I just never felt as hopeless as today.

Maybe tomorrow will be a better day!

This whole process is crushing me. Sara - I don't know how you've stuck it so long. I really want you to get approved, it's torture having to wait like this. I got denied entry to the US in October 2007, we were told that we had to apply for a fiance visa but because my mum was terminally we waited because I didn't want get married while she was dying. I hate this, getting properly depressed.

Sorry for being such a moan, I don't mean to go waving the victim flag - just having one of those days - AGAIN!!!! Wish we could all get approved

I understand you so well! I don´t think I have ever been that frustrated in my life. All I can think of is this stupid visa. I could cry all the time because I have this big fear that we will have to wait for years. I honestly think I couldn´t stand it.

At the same time I feel so bad because I don´t even pay attention to other people anymore. I feel sorry for my parents because they know how unhappy I am. And also my friends don´t know anymore what to say. Nobody knows a solution or anything to calm me down.

See I am also waving the victim flag.

I wished I would have some faith that we´ll get approved soon. Or at least within the next moths.

Hi!

I would just like to know if it is possible to file for student visa while waiting for your k1 approval? Just in case the k1 approval takes a lot more than the average time. Our approval is in security checks and it seems like those can take forever. So my fiance and I are thinking about getting a student visa for me first and by the time the k1 is approved I could return to Germany and finish the process so that we can finally get married.

It is just a thought and I would like to know if it could work.

Thanks for any replies!

Has anyone an idea if it is possible to apply for a different visa while waiting for the k1? student visa or maybe for an internship?

hi guys! i´m having a depressed sunday and i just browsed some visajourney topics and i found this: A girl got approved after 3 years!!!!! And the scary thing is she seems to have the same first name I do: denise!!!!

I am really scared right now. What am I going to do with my life? There is no way I can wait for 3 years!!!

Hopefully I am just overreacting!

still waiting

I`m with you. Hopefully you have a lot to do to be distracted. It really helps me.

Another August filer got approved. So there is hope! Maybe we´ll be next!

Something that might be funny about us is that one time returned from the US I forgot to return this green piece of paper. But when I visited the next time I handed in both! It could look kind of strange but when you think about it I didn´t do anything wrong. I never overstayed!

So maybe there is something funny with all of our cases and that´s why it takes longer.

My nightmare is that we´ll never get approved. Right now I still feel ok but I am already scared of the time a couple weeks, moths from now.

This will literally drive me crazy!

That makes 20 people in security checks!

i'm august too under background check

according to my thinking, i believe this doesnt take much time unless you have things to be checked more...i think we should be approved in a week or so, at least me we have nothing to be checked, no police records nothing...

We also don´t have anything. There is nothing to find out. I hope you are right. When I look at Igors list it just looks like they don´t approve people from August anymore, just if they had an RFE. But hopefully we can close this thread soon

Having one of those days when it all seems like too much! Hormones have a lot to answer for too and our weather is bad here. I think the hardest thing to deal with in all of this is the loss of control, because there is no timeline for security checks it feels like being stuck in limbo. If I knew for certain that it would take another 6 months, I would make plans to fill those six months so that I could cope but it's the not knowing that's driving me nuts - another few days, another year!!!! Oh lordy I'm a blubbling mess today, this is so hard. Thank you for letting me vent. Some days are much easier than this!!

I totally agree with you Caroline_L: Not having any control and not knowing what is going to hapen is the worst. It´s torture! It´s probably against human rights in some way;-).

You just can´t keep planning your life. I graduated in November and didn´t apply for any serious jobs since. It just doesn´s seem worth it. But maybe it is...I dont know. My fiance and I have been preparing for this whole thing since a long time now. We found an appartment, bought furniture, starting to plan a wedding. It is crazy! And now these securitiy checks!!!!

I guess we are kind of starting a timeline for security checks here.

I counted 19 active people on visajourney who filed in August 2009 or earlier and who say they are in security checks or probably are in them because they waited since such a long time.

4 of those are extreme. Meaning they have waited since over a year.

6 are from July.

2 are from June.

2 are from May.

1 is from May.

4 are from August.

(I´m a dork. I know)

But still it is kind of difficult to estimate because there are some inactive people probably still waiting. There are probably also people who gave up in between.

Also I don´t know whether security checks take place before or after a RFE. Because 3 of those cases from above had an RFE.

I became very interested into the topic.

In the end we just can´t do anything besides waiting.

Again good luck to everyone!

Add us to the list.

Any thoughts on how you all ended up getting checked? State, Federal employee? Criminal Record? SO working in government in home country?

My fiance (US citizen) is a pilot. Maybe that´s wwhy they check me more carefully???? Everything I can think of is a wild guess

Good luck to everyone here! I hope wé´ll get through security checks as soon as possible

What is a security check and how do you get into it? How do they notify you that you are in it? Hmmm...

It doesn´t show in your status on the uscis webpage. I think everybody goes through security checks. Some people just get stuck in them. We found out after an inquiry from our congressman office. Here is what our congressman wrote about them:

"The pending background check does not mean anything is wrong. Any number of variables could be involved: a backlog of cases waiting in queue for their processing turn, a delay in getting background information from an agency or agencies, names similar to your fiancee's that must be checked against hers. Its a waiting game at this point. If you haven't heard anything in 90 days, please feel free to contact me and I will file another inquiry for you."

Gemmie: My opinion is that this a very difficult and long process. All these hurdles can make it very hard sometimes. From a psychological point of view it is normal that you feel discouraged and depressed. You probably have the feeling that it is never going to end. Of course you are questioning your relationship. When you feel worn out yourself you will also have no strength to have passion for your relationship right now.

Of course it is important to always make sure that this is really what you want. But I think you also have to be aware of your current negative attitude.

I hope that things (job, appartment...) for you will work out at some point and that you can make a decision then. If you end a relationship at a hopeless point of time you will probably feel bad about it once things are better.

At the same time I am aware that you can face difficulties in this visa process that are very hard to surmount.

I wish you and your fiance a lot strength.

Feel hugged from me! I know what this process can do to you!

Since we got the information about the security checks from the congressman office I am just going to believe them. They could have also just said "still within processing time". This is actually what I expected and that´s why I am so disappointed. Because this means that the 6 months processing time aren´t a reason anymore for the congressman to expedite. After 3 months from now our congressman can do an inquiry angain. THat´s april...very far away.

I have a very hopeless day!

That makes four of us right now. I wonder how many other people get stuck in them. And how long it will take for us????

Can you not have any touches and still have them working on your case? Could i be in security checks without them scanning my file? i dont understand the no touches thing. my last touch was july 29. according to what i've read, every time they touch/move your file they scan it.

ok, quick story. Couple yrs back, dentist said i might have mouth cancer so i needed a referral to an oral surgeon and get a biopsy. I was terrified of course. the dentist was to send me the referral. Long story short, after many phone calls to the dentist asking about my referral, being scared, and having them say, "i'm so sorry! Its on the way!" or "we just mailed it!" after a month or two i went down there to the dentist's and I watched them pull my referral out of old dusty files, it hadn't even been filled out! they had lied to me every time i called. So i had to sit there and watch her fill it out and hand it to me.

Ok, that being said, thats what I think of when I think of this process. I picture our files sitting there and them just lying to us because they can't be bothered.

oh and i was ok in the end, no cancer or anything like that.

Might be a good comparison! That´s what sucks about the whole process: we don´t know anything that´s going on. Maybe somebody works on it constantly, maybe our files are rotting somewhere. We don´t know. It´s aweful!

About the touches: we didn´t have a singel touch. And we are officially in security checks!

Maybe we should open a thread just for security checks and find out how long it usually takes for people.

Another thing I wonder about is wheter files from California and Vermont are in the same checks or if they are being worked on separately???

And what do they actually do? -I have never convicted any crime in my life. There really isn´t anything they can find out about. Or are they calling my parents and ask them?

Seems like nobody knows how long those take. Seems to be different for everyone. I wonder if it is really fast for some people and they just never know about it. So maybe there are many cases where it doesn´s take that long. No idea!

Enjoy your chocolate...sounds like a good idea !

Just wondering if they always alert you when they do background checks? Our case still says 'case recieved and pending' does this mean that they haven't decided yet or could it mean they are doing background checks? Our NOA1 was August 1st 2008.

Hi Caroline_L! We asked our congressman to do an inquiry and that´s how we found out about the security checks. When we look up our receipt number it still says "received and pending". So I don´t know if it would ever tell you on the webpage. We got our NOA 1 August 22nd. Maybe you are also in those security checks. Maybe not!

Hi everyone else! I´m not in the club yet but maybe soon. It is a shame that it exists at all. I´ve been following the thread since a couple weeks now. Good luck to everyone:star:!

Hi! We also just found out from a congressman inquiry that we are in name checks/ security checks. I also wonder how long it will take. Hopefully not forever. Thanks for the link. Pretty interesting! But I don´t think I ever got into trouble with any of those.

We also found out that the name check is made for my name (beneficiary) and not for the petitioner (U.S. citizen).

Let´s keep our fingers crossed for a fast approval!

As we were told today that we are officially in security checks at the USCIS. I was wondering how many other people were out there stuck in them too!

This thread could give us all an idea how long we have to wait in security checks for our NA02.

I'm sorry to hear it, I was sure that you would get your approval one of these days.

I think what we're in the same boat.

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Hi! It´s my first post on visajourney but I´ve been reading a lot on here.

We also just found out that we are stuck in security checks. I am panicking a little right now.

We filed in August and got our noa1 August 22nd.

Have you heard anything back from USCIS yet?