irvinej

Thank you for the replies! I hadn't thought of the bank account so we'll ask her to set one up. Unfortunately the house is in my wife's grandmother's name, so my mother-in-law doesn't technically own any property.

My wife had a baby three months ago... Would that help if we said she needs her mother's help with the baby?

I would love to help my mother-in-law apply for a B-2 visa so she can visit us for a couple of months, but I've heard that it's almost impossible for Filipinos to get tourist visas. Is this true?

As far as her compelling reasons to return to the Philippines go, her family owns a house there, she has two unmarried sons living with her, as well as her husband. None of them are currently employed.

So what are the chances? Should we even bother?

Thanks!

Okay, thanks for the information! We have an appointment with the civil surgeon in the morning.

I'm just getting started putting together everything we need for adjustment of status (AOS) and I discovered that my wife's passport doesn't have any US entry stamps in it. Her I-94 has a stamp, but it's extremely faint... Is this going to be a problem?

Also, her DS 3025 is marked "Vaccine History Incomplete." She's five months pregnant... What will happen when we see the civil surgeon (we don't have any vaccination records other than the 3025)?

Thanks... I thought all the headaches would be over once she got here haha!

Dionna is there now... She finished the medical on Friday and her interview is Monday, May 16. Good luck!

Congrats!

Congratulations! This is the pace they should have been working at all along... I hope they keep it up!

Received the NOA2 in the mail today! The text message and email didn't come until about four hours AFTER the mailman delivered the envelope. Good luck to everyone who's still waiting, and call your congressman/senators... We were approved the same day they called.

So I called the USCIS today since my case number is still the same on their website (last update: October 12). Got all the way up to a tier 2 officer who told me the senator's office is wrong... My case is definitely NOT approved. Then he cheerily said "but you should be approved real soon! Call back in 30 days."

I thanked him (don't know why) and immediately called the senator's office. They're going to call tomorrow to check on it for me.

Very nice! Now you know who to vote for ?

One is a Democrat and the other's a republican... Decisions, decisions haha.

I called USCIS today and got hung up on twice. The first one I think may have been a mistake...he was in mid-sentance. But the 2nd time the lady said, "I can't discuss this futher"...click. #######!!!!

I also got nowhere fast with the customer service reps on the phone. I agree with the other advice here to call your Senator or member of congress. I called them for the first time this morning and got results in just a few hours.

Good news! Today is six months since NOA1 so I called both my senator's and congressman's offices, then emailed them a copy of my NOA1. After 3 hours I received this message from the Senator's staffer:

Just wanted to let you know that your application has been approved, it will be sent to the National Visa Center, then to the Embassy for an interview date.

Please call me if you have any questions.

I called her on the phone since she left me a voice mail, too, and she said I won't see it on the USCIS website for a while, but that she spoke to someone at the VSC who confirmed that we are approved as of today. Did anyone else have the same experience? I'm really happy, but not ready to totally believe it until I get that text or see it on the website.

Also, the congressman's staffer emailed this message to me and I'm not sure I understand what she means... Is it possible to bypass the NVC somehow? It seems like that's what she's talking about:

Also, once this is approved I want to call the NVC for the visa. We recently had a similar case and instead of the petitioner filing everything here and having to wait, they allowed the consulate in Tokyo to accept everything form the applicant themselves because it took so long for it to be processed in VT. I will try and do the same for you. That case was also held up in VT and the day we made the inquiry it was approved. Not saying that is going to be the case here, but I will keep my fingers crossed.

In any event... Things are WAY better than they were yesterday. Call your representatives!!!! They really can help.

Tomorrow marks six months for us... 182 days with no answer. I realize that there are people here who had to wait more than six months, but there are also more than 30 couples already approved who filed after us. What really annoys me is the answer I got from every tier 2 officer I've spoken with when I ask why so many after us have been approved... "Every application is different." That's just a load of #######. The only difference between my application and the others is that mine has been gathering dust for six months. They REALLY need to change the system there. They should just date-stamp every application that comes in and put them in one big queue... Then they would all be processed in the order they arrived in. The USCIS website states that they "normally process the cases in the order in which they are received" but I suspect what actually happens is that every adjudicator there gets a huge pile of cases and if yours gets into the "slow" pile, or your adjudicator is out sick for a week, you're screwed. Honestly, I'm happy for everyone who's been approved already, but this is not a fair system.

I've had it and I'm going on the offensive now. I'll be contacting my congressman and senators tomorrow... And I'm planning to call the customer support number every day until they do something.

Good luck to all of us!

So I got tired of waiting and called the customer service number today... I was polite but persistent. I didn't like the answers I was getting so I called back three (3) times and ended up speaking to three different tier 2 officers.

They all said I'm still within normal processing time and that I have to wait nineteen (19) more days before they can submit an "outside of normal processing time" request. Nineteen more days will put me just two weeks shy of seven months... OR 195 DAYS. I'm really sick of the waiting and spending two hours on the phone didn't seem to do me any good.

By the way, they really don't care when you tell them about all the people you know who filed after you and are already approved. I used that argument with every one of the six people I talked to and they all said every case is different, which I know is BS because my case hasn't been touched in over five months. If someone looked at it, I know I'd be approved by now.

I guess the bright side of the situation is I have to wait less than 3 weeks before they'll agree to do something.

176 days for us and still no word from the VSC.

Just my opinion..But it really bugs me when people start calling they're congressmen after waiting only 5 months or so,why don't you just hang on untill you actualy have something important to deal with,unstead of the trivial "I waited 5 months now lets call in the army!" this doesen't happen overnight folks,It's a long drawn out process mine took over a year and I never called my congressman..relax and have some patiance.

According to your timeline, the longest you had to wait with no response from a government agency was 112 days. I think most of us here would be more patient if we heard SOMETHING regarding our case. It's been over 160 days for me with no word from the VSC.

Only 7 VJ members approved at the VSC this past week... and only ONE from Thursday and Friday? This is really discouraging. It seems like the CSC is cranking them out at double the rate of the VSC!

156 days and counting...

Congratulations! Your NOA1 is just one day after mine.... Hoping to hear something soon here.

Got my NOA1 on October 5... Touched on Oct. 12... Nothing since then. It looks like they're just about finished with all the August petitions and starting to make a dent in September. If the numbers here on VJ are an accurate representation of ALL the petitions filed, it appears that there were more filed in July/August than September and October -- Maybe things will speed up a little bit.

I don't know about all of you, but I'm SICK AND TIRED of waiting without hearing anything. Does anyone know a way to get past the stock "call back in 30 days" message to talk to a person who can actually give you a real estimate of where you are in the queue? I'm thinking about calling this week, but I don't want to bother if it won't do any good.

Just found this thread and checking in. Best regards to all the October filers! Hopefully we just have about 2 months left before we start getting NOA2's!

Thanks, everyone, for the information. I had no idea about TPS, etc. I guess my mistake was looking at the average processing times for the past year or so and expecting to receive my NOA2 in January.

This chart shows that the processing times at the Vermont service center have increased by approx. 100 days (nearly tripled!) since August: http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/images/129fcomparison.gif

Does anyone know the reason for this increase? Are they laying-off employees? If it keeps increasing at this rate, it will but up to 200 days by May,