Mike&Val

We got an email today from NVC with a pdf file telling us they finished processing our case and scheduled an interview for me at 8 am on July 5th! The interview is actually earlier than I'd expected; I'd thought maybe August or September, so we're pretty excited that it's going to be so soon.

That is CRAZY!!!! Did someone at NVC sign for the packages? If so, maybe you can send them again and request an expedite, just provide proof that they were signed for.

Well, we are doing electronic filing, so we sent our files by email and we received confirmation emails that they had been received and would be "reviewed and uploaded to our electronic case file". However, the confirmation emails were from "National Visa Center, Written Inquiry Unit, Serco Inc., Support Contractor." I don't know what happens to the emails once they get to the contractor, so who knows at which point our files got fumbled. Hopefully it will work out this time.

Anyway, this sure is tedious. It would be nice if they'd get right to our files this time and check them out, but I'm not holding my breath.

Well I guess they really did lose our files. After we got checklists saying they didn't have our files we figured they just hadn't processed them yet, but we called again today and were told they had no record of them and that we should send them again. So, great, I guess that pretty much resets our processing time at NVC and now we get to wait another four weeks to see if they can manage to find our emails and look at them.

We got checklists from NVC saying they don't have any of the stuff we sent. I'm not sure if that means they still haven't gotten to our actual emails or if we somehow did it wrong when we sent them (I wasn't able to figure out how to save all of my documents into one pdf file so I sent multiple pdfs, though my husband's AOS was all in one file). I guess we'll call tomorrow and try to figure it out, but I'm pretty frustrated. It's like, seriously? No part of this process is going to go smoothly?

I was in a similar situation and I called NVC about it because I was concerned that having my maiden name on the documents might cause problems since my documents have my married name now. The agent who spoke to me said if my passport had my new name I needed to send them a scanned copy by email. I did this and they changed my name on the documentation they had.

I'm not sure if everyone can do it by email, however, or if it's just people from countries who have the option for electronic processing. I would say definitely call NVC and see what they say. It's worth dealing with it somehow so you're not worried that there will be a problem or time-wasting RFE later.

I'm pleasantly surprised. We just got our NOA2 on March 25th and on Monday April 4th NVC sent us an email with our NVC case number, IIN and beneficiary ID number. That was only 6 business days after being approved at USCIS. I'm excited that it's progressing so quickly.

The only downside is they had my maiden name on the paperwork even though we filled out everything with my married name, but I was able to call and get ahold of a customer service representative and she told me to send a pdf copy of my new passport and explain that I'm using my married name now, so it should be okay.

We got approved on Friday! It took a few days but Angela Barrows pulled through for us. I'd definitely suggest that anyone else still waiting on TSC drop her an email.

I believe USCIS only gives information to the petitioner, and not the beneficiary. I remember someone in this thread, I believe, that they called USCIS, but because they were the beneficiary, they weren't allowed to receive any information. You might have to have your spouse, the petitioner, email them.

Yeah, I'm not surprised, but it's pretty frustrating because it just feels like an excuse. Anyway, in my case my husband is if anything more upset by the delay than I am. He likes to do constructive things to solve problems, so sending letters and emails that will 99% chance not get any useful reply (based on our experiences so far) is really frustrating to him. He feels helpless and he hates that, so I'm trying to do something to take that on (you know, like how spouses work together), but we can't even do it that way apparently.

I'm just so tired of the utter lack of transparency or accountability. My husband's tried contacting them but it's never been helpful. When our 5 months was up he put in a service request and since then they've pretty much just said it's under review and that they apologize for the delay. How do you "review" something for two months without opening it (still no touches on our file since Nov. 30)? And they might as well not apologize at all for the inconvenience given that they seemingly could not give two craps about it based on the fact that they still haven't worked on it at all.

If I took my paycheck and then told my employer I was "working" on something for months on end with no apparent progress I would be fired. If I tried to buy goods or services and paid for them without getting them and there was no sign of progress from the employees I would dispute the charge and get my money back. Those things are just plain unacceptable. Then at USCIS the only thing they did on time was take our money and since then it's just been the runaround. I feel like, "we won't give information to the beneficiary" is just the latest excuse in a string of useless communication.

The I-130 inquiries email replied to the email I sent on Monday with the following:

USCIS is able to provide information to an attorney of record or the petitioner of the I-130.

Xm114

What. I'm the beneficiary, so I guess maybe they messed up and meant beneficiary when they said petitioner. I didn't say anything about an attorney in the email since we're not using one.

Still nothing from Ms. Barrows.

Yesterday I emailed Angela Barrows and she emailed back a couple of hours later and said she'd take a look at our case and get back to us today, but she didn't. This is just how our luck has been going with our case. I guess I'll email again.

Well 7 months since getting our NOA1 and still nothing from USCIS. Our case still has not been touched since November 30th. I sent another polite email explaining our timeline and mentioning how "concerned and frustrated" we are to the I-130 inquiries email again since every other avenue we've tried has had either no response (emailing people at TSC) or people telling us there's nothing they can do (the congressman's caseworker) and/or we can't contact them again for 90 days or whatever other amount of time they think of to tell us (phoning the customer service line at USCIS). Both my husband and I spend our days trying not to think about this debacle because it just leaves us sad and angry.

We have everything ready for NVC should our case finally be processed at USCIS. I have a letter from my doctor about my medical history to take to my medical exam after NVC processes us and we're getting ready for the interview. My husband even put me onto his healthcare plan from work and is paying for that (family members can only be added three times a year so he wanted to make sure I'd be on it by the time I could move, lol, right). As far as I know we've done everything we can on our end. I'm just so angry at how we're being jerked around.

Edit: Also I don't come to this forum very much right now because I see threads like, "USCIS started I-130 Processing - November 2010" and feel like my head is going to explode, so it's probably better I focus on other things right now.

Still nothing from USCIS for me. And I can't believe there are still people from June and July on the spreadsheet who haven't gotten approved yet.

We've tried emailing people at TSC (no response) and contacted Mike's congressman, but his caseworker says that since our petition is "under review" there's nothing they can do about it. I'm at the point where I wish my friends and family would quit asking if we've had any progress because it just makes me upset whenever I think about it. I was so excited about the rapid response plan in February that I told my friends and family about it, but I guess I shouldn't have, because people want to know why there still hasn't been any progress and I have nothing to say. There's no reason this is taking so long for us. We didn't do anything wrong. As far as we know we submitted everything properly with enough evidence, though of course someone at USCIS would actually have to LOOK at it to see if we need an RFE.

I want to think the best about everyone and I still want to believe they're doing the best they can at USCIS but it's hard not to feel disillusioned when they miss their deadlines over and over and either refuse to communicate or tell us something different every time. In the last message we got on March 2nd when they told us our petition is still at TSC they ended the email with, "We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused." I feel like if they really cared about the inconvenience of putting my life on hold they'd actually do something about it, not send me an email and then sit on their thumbs for another two weeks without doing anything. I just feel so frustrated and powerless.

Well, I emailed Mr. Badger on Wednesday and no response yet. Same old, still no progress or even touches.

I'm flying to the U.S. for a visit tomorrow, bringing all my "proof of ties" documents as well as a copy of the correspondence we've had from USCIS. Hopefully I won't have any issues going through customs; I got through fine when I visited in November. At least I get to visit (and I know a lot of people can't, so I'm really lucky in that regard), but I'm still really tired of this waiting.

Hi you guys, have you emailed either Mr. Badger or Ms. Barrows at the TSC?

I haven't emailed either of them yet as I thought that my petition may have been transferred back to CSC, but today I received a response from the TSC I-130 inquiries email address stating that our petition is still at TSC, so I think I will try emailing Mr. Badger. Honestly I feel a bit uncomfortable emailing an address that hadn't been published publicly by the recipient, but I'll just politely and sincerely ask for whatever help or information can be provided; the worst that can happen is that we get ignored, which is pretty much already happening.

Still nothing on my case. No touches, no progress. So much for the rapid response plan.

I emailed their special address today and got the following autoresponse:

Thank you for contacting the USCIS Texas Service Center (TSC) regarding your Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative. This automated response is to acknowledge receipt of your email.

You should expect an action (such as an approval, denial, or a Request for Evidence (RFE)) to be taken on the petition by the end of February 2011.

We encourage you to monitor the progress of your case by using the on-line case status tool found on the USCIS website (www.uscis.gov).

If you do not see any action on your case by March 1, 2011, you may contact USCIS again at: I-130Inquiries.Tsc@dhs.gov .

We remain committed to the prompt resolution of all pending cases and we sincerely regret any inconvenience this delay in processing may have caused.

We are making every effort to remedy this situation as soon as possible.

You'd think they would have at least taken that autoresponse off given that it's March 1st now, but I guess they don't care that receiving that autoresponse is making me want to scream with frustration. It just comes off as so uncaring and incompetent. If this were a for-profit business and there was a competing business to go to instead I would have paid twice as much to go with a company that seemed to give a ####### about my case.

My case has still not been touched since Nov. 30th. Maybe somebody at USCIS spilled something gross on it, given how averse they are to touching it.

well they are certainly working at breakneck speed it looks like

Congrats to all those at TSC...

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=a02928eaf503e210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e7801c2c9be44210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

Interesting. So adding up all of those numbers, in total they've processed 29,539 of the 36,000 cases. I guess mine is one of the 6461 left in the pile that hasn't been touched yet.

As the beneficiary, can I call/email USCIS about my case, or will they only give information to the petitioner?

So my husband called USCIS awhile ago just after we passed 5 months to ask about our case and they finally got back to him by sending a letter in the mail. The letter says:

"The status of this service request is:

This case is under review. Please allow 90 days for decision.

Thanks for your inquiry. XM432."

Thanks, uh, XM432. Very helpful.

My file hasn't been touched and I haven't received any notifications, but when I do a search for my receipt number in the database it says, "The I130 IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE, FIANCE(E), OR ORPHAN was transferred and is now being processed at a USCIS office," while before it only said they'd received it, so I think it's good news. Maybe it means it's one of the ones that's been sent back to CSC.

Even though so many people are getting such hopeful messages from TSC I seem to have entered a phase where I'm just tired of the whole thing. I went through about a month of getting butterflies in my stomach every time I'd login to my email just in case something might have happened, plus logging into the USCIS website several times every day. Now it's like seeing that there's been no progress so many times has just crushed my spirit or something. I still check it multiple times a day, but now I pretty much just go, "Yeah, yeah, last updated 11/30/2010. How exciting. My file is at the bottom of the world's biggest pile and nobody at TSC gives a ######. And when my husband calls, he just gets the runaround over and over."

By the way, the things my husband was told include: "The 5 month date was reset when the transfer occurred to TSC." "Your file will be processed within 9-12 months." The last time he called he was able to put in a service request, but we all know how helpful those are, right? I don't really blame the people at the call center since they have nothing to do with the huge file transfer and they're only being told what to say by their scripts and their supervisors. I'm just frustrated at the whole situation and in some ways I don't even want to think about it until our NOA2 just magically appears someday. Too bad I can't seem to stop obsessing.

This waiting reminds me of the lyrics to the song that Mike and I danced to for our first dance at our wedding, It's Only Time by the Magnetic Fields.

Why would I stop loving you a hundred years from now?

It's only time. It's only time.

What could stop this beating heart once it's made a vow?

It's only time. It's only time.

If rain won't change your mind, let it fall. The rain won't change my heart at all.

Lock this chain around my hand, throw away the key.

It's only time. It's only time.

Years falling like grains of sand mean nothing to me.

It's only time. It's only time.

If snow won't change your mind, let it fall. The snow won't change my heart, not at all.

I'll walk your lands and swim your seas.

Marry me. Marry me.

Then in your hands I will be free.

Marry me. Marry me.

Why would I stop loving you a hundred years from now?

The waiting is really difficult, but it doesn't matter how long this takes and how hard it is. It's only time, and no amount of problems will deter us. Even if we got denied for some reason for me to move to the US, we'd work on him moving here.

You've got to be serious for these cross-border relationships. If it wasn't true love, why would anyone go to all this trouble? It cracks me up that the song even includes the lines, "I'll walk your lands and swim your seas." I sure will, if and when we get approved.

My husband says he called immigration today (I'm not sure which number he used) and that an automated message told him that he needs to wait 180 days from the date of transfer to inquire about the status of our case. I told him people were being told all kinds of BS (like the infamous 9-12 months) and that we should probably write his congressman if there's no more progress in a couple of weeks.

The sad thing is that we're both the kind of people who like to be nice and wait, believe what we're told, and not rock the boat, but it seems like that just doesn't work out well for anyone in this kind of bureaucratic red tape. It seems like we're going to have to push ourselves to nag them if we want to get anywhere.

Well, this thread explains a lot. We got transferred to TSC in November, too. I guess we get to keep waiting.

I keep trying to look on the bright side and remind myself that once this is over it's over, but it's very frustrating nonetheless. I feel like somebody pushed pause on my life.